When Soul Asylum hit it big with 1993’s “Runaway Train,” the band itself may have been as surprised as anyone. This natty little punk band from Minneapolis was now playing arenas and enjoying all the accoutrements that go along with such success. Problem was Soul Asylum were never really cut…
Rock Band is over. Well–kind of over. It’s been “over” in the people-who-wouldn’t-otherwise-touch-a-Playstation-caring-about-it sense since a few months after Beatles Rock Band came out, but now it’s “over” inasmuch as after April 2, when “American Pie” will be released (nice timing), developer Harmonix will shut down the downloadable content pipeline…
Kellychristinephoto.comWhere the weed at?This week the Golden, Texas native Kacey Musgraves finally releases her eagerly-awaited debut album, Same Trailer, Different Park. Indeed, it’s fitting that she’s from a town named Golden, as the new album is but the most recent example of some serious Solid Country Gold that’s come from…
This would have surprised me no matter who had turned it up, but there was a special irony in learning that illegal music downloads “aren’t hurting the music industry” from a beleaguered print magazine’s free-news arm: Illegal downloads aren’t hurting the music industry, new study claims | ti.me/10371Ow (via @timeculture)—…
If known only for being a member of The Buggles, keyboardist Geoff Downes would still have a place in rock history. “Video Killed The Radio Star” was the first video played on MTV way back in 1981. But Downes’ greater commercial success came as a member of Asia and Yes…
Greg Richling, bassist for The Wallflowers, was pretty happy when Jacob Dylan called him and decided to get The Wallflowers back together in 2011. It had been over six years since the band had recorded and Dylan’s solo career had brought him some of the best accolades of his career…
The Pixies’ first reunion produced one song–Kim Deal’s “Bam Thwok”–and a bunch of chances for people who were born between Surfer Rosa and Tromp le Monde to see them live for the first time, and was thus low-risk-enough to be almost universally popular. Now a possible Pixies re-reunion is on…
The 2013 mtvU Woodie Awards were handed out on Thursday, March 13, and though it was happening right in Austin I’ll forgive you for not noticing. In any case I’m not sure how you can have an awards show at SXSW without handing out a prize for Least Essential Social…
Hard to believe that it’s been over three decades since John Flansburgh and John Linnell first started playing music as They Might Be Giants. What started as two nerds and a drum machine has slowly evolved into a multi-media company with two distinct divisions: indie rock and children’s music. Speaking…
Canadian band, Dragonette has had a big year so far. The electro-pop act has been nominated for a Juno award (a Canadian music award, for those not familiar with music on-goings north of the border), they’ve scored some serious commercial publicity by recording the theme song to “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood”…
The foundation of Justin Timberlake’s fame–broad-based and consistent and weirdly resistant to automatic internet backlash–is that it came, originally, from looking this ridiculous, and he seems to accept that. That’s the only thing I can come up with to explain just how many people I heard talking about his appearance…
Kenny Loggins is in a country band. If you don’t believe me, watch the Today Show until they’ve cycled through all the other people who are promoting big 30th-anniversary tours and new country albums on the Today Show. It’s called the Blue Sky Riders, and they’re playing SXSW on March…
For drummer John Moloney, joining Chelsea Light Moving was a dream come true. He had already been a backup musician on a couple of solo efforts from Thurston Moore; and when the legendary guitarist from Sonic Youth asked Moloney to be involved with a new band, the drummer never hesitated…
“We used to play here. This was my introduction to a lot of local music,” says Moody Fuqua, sitting in front of Crown and Harp. He’s referring to the days when the bar was The Cavern, when it was a staple of the Dallas music community. It never changed owners,…
Unsatisfied with simply recording in a top-notch studio in Copenhagen, the members of Efterklang decided to head to the Arctic island of Piramida to create their album of the same name. Using the desolate climate as inspiration, the band used field recordings as the basis for each track. These dudes…
Last week, with no apparent malice intended, the Stone Temple Pilots forced us to confront the fact that there was more than one Stone Temple Pilot out there, firing Scott Weiland for–I’m just speculating here–being Scott Weiland, or writing something called “Sex Type Thing,” or (and this is just Scott…
Like most Smiths fans under 30, I think I heard about Morrissey being pissed off for some reason or another before I’d heard him croon over a single perfect Johnny Marr riff. He’s a self-consciously difficult figure to ignore once he’s wedged himself into the news, a stout British guy…
If you’ve found yourself at Beauty Bar on a Thursday night anytime within the last few months, you are already well aware that there is no one in the city of Dallas who can turn a party up like DJ Sober and Picnictyme can. Though Will Rhoten (aka DJ Sober)…
In what has become a yearly tradition, the Dropkick Murphys make their way through town just before St. Patrick’s Day. Their date in town is usually near to the dates of the Flogging Molly Dallas stop and to the North Texas Irish Festival. No one can ever claim that Metroplex…
You might not recognize Jeff Ryan’s name, but you’ve probably heard his drumming on a number of acclaimed releases in the past few years. Playing on albums by Sarah Jaffe, St. Vincent, Pleasant Grove and Crushed Stars, he’s also had time to do an ambient side project called Myopic. Myopic’s…
I don’t know how much else Madonna and Silvio Berlusconi have in common–her extremely visible fight against aging is going much better than his–but here’s one connection: This weekend Italy voted in an election that’s serving as a referendum on a decade of economic stagnation caused by, among other things,…
Junius used to be a band from Boston. That’s where they formed almost a decade ago. But then leader Joseph Martinez wanted to start a family, so he decided to go back to where he grew up. So for the past three years, Junius has been a Dallas band. Well,…
