Ten years ago this past Valentine’s Day, Warpaint formed and slowly but surely the music world got hip to this psychedelic dream-pop quartet from Los Angeles. Critical acclaim poured in from all corners for their debut EP, Exquisite Corpse, in 2007, and the band’s 2010 full-length debut, The Fool, continued…
In the splendidly unflinching 2012 documentary Charles Bradley: Soul of America, the Florida-born, Brooklyn-based Charles Bradley openly shares the highs and lows of the point in his life when he has finally found an outlet, and an audience, for his heart-on-sleeve soul music. As a whole, the film is both…
Things of Earth is a four-piece that started in Mesquite, where a majority of its members reside. But instead of taking the route of being a derivative Slipknot knockoff or a cover band destined to play wallpaper corporate gigs, this band has a thundering sound of twisting post-rock with a…
At 74, Al Jarreau is one of the living legends of jazz and R&B. For well over five decades, the man has been one of the few singers to cross over and have success in the pop marketplace. Jarreau’s 1981 album Breaking Away featured his signature song, the lovely “We’re…
Updated with a response from the Double Wide below. One of Dallas’ most beloved recent institutions, Good Luck Karaoke at the Double Wide, is no more. This weekly festival of alcohol and bad singing to great tunes, heavily assisted by the two men in charge and their refusal to ever…
Naming your band TEEN can have some repercussions. Just ask Kristina “Teeny” Lieberson. While some might assume a band called TEEN might feature a least a few teenagers, Lieberson simply used her childhood nickname as the inspiration for a moniker. And there is nothing immature about the music of this…
Atlanta’s Manchester Orchestra play indie music with an epic feel. Over the course of a decade, this nimble five-piece led by the enigmatic Andy Hull have released four albums of quality alternative rock. The band’s most recent effort, Cope, may well be the band’s best effort yet. Speaking from his…
Even though he fronts the sonically aggressive electro-metal band Powerman 5000, Spider One (AKA Michael David Cummings) is a thoughtful and downright restrained individual. I guess you have to have a cool head to keep some form of a band going for 23 years. Over that time, Powerman 5000 has…
For nearly 20 years “Thrashin'” Alan Tuggle has been promoting metal on his radio show Hard Time Radio on KNON. It’s a position that has also afforded him opportunities to interview idols of the metal scene from Ronnie James Dio to “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott. He’s become a fixture in the…
Pulsing EDM and rattling hip-hop will officially be wed in trapped-out matrimony this Saturday, April 19, as Dallas welcomes the first ever Rageville Music Festival. The ADHD brainchild of Intelligent Grind Promotions, the one-night hodgepodge packs a broad lineup of masked rappers, live DJs and trill robots. In other words,…
After all these years, there’s still something special about seeing the Old 97’s back where they started — right here in their native Dallas. Perhaps it’s Rhett Miller and the boys’ longevity; perhaps it’s whatever that certain something special is that leaves us longing for the “next” Old 97’s. Either…
Angus Young looks like a possessed schoolboy as fire explodes from his fingertips each time they dance across the fretboard of his signature Gibson SG. His older brother, Malcolm, has been providing fuel to his fire for more than four decades. And together they’ve created some of heavy metal’s most…
This March I found myself at Amoeba Music in LA, one of the most celebrated record stores in the world. The size, the selection and the pricing were all very impressive, but none of it compared to the sense of community living inside. It was contagious, enlivening. For a fan…
The Rail Club has been a mecca for metal since opening its doors in 2010. But new owner Josh Campbell hopes to expand it to include other genres of music, making it a mecca for all musicians. “When it comes to music, I play metal and I love metal,” Campbell…
Although they have been around since 2005, Florida’s punk/metal act Centuries have just recently released their full-length debut Taedium Vitae. Featuring a bruising style and vocalist Eric Verporter’s unyielding singing style; Centuries have an intense style seemingly all to themselves. Speaking from a tour stop in Florida and in anticipation…
The Eli Young Band is, by now, a household name, at least in households across North Texas, where three of its four members still reside, and in other households whose speakers blare with country. With each single released by the four-piece, formed in Denton in 2000 and led by lead…
This year’s Girls Rock Dallas’ annual Spring Fling festival will be held on Sunday at Sue Ellen’s bar in Oak Lawn. Although recently listed as one of the “Douchiest Bars in Dallas” by some local blog, this venue offers the perfect environment to channel a metal feel with a less…
Hailing from New Orleans, Goatwhore are one of the most anti-religious metal bands going. But despite the darkness of their overarching message, the music is tight, white-hot, stop-on-a-dime hardcore metal. Hanging together for nearly two decades, Goatwhore have released six full-lengths, but 2012’s Blood for the Master and the soon-to-be-released…
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Ride for Dime, a charity event that raises funds for Little Kids Rock Foundation and pays homage to “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott. Every year co-founder Rob Elchelberger gathers bands from all across the country to play two nights of mind-blowing metal in honor of…
For over a decade, Arizona’s Calabrese has been doing the horror rock/punk thing with wit and wisdom to spare. Carrying on the horror movie meets Elvis tradition of the legendary Misfits, the three Calabrese brothers have released six fun-filled albums concerning zombies, vampires and other dark subject matter. Interestingly, the…
Saxophonist Dave Hillyard followed a girl to New York City back in 1992 and ended up joining an up and coming ska band called The Slackers. Some two decades later, Hillyard remains in the band as it crisscrosses the country several times a year playing a potent blend of rocksteady,…
Bands like the Avett Brothers and Colorado’s Yonder Mountain String Band have somehow managed to make progressive bluegrass cool. YMSB have done this by straying as far as possible from the stereotypes and songwriting norms associated with traditional bluegrass. By incorporating some rock spirit into their well-played picking and grinning,…
