After a seven-year hiatus, Chicago’s Smoking Popes reunited and recorded the live album At Metro in November 2005. A gloriously loud and unsurprisingly sloppy reunion in front of an inebriated and rowdy lot of Midwesterners, the show featured most of the band’s best tunes, highlighting their unique fusion of punk…
Anyone who ventured down to Deep Ellum Friday night saw an unlikely sight: Mayor Laura Miller, club- and restaurant-hopping like a sorority girl the night after final exams. In tow were her 15-year-old daughter Alex and Alex’s boyfriend, along with revered Deep Ellum icon John “Beard” Brewer and restaurateur Peter…
If the theme of 2006’s party is art damage, then Test Icicles–originally called Balls, in case you’ve missed the sketchy wordplay–provide the soundtrack. But party rock was once about partying, while this might not be about anything. To wit, the Icicles’ declaration “Yeah yeah, bitches don’t own me/I sold my…
Inevitably linked to the semi-legendary Dream Syndicate, Steve Wynn has spent the better part of two decades running away from the legacy of his first band. Always a great tunesmith, but one with a nagging, clichéd sentimentality, Wynn’s early solo releases were filled with then-trendy guest appearances and overwhelming production…
How can an Elliott Smith tribute album go wrong? The guy was practically deified before his apparent suicide in 2003, and the exaltation has only continued since. But such homage presents a dilemma: Adding too much of a new twist to Smith’s songs (say, a death metal “Pitseleh”) might seem…
Norman, Oklahoma’s Starlight Mints are a perfect example of why bigger isn’t better. Beginning in 2000 as a seven-piece, complete with orchestra, the inevitable (and hometown) comparison was the Flaming Lips. The Mints seemed content with such an association, creating dubiously weird “pop” that was about as manageable as a…
Like Trent Reznor after him, Sisters of Mercy’s Andrew Eldritch has never lived up to the purported extremism of his image. Beneath the shadowy visage of Arctic vocals, soundscape-y arrangements and morbid obsessions, his rotating British band is just a rock group and a pop-rock group at that. That goes…
Mary Sims (aka Dinah Cancer) formed this cheesy gothic punk quartet in the early ’80s. Best remembered for the “Partytime” single that was featured in the campy film classic Return of the Living Dead, 45 Grave appeared to have packed it in by 1985. A spirited live CD seemed to…
Years ago, a charming fellow named Michael Timmins called from Toronto about this EP his band, the Cowboy Junkies, had self-released called The Trinity Sessions. When he followed up to ask what I thought, and my answer was “very good, liked it but didn’t knock my dick in the dirt,”…
As far as crazy parties go, I’ve seen my fair share of glowsticks, but in the summer of ’99, I found myself on the side of a mountain outside Los Angeles, where I was one of 15,000 people witnessing one of the greatest sets of music ever. Sure, a few…
Matthew Caws cops to being the type of person who’s always wired, so perhaps it’s a good thing that the Nada Surf vocalist-guitarist is discussing the state of his band while walking to the gym–presumably so he can burn off some of this nervous energy. But there’s also something really…
Gerard Dirkx fidgets in his chair, dancing around any questions about his age. Obviously annoyed, he finally declares, “I’m 35 but extremely dyslexic.” Despite his receding hairline and gray beard, his edginess is nearly the same as when he fronted Dallas’ first–and best–new wave band, the Telefones, more than two…
Even after playing two Canadian concerts to kick off his band’s 16-date tour with Supergrass, Pilotdrift’s Kelly Carr is still hesitant to impose on the headliners backstage. Though the Britpop-punk stars personally selected the Texarkana five-piece as their opening act, 23-year-old songwriter Carr can’t get over the fact that he’s…
First performer/presenter to appear to nod off onstage: Gorillaz drummer Russel Minutes into the program that this happened: less than 2 Grammy nominations for American Idol champ Fantasia Barrino: 4 Grammy nominations for American Idol champ Kelly Clarkson: 2 Grammy nominations for American Idol champ Ruben Studdard: Um Grammy wins…
The Combo pairs up: Even the weirdest and most remarkable bands are tough to write about repeatedly. Case in point: Denton’s Brave Combo grabs our attention with interesting news every few months, yet we always come up with the same canned story–Grammy-winning local polka band that loves “The Chicken Dance”…
Aceyalone’s 2003 album Love and Hate inspired a lot of hand-wringing, as critics bemoaned the glaringly obvious gap between the MC’s slick, flowery raps and his bullshit-ass beats. It looked like he’d hit a career zenith with 1995’s All Balls Don’t Bounce (reissued in 2004) and wasn’t destined to produce…
Austin, Texas band the Gourds are the quintessential Lone Star ensemble, the type of group tailor-made for Gruene Hall and every outdoor festival from Fredericksburg to Nacogdoches. Their seventh proper album, Heavy Ornamentals, may be their most dance-hall friendly yet, a hip-shaking mix of funky backwoods stompers and country tear-jerkers…
On Saturday, Death came to Deep Ellum. Adorned in black attire, the skeleton-man stopped at 617 Good-Latimer Expressway, presumably to declare the death of something–perhaps the entire district, though more likely just the former home of Good Records, which would close down that evening–but he was quickly distracted. “Hey, Death!…
You wouldn’t have known it, but I prepared an optimistic look at local music for a January column. Instead of running that, however, I bumped it week after week after week, thanks to a lot of breaking Deep Ellum news–venue closures, an arrest, a crappy music festival–that hinted at nothing…
Papa schmo: For some ridiculous reason, we at AAT HQ keep watching MTV, not with any expectation of good music, mind you, but because we keep hoping one of our ex-girlfriends pops up on a show such as Room Raiders or Date My Mom. So imagine our surprise when a…
Craig Finn is wandering around outside his Brooklyn apartment, praying his cell phone’s reception holds while admiring the rare winter sun that’s put a little kick in his step today. His post-punk rock band, the Hold Steady, have become local celebrities since he moved here four years ago; even the…
Last year, when I started hearing blatant, one-sided praise around Dallas for some Austin band called the Lemurs, I was confused. Last time I checked, this was a town where people barely fill up Deep Ellum, where people have the gall to fold their arms in disapproval at amazing Deathray…
