So, let’s see…first Edie Brickell and the New Bos play Club Dada. Then, on July 25, Nick Brisco and Chris Claridy of Fever in the Funkhouse get a gig at the resurrected Deep Ellum mainstay. And now, on Sunday, it’s–no, really–Ten Hands, which, last I looked, broke up in 1995…
In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Kevin Welch, much like his friend Steve Earle, never fit any major-label marketing scheme. Lost between rock and country before Uncle Tupelo ushered in the Americana alternative, Welch has now found surprising success touring and recording deep-rooted acoustic blues with Keiran Kane. The…
Fans of Beulah still stinging from their break-up two years ago would be wise to check out the pairing of Golden Bear and the Channel, two Austin groups that share that band’s killer songcraft and So-Cal pop sensibilities. Five members pull double duty between the two, with Golden Bear recalling…
Former members of the now-defunct Elephant 6 psych-pop collective, Portland’s Minders play likable, laid-back indie-jangle jams that adhere more closely to the British Invasion template than stuff by E6 weirdos like the Olivia Tremor Control. Makes sense, as frontman Martyn Leaper is an English expat. On It’s a Bright Guilty…
After 25 years and nearly as many albums, these Aussies remain largely and sadly underappreciated, though on the radio playing in Thom Yorke’s head they’re top of the pops. For many, 1988 single “Under the Milky Way” remains the main reference. At their best on album and stage, the Church…
Oh the places a mix tape can take you. From homemade mixes to DJing private parties for artist Keith Haring, Junior Vasquez pushed aside his dreams of working in fashion to become the big daddy of DJ culture. Vasquez, who makes his Dallas debut Saturday night, gained fast popularity in…
“I look like Fred Durst in this fucking hat,” says Jakob Sereno, lead singer of the Uncontrollable Urge, as he tosses the offending cap to drummer Chris Galbraith. Sereno fidgets in his chair as he listens to a newly recorded track in a studio in northwest Dallas. Excited by the…
Peregrine, the monumental sixth effort from Kansas’ Appleseed Cast, represents not only a stylistic shift from their regrettable emo past but a grander development that borders on transcendent. Eclectic hardly describes the proceedings as electronica mixes surprisingly well with their more usual guitar-driven fare, all in the service of a…
Christian rock is booming right now, in both the commercial and the creative senses of the word (or perhaps the Word). As former Spin scribe Andrew Beaujon writes in his revealing new book, Body Piercing Saved My Life, the community (if a multibillion-dollar industry can be considered a community) is…
I’ll level with ya: We haven’t run a Set List concert review in way too long. But it’s not that the writers here have shunned local concerts–far from it. Here are some of the best live acts I’ve seen in the past month and a half that haven’t gotten enough…
“In the States, I’m still worried it’ll slip through the cracks again.” Midlake lead singer Tim Smith is at his home in Pilot Point, an hour north of the Denton house where he and the rest of the quintet recorded The Trials of Van Occupanther, and he says this while…
Finger-lickin’ good: Whenever an e-mail hits the AAT wire from local noise-rock progenitor Mwanza Dover, a huge groan can be heard in the office. That’s because we need at least five staffers to dig through his lengthy spiels (“I am burned out on the local scene and a lot of…
The key to this fourth and not-just-another-fine-but-finest CD yet by these Midwest rock Wilburys is its one faithfully rendered cover: “Strangers” by Dave Davies of the Kinks. Just as that song allowed brother Dave to provide a perfect counterpoint to Ray Davies’ songs on Lola Versus the Powerman, Golden Smog…
Along with Uncle Tupelo, Missouri’s Bottle Rockets have to be considered the godfathers of the ’90s alt-country/roots-rock revival. Their sophomore effort, The Brooklyn Side, stands alongside Too Far to Care from the Old 97’s as a landmark recording made during the movement’s brief heyday. Since 1994, singer/guitarist Brian Henneman has…
In the indie-rock canon, the Pacific Northwest gets its rep mostly from its Seattle and Olympia greats. Makes sense–Washington state’s Pacific neighbors, Portland and British Columbia, Canada, haven’t had important record labels such as Sub Pop and K to push their best bands. But the best Pac-NW album of the…
Though they’re huge stars in their native U.K., Muse has never reaped the sort of Stateside success attained by their countrymen in Coldplay and Keane. Black Holes and Revelations, Muse’s fourth album, proves why right from the start, when “Take a Bow” opens the proceedings with a dramatic synth fanfare…
Through creative playing and use of effects pedals, Burntsienna Trio’s Justin Collins stretches the limitations of the banjo, an instrument wrongly stereotyped as the territory of drooling, overall-clad moonshine connoisseurs. Whether it’s the fast-picked getaway music of “On Demand” or atmospheric plucked notes in “Prelude to Theme from Little Bermuda,”…
Connoisseurs of commercial hip-hop, pseudo-soul and top-40 R&B have a full dance card this weekend. On Friday night, Def Jam Records’ Ne-Yo will take a break from working with the likes of Beyoncé and Britney Spears to bathe in an ocean of shiny shirts and fluorescent bleached teeth at Purgatory…
Why smack everyone over the head yet again with the importance of these two acts (which we already did months ago by reviewing their new records, Paul Simon’s Surprise and Ray Davies’ Other People’s Lives)? Because for once, it’s easy to lump them together. Both charmed the world in their…
Hardin Sweaty and the Ready to Go? The Dallas band’s name generates a knee-jerk grimace, but two songs into their concerts, most grimaces curl skyward. Riffs that mercilessly slap your face coupled with an enthusiasm usually reserved for hyperactive 6-year-olds produce a sound that justifies and emboldens such a ridiculous…
Taking a night off from the Sounds of the Underground package tour currently hitting larger venues nationwide, these heavy-metal heavyweights stop in at the Ridglea for a more intimate night of brutality. Sweden’s In Flames have inspired many of the young metalcore bands that’ve found success over the past few…
Of all the labels to be unfairly saddled with, the oxymoronic “Christian punk” tag has dogged this Pacific Northwest trio for more than a decade. Sure, these fine, not-so-young lads don’t spew expletives like hard-core legends Black Flag nor do they wallow in sexual depravity like punk godfather Iggy Pop,…
