Five months. When Pete Freedman first asked me to take on this column, I confess that I thought, at the time, I’d be lucky to last that long. I was already over-committed with work and family and had backed off music writing a good deal over the past few years…
Most collaborations between two strong artistic personalities such as Alejandro Escovedo and Chuck Prophet would be doomed from the start, but Real Animal is like adding a turbocharger to a Ferrari V-12. When the duo isn’t powering through snarling rockers like “Real as an Animal,” they mine a beautiful counterpoint…
Controversy is clearly Nas’ best friend. The lively debate stirred up by 2006’s Hip Hop Is Dead was trumped many times over by his year-long proclamation that his next offering would be named Nigger. Walmart, unsurprisingly, didn’t love that idea. So what hits shelves this week is simply Untitled, and…
I hope you were out at your clubs on Saturday night, Lowest Greenville bar owners. I hope you got to see what I saw at our 2008 Dallas Observer Music Awards Showcase. It was a pretty rockin’ time if you missed it. Big crowds (Billiard Bar, The Cavern, Gezellig, Stout…
Bryan Adams’ 11 is his 11th studio album. It features 11 tracks and is released exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, where it sells for roughly $11. In accordance with Mr. Adams’ current numerical fascination, I will listen to 11, with headphones, 11 times in a row and chronicle my…
Danger Mouse is arguably the most adventurous producer to tackle a Beck project since the Dust Brothers helped birth a 1996 baby called Odelay (the Dusters’ return for 2004’s Güero doesn’t count). The resulting sound is satisfyingly dense and intricate; the neo-surfisms of “Gamma Ray,” the delicate psychedelia of “Chemtrails”…
Over on our home page, we’ve got two slideshows of photos by the great Hal Samples from last night’s Dallas Observer Music Awards ceremony at the Best Venue-winning Granada Theater. Part I contains 20 color images, while Part II has a dozen black and white shots. I’ll echo music editor…
Thanks to everyone who came out to tonight’s Dallas Observer Music Awards! I, for one, had a grand ol’ time. How couldn’t you have? The performances were amazing: Doug Burr and Sarah Jaffe stunned; The Whiskey Folk Ramblers riled; Lil Wil repped hard; the Best Instrumentalists killed; THe BAcksliders rocked;…
Sorry things have been slow over here all week. We’ve been kinda busy–you know, putting together a little awards show thingy. Kicks of at 8 p.m. at the Granada tonight, and, uh-huh, it’s free to attend. Show up, preferably en masse, then, oh, just enjoy it. Me? I’ll be running…
Gutterth’s Compilation One will finally be available tomorrow, July 23. You can take a peek at the artists and songs included on the two-CD compilation at this page on Gutterth’s site. It’s packed with great bands and solo acts–Emil Rapstine, The Great Tyrant and MOM, to name a few—along with…
Bridges and Blinking Lights’ Jake Wilganowski. (Hal Samples) So, yeah, Saturday night was a grand time, folks. Good music, good people, good everything, really. Hell, there was even something of a flash-mob pillow fight at one point. Revel in the debauchery with our two slideshow recaps of the night–one in…
Like sands through the hourglass, these are the Dallas music-related videos uploaded to Youtube this weekend… Alas, there are no videos of our DOMA Showcase up on Youtube yet (we’ll have a slideshow up shortly here, though). But–shocker–apparently there were other shows this weekend aside from ours! Here’s what they…
So, we’ve told you about a bunch of shows this weekend. There are some great ones tonight (the Hieroglyphics show at the Granada, the London Nights party at minc ), Saturday (Portugal. The Man and Facing New York at House of Blues) and Sunday (Republic Tigers at Hailey’s, Todd Rundgren…
Shiny Around The Edges has a great new track up on its MySpace page: a live version of “I Hover Above You”, recorded at Sons of Hermann Hall back in February. But even better than the live version is the news that you’ll soon be able to hear the studio…
100 Damned Guns ain’t playing tomorrow. Sorry. (Vishal Malhotra) Some bad news, gang: Due to a personal matter that just came up with one of 100 Damned Guns’ members, the band will not be playing our showcase tomorrow. As a result, there will be no 7 p.m. set at Sugar…
Well, she does have some sweet furniture. (Peter Marince) Local pop singer/songwriter Liz Williams is busy writing and fine-tuning songs for her sophomore album due in the fall. In the meantime, “Nothing and Everything,” a song from her debut is a finalist in a Song of the Year contest. “Nothing…
Are warlocks more powerful than wizards? Less? (Ian Brooks) So there’s a pretty solid show going on over in Fort Worth tonight at ye olde Lola’s Saloon with the Vandelles and The Warlocks. Brooklyn’s The Vandelles are a kinda experimental, psyched out surf-rock act, but the band I’m more interested…
We always appreciate it when visual artists and musicians collaborate, whether it’s by putting on a big event, holding a concert in a gallery or museum, or complementing live music with interesting visuals. But we don’t want to overlook the smaller ways in which visual artists and musicians work together,…
So I just got word that there’s a new book coming out called A Tale of Two Brothers: Jim Morrison & Michael Hutchence from author Jacqueline Murrary. In the book, Murrary enlists the aid of some of the nation’s most “well known and credible psychics” to help tell the stories…
So, by now, you should know all about Saturday night’s DOMA showcase lineup. And you should also know that, ahem, despite what a certain free daily pick-up around town wrote in its paper today, wristbands (available at the doors to all five venues) will only run you $5. You can…
Metal Mind Music, a Polish record label, is set to reissue Rigor Mortis vs. The Earth, the vaunted sophomore effort from Dallas’ own Rigor Mortis. Originally released in 1991, the record was the last studio effort from the band, as founding member Mike Scaccia left to join Ministry. Now comes…
The call came a while back now, but Play doesn’t have a problem remembering it. After all, it was one of those sacred, career-changing moments. One of those once-in-a-lifetime deals. Play, who along with his brother Skillz makes up the Dallas-based beat-making team Play-N-Skillz, was lying in bed when it…
