Dallas Music Blog

Pop goes the Vox and the Vox goes Pop?

​This week, for the first go 'round of our new weekly, online hip-hop battle competition, both of our top performers--JMack and AnonymousCulture--chose to go the a cappella route with their submissions, opting to let the merits of the lyrics stand on their own without a backing beat.

Bold move.

But last week's Valentine's Day theme sure seemed to get both of our emcees going, as each offered up rhymes about pining to win the affections of a special Valentine. Check out this week's contestants' submissions after the jump...

​In November, when we spoke last with Eisley's Stacy Dupree, the singer implied that she and her family/bandmates weren't necessarily all that stoked with their situation at Warner Bros. Records. But, she asked at the time, she said she'd rather not talk too openly about that situation on record. Rather, she offered up this quote:

"Honestly, next year, we're gonna hit it harder than we ever have. We're coming into our own as a band and growing tired of the restrictions being put on us. Hopefully, we'll become a little more independent. I'm extremely excited."

In retrospect, the word "independent" sure stands out: Early this morning, the Tyler-based outfit went ahead and announced on its blog a split from Warner Bros. In a post over on the band's Web site. The father of the clan, Boyd, explains:

By now many of you might have noticed that Eisley has neither a 3rd album out... nor a release date for it. There's a reason for that. We've been waiting patiently to fill you in on what's really going on... We have been complaining for years. You have no idea how long we've wanted this.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it's kinda fitting that this announcement comes pretty much hand-in-hand with the release of this video of Stacy covering Stevie Nicks' "Silver Spring." A dispute over that song, which this Fleetwood Mac fan site explains, was what eventually lead to Nicks' leaving the band.

If nothing else, it sounds like we can expect the band's third full-length release to be out at some point in 2010.

Caity Colvard

Kevin Fowler, sporting the Confederate-flag Mardi Gras beads that pretty much sum up the scene at Fair Park on Saturday.

​Mardi Gras Texas Style drew thousands of fans to Fair Park on Saturday, for a bill of 20 country acts including the Eli Young Band, Kevin Fowler, Roger Creager, Cory Morrow and more. As if you needed an excuse to throw a beer-can necklace over your "Girls Gone Wild Film Crew" T-shirt and just get loaded.

Check out more photos from the show, and around the crowd, here in our slideshow.

​Today marks the first day in which audiences can head on out--or just sit in and click over to iTunes or your digital download store of choice, whatever--and purchase the new Smile Smile disc, Truth on Tape.

And, in many ways, the title of the disc explains exactly what can be heard within.

That's 'cause each of the songs on the album were written by Ryan Hamilton in the wake of his breakup with one-time fiancee and bandmate Jencey Hirunrusme. It was a pretty nasty (and, yes, relatively public) split, but somehow--as is detailed by Lance Lester in this upcoming issue of the Observer--the band was able to move past that ugly moment and keep trucking forward as a musical entity.

As such, not all of the songs on the album are what one would term "lovey dovey." Some, like the closing track "Labor of Love," are actually quite biting--and kind of a departure for the duo. It's not all like that, though: lead single "Beg You To Stay" finds the band reveling in its usual comfort zone of charming indie folk-pop with pleasing harmonies. And the band was kind enough to pass along that track as a free download for DC9 readers--who may already be familiar with the song, actually. Check it out after the jump.

This here post is the first edition of what will be a weekly peek at what outside musicians think about the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Each week, we'll present a conversation with a touring act, and conclude it with a quick word-association game focusing on certain aspects of Big D and the surrounding region...

Terry Woodside

Matt Taylor of Motion City Soundtrack

​
For this inaugural post, I caught with Matt Taylor, bassist for the Minneapolis rock band Motion City Soundtrack. As you can tell by his answers, Taylor was a bit confused by the format. But he still played along like a trooper.

Motion City Soundtrack is now signed to Columbia Records after a lengthy stay with Epitaph. How different is it being on a major label?
So far, it's been a very smooth transition. It hasn't been all that different. The cool thing is that we still have a lot of artistic and creative freedom--as much as we did on Epitaph. We learned a lot on an indie label and I think the people at Columbia have seen and respect that. It's a cool, mutual respect situation. The band is not going to be down with every idea the label pitches and they understand that we are going to have our own ideas. It's been great so far.

Last week, Dallas native Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent, duh) released the above video for the third single off her pretty darn awesome, May-released album, Actor, "Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood."

And it's pretty brilliant, too, enlisting the help of Thunderant, the comedy duo featuring SNL vet Fred Armisen and Sleater-Kinney guiatrist Carrie Brownstein. A continuation of Armisen and Brownstein's ongoing "Feminist Bookstore" series of sketches, this video features the bookstore owners hosting an in-store performance from Clark. And, of course, hilarity ensues. Check it out.

Your daily dose of national music news for Tuesday, February 9, 2010...

• Kid Rock is the supporting act for Bon Jovi's O2 arena residency?  I guess everyone needs a paycheck...
• The White Stripes are not happy with the Air Force.
  
• In news everyone saw coming... Jacko's doctor has been charged with the singer's death.
  

​Can't imagine that Erykah Badu and Matthew Gray (of Matthew and The Arrogant Sea) really have all that much in common--well, aside from the fact that they're both from the region, they've both more-likely-than-not dabbled in mind-altering substances and they've both had the dubious honor of meeting yours truly (surely it wasn't the other way around?)--but this weekend, sure enough, the stars aligned, bringing these two together.

Sort of.

See, both Badu, who has a new album en route on March 30, and MATAS, which has a record called You Can't Tame A Wild Rabbit on the way at, well, some point in the future, saw songs from their upcoming releases leak this weekend.

Badu went ahead and leaked the song "Window Seat" on her Twitter account over the weekend (download it here). Featuring Badu backed by members of The Roots--?uestlove (on drums, duh) and James Poyser (on keys--and he also co-produced the track with Badu)--the song, the second on New Amerykah Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh, is kind of a slow jam. And, that's OK--it's a fine respite from New Amerykah Pt. 1's sonic freakout. Keep an eye out for a video promoting the song on Badu's Web site at around 3:33 p.m. tomorrow afternoon, which coincidentally, is the same day the song will be released to radio stations as one of New Amerykah Pt. 2's lead singles.

Gray, meanwhile, kind of leaked his new song himself, too. Well, by proxy: He did so via NX35's Web site, the festival which Gray has been helping promote and book. The song, called "Jack Russel Kilt" is pretty similar to his band's Family Family Family Meets The Magic Christian fare--spacey, folky, a little psychedelic, out-there lyrics, the whole lot. An obvious difference? Like The Strange Boys, MATAS has gone and added some horns into the mix. Says Gray of his band's new album in the song leak's accompanying post: "It's the most ambitious thing we've done." Also: "I don't want to say it's a departure from our sound, but there's a lot of growth with this album." Looking forward to hearing that, too, then.

Now go get to downloading.

Hey, looks like Bob Sambol's boys are back: The once Dallas- and now Austin-based The Strange Boys recently announced that the follow-up to its well-received full-length debut, 2009's ...and Girls Club, would see its release February 23. And, to promote the album (called Be Brave), the boys went ahead released a video for the titular track late last week.

It's a good look, too--it's finely in tune with the band's weary retro-rock sound and all that. Far as we can tell, it's not much of a stylistic leap for the band (although we do hear some horns, which is a welcome addition). We haven't heard the disc yet, unfortunately. But, hey, friend of the program Chris Cantalini, who had the honor of debuting the video on his GorillaVsBear blog, has, and he says its the band's "most impressive [release] yet." So, there you go.