Dallas and Houston have a bit of a rivalry going on. Montrose vs. Lower Greenville. Texans vs. Cowboys. Bla vs. Bla. Blah Blah. Who Cares vs. *Fart Noise*. Let’s get to the real matters of substance, the pressing questions, the logical debates. Simply put: Which city has a better hip-hop…
A few blocks down from the intersection of Washington Street and San Jacinto Road, outside Bryan Street Apartments, Donny Domino loiters on his phone. He’s speaking to Freddy Sans, the producer/engineer-directed singer, at the Dojo 45 recording studio. It is here that the Team From Nowhere sound is created and…
It doesn’t take anything more than a few people, a couple of instruments, and a little inspiration to put a band together. Usually, though, there is some vision, some guiding force like a genre or message that compels musicians to get together and start making music. In the case of…
Foley may be the most accomplished musician in Dallas that you’ve never heard of. He’s toured with George Clinton, Miles Davis, and performed with several bands on the 1993 Lollapalooza tour. He recorded albums for Motown and performed on countless talk shows and award shows. At 52, Foley, who grew…
Colin Theall is amongst the younger talents in the Dallas DJ scene to emerge in the past few years. Theall is very much a product of the newer generation of DJs. That’s not always an advantage, but in Theall’s case he has a gifted ear for solid floor tracks, tracks…
Sometimes, periods of inactivity and awaiting inspiration are the perfect breeding ground for an artist’s best and transcendent material. For the garage-punk energy of Oklahoma’s Broncho, their pop-laden fortitude lay dormant in tangible form for three years between the release of their debut LP, Can’t Get Past the Lips, and…
Amid the clatter of diner plates, Claire Morales methodically eviscerates her waffle into equal-sized square morsels, explaining that she’s trying to be a “cutting ahead” waffle person instead of a “cut as you go” type. As a graphic designer by trade, it’s definitely not the strangest habit she could have…
Google “police kill unarmed black man” and it garners about 3,560,000 results in 0.38 seconds. This is an issue that further divides America. Police are more or less one of the top three most trusted professions in the country. There are those who trust the police force unquestionably and unconditionally,…
Hey everyone, remember 2014? It wasn’t all the long ago. In fact, there were some really great records and songs that came out in 2014, and earlier this week New York’s The Village Voice put an exclamation point on matters with its annual music critics’ poll, Pazz + Jop. The…
With 15,500 square feet of floor space and 100,000 records, Josey Records is more affordable and less boutique than many other record stores. In fact, it’s already the most ambitious record store in Dallas. It has a DJ booth with a weekend DJ series, which has quickly made it a…
Rachel Gollay comes in out of the cold and into the lounge at the Live Oak Music Hall in Fort Worth’s trendy, gentrified Fairmount neighborhood. In spite of the cold, she decided to brave the trip on foot. Meeting Gollay, “rock star” isn’t the first thing that enters your mind…
John Bullard has been in love with music ever since he could remember. As a child, he grew up listening to such staples as Cat Stevens and James Taylor, music his father would play for him, nurturing his fledgling music appreciation. “I can’t play an instrument or anything, but music…
Old Potion’s been on quite an odyssey to get their first record made. The band formed in 2010 under a different line-up, and murmurs of releasing an EP began in 2012. In 2013 the band successfully crowdfunded the money to make the album, but the members of the band at…
Joel Gajewski is one of many old-school DJs playing around Dallas that has a secret: He loves techno. He owns it, listens to it at home, but rarely gets to play it out in public venues. That is slowly changing in Dallas, a city where four on the floor club…
As we trudge through the dregs of North Texas winter (it’s below 40 degrees!), it can be easy to lose sight of one simple fact: Festival season is already almost here. Funny how that works, huh? Almost exactly two months from now comes SXSW, and all the glorious spillover that…
Worldly and wise with chops and a first class music education at the age of 20, Dallas drummer Mike Mitchell is a globetrotting prodigy. In the last four years he has won more awards from DownBeat Magazine than he can remember, as well as being cited as an up-and-coming artist…
So, good old Kung Fu Saloon, the glorified mall arcade full of drunken bros, is under scrutiny yet again, and this time it’s somehow not for their discriminatory door policy. Go figure. While the Dallas location is skirting direct scrutiny this time — the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) is…
In 2015, you’d think that it’s all been done before in rock ‘n’ roll. And, yeah, it probably has. An over-crowded music landscape of sub-genres and variations can make one claustrophobic. Yet, Denton’s Dome Dwellers can give you room to breathe. They’re a rock ‘n’ roll band with a confident…
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: vinyl is making a comeback. Physical medium, tactile experience? High fidelity? John Cusack? Well, what you haven’t heard is that Hand Drawn Records is looking to provide Dallas with a sought-after service: convenient record pressing for local artists. Dustin Blocker and Alex…
Early in 2014, Denton rapper Bryan “Infidelix” Rodecker decided to do something crazy: He quit his job waiting tables, cashed in his life savings and headed overseas with the wild idea of traveling the world to teach kids how to rap. But when he arrived in Spain, he quickly found…
This past Labor Day weekend in Fort Worth during the Clearfork Music Festival, it was evident early on that the atmosphere would be dampened by the rather thin turnout. But the general malaise that swept through the sweltering, empty spaces of land along the Trinity River proved no match, however,…
Almost five months ago, Jonas Martin was seated amongst his fellow band mates of local roots rock outfit, Goodnight Ned, in an Oak Lawn Avenue coffee shop on a warm July morning, anxiously awaiting the album release party of their sophomore album. It is January now, and Martin is seated…
