Biebs

Justin Bieber
Monday, October 29, at American Airlines Center, $52.71-$103.90
Though he's one of the most disliked artists in the world, I predict this show will sell out quicker than it takes load the video for "Baby." Of course, Dallas has a special place in Biebs' heart. His girlfriend Selena Gomez is from here, and their love has been famously immortalized by artist Daniel Edwards, who made bronze statues of the two. Tickets go on sale this Saturday at 10 a.m.

P.O.D., Mariana's Trench
Saturday, May 26, at Grapevine Mills Mall, Free
It's been a nasty tumble for P.O.D., a band that started as a Christian rap-rock outfit, later topped the charts, and are now playing at the mall in Grapevine.
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Bob Moog had the crazy genius look down.

If you've tried to Google something today, you'll notice the logo has been transformed to celebrate Robert Moog's 78th birthday, which allows you interact with his most famous creation. He's the inventor of the Moog synthesizer, and to say he was influential is undercutting the fact that he essentially steered electronic music into a brave new realm. For those unfamiliar, the 2004 documentary Moog is a good starting point. As is usually the case when someone is plagued with artistic genius, of course people thought Moog and his clunky invention were crazy.

Wendy Carlos was actually one of the first to employ the Moog, on her 1968 album Switched-On Bach. Once you start digging, you can see just how far Moog's invention stretched into the fabric of pop music. Below are a few examples.

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Daniel Folmer

"My aunt once told me the cure to writer's block is to put yourself in an incredibly precarious situation and then write about it," says Denton singer-songwriter Daniel Folmer at J&Js. "Then, people ask me if I put myself in those precarious situations on purpose just to give me something to write about. And the answer is, I don't know."

It's a sunny but mild afternoon, and Folmer is sitting at a patio table under a shade tree, alternately sipping from a flask and a jumbo-sized mug of Modelo. We're discussing his latest album, Brown and Blue, and how it is an extension of the personal issues surrounding his 2010 album, Danny Rush & the Designated Drivers.

Brown and Blue comes as a result of a tumultuous time in Folmer's life, where he made the transition from Denton to Canyon Lake, from despair to peace. Working on a horse ranch, Folmer found himself listening to the appropriate soundtrack: country music. That sound permeated his first DDs release, and plays a role, albeit smaller, in Brown and Blue.

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Hayes Carll

With or without the controversy surrounding his song "She Left Me for Jesus", Hayes Carll would still be considered one of our state's greatest songwriters. Over the course of a decade, Carll has released four superb country/rock albums, each one better and more successful than the last.

Speaking while driving through the woods of Ohio, and in anticipation of his appearance at this weekend's Homegrown Music and Arts Festival, Carll talked about the hate mail he received over the aforementioned song and how he deals with hecklers.

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If you regularly go to LaGrange, Single Wide or Double Wide, you've seen a member of the quintet Dead Flowers. Earlier in the year, frontman Corey Howe was the opening act for The Revival Tour's stop at Trees, playing alongside Hot Water Music's Chuck Ragan, Alkaline Trio's Dan Andriano, and Against Me!'s Tom Gabel. We caught up with them at their practice space and talked about their experiences as musicians, and heard horror stories about first tattoos.

What was the first instrument you learned to play?
Evan Johnson (bass, backing vocals): I started on violin. I started in elementary school.
Vince Tuley (guitar, backing vocals): It was guitar for me. It was a little Mexican guitar my dad found on the side of the road.
Tony Webb (guitar): I played sixth grade trumpet.
Corey Howe (vocals, guitar): My mom said that when I was a kid I used to play with myself more than anything. But I didn't pick up my first instrument until I was 18. It was guitar. I was a freshman in college.
Ed Chaney (drums): I've always been a drummer. I started when I was nine. It's all I ever wanted to do.
Howe: He plays a mean ukulele at six in the morning.
Johnson: He has a cool story about how he got into drums.

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James McMurtry. On a boat.

The first of three planned holiday weekend concerts on Lake Lewisville goes down this Sunday, May 27, with Ray Wylie Hubbard, James McMurtry, Wayne Hancock, Michael Donner & the Southern Renaissance, Grant Jones & the Pistol Grip Lassos and The O's. The concept of Float: You'll be able to swim, enjoy music and be on a boat.

After we posted the initial announcement, a few of you commented that Lake Lewisville's nickname is "Lake Death." I'm not familiar with the origins of that name, but I'm hoping this doesn't mean an errant beer can tossed in the lake will break open a Paleolithic grave and send flesh-hungry piranhas scrambling to the surface. (Note: That's the very believable premise to Piranha 3-D.)

That said, we want to help you throw caution to the wind this holiday weekend and get on a damn boat. We're giving away two pairs of tickets to Sunday's concert. Want 'em? Email here and tell us why. We'll announce a winner tomorrow!

This guy had a pink light saber and cowboy hat at Rio Room

I have been thinking about you, Dallas. Every week, I am at your parties, eavesdropping on your conversations. And every week, I get to share with you some tidbit, some moment caught between drinks, which reveals a little more about who you are and what you are up to. It's not big news, but last weekend was the perfect example of how a late-night party, a sold-out concert and a drink between friends improves this city.

Maybe, like me, you started out on Thursday with Todd Barry's hilarious set at Sons of Herman Hall, before quick-changing into your finest pink threads for Rio Room's Pink Party with Brazilian beat-makers The Twelves. Rio's navigable club makes it easy to truly observe the legendary DJs Rio keeps bringing in, but Thursday, The Twelves were nearly overshadowed by the chance to party with a Stormtrooper, who was making his way through the crowd, possibly out celebrating Dallas promoter Matthew Giese's birthday. Rose-colored indeed, the dance floor was crowded early as The Twelves brought their special play of remixed improv to the decks.

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Mike Mezeul

Tiny hat numbers were up this year

We've got some video footage up from our March 17 parade, which featured headliner Ryan Bingham, lots of people wearing "Green Man" suits and only 16 arrests for public intoxication, which seems low. Check out the video and see if you can find yourself in the drunken sea of humanity.

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Becki Odom

Becki Howard in her war paint

Becki Howard's role might be more behind the scenes nowadays, but she's done her fair share in the spotlight over the years, playing violin on three Paper Chase albums, and performing live with The Crash That Took Me, Sarah Jaffe and, more recently, Bethan.

It's likely her passion for performing, paired with a college theatre background and the fact that she was a regular at Deep Ellum's Insomnia, brought her to the indispensable programming role she currently holds at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. She's had a big hand in some of the cooler local music-themed goings-on there, like the Patio Sessions, Mother's Day Jazz Brunch and more.

What a cool job you have. You seem to really enjoy it, and it shows in your work.
I really do love my job. There's this friend of a friend who plays music for a living, and on his guitar pedal board he put a note saying, "You get to do this," and I feel like I should write that down and put it on my wall at work, as a reminder whenever I'm having a stressful day. I'm fortunate enough to get a paycheck doing something that I really love to do.

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In honor of the recent 20th anniversary reissue of Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power, two music writers sat around a kitchen table and talked about it. One is clearly older than the other one.

Eric Grubbs: When that record came out in 1992, what do you remember, aside from grunge and Nirvana being big?

Darryl Smyers: Oh, I remember laughing about it when it came out because everyone called it groove metal. Even today, I laughed when I read that the album set the stage for Korn, so that means we should deduct three points from it already. I thought - going from Iggy Pop to Black Flag - all good music, whether punk rock or metal, supposedly had a groove to it. But Pantera's early stuff was pretty crappy and I don't think it had a groove to it. The big turnaround was when Phil [Anselmo, vocals] joined the band. By that album, they weren't afraid to do a ballad, and the ballad was a good one. That was '92; I was just coming back to Dallas from living overseas in Korea, so I was kinda late on Nirvana.

Since my wife went to high school with one of the guys in the band, I was like, "Oh no, not Pantera, aren't they some kind of metal cover band from Arlington?" So many little tidbits about the album are funny: It wasn't Dimebag Darrell, it was Diamond Darrell. That was the last album he was credited as Diamond Darrell. Another funny thing I had forgotten about was that the cover photo was some guy they paid $10 to get hit in the face and they had to pay him $300 because it took 30 punches to get the thing right. But I remember hearing the record and liking it more than anything else Pantera had done or since. That was easily the high point for them.

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