I don't think we have really gotten in the weeds about my feelings for Kanye West, but know this about me: My name is Deb and I am a West apologist. He is temperamental and sensitive in ways that feel vintage rock star in today's cookie cutter world of celebrity people pleasing. He is arrogant in ways I am frankly envious of. It would be easy to dismiss his declarations of greatness if I didn't so ardently agree with him, but in my humble opinion West is frequently as great, or at least as compelling, as he says he is. In both content and character.

Now after a few leaks from his upcoming work set to be released, (we think) June 18th, he is set to perform this week on Saturday Night Live. These are five reasons I will be staying home to watch the performance:

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A few months ago, Christopher Telles, who works with the TNT series Dallas announced plans for a scripted TV show called Goodrecords: The Series. There are big ambitions for the show, which would use the shop on Greenville as a central setting.

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Were you hoping for some time travel this afternoon? Well, aren't you in luck.

Dallas booty shaker and party maker DJ Sober is on tour right now gracing the East Coast with his presence and those smooth fades. Sober assures me we won't lose him to those New York cool kids even if he has already been offered a Boston weekly and drove several of Le Bain's beautiful people into the rooftop pool.

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Patrick Michels

Dave Matthews Band at the Superpages.com Center

In September 2000, a few days before Dave Matthews Band played with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at Coca-Cola Starplex, I got into a car accident turning onto Inwood Road from Walnut Hill. My '99 Explorer was crunched, and the woman I hit injured her arm.

I sat on the curb, waiting for my parents to arrive -- one of the worst feelings I can remember. The woman's car smoked in the center of the road. There was broken headlight glass everywhere. And all I could think was: Am I going to miss Dave?

My name is Nick, and, man, I used to really love Dave Matthews Band.

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Mike Brooks

Now, I'm no fireman, obviously, but it seems to me that when some standing room only venues sell out, they really sell out. I mean like you couldn't fit another person in there with a really big shoehorn. Sometimes these experiences can be traumatic. Other times they can be fantastic. Maybe you can make the difference. Here's how:

See also:
-Music Etiquette archives
-The Smashing Pumpkins Ruined My Joy, Again, Last Night at The Palladium

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Stephanie Halovanic

Frost with '70s Godzilla, featured on the Travel Channel's show "Toy Hunter"

Under a circular blue awning in Lewisville lies a fairly unmarked store with generic white letters reading, "DFW Vintage Toys."

The change of worlds stepping inside is jarring -- it's like walking back 30 years and into your childhood. The mastermind behind DFW Vintage Toys, Jayden Frost, is serious about the '80s. Previously, he was the vocalist of '80s band When In Rome (he was their sole touring vocalist, though, somewhat confusingly, he didn't write huge single "The Promise," which made an appearance in Napoleon Dynamite). '80s nostalgia runs through his veins.

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The Walkmen play Saturday at The Fort Worth Music Festival.

Is there such a thing as the end of festival season here? I don't know. What I do know is that there are a couple more this weekend -- Fort Worth Music Festival features twang on Friday and fuzzy guitar bliss on Saturday. And Wildflower remains the most fun I can imagine having in the general proximity of 635. But wait, there's more: Nappy Roots, Curren$y, and you'll have to read on for the rest.

Oh, and if you're wondering why there are only eight shows this week, it's just that kind of week. Wait until next round -- things are about to get ridiculous.

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KoolQuise's new EP, Small Time Lo$er (The Dream Theory), is definitively his. No overabundance of guest spots, no swagger-jacking flow or a grandiose gamble on riding a trends coattails. At times self-deprecating and at others stream-of-conscious confessional, it wasn't until songwriting was complete did the lyricist realize he had written a record with shades of Jung and Lacan. The Dream Theory became a natural subtitle to the record.

For the EP's production, KoolQuise shot from the hip, scouring Bandcamp and using beats he found interesting. "The dream theme came from me being a dreamer," he says.

See also:
-The Ten Most Badass Band Names in DFW
-The Best Bands in DFW: 2012 Edition
-Photo Essay: The Tattoos of Dallas' Nightlife Scene

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Lindsey Best

Andrew Youssef

[Editor's Note: Longtime concert photographer Andrew Youssef found out almost two years ago that he had Stage IV Colon Cancer. In that time, he has continued to shoot tons of music events for our sister paper OC Weekly on top of other freelance work and working a day job at a hospital, of all places. As he continues to fight for his life, this series allows him to tell his story in his own words.]

By Andrew Youssef

Music has been a large part of my life for as long as I can remember. My fascination with concerts started back in 1984 at the tender age of nine when I attended Judas Priest at the Long Beach Arena with my brother and our father, who was our escort. It was a spectacle to behold as I can still remember Rob Halford driving onto the stage on his Harley Davidson motorcycle. Flashing lights, scorching twin guitar leads and Halford's punishing vocals are what cemented my love affair with concerts.

As I have alluded to in previous columns, I truly believe that music is keeping me alive. Photographing and attending concerts gives me the physical and mental energy I need to keep battling this disease. When I first started getting my biweekly chemotherapy treatments, I was scared to attend any shows within the first week as the side effects of tiredness, nausea, diarrhea and my horrifying skin rash squashed my will to attend shows.

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Tupac "performing" at Coachella. Cueing Biggie hologram in 3, 2...

Rock The Bells season is officially here. This Tuesday, promoters Guerilla Union held their launch party/press conference for this year's festival. Hosted by HOT97's Peter Rosenberg, the festivities started off with the longstanding tradition of freestyle extraordinaire MC Supernatural rapping the 2013 lineup. Seated on stage with the likes Black Hippy, Bone Thugs N Harmony, Jhene Aiko, Tech N9ne- was Guerrilla Union CEO Chang Weisberg. To the right and left of Weisberg sat Cherry Jones (mother of Ol' Dirty Bastard) and Tomica Wright (widow of Eazy-E), respectively. Then came the announcement that Bone Thugs and Wu Tang Clan's performances this year would feature "original digital performances," as Weisberg put it, with ODB & Eazy-E.

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