Critic's Notebook

Listen up, Gen Xers: The Kessler Theater in Oak Cliff is bringing back a 1980s staple for one night only.

Pop-punk is not dead. At all. Dallas band Van Full of Nuns plays pop-punk classics and some originals for all you early aughts lovers.

Two of the biggest musical names ever to come out of the Texas music scene have teamed up to record a stirring new love song.

New name, who dis? Rapper Shaquan Bivins slightly changed his name, but he’s a whole new person.

Fountains of Wayne showered us with a pop hit that won’t quit. Name that tune.

Ashton Edminster has been planning her pop stardom since before she could speak. Her plan is working.

The first time Markus Klinko was in Dallas, he was pursuing his art with a harp and a symphony. Now he seeks it out with a camera, studio lighting and pursuing some of the most famous artists in the world.

Pearl Earl got real about the last few years with an album titled – what else? – “It’s Dread.”

Astral Panda makes beats with his friend Medium K. And they’ve never been happier.

Dallas played a pivotal role in music history.

Jess Garland will play a high-tech classical show to shine a light on racial inequity.

Like Seth Cohen from The O.C., we’ll never shut up about Death Cab.

Charlie Puth plays on Wednesday in Dallas. “We don’t talk anymore” about Selena Gomez, though.

In honor of The Weeknd changing his name back to Abel Tesfaye, here are the best and craziest musician name changes we can think of. Tell us yours.

We’re entering a new Taylor Swift era: The Matty Healy era.

The Willie Nelson Picnic is coming up on its 50th edition, just in time to celebrate the music legend’s 90th birthday. A series at UNT in Denton examines the legend.

Rapper Trapboy Freddy has made a deal with prosecutors over a federal gun trafficking charge that he’s been fighting since last August.

Two Dallas mainstay artists (one who is known to strip down to his skivvies onstage), are coming together for a cool new project.

Record Store Day may already have passed on this year’s calendar but Denton’s KUZU 92.9 FM is planning a record swapping convention that will make it look like the $1 CD bin at Wal-Mart.

Fort Worth has a hot export: musicians. Hear Fort Worth, a program under the Visit Fort Worth umbrella, hopes to make Cowtown a music mecca. And its strategy is simple: build the infrastructure for a music scene to thrive, then let those musicians be the city’s ambassadors. This transition isn’t…

Texas travel blogger Jessica Serna isn’t a stripper, but she was ecstatic when Dolly Parton, at a stop in Frisco, asked her if she were.

The Ridglea Theater in Fort Worth is being accused of allowing security to interrupt a show. The venue says rowdy fans are the reason they are no longer booking hardcore shows. Other metal acts are boycotting the place.