It may not be a story as old as time, but the trope of Okies wandering to California in search of opportunity goes back at least to the Dust Bowl. And while the paucity of prospects may not have the same harrowing look it did in the 1920s, people still move from windy plains to […]
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Posted inMusic
Nativity scene
Artists find their truth in all sorts of places. For Tulsa alt-rockers Native Lights, it was an abandoned and forgotten mid-century-style cattle auction house in the sleepy farm community of Hominy. Seeking a special space to record its debut album, the four-piece — featuring Johnathon Ford (bass), Nathan Price (drums), Bryce Chambers (guitar/vocals) and Philip […]
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Gutter punks
Any self-respecting alt-teen in the early ’90s fell into one of two camps: the punks or the poseurs. The punks were, of course, the true rebels of the courtyard, dressed in torn denim vests adorned with homemade patches, trading bootleg tapes of Propaghandi, Anti-Flag and Guttermouth, ever so secure that punk would never die, man. […]
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Wise guy
Photo: Samantha Lamb For all the talk of Oklahoma singer-songwriter Parker Millsap and his Pentecostal roots, there’s a point that gets glossed over along the way. People note that gruff howl of a voice rumbling out of his gut with a tent-revival vigor equal parts fire-and-brimstone and piss-and-vinegar. Millsap himself nods to those Sunday morning […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Freestyle flow
Vahid Farzaneh However, none of this would have come to pass if not for a class taken on a whim at the University of Oklahoma. “I initially wasn’t interested in filmmaking at all,” said Freestyle Productions owner Vahid Farzaneh. “I was kind of drifting around. I took an intro to film class for the credit […]
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Break point
Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore — the married couple behind Denver indie pop act Tennis — didn’t expect much to come of the humble band the two formed after a seven-month sailing trip; they expected nothing, to be precise. “When we were starting out, we didn’t have any plans or ambition to turn this into […]
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Bottoms up
Photo: Mark Jaworski Things are definitely looking more up than down and out for The Front Bottoms. The indie punk act spent more than a few tours playing hole-in-the-walls and sleeping on floors but it now finds itself selling out sizable clubs and getting pegged to open up for well-known bands like Brand New, which […]
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Killer tunes
Photo: Ben Aqua Sam Chown, best known as one-half of the Texas experimental psych duo Zorch, constantly has music rattling around in his brain. It forced him to form his latest outfit, Shmu, a shoegazing R&B trio, to get all the sounds he has been collecting out into the open for public consumption. “This is […]
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Ziggy Stardeath
Throughout rock and roll lore, there are stories of bands breaking away from familial bonds to create identities of their own. However, even though local freakout artists Stardeath and White Dwarfs are closely related to The Flaming Lips — lead singer Dennis Coyne is Wayne Coyne’s nephew — it’s a shadow that the band is more […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Steak and ale
COOP Ale Works’ co-founder J.D. Merryweather says all four quarters represent a change in the beer industry and drinkers will definitely see heavier and more robust offerings this time of year. “COOP’s Octoberfest has seen great success,” said Merryweather, whose company is in the midst of a sizable expansion, going from a brewhouse of seven […]