That’s the last time I huff Scotchgard after snorting a couple Oxycontin/Celebrex speedballs. Because after my arthritis flare-up subsided, it seemed like a good idea to go to Club Clearview on Saturday, July 22, to watch kids passing off what they call “punk” these days. Things were promising when I…
When the people standing in a circle introduced themselves, I became increasingly nervous. Out of the 20 or so who arrived for Monday night’s very first Save the Scene Dallas meeting at the Darkside Lounge, half of them either were affiliated with musicians/companies I’ve bad-mouthed or who had previously made…
Is the world ready for a Dirty South rap single that’s not about ostentatious automotive modifications or garish cosmetic dentistry? Waco’s Strange Fruit Project is banking on it. “Soul Clap” marries funky brass (arranged by Denton funk-rockers Mingo Fishtrap) and jazz guitars to a handclap beat. The deceptively simple beat…
Tom Petty has made some of the most apropos music to ever enhance windshield time, both solo and with the Heartbreakers. But despite its title, Highway Companion isn’t exactly that. Instead, his new near-literally solo album–on which Petty plays a full complement of instruments down to the drums, abetted only…
Reissued the way John Lydon requested, Metal Box gets magnificently de-digitalized as three 12-inch 45s sealed in a metal faux film canister (The set is also being issued as two CDs in a smaller metal container). It has been argued that this format offers the best sound, and while that’s…
Seven years ago, P didn’t have many Japanese friends. Los Angeles’ Rentals learned this the hard way, playing their final, sparsely attended concert in Osaka, Japan, in October 1999 before disbanding. Soon after, lead singer (and former Weezer bassist) Matt Sharp began a new career as a startlingly quiet, folky…
The Life You Always Wanted, the sparkling full-length debut from San Francisco quintet The Bittersweets is music of an uncommon, almost upbeat melancholy. Amidst the ringing guitars and Hannah Prater’s hauntingly sincere vocals roams sadness tinged with hope, a depth of feeling and appreciation of repentance that speaks well for…
If for any reason the term “neo-soul” confuses you, head directly to the Sugar Water Festival for a three-hour crash course. The best of the genre–a sultry take on R&B full of hip-hop, jazz and funk elements–hits town on Thursday with Dallas’ greatest neo-soul ambassador, Erykah Badu, headlining the affair…
In his Brooklyn apartment, Eric Elbogen creates detailed narratives based on classic science fiction and horror themes and somehow manages to make his paranoid vision work. Ferocious Mopes was one of 2005’s best collections of warped indie-rock, an amalgamation of ambient electronica and angular pop played with a joyous garage-rock…
It’s only fitting that Dallas’ favorite yoga studio cum music venue presents this rather yin/yang bill, a two-man survey of the best of local songwriting. The über-prolific Johnson of Centro-Matic, South San Gabriel and solo renown offers a bit more darkness while Fort Worth wunderkind Herring serves up the light,…
This Brooklyn quartet’s name conjures images of the elegantly wasted neo-garage acts of NewYork yore: Can’t you see the Strokes untucking their custom-tailored shirts to look dirty on purpose? In fact, DOP plays sprawling neo-shoegaze fuzz-pop anthems that recall Yo La Tengo or Mercury Rev before they began trying to…
Pop-culture logic dictates that Ben Watt should probably be making out with Scary Spice on the British version of The Surreal Life at this point. Rather, he has made the improbable transition from a quasi-celeb of the last decade to a respected underground house jock and producer in this one…
How did Diplo, a dinosaur-loving, M.I.A.-supporting, crunk-spinning white kid from Florida, become the hottest party DJ in Philadelphia (if not the world)? It sure as hell isn’t through answering questions with complete sentences. You can’t blame the superstar producer/remixer/label head/indie music darling for being busy, especially during his current tour…
It’s no secret that Pink has a beef with the pop tarts whose genre she inhabits–Britney Spears is practically her arch-nemesis–but on her latest album I’m Not Dead’s first single, “Stupid Girls,” she goes even further, throwing punches at every other Sunset Strip paparazzi whore you’ve read about in Us…
It’s only hours before the anticipated start of the “No, Seriously…Where’d Our Careers Go? 2022 Tour.” Of the three acts that were to join me at the Dallas Taco-Bucks-Hut Bistro for appetizers, only Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes have shown up. Death…
Mainstream culture, as it is with most other hot hip-hop trends, was embarrassingly late in discovering the bombast and distinctive synthesizers of Lil Jon. His 2001 major-label debut, Put Yo Hood Up, definitely wasn’t the first example of crunk, a style of booming drawl-rap pumped up by house beats and…
More like full circle and now halfway back for this Fort Worth-based returnee from the battle between real and ridiculous up in Nashville. Dodd’s two previous, Pearl Snaps and Stronger Proof, found him bucking Music City conventions and waving a Lone Star banner of independence. Now he sounds too often…
As part of the big three Minneapolis godsends of the ’80s (along with Hüsker Dü and the Replacements), Soul Asylum, despite significantly higher sales figures, always played third fiddle in that triumvirate. Once they became big stars via “Runaway Train,” lead singer and pretty boy Dave Pirner always seemed a…
Cut Chemist’s The Audience’s Listening could be from a time capsule buried in 1998, when epic instrumental albums like Return of the DJ and Q-Bert’ s Wave Twisters were all the rage. And that’s a good thing. Unfairly maligned in recent years as the province of bedroom geeks disconnected from…
nspired by seeing the Ramones at CBGBs, noted composer Rhys Chatham was one of the first to see the value of the electrified guitar in a neo-classical setting. His early ’80s work, including most of what’s included on this impressive reissue, was a bracingly loud, textured assault that influenced a…
The man onstage at revered Denton country bar Dan’s Silverleaf is absolutely petrified. He’s clutching a piece of paper like he wants to tear it in half, and his arms and legs are shaking: a strange sight during a heat wave. Every other Tuesday is the Porch at Dan’s, an…
The evening’s theme was fitting, as it was easy to get lost digging through the bands and DJs at the latest installation of the Lost Generation concert series. Local blues-noisers Jack With One Eye rattled any recollection of whereabouts with a barrage of fuzz and crunch. During a particularly memorable…
