Part of the first generation of hip-hop fans now approaching middle age are suburban guys who balance family time and Frank-the-Tank weekends, guys still blasting hip-hop but doing so from minivans and sensible sedans. Coffee Nods main man Ben “Benisanna” Rogers speaks for them. With a hint of reluctance, Ben…
Gwen Stefani’s shtick has come to embody an entire female generation’s attitude toward good times and spending money. Simply check out The Sweet Escape highlight reel: “Breakin’ Up” is a possible transcript of a customer-service call with Verizon. Both “Yummy” and the lead single “Wind It Up” speak to the…
Despite all the biblical allusions on the 2002 debut Lord Willin’, Virginia Beach’s Clipse (brothers Pusha T and Malice) probably didn’t intend to also evoke Exodus. But in the aftermath of the Sony-BMG merger that buried the act at Jive, the duo has wandered for years without a release date…
Julie Doiron has a long-running history with Eric’s Trip, a brilliant but mostly defunct Canadian four-piece. The band was great mostly thanks to main songwriter Rick White and his creative production techniques—”lo-fi,” if you have to call it something. As a result, I was shocked (shocked!) to find out that…
If not for his cantankerous personality and eccentric behavior, it would be easy to label Wayne “The Train” Hancock’s complete approximation of Hank Williams as simply the work of a gifted impersonator. Yet over the course of more than a decade, Hancock has released some of the most authentic and…
Despite the first blush hokeyness of their name and enough TV play on the Dodge truck commercial that featured their hyper-tonk song “Llano Estacado” to sear the number into the brain cells with almost painful familiarity, Cooder Graw turned out to be one of the genuine bright spots within the…
Dallas’ own Thomas King Cone IV distills the sounds of such disparate acts as Dwight Yoakam and Dire Straits into radio-friendly retro-country that should be his ticket to a larger audience. Cone’s male model good looks may actually serve as a distraction from his quality songwriting as his growing (mostly…
If your holidays are less like a Hallmark card and more like an outtake from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, load up on eggnog, pack up the mistletoe and celebrate the season with true, kindred spirits. Reverend Horton Heat, the man (James C. Heath), the myth and the band, which was…
This is not an album that will translate into catchy ringtones or make you bounce in your car seat, bang your head, shake your booty with friends or write angry/gushy diary entries about your recent ex. Listeners have to sit down and spend some time with it, because the music’s…
I’ve been working on a feature story about hip-hop, and I’ve noticed something: In the hip-hop world, there’s a lot of talk about representing. Representing, as in a constant refrain of reference to one’s hometown, one’s neighborhood, one’s street. Hip-hop is filled with constant shout-outs to artists’ roots, to the…
Ohhh…we get it: In a world of senseless battle of the bands (wait, what’s the plural of that? Battles of the bands? It’s kind of like trying to pluralize “pig in a blanket.”), stupid rock competitions and slapped-together music federations, perhaps one organization stands as the only bona fide group:…
Since coping with a near-fatal bout of hepatitis C, Alejandro Escovedo returned to the studio late last year to put out his first non-live album in four years, The Boxing Mirror, and to the road—just not with the same fast pace or recklessness as days past. Getting new music out,…
Slick Rick, whose mellow voice and story-telling style featured on old-school rap classics such as “La Di Da Di” and “Children’s Story,” still calls New York home despite four years of efforts by the INS to deport him to his native England on the basis of his 1991 attempted-murder conviction…
‘Twas a week before Christmas, when all through Grand Prairie, Slow jams were straight stirring, courtesy KR&B. A Grown and Sexy Christmas, you get the idea; A half-dozen new jack swingers performing at Nokia. The kids were nestled all snug in their beds, While an overpaid sitter watched over their…
Christmastime is here. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Here comes Santa Claus. We’ve all heard it before, and we don’t need to hear it again. Before you plan a holiday bash or go on a three-hour road trip, burn a mix of these fresh holiday tunes. Winter…
Few believed Jay-Z would actually stay retired, so his return is no surprise. But why come back now? He went out on top, and as president of Def Jam, he’s the head of rap’s premier institution. What more could he want? The Dr. Dre-produced track “30 Something” may provide some…
The SYR series of recordings were the right idea at the right time. Issued via Sonic Youth’s imprint—beginning in 1997 and continuing, albeit sporadically, to the present day—the releases allowed the group to shrug out of verse-chorus-verse strictures self-imposed as (relatively) new Geffen signees. Lyrics were spare and, if present…
In space, no one can hear you be hip, thus it’s probably a blessing that the Low Frequency cultured its sound in Haugesund, Norway, likely as close to space as it gets. Despite the muffled, Unwound-like vocal production, the group can’t hide its bubble-radio training wheels. There’s fighting Norse blood…
If you are into frenzied, turn-of-the-20th-century riot-inducing Eastern European classical music with a twist, and if you like your Christmas tunes in the same format, this one is a no-brainer. Graham Reynolds’ Golden Arm Trio (who recently scored Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly) is an Austin institution, brewing an odd…
Hear ye, hear ye. This is where it all comes to a head: the love, hate, passion and snarky anonymous hatred spewed forth on a daily basis on the We Shot JR DFW/Denton music blog. Have you ever been to a party with an anonymous host? Come see how WSJR…
To see and hear a bespectacled Jim Heath play old blues and jazz standards with this side project trio is to see him lounging Clark Kent-like, without the costume he’s made of his Reverend Horton Heat persona, except that a bit of cape is poking out of his Hawaiian shirt…
Thankfully unrelated to the heavy-handed ’70s hard rock guitarist Ronnie Montrose, this is actually Montrose Cunningham, a Dallas multi-instrumentalist who worships at the funky altar of Prince and Terrance Trent D’Arby. Inertia, his sophomore effort, released in 2004, is full of soulful funk and sexy ballads, never straying too far…
