Everyone loves a good time. And nobody had a better time than ’80s glam-metal hitmakers Poison. Not only did they revel in many good times, they desired to have nothing but, a pursuit meticulously chronicled in their hit single “Nothin’ But a Good Time.” Because when you want nothing more…
Singer-songwriter Erika Wennerstrom is the driving force behind the indie-rock trio Heartless Bastards. She started the group as a quartet in 2003 with co-founder/bassist Mike Lamping. After a couple changes in staff lineup, drummer Kevin Vaughn joined the group, and the current version of Heartless Bastards was formed. In the…
Army of Anyone is the next entry in the cycle of dudes from successful, now-defunct alt-rock bands of the 1990s forming 21st-century supergroups. The anyone in this army includes Robert Patrick, former front man for buzz band Filter (“Hey Man, Nice Shot”), and brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo, Scott Weiland’s…
Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, the sophomore effort from Trent Summar, is a rough-hewn, shit-kicker’s delight, an effort that mocks the sterile country confines of Nashville and revels in the Hill Country Americana spirit embodied in the likes of Doug Sahm and Jerry Jeff Walker. Sounding like Paul Westerberg fronting the…
When an open mike or amateur night advertises itself as “one of Dallas’ great unknown treasures,” you get the cynical inkling that it’s perhaps “unknown” for a reason. And if such a description is applied to a weekly 8 Mile-esque rap battle and dance-off that happens to be held at…
Do you have affection for big-band jazz and classic pop but can’t stand the cheese that tries to pass for it these days? John Pizzarelli is your man. He comes by the style honestly as the son of celebrated jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, with whom he cut his teeth as…
January 8 was Elvis Presley’s birthday. This fact had not entered my consciousness until I received a last-minute invitation to help judge the Elvis impersonators contest at Dick’s Last Resort, a proposal that immediately prompted two songs to compete for space in my head. The first was Elvis’ own “Hunk…
Idol Chatter: Those of you wondering how Picnic, one third of Idol Records’ splendid hip-hop group PPT, is faring after a fire destroyed his home last month, take heart. The man has bounced back like a classic NBA ball: He’s moving into a new home this month, and he’s already…
Sitting in an IHOP in East Dallas on a dreary day, just over a month removed from the death of her older brother in Iraq, Kristy Kruger pops a couple of Prozac and stares at the ceiling as the questions and answers become inherently uncomfortable. She wants to talk about…
Good Records assistant manager C.J. Davis is the kind of guy for whom time and history are not defined by important geopolitical events or scientific breakthroughs, but by music. When trying to describe how it feels to look down the barrel of the big 4-0, the first thing that comes…
When asked how he feels about the claims that he started the singer-songwriter movement nearly four decades ago, Tom Rush answers with characteristic flippancy. “Guilty,” says Rush sarcastically, not hiding his contempt for the label that has dogged him his entire career. In 1965, Elektra Records released The Circle Game,…
Nelly Furtado “Say It Right,” Loose (Geffen) Ten years after Aaliyah’s “One in a Million,” Timbaland is still using the same heaving synth waves and tricky, Tourettic drum programming, but the rest of the pop world still hasn’t caught up. Here, Tim channels early-’90s Peter Gabriel, his rippling bongos and…
Remember the first time you heard the Pixies’ classic “Where Is My Mind?” It condensed the euphoria of cutting anchor and sailing into the abyss into a four-minute pop song. Now Jay Reatard (that Memphis garage punker from the Lost Sounds, the Retards, Angry Angles and probably a dozen other…
On this album, Cornelius—Japan’s one-man band Keigo Oyamada—could have listened to just as much Herbie Hancock and Dream Theater as anything from his home country. The songs use every trick in the weird-rock book: all-over-the-place live drums, odd time signatures, delay pedals, ridiculous synths, electronic beats and even fucking slap…
Spanic Boys are an eight-eyed father-son duo from Milwaukee who fetishize vintage tube amplifiers, write economical country-rock songs of heartbreak and devotion like there’s no today, and sport bellies suggestive of their hometown’s most famous export. In the early ’90s, when they were signed to Rounder Records and appeared on…
A greatest-hits album from Mary J. Blige presents more problems than you’d expect. For one thing, very few memorable singles exist between her first huge single—1992’s sublime “Real Love,” which anointed Blige the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul—and her latest, last year’s “Be Without You.” Like many great singers, Blige depends…
Connecting the two enchanted bodies of water that encapsulate The Way the Wind Blows—one set in Galisteo, New Mexico, the other in France—the cross-cultural, cross-generational folk tales of A Hawk and a Hacksaw re-contextualize the traditional and classical into the modern age. Led by nomadic aural archaeologist and former Neutral…
There was a time in the Dallas music scene when it seemed like bands weren’t afraid to take chances and break the tried-and-true tradition of tight jeans, loud amps and drunk-rock swagger. A time when experimentation was spreading from band to band like a case of herpes. A time when…
In the rap game equivalent of Henry IV seizing the throne from Richard II, T.I., born Clifford Harris Jr., crowned himself King. The Rubberband Man’s fourth album dropped at a crucial moment in 2006: the week of his film debut in ATL, while Jay-Z was still “retired,” and before Ghostface…
Call it “The Nights of Guitar Rock.” The Strokes’ guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. and late-’90s rock best-sellers Incubus set up shop at the Tea Room this week. Both have new albums kicking around—Hammond supports his October release Yours to Keep, while Incubus tours behind its new top-seller Light Grenades. Selling…
Unless you spent 2006 under a rock—without the aid of an iPod, cell phone or BlackBerry—these two acts need no introduction. The “Go, go Gadget” success of Gnarls Barkley’s St. Elsewhere, the first collaboration between Goodie Mob’s Cee-lo and renowned producer and mash-up artist Dangermouse, provided the perfect summer soundtrack…
Sounding more like “the next big thing” from our Canadian neighbors than those crazy kids from down the street, Red Monroe’s self-titled, full-length debut album made jaws drop, including the Grammy nomination panel. Even if the record was chock-full of bittersweet Arcade Fire-like yelps and Wolf Parade-esque moments of crashing…
