Psychedelia has roared back into the lexicon of the musical masses in the last couple of years. Whether it’s the stoner sounds of The Black Angels or Tame Impala, the more pop and electro-friendly version of MGMT, or the foreboding echoes that emanate from the local True Widow, being chilled…
It’s the usual, mundane stuff of young musicians’ grown-up dreams: While becoming one of the most sought-after session guitar players in the world of country, folk and Americana, you manage to make a million or two from getting some of country music’s biggest stars to cut a handful of tunes…
Like the bottle cap or happy hour, seems Junior Brown’s been with us forever. A talented guitarist with a voice booming enough for fracking, in ’85 he hired Michael Stevens to create the “guit-steel,” an idea Brown conceived several years earlier. The combination six-string/lap steel may have taken some practice,…
They’re one of the most adventurous bands making music today, an experimental-metal act in thrall to a grab-bag of influences ranging from King Crimson and Emerson Lake and Palmer to Dream Theater and Mars Volta. Like Dillinger Escape Plan and Mastodon, Between the Buried and Me’s arrangements are equally intricate…
There it was: the chance for Dallas-based reggae band Ugly Lion to break free from regional barricades and gain credibility on a national level. The band won the Wakarusa Winter Classic in February, a competition to join the bill at the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival, which meant they had…
The great Alan Melson, director of interactive for KERA and KXT, just passed along this lovely video shot at Main Street Garden last week: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. performing “Simple Girl.” Smallest audience ever…
This news from former Lift To Experience frontman Josh T. Pearson comes as a bit of a shock. In our story about the painful release of his record Last Of The Country Gentlemen earlier this year, he told us, “I called it Last Of The Country Gentlemen because I didn’t…
This edition of show announcements is topped by two shows happening on the same day, Friday, February 10. The first of which will be headlined by Burleson’s own vocal powerhouse Kelly Clarkson. Her most recent album Stronger was released on October 21. The following tour will take her all around…
Last Night: Zeds Dead, Bass Science Trees November 15 Better than: Season 7 of Weeds Whether or not you were looking for bass Tuesday night, Trees had your back. The venue in Deep Ellum hosted two of the most nationally renowned dubstep artists for what could be a preview to…
Brooklyn-based electro-pop act Holy Ghost! had both an instant and gradual rise to fame. The electro-pop duo Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser began releasing remixes of acclaimed indie songs such as MGMT’s “Of Moons, Birds and Monsters” before debuting their first piece of original material in 2007. The song “Hold…
Musicians are undoubtedly influenced by the music they listen to. An artist’s musical selection can sometimes even foretell what a next album might sound like. So if you’ve ever wondered what the artists who grace your stereo are getting funky to, here’s your chance to find out. Every week, I’ll…
In the last months of 2011, Britney Spears’ career is the cat in Schrodinger’s sealed box — it’s both alive and dead. Most often, the swan song of a pop star’s career is a Lifetime Achievement Award, which Spears received at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards in August. As…
Hailing from Toronto, Zeds Dead is a hip dubstep duo who has been sampling and remixing singles under various guises since 2004. The band’s most recent EP, Rumble in the Jungle, came out last month on the seminal Mad Decent label and features a variety of electronic styles and bass-heavy,…
Last Night: The Misfits, Juicehead, Hood Rat, Electric Vengeance, The Hammercocks Trees November 14 Better than: carving Crimson Ghost jack-o-lanterns with Evilive on. The Misfits might have delivered a much more satisfying set last night than Glenn Danzig’s recent train-wreck performance at this year’s Fun Fun Fun Fest. Yet their…
There was a time years ago when the old Winedale Tavern on Lower Greenville Avenue was a decent place to grab a drink. That was long before Singlewide owner Kim Finch, who bought the Winedale earlier this year, had her team scrape dried vomit from the bathroom floor when renovating…
As previewed in last week’s issue, The Jayhawks have returned with a new album and a new sense of joy. As the band returns to Dallas with Mark Olson and Karen Grotberg in the lineup, you can expect to hear plenty of great country rock on Wednesday night at the…
Octopus Project, Analog RebellionNovember 12, 2011The Kessler TheaterBetter Than: Having Octopus Project play at your house party and having to clean up the mess. If limited to a single word regarding the live performance of Austin’s Octopus Project, that word would have to be exuberance. Its definition, “joyously unrestrained and…
It was a rough weekend for former Drive-By Trucker Jason Isbell, who along with his band, The 400 Unit, were victims of theft here in Dallas. It wasn’t petty either. They lost their van and trailer, which, according to the band’s publicist, was sitting outside the Holiday Inn Express by…
In various incarnations over the course of three decades, New Jersey’s The Misfits have made a mark in the history of punk rock. Starting way back in 1977, singer Glenn Danzig and bassist Jerry Only had a vision of combining punk rock’s roar with imagery from horror movies. What they…
Along with appearing in the upcoming movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D, Trey Songz is coming out with a new album next year tentatively titled Chapter 5. I’m really looking forward to what the Inventor of Sex will invent next. You see kids, Trey is one of my favorite R&B artists…
Five Finger Death Punch, All That Remains, Hatebreed, Rains The Palladium Ballroom November 12th, 2011 Better than: the Cain Velasquez/Junior Dos Santos heavyweight title fight. Even though getting to the Palladium Ballroom was difficult around 7 o’clock on Saturday night, mainly because of the sold-out Zac Brown Band show at…
There are loads of great shows this weekend, but probably the most notable is the Cystic Fibrosis benefit concert at Granada Theater on Saturday night. For the fifth year in a row, Rhett Miller will be headlining, this time with the help of Sarah Jaffe and The O’s. If helping…
