Ab-Soul and Jay Rock

The big room over at the Prophet Bar has seen a Top Dawg Entertainment takeover in the form of Schoolboy Q and his packed performance back in June. Now, two more of TDE’s finest hit the stage, courtesy of Coffee Music Hub. California emcees Ab-Soul and Jay Rock headline the…

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti

An Ariel Pink show is always exciting, mainly because you never know if the L.A. singer will go off the rails or spiral into some nonsensical glass case of emotion while performing. With a backing band, The Haunted Graffiti, in tow for the last few years, he’s straightened himself out,…

Untapped Festival

After Hospice, a concept album that chronicled the death of a woman from terminal bone cancer, it was hard to imagine The Antlers releasing an album as dark. No worries: The Brooklyn group followed it up with Burst Apart, which has a song called “Putting the Dog to Sleep,” and…

Hall & Oates

A few years ago, it seemed “indie” bands (whatever that signifies these days) were jumping on the Hall & Oates bandwagon, covering their songs, declaring their non-ironic love for them. It was a tense time, especially for those of us who have loved the band since we were 7 years…

America’s Most Slept On

Flint, Michigan’s own Jon Connor returns to Dallas to headline this declarative statement of a show. That is, before he goes on tour with Big K.R.I.T. this fall, and no doubt becomes a little less “slept on.” There’s a nice sampling of Texas talent, too: Houston’s Doughbeezy joins Dallas’ Dustin…

Hot Wet Mess

35 Denton is bookending their successful spring festival season with this summer mess, featuring waterslides, wrestling, pools, booze and … there was something else. Maybe it was musical performances from Big Freedia, The Black Lips, No Age, Reggie Watts, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Fergus & Geronimo, RTB2 and DJ Sober. See…

Mind Spiders, Nervous Curtains and Diamond Age

Two bands that both put out excellent albums this year — Mind Spiders’ Meltdown and Nervous Curtains’ Fake Infinity — combine forces in Rubber Gloves’ ashtray. Nervous Curtains are about to head off on tour, so this might be your last chance to catch their theater of synth. Mind Spiders,…

Sharon Needles

Have you been watching RuPaul’s Drag Race? Of course you have, so you’re familiar with the soul-shattering tower of terror that is Sharon Needles, aka Aaron Coady. She’ll be at It’ll Do as part of their new Thursday night Queen series, featuring the best local and national drag performers. If…

Free Week at Rubber Gloves

Few things mark a summer’s end in Denton quite like Rubber Gloves’ Free Week. This year’s seventh annual event hosts Danny Rush & the Designated Drivers on Monday, Vulgar Fashion on Tuesday, Cozy Hawks on Wednesday, and culminates on Saturday with A.Dd+, Shiny Around the Edges, Idiots and Atomic Tanlines…

Bitch Bricks, Deep Snapper and Wet Nurse

And the award for local band name I love to say out loud goes to: Bitch Bricks. The Fort Worth trio just released a single called “Stop Smiling In My Direction,” an anthem they recently took on a mini-tour with fellow Fort Worth-a-shits the Longshots, with whom they also share…

Lightning Bolt – Sons of Hermann Hall – 8/28/12

Lightning Bolt, Drug Mountain, Wiccans Sons of Hermann Hall Tuesday, August 28 To the noisenik who wasn’t able to peek over the throng parked in front of Lightning Bolt last night, Brian Gibson might have been playing an electric chair through effects pedals. His bass, with a bonus banjo string…

Ice Eater on Street Cats and Mr. Freeze

Fort Worth’s Ice Eater have played around the area for the last few months, but Thursday’s set at Dada will be their Deep Ellum debut. We caught up with members Jordan Kline and Zach Edwards about the first Ice Eater gig and who plays a better Mr. Freeze. You guys…

Young/Forbes/Gonzalez Trio – Rubber Gloves – 8/27/12

Young/Forbes/Gonzalez Trio, Terminator 2, Bludded Head Rubber Gloves Monday, August 27 Mike Forbes was last night’s MVP. He started behind the kit with Bludded Head, who had literally just returned from a 10-day tour, providing the slowly melting glacier for guitarist Nevada Hill and cellist Darcy Neal to float their…

How I Quit Crack – Black Lodge – 8/24/12

How I Quit Crack, Deflowered Electric Flesh Bride, Habu Habu Black Lodge Friday, August 24 Black Lodge is tucked in a corner of Deep Ellum that seems annexed from the rest of the area, and perhaps that’s what made Friday’s show at the tiny gallery space feel extradimensional. The space…

Lovestory Tour

Sandaga 813 is the perfect venue for this touring soul/hip-hop caravan, headlined by Shawn Chrystopher, who just released the Timbaland-produced mixtape, LoveStory. Fellow emcees Sean Falyon, El Prez, Raven Sorvino, Jabee, Austin’s QLee and Dallas’ Drama Tha King keep the verses flowing. Starts at 8 p.m…

Lindsey Buckingham at Cendera Center

Buckingham doesn’t get enough credit for how his mid-’70s addition transformed Fleetwood Mac, with too much of it flowing to his one-time paramour Stevie Nicks. The band hit their apogee on the new lineup’s first three albums together — Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and Tusk — before speeding downhill during the…

Tabula Rasa, the Chemistry Set, Sunward

After forming in 1992, Tabula Rasa took Dallas, Fort Worth and Denton by storm, tidily earning “Best New Act” from the Dallas Observer in 1993. And then, as quickly as Deep Ellum’s Green Room dubbed its signature cheese pizza “The Tabula Rasa,” they disbanded in 1994. Members Ezra Boggs, Stephen…

Lighting Bolt

When I first saw Lightning Bolt in a dingy club in Brooklyn a decade ago, I did not foresee the Providence duo still being around in 2012. Not that they weren’t good enough: That performance, in which drummer Brian Chippendale and bassist Brian Gibson set up on the floor and…

Colleen Green

L.A. seems to be in the throes of a full-scale weed jam explosion, both in aesthetic and sound. Singer-guitarist Colleen Green doesn’t seem to care how much you know she’s influenced by The Ramones — she even has a song called “I Wanna Be Degraded” — or that there’s a…