In April 2003, I attended my first-ever Dallas Observer Music Awards. I’d just begun freelancing for the paper weeks earlier, a bewildered 21-year-old who lucked into a VIP ticket for the ceremony, and the party was my Dallas-rock equivalent of “Mean” Joe Greene tossing me a jersey. Members of my…
Daddy knows best: The Polyphonic Spree’s friendship with California’s Grandaddy is no secret; the bands released a special split 7-inch in 2003, and Grandaddy front man Jason Lytle has given the Spree plenty of nice quotes for press clippings over the years (along with a T-shirt that he designed for…
It’s a shame that Pearl Jam is a great album. Not because there’s anything wrong with Pearl Jam tugging their huevos out of their pants, whose waistlines increasingly edge upward on the quintet’s 30-something bodies, and putting together a pop-rock album with fire and vigor. The first three songs, particularly…
In the past, New Orleans’ Terius Gray, who’s more than 30 but still Juvenile, has cared more about coochie than about current events; “Back That Azz Up” doesn’t exactly qualify as a political statement. It’s little wonder, then, that “Get Ya Hustle On,” a Reality Check track about the Hurricane…
Japan’s musical underground has long been fascinated with sublime destruction. The country’s denizens have produced an ample catalog of huge, enveloping sounds in the genres of rock, noise and metal since the early ’70s, and contemporary metal gods Boris fit smack dab in the middle of this continuum. With its…
A couple of months ago, People Under the Stairs leaked music on the Internet. But instead of getting an advance copy of Stepfather, downloaders were subjected to an Andy Kaufman-style recital of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 18th-century poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Humor has always been the cornerstone of…
Last Name: Keenan First Name: Maynard Position You Are Applying For: Jizz Mopper Why You’re a Perfect Fit at Happy Endings Adult Video: I really should just attach a copy of my latest album, 10,000 Days. On this album, I prove to everyone that my band, Tool, is the ultimate…
Why be ashamed? There’s a bum rap to be had for liking Eisley, the young Tyler band that straddles that treacherous line between pop-sweet sheen and influence-stirring experimentation, but that willingness to dabble shouldn’t leave both music-loving extremes in the cold. I’d love for self-conscious hipsters to proclaim that they…
The title of this Scottish post-rock outfit’s new Mr. Beast is indicative of both their predilection for raw amplifier noise and their skewed sense of humor. Unfortunately, the album doesn’t quite live up to its excellent name: Though they’re still more interesting than their more celebrated Icelandic peers in Sigur…
All hail the trout mask replicas of the new bearded age! For the Sunburned Hand of the Man are the New Weird America! Or something like that. All we know is, when these wicked-strange Bostonians roll into town, there might be masks, rainsticks and shambolic neo-beatnik absurdism, but there will…
Owner of San Francisco’s Tiny Telephone recording studio (a favorite of indie stars like Spoon and Okkervil River), John Vanderslice makes solo records like you’d expect an engineer to, tricking out his singer-songwriter pop with lots of headphone-ready bells and whistles. But he’s also a gifted storyteller, one who rarely…
British singer-songwriter Imogen Heap frequently sings against a backdrop heavy with electronic accoutrements–a creative tack that’s been known to trigger critical repercussions. Take Beth Orton, whose early albums didn’t receive the respect they deserved because reviewers suspected her of hiding behind the studio touches. Of course, if you believe what…
“My music is for both the mind and the body,” says Osunlade, “but even more for the spirit.” And why shouldn’t it be? After all, the acclaimed House performer/producer is an ordained priest in the traditional African religion of Ifa. Speaking from Greece, and just a few days from the…
So proud: Voting’s still open one more week for the 2006 Dallas Observer Music Awards–we just cleared out some ballot stuffers, and that leaves more than a few categories up for grabs, so if you haven’t voted, do it–but the 2007 awards’ Best New Artist category is already heating up…
Some listeners will interpret the Girls’ third disc as the sort of mainstream move currently being attempted by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but the alterations in their sound seem inspired more by creative concerns than by commercial calculation. Instead of replacing former guitarist Nathan Thalen with another ax-wielder, the players…
Loose Fur (a trio featuring Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Glenn Kotche, along with veritable Renaissance man Jim O’Rourke) first emerged with an underwhelming 2003 debut that couldn’t even approach each individual’s best work. On this second go-round, though, the threesome sounds reborn–playful, caustic and energetic enough to avoid merely splitting…
Great storytellers know the details sell the tale. A botched robbery might be interesting on its own, but little touches–a .45’s recoil breaking a woman’s wrist–wipe away the clichés. Wu-Tang legend Ghostface Killah hasn’t let up after so many solo and Wu albums, charging into stories on Fishscale just as…
News flash: Al Jourgensen is pissed. On Rio Grande Blood, Ministry’s frontman (the closest thing industrial music has to an elder statesman) continues to whack away at his trademark formula: drill-bit guitars laid over jackhammer beats, with spoken-word samples providing context for Jourgensen’s man-with-a-megaphone diatribes. The sound is typically brutal…
Drawing on influences ranging from Godflesh to John Cage, Miguel Trost Depedro (better-known as Kid 606) wields his laptop with lethal accuracy, slicing genres, mashing styles and trampling preconception with the kind of punk-rock fervor most people don’t expect from EDM. After releasing his glitch-core masterpiece Don’t Sweat the Techniques…
Though often compared to Joy Division, Public Image and The Fall, Baltimore’s Wilderness owes as much to such pioneers of American weirdness as Zappa, Beefheart and Dave Thomas of Pere Ubu. This year’s Vessel States doesn’t differ significantly from last year’s self-titled debut: Plodding and not a little pretentious, the…
Driving to Denton on a Sunday night is a pain, I know, so thanks a shitload, Hailey’s, for giving people a reason to be late to work on Monday. Last time Montreal’s Islands came through Denton was when the members were part of the Unicorns; the 2004 show was a…
Now here’s a double bill that’s either heaven or hell, depending on your perspective. Far be it from me to tell you what to think, but here I am, so I vote for the latter. A good 99 percent of the time, any guitar solo over 12 bars long feels…
