Free Hourly Radio Tracks

The Hourly Radio is being quite generous with its latest EP, “Gun in Hand,” which was released yesterday. On the band’s Web site you can download both the EP’s new song and the Dance Robots Dance! remix of “Crime Does Pay” for free. What’s more, Hourly Radio will be unlocking…

Idolator takes a swing at music blogs

…Does that mean Idolator is punching itself? I normally don’t read Idolator because I think they are snotty jerks. But tomorrow my cover feature on Interweb phenoms Ghosthustler comes out (ah, yes, I can already hear the swelling collective groan from little d music obsessives), and much of the story…

Cool Hand Luke Cancels Saturday Show

We just got a heads up that Cool Hand Luke had to cancel its Texas tour last-minute because of financial issues. So, anyone who was planning on hitting up the Cavern Saturday, Oct. 13, to see the band, may want to find something else to do. However, if the Cavern…

Dude, You Look Just Like…

Ladies and gents, this is a touch navel-gazing, but we have a celebrity here in the office, (in our midst, folks!). We just can’t figure out which one. That’s where you come in. See, our Night & Day man (and frontman of the Naptime Shake), Noah W. Bailey resembles about…

Review: Rock Lottery 10th Anniversary

Last night’s 10th Anniversary installment of Rock Lottery was one of those rare local music events we’ll always remember, not only because we saw Matt Barnhart with his shirt off, but also because it was easily the best installment of the event we’ve ever seen. (Though, admittedly, we missed the…

Kweller Kwestions

Check out this interview with local-boy-made-good Ben Kweller (this time, sans tampon) at the 2007 ACL fest a couple weeks back (wait…a month back? Three weeks? Jesus, what day is it?). It’s cool and everything, especially the shoutout he gives to Club Dada, except looks like word never made it…

Sondre Lerche in Deep Ellum

Another news quickie: New Club Dada co-owner Amanda Newman has confirmed that Sondre Lerche will be headlining a show there on November 15. Ticket info after the jump…

Midlake, St. V on Pitchfork

Not one but two DFW artists made the ol’ Pitchfork media Forkcast today. Check out Midlake performing “Roscoe” at Spune Productions’ Wall of Sound Fest, and then scroll down a bit to catch Ms. Annie Clark—St. Vincent, to the rest of the world—giving up a trio of fine video pieces…

Move Over Myron Floren

So we go to lunch today at the venerable Cosmic Café, craving hummus and nan and other noshables, but we got a bonus we never expected. Seated at the front of the restaurant, near the water and tea pitchers, was accordion player Matt Tolentino. The baby-faced and witty guy serenaded…

Good Friday: Mom, RTB2

Here’s your best bets for the weekend, kids, according to our crack team of music snobs. We didn’t put Rock Lottery on the list, by the way, since we assume you already know about it. (If not, check Wilonsky’s excellent piece on it here .) Beat the Devil Good Records…

What Thursday Night Can Be in the Big D

Damn, y’all, Dallas has got me running around like a yardbird sans cabeza. I pounded the pavement last night, trying to catch bits of several shows in an attempt to expand my musical horizons. I figured I’d fill you in with a little rundown of the evening instead of reviews;…

Listen Up: Midlake, R.E.M. Tribute

Midlake performing on the BBC in April. (Bella Union) At least around DC-9 HQ, a mere mention of the word “Midlake” can spawn a fairly heated debate: On one side are those who dig the Denton band’s lush brand of soft-rock; on the other are thems who think the band…

See Radiant’s (New) Video ‘That Girl’

I’m a little reluctant to say how new this video is since we got reamed for local band Radiant ending up on our Best New Artist ballot at this past summer’s music awards. We got it. They weren’t new. But seriously, how many of you knew them before the whole…

Q&A: Turtle Creek Chorale’s Jonathan Palant

You’d be grinning, too, if you were were a doctor of music and artistic director of a chorale at 33. Maybe you’re slacking. We are. (Shawn Northcutt)New kid on the block Jonathan Palant is making his debut this Sunday, Oct. 7, as the artistic director of the Turtle Creek Chorale…

Midlake Joins the Cult of MTV

Hey kids, we saw this Midlake item awhile ago, but just now gettin’ around to el posto. Suffice to say: Midlake succumbs to MTV’s evil powers and give the TV crew a tour of Denton. (I saw this on Pegasus News, but I think Denton Rock City posted it first,…

Artist in Residence Returns to Club Dada

Shitfuckfart! In all the koo-koo madness here at the funky Office Space-style digs we have here at the Observer (Yep, Wilonsky’s been Xeroxing his ass again. And then comparing it to the picture of Mark Cuban’s ass he keeps posting on Unfair Park. But that’s another story.), I lamely forgot…

Spinner’s Relm

Mike Relm—a bespectacled Asian DJ who wears a suit and tie while he spins—is single-handedly introducing turntablism to parts of middle America. The San Franciscan is on his second stint traveling across the country with the Blue Man Group. He opens their current production, “The Rock Concert Instruction Manual,” with…

Devendra meets Jana

We here at the Dallas Observer have been reading a lot about the days of disco. We’re not sure why. In any case, we’ve become kind of obsessed with Andy Warhol’s place in the ’70s culture, specifically his magazine Interview, in which musicians and celebrities interviewed other musicians and celebrities…

Myth of Sid

Recently, while researching a story, I stumbled upon an essay by seminal rock writer Lester Bangs, called “Bye, Bye, Sidney, Be Good,” about Sid Vicious. The essay focuses on how Vicious murdered (allegedly; the case was never fully investigated) his soul mate, Nancy Spungen, by stabbing her to death, then…

Bettye LaVette|Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

Retro soul’s got to be damn fine to justify its existence, since the stuff it’s modeled on is readily available for listening pleasure and embarrassing comparisons. Fortunately, the latest from Sharon Jones and Bettye LaVette qualify thanks to vocal authenticity and musical settings that offer inventive takes on the old…

Pick a Winner

It was conceived a decade ago as a one-off event—wham, bam, phew. It didn’t even have an official name: Most knew it at the time only as Good/Bad Art Collective Benefit 22, the latest link in the heavy chain of events staged by Chris Weber, Martin Iles and the rest…

Sonic Youth, Meat Puppets

Sonic Youth’s recent Rather Ripped pulls the maturing band toward a more mellifluous path that doesn’t reject their famously splintered tonality but seems a bit more ear-friendly as it addresses a subtler emotional terrain. With the departure of multi-instrumentalist Jim O’Rourke, S.Y.’s now back to their “classic” lineup of guitarists…