After Wall of Sound, before that last in-store at Good Records, blogs all over lit up with heated debates on the merits of Austin’s the Black Angels. Some argued that the new quasi-psychedelic sounds of the five-piece are overrated (many cited the keyboardist’s simplistic lines as the most irritating factor)…
It takes a true virtuoso to make a handful of chord changes sound like a complex musical arrangement. In fall fashion, the aesthetic is artfully achieved with layers of clothing. In the Album Leaf’s case, it is layers of piano, organ, strings and gently galloping beats. Jimmy LaValle (Tristeza, The…
TV on the Radio’s latest effort is a tad overwhelming at first. But after taking the time to fully absorb the layers and layers of incredibly dense textures woven by guitarist/producer David Andrew Sitek, it’s clear that the baby justifies the labor. Wading through the fractured, shape-shifting aesthetic is made…
Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson is a hot, eager and totally empty vessel. On The Dutchess, she displays an affinity for the sort of mainstream pop that would put most Black Eyed Peas fans to sleep faster than a Blizzard with Tylenol PM sprinkles–but if acting like a hip-hop ho enhances her…
Brooklyn’s Grizzly Bear makes music that feels like a visit to a thrift store–while you’re fully aware that you’re in the 21st century, surrounding you are hints of lives and eras past. Yellow House’s loops and electronic warbles and flourishes are clear indications that this is a band fully ensconced…
The bump of Rio Baile Funk–More Favela Booty Beats will sound familiar to anyone who has pounced around the house to the M.I.A. record. A compilation documenting the dance music of the Rio ghetto, the first Rio Baile Funk (along with Diplo’s DJ must-have-mix Favela on Blast) put the genre…
Think about South Florida’s intimate relationship with Cuba and the Caribbean, and the influence it’s had on that region’s music scene. That same sort of cross-cultural, stylistic leg-humping goes on in Southern California across the Mexican-American border, and there’s no better example than L.A.’s Ozomatli. The bilingual, genre-smashing, Latin-funk-rock-rap outfit…
If Reckless Kelly were a transmission, it would be a five-speed. The Austin quintet’s latest effort, Wicked Twisted Road, captures its music in all gears, from the quiet, low-gear country folk of the title track to lilting second-gear love-song ballads, from drunk-and-stumble alt-country Irish travelogues to off-the-speedometer Allman Brothers rumblers…
For Philadelphia’s notably disheveled Man Man, hackneyed comparisons to Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits must be flattering, but they’re hardly applicable. Granted, front man Honus Honus (Ryan Kattner) has the kind of pipes that make him sound like he gargles with sand and yells at traffic all day, but his…
On hiatus for the past couple of years, local wild man Lyle Steadham has decided to resurrect Ghoultown, his metal/psychobilly labor of love. Bury Them Deep, the ironically titled recent effort, features new drummer Rob Schumacher (Slick 57, Riverboat Gamblers) but doesn’t divert significantly from the Misfits/Cramps shockabilly that the…
Somebody start the timer. My 15 minutes of music section fame are about to begin…and end. Next week on this page, you’ll be reading the sweet prose of your new music editor, Jonanna Widner, who probably has cooler hair than you. Until then, let me take you on a magical…
It’s cheesy. It’s got a geek rep. It’s completely self-absorbed. It’s karaoke…and it’s packing Dallas barrooms. This room-packing effect is nothing new really. What’s new is that kitschy karaoke has grown from the 12-ton cassette-playing machines of your father’s Christmas party, past conventioneer-chic and straight into out-and-out hipness. Weeknights have…
I don’t know nothin’ about this broad who’s taking over the Dallas Observer’s music section, but I bet the only question those Village Voice Media stooges asked her during the job interview was “Do you like Reverend Horton Heat?” She must have said “No, and I’ll trash him every chance…
Despite an endless audience for radio-friendly music, most pop-oriented artists eventually become bored with straightforward pop-music structures–a tradition that’s been carried down from the Beatles to Christina Aguilera. And really, who can blame them? Even though it’s one of the hardest things to construct, the pop hit is also the…
In preparation for the upcoming Alice in Chains concert, we wandered back behind the spotlights and the expansive monitors of the stage at Nokia Theatre. And we found we weren’t alone. Though we saw no one, we heard voices in the dressing room: Layne Staley: I mean, I suppose I…
Sometimes an artist has to grow. You can either keep rehashing the same tired-ass shtick until you fall apart, or you can try to spread your wings and fly. Can you fly, Bobby? Robocop references aside, DJ Shadow has apparently decided to do just this with The Outsider, the trip-hop…
At 75, Ike Turner is still one mean motherfucker. Risin’ With the Blues, his first release of new material in three years, is as tough and weathered as the man himself, full of searing guitar work and his ever-prevalent tough-guy persona. Mixing half a dozen quality originals (including the signature…
Houston native and Dallas resident Travis Hopper has all the right intentions and influences on this sparse and sloppy alt-country debut. All the Lights features 10 takes on the standard theme of boy loses girl, boy drinks, boy ends up feeling worse. While a bit too earnest in spots, Hopper’s…
Jason Molina might be a funny guy in person, but on record he’s a manic-depressive for the ages, alternating between mid-tempo anthems of loneliness and lo-fi acoustic dirges so desolate they could have been recorded in the stairwell at a mental hospital. On Fading Trails (his third studio album under…
Rock ‘n’ roll clichés–Riot City Blues is chock full of ’em: “What can a poor boy do?” “Shake some action…Get down to the real nitty gritty.” And those are just in the first two songs of this slamming paean to rock ‘n’ roll at its finest–circa late ’60s/early ’70s. You’ve…
Connecticut’s Hatebreed comes out of that whole late-’80s/early-’90s Youth Crew, “We’re all about unity and positivity, and we’ll kick the ass of anyone who says different” mindset fostered by the New York and Boston hard-core scenes. It has managed to bash out four albums of monochromatic metalcore–the latest being the…
Scott Miller’s name always comes up in any discussion of the amorphous musical movement that flies under the pirate flag of alternative country. True to the movement’s indefinable parameters, Miller doesn’t much care whether he’s flat-picking an acoustic or flailing a Tele turned to 11 (that’s a Fender Telecaster electric…
