It’s a strange pleasure to be a Texan, and then a Dallasite. Like everyone else these days, I hail from a multi-ethnic family. When asked about my ethnicity my favorite response is, “Puerto Rican and Texan.” It feels the truest. Recently, and it seems throughout this year specifically, Dallas has…
Brett Stowers played for Fair To Midland for 10 insane years. He was part of brilliant, hair-raising shows full of frenetic energy and, at times, stuntman-level acrobatics, records that combined metal, prog and art in a way that eventually caught the attention of big labels first, and later Serjical Strike…
Hey. I thought there was a rule. You leave the guy’s kids out of it. Guess not. I see this morning Dallas school board member Lew Blackburn is taking a back-handed swipe at the superintendent of schools for taking his kid out of the Dallas school system. “You have to…
It soars into the air, a sparkling baton for rock singers. Its chrome-plated shaft sears fingertips upon contact. It spins first, then tumbles while singer Aryn Black of Scorpion Child dances and jams with the solos being played on a Flying V and a Les Paul. He doesn’t need the…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…
Oh, I guess we had some fun Saturday on the KNON radio version of “Get Off My Lawn,” a program I have been sharing every Saturday at 10 a.m. with political consultant and D Magazine columnist Eric Celeste. We took an on-air call from the elusive pseudonymous Dallas blog commenter,…
Oh, goody. I see the Dallas school board has a “request for proposals” out, seeking a public relations firm to come in as a private contractor and help the public school system (meaning the school board) with its relationship with the public. That’s a big idea. But they need to…
July’s over, and as we enter the dog days of summer, it’s time to pack up the kids and head on that great family road trip. As wonderful as it is to bond with one another over hours spent in the car, it’s should be noted how more and more…
The plaintive tone is so heart-wrenching, the request itself so naïve, that one is tempted not to respond at all. But in the case of the West fertilizer explosion, silence is at least complicity. It may even be the heart of the crime. In an open-letter opinion column on the…
Dear Mexican: I’m curious as to the meaning of the term “Viva la Raza” that I have often heard expressed by my friends and family. I know what it translates to, but I don’t know why we say it. I happen to be what some call a “half-breed,” and therein…
Rereading last week’s leaked investigative report on Dallas school Superintendent Mike Miles, I kept getting this little itch. I was sure I had read something about this somewhere else just recently. But I couldn’t imagine where. The report is the work of an obscure entity called the Office of Professional…
In the year 3013 in public squares at the hearts of modest villages and small capitals the world over, there will be statues of a global hero whose original identity is barely remembered, his or her actual existence in doubt and debated among scholars and the faithful. The exact appearance,…
Brad Paisley put out a new album this year, and it’s a safe bet no country superstar has given its label as much of a headache as Brad (this would be Wheelhouse, the album with “Accidental Racist” on it). But hey: Angry blog posts and album sales are getting less…
Over the years, the Vans Warped Tour has fascinatingly evolved to include a widely diverse collection of alternative rock acts. What was once simply a showcase for metal and punk now features rap, electronica, folk and bands in several other genres. This year’s Warped Tour may be the most varied…
Sorry, all you highway fans, but I can’t help loving the snit Texas Republicans have gotten themselves into over road money. Governor Oops, posing for the last two years with a Tea Party pitchfork, dropped the act yesterday and blasted the medieval wing of his own party after they shot…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…
Lindsey BestAndrew Youssef[Editor’s Note: Long-time concert photographer Andrew Youssef found out two years ago that he had stage IV colon cancer. In that time, he has continued to shoot tons of music events, on top of other freelance work and working a day job at a hospital, of all places…
Uh-Oh. Hippie Liberal Elitism Alert. If you are a hippie liberal like me, do not, repeat, DO NOT read the story in today’s New York Times about National Park Service plans for curbing visitation to Yosemite National Park. Reading of this story may cause serious damage to your democratic convictions…
One question you’ll always be asked, forever, is about the band at the first concert you ever saw. The first ever concert I attended, at 13, was Texas (I know, right?). Texas is a frankly awful indie pop band from Scotland, and for this one tour they were inexplicably popular…
Yesterday when he told the Urban League he was going after Texas on voting rights, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder quoted a federal court decision last year in which the court said Hispanic plaintiffs in Texas had “provided more evidence of discriminatory intent than we have space, or need, to…
Way back in 2010, the Observer wrote about a hellish July Fourth night that saw Dallas PD launch a volley of pepper balls into a crowd in an attempt to disperse it. That night seemed to be the tipping point for Lowest Greenville, and then-city councilwoman Angela Hunt proposed an…
With singer David Lowery fronting both Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker (and with both scheduled to play the Granada Theater this Saturday), it is a good time to compare and contrast these two exceptional bands. Cracker has always seemed to get a bad rap because the band is not as…
