Hope springs eternal: Yes, the Gypsy Tea Room is closing. No, things don’t look good for Deep Ellum; one problem is most of the poor souls who run clubs—or who have tried to run clubs, or who have tried to open clubs, or who have tried to re-open clubs—don’t own…

The Great Black Tie Dynasty Debate continues to rage through the hallways of the Dallas Observer, echoing over the clack of keyboards and cursing editors. On one side, BTD proponents praise the quartet’s sexy, moody oeuvre, while the anti-BTD contingent bad-mouths them as derivative Interpol clones. To the haters, I…

Believe it or not, here at the Observer we try to research as much as we can about upcoming touring acts, even if that act happens to involve the haggard semi-mook/nu-metal/post-grunge rock of Saliva, who will be performing in Dallas this week. And, as proof that even the most barren…

The first time I met Amanda Newman was about four months ago, when I attended my first Dallas show in eight years. It was the inaugural event of my Dallas Observer music editorship, which at that point was about two days old. The show was at Club Dada, a FineLine…

Well, of course country music is bound to spring up in Lubbock. The town enjoys three factors that make it so: a legacy of music, a desolate Western environment and the desparation of sheer boredom, all three of which imbue the population with a latent impulse to create music by…

Oh, sure, it’s not like you haven’t seen these artists before; we all know Salim Nourallah’s consistent and benevolent influence on Dallas’ music scene, Johnny Lloyd Rollins’ updated take on classic songwriting a la Buddy Holly or the Beatles, Airline’s upstart youth tunes, etc. But just think about it: These…

New Life: In addition to the Palladium Ballroom’s grand unveiling, Deep Ellum saw a new venue opening. Who knew the Life in Deep Ellum complex was gonna be such a refined and spacious spot? Entering the complex, one is immediately greeted with polished concrete floors, decent art on the spotless…

Nothing like an Armageddon-like onslaught of frozen precipitation and arctic temperatures—and here we thought the apocalypse was supposed to be fire and brimstone, not sleet and black ice—to shut down hopes of weekend musical endeavors. For me, the cabin fever-inducing shut-in weather, combined with a searingly raw throat that evoked…

Idol Chatter: Those of you wondering how Picnic, one third of Idol Records’ splendid hip-hop group PPT, is faring after a fire destroyed his home last month, take heart. The man has bounced back like a classic NBA ball: He’s moving into a new home this month, and he’s already…

January 8 was Elvis Presley’s birthday. This fact had not entered my consciousness until I received a last-minute invitation to help judge the Elvis impersonators contest at Dick’s Last Resort, a proposal that immediately prompted two songs to compete for space in my head. The first was Elvis’ own “Hunk…

I’ll be honest: I’ve only been here a little more than three months. I don’t feel particularly qualified to give you a year-end retrospective about a town where I still don’t know the best way to get to the grocery store. But I will say this: Music-wise, this is a…

You hear it at the end of every year—the critical moaning and gnashing of teeth, as music writers and fans alike proclaim what has become a holiday mantra. “This was a bad year for music,” everyone cries, their hands clutching iPods lifted imploringly to the heavens. “Why have the music…

Good cause, good times: Only in Dallas can the normally polar opposites sports and indie rock not only reach peace, but engage in a fruitful marriage. In the Big D, we love our Cowboys, we love our Mavericks and we love our music, so it makes sense, especially if the…

I had been hearing about Sorta since before I even began this job. Before I moved, I did some research, polled some Dallas Observer staff and tore through the Internet seeking out the band names I should know, who I should go see. Sorta kept coming up. The first Sorta…