Lil Wil Takes Dallas Hip-Hop National

His shoulders are slumped, his eyelids are heavy, and his gait is deliberate. Lil Wil, dressed in all black, looks a tired man. To his credit, the unassuming 21-year-old Dallas native, born Wil Martin, has been staying busy, working round the clock to promote his major label debut, Dolla$, TX,…

Bonus MP3s: Two Unreleased Cover Tracks From I Love Math

The I Love Math CD release party held at The Barley House last night was more like a CD get-together–which was perfectly OK. Nice, even. It was a relaxed, somewhat drunken affair as people kibbutzed over the sounds of the band’s yesterday-released disc, Getting To The Point Is Beside It…

Be Your Own Pet and The Virgins Get Creative When Bored

Someone with the Nylon Summer Music Tour just posted this pretty funny, if wholly unnecessary, Youtube clip of the guys in Be Your Own Pet and The Virgins screwing around with a surplus of drumsticks while back stage here in Dallas for their House of Blues performance about a week…

Bavu Blakes Gets XXL Magazine Nod

This week’s featured Soundcheck artist on the hip-hop-centric XXL Magazine’s Web site is Austin-based–er, rather, Garland-based emcee Bavu Blakes. Aside from the hometown nod, though, “Smiley Faces,” the song streamed alongside the Soundcheck blurb (which you can also download from Blakes’ Myspace page), has a couple of other local ties…

Free Old 97’s Tickets for House of Blues Show

The big Old 97’s show on Saturday, May 31, is already sold-out. We aren’t surprised. That’s why we made sure to snag a pair of tickets ahead of time with you guys in mind. The first person to e-mail me with the solution to the following word scramble gets the…

Video: Black Tie Dynasty at Granada

The guys in Black Tie Dynasty sound sincerely happy about last weekend’s gig at the Granada. In a bulletin posted on MySpace they write, “That’s probably our best show ever….” So, for the non-BTD haters, here’s a video from the May 24 show featuring the band playing the new track…

Yaz Reunites, Plans Total Situation At Lakewood Theater

So I return from the Memorial Day holiday to find a surprising announcement in my mailbox: Yaz has reunited for the first time in 25 years and is coming to the Lakewood Theater. Yeah, that Yaz (or Yazoo in the UK). Like, Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke (also of Depeche…

Clearing Out The Mailroom: Tuesday, May 27, 2008

We’ve got quite a backlog of CDs we’ve never gotten around to, so we’re going to try to chip away at the pile with this regular feature. Some are left over from previous music editors, others fell by the wayside because they were trumped week after week by albums that…

Post-Memorial Day Video Hangover

Hopefully your Memorial Day weekend hangover has subsided by now…but if you’re still racking your brains to recall how you spent your long weekend, well, Observer intern Spencer Campbell’s here for the jogging. Check out his weekend video round-up after the jump…

Good Friday: The Memorial Day Long Weekend Edition

We mentioned a bunch of weekend shows in the paper Observer this week. Tonight, there’s Charlie Sexton, Alejandro Escovedo, Utah Saints and Knowledge. Tomorrow, there’s Ladyhawk. Here are a few other ones worth looking into… The Nicotine Fits, The Kansas City Faggots 10 p.m. on Friday, May 23, at Bar…

Playback: The Week (5/16/08 – 5/23/08) In Review

What you might have missed this week as you worried about Ted Kennedy’s tumor (which, as Jesse Hughey just pointed out, is a great band name ripe for the taking)… – We geeked the eff out over Radiohead’s live show. – We followed Mount Righteous’ journey westward. – We pondered…

Guy Forsyth Says You Shouldn’t Trust Your Record Labels

Guy Forsyth (Deana Mason) At the Granada Theater tonight, Austin singer-songwriter and founding Asylum Street Spanker Guy Forsyth will perform songs from his latest album, which is either ten years old or brand new, depending on how you look at it. Forsyth’s Calico Girl, released Tuesday, consists of rerecorded versions…

Fat Pimp Gets Signed To Warner Bros.

More proof that the Dallas hip-hop scene could be on the verge of a blow-up: Fat Pimp just got a record deal with Warner Bros. The 24-year-old Fat Pimp, born Christopher Murdaugh, who made news a few months ago when his song “I’m Gettin’ Money” made the Billboard charts, is…