Top Dawg Entertainment is in a league of its own. On top of curating a phenomenal soundtrack for the box-office-shattering Black Panther film, the West Coast label’s most prized artist, Kendrick Lamar, is redefining what it means to be a superstar rapper in 2018 and is piling up achievements some…
Big things ahead on the Dallas area concert calendar. We’ve got large-scale tours, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers and a couple of folks making some rare area appearances. Check out all the details. Drake is teaming up with Migos for the Aubrey & The Three Amigos tour. The 41-date…
The last time the Dallas Observer profiled Madison King was in 2014, just before King released her second country record, Onward & Upward. In March, King released her third record, the EP Livin’ Right. In the intervening years, King says, she has drifted further from music and closer to another…
The University of Utah health care system gathered evidence using MRI scans that showed that listening to familiar music increases connectivity in the brain region known as the salience network. This part of the brain selects which stimuli a person chooses to focus on and remains unaffected in people with…
A handful of third-party booking and promotion agencies in the Dallas area raise red flags for local musicians, but just as many concert and event promoters put music before money and base their businesses on trust and community in the local music scene. Spencer Wharton of Wharbaby Entertainment, a Dallas-Fort…
The deep, cavernous sounds of the cello are perfect for heavy metal. They can be dark and brooding. They provide a nice, long bass sound that provides a perfect backup to songs about sadness and destruction. They can also give a band that extra foundation underneath the sounds of guitars…
It seems like Nada Surf always hits Dallas whenever it tours, which is not a bad thing. With every album it puts out, the band comes here, but Thursday’s show at the Granada Theater is a slightly different affair. For the first time in its career, it’s doing an anniversary…
The music career of The Black Cassettes is best described as nascent. All three members reached legal drinking age within the last five months, so they’re cloaked in enviable youth. They formed three years ago but have yet to record a full body of music or go on an extensive…
The United States has recognized Mental Health Awareness Month every May since 1949, promoting discussion and compassion for people and their emotions. It’s been said that music helps improve mental health by reducing stress and alleviating depressive thoughts. Songs may speak the words one needs to hear or offer a…
If you’ve ever found yourself in Corsicana, a town about 60 miles south of Dallas off Interstate 45 that has about 25,000 residents, you may have encountered the statue of Lefty Frizzell. Born in that area in 1928, Frizzell went on to become one of the most influential singers in country…
Late last month, Homegrown Festival founder Josh Florence sent an email to industry insiders about the uncertain fate of the festival due to poor ticket sales. Thanks to the efforts of those insiders and the Dallas music community at large, Homegrown lived to rock into its ninth year celebrating the…
The latest show listings on its website are from 2016, so it is hard to tell if The Bar & Restaurant Society, a Los Angeles-based booking and promotions agency, is still in business. In any case, the agency has caused problems for artists throughout the years. The Dallas-Fort Worth area…
Summer means big concerts around Dallas. Catch Kendrick Lamar at Dos Equis Pavilion, Brian McKnight at Music Hall at Fair Park, Kenny Chesney at AT&T Stadium and more. Natalia Lafourcade7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 16, House of Blues, 2200 N. Lamar St., $62.50 and up During the early 2000s, the Mexican…
There are about 7,000 adolescents experiencing homelessness in the Dallas and Fort Worth school districts. On May 10, Texas Rangers radio broadcaster Eric Nadel and Focus on Teens, a nonprofit organization, put on a show at the Kessler Theater to help support the needs of these children. Eric Nadel’s Seventh Birthday Benefit…
Great Heart is the progressive and psychedelic solo project from Andrew Moss, and the music lives up to the name of the project. The Sunrise Machine EP is dripping with real, heartfelt emotion that will have listeners exploring ideas of self-reflection, heartbreak and personal salvation on what Moss describes as…
The WinStar Global Resort and Casino is giving residents of North Texas plenty of reasons to make the short trek up Interstate 35 with a number of quality shows announced this week for the venue on the Oklahoma state line. Nine Inch Nails announced a pair of local shows with…
In the spot of the former Luscher’s Red Hots at the corner of Commerce and Pryor streets, next to Dot’s Hop House & Cocktail Courtyard, Ruins celebrated its grand opening Wednesday night with all the style and sophistication we’ve come to expect from the team of Dan Murry and Peter…
Flunked Records is the brainchild of Ryan Butler and his continuing quest to keep house music an active concern. Club music trends come and go in Dallas only slightly less frequently than the changing of the seasons, but house music has been a constant. Even with the recent uptick of…
The Deep Ellum Foundation, along with a group of property and business owners in the area, organized a little extra security last year for one of Dallas’ most iconic districts. The program initially consisted of additional patrols by off-duty police officers and security guards during Deep Ellum’s busy weekend hours…
Brandon Boyd always wanted to be a painter. He only accidentally had a career in music. The frontman of the long-running band Incubus is excited to share his artwork for the first time in Dallas. Boyd will be in attendance for the opening night of the show, called OptiMystic, on…
Six Shooter is a recurring feature in which we highlight six new releases by North Texas-based musicians. Brave Little Howl — “Tupelo” Our Lives Aren’t Movies, out this week, is the first full-length album from Brave Little Howl. The local Americana indie six-piece has been gigging around Texas for a…
Long before he began crafting brew at Division Brewing, founder Wade Wadington kicked around the streets of Deep Ellum. And that’s the sort of vibe he’s trying to re-create in Arlington, he says, after taking over Cosmic Crow’s old space on Abram Street and opening Growl, a store for comic…
