Blogaroo ’09: At Least The Comics Are Keeping Things Light…

As of Friday at noonish, nothing at the 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has happened the way I’ve expected it to. Or the way I’ve thought it should’ve gone. Or the way Triumph the Insult Comic Dog thought it would either, for that matter.No surprise that there are lines…

Sick Of The Jonases? This Won’t Help.

Listen up satellite radio fans. Or don’t, maybe. But, either way, be warned: All weekend long, Westlake’s Jonas Brothers will be all up in your radio, broadcasting directly into your home on Sirius XM radio.Earlier today, the Jonases joined up with Sirius Channel 1’s morning show, talking about their record…

Last Night: Regional Air Guitar Championship at The Loft

Air Guitar Regional ChampionshipJune 11, 2009The LoftBetter than: sitting at home praying it doesn’t rain anymore. Plenty more photos in our slideshow.Though it was brutally long at nearly five hours, last night’s Regional Air Guitar Championship was nonetheless a fascinating sociological experiment. The evening at The Loft started off inauspiciously…

Download: DJ Marvel’s No Request, Vol. 3 Mixtape

Over on his highly entertaining blog at Fresherthan.com, local DJ Fishr Pryce, who himself is promising a new mixtape in the coming days, has posted a link for readers to download the newest mix from local spinner DJ Marvel, who holds a residency over at Henderson Avenue nightclub Glo. The…

ZZ Top’s Got Some Stories To Tell. On VH1, No Less.

Late in March, the Dallas natives (what up, Woodrow Wilson?) and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers in ZZ Top went up to Chicago and taped an episode of VH1’s Storytellers to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary. Later this month, on Saturday, June 27, at 9 p.m., the channel will…

Peaches, Drums of Death

Peaches’ 2000 debut, Teaches of Peaches, was undoubtedly a high point for its genre. There was something uniting and motivating to be found in Merrill Nisker’s skeletal production, sexual proclamations and daredevil live shows. But through Fatherfucker and Impeach My Bush, Peaches’ repetitive approach—rooted to a single 909 groovebox and…

Viva Voce, Cut Off Your Hands, Robert Gomez

Though they started off as a duo, don’t think that Viva Voce is just another one of those bands that rock critics get all excited about because there’s apparently all this sexual tension in not having a bass player. Not even close: The husband-and-wife team that leads this four-piece trade…

David Byrne

From his time leading the seminal new wave band the Talking Heads to his mercurial and oftentimes fascinating solo career, David Byrne has always done things his own way. And for the better part of 40 years now, he’s ingrained himself into the fabric of indie and experimental music, creating…

Camera Obscura, Anni Rossi

Camera Obscura’s take on pop music is similar to the one proposed by John Cusack’s character in High Fidelity. It’s the idea that pop isn’t some factory-made crap staining up the charts; it’s a canon, mostly built upon ’60s rock and soul, upheld by geeky listeners who believe in the…

The Wooden Birds, Other Lives

It’s been four years since we’ve heard from Fort Worth native Andrew Kenny, former American Analog Set frontman. But Magnolia, the debut LP from his new band the Wooden Birds, has proven to be worth the wait. Tambourines rustle like leaves, or like Kenny’s hushed, raspy voice, which takes on…

Jason Lytle

It may be a relief to fans of Grandaddy that former frontman Jason Lytle’s solo debut Yours Truly, the Commuter sounds exactly like a Grandaddy album. But it shouldn’t be a surprise. After all, they were a band in name only, and before their swan song, Just Like the Fambly…

Elvis Costello

In this phase of his career, Elvis Costello seems determined to convince people he can do just about anything—jazz (2003’s North), classical (2004’s Il Sogno), pop duets (2006’s The River in Reverse, recorded with Alan Toussaint) and collaborations with indie-rock darlings (last year’s Momofuku, which featured cameos from Jenny Lewis)…

White Rabbits

Put on the second album from New York City’s White Rabbits, and you get pounded with all sorts of funny rhythms: fat and tribal on “Percussion Gun”; slinking and clattering on “Lionesse”; panning and chugging on “Rudie Fails.” This is a band that likes drums, which explains why it’s been…

Jenny Lewis: Now With More Elvis Costello!

At this point, it’s pretty hard to make music about the tension between sin and redemption without sounding hokey. That whole church thing had already been reinvented a zillion times (see: Cash, Cave, Kanye) before Jenny Lewis took a dusty side trip from Rilo Kiley and made 2006’s Rabbit Fur…

Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor Is On A Roll

Grizzly Bear member Chris Taylor is on a streak. In just the past few years, he’s been responsible for producing critical darling Department of Eagles’ 2008 release In Ear Park, as well as efforts from Dirty Projectors and Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. And, in addition to producing new songs, Taylor…