Bobgoblin and Hagfish spent the end of the 20th century taking turns as the “next big thing” to come out of Dallas. Hagfish donned skinny ties and dabbled in playful, middle-finger punk. Bobgoblin executed driving guitar pop, complete with video imagery and jumpsuits. Both bands had their own recipe for…
This week’s big hip-hop shows couldn’t be more different, which is no reason for you to avoid catching both. Boots Riley, main man of Oakland’s the Coup, is hip-hop’s pre-eminent Communist; he raps about putting power in the people’s hands but doesn’t gloss over the specifics like so many backpack…
When Ian McCulloch said that his band’s 1984 release Ocean Rain was the best record ever made, he wasn’t joking. But unlike so many pompous pop prognosticators, McCulloch has always had the chutzpah–and talent–to back up his claims. Since their inception in 1978 until their initial breakup 10 years later,…
As part of a ’70s cultural exchange program with the former Soviet Union, the band selected as most representative of American music was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. If that selection committee met today, Los Lobos would be the logical choice as American emissaries. For more than 25 years, the…
The story of 37-year-old DJ Iz (Joshua Michael) starts off much like those of other house jocks of his generation: “Growing up in Chicago, blah, blah, blah.” But in 1979, Iz moved to San Jose, far away from the burgeoning house scene of his birth city; there, he soaked up…
“It’s good, good luck,” Memphis-born singer Megan Reilly says. “I really feel like luck is,” and she pauses before finishing the sentence, “necessary.” Probably because she has a lot of it to reflect on: The musicians she’s happened upon in a short half-decade are a publicist’s dream–she roped in members…
Of all the infernal questions to have wormed their way into rock’s subconscious, the merits of David Lee Roth versus Sammy Hagar as front men for Van Halen has to be one of the most dim-witted debates still circulating in frat houses and gentlemen’s clubs across this great land. Let…
Texas Gigs should have a lot to celebrate as of late. The 4-year-old Internet destination won the brand-new Best Web Site award at last month’s Dallas Observer Music Awards; 10 days later, the site’s first national honors came from the EPpy Awards (spearheaded by the reputable Editor & Publisher magazine),…
Spector 45 is a trio in their late teens who revel in the three-chord simplicity and silly, leather-clad fashion sense of the Ramones, but they add a menacing, shit-kicker’s mentality to the fast-paced proceedings. Wonderfully unpretentious, We Wanna Go, the band’s third release, is an immature, funny–but not at all…
Greg Dulli has been churning out sorrowful soul-rock for so long–throughout the 1990s with the Afghan Whigs, and for the past six years with the Twilight Singers–that each new record he makes seems to carry the threat of shtick. Until you hear it, that is: More than any other member…
The men of Minneapolis’ Tapes n Tapes create an indie-rock mlange that recalls at least a dozen acts from the genre’s past–and, relatively speaking, that’s a good thing. Rather than aping a particular group, Josh Grier and company draw from oodles of inspirations, and if they don’t quite individualize each…
Now that’s what I’m talking about–an album title that gets to the point. Thing is, Cex (the perpetually transforming solo project/group/something helmed by Rjyan Kidwell) misleads: AF’s toned-down slew of break beats, synths and poppy guitar melodies sounds more like sonic foreplay than Kidwell’s former albums, which previously focused on…
The piano greets me before I even reach the main entrance to the Dallas apartment where I’m meeting the pAper chAse. I wait for the playing to pause before knocking…it’s just polite. The greeting is appropriate–that very instrument symbolizes the thread of transformation, and even maturation, that the Dallas band…
At Mwanza Dover’s final Mazinga Phaser II performance, it’s unfortunate–but somehow appropriate–that a former Dover bandmate stole the show. Headliner the Great Tyrant, fronted by Daron Beck (formerly of the Pointy Shoe Factory and Dover’s keyboardist in Falkon), erased any memory of Mazinga’s faltering set with a bizarre half-hour of…
Saw not long ago where our music ed referred to the New Year as “legendary,” which is just another word for “beloved everywhere but in the band’s hometown,” which long ago should have erected a shrine to bros Matt and Bubba Kadane–and, while yer not at it, Peter Schmidt, the…
Longtime leader of Austin’s Asylum Street Spankers, Guy Forsyth might be too versatile for his own good. His latest solo effort, Love Songs: For and Against, features sturdy blues and reggae grooves, along with touches of folk and jazz. Forsyth’s an excellent player, but he doesn’t have to work so…
The Brooklyn-based dance-punks in Radio 4 expressed their dissatisfaction with the Man on 2004’s pissed-off Stealing of a Nation, but they forgot to have any fun in the process, which made joining their underground resistance a very hard sell. Though it doesn’t match the punk-funk intensity of 2002’s Gotham! (produced…
California County, the third effort from this oddly named roots quartet from the sunshine state, is heavily indebted to The Flying Burrito Brothers, the early Eagles and probably some kind of psychedelic drug. Full of sweet, Byrds-like harmonizing, songs like “Slash from Guns N’ Roses” and “Motorcycle Mama” are peculiar…
During college, I saw bands like Pine Hill Haints damn near every week. Something about Austin attracts swampy, podunk acoustic acts, the kinds of swill pots that mix bluegrass, country and even punk into a sonic brew with enough bite and aftertaste to scare your Aunt Mae half to death…
Got the Blues: Before our weeks of hiatus at AAT HQ (SARS scare, but we’re cool now), we’d heard rumors about the House of Blues opening one of its national mid-level concert franchises in Dallas, supposedly near South Side on Lamar. This week, we returned to see the final report…
Not so long ago music of a spiritual persuasion was easy to pick out in a heathen crowd. You wouldn’t mistake Stryper for Mötley Crüe or confuse DC Talk with NWA–contemporary Christian musicians always made it clear that they were rockin’ and/or rappin’ for the Lord. If their faith was…
Though I usually ignore Lower Greenville’s meat-market bars and stale dance clubs, I’d feel remiss to not comment on what happened in the district this weekend. The Dallas Morning News reported a murder and a knife attack on opposite ends of Lower Greenville (the residential block near J. Pepe’s and…
