Fort Worth’s Burning Hotels remind me of something, but I just can’t put a finger on it. Which is a good thing; this crew hides their influences well enough to avoid the derivative tag, but you can still feel enough familiarity to stay in the groove. The band’s best song…
For better or worse, Deep Purple forever changed the path of hard rock music. Deceptively simple and painfully loud, songs such as “Highway Star,” “Woman From Tokyo” and, of course, “Smoke on the Water” were packed full of riffs that ushered in what would become known as heavy metal. Selling…
With Is Is, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have perfected their haphazard delivery. Part of what makes this band so captivating is their ability to sound as though each song might tear apart at the seams. The other part, of course, is the scary-sexual, guttural gymnastics of lead singer Karen O…
It was the hottest evening of the year so far, a real scorcher. We’ve been blessed this summer with cool rains, so nature chose to unveil that certain Texas heat, the kind that makes your head pound and your eyes water, on Saturday, August 11. The date also happened to…
In 1999, Z-Trip, along with DJ P, dropped a now classic mixtape titled Uneasy Listening. Cut into four segments, the sonic collage fearlessly merged numerous genres into a seamless blend. Uneasy Listening was an indie smash, paving the way for the now ubiquitous mashup. Underground flicks such as Scratch and…
Convincing Texans to buy an Icarus Line album may be tough after the band’s infamous 2002 set at the Hard Rock Cafe, wherein guitarist Aaron North broke a display case for a Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar and attempted to plug it in. For anyone still holding a grudge, relax: Jonny…
The “world” section at your local music retailer is just a way to pile together all the stuff that isn’t from America or the U.K. It really isn’t fair that bossanova joints can be found right next to some Riverdance jams, but English-born Sri Lankan M.I.A.’s latest, Kala, truly deserves…
DOMA! DOMA! DOMA!: Little bits of news from the DOMA Nominees Showcase: When PPT agreed to a single-song encore at their closing set at What?Bar, they had already shut down their iMac and were jumping offstage when the crowd insisted “One more!,” which resulted in a rousing version of “Work…
As recently as July 31, the New Sabbath Festival was known only for what it was planned as: a huge, wonderful lineup of local and nationally known folk, freak folk and acoustic acts. The festival lineup includes Jana Hunter, Brothers and Sisters, and Peter and the Wolf, along with well-known…
Even before the heavy guitars kick in, San Antonio trio Girl in a Coma shows more dimension than we’ve heard since the days when the word punk meant not only the Ramones but also Talking Heads and Patti Smith. When the guitars start to race, the chords stay colorful and…
Urban songbird JoJo is not yet legal—nor is the bulk of her fan base—but her undeniably catchy hip-pop repertoire transcends a mere teenage audience. Her self-penned songs carry the watermark of R&B while packing a pop punch; streetwise backbeats and an urban twang separate her from her Disney-bred cohorts. But…
In the band’s namesake Sydney Pollack film, desperate contestants in a dance marathon push their bodies to the limit in order to capture a cash prize. Drop by the Cavern tonight, and you may just find yourself channeling that kind of energy, bopping and ca-chunking your body to the musical…
Backward baseball cap-wearing white boys of Dallas, rejoice! Kottonmouth Kings and Tech N9ne have teamed up for a summer tour, and they are coming to town and bringing their friends. Fans of Kottonmouth Kings will have the opportunity to hear live versions of some of their favorite hip-hop tracks about…
In April, Brooklyn indie-rock outfit The Ladybug Transistor lost their drummer, San Fadyl, when he suffered asthma-related complications at his home in Zurich, Switzerland. Though the band’s sixth album, Can’t Wait Another Day, had been conceived before Fadyl’s passing, it’s easy to interpret this powerfully unsentimental work as a eulogy…
With striking looks, a voluptuous frame and a personality that’s both sexy and serious, dancehall singer Ce’Cile has a good chance of being reggae’s new starlet. She’s already the center of gossip, à la Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, in the Jamaican press—rumors of who she’s dating and if she’s…
In his brilliant analysis of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, legendary critic Dave Marsh wrote that quality music could never come simply by force-feeding the complexities of classical music through rock and roll amplifiers. Although many have tried (with practicably bloated results) to fuse Beethoven and Chuck Berry, it wasn’t until…
Billiard Bar Mad Mexicans 6 p.m. Nominated for Best Latin/Tejano Mad, as in mad funky. Mad, as in mad rockin’. Mad, as in…well, sometimes just pissed off. Mixing equal parts hard rock riffs, Latin rhythms and hip-hop-speckled vocals, the Mad Mexicans provide as much flavor as a bowl of mole…
he following are excerpts from the comments section on the local music blog www.WeShotJR.com. The comments refer to a blog entry about a Denton band, Matthew and the Arrogant Sea. They’re “The Biggest Local Band You’ve Never Heard Of,” according to the entry, written by WSJR’s blogmeister, who goes by…
Over the rumble of kettle drums, farty blasts of trombone and kid sis Martha’s wailing—quite literally—about “fire and brimstone,” Rufus Wainwright repeats a straightforward question on Release the Stars’ opening number: “Do I disappoint you?” Oh, silly Rufus, it’s not that you disappoint so much as you exhaust. Three friggin’…
Early in the ’00s, when progressive rap ensembles like OutKast and the Roots ruminated on hip-hop’s post-millennial direction, they produced records in an avant-garde vein purposely intended to evolve the music. Most of the eclectic efforts (particularly Phrenology and Stankonia) emerging from these noble intentions actually succeeded, quiet as kept…
At some point in rock ‘n’ roll, creativity got confused with originality—bands and singers were suspect if their songs weren’t self-penned. Performers recording others’ songs were seen as less “genuine” by the terminally hip. That kind of thinking is responsible for tons of rock albums containing two or three great…
At a recent performance, Fort Worth’s Collin Herring announced that he was picking up his newest CD from the pressing plant in a matter of days. Sadly, it has been more than two years since The Other Side of Kindness, Herring’s fantastic sophomore effort, set critics’ tongues a-wagging with its…
