Ideally, the statue of Dimebag Darrell would be larger than this eight-and-a-half-inch, $99.95 figurine. The two dudes trying to erect a “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott statue in Dallas got a big boost this week: Revolver (“The World’s Loudest Rock Magazine!”) ran a little piece about the efforts of Houston’s Joey Riordan…
Our desire to see bands not of our generation (yeah, we’re youngin’s), the DC-9 crew is pretty stoked to hear Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will be playing American Airlines Center April 13. We’re keeping our fingers crossed he’ll play “Born to Run.” Bruce switches up the set…
After months of searching, we’ve finally signed up a new music editor. Pete Freedman, who is currently the arts and entertainment editor at the Colorado Springs Independent, will step into the position February 4. Freedman met up with the Observer staff last week, and while in town made a point…
So, while we haven’t named the winner in the Lovie vs. The Valentines Rock ‘n’ Rumble (expect results very soon – or, you know, look at the comments), we do have news about The Valentines. Specifically, the band changed its name to The Fieros. Does the name change make the…
For those who have been on pins and needles about the Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” contest, the company announced three finalists today, one being from Big D, based on nationwide online votes. The contest, which started back in October, asked unsigned artists to submit an original song and video…
We ended up at Club Dada twice this weekend for killer local shows and also watched some wrestler dudes damn near kill each other. XCW Wrestling in Denton Fighter Drunk Adam has light tube after light tube smashed over his back by Dave the Rave. (Melanie Gomez) We experienced some…
Dove Hunter January 5, 2008 Club Dada Better Than: Watching X-Files reruns with your cat. (Trust me, I engaged in both last night.) Although they’ve got no tangible proof of their “special talents” other than a few band T-shirts for sale in a Rubbermaid tub and a four-song unmastered demo…
Lovie January 4, 2008 Club Dada Better than: being inundated with Britney’s latest publicity stunt. Lovie is proving that, as a live act, the members are rocking it. A semi-packed house at Club Dada with people specifically there for Lovie also bodes well for the group, as Lovie builds a…
Last year was a tough year. Clubs in Deep Ellum, Denton and Fort Worth closed, only to be replaced with sterile, corporate-owned chain venues. Carter Albrecht was killed. The Toadies, one of the most overrated bands in Dallas history, reunited. Zooming out beyond the local music scene, things don’t look…
Unbelievably, not a single person on our 2007 music death pool (see “Pool Queue,” January 4, 2007) was waved past the velvet rope into the Ultimate Afterparty—though Britney Spears was flirting pretty hard with the bouncers. We recommend that you keep the previous year’s picks on your list and add…
This has been a sad year for some of our favorite musical artists. Many of them self-destructed to a degree we never even imagined possible, even as we rooted for career salvation. Others inexplicably ruined events we were greatly looking forward to. Instead of analyzing what went wrong, we’ve chosen…
As Radiohead’s two different releases this month prove, rock boxed sets aren’t getting any more sensible. The “discbox” version of their new release In Rainbows is stuffed with extras ranging from the useful (extra music) to the aimless (expanded booklets and artwork) to the mystifyingly redundant (In Rainbows on CD,…
It’s been a couple of years since the release of Llano Avenue, local roots rocker Darryl Lee Rush’s extraordinary debut, and various snafus have kept this sophomore effort off the shelves until now. Usually live releases just fill time between studio products, but Rush’s country charm, as well as his…
Blossom Toes never amounted to anything more than an opening act during their brief career between 1967 and 1969. But when the headliners were The Move, Soft Machine and a Syd Barrett-led Pink Floyd, “opening act” wasn’t too lousy a slot. Reissues of the band’s only two albums, We Are…
After more than 25 years in the music business, Johnette Napolitano has made her masterpiece. From the haunting synth programming on “Amazing” to the poignant ballad “The Scientist” to her deep ‘n’ doomy cover of Lou Reed’s “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” Scarred is a sonic portrait of an artist who has…
Finally, The Raveonettes have realized the potential their previous three albums only hinted at—turns out it was just waiting to congeal into Lust Lust Lust. And it’s been a long wait. The Danish duo has always been about minimalism and self-imposed restriction; their 2002 EP Whip It On was written…
The sophisticated pop smarts of Denton’s Darcy can either make a listener start singing along or dismiss them with a sneer and a hardy, “Oh, come on!” Such pleasant numbers as “Alien,” “As She Waits” and “Police” feature the fey, whispered vocals of Dustin Aguilar, and it’s safe to say…
An Addiction to Fiction, the 2007 debut from Irving’s Inaro, was as good of a local emo/punk release as one could have hoped for. Bristling with hooks but never too slick or poppy, the songs of Josh Fuston, Justin Bonnet and the rest of this youthful quintet offer both spunk…
A pint-size novelty act who made preteen girls swoon with his 2000 debut, Beware of Dog, Bow Wow has somehow evolved into an elder statesman in the hip-pop genre. Now 20 years old, he has split with longtime producer Jermaine Dupri, and his sixth CD, Face Off—a collaboration with B2K’s…
Dan Paul is Dallas’ renaissance man of the moment. He sings, he acts, he drags. As of tomorrow, call him Dan Paul Roberts, because he is also an artist and decided to change up his moniker for art’s sake. A new exhibition of his work opens at the Magnolia Theater…
People Magazine reports Jessica Simpson is going all Carrie Underwood on us. Simpson has headed to Nashville (hi, Matt Pulle) to begin recording, OK, wait for it, a country album. Not only that, she’ll also be penning some of the songs for the album saying, “Writing is a release for…
PorterdavisDan Barrett and Mike Meadows got their start playing music in Boston around the Porter and Davis squares subway stations. The pair forged a partnership based upon a shared love of the blues and named themselves Porterdavis, in honor of its humble beginnings. Moving to Austin in 2004, Barrett and…
