Mixing progressive rock with power pop isn’t easy and certainly doesn’t sound like a workable combination. However, Brooklyn’s Fang Island not only make it work, they do so with flair to spare. The band’s recently issued sophomore effort on Sargeant House, Major somehow manages to bridge the gap between Pink…
With cassette culture invading the mainstream these days, seems like every artist has an angle to preserve and champion what many see as a fossilized art form. Arizona DJ Ruthless Ramsey, however, has been obsessed with cassettes since he was rocking single digits. Touted as the world’s “only cassette mixologist,”…
Speaking of cassette culture, local trio Blackstone Rangers just released their five-song EP, Into the Sea, on tape via Dallas Distortion Music. It’s actually the perfect medium for their distorto-pop, and since their first run of tapes sold out, this show will have a second-run “red” cassette up for sale…
Chicago house music totem Derrick Carter has had the sort of longevity not many DJs enjoy, influencing and structuring scenes throughout the U.S. and across the pond as well since the late ’80s. And, as It’ll Do has become an East Dallas outpost for house music, having a titan like…
Maybach Music Group poet Stalley’s newest mixtape, Savage Journey to the American Dream, features a Hollywood Squares-type roster of cameos: Rick Ross, Curren$y, 2 Chainz, Wale. It’s also one of those hip-hop albums that feels very much a product of modern politics/geography/ideology, his introspective lyrics bumping up against dreamy, surreal…
The GrandMothers of Invention, The Tidbits The Kessler Theater Tuesday, August 14 Tuesday night, a storm brought much-needed rain to the Metromess, and a van brought the GrandMothers of Invention to the Kessler Theater in Oak Cliff for two sets of impeccably-performed music from the Frank Zappa canon. After soundchecking,…
Coheed and Cambria comes back to Dallas on Friday, previewing material from their forthcoming double album, The Afterman, and supporting metal legends Iron Maiden. Drummer Josh Eppard took some time to share his love of the New York Mets, his experience as an Iron Maiden fan, and what it was…
Christopher VictorioStevie Wonder at Outside Lands.The following is a dispatch from Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, from our sister paper, SF Weekly. Stevie Wonder, in theory, is an American artistic treasure. He’s more than our Beatles or Rolling Stones; he’s our Dickens or Dalí: a figure of impassable recognition,…
Identity Festival Gexa Energy Pavilion Friday, August 10 See also: The fans of Identity Festival, parts one and two See also: Eric Prydz on Swedish techno, the future of dance music I think the Observer sent me to this in hopes I would feel as out of my element as…
Christopher VictorioMetallica at San Francisco’s Outside Lands festival.METALLICA @ OUTSIDE LANDS FESTIVAL | 8/11/12 The following is a dispatch from Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, from our sister paper, SF Weekly. Metallica, headlining Saturday night of the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, proved just about…
Christopher VictorioNeil Young and Crazy Horse at the Outside Lands festival.The following is a dispatch from Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, from our sister paper, SF Weekly. While he’s putting everything into a solo, Neil Young’s face looks like his electric guitar sounds: flush with feeling, vaguely threatening, and…
Rick Ross Zouk Thursday, August 9 Celebrating the release of his God Forgives, I Don’t album Thursday night, the big boss Ricky Ross made his way to mega-club Zouk in style, putting on a performance that rumbled the outermost walls of the venue as loud as his signature grunts rattle…
The Smoker’s Club Tour/Aesop Rock Trees/The Granada Theater Thursday, August 9 Last night was a hard night for a hip-hop fan in Dallas. The Smoker’s Club Tour had favorites like Juicy J and next big things Smoke DZA and Joey Bada$$ at Trees. Aesop Rock was bringing his flavor back…
Artist, photographer and videographer Hal Samples has helped document, promote, inspire and nurture up-and-coming talent in the community for nearly a decade. So, when he needed help, it was no surprise local bands and artists pulled together for a benefit show. Seems Samples has fallen on some hard times in…
With one last gasp of summer remaining, this two-day, two-stage fest, organized by Sundress’ Ryan McAdams, is one of the best we’ve seen so far. Focusing on up-and-coming Texas psych and punk acts, McAdams’ band joins True Widow, Holy Wave, Cozy Hawks, Ringo Deathstarr, Darktown Strutters, Soviet, Skeleton Coast, Blood…
For the past couple years, Fort Worth singer-guitarist Clint Niosi has been quietly recording the follow-up to his striking 2008 debut, The Sound of Dead Horses Beaten Against Cold Shoulders. That album mined the darker corners of folk music, and his new one, For Pleasure and Spite, tunes up those…
Marry a Stranger, Dallas duo Smile Smile’s third and latest album, finds keyboardist Jencey Hirunrusme and guitarist Ryan Hamilton in a different place than 2010’s Truth On Tape. That album traced and psychoanalyzed their broken relationship, but the Salim Nourallah-produced Marry a Stranger comes out of the bag feeling a…
It’s hard to believe we’ve been living in a world without Frank Zappa for almost two decades. I still remember the day — December 4, 1993 — when I was driving back to Fort Worth from Denton, heard FZ’s music on KERA-FM 90.1, and thought, “Uh-oh.” Between 1974 and 1978,…
The Virgin Wolves recently took time out to discuss their backgrounds with the blues, their first shows, and The Song Remains the Same. Catch them Friday at Andy’s Bar and Saturday at City Tavern. Which came first for you: hearing a blues pioneer play the blues, or a band interpreting…
Team Tomb Dan’s Silverleaf Saturday, August 4 Even though this was Team Tomb’s “digital release show,” and one of the few shows they’ve performed so far, the vibe at Dan’s on Saturday night was familiar. That was due in no small part to the lineup of Team Tomb, which consists…
KISS, Mötley Crüe Gexa Energy Pavilion Saturday, August 4 See also: The fans of KISS First up on Saturday night were the “newbies,” Mötley Crüe. Their set-up was as bewildering as it was impressive, the stage dominated by what can only be described as a kind of rollercoaster for Tommy…
Dirty Projectors, Wye Oak The Kessler Theater Friday, August 3 Dirty Projectors, and David Longstreth particularly, are incredibly adept musicians that wear their musical smarts on their sleeves. But idiosyncratic arrangements and vocals that, while not jarring are hardy mellifluous, can make sitting through an entire album more of a…
