Music

In a bizarro world, in the Dallas of an alternate, and perhaps better, universe, The Lash Outs’ “The Kids Don’t Wanna Dance” is the city’s breakout hit of the summer. A bouncy track that’s catchy enough to latch on in its own right and through its own merit, the song…

George Neal likes the characters in his songs to suffer. Chalk it up to a streak of aesthetic sadism if you will, but for the better part of the last two decades, it’s a tendency that has allowed Neal to produce some of Denton’s most compelling and underappreciated song craft…

There are 11 of them. Well, not right now, actually. At this very moment, only nine of Mount Righteous’ members have gathered in the driveway of bass drum player Joey Kendall’s house in Grapevine. (That, in and of itself, is something of an accomplishment.) The two missing members of the…

When Helio Sequence performs live, it’s hard to believe sometimes that it’s only two people making all that noise. Especially now. Now, vocalist/guitarist Brandon Summers’ vocals, solid and strong, bear no sign of the fact that, for a long stretch during the four years between 2004’s Love and Distance and…

Being married to your bandmate isn’t easy. Just ask Jason Hammel, half of the twosome that makes up indie pop act Mates of State. “I honestly don’t know how people avoid getting sick of each other,” says Hammel, who has been hitched to singer/keyboardist Kori Gardner for almost a decade…

It’s not exactly surprising that Shearwater vocalist Jonathan Meiburg moonlights as an ornithologist—after all, he thanks four birds by scientific name in the liner notes of Rook, the band’s fifth full-length (also named for a bird and sporting a spooky, Hitchcock-inspired cover). Expanding the sonic palette employed on 2006’s stellar…

On first listen to Fleet Foxes’ debut, it’s easy to think, “How in the world did Sub Pop manage to dig up another band that sounds even more like My Morning Jacket than Band of Horses does?” Repeat listens reveal these Foxes to be of a much folksier pedigree, however,…

These days, it’s nearly impossible not to see, hear or read about Old 97’s. Rhett Miller and crew have just released Blame It on Gravity, supposedly a return to form while bassist Murry Hammond’s solo debut turned out to be a very pleasant surprise, an acoustic, country gospel record full…

Daniel Folmer may have come onto the scene in 2006 as a wide-eyed wunderkind, but with 2007’s Gloria, and now A Leaf, he’s starting to carry himself like a sage observer of the human condition. Folmer’s earnest-yet-slightly-cynical balladry continues to mature, occasionally veering into Rufus Wainwright territory, but forgoing Wainwright’s…

The frolicking, rollicking threesome—Maddie on guitar and vocals; El on bass and vocals; Mo on drums and ‘fro—made its bow on December 22, 2004, at a Manhattan rocketeria; the band was the opening act for BeavHer ’80s Dance Party, heh. Then came a 10-song demo in ’05 (or not, details…

Thanks to an endless flood of import singles, live albums and re-releases, it’s hard to believe that The Cure’s next album, which is due in September, is only the gloom-rockers 13th full-length effort. Maybe that’s ’cause when The Cure does release a disc, Robert Smith and Co. want to make…

Oxford, Mississippi’s John Barrett has one-upped The Black Keys and The White Stripes by stripping his blues-garage rock band down to a single member. Or is that one-downed? Either way, in Barrett’s case, the rudimentary percussion complements his rawboned songs. He sings and plays grimy blues licks along with whatever…

Bassist Leif Edling has been the de facto leader of this epic doom metal band for more than two decades now, picking and firing bandmates seemingly at will. Known for his humor (the band’s debut was titled Epicus Doomicus Metallicus) and his ability to detect premium talent, Edling seems content…

This week, we again sent Observer interns Daniel Rodrigue and Spencer Campbell out onto the streets armed with a cheap-ass walkman and a copy of a song from a band coming through town. The song in tow for this go-round was the French Kicks’ “Abandon,” and the dynamic intern duo…