Last year was a tough year. Clubs in Deep Ellum, Denton and Fort Worth closed, only to be replaced with sterile, corporate-owned chain venues. Carter Albrecht was killed. The Toadies, one of the most overrated bands in Dallas history, reunited. Zooming out beyond the local music scene, things don’t look…
Unbelievably, not a single person on our 2007 music death pool (see “Pool Queue,” January 4, 2007) was waved past the velvet rope into the Ultimate Afterparty—though Britney Spears was flirting pretty hard with the bouncers. We recommend that you keep the previous year’s picks on your list and add…
This has been a sad year for some of our favorite musical artists. Many of them self-destructed to a degree we never even imagined possible, even as we rooted for career salvation. Others inexplicably ruined events we were greatly looking forward to. Instead of analyzing what went wrong, we’ve chosen…
As Radiohead’s two different releases this month prove, rock boxed sets aren’t getting any more sensible. The “discbox” version of their new release In Rainbows is stuffed with extras ranging from the useful (extra music) to the aimless (expanded booklets and artwork) to the mystifyingly redundant (In Rainbows on CD,…
It’s been a couple of years since the release of Llano Avenue, local roots rocker Darryl Lee Rush’s extraordinary debut, and various snafus have kept this sophomore effort off the shelves until now. Usually live releases just fill time between studio products, but Rush’s country charm, as well as his…
Blossom Toes never amounted to anything more than an opening act during their brief career between 1967 and 1969. But when the headliners were The Move, Soft Machine and a Syd Barrett-led Pink Floyd, “opening act” wasn’t too lousy a slot. Reissues of the band’s only two albums, We Are…
After more than 25 years in the music business, Johnette Napolitano has made her masterpiece. From the haunting synth programming on “Amazing” to the poignant ballad “The Scientist” to her deep ‘n’ doomy cover of Lou Reed’s “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” Scarred is a sonic portrait of an artist who has…
Finally, The Raveonettes have realized the potential their previous three albums only hinted at—turns out it was just waiting to congeal into Lust Lust Lust. And it’s been a long wait. The Danish duo has always been about minimalism and self-imposed restriction; their 2002 EP Whip It On was written…
The sophisticated pop smarts of Denton’s Darcy can either make a listener start singing along or dismiss them with a sneer and a hardy, “Oh, come on!” Such pleasant numbers as “Alien,” “As She Waits” and “Police” feature the fey, whispered vocals of Dustin Aguilar, and it’s safe to say…
An Addiction to Fiction, the 2007 debut from Irving’s Inaro, was as good of a local emo/punk release as one could have hoped for. Bristling with hooks but never too slick or poppy, the songs of Josh Fuston, Justin Bonnet and the rest of this youthful quintet offer both spunk…
A pint-size novelty act who made preteen girls swoon with his 2000 debut, Beware of Dog, Bow Wow has somehow evolved into an elder statesman in the hip-pop genre. Now 20 years old, he has split with longtime producer Jermaine Dupri, and his sixth CD, Face Off—a collaboration with B2K’s…
Dan Paul is Dallas’ renaissance man of the moment. He sings, he acts, he drags. As of tomorrow, call him Dan Paul Roberts, because he is also an artist and decided to change up his moniker for art’s sake. A new exhibition of his work opens at the Magnolia Theater…
People Magazine reports Jessica Simpson is going all Carrie Underwood on us. Simpson has headed to Nashville (hi, Matt Pulle) to begin recording, OK, wait for it, a country album. Not only that, she’ll also be penning some of the songs for the album saying, “Writing is a release for…
PorterdavisDan Barrett and Mike Meadows got their start playing music in Boston around the Porter and Davis squares subway stations. The pair forged a partnership based upon a shared love of the blues and named themselves Porterdavis, in honor of its humble beginnings. Moving to Austin in 2004, Barrett and…
Ghostland Observatory Dec 30, 2007 House of Blues Better Than: Watching oily robots make sweet love under a banana tree. SMU douchebags took over the House of Blues Sunday night, but we still were swooning when Ghostland Observatory hit the stage. (Angela Berg) Hippies love Ghostland! Hipsters love Ghosltand! Geeks…
Van Morrison Myerson Symphony Center December 29, 2007 Better than: Pretending you have Celtic roots getting drunk at O’Malley’s. Saturday night, in the stuffy and polite confines of the Myerson Symphony Center, Van Morrison finally let loose. After a disinterested performance of “Moondance,” the legendary singer consumed just enough wine…
So many parties, so little time. With 2008 a few days away, we here at DC-9 thought we’d help you sort out some of your New Year’s Eve club partying options. (See our NYE concert picks.) Everybody’s doing something around town but these top few stuck out to us with…
Money, parking, overcrowded venues and quality of music; these are just a few things that come to mind when deciding where to go this New Year’s Eve. Here is a list of 1- possibilities followed by a scaled score (10 being the best bet) to rate the perspective overall experience…
Burgeoning blues beau Jonathan Tyler and his talented stage posse will be rocking the damask walls of the Granada tonight in support of their surprisingly soulful album Hot Trottin’. As House of Blues favorites and recent targets of major label A&R pursuance, Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights are scaling…
The holidays are a time of family, schmaltzy Christmas commercials that somehow make you cry and, for music journalists, list-making. Lots and lots of list-making. Over the past few years, the availability of year-end critics’ lists has multiplied faster than the worry lines on Ben Bernanke’s brow. Mark our words,…
In the pages that follow, our corporate overlords provide an alternative to gratuitous music writer geekdom and end-of-year lists, but being who we are, we threatened to burn down the building if we didn’t get to make some kind of contribution to the list-making canon. Apparently, they like this building…
Due to a major oversight on my part, the music and concert listings in this week’s issue are reprinted from last week. I offer my sincerest apologies to our readers, bands and the venues who allow me to include them each week. Shows for the dates of December 27 through…
