Few symbols in Joel Salazar’s life hold more meaning than a set of turntables. “Música, Daddy! Música!” his 2-year-old daughter, Natalia, yells at least once a day. And when she does, her father is happy to oblige her. Salazar stops whatever he’s doing and sets two chairs at his decks…
It’s always memorable to see a band during a transitional phase, as was the case last night at Three Links in Deep Ellum, where La Luz played their first Dallas show. Incidentally, it will also be the last time we see the current incarnation of the band, what we will…
Naughty farmers, contagious dance routines, hyper real costumed comedy, and lots of stretchy pants all come to mind when thinking of part-time viral sensation and full-time musical group Turquoise Jeep. And on their January 26 stop in Dallas for the Turquoise Dreams Tour, both the group and fans expressed why…
Before 2014, the Thin Line Film Festival was Texas’ only documentary film festival fest that prided itself on conceptually blurring the ever-thinning line between fact and fiction. But after six progressive years as the internationally known 10-day short film party, Thin Line will blur even more lines as five-day film…
Incredibly, it has been 35 years since on Joey “Shithead” Keithley got together with a few other Canadian punk rockers and formed D.O.A. Playing a mixture of the Sex Pistols and The Ramones, Shithead and his revolving array of sidemen became a fixture on the West Coast American punk scene…
Dallas is in for a techie treat with upcoming concerts by two of hip-hop’s most promising internet by-products: Childish Gambino (March 7 at South Side Ballroom) and Vic Mensa (February 1 at House of Blues). With Gambino’s release of Because the Internet and Mensa’s full-length solo debut, Innanetape, 2013 introduced…
Every aspiring metal band knows that if they want their band truly to soar into the major leagues of arena playing, they need a drummer. Not just any drummer, but one who can keep the rhythm of the song and also provide the guttural devastation that lends depth and power…
Neko Case blew into Dallas on the whiplash end of the reversing polar vortex. Fortunately, Case’s Thursday night Granada Theater performance generated a lush, radiating warmth. Along with her band mates, Case is touring in support of her recently Grammy-nominated album, The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The…
Country singer/songwriter Jason Eady is one fascinating guy. Not only did Eady perform secret missions for the Air Force, he did so after spending two years learning Arabic. After leaving the military, Eady picked up a guitar and started making some seriously fine Americana music. From his home in Granbury…
One of the must-see shows this week is happening tonight at the Kessler. Pleasant Grove will headline and Crushed Stars will debut material from their excellent new record, Farewell Young Lovers. We caught up with PG members Jeff Ryan and Marcus Striplin on the band’s history, their best and worst…
Besides Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, no other band is as synonymous with the glory days of Deep Ellum as Ten Hands. Beginning in 1986, the group quickly garnered a solid local following that has not diminished in three decades. Although Ten Hands formally stopped playing in the mid ’90s,…
If you were to listen the intro to “The Ceiling,” the song that’s garnered some serious praise for Los Angeles-based The Wild Feathers, you might quickly – and prematurely – assume that the fresh-faced five-piece act is yet another entry into the Mumford-fueled folk-rock revival. Of course, after listening to…
Where to begin? We have a jarring amount of noteworthy shows on this week’s calendar. Starting tonight with Neko Case at the Granada Theater, and ending on Wednesday when Parade of Flesh and Red Bull Sound Select bring Fucked Up to Dada- this is the first big show week of…
Metal has always had a natural fit with fantastical landscapes that look like they were crafted by the hand of Frank Frazetta. The Fort Worth metal group The Hack and Slashers, however, don’t live in a world that looks perfectly suited for a custom painted van in the ’80s or…
There is an eight-show outdoor concert series in the middle of the summer in Dallas. None of the artists have been announced yet. So why might you be tempted to spend $180 right now on a season pass to such a thing? Barefoot at the Belmont, KXT’s now five-year-old series…
Sort of, kind of a local band, This Will Destroy You tour so incessantly that it’s hard to determine where these guys are from. Two band members live in Austin, one is in Waxahachie and one hails from Dallas. Wherever they are from, This Will Destroy You has never had…
Red Bull’s Sound Select series continues with Toronto’s Springsteen-ian noisemakers Fucked Up. It is another in a truly impressive string of shows for the series, and tickets are once again $3. Neko Case is not from Canada, but she did get her break singing with Canadian supergroup New Pornographers. So…
Every working guitarists knows that if he doesn’t have a good guitar doctor, his dreams of being a master shredder who destroys the crowd with rakes from his pick as he slides it up the string are dead. From a broken headstock to a cracked neck, a guitar technician is…
In-store performances are tricky, unpredictable little miscreants. Unlike a standard club show, where one typically understands the general, unwritten crowd rules, a record store gig can be awkward or intimate. It’s doubtful that one can be both, and such a show rarely falls in a gray middle. It’s a fine…
Fresh off the January 14 release of their awaited sophomore album, Darkest Hours, Dallas’ premier folk rock collective, Fox & the Bird, opened their melodic minds to the Dallas Observer about the band’s collaborative Texas sound, juggling life as part-time musicians, and how shadowy realities can still shine with harmonious…
The Vliets (Pronounced Vleets) describe themselves as ‘experimental rock’ , which seems an accurate enough description if you’re a fan of understatement. If their name offers any indication, it’s an homage to Don Van Vliet, the experimental musician better known as Captain Beefheart, a longtime collaborator of Frank Zappa’s. Lead…
Todd Gautreau of Crushed Stars wouldn’t be a natural choice to star in an indie-rock reimagining of the sentimental 1989 Kevin Costner hit film, Field of Dreams. As Ray Kinsella, a failing farmer with daddy issues, Costner’s character blindly followed a random, ghostly voice telling him that “If you build…
