Chris Lewellyn has worked with bands for almost 20 years, be it selling merch at shows, screenprinting posters, creating T-shirt designs or silk-screening said designs on apparel. But in the past year, he’s used this experience to create a hub for local musicians and artists at the corner of Elm…
Danish pop group Lukas Graham are coming to Dallas at the top of their game. It was announced last month that their earworm of a song, “7 Years,” had earned three Grammy nominations: Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. The song off their…
There’s a lot of bravado in hip-hop. Promoter Callie Dee depends on that to inspire contestants of her American Idol-style competition that crowns the best rapper across Dallas, Denton and Fort Worth. “In hip-hop everybody thinks that they’re the best,” she says. Dee hoped Master of the Mic —…
The new year is rife with beginnings, and after a hard-luck end to 2016 for restaurants around town with many shutting down, Deep Ellum will have a new opening to celebrate this week. The owners of the British-themed eatery Independent Bar and Kitchen — as well as Club Dada, Off…
Two weeks from now, the Dallas-born hard rock band Mothership will perform on an actual ship. Tonight, they’ll kick off their U.S. tour at Dan’s Silver Leaf in Denton before heading off to Miami to play a floating rock show called Shiprocked. They’ll spend four days playing loud and proud on…
Jeff Parrott is a prime example of what can happen when visual art meets its auditory counterpart. Parrott pursues his music in an approach he calls “Psyexpression” where his two artistic outlets feed each other. His contribution to the Dallas Observer Mixtape series strikes a balance between DJ set and…
Since opening in 1988, Fair Park’s Gexa Energy Pavilion has officially changed its name more times than Sean John Combs (also known as P. Diddy, Diddy, Puff Daddy or Puff). News recently broke that the Live Nation-operated concert venue will now go by Starplex Pavilion, a name similar to its…
Every St. Patrick’s Day weekend, we host a concert at the end of the parade route on Greenville Avenue, and in recent years performers from Snoop Dogg to Josh Abbott Band have graced our stage. Those were fun concerts, but last year when we invited Third Eye Blind, we really…
Just trying to talk over the general noise at Opening Bell coffee shop in the Cedars was a struggle for Becky Middleton on Sunday. “I sang for two people last night,” she explained, and then cleared her throat to emphasize the strain. Known for her powerful vocals, she often records…
In April, Pearl Jam will be inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Noticeably absent from the lineup of inductees? Drummer Dave Abbruzzese, who was born in Connecticut but grew up in Mesquite and played with the Seattle band from ’91 to ’94. Since Pearl Jam’s induction was…
Six Shooter is a recurring feature where we highlight six new releases by North Texas-based musicians. Dallas hip-hop reigned supreme in the month of December. End-of-the-year releases represented all corners of the city’s fragmented scene, including Southern hip-hop, trap, alternative, fusion and everything in between. Some well-known, established North Texas…
For Dezman Lehman, who goes by the name Dezi 5, it’s been four solid years of shaking his leather-clad buttocks, shimmying and vogueing with a sweat-drenched brow from stages across North Texas to the forefront of the Dallas music scene. According to Lehman, it’s been a hard-fought battle for recognition from…
If Joshua Kynd had been running just a couple hours early on Monday, he might have caught the burglar in the act. Instead he arrived at his business of seven months, Retroplex Records on Jupiter Road in Garland, after one or multiple thieves had already ransacked the place. The store…
Brian Holbrook has been a consistent presence in the North Texas DJ community as admin for the DFW electronic calendar, party promoter and versatile DJ under the name Dreadnaught. After playing out as a solo DJ for many years, he recently embarked on a partnership with fellow scene vet Michael…
Musician Cash Askew was just 22 years old when she died in the Oakland Ghost Ship fire this month. “She was super weird and kind of awkward and had a hard time socializing, but also had this ability to really see people for who they were,” says bandmate Kennedy Ashlyn. “She…
The Lights All Night festival is not letting a single inch of the Dallas Market Hall go to waste, inside or out. The two-day multi-sensory experience, starting on Dec. 30, is their largest to date. “It’s the biggest and most expensive party we’ve ever produced,” says Scott Osburn, co-founder of…
Emotions run high around the holidays, and that means lots of engagements. Even celebrities are not exempt from this phenomenon. Case in point, Golden native Kacey Musgraves, who hitched her future to boyfriend Ruston Kelly’s on Dec. 24. In an Instagram post Christmas Day, the country singer — who won…
Two Dallas artists – Jake Elliott and Pierre Krause of After Deth Productions (ADP) – recently directed and edited the video for Nelly Furtado’s single “Pipe Dreams” off her forthcoming album The Ride. The video was released on Pitchfork earlier this week and has already received praise by Rolling Stone,…
For the third year in a row, DJ Santa gifts us an Observer mixtape filled with deep cuts. In the off season, Santa travels the world playing techno, electro, disco and the strangest of niche genres, “elf house.” Santa recorded this mix a few months ago, right after finishing up…
It’s not known exactly how many people went to the ominously named Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland, California, on the night of Dec. 2, but 36 people — artists, musicians, teachers, aspiring visionaries of all kinds — lost their lives there during a fire. It’s assumed they were trapped or lost in…
It’s become a Dallas tradition on the night before Christmas Eve to attend Trees’ annual Toys for Tots holiday concert with local favorites Drowning Pool. This year’s event marks the eighth year for North Texas music lovers to come together and donate unwrapped toys for local children who may not…
As the year winds to a close, we ask local music insiders who are deep in the trenches and hear new music on a regular basis — promoters, DJs, musicians and music retailers — to share their favorite releases of 2016. Wanz Dover (Blixaboy, the Dotz, Contributing writer) Non-Electronic Albums…
