Critic's Notebook

Abilene-based country-tinged crooner Micah P. Hinson, whose played more than his fair share of DFWd gigs over the years, got himself a write-up on Stereogum’s The ‘Gum Drop today. Check it. –Pete Freedman…

The Spree take a stand…against injustice! (Hal Samples) A new twist on an old joke… Q: How many members of the Polyphonic Spree does it take to file a lawsuit? A: One to file it…and 27 to sing about how beautifully litigious it is. New developments on the TVT Records…

Forever the promotional push. (Evan Hunt) Dallas’ own Forever the Sickest Kids, who are about to head out on the road as part of this summer’s Warped Tour, performed on Late Night with Conan O’Brien last night… … I know. Believe me, I know. We’ll have the video as soon…

After shaking up the Kerrville Folk Festival, Fort Worth’s outlaw country diva Glitter Rose played Poor David’s Pub last week and is now packing her bags for Nashville. Rose has been invited to perform at the NAMM Summer Conference, June 20-22. (That’s the National Association of Music Merchants for the…

Ryu won’t like Blanka when he gets angry… For many bands, video games are an amusing distraction at best. Practicing at the home of a member who owns a console can be a risky endeavor, as a spontaneous game of Halo or Madden might stretch into an hours-long tournament. That’s…

Eating burgers, drinking beers and spending a day with your four-legged best friend sounds like an ideal way to spend a Saturday. How could you possibly improve on that? Well, by adding the chance to see Ella Minnow, RTB2, Tre Orsi and Record Hop all on the same bill, along…

With Jakob Dylan releasing the mostly acoustic Seeing Things and finally accepting the fact that he’s Bob’s son, it would seem that progeny living up to their names is coming into vogue. Justin Townes Earle, son of alt-country godfather Steve Earle, can now be considered part of this surprising trend…

fight bite n. 1 an infected, human bite-inflicted wound (ex: Johnny bit Suzy’s hand and now that shit looks nasty; 2 a new-ish Denton-based band that everyone apparently thinks is amazing (ex: This band Zac Crain really likes is playing Space on Saturday!) Let’s take a retrospective look at how…

An entity called The Revolution Party of Dallas is hosting an event entitled Freedom Tour ’08 to be held at Club Dada on June 16th. While also featuring local acts Dustin Tavella, Fish Fry Bingo and Catfish Whiskey, the show will be headlined by folk singing activist Marc Scibilia. Known…

It was just over a week ago now that the Toadies started streaming a 22-second clip of the title track from its upcoming album, No Deliverance, on its Web site. Now there’s this: Spin.com’s got a full stream of the track on its site this afternoon. For what it’s worth,…

Norah Jones’ set came after the sun went down. (Pete Freedman) It was sticky as hell in the Saturday evening sun at Booker T. Washington’s outdoor amphitheater as the masses gathered for a performance of some of the school’s most prominent alums (go here for a slideshow). The good news,…

Lil Stevie. (NBC Photo/ Heidi Gutman) Steven Van Zandt just called to chat about his syndicated Underground Garage radio show, which can once again be heard on 92.5 KZPS-FM at 10 p.m. on Sunday nights. Now in its seventh year, the show can be heard on more than 140 stations…

You may be familiar with some of the names who’ll be in town tomorrow night at Booker T. Washington High School as the Arts Magnate celebrates the reopening and the completion of its two-year, $55 million renovation. Erykah Badu? Norah Jones? Edie Brickell? Roy Hargrove? Lost actress Elizabeth Mitchell? Hmm…well,…

Click and Clack, the Boston brothers Magliozzi behind the NPR show Car Talk (aired weekly on 90.1 KERA-FM), are the subjects of As The Wrench Turns, PBS’ first-ever animated prime-time series, which is set to premiere on July 9. Sure. Why not? That’s kind of cool. But, um, the local…

Austin’s The Gougers go the Radiohead route. (Traci Gourdie) Just a few weeks before the band hits the stage at the Granada, alt-country combo The Gougers is making its nifty latest release, A Long Day for the Weathervane, available for free via the Web site feegougers.com. The Austin quartet released…

Ten days left. The people behind Red Blood Club have made it official: The Deep Ellum venue will close its doors for good on June 15. In a blog post put up today on the club’s Myspace page, co-owners Brad Garrett and April Collmar explain that they just couldn’t afford…

That’s Robert on the left, standing next to Leif Edling. Prior to 2007, Robert Lowe was just another local working stiff. After a day in his cubicle working for an insurance company in Addison, Lowe would sometimes go practice with one of the metal bands he fronts around the region…

Airline uses its powers for good. Usually. (Jason Upshaw) – Remember when we told you about Airline getting some college radio love? Well, now the band’s getting more: Airline’s album, Farewell Republica, ranks #171 in the most recent CMJ 200 chart and has earned airplay on 50 more college radio…

We caught up with Tahiti, the “T” in the recently split Dallas hip-hop group PPT, to get his version of the events that led to the breakup and to talk about his future as a musician. His take on the cause of the breakup isn’t significantly different than Pikahsso’s and…

Blame It On Gravity art by Jayme Nourallah. In a blatant move to one-up Dust Congress, the Old 97’s guys scored an in-studio performance (which you can download by following that link) at the NPR affiliate at St. Paul, Minnesota, where they talked New West Records, admitted to rarely rehearsing…

The 2008 United States Air Guitar Championships Tour has announced which cities will host its competitions this year and, thankfully, Dallas is not on the list. The tour kicked off yesterday in New York and the closest this geek fest will get to Dallas is Austin in July. The finals…

Another Dust Congress drawing…from Nevada Hill, we think. Denton’s Dust Congress appeared on the radio show “Gulf Coast Live” on WGCU-FM, a Florida National Public Radio affiliate, for an hour-long interview and studio performance last week during their brief southeastern tour through Louisiana, Georgia and Florida. And now the entire…