The last thing my parents would expect at this point in my life is me spending the evening with a woman. However, I can’t say that a night out with three women would go over well with them either. Well, maybe my dad, but that’s just how men are. On…
In a roller-coaster career that’s nearing the 40-year mark, Paul McCartney has tallied his share of both successes (McCartney, Band on the Run, Flowers in the Dirt and, most recently, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard) and embarrassments (McCartney II, anyone?). Consequently, the trumpeting of a new Macca opus brings…
It’s tough to say which part of Art Conspiracy’s upcoming event Seed is the most worthy of local support. The event is meant as a fundraiser for AC, a Dallas art collective that promotes visual art and music, as 10 local photographers will be auctioning off original works with the…
WWJR: We’ve never had any beef with church or church-goers—it’s just that Sunday mornings are mostly good for sleeping, and those pews are even less accommodating than the kitchen floor, which is usually where we find ourselves, frequently facedown, on a Sunday morning. But if controversial gospel rapper Tonex continues…
Has it really rained this much? Like, all of June? Seriously? Cuz the shit is starting to put a very literal damper on the Dallas music situation. Who wants to pay five bucks to park, only to have to sprint two blocks through a wall of precipitation, soaking your jeans…
National Props: The Monday, July 2, edition of The New York Times arts section includes a review of St. Vincent’s debut, Marry Me (in case you didn’t see it, Robert Wilonsky has written a fine article on our local heroine on page 58 of this issue of the Dallas Observer)…
It is the summer of 1988, far as she can recall now, at the ripe old age of 24, and Annie Clark is in the backseat of the car, on a family trip from Minnesota back to Oklahoma. Everyone is sick with a stomach flu, and frequent pit stops are…
Initially, the only thing that separated folk music from rock was electricity, and Bob Dylan quickly (but certainly not quietly) did away with this quaint notion in 1966 when folk-rock was fitfully conceived. Folk music didn’t end when Dylan plugged in, but the lines between folk and rock became forever…
Lyfe Jennings is living proof that convicts actually can be rehabilitated. At 15, the R&B artist from Toledo, Ohio, was ordered to serve between two and 10 years for arson. With good behavior, Jennings could have been released in two, but his turbulent nature resulted in his serving the whole…
Interpol’s major-label debut, Our Love to Admire, isn’t as monochrome (or monotonous) as its previous two albums. “Pioneer to the Falls” is arguably the richest song they’ve ever recorded, a track that channels the stormy textures of the Cure’s Pornography. Death-march piano and woodwinds add counter-melodies; a giant quivering mass…
Los Angeles-based promoter Andrew Lojero uses the ArtDontSleep pseudonym when he’s getting people drunk at loft parties. He organizes celebrations on the West Coast that highlight local artists and musicians, and on ArtDontSleep Presents From L.A. With Love, Lojero’s hand-picked array of underground psyche and beatmakers delights and befuddles. Producer…
New York began for me, a Philly schoolboy, the same way it did for out-of-town skaters and college students, graffiti artists, sculptors, stockbrokers, gym teachers, sanitation workers, B-boys, DJs, carpool dads, White Castle burger-flippers—basically anybody under the age of 30—with Licensed to Ill. Since then (two decades and more), all…
The Loch Ness Monster does exist. It has to, because there is no other explanation for the resurrection of the dinosaur known as Asia. It’s been 25 years since John Wetton (King Crimson), Steve Howe (Yes), Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) and Geoff Downes (The Buggles) threw their collective…
One is unlikely to find a more varied sampling of roots music than this crowded bill at Uncle Calvin’s. Serving as a preview for The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival that takes place in Okemah, Oklahoma, July 11-15, this performance features recognizable names and others that should be. Maines’ claim to…
Modern R&B ballads aren’t so much created as they are conjured, transmitted like electricity through cable lines and radio waves in blasts of wispy melodies and soft sexuality. With the exception of old-school revivalists such as Amy Winehouse, little thought is given to the idea of an R&B auteur. But…
Back in the day, love-gone-bad drove country crickets like Skeeter Davis to declare the “End of the World” or Sandy Posey to bemoan the fate of being “Born a Woman.” But nowadays, Amy LaVere—delicate and demure as she sounds—would rather take her man out than take it on the chin…
The members of Lez Zeppelin are used to audiences’ skepticism. “They don’t expect anything much—they think it might be a joke, they think it might be fun or kitsch, but they really don’t expect a real, heavy-duty, Zeppelin-like experience,” says Steph Paynes, who assumes the role of Jimmy Page. And…
Hailing from Australia and describing themselves as a “symphonic/ gothic/classical act,” Virgin Black are a dour quartet who revel in all that is dark and doomy. Requiem—Mezzo Forte, the band’s just-released effort, is the third component of a brain-spinning five-part trilogy that’s equally confusing and impressive. Rowan London leads this…
OK, we’re officially jealous of Austin. Oh, the “Music Capital of the World” can suck it as far as South by Southwest is concerned. And all those venues they’ve got—well, shoot, who wants to be surrounded by that many hipsters anyway? But one thing Austin’s got that we ain’t is…
One of last year’s most overlooked albums is full of soulful lullabies about the fleeting nature of life and love. Ghosts and faded lovers populate the dreamy and haunting melodies of As Tall as Lions’ self-titled Triple Crown Records release. With frontman Daniel Nigro’s vocals hovering often in the upper…
Don’t let the fact that you don’t speak Spanish keep you away from Grupo Fantasma’s show. The Austin-based group’s Latin/dance/funk/rock/reggae/R&B/Afro-Cuban style translates really well. (If only they could think of a short name for it.) The 11-piece band has one mission: Make everybody dance! During the last six years, Grupo…
The Granada Theater, Saturday, June 23: Gusts of air conditioning bat around bouquets of red, white and blue balloons, grouped in threes and fours. Many have been set free and bob lackadaisically around the ceiling. A swollen sold-out crowd melds into one entity, but occasionally a single individual peels away:…
