No, you’re not dreaming.

The great M83-fest is coming up this weekend and we cannot contain our excitement (i.e.: like this dog). The good news is, we’ve received 20 tickets recently from the good ol’ M83 fanclub to release out to you. The other great news: we want the best of the best to have them, which essentially means, scalpers, no scalpin’.

That’s why we’ll be running contests starting TODAY until this Friday! 2 pairs of tickets will be released each day. All you have to do is pay close attention to our Facebook page for new rules every morning. And of course, enter. So if you haven’t ‘liked’ us yet, go for it.

Keep in mind that these contests will give you a secure password to purchase tickets. We’re pumped to dance it off this weekend, and want you there with us. So what do you say? 20 tickets, 5 chances, you’re lucky, let’s do this.

The pan-DFW band Mind Spiders is a flatland avalanche of heavy garage rock with grainy guitars, retro keyboard drones and dueling drummers.

Mind Spiders is the -uh… brain child- of Mark Ryan. Ryan recorded all the instruments 2011 Mind Spiders EP in his lonesome. This past February, Mind Spiders released their first full album Meltdown (Dirtnap Records), recorded with a full band this time. The band includes members from other Denton groups including High Tension Wires, Bad Sports, The Marked Men and Uptown Bums.

Mind Spiders opens for Best Coast with Jeff the Brotherhood at Granada on June 1st. Tickets start at $21(all fees and taxes included). Doors open at 7pm.

As the proverbial tank in Atlanta’s hip-hop scene, Michael Render a.k.a. Killer Mike throws shells and cruises rough terrain when he starts spitting.

Killer Mike first appeared on the track “Snappin’ & Trappin” in OutKast’s groundbreaking release Stankonia. His sheet includes guest verses in Bone Crusher’s “Never Scared”, the Grammy-award winning OutKast track “The Whole World” and singles with a gallery of  Southern rappers: Three 6 Mafia, T.I, Bun B,  Gucci Mane and Yelawolf.

Killer Mike’s own work started in 2003 with Monster(Columbia Records) featuring his highest charting track “A.D.I.D.A.S” (in the author’s opinion, a huge improvement on Korn’s song with the same name and theme).

After dropping out of Columbia, and the Dungeon Family and Purple Ribbon groups, Mike gave the world a piece of his mind in I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind in 2006 and a sequel in 2008. Last year, Mike released his threequel Pl3dge and a mixtape BANGx3.  His upcoming, El-P produced album  R.A.P Music(Williams Street) releases on on May 15th.

Killer Mike, Despot and Mr. Muthafuckin’ Exquire open for El-P  on Thursday June 21st. Tickets start at $24(all fess and taxas included) Doors open at 7pm.

 For the first time since 2003, Godspeed You! Black Emperor will steamroll their wall of sound through Texas! *Gasp*  As a longtime fan, I’m thrilled at the very idea of getting to see them perform in my city.  When they first announced their reunion and U.S. tour, I had no doubts they wouldn’t come play Texas, and I made a solemn ninja oath that I’d take a road trip to whichever city would be the closest to Texas on their tour.  That was Nashville, TN.  That was last year.  Because when a band like this tours, a band that is the king and monarch of your Desert Island playlist… your “I wish they’d come to my town” band…. your “What if they go on hiatus again?!” band… you make the necessary plans to see them.  You get with your friends and plan the road trip of your life to see the concert of your dreams.  That’s exactly what I did last year.  One road trip, riddled with car troubles, exhaustion, high-fives, hugs and arguments for what was the biggest thrill of my year then.

Seeing Godspeed as a regular touring act again is a huge thrill as well.  Long gone are the days of listening to their live bootlegs on Archive.org and watching the Youtube videos with incredibly bad audio quality.  Now we can listen to the album and know, I mean really know, that we’ll really get the chance to see them.  No daydreaming.  Really get to see just how the hell a huge band like that cues their movements with zero communication.  Without even so much as raising their heads at eachother, in fact.  They just zone in and feel it out.  The power, emotion, and suspense of the myriad layers of sound is something that is unique to Godspeed’s shows.  Mix that with the projected, live film loops (it’s real film, not digital) and an audience that stands as if they are in the presence of a towering goliath, and your brain will just have to push out all of your best memories to give space to this one night.

Here are some reviews of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s past concerts:

“They play with the poise of a professional chamber group, no getting around it. And while a typical chamber group’s prepared encore and the ritualistic little curtain call/applause handshake that invites it is an overwrought but expected (and welcomed) departure from the one-way concert transmission, Godspeed doesn’t play in that sandbox.”   -David Cocoran (SF Weekly)

“Very few performances leave me completely, utterly drained at the end of them, even from standing absolutely still… Each song showed the trademark brilliance that GY!BE brings to their work: a small, delicate, achingly slow melody, with members adding elements one by one, and then suddenly shifting the tempo into a much heavier gear, building the song to an unfathomable intensity and filling the room with the volume and density of a hundred musicians onstage, before collapsing back down and dissipating even faster than it was conjured into being. Every single one of the songs was its own world, an entire performance in the time for half of an opening band’s set.”   -Jonathan Pirro (Spinning Platters)

“Godspeed writes songs of calm desperation, gentle guitar and violin melodies that repeat until the tension breaks and the band releases the melody into a whirl of bass, drums, and brash, trebly instrumentals. If there is a soothing message to pull from these epics it is that ultimately the crescendo will fall and leave us to our relaxation…Godspeed’s music and art matches the rise-and-fall of empires and the lonely citizen together, beginning as it does with hope, until the noise of failure and futility overwhelms us, and we end somewhere without, a new quiet calm, a new center…”   -Zack F. (All My Friends)

Below is some footage of Godspeed live at the Gagarin Club in Athens to get an idea of the whole experience, but believe me it’s not the same as being there.  In the way that you can’t see a photo of a monument and feel like you’ve really seen it, this is something that you can only know through experiencing it.

Starting his journey off by hitting the stage with a group called Kippington Lodge, Lowe was the dominate songwriter and bass guitarist. After a couple of years the band’s name was changed to Brinsley Schwarz, after their guitarist.  Lowe also played in the band, Rockpile with Dave Edmunds. Rockpile opened up for bands such as Elvis Costello, Blondie and The Cars.

Taking a break from playing music in 1976, Lowe soon became the brilliance behind the legendary production company Still Records, producing artists like The Damned, the Pretenders and Elvis Costello. Costello’s first five albums were produced by Lowe along with the writing of a top hit, “(What’s So Funny Bout’?’ Peace, Love and Understanding”. Lowe continued to produce a wide variety of bands in the early 1980′s including: John Hiatt, Paul Carrack, the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Carter.

In 1979 Nick Lowe married daughter of June Carter Cash & stepdaughter of Johnny Cash, country singer Charlene Carter. This marriage created a strong bond between the families, even though they are divorced now they still managed to stay friends. Lowe and Cash went on to perform and write songs for each other, such as “Beast in Me”.

Nick Lowe’s music has always been about quality over quantity, even though his nickname is “Basher” for his ability to “bash out” one song after another. Performing on Wednesday, May 9th at Granada Theater, get your tickets now.

The next Granada Theater bike ride is May 24. Save the Date!

During my five years at Granada I have worked alongside some incredible people who keep me motivated and always laughing. After all, working in music is supposed to be fun. And this has been the most fun job I’ve ever had. To celebrate my anniversary I thought it would be fitting to look back and post my favorite show from each year I’ve worked at Granada. Enjoy the trip down memory lane and I hope to see you at Sarah Jaffe this weekend!

<3 Chris (aka CMac)

2007

The National & St. Vincent 9/14/2007

I had been working at Granada for a couple of months and this was the first show that I was REALLY looking forward to. Boxer had been on repeat in the office for weeks and Annie was touring in support of her debut album. I still remember her promo posters and how bewildered she looked in them. The show itself was fantastic. If I remember correctly Matt from The National drank an entire bottle of cabernet during the performance.

2008

Ratatat 9/16/2008

Now this was one hell of a dance party. We sure did pack them in that night. It was sweaty, it was crammed, but damn was it a blast. The crowd never stopped moving as 2008 was the year everyone finally caught on that Ratatat was one of the best electronic live groups around. Still one of the biggest day-of-show sales ever! Think this was the first massive sell-out I was a part of.

2009

Grizzly Bear / Here We Go Magic 6/15/2009

Ahh yes 2009 when everyone was all about Veckatimest. We were all beyond excited when this one was booked. Here We Go Magic was also a great opener for this show. Even though it was HOT AS HELL that day, Grizzly Bear sounded impeccable. When they played The Knife it was almost like the room felt a little bit cooler (temperature wise not hipster wise). Great show that was a part of an incredible Granada month (Passion Pit, Bonnie Prince Billy, Peaches, & St. Vincent were all in June 09). Fun fact: Chris Taylor’s parents were at this show and brought him clean clothes before the show. Thought it was sweet

2010

Beach House / Washed Out 4/21/2010

When I first started at Granada, Mike the owner would always encourage us to get to the show early for the opening bands (especially if they were from Dallas). Looking back it’s crazy how many awesome openers we had who went on to headline their own shows. This is one of those instances. What a great bill! April always has the best shows. Again everyone was on a Teen Dream high and crushing on Victoria. Beach House did not disappoint. Their songs sounded absolutely awesome. The stage setup looked like a cheesy jr. high school dance but it didn’t matter as the band was totally captivating. Plus Victoria was nice enough to hang around after the show to sign ukuleles & take pictures. Love it when artists are cool like that.

2011

Cut Copy / Foals / Holy Ghost! / The Naked and Famous 4/20/2011

This is probably my favorite show ever both as a “music promoter” and as a music fan. Look at that lineup! And funny now The Naked & Famous would probably be the headliner. Remember what I was saying about opening bands? Anyway this epic bill was actually two different tours that came together for one night only in Dallas. Doesn’t happen very often and I still can’t believe we pulled it off. Promoting the show was a lot of fun as we hired my favorite poster designer to create one of the all-time great Granada posters. It’s still hanging on our walls! The show itself was just amazing. An all-night dance fest which included the lead singer of Foals damn near killing himself by falling off the balcony. Insane night and one to remember always & forever!

Welp that’s about it. Obviously there were so many more shows that will hold a special place in my heart. The great thing about these concert is you don’t remember just the band but also who you were with, who you met, and what other madness may have happened that night. The joy of seeing live music! Thanks for reading and here’s to the next five years! Love music, love life.

Prepping

More prepping

Let the competition begin!

Chef Kevin manning the grill.

Loyd throwing down those chops.

The finished product. Those lucky judges.

At the age of 5 years old, Chef Kevin was involved with a fire which covered his body from the neck down.  After the completion of his physical therapy, he was sent to the Parkland Burn Center to help find a way to reduce the scarring that occurred. The process took 2 years to complete.  Becoming involved with Chefs on Fire, is one way that he can give back to the team that saved his life.   The event was not only  fun time for Kevin but it was also something very personal to him.

Prolific musician John Dufilho ( The Deathray Davies,  Apples in Stereo) released his new project, the ensemble album John Singer Sergeant, a few weeks ago. Granada Theater will host John Singer Sergeant’s second show ever, a day after the band’s debut at The Parish in Austin.

John Singer Sergeant: The Music and Songs of John Dufilho (Kirtland Records) has the host artist performing and mixing most of the instruments for an ensemble of vocalists. Dufilho’s guests include local singers -Ben Kweller, Sarah Jaffe, Rhett Miller(The Old 97′), and Salim Nourallah- and a couple of national voices -Sir Earl Toon (Kool & the Gang) and Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie)

John Singer Sergeant and Zhora will open for Sarah Jaffe at Granada Theater on May 5th. Tickets start at $20 (all fees and taxes included) Doors open at 7 pm.