For all Record Store Day info, go here.

THURSDAY

Meet & Greet/Autograph Signing: Mastodon (Good Records): This event is pretty self-explanatory, and Mastodon will gladly sign your copy of a new album that can purchased right on-site (you don’t even have to wait until Record Store Day). The group will later appear at The Palladium Ballroom, where they’ll perform with Opeth and Ghost. We’ve come prepared for a show of this magnitude, so description is as follows, from our massively comprehensive Events section:

One ..read more

Record Store Day threatened to overshadow the entire Weekender, and though that’s understandable, it should probably have its own space. Here’s the rundown by city:

Dallas

Good Records:

10:30 am James Earl Alford 11 am Skeleton Coast Noon Diego Garcia 1 pm Joe Pug 2 pm Umphrey’s McGee 3 pm Ting Tings 4 pm Civil Twilight 5 pm Switchfoot 6 pm Zhora 7 pm Glorium 8 pm Yells At Eels 9 pm Sealion 10 pm The Quaker City Night Hawks 11 pm Stardeath & White Dwarfs

There will also be “special sets” by Diamond Age, New Fumes, ..read more

As we mentioned yesterday, Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman dropped by Good Records for an in-store concert and reading. Andrea Harman was there with her camera. Enjoy.

This covers so many different types of nerd, I don’t even know where to begin taking fanboy shots. So we’ll just get to the good news. Yesterday, award-winning author and graphic novelist Neil Gaiman accompanied musician and wife Amanda Palmer—who performs with the “cabaret punk” act Dresden Dolls and has a successful solo career as well—for a Violitionist session in little old Denton.

Violitionist continues to rack up an impressive list of increasingly more well-known names for its bedroom-based interview series, and I was surprised by the sight of Gaiman popping up in my Facebook feed. His is an image I know quite well, since I based my leather jacket and sunglasses look on him in 9th grade, complete with Morpheus shirt. The jury is still out on whether or not I actually pulled that style off with any amount of success on my 14-year-old, 110 lb, six ft frame, but, “nerd” and “fanboy,” indeed.

Gaiman and Palmer were interviewed and even performed a duet together. The clip should premier sometime in late May. If you can’t wait until then, Amanda Palmer will be performing a “ninja” gig at Good Records this evening at 6 pm, which I’m assuming means kind of secret, and kind of not secret at all. The event is free.

In six years of reviewing moodily symbolic group, the Angelus, I have never seen them quite as well-represented as they are in their soaringly dramatic new video for their track “Crimson Shadow.” It makes the ominous press photos, and even the  seemingly ceremonial bells featured in past live performances, seem subtle by comparison.

The video begins its eventual overflow of expression with a trickle, about thirty seconds in. The group’s lead singer, Emil Rapstine, is sitting and appears to be looking ..read more

THURSDAY

Dick Dale/The Monco Poncho/Exit 380 (Trees): Dick Dale, wow, what a national treasure. At least that’s what I actually told the “King of the Surf Guitar” after seeing him perform at Curtain Club about fourteen years ago. He seemed surprised. I was a teenager, cut me some slack. Okay, it’s still one of the dorkiest things I’ve ever done. But Dale is incredible. He’s been playing aggressive surf music for over fifty years, and is still a very convincing live ..read more

You may have noticed that Texas emo legends (not many of those, are there?) At the Drive-In have been performing in such event-rich locales as Marfa and Red 7 in Austin, ahead of their much discussed appearance at Coachella.

Tickets are now on sale for a last-minute Dallas appearance at Trees tomorrow night, so aging, nostalgic, emotional rock fans of dubious taste, you had better act now. They seriously might sell out by the time you finish reading this post. Update: ..read more

THURSDAY

Bible Thumper/Dead Line/Volkssturm/Completely F*****/Slimelight (Queen City Hall): Quick name review on a couple of these acts: Bible Thumper: How has nobody thought of that one before? Volkssturm: You may want to reconsider. Important note and especially in Dallas proper – show must be over by midnight.

Big Bang (Beauty Bar): Sober and A.Dd+ have finally made it back from tour, and so this will be a special homecoming event. Their friends, fans, and loved ones should be prepared for plenty of ..read more

In what is one of the most significant events yet for uniquely challenging music out of North Texas, Pinkish Black has just had their track, “Bodies in Tow,” featured on Pitchfork today. Writer Brandon Stosuy described the band as:

A Forth Worth, TX duo mixing deathrock, drone, dark punk, Birthday Party exorcisms, and a fondness for Suicide…

He then mentions Om. I chatted briefly with the co-founder of the group’s label, Handmade Birds, R. Loren. He agrees with the comparison, stating, “How ..read more

Last November we launched a new event called FrontRow Live, a party at the Dallas Contemporary in which we aimed to cram a diversity of cultural happenings — music, art, theater, dance, food etc. — into a single night to see what happened. What happened was you drank some free drinks; heard some great tunes, from hip-hop producers Play-N-Skillz to classical violinist Richmond Punch; our theater performers got kicked out; and good times were had by all.

Now we’re back for more.

On ..read more

Friday is opening day at Rangers Ballpark, and Granada is celebrating by throwing a bash to the tunes of White Denim this Thursday night. At first we didn’t see the connection either. But then we found out that lead singer James Petralli is the son of former Texas Rangers pitcher Geno Petralli, and we were like, “Ohhhh.”

Austin-based White Denim was part of the lineup at last year’s Gorilla vs. Bear Festival, and the band has been known to bring an eclectic ..read more

At the since-renamed 35 Conferette in 2011, I saw a performance by Daniel Folmer with his band, Danny Rush and the DDs. His set was a slipshod mixture of tearful country and sneering braggadocio, but its dark poignancy struck me as promising. Afterwards, I attempted an interview with a drunk and lust-hungry Folmer. Surprisingly lucid, Daniel answered a handful of my questions before a female friend or stranger caught his eye and he raced off. That was my first encounter ..read more

Prologue

The biggest band of 35 Denton 2012 has just finished performing at the Denton County Fairgrounds, as a muddy field of stunned onlookers dissipates, ears ringing.  They have just witnessed as unlikely an event as any on this family-friendly patch of earth behind Kroger: the Jesus and Mary Chain, three days after their originally scheduled date. You could say that the Flaming Lips, performing here in 2010, was also a strange event. But that group lends itself to big shows, fully ..read more

THURSDAY

Nadastrom (Rio Room): Nadastrom is a figurehead of the still-young and sometimes controversial genre, “Moombahton,” which has been called the “ultimate fusion of tropical music” and seems to sometimes suffer from the same backlash as dubstep. But if you’re going to give it a chance, you should definitely hear it from someone as highly respected as Nadastrom, that is, if you can get past the crowd that’s already made up its mind.

FRIDAY

hormones/Binary Sunrise/George Quartz/Romp Almighty (Club Dada): This is the ..read more

As you well know, the Polyphonic Spree played Dan’s Silverleaf this past Tuesday with openers New Fumes and Sweet Lee Morrow. Photographer Andrea Harman was there, and here are her shots:

All photos by Andrea Harman

Dallas-based music writer Lee Jackson has died at the age of 38, according to a post by a family member on his Facebook page and friends that have spoken to the writer’s family.  There was also a memorial post from his former experimental music website, Foxy Digitalis, for whom Jackson freelanced. A call to the family went unanswered.

Jackson was a prolific writer whose career stretched back to the hard copy zine era. He worked with noted Swedish musician and writer, Mats ..read more

If you have ever assumed that touring and being in a band that gets reviewed on blogs and music websites is a glamorous life, then look no further than artist Chloe Lum’s wonderfully written, yet poignant essay, ”On the End of an Era,” for a strong dose of reality. Lum has performed in the self-described “Abstract Rock” (or “Formalist/Unknown Wave”, also self-described) band AIDS Wolf for the past nine years. Due to a complex variety of factors described in the piece, the ..read more

Tomorrow night, The Polyphonic Spree will play Dan’s Silverleaf, with New Fumes and Sweet Lee Morrow, and we have a pair of tickets to giveaway. To win them, like us on facebook and enter your info in the form below. We’ll pick a winner after 5 p.m.

Post festival March is historically one of the deadest times of the year. No offense to anyone performing this weekend, but this was no exception.

THURSDAY

“Future Series” (Rio Room):  The “’83 Series” had the Rio Room running strong for so many consecutive Thursday nights, that they have afforded themselves a little breathing room with the booking. A crowd will now likely show up regardless of who’s there. One positive development from the built-in audience is that you’ll see more locals playing ..read more

Picture yourself, happy hour, clinking a pink martini against the glass held in your lover/friend/friend-you-wish-was-your-lover’s hand. Why? Because if all goes well, tonight the two of you will be out celebrating your big win of today’s FrontRow giveaway: a pair of tickets to see Pink Martini live at the Winspear Opera House on March 25th.

Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Pink Martini considers themselves global archaeologists of the musical variety. What does that mean, exactly? Bandleader and pianist Thomas Lauderdale puts it ..read more

Last night, Austin band White Denim swung through the University of Texas at Dallas with Nikka Costa for a students and staff only performance. But photographer Andi Harman was there, and she sends some photos. Enjoy.

Photos by Andi Harman

I’m not going to try to comprehensively recap SXSW, or even my experience. There’s no point. I could give you the entire menu, but I’d rather just tell you the dishes I enjoyed. Here are a series of scenes, and some general observations, that I will remember from this year’s installment.

• My first stop of the trip was the Austin Music Hall for the Austin Music Awards. I wanted to see Sixteen Deluxe. Not to date myself—and I wouldn’t want ..read more

THURSDAY

Alan Braxe (Rio Room): Though there are many name artists that have passed through Rio Room, not many have a verifiable hit stuffed somewhere in their CV. But that’s exactly what Alan Braxe (of Stardust and solo fame) has, since he was involved in the composition of the French house standard, “Music Sounds Better with You.” The track is also widely known for its Michel Gondry-directed video.

Braxe became an increasingly cited figure throughout the dance-oriented second half of the 2000s, ..read more

Last night, the 2012 edition of music festival 35 Denton officially came to a close with a (delayed) performance by The Jesus and Mary Chain at the Fairgrounds in Denton. To catch up on all of FrontRow’s coverage of 35 Denton, go here. Also, photographer Sara Kerens captures the event below.

Looks like a lot of you were really up for the mental vacation we offered on Tuesday’s giveaway post. While the majority of you yearned for the beaches of Hawaii, we heard about a few other dream trips, including Australia, Israel, even a quick flight to Denver to break up Peyton’s meetings and drag him to Dallas to save the Cowboys. You guys dream big.

Today the vacation is over, but we’ve got tons of swag that just might re-lift your ..read more