Music

This week, we grabbed our $20 discman, popped in a CD from Grand Ole Party and drove over to the Half Price Books on Northwest Highway. After the ambushees consented to donning our headphones, we pressed play, nudged up the volume up and subjected them to “Look Out Young Son,”…

Daniel Rodrigue knocked his piece on Evangelicals out of the park in this week’s paper (seriously, go read it). But that’s not all we’ve got for you on the Evangelicals front… Bonus mp3: It’s a fairly poppy track, darkened up by graveyard-like winds and howls in the background. Interesting stuff,…

We always appreciate it when visual artists and musicians collaborate, whether it’s by putting on a big event, holding a concert in a gallery or museum, or complementing live music with interesting visuals. But we don’t want to overlook the smaller ways in which visual artists and musicians work together,…

Grassfight. Not fighting grass, oddly enough. (Justin Tennison) Dave Sims, scribe of our weekly Denton-focused column “North of the Dial,” checks in with promising Denton-bred four-piece Grassfight in this week’s installment, discussing both Radiohead and the insularity of the Denton scene with vocalist Nathan Forester. Unfortunately, the band’s not on…

You know who went to my high school? Karl Ravech, host of ESPN’s Baseball Tonight. Or so rumor has it. To be perfectly honest, I’m not even sure it’s true. But the sports junkies at my high school used to think it was pretty awesome. Hey, someone to look up…

We’re all pretty Radiohead-obsessed,” says Grassfight’s Nathan Forester, and certainly the opening bars of “Rhodendron,” from his group’s French Shemes EP, with its spare, ambient guitar line and Godrich-like touch to the mix, demonstrates that Yorke and Co. have indeed made their mark on this Denton group. A strange admission…

The fact that women prefer sensitivity to sexuality is well documented. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that Woody Allen was People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive. Classic singer-songwriters such as James Taylor and Jackson Browne, meanwhile, have built reputations based upon their ability to thoughtfully assess situations, both romantic…

Over the phone, Josh Jones doesn’t whisper and then suddenly break into fits of maniacal laughter like he does on Evangelicals’ first two gloom-pop albums. It’s a bit surprising. After penning the songs on The Evening Descends, a cinematic album bursting with skeleton men, bizarre religious visions, ghosts, bats, a…

On last year’s Under the Blacklight, Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett celebrated the end of their relationship. The one-time couple called it quits just before recording the indie-pop band’s fourth album, which documents the breakup in songs like “Silver Lining” and, um, “Breakin’ Up” (“Ooh, it feels good…

The first few tracks of My Morning Jacket’s fifth studio album, Evil Urges, sound like a cruel put-on, with lead singer Jim James adopting the Prince-inspired falsetto he first toyed with on Z’s “Wordless Chorus” for entire songs—only to have it come across more like a bad Ween joke than…

Whiskey Folk Ramblers have injected traditional country, pop music’s oldest and most distinctly American genre, with a shot of youthful energy and Old World instrumentation. Their arrangement of “Die Easy” is a perfect summation of the band’s approach. It’s a traditional folk song, and they start it out traditionally enough,…

Ryan Bingham would probably fare better if he didn’t call Austin home; Lord knows there’s a crap-ton of Americana, alt-country and folk artists traveling around Texas—probably too many. And in that glut, it’s easy to see how a talented singer-songwriter like Bingham might get lost in the shuffle. Especially if…

The RZA is, of course, best-known for his innovative production work, primarily for the Wu-Tang Clan but also for his soundtrack work for Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino and his production for artists like Dr. Dre and MF Doom. His minimalist production—often just a simple drumbeat, a few creepy piano…

The next time someone tells you that all hip-hop is the same, with narcissistic MCs rapping about their jewelry to pre-programmed backing tracks, make sure to sling the new Roots CD, Rising Down, in their direction. The Philly band—and they are a real band—would be remarkable if only because they…

One reason Seattle’s Death Cab For Cutie became an indie-rock godhead is that the band’s members are so clearly comfortable in their own skins (and sweaters and thick black glasses). They play literate, nerdy, slightly fey pop, and they do it well. So guitarist Chris Walla sounded like he was…

Where Supergrass once stood as an effervescent factory of happy-glam, the group has changed the formula for its sixth effort, Diamond Hoo Ha. Rather than follow 2005’s moodier Road to Rouen with another Marc Bolan-in-rainbows party monster and adhere to the band’s back-forth, up-down M.O., Supergrass has offered up something…

For those curious to hear what Steve Earle’s son, Justin Townes Earle, actually sounds like on record, well, we got your answer. Bonus mp3: Old-school? Absolutely. Any good? Sure, I can dig it. And, again, you can catch him at The Loft on Saturday, if you so choose. –Pete Freedman…

We ran this story last week, previewing tonight’s Mates of State gig at The Granada. Now, an added bonus: We’ve got a pair of tickets to give away to tonight’s show–and, even better, we’re hooking you up with the chance to meet the band before it heads on stage. So,…