Last night’s Jeff Mangum show at the Majestic was really a very special event. After a pleasant, relaxing, warm bath of a set from The Tall Firs, Mangum shambled unassumingly onto the stage, clad in a hat that shaded his eyes from view and an impressive beard. From the first…
Lucinda Williams has always sounded wise and weary, but never has she seemed as comfortable with that role as on last year’s Blessed. Williams achieved an alt-country masterwork early in her career with Car Wheels on a Gravel Road and wound up a household name somewhere around the considerably less-acclaimed…
Almost a year ago, Erika Wennerstrom and her band, the Heartless Bastards, released an excellent LP, Arrow, which followed up the possibly more excellent The Mountain. Now that the hoopla surrounding the release of Arrow has passed, the Austin-based act is in a sweet spot. The band’s set last March…
You are almost certainly aware that Mr. Mangum is the voice, guitar and driving force behind a pair of classic, and relatively unique, albums from the 1990s when fronting the band Neutral Milk Hotel. Featuring repeated lyrical engagements with difficult subject matter, most noticeably Anne Frank, and a unique vocal…
The last time Calexico rolled through Dallas, for their 2008 release Carried to Dust, they were as effortless as a tumbleweed but harnessed the power of a sandstorm. Since the mid-’90s, the Tucson-based band has been fusing Latin American sounds with a good rock ‘n’ roll sensibility that has taken…
Southern California metalcore foursome Of Mice & Men are hitting the road again after the re-release of their 2011 sophomore album The Flood. They’ve made no mention of a new album, but my guess is that they’ll whip out some heavy new material. A handful of equally heavy groups like…
Erika Wennerstrom and her fantastic band, Heartless Bastards, return to Dallas on Saturday night. In preview of their show at Trees, Wennerstrom shed some light on her (lack of) formal training and the strange looks she gets for the band’s name. Which instrument did you learn to play first, piano…
“Electrifying,” “Magnetic,” “Memorable” are just some of the words that people used to describe an evening with B.B. King at the House of Blues in Dallas. His sophisticated style of soul-wrenching guitar playing inspired tears of joy and calls of “Amen,” “Preach it, brother” and “Oh Lord, I’m coming home.”…
Oil Boom’s Gold Yeller EP was one of our favorites last summer, and the handclaps of single “Great American Shakedown” soundtracked many a late night. The Dallas trio hits up the Sundown at Granada’s free local concert series on Thursday, so you’ll have a nice, warm place to shake that…
Unconscious Collective — the rhythm section of Stefan and Aaron Gonzalez plus guitarist Gregg Prickett — landed on our best albums of 2012 list, on the strength of their self-titled debut full-length album on Dallas’ Tofu Carnage Records. Straddling the underworlds of free jazz and progressive metal, the trio is…
This is a triple threat of a blues show, as two generations of Dallas guitarists gather to blow open some ancient seals. Lucky Peterson and Jim Suhler are the vets who’ve laid the foundation across dozens of albums and club gigs, and the young phenom Hendrickson represents the new guard…
What, you haven’t been to Sandaga 813 or seen the Gritz yet? Best get yourself familiar with RC Williams, of the famed Wednesday night Prophet Bar jams, and his R&B/funk/soul band, who can be found from 6 to midnight every Sunday night at the Expo Park club. Free before 8…
You’ve most likely had an ambient awareness of Colette’s track “Feelin’ Hypnotized,” but the DJ and singer got her start back in the early ’90s with her DJ group Superjane, which featured the talents of fellow Chicagoan DJ Heather. They reunite at It’ll Do, and DJ Red Eye will be…
Auxiliary Voice’s Matthew Hittle has had an interesting ride, musically. Long before he formed the ambient post-rock band with Justin Young, he had to deal with living in a house where secular music was hard to find. Hittle recently sat down with us and talked about his first musical experiences…
Katie BainOn Friday afternoon, nearly 3,000 raver chicks, dude guys, scenesters, club kids and DJs assembled at a port in Fort Lauderdale and boarded the MSC Poesia, a.k.a. Holy Ship!! (There are two exclamation points because this is the second edition of the EDM party cruise put on by L.A.’s…
We caught up with the relatively new At Night, who opened for George Quartz a few weeks ago, and asked about their musical firsts. Who inspired you to pick up a musical instrument? Was it a parent, sibling or band? Jack Gallegos (vocals/guitar): For myself, I would have to say…
It was roughly a year ago that I saw Austin trio Love Inks one cold, wet night at Canton Co-op, when they warmed up the small crowd with their dreamy pop. Since then, they’ve gotten quite the workout touring the country, and are currently putting the finishing touches on a…
Dallas’ Taylor Thrash and Denton’s Joseph SoMo have a similar work ethic. Thrash just released his Vacation Mixtape, which features a reinterpretation of Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend” and a tribute to Frank Ocean, among other bits. SoMo, who has re-imagined songs by Ocean and Drake, released in late fall…
Shiny Around the Edges and Night Game Cult soundtrack this night dedicated to the legend of Bozo Texino. Texas filmmaker Bill Daniel’s 2005 documentary on the rail-car graffiti, which has appeared on trains across the country for more than half a century and consists of a character wearing a cowboy…
Every once in a while, NYC punks Leftover Crack come to town and remind you that yes, they are still a band. They haven’t released a proper album in a decade, but songs like “Nazi White Trash” never really go out of style, do they? In fact, in a strange…
Fort Worth’s Telegraph Canyon are heading out on the road with Tennessee’s Glossary for much of January, and we can’t think of a more inspired pairing. The local Southern folk group is working on finishing up a new single in the new year, as a possible taste of a new…
One of Denton’s all-time best punk bands, the Marked Men, are playing at Rubber Gloves with the equally formidable Bad Sports, who are in the process of recording a new album. Since their conception in the early aughts, the Marked Men have built an international underground following through four albums…
