Music and art may seem like appealing career paths for creative people. However, at a Dallas Startup Week panel on Wednesday, several entertainment entrepreneurs warned that these fields require business sense as well. “A lot of people want to create, but one of the things you have to worry about…
The Bomb Factory had a busy week of show announcements. In addition to upcoming appearances slated for two giants in the contemporary indie-rock scene, there are dates set for a classic rock titan and an illuminating act with deep Texas ties. In other news, the aTrolla Festival has released its…
It’s not simple being FlexinFab. The 19-year-old, born Fabricio Rojas, is currently riding a wave of success only six months after setting out on his rap career. On the flip side, he’s knee deep in internet trolls and hip-hop purists who think he represents everything that’s wrong with the genre…
Lucinda Williams plays Old 97’s County Fair at Main Street Garden Park on Saturday, April 8. Lucinda Williams has received a lot of praise in the course of her career, but the last couple of years have been particularly kind. Her most recent two albums — 2014’s Down Where the…
Last weekend one of the cornerstones of Dallas’ DJ community unexpectedly died. Aaron Wilkerson, better known to his peers and fans as Squirt, rose to prominence in the mid to late ’90s. If you picked up a flyer for a party or a rave during that time, you likely saw his name…
Jeffrey Liles has packed a lot of living into the past 35 years. The Kessler Theater artistic director’s resume — his life story, actually — reads like a fanfic book co-written, somehow, by assorted members of the 27 Club and the characters of Almost Famous. He’s resurrected his alter ego,…
The Orwells play Club Dada on Saturday, April 8. The last time the Orwells played Dallas, their set at Trees ended with an on-stage altercation between a sound man and vocalist Mario Cuomo. After Cuomo spiked the mike a few times during their set at last year’s Spillover Fest, he and…
Singer-songwriter Paul Howeth is an unknown. He’s lived in obscurity for most of his adult life — he has no job, and before recently becoming homeless, was surviving off disability payments in a cramped apartment with his longtime companion Diane and their three pets. The musician, who’s probably in his…
88 Killa is the Don of Dallas in the new music video for his latest single “The Code,” directed by longtime friend and confidant Jeremy Biggers. The 29-year-old rapper explores his inner mob boss in the ’70s gangster film-inspired video. Biggers even used the same iconic font that Francis Ford Coppola…
Dallas Startup Week works to educate budding entrepreneurs every year through a weeklong series of speaker-led discussions. This year’s event, running today through April 7 and free to attend, has a new emphasis on the local music scene. “[Artists] are always looking at, ‘Who’s going to sign me?’ or ‘How…
This week we got details about the unveiling of a shiny new music and entertainment complex, the initial revelation of Live Nation’s music lineup, and concert announcements that will appeal to fans of R&B, early-2000s rock, and European industrial. Read on for the details. Regular readers of the Dallas Observer…
Six Shooter is a recurring feature where we highlight six new releases by North Texas-based musicians. Kaela Sinclair – “Golden” Yesterday Gorilla Vs. Bear premiered this new single from singer Kaela Sinclair’s upcoming album. As mentioned in the blog post, Sinclair’s solo career has been on hold the past year…
There’s a lot of overlap between fans of indie music and fans of dance music, and Fropsi thrives in that space. As a member of DJ crew The Guild, he has a weekly residency dedicated to electronic music at the Nines, where he’s known to bring in other upcoming talent…
This Friday at Poor David’s Pub, Denton’s Grammy Award-winning polka band Brave Combo will play music introduced to America by immigrants and refugees. Mayor Mike Rawlings will be there. Band member Carl Finch claims the band isn’t making a political statement — “It is just about acknowledging where a bunch…
In the ’80s, rock lovers in Dallas tuned into KZEW “The Zoo” as they cruised down Central Expressway. Now, more than three decades since that iconic call sign graced the airwaves, a key figure in the history of the Zoo is returning to “extend the continuum” of a radio station. “The…
Terrence Morris is glowing after an evening workout. He’s a far cry from the boyish, happy-go-lucky rapper who appeared in the music video for “Blu Summer,” a single from his 2014 breakthrough mixtape NuDallas. That year, the hip-hop radio station Live From the Underground declared Morris, who raps under the…
For those who treat Record Store Say like a national holiday, there is a lot of planning involved. It’s huge business for stores across the country, which can do two months’ worth of business in a single day. This year, the day falls on April 22. The official list of special…
Earlier this month, we delved into the changing landscape of music festivals in Denton when Oaktopia may be making a move from the city after it lost its main investor. That bad news came on the heels of a February announcement that 35 Denton would not be returning in 2017. Now the…
The lead singer of Dallas’ newest pop band, Starfruit — who asks to be identified only as Bubbles and uses gender-neutral pronouns — says they hear a lot of music by queer artists that’s sad. They hope Starfruit can fill that void and be something bright that gets people dancing…
Justin Rhodes was filled with excitement as he made the drive from Dallas to Austin a couple weeks ago with his girlfriend Adriel Sims. The occasion for the trip was SXSW; for the first time, Rhodes, an award-winning producer, had been invited as an official festival panelist. But what he…
The Sonics play April 7 at Gas Monkey Bar and Grill Most rock ’n’ rollers have called it quits by the time they’ve reached their 60s, preferring to play at small gatherings or for personal enjoyment. Garage rock legends the Sonics are not only completing world tours fifty years after their original…
American Football play Granada Theater on Saturday, April 1. American Football’s self-titled, nine-track debut album has far more fans now than when it was released in ’99. The band belongs to a class of emo and post-hardcore music that also counted Jimmy Eat World, At the Drive-In, Sunny Day Real…
