This weekend out in Arlington at Cowboys Stadium, the Louisiana State University Tigers and the University of Oregon Ducks will “geaux” head-to-head in a feats-of-football competition, effectively kicking off the college football season. If nothing else, the game is giving an advantageous promotions company called Destination Entertainment an excuse to…
Four of the biggest names in Dallas music over the past 20 years? All on one stage? Gotta say, you guys, we’re pretty freakin’ stoked about this one.No, we’re not knocking last year’s deal at all — our first Dallas Observer Music Awards showcase in Deep Ellum and our first…
Hope you’re not sick of St. Vincent yet. Seems, as we approach the September 13 release of her third LP, the John Congleton-produced Strange Mercy, the one-time Dallas resident born Annie Clark is only going to be more and more visible. Already, she’s been on the cover of Spin. Under…
Back at the beginning of the month we passed along this fairly exciting, if also a little bizarre, news: Neon Indian helped create a synthesizer called the PAL 198X, and, if you buy the deluxe version of their new album, Era Extraña, you’ll get it as part of the package…
Leagues frontman Thad Cockrell has been writing and performing country music for well over a decade. All three of his albums, two of which (Stack Of Dreams and Warmth And Beauty) were released on Yep Roc Records, have been met with critical acclaim. His fan base has stayed loyal throughout…
Over the years, Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios’ annual Free Week, which welcomes students back to the town’s University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University campuses each fall with a spate of free shows, has become something like the Denton music scene’s Chanukah. Really: The public is given a treat…
Gotta say, for the first time in a long time, the MTV Video Music Awards were pretty awesome this year. The annual event, which aired last night, had become pretty stale in recent years, as MTV has kowtowed to teen and tween demand, celebrating the likes of Justin Bieber, et…
Moments into a discussion about his new solo record, about his performance at the House of Blues’ Cambridge Room tomorrow night and about, well, just the overall state of his world right now, Patrick Stump gets right to the point.”I’m totally at peace with the reality that I’m always going…
For a while there, it was the best rumor in local music — that the Dallas-based Kirtland Records owned Bush’s back catalog because label owner John Kirtland, the former drummer for Deep Blue Something, had won it in a high-stakes poker game.Turns out, alas, it’s just a tall tale.”I love…
Unless, like me, you’re a Red Sox fan, there really wasn’t too much to cheer about during last night’s Rangers game at The Ballpark in Arlington. The team got beat badly, losing 13-2. Still, there were at least some moments when the home crowd seemed rather entertained last night. Most…
The club kids from the late ’80s spawned, and their children now have oozed onto the surface of popular culture en masse. Subsequently, electronic dance music has become the newest form of mainstream pop music. Or something like that. As a result, on Sunday night at Gexa Energy Pavilion, the…
Today’s piece of proof in the Dallas-loves-electronic-dance-music-and-so-even-do-the-folks-who-run-the-city department is kind of amazing: The folks behind the annual Lights All Night New Year’s Eve party, who last year brought Ghostland Observatory to town, have seriously stepped their game up this year, turning New Year’s Eve (rather surprisingly) into a two-night affair…
Singer-songwriter Lee MacDougall hails from England, but the guy just can’t seem to get enough of America. Earlier this year, MacDougall made his maiden tour of our fair country. Just a few months later, he’s back for more. And, seeing that MacDougall’s music is heavily influenced by Bruce Springsteen and Tom…
Stumbled across this while looking for something else entirely today. Sure, it’s a week old, but the Billboard piece, published just a day after the Denton-sprung Eli Young Band’s Life At Best earned its release last Tuesday, is fairly telling. In short: The early returns on the album’s sales were…
Local dubstep duo AFK has received plenty of recognition in the past year — an original song remixed by United Kingdom DJs Rusko and Supreme and two label record deals, which include two EPs that will soon be released. But perhaps the most esteemed of their accomplishments came earlier this…
Let’s just be clear about this from the start: We’re pretty excited about the Identity Festival, which comes to Dallas’ Gexa Energy Pavilion on Sunday, August 28.Earlier today we posted a Q&A with co-organizer Steve Aoki. As the week goes on, we’ll be posting pleas from Identity artists on why…
There’s been a little bit of a debate in-house here at DC9 HQ ever since we first heard the song “Fallout” off Neon Indian’s upcoming, full-length Era Extraña release, due out in, oh, about three weeks: Could it be that the song is — just maybe — a reference to…
On Sunday night, the Identity Festival — billed as the first-ever touring festival exclusively featuring EDM (electronic dance music) artists — will make a stop in Dallas at the Gexa Energy Pavilion in Fair Park. The EDM extravaganza showcases some of the biggest names in the genre, including The Crystal…
It’s that time of year again, folks. Yes, yes: It’s Dallas Observer Music Awards season! Our 23rd attempt at it, even! As you may recall, the whole shebang is taking place a little bit later this year. But it’s still the same old celebration you’ve come to know and love…
Jerry Leiber, half of the famed songwriting duo Leiber & Stoller, died today of cardiopulmonary failure. He was 78.The lyricist to Mike Stoller’s composing half, the duo was responsible for penning some of the earliest, biggest crossover hits in rock ‘n’ roll’s infancy. Among their more memorable contributions to the…
Elm Street Bar is going for a record. If it can stay in business for six months straight after it re-opens on Monday, August 29, it will be the longest run the place has had in years. Some say it’s cursed (we may or may not be guilty of that),…
Will Johnson, as you no doubt know by now, is one talented dude. The guy’s released like a bajillion records (be they solo, Centro-matic or South San Gabriel releases), he’s appeared on tons of others (Drive-By Truckers, The Paper Chase, Little Grizzly), produced a handful (Telegraph Canyon, Collin Herring) and,…
