Phillip Washington, better known to most as Cygnus, has been making waves in Dallas electronic music for over a decade. He made a name for himself with a series of victories at the infamous Laptop Deathmatch and strong showings at the national Laptop Battles in Seattle. Since his battle days,…
Some people think that tainting the purity of Rae Sremmurd’s “No Flex Zone” by remixing it is tantamount to a war crime, but ravers are not those people, so the crowd at Lizard Lounge in Deep Ellum, sweaty and bouncing, swallows every downbeat. It’s late on a Friday night in…
Have you heard about Tidal? Do you have a strong opinion about Tidal? Or do you just find it kind of hard to really care about it? When a cache of mainstream music stars joined together on a stage and signed some sort of declaration for their new music streaming…
What a world we live in. With the sad news this week that Bucks Burnett’s quirky 8-track museum is preparing to close its doors, news comes this morning of a plan that might as well be straight out of the future: Deep Ellum on Air is planning to launch a…
The 8-track has been through this rodeo before. It’s come and gone and sort of come back before, but now it looks like it’s not enough to keep Dallas’ 8-track museum — the only like it in the world — in business. Earlier this week, museum owner Bucks Burnett announced…
Thee Theater opened with little to no pomp and circumstance. Tidal, it was not. They just threw a few shows and put the flyers on social media. Still, droves of people came for the venue’s marquee name shows with Waka Flocka Flame and RiFF RAFF last month. “What we kind…
Crit Life is a phenomenon. Technically it’s a hip hop collective, but in truth it’s become a motto, a way of life among Dallas’ high school- and college-aged music fans. They add the word “Crit” to the names they use on social media accounts and use all sorts of Crit-related…
Dirty South Rydaz are the product of another time, another Dallas. Once signed to Universal Records, they were one of this city’s most influential hip hop groups, at a time when local artists didn’t always get the support they deserved and the rappers were overshadowed by more successful counterparts in…
Christian Zanni has been an active part of the Dallas DJ community since since the mid-2000s. Zanni is mostly associated with the DJ crew Motif and their parties. He has been a constant face amongst the local techno and house party scene, bringing his unique take on dance floor dogma…
If you spend any time south of downtown, you’ve probably wandered into Absinthe Lounge at least once, but maybe you were too drunk to remember. The chill atmosphere is a favorite for intimate local jazz shows, even though it can get a little rowdy during happy hour when the $3…
Walking into a Bone Doggie show is like stepping into another time, another place, even another world. He calls himself a gypsy punk rocker, and he looks the part, with black fingerless gloves, a black tie, vest and fedora, and red long-sleeved shirt. His band, the Hickory Hellraisers, are the…
The worst kept secret of 2015 is finally, officially out in the world, and for Dallas music fans the news is a gas, gas, gas. For the first time in 10 years, the Rolling Stones will be coming back to North Texas, this time for a June 6 stop at…
Following in the footsteps of a successful parent can be a discouraging task. When your father is Dallas producer SymbolycOne, there’s a lot to live up to: Two Grammy awards, a list of list of collaborators including Kanye West and Eminem, and even an appearance (two, actually) at last week’s…
Here’s a little thought experiment that will blow your punk-infected brain: Let’s say you decide to go do some karaoke. Totally lame, right, because you get nauseous at the thought of celebrity or idol worship, so why pretend to be a rock star? You’re the edgiest punk fan of them…
Bat Lanyard will never release another CD again. Never. Mind you the band, which is the brainchild of Dallas singer Matthew Glenn Thompson, will continue to release music. But you’ll never be able to find a physical copy of it, and you’ll never find it on iTunes or Amazon either…
Gerard Hanson doesn’t do interviews. Correction: Convextion doesn’t do interviews. In a 20-year career as a producer and electronic musician here in Dallas, Convextion — the name that Hanson performs under — has preferred to remain anonymous. He rarely does press and prefers to remain faceless in pictures. He even…
It’s been a heck of a week for Leon Bridges. (We’re watching our language this time, in the spirit of Bridges’ vintage sound.) Hot off a much buzzed-about run of shows at South By South West over the weekend, the Fort Worth R&B singer picked up the festival’s prestigious Grulke…
Tonight, The Bomb Factory sets off its revival after 20 years of stage silence. But before we rush full-speed-ahead into considering its promising future, we decided to turn back one more time to its history to divine what made the place so iconic in its heyday. With that in mind,…
This Thursday night, a long-dormant (and very large) room in Deep Ellum will open back up for business. The Bomb Factory, on Canton and Crowdus just a couple blocks from the heart of the neighborhood, hosts its first show since the ’90s with locals Erykah Badu and Sarah Jaffe. Just…
Bryan Coonrod aka DJ Bryan C is a familiar face amongst vinyl crate diggers in Dallas. He is long in the tooth in DJ years, only a few years shy of the three decade mark. He has witnessed DJ culture in Dallas from the ground up. As a vinyl reseller…
Dallas hip hop is a real melting pot, but Grey Matter’s Kilo Art of Fact takes the idea to a whole other level. Born in Santiago, Chile in 1983, Kilo’s family moved to Bergen, Norway when he was three years old to escape the Pinochet dictatorship. Being a political refugee…
On their own, memories stay sharp only for so long. It’s the physical reminders of an experience that make a moment vivid. And one thing’s for certain: if you’re in the audience at a Modern Pain show, you’re very likely to leave with a few lumps and bruises as a…
