Matthew Caws cops to being the type of person who’s always wired, so perhaps it’s a good thing that the Nada Surf vocalist-guitarist is discussing the state of his band while walking to the gym–presumably so he can burn off some of this nervous energy. But there’s also something really…
Gerard Dirkx fidgets in his chair, dancing around any questions about his age. Obviously annoyed, he finally declares, “I’m 35 but extremely dyslexic.” Despite his receding hairline and gray beard, his edginess is nearly the same as when he fronted Dallas’ first–and best–new wave band, the Telefones, more than two…
Even after playing two Canadian concerts to kick off his band’s 16-date tour with Supergrass, Pilotdrift’s Kelly Carr is still hesitant to impose on the headliners backstage. Though the Britpop-punk stars personally selected the Texarkana five-piece as their opening act, 23-year-old songwriter Carr can’t get over the fact that he’s…
First performer/presenter to appear to nod off onstage: Gorillaz drummer Russel Minutes into the program that this happened: less than 2 Grammy nominations for American Idol champ Fantasia Barrino: 4 Grammy nominations for American Idol champ Kelly Clarkson: 2 Grammy nominations for American Idol champ Ruben Studdard: Um Grammy wins…
The Combo pairs up: Even the weirdest and most remarkable bands are tough to write about repeatedly. Case in point: Denton’s Brave Combo grabs our attention with interesting news every few months, yet we always come up with the same canned story–Grammy-winning local polka band that loves “The Chicken Dance”…
Aceyalone’s 2003 album Love and Hate inspired a lot of hand-wringing, as critics bemoaned the glaringly obvious gap between the MC’s slick, flowery raps and his bullshit-ass beats. It looked like he’d hit a career zenith with 1995’s All Balls Don’t Bounce (reissued in 2004) and wasn’t destined to produce…
Austin, Texas band the Gourds are the quintessential Lone Star ensemble, the type of group tailor-made for Gruene Hall and every outdoor festival from Fredericksburg to Nacogdoches. Their seventh proper album, Heavy Ornamentals, may be their most dance-hall friendly yet, a hip-shaking mix of funky backwoods stompers and country tear-jerkers…
On Saturday, Death came to Deep Ellum. Adorned in black attire, the skeleton-man stopped at 617 Good-Latimer Expressway, presumably to declare the death of something–perhaps the entire district, though more likely just the former home of Good Records, which would close down that evening–but he was quickly distracted. “Hey, Death!…
You wouldn’t have known it, but I prepared an optimistic look at local music for a January column. Instead of running that, however, I bumped it week after week after week, thanks to a lot of breaking Deep Ellum news–venue closures, an arrest, a crappy music festival–that hinted at nothing…
Papa schmo: For some ridiculous reason, we at AAT HQ keep watching MTV, not with any expectation of good music, mind you, but because we keep hoping one of our ex-girlfriends pops up on a show such as Room Raiders or Date My Mom. So imagine our surprise when a…
Craig Finn is wandering around outside his Brooklyn apartment, praying his cell phone’s reception holds while admiring the rare winter sun that’s put a little kick in his step today. His post-punk rock band, the Hold Steady, have become local celebrities since he moved here four years ago; even the…
Last year, when I started hearing blatant, one-sided praise around Dallas for some Austin band called the Lemurs, I was confused. Last time I checked, this was a town where people barely fill up Deep Ellum, where people have the gall to fold their arms in disapproval at amazing Deathray…
It’s not too late to set the mood for Valentine’s Day, lovers. You can still get a fancy restaurant reservation, a few bottles of fine wine and, most important, the right music for the right night. And who better to suggest hot tunes for hot times than local rockers and…
With delicate tunes and referential album titles like The Boy With the Arab Strap, Belle and Sebastian main man Stuart Murdoch has more or less birthed a scene of pop miniaturists known as twee. But Murdoch is moving ever closer to potential fans who are neither overeducated nor budding sophisticates…
P.O.D. have stuck around longer than many of their erstwhile rap-rock bros by actively embracing the properties of radio pop: They’ve never shied from soaring choruses, nor have they kept their music free of the shiny production values that keep them from sounding too out of place next to Mariah…
In the late ’90s, the suffix “-tronica” could loosely be defined as “pop music to which drum loops have been glued.” It was a goofy movement, one built on the questionable logic that adding a bunch of synthetic clatter to measly acoustic pop somehow makes it less dull. British songwriter…
Were Ed Hamell just a transgressive punk with an acoustic guitar, who’d pay attention? But like the late comedian Bill Hicks, Hamell doses out his angry liberalism (and libertinism) with style. On his new album, Songs for Parents Who Enjoy Drugs, Hamell, the one-man band, comments on the state of…
If you’ve ever sewn a Venom patch onto a sleeveless jean jacket, you must see Early Man. This New York duo mines metal’s Paleolithic era–the early ’80s–for chugging, head-bobbing riffs, Ozzy-style vocals and some sweet vintage tees. The band’s debut, Closing In, is all about feeling 25 feet tall and…
Lots of acts staged their first gigs at Manhattan’s CBGB, but Prong is one of the few that the club actually birthed, when the soundman approached the doorman about starting a band. That sound guy, remaining original Prong member Tommy Victor, is an icon of the first early ’90s wave…
“The world doesn’t need any more pretty good songs,” says Mary Gauthier. And at a time when too many singer-songwriters scribble greeting-card copy and pep-rally cheers, Gauthier meets her mission statement with incisive and literate slices of real life. Her burnished voice bears the mark of her personal history; given…
You might expect a Scandinavian band to revel in the standard death-metal throes of unintelligible caterwauling, exaggerated tempo shifts and anal-retentive instrumental prowess, yet the well-coifed members of Sonata Arctica embrace a naïvely dated and, dare I say, sweeter notion of phallic guitars and high-pitched pyrotechnics. The Finland band’s recent…
On Friday, the Liquid Lounge bar didn’t make a killing in drink sales, but the club certainly served up a fine blend onstage. Though Silk Stocking’s opening set was shortened by sound issues, Liz McGowan howled and growled an extraordinary path while both courting and bitch-slapping Shawn Mauck’s guitar lines…
