You’re so pumped to see the Polyphonic Spree at Sons of Hermann Hall tonight, aren’t you? Have you picked out your outfit? Fresh off a two-week tour of the South, the Spree, multi-taskers they are, were also running a video contest on the road, asking for different fan interpretations of…
There’s not just one Austin roots band that knows how to produce a video that must be watched a bajillion times to be believed. While The Possum Posse’s “Guy On a Buffalo” series has proved to be quite the Internet phenomenon, the video for the Whiskey Shivers’ “Gimme All Your…
I chat with Sean Kirkpatrick about Nervous Curtains’ new album, Fake Infinity. Kelly Dearmore talks to Neurosis’ Scott Kelly about going solo. Checking in with Midlake’s booze den, the Paschall Bar. A review of Juicy the Emissary’s latest sample sale. Plus recommended blurbage for Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Yelawolf,…
Are you anxiously awaiting the debut LP from Pinkish Black? The Fort Worth synth and drum duo has been tailoring their dark stretches of synth doom for a couple years now, and it finally looks like Jon Teague and Daron Beck are putting them to wax: “Everything Went Black” just…
Denton hip-hop producer Juicy the Emissary’s most recent full-length album, Cultural Refugee, acts as a sonic celebration, giving props to numerous musicians, local and national, by incorporating a hodgepodge of samples throughout. Cultural Refugee kicks off with what sounds like helium-laced vocals singing, “I thought a dream lasted forever, lasted…
The robed ones return from a two-week Southern tour, so this homecoming show should find the Dallas collective in good choral shape. Not only does the Tim DeLaughter-led group have a new song out, they were also just referenced on an episode of Portlandia and will have a song featured…
Old School KSOC-FM 94.5 has become my default radio station, which is how I’ve managed to memorize the ad for this show. With the passing of Don Cornelius a few weeks ago, this stellar old-school soul and funk line-up is Dallas’ own memorial of sorts. The O’Jays (“Back Stabbers,” “Love…
Eight years ago, Harlan Anderson started Lumberjack Fest as a way to make money for charity and his Denton-based literary magazine, The Porch. Today, the magazine is defunct, but Lumberjack Fest continues. This year’s lineup features Denton all-stars The Spitfire Tumbleweeds, Pinebox Serenade, Shiny Around the Edges, Dim Locator, Hares…
Michael Wayne Atha, better known as Yelawolf, the Alabama-born skater-turned-rapper, is navigating an interesting path in the current class of hip-hop all-stars. A quick cameo on Missy Elliott’s 2005 The Road to Stardom with Missy Elliott gave him some shine, but his work slanging hooks and producing mixtapes led to…
Interesting that Beck produced both Stephen Malkmus’ latest album, Mirror Traffic, and Thurston Moore’s 2011 LP, Demolished Thoughts. The two guitarists always seemed like eternal teenagers in their respective bands, Pavement and Sonic Youth, shaggy-haired and shred-ready, but maturity has reared its head in 2012. Mirror Traffic finds Malkmus and…
Four months ago, during the tail end of Game Four of the Rangers/Cardinals World Series, I walked into a near-empty Paschall Bar on the third floor of the building above Andy’s in Denton. There were all of 10 people there, looking stoic in front of the custom bookshelf-lined walls, occupying…
To apply the term “hardcore” in describing the sounds and vibes of Bay Area titans Neurosis is to miss the point. Whether the Scott Kelly-led outfit writhes with more recent ambient tones or pummels with the punk of their late-’80s beginnings, there’s a legitimate sense of emotional heaviness that can…
Sean Kirkpatrick and I are talking at a table at Strangeways, a brick-heavy East Dallas bar with ’80s dance music blaring from a speaker and Smiths posters decorating a wall. The Nervous Curtains singer and keyboardist looks like he might be a fan, but some people are touchy when you…
In keeping with their goal of booking Texas-wide this year, the Homegrown Music & Art Festival has announced Austin’s The Octopus Project and Ume, San Antonio’s Girl in a Coma and Dallas’ Mystery Skulls as their first round of bands. I seriously miss getting to see Ume on a regular…
Dallas emcee and producer -topic definitely perked my ears with his latest 12-song project, Songs About P___y (no relation to Big Black’s Songs About Fucking), explained on his Bandcamp page as “a collection of the personal, emotion-related struggles of men, my perception and thoughts on the man/woman relations.” It’s a…
I’m relatively new to town, and therefore just absorbing the news of Matthew Gray’s Denton County Proper booking woes. So at first I wasn’t going to even bother with this story, because a lot of other folks already have. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized…
In just a few weeks, Dallas bridge enthusiasts will be graced by a performance from The Relatives, a classic Dallas soul group that seems to prefer Austin’s audiences to that of their hometown. But they’re not the only ’60s/’70s Dallas soul band whose name has resurfaced recently. Just last year we…
Patrick “Taz” Bentley, the powerful drummer behind Rev. Horton Heat, Burden Brothers, and Tenderloin, will be back in action this week with his latest band, 76. Since their sound owes a lot to the sonic messiah that is mid-’70s arena rock, it’s no surprise to hear Bentley saw some of…
As the leader of Soul Coughing, Mike Doughty made a name for himself as a songwriter with a penchant for jazz grooves and stream-of-consciousness poetry. Too bad feuding amongst Doughty and the rest of the band over songwriting credit and other issues brought an end to Soul Coughing after just…
With Brandon Blue currently making some of the most innovative beats in Dallas hip-hop, it’s no wonder Slim Gravy (A.Dd+), Dave (The Mohicans), Dustin Cavazos and -topic joined fellow Brain Gangbanger JT in reworking “Party On,” the lead single from the Numb EP. Not only is this beat a dramatic…
Welcome to the first installment of In Session, in which nightlife photographer Roderick Pullum spends a little time with local producers in the studio.This week: Dallas duo Play-N-Skillz. Tucked away in historic Deep Ellum, on the corner of Commerce and Malcolm X, the G4 Muzik compound looks nothing like the…
This Valentine’s Day installment of 35 Denton’s latest line-up announcement comes with quite the appropriate video to make you all jangly in the pants. California trio Best Coast has been added, along with Teengirl Fantasy, Typhoon, Millionyoung, Cowboy and Indian, David Ramirez, Pond, the Rassle, American Royalty, Holy Fiction and…
