Music

Tonight at Lift Lounge …and Rich Lopez and I will be in attendance at Lift Lounge helping a panel of judges choose the best of the five competing local DJs. The winner of this little competition will be repping Dallas at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami on March 28…

Spend enough time with creative types—especially musicians—and you start to get a sense of how important outside feedback, either positive or negative, is to these folks. It’s a simple matter of pride and self-doubt. These people are filled with both. Guess that comes with the territory when you’re putting your…

For a long time—about three years—Erykah Badu figured maybe she was done making records. It started around the time she released Worldwide Underground in June 2003, which would have been one hell of a farewell: a gritty, fist-in-your-face EP populated by tracks that rambled on and on, some drenched in…

From within the confines of his East Dallas apartment, Wanz Dover is foreseeing the future. He sayeth the Dallas music scene is on the precipice of something huge—like the coming of a cultural savior. Tectonic plates under the city itself will quake to reawaken the music gods that have slept…

Speaking from his tour bus just outside Seattle, Mark Olson sounds revitalized and downright giddy. Things are good at the moment for the former leader of the influential alt-country act The Jayhawks. “I have a real interesting band,” Olson says of the group of musicians backing him on his current…

It seems like Mike Doughty is doing everything he can to blend in with every milquetoast singer-songwriter who ever drew inspiration from Duncan Sheik. The ridiculous album title, bland packaging photos—including shots of the artiste at work with a cup of coffee and a notebook full of scribbles—and liner notes…

Born and raised in Austin, country/folk singer-songwriter Danny Schmidt parlays an aggressive acoustic guitar style and a yearning, yowling vocal delivery into a unique charisma that’s both evocative and oddly comforting. Little Grey Sheep, Schmidt’s fifth effort, is a collection of orphaned songs, some deemed too askew to fit in…

Downer duo Beach House first made waves with its 2006 single “Apple Orchard,” which copped the breathy vocals and slide guitar of Mazzy Star and buried them under layers of cavernous reverb and buzzing organ. Two years later the band’s bewitching formula hasn’t really changed—upon first listen Devotion floats by…

There’s always been something comforting about the music of Nada Surf. Hipper than Coldplay and less distant than Death Cab, band members Matthew Caws, Ira Elliot and Daniel Lorca are capable of creating perfectly crafted three- to five-minute odes to the elusiveness of love. Perfectly content to wallow in melancholy…

Atlanta garage rockers The Black Lips are no strangers to praise. Last year’s Good Bad Not Evil was a fairly well-regarded release in critics’ circles, only helping add stock to this fuzzed-up retro act’s reputation as one of the best and craziest live shows currently touring the States. It’s tough…

While all three of these acts would appeal to a crowd that likes its rock loud, this still seems like a strangely mismatched lineup. The Great Tyrant’s Daron Beck plays ominous synth and keyboard parts and bellows and growls theatrically over the most brutal rhythm section in North Texas, making…

Here’s what we do know: Aiden’s a decent draw with the teenage crowds, and we’ve never heard of Ivoryline (although their CD did just come into the office…), Farewell to Freeway or Me Vs. The Sea. Here’s what we don’t know: How Schoolyard Heroes ended up on this bill—because, sight…

Born and raised in Cleburne, Sonny Burgess was always surrounded by the customs commonly associated with traditional country music: growing up poor in a rural setting and being constantly exposed to the music of Hank Williams Sr., Glen Campbell and Roy Clark. Being a high school baseball star provided Burgess…

Erv Karwelis of Idol Records tells us that he’s going to try and take The Crash That Took Me beyond the Dallas market y getting the song “Julianne” onto those call-in-and-vote-if-you-like-this-track shows in various radio market around the country. Should be an interesting effort–while we certainly wish the Crash and…