So, leap day was busy. I know last week I asked who actually celebrates leap day, but there were lots of killer shows on February 29. We managed to get into the sold-out Marilyn Manson show (and brought our camera, of course), caught Dan Dyer’s two-hour set and witnessed a…
If only we could grow beards like that. (Dan Dyer) Dan Dyer February 29, 2008 Bend Studio Better than: … going to the same venue for yoga and discovering you’re about as limber as week-old garlic bread. Dan Dyer hit the stage at a packed Bend Studio and within seconds…
Airline’s got two shows this weekend (Jason Upshaw) It’s Friday already? Really? That’s a pleasant surprise. Guess it’s time to plan the weekend, then… Here are our top choices for must-see music shows around the Metroplex this weekend. As always, check our music listings and print version for more options…
Sarah Jaffe is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Springtime Halloween show at Strawberry Fields. (Sarah Jaffe)What’s with all the holiday-themed shows this week? Is it just that people can’t wait for St. Patrick’s Day, and need a reason to party? I have no idea, but two shows stick out:…
While we here at DC-9 will be down in Austin at South by Southwest mid-March, we know not everyone is dropping the big moolah for the festival. A great in-town alternative is the “South By So What?!” fest. (They’ll be more on the SXSW overflow shows and South By So…
60 or so bands played the Melodica Festival this weekend, and it would have been literally impossible to catch each and every performance during the three-night fest. Still, we ran ourselves ragged trying. The result: About 12 acts caught in full, another handful of performances seen mostly in full, and…
Looks like, once upon a time in 1977, someone hoped to make a concert film out of a Genesis concert that, apparently was filmed here in Dallas. Now someone’s taken the liberty of posting the unreleased footage of the film, apparently called Seconds Out, onto YouTube. And we, in turn,…
Hey, CBS 11? 1999 called. It wants it’s rave party scare story back. — Pete Freedman…
Maceo Parker with Grand Pianoramax February 27, 2008 House of Blues Better than: Pretty much anything, save a second performance. Self-described on his live album Life on Planet Groove as “2 percent jazz, 98 percent funky stuff,” Maceo Parker brought a funk explosion to the House of Blues Wednesday night…
At its best, this past weekend’s Melodica Festival was inspiring and, well, surprisingly engrossing. At its worst, it was inaccessible, self-indulgent and pretty boring. Now, in the days following the event, the most appropriate summary of this three-day Exposition Park/Deep Ellum affair lies somewhere in the middle of that spectrum,…
For an unemployed father of twin 7-year-old girls, Todd Gautreau seems relatively cheerful and calm. Maybe that’s because his band, Crushed Stars, has just released its third CD, the lovely Gossamer Days, and the Internet buzz is almost universally positive. Still, his demeanor is a bit surprising. “My wife is…
Warning: Parts of the following interview were lost in translation. Blame any number of determining factors—wavering cell signals, a weak intercontinental phone connection, thick French-accented English and an interviewer who doesn’t speak a lick of French. Just don’t blame Gaspard Augé. Augé, who is half of the critically acclaimed French…
Golden Smog and Jayhawks alum Gary Louris has a genius for crafting heartbreaking-yet-inspiring pop songs. At his best, on Jayhawks tunes such as “Save It for a Rainy Day,” “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me,” and “It’s Up to You”—not to mention all the incredible tracks he wrote with Mark…
Before Ryan Adams recorded every half-baked song idea he ever had, before he scored the model-actress girlfriends, before A.A., he was a mean, drunken son of a bitch. He was also a hell of a lot more interesting. March 4 will herald the release of a two-disc deluxe version of…
It’s not clean new wave. It’s not art rock. It’s not straight experimental. Mission Giant’s latest release, Golden Triangle, takes the synthesized and oft-instrumental works of 2003’s Brotherhood of the Plug into a new genre—which I’ll go ahead and dub arcade art wave. With several release celebrations on the calendar…
One can’t help but wonder how much a rock band can rock without a guitar player, but Washington D.C.’s Apes are out to disprove the common assumption that rock bands without guitar players are nothing more than shtick. The band’s singer/organ/bass/drums lineup is capable of creating quite a racket, actually,…
On its 2003 debut, The Decline of British Sea Power, U.K. indie-rockers British Sea Power laid buzz-saw guitars on top of an expansive, psych-tinged background. The band’s 2005 follow-up, Open Season, sacrificed some of that steely bite for strings and swooning textures. Without jagged guitar slashes propelling them, the songs…
Vampire Weekend has been buzzing in the blogosphere for almost a year now—some overzealous hipsters even named the Brooklyn band’s self-titled debut “Best Album of 2007”. . . even though it wasn’t even officially released last year. Fresh out of Columbia University, these four smarty-pants sing about French designer Louis…
I can’t in good conscience recommend paying for this show, as that would mean supporting two acts whose masses-pleasing mediocrity helped define the reprehensible and irreversible plummet in quality that “alternative rock” radio took during the mid-’90s. But if you somehow end up with free tickets to this perfect storm…
Even though Dan Dyer was born in East Texas and now resides in Austin, his musical roots are firmly set in his former residence of Missouri, reflecting the rhythm and blues tradition commonly associated with St. Louis. Vibrant, loose and engaging, his vocals recall the likes of W.C. Handy, Stevie…
Eat Me, Drink Me, the effort supported by Marilyn Manson’s Rape of the World tour, is unimaginative alt-rock from an artist that became more accessible at exactly the time he could and should have pushed the envelope further. Following the yes-no-maybe The Golden Age of Grotesque, last year’s Eat Me,…
Oh, nostalgia. A good decade or so after both NOFX and No Use for a Name’s heyday, the Fat Wreck Records label mates are still ticking, still touring and still making mall punk music with lewd, punny song titles. Just last year, NOFX released a new live CD, They’ve Actually…
