The Sea and Cake

Chicago’s electro-jazz group The Sea and Cake have been around, in many forms, since the mid-’90s. The band just released its airy 10th LP, Runner, a companion album to its 2011 release, The Moonlight Butterfly. The album’s single, “Harps,” focuses more on the band’s tendency to gravitate toward ambient, electronic…

Shiny Around the Edges

Check out our Q&A with SATE’s Jenny and Michael Seman this week, as they talk about the new sound of their latest album, The Night Is a Disco. Eccotone and Forever Home open up the night at Macaroni Island, the deliciously named new house-show venue in Denton…

Rock Lottery 11

The Rock Lottery concept first came from Good/Bad Art Collective’s Benefit and Music Programming Coordinator Chris Weber, and has a simple yet creative premise. Twenty-five hand-picked musicians are organized into five bands through a lottery-based selection, then released to practice at different locations for exactly 12 hours before returning to…

Danksgiving with Devin the Dude

We’ve lost track of how many times Houston marijuana connoisseur Devin the Dude has gotten us high this year. As Thanksgiving approaches, he’s playing a special holiday show, and there will no doubt be special guests helping us get blunted. Fellow H-Towner Le$ jumps on as well, and Yeahdef provides…

Mary J. Blige

We just witnessed the glory of Ms. Lauryn Hill a few weeks ago, and now another ’90s R&B counterpart resurfaces. For those of us who took Mary J. Blige’s 1994 album My Life as scripture, 2011’s My Life II … The Journey Continues (Act 1) kept Blige in the loop,…

Tum Tum and Big Tuck – Dada – 11/8/12

Tum Tum, Big Tuck, A.Dd+, Dustin Cavazos Dada Thursday, November 8 While Top Shelf Shows has plenty to be proud of lately, last night really proved the fairly new local booking upstart a force to be reckoned with. Though marketed as “The Day Dallas Stood Still,” Dallas rap fans did…

The Day Dallas Stood Still

Dirty South Rydaz Tum Tum and Big Tuck come together for the first times in years Thursday, on Dada’s outside stage, so there will no doubt be an appropriate amount of smoke. Joining them are fellow locals Dustin Cavazos and A.Dd+, plus a DJ battle between Sober and Q…

R. Kelly

Look, we’re all upset R. Kelly’s much-anticipated October “Love Letter Cruise” has been canceled. What better way to experience the white-hot firehose of sexuality that is R. Kelly than on a cruise to the Bahamas with thousands of other women? Now we’ll just have to settle for seeing him on…

Crooks

Austin’s never been short on stellar roots bands or hardcore honky-tonkers, thanks in part to some young acts that perform way beyond their years. Mike and the Moonpies, Whiskey Shivers and Shakey Graves are but a few of the promising names to reveal themselves recently. Add Crooks to that list…

Unconscious Collective Album Release

The new self-titled LP from Dallas’ Unconscious Collective, yet another group that counts members of Akkolyte and Black Dotz as members, gets released tonight. The seven-track album’s shortest song is six-and-a-half minutes, and its longest is nearly 15, but in those swaths of time, the metal improv trio pummels and…

Dallas Observer Music Awards Showcase

Flip on over to this week’s feature for a rundown of all the acts playing our big-ass showcase Saturday. Eight clubs, more than 60 bands. A snapshot of Dallas music in one night. Allt for $10…

Deftones

The list of bands that broke big in 2000 and are still on a major label producing high-quality tunes is as short as the life spans of most of the bands that had hits that same year (Stroke 9, anyone?). Sacramento’s Deftones are near the top of that select list…

Title Fight’s Shane Moran Totally Played Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!

Pennsylvania’s Title Fight come to Dada on Tuesday, November 13, with Pianos Become the Teeth, Power Trip and Single Mothers, in support of latest album Floral Green. Guitarist Shane Moran took time out to share the band’s musical influences, his first show, and remind us Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! existed. A…

Converge

One of the best shows this fall will be on a weeknight, when Converge and Torche, two of the finest, loudest metal bands out there, tackle Dada. Both bands put out fantastic records this year, Converge with All We Love We Leave Behind and Torche with Harmonicraft, and will most…

Carnival of Souls with Pinkish Black and Mind Spiders

While Halloween is over, we can always count on the Day of the Dead to give us one more reason to put on the corpse paint and slink around in the shadows. Friday at Texas Theatre, enjoy a screening of the ghoulish 1962 horror classic Carnival of Souls, which features…

A$AP Rocky

To see A$AP Rocky live has been a bit of a chase for North Texans, but the wait is finally over. The self-described “pretty motherfucker” is bringing that Harlem hustle, plus Detroit’s Danny Brown and Cali’s Schoolboy Q, to Dallas for quite a night at House of Blues. Rocky and…

Sharon Van Etten

In a few weeks, most music blogs — including ours — will begin the samurai-like process of forging year-end and best of 2012 lists. And no sword-maker should exclude Sharon Van Etten’s sharp third album, Tramp. Neither should they overlook the always-great Damien Jurado, whose latest LP, Maraqopa, has great…

Terminator 2, Big Fiction, Eccotone

Last weekend, Fort Worth’s 1919 Hemphill celebrated its 10th anniversary with three nights of punk and hardcore revelry. Not much different from what they do every weekend, though. Case in point: This heavy Sunday show, brought to you by Dallas Distortion Music, features performances from Denton’s metal machine Terminator 2…

Playdough, J. Rhodes

Last week, we put the spotlight on Playdough and J. Rhodes, two Dallas emcees with new albums out. Playdough’s Writer Dye: Deux or Die is a sample-heavy celebration of popular music and rap’s interpretative nature, whereas J. Rhodes’ Oak Cliff Huxtable reps the local scene a bit. Opener Ty City…