When Jeffrey Brown of King Camel Productions opened up shop last year, he used a tried and true formula for success. He was getting into booking shows around Dallas last year, and started hitting the streets of Deep Ellum to do a little research. What he found was an opportunity…
Although Santa Cruz’ The Expendables play an energetic hybrid of rock, ska and reggae. Its members themselves take pride in being way laid back, and that’s what led to the band’s most recent offering: the all-acoustic Gone Soft. Speaking from Tallahassee on a day off from the tour and in…
There are album releases and then there are collaboration and then there is The Versus Project. The cliff notes version is that Austin’s Borrisokane decided to put out a new album, and then they decided to share the process with six other Texas bands. On April 25, Oscillation Records will…
At 39, Jonathan Wilson has already accomplished more than many people twice his age. As a musician, he has worked with everyone from Jackson Browne to Dallas’ own Erykah Badu. Wilson has also produced recording sessions for the likes of Glen Campbell, Dawes and Father John Misty. And as a…
Replacing a lead singer is no easy feat. Just ask Matty Mullins. Born and raised outside of Seattle, Washington, Mullins became the second frontman for Dallas’ own Memphis May Fire back in 2008. Since then, the band has continued to expand its fan base while maturing and incorporating new themes…
With his deep, southern drawl and plainspoken nature, Chris Knight’s first impression is not one of a literate singer/songwriter. But for over 15 years, Knight has produced some of the finest songs in the Americana genre. Tough and to the point, Knight’s weary tales of losers on the wrong side…
Talking to Hospitality’s Amber Papini is quite the experience. The highly talented songwriter is an idiosyncratic thinker, whether it’s discussing the influence of the ocean on her songwriting or her love of gas station food. And that is reflected in Hospitality’s truly distinctive music. Speaking from her home in Brooklyn…
If I close my eyes tight enough, I can almost still picture it, even though it’s almost been a decade. I am fifteen years old and feeling very close to heat stroke, so I lean against the wall. Even that feels labored, because I’m standing on such a sharp incline…
Not many musicians can make the claim of being a clinical psychologists and a singer. As a matter of fact, Lucy Kaplansky may be the only one. Hailing out of New York, Kaplansky has been making quality folk music since 1978. Yet after making initial commercial inroads, Kaplansky went back…
It has been 10 years since Mike Schoder took over ownership of Granada Theater on Greenville Avenue. The club — one of the biggest in Dallas — has endured changes in the neighborhood and the fickle nature of music to become one the most celebrated venues in town. To celebrate…
We’re bringing Ludacris to this year’s St. Patrick’s Day proceedings. Now, Ludacris is one of those people whose personality has loomed so large as to occasionally obscure his actual music, so by way of reminding you what it actually means to go to a Ludacris show, allow us to list…
This week 10 years ago, an anxious producer from Chiraq (Chicago), Illinois had just released his debut into the rap arena, College Dropout. Heavily manipulating the hip-hop scene musically, stylistically, and socially even at the time, a far more subconscious Kanye West went on to gain international acclaim, travel through…
At the end of February, I’m leaving the Dallas Observer to take over as the music editor for Denver’s Westword. The move brings me and my partner back where we came from and where we hope to stay, and it’s really as simple as that. Working at the Observer has…
If you arrived in Dallas from Mars and wanted to pick one place to learn about local music, a smart tour guide might send you to the Crown and Harp on Lower Greenville. There, you’d find an increasingly dense schedule in the pub’s two unassuming rooms of North Texas artists…
St. Patrick’s Day in Dallas is a quiet celebration of our Irish heritage and Catholic faith. Just a couple friends wearing matching outfits and standing in the street. No reason you wouldn’t remember last year, but just in case you have it looked sort of like this. To these proceedings…
Speaking of Dallas bands with 20 years of history, Old 97’s announced today that they’ll release Most Messed Up. It’s roughly the band’s 11th full-length, depending on how you count a few greatest hits, serialized releases and other oddities. The alt-country pioneers announced the news just now on their blog,…
In the late spring of 2011, Gilmer, Texas-raised Curtis Grimes competed in the first season of the NBC’s ratings-bonanza The Voice. While the show has remained a phenomenon, Grimes made his mark on that trail-blazing season by showing off his smooth, confident baritone vocals. He also showed his competitive-edge by…
On January 25, Yung Nation tweeted that one of the duo, Brandon Reed, aka B. Reed, was shot. Luckily, the Duncanville native is in good condition now, and even performed at a show at the Frisco Arts Center less than 24 hours after being shot…
Hailing from the autonomous Basque region of Spain and named for the featured vehicle in Back to the Future, Delorean are a dance-friendly foursome with an ever-growing fan base. The band’s good fortune began a few years back when the members agreed to move in a more electronic direction. Since…
The fact that Darkside’s Dave Harrington didn’t spend his life crafting beats or sampling music in his parent’s basement as a young child is a bit of a shocker, given the level of excellence he and Darkside’s leader, Nicolas (Nico) Jarr have achieved in only a couple of years. What’s…
Naughty farmers, contagious dance routines, hyper real costumed comedy, and lots of stretchy pants all come to mind when thinking of part-time viral sensation and full-time musical group Turquoise Jeep. And on their January 26 stop in Dallas for the Turquoise Dreams Tour, both the group and fans expressed why…
Before 2014, the Thin Line Film Festival was Texas’ only documentary film festival fest that prided itself on conceptually blurring the ever-thinning line between fact and fiction. But after six progressive years as the internationally known 10-day short film party, Thin Line will blur even more lines as five-day film…
