BARS AND CLUBS

Dallas

ROCK CITY

Dallas’ cultural significance is typically undone

by visions of ten-gallon hats, grassy knolls,

and oil barons driving giant Cadillacs. But

Big D overflows with feisty musicians, artists,

and freaks looking to defy traditions. The

city has given the world Secret Machines, the

Polyphonic Spree, and Midlake, with indie

bands and art-damaged renegades always a cowboy-booted

kick in the ass away from breaking out of the garage.

Shout Out Louds shout out loud at the Granada.

Granada Theater
3524 GREENVILLE AVE., 214-824-9933
This lush former movie house is the most reliable of the city’s midsize music
venues, home to everything from Sage Francis to Spoon, and the best place to see
bands just before they hit arena level (or to catch them on the way back down).

LOCAL HEROES

Co-owned by the Polyphonic Spree’s Tim DeLaughter, most of the time Good Records is exactly what the logo above the door implies: a decent record store—bright and colorful, with an impeccable selection. But a few days (and nights) a week, it’s also a pretty good music venue. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Of Montreal, Grizzly Bear, and Dr. Dog have played intimate shows there, all for the reasonable price of nothing.

One of Jack White’s favorite engineers (he was behind the board for the White Stripes’ White Blood Cells and White’s collaboration with Loretta Lynn), Stuart Sikes recently opened his own recording studio, Elmwood, in Dallas. That’s where he just finished up work on Cat Power’s Jukebox. With Sikes’ reputation and résumé, he’s well on his way to being the Nigel Godrich of the South.

Alternative, one of the first punk/ new-wave radio shows on the national airwaves and certainly the first in a part of the United States known more for shit-kickin’ country. The show existed for well over a decade, giving Gimarc easy access to research his hyperdetailed books Punk Diary 1970–1979 and Post-Punk Diary 1980–1982, now available in a single volume.

The Cavern
1914 GREENVILLE AVE., 214-828-1914
The upstairs bar at the Cavern
pays homage to the Beatles’ Liverpool
stomping grounds in both design
and decoration. The downstairs bar
isn’t so much “cavernous” as it is
“a tiny tunnel that could collapse at
any moment.” The club books a mix
of up-and-coming locals and already-
there national acts such as Rogue
Wave and Devendra Banhart.

Lee Harvey’s
1807 GOULD ST., 214-428-1555
There’s no quicker way to kick up
some dust here than invoking the
name of the man the government
would have you believe shot JFK,
but Lee Harvey’s goes there. It’s the
charmingly crummy dive bar in a
run-down section of town that every
scene needs, where townies and
touring acts can mix and mingle.

Zúbar
2012 GREENVILLE AVE., 214-887-0071
Once an afterthought on the local
dance-music scene, Zúbar has emerged
as the best destination for anyone who
wants to do something with his or her
night out besides stand still with arms
crossed, looking disinterested. The club
benefits from crowd-pleasing regular
appearances from the Party and the
occasional drop-in from ghettotech MC
Prince William. Zúbar may look upscale,
but it’s not afraid to break a sweat.

Club Dada
2720 ELM ST., 214-742-3400
The 20-year-old Dada hosted early
shows by local breakouts Edie Brickell
and the Reverend Horton Heat. For
a long time it was a haven for jam
bands, but it has recently adopted a
forward-thinking booking policy that
has landed the likes of Ghostland
Observatory and Sondre Lerche.

Bobby Patterson was the top soul/R&B singer in Dallas in the late 1960s and early ’70s, recording should’ve-been classics like “Don’t Be So Mean” and “Quiet! Do Not Disturb.” But he didn’t get the national attention he deserved until Jeff Tweedy recorded his “She Don’t Have to See You” for Golden Smog’s Down by the Old Mainstream in 1995.

In March 1977, George Gimarc started The Rock & Roll

Discovered by Dr. Dre, the D.O.C. helped write N. W.A’s Straight Outta Compton. He dropped his own solo record, No One Can Do It Better, in 1989. One of gangsta rap’s most promising stars, he was undone by tragedy, when a 1989 car accident crushed his larynx. Though unable to rap, he kept putting pen to paper and cowrote some of Dre’s The Chronic. Back home in Dallas, he got enough of his voice back to release the raspy, world-weary Deuce in 2003.

KNOW
YOUR
HISTORY

Before the late
John Peel became a
legendary DJ on BBC’s
Radio 1, he briefly lived
in Dallas. He wasn’t
initially on the radio; he
wasn’t even John Peel.
As John Ravenscroft (his
given name), he sold
crop insurance before
finally securing a gig on
Top 40 powerhouse KLIF
as the station’s resident
Beatles expert.