Speaking from his home in Austin, Matthew Hines, comes across as one of those likeable nerds everyone knew in high school. As leader of the indie rock outfit The Eastern Sea, Hines has turned that nerdy charm into three compelling albums, especially 2012’s Plague. In anticipation of Friday night’s show…
Robby and Jennifer Rux greet me at the front door of an old brown fourplex, nestled comfortably on a tree-lined street in Fort Worth’s Fairmount Historic District. Their apartment, covered in posters, tapestries and age-old vinyl, serves as one of the few exclusively analog recording studios in North Texas. Together,…
When Arlington thrashers Warbeast flew overseas to co-headline a tour with legendary Pantera/Down vocalist Phil Anselmo, the band’s pulverizing riffs and grueling lyrics slew metal fans across Europe. A joint album seemed like another one of the devil’s pipe dreams until the two entities announced their upcoming split EP release,…
This year, Lights All Night has expanded to three nights, and is taking over Fair Park, a city-owned venue. On Sunday, the organizers sent out a press release (view below) alerting attendees that there is a curfew. Saturday and Sunday night’s shows will end at midnight, and Monday’s NYE show…
The holidays are over, and it’s nearly time shut down all the Christmas caroling, save for local outfit Bethan. “O Holy Night,” from their rather haunting EP of reworked Christmas hymns, found a home on WBEZ’s This American Life last Friday. The show features stories of families and loved ones…
Since 2009, the Denton-born Virgin Wolves have seen many incarnations, starting off as the husband-and-wife team of Chase and Jaimeson Robbins, armed only with a Macbook and a guitar. Three years and two EPs later, they have ditched the computer and added drums, bass and a second guitar, fleshing out…
I attended the Oral Fixation “Cold Turkey” show at the MAC last Tuesday night, mainly because Observer copy editor and beer enthusiast Jesse Hughey was going to be reading, and he ended up getting some of the biggest laughs of the night, from a crowd that took in some pretty…
Houston native Roger Creager has been a mainstay of the Texas-centric festivals and college-town honky-tonks that make up the Texas country circuit. Over the course of six full-length albums and 14 years, Creager’s become known more for his rambunctious live shows than he has his relatively small catalog of recorded…
Tonight at Texas Theatre, Oak Cliff Film Fest is presenting another “Show Your Shorts” night, featuring work from local filmmakers. The films must be shorter than 20 minutes, and they’re taking numbers over on the Facebook event page. TT’s Barak Epstein says they still have a couple slots open. One…
It’s impossible to discuss the magnitude of the Denton music scene without including Robert Gomez as one of its pivotal players. Since 1993, Gomez has been everywhere from Denton to Istanbul, and the list of musicians he’s played with include Norah Jones, Philip Glass and Tico da Costa. He’ll perform…
One night ahead of Sarah Jaffe’s late-night debut, Dallas soul singer Larry g(EE) performs tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, thanks to OurStage.com, a social networking site that places emerging artists on the show, and also got him a handful of gigs on this summer’s Warped Tour. He’ll be performing the…
Shea Serrano, whose name you may have seen in our sister papers L.A. Weekly and Houston Press, has been responsible for some of this year’s finest music writing. This piece, in which he chronicles the night he chaperoned a middle school dance, may be the high point, mainly for this…
Ulnae is the fairly new project of singer Lily Taylor and cellist Darcy Neal (also of Bludded Head), who combine free-form sound, visuals and a bit of theatre into their experimental live show. In preview of tonight’s Dead Week Print Show at Rubber Gloves and the Meme Gallery, with Zorch,…
Word came today that Clear Channel has laid off KDGE-102.1 FM’s Josh Venable (again), and KHKS-106.1 Kiss FM’s Adrian Hummel and Michael Blake (Kidd Kraddick). This marks another wave off lay-offs, which started at Clear Channel back in 2009, and adds to the chimney-sweeping that’s happened at other Dallas radio…
[Editor’s note: On Monday, Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe was formally indicted on manslaughter charges relating to a 2010 incident at a show in the Czech Republic, for which he will stand trial. This interview was done before that verdict came down.] To say that 2012 has been an…
Whether it is with Red House Painters or Sun Kil Moon, the work of Mark Kozelek has always been marked by quiet desperation and a dry, dark sense of humor. A singer/songwriter of immeasurable skill, Kozelek is right at home twisting AC/DC into introspective folk songs. We spoke to Kozelek…
Variety has this little interview with one-time Polyphonic Spree-er Toby Halbrooks, co-director of Sarah Jaffe’s “Glorified High” video, which won the Dallas Observer music award for Best Video last month, in which he talks about his and David Lowery’s latest feature film, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. See also: – Who…
Over the course of 14 albums and countless cassette-only releases, John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats has become one of the best (and busiest) singer/songwriters around. While his songs can be depressing and dark, Darnielle’s sense of exploration is simply remarkable. Whether it’s writing about meth addiction or child abuse,…
Brendon Smalls is the creator of the animated series Home Movies and Metalocalypse, and the driving force behind the most successful animated death metal band in the history of metal, Dethklok. He’s an amazing guitarist who graduated from Berklee College of Music. His band has two of the highest-rated death…
Back in 2006, The Long Winters released Putting the Days to Bed, one of that year’s best efforts, but various personal issues resulted in frontman John Roderick taking an extended leave of absence. Since then, he’s appeared as a sideman on efforts by Death Cab for Cutie and Nada Surf,…
If there were a String Band Hero video game, it’s highly likely the music of Nashville’s Old Crow Medicine Show would be prominent in the list of song options. Best known for “Wagon Wheel,” the song that’s as responsible for today’s youthful lust for all things banjo as any other…
I will tune in to almost any television show, no matter how terrible or how outside of my interests, if it has something to do with Dallas. Usually this means production is set here and I can spend the hour going, “Hey, they are in downtown!” Or, “That’s not Dallas,…
