Robert Miguel Leaving Deep Sunday at the Curtain Club
Posted 2007-07-09 by omnicolor
According to Robert's Myspace blog, Robert Miguel is leaving the Deep Sunday at the Curtain Club to take another DJ position at an unnamed radio station. The final show will feature Smooth Choppy, kittyviolet, and Screaming Red.

Best of luck Robert, and thank you for the support that you have shown to Dallas!

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Faktion Searching For New Lead Singer
Posted 2007-07-08 by omnicolor
Faktion is reporting in a MySpace Bulletin that they have found a new lead singer:

No, not yet. But we are very, very, very close! If you haven't noticed we took down the small run of shows we had up in August. We will have a new singer within the next few weeks but didn't want to force the new guy to learn a headlining set in 2 or 3 weeks. We just wouldn't be completely prepared and would rather come back 110% for you guys! Trust me, it's going to be amazing, a billion times better than before! I know I can speak for everyone when I say this, but I miss being out there and can't wait to see you all again. So get ready!


According to their blog:
Hey guys, tomorrow night will be Ryan's last show with Faktion. Ryan has decided to pursue other opportunities and we wish him the best of luck. We are still continuing on as Faktion and will be auditioning for a new singer very soon, so if you know someone up to the challenge have them contact us at faktionvocals@gmail.com. Unfortunately this does mean we are going to have to cancel our summer tour and we want to apologize to everyone who was planning on coming to see us from the bottom of our hearts.


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The RIAA is the Worst Company in America
Posted 2007-06-28 by omnicolor
The RIAA has been voted the worst company in America, according to a vote by the Consumerist, barely beating out Halliburton. Some people think that Halliburton was partly responsible for goading President Bush into starting a war in a foreign land for oil money, but apparently more people find the RIAA morally repugnant.

If you are unfamiliar with the Recording Industry Association of America RIAA, they are a trade group that is supposed to represent the recording industry, from labels to distributors. Most of what they are know for is suing fans that allegedly download music illegally. They have sued a dead grandmother, a family that doesn't own a computer, and they've even stooped to suing a twelve year old girl.

On of their lawsuits has prompted accusations of extortion and conspiracy.

In further efforts to keep consumers from being able to enjoy music where and when they want it, the RIAA has tried to sue and fine internet radio stations out of existence. They have also been able to convince their political lap dogs to try to cut funding to institutions of higher education if they fail to stop file sharing on their networks. In case you didn't catch that, the RIAA wants to make America dumber to make record labels richer.

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EMI says DRM-free music is selling well
Posted 2007-06-20 by omnicolor
The music label EMI has been experimenting with selling music unrestricted by DRM. According to an article in Arstechnica, EMI says DRM-free music is selling well. The songs that EMI sells are not restricted to certain music players or locked to a certain computer.

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Radio Industry Association of America Continues to Dig Their Own Grave
Posted 2007-05-22 by omnicolor
The Radio Industry Association of America (RIAA) wants radio stations to pay royalties to them. Currently, radio stations pay ASCAP and BMI for performance rights. ASCAP and BMI represent the songwriters and composers, and a portion of the performance royalties is supposed to make it to the artists. The RIAA really just represent themselves, and have shown time and time again that they are lawsuit happy and common-sense poor.

Ars technica has the story

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Gypsy Tea Room to Close
Posted 2007-02-08 by omnicolor
The Dallas Observer is reporting that the Gypsy Tea Room will close at the end of March. Deep Ellum is turning into a ghost town. Is there anything that can be done to stop it?

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SXSW Bands
Posted 2007-02-08 by omnicolor
The Fine Line Live posted a list of bands playing at SXSW. Highlights from the list as far as we're concerned are Bowling For Soup, The Burden Brothers, Deadman, Dixie Witch, The Drams, Fair to Midland, The Hourly Radio, Midlake, Radiant, and The Theater Fire

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The Fate of Music Venues
Posted 2007-02-08 by omnicolor
The Dallas Observer has a short but interesting piece on the different fates of two local venues: Gypsy Tea Room and Granada Theater. While Gypsy is closing its doors, Mike Schoder and Julia Garton have bought the building housing Granada, so they are no longer beholden to some landlord.

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Dallas Observer Best of 2006
Posted 2006-10-04 by omnicolor
The Dallas Observer has published their "Best of Dallas 2006" issue. It's always interesting to see the crazy categories that they come up with, and even crazier to see who wins what category. We're only going to mention those that have something to do with Dallas Music.

  • Best Fired DJ: Frank Hejl. Hejl was a DJ at KNTU that played some local music. He got fired for allegedly playing a song that dropped an F-bomb.
  • Best Local CD Release: Critic's pick - The Theater Fire "Everybody Has a Dark Side". Reader's pick - Sorta "Strange and Sad but True"
  • Best Live Band: The Polyphonic Spree
  • Best Rockin' Reality Babe: Zayra Alvarez. Big surprise here. Thank god she got kicked off. That's probably better for her career anyway.
  • Best Local Music Web Site: Critic's pick - The Fine Line http://www.finelinelive.com Congratulations to Cindy and Andrea for this. Of course, we thing that certain other local music websites have the potential to be better, we know that we're not there yet. I read everything they send out on their RSS feed, and you should too. Reader's pick - TexasGigs While it seems like most of the stuff that they send out through RSS is not about music, the site has tons of information about local music.
  • Best Live Music Venue: Critic's Picks - Tie between Sons of Hermann Hall and Dans Silverleaf Reader's Picks - Gypsy Tea Room.
  • Best Music Venue For Mom: Granada Theater Not sure if that is much of an honor, but the sound is (usually) good, it's non-smoking, and they've got some really good shows.
  • Best Reason to Still go to Deep Ellum: Darkside Lounge
  • Best Alternative Club: Reader's Pick - Curtain Club
  • Best Booking in a Shoebox: The Cavern
  • Best Rock Bar: Critic's Pick - Club Dada Reader's Pick - Double Wide


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Music Labels Attempt to Adapt
Posted 2006-09-28 by omnicolor
Facing stiff competition from a variety of sources, some record labels are finally realizing that they must learn to change the way they do business in order to survive. Wired has a great article on Desperation Records and their attempts to change.



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