Is Venomous Maximus “The Maleveller of Houston”?

This weekend, Houston’s Venomous Maximus will bring the metal to the mostly punk Riot Fest, featuring Rise Against, the Descendents and more. Sonic brothers with Dallas’ own Maleveller, we talked about dubbed cassettes, worst show experiences, and what their parents think of their music. Venomous Maximus was described to me…

Uproar Festival – Gexa Energy Pavilion – 9/16/12

Uproar Festival Gexa Energy Pavilion Sunday, September 16 See also: The tattooed fans of Uproar Festival “Buttrock: a term to identify a band trademarked with cheap, unoriginal song lyrics; the vocalist hiding his lack of vocal talent by producing a deep and ‘raspy’ voice (i.e. Nickelback, Creed)” – Urban Dictionary…

Mission of Burma – Dan’s Silverleaf – 9/14/12

Mission of Burma, The Gary, Shiny Around the Edges Dan’s Silverleaf Friday, September 14 Mission of Burma’s1982 album, Vs., is a classic, but they’ve now reached a unique tipping point. Their output since 2002’s reunion has surpassed that of when they were initially active in the early ’80s, and the…

PVC Street Gang, Curvette at Good Records

It’s been a little while since we’ve had any transmissions — live, vinyl or otherwise — from locals PVC Street Gang. Never fear: The group is launching a new 7-inch of punk-rock party-times music from Good Records’ Astroturf, assisted by Denton trio Curvette. Starts at 7 p.m. There will be…

KXT’s Triple Play

Earlier this year, KXT, The Kessler and the Observer formed like Voltron to bring you the Triple Play series, which brought together emerging artists from Dallas, Denton and Fort Worth. After a bit of summer hibernation, the series is back, with a new home. The grand opening of the Dallas…

Mission of Burma

Arguably the finest extant ’80s underground rock act to return to service, Boston’s Mission of Burma were never particularly popular beyond the cognoscenti, and their comeback shows weren’t mobbed like those of the Pixies. But where Black Francis & Co. will never be anything more than a nostalgia act, MoB…

Swans at Trees

Swans’ February 2011 show at Mohawk remains one of the best shows I’ve seen in the last five years. Seeing Michael Gira and the rest of his retrofitted band warming up their engine again, after close to 15 years of inactivity, was a sight to behold. The slow-building, majestic volume…

BrewFest

In the current issue of Lone Star Music Magazine, The Departed’s primary lead singer, Cody Canada, described his band’s upcoming album, Adventis, as “the fastest moving project I’ve been a part of in a long time.” Given this album will be the first collection of original material for the band…

Fishboy, New Science Projects at Macaroni Island

Check out this week’s North of the Dial column for more on Denton’s new house show venue, which is the noodly brainchild of Gutterth Records’ Michael Briggs. Fishboy and New Science Projects join touring acts James Rabbit and Iji for this inaugural show, which will hopefully break in the floorboards…

Hall & Oates – Allen Event Center – 9/10/12

Hall & Oates Allen Event Center Monday, September 10 See also: The fans of Hall & Oates A couple of years ago, I did an experiment in the offices of another paper I worked for. I took out the Hall & Oates box set, Do What You Want Be What…

Turquoise Jeep – Dada – 9/7/12

Turquoise Jeep Dada Friday, September 7 I don’t really like musical comedy. I appreciate the humor and a great comedian may be the nimblest of cultural painters, but even if I enjoy the joke, I am not going to play the music at a party or listen to it apart…

Ab-Soul, Jay Rock – The Door – 9/7/12

Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, Brain Gang Blue, -topic, A.Dd+, Mohicans, Dre Marley The Door Friday, September 7 L.A. emcee Jay Rock took the stage Friday night following a downsized roster of homegrown artists, and established hype I’ve witnessed only from his Top Dawg Entertainment peer, Kendrick Lamar. While most emcees take…

A Dispatch From the Untapped Beer and Music Festival

See also: The people of Untapped Festival Listen: Dallas, Texas has become unstuck in time. At least that’s how it felt in the short break between the shot glass full of beer and the guy in front of me wearing a Vonnegut jersey that bore the number five. That’s a…

Pujol, Soviet, and the Longshots

Nashville’s Daniel Pujol brings his project to town behind June’s Saddle Creek full-length, United States of Being, an album loaded with the three-chord new-wave punk that’s been Nashville’s calling card in the last few years. Supporting is local revolving door act Soviet, who shook up their lineup recently and, after…

Quaker City Night Hawks

You know those great Southern rock songs that make you crank up the volume and take your hands off the wheel for some air guitar or dashboard drumming? Quaker City Night Hawks have those songs in spades, except you haven’t already heard them a thousand times on the classic rock…

Ab-Soul and Jay Rock

The big room over at the Prophet Bar has seen a Top Dawg Entertainment takeover in the form of Schoolboy Q and his packed performance back in June. Now, two more of TDE’s finest hit the stage, courtesy of Coffee Music Hub. California emcees Ab-Soul and Jay Rock headline the…

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti

An Ariel Pink show is always exciting, mainly because you never know if the L.A. singer will go off the rails or spiral into some nonsensical glass case of emotion while performing. With a backing band, The Haunted Graffiti, in tow for the last few years, he’s straightened himself out,…

Untapped Festival

After Hospice, a concept album that chronicled the death of a woman from terminal bone cancer, it was hard to imagine The Antlers releasing an album as dark. No worries: The Brooklyn group followed it up with Burst Apart, which has a song called “Putting the Dog to Sleep,” and…

Hall & Oates

A few years ago, it seemed “indie” bands (whatever that signifies these days) were jumping on the Hall & Oates bandwagon, covering their songs, declaring their non-ironic love for them. It was a tense time, especially for those of us who have loved the band since we were 7 years…