The cypher is one of hip-hop’s most sacred mediums. It’s a place where emcees come together to spit freestyle verse, hone their craft, and showcase their skill. This year, we decided to put our Dallas Observer Music Award nominees for Best Hip-Hop Act to the test (vote here!). Over a…
Editor: This year, we’re celebrating the 25th Dallas Observer Music Awards. Our coverage will include recollections from last quarter century of North Texas music. Paul Slavens was one of the only musicians to be nominated for the first DOMA, in 1988, and also this year. Here, the musician, radio host…
More sad news for the Kidd Kraddick in the Morning show. Just a few months after Kidd Kraddick passed away, fellow show personality “Psycho” Shanon Murphy revealed on the air and her blog on Monday that she has a tumor on her brain stem. Though the tumor is benign, surgery…
The “Before I Die” project allows communities all over the world to share some of their deepest, dearest and even darkest fears, thoughts and goals about their own mortality and the things they are doing before life catches up with them. University of North Texas music composition master’s student Robert…
The importance, cultural relevance, and influential impact of Dallas’ Latin music scene can not be stressed enough. Though often written off as a niche in the local market, tejano, cumbia, rock en espanol, and other Latin-centric genres are alive and thriving in Dallas. Which isn’t all that surprising, considering that…
Over the course of six years, Seattle’s The Lonely Forest have released five full length albums, each of the better than the previous and each one filled with solid, emotionally-driven indie rock. 2011’s Arrows featured the wonderfully dry “Turn Off This Song and Go Outside” and garnered the band a…
This year, we’re celebrating the 25th year of the Dallas Observer Music Awards. It’s a project we started in 1988, in the words of then-music-editor Clay McNear, to, “heighten awareness of local music and to commend those that are recognized by our readers as the best in their respective fields.”…
Recently in town performing with The Monkees, Michael Nesmith is much, much more than just the guitarist for a ’60s pop band. Over his lengthy career, Nesmith has worked as a producer, novelist, and actor and is often cited as the person responsible for creating music video. Via email and…
Hoo boy. On Wednesday night, during a set performed by Alabama’s Lee Bains III and The Glory Fires at the Live Oak Music Hall and Lounge in Fort Worth, the management of the venue felt compelled to close the curtains and then switch off the power completely on the rowdy…
All too often in the world of indie-rock, pretense dominates the conversation. Thanks perhaps to the bombast that goes into the music of the Brooklyn-based noise-pop duo Sleigh Bells, that’s not a problem you’ll find while listening to any of the group’s three studio albums, including their brand new release,…
The Dallas/Fort Worth music scene has an unusually strong subculture of tribute bands with an even more unorthodox subculture: dedicated tribute band fans. The bands themselves aren’t just background noise for private parties or corporate events or openers for bigger acts to keep the crowds entertained while the main talent…
This year, we’ll celebrate our 25th Dallas Observer Music Awards. Voting is open now, and the ceremony is on November 5 at House of Blues. Over the years, we’ve seen our fair share of bands appearing on the DOMA nominee list year after year. And, in a few notable cases,…
Patty Griffin’s albums are popular with both fans and critics and her songs are covered by the likes of Emmylou Harris and the Dixie Chicks (just to name two). What draws so many people to Griffin’s music is her unflinching honesty and her beautiful simplicity. Over the course of 8…
We’re a week and a half from the 25th Dallas Observer Music Awards Showcase. On Saturday, November 2, more than 50 bands and artists nominated for this year’s awards will play on eight stages in Deep Ellum. It starts at 6 p.m. and ends around 2 a.m., and now you…
Currently on tour in support of Page Avenue, 10 Years and Counting, a reworked and revised version of the band’s 2003 debut, St. Louis’ Story of the Year has returned from hiatus on a roll. After spending two years decompressing from endless touring, the five guys in Story of the…
The North Texas tribute band Back in Black hopped on a plane to Canada last week to play a live performance in Alberta on Friday with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. Mike Mroz, the band’s lead guitarist and Angus Young impersonator, Live Nation hooked them up with the 60-piece orchestra. “They…
For a quarter century, Sacramento’s Deftones have done the alternative metal thing with a sense of musical growth missing from many in the genre. Expanding into darker and lighter territory, the band’s diversity has never seemed to impact its popular standing. From his home in Sacramento and in anticipation of…
On Saturday, November 2, 58 local artists will play on 8 stages in Deep Ellum for the 25th Dallas Observer Music Awards Showcase. Tickets are $10 or $15 day-of. Representatives of nearly every conceivable genre of music are on the lineup, and we encourage you to sample liberally. There will…
In 1997, Nick Urata and his band DeVotchKa began playing background music for local burlesque dancers in Denver. Soon the band’s unique combination of Eastern European folk music and indie rock began gathering the attention of critics and fans alike. With the release of How it Ends in 2004, DeVotchKa…
The 50-foot limestone angels trumpeting from the façade of Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth face a trio of venues hidden from the outside world. Hyena’s Comedy Night Club is down a grand staircase on the right. There’s a smaller stage next to it. And on the left is Queen…
It’s a great time to be a fan of The Marked Men and its offshoots. Not only does the band play out here and there, Mark Ryan’s Mind Spiders have a new album out called Inhumanistic, and there’s a new band called Radioactivity, which is about to release its debut…
Fort Worth’s 1919 Hemphill may not be old enough to hang with the cool kids who can buy music with the “Parental Warning” stickers on them. However, they still can attract the attention of bands and musicians who need a welcoming place to play. The performance art space opened its…
