Today, in music news that, really, comes as absolutely no surprise to anyone who’s ever bought or downloaded an mp3, Dallas-based company Crystal Clear has announced the closing of its distribution department. “At the end of last year, we deleted about 90 percent of our catalog, or 450 titles,” explains…
Kool Herc, the father of hip hop, will make his first-ever Dallas appearance Friday, October 31, at minc with Busy B. The booking coup was announced less than a week after Instrumental Entertainment bought the Exposition Park club. Creo Jones, marketing director for Instrumental, said the appearance will include an…
Robert Wilonsky came across the above trailer this morning for the upcoming (although I don’t know when it’s due) documentary called Dallas Electric: The Texas Blues Story, a film currently being produced by The Still Kickin’ Foundation. Yes, that’s famed area blues musician Hash Brown in the clip, but the…
I dunno. Maybe I’m overreacting a bit. But, surely, I can’t be the only person who’s excited about the fact that various members of two GREAT (but kinda-on-hiatus) area bands, Pleasant Grove and Baboon, have teamed up to form a new band called The Boom Boom Box. And I can’t…
When it rains, it pours. (Erica Fellicella) Seems Dallas’ own little alt-country diva Kristy Kruger is out on a national tour with former Verve Pipe frontman Brian Vander Ark. And, actually, Kruger isn’t only opening the shows; she and her two able sidemen (drummer Richard Hewett and guitarist Dylan Sneed)…
Way back in March, about a month after I’d arrived in town, I met with Tami Thomsen and Dale Brock of Kirtland Records. Nothing too formal, just a few drinks at the Idle Rich, I believe, to talk about what each of us did and what each of us hoped…
Let’s be honest with ourselves: The 13-year-in-the-making Guns N’ Roses maybe-masterpiece Chinese Democracy probably won’t be coming out on November 25, no matter the reports. But if–if!–the recent rumors of a Best Buy-exclusive release are, indeed, true, you can credit a Dallas-held Best Buy vendor convention for being the source…
We didn’t bother mentioning anything about it back when AC/DC’s current U.S. tour was first announced–we’re not really in the business of telling about the shows that aren’t coming through town–but we did find it a bit sketchy that the rock gods decided to hit up both San Antone and…
It was, oh, two and a half years ago now, that we heard last from Dallasite Eric Grubbs about that status of his book Post: An Anthology of American Post-Hardcore, 1985-2007. Well, now comes this news: Grubbs, who spends the bulk of his time broadcasting area traffic reports for a…
Congratulations, Hayes. Although he won’t be playing our area until November, Houston singer/songwriter Hayes Carll deserves some Texas-sized kudos for recently winning the Americana Music Award for Song of the Year with his satirical “She Left Me For Jesus.” Carll was also nominated for Artist of The Year at The…
It was just last spring that legendary indie rockers Yo La Tengo graced our area with a sublime acoustic concert at the Dallas Museum of Art. Fans might also recall the ear-shredding performance the band gave at the Granada Theater on Easter in 2007. Well, now Yo La Tengo frontman…
That’s a really nice couch, huh? (Peter Marince) Local singer/songwriter Liz Williams, ever the fan of contests we’ve never heard of, has apparently reached a milestone in yet another competition. This time, she’s reached the Top 15 in something called the Boru Bar Band Contest. Sponsered by Boru Vodka, the…
Shara Worden’s gonna ride this buzz like Seabiscuit. (Sarah Small) Methinks someone over at Stereogum has a little crush on Dallas artists, ’cause, today, on the heels of plenty of other coverage the national music blog’s tossed the D’s way, comes a ‘Gum Drop feature on former UNT student Shara…
Might want to keep an eye on this space tomorrow, as we’ll have tickets galore to give away all day–so much so that we may, in fact, dub the day “Free Ticket Wednesday.” Probably not, though. Anyway, we’ll have tickets to send your way from shows featuring bands with names…
Really can’t say I’d ever heard of Dallas hip-hop artist Big Gemini before coming across the above video this afternoon. Don’t really apologize for it either–kind tough to keep up with the Dallas hip-hop scene these days. So much so that I’ll say this quite confidently: Either something’s definitely, definitely…
The folks at Idolator point out a couple interesting little bits about the upcoming Janet Jackson/LL Cool J show coming to the American Airlines Center on October 22–a show which Observer contributor Quia Querisma quite hilariously dubbed “The Botox Tour” earlier this week. Seems both LL Cool J and Miss…
The Bright will be there, male members be damned. A couple of months back, I told you about Mary Hestand from Merry & the Mood Swings organizing a series of concerts at the Dallas Women’s Museum. As you may recall, the museum told Hestand that all acts had to be…
Don’t know if he’s going to be keeping this up all season long, but thus far into the NFL season, Fort Worth resident Daniel Hunter (aka PlayRadioPlay) has been keeping up a pretty cool tradition, offering his Myspace friends a new, free download on his page as a mini-celebration each…
You won’t see Dallas rapper Pikahsso on the poster for this year’s ACL Fest, but, still you can rest assured that he’ll be there, on stage, performing alongside fellow Texas hip-hop mainstay Bavu Blakes as the two perform their collaborative song “Smiley Faces” on stage on Saturday. And that’s good…
We’ve already given you loads of information about Oso Closo’s gig at the Dallas Theater Center. Then, of course, there was Pete’s glowing review of the production. But, tonight, the Denton-based rock outfit is taking a break from its insanely busy schedule performing in The Who’s Tommy for a free…
Looks like Astronautalis has converted another fan. If you watched the Season 4 premiere of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia last night, you may have noticed a minor bit of redecorating to Charlie’s shithole apartment. Seems Charlie is fan of Dallas Observer Music Award-winning rapper Astronautalis. That, or he just…
A Friend o’ DC9 passed along a link to the above video this morning. And, yes, that’s the Toadies covering The Cure. “A Forest”, in fact. And, yep, it’s available for download via iTunes. In case ya dig it. –Pete Freedman…
