Fifteen years ago Rob Viktum began putting together Shoot The Messenger. “This record is the first time that everything has come together and felt perfect,” Viktum says. “My whole career I’ve been making music, but I’ve never really made a record that was 100 percent and totally me. I’ve either been pulled…
Erykah Badu isn’t known to play small when it comes to her birthday parties. “This year I’m putting more energy into it because I have the time, and it’s a very special year, and I want to treat it that way,” she tells the Observer. “I have time to appropriately give…
Matt Newman is one of the key players in the highly influential Dallas DJ crew Soundslike, but his roots in dance music go back to his days slinging records in Michigan. Newman’s career began in Chicago and Detroit, epicenters of techno and house, and those cities had a lasting impact…
As a member of pioneering hip-hop group Salt-n-Pepa, DJ Spinderella sold over 15 million albums and singles, and toured the world. In recent years she has thrown herself into the Spinderella DJ Academy, encouraging and promoting female artists and producers. Last Saturday, at the ceremony honoring her as the first female recipient of…
Tift Merritt will play at Three Links on Saturday, Feb. 25. Coming hard and fast on the heels of a divorce, Tift Merritt’s sixth album Stitch of the World could almost be considered a breakup album. Almost, except that seems a little too simple for the poetry Merritt spins, and…
On Jan. 23, four days after his son Jordan Daniel died of a drug overdose, Deep Ellum fixture Jon Daniel decided to make a statement. “The word started getting out,” Daniel says. “So it’s, ‘OK, I need to put something out there,’ because I don’t want people to start sending…
On Sunday evening at Club Dada, with more than four hours left in the silent auction, bids for a Stetson cowboy hat had already far surpassed its value. By 7 p.m. the $20 T-shirts were sold out in every size but extra large. The bar’s supply of Lone Star was…
Last week was a whirlwind of activity for R&B singer-songwriter Ladarrion Darnell, also known as Imaj. The 23-year-old visited radio stations across DFW including 89.3 KNON, 97.9 the Beat, K104 and 105.7 Smooth RnB to promote his new single “Something Real,” earning him spins on those stations. Then, on Valentine’s Day, he…
Ascension Coffee on Oak Lawn is a bustling place. Pay a visit any afternoon and you’ll find most of the tables full with people deeply engaged in conversation, whether it’s business types sizing each other up for a deal, or friends catching up over cappuccinos and croissants. The customers are…
Watching the seven-piece psych rock band Acid Carousel perform is like watching a pen full of well-dressed wolf pups wrestle with their favorite sticks. Frontmen and songwriters Gus Baldwin and John Kuzmick are young, at 18 and 21, respectively; there’s a lot of long hair; they have boundless energy; and the…
The ongoing efforts of Encore Park to preserve the historic Warner Brothers building are starting to show promise following a $2.1 million grant from the Moody Foundation, which was announced Wednesday. The Moody Foundation has been benefactor to a number of other high profile developments in the city of Dallas,…
Patrons of Deep Ellum’s Buzzbrews Kitchen are likely to recognize Evan Bornes by his perky dreads and thick, wide-framed glasses. The 21-year-old Lakeworth native, also known as rapper-producer PeepSigns, has adopted the popular hangout as his base of operations when producing music or editing his new podcast, Black Swan. For the…
Rick Simpson is a veteran of the Dallas DJ scene dedicated to the old school craft of mixing tracks. He is most often seen playing with his crew Disco’s Revenge, who have had a vinyl-focused, monthly residency for the last few years that recently moved to The Nines. Simpson’s focus…
Yesterday, Homegrown released the full lineup for its eighth festival this May. While the reunion of the 17-years silent Tripping Daisy is still the biggest news, the announcement of MUTEMATH, Porches and Still Corners also reveals an interesting tweak to the festival’s vision, in that none of these three acts…
On the surface, Pearl Earl and Siamese, two of North Texas’ most innovative rock bands, appear to sail different musical waters. The women of Pearl Earl traffic in psych-rock with heavy grooves and charging guitars that at times hearken back to late ’60s San Francisco. Siamese make noisey rock, too, but…
Last night’s 59th Grammy Awards may have been dominated by Adele, who accepted five gold-plated gramophone trophies, Metallica’s microphone issues during their performance with Lady Gaga, and a tribute to Prince, but in between all that, North Texas artists also received some love. Arlington-born country sensation Maren Morris performed “Once” with Alicia…
There was a time when pop punk trio MxPx toured constantly, and hit Dallas on every go-round. Whether it was Deep Ellum Live or Trees, the gaps between shows were short. But these days the Washington-based band doesn’t tour at all, instead opting to restrict their travel to weekends and…
Country music outsider and critical darling Sturgill Simpson has announced a series of tour dates beginning March 4. The tour includes a stop at Verizon Theatre in September as well as dates in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Portland and Austin. In 2014 Simpson sold out two shows on the same…
It’s hard to talk about the ’80s post-punk period without including Adam Ant. He released Kings of the Wild Frontier in 1980, setting the tone of rebellious confidence that persisted in music throughout the decade. His music and persona was a declaration of war against a music industry he perceived as…
Being in the rap game for over 15 years earns you some leeway, as Dallas rap legend Tum Tum has learned. For one, he’s never in a rush to release new music. It’s been almost six years since his last studio album. But on Feb. 28, Tum Tum will release…
Daniel Cortez is a recent transplant to Dallas from El Paso who is making waves as half of production duo Prototype. He’s had a hand in putting together some of the most exciting techno parties to pop up in Dallas recently, for which he brings in international artists from boutique…
A tip from an Uber driver about a property that was for sale along the Trinity River led Jay LaFrance to saving one of Dallas’ most historic musical landmarks. Built in 1950, the Longhorn Ballroom was once the home of Bob Wills and run by Jack Ruby, but when it came up…
