You are almost certainly aware that Mr. Mangum is the voice, guitar and driving force behind a pair of classic, and relatively unique, albums from the 1990s when fronting the band Neutral Milk Hotel. Featuring repeated lyrical engagements with difficult subject matter, most noticeably Anne Frank, and a unique vocal…
The last time Calexico rolled through Dallas, for their 2008 release Carried to Dust, they were as effortless as a tumbleweed but harnessed the power of a sandstorm. Since the mid-’90s, the Tucson-based band has been fusing Latin American sounds with a good rock ‘n’ roll sensibility that has taken…
Southern California metalcore foursome Of Mice & Men are hitting the road again after the re-release of their 2011 sophomore album The Flood. They’ve made no mention of a new album, but my guess is that they’ll whip out some heavy new material. A handful of equally heavy groups like…
Bad Religion, Against Me!, Polar Bear Club Thursday, March 14, at House of Blues, $25 Tickets go on sale Friday to see punk warhorses Bad Religion, who are making a pit stop in Dallas after the release of their brand spankin’ new album, True North, next week. We’ll see if…
Erika Wennerstrom and her fantastic band, Heartless Bastards, return to Dallas on Saturday night. In preview of their show at Trees, Wennerstrom shed some light on her (lack of) formal training and the strange looks she gets for the band’s name. Which instrument did you learn to play first, piano…
This is not your everyday top 100 Bilboard list. Each week, we’ll tell you what bands are selling in the fine record shops in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, where we consumers of music have impeccable taste. Kicking off this roundup are last week’s top ten albums at CD Source…
Hello from your new music editor. I have now managed to get a bed into an apartment and sleep on it for one night, so the next step is finding ways to not spend time on it. I think I’m going to like this town — I already spent a…
Christopher VictorioDJs are the new rock stars? Maybe. (Although chefs are already the new rock stars.) Still, the big name DJs do seem to be living pretty large, what with the constant travel to exotic locations, goofily-clad fans, eager women, drugs and parties. Just swap MacBooks for guitars and it…
The last month in music news has been a bit of a time machine, with the likes of David Bowie, Destiny’s Child and Justin Timberlake promising to dominate the music universe in 2013. Even without a single, you could sense the collective yearning building up across the Internet in reaction…
Guys, the weather forecast for this week is decidedly bad news. We know you all like to get out there, see things and do stuff (this is a very inclusive blog post). We would never discourage you from that. However, seeing as the weather can’t even be bothered to get…
Robert Gomez, Evan Jacobs Wednesday, January 16, at Dan’s Silverleaf, Free A brand new effort from folk singer-songwriter Robert Gomez is called the Green Hour Residency at Dan’s Silverleaf. Come during happy hour in Denton for improvisational music from Gomez and former Midlake musician Evan Jacobs. Gomez has been a…
“Electrifying,” “Magnetic,” “Memorable” are just some of the words that people used to describe an evening with B.B. King at the House of Blues in Dallas. His sophisticated style of soul-wrenching guitar playing inspired tears of joy and calls of “Amen,” “Preach it, brother” and “Oh Lord, I’m coming home.”…
Destiny’s Child released their first major-label song on the soundtrack to Men in Black, which came out on CD, cassette, and MiniDisc; they became famous shortly before Monica Lewinsky. This is the kind of thing a pop star less secure than Beyonce wouldn’t want to draw attention toward, which is…
This weekend, the NFC and AFC divisional rounds will pit such heavyweights as the Baltimore Ravens against the Peyton Mannings, The Green Bay Packers against the San Francisco 49ers, the Seattle Blinding Highlights against the Atlanta Falcons and a game I won’t mention for obvious reasons. We’re here to offer…
Ray Wylie Hubbard is a storyteller without equal, who inspired a flock of country and blues poets. The Dallas native made a stop this week on Letterman, in promotion of last year’s The Grifter’s Hymnal. He and his excellent band played a track from that album, “Mother Blues,” which remembers…
Muse, Dead Sara Wednesday, March 13, at American Airlines Center, $36.50-$61.50 Well, we all knew it was coming. After October’s The 2nd Law dropped, and, of course, after being unable to escape the “Madness” single no matter how far from civilization one ventured, we all knew it was only a…
Pranks are never more effective than when a prankster finds the precise border between reality and absurdity and just barely steps over it. This week’s #CutForBieber trending topic–in which Justin Bieber fans were supposed to be cutting themselves in an attempt to force their ur-boyfriend off marijuana–was a perfectly executed…
News spread pretty quickly on Tuesday afternoon when a press release went out with the following words: “True Widow Signs With Relapse Records.” Relapse, the renowned label that’s best know for releasing classic records by Mastodon, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Baroness, might sound like an odd choice for True…
B.B. King Saturday, January 12, at House of Blues, $65-$125 Blues legend B.B. King is on tour after celebrating the 50th anniversary of signing to ABC-Paramount Records. Fans and blues-lovers alike should not miss out on the rare opportunity to see the now 87-year-old mastermind musician live. He’ll probably bust…
Yesterday we welcomed to Observer HQ Kiernan Maletsky, our new music editor. Kiernan is the former music editor at the Riverfront Times in St. Louis and has contributed to Denver’s Westword and other publications. He plays the drums and is slightly too tall for my tastes. I asked him a…
Oil Boom’s Gold Yeller EP was one of our favorites last summer, and the handclaps of single “Great American Shakedown” soundtracked many a late night. The Dallas trio hits up the Sundown at Granada’s free local concert series on Thursday, so you’ll have a nice, warm place to shake that…
Unconscious Collective — the rhythm section of Stefan and Aaron Gonzalez plus guitarist Gregg Prickett — landed on our best albums of 2012 list, on the strength of their self-titled debut full-length album on Dallas’ Tofu Carnage Records. Straddling the underworlds of free jazz and progressive metal, the trio is…
