On this Sunday afternoon, Alex Bhore is just packing and doing laundry in preparation for This Will Destroy You’s upcoming East Coast tour. The band just returned from a European tour, where they played a show almost every single night for five weeks straight. Even though they’ve had a few…
Industrial music is relevant all over again. Amidst the music industry’s infatuation with retro sounds, revivals and the general rehashing of old ideas, industrial is once again positioned as a music that matters — an older strand that has taken on new meaning. As the continued effects of industrialization steadily…
When it comes to genres that have been allowed to flourish in the age of the online music cloud, few have risen to greater prominence than future sounds, better known to most as beats culture. An all-encompassing, chimeric blend of electronic, hip-hop and soul, beats takes DJs and producers of…
Over the past year, access to safe and legal abortion has taken some serious hits from the Texas Legislature. After the passage and implementation of HB2, one of the country’s most restrictive abortion laws, the majority of the state’s abortion facilities were forced to close. In the wake of these…
Looks like you can’t win ’em all, Erykah. Back in the summertime, local R&B star Erykah Badu went viral when crashed a local TV news telecast in New York City, playfully trying to steal a kiss from a reporter who had no one idea what kind of celebrity he was…
Felt & Fur’s practice space plays home to a myriad of peculiarities. It’s in an upstairs nook at Denton’s premiere combination business: Sprockets Bike Shop and NV Cupcakes. It’s painted baby blue and has a strangely low ceiling. Oh, and it used to be the daycare for a church that…
Last month, Dallas-based songbird Lily Taylor released her debut album, The Ride, for local indie label Pour Le Corps. The album explores a haunting and dramatic mood within the parameters of a minimalistic and bare bones sound world. This is not one of those easy to categorize albums. It’s a…
Bon Spengler is a mainstay in the underground house and techno scenes in Dallas. Along with her husband Corey Spengler (of the electronic duo Opencloud), she has been responsible for a series of notable parties featuring local and touring techno, tech house and house talent that are not usually known…
For most bands, whenever they cut a few records without a founding member, those records are almost forgotten about when that founding member returns to the band. Whether it’s Van Halen, Iron Maiden or Bad Religion, this happens all the time. With the Jayhawks, they cut three albums without founding…
When Dallas-based singer and songwriter Johnny Stimson graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in finance, he had his dreams for a music career all planned out. He made, as he refers to it now, a “two-year, thought-out decision to move to New York,” where he spent a few months…
If Michael Briggs wants to see a show, record a band’s EP or film a podcast, he doesn’t have to step outside his own door. It is, shall we say, a bit of a luxury. In Denton’s independent music scene, Briggs is absolutely crucial in the booking, recording and promotion…
You may not know the the name Transmission Events, but you sure know the work that they do. Based in Austin, Transmission are the folks behind Fun Fun Fun Fest, the music festival held each fall at Auditorium Shores in the capitol city. They also do all the booking for…
It’s been a little over a week now since voting opened, so we’re just going to go ahead and ask: Have you filled out your Dallas Observer Music Awards ballot yet? If yes, congratulations. You’re a champ. If not, it’s okay; we understand what it’s like to play the long…
As a child growing up in the tiny town of Niceville, Florida, McKinney transplant and country singer-songwriter Crystal Yates couldn’t avoid the twangy sounds of country music even if she had wanted to. “My mom says I could sing ‘Why Don’t You Love Me’ by Hank Williams before I could…
The combination of motorheads, good food and great live music probably is probably, well, music to some peoples’ ears, and it’s one that has worked really well for the brains behind Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill. Outside of serving some really stellar brisket and other delicious food, Gas Monkey has…
Some songs pop out of a writer’s mind and onto tape in mere minutes. Other songs, however, require a journey with several stops in order to develop into the fully formed statement they need to be. Almost three years ago, during the Christmas season of 2011, popular sports-talk radio host…
Perfectionism, particularly in a musician, is most often viewed as a liability. Rather than focusing on the life-affirming qualities inherent in the struggle for perfection, many attribute negative personal characteristics — difficult, hardheaded, intractable — towards those with a desire for self-improvement. But there exists a rare breed that uses…
ill76 has been floating around the DFW DJ scene since the ’90s. In a town where actual techno DJs are a rare breed, ill76 is a cut above the rest. He used to run the beloved local DJ shop Illmatic Records, a store that was a cornerstone of the local…
Luke Wade isn’t the only North Texas contestant on the new season of NBC’s The Voice. No, competing alongside him is Taylor Phelan, who hails from Dallas. And the two have more in common than just geography: They’ve both chosen to work Pharrell Williams on the show. But for Phelan,…
This past weekend, a young Dallas impresario played a major role in the second annual National Cassette Store Day. It might have slipped by you, as it did me. But Evan Henry, founder of Dallas Distortion Music, was totally dialed in In fact, Henry’s DDM label was one of a…
It is a frigid Sunday morning, and Jordan Richardson is checking out of his hotel in Harrison, Ohio. Today marks day five of his band Son of Stan’s two-week tour, and it is too early, even though it is noon. With a new EP set to drop on Tuesday, October…
And at long last, the will-it-close-or-won’t-it saga of July Alley has reached its end. The Deep Ellum bar had been plagued by rumors of its demise for a years, culminating in a temporary shutdown over the Fourth of July weekend this past summer. Yesterday afternoon, the speculation was finally confirmed…
