The five guys standing behind us at Centro-matic’s early set Thursday night at Mercury Entertainment at Jazz (the clunkily titled venue booked by former Denton resident and Two Ohm Hop co-owner Philip Croley) obviously wandered into the wrong club. Obviously. Why else would they stay to heckle Will Johnson and…

This year, for whatever reason, things seemed more possible at South by Southwest, also/better known as the music industry’s annual paid vacation. Something/anything/everything sounded reasonable, no matter who said it or how unlikely it probably was or even how bad it would be if it actually happened. Problem was, even…

Japancakes Sometimes it’s better when plans fail, when ideas go nowhere, when you don’t get what you want. For instance, if Brant Rackley and Eric Berg had gotten what they wanted when they were starting the band that eventually became Japancakes, the group would have been, as Rackley now says,…

Red Animal War’s debut long-player, Breaking in an Angel, isn’t officially in stores yet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t buy a copy of it. Singer-guitarist Justin Wilson delivered a copy of the album last week and said the band had just received its first shipment from Deep Elm Records…

Every year, it seems, the approach of Fry Street Fair is accompanied by a) griping about the annual shindig’s price/lineup/both, which leads to b) a competing fest that attempts to render Fry Street obsolete with free admission and a local-centric lineup. Every year, after the fact, Fry Street Fair organizers…

It takes Jeff Wade awhile to say anything, but that’s not because he’s a slow talker. In fact, he’s just the opposite: Sitting in front of an untouched chicken sandwich at the Angry Dog in Deep Ellum, Wade, who also goes by the handle Skinny Fresh, never lets more than…

If you think live albums are “for the fans,” think again: Usually, they’re little more than music industry Pledge, a quick way to get the dust off old songs so people will, you know, buy them again. More often than not, bands–especially older ones–use live albums to wring the last…

“My hiatus, or whatever you wanna call it, is over,” The Legendary Fritz announced when he stopped by the office a few days ago to drop off a three-song calling card for his forthcoming album, titled You Leave Me No Choice last we checked. (Personally, we still like Fritz’s original…

After kicking around Denton for the last few years, Lo-Fi Chorus is set to release its self-titled debut, and you can tell by the disc’s 23-song track list that Erik Thompson (who’s been performing solo under the Lo-Fi Chorus name since 1998) has been waiting a long time. The band,…

Britt Daniel is stalling for time. He won’t come right out and say it, but yeah, that’s what he’s doing at the moment. A few minutes ago, Daniel was paying his bills, signing checks, sealing envelopes, and now he’s in the middle of giving an interview. Or, taking it, actually:…

Is it fun to point fingers? Abso-freaking-lutely. Is it right? Depends on who you ask. Is it a waste of time? Usually. So, while we have a fairly good idea of where the Trees-is-dead rumors started, we won’t name names. For a change. And yes, in case you’re still wondering,…

The difference was slight; it was supposed to be. Well, it wasn’t supposed to be anything–it just was. Matt and Bubba Kadane weren’t fooling themselves, and they certainly weren’t trying to fool anyone else. This was pretty much the same band. These were pretty much the same songs. This was…

Here’s the funny strange/funny haha moment of the week: As we began to work on this week’s column (read: woke up with our face on our keyboard and grabbed the nearest stack of papers in a clumsy and transparent attempt to look busy) we got a paper cut. A big…

For every Chris Mars or Will Johnson and Centro-matic, there’s a Phil Collins. Or Don Henley. Or, God forbid, Tommy Lee and his rapping penis. Guess what we’re saying is when a drummer decides to step up to the mike, the results are, at best, mixed. Former Buck Jones drummer…

The man looks younger than his 64 years, sure, but not much. His hair is whiter now than the black-brown it used to be, and grandfatherly wire frames holding thick, bifocal lenses have replaced his signature black-framed glasses. It’s more a look in his eyes than the features around them…

By late afternoon on January 18, the phone calls and e-mails were coming in one after the other. A few people even poked their heads in the door to see what was up. The details changed a little bit each time around, sure, but everyone essentially wanted to know the…

It all makes sense, really, if you think about it. If you contrast and compare, stick to the facts, add it all up, it’s the only logical conclusion. Really. The only real surprise, looking back, is that it didn’t happen sooner, and actually, looking back, it couldn’t have happened any…

He blames it on the caffeine-free Pepsi, though that probably has nothing to do with it, as vile as a beverage labeled both “caffeine-free” and “Pepsi” might be. Likely, it occurs because although it’s a “lovely, sunny day” in Duluth, Minnesota, he is stuck inside on the phone, talking to…

To the chagrin of all immediate family members, we voted for Ralph Nader in last November’s election. If we hadn’t voted for Nader, well, we probably would’ve voted for Al Gore. And after Gore, we’d have written in Martin Sheen or maybe Kevin Kline, possibly Harrison Ford or Michael Douglas…

Other than Flag Day, the holiday season is the best time for Scene, Heard because we seem to run into everyone, and since most of the crash sites happen to be parties, more than a few of the people you bump into are in the mood to talk. (What’s the…

December and January don’t really exist. Not in the music industry, anyway. There, the year is 10 months long, beginning–in Hallmark terms–just before Valentine’s Day, and ending around Thanksgiving. Why don’t December and January count, you ask? Let us ‘splain: People don’t buy new albums during those two months. Oh…