Burn this book

Hillsboro-based author Ace Collins isn’t the first writer to tackle the Dixie Chicks’ story: Scott Gray and Cathy Repetti’s Chicks Rule: The Story of the Dixie Chicks was in stores just a few weeks before Collins’ tome, All About the Dixie Chicks, will be on September 18. And he surely…

Scene, heard

Floor 13 has broken up, partly because of — and this is a new one — the U.S. government. It seems that singer-guitarist Winston Giles’ work permit expired some time ago, so he has been asked by Immigration and Naturalization Services to head back to his native Australia for now…

Lust to Dust

Face the facts: Iggy Pop hasn’t been the same since he recorded for Arista in the early 1980s, when he began confusing punk rock with hard rock and found neither wanted him anymore. Turns out he was the idiot after all, too dumb to give it up when he discovered…

Yo, love me

This is where it all gets brilliant, where the joke reveals itself as Swiftian satire so lowbrow, only the highbrow among us will ever get it. For so long, Pimpadelic seemed to be nothing more than a one-note joke — white boys smeared in black face, grabbing their balls and…

Summer suns and some aren’t

Well, here we are, all the way to back-to-school time and what do we have to show for it? An embarrassment of riches, that’s what. A summer of radio fluff that moved with you and kept you going till supper. Whether you got to the beach or were stuck in…

Growing pains

It’s not surprising that the band named after the larger-than-life icon representing the overstimulated pop culture of the ’80s would aim to mimic the cocaine-fueled power-pop of that era. But what may surprise new listeners and seasoned fans alike is the Mr. T Experience’s (relatively) mature songwriting and unconventional recording…

The dead Zone

Abby Goldstein is likely the only person who would take the news that she was being fired from her job as an endorsement. But that’s just how the former music director at KKZN-FM (93.3) felt after Scott Strong and Dan Haliburton — the new bosses at the station now known…

Name dropping

The Bicycle Thief will release its debut album, You Come and Go Like a Pop Song, later this month on Goldenvoice Recording Company, which is distributed by New York-based indie label Caroline Records. The disc features guest appearances by Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante and ex-That Dog singer-guitarist…

Ray Price

In the end, the Cherokee Cowboy is known for two songs: “Crazy Arms,” which made his career in 1956, and “Danny Boy,” which ruined it 11 years later. Maybe ruined is too strong a word; the man knew what he was doing when he drenched himself in strings, when he…

Perfect from now on

After being closed for almost three weeks, Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios is just about up and running again, much to the relief of owners Memory and Jason Wortham and Josh Baish. Denton officials had threatened to fine Rubber Gloves if it continued to hold shows without proper parking facilities, forcing…

Shelf life

Lyles West’s new record with his band Quartet Out isn’t really new at all. The disc, Welcome to the Party, was recorded more than two years ago, but it sat on the shelf until, well, now, while West and the band tried to find a label to distribute it. Dave…

Scene, heard

The Adventures of Jet won last week’s semifinal round of the Ultimate Band List’s Born on the World Wide Web contest. The band’s song “Rock and Roll” won in the alternative category of the competition, and it will join tracks by Dave Dill, Tacoheads, Paige, Green Man, and Figure Eight…

Talking Heads

There had been nothing like it to that point, nor would there be again — a film that got audiences dancing in the aisles, that turned movie theaters into concert halls and popcorn patrons into spasmodic participants. In theory, Jonathan Demme’s rockumentary shouldn’t have worked; rock and roll is made…

Reed Easterwood and Junky Southern

You know the sad and familiar tale: Brilliant local musician trudges on with great work, other local musicians nod knowingly and with respect at the mention of his name, yet said talent hasn’t yet attracted the frothing fan base he deserves. No doubt Reed Easterwood knows the words to that…

I don’t want my MP3

At this very moment, you can go to They Might Be Giants’ Web site (www.tmbg.com) and download, in its entirety, the band’s brand-new 15-song “album” Long Tall Weekend. In fact, that is the only way the “album” is available: by downloading it, in the much-vaunted MP3 format, for the low,…

The ponce

I am what some in the business refer to as a “ponce.” That is, I’m the emasculated little man behind a famous female, from whom I derive my sense of self worth, and through whose stardom I live. Sound the trumpets: I am Bonnie Hector’s boyfriend. Someday, I hope to…

While he’s away

Chris Savage didn’t sell his soul for rock and roll, but he did quit his job for it. He enjoyed his work for the most part, training to be a veterinary technician at the Highland Park Animal Clinic. Well, he liked it much as anyone can take pleasure in being…

Going deep

The idea seemed like a good one from the start: one cover charge allowing you admission into a handful of clubs all night — and no, we’re not just talking about the Club Clearview-Art Bar-Blind Lemon-Red complex. Last August, Trees, Galaxy Club, The Curtain Club, Club Dada, and Club Clearview…

Silver Scooter

The first paragraph in the bio for Silver Scooter’s latest album, this year’s Orleans Parish, instructs you to “take your favorite record, set it on fire, and chuck it out the window” because “this is the only record you’ll need.” Yeah, and while you’re at it, get rid of every…

Mitch Marine, All Star

As a kid, Mitch Marine would put on the headphones, turn up a Rush record, and play make-believe. He’d close his eyes and hear an announcer over an imaginary public-address system telling the crowd that drummer Neal Peart just couldn’t make it tonight. “But Mitch Marine’s in the audience,” he…

Across the Bar

Scene, heard Russell Hobbs and Patrick Keel will not be calling their label Deep Ellum Records after all. Hobbs had intended to reboot the long-dormant Deep Ellum Records, which he started with Jeff Liles in 1986, because he believed the label’s first run “never really happened,” at least not the…

L7

Turns out Courtney Love’s a pretty lousy role model after all. Just what does it tell women when the strip-club punk goes pop-pop-pop and decides it’s all about looking pretty on the outside after all? So that leaves Donita Sparks, Dee Plakas, Suzy Gardner, and the rotating fourth as proof…