On a Sunday afternoon, Josh Kynd is camped out in a lawn chair in the middle of Club Dada, surrounded on all sides by fold-out tables filled with crates of vinyl. He’s here with a handful of other vendors for the quarterly Beat Swap Meet, a recurring pop-up record sale…
When David Hall graduated from the University of North Texas in 2001, he didn’t know what the future had in store. Armed with a shiny new bachelor’s degree in jazz guitar studies and not much else, Hall began teaching guitar lessons to make ends meet. By 2004, he had scooped…
Mr. Daishiki Jones is pretty much the definition of of a proper house head. The amount of passion that exudes from this man through his mixes and declarations of his profound love of house are truly inspiring. He spent his early years soaking in the culture of Chicago house music…
Over the past 10 years, Record Store Day has become a behemoth celebration of all things vinyl. Vinyl nerds line up as early as 7 a.m. to get their hands on the exclusive RSD deals, with the most in-demand specials usually gone within the first few hours. Longtime crate diggers,…
Musicians are, by virtue of their profession, creatures of the night. Playing live music often means late gigs in bars, and musicians might even have jobs working the door or serving drinks at those same establishments. But where do North Texas musicians go to unwind and, most important, where can…
One of the best talent buyers in North Texas, Moody Fuqua, took over at RBC just four months ago. Everything seemed to be going as planned with the rebranding of the club venue behind Twisted Root. Fuqua brought weekly shows that focused on local music and also worked with promoters…
It’s been an exciting start to the year for Kirk Franklin — sometimes more exciting than he would’ve liked. In February alone, he won his 10th Grammy, was featured on Kanye West’s new album, The Life of Pablo, and performed with him on Saturday Night Live. But many of the…
“I’m not going to blow sunshine up your ass,” says C.J. Ortiz. “I’m going to show you how you can maximize your resources. But I don’t know if you can, and I don’t think you should lie to yourself either. If you suck, you suck. Improve it. Don’t take it…
Beach House The Bomb Factory, Dallas Saturday, April 9, 2016 On Saturday night at The Bomb Factory in Deep Ellum, Baltimore dream-pop outfit Beach House was all about prettiness. Each song was pretty. Victoria Legrand’s vocals were pretty. But there were too many aspects that fell pretty flat. It wasn’t…
Justin Bieber With Post Malone and Moxie Raia American Airlines Center, Dallas Sunday, April 10, 2016 Something interesting happened when a couch came up through the floor during Justin Bieber’s visit to American Airlines Center Sunday night. There on one of the cushions was a guitar, and for the…
Look, there’s really no excuse to not see a show this week. In the next seven days, Dallas will be hosting Korean and ’00s hip-hop, chillwave and chill indie rock, unforgiving punk music and fairly forgiving country music, and, well, DJ Snake. If you’re finding yourself uninterested in any of…
The loss of Merle Haggard last week left an incredible hole in the world of country music, and that’s just if you’re a fan. For musicians, many of whom built their original sound on the foundation that The Hag began laying in the 1960s, his death is even more profound…
Chad Lovell will never forget the night he partied with Layne Staley in Dallas. Every April, though, the memory comes back particularly strong: Last week marked the 14th anniversary of Staley, the former singer of Alice in Chains, dying of a heroin overdose. But for Lovell, he’ll always remember Staley,…
M83 With Yacht The Bomb Factory, Dallas Friday, April 8, 2016 Concerts don’t come with much higher feel-good levels than M83’s visit to The Bomb Factory did on Friday night. The French synthpop powerhouse rolled into town for the second stop on their Junk Tour on the exact day that…
Dalton Rapattoni, freshly famous from his strong showing during the final season of American Idol, isn’t turning his back on North Texas. “Dude, I will work wherever people need me to be, but North Texas is my home,” he told the Observer during a media call today. “I can’t relax anywhere else. This…
The vinyl record craze has raging for years. Everyone has a turntable now and fans often buy multiple copies of an album simply because the records are different colors. Here in Dallas, Good Records is still going strong, Josey Records is planning to take over the world, and Off The…
Just after he got out of a mental hospital, Norvis Junior had an epiphany. Checked in against his will, he spent weeks under surveillance after suffering a nervous breakdown. He turned to music to help him heal, and in the process he struck on a captivating sound that was all his…
Tim DeLaughter decided to take a moment for himself before playing the David Bowie tribute concert at Radio City Music Hall last Friday. He went out into the New York concert hall and sat in one of the seats to take it all in. For DeLaughter and his band, the…
When Merle Haggard died yesterday at his California home at the age of 79, he left behind not only one of the grandest catalogs in American music history, but a collection of songs that pointedly addressed the feelings, conflicts and everyday trials of the common man. There aren’t many Country…
Hunter Vaughn has been a fixture in Dallas DJ culture over the past decade with stints at clubs like Zubar, Lizard Lounge and Crown & Harp. Vaughn shows a level of genre flexibility that has played in his favor, while also proving to be an active producer. He even has a new…
Dalton Rapattoni has made it. He’s really made it. Sunnyvale’s overnight success story is in the top 3 of American Idol’s farewell season and he’s so close to taking it all home, we can almost taste it. But while Rapattoni’s rise seemingly has come out of nowhere, it’s not much of a…
This year has been a wretched year for musician deaths. Now comes the news that Merle Haggard has died as well, and on his 79th birthday. Haggard had been battling pneumonia since last year and died at his home in Redding, California, reports TMZ. The “Okie From Muskogee” singer was…
