Bonus MP3: Shock of Pleasure — “Superstar”

Supposedly, Kelly Christian sings, too. A few months back, I wrote about Shock of Pleasure’s super attractive front person Kelly Christian and the band’s debut CD It’s About Time hitting the streets. Well, it seems those were just the local streets. The band’s publicist, one Amanda Tropila, has just informed…

Giveaway: Ticket To Saturday Night’s Silver Jews Show

“You’re the man now, dog.” (Brent Stewart) By the looks of Noah Bailey’s excellent piece in this week’s paper, David Berman of the Silver Jews had a hell of a time growing up around the DFW region. So much so that, as Noah points out, Berman even wrote a little…

Bonus MP3: The Theater Fire — “It’s All The Same”

(Brian Harkin) Good Records is the place to be Saturday evening. Fort Worth’s The Theater Fire, as featured in this week’s print product, will give an in-store performance of songs from its great soon-to-be-released Matter And Light, but that’s not even the half of it. The CD release party kicks…

Jackopierce

Promise of Summer is the first studio effort from Jackopierce in a dozen years, and it would appear little has changed in the collective muse of Jack O’Neill and Cary Pierce, those precocious Dallas wunderkinds who started the band way back in 1988. Still adept at creating hummable melodies with…

Calhoun

Five-piece Fort Worth indie pop rock act Calhoun really doesn’t get the credit it deserves—which is saying a lot, considering how it walked away from this year’s Fort Worth Weekly Music Awards with wins in both the Best Songwriter and Best Song categories—and at least one prominent figure in the…

Okkervil River

Okkervil River’s The Stand Ins reiterates what reality shows like America’s Got Talent have already made abundantly clear: We’re obsessed with celebrity, or, at minimum, separating ourselves from the pack. This is evident on the jazzy “Starry Stairs,” wherein a diva is driven to ruin by bloodsucking fans, and rocker…

Metallica

This is exactly the record Metallica needed to make in 2008. Real metal’s back, and sure, younger bands have rage and technical aptitude on their side, but Metallica’s riffs can level skyscrapers. Opening trilogy “That Was Just Your Life,” “The End of the Line” and “Broken, Beat & Scarred” combine…

Amos Lee

Fans of Amos Lee’s mix of folk, pop, soul and jazz are quite pleased that the singer-songwriter decided to quit his job as an elementary school teacher early this decade. Since deciding to be a full-time musician, Lee has toured with the likes of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello,…

The Queers, The Independents, The Lash Outs

The Buzzcocks and The Ramones may have laid the groundwork for pop-punk, but The Queers helped make sure the genre would never grow up. After 25 years, Joe Queer still pines for that girl in third period, still appreciates a good party and still sings about his subjects in a…

The Juan MacLean

John MacLean made his first major musical mark as the guitarist for Six Finger Satellite, a onetime Sub Pop signee that merged traditional rock with synthetic filigree. Then, after lying low for a few years, he re-emerged with 2005’s Less Than Human, a full-out electronic opus released under the twisted…

Pinback

Those kings of modern-day jingle-jangle, Pinback, are back with more ethereal-pop bliss than ever. Despite a title that evokes a Finnish black-metal album, Autumn of the Seraphs is full of the arpeggiating guitars and intricate coils of plucked bass the San Diego duo is known for. Not only that, Zach…

Rhett Miller, Sarah Jaffe

No one doubts what Rhett Miller, when he’s on, is capable of. Surely, the stalwart songs he penned for the Old 97’s back in the day are plenty proof of his top-notch abilities. But, alas, there’s his solo work—no doubt poppier fare than his 97’s stuff—and, you know, the fact…

Silver Lining

In late April, we began to hear rumors about a new drug in the metroplex. It was in the gay bars. Kids at the Arts Magnet were getting it. Certain people at certain parties had it, and it was magical. They called it X. It was supposed to make you…

Hair Gel Hurts?

Portland, Oregon’s Blind Pilot garnered headlines this summer when the band announced that it would be traveling by bicycle this fall. Having kicked off in Bellingham, Washington, on August 16, the group’s West Coast tour de tunes will wrap up in San Diego mid-October. Part of the impetus for eschewing…

Another Matter Entirely

It’s about 11:30 p.m., at the tail end of an interview with most of The Theater Fire crew, when a strange mechanical sound approaches from down the street. Maybe it’s the hour, or the traffic stop of an SUV that’s taking a curiously long time across the street from the…

Seeing a Ghost

The drinks are overpriced, the people are overdressed and the wait to get into the place is…well, it’s a little bit longer than the usual lines to get into shows around the area. But here, at this venue, on Friday night, not surprisingly, no one seems to care. This is…

And You Tought Matthew JC And The Allstars Were Sellouts…

Not too long after discovering (OK, with some help) that Matthew JC and the Allstars, was the new favorite band of all CBS 11 employees comes this: Oak Cliff-based blues band Bona Fide Blues is a finalist in Advertising Week’s “Battle of the Ad Bands.” The band, made up of…