Audio: Listen to the commentary
Last month’s New York Times feature on the Denton music scene boasted only a passing mention of Centro-Matic, the low-fi, high-octane brainchild of singer-songwriter Will Johnson that has spent a decade proving melodic, moving rock music can sound glorious without sounding pretty.
The Times treatment could have been a slight, an oversight, [...]

The dilemma at the annual South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin is choosing between great bands you’ve seen before and taking a risk on acts you’ve only heard or heard about.
For me, the latter approach usually wins out and this year, I didn’t see anyone I didn’t like. I did, however, discover seven [...]

Dallas doesn’t get many opportunities to brag about concerts that the rest of the country doesn’t get to see. But Bob Dylan’s three-night stand at the House of Blues this past weekend – a hastily scheduled visit designed as a live rehearsal for a tour of Central and South America – surprised even longtime Dylan [...]

Yes, it’s only January – but once you watch Erykah Badu pay tribute to classic R&B/funk/hip-hop album covers by Eric B and Rakim, Grace Jones, De La Soul and Minnie Riperton in the dazzling new video for “Honey,” you will agree with the statement above.
Watch “Honey” by clicking on the TV icon here and [...]

Not to put the pressure on Super Bowl halftime headliners Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, but they are going to have to rock nothing less than spectacularly to beat the excitement of the pre-game festivities at tonight’s NHL All-Star Game in Atlanta.
In addition to having the savvy to hire Ottawa singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards to sing [...]

Nothing spikes my curiosity about a local band more than the “r” word — so when Lovie set up a four-week Sunday night “residency” at White Rock Coffee Shop this month, I couldn’t help but wander over.
Lovie is a four-woman band that has generated a low-level buzz on the Dallas alternative [...]

Remember last year when you heard about this TV show called Mad Men but got too busy to watch it? And then by the time you set your DVR to record it, you had already missed the first three episodes so you put off watching them until you piled up 5 more? And then you [...]

Dan Fogelberg never really fought his reputation as a “sensitive” balladeer. But if his death last weekend at age 56 from prostate cancer only made you reminisce about “Longer” and the gooey yuletide staple “Same Old Lang Syne,” then you might be surprised to learn that his musical personality had a more ambitious side.
Fogelberg was [...]

There are smart-aleck rock bands, and then there is Fishboy – which is a smart smart-aleck rock band.
The Denton quartet has just released what may be the world’s shortest rock opera with the longest title – the 33-minute Albatross: How We Failed to Save the Lone Star State With the Power of Rock and Roll. [...]

The dry spell is over for Erykah Badu fans: The Dallas-based artist, who hasn’t released a CD since 2003’s Worldwide Underground, announced on her MySpace page this week that she will finally release a new album on February 26. No indication yet about whether it will retain the title of her previously announced but postponed [...]