L25 Travels Outside Her Mind With ‘Outerspace’

Dallas-based singer L25 has spent a lot of time trapped inside of her mind. Even before COVID, she had spent years reflecting on her life and undergoing necessary transformations to improve her own quality of living. Now, she is using her music as a means of recovery. Born Sarah Ledford,…

Announcing the 2020 Dallas Observer Music Awards Nominees

2020 has challenged everything we knew to be good and constant about the world, so let us do our part in restoring a sense of comforting continuity: the Dallas Observer Music Awards will take place this year. Before your imagination runs wild, know we won’t try to Flaming Lips it…

One Thing Cover Artists Can’t Cover: Their Cost of Living

Performance artists faced massive setbacks through the pandemic as restaurant, bar and venue closures left them primarily unemployed.  Songwriters, DJs and other creators of music may have found ways to write and expand their online presence during quarantine, focusing on their original content on streaming platforms or livestreamed performances. Cover bands…

Quiz: How Well Do You Know Movie Soundtracks?

Avid moviegoers and concert fans have at least one thing in common right now: angst. Even with some socially distanced theaters opening in Texas and a number of concerts with limited seating available, fans of live cultural events have experienced a drought of new content since shutdowns began in March…

Natalie Schlabs Wants You to Feel What You Need to Feel

When musician Natalie Schlabs was a kid, she and her three brothers would gather around their grandfather to hear a little music. The family relished large gatherings, and Grandpa Gerald’s guitar-strumming was a staple of the evening. He liked Johnny Cash, but had no time for The Beatles, whom he…

Coming to Grips With John Lennon’s Complicated Legacy

On Thursday, The Telegraph ran a story whose headline reeked of hollow clickbait but nonetheless posed a question worth pondering: “Would John Lennon have been canceled?” The legendary Beatle and counterculture icon would’ve turned 80 on Oct. 9 had he not been murdered by Mark David Chapman on Dec. 8,…

Ego Jones’ Brand of Psych Will Trip You Out Long After the High Is Gone

Psychedelic music has become almost omnipresent. It was birthed out of the marijuana and mescaline-fueled writings of the Beat Generation, distilled into the powerhouse of surrealistic expression with the advent of LSD and the hippie movement and lives on today. The genre, it seems, will endure long after our high has…

Denton Promoters Support Marginalized Communities Through Emo Nights

The organizers behind Emo Night Denton don’t know how to describe the event, but they know what’s important to them: supporting marginalized communities and making room in the North Texas scene for emo music lovers. Part event and booking agency, music curators and creators, Emo Night Denton is a three-person…

Rapper SniperShot Has a New Aim: Making Personal Music

On his newest album True Story, Dallas rapper SniperShot revisits trying times over the past few years. Born Wes Brown and raised in East Dallas, SniperShot grew up listening to hip-hop and fell in love with the genre. His affinity for rap music began in the fifth grade, when he discovered…

The Texas Albums We Wish Had Made it to Rolling Stone‘s Top 500

Making any sort of comprehensive pop culture list is bound to be controversial no matter what. At the end of the day, it’s a matter of opinion and is completely subjective, but that will never stop people from complaining about their personal favorites missing the cut or claiming that the…

Is Conservatism the New Punk Rock?

Is punk dead? It depends on who you ask. The Exploited said it wasn’t. Crass said it was. Dead Kennedys said it wasn’t, but that it deserved to be. Perish the thought that you should take a stance on that, however, because it is the stupidest and most meritless musical…

5 Official State Songs Texas Should Learn From

As Texans, we’re duty-bound to say that it is the best state in the union. As music critics, however, we have an even bigger obligation to say that our official state song (“Texas, Our Texas”) is truly terrible. We’ll give our dear Texan readers the requisite space to lash out…