This past week, Elvis Costello announced that he will perform at the House of Blues on April 22 alongside his backing band The Imposters. The show is set to be Costello’s first North Texas performance since his solo show at The Majestic Theatre in 2016. Seeing as Costello has 30…
A hairpin turn along the roller coaster of life made one North Texas musician realize that grief ain’t all that bad. Matthew McNeal bares his soul while sharing that sentiment in his newest album, Good Grief, which is scheduled for release April 3. The heartfelt album follows McNeal’s sophomore release,…
To hear Harry Connick Jr. tell it, he’s spent much of the last year rescuing Cole Porter from obscurity. “Most people not only don’t know much about him, but don’t know who he was,” Connick Jr. explained not long into his 110-minute performance before a near-capacity audience at Winspear Opera…
There are some incredible lineups at North Texas venues this week. Mägo de Oz, the Spanish folk metal legends, will be taking over House of Blues on Wednesday night. Raul Malo and Ben Rector are both rolling into town for sold-out performances Friday. The next day, Orville Peck will be under the lights…
With almost 100,000 cases of the coronavirus reported worldwide, the global economy is continuing to incur damage, and the live music industry is one of its largest casualties. Below is a list of major festivals and tours that have been postponed, canceled or affected in other ways by the outbreak…
A bevy of new concert listings has arrived in time for this week’s batch of announcements. It’s a list populated with quite a few up-and-coming artists, some of whom are branching out into playing some of the largest venues of their careers. There are also a few oldies-but-goodies hitting up…
Jake Quillin never expected to move to Texas. Last February, the 26-year-old guitarist was making pizzas at his day job when his phone vibrated. It was an Instagram direct message from Dallas producer Jason Burt, one of the men behind Medicine Man Revival. Burt had a proposition for Quillin. “I…
He was born Maurizio Colella, but dance music fans know him as EDX. And we’ll never know why exactly. Our interrogation-like attempts to uncover the meaning of “EDX” were all shot down by the producer, DJ and executive. We took our best jabs in search of an answer, but they…
Spring will be upon us in two weeks, and since winter is a suboptimal time for outdoor events, it officially marks the beginning of music festival season. Yes, the festival bubble is bursting, but some local festivals have managed to stick around and impressively withstand the test of time. If…
It was Dec. 4, 2018, when the one-man show that is King Camel’s Jeffrey Brown took to the Canton Hall stage to accept the Dallas Observer Music Award for Best Talent Buyer, hoisting his trophy in the air and telling the cheering audience, “We fucking rule, dude! Suck my ass!”…
Another recording artist from North Texas has reached major-label status. The iconic Cash Money Records has signed “Fill Up Da Bagg” Pleasant Grove rapper Fat Yunginn in a seven-figure deal with a $250,000 advance, according to a press release. Born Jakeldrick Strain, 26-year-old Fat Yunginn says that the passing of…
Our crush this week is musician Nicole Marxen, one of the shiny dark innovators behind glam rock band Midnight Opera. The singer and synth player’s onstage showmanship follows the concept band’s high-drama, ever-changing narrative. The artist, muse and costume queen’s appeal is transporting, taking us through the ages and many…
If it’s not entirely impossible to keep from using the word “soul” when describing Zac Wilkerson’s music, it is certainly ill-advised. For starters, the Dallas resident’s excellent 2016 album is titled Dustbowl Soul, and plenty of the songs on his new record, Evergreen, feature R&B-powered full-band arrangements, which lend themselves…
It looks like Russian spies aren’t the only ones who’ve discovered a way to break Facebook. Last week, the budding Dallas band Learning Names released a music video for its first single, “Be Quiet,” that quickly attracted over 15,000 views between Facebook and YouTube, two-thirds of which came from the…
What does it mean to reckon with your legacy? Does confronting a creative achievement — even if it’s the product of decades past, when you were someone else entirely — constitute a form of capitulation, a shrugging acceptance that you’ve peaked and are merely coasting on the fumes of previous…
They say girls run the world, and anyone who spends time exploring the entertainment scene throughout North Texas will especially appreciate that sentiment. We’ve got talented ladies in spades around here, so it was about time an event highlighting all-female or female-fronted acts came around. Last year, the Denton-based nonprofit…
Given that Super Tuesday is happening this week, you’ll probably need to find some escape from all the politics. And how can you hear all the political discussions if your ears are ringing from standing too close to the speakers at too many live concerts? Hopefully, you can’t. And here…
As the Leaning Tower of Dallas awaits its final demolishing, a Dallas news oddity will soon come to a close. Time to get back to focusing on all other things local, like the Dak Prescott contract negotiations, the new restaurants in Trinity Groves and the ubiquity of Michael Bloomberg-for-president ads…
“When can you have that Neil Diamond story in?” my editor asks as I begin to leave the office at the end of the day. She sighs after making the tired mistake. “I mean, the Morrissey one … I think Vegas and I think Neil Diamond.” This pretty much sums…
On Friday, March 13, Gas Monkey Live will host something they are calling “Freakers Small,” an event that will host seven bands, five of them tribute bands and three featuring one man, Paragraph Taylor, whose tendency to … embellish … his words earned him his moniker. You might have heard…
The Larimer Lounge, Lost Lake and Globe Hall lead talent buyer is headed to Dallas.
The element of competition is woven into the fabric of hip-hop culture and it’s part of what inspires rappers to create their best work — there are different styles and skill sets within the genre and it’s grown to include sub-genres and hybrid artists. But let us focus on the…
