Last week, I predicted a mob at the Cavern when Chicago’s Fruit Bats played the small venue, but the crowd wound up being small and quaint, and singer Eric Johnson jokingly scolded me–onstage, no less–for publicizing the show as something too difficult to get into. My bad. So here, only…
Come celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Acid Mothers Temple! Wait, what the bejeezus is the Acid Mothers Temple? It’s an old-school psychedelic rock collective from Japan led by extreme cosmic shredder Kawabata Makoto. And if things couldn’t get weirder, Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno is the collective’s…
In 2001, local country band The Lucky Pierres was hired to play weekends at the State Fair of Texas. Bassist Bart Chaney kept a diary, which he recently rediscovered and sent excerpts from to the Observer. Somehow, in spite of this tale, the band is still going strong at the…
Yeah Yeah Yeahs It doesn’t get more “indie” than the self-released success of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Want to challenge a music writer? Then request an accurate portrayal of the musical bounty that is Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The Brooklyn rock quintet’s output begs for description by way…
Compared with the well-publicized debacle of the pay-to-play Dallas Music Festival earlier this year, the North Texas New Music Festival is a far superior source of live local tunes. Its intentions certainly are much nobler, as ticket prices are low (free for early birds, even), bands don’t pay to participate…
LAN party: If you attend Laptop Deathmatch at The Cavern on Sunday, October 9, don’t be misled by the title. Anyone who brings joysticks or copies of Counter-Strike to the monthly musical competition will be sorely disappointed. So what exactly is it? Organizer, judge and Mazinga Phaser II member Mwanza…
Ryan Adams wants you back. He knows you only liked about seven songs on Rock N Roll and Love Is Hell, and he’s decided to spend all of 2005 making it up to you. May’s double disc Cold Roses was a flawed but refreshing apology, and on Jacksonville City Nights,…
This year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival proved to be the year of the bandit. By the end of Sunday night, so many concertgoers had covered their faces with bandannas and handkerchiefs that you had to wonder when the world’s largest stick-’em-up would begin. But these people weren’t trying to…
“A lot of people come to our shows, and they have no idea what the fuck they’re coming to watch,” says Stormy, one of the suicidegirls.com models who opens the modeling Web site’s debut DVD, Suicide Girls: The First Tour. “But I think they come away satisfied.” Twenty seconds later,…
While the rest of the paper looks to the past for its 25th anniversary, the music section looks to the future by presenting picks for this weekend’s North Texas New Music Festival. I’ll level with you: This isn’t my dream local fest. The schedule has a smattering of genres, but…
Anything less than unique would be a disappointment from the recording-company arm of local Polyphonic Spree lovers Good Records. That Water Sphere is overwhelming in its orchestration and completely bizarre, therefore, is no surprise. But who’d have thought the first DeLaughter-free band signed to Good Records would be so influenced…
Godfather of American punk, former Dead Kennedys’ front man Jello Biafra has been comfortable on the spoken word circuit for years, releasing an occasional musical collaboration with like-minded sorts such as D.O.A. and Mojo Nixon. Clearly inspired by the Iraq war and the debacle of Schwarzenegger, Biafra has returned to…
Montreal’s Wolf Parade sure looks good on paper. The band’s members have played with a who’s who of Canadian indie rock bands, including the Arcade Fire, Destroyer and Frog Eyes, and they even secured Modest Mouse front man Issac Brock to produce their debut album. And while they’ve shamelessly stolen…
For Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the time has come prematurely. On only their third album, they’ve already gone Starbucks on us, ditching the overdriven fuzz of their first two records in favor of the bluesy acoustic stomps of the new Howl. How this plays out onstage bears watching, as does…
For the latest in Bend Studios’ “An Intimate Evening With” series, it just doesn’t get more intimate than Will Johnson. As powerful as his band Centro-matic is live, there’s something to be said for seeing main man Johnson stripped to the bare-bones birthing ground for his songs, including those of…
If you missed the most recent MTV Video Music Awards, consider yourself fortunate. Thanks to Sean Combs, My Chemical Romance and Mariah Carey, the show was a complete and utter bomb. Well, with one exception (or two, if you actually credit a surprise appearance by the crusty MC Hammer)–Grandmaster Flash…
Why the Fruit Bats are playing the Cavern is beyond me. Yes, the Cavern has become an amazing local music destination ever since the booking and sound were revamped a few weeks ago, but Chicago’s Fruit Bats will surely sell out the undersized venue. Touring on the strength of their…
Best not clang the pint glasses during Mono’s lulling, ambient guitar build-ups. Hold ’em too loose and they’ll crash to the ground when the Japanese quartet goes ape with their devastating tension-release tsunamis of sound. Last year’s instrumental Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined…
When a DJ is sometimes only as hot as his latest cut, it’s easy to overlook the legends who made dance music so huge. And more than any of ’em, Marshall Jefferson’s massive thumbprint is tattooed on every four-to-the-floor genre. Techno? He did that. Gospel vocals in a house track?…
It’s hard to fault a hastily organized benefit for a good cause, and really, no cause was better (and no concert more slapped together) than Sunday’s Deep Relief. Though Dallas has already seen its fair share of Katrina benefit concerts, DR was easily the most ambitious local one to date,…
Twelve years ago Nirvana was about to release In Utero, and Kurt Cobain locked himself in a bathroom, threatening to commit suicide. Twelve years ago the only thing as awe-inspiring as alternative music was the inability of thrift stores to keep flannel shirts in stock. Twelve years ago grunge was…
After 30 years, you’d think that fans of John Prine would have gotten the hint. After all, this is the guy who wrote 1971’s Vietnam war protest “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore,” in which St. Peter tells the deceased narrator that Heaven is crowded with casualties…
