Our city was graced this past week with the exuberant presence of an artist who has been rightfully missed. Dallas native turned New Yorker Dezi 5 returned to the city that raised him for a week packed full of musical merriment. In his time back, he graced various local stages…
The next year promises to continue to be big for Dallas hip-hop, especially with women rappers. Combining angelic vocals and killer streetwear is local R&B singer Kaash Paige. At the young age of 18, Paige’s résumé boasts many enviable feats, including a deal with a major label and co-signs from…
On Dec. 12, Megan Thee Stallion was given a Powerhouse Award at the 2019 Billboard Women in Music event at Los Angeles’s Hollywood Palladium. As Billboard reports, she arrived late because she had a final exam due. The next day, she flew to Dallas to headline the sold-out My Mixtapez…
This weekend is jam-packed with good shows. [DARYL] will help you kick off your weekend at Double Wide this Friday. The heavy hitters Unfaded Brass Band, Le Cure, DaBaby and Cameron Matthew Ray will keep you up all night Saturday. Then you can cap your weekend off with some Rosegarden Funeral Party at Three…
Hopefully, folks around town are tired and recovering from the epic wonder that were the DOMAs. With a star-studded plethora of live music and awards festivities scattered throughout Deep Ellum, it was a time to celebrate and discover. As the year winds down, it’s also fun to dig through the…
Mike Brooks is a longtime Observer concert photographer who has shot seemingly every type of artist at every type of local venue. Here he breaks down 10 ways for artists to get better photos. Every year I photograph a couple of hundred bands playing live shows, and every time I…
The red carpet rolled out at Canton Hall on Tuesday evening for the 31st annual Dallas Observer Music Awards ceremony. The venue was buzzing with excitement from the moment the doors opened, letting in lines of fur, sequins, leather and oh so many accessories. There’s no doubt it was the…
You know what they say: It’s an honor just to be nominated. And sometimes cliches stick around for a reason, as was the case with our 31st Dallas Observer Music Awards, which took place Tuesday night and weren’t so much about the awards themselves but a celebration of artistry, the…
A shaky iPhone camera steadies on a glorious sight: 24-year-old Austin Richard Post, cloaked in black and dripping with jewelry, is vibing to the stylings of Canada’s finest, Shania Twain. While Twain serenades the American Music Awards crowd with the boppiest of bops (“Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”) Post…
Daniel Markham put out a new single, and it’s like nothing he’s done before. “Don’t it Feel Good” debuted recently, heralding Markham’s return from the studio with a new album, Burnout. The track is a nod to 1990s grunge with a riff that chugs like Weezer and bites like Alice…
The Dallas-based Big Ass Brass Band has become known in the Dallas music scene for the energy and joy they bring to the stage.
The Dallas Observer Music Awards showcase took place this Saturday night in Deep Ellum and even though we nominated the acts, they exceeded even our own expectations. Over 40 nominated bands played in various locations. The streets were already exciting. Present were the usual weekend crowds, but members of the…
There are plenty of great acts to see this week, but let’s start with the free ones. You can catch The Funky Knuckles at Three Links or the Revelers Hall Band at Revelers Hall this week at no cost if you’re looking for something light. But if you’re looking to…
We are proud as new parents this week as we prepare to roll out the red carpet — with the same comedic and cinematic Life is Beautiful-like effect — to award the city’s best at the Dallas Observer Music Awards ceremony happening on Tuesday, Dec. 10. After all, while this…
Year-end lists are all the rage this time of the year. It’s always fun to delve into and sample critics’ tastes as various publications churn out the content of best songs, best albums, best videos and best concerts. Get a jump-start on some 2020 memories as artists continue to announce…
Jack Barksdale, the 12-year-old powerhouse blues-Americana singer-songwriter, is back with his new single “Man in the Shadows” and a music video to boot. The song, Barksdale says, is about the internal conflicts people have within themselves. “Some of these are more serious than others,” Barksdale says. “I wanted to record…
Ariana Grande can’t seem to stay away from Dallas. The singer wowed Dallas audiences when she made a stop on her Sweetener World Tour this past May, and she’s bringing her powerhouse vocals back once more this December to American Airlines Center. Fans are waiting with anticipation for the megastar to perform…
I had never listened to Jagged Little Pill in its entirety until last Friday, and my thoughts about it already felt like a Reductress headline “Man Discovers Alanis Morissette For the First Time 25 Years Later.” I hope I will get some leeway as a black man for being late…
iHeartRadio’s annual Jingle Ball (or 106.1 KISS FM’s Jingle Ball, as far as DFW is concerned) made its way through Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena on Tuesday night, and as tradition has it, half a dozen of the hottest names in pop music played 20-30 minute sets with five minute intermissions…
One young woman from Waxahachie has gained national fame for singing cover songs in a parking garage after becoming an American Idol reject. Emma Oliver, 21, now has more clarity than ever before on what she can achieve through her music. At 16, she sang her way onto the Dallas…
It wasn’t all bad — 2019, we mean. Sure, politics were a trash fire; tensions over policing, gender and economic inequality hit Dallas as hard as anywhere else; and if we don’t manage to throttle one another before, the climate crisis is standing by, ready to kill us all. (Ten…
Contrary to popular belief, we at the Observer actually don’t sit in our ivory towers, looking down at all the lay folk with scorn and disapproval as we kick it with George Soros and other members of the Deep State. We’re all just regular people like you who are simply…
