Critic's Notebook

It’s time for your weekly local music grab bag, y’all…..

Once-in-a-lifetime events sometimes happen more than once, turns out. Next Tuesday night, when My Morning Jacket performs in its hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, to celebrate the release of their new album, Circuital, they will be joined on stage by one Erykah Badu, just as they so memorably were two years…

For the past few years, Cage the Elephant has been on a classic music industry roller coaster ride. Formed in Bowling Green five years ago, the band was signed in 2007 by the UK-based Relentless Records on the strength of an existing catalog of unreleased songs and wild live performances…

As the leader of the geeky power trio Primus, Les Claypool somehow managed to turn his love of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart into a tangible career in rock music. Indeed: For the better part of three decades now, Les Claypool has stood tall as one of the strangest ducks…

Like The New York Times and Paste magazine before them, it looks like the folks at Southern Living magazine have gone and discovered Denton — or, as they and everyone else says when first writing about the college town, “maybe the next Austin!”Ugh.At least the folks at Southern Living had…

This weekend, when Ishi performs its as-scheduled set at the Double Wide on Sunday night, fans will no doubt notice something missing: Earlier this week vocalist Taylor Rea and guitarist Rob Bastien announced that they’re no longer in the massively popular area band, instead choosing to forge forward with their…

Last we checked in with the booking goings-on for the fourth annual Dia de Los Toadies festival, there were only three bands attached to the thing: The Sword, Ume and, of course, the Toadies themselves.Now, almost three months later, the fourth annual late August festival in New Braunfels (get your…

Gray swaths are covering North Texas today, which is pitch perfect weather to discuss Bon Iver developments. His new, self-titled sophomore album is dropping on June 21 (a single, “Calgary,” is already making the rounds), and the first leg of a US tour has been announced. No stops in Texas…

The world was saddened today to learn of the death of legendary professional wrestler “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Many of us remember Savage as one of the bastions of the golden age of professional wrestling. But we bet you don’t remember his short-lived career as a recording artist: Macho Man…

There’s a definite aesthetic at play with Austin-based psych rockers The Black Angels — a droney, swirling sheen present in almost everything the band does. It’s very much intentional: Vocalist Alex Maas doesn’t like to say that his band is in the music industry so much as he likes to…

Surely, you already know this: Tonight at the Jack Daniel’s Saloon in the Gilley’s complex on South Lamar, we’re hosting the second installment of our free, monthly Locals Only! showcase of area bands. And tonight’s offering is pretty awesome, featuring two of our favorite up-and-coming area performers, Analog Rebellion and…

Yesterday, we shared with you the first part of our exclusive Q&A with Wayne Coyne, in which the Flaming Lips frontman discussed the future of the music industry, the importance of timely releases and how he came to discover Dallas’ A&R Records. Today, we bring you the second half of…

Halfway through our talk with KDGE-102.1 FM The Edge radio host Josh Venable, he excuses himself from the conversation.”Hold on for one second, I’ve got to do a break real fast,” he says, before pausing to clear his throat as the last notes of Jane’s Addiction’s “Jane Says” play in…

In this week’s paper, something of a special treat: an exclusive interview with Wayne Coyne, frontman for noted Oklahoma’s psych-pop heroes The Flaming Lips. Coyne, as you may know, has been spending a whole lot of time in Dallas lately. And not just for his fairly standard trips to the…

Truly one of the seminal bands in Dallas history, The Nervebreakers’ heyday came way back in 1977 when the band got the chance to open up for a Dallas date with Ramones. Then, in 1978, they did the same for the Sex Pistols — and even got a mention in…

Three dudes who were once local but aren’t any longer — Will Johnson (Austin), Josh T. Pearson (Paris) and Robert Gomez (Seattle) — are up to some cool things of late. One just released a new EP. Another gets some lingering post-SXSW exposure. And the third needs your help in…

The saga surrounding the Irving Entertainment Center looks like it’s only going to continue for the next couple of weeks, as the Irving mayoral race will now go to a runoff election, set to take place on June 18. This time, though, the center isn’t being challenged by former Irving…

Last week, you may recall, we passed along word that our friends over at Gorilla Vs. Bear are going all legit and everything and throwing an honest-to-goodness music festival at the Granada Theater on Saturday, July 23. We knew, at the time, that Tim DeLaughter’s new band, Preteen Zenith, would…

Hey, remember back in April when we debuted our new, free, monthly concert series called Locals Only? Of course you do.That first run was a damn good time, too, with pretty stellar performances courtesy of Whiskey Folk Ramblers and Kirby Brown.Now it’s time to do it all over again: On…

Sad news today, as the word has spread that Cali Swag Disctrict member M-Bone was killed in a drive-by shooting this morning in Inglewood, California. The 22-year-old rapper was one-fourth of the group behind last year’s massive hit single, “Teach Me How To Dougie,” in which the California-based crew shouted…

Well, things sure are getting down to the nitty-gritty for Fair To Midland, who are now just about a month off from the release of their long-awaited, fourth full-length album release, Arrows and Anchors. And, as we approach that date, it’s no surprise that more and more information is leaking…

Seryn just keeps getting more and more and more and more love from the national media these days. Last week, it came once again courtesy of the folks at Paste, whose editor-in-chief and co-founder, Josh Jackson, just can’t get enough of those inspiring kids from Denton. After already naming the…