Well, I guess I lied again yesterday about being done with Dallas Observer Music Awards postings for the year. As YouPlusDallas’ Laura Stillo teased in the comments of yesterday’s post featuring the local web video production company’s take on the DOMA Showcase in Deep Ellum, we’ve now got a second YouPlusDallas-produced, DOMA-related…
Modest Mouse is an elusive, upper-tier act that only releases material when it damn well pleases. At least that’s what frontman Isaac Brock would have you believe. The music, though, is generally always well worth the wait. But far less common? The chance to see the band perform live. Lucky for Dallas…
When the Lizard Lounge’s powers-that-be plan anniversary events, clearly, their mind immediately turns to Moby.Back in 2008, you may recall, when the venue hosted its 10th anniversary party for its annual Meltdown block party, the club enlisted the services of the prominent DJ, musician, producer and noted gearhead. This week,…
About a year has passed since Fitz & The Tantrums made their Dallas debut at the Cambridge Room at the House of Blues, fresh on the heels of a much-discussed, breakout South by Southwest performance. From a pure output standpoint, very little has changed since that performance before a sold-out,…
Looks like Coldplay released their album Mylo Xyloto on Monday. I’m racking my head about what the album title means. Is it the name of Chris Martin’s pet axolotl? No idea.So, instead, I’m gonna put Mylo Xyloto off and check out at another soft-rock band — one often compared to…
Johnette Napolitano leads Concrete Blonde back to Dallas later this week for a Friday night gig at the Granada Theater that will no doubt stand as one of the best shows in town. With only a string of shows slated — three in Texas and all around Halloween time, no…
Despite being just 21 years of age, country singer-songwriter Lydia Loveless has the world-weary demeanor of someone twice her age. After leaving home at the age of 14, Loveless found solace in, of all places, Columbus, Ohio, and that city’s underground punk scene. Like a lot of punks, Loveless then…
Well, we lied. This will be the last of the 2011 Dallas Observer Music Awards-related items we’ll post up on DC9 this year. Swear.Trust us, though, this one’s worthwhile. Promise. Our friends at YouPlusDallas were out and about doing their award-winning video thing at at this year’s DOMA Showcase in…
Rhode Island’s ramshackle band of rockers, Deer Tick, has been rather prolific since the release of 2007’s War Elephant. That album that won fans with the literate, country rock stylings of lead singer and songwriter John McCauley III. It wasn’t before everyone was ready to lather the stickiness of the…
World Series fever has pretty much taken over around these parts again. And for good reason: Having the hometown team participate in the Fall Classic in back to back years is somewhat of a rare treat — especially for a team that, until recent years, had been as perennially bad…
St. VincentKessler TheaterOctober 23, 2011Better than: missing out on all three of Annie Clark’s hometown performances this weekend. This much is clear, just as it always has been: Dallas loves its own, and especially those who love it back.Fortunate, then, that Annie Clark, the Oklahoma-born, Dallas-bred artist who performs under…
With the 20th anniversary edition of Nevermind being released earlier this year — and with the subsequent buzz it churned — it would seem we are on the brink of a full-blown grunge resurgence. But what is being somewhat overlooked in all the Nirvana hype is that the early ’90s…
You should well know by now all about Lights All Night, the annual New Year’s Eve bash in town that this year will become a two-night event featuring the biggest names in the electronic music world (Tiesto, Girl Talk, Diplo, Benny Benasi, Ghostland Observatory, Neon Indian, and many, many, many…
45 FestDadaOctober 21, 2011Better than: lots of Deep Ellum shows during Frankie and Adam’s formative years. Deep Ellum is picking back up. Although it may never be what it once was, it’s turning into something cool. The suicides of Spector 45 punks Frankie “45” Campagna and Adam “Bones” Carter, which…
If you’re a big enough Neon Indian to have ordered the deluxe vinyl version of their newest album, Era Extraña, then you’ve probably had a lot of fun playing with the PAL 198X (a mini synthesizer created by Neon Indian singer Alan Palomo in tandem with Austin’s Bleep Labs) that…
Everyone likes a good list, right?Long before there were things like page view minimums, lists still existed, though they were fewer in number. But just about two months before Y2K hit, at which point we were to hole up in an underground bunker ’til they could adjust all the world’s…
Hailing from the small, waterfront town of Anacortes, Washington, The Lonely Forest is a four-piece outfit that specializes in a quirky brand of power pop that is not much different from that of another band from that same region: Death Cab for Cutie. As a matter of fact, Death Cab’s…
This is the weekend of St. Vincent. In fact, someone ought to make it a local holiday because it’s going to be pretty difficult to escape the songstress over the next few days. She’s set to perform in town three different times. On Saturday and Sunday night, she’ll perform two…
Before Annie Clark was St. Vincent, before she was a member of The Polyphonic Spree and before she a member of Sufjan Steven’s touring band, she was just a girl growing up in the Dallas suburbs that took guitar lessons at the Zoo Music on Garland Road.”That’s just in me,”…
It’s been nearly a year since the devastating news of Frankie Campagna’s suicide rattled the Dallas music community. Only three months later, when the wound was still fresh, Campagna’s Spector 45 bandmate, bassist Adam Carter, followed in his footsteps.Now, a year later, the dust has settled for some, but others…
Genre labels are fascinating tools in the overall study of popular music. Even the term “popular music” can be misleading, for heaven’s sake. Metal gods Anthrax are popular — but they’re certainly not pop. Kesha is certainly pop — but not popular with people, y’know, who like music to not…
At 65, singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III is, perhaps, the elder statesmen of musicians who were tagged as “The Next Bob Dylan” in the early 1970s. But Wainwright’s cynicism and humor have always set his songs a part from the typical coffee house troubadour. Sadly, in some ways, Wainwright is probably…
