Back in 1996, every mutton-chopped songwriter with a rhyming dictionary wanted to be Jay Farrar. These days, most of them would be happy if Farrar would just be himself and go back to rocking like Neil Young’s bastard son. After two mysterious solo albums filled with abstract instrumentals and Eastern…
Two lyrical heroes of indie hip-hop team up to pay tribute to everyone’s favorite Cosby Show cast-off, Lisa Bonet. Well, actually, Slug and Murs’ sweet memories of Denise Huxtable play only a minor role in the duo’s stories about the opposite sex. Felt 2 pops off with the picked guitar…
As a longtime bassist for Ray Wylie Hubbard, Guthrie Kennard has spent a good while compiling songs and absorbing influences. Ranch Road 12 is the culmination of years spent on the road and at guitar shows. Recorded in Dripping Springs, Texas, the disc is drenched in the kind of grit…
Rodney Parker is sneakier than he looks. At Fort Worth’s Horseman Club, he and his band, 50 Peso Reward, looked like any number of other Texas country combos. A clean-cut singer in a polo shirt with a rough-hewn voice, Parker easily could have passed for a Pat Green or a…
Thankfully, Robert Gomez is a Texan. Why is this such a blessing? Were he from the UK, Gomez would be so overhyped that his first solo album, Etherville,couldn’t live up to the praise it deserves. Let the disc spin in your player for a full week until the effortlessly lush…
Although Willowz singer Richie James Follin sneers as well as anyone since Sky Saxon, the “garage” tag often associated with his Anaheim foursome is as out of place as the band itself. Looking like rejects from an audition for That ’70s Show, The Willowz are actually more modern than their…
On last year’s From the End of Your Leash, Bobby Bare Jr. proved once and for all that the critical success of his first solo album was no fluke. With a sound combining country, blue-eyed soul and fuzzed-out rock, Bare hearkens back to the freewheeling experimentation of ’70s singer-songwriters like…
Adam Carroll’s latest album, Far Away Blues, sounds like it’s proud of its Texana label–glad to be associated with Robert Earl Keen and Ray Wylie Hubbard. Produced by Texas country legend Lloyd Maines, the disc sees Carroll pickin’ and smirking his way through common-man fare such as “AFL-CIO” and “Picture…
What’s a rave without glowsticks and designer drugs, smart drinks and Garbage Pail Kids T-shirts? Well, if you ask Kid606, it’s more about beer-slinging, cheap speed and, most of all, squelchy, mutated musical creations reminiscent of a William Gibson cyberpunk novel. Throw in a few of the Kid’s trademark tongue-in-cheek…
At their first Denton show since 1997, reunited space-rockers Mazinga Phaser return to the city with fitting support. Kyle Cheatam’s acid-goth carnival The Night Game takes cues from his better-known local band The Pointy Shoe Factory, and the evening’s first act, American Vodka, features an all-star congregation of Austin cosmic…
The instructional video on how to be a female DJ has a fairly stereotypical cartoon protagonist: She has flowing blond hair, pouty lips, penetrating eyes. A thong peeks out from her low-slung pants; her waistline cinches into a point. Oh, and also: Her breasts are huge. When she comes on…
When did insanity and stupidity become a prerequisite for fame? One look at the newspapers makes it obvious that headlines have become a competition for the nuttiest celebrities to battle over. Why, you damn near have to pee on a girl just to make it in this crazy world. Somehow,…
For the record, Efrem Schulz does not regularly hang with Gwen Stefani. “We’ve been to Europe and talked to people from magazines, and it’s really funny,” the front man of SoCal metalcore outfit Death by Stereo says on the phone from his home. “They’re like, ‘Oh, Orange County. So how…
If you picked up the Dallas Observer on Wednesday, July 6 (the day it actually hits most news stands), then you are likely reading this at the exact moment eight world leaders are deciding the future of Africa. Yes, you were already bombarded with Live 8 blather last weekend. Dave…
“You are all hereby formally indicted,” sings Paul Gozenbach on “A Toast to the Happy Couple,” with all the rage and acrimony he can muster while the remainder of this fine Oakland quintet attempts to keep pace. Gonzenbach’s bile infuses Pick Us Apart with an irritating but ultimately successful sob,…
Don’t let the radio edit fool you. “Wait,” the lead single off Ying Yang Twins’ sophomore release, United State of Atlanta, is a surprisingly quiet rap track; its whispered lyrics and minimalist production sound nothing like the duo who blasted trunk-rattling crunk on last year’s “Get Low.” Granted, the uncensored…
After releasing three forgettable albums in the past six years, Erin McKeown reintroduces herself, and this time, the music actually sticks. We Will Become Like Birds finally establishes the 27-year-old as a singer-songwriter who deserves attention. Her previous ventures showed plenty of potential, but her sultry torch-song alto and knowing…
Here’s the thing about comeback album titles that act like the album in question isn’t a comeback: The gimmick doesn’t work. On the first Backstreet Boys CD since the bottom fell out of boy bands a few years ago, the fab five try to convince us that Never Gone takes…
Nearly two years ago, Fishboy (the alias of Dentonite Eric Michener) wrote a letter to the Dallas Observer pledging that he would break Centro-matic’s record for releasing the most CDs around town. Looks like the official statement was a jinx, because since writing that letter, Fishboy and his self-named quartet…
While shrieking, hanging-from-the-rafters front man Ian Svenonius and groovy bassist-chanteuse Michelle Mae led the Vespa-riding, white-belted indie kids in a gospel yeah-yeah revolution with The Make-Up during the late ’90s, their latest act, Weird War, has evolved–or is it devolved?–into a purveyor of psych sleaze suitable for an Easy Rider…
Joining two members of Saddle Creek Records’ Greater Omaha roster on Thursday is an up-and-comer who may one day trump them all. Zykos’ ass-kicking arrangements sway between dissonance and melodic embellishment, and Austin’s Michael Booher fronts the group with a powerful, nasal voice of the Michael Stipe/Conor Oberst type and…
Mary Gauthier (pronounced go-shay) didn’t write her first song until she was 35. Before that, she lived one helluva life as a restaurateur, a runaway at 15 and an alcoholic, accumulating some great stories by the time she sat down with a guitar. Over four increasingly excellent albums, Gauthier has…
