The new Helium Queens video isn’t just a neon-bright example of the Dallas band’s dreamy vibe. It also provides an intimate glimpse into the group’s psyche. In particular, the mental inner workings belonging to Poppy Xander could be described as a vivid, complex, enchanting, bizarre and galactic tapestry of ideas…
Unlike their ant-snorting rock star predecessors, for Rufus Du Sol, the only acceptable vice is exercise. The band’s on the road for their 25-date North America summer tour, and drummer James Hunt is strolling California’s Avila Beach. The sea breeze is blowing while an unruly flock of seagulls rudely chirp…
Julia Holter is not your average singer-songwriter. She layers orchestral and electronic instruments over her ethereal, mesmerizing vocals to create something wholly unique. Her music could be described as avant-garde, but don’t let that intimidate you. It’s captivating and has an air of mystery, which as it turns out, was…
As a member of the iconic band The Moody Blues, musician John Lodge has been going strong for over five decades. To hear him tell it, there’s no time to rest on one’s laurels. “I never reflect on any of it…If you start doing that you’ll get lost somewhere else…
The world of electronic music is dense and varied with more genres, subgenres and non-genres than most other types of music. To the uninitiated, it can be intimidating. To those who just discovered dance music in the last decade, there is a common pitfall of lumping it all under the…
Two years ago, a chance meeting in Deep Ellum between (now former) Home by Hovercraft member Shawn Magill and local musician Joey Noga resulted in an up-and-coming band: Secrecies. The group has been steadily building buzz since signing with the long-standing homegrown indie imprint Idol Records in 2018. Now the…
When local musicians’ guitars get battered and bruised, many bring them to a small, yellow-painted house sitting on Denton’s Elm Street. There, 62-year-old Gregory Lange pumps life back into stringed instruments. He’s a luthier — one who fixes and fashions pieces such as guitars and violins. One might call Lange a…
Willie Trimmer has been a constant presence in Dallas music culture for decades. As one of the few club DJs who still makes a full-time living behind the decks, Trimmer has a particularly well-informed perspective on the DJ landscape. His versatility and depth of genre knowledge, ranging from popular mainstream tunes…
Amanda Bongiovanni is hesitant to share the story behind her nickname-turned-stage name. “I feel a little weird about it,” she says. “Like, it’s not professional enough.” Bongiovanni is a hip-hop soul singer born, raised and based in Dallas. She has taken shelter from a midsummer storm in Astoria Cafe, where…
Sarah Jaffe is back with a double helping of her introspective and arresting bedroom pop. Born of a bad breakup, Jaffe released a double EP during a release party Tuesday night featuring DJ Hannah Hammond at the Belmont Hotel. The double EP, dubbed This is Better, features a contemplative, electronic…
Stop us if you’ve heard this before: Morrissey’s political views have made headlines, and the former Smiths frontman is no stranger to controversy. Even his most loyal fans cringe at the dissonance of his earlier and seemingly whimsical and romantic lyrics and his statements on race and allegiance to the far-right…
Outlaw country was born from a musical exodus that happened in American country music during the ‘70s and ‘80s, when country musicians — disillusioned or outright rejected by the meat-grinding money factory that Nashville’s Music Row area had become — moved away from the city, for the most part, into Texas. This…
International pop star Ed Sheeran gave his Dallas fans a treat on the same day of the release of his fourth studio album, No. 6 Collaborations Project: A pop-up shop in Deep Ellum with exclusive merchandise only available to fans who made it to the Main Street building. The art…
Musicians Daniel Markham, Tony Ferraro and Steve Phillips were all hit with a surprise last month. A song they had all collaborated on called “Cinch” was being heard by tens of thousands of people. Some may not have known who they were listening to, as it was featured along with…
As one of Dallas’ most vibrant and eccentric music acts, hip-hop duo Fagedelics is quickly taking the city by storm. They have performed sets at The Prophet Bar and have opened for the likes of Tay Money, Dorian Electra and Cupcakke. The group also performed at this year’s Pride Festival…
Actor Jeff Goldblum is the beer of movie stars. There’s nothing that either can’t improve. The star of Hollywood blockbusters and beloved classics like Jurassic Park, The Big Chill, The Grand Budapest Hotel and director David Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly will perform with the jazz quintet The Mildred Snitzer…
Chris Palone wanted redemption, a second chance to live the rock ’n’ roll dream with local fans at a place where dreams were made onstage at The Rail Club. Nearly a year has passed since the old landlord chained its doors, and Brian Scheid and Palone blame their former partner Kevin Dunlap…
Remy Reilly doesn’t need to experience a feeling to write about it. Last week, Reilly released “Burn,” a song about a heartbroken and scorned woman, but Reilly says she wouldn’t know the feeling. “Oh, that’s never happened to me,” the 15-year-old says, laughing. “I just … I don’t know. I…
Hindsight is 20/20 and typically it’s useless, except when it comes to previously released music. You can always go back and enjoy albums you weren’t aware of, or ignored, when they were first released. So let’s acknowledge the best local albums that flew under the radar in 2018. Ting Tang…
The first thing Jacob Metcalf sees when he wakes up in the morning is a wall of sticky notes. The musician — a local staple for his folk sound as a soloist and through his work with the band Fox & The Bird — is an avid reader and writer,…
After a long break, we are back to wrap up the final run of Observer Mixtape. We are almost to mixtape No. 200, and this week we feature Feezy, a scene veteran with two decades behind the decks. Feezy walks the fine line between the pop sounds of crowded Deep…
A rhythmic stride of heavy, clinking footsteps ring across the wood floors like the start of an old Western movie, as a burly, long-haired man enters wearing an oversize blazer and a black, feathered gambler hat covering his green-streaked hair. A cool rock-star swagger envelops him, making you feel as…
