Steal of the Week: PlayRadioPlay!

Fort Worth’s PlayRadioPlay! released its national debut earlier this month. Dan Hunter, the one-man show of PRP, will be playing a couple hometown shows this week. We suggest checking PRP out at Good Records (1808 Greenville Ave.) this Sunday afternoon. Hunter will be signing copies of Texas after playing a…

Lovie, El Gato, Tim Delaughter Highlight Benefit CD

El Gato.Last week we mentioned Bridges and Blinking Lights were recording a song for an upcoming compilation album benefiting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Team UltraViolet, featuring members of El Gato and Lovie, is assembling the CD together the benefit album. We got word that El Gato will also have a…

A Future For Sloppyworld? Sorry, Folks.

Well, John Freeman, the man behind the recently shut-down-by-the-city Sloppyworld, has some more news about his experimental DIY venue in Exposition Park: “Basically, what the deal is,” Freeman says, “is Sloppyworld is officially closed.” There are a number of factors behind Freeman’s decision. Mainly, though, it centers around paperwork he…

Video: Gogol Bordello at Granada

Sometimes you just need a little something to get your Monday going. I suggest watching this video from Gogol Bordello’s show in town last week. A little gypsy punk can do wonders at 9 a.m., seriously. — Chelsea Ide Update: This video is from Gogol Bordello’s October show at the…

Good Friday: The Felons, Robert Gomez, Brent Best, Punk Bunny

Punk Bunny is a sex machine. This Good Friday actually comes on Good Friday. What’re the odds! (Answer: 1 in 52) So…Happy Good Friday! (Is that appropriate? I’m Jewish and don’t know these things.) If you’re gonna go out this weekend between tonight and Easter, here’s our picks of the…

Is MySpace Marring Band Mystique?

Sometimes it’s great that bands can communicate with their via MySpace bulletins and Facebook notes, and other times it really just shows how dorky the band members are. This isn’t bad, but it’s hard to maintain mystique when telling your band’s “friends” about what you just watched on TV. Read…

Vampire Weekend Backlash at SXSW

Used to be that you went to South by Southwest to find out about new bands, to discover a couple acts on your own, to see the few bands everyone would rave about over the next few months and, if you found something really amazing, the next few years. Used…

10 Artists We’d Resurrect for Easter

Every Easter, millions of Americans celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ—a rebirth that, if you follow the tenets of Christianity, saves the believer’s soul. We music lovers here at the Dallas Observer, however, can’t help but wonder what musical artists could be resurrected this holiday to save their genres. Might…

El Gato

El Gato had some big expectations to meet. It’s been almost six years since its last release, and the beautifully rich, layered orchestral pop of 2002’s We’re Birds would have been a tough act to follow even without the long wait. Surrender! may not quite be the equal of We’re…

Band of Heathens, Trey Johnson

Austin’s Band of Heathens has a nice little notch on its belt: being named the best new band in Austin at last year’s Austin Music Awards. Not too shabby. But maybe it was just an off year? Nah, the fellas in the Band of Heathens bring it just fine, thank…

Punk Bunny

A word of warning: Punk Bunny shows aren’t for the prude. In fact, don’t even bother heading to this show unless you’re super horny and/or strong-stomached. The only thing you know for sure when you watch Punk Bunny perform is that you’re going to get figuratively—and, actually, maybe literally too—sexed…

“Desperation On The Road To Dallas”

Just came across this video, and it’s pretty funny. Comes to us via the Teenage Prayers, an indie rock act out of NYC with some heavy ’60s pop influences. It’s part of the touring band’s video diary. In this clip, the band swings through Dallas on the way to SXSW,…

March Madness? A Great Time For Sports Music

I’m a huge sucker for college basketball — sports-wise this is my favorite time of year, with the first round of the NCAA tournament getting underway this afternoon. And, music-wise, CBS doesn’t do too poorly when it comes to the whole March Madness deal. You telling me the CBS college…

Video: The Burning Hotels Playing “Out and Alone”

Normally, we wouldn’t assail you with tons of videos first thing in the morning. (Hate for your boss to want to block DC-9 for killing your bandwidth — it happens.) But we just came across a live video of The Burning Hotels playing at the Palladium Loft. Sometimes this local…

DeVotchKa

When music-industry experts advise fledgling musicians how to achieve success, few probably suggest developing a weird blend of rock, pop and exotic folk music. DeVotchKa has done so anyhow, though, and A Mad & Faithful Telling is the highly enjoyable result. Because the group stays true to the rudiments of…

PlayRadioPlay

Swooping synthesized strings, throbbing bass lines, pounding drum machines and heart-on-the-sleeve vocals: PlayRadioPlay’s Texas sounds like what a sensitive, horny teenager would come up with if he were locked in the bedroom with a keyboard and a swimsuit calendar featuring the ladies of One Tree Hill. Single-handedly created by Dan…

Video: Jens Lekman at Granada

While I spent last Sunday driving back from Austin and icing my newly broken big toe, others were at the Jens Lekman show in town. Haven’t heard feedback from too many of you. Did anyone on here hit up the show? Well, for those of us who were otherwise engaged,…

Willie Nelson Live Recordings With Wynton Marsalis

Well, sometimes, Willie can still bring it. Technically, he’s not a Dallas artist. But Willie Nelson only lives, what, an hour and half from here in Abbott? And by continuing to perform around the region, like he did just this month with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at the Myerson Symphony…