Music

Lots happening this weekend–a surprising amount, actually–so let’s cut all semantics and jump right into the shows that need to be added to your weekend calendar considerations. First, some reminders of the shows we’ve already mentioned in this week’s coverage.Tonight’s especially packed, with the show at The Lounge on Elm…

For a few years now, Denton’s Avery Williamson has been creating music under his Fizzy Dino Pop moniker, mostly existing in a computer-generated emo-core realm, combining eight-bit samples and sounds with angsty, often-screamed vocals for a sound that was certainly mind-boggling but also oddly tempting. In a change of pace,…

The Barley House has long been a hangout for local musicians. Beginning this weekend, it will be a hangout for their CDs as well. At 8 p.m. Sunday, the SMU-area beer joint and venue will unveil the Home Grown Jukebox, which is the bar’s original jukebox, except now featuring only…

In this week’s paper, Observer contributor Eric Grubbs takes a look at the path taken by The Crash That Took Me–one that’s run through past area favorites [DARYL], Black Tie Dynasty and Macavity–to get to where it is today, a seven-piece piece on the brink of releasing its sophomore album.In…

Really can’t say I’m the biggest fan of this rather bland singer-songwriter fare from local performer Tim Miller, but, man, if the above clip ain’t slick. Posted to Youtube a couple months back and uploaded to Vimeo earlier today, the video for “Who I Am,” which is apparently a hidden…

Tomorrow night at the Longhorn Saloon in Fort Worth, Memphis alt-country favorites Lucero stop on in for a performance as part of its tour in support of the recently released album, 1372 Overton Park. To a degree, the new release is a change of pace from the bar-rock fare the…

Tonight’s show at The Lounge on Elm Street (which now has its liquor license back, by the way) has the potential to be among the best of the year–or so Daniel Rodrigue said in this week’s paper when previewing tonight’s show:In what’s likely to be remembered as one of the…

Depending which metalhead you ask, metal is either being saved or being strychnined by Dethklok, the cartoon band at the center of the Adult Swim show Metalocalypse. On the one hand, the group makes fun of just about everything that made metal cool; on the other hand, they totally shred!…

One of Russia’s biggest rock bands, Mumiy Troll’s members grew up in Vladivostok, a city of a half-million people in the far eastern edge of the country, a good 10-hour flight from Moscow. “It’s like the rest of the world was [another] galaxy. We had nice beach and nice sea,…

In what’s likely to be remembered as one of the best Dallas shows of ’09, Los Angeles’ Health and Ohio’s Times New Viking will share a bill in town before heading off to Austin for Fun Fun Fun Fest. And, for each of these acts, 2009 has already been a…

Joel Zimmerman is no ordinary musician; in fact, if he were born even just a decade earlier, there’s a good chance he wouldn’t be one at all. The computer programs he most frequently relies on (FL Studio, Nuendo, etc.) lean heavily on MIDI data—a technology that didn’t exist until the…

As the driving force behind both Deerhunter and Atlas Sound, Bradford Cox is one of the most prolific and interesting personalities in music (of any classification). Between his two vehicles, he’s released three full-length albums and numerous EPs in the past 18 months. But there’s a duality here: Born with…

Skewed pop with art/rock sensibilities seems to be the norm these days with folks like Islands and French Kicks making decent money finding new ways to recycle those Talking Heads riffs. But Cincinnati’s Pomegranates ups the originality and fey ante considerably on Everybody, Come Outside!, the band’s lovable sophomore effort…

For all the emotions conveyed on Spiral Stairs’ debut album, few of them come from the lyrics. Instead it’s Scott Kannberg’s artful and nuanced use of sounds that create the most impact. Spiral Stairs is Seattleite Kannberg’s pseudonym (he’s also Pavement’s founding guitarist and Preston School of Industry’s former frontman),…

For many an up-and-coming indie music act these days, the best way to get your music noticed is to get a mention on a major music blog. A mention on Pitchfork, Stereogum or even Dallas’ own Gorilla vs. Bear is an almost guaranteed avenue to notoriety—and maybe even a little…

A few years ago, downstairs at Sons of Hermann Hall, the wooden staircases and walls started to shake as two bands in the room above played a song that sounded like something off of My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless. Four guitars played one bendy riff at top volume, and drums pounded…

When Alex Ebert left indie-electronica group Ima Robot, a switch somewhere inside of him flipped on an electric current. He grew a beard, met a lovely muse and convinced 10 people to join a musical commune he called Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. The Los Angeles folk-rock group channels…

Oh, sweet 7-inch slabs of vinyl. Brings back such nice memories of misspent youth, days forking over allowance money to the mail-order gods who delivered heaven in the form of singles from Minor Threat, Government Issue or Black Flag. Vinyl and punk rock go together like mohawks and hairspray. Seems…

Peopleodian’s recent performance at Denton DIY venue The Gazebo was far from flawless—blame the guitar amp the band was playing through—but the flaws that did exist weren’t enough to stop the crowd from filling the cold night air with peals of applause after every song. The Denton-based act started as…

Every band evolves. Sometimes it’s a gradual thing that’s apparent only in retrospect; sometimes you see it happening right before your eyes and ears. The latter is the case with Brooklyn’s The Antlers, which sprang from the solo recordings of singer/guitarist Peter Silberman. The band is now a fully functioning…