Brett Johnson is something of a house music hometown hero. Or at least he should be. He cut his teeth in the ’90s Dallas DJ scene, and he’s gone on to considerable success on an international level. His career has since taken him around the world and back again. But…
There’s a lot to like about the lineup for Homegrown Music Festival in 2015, announced this week. Now in its sixth year, the downtown Dallas fest landed Spoon as headliner, easily the biggest act to play the Texas-only music festival. Homegrown’s no longer the little fest that could; it’s turning…
It’s almost Valentine’s Day, which means one of two things: Either you’re single and you’re dreading the prospect, or you have a significant other and you’re pretty sure you’ll screw the whole holiday up, in which case you’re also dreading it. But there’s an easy way to fix this whole…
A quarter-century ago, Dallas Museum of Art debuted its weekly music series, Jazz in the Atrium. Local trumpet player Dennis Gonzalez was among the first to perform for the series on Sunday, January 17, 1990. He has not performed for the series since. Gonzalez had not even given the experience…
News surfaced early last night that Dallas R&B veteran Rev. Gean West, the leader of the Relatives, has passed away. West had battled heart health issues for several years, leading eventually to a GoFundMe campaign that bandmate Zach Ernst organized in the fall of 2014. He was able to return…
Upon crossing the threshold to The Jagoe House, I detected a distinct feeling of otherworldliness. If someone had blindfolded me, spun me around and dropped me off at this doorstep I would’ve sworn I was in Austin. Here was a living room draped with technicolor christmas lights, packed with band…
Chris Roze is somewhat of a newcomer to the Dallas DJ scene, but over the past few years he has made his mark on area clubs. Through his role as a member of the Trillwave crew and their associated parties, Roze has helped bring a string of touring bass specialists…
South By Southwest is so powerful that its residual effects bleed some 200 miles north into Dallas. Well, bleed isn’t the word; it’s actually a spillover. The spillover has been so strong that for the eighth year Parade of Flesh is putting together its Spillover Fest, which was once a…
Now that it’s approaching its second birthday, we’re pretty well accustomed to seeing Three Links punch above its weight with the shows it books. It’s what they do. But on Saturday it will host a mountain of local show spearheaded by the legendary Dallas band Baboon. Joining them will be…
No one in Dallas does karaoke quite like Karaoke Carmen. For more than a decade, she’s held court at arguably the best, and certainly the most notorious, karaoke night in the city: Sundays at The Goat. Backed by a live band, Carmen’s a proudly autocratic leader. She has no qualms…
Homegirl done good. Born and raised not far from Dallas, country star Miranda Lambert led the way in this morning’s announcement of the 50th annual American Country Music Awards nominations as she snagged nods in no fewer than eight categories. That was more than any other artist, including Dierks Bentley…
Well pals, if you read DC9 at Night, Robert Wilonsky at The Dallas Morning News, or Central Track, you could have easily missed the news due to a lack of coverage, but the historic Deep Ellum venue, The Bomb Factory, is having a resurrection. The grand opening on Thursday, March…
If you look up the word “Ragonk” in the dictionary, well, you won’t get very far. That’s because Ragonk isn’t actually a word. In truth, it’s more of a meme. So what the hell is up with Trees hosting a concert this weekend (and one with a pretty damn good…
2014 was a pretty good year for Redwood Studios. The Denton recording studio, co-owned by Midlake members McKenzie Smith and Joey McClellan, played host to the sessions for some of North Texas’ biggest albums of the year, including Sarah Jaffe’s Don’t Disconnect and Bethan’s debut full-length, Time Gone By. And…
The first time I met Ryan Tharp was at Wingstock 2014. Amidst the chaos and buffalo wing sauce Tharp and his band were doing a soulful, yet somewhat experimental set — bluesy, but with a certain tinge of Radiohead. So when I managed to wrangle a preview copy of Tharp’s…
Today, millions of people know HeadKrack and his unmistakable voice from his syndicated radio show, the Rickey Smiley Morning Show. He and the show’s namesake have been hosting the program, which airs out of Atlanta, for the better part of a decade, and it’s a nationally recognized authority on hip…
And now the wait is over. After months of anticipation, this morning The Bomb Factory revealed the plans for its grand reopening party to be held this spring. Leading the way: Perhaps Dallas’ greatest living musical treasure, Erykah Badu, will play the historic Deep Ellum venue on Thursday, March 26…
Oliver Sheppard is a different kind of DJ. He’s more of a selector in line with radio DJ’s like John Peel or Allan Freed, but far more niche. Sheppard leans heavily towards the dark and gloomy side of rock music and, through his Wardance, Folk Division and Postpunk Happy Hour…
Bands with a classically trained composer often add an element of avant-garde flair to the mix. Well, Pansy Moon has four of them, and it’s readily apparent in the conceptual and nontraditional pieces of work they generate. By juggling melodic motifs, contiguous story arcs and thoughtful themes, the group creates…
We’re a few weeks into 2015 now and mostly settling into our post-New Years ruts. Er, grooves. We’ve either started following through on whatever resolutions we set for ourselves or already decided, “What the hell, I didn’t want to have to exert myself anyways.” Either way, good for us. But…
For years now, “Big Gus” Samuelson has been as busy a musician as can be found in North Texas. Whether he’s playing with his longtime band Swampadelic or flying solo, Samuelson, who also works as a DJ on KHYI 95.3 FM (we even gave him an award for it!), currently…
Legends come in many forms. For Shaka, it came as a three-round rifle burst of projectile vomit. It’s the kind of spectacle that stuns bar patrons and catapults you from a random out-of-town band directly to cult status. That level of infamy that causes a venue to beg you to…
