Sonya of The Big Sleep. (Chelsea Ide) It may be impossible not to dance to The Big Sleep. At least I couldn’t resist at the band’s Wednesday night show at Mohawk. The Brooklyn-based band layers jagged riffs over a strong, steady beat; lending itself to hip shaking. Don’t misunderstand, though,…
The Feds’ Matt Slider at Wednesday’s show. (Chelsea Ide)Most of the songs I’ve heard by Dallas’ The Feds had me thinking they were a radio band. But, I tell you, The Feds are straight-up rock when it comes to the live show. The band had great stage presence at its…
While filling the time between the daytime shows and the nighttime showcases, I wandered near the clubs. Here’s what I heard: “They give you a lot of drink tickets, but the music sucks!” “We kind of forgot to get a stage manager. But maybe you can just go around back.”…
Madeline Adams playing with her band Madeline at Spiro’s Amphitheater Wednesday night. (Chelsea Ide) After jumping around a bit on Spiro’s back patio listening to Teenage Bottlerocket, I headed toward the ladies room, only to be diverted by the childlike, sweet vocals of Madeline Adams. She and her band, Madeline,…
I’m on the verge of heading out for tonight’s shows. When I get back we’ll have photos from this afternoon’s NX35 showcase — which I like to call the “Denton stage” — plus a recap of The Feds. The Dallas band is opening up the Wednesday night show at Spiro’s…
Ra Ra Riot’s Wesley Miles in a rare moment of stillness during the band’s Wednesday performance. (Chelsea Ide)Quite possibly the most simple sound check I’ve ever heard. Bassist Mathieu Santos says, “Check,” and then vocalist John Pike Wesley Miles says “Ahhhhhhhh.” That was it, and Ra Ra Riot launched into…
Oh snaps. This just came out over the MySpace bulletin board a few minutes ago (which would be just a tad after 11 p.m.) all caps and all. John Freeman over at Sloppyworld says that this promising venue is closed down. At least for now: SLOPPYWORLD SHUT DOWN BY THE…
What a great shot this is! (Pete Freedman) Driving to and from lunch today, we noticed something going on at the old Tower Records location on Lemmon Avenue. You might remember it going out of business about a year and a half ago? Anyway, there were people there today! Doing…
Uggggh. How pretentious Fact: There are three standard SXSW questions. 1) Where are you staying? 2) How inappropriate is it to be drunk by noon? 3) What bands are you most excited about seeing? Ah, Question Three. There’s the rub! Well, the big blog buzz band of the moment–literally, at…
Quiet Life Quiet Life is an up and coming alt-country quartet hailing from Connecticut. Act Natural, the band’s stellar debut, came out a few weeks ago and features an intriguing mix of Wilco and the Black Crowes. The group stops at Club Dada tonight on its way to SXSW. Quiet…
Hoots and Hellmouth. (Doug Seymour)Would it behoove any venue to simply have its own mini-fest while all these bands are migrating south to Austin for SXSW and back north when it’s done? I can appreciate the slew of shows happening all over DdFW, but cover charge and tickets start to…
We — and probably a decent number of you guys — hit up the Centro-matic/South San Gabriel/Robert Gomez show this weekend. If you came by the site yesterday, you saw Melanie Gomez’s photos from the stellar show. However, if photos weren’t enough, the lovely folk at the Granada posted this…
Centro-matic’s Scott Danbom at Saturday night’s Granada Theater show. (Melanie Gomez)We spent our weekends with indie rockers (Centro-matic), geeks (All-Con) and guitarists (Texas Guitar Competition). And you? Centro-matic at Granada Theater Despite things being cold outside, the Granada was packed Saturday night when we showed up to see Centro-matic, Robert…
Beach House…on the boardwalk Well, the weekend’s finally here, and with it comes some noteworthy shows. Some come from the SXSW overspill we told you about in this week’s paper, and others just come from our own backyard. Either way, there’s plenty for you to see out in DFWd this…
There’s something about a musician alone on a the stage with an acoustic guitar that always feels special. Maybe it’s that it always feels more intimate, just by the stripped-down nature. I’m not sure. I do know that those of you who like Paul Thorn will love watching him perform…
The Rocket Summer playing at the House of Blues last September. (Jonathan Finley) Apparently Alternative Press is all over Dallas right now. The Rocket Summer is on the current cover, and now the annual Alternative Press Tour is about to launch and the Big D is representing on the bill…
Say what you want about South by Southwest: that’s it’s overrated, that it’s over-inflated, that it’s already jumped the shark… None of those statements are necessarily false, but there still remain a few absolute truths about the annual Austin music festival. Like the fact that it still has some clout…
Last July, thousands of folks, including the mayor of Detroit and the governor of Michigan, gathered in Motown at the NAACP’s annual convention for a symbolic funeral for the N-word. It was a response to the recurrence of the word’s popping up in the mainstream media, such as when Michael…
The ramifications of a band name can never be overstated. Just ask Hymns. The New York by way of North Carolina band has had its share of misunderstandings because of the religious implications of its name. Adding to the confusion is the fact that two members are from, of all…
Other than the city of Boston, the 2004 Red Sox curse-breaking World Series win and Martin Scorsese’s 2006 Oscar-drought-breaking film The Departed had something else in common: Both prominently featured songs from Beantown Celtic rockers the Dropkick Murphys. The band’s anthemic rewrite of the 1902 showtune “Tessie” fueled enthusiasm for…
Suck it, Austin. Will Johnson may have moved from Denton to your overrated yupster hamlet years ago, but when it comes time to debut music from Centro-matic’s forthcoming double album, where does he book a show? That’s right: Dallas. Austinites will have to wait until the South by Southwest performance…
First Chomsky reunited a few weeks back. Then Light Bright Highway got back together during the throes of the Melodica Festival. And now Macavity? Reunion fever seems to be spreading around the Dallas area even faster than that cold-and-flu bug everyone’s been catching. With a sound the band describes as…
