Some songs pop out of a writer’s mind and onto tape in mere minutes. Other songs, however, require a journey with several stops in order to develop into the fully formed statement they need to be. Almost three years ago, during the Christmas season of 2011, popular sports-talk radio host…
Perfectionism, particularly in a musician, is most often viewed as a liability. Rather than focusing on the life-affirming qualities inherent in the struggle for perfection, many attribute negative personal characteristics — difficult, hardheaded, intractable — towards those with a desire for self-improvement. But there exists a rare breed that uses…
ill76 has been floating around the DFW DJ scene since the ’90s. In a town where actual techno DJs are a rare breed, ill76 is a cut above the rest. He used to run the beloved local DJ shop Illmatic Records, a store that was a cornerstone of the local…
Luke Wade isn’t the only North Texas contestant on the new season of NBC’s The Voice. No, competing alongside him is Taylor Phelan, who hails from Dallas. And the two have more in common than just geography: They’ve both chosen to work Pharrell Williams on the show. But for Phelan,…
This past weekend, a young Dallas impresario played a major role in the second annual National Cassette Store Day. It might have slipped by you, as it did me. But Evan Henry, founder of Dallas Distortion Music, was totally dialed in In fact, Henry’s DDM label was one of a…
It is a frigid Sunday morning, and Jordan Richardson is checking out of his hotel in Harrison, Ohio. Today marks day five of his band Son of Stan’s two-week tour, and it is too early, even though it is noon. With a new EP set to drop on Tuesday, October…
And at long last, the will-it-close-or-won’t-it saga of July Alley has reached its end. The Deep Ellum bar had been plagued by rumors of its demise for a years, culminating in a temporary shutdown over the Fourth of July weekend this past summer. Yesterday afternoon, the speculation was finally confirmed…
What’s in a name? Well, if you ask the three founders of the new local music series, An LBJ Experience, a lot of things. Take the name of their new organization: For starters, it’s the acronym of their first names, Lee, Billy and Jesse. But its also, more obviously, the…
Dallas rapper Jenny Robinson and her partner 8earcub’s performances are unlike any other live experience in town. Jenny Robinson is notorious for enacting orgasms on stage and for rolling around on the ground. 8earcub, whose real name is Gerardo Cortez, wears a brown faux fur bear coat/cape that has a…
This weekend, the minds behind The Double Wide are planning a seriously fucking epic party to celebrate 11 years of bringing trailer-trash kitsch and a lot of great bands to Exposition Park. Outside of the fact that they’ve gotten permission from the City of Dallas to host their party across…
Well, that was a hell of a weekend, wasn’t it? In its third go-around, Index Festival spread out to three days of music with nearly 100 bands, all situated on its new, larger festival grounds between Cesar Chavez and Elm St., directly across from Epocha and The Prophet Bar. There…
For the past decade Marcos Prado has been at the center of The Smoke, one of the longest-running DJ residencies in Dallas. The Smoke is the only DJ weekly in the area (possibly the state) that focuses exclusively on northern soul, a particular brand of soul music popularized in northern…
Hold onto your butts, Dallas; it’s that time of year again. Dallas Observer Music Awards time. DOMA time has moved back to its latest time of year ever, but we couldn’t be more excited about it. This year, our annual music awards showcase — Chevy Music Showcase North Texas Presents…
“Where am I gonna end up? There’s so much notoriety today, it’s astounding,” says retired photographer, Jeffrey Kliman. “It’s worse than Andy Warhol’s statement. You’re gonna be famous for 15 minutes. Now you’re gonna be famous for a nanosecond. Or three pixels.” Kliman’s lens has been capturing small portions of…
At the age of 14, most of us were just sitting around and picking our noses while watching Boy Meets World and listening to our N*SYNC albums. Adolescence is usually when most of us do our slacking off, but Kelli Mayo, one-half of the Oklahoma-based sister duo Skating Polly, was…
Plunge started as just a name, and the band that later formed under it sought to replicate the sound of the word itself. The chugging, sludgy doom-metal band that resulted is pretty spot-on. In bassist Cade Bundrick’s room before a show at Gatsby’s Mansion, the house venue he lives at…
By Steve Watkins Last Monday’s premiere of The Voice introduced the world to Luke Wade, a voice already familiar with fans all over North Central Texas. At least six separate watch parties were underway in various area venues where Wade has been a regular performer. Although a native of Dublin,…
Since 2004 Chicago-based post-metal trio Russian Circles have pounded out one brutally brilliant album after another. Last year, the group, consisting of guitarist Mike Sullivan, drummer Dave Turncratz and bassist Brian Cook, released the epic Memorial. Between headlining their own global tour and hitting the road with the Chelsea Wolfe,…
Mike Schoder is calmer than a well-fed cat in the ‘burbs, but don’t let that fool you. There’s nothing complacent about him. The owner of the Granada Theater and the adjoining Sundown at Granada, Schoder could easily be mistaken for a surfer bro, thanks to his long golden hair that…
There’s something special about the Beauty Bar come Saturday nights. Amidst the 1950s-themed decor and glittery, soft-hued color scheme, the tiny Knox-Henderson bar has two very important ingredients: Good drinks and even better music. In the case of the latter, that’s all thanks to Blake Ward. “DJs facilitate the human…
Gabriel Mendoza has built a reputation in Dallas over the past decade for being one of the must adventurous DJ’s in the city. Mendoza made this reputation not by sticking to any particular genre, but for playing that new favorite song you never even knew existed. From psychedelic turkish funk…
It’s now been a couple of years since Dallas-based folk-rocker Ronnie Fauss delivered his debut full-length record for New West imprint Normaltown Records, 2012’s I Am the Man You Know I’m Not. That album won him national acclaim from notable outlets such as Vanity Fair and the New York Times,…
