The jury’s still out on whether North Texas can stake any claim to the music of Brooklyn-based St. Vincent, but we love the work that Annie Clark does regardless. We’re not the only ones, either. David Byrne feels the same way. So do Swans. Even Intelligentsia is in the same…
Hailing from someplace called Ashtabula, Ohio, Homewrecker are an extreme metal/hardcore band that have been raging like a psychotic beast for a little more than five years. In that time, the band has made its way to the Dallas area on several occasions and found a niche performing at a…
If there’s any one thing that makes for a healthy music scene, it’s a diversity of voices. That could mean different styles, different priorities, or just plain different experiences of the world. The important thing is that those voices be encouraged to come into conversation with one another. Well, the…
Having a famous musician as a father can always put pressure on a son or daughter who chooses the same profession. Not so for Bobby Bare Jr. With a blistering sense of humor and an emotional earnestness, Bare has never tried to walk in his father’s shoes. Instead, Bare Jr…
For over 25 years, Eddie Spaghetti and The Supersuckers have been playing a raw brand of hillbilly soaked rock and roll in just about any venue that would care to book them. Over the years, a definite country influence has steadily wormed its way into the band’s creative center resulting…
Hey now, weather. Knock it off, you hear? It’s almost the weekend, and we don’t need any more tricks, like that tornado business you thought was so damn funny. (Joke’s on you because we have Special Weather Reports on our side.) No matter though; from now through Sunday, we’re looking…
Local hip hop fans have been waiting for this day for a while. Blue, the Misfit, a local producer and rapper who detoured to Los Angeles for several years before coming back to Dallas, has already set himself apart for his sludgy beats and gritty non-hooks. Having previously produced tracks…
With the mind-expanding psychedelic rock outfit Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Sean Lennon (the 38-year-old son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono) and his girlfriend, model and artist Charlotte Kemp Muhl, have tripped into an enchanting realm. Since their first album, 2010’s Acoustic Sessions, the duo have explored a…
Mother’s Day is a holiday for emotionally-inept cowards to meekly hand-over a bouquet of gas station flowers to someone that probably knows them too well to truly give a shit if they did anything or not. And why is it just one day? We should be honoring these women every…
Hailing from Minnesota, Tiny Moving Parts can’t seem to stay away from Texas for too long. The trio has already been to the DFW area a handful of times in the past year and a half, but they’re finally hitting Dallas proper on Thursday night. Paired up with the fantastic…
Since beginning his career in the Bay Area in the 1970s, Tommy Castro has become one of the most consummate blues musicians currently working. Castro’s body of work is an amazingly diverse collection of albums that are always tethered to classic blues and R&B. His most recent effort, The Devil…
Austin Psych Fest is an experience that’s hard to take measure of. I camped there for three days and saw well over a dozen acts. In other words, I ate and breathed this festival for 72 consecutive hours. I came back to my tent each night with a sweat-drenched notebook,…
Still recovering from the busy music weekend freshly past? Reveling in the newfangled 90-degree heat? Well, there’s no rest for the wicked, folks — at least not when it comes to the non-stop excitement that is the Dallas concert schedule. In fact, you’d better be ready for some more festival…
Reptilian croaks — guitars distended through echo effects — tickle the ear; I’ve been offered a pharmacy’s worth of chemicals and pot smoke is a potpourri that clots the air. I’ve arrived at Austin Psych Fest 2014. There’s every shade of weird here, and every shape of fascination. Each person…
It’s finally May and — surprise, surprise — the music festivals are getting into full swing. There two noteworthy ones this weekend alone, and both are new kids on the block (or relatively so): tonight’s JMBLYA Festival and tomorrow and Sunday’s Suburbia Fest. And that’s just the tip of the…
It’s been an awfully strange week in Graceland. (Well, not Elvis’s Graceland. But then when isn’t that strange?) Dallas-reared New Bohemians’ vet Edie Brickell hit headlines earlier this week for a bizarre domestic dispute with her long-time husband, good ol’ “Rhymin’ Simon” himself, Paul Simon. Then they showed up to…
JMBLYA, Dallas’ growing gumbo pot of a music festival, is returning this weekend for a second year with an amplified purpose. Marked for last year’s appearances by Grammy rivals Kendrick Lamar and Macklemore, this year’s lineup boasts a slew of highlights with the likes of Chance the Rapper, RiFF RaFF,…
The Observer is looking for a part-time Clubs Editor. The job includes: – Data entry to keep our clubs listings current. – Managing the Dallas Observer concert calendar. – Visiting and writing about new bars and clubs, and re-visiting old standbys when their listing needs a refresh. The ideal candidate…
We all know it, but it’s time to show it. Urban Outfitters is a creative wasteland, a shortsighted cul-de-sac of trends and trash-culture bent for capital gain — one large, unthinking slab of cultural masturbation. But, by and large, it’s a beast we ourselves feed. Like creepers to a drug…
You might remember the Dallas-based filmmaker who wanted to raise $7,500 for a documentary on Fat Wreck Chords. Well, Shaun Colón wound up raising all of that in 24 hours and he had 35 days to go after that with his Indiegogo campaign. When we spoke to him at the…
Courtesy Martin House Brewing CompanyLast Thursday, the Toadies played Irving Plaza in Manhattan with Battleme and Supersuckers. Friday, they were off to famed Asbury Park venue Stone Pony before playing a few more east coast dates and heading back home to Dallas, where they’ll appear next week as headliners for…
North Texas pumps out some of hip-hop’s most artistic and underrated artists. Don’t believe us, please refer to the release of the hip-hop documentary We From Dallas. Being creative spawns in an area more times than not overlooked on rap’s national scale, new age artists are emerging that aren’t afraid…
