Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, Brain Gang Blue, -topic, A.Dd+, Mohicans, Dre Marley The Door Friday, September 7 L.A. emcee Jay Rock took the stage Friday night following a downsized roster of homegrown artists, and established hype I’ve witnessed only from his Top Dawg Entertainment peer, Kendrick Lamar. While most emcees take…
See also: The people of Untapped Festival Listen: Dallas, Texas has become unstuck in time. At least that’s how it felt in the short break between the shot glass full of beer and the guy in front of me wearing a Vonnegut jersey that bore the number five. That’s a…
Nashville’s Daniel Pujol brings his project to town behind June’s Saddle Creek full-length, United States of Being, an album loaded with the three-chord new-wave punk that’s been Nashville’s calling card in the last few years. Supporting is local revolving door act Soviet, who shook up their lineup recently and, after…
You know those great Southern rock songs that make you crank up the volume and take your hands off the wheel for some air guitar or dashboard drumming? Quaker City Night Hawks have those songs in spades, except you haven’t already heard them a thousand times on the classic rock…
The big room over at the Prophet Bar has seen a Top Dawg Entertainment takeover in the form of Schoolboy Q and his packed performance back in June. Now, two more of TDE’s finest hit the stage, courtesy of Coffee Music Hub. California emcees Ab-Soul and Jay Rock headline the…
An Ariel Pink show is always exciting, mainly because you never know if the L.A. singer will go off the rails or spiral into some nonsensical glass case of emotion while performing. With a backing band, The Haunted Graffiti, in tow for the last few years, he’s straightened himself out,…
After Hospice, a concept album that chronicled the death of a woman from terminal bone cancer, it was hard to imagine The Antlers releasing an album as dark. No worries: The Brooklyn group followed it up with Burst Apart, which has a song called “Putting the Dog to Sleep,” and…
A few years ago, it seemed “indie” bands (whatever that signifies these days) were jumping on the Hall & Oates bandwagon, covering their songs, declaring their non-ironic love for them. It was a tense time, especially for those of us who have loved the band since we were 7 years…
Usually, we only interview one band for this feature, but given the chance to interview members of Soviet and The Longshots, to hell with regulations. Both bands will open for Pujol tomorrow at Dada, certainly one of the better shows this week. John, what can you remember about the first…
See also: A conversation with Sharon Needles After the bizarro performance art of last night’s RNC speeches, I think we all needed a palette cleanser. Thankfully, It’ll Do brought in RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sharon Needles to christen Queen, their new Thursday drag party. She did a couple short sets,…
Flint, Michigan’s own Jon Connor returns to Dallas to headline this declarative statement of a show. That is, before he goes on tour with Big K.R.I.T. this fall, and no doubt becomes a little less “slept on.” There’s a nice sampling of Texas talent, too: Houston’s Doughbeezy joins Dallas’ Dustin…
35 Denton is bookending their successful spring festival season with this summer mess, featuring waterslides, wrestling, pools, booze and … there was something else. Maybe it was musical performances from Big Freedia, The Black Lips, No Age, Reggie Watts, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Fergus & Geronimo, RTB2 and DJ Sober. See…
Two bands that both put out excellent albums this year — Mind Spiders’ Meltdown and Nervous Curtains’ Fake Infinity — combine forces in Rubber Gloves’ ashtray. Nervous Curtains are about to head off on tour, so this might be your last chance to catch their theater of synth. Mind Spiders,…
Have you been watching RuPaul’s Drag Race? Of course you have, so you’re familiar with the soul-shattering tower of terror that is Sharon Needles, aka Aaron Coady. She’ll be at It’ll Do as part of their new Thursday night Queen series, featuring the best local and national drag performers. If…
Few things mark a summer’s end in Denton quite like Rubber Gloves’ Free Week. This year’s seventh annual event hosts Danny Rush & the Designated Drivers on Monday, Vulgar Fashion on Tuesday, Cozy Hawks on Wednesday, and culminates on Saturday with A.Dd+, Shiny Around the Edges, Idiots and Atomic Tanlines…
And the award for local band name I love to say out loud goes to: Bitch Bricks. The Fort Worth trio just released a single called “Stop Smiling In My Direction,” an anthem they recently took on a mini-tour with fellow Fort Worth-a-shits the Longshots, with whom they also share…
Lightning Bolt, Drug Mountain, Wiccans Sons of Hermann Hall Tuesday, August 28 To the noisenik who wasn’t able to peek over the throng parked in front of Lightning Bolt last night, Brian Gibson might have been playing an electric chair through effects pedals. His bass, with a bonus banjo string…
Fort Worth’s Ice Eater have played around the area for the last few months, but Thursday’s set at Dada will be their Deep Ellum debut. We caught up with members Jordan Kline and Zach Edwards about the first Ice Eater gig and who plays a better Mr. Freeze. You guys…
Young/Forbes/Gonzalez Trio, Terminator 2, Bludded Head Rubber Gloves Monday, August 27 Mike Forbes was last night’s MVP. He started behind the kit with Bludded Head, who had literally just returned from a 10-day tour, providing the slowly melting glacier for guitarist Nevada Hill and cellist Darcy Neal to float their…
How I Quit Crack, Deflowered Electric Flesh Bride, Habu Habu Black Lodge Friday, August 24 Black Lodge is tucked in a corner of Deep Ellum that seems annexed from the rest of the area, and perhaps that’s what made Friday’s show at the tiny gallery space feel extradimensional. The space…
Tabula Rasa celebrated their 20th anniversary on Saturday, along with a reunion from the Chemistry Set, and sets from Sunward and Salim Nourallah…
Sandaga 813 is the perfect venue for this touring soul/hip-hop caravan, headlined by Shawn Chrystopher, who just released the Timbaland-produced mixtape, LoveStory. Fellow emcees Sean Falyon, El Prez, Raven Sorvino, Jabee, Austin’s QLee and Dallas’ Drama Tha King keep the verses flowing. Starts at 8 p.m…
