Alex Kidd is a globe-trotting DJ who recently moved to Dallas from South Africa. Kidd was lured to the area at a time when the international club scene is taking interested in Dallas. With a string of releases and a three-decade career, Kidd looks to make Dallas his new home…
Anyway you cut it, Clint Black is country music royally. If you’re looking at numbers, he has 57 charted singles, 31 top 10 hits and 22 No. 1 smashes, and he’s sold more than 22 million albums worldwide. As for awards, he has a bevy of American Country Awards, American…
The Dallas Observer is proud to premiere the video for Salim Nourallah’s “The Bullies Are Back.” His double-album, Somewhere South of Sane, will be released this fall on Palo Santo Records. Nourallah will also DJ the Palo Santo Showcase at the Armoury D.E. on April 28. As gun violence, political…
It takes a lot to make it in the music business. Sure, you need musical ability and stage presence and, you know, talent. But you also need to know how to self-promote. You need an image. That’s were Phantom City Records comes in. The Dallas-based record company wants to help…
Sunday night’s Ho99o9 show saw metal fans learning to love the ever-expanding world of hip-hop. In the musical neighborhood of Geto Boys at the intersection of Bad Brains and Death Grips lives Ho99o9 (pronounced “horror”) — a hip-hop duo, TheOGM and Eaddy, from New Jersey by way of Los Angeles…
Last week, XXL launched its Vote for the 10th Spot campaign, allowing fans to make the decision on who receives the 10th and final spot on the 2018 Freshman Class — the publication’s annual much-talked-about list of 10 up-and-coming rappers that XXL believes are the next big stars in hip-hop…
Latinos Unidos was canceled at the Bomb Factory, but we’ve still got some great shows lined up this week. Catch plenty of up-and-coming singer-songwriters, let lose with some heavy metal, or check out plenty of hip-hop and EDM acts at this year’s Breakaway Music Festival. Lindi Ortega 8 p.m. Wednesday,…
Walking up and down the streets of Deep Ellum, one might pass by 10 to 15 music venues, which can be said for a lot of cities. So why is it so hard to book your own shows? The truth is, it isn’t. Before a band hits the big time…
La Rondalla, a free after-school music program for students in Oak Cliff and Dallas, suspended its operations last week because of a shortage of money. As founder Dennis Gonzales and his two sons, Stefan and Aaron, sought public donations, they received a private donation Thursday of $20,000, enough to keep the…
If you like big guitars, you are in luck. Lots of loud, noisy rock is coming our way in concert announcements for the Dallas area with hard-core, trash-rock and ’90s styles leading the way. Also, make room in your calendar for a couple of other big-ticket items that will surely…
Six Shooter is a recurring feature in which we highlight six new releases by North Texas-based musicians. Leon Bridges — “Bad Bad News” March delivered all the news Leon Bridges fans have been clamoring for. Fort Worth’s soulful crooner will be releasing his sophomore album, Good Thing, on May 4. He…
Southern Methodist University’s Fondren Library was moderately quiet Wednesday afternoon as students mingled and worked on group projects near the building’s Starbucks. Further inside, the atmosphere was what one might expect in a library — silent. Then Dominic Harrison, aka Yungblud, crashed students’ study space with his three-piece band. Around…
One year ago, DJ Blake Ward had an idea partially inspired by the music of late seventies New York club culture as seen on the popular Netflix musical drama show The Get Down. Between the dominance of house music (affectionally nicknamed Disco’s Revenge) and hip-hop in modern Dallas dance clubs, it’s the perfect time to revisit the roots of these music cultures on…
The band Northern Faces loves Dallas. “We played our first real show of tour ever in Dallas,” says vocalist and guitar player Brian Shortell. “It was at The Door with Say Anything back in 2013. It was a 1,000-plus person sellout show, the venue was packed, and I’ll never forget the…
Remy Reilly is surrounded by her family, friends and fans in Modern Electric Sound Recorders. She made her way back to the place she recorded her first EP, Rattlesnake, for its release party. As she sits at the piano and sings about a rattlesnake of a boy — “Went through…
The inside of the John Lennon Educational Bus is filled to capacity. The air conditioner is pumping a cool breeze, but the lights and equipment and bodies packed together raise the temperature until it’s competing with the Texas heat outside. The lights and cameras are all pointed at a Berkner…
2018 is the year of women supporting women. Championing this movement in the Dallas-Forth Worth music world is Beats By Her, a digital platform and live music showcase that highlights independent female artists. “Beats By Her was created to support and celebrate the talent and hustle of women in music,” says…
If you’re a musician and are not worried that a court recently upheld the verdict on “Blurred Lines,” you should be. In 2015, after a couple of years of back-and-forth lawsuits, Marvin Gaye’s family won a copyright infringement lawsuit against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams. The Gaye family believed Thicke’s…
There’s been plenty of news about Grand Prairie’s groundbreaking year-round water park, Epic Waters, which opened in January, but the city has much greater plans for its recreation center. And musicians all around the area will benefit. The Epic Recording Studio is set to open by the end of the…
You might find Cassie Marin, a Florida native artist, bouncing around the U.S., from Dallas to New York to Los Angeles, all in an effort to pursue her craft. A decade ago, this would-be Olympian would have never guessed that injuries that would set her on a path toward musical…
Don’t shun hip-hop. Give local musicians some money. Help them figure out how to fill out city paperwork. Generally, behave less like bureaucrats. Those are some of the messages members of the Dallas music scene delivered to Dallas’ Office of Cultural Affairs as the city prepares to write its first…
Time preoccupied Beck at every turn Friday night. Whether it was the eclectic setlist slipping easily between moods, albums and moments in his career, or the singer-songwriter’s repeated remembrances of past North Texas appearances, the weight of years seemed omnipresent. Perhaps that’s merely a strong inference from someone who has…
