Vanilla Ice’s hometown show at The Bomb Factory on Saturday night was as ’90s as it could get. Dallas’ loved and loathed one-hit-wonder, and still best-selling local hip-hop exponent, pulled out all the nostalgia stops in Deep Ellum. (The review is here.) But one thing was missing from the night:…
Brightly painted surrealist faces grin, jeer and snarl at passers-by under the neon sign that heralds the entrance to Club Dada – a club that sits on Elm Street just shy of where it intersects with N. Crowdus Street. The masks, fabricated by local artists, have been there for 30…
Thirty years ago, a band of four men — Bruce Corbitt, Casey Orr, Harden Harrison and Mike Scaccia — walked into Sound Logic, a small recording studio in Garland, to record their first demo. Ten hours later, the members of Rigor Mortis finished seven of the most brutal songs to…
As hard as it is to believe, it’s already halfway through September — but that’s a good thing for music fans. It means peak concert season is nigh for touring artists and survivable music festivals are just around the corner. This week was a pretty busy one in local music…
Thomas Blackburn, aka Tommyboy, is busy curating the DJs at Midnight Rambler cocktail bar at the Joule Hotel. But he has been an active top notch music nerd in Texas for two decades, playing gigs here and in Austin. His collection is so large and varied that, if he opened…
Bryan “Infidelix” Rodecker considers himself a “busking ninja.” Berlin is his playground. It’s been his playground for a couple of years now, since the Denton artist arrived in Europe in 2014. Rodecker’s street music has inspired people to join him in song. Sometimes they’re wanting to promote their art. Other…
Pop-ups are all the rage this season. Just last month, fans flocked to Stone Briar Center, a mall in Frisco — Frisco! — in order to stand in line for hours at Kanye West’s Life of Pablo-themed pop-up store. Not one to be one-upped, Puff Daddy is hosting his own…
What’s that saying about how if it ain’t broke? After months of carousing, touring and burning cigarettes on each other (a regular pastime of theirs, apparently), Post Malone and Justin Bieber finally, officially released their first collaboration together, “Déjà Vu.” But the title may be a little more literal than it…
Lance Lopez has seen a lifetime of change in recent years. The 38-year-old Dallas-based blues guitarist lost a dear friend, found sobriety and love, formed a new band with other blues legends and fathered a baby girl named Lilly. He’s also come a long way as a musician since the…
It was a short week this week thanks to the holiday weekend, but things didn’t slow down very much in the music scene here in Dallas. From festival announcements to reality TV to even news of a Christmas album, the first full week of September was a busy one in…
Sean Anderson has been deep in the production side of dance music for a very long time under his alias Pointbender. His label Harmonious Discord, which just celebrated its 15-year anniversary, has featured some of the best and brightest in Texas electronic producers, as well as artists from beyond the…
(Excerpted from Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap.) In the mid-1980s, Cleo Turner spun records as a Los Angeles DJ, calling himself Dr. Rock. He joined a flamboyant electro-rap group called World Class Wreckin’ Cru. Dr. Dre took his…
Denton rapper Bryan “Infidelix” Rodecker has spent the past couple of years promoting his music on city streets across Europe. He’d quit his job as a waiter, cashed in his life savings and crossed an ocean to pursue his dream of sharing his lyrical art. Now he’s gone viral. Rodecker,…
Don’t mess with North Texas country ladies. That seemed to be a recurring theme this week, as two of them — Maren Morris and Miranda Lambert — made headlines by notching up some big-time awards (or at least award nominations). But there’s been a lot more happening closer to home…
Cody McPhail performs electronic music of the experimental variety under the moniker of ATOP. Over the past few years, ATOP has cultivated a niche in the Dallas music scene with his Dallas Ambient Music Nights. DAMN has become a meeting point for the audio and video artists that exist in…
Six Shooter is a recurring feature where we highlight six new releases by North Texas-based musicians. Quick, thank your lucky stars because it’s finally September. That means you can convince yourself that the weather’s about to be tolerable now that August is over. (It’s not, but still.) On the music…
A hiss of air pierced the night in the dim alleyway behind The Rail Club in Fort Worth. The pair of tires, the victims of a stabbing, were already flat before the white SUV screeched out of the parking lot. Inside the club, Texas Hippie Coalition (THC) had already begun…
This is poised to be a big year for Lights All Night. North Texas’ biggest EDM festival — the area’s biggest music festival, period — has already expanded from one day to two, and taken up residency at Dallas Market Hall for its annual New Year’s bash. This year will…
Who says the sky is falling? Well, maybe a few people. Some of them were in Denton on Monday night to wring hands over the state of the music scene, although they weren’t necessarily in the majority. There were none to be found in Deep Ellum, though, where, when folks…
Feezy has been a scene staple for over 15 years, grounded by his nearly decade-long residency at Candleroom. Feezy’s wealth of music knowledge stretches from the deeper roots of dance music to more mainstream fare. Where most DJs typically pick a side and stick to it, Feezy has been able…
The more Deep Ellum changes, the more it looks the same. A good part of that has to do with Clint and Whitney Barlow, who have made it their mission to reopen some of the neighborhood’s most legendary music venues. First, in 2009, it was Trees, then, six year later,…
Gerard Hanson does things at his own speed. The Dallas producer, better known by the name Convextion, hasn’t released an album since 2006. Of course, that namesake album just happened to be named one of the best of the decade by U.K.’s FACT magazine. This year Hanson seems to have…
