The DFW area certainly has no shortage of great bands. To that point let me introduce you to a great up-and-comer, The Campaign. Like their Dallas brethren Radiant, The Campaign’s music is melodic pop-rock with a dash of soul that is instantly catchy and worthy of repeated listening. The Fort…
Aficionados of electric blues would do well to get down to Pearl at Commerce this Saturday for blast of twelve bar heaven with Smokin’ Joe Kubek and Bnois King. Kubek was born in Pennsylvania but was raised in Irving and has been a part of the Dallas blues scene for…
Guess who’s coming to Dallas? Well, OK, Grand Prairie. Just got an email from Robert Wilonsky that will be shiny, happy news for R.E.M. fans and Old 97’s fans alike. According to R.E.M.’s Web site, the band will perform at Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie October 24, with support from…
Jerry Wexler in 1979. (AP) Sad news today, as the AP reports that Jerry Wexler died at 3:45 a.m. this morning at the age of 91. The man who coined the term “Rhythm and Blues,” he was a hugely influential partner at Atlantic in the 1950s and ’60s. He produced…
Sarah Jaffe at Stubb’s August 9. (Sandy Carson) The Austin Chronicle’s Doug Freeman was apparently quite impressed by an August 9 bill at Stubb’s that included locals Sarah Jaffe and Dove Hunter, along with Abilene’s Micah P. Hinson. He hints that Dove Hunter’s fans weren’t completely enraptured with Hinson’s quieter…
Brooke Opie, a.k.a. Little Birds In peripheral local music news, Half Price Books takes a Starbucksian step by heading into the CD business. OK, sort of. A few weeks ago, it released Music by the Book, a compilation of songs performed by, as they call it, “our HPB family.” Although…
Felix “Tex” Ventouras If you’re really dedicated to supporting local music, you have yet another reason to be a fan of synchronized swimming. Felix “Tex” Ventouras, a Dallas native and 2002 graduate of Booker T. Washington (Arts Magnet) High School, composed music for the Team USA synchronized swimmers. According to…
True story: This morning I sign on to Gmail, where one of my girlfriends notices that I am active before 10 a.m. Yay, me. We chat a bit about random stuff and then she IMs, “are you going to the karaoke fundraiser tonight at barbara’s pavillion?” at which point I…
We seem to be on a Day of the Dead artwork kick lately, as last week’s PoW featured stylized skulls as well. The 100 Damned Guns, Whiskey Folk Ramblers and Mariachi Inolvidable lineup at Dan’s Silverleaf is especially intriguing because of the opening act on the bill. Composed of UNT…
Hey, all you garage bands. In case you haven’t heard, Mötley Crüe is giving one lucky–uh, we mean talented–band the chance to open up for them on their 2009 U.S. tour. You can still enter until September 21. The winning band is promised the opening slot, management and recording deals,…
(RegoVisualArts.com) Raheem DeVaughn, Bryan-Michael Cox Gilley’s August 13, 2008 Better than: Dwele on his best day. Revelers headed to the Heineken Red Star Soul tour at Gilley’s might have been taken aback by the traffic jam on Lamar Street. But getting closer to the venue, I caught a glimpse of…
This Minneapolis duo has been a team since their teens, when DJ Abilities left home and Eyedea’s mom put him up in their basement, where their partnership flourished. Eyedea began competing in battle rap competitions, taking top honors in the ’99 Scribble Jam before he was18, and winning the HBO-sponsored…
It was a Big Deal time slot: Lollapalooza co-headliners Wilco and Rage Against the Machine were scheduled to go on at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 2, only about an hour after The Toadies were scheduled to perform their own gig at the three-day Chicago festival. And, in a sense,…
The night before Ozzfest, I was regretting that I’d agreed to write about it for this week’s music column while Dallas Observer music editor Pete Freedman was on vacation. There were precious few bands that interested me. Sure, I would have really been stoked to see Metallica in junior high,…
Summer is in full swing—and, here in Texas, it’s a long way from being over. Ugh. It’s tough to say why we don’t love the season like we used to. Don’t get us wrong; we dig the barbecues, drunken volleyball and television reruns. It’s just that we wish summer rocked…
Since several influential, tastemaking blogs anointed A Place to Bury Strangers as “New York City’s loudest band” last year, the buzz around the band’s self-titled debut album has only continued to grow. Strangers’ ear-splitting, echo-drenched offerings—especially “Missing You” and “My Weakness”—reside on the darker end of the shoegaze/noise-pop spectrum, drawing…
It’s time to bid adieu (again) to one of Dallas’ music VIPs, as John Freeman once again leaves town. And sending off the Dutch Treat and former Sloppyworld owner is one of the bands with a local history that goes back just as far as the former Dooms U.K. mastermind…
Want to make a hipster snarl? Just utter the following innocuous sentence: “Wanna go see The Dave Matthews Band?” Then watch the fun begin. The mere suggestion of attending such a patchwork and patchouli-laced event will make your tight-pants-wearing, electronic-music-loving friends recoil in horror. Few bands are as polarizing, as…
Rjyan Kidwell started up Cex in 1998, when he was just 16 years old. At 17, he launched the influential Tigerbeat6 label with Kid 606. By the time he was out of high school, the guy was already something of a well-known figure in underground electronic music. His early material,…
(Angela Berg) The Dallas Dub Assembly is a DJ and MC collective. The Dallas Dub Assembly is a record label and production squad. Oh, and Dub Assembly is a quite popular monthly event at the Green Elephant. The Dallas Dub Assembly is a self-proclaimed “sound system.” And in the strange…
Radiohead’s May 18 show was Dallas’ top-selling concert of the summer, far as StubHub’s concerned.(Michael Insuaste) StubHub just announced “America’s 20 Most Rockin’ Cities of 2008,” and Dallas came in at a somewhat respectable tenth place, edging out Atlanta and Las Vegas but slipping three spaces from last year’s No…
Sorry, SheDick, this lineup includes natural-born women only. Just got an email from Mary Hestand, leader of that fabulous group of female 40-something retro-rockers Merry and the Mood Swings, informing me that the lineup is set for a special concert to be held at the Dallas Women’s Museum during the…
