Ra Ra Rioting. (Cameron Muilenburg) Ra Ra Riot April 10, 2008 Lola’s, Ft. Worth Better than: Dancing with yourself in your bedroom mirror–you loser, you! I can’t help it. I dig Ra Ra Riot. I like their sound. I like how it manages to be grandiose and intricate at the…
Ra Ra Riot shows are always a good time. (Sarah Cass) I’m not gonna get too deep into Ra Ra Riot in this little post, well, because I already did so here. Just know that I’m a big fan. And that I’ll be at their Lola’s gig with The Little…
The Thorn Vs. Side guys are branching out. (Dustin Cromer) Nick Nowell, frontman for local metal band Thorn vs. Side might have a few too many irons in the fire. Besides leading his band and teaching seventh grade English (where, in order to work, he must remove his countless body…
A new book called A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes van Zandt by Robert Earl Hardy was released this month. And, according to the inside cover, it’s “the first serious biography of a man widely considered one of Texas’–and America’s–greatest songwriters.” How serious is it? Well, Hardy…
In case you were just dying to see the full line-up for Richardson’s 16th Annual Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival, well, we’ve got the goods for you. And, by “goods,” we clearly mean early 2000s flashbacks, celebreality stars and jokes from Saturday Night Live:…
Dude-rockin’ to the Stanley Cup? With the NHL playoffs officially underway, sports commentary site BleacherReport.com has decided to offer up its theme song choices for each team’s run for the Stanley Cup. Bleacher Report’s pick for the Stars? The Rasmus’ “In The Shadows.” Um, OK. Why, exactly? “Marty Turco’s a…
Nothing’s Shocking by Jane’s AddictionWe were a little surprised yesterday when we (a handful of DC-9 writers) realized just how many albums we owned with topless women on the covers. As we were finishing up the list of favorites for our slideshow featuring 18 of the best topless album covers…
Power to Badu’s people. Someone at Idolator has been reading Soulbounce, apparently, as both outlets are currently ga-ga over the prints that poster artist Emek has created for Eykah Badu’s world tour. We’re not all that surprised–we told you not once, but twice, how cool these posters were–but we’ve got…
James Dante Kings was 17 years old. It looks like it’s going to be some time before anyone really knows what happened to James Dante Kings in the early morning hours of Friday, March 28. Austin officials have yet to determine who it was that struck Kings on I-35; they…
…and Nevada Hill’s cover art is dope, too. You’ll notice a very distinct Denton flavor in the front of the music section of this week’s Observer. That was intentional. But giving Denton-based rock quartet Record Hop’s new self-titled disc a stellar review during that same week? That was purely a…
Looks like local eccentric Wanz Dover’s latest music project, The Frenz, has submitted an entry to the Radiohead Remix project. Anyone can enter the competition. Here’s how it works: Contestants purchase components of the track “Nude” (from the band’s In Rainbows), add or delete various elements as desired, and then…
So, the latest in the Punk Goes… series just came out, and it includes a track by The Secret Handshake. What did Luis do for Punk Goes Crunk? A cover of Skee-Lo’s “I Wish.” You read that right. It’s up on The Secret Handshake’s MySpace, iTunes (99 cents and it’s…
The Mars Volta at the Palladium Ballroom Tuesday, April 8.The Mars Volta April 8, 2008 Palladium Ballroom Better Than: Listening to your old At The Drive In discs. I was damn excited when this show was announced in February. Damn excited. I hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing The Mars…
Admittedly, this flew under my radar until this afternoon, but it looks like Lil Wil isn’t the only local rapper making national waves. Dallas-based rapper Fat Pimp has been getting his share of national love, too–and he has been for at least seven weeks or so according to this Billboard…
Versatile’s got something to say. Ft. Worth-based rapper Versatile is releasing a new album this month called Verse The World. And while beats on the disc leave a little to be desired, Versatile at least stands out on it as an impressive lyricist–which I guess is all you can really…
Ft. Worth garage rock wonders The Cut*Off are finally coming home after a couple of months spent touring places far beyond their normal haunts. Out supporting the impressive new effort Packaged Up For Beginners, the Cut*Off headed to Chicago after SXSW and even ventured across the border for the first…
It’s nothing unusual for The Door to host a battle of the bands event. The club seems to have at least one a month whether here (May 16) or in Fort Worth (this Saturday). But come April 26, The Door’s battle takes a different angle. Bands wanting to become almost…
Austin blues musician Black Joe Lewis came to town over the weekend. Those who didn’t make the show — myself included — should check out the video the Granada posted to YouTube of Black Joe Lewis keeping things lively at the April 5 show. — Chelsea Ide…
As AFI Dallas wrapped up, the Polyphonic Spree took to the House of Blues stage Saturday night as AFI Dallas finished up. Over on Unfair Park, Wilonsky said the PSpree “bewitched the audience of mostly outta-towners and/or Preston Hollowinners (Holloweeners?) where the Polyphonic Spree bewildered, then absolutely bewitched the audience…
We just signed up for an account at last.fm, which is a pretty cool site if you’re, like, into music and stuff. Basically, last.fm reads your computer’s music player in live time and uploads it to the Internet so others can see what you’re listening to. Here’s what we’ve been…
We’re sure that, by now, you’ve heard about PPT’s upcoming sophomore release, Denglish, which is due out on Idol Records on April 15. Well, we got our copy of the disc a few weeks back and, while we’ll hold off on a complete review of Denglish until the week of…
The Angelus ain’t dead just yet. Emil Rapstine just let us know that his band The Angelus has returned a changed band after a six-month hiatus and the loss of its bassist and keyboardist. Matt Chaney takes over on bass, but the band hasn’t yet replaced the keyboardist–and Rapstine isn’t…
