…And that date is Saturday, May 26, at Main Street Garden Park. This year’s Homegrown Music and Art Festival rallied the local music community around standouts like Gallery Cat, Astronautalis, Neon Indian, Burning Hotels and more. As local music festivals go, 2012 promises to trump that, especially since organizers have…
New York City’s Derek VanScoten is a musical innovator. He’s given a whole new meaning to the term “one-man band,” as he electronically dishes out tracks while simultaneously looping guitar riffs in his solo project, D.V.S*. VanScoten worked consistently over the last year on a double album, entitled Coming Up…
Singer/songwriter Charlie Mars has had an interesting life. Born and raised in Mississippi, Mars actually plied his craft in Dallas for a few years in the ’90s. Some heavy duty partying landed him in rehab a few years after that and those internal demons forced Mars to retreat to an…
Do you have a lot of free time? Are you possibly un(der)employed? Do you know DFW music like the back of your pale, writerly hand? It’s hard out there for a scribe these days but hark! The Observer music section is looking for a few good freelancers. That means having…
Known as the bellowing frontman for alternative metal band Staind, Aaron Lewis shocked many when he released the Town Line EP earlier this year. Not only did it feature Lewis singing a collection of country-influenced songs, but the singer was insistent the project was not a one-shot endeavor. Fans of…
It’s been a year of starting over for Ishi. Earlier in 2011, the band lost dynamic singer Taylor Rea, who was replaced by the talented but far less charismatic Becky Middleton. The band seems to be moving forward nicely, though.And, as we see from the above interview piece posted over…
Danny Balis is a well-known man about town. Thousands of KTCK 1310-AM The Ticket P1s (people who have The Ticket programmed to the first button on their car stereo) listen to him as he produces and interjects his often storm cloud-covered opinion during the afternoon show “The Hardline.”Those same listeners…
Seems Denton concert promoter Matthew Gray stepped out the limelight for about a month, which was a smart move. He garnered quite a heap of press and ill will in October and November, when Denton Country Proper — his upstart company — booked and canceled high profile shows from John…
Since we’ve already got Baboon on the brain today — have you seen the insane slideshow from last night’s Scratch Acid show yet? — let’s add one more bit of news. Kirtland Records will be releasing the debut album from The Boom Boom Box, featuring members of Baboon, Ghostcar and…
Some local bands play so much that you take them for granted. In the case of Elkhart, they’ve barely played this year, but with good reason. Luckily, their Americana-influenced rock returns to City Tavern tonight. Frontman Travis Hopper, who told us earlier this year about the band’s future plans, gave…
Since 1967, some form of the band Chicago has been a part of the American musical experience. Formed as a jazz-influenced jam band, the early incarnation of Chicago bore little resemblance to the pop hit-making machine the band would become in the late ’70s and early ’80s. When singer/bassist Peter…
For over a decade, Dustin Blocker has led some form of Exit 380, one of the most intriguing local bands. When they first started, Exit 380 was more of a conventional alt-rock act, playing songs that mixed a rural influence into a muscular Stone Temple Pilots vibe. But Blocker has…
Fresh off the release of their fifth studio album, Coldplay have announced a massive world tour that will make a stop at American Airlines Center on Friday, June 22. The album in question, Mylo Xyloto — the band’s most unabashed pop effort to date — went platinum in only two…
Sometimes, introductions simply aren’t necessary. That may be due to the enormity of the subject’s status as a legend, or perhaps it can be credited to the fact that the artist doesn’t need anyone to handle the talking for him. Both scenarios apply to the one and only Charlie Daniels…
When he’s not playing with the North Texas-bred Golden Boys or paying tribute to country curio Gary Stewart, garage rock bon vivant John Wesley Coleman III is being rendered as a video game character. One that basically shoots a gun and jumps around in a scuzzy 8-bit gutter. Sounds about…
It’s been a year of reinvention for Eisley, the family band based in Tyler, TX. As we’ve written about extensively over the course of the year, the band left Warner Brothers Records to sign with Equal Vision Records late in 2010. And, earlier this year, they released a solid come…
The Fallen Stars are an Americana outfit out of Orange County, California that features the talents of husband and wife team Bobbo and Tracy Byrnes. Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, the pair decided to head to warmer climes in 2000. The Byrnes decided to expand from a duo and soon various…
Few bands have risen from the stale, beer-stained stages of America’s dingiest dives only to entertain majestic crowds at some of the world’s largest festivals more naturally than My Morning Jacket. Formed in Louisville in 1998, the Jim James-fronted group has undergone a series of personnel changes that have accompanied…
If the words Bro Fest and 2012 don’t strike fear in your heart, then you’re probably really stoked for Bro Fest 2012, Parade of Flesh’s fifth annual post-SXSW fest. Sunday, March 18 at Club Dada, thrill to the sounds of Brooklyn thrashers Cerebral Ballzy, psych wards the Entrance Band and…
Eliot Lipp’s spent most of his professional career traveling from city to city, picking up different sounds along the way. One piece of memorabilia: an outdated SP-1200 sampler. Lipp’s also released six albums, the latest of which, How We Do: Moves Made, came out in October. After dealing with record…
One of the most enlightening experiences I’ve had in the past few years is working with the Girls Rock Camp Austin, and seeing first-hand the transformations. Girls who have no experience with an instrument suddenly turn into axe-wielding badasses, kicking over mic stands on stage and singing songs about how…
Maynard James Keenan is one of those guys who is at home in a world all his own. Currently, he fronts three bands: Tool, A Perfect Circle and his most recent project, Puscifer. Puscifer’s latest album, Conditions of My Parole, was quite an improvement over the band’s 2007 debut, V…
