Opium Symphony Out to Stop The Vote

The ‘Screw The Vote’ Contingent: Opium Symphony.With Obamamania spreading across the country, there’s lots of talk about the youth who have been energized to participate in politics for the first time and whether or not they’ll actually turn out to vote. Well, here’s something a little different — a local…

Video: On The Road with Kessler

Wondering what life is like on tour for Dallas rock quintet Kessler? Well, the guys are out on a big national tour and are kind enough to be posting videos on their MySpace blog to give us a glimpse of life on the road. The video from February 19 is…

Forever The Sickest Kids Want Your Pictures

So, for the Forever The Sickest Kids fans out there (Oh, don’t deny it. You guys read shit about them like crazy.) the band is again soliciting stuff from its fans. Before it was questions, then YouTube videos, now the band wants your pictures. The group is after pictures of…

R.I.P. No Depression

After 13 years, No Depression, the bi-monthly magazine covering alternative country music, has decided to fold. Not only did many local semi-legends such as Slobberbone, Old 97’s and Theater Fire receive countless mentions throughout the magazine’s history, but even lesser known area talents such as Collin Herring and Darryl Lee…

CMA Fest Could Leave Nashville…For Dallas?

Brooks & Dunn ain’t nothin’ to f*ck with. There’s an argument to be made that Dallas should have been the country music capital of the world ahead of Nashville–hell, the in-place economic infrastructure is alone enough of a compelling case. But, alas, things happened and Nashville got Dallas’ number there…

New Tracks From Pleasant Grove…

Pleasant Grove The alt-country/indie rockers in Pleasant Grove have posted (from the looks of it…) four new tracks on their MySpace page for your listening pleasure. Each track (including our favorite of the bunch, “Luzern”) is hinted to be on an album called Release The River that’s set to come…

D-Notes: “It’s Rock-Thirty In My Mind”

Somebody posted a couple o’ Youtube clips from the Chomsky reunion on Saturday night at the Double-Wide. Here’s the better of the two: “15 Minutes to Rock” by Chomsky (How does one punctuate “rock-thirty”? Is it that way? Or “rock:30”? Does anyone know?) It was, indeed, quite a fun show…

Two New The Lash Outs Songs

The Lash Outs are being kind enough to let everyone download their two new tracks, “The Kids Don’t Wanna Dance” and “Dream Catcher,” on their MySpace. And, after listening, we’re pretty damn excited to hear more of the new stuff. “The Kids Don’t Wanna Dance” has a catchy riff and…

Today’s School Lunch: Honoring Dimebag Darrell

This could make for a touching and interesting lunch hour. Says here that “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott is going to be honored today at, of all places, Pleasant Grove Elementary for the Little Kids Rock’s newest chapter in Dallas. The program fosters music education in public schools and something Dimebag was…

Video Q&A: Peacemaker

We pleased the indie fans and the country lovers with our last couple video Q&As. So, it’s only fair for us to give our rock crowd a little something. Our videographer Jonathan Finley met up with the four guys in Peacemaker earlier this month to give us a glimpse of…

The Closest You’ll Come To Seeing Robert Johnson On Video

Jim Clark, an animator out of England, has done some phenomenal work here, taking the few existing photos of Robert Johnson and distorting them in time with his recorded tracks, making it appear as if the legendary bluesman is, indeed, performing the track on video (or close enough to it)…

Yet Another Local Hip-Hop Death…

Evan Callis, aka Rawdog, was a member of Criminal Habits We just got news that Evan Callis, who went by the name “Rawdog” when he performed with his hip-hop group Criminal Habits, died in the early morning hours of Saturday, February 9, in a manner eerily similar to DJ Frantic’s…

Ashlee Simpson “Rocks” Purgatory

Someone posted a YouTube clip of Ashlee Simpson’s performance of “L.O.V.E.” at Purgatory from last Thursday. Tough to tell if she’s learned her lip-syncing lesson given the phenomenal camera work/angle here. (Yes, this was a blatant attempt on our part to get Google hits. Suckers!) — Pete Freedman…

Video: Hash Brown on Dallas Blues History

I came across this excerpt from an upcoming documentary on blues music in Dallas over the weekend. From the looks of this clip from Dallas Electric: The Texas Blues Story, it’s going to be an interesting flick. The video offers a glimpse of Hash Brown delving into Dallas’ blues history…

More Sad Local Hip-Hop News

After the passing of Freewill and DJ Frantic, there has been yet another death in the DFW hip-hop world, according to a post from Money Waters local female emcee Money420 over at DFWHipHop.com. Money420 posted the news that EZ Eddie D lost his son. Eddie has been a long-time supporter…

Harder, Better, Faster and Stronger Than The Other Tours?

Kanye brings the good life to town on May 18 Given that we’ve been blowing up this space with Starplex show announcements of late (Radiohead, The Police with Elvis Costello), we’d be remiss not to mention The Glow in the Dark tour, which (no offense, Radiohead), has us most excited…

Updating You On A Former Me

Saw a link to this interesting item on Sam Machkovech’s BigDlittled blog in case you were already pining for the days of yore a whole two weeks into my tenure here. Writes Sam: “You’ll be seeing a little more of me around these parts for a bit” Sure. The more…

Dallas Observer SXSW Concert Lineup Announced

Mark your calendars to see England’s The Cribs at our SXSW show. Seriously. Write it down.Oh, you read that right. We’re not just going to SXSW, we’re bringing some damn good bands together for those of you trekking it down to Austin. Here’s our lineup: The Black Keys Health The…

Erykah Badu Brings Some Fire.

Everyone’s favorite local R&B/soul/neo-soul singer, Erykah Badu, has got a couple killer shows coming up in the near future. This one at the Ghostbar with Q-Tip looks cool: This one at the House of Blues, with ?uestlove, Pharoahe Monch, Bun B and others, looks even cooler: (Right-click images to see…

Help for the Valentine’s Day Mixtape

It’s crunch time, people. You’ve got just mere hours until meeting up with that “special someone” or “that hot chick” or “the boyfriend,” and if you haven’t figured out something rad for them yet, you’re not screwed. No. We encourage you to pilfer our list of 20 Songs for Valentine’s…

Run. The Police Are Coming.

The Police. Lookin’ a whole lot younger. So, the Starplex has another announcement. Hot on the heels of all this Radiohead stuff that has you all so hot and bothered, we just caught wind of another sure-to-be-a-big-deal show coming ’round these parts: The Police, with “special guests” Elvis Costello and…

Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Local American Idol Angle…

His name is Jason Castro and he calls Rowlett home. You might recognize him from the MTV show Cheyenne, in which he played love interest numero uno to Frisco’s Cheyenne Kimball. (This is a growing trend, apparently, that has a lot of AI viewers calling bullshit on this season–a whole…