Kinda forgot it ever left, but a little birdy in the inbox chirped to remind me today that Barefoot At The Belmont, the outdoor concert series at Oak Cliff’s Belmont Hotel, where musicians play to the backdrop of the Dallas skyline, is back in business, starting next Thursday night, with…
I can’t believe it’s not punk rock? Steve Dirkx, one-time member of Dallas’ legendary new wave/punk combo The Telefones, sent me an email this morning containing some sad news about one of my heroes. Seems John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, of punk godfathers the Sex Pistols, is in a commercial,…
It’s been over a year now since former Observer music editor, one-time mayoral candidate and current D Magazine writer Zac Crain last found himself being lambasted in the very dark, very murky waters of metal web site Blabbermouth.com’s comment section. But, hey, news like this–that Crain’s publisher, De Capo Press,…
In this week’s not-yet-online Night & Day section, I wrote up a quick blurb about Laurie Anderson’s Homeland, which features Anderson, Tuvan throat singers, violin players and more, all colliding over an electro foundation, to take on the political and social topics of modern day America. It employs different themes…
That first McCain/Obama debate was pretty much a snoozefest of the highest order. The second go around tonight should offer a bit more interest, seeing that’s it has a town hall format. In any case, you can always TiVo the debate and head out to The Loft tonight and catch…
Assuming you’ve got an extra $275,000 to spare, this is a no-brainer. Dallas-based Neiman Marcus is offering a collection of 18,400 or so 45s of every single that ever appeared on the Billboard Top 100 rock or pop charts from 1955 to 1990. And many of the records are autographed…
So, it’s October 6. Last day in the State of Texas to register to vote for next month’s presidential election. Hope you remembered. If not, you’re a pretty detestable American. That, and you probably won’t appreciate the above video at all. It’s called “Obamarama,” and it comes from a collective…
BallerStatus.com, which bills itself as an urban lifestyle network, just posted a lengthy Q&A feature on producer, MC, Strange Fruit Project member, Cannabinoid member and all-around hip-hop man about town Symbolyc One , talking to the Waco native about his work with Erykah Badu, his collaborations with Speech of Arrested…
…and, OK, I’ll say it: The game kinda sucks. I don’t really understand why sometimes I get a perfect score and sometimes I get a “No Good!” when it seems like I’m scratching the decks at just the right time. The press release announcing the game doesn’t really give me…
This Sunday, Superpages.com Center will host something called the Music Builds Tour, which aims to benefit local affiliates of Habitat for Humanity. Now, that’s a worthy cause and all, helping low income folks build their own homes, but one has to ask if it is worth suffering through acts as…
Smile, guys! You should be sorta pleased about this. (Mike Fuentes) PopMatters.com, the same people responsible for the exhaustive Salim Nourallah we linked to, um, back in April (for those of you scoring at home), bring us a much more concise take on Sorta’s upcoming self-titled fifth disc today, focusing…
I’m not gonna say the “Quit Your Day Job” interview Stereogum posted with Midlake’s Eric Pulido today necessarily treads through any undiscovered territory–it doesn’t–but it is still a nicely packaged piece that allows fans and readers a quick entree into Pulido’s two non-band entities: Cappulido (his fair-trade, home delivery coffee…
If you haven’t yet seen it, let me please point you toward what is probably the greatest piece of music journalism ever produced by the Dallas Morning News. Here’s the gist of it: Three members of the Van, Texas, high school twirl team have been suspended from performing at the…
Today, in music news that, really, comes as absolutely no surprise to anyone who’s ever bought or downloaded an mp3, Dallas-based company Crystal Clear has announced the closing of its distribution department. “At the end of last year, we deleted about 90 percent of our catalog, or 450 titles,” explains…
Kool Herc, the father of hip hop, will make his first-ever Dallas appearance Friday, October 31, at minc with Busy B. The booking coup was announced less than a week after Instrumental Entertainment bought the Exposition Park club. Creo Jones, marketing director for Instrumental, said the appearance will include an…
Robert Wilonsky came across the above trailer this morning for the upcoming (although I don’t know when it’s due) documentary called Dallas Electric: The Texas Blues Story, a film currently being produced by The Still Kickin’ Foundation. Yes, that’s famed area blues musician Hash Brown in the clip, but the…
I dunno. Maybe I’m overreacting a bit. But, surely, I can’t be the only person who’s excited about the fact that various members of two GREAT (but kinda-on-hiatus) area bands, Pleasant Grove and Baboon, have teamed up to form a new band called The Boom Boom Box. And I can’t…
When it rains, it pours. (Erica Fellicella) Seems Dallas’ own little alt-country diva Kristy Kruger is out on a national tour with former Verve Pipe frontman Brian Vander Ark. And, actually, Kruger isn’t only opening the shows; she and her two able sidemen (drummer Richard Hewett and guitarist Dylan Sneed)…
Way back in March, about a month after I’d arrived in town, I met with Tami Thomsen and Dale Brock of Kirtland Records. Nothing too formal, just a few drinks at the Idle Rich, I believe, to talk about what each of us did and what each of us hoped…
Let’s be honest with ourselves: The 13-year-in-the-making Guns N’ Roses maybe-masterpiece Chinese Democracy probably won’t be coming out on November 25, no matter the reports. But if–if!–the recent rumors of a Best Buy-exclusive release are, indeed, true, you can credit a Dallas-held Best Buy vendor convention for being the source…
We didn’t bother mentioning anything about it back when AC/DC’s current U.S. tour was first announced–we’re not really in the business of telling about the shows that aren’t coming through town–but we did find it a bit sketchy that the rock gods decided to hit up both San Antone and…
It was, oh, two and a half years ago now, that we heard last from Dallasite Eric Grubbs about that status of his book Post: An Anthology of American Post-Hardcore, 1985-2007. Well, now comes this news: Grubbs, who spends the bulk of his time broadcasting area traffic reports for a…
