Since his election, Texas Senator Ted Cruz has riled liberals and even irked fellow conservatives with a faux filibuster, his condescending tone with other lawmakers and his willingness to hold the country’s economy hostage to score cheap points with his base. But this week, Cruz crossed the uncrossable line, breaching…
The viral video hit “The Fox (What Does the Fox Say)” by Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis has exploded on Youtube, earning 151 million views as of October 23rd. The success of this Norwegian duo calls for an audit of Norwegian bands. Norwegian music is likely influenced by the country’s sparse…
As he nears 60 years of age, Steve Earle is a bearded musical buddha. He’s also most certainly one of the greatest living songwriters. His career hasn’t been as lengthy as that of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen or Merle Haggard, but since he hit the scene in the mid-1980s with…
Bacon blew up the Internet again. A quick Google search for “bacon” and “infertility” will produce a whole slew of articles and blog posts pointing to the results of a fertility study that were recently presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine Conference in Boston. Researchers evaluated the eating…
We all have strong opinions about what songs constitute good music and what songs should only be played as part of a psychological warfare campaign to drive armed kidnappers out of barricaded compounds. But that doesn’t mean we need to bulldoze every conversation with our own taste. And it can…
If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent the last two months going to a lot of weddings, either alone or with your significant other. And although we typically don’t enjoy sitting in a church and staring at comb-overs, there are two things provided at weddings we can all agree on:…
Kid Congo Powers comes through the Double Wide tonight, an unmissable chance to see a man with one of the most interesting résumés in rock in a tiny, intimate venue. A former member of The Gun Club, The Cramps, and The Bad Seeds doesn’t just turn up in a small…
For Every ZZ Top and Steve Miller our state produces, there are thousands of bands that either wallow in obscurity or just get by with endless, backbreaking tours and the hope of having enough cash to finance some studio time. Here are some acts that should have hit the big…
flickr/adam_jonesAn actual old personDetroit rapper Danny Brown has a new album, called Old. Brown’s occasional boasts about receiving in-show fellatio aside, just about everyone who likes good rap music likes him, and this new work does not disappoint. But the title is really annoying…
I realize that the following assertion will likely result in my being doused in hot lard and dusted in the crumbled tortilla chips, but it must be said: Eating Tex-Mex can be a serious drag. Please, Dallas, just put down the pig fat and hear me out. You should know…
Everyone loves doughnuts. Old people love doughnuts. So do kids. Doughnut shops can be found in rural towns and urban neighborhoods across America, rarely with a sign more specific than the word “donut.” (Yes, they spell it wrong.) They transcend race, class and gender. They are the kind of food…
Some people might hold up Josh Homme as a kind of savior of modern rock music, what with his riffs, and his arms (he has nice arms), and things like that. And I suppose that I did too, once. Around the time when Kyuss ended and QOTSA began, when they…
Photo by ZeitfixiererFace-to-face battles may soon be a thing of the past.By Jonah Bromwich You enter the room and they’re already there. Some of the names you recognize: Randa the Rhyma (45 wins), Gig@ntic (48 wins), and Novice Raps (53 wins). You’ve checked the boards obsessively, but you’ve only ever…
On the The Weeknd’s single “Loft Music,” Abel Tesfaye brags that he’ll “put your mind in a dream world.” It’s true, the R&B music of The Weeknd certainly transports you somewhere. But where? To a fantasy world of Tesfaye’s own making, a pleasure-centered nightmare tucked neatly between detestable and irresistible…
Since the birth of hip-hop, male rappers have been bringing their unique viewpoint to the art of rhyme. Today, we’re shining some long overdue light on their important contributions to rap. We’re proud to present our list of the ten finest male rappers, from the smoking-hot hardbodies to the true…
This week marks the re-release of Nirvana’s In Utero. The album recently turned twenty years old, and this milestone is being celebrated with the release of a “Super Deluxe Edition.” The new edition offers remixes, demos, compilation tracks and rare, previously unreleased tracks, but we wanted to take a look…
The Randy Rogers Band has now been around long enough to serve as an influence to a new generation of Texas country artists. Since their breakthrough album, 2004’s Radney Foster-produced (and darn-near perfect), Rollercoaster, Rogers, Brady Black, Less Lawless, Jon Richardson, and Geoffrey Hill have been on a roll, indeed…
There’s a reason you associate our accent with fashionable music of the last fifty years. We’ve produced some great bands. The thing is, there’s a whole undercurrent you’re missing out on over there. You know you have favorite obscure American bands, who you’d go and see whenever they come through…
We all know that the flashy types like Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen get (or got) kudos simply for playing super fast. But being a great guitarist is more than just burning up a fret board. Here are the five folks who best know that nuance is…
MECC’s elementary school computer lab classic The Oregon Trail probably taught its users relatively little about American History. The lasting impression the game did leave was the idea that choices have consequences and that, sometimes, bad things just happen, regardless of how well you plan for them. When you lost…
As I sit here in work my mind drifts from matters such as job responsibilities to more jovial pursuits such as murder, car theft, and the endless slaughter of pedestrians. Yesterday saw the release day of the biggest game of the year. Aping the inanities and cliches of radio DJs…
Last night, one of the most renowned post-punk bassists of all time sat in with The Roots on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. I can’t think of a more random gathering of talents under one roof, though admittedly this sort of thing does seem to happen on Fallon. When the…
