Cory Graves
Untapped Taps The Flaming Lips and Dr. Dog and KXT Names A New Program Director.
Recently, KXT 91.7-FM entered a new era when Amy Miller was named the station’s second-ever program director.
Miller joined the station last year as an on-air host and assistant program director, and has been serving as the interim PD since Mark Abuzzahab left the station back in March to pursue his VuHaus project. Since joining the station, Miller’s also been responsible for much of its live events and concerts, like the Barefoot at the Belmont series.
Mary Anne Alhadeff, president and CEO of North Texas Public Broadcasting, the parent organization of KXT 91.7, said via press release of the hire: “Amy has proven to be an effective leader with bold ideas to advance KXT and its mission to be the best source of music discovery in North Texas.”
Speaking of events you’ll hear promoted plenty on that station, Untapped: Dallas recently announced its return this fall. Heading up this year’s lineup is The Flaming Lips and Dr. Dog, along with Cloud Nothings, Elle King, The Pharcyde, Lights, The Mowglis, Steve Gunn, UME and locals Valise and The Birds of Night. That, of course, takes a backseat to the 100-plus breweries that’ll be on hand for the event. One big change for the fest this year is a change of venue: This year, it’s taking place in Fair Park, which means it won’t take place until Saturday, November 7 — y’know, once the State Fair of Texas is done. Tickets are currently on sale here.
In other fest news: You might recall that NiFi festival that is supposedly set to bring $6.5 million worth of talent to Texas Motor Speedway next year? The likelihood of that took a big hit last week, when organizers cancelled the first incarnation of the rotating fest that was supposed to take place next month at Kentucky Speedway with headliners Green Day, Miranda Lambert and Kings of Leon. Per the NiFi website, organizers said they simply couldn’t “deliver the NiFi vision and fan experience, at [their] desired level of excellence.” Really, who could be expected to pull off a decent music fest with only several million bucks to parcel out?
Moving on to this week’s new releases, Sealion‘s passed along an unmixed teaser track from its forthcoming Jordan Richardson-produced Dripping Palms EP before it heads off for a month-long tour at the end of the week. Check out “Catahoula,” which you may recall hearing at last weekend’s hella-packed Red Bull Sound Select show at Trees, below.
Meanwhile, Complex‘s latest entry in its “Ones to Watch” mixtape series was the Texas edition, which features Sam Lao‘s Ish D-produced track “Money Money.” Listen to the full thing below for that and other underground, homegrown greatness.
Another new must-hear release comes via North Texas expat Snow tha Product, who raps plenty about her local ties on the new The Rest Comes Later mixtape. Stream in full below, as it features production from the likes of Ty Dolla Sign and locals including Blue, the Misfit and SikWitIt. The opening cut from Blue also features an especially fierce bit of bilingual spitting that really makes the whole thing. Also, mark your calendars as Snow will be playing Trees on the 15th of next month.
Other national premieres for locals this week includes another new Jonathan Tyler track, this one debuting via Rolling Stone. The song, called “To Love is to Fly,” is a duet with Nashville’s Nikki Lane, and can be streamed below. Tyler’s solo debut will earn its release with a pair of August 8 release shows at Good Records and Trees.
And, following up on his Dallas hip-hop scene report for Noisey, Mel and the rest of The Outfit, TX are releasing a new EP called Deep Ellum, which they say is further intended to introduce the rest of the world to Dallas hip-hop. The EP’s first track recently premiered on the blog Passion of the Weiss, and you can hear the Crit Morris– and K. Vation-featuring track below. Keep an eye out for the whole release, which is set to drop this week.
Another new one — relatively speaking, anyway — comes from PVC Street Gang, which released a batch of tunes long-featured in its live shows earlier today. It’s always nice to have the ability to punch these up whenever one pleases, though. You can do just that below.
Just over the weekend, meanwhile, Fort Worth startup Mountain Kid released its debut effort, celebrating that fact with a show at Lola’s. Following that performance, the band finally made the album available for streaming via BandCamp, which you can find — you guessed it! — below.
And, as if resurrecting Deep Blue Something wasn’t enough for Toby Pipes and Clay Bergus, the twosome are also involved in new project called The Hundred Inevitables, which also features scene vets Jeff Whittington, Taylor Young (The O’s) and Nolan Thies (Little Black Dress). The bunch has a new record due out later this month via Idol Records, and you can find the first single streaming below.
Moving on to the video side of things, Buffalo Black dropped a new Jeremy Biggers-directed clip for his just-released track “1984.” The track’ falls right in line the hard-hitting and conscious style we’ve come to expect from the socially cognizant rapper and it will appear on his long-awaited Surrilla LP, which earns its release on August 18. Here’s that one:
Finally this week, some comings-and-goings news. As reported by KDGE‘s Jessie Jessup, the long-defunct Dallas rockers JIBE are back at it and are currently down in Austin working on a new album with Blue October bassist Matt Noveskey. Conversely, J. Charles & the Trainrobbers will call it day in the very near future: Per the band, its last-ever show will come Friday, August 7, at Three Links.
Dr. Dog cover photo by Taylor Cleveland. Got a tip for White Noise? Email us!