We weren’t going to write much about Hollywood Records’ recent re-release of the Polyphonic Spree’s debut, The Beginning Stages of… . Swear. This is, after all, the third official issuance of said album in three years–the group put out the first incarnation on its own Good Records; 679 Recordings followed…
Late last summer, a pale, willowy young man walked into the vinyl section of a Denver-area record store. He seemed nervous. His glossy black hair fell like ink across his eyes, and he glanced around the relatively empty shop as if someone were about to run up and hit him…
When news that Chicago house DJ and producer Derrick Carter is rolling back into Dallas hits the streets, it spreads quickly and creates quite a buzz within the Dallas house-music scene. Where Carter goes, the party people are sure to follow, and wherever that may be, ass-shaking revelry is bound…
I called “Weird Al” Yankovic at his home in L.A. last week to talk about his new album, Poodle Hat, which includes a parody of Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” about constipation that I don’t like as much as Lavigne’s song, as well as a version of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” called “Couch…
It’s becoming quite the summer for high-profile homecomings ’round these parts: first the Dixie Chicks’ return to Dallas for a country-rebel victory lap last month at the American Airlines Center and now alt-country do-gooders the Old 97’s and young alt-rock hopefuls Eisley, both in town to help celebrate the ninth…
Songwriter and guitar virtuoso M. Ward (M. is for Matt) is one of those musicians people call a showman–the kind you imagine would be a natural at vaudeville if he’d been around a few decades earlier. Tom Waits is another one, and the two share an out-of-their-time penchant for sad…
Wayward electroclashers searching for a little tortured humanism to go with their silvery synth-playing and crunchy drum-programming could find a lot less to be excited about than the double bill at NextStage on Thursday night: Depeche Mode front man Dave Gahan, touring behind his debut solo album, the stylishly rumpled…
At first glance, Saturday Looks Good To Me is just another one of those thin-skinned post-collegiate music collectives who dress head to toe in Salvation Army chic and send 18-year-old tarts home to scribble in their journal. Gag me with a seven-inch, right? Wrong. SLGTM is far greater than the…
Since Strays, the humdrum new album by the reformed Jane’s Addiction, inadvertently emphasizes how much alternative rock has transformed itself over the past decade (and how irrelevant holdovers from the form’s premier era sound today), it makes a sad sort of sense that Perry Farrell’s newly revived secondary project should…
Many of you know Jeff Liles, either from his frequent contributions to these pages, his various local bands (among them: Decadent Dub Team, Group Six, Animal Chance and, of course, cottonmouth, texas), his work behind the scenes at a variety of Deep Ellum nightspots (Theatre Gallery, Club Dada, Trees and…
Sellout. Fake. Phony. Career killer. Catastrophe. Those are some of the words used recently to describe Liz Phair, the artist, and Liz Phair, the June-released album from Capitol Records. In the annals of The New York Times, Time magazine and Pitchfork Media, among many others, it’s been decided that the…
The man formerly known as Daniel Dumile understands that today’s heroes come a dime a dozen, doused in bravado, drunk on morality and that it’s all too easy to be cast as one. Wave a flag and a gun, fight the odds, grab the loot, perish spectacularly or all of…
Now that emo has proven itself capable of selling more records than can fit into the back of a van, major labels are stumbling over one another to sign up as many young acts as they can, gambling that a small but loyal audience in New Brunswick or Santa Cruz…
Twenty-six years in, and still the Trick keeps turning–notably at state fairs, a regular stop on the nostalgia trip. In the end, what’s most surprising about these pop-rockers is the immortality of a back catalog crafted out of the slick and ersatz; nothing should have aged worse than a band…
So he’s not the devil after all, just another hardworking Texas singer-songwriter of modest talents in the right frat house on the right night–lucky, you’d be tempted to call him, if Green didn’t labor so hard growing what he got ever since convincing (not conning, oh no) the homegrown tourists…
Not that you should listen to me, but feel free to skip the opening set by Mudvayne. The pride of Peoria, Illinois, the band pretends to be aliens, which is always promising, but they don’t bother to make anything new out of heavy metal’s constituent parts; last year’s The End…
Apart from the summertime hits of Fabolous and Sean Paul, the crowd will definitely be moved by the veteran hip-hop showmen at the top of the bill, Jigga Man and Busta. For the past five or six years, those two have been among the pre-eminent rap hit makers; if you…
Is “screamo” actually happening? The New York Times, NME and Brittany, a “high school student” on Amazon.com, think so: They’re calling new bands like the Used, Glassjaw and Thursday–all of whom would have been called “emo” (or not called at all) just two short summers ago–part of a new movement…
Squeaky-clean Los Angeles pop-punkers Eve 6 have managed a few blasts of radio-ready teen angst made palatable by expensive guitar crunch, snappy choruses and front man Max Collins’ practiced bellow; debut single “Inside Out” still sounds pretty good on mix CDs, and 2000’s “Here’s to the Night” could pass for…
“What in the world is going on?” Midlake’s Eric Nichelson is speaking into the phone, but he isn’t talking to the person on the other end of the line. He isn’t talking to anyone, really, just a somewhat confusing computer screen that’s putting a hitch in his giddy-up as he…
Arizona Juanita Dranes left Texas for Chicago in June 1926 accompanied by a note that read as if it had been pinned to her sweater. “Since she is Deprived Of Her Natural Sight, the Lord Has Given Her A Spiritual Sight that all Churches Enjoy,” read the introduction from Dallas…
Warning: Anyone who has towed his or her car to the anti-Strokes bandwagon, read on at your own risk. This article features favorable mention of those friggin’ starlet-dating, fancy-haircut-wearing, no-new-music-making, overexposed pretty boys. Yeah, we know. You’re so sick of the Strokes, you’re sick of being sick of the Strokes…
