Pretty much everything about Tum Tum’s new mixtape, from its above album art to its title, Purp Kobain, is indeed a reference, in some way or another, to the late Kurt Cobain. Hell, there’s even a song called “Kourtney Love,” a surprisingly tender ballad about tragic love. But, aside from…

Two weeks ago, in the print edition of the Observer, I caught up with The Secret Handshake’s Luis Dubuc in anticipation of his fourth full-length release–and by far his most ambitious. The album, called Night & Day, finds Dubuc trying to shed his mall-punk tag. And it does so in…

Back at the beginning of the month, we shared with you all the very impressive lineup for the fifth incarnation of Austin’s Fun Fun Fun Fest, which is set to take place on November 6, 7 and 8 in Waterloo Park, down in that pretentious city about three and a…

In this week’s paper, Darryl Smyers talks Athens’ Dead Confederate, explaining why Sunday night’s show at The Loft is a must-see in his book:Known for their hybrid mix of alt-country and post-grunge, Athens’ Dead Confederate created quite a critical buzz with the release of Wrecking Ball, the band’s 2008 debut…

There are only 600 seats available at tomorrow night’s Granada Theater show with Chris Knight and Somebody’s Darling. And, we just heard from the folks over at the the theater that this all-seated affair is close to a sell-out. No real surprise there. Knight’s a big player in Texas despite…

It’s been a big couple of weeks here for music-related Internet memes. First, two weeks ago, there was that whole slowing a Justin Bieber song down 800 percent to make it sound like a 30-minute, and pretty damn amazing, Sigur Ros song. And then there was the sheer glee we…

Hey, remember those awesome shirts with wolves on them you used to buy from those pamphlets they’d hand out in elementary school? Of course you do. They are, after all, the new hipster chic. And, actually, they make for a pretty cool poster, too…

So, actor Bryan Cranston, in the wake of Malcolm in the Middle’s demise, went on to critical acclaim with his new, meth-obsessed series Breaking Bad. But what of the actor that played the titular character of that old show? Ah: Well, like Jenny Lewis before him, it seems Frankie Muniz…

Leg Sweeper’s Taylor Stolly and Justin “Boots” Gomez never meant to become a Dallas band. The former Houston-based act came to Dallas on a roundabout mission to make their way to becoming an Austin band. Their reasons for stopping? To visit the Dallas-raised Stolly’s family, to find some work to…

Soft Environmental Collapse isn’t exactly a new project. Actually, if you wanna get down to brass tax, the band from brother John and JJ Mudd has been around longer than Ishi, the other project the two brothers play around town in. For obvious reasons, though–namely, Ishi spiraling out of control…

You hear it, but you can hardly believe it. “C’mon,” you think to yourself. “There’s no way he just sang that.” But, alas, there it is, just 50 seconds into the ninth track on Meat Loaf’s new album, Hang Cool Teddy Bear. And he freakin’ belts it: “I can barely…

Last year, when Rooney came through town for a gig at the Granada Theater, we learned that the Los Angeles-based band actually had some close ties to Dallas. Drummer Ned Brower, an SMU alum, considered the late Carter Albrecht a mentor of his and was so struck by Albrecht’s death…

Tomorrow night, Hot Hot Heat, surely one of the bigger names in the early ’00s rock revival explosion not named The Strokes or Franz Ferdinand, comes through Dallas for a date at The Loft. The tour comes in support of the band’s new release, Future Breeds, which finds the band…

Our influential pals over at Gorilla Vs. Bear, along with their co-helmed with Weekly Tape Deck label, Forest Family Records, have quite the treat coming to The Loft tonight in the form of a ridiculously buzz-worthy triple-bill featuring Ontario’s Memoryhouse, Brooklyn’s Twin Sister and Austin’s SLEEP∞OVER. But the three new-to-the-scene…

Back in February, Ryan Hamilton and Jencey Hirunrusme, the duo that makes up local indie pop act Smile Smile, put their history as an engaged and then broken-up couple out for all to see–or, as the title of the album they released that month implies, placing their Truth on Tape,…