Ask Broken Arrow’s J.D. McPherson if he has made any New Year’s resolutions and a list of abandoned promises from years prior comes out. He has “halfway mastered longbow archery” and is just about finished reading The Grapes of Wrath. “As stalwart an Okie as I claim to be, I’d never read it,” McPherson said. […]
Becky Carman
Posted inMusic
Inside the Octo-gon
When Austin’s The Octopus Project takes the stage, it’s more than a concert — an immersive and organized chaos ensues. Thickly layered instrumentals, colorful projections and a conscious commitment to putting on a show come across clear as day. It’s frenetic, to be sure, but it’s also accessible in a way unique to this quartet. […]
Posted inMusic
Cave in
“They say no news is good news,” sing The Caves, and given the six-year gap between the Kansas City, Mo., band’s loose formation and the release of its first record, Duplexiaville, maybe they’re right. The Caves find its players abandoning their earlier ties to harder rock, instead spending their lengthy off-season honing sweet harmonies, subtle […]
Posted inMusic
‘Grease’ girl
Although Olivia Newton-John earned her stripes well before starring in 1978’s Grease and released her debut album an entire decade before 1981’s Physical, odds are that when you think of the Australian pop star, you think of one of two things: black hot pants or a leotard. Despite those benchmarks, she has performed nonstop for […]
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Freaky Friday
Maybe it’s too early, but what are you doing New Year’s Eve? Unless you’re Down Under, you’re not going to see The Flaming Lips’ annual New Year’s Eve Freakout. It’s true: Music’s favorite weirdoes will ring in 2013 in Australia, but in exchange, they’ve conjured up a holiday gift more appropriate than their usual end-of-year […]
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Ono? Oh, yes!
It’s been a long year for The Flaming Lips, who, in addition to a grueling tour schedule, made good on Wayne Coyne’s public promise early last year to release new music each month. “A lot of people thought we already had 10 songs,” the front man said, “but I said, ‘No, we’re not doing that. […]
Posted inMusic
Ono? Oh, yes!
It’s been a long year for The Flaming Lips, who, in addition to a grueling tour schedule, made good on Wayne Coyne’s public promise early last year to release new music each month. “A lot of people thought we already had 10 songs,” the front man said, “but I said, ‘No, we’re not doing that. […]
Posted inMusic
Chrome extension
It’s not multiple personality disorder, exactly. Many of the area’s finest musicians, after all, flit between multiple projects, playing a festival here, helping on a record there. Local pop musician Steven Battles is familiar with the phenomenon, having backed Norman acts like The Nghiems and Jacob Abello. When Battles lends a hand to electro-pop act […]
Posted inMusic
Chrome extension
It’s not multiple personality disorder, exactly. Many of the area’s finest musicians, after all, flit between multiple projects, playing a festival here, helping on a record there. Local pop musician Steven Battles is familiar with the phenomenon, having backed Norman acts like The Nghiems and Jacob Abello. When Battles lends a hand to electro-pop act […]
Posted inArts & Culture
‘Wham,’ bam!
A vegetable oil-powered bus of visual artists, musicians and comedians is puttering toward Oklahoma at 50 miles per hour, tops. This french fry-scented chaos is a branch of the Baltimore-based Wham City Collective, currently in its sophomore cross-country tour. The Wham City Comedy Tour can’t be distilled to a single descriptor. The two-hour show includes […]