Last week on Fox News, anchor Megyn Kelly took it upon herself to advise the children of America that Santa is in fact Caucasian. Tasteless? Yes. Unnecessary? Absolutely. Racist? Of course. But no one could’ve predicted how wrong she’d be proven when just a few days later, Santa would prove…
I reviewed a lot of concerts this year. Partly I love live music, and partly it was a way to get out the house for cheap. Really though, I was excited to spend the year exploring every musical experience this part of the world has to offer. From shows I…
Nothing says Christmas like the members of Unconscious Collective, in body paint and loin cloths, bashing through elaborate improvisations. That was Chad D’s 14th Annual Toy Drive and Cancer Benefit, this year expanded from one very boisterous Libertine to four stages on Lower Greenville. There was hip-hop at the Bottle…
By now you are aware that St. Vincent’s self-titled fifth album comes out in February and that she’ll play a hometown show at House of Blues Friday, March 14. Well, tickets are on sale as of this morning. I don’t know if this is a situation where you need to…
“I had this spot on my neck. I thought it was a pimple or something,” says composer Curtis Heath. It wasn’t big — just 1.2 millimeters across. But it didn’t go away for a couple months, and his girlfriend insisted he get it checked out. The dermatologist told him it…
Punk rock is an unusual genre. Punk shows can be exhilarating, enthralling, chaotic, confrontational and offensive. Last night at the House of Blues, it was all of those and less. I’ve been going to see punk bands for more than three decades and I thought I had just about seen…
Dallas is currently undergoing one of the busiest concert seasons in some time. Between the KISS FM Jingle Ball, Kanye West, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, and next week’s Jay-Z show- the good folks over at Ticketmaster are certainly earning their Christmas bonuses this year. In the midst of arena-tour fever, this…
Beyoncé is somewhere near her eighth outfit of the night, and the fabric of this one is made to look like so many brass pipes. She’s singing “Crazy in Love,” which is appropriate, because no one has ever resembled a human horn section as much as Beyoncé on “Crazy in…
Spillover Music Festival, Parade of Flesh’s annual festival featuring of some of the best bands at SXSW with 1000% less nonsense to deal with, has just announced the first portion of its 2014 lineup. Featured bands include pop shit-starter Ty Segall, Sup Pop’s Dum Dum Girls, Minneapolis rapper Astronautalis and…
A foreboding, shadowy and sinister figure lurks at the edge of an enormous white mountain top. Buzzing synths permeate the arena, and the masked man of the hour saunters below. “Hold My Liquor,” one of the standout tracks of Kanye West’s most recent album, stirs over the ravenous crowd. He…
The holiday season is upon us in North Texas, and there is no better time of year to give back. Every December, Dallas promoters and musicians come together to organize all kinds of charity benefit live music events. What could possibly be a more fun way to do a good…
Every week more and more shows are added to the Dallas Observer live music calendar –here’s how to make sure your show is included. And you can always peruse every upcoming concert on our calendar. Below are the best of last month’s additions. The newest are in bold…
From day one, despite achieving mammoth levels of success during the grunge and alternative explosion of the 1990s, Stone Temple Pilots have been damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Scott Weiland’s throaty growl and bug-like sunglasses? How very Layne Staley of him. The band’s riff-heavy sound on…
Whether you love him or hate him, you can’t deny his influence or relevance. If you do, you’re probably growing slightly out of touch with what is influential or relevant in American pop culture. Kanye West is an incredibly divisive figure- and becomes more and more so the further he…
This morning, Livenation has announced that Lady Gaga is coming to Dallas. July 17, 2014, Mother Monster herself will hit the American Airlines Center for artRave: The ARTPOP Ball. The tour will begin in the Spring, immediately after Gaga finishes her sold-out seven night residency at New York City’s Roseland…
After a few days too full with family, hot stuffing, dry meat, sugary cranberries, and sticky pecan pie, folks rolled out to It’ll Do dance club thirsty for a calorie-burning, head-clearing workout. James Murphy, late of LCD Soundsystem, was on the scene to lead us through the cleanse. DJ Redeye,…
The Prophet Bar was packed this Saturday for one of hip-hop’s most perplexing and fascinating characters, Riff Raff. With his over-the-top personality falling somewhere between flamboyant carwash pimp and Jay sans Silent Bob, it’s hard not to ask ourselves if we’re actually supposed to be taking this seriously. The man’s…
On Friday night, Juicy J got the sold-out crowd at Trees as ‘turnt up’ as you’d expect fans of the invigorated former Three 6 Mafia MC to be. The venue was packed at 8 p.m., despite Juicy J not even performing until 12:30. Security was tight, but that didn’t prevent…
Look alive people, it’s time to shake that post-turkey coma with the quickness because this weekend’s show lineup waits for no one. If you’re looking for a generation Y spectacle, Houston’s own Riff Raff will be making his first Dallas appearance at Prophet Bar and Juicy J will return to…
CD Source has been servicing Dallas’ music needs for what will be approximately 20 years this coming Friday — owner Lance Price opened the store on December 5, 1993. A lot has happened in 20 years: we’ve seen the digitization of music sales, a resurgence in the vinyl medium, the…
Ugh, next week is going to be gross. Not only are you going to be about 10 pounds heavier from gorging yourself on holiday fare, exhausted from all the passive-aggressive family drama shooting across the dinner table and just all around grumpy from your Black Friday sleep deprivation, but also…
It’s always tough to know the significance of a moment in time as it’s happening, so we wouldn’t say where the current North Texas hip-hop scene rates. What we do know for sure is that the genre is represented by a powerful and diverse array of voices in the area…
