Formed in Austin nearly a decade ago, The Sword is one of the heaviest bands to emerge from that scene. Full of monstrous guitar riffs and typically bombastic sci-fi themes, the four Sword albums are intense, thought-provoking and filled with good humor. The band’s most recent effort, Apocryphon, is a…
Local bookers Spune have announced the Canned Festival for the first Saturday in October, an extension of their Untapped series of festivals. These festivals aim to combine high quality music and alcohol into one intoxicating day out. After the success of the Fort Worth event, there’s also been a Dallas…
It’s Monday, so it’s as good a time as any for you to peruse this quick grab-bag of local music news hastily cobbled together with no agenda or real thought. Do you have a few minutes to care about your local music scene? Good, because it just so happens that…
In the late ’80s/early ’90s, if you wanted to become a guitarslinger but couldn’t afford lessons, your options were limited to guitar tab in a magazine like Guitar World or Guitar One, your old man or some other drunken family member willing to show you a chord or two before…
Dallas is home to one of the richest religious music scenes in the country. Over the summer, we’ll be attending services, both big and small, of many denominations, as well talking to musicians, directors and pastors. “Today is a celebration,” Patrick Ryan Clark tells the audience. “So let’s celebrate.” Dressed…
In America, politics and music have been tied together since the very beginning. Benjamin Franklin played multiple instruments, including the violin, harp and guitar, and he even invented one: the glass harmonica. Thomas Jefferson, who played the violin, used music to woo his wife, Martha, who played the piano. To…
Oliver Peck’s annual tattoo feats on Friday the 13th are already the stuff of legend and record (he’s literally in the Guinness book for it). But this year marks the start of a huge development for the event: It will now be a five day tattoo and music festival, and…
At 64, Marcia Ball could well be considered the queen of Texas blues. No other female performer has captured the transcendent mixture of swampy, New Orleans style piano blues and the more acoustic form exemplified by the likes of Lightnin’ Hopkins better than Ball. Over a career that has spanned…
The latest sign of local “stonegaze” (their word, not mine) band True Widow breaking through into the big time is the fact that their forthcoming album, Circumambulation, appeared this morning on Pitchfork Advance, the all-encompassing music website’s album preview listening section. It’s slated for release on July 23, but you…
Don’t spend too many late-night hours reading longtime Ministry leader Al Jourgensen’s memoir. It’s a dark, dark nightmare. Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen is harrowing tale of drugs, sex and, of course, rock ‘n’ roll, inspired by the artist who influenced a generation of musical pioneers like…
Randy Travis’ doctors have released a substantial update on the condition of singer, who was hospitalized last Sunday with a heart condition and suffered a stroke on Friday. This evening, cardiac surgeon Michael Mack and pulmonary and critical care specialist Gary Erwin, alongside Travis’ fiance Mary Davis, delivered the specifics…
Dallas is home to one of the richest religious music scenes in the country. Over the summer, we’ll be attending services, both big and small, of many denominations, as well talking to musicians, directors and pastors. At 11 a.m. on Sunday, casually dressed musicians took the stage for Highland Park…
Update, 7/15: The most recent word on Randy Travis came Friday night from Baylor Health, at which point the singer was under sedation and still in critical condition. I feel a little silly continuing to publish these updates, because the information is very readily available to you. The updates you’re…
Music can be incredibly therapeutic. Whether it’s keeping us from road rage during rush hour traffic, helping us fall asleep, or uniting us with others as we sing along at a concert, music has a certain unique healing power. Locally, the Windsor Senior Living facility in Dallas uses music to…
Replacing locally loved DJ Sober is no easy task. Especially when he is across the highway, spinning at his relocated residency at The Basement at The Travis. That’s why Peru born, Dallas trained DJ Ynfynyt Scroll sees his new Thursday spot at Beauty Bar as a new endeavor, rather than…
Welcome to The Weekly, where we’ll tell you what’s happening at various weekly musical events going on in DFW this summer. Some of them will be well-known scenes, some will be considerably less so. Spending a Saturday night at The Dallas Zoo this summer entails more than monkeys and giraffes…
Ryan Thomas Becker was David Byrne. At least for a few days he was. Seems Becker was fronting a Talking Heads tribute band this past weekend at the Kessler, part of a three-city mini-tour he and the rest of the ensemble had undertaken. “About a year and a half ago,…
Other than the media vans of NBC 5, WFAA 8, and KRLD 1080 parked out front, it was business as usual at The Heart Hospital at Baylor Plano on the morning of Thursday, July 11. Still, there was a palpable awareness inside that country music legend Randy Travis was being…
In a cracked parking lot, sharing a mercantile space with Sprockets Bicycle Shop, sits Taqueria el Picante, home to one hell of a barbacoa taco and formerly the best DIY performance space in North Dallas. The Lego-yellow colored business’ owner and operator helped give local bands and their fans a…
For nearly a decade, Alpha Rev has been one of Austin’s most dependable alternative rock outfits. Surprisingly, in that time, the band has only released four albums, culminating in the recently released Bloom. However, the dedication to song writing and presentation of epic themes does suggest a band that likes…
Fort Worth’s music scene has many things, but until recently it did not have a solid mid-size venue — the role occupied by such Dallas venues as The Granada. But now it may have found its answer in Queen City Music Hall. The venue, which opened last month, is already…
It’s really the same story you’ve heard a million times before: Person (or umbrella, in this case) meets other person (other umbrella), they connect, there are complications, etc. What makes Pixar’s new short, which you can see in theaters preceding Monsters University, so incredibly charming (and a lock for yet…
