Welcome to our 2011 Dallas Observer Music Awards breakdown, wherein we’ll use the weeks leading up to the DOMA showcases on Saturday, October 15 (which is also when voting ends), to explain the nominees in each category Today, we look at the nominees in the Best Group, Best Blues and Best Hard…
We’re getting in a Dallas Observer Music Awards tizzy here at DC9 at Night headquarters. The whole thing will come to a head just two weeks from tomorrow, when we announce the winners during the free-to-attend awards ceremony at the House Of Blues on Tuesday, October 18.On that note, this…
For nearly 15 years, California’s Thrice has been one of the more intriguing alternative rock bands going. With an attitude of constant growth, the four-piece has incorporated elements of punk, metal and electronica into their heady and literate stew. Thrice’s highwater mark would have to be The Alchemy Index Volumes…
Earlier this week, Sarah Jaffe released The Way Sound Leaves a Room, a new EP/DVD release that features footage from her Wyly Theater performance from back in February, as well as eight never-before-released songs from the popular area singer-songwriter. The eight songs are particularly interesting: They include two covers (Cold…
This news comes as something of a surprise: With almost no fanfare, the New York City-based Kemado Records has announced that it will release next week a new five-song, 12-inch release from Dallas “stonegaze” trio True Widow. Called I.N.O., the album, which comes just seven months after the release of…
Speaking of local musicians offering up takes on the 2011 Dallas Observer Music Awards nominees: After performing a live mashup with Mount Righteous at last years awards and then watching LehtMoJoe digitally combine his band’s efforts with that group’s, local rapper GalleryCat has taken matters into his own hands this…
Last year, you may recall, sometime Observer photographer contributor David Wilson shared with us quite the treat by covering all of the 2010 Dallas Observer Music Awards nominees for Best Song on his ukelele and synthesizers.This year, Wilson’s done it again, offering up some fun, borderline Aquedeuct-like covers of the…
A Tribe Called Quest is without a doubt one of the most hailed groups in the storied past of hip-hop. And 2011 marks an important cathartic time for the group as we look back 20 years to the date that the group released its seminal album, The Low End Theory. This…
Hailing from Stillwater, Oklahoma, one might assume that Colourmusic might dabble in alt-country or Southern rock. Such couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead, this intriguing five-piece plays alternative rock with the emphasis on the alternative. Calling what they do “Oklahoma Sex Rock,” the guys in Colourmusic actually claim the…
For 17 years now, Richard Buckner has been one of the most unique singer-songwriters going. Eschewing choruses, Buckner writes in a stream of consciousness matter that resembles free verse poetry set to a fascinating musical backing. Although Buckner was erroneously marketed as a hunky country good old boy in the…
Last week we ran a quick item about American Idol contestant, Tim Halperin, and his publicity stunt leading up to the release of his new record, Rise & Fall. He was to sit in a mock jail cell at Plano’s Shops At Legacy for 28 hours leading up the expiration…
Sure, you already know all about the Dallas Observer Music Awards Showcase on Saturday, October 15, at venues and stages all throughout Deep Ellum. Some big names lined up for that sucker, for sure: Toadies, Old 97’s, Centro-matic, Sarah Jaffe. 51 others, too.But what of the actual awards ceremony set…
Tomorrow night at Gexa Energy Pavilion, things will come full circle for Blink-182: The San Diego-sprung outfit will celebrate the release of their new album, Neighborhoods, their first release in eight years and their first since their ugly split in 2005, which saw the band publicly airing their grievances and…
The Music Business program at Dallas Baptist University is growing — and fast. Last year, the program boasted just over a hundred students, This year, enrollment has ballooned to 175. There’s good reason for the uptick, too: Next week, DBU will formally introduce its latest entity, Joan and Andy Horner…
Quite the deal going on for, oh, the next 57 hours or so: Our sister entity, Voice Daily Deals, is offering a steal on tickets to the 2011 Dallas Observer Music Awards Showcase on October 15, selling the passes for just $7. The event, as you already know, will feature…
Right this very moment, as I type this, Sarah Jaffe and her band are over in Oak Cliff at John Congleton’s Elmwood Recording Studio, working on recording their full-length follow-up to Jaffe’s 2010 breakthrough, debut LP, Suburban Nature. Not sure when we can expect it — early 2012 perhaps? Regardless:…
Hello Lover, Jim Suhler, The Mike Haskins Experience, The Marfalites, Dog Company, Here Holy Spain, The Assassins, The Phuss and Houston’s The Sellouts are the first nine bands confirmed for the first annual 45 Fest, which will honor late Spector 45 members Frankie Campagna and Adam Carter, on Friday, October…
A video clip from Erasure’s 1992 performance at the Apollo in Manchester, UK Andy Bell and Vince Clarke have been writing pop songs together as Erasure since 1985, and they remain, to this day, one of the most successful British pop acts of all time thanks to their highly positive…
Remember the Band in a Bubble promotion a few years back? When that one band with that one song got a reality show backed by MTV and Dr Pepper and were tasked with staying in a bubble and spend 20 days writing and recording a new album? Fort Worth native…
The five members of Midlake are revered recording artists, MOJO award-winners for best live act and, now, bar owners.Less than a month from now — sometime in early October — the Midlake boys will open up shop on the third floor of the building that currently houses Andy’s Bar in Denton…
For nearly two decades, cinematic Manchester act Elbow have been fairly silent in the U.S., despite drawing comparisons to Coldplay, Doves, and Radiohead. Meanwhile, their five records have earned critical acclaim back in the U.K. Their last two — Build A Rocket Boys! and The Seldom Seen Kid, were both…
New York’s A Place to Bury Strangers has been around for nearly a decade, and, in that time, the band has garnered a solid fan base for its unrelentingly loud slabs of noise. The band’s sophomore record, 2009’s Exploding Head, which the band is still touring behind, found APTBS exploring…
