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A sound shade of Blue

For her, Norman’s Blue Bonnet Bar had real potential as a live music venue. Eight years ago, during her undergrad years at the University of Oklahoma, she told her friends she’d like to work there. They said that she couldn’t: “That’s a rough place.” right Black Canyon at Blue Bonnet “Well, I’m going to try […]

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Growing fangs

Oklahoma City’s The Copperheads have dozens of crazy shows under their belt, but they aren’t usually directly involved in the chaos. They aren’t necessarily wooden performers, but are far from the most animated. They usually take the stage — perhaps with cigarettes curled in their lips, beers on the amps — plug in and play […]

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Hey! Dodo this

When The Dodos’ Meric Long sings for “a means to conjure you up,” he isn’t referring to the San Francisco indie-rock act’s long-extinct namesake. It’s possible “Good,” off this year’s “No Color,” is an open letter to the elusive sound he and bandmate Logan Kroeber have been looking for since their 2005 inception. “The closest […]

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River rage

Punk rock’s Riverboat Gamblers are something to behold. Singer Mike Wiebe is a feral animal stalking the stage, jumping into the crowd and climbing any available rafters, exposed piping or speaker cabinets while his bandmates rip through high-energy, melodically charged garage sound. They’ve built a reputation for furious performances, but their LPs have inconsistently captured […]

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Dust a must

Dustbowl Arts Market has become a wildly popular, biannual event on Campus Corner and at Norman Music Festival with each passing year. Music has been a part of the 3-year-old market, featuring local artists like Gentle Ghost and Jacob Abello. Last year saw Jarod Evans of Blackwatch Studios overseeing the music selection, but the commitment […]

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Slim start

Turning 30 is an exciting time. You get more serious about your work. Maybe settle down romantically. And in the case of Langhorne Slim, you start paying rent. Yes, the Americana singer/songwriter managed to make it through his 20s without paying any rent, until recently relocating to Portland, Ore. “It sounds really cool now … […]

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Soundcheck: The Prids

The pair wound up in Portland, Ore., in 1999, where they started recording a certain subconsciously subterranean, guitar-driven music with catchy, but still literary lines sung boy-girl. And don’t forget the special ingredient: just the right amount of distortion. Last year’s “Chronosynclastic” draws all this musical influence in and emotes it over 15 years’ worth […]

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Taking aim

To say this has been a trying summer for Pennsylvania punk band Handguns would be an understatement. “Touring has been total hell,” said founder and guitarist Jake Langley. “My singer quit, our drummer quit, we got a new drummer, he quit, and somehow, we are still here. I don’t know. We have had to find […]

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Good grief

It used to be easy to imagine singer/ songwriter Ryan Lawson as a Charlie Brown type: sweet and sincere, but always a little melancholy with life dumping on him at the worst moments. Naturally, that fed into his music, but as things have turned around, he’s smiling a whole lot more. “A lot of people […]

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