One-time New Jersey cop Eddie Mahoney stopped walking his hometown beat in order to pursue his dream of rock stardom. In the late ’70s, he changed the clunky-sounding Mahoney to an ’80s-ready Money, and in one of the most unlikely ascensions imaginable, this poor man’s Springsteen hit the big time…
At Good Records’ most recent birthday bash concert, Astronautalis’ set came right when I was hungry for the party’s free hot dogs. I figured I’d listen to one song and grab some lunch, but his riveting performance ensured that didn’t happen. What first grabbed me was his backing music, which…
Two Gallants’ second album What the Toll Tells opens with a robust and bluesy foot-stomper a la Jack White’s most infectious work called “Las Cruces Jail.” While this two-piece band out of San Francisco share some of the Stripes’ spare, lo-fi sound, they consistently get right what the Stripes like…
Just like 50 Cent’s ninth bullet wound or a glowing review in MaximumRocknRoll, geography is often the secret to cred in the EDM DJ scene. With that in mind, it’s all the more strange to consider the meteoric rise of Hernan Cattaneo. See, Cattaneo is from Buenos Aires, not exactly…
[UPDATE, 04-01-06: The link to the song in question has now been added to the end of the article.] At first glance, Dirk Nowitzki’s iPod doesn’t seem particularly special in an age when everybody owns one. It’s the newest Nano version, 4 GB of memory, in a leather case. Stock…
Ben Gibbard just woke up, and he’s in no mood to be talking to anyone, let alone a reporter, let alone a reporter asking about a certain TV show/pop-cultural icon with which his band, Death Cab for Cutie, has become permanently tied. The last thing you’d want to do at…
“The U.S. is more of a continent than a country,” says Fredrik Nilsson, drummer of the Sounds, Sweden’s latest attractive source of ’80s new wave memories. Currently on tour in Los Angeles, Nilsson is somewhat awestruck on his second trip to America. “There’s more musical tradition here…In Sweden, people only…
In early December 2005, I walked into Club Dada for reasons that don’t normally lead me into Deep Ellum. A buddy was playing his first gig with a new acoustic trio, and he needed friends to show up so that the group might get booked again. I went to Dada…
Partners in kind: Two months ago, local songwriter Jayson Bales called us up with little more than an idea and a dream–to help local musicians with legal, medical and financial counsel, the kinds of things full-time musicians without insurance can use in droves. After a successful organizational meeting in February,…
Before the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O strutted, spit and cooed her way to indie-rock icon status, the last dynamic female to front a big-name rock band was arguably Courtney Love. After propelling Hole to stardom on landmark album Live Through This, she somewhat lost her cathartic bellow on the…
From the sound of things, Pink Mountaintops frontman Steve McBean will convert to conservative Christianity the day that George W. Bush turns into an Iranian Mullah. Throughout Axis of Evol, the Vancouver songwriter (who also fronts Black Mountain) references Christian imagery with a detached laziness that is clearly insincere, setting…
This affable Bay Area rapper has toiled in the no-man’s land separating hip-hop’s under- and overground for the past decade. His stature among fellow MCs and his unflagging work ethic mark him as an industry heavyweight, yet commercially he’s never given stars like 50 Cent or the Game cause to…
Roller derby? I’ve had enough. Technically, I shouldn’t give a crap whether tattoo-coated chicks want to don kneepads and rollerskates and re-enact the derby leagues that bored me on TV in the ’80s and ’90s, but the punk- and rockabilly-obsessed leagues throw so many benefit concerts around Dallas that I…
Thursday, March 30, at the Metrognome Collective
Whether or not psychedelics are your cup of altered tea, The Gris Gris will take you on a trip with their horn-frenzied build-ups and mind-bending meltdowns. Favoring chant-like singing and less often, but most potent, mystical melodies and instrumentation without the self-indulgent virtuosity of ye olde psych-rock, the San Francisco…
Six years ago, Shooter Jennings, son of outlaw-country legend Waylon, ditched Nashville for Los Angeles and rock-and-roll dreams with his band, Stargunn. It wasn’t long before the past caught up with him; recent years have seen Jennings reclaim his country roots, which he says has as much to do with…
Dax Riggs has one of those lived-in voices that occasionally makes him sound several decades older than he actually is. The 30-something Louisiana native first gained notoriety as the frontman for soot-black cult-metalists Acid Bath, where Riggs’ weathered, world-weary voice added some welcome soul to the band’s acidic thrash. But…
SXSW by the Numbers: Times we overheard people mention MySpace at SXSW: 4 (admittedly, we didn’t attend the My Chemical Romance show, which affects our count) People who looked at our badges, realized we weren’t trendy or in a band and walked away: 15 White people at Pikahsso’s Friday night…
On Wednesday afternoon, Austin’s Beerland was dark, humid and barren. The punk and rockabilly music club isn’t meant for the daytime, let alone daytime concerts, let alone daytime concerts by the acoustic, thoughtful cast of Fort Worth’s Theater Fire. At the sparse afternoon show, the odds were against the out-of-towners…
Biz Markie has got what I need…except for convenient contact information. So I hooked up with Drill Sergeant Harvey Walden IV, Biz’s former ass-kicker from his time on VH-1’s Celebrity Fit Club, to “talk” about the longtime rapper’s Dallas tour stop. I found Harvey online at the V-Spot (vh1.com) pimping…
Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis should be thrilled. After all, the February edition of Spin features a multipage profile of her by notable scribe Chuck Klosterman. Unfortunately, though, the spread shortchanges Rabbit Fur Coat–a new side-project CD (made with the Watson Twins) that qualifies as her finest platter to date–in…
Last year’s return of Dinosaur Jr.’s classic lineup was one of the least expected reunions since John Lydon reanimated the Sex Pistols. After hitting bandmate Lou Barlow with a guitar as a prelude to dumping his ass in the late ’80s, temperamental frontman J. Mascis (sometimes with drummer Murph) carried…
