The moment when a festival lineup is revealed is always an exciting one. It’s a split second that’s rife with anticipation, and it can be downright exuberant if it contains unexpected surprises and bucket-list bookings. Conversely, that moment of concert-going epiphany can quickly be deflated if the reality is that…
Texans are a fortunate group of folk music fans. We have legends and emerging artists that have either called the Lone Star State home at some point or are firmly entrenched here, primarily playing and making their artistic livings here so that we have more than ample access to their…
With the mind-expanding psychedelic rock outfit Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Sean Lennon (the 38-year-old son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono) and his girlfriend, model and artist Charlotte Kemp Muhl, have tripped into an enchanting realm. Since their first album, 2010’s Acoustic Sessions, the duo have explored a…
The names of some music festivals are real head-scratchers. “Bonnaroo” and “Lollapalooza” are silly but effective. Others don’t leave much to the imagination. Locally, there’s the upcoming Fort Worth Music Festival: not a ton of mystery there, but at least we know where it’s going down, right? Somewhere in the…
Big time festival season is in full bloom. Most weekends this time of year there’s someplace in Dallas with a major festival. This month alone there’s Psych Fest, Homegrown, and the Houston Free Press Summer Fest, and each on different weekends. But this weekend, arguably the most unlikely township in…
On Saturday, the bustling northern ‘burb of Frisco hosted many thousands of modern-rock lovers at Toyota Stadium for the annual, all-day Edgefest aural orgy (the 24th installment, no less). Saturday’s festival roster proved to be one that, maybe more than any recent Edgefest, bridged the generational gap of those who…
In the splendidly unflinching 2012 documentary Charles Bradley: Soul of America, the Florida-born, Brooklyn-based Charles Bradley openly shares the highs and lows of the point in his life when he has finally found an outlet, and an audience, for his heart-on-sleeve soul music. As a whole, the film is both…
It was late spring 2012, and a scraggly band clutched acoustic guitars and a washboard in the middle of Deep Ellum Brewing Company’s beer garden. As a hundred or so drinkers milled about, basking in the sunshine and sampling the young brewery’s beers, one simple, frantically delivered line caught the…
Scottish post-rock heroes Mogwai is the band most instrumental rock groups that have started in the past decade want to be when they grow up. Beginning with 1997’s epic Young Team and continuing with the release of the group’s eighth studio LP, last January’s Rave Tapes, Stuart Braithwaite, John Cummings,…
The Old 97’s, Black Joe Lewis, Slobberbone, Madison King Annette Strauss Square – AT&T Performing Arts Center Dallas, Texas Saturday, April 19, 2014 On the most pristinely calm night we’ve seen in Dallas in recent weeks, Saturday’s sold-out Old 97’s record release show for Most Messed Up proffered a taste…
Twenty years ago, our local music scene was a bustling cauldron of rock goodness. Whether it be to the surprise of many or to a few, a couple of bands that made Dallas, Denton and Fort Worth proud back then are not only still making us proud, but are selling…
The Eli Young Band is, by now, a household name, at least in households across North Texas, where three of its four members still reside, and in other households whose speakers blare with country. With each single released by the four-piece, formed in Denton in 2000 and led by lead…
Perhaps more than any attribute making Madison King’s songs burst with cochlea-catching appeal is the unvarnished honesty that pops from them. It’s in her lyrics, and it’s in her retelling of significant events from the past few years of her life, especially since the release of her twangy 2011 debut,…
In recent years, the Top 40 Country Music charts have been littered with an increasing amount of songs that now fit easily into an even more specific, sickening realm of modern country music – “Bro-Country.” With frat-boy bravado and an even greater emphasis on sophmoric, ignorant cliches than usual, the…
In a surprising turn, JB Patterson, lead-singer for Tyler-based country band JB and the Moonshine Band, is wide awake and ready to chat when the phone rings at 9:30 a.m. on a recent weekday morning. Such early hours aren’t usually kept by rising music stars. But as with so many…
Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden are coming our way this summer. Make no mistake, this is big news, and not a mere nostalgia trip for for those of us who were in high school or entering college 20 years ago. The announcement of a tour featuring a co-headlining double bill…
The North Texas region has become a national hotbed of craft breweries and general good times that circle around sudsy concoctions. Aside from the growing numbers of top-notch brewers and hops-focused gastropubs of the Dallas area, the burst of can’t-miss beer festivals has been as enjoyable a benefit of the…
It’s Friday night, and after leaving work a bit later than you had hoped to, battling the traffic to get home, and finally making it out the door again for a night of steam-blowing revelry, mapping a night out is often more daunting a task than you’d prefer. It’s late…
Not too long ago, we at DC9 took a look at the value of supporting music with the local tag. It’s tempting to apply the tag to anyone with any ties to North Texas, but how often is it accurate? Two notable releases will be widely, and perhaps wrongly, deemed…
Last night in Oak Cliff, Chris Thile proffered far more than a solo acoustic concert. As it often is when a noted artist performs without an opening band, the show was presented as, “An Evening with Chris Thile.” What an evening it was. Part classical history lesson, part stand-up routine…
This past Saturday night, the Gas Monkey Bar ‘N Grill in Dallas lived up to the name of the television series that features its owner: car repair reality show Fast ‘N Loud. With full sets scheduled from Austin’s Hank Senior-recalling, honky-tonk hero Wayne “The Train” Hancock (on the venue’s indoor…
Perhaps it couldn’t be helped. With somewhat spring-like weather in the Denton air on Thursday afternoon, it was hard to not have festival fever. In years past around this time, when 35 Denton would be taking place, you couldn’t get past Dan’s Silverleaf near Hickory Street before the festival fun…
