Being in the rap game for over 15 years earns you some leeway, as Dallas rap legend Tum Tum has learned. For one, he’s never in a rush to release new music. It’s been almost six years since his last studio album. But on Feb. 28, Tum Tum will release…
Daniel Cortez is a recent transplant to Dallas from El Paso who is making waves as half of production duo Prototype. He’s had a hand in putting together some of the most exciting techno parties to pop up in Dallas recently, for which he brings in international artists from boutique…
A tip from an Uber driver about a property that was for sale along the Trinity River led Jay LaFrance to saving one of Dallas’ most historic musical landmarks. Built in 1950, the Longhorn Ballroom was once the home of Bob Wills and run by Jack Ruby, but when it came up…
Fort Worth rapper T-Ryde is straight off a gig with Struggle Jennings, Waylon’s grandson. T-Ryde, whose real name is Jerry Hammons II, writes his own lyrics in a style he refers to as underground, double-time rap, and his music left quite an impression on Jennings. “Struggle just really liked my…
In January we announced that none other than Jimmy Eat World will be headlining the Dallas Observer’s annual St. Patrick’s Day party on March 11. Well, guess what? There’s even more fun rock coming your way: Rooney and the Unlikely Candidates are also on the lineup. Rooney was formed in…
His tombstone is unnerving in its stark simplicity. It bears his name, his birth date, and the date of his death: Feb. 22, 1987, 30 years ago this month. There’s no list of accomplishments, nothing artsy or clever or ironic. That’s all you get. Andy Warhol once said that he…
Last Friday night, during Foreigner’s hit-laden performance at the Verizon Theatre, 26 members of the Arlington Heights High School Treble Choir joined the band for a version of the soft rock staple, “I Want to Know What Love Is.” Foreigner has done this song with local choirs for years, and…
Several local record shops that focus on vinyl, such as Josey, Good Records and Spinster, are managing to thrive in the age of streaming; meanwhile Dallas’ oldest store, which has specialized in CDs for the last two decades, is struggling to keep its doors open. But Top Ten Records on West…
On any given Saturday in Deep Ellum, throngs of 20- and 30-somethings roam the streets in small packs, looking for a good time, live music, or their next lay — maybe all of the above. But what’s relatively unusual is to see people forming lines outside the neighborhood’s laid-back watering holes. This…
In December 2015, we profiled Banquet, a Denton-based band made up of four members of Midlake along with members of Band of Horses, Travis, Grandaddy and Franz Ferdinand. This week their first single, “Restart,” dropped and their full debut album is set to be released on April 28. The release, titled…
Even Brutal Juice’s frontman has difficulty describing the band. But sitting out back at Dan’s Silver Leaf in Denton, Craig Welch tries anyway, calling it “an acid-fueled excuse to turn amps to 11 and play with feedback loops.” It’s a fairly close approximation. The band’s post-punk music was known to roar, thrash…
Brian Armstrong has spent the past two decades as a dedicated apostle of DJ culture. At various points he’s been a budding dance music fan, an MC, a record store employee and a full-time track slinger under his alias DJ BrianPibb. Like any good working DJ, Armstrong is not one…
The origin story of Denton darkwave duo Psychic Killers goes all the way back to childhood, when Leigh Violet and Nick Tidmore met and bonded over their similar tastes in music and art. After some years apart, they reunited to find that their tastes haven’t changed much. Violet became interested…
Six Shooter is a recurring feature where we highlight six new releases by North Texas-based musicians. Che — Che Got Wings If you’re a fan of PartyNextDoor, Bryson Tiller, Travis Scott or Post Malone, this five-track EP from enigmatic singer Che and Dallas-based producer Cardo Got Wings is for you…
It’s about an hour before showtime at Freedom Place Church in Rowlett for The Voice alumna Holly Tucker. She made the top 6 in season four as a country music artist on Blake Shelton’s team. While finishing her courses at Baylor University via email and competing on one of the…
There’s a red-brick mansion sitting on a grassy hill on 15 acres in Sherman, Texas, 65 miles north of Dallas. At the top of a tall staircase is a striking, colonnaded front porch, and rows of symmetrically placed windows flank the front entry on either side. It’s simultaneously beautiful and…
For 15 years Cyberina Flux was the reliable voice from the underground on KNON’s Rocket Radio show. There, she pushed the envelope for radio in Dallas and gave an on-air presence to some of the fringiest electronic music and rock. For this week’s mixtape she brings an eclectic mix ranging…
U2 fans are calling it a rip-off. Tickets to the Dallas stop of U2’s Joshua Tree stadium tour sold out in a matter of seconds after they became available at 9 a.m. Jan. 16. The same happened in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Seattle; tickets for all legs of…
Over the holidays, Sean Russell of Fort Worth’s Cut Throat Finches released a five-track gospel EP dedicated to “Brother Bill” Russell, no relation, who was the pastor at the Union Gospel Mission of Tarrant County for 27 years. Russell describes Brother Bill, who died in 2012, as “kind of an old school fire-and-brimstone…
Sevyn Streeter plays the House of Blues at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26 If you’re a fan of R&B and hip-hop, you probably know a few songs Sevyn Streeter has penned. She began her career in the aughts, performing with all-female groups such as TG4 and RichGirl, but has since…
Corner Suns plays Good Records at 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28. When Brandon Carr got a phone call from John Dufilho, he had no immediate plans to return to music. He’d played while growing up in Dallas, and later when living in Seattle and England. Across the pond, his band…
An all-new music festival and creative cultural experience is coming to North Texas this April when Fort Worth’s Cultural District welcomes Fortress Festival. Co-headliners Run the Jewels and Purity Ring will own the two-stage celebration of music and culture at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth on April 29…
