Your kids are pushovers about Harry Potter; hand them any of the books and they’ll get lost at Hogwarts for weeks. And you’re no stranger to the series, having bought your own copies because you’ve had trouble stealing the kiddies’ copies when they’re asleep. But what about your friend or…
The man onstage at revered Denton country bar Dan’s Silverleaf is absolutely petrified. He’s clutching a piece of paper like he wants to tear it in half, and his arms and legs are shaking: a strange sight during a heat wave. Every other Tuesday is the Porch at Dan’s, an…
Mainstream culture, as it is with most other hot hip-hop trends, was embarrassingly late in discovering the bombast and distinctive synthesizers of Lil Jon. His 2001 major-label debut, Put Yo Hood Up, definitely wasn’t the first example of crunk, a style of booming drawl-rap pumped up by house beats and…
It’s already time for another dreaded school supply shopping spree. Your kids will beg for crap like a One Tree Hill binder and lunchbox kit, and your stomach will turn when you wonder how you’ll afford so many supplies. Luckily, this year’s Kids Fest helps underprivileged kids and parents with…
Our training regimen for the Summer Sizzler is intense. We start with two plates at the Sizzler salad bar to prime our stomach, and then we hit the buffet to pile on steak and shrimp. Our current max is four full buffet plates in one night, which might not seem…
Why smack everyone over the head yet again with the importance of these two acts (which we already did months ago by reviewing their new records, Paul Simon’s Surprise and Ray Davies’ Other People’s Lives)? Because for once, it’s easy to lump them together. Both charmed the world in their…
In the indie-rock canon, the Pacific Northwest gets its rep mostly from its Seattle and Olympia greats. Makes sense–Washington state’s Pacific neighbors, Portland and British Columbia, Canada, haven’t had important record labels such as Sub Pop and K to push their best bands. But the best Pac-NW album of the…
Finger-lickin’ good: Whenever an e-mail hits the AAT wire from local noise-rock progenitor Mwanza Dover, a huge groan can be heard in the office. That’s because we need at least five staffers to dig through his lengthy spiels (“I am burned out on the local scene and a lot of…
“In the States, I’m still worried it’ll slip through the cracks again.” Midlake lead singer Tim Smith is at his home in Pilot Point, an hour north of the Denton house where he and the rest of the quintet recorded The Trials of Van Occupanther, and he says this while…
I’ll level with ya: We haven’t run a Set List concert review in way too long. But it’s not that the writers here have shunned local concerts–far from it. Here are some of the best live acts I’ve seen in the past month and a half that haven’t gotten enough…
Before Goosebumps and Harry Potter invaded every elementary school’s Scholastic book fair, Sideways Stories from Wayside School ruled the K-5 world. The charming, nonsensical stories of 30 weirdo students had little in the way of life-long lessons; boys and girls slept through class, pulled pigtails, talked to dead rats, turned…
What’s the best way to prove that you’re an iron girl from Texas? It’s certainly not an appearance on CBS’ Rock Star: Supernova, the show on which three Texas femmes are currently embarrassing themselves for the likes of ex-rockers such as Tommy Lee and Jason Newsted. Flailing around in tacky…
I can scream from the mountaintops about the wonders of the Internet all I want. Shout about blogs. Hoot ‘n’ holler about podcasts. But for all the attention and growth that Dallas music Web sites have seen in the past few years, the result is still just the sound of…
Do you even read this?: Every week, someone calls or e-mails AAT HQ to ask the following: “Are there any good local bands worth seeing?” We’re required by staff policy to smile and politely respond with a concert recommendation or two, though we’d rather wrap a brick with a copy…
With so much death metal and screamo in the metroplex, what’s a headbanging purist to do? Sure, a band like Necrogazm will hump your eye socket with rapid-fire sludge, and Autumn Silence adds metal riffs and satanic screams to a mall-friendly emo formula, but speed and screams alone don’t cut…
After this many years, it seems silly to describe how GayBINGO Dallas works again. We’ve frequently told you about the only bingo game in town in which a straight line won’t get you anywhere—arrangements vary by game and prizes go all the way up to $500 for playing in the…
Nothing like a blanket statement to get locals excited about a band, so here goes: Comrade is the new Pleasant Grove of Dallas rock music. You can’t get a better compliment than that, really. There’s Many a Slip Twixt the Cup and the Lip, the Dallas quintet’s debut, has the…
“There are some guys in England who would kill you for this,” Brandon Carr says as he discreetly hands me a plastic case. The bearded Dallasite then gives me a look like he’s got murder on his mind as well. “Don’t. Leak. It.” I can’t help but laugh, and it’s…
“There’s just something about them,” Kristin Allen-Zito sing-mutters to open her 2004 album Helium. Sounds like yet another coffee house singer with cigarette-stained vocals, a strummed acoustic guitar and cute “ooh”s in the background, but then she finishes the sentence–“that makes me want to stick my dick in/I know it’s…
Steamed about the magical foul-acquiring powers of NBA Finals MVP Dwyane Wade? Rattled by lackadaisical refs in this summer’s World Cup? Wish that technology would usher in an era where sporting events are no longer altered by bad calls? Then the World Series of Video Games is for you, control…
If you attend ONSTAGE in Bedford’s production of The Jungle Book, be sure that your expectations are tempered. This interpretation of Rudyard Kipling’s classic short stories does not stretch so far as to include bebop-loving bears and orangutans—no “Bear Necessities,” man. And for Pete’s sake, the characters do not become…
It’s tough enough for a band to hail from New Orleans these days, but getting stuck with a Sunday night slot at an out-of-town venue during Independence Day weekend plain blows. Then again, I could extend a pity party to just about any band–Quintron and Miss Pussycat get love for…
