Central Track Staff
Lie, Cheat, Meow.
Halloween yard decorations seem to get more gruesome by the year — and more realistic, too. More than once this year we've been taken aback by what seems like more crime scene tape-covered windows than usual on our commute through East Dallas until we remember that Halloween is nigh upon us.
It's also not uncommon these days for just-a-bit-too-realistic decorations to have to come down because they're causing 911 calls. Before panicking next time you see that dead body hanging from a tree or house under Ebola quarantine that, more than likely, it's just a household a bit too into the Halloween spirit.
Another thing to never forget this time of the year is the fact that even on Mondays there's always tons of exciting things going on around Dallas. — Cory Graves
Run the Jewels at House of Blues
This collaborative effort between underground rap kings El-P and Killer Mike is one that prides itself on being very much for the people. Its live shows are a testament to that — recent regional festival performances at Index and Suburbia, as well as other standalone shows, have all slayed — but so too is the fact that the twosome has released both of its first two critically acclaimed albums as free downloads. Same goes for the group's recently released, cat-sampling remix effort, Meow The Jewels. You'll have to pay actually money to see Run the Jewels tonight. But, hey, you kinda owe these guys that much at this point. — Pete Freedman
Telekinesis at Three Links
After a trio of analog power pop LPs under the Telekinesis moniker, Michael Lerner was looking to do something different for his fourth go-round. His recently released fourth LP for Merge Records is a rather convincing bit of '80s pop. Or, as his own press release so pointedly puts it: “In the movie version of the story, Lerner would stumble on his way down the stairs, hit his head, and wake up in 1983, and the only way he could get back to the present day would be to make a record using available instruments. Then he'd wake in 2015 to discover he'd been in his basement studio all along.” Say Hi opens. — CG
Braids at Dada
Emerging from the same Montreal DIY pop scene as acts like TOPS, Grimes and Majical Cloudz is experimental pop outfit BRAIDS, which doesn't necessarily sound all that similar to the rest of those groups, but is no less rad. Fellow Canucks Tasseomancy open. — CG
Francesco Yates at State Fair of Texas
After starting to make music professionally at age 11, Canadian pop prodigy Francesco Yates was signed by Atlantic at age 16, and now, at age 20, finds himself making records with Pharrell and performing at state fairs, apparently. — CG
Dallas Videfest at Angelika Film Center
Music festivals around Dallas are pretty common. We've discussed that plenty around here. But what most people — well, outside of the most fanatic of local film aficionados — may not realize is that Dallas is too fairly oversaturated with film fests. There are small ones, there are big ones and there are feisty ones. They're not all great. But some of them are — and October and November represent a particularly fruitful time for them thanks to events like the 28th Dallas VideoFest, which runs from tonight through the 18th. This festival is spread across various venues for special event screenings (including the Texas Theatre), but is mostly based out of the Angelika. It's the Dallas film festival you go to if you're into esoteric and weird movies: Most of these features are not super commercial at all, and the documentaries cover topics like the abuse of power by homeowner associations. Part of the fun is to go in blind to a movie and find a new favorite. A few years ago I saw one of my favorite films of the year, Leviathan, at VideoFest. The point is that there's gold in them there hills. — Javier Fuentes
Melanie Martinez at Cambridge Room
The biggest knock on reality singing compeition The Voice is the fact that it has yet to really break a big superstar. Season 3 contestant Melanie Martinez just may be one of the closest things the program can hang its hat on. Since competing for #TeamAdam in 2012, she's signed to Atlantic and released a debut album this summer. Interestingly enough, that disc's biggest hit was penned by former American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi. Guess she likes to keep it real. — CG
Johnny Cupcakes at ATAMA
Meet Johnny Earle. He's kind of an awesome guy, even if most people know him by another name.Those people call him Johnny Cupcakes. It's a name he exploits on his own, for sure. It is, after all, the name of his limited edition T-shirt company, which is family-run, fully independent and quite the success story. That story starts back in the year 2000. While working for a screen-printer, Earle was just messing around some in the shop when he took the “Johnny Cupcakes” nickname he'd been called a couple of times, illustrated it into a cupcake-and-crossbones design and screen-printed himself a shirt. It wasn't long before he was inundated with requests from friends for their own copies of the shirt design, and he began hawking shirts from the trunk of his '89 Toyota Camry. Everything else just kind of took flight from there. Now the man behind the hot brand will be on hand at ATAMA for opportunities to shake his hand and snatch up some limited run designs. — Heather Abbott
This is the End at Alamo Drafthouse (Free)
What if every funny person in Hollywood that has ever starred in a Judd Apatow movie attended the same party? What if, on this night of celebration, it just so happened that the end of days happened? Well, then you'd have the hilarious This Is the End — absolutely the funniest movie of the summer of 2013. Highly recommended if you're not sick of James Franco at the moment. — James Wallace
To find out what else is going on today, this week and beyond, check out our events page.
