White Noise.

The Granada Hosts A Free Week Of Shows and Erykah Badu Becomes The Mayor of Dallas.

A couple weekends ago, JMBLYA hit Fair Park for its biggest and most successful festival to date. In just four short years, the ScoreMore brainchild has morphed from a fun, albeit money-losing, experiment to a massive, still-growing affair making waves on the national radar.

To hear the promoters discuss the fest with Forbes, its future wasn't so sure early on. It's a minor miracle it even returned a second year, really.

“We lost $186,000 the first year and that was terrifying,” ScoreMore founder Sascha Guttfreund told Forbes. “At the time, that was everything. We don't have investors or big partners. [ScoreMore] was funded from $1,000 I had from waiting tables at Texas Land & Cattle.”

Since that debut year in 2013, though, the fest has quadrupled its audience to a combined 25,000 attendees between its back-to-back Dallas- and Austin-area events. Think of how many trips to Texas Land & Cattle's two-for-$25 happy hours you could make with that type of action!

Speaking of disposable incomes, Dallas-based live music sessions series Cinderblock Sessions is in need of some yours so it can keep its operation going. After a recent session was kiboshed by the fire marshal, the city has since said the group needs to add a parking lot to its space before hosting any more events. The requirement, they say, will cost them a cool $10,000, which you can personally contribute to via this crowd-funding campaign. You can hear the Cinderblock folks discuss the matter further in the video below, too.

In happier news, Fort Worth rapper $pud Boom was introduced to China earlier this month by OG Maco, who later tweeted about signing the artist to his OGG label. Not familiar with Mr. Boom? Check out one of his videos below.

In other cool news, Vulture proclaimed Erykah Badu the “unofficial mayor of Dallas.” It's important to note here that the magazine's definition of mayor is “artist that didn't move to a quote-unquote cool city like L.A. or New York, and who still sometimes rubs elbows with us pleebs.”

Oh, OK.

Regardless, it's yet more shine for our Lady of White Rock Lake, who never seems to go a week without finding herself in the national spotlight. In the story, DJ Sober talks about one of Badu's mingling-with-randos moments, which occurred at Picnic's birthday party at Beauty Bar one year. “Erykah just popped in,” Sober says. “It was one of those moments where you just do a double take. Some random weirdos were just talking to her, this older crowd who were having a drink at the bar. I think she had a flower in her hair; she might have put it in this dude's hair next to her.”

Moving on, there's been several new music video releases this week. First up, Neon Indian and some friends covered Prince's “Pop Life” for Pitchfork. Those “and friends” would be “ Holy Ghost!, Kristin Kontrol, Xenia Rubinos, Escort frontwoman Adeline, Hannah Cohen, Midnight Magic and fellow NTX ex-pat Young Ejecta, who all help out Alan Palomo here on the cover that he debuted at Homegrown earlier this month.

Someone else with friends is Post Malone. He pops up in the new FKi 1st video for “The Meaning,” the first single from that performer's new Mad Decent-released LP. Elsewhere, Madzilla also appears in the clip, which was shot in L.A. and Chicago.

Next up, Mind Spiders has a creepy new video for its “Cold” song. Shot with thermal cameras by Keven McAlester (You're Gonna Miss Me), it's a fittingly temperature-related brand of creepy.

Finally, Siberian Traps premiered a clip from its forthcoming record. It was shot by War Party drummer Peter Marsh. The band will hold a record release party for the new disc on June 17 at Shipping & Receiving.

Other record release shows to keep on your radar are:
• May 26: Mark Lettieri and Horace Bray's dual release party at RBC.
• June 4: Daniel Markham's Dallas release show at Three Links.
• June 4: Quaker City Night Hawks keeps its release show train a-rollin' at Lola's.

Farther out, local “supergroup” Cantina will release its debut LP on July 22 via We Know Better Records, Old 97's will release its already recorded and mixed 11th studio LP in the beginning of 2017, and Bastards of Soul has designs on moving past cover material and working up some like-minded originals in the near future.

One last note: Granada Theater is hosting a week of free shows starting on July 18. Headliners for the week of shows include Seryn, Ishi (performing with The Octopus Project), the Toadies' Vaden Todd Lewis doing a solo set, Cory Morrow, Roky Erickson and those aforementioned Quaker City boys. Being free shows, tickets are not required, as the shows will be first-come, first-served affairs. But, if you want to guarantee entry, you can cop $5 tickets here, and get your money back, essentially, via a free beer once you get there.

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