Now that emo has proven itself capable of selling more records than can fit into the back of a van, major labels are stumbling over one another to sign up as many young acts as they can, gambling that a small but loyal audience in New Brunswick or Santa Cruz…
Twenty-six years in, and still the Trick keeps turning–notably at state fairs, a regular stop on the nostalgia trip. In the end, what’s most surprising about these pop-rockers is the immortality of a back catalog crafted out of the slick and ersatz; nothing should have aged worse than a band…
So he’s not the devil after all, just another hardworking Texas singer-songwriter of modest talents in the right frat house on the right night–lucky, you’d be tempted to call him, if Green didn’t labor so hard growing what he got ever since convincing (not conning, oh no) the homegrown tourists…
Not that you should listen to me, but feel free to skip the opening set by Mudvayne. The pride of Peoria, Illinois, the band pretends to be aliens, which is always promising, but they don’t bother to make anything new out of heavy metal’s constituent parts; last year’s The End…
Apart from the summertime hits of Fabolous and Sean Paul, the crowd will definitely be moved by the veteran hip-hop showmen at the top of the bill, Jigga Man and Busta. For the past five or six years, those two have been among the pre-eminent rap hit makers; if you…
Is “screamo” actually happening? The New York Times, NME and Brittany, a “high school student” on Amazon.com, think so: They’re calling new bands like the Used, Glassjaw and Thursday–all of whom would have been called “emo” (or not called at all) just two short summers ago–part of a new movement…
Squeaky-clean Los Angeles pop-punkers Eve 6 have managed a few blasts of radio-ready teen angst made palatable by expensive guitar crunch, snappy choruses and front man Max Collins’ practiced bellow; debut single “Inside Out” still sounds pretty good on mix CDs, and 2000’s “Here’s to the Night” could pass for…
“What in the world is going on?” Midlake’s Eric Nichelson is speaking into the phone, but he isn’t talking to the person on the other end of the line. He isn’t talking to anyone, really, just a somewhat confusing computer screen that’s putting a hitch in his giddy-up as he…
Arizona Juanita Dranes left Texas for Chicago in June 1926 accompanied by a note that read as if it had been pinned to her sweater. “Since she is Deprived Of Her Natural Sight, the Lord Has Given Her A Spiritual Sight that all Churches Enjoy,” read the introduction from Dallas…
Warning: Anyone who has towed his or her car to the anti-Strokes bandwagon, read on at your own risk. This article features favorable mention of those friggin’ starlet-dating, fancy-haircut-wearing, no-new-music-making, overexposed pretty boys. Yeah, we know. You’re so sick of the Strokes, you’re sick of being sick of the Strokes…
“I just got done frying up some bacon and eggs,” Summer Hymns leader Zachary Gresham says with a lazy, Jimmy Carter drawl. “Now I just have to wash the pot.” Cleaning up after breakfast at 2 in the afternoon, Gresham is living the life most would-be rock stars dream about…
The problem the reformed Jane’s Addiction faces on Strays, the L.A. band’s first new studio album since 1990’s Ritual de lo Habitual, is one they predicted years ago: Nothing about it is shocking. In the band’s first conquest, rock was theirs for the taking, “alternative” an idea they helped invent…
Serart is the fascinating debut collaborative art project from the gifted Armenian multi-instrumentalist Arto Tunc Boyaciyan and System of a Down lead vocalist Serj Tankian. Damn if it ain’t bangin’. You can ask my neighbors. I’ve listened to this record 15 times in the past three days, and now they’re…
Perhaps it’s wishful thinking, but there appears to be a gradual rock migration. A glacier-like shift toward harmony and melody. An opportunity for popular music to embrace art over gimmicks–musicianship over parent-hating rhetoric and latex masks from Spencer’s Gifts. The success of the Strokes, Wilco and even Weezer demonstrates what’s…
With the Warped Tour sadly come and gone for another year and Dashboard Confessional’s next trip to town still a couple of months away, what’s a misunderstood emo-rocker to do for support this week? Easy: Head to the Ridglea Theater on Friday night for a four-band lineup that should soothe…
Earnest yet slightly lecherous singer-songwriter John Mayer too freshman-friendly for you? Wary of getting caught in a rabid-fan trap at the Smirnoff that you can’t back out of ’cause they love him too much, baby? Check out New Yorker Chris Lee, at Dan’s Silverleaf in Denton on Saturday night, instead:…
What follows is an inbox-to-inbox discussion on the merits (and demerits) of Apple’s iTunes Music Store conducted recently via e-mail by Dallas Observer associate editor Eric Celeste, managing editor Patrick Williams, pop culture critic Robert Wilonsky and music editor Zac Crain. Eric Celeste: Gentlemen: I believe the question before us…
Shelley King is onstage at a smoky punk dive on an oppressively humid summer night, hundreds of miles from home, in the middle of the Midwest. It’s close to 100 degrees in the bar, and as she plays guitar and sings, even her knuckles are sweating. Her eclectic country songs…
Read the other day that Macy Gray’s Id–the album, though what she sells is what she thinks–didn’t move because of its being released before the smoke cleared post-September 11; sorry, didn’t buy it (the excuse, not the disc, though come to think of it…). The product didn’t move because it…
Here’s where my anti-iTunes stance proves out, in the Concept Album about cubicle losers and middle-class yutzes and the forgotten schmoes out there for whom love’s still a grade-school daydream 20 years on and satisfaction means keeping the day job you hated in the first friggin’ place. All Fountains of…
Tricky’s ascension to worldwide critical acclaim and not-unimpressive commercial prosperity was one of the more unlikely success stories of the 1990s, since for all it shared with the down-tempo chill-out fluff it’s inspired, Tricky’s music was the singularly difficult and complex product of a singularly difficult and complex mind. Maxinquaye…
A double shot of creepy-ass California indie eccentricity awaits the bravely patient. Up first, fêted singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart, a scruffily handsome 22-year-old San Francisco Academy of Art dropout whose debut album, Oh Me Oh My…The Way the Day Goes By the Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs of the…
