In honor of the Jealous Sound’s third appearance in the DFW area in 12 months (they play in the House of Blues’ Cambridge Room tonight), we caught up with frontman Blair Shehan on how he got into playing guitar, hardcore punk, and where the band is now. What drew you…
No one sounds as taken aback by the success of the xx than the band’s guitarist, Romy Madley-Croft. Even though she helped co-found the band in 2005, Madley-Croft remains skeptical of her own playing, but somewhat reluctantly admits that her band is evolving for the better. Speaking from a tour…
Were you feeling like maybe you were about to get a little break, like your calendar was freeing up after this week? Maybe you were going to stay home and cook dinner or get back to some creative project you have putt off? I know that feeling, like the cultural…
Ticket prices are getting a little silly, wouldn’t you agree? The smaller venues are doing a great job of holding them down (it cost me less than a cheap meal for three hours’ of the Melvins and Unsane last year), but at your larger scale venues they long ago passed…
The Sundown at the Granada is a dangerous place to jokingly ask for shots while competing in a dating game. I missed the Grammys, my train stop and my bed when I tried to fall into it. When the theater announced they would be doing a dating game to give…
The xx Wednesday, February 13, and Thursday, February 14, at The Granada Theater Achingly hip Londoners the xx have a two-night stay at The Granada this week, meaning twice as many Dallasites will be swept away by songs from their now-ubiquitous debut album and the recently released Coexist. We’re kind…
Against all odds, the 2013 Grammys are not irrelevant–or, if you believe they’ve always been irrelevant, they’ve not become more irrelevant. They haven’t become more relevant, either, to be sure; their recent attempt to rationalize the increasingly abstruse and parochial categories was worthwhile–I suppose we can do without Best Rock…
The stage at Bass Hall was nearly barren, except for two chairs and a small coffee table. Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen were playing without a backing band. It was just two guys, two acoustic guitars and a lot of memories; two men stripped down to the thing that…
Instagram/Mary Beth BabcockBy now you’ve long since been grossed out/freaked out/mesmerized by the seemingly inexhaustible creative genius of Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, the latest example of which, of course, is an anatomically correct chocolate heart that comes signed by the band in custom packaging and complete with an embedded…
It all began quite simply enough. As the PVC Street Gang was finishing up their set at this year’s Lumberjack Fest in Denton at Dan’s, venerable guitarist and all-around goofball, Ryan Thomas Becker, began grinding suggestively against a slim, petite brunette just near the front door. He slithered all around…
Morrissey, scheduled to play the Palladium on February 18, has just announced that he’s rescheduling due to continued struggles with a bleeding ulcer and Barrett’s esophagus. Medical issues already sidelined the songwriting legend in late January for six shows; he’s expected to resume touring in Denver on February 21. The…
Snoop Dogg will headline this year’s Dallas Observer St. Patrick’s Day Concert at Energy Square on Greenville Avenue. We’ll announce the rest of the lineup soon, but you can buy your tickets right now. They’re $15 for general admission ($20 day-of), or there is a VIP option that costs $65…
Poster by CJ DeMarx CJ DeMarx and Mattie Stafford are known around the Dallas underground scene as a bit of a power couple when it comes to throwing a party. Last summer, their contribution to The Compound after-parties didn’t go unnoticed, but it all started six Valentine’s ago with a…
Holly Williams, the 31 year old granddaughter of the iconic Hank Williams, has grown into a formidable artist all her own. Unlike her off-his-rocker dad and her crazy-ass half-brother, Hank Williams III, Holly hasn’t really dabbled in the stone-cold honky-tonk sounds that her family has been making for decades. She…
Texas Country, or Red Dirt, or whatever one wants to call it, has become big business these days. So, it’s not really shocking that a couple of television shows dedicated to artists fitting into the Lone Star-loving realm have popped up and are shedding light on the talent all over…
It’s been nice to watch TV–fresh off House of Cards’s Netflix premier–deal with the same questions people have been addressing about music since Napster or iTunes or Spotify, depending on which iteration of the issue you remember best. Specifically: Now that Netflix can create programming based on the programming we…
Kevin “Tunk” Arradondo is not afraid to tell you that he’s been broke all of this life, and on his latest mixtape, Direct Deposit, he does many times. “I’m not tryin to sit here and lie on the record. Sooner or later that can be your downfall,” says the 23…
Ladies, grab your instruments and put on your hottest Annie Lennox ensemble. Girls Rock Dallas foundation has announced its first year of Ladies Rock Camp, featuring area band The Chloes. They will be hosting a weekend-long day camp and fundraising event held February 22 to 24, which ends with a…
Many “best of metal” lists recently have overlooked an album which is, in my generally poor opinion, not only worthy of a place on these lists, but the best, most interesting, and most exciting metal album released this millennium. This album is Mastodon’s “Leviathan”. This album has so much going…
Blowfly Saturday, February 9, at Club Dada, $11-$15 Through a bizarre friend-of-a-friend scenario, Observer Arts & Culture editor Jamie Laughlin and our former music editor Audra Schroeder found themselves in a Fort Lauderdale recording studio in the early 2000s, getting stoned with rappers Afroman, Shaggy and Blowfly, and doing back-up…
Since 2006, Austin’s Balmorhea have been mining the ground of minimalistic post-rock to much critical acclaim. Throughout their career the band’s music has always had a strong narrative. Each track feels as if a short story is being told. The band’s latest, Stranger, sees the group stepping away from minimalism…
The Definitive Jux crew is having a pretty good year. The latest from the collective to touch down in Dallas is underground rap king Murs. Murs’ name — “Making the Universe Recognize and Submit” or “Making Underground Raw Shit” — has changed over the years, but his lyrical prowess and…
