Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Dallas Metal Changed Forever After Dimebag Darrell

Music is all about the immortals. We talk about them all the time: the Ozzy Osbournes, the James Hetfields, and so on. We let these people into our lives. They become a part of us, helping us along as we grow up. The best of them are there for the biggest moments of our lives, for the highs and as w ... More >>

Remembering Dimebag Darrell, 10 Years Later

Some say he was larger than life, a legend who always stood up for the underdog. He was the type of legend who'd walk into a club in some random city, join a local band on stage and play for 15 minutes as if he were just another member. With his black cap worn backward and beard dyed reddish-pink, D ... More >>

The Dallas Observer Music Awards Ceremony Will Be Prom-Themed and Also Ridiculous

In just a few more days, it all happens: The 26th annual Dallas Observer Music Awards. This coming Saturday, we'll round up more than 60 of our favorite bands from North Texas and cram them all into venues around Deep Ellum for the Chevy Music Showcase North Texas Presents the Dallas Observer Music ... More >>

FKA Twigs, 106.1 Kiss FM's Jingle Ball, Common, Centro-matic|Justin Timberlake

Music Nerds Start Book Club

DC9 at Night Mixtape with Seal Bass

Seal Bass is part of an extreme minority amongst Dallas DJs. He plays techno in its purest form. While he's not so well known in the regional DJ circuit, Seal Bass has over 20 years' experience behind the decks. He still plays vinyl and his breadth of knowledge of classic techno is deep and reflecte ... More >>

Dallas Hip Hop Needs a Unified Sound to Get National Attention

The most popular rapper to have ever come from North Texas is one Robert Matthew Van Winkle. You probably know him as Vanilla Ice. This is nothing short of equal parts silly and embarrassing. Vanilla Ice is the Psy of the '90s and "Ice Ice Baby" is hands down the "Gangham Style" of those times. Drop ... More >>

Which New Dallas Old-School Hip-Hop Station Should You Listen To?

Since early Saturday morning, the people of Dallas are momentarily retiring their auxiliary cables and tuning into not one, but two new radio stations, both specializing in a virtually untested format. As we reported Monday, both Boom 94.5 FM and Hot 93.3 FM made an unprovoked about-face early Satur ... More >>

The 2014 Dallas Observer Music Awards Showcase Schedule

Now's when the real fun begins. Voting has been open for the 2014 Dallas Observer Music Awards for just about six weeks, and we're in the home stretch. (If you haven't already voted, you'd better make your way over to musicawardspoll.dallasobserver.com and make sure your voice in heard!) The awards ... More >>

Art with a Side of Soup

Black Radical Imagination

Run the Jewels Were Hip Hop's Great Unifiers Last Night at Trees

Run the Jewels Trees, Dallas Thursday, November 6, 2014 The blood red tour bus bearing Run The Jewels' name and signature iconography - two mummified hands, one surrendering a gold chain to the other, gestured as a gun - glared in the early afternoon sun outside of Trees in Deep Ellum, visible from ... More >>

Love Story

The 2014 Fun Fun Fun Fest Survival Guide

Fun Fun Fun Fest hits Austin hits this weekend, and for many of Texas' most devout music heads, it's the music festival of the year. That's because, unlike many of the nation's biggest fests that cannibalize lineups from one another and rarely deviate from the norm, Fun Fun Fun rewards its audience' ... More >>

The Best Concerts in Dallas This Weekend, 10/31-11/02

It's Halloween weekend, which is most likely your favorite time of the year to party if you're under 30. If you're over 30, relax, New Year's Eve isn't too far off. For now, there's just a bunch of shows you should check out this weekend, Halloween-themed and otherwise. Slipknot and Korn take their ... More >>

A Hit and a Myth

for Golden Apple

Homer for Lyric Stage with Odyssey musical Golden Apple.

Cosmic Trigger Have Mastered the Art of Riff-Centered Stoner Rock

Tyrel Choat's fingertips surged with power when he first pulled a riff out of an electric guitar. His older brother taught him the monstrous riff from Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf," and when he figured it out himself, he acquired a scorching propensity for riff writing that never burnt out. When ask ... More >>

Announcing the Dallas Observer Music Awards Ceremony

We can't speak for everyone, but we here at DC9 at Night are getting pretty excited about this year's Dallas Observer Music Awards. Voting has been open for just shy of a month now, we've been busy booking the bands that will perform at the DOMA showcase, and the festivities themselves -- the showca ... More >>

The Best Concerts in Dallas This Week, 10/27-11/02

The hottest ticket this week is of course Halloween. There's gonna be a shit ton of Halloween stuff for you to do this week and we know you started last week. Just couldn't resist. So of course our music picks for this week include a few Halloween-based ones as well as the usual civilian ones. Doubl ... More >>

Jason Aldean and Florida Georgia Line Danced on the Grave of Country at Gexa on Saturday

Jason Aldean With Florida Georgia Line Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas Saturday, October 25, 2014 Ebola causes you to leak fluids from your body's orifices and bleed internally until your body starts to slowly shut down. Then you die from a combination of low blood-pressure and organ failure. If you h ... More >>

Last Night in Dallas, GWAR's Dead Singer's Disembodied Penis Ejaculated On the Crowd

GWAR Gas Monkey Live, Dallas Thursday, October 23, 2014 In March this year Dave Brockie, better known as an intergalactic barbarian by the name of Oderus Urungus, was found dead of a heroin overdose. For a lot of bands, losing their lead singer and sole remaining original member would be filed unde ... More >>

Piano Acrobatics

Sunset Screening

Four Dallas Beats Producers You Need to Hear Now

When it comes to genres that have been allowed to flourish in the age of the online music cloud, few have risen to greater prominence than future sounds, better known to most as beats. An all-encompassing chimeric blend of electronic, hip-hop and soul that, beats takes DJs and producers of more trad ... More >>

The Triple D Adds a Dallas Twist to the Gangster Movie with Help of Local Rappers

By James Khubiar We've seen the story about young and poor people trying desperately, and often violently, to make something out of nothing. We saw it in New York with Paid In Full and Belly. We saw it in Atlanta with Snow On Tha Bluff. The task for first-time director Juan Salas and Dallas rap mai ... More >>

Sonnets, With Music

Paul McCartney at American Airlines Center, 10/13/14

Paul McCartney American Airlines Center, Dallas Monday, October 13, 2014 It's a funny thing, seeing one of the Beatles. On the one hand, it's not as rare of an opportunity as you might think; after all, Ringo Starr just played his second show in the area in less than three months. And that show cam ... More >>

Crystal Yates Chased Her Country Music Dreams from Florida to McKinney

As a child growing up in the tiny town of Niceville, Florida, McKinney transplant and country singer-songwriter Crystal Yates couldn't avoid the twangy sounds of country music even if she had wanted to. "My mom says I could sing 'Why Don't You Love Me' by Hank Williams before I could say my ABCs," e ... More >>

The Best Punk Venues in North Texas

Punk venues are a little like snowflakes: Each one is different and they're all uniquely special. Well, okay, maybe that comparison will be lost in this part of the country, but the point remains the same. Which is to say, as far as music venues go punk venues are a special breed, meant more often t ... More >>

Rodgers & Hammerstein

Laughs Invitational

Charli XCX

Kacey Musgraves at Granada Theater, 10/1/14

Kacey Musgraves With John and Jacob Granada Theater, Dallas Wednesday, October 1, 2014 Kacey Musgraves and I come from similar backgrounds. Musgraves grew up in East Texas, Mineola to be exact, and I come from a little town just about 75 miles north of there. Musgraves' debut album, Same Trailer Di ... More >>

Shine Bright Like a..

Good Morning, Vietnam!

Party Static is Dallas' Most Wildly Fun Band

Party Static light up a room. With their five members carousing on stage and their scuzzy, nonsensical music, they're a band who truly lives up to their name. There's the locked-in, simple rhythm section of Billy Kuykendall and Alex Mitchell. There's the fuzzy riffing of Brett Michael Strawn. And th ... More >>

Best Concerts in Dallas this Weekend 9/19 - 9/21

Well, it's the weekend once again. We here at DC9 hope you powered through the week and that you're looking for some relief. We want you to go to some bars and have a few drinks. We want you to pregame beforehand. (That's just being fiscally responsible.) But most importantly, we want you to check o ... More >>

Lily Allen at House of Blues, 9/15/14

Lily Allen With MR Little Jeans House of Blues, Dallas Monday September 15, 2014 On her first visit to Dallas at the House of Blues, Lily Allen took the stage purple-haired and dressed like a shiny bit of Christmas tinsel. She was surrounded by a backdrop of large baby bottles that lit up, perhaps ... More >>

The Old 97's Played an Impromptu Set at Twilite Lounge Last Night for Rhett Miller's Birthday

This one might've gotten you by last night. It nearly got by us. Thursday night at Twilite Lounge is normally the territory for Good Luck Karaoke, but last night the routine got put on hold and singer-songwriter Madison King played a show instead. Oh, and it was also Rhett Miller's birthday. Which ... More >>

Lyric Stage and Fiddler on the Roof Are a Match Made in Musical Heaven

Uncertainty about the Path of a Dallas Company's Toll Road Worries Property Owners

At some point next year, a Dallas-based toll company may get permission from the Texas Department of Transportation to build the only toll road in Texas that is totally supported by private finance. The exact route is something that the Texas Turnpike Corp. is still figuring out, but rural property ... More >>

Aretha Franklin at Winspear Opera House, 9/6/14

Aretha Franklin Winspear Opera House, Dallas Saturday, September 6, 2014 Tuxedos and glittering, fancy dresses were the preferred attire Saturday night at the Winspear Opera House. And no, the well-heeled in attendance were not there to see a production of Wagner. Soul music queen Aretha Franklin w ... More >>

The Hardline's "Fun With Country Music" is a Brilliant Skewer of Bro-Country Lyrics

For music writers, it seems like there has never been a lower-hanging fruit than the ascension of bro-country into the mainstream. Acts like Florida Georgia Line are getting near-equal airtime on pop and country radio while selling millions of records. What's worse, they're also influencing a class ... More >>

Sebadoh

The Best North Texas Hip Hop Concerts In September

Howdy, folks. The best thing that's gonna happen this month is the one and only State Fair of Texas. It's in your best interest to head on down to Fair Park and daze at the 55 foot gargantuan glory that is Big Tex. Gorging on fried foods that have the propensity to stop your arteries by the aroma al ... More >>

The Simpsons' 30 Best Musical Cameos: 15 - 1

Yesterday we got the ball rolling on our picks for the best musical cameos from The Simpsons' first 25 years on the air, in honor of the show's ongoing marathon of 552 episodes on FXX. We went through the first half of our list of 30 episodes, meaning it's time for us to finish what we started. So, ... More >>

Lance Lopez Brings the Blues to Coach Joe's Hat Tricks Each Week

Lance Lopez knows the blues. The Dallas native has been sharpening his blues' slinging chops since he was a child. He can feel it in his bones, through his fingertips as they slide across the fretboard. Lopez's guitar skills sometimes seem otherworldly as he bends his strings to create something sou ... More >>

Robert Cray on Being a Blues Legend: "At the End of the Day, You Have to Play Tomorrow"

Prior to 1986, Robert Cray was just another talented blues guitarist wondering where his next gig was going to be. But after the Strong Persuader album and the hit single "Smoking Gun," Cray became a viable commercial proposition across several genres. Cray has parlayed that success into a four- dec ... More >>

Jukebox Rhapsody

The Best Concerts in Dallas This Week, 8/25 - 8/31

For once, going back to work on a Monday comes with a pay-off in sight: This week we'll get a three-day weekend, courtesy of Labor Day falling a week from today. So that, at least, is something to take comfort in. What else is there to be excited about? Why, all the fine concerts coming through Dall ... More >>