Dallas’ Spanish-singing synth-punk band seres (“beings” en Español, and intentionally lowercase) hasn’t always been so angular, robotic and extraterrestrial. The times are just right for it. “When I was living in North Carolina, it was more of a blues-rock sound,” vocalist and synth player Alfonso Callejas says of the band’s…
Virgin Hotels Dallas helped ring in 2020 with its Avant Eden New Year’s Eve party. In The Pool Club, the hotel’s fourth-floor rooftop bar and pool deck, people sipped cocktails and listened to a set by DJ Sam Blacky. It was a wildly successful night, said Tim Denker, vice president…
The storm had only begun to gather when South by Southwest made the painful but necessary decision to cancel the entirety of its 2020 conference, sending shockwaves through the creative community in Texas and around the world. As everyone processed the enormity of such an unprecedented step, Fort Worth singer-songwriter…
When the pandemic silenced the sounds of nightlife, local musicians found resourceful ways to get by, like online busking — performing to internet traffic for virtual tips — and giving remote music lessons. Some started playing curbside delivery concerts in front of homes on residential streets. In the last month, Texas…
Dallas pop-folk musician Ryan Berg woke up one morning in this new world we call “Dallas-under-COVID” and saw that one of his favorite songs was playing, a tune called “Best Part” by pop dynamo Daniel Caesar and H.E.R. As Berg stood, donning his quarantine bandanna — which acts as a functional face…
Last week, mainstay Deep Ellum club Lizard Lounge announced that it would be closing its doors after 28 years. Passing through the venue’s doors and getting a taste of late-night debauchery was a rite of passage for anyone in DFW who could claim to have any sort of edge. The…
On Tuesday, crossover-thrash metal outfit Body Count premiered a quarantine-friendly music video for their anti-police brutality single “Point the Finger,” which boasts an appearance from Power Trip vocalist Riley Gale. “We just put out a new album, Carnivore, and we can’t even tour,” says Body Count vocalist Ice-T at the…
A La Mode salon owner Shelley Luther, who defied a county order to close her Dallas shop during the pandemic, stood recently in front of more than 100 people, riling them up. On this day, May 9, she was in Dealey Plaza as the headlining act at an Open Texas rally…
As COVID-19 continues to keep people from gathering at bars and clubs, a controversial Fort Worth warehouse party drew an estimated 500 people to an unknown location Saturday night. The event’s promoter, Corey Mobley of Fort Worth, has been anything but elusive about the fact that he organized it, as…
Singer, organ and masterful guitar player Lucky Peterson died this Sunday in Dallas. He was 55. A statement on his Facebook page, posted on Sunday evening, read: “It is with great sorrow we announce the passing of Lucky Peterson on Sunday, May 17, 2020 at 2:25 PM CST in Dallas,…
On Aug.16, Zyon Iman turned 22. That day, the Dallas rapper by way of Milwaukee released the first installment of his mixtape series IPMD [I Paid My Dues] Vol I. The title may seem a bit presumptuous and off-putting to those in older age brackets, but when you consider the life obstacles…
Before the pandemic shut down North Texas nightlife in mid-March, it would’ve been a tough task to name a local band enjoying more forward momentum than Bastards of Soul. In the first several weeks of 2020, the group released its stellar debut LP, Spinnin’, which flew off the shelves of…
In a shocking development caused by the economic devastation of COVID-19, two respected Deep Ellum venues located a mere half mile from each other announced they would be closing this week. Lizard Lounge, a Dallas institution that has stood for 28 years as a mecca of electronic music and Goth/post-punk,…
You never know when music will be important. When avant-jazz act Yells at Eels and avant-metal act Pinkish Black entered the studio together in April 2018, there was no way they could have known that the tracks they would be laying down then would become the soundtrack to the isolation…
Concerts are something we look forward to for weeks or months. They mark our lives with a meaningful timestamp that interrupts the drudgery of our daily responsibilities. A concert can be a significant life event, where our idols’ lives intersect with our own, as we feel at one with a…
Live Nation Entertainment is organizing the first of what they hope to be many concerts that comply with social distancing protocols, Bloomberg reports. Travis McCready, vocalist of Americana band Bishop Gunn, will be Patient Zero for this new experiment, which will take place on May 15 at Fort Smith, Arkansas…
Wavers, rejoice: It’s time to show our kids that being a little weird isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s pretty cool. If your child shows interest in the experimental or the obscure and prefers to march to the beat of his or her own synthesizer, this list is your…
While the future of live music remains uncertain, and some sources predict there will be no large concerts until 2021, one Dallas musician found a way to continue touring around the lockdowns. This Monday, famed electronic musician Marc Rebillet announced via Twitter that he’ll be embarking on a national tour…
There’s no denying that spending extra time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic has led many folks to see things in a new, unexpected light. That’s certainly the case for Wade Bowen, one of the biggest stars of the Texas country circuit. The Waco native is deriving unexpected pleasure from…
While it may be a tough time to have the name “Corona” associated with your brand, it’s a name that’s working well for a local singer-songwriter. Kristina Corona is gaining lots of local recognition with her song “Missing,” which has been picked up for radio play on Dallas stations. Corona…
MATTIE is easy to crush on. The Dallas musician and hairdresser is a force of creativity whose work is boundlessly original. She’s a superb live performer with a transfixing onstage act rooted in storytelling. Offstage, she’s just as fascinating, an all-caps mystic with inimitable style. Here’s why we love her…
People gathered outside of an old Dallas shopping strip. Some wore masks and others openly carried firearms. One held a flag that bore the words: “Trump 2020 — Make America Great Again.” They were rallying in support of Shelley Luther and her business A La Mode, the Dallas salon that decided…
