For the last six months or so, the Fort Worth music scene has been under construction, with a long list of new venues set to open in 2012. A lot of the action has taken place in the New Southside district, where the Live Oak Music Hall and Brewed Coffee…
Austin’s Heartless Bastards recently released their latest LP, Arrow, solidifying their reputation as a damn fine band. For those who didn’t hop on the bandwagon after 2009’s The Mountain, there aren’t very many seats left. The four-piece makes a stop at Lola’s on Friday night. Wennerstrom talked a bit about…
When guitarist Ana da Silva met bassist Gina Birch in art school and started going to gigs in London in the late ’70s, their fate was already sealed. The Raincoats’ 1979 self-titled debut and 1981’s Odyshape, both on Rough Trade, were products of that creatively and politically off-center time, and…
Despite all Built to Spill’s success, it’s impossible to deny how down to Earth frontman Doug Martsch is. He remains modest to a fault, going as far to say he wouldn’t be a fan of his own band if he wasn’t in it. I talked with him over the phone…
Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s 2011 Fat Possum debut is one of those albums that sort of blindsides: Every song is a different texture, soul, hip-hop, funk and psych layered for maximum gonzo appeal. The vocals on every song are different too, to the point that the album almost plays out like…
Girls Rock Dallas is gearing up for their inaugural summer session, but in the meantime, they’re looking for submissions for a local comp they’re putting together. “We have received a few submissions, but we would love some more,” says camp director Rachel Michaud. “We are looking for all different genres…
Denton’s Doug Burr is continuing with his fixation on very sad-looking veiled brides. The cover of his Trembling Lips and Pale Fingertips 7-inch record, out today on Spune/Velvet Blue Music/Tree Fall Sounds, shows an alternative shot of the same bride featured on the cover of his 2010 album O Ye…
From his home in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Jesse Tabish sounded a bit nervous. The leader of Other Lives certainly had every right to be anxious. His band was just about to begin a tour with Radiohead. Well, that tour makes a stop in Dallas this evening at the AAC and Tabish…
After leaving Megadeth in 2002 and bringing a lawsuit against Dave Mustaine in 2004, very few people thought original bassist Dave Ellefson would ever appear with the band again. Yet, behind the scenes, over a period of six years, Mustaine and Ellefson were both rediscovering Christianity and having conversations about…
On “Circumambient,” a track from 23-year-old Claire Boucher’s latest album, Visions, she sings, “Oh baby I can’t say/That everything is OK/Cause I have problems/And I don’t know how to solve them.” The Montreal musician’s third full length and first for 4AD navigates body and mind in order to solve those…
After scrolling through Erykah Badu’s Twitter feed last night, it seems the concert scheduled for today has been canceled after all. She held a press conference in Kuala Lampur earlier to address the issues that lead up to the cancellation, and beyond the bigger issue of art, religion and where…
Yung Nation, the Dallas duo of 19-year-old emcees Lil Faime and B. Reed, is seemingly primed for some national hype. The pair tirelessly records and plays shows, their YouTube channel has well over a million views, and backing from Dorrough Music has allowed Yung Nation and Nation Gang, the dance-centric…
A special Leap Day concert Erykah Badu was scheduled to perform in Kuala Lampur tomorrow was temporarily canceled, after a local paper ran this promo photo of her, which shows one of her (temporary) tattoos spelling out the Arabic word for “Allah.” It apparently violated the Central Agency for the…
Possessing one of rock’s most recognizable voices, former Yes lead singer Jon Anderson sounds as good today as he did when he helped form the legendary progressive rock band over four decades ago. From his home studio in California and in anticipation of tonight’s gig at the Kessler Theater with…
Purveyors of heavy metal always seem to be obsessed with epic literature.Take Russell Allen of Symphony X. He’s fronted New Jersey’s progressive metal act for nearly 20 years, and in that time, Symphony X has released albums based on both The Odyssey and Paradise Lost. Last year, they released Iconoclast,…
There’s a good chance you haven’t heard much about Dallas dream-pop act Crushed Stars. Singer Todd Gautreau generally flies below the radar, and the Frisco native plays an average of one live show per album, which, by our calculation, makes six.His bandmates stay pretty busy with their own projects: Drummer…
Here’s hoping Dustin Cavazos doesn’t die before his funeral today. The Oak Cliff-dwelling, bike-riding rapper — who has one of the most sobering deliveries in local hip-hop — is filming a new video for his song “Bless the City” this afternoon at Calvario Funeral Home at 1 p.m. He’s putting…
Even after more than 20 years in the music business, Ronan Harris of VNV Nation still rambles on like a kid half his age. Enthusiastic and confident in the extreme, Harris believes (correctly) that the music he and partner Mark Jackson create is as important now as when it first…
Are people still using PlayStations? If the brand is looking for a charming accomplishment via their product, they need look no further than Big K.R.I.T. As a resourceful teenager, Justin Scott used PlayStation’s MTV Music Generator to form his first beats, and that entrepreneurial spirit guided him as he continues…
Talking to Matthew Good can feel like being reprimanded by your high school history teacher. Opinionated, well-spoken and extremely blunt, Good never hesitates to delve into areas of interest not common to most singer-songwriters. The guy just happens to be a damn fine songwriter as well. Whether fronting his own…
Yesterday, various social media outlets were literally on fire with the news of Centro-matic singer Will Johnson’s “supergroup” with the Kadane Brothers and Pedro the Lion’s David Bazan. That almost made us forget about his other other band, New Multitudes, which features Jay Farrar, Anders Parker and his former Monsters…
Some bands just like to be mysterious. Take Houston’s Indian Jewelry for example. Although the band has been around for a little over a decade, very little biographical material is available. Various articles on the band list five members, but some list only two, and even then, pseudonyms are used…
