If you have yet to see God and learn what it feels like to witness her in all of her preternatural, eternal glory, then presumably you have not listened to a Celine Dion Christmas album. Christmas music is a subgenre so replete with artless drivel, so seeping with sugar-drenched rehashes…
Our city was graced this past week with the exuberant presence of an artist who has been rightfully missed. Dallas native turned New Yorker Dezi 5 returned to the city that raised him for a week packed full of musical merriment. In his time back, he graced various local stages…
The red carpet rolled out at Canton Hall on Tuesday evening for the 31st annual Dallas Observer Music Awards ceremony. The venue was buzzing with excitement from the moment the doors opened, letting in lines of fur, sequins, leather and oh so many accessories. There’s no doubt it was the…
You know what they say: It’s an honor just to be nominated. And sometimes cliches stick around for a reason, as was the case with our 31st Dallas Observer Music Awards, which took place Tuesday night and weren’t so much about the awards themselves but a celebration of artistry, the…
Daniel Markham put out a new single, and it’s like nothing he’s done before. “Don’t it Feel Good” debuted recently, heralding Markham’s return from the studio with a new album, Burnout. The track is a nod to 1990s grunge with a riff that chugs like Weezer and bites like Alice…
The Dallas-based Big Ass Brass Band has become known in the Dallas music scene for the energy and joy they bring to the stage.
Jack Barksdale, the 12-year-old powerhouse blues-Americana singer-songwriter, is back with his new single “Man in the Shadows” and a music video to boot. The song, Barksdale says, is about the internal conflicts people have within themselves. “Some of these are more serious than others,” Barksdale says. “I wanted to record…
I had never listened to Jagged Little Pill in its entirety until last Friday, and my thoughts about it already felt like a Reductress headline “Man Discovers Alanis Morissette For the First Time 25 Years Later.” I hope I will get some leeway as a black man for being late…
One young woman from Waxahachie has gained national fame for singing cover songs in a parking garage after becoming an American Idol reject. Emma Oliver, 21, now has more clarity than ever before on what she can achieve through her music. At 16, she sang her way onto the Dallas…
It wasn’t all bad — 2019, we mean. Sure, politics were a trash fire; tensions over policing, gender and economic inequality hit Dallas as hard as anywhere else; and if we don’t manage to throttle one another before, the climate crisis is standing by, ready to kill us all. (Ten…
Contrary to popular belief, we at the Observer actually don’t sit in our ivory towers, looking down at all the lay folk with scorn and disapproval as we kick it with George Soros and other members of the Deep State. We’re all just regular people like you who are simply…
Many contemporary DIY artists and labels owe much of their success to Bandcamp for providing a popular, user-friendly platform with one of the most acclaimed payout models in the music industry. Artists such as Car Seat Headrest and Soccer Mommy used the streaming service as a launchpad, and it is…
At the end of October, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) hit 19 venues and restaurants across the U.S. with a Halloween surprise. And it wasn’t candy. The music licensing organization filed legal action against the venues for allegedly not paying fees to have licensed music in…
Backyard on Bell shuttered unexpectedly Tuesday, leaving many concertgoers of the beloved Denton music venue and bar taking to social media with speculations over why. Owner Scott Bonfield confirmed to the Observer that the venue closed for good, but declined to elaborate because of legal reasons. “We’re just calling it…
For Travis Austin, music and clothing have always gone hand in hand. Austin got his start in the fashion industry after he decided to leave the world of modeling to be one of the people he worked for. “I’ll never forget it,” he remembers. “It was Black Friday when I…
Midway through our text chat, drummer JD Beck stops me cold. “Hold on,” he sends. “Let me get you a photo from Paak.” A couple of minutes later, the 16-year-old Dallas musician sends a photo of himself and his bandmate DOMi, a 19-year-old pianist, hanging out in a kitchen. Both…
The big news in the concert industry this past week centered around summer festivals. So far, there haven’t been a bevy of new ones rolled out, but many of the mainstays are beginning to roll out their lineups. So, as you are compiling your holiday gift lists, be sure to…
Chicago-based industrial supergroup Pigface recently kicked off their first tour in 14 years, and this run sees the band playing Granada Theater on Sunday. It will be Pigface’s first Dallas show since their 2003 appearance at the Bronco Bowl’s Canyon Club room (where the Home Depot on Fort Worth Avenue…
The all-girl pop, punk band is popular, talented and not afraid to speak up.
The nominations for the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards are finally here, but before we dive into that, a mea culpa is in order. When we documented some possibilities yesterday, we predicted that Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding and The Highwomens’ self-titled album would make the cut for some nominations. The prediction…
Mysterious cypher boxes, Gothic locations and, of course, rock music are the puzzle pieces that interlock for Marquis of Vaudeville’s new music video for “The ENIGMA Men.” The group is no stranger to large production music videos. From the Alice in Wonderland-inspired “We’re All Mad Here” to experimental animation in…
Something many artists struggle with at some time or another is the ability to transition between work and play while staying true to their values. This is one of the feats that Dallas DJ Colton Carlyle, aka Carlyle, has had to overcome in his career as a millennial musician-turned-businessman. A…
