Black Dallas Musicians Get Love, The Roots Troll Trump With Badu and The Granada Earns Props.

As a friend of mine recently said, 2016 was supposed to be the “future,” but there’s still no flying cars, and racism is still a thing.

It’s pretty disgusting how little progress we’ve actually made in these regards, especially as the latter is concerned. Just yesterday, yet another unarmed black man was murdered by police, this time in Tulsa. It’s a disturbing trend, and it needs to end. Now. Period.

Not to downplay that situation at all, there are at least some positive trends happening in the black music community. A Ford-sponsored post on BuzzFeed recently recognized Dallas as one of 11 cities “where black musicians are totally slaying.” Reads the piece:

“Sometimes the planets just align and give way to the existence of such amazing places as Club Dada and Trees, some of the coolest venues in Dallas’s thriving entertainment scene in Deep Ellum, and stages to some of the most talented musicians in the area (including Blue, The Misfit; Kirk Thurmond & the Millennials; The Outfit, TX; and Buffalo Black). Dallas doesn’t stay behind when it comes to that throwback blues, though — just ask singer-songwriter Larry Lampkin, who’s shared the stage with Lucky Peterson, Buddy Guy, and John Mayall. You’ll find him at almost every blues venue in Dallas-Fort Worth.”

Also recognized on a national listicle this week was the Granada Theater, which was mentioned alongside such legendary venues as Red Rocks in Colorado in the September issue of Southwest Airlines‘ on-board publication Southwest: The Magazine. The mag, which you can find a digital copy of here, calls the historic Lower Greenville theater one of “the 10 best places to see live music” in the country. Keep slaying, Dallas.

In other Granada news, the theater has partnered with live music video series Cinderblock Sessions to begin filming intimate sessions at select shows and outdoor events. Explains the theater’s marketing manager Mark Kennedy, “With video being so integral in the direction marketing and advertising is going, and Granada Theater knowing the amazing work that Cinderblock has done with local musicians, it was an easy decision to build a partnership that will have an impact not only on our venue, but the entire Dallas music scene over time.”

Speaking of live videos, a clip of Pentatonix and Dolly Parton performing an a capella version of the latter’s “Jolene” trended on most every social media platform over the weekend, racking up more than 8 million plays in the four days since it first got posted to YouTube. It’s pretty fantastic, even if it is a Cracker Barrel promotion.

More fantastic viewing comes courtesy of The Roots, which trolled Donald Trump during his fluffy, hair-tussling appearance on last Thursday’s episode of The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon by playing him out to Erykah Badu‘s “20 Feet Tall.” Specifically, they played the chunk where the lyrics are “Then you, you built a wall / A 20 foot wall, so I couldn’t see / But if I get off my knees…”

Speaking of late night television, M83, prominently featuring Denton singer Kaela Sinclair, performed their song “Go” on an episode of Later With Jools Holland last week. Making the experience extra cool is the fact that Jack White, Jimmy Page, Sting, Kings of Leon and Kandace Springs were all featured on the same episode. You can catch M83’s performance streaming below, though you’ll likely need to use a UK proxy address to make it work. Chrome users can find a free browser extension that automatically does this here.

So long as we’re on the video tip, DFW’s most prolific video releasers, The Outfit, TX, are back with yet another new one. This one is for their “What I Like,” from this summer’s Green Lights mixtape.

Another new one comes from dance music producers Austin Maddox and Eric Sauber, who just released a new song under their Lady Parts moniker. It was directed by Dallas native and current Australia resident Jeremy Word.

Meanwhile, the Riverboat Gamblers‘ latest clip for “Massive Fraud” is a VHS-induced nightmare courtesy of director Justin Wilson and the band’s frontman Mike Wiebe. “The video feels like staying at an older cousin’s house as a kid, pulling a random VHS off the shelf and throwing it in the player.” says the band in a press release. “Images of the band and other unknown sources melt together while the song bounces along with a heavy bite.” The song, which is the third and final installment of the band’s series of 7-inches for End Sounds, and was recorded prior to Wiebe’s trust-fall-gone-wrong at March’s SXSW.

Another ex-pat, one Astronautalis, also just released the latest video from this year’s cool-as-fuck Cut the Body Loose LP, this one for the single “Kurt Cobain.” To bring things full circle, it’s a song that stands out for us due to the lines “Gun pulled on me by a cop one time / Four guns pulled on me in Atlanta last night / What struck me as funny is that both damn times / The conversation started with the exact same line / Put up your hands!”

Finally, Hand Drawn Records revealed the details of its third annual Cancer Jam. With their Sunday, November 6, show at Strauss Square, organizers hope to raise upwards of $50,000 for longtime KDGE DJ “Mondo” Mike Vazquez. He was recently diagnosed with Follicular Dendritic Cell Sarcoma, a type of cancer so rare that his doctors say he’s the only known person on the planet right now battling this type of sarcoma. For more information on the event head here, or to donate directly to Vazquez’s GoFundMe, head here.

Cover photo by Karlo X. Ramos. Got a tip for White Noise? Email us!

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