When local bands hype new singles, I have trouble holding back laughter. Really, a single? Do unsigned artists expect their songs to get played on 102.1 The Edge, the only modern-rock radio station in Dallas? It’s hard enough to crack the indie-minded Adventure Club playlist, let alone regular rotation (unless,…
Old 97’s front man Rhett Miller may believe his second solo album sounds like “George Gershwin does T. Rex’s The Slider,” but unfortunately for us, The Believer comes off more like Semisonic meets whoever wrote Rent, with the former hometown boy abandoning his twangy Texas roots on nearly every track…
Hipsters looking for disagreeable, hard-to-digest music will presumably turn toward the new Liars record, Drum’s Not Dead, for a hearty dose of parent-scaring noise. It’s a reasonable assumption, as their last album, in spite of its weirdness and witch-loving themes, won out amongst the noise-rock crowd by pulling off near-poppy…
In the early days of Mogwai’s career, an album titled Mr. Beast would have matched the band’s Category 5 noise-hurricanes perfectly. But as the Scotsmen refined their sound over the next decade, moments of levity and clarity–airy synths, strings, eerie silences–made the band’s emotional maelstroms more compelling. In fact, Mr…
Destroyer’s Dan Bejar says a lot on Rubies’ meandering, nine-minute-long title track, but its spot as the album’s lead-off song says even more. Bejar is an excellent (and sometimes purposefully difficult) songwriter who often sounds unsure of where he’s headed but confident that his listeners will go along for the…
Listening to American Werewolf Academy is like watching your favorite dumb comedy for the 15th time–fun in a nostalgic way, even when you know what’s going to happen next. But clocking in at just over 20 minutes, Tell Them Right Now! is a lot quicker of a pick-me-up than that…
The Jesus and Mary Chain disbanded roundabout 1999. Spacemen 3? 1991. But there’s no need to mourn acerbically romantic rock of the mid-’80s and ’90s–after all, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club still dishes it out. The band’s self-titled debut wasn’t shabby for a dinner consisting of leftovers, and 2003’s Take Them…
We were much too young to fully appreciate Urban Cowboy upon its release, yet we watched the movie over and over, rooting for Bud and Sissy and singing along to the musical performances at the original Gilley’s. The hirsute Johnny Lee was clearly the star of this spectacle, contributing such…
Texas guitarists must have a general reputation for greatness. How else can you explain two Lone Star six-stringers in a punk band that otherwise embodies Beantown pride? Created when former Dropkick Murphys singer Mike McColgan returned to music following a brief firefighting career, Street Dogs get back to the basics…
She wants revenge, or so claim DJs Justin Warfield and Adam 12. If you ask her, the reasons are pretty clear too. See, she always hated Joy Division, ever since her first boyfriend killed himself high on their post-punk misery. Two decades later, along comes Interpol and memories come rushing…
Signed while still in high school, Slightly Stoopid’s Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald were probably the “raddest” of all dudes “gnarly,” smoking more weed than humanly possible and tossing out generic SoCal skate-punk. Nearly a decade later, the two may still love to party, but their sound has grown up…
Caroline Dingwall has her game face on. Perched before the piano in a mirrored practice room, the 12-year-old’s intent gaze hides her inexperience as a performer. She stretches her fingers gently across the keys, playing the opening notes to John Lennon’s “Imagine.” You’d be forgiven if you suppress a cringe:…
Coolest primaries ever: The Dallas Observer Music Awards are coming in May, which means we need to get started with the nominations…uh…right now. Just like last year, you guys get to tell us who you think deserves to make the final DOMA ballot. Go to this link www.dallasobserver.com/musicawards/nom2006 right now…
Not that long ago, Jack Ingram was an SMU college kid with a guitar, a major Robert Earl Keen jones and a Tuesday night gig every week at Adair’s. Starting there in the early ’90s, he drew the blueprint for countless other collegiate types to follow in his wake and…
Flogging Molly’s “Screaming at the Wailing Wall” may be the best real punk song in half a decade. A blazing rush often accompanies the best political rants and “Screaming,” from the band’s latest album Within a Mile of Home, is no exception. With nods to the Sex Pistols and the…
“If I could make enough with this band to buy a house, some beer and a dog, I’d be happy,” says Jake Webster, drummer of the Cut*Off, Cowtown’s fascinatingly languid conglomeration of ’60s garage/psychedelia and ’90s grunge leftovers. The quartet, together since 2002, got their name from the fact that,…
For this week’s American debut of the Arctic Monkeys, bullshit deflectors have been readied in droves. And for good reason: The debut’s hype, British record-breaking sales figures and critical raves are getting more attention than the actual songs in question, a fact that demands an immediate red flag (yet, strangely,…
Guess you had to be there, at Town Hall in New York City last July, though from the sounds of it, not so much. Thomas Bartlett, writing last summer on Salon, sent his own postcard lamenting how his beloved band went “all chamber/acoustic refined/ wimpy,” resulting in music that came…
Women of the future, prepare to shake your hips. There’s a blast of fresh air coming from the Windy City, and it’s coming straight from the roaring amps and tightly wound voices of Chicago band the M’s. Future Women, the group’s second album, is chock-full of reasons to do the…
It’s not like John Easdale hadn’t gotten offers before, but this day in early 2004 it was different. After being subjected to a full-court press by the crew of VH1’s Bands Reunited, this time the retired Dramarama frontman decided to unretire. Time for one of the most overlooked bands of…
A star-studded indie-folk revue designed for people who consider themselves above both stars and revues, the Undertow Orchestra brings together four well-regarded sad-sack singer-songwriters for an evening of collaborations and interpretations. Dave Bazan should be in a particularly gloomy mood: Last month he announced the dissolution of his long-running outfit…
Amarillo native Kevin Fowler may look like a generic country bumpkin, and sometimes his music is just a brain cell above hayseed, but looks do indeed prove slightly deceiving in his case. Fowler’s recent Loose, Loud & Crazy revels in just about every conceivable redneck cliché; half the songs are…
