For Philadelphia’s notably disheveled Man Man, hackneyed comparisons to Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits must be flattering, but they’re hardly applicable. Granted, front man Honus Honus (Ryan Kattner) has the kind of pipes that make him sound like he gargles with sand and yells at traffic all day, but his…
On hiatus for the past couple of years, local wild man Lyle Steadham has decided to resurrect Ghoultown, his metal/psychobilly labor of love. Bury Them Deep, the ironically titled recent effort, features new drummer Rob Schumacher (Slick 57, Riverboat Gamblers) but doesn’t divert significantly from the Misfits/Cramps shockabilly that the…
Somebody start the timer. My 15 minutes of music section fame are about to begin…and end. Next week on this page, you’ll be reading the sweet prose of your new music editor, Jonanna Widner, who probably has cooler hair than you. Until then, let me take you on a magical…
It’s cheesy. It’s got a geek rep. It’s completely self-absorbed. It’s karaoke…and it’s packing Dallas barrooms. This room-packing effect is nothing new really. What’s new is that kitschy karaoke has grown from the 12-ton cassette-playing machines of your father’s Christmas party, past conventioneer-chic and straight into out-and-out hipness. Weeknights have…
I don’t know nothin’ about this broad who’s taking over the Dallas Observer’s music section, but I bet the only question those Village Voice Media stooges asked her during the job interview was “Do you like Reverend Horton Heat?” She must have said “No, and I’ll trash him every chance…
Despite an endless audience for radio-friendly music, most pop-oriented artists eventually become bored with straightforward pop-music structures–a tradition that’s been carried down from the Beatles to Christina Aguilera. And really, who can blame them? Even though it’s one of the hardest things to construct, the pop hit is also the…
In preparation for the upcoming Alice in Chains concert, we wandered back behind the spotlights and the expansive monitors of the stage at Nokia Theatre. And we found we weren’t alone. Though we saw no one, we heard voices in the dressing room: Layne Staley: I mean, I suppose I…
Sometimes an artist has to grow. You can either keep rehashing the same tired-ass shtick until you fall apart, or you can try to spread your wings and fly. Can you fly, Bobby? Robocop references aside, DJ Shadow has apparently decided to do just this with The Outsider, the trip-hop…
At 75, Ike Turner is still one mean motherfucker. Risin’ With the Blues, his first release of new material in three years, is as tough and weathered as the man himself, full of searing guitar work and his ever-prevalent tough-guy persona. Mixing half a dozen quality originals (including the signature…
Houston native and Dallas resident Travis Hopper has all the right intentions and influences on this sparse and sloppy alt-country debut. All the Lights features 10 takes on the standard theme of boy loses girl, boy drinks, boy ends up feeling worse. While a bit too earnest in spots, Hopper’s…
Jason Molina might be a funny guy in person, but on record he’s a manic-depressive for the ages, alternating between mid-tempo anthems of loneliness and lo-fi acoustic dirges so desolate they could have been recorded in the stairwell at a mental hospital. On Fading Trails (his third studio album under…
Rock ‘n’ roll clichés–Riot City Blues is chock full of ’em: “What can a poor boy do?” “Shake some action…Get down to the real nitty gritty.” And those are just in the first two songs of this slamming paean to rock ‘n’ roll at its finest–circa late ’60s/early ’70s. You’ve…
Connecticut’s Hatebreed comes out of that whole late-’80s/early-’90s Youth Crew, “We’re all about unity and positivity, and we’ll kick the ass of anyone who says different” mindset fostered by the New York and Boston hard-core scenes. It has managed to bash out four albums of monochromatic metalcore–the latest being the…
Scott Miller’s name always comes up in any discussion of the amorphous musical movement that flies under the pirate flag of alternative country. True to the movement’s indefinable parameters, Miller doesn’t much care whether he’s flat-picking an acoustic or flailing a Tele turned to 11 (that’s a Fender Telecaster electric…
Along with Cooder Graw and Cross Canadian Ragweed, Jason Boland and the Stragglers are part of a talented crop of like-minded country-rock bands that popped up like virulent weeds in 1999. Along with the hugely popular Ragweed, Boland used to have a home base of Stillwater, Oklahoma (he now lives…
Spune Productions has organized another endurance-testing showcase that ensures you should spend the day in Denton. But you’ll have plenty of time during bad sets to enjoy the city’s non-musical attractions: Lance Yocom was kind enough to book three hours of lousy metal from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., which…
The current reigning ambassador of the loosely defined mash-it-up genre known as breakcore, Luca Venezia–aka Drop the Lime–has been expanding the palette of club music aficionados since he broke on the scene in 2003. DTL’s blend of grime/dubstep, frenetic 4/4 techno, IDM and Baltimore house, along with a fuck-the-rules attitude,…
Last week, for the first time in its five-year existence, we neglected to attend the Austin City Limits Music Festival, opting instead to take in several acts as they stopped by Dallas en route to Austin. Sure, the life-changing Sufjan Stevens and Cat Power sets we caught were better than…
Hippies, though admirable and well-intentioned, often compensate for their excellent politics with profoundly lousy art. Which is a real bummer, as our current political situation is profoundly lousy–as you might have heard, we’re living through one epic backlash against the ’60s and liberal democracy and yada, yada. Meanwhile, the last…
When the purveyors of pop culture want to know who’ll be hot the next year, they usually look to the dubious cast of characters known as experts. But that title gets thrown around like dollar bills at a strip club. The chance that they’ll be on the money is usually…
British metal band Bullet for My Valentine’s drummer Michael Thomas is lucky he still has his lungs–or at least that’s what his P.R. people want us to think. The band was filming their last video in a cave, and Thomas contracted a “deadly lung disease.” OK, caves are full of…
It’s the day after Jet’s last European show before heading to the States, and drummer Chris Cester is fulfilling his interview quota by cell phone from London. The Australian quartet is crossing the pond for a mini-tour advancing their sophomore CD, Shine On, due to be released in early October…
