Album Review: The Heart Contortionists by Pleasant Grove

After a decade hiatus, the locally beloved Pleasant Grove has returned with a new album, The Heart Contortionists. It is their first in 12 years. Fans of the group have enjoyed the recent reunions and one-off shows. But can an album so far removed from its predecessors recapture the allure once generated by a band […]

Album Review: It’s About Time by Hank Williams, Jr.

Hank Williams, Jr. has been drawing lines in the sand for a long time. His more recent history of political cable TV ad hominem has gained him the wrong kind of visibility, but the fact is Bocephus (his lifelong nickname) has been going down swinging for the last 25 years. His latest effort, It’s About Time, […]

Album Review: Fjord by Jacob Metcalf

For the better part of a decade, Jacob Metcalf has been hovering below the Dallas radar. You probably know him as one of the members of the very likable folk act The Fox and the Bird, for whom he has sung and played banjo, guitar, spoons, really anything that can make a noise. You may have […]

Review: Remain In Light at the Kessler Theater

The Talking Heads released Remain in Light on October 8, 1980. It was the same year that Joy Division’s Ian Curtis committed suicide, Led Zeppelin broke up following the death of John Bonham, and John Lennon was assassinated. It might be glib to say music was at a turning point, but those are some major tectonic shifts […]

Kanye West’s Yeezus: The False Messiah

There is one sense in which Kanye West’s latest album, Yeezus, resembles the story of Jesus. Within its tracks, West makes bold claims about his primacy and lineage. And while many critics accepted those claims almost a priori, Yeezus is far less stalwart when examined apart from its celebrity creator.

Paying the Piper: Songs I would Tip RTB2 to Cover

Asking a band that writes their own material to cover classic, albeit cherished, songs is generally poor etiquette. I am not sure “freebird!” guy still exists in this day and age (Grady thinks he has been replaced by “more cowbell!” guy), but he and his counterparts are a public nuisance. If a band writes their own […]

Smashing Pumpkins – Oceania

It is tough to watch people age, particularly if they are very close to you. It is common for one to watch his or her unreasonable expectations run, nose-first, into the brick wall of reality. To watch the strong father you thought would never diminish struggle to tie his shoes. To watch men and women […]