The response from North Texas was overwhelming.  Yeah, let’s do this again.  Below are some of the reviews.  North Texas officially rocks.  Thank you.

House of Plates

Dallas Observer

DFW dot com

Good Bamm Sho

Central Track

D Magazine

Red Carpet Crash

Dallas Morning News slide show (article behind paywall)

Pegasus News

Antiquiet

DfDubReport

Still buzzing from Summer Cut and the amazing performance by Fitz and the Tantrums?!  Well, here’s a free EP download.  ENJOY!

Annie Clark of St. Vincent is way cooler than anyone thought.  Here she is singing and crowd surfing at KXT’s Summer Cut. 

The first 850 KXT Members to flash their Member Rewards card (or receipt from recently becoming a member) will receive as our thanks a free Summer Cut poster!  They’re fabulous, framable and ready to rock your living room, office or art studio.  Check out the map (and get tickets) to see where on earth the KXT booth will be on Friday.  When they’re out, they’re OUT!

Welcome the next two local bands to the stage, Smile Smile and Air Review. Smile Smile, a self proclaimed indie rock band, consists of two members, Jencey Hirunrusme and Ryan Hamilton. One plays paino, one guitar, and both sing. They released their first album, Blue Roses, on their own in 2006, and then again in 2008 when the duo signed to Kirtland Records. Their track, “Sad Song,” was nominated for Best Folk Song in the Los Angeles Independent Music Awards. Smile Smile’s second studio album Truth on Tape, was released in 2010.

Air Review is an independent indie rock band consisting of five members. Though they released their first full album, Landmarks, in 2009, the next time around they preferred to release each track throughout a span of one year until the fall of 2012. The band has opened for Bowling for Soup and Blue October, to name a few. Indie rock fan? Check out these two band when they play at KXT’s Summer Cut festival on June 1^st.

Want to support fellow Dallasites? Buy tickets for Summer Cut here.

Find more music and info about Smile Smile on their website.

Learn all the words before you go! Here’s Air Review’s website.

Telegraph Canyon is just one of the many local bands performing at Summer Cut this Friday. Based in Fort Worth, this seven-member band has released two studio albums, toured for two weeks in Europe, and is now touring through the United States, ever since its debut in 2007.

They released their first album, All the Good News, in 2007, and then their second, The Tide and The Current, in 2009. With a multitude of band members comes a wide variety of talent and musical instrument. Various instruments used on their tracks include piano, harmonica, accordion, violin and banjo, along with basic guitar and drums. Four out of the seven members are featured vocalists and also play at least one instrument. How an individual gets a word in during conversation beats me. :)

If you are one of their many loyal fans, check them out when they journey down I-30 to Dallas for Summer Cut on June 1^st.

To learn more about your fellow Texans, check out their website.

Want to see them at Summer Cut? Get your tickets here.

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When Michael Fitzpatrick of Fitz and the Tantrums explains how he started his indie/pop band, he credits an old organ that just happened to fall into his lap. Ouch. But really, Fitz wrote one of their first songs, “Breaking the Chains of Love,” as soon as he sat down at that organ in 2008 and the rest is history.

The Tantrums, a group of six, is a diverse mix of personalities and instrument players. Each member has their part and sticks to it, with Fitz assuming the role of lead vocals and a little bit of keyboards. The lone woman in the group, Noelle Scaggs, holds her own as Fitz’s vocal equal, even claiming a spot on the cover of the group’s sole studio album, Pickin’ Up the Pieces.

These artists, though fairly new to the music scene, have been unbelievably successful. In late 2009, Adam Levine of Maroon 5 was turned on to the band, and Fitz and the Tantrums soon were opening for Maroon 5 on their college tour. Imagine going back to college with Adam Levine. (Sign me up.) The spring before their album was released, the Tantrums headed down to Austin for the local music festival, South by Southwest. After the release of the studio album in the fall of 2010, their single “Money Grabber” was featured on an episode of Criminal Minds, and their song “News 4 U” was used as a promo for the seventh season of Desperate Housewives. The group has also performed on many shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Conan.

Fitz and the Tantrums are truly a group with great raw talent and a passion for the music they write and play for audiences. Check out their Live Sessions performance last fall in the KXT Studio.  We are so pleased to have them back!

Get more information and tickets for Summer Cut here.

Wanna know more about the Tantrums? Try their website.

Get excited for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! No, that was not a multitude of grammar mistakes. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, or CYHSY for short, is a Brooklyn-based band known for their indie-rock band sound. Its five members met at ConnecticutCollege, and later decided to form a band in 2004.

After releasing their self-titled first studio album in 2005, CYHSY signed to a record label in the U.K., allowing them to gain popularity overseas as well as on the home front. CYHSY’s second album, Some Loud Thunder, was released in 2007, shortly before the band took a break to pursue various music endeavors outside the band. 

Though a couple of the band’s members continue to be part of separate side projects, they return to the music scene as one band. The release of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s third studio album, Hysterical, in 2011 proved their loyalty to the band, each other, and their fans.

Check out their music video for “Maniac,” released last September.

Yearning for more? Visit their website.

“Say Yeah” to tickets! Get ‘em here. 

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Though you wouldn’t know it from the name,St. Vincent is the stage name for singer-songwriter Annie Erin Clark. She has released three studio albums, some more commercially successful than the other, but all to high critical acclaim.

Raised in  Dallas, Clark graduated from  Lake  Highlands  High School  in 2001, attended three years of school at Berklee College of Music, and then dropped out to move back home and pursue a music career. After touring overseas with the Polyphonic Spree, and then here  in  America  with Sufjan Stevens,  Clark broke away in 2006 and began her solo track.

Her albums, Marry Me, Actor, and Strange Mercy reflect a critical stage in Clark’s life, whether it was her transition to college, the relaxation period after her first solo tour, or simply her realization of self discovery and awareness. By incorporating various instruments, including guitar, piano, organ, violin, trumpets, and a variety of others, St. Vincent creates a unique sound of music that must be heard live to be truly appreciated.

See St. Vincent in all her glory at KXT’s Summer Cut Happy Funtime Festival at the Gexa Energy Pavilion on June 1^st.

Get tickets for Summer Cut here!

Want to know more? Visit her website.

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Any band can tell you that being a headliner for any concert, much less a music festival featuring multiple artists, is a huge deal. Especially in a city as artfully diverse as Dallas, each band wants to create an experience that will stand out among others. One band that embraces its unique qualities is the Flaming Lips. With modest beginnings in Norman, Oklahoma in 1983, it is inspiring to see how successful these artists have been not only in the United States, but the U.K. and Europe too.  The five current members Wayne Coyne, Michael Ivins, Steven Drozd, Kliph Scurlock, Derek Brown have come together to create an eclectic sound enjoyed by many.

With too many EPs, singles, vinyl records to count, The Lips have released around thirteen studio albums. Other forms of release include twelve part pieces, intended to be played simultaneously on YouTube, or a microchip embedded in the gummy brain of a seven pound gummy skull on limited release. Yes, I said gummy skull. Seven pounds of it. These guys don’t mess around. That almost makes the 24 hour and six hour-long songs released in 2011 seem tame. Almost. 

The Flaming Lips have been nominated for six Grammy’s, and won three out of the six. Many of their songs have been featured in movies, such as Spiderman 3, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, The Heartbreak Kid, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, and a few others. In 2008, The Flaming Lips released an indie movie of their own, written, directed and filmed by the band and their friends and family. They played the movie at various rock festivals during the summer of 2008 before it was released on DVD in the fall.

June 1, the Flaming Lips will headline at Gexa Energy Pavilion as part of KXT’s Summer Cut Happy Funtime Fest. Get more information and your tickets at kxt.org/summercut. See for yourself the show that this band presents, including balloons, lights, and a human sized plastic ball. No, I wouldn’t want to miss that either.

Find out more about the Flaming Lips here www.flaminglips.com

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