The Kül

The Kül’s influences aren’t exactly hidden within this, the band’s debut release. No, the four-piece’s sound is an obvious blend of rock and funk gods Jimi Hendrix and Sly & the Family Stone. But despite these well-traveled routes, the band’s sound manages to come off as surprisingly fresh. Much credit,…

G. Love and Special Sauce Keep Jamming

In the beginning, Philadelphia native Garrett “G. Love” Dutton, who hit the national music scene like a fourth Beastie Boy crossed with splashes of Beck and Bob Dylan, created the song “Cold Beverage” with his two-man backing band, Special Sauce. The year was 1994, the shambling song came from the…

Stephen Rippy Sets Halo Wars High Score

Making music for video games wasn’t something Stephen Rippy set out to do. It is not, for instance, why he attended the University of Texas in the early 1990s—far from it, actually. He’d moved from Spring, 20 miles from downtown Houston, to Austin in order to study visual art; at…

Darktown Strutters Keep Things Evil, Exciting

If, as the saying goes, image is everything, then the satanic-disco duo of Darktown Strutters has everything firmly planted on the prongs of its pitchforks. The terribly talented twosome’s oft-discordant dissonance can be blatantly diabolical at times. And while the sinister songs and soundscapes the pair creates certainly won’t suit…

Heartless Bastards

Sure, Heartless Bastards is among the latest add-ons to the conga line of garage bands from Dayton, Ohio. But when the band’s dusky-voiced linchpin, Erika Wennerstrom, succumbed to a severe case of Texas twang in late 2007 by moving to Austin, she effectively left that party in a huff, ditched…

Delta Spirit,Other Lives

Emerging from the wreckage of the emo band Noise Ratchet, San Diego quintet Delta Spirit headed rootsward, picking up few specifics of the Mississippi Delta per se, but conjuring a ragged fervor that’s equal parts folkie-protest, punk, inebriated English music hall, melodic Brit-pop and vintage SoCal rock. As such, Delta…

Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel

The late Jerry Wexler, who passed away last August at age 91, was best known as an advocate and producer for top R&B and soul artists like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett. But Wexler was also a huge fan of country music. On Willie and the Wheel, his…

Green River Ordinance

The biggest obstacle facing Out of My Hands, the sophomore release and major-label debut from Fort Worth’s Green River Ordinance, is that it’s impossible to listen to the album without immediately being reminded of the glut of similar-sounding alternative acts from the late ’90s: Third Eye Blind, Matchbox 20, Goo…

Chuck D Talks Barack Obama, Black History

There are few rap songs as important to modern culture as Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” a rallying cry against black communities for their political indifference. Well, it’s been 20 years since frontman Chuck D helped scare the hell out of white America with that track, and now a black…

The metal scene remembers Abboud Greig, Joe’s Garage

All it takes is a little perspective, really. A little added backstory. In the story of Abboud Greig, the 74-year-old Fort Worth landlord killed early last month during an attempted robbery, a little perspective goes a very long way. See, there’s quite more to Greig’s case than his death—stuff that…

UTD Professor’s Research At Center Of Pirate Bay Copyright Case

Today in Stockholm, Sweden-based bit torrent site The Pirate Bay entered the eighth day of its trial against International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which is accusing the site of possible copyright infringement, given its role as a host for torrent swapping. And it’s a fairly landmark trial in terms…

Picture Show: Joan Baez at the Lakewood Theater

Joan Baez played a rollicking show at the Lakewood Theater last night, and from the looks of things, she pulled it off without spilling her glass of water.Check out shots from the evening with the folk legend, from our photographer Caity Colvard, in our slideshow here…

The Basement Club Regulars To Hold Reunion

Looks like the recent trend of 1990s music reunions isn’t limited to bands. On Saturday, April 18, The Lakewood Theater will hold a reunion for The Basement, the venerable metal nightclub that rocked out on the corner of Greeenville Avenue and Park Lane from the mid 1980s until it closed…

Did You Know That Norah Jones Guests On The Lonely Island’s Album?

Yep, it’s true. The Grammy-winning Dallas native (who also has some punk leanings, remember) makes a guest appearance on Incredibad, the debut album from Andy Samberg and Crew’s The Lonely Island. Jones joins the comedians, who are best known for “Jizz In My Pants” and T-Pain collaboration “I’m On A…

Night Moves: Lollipops at Lizard Lounge

Plush hosted DJ Heather and Colette (on the House of Om Tour Saturday night, and drew a full room to hear them spin. We’ve got photos from the night up in our slideshow here.Our nightlife photo team Ray and Peter Lek also made it out to Lizard Lounge that night,…

Gig Alert: The Creepshow at Club Dada

Of all the genres and subgenres of music, I never expected that psychobilly–the frighteningly fitful combination of punk and rockabilly–would have such a protracted shelf life. But, somehow, a seemingly endless supply of disaffected youth continue to worship at the dual alters of horror movies and hardcore punk.Ontario’s The Creepshow…