Sorry I haven’t been around for a while. Thankfully, things have been busy with my Dallas Observer and Best of Texas gigs. If you aren’t keeping up with me over on those outlets, I sure would appreciate it!

Back to the Ol’ Knob, though. In the past few months, I’ve become kinda creepily obsessed with a few females that dabble in the shoegazey, dream-pop, noise-rock realm. This week, I’ll introduce you to three of them. They may not be new to you, but they are new to me, so hopefully you’ll be as creepily enamored as I am after the next few days…The first one up is Tamaryn, a dream-pop power much in the way that Mazzy Star was in the 1990′s. Coming out of San Francisco, Tamaryn recently toured right through my hometown of Dallas (opening for the Ravonettes) without me even having a clue I would soon be drooling over her latest album, The Waves.

Look, let’s cut to the chase, here. We all love Joe Pug and his folk-eriffic work over the past four years. When he finally released a full-fledged LP last year, Messenger, appropriate hosannas were sung by many, including this blogger, for sure.

While the recorded output of Mr. Pug has been consistently stellar, his live product is equally so, whether with a full band accompanying him, or if he’s just standing alone, letting all out for everyone to take in.

Joe Pug is hitting the Dallas/Ft. Worth area next week, as he swings by The Loft in Dallas. The Loft has seen an insane amount of talent grace its stage as of late (Frightened Rabbit, Felice Brothers, Trampled by Turtles, The Vaselines, among others) and of course, this coming Saturday will be no exception to that rule.

The folks at The Loft have been kind enough to give-away a pair of tickets to this show, which will be opened by the equally folk-ified Strand of Oaks. Want to win? Be the first to EMAIL ME – kelly@thegobblersknob.com – with Pug Is My Messengerin the subject line and your name will be at the door for a sweet pair of tix, courtesy of The Loft.

If you haven’t become familiar with The O’s from Dallas, there’s a good chance you will soon. Regardless, you’ll want to, whether you know it now or not. Their new album, Between the Two is out, and thanks to the experience from playing a couple hundred shows in the past year or so, and the producing help from Stuart Sikes (Cat Power, Walkmen), the early-Avett Brothers sparseness of their debut record has become a fuller, more well-rounded sonic that has caused me to play the entire thing over and over again.

The band has been in Europe for a bit, but is back in the States, so please check them out. Until then, check out their new video for the lead single.

If you haven’t seen this video yet, please do yourself a solid and check it out. Sons of Bill’s last full album is still on pretty regular rotation for me, and their FREE 3-song EP from a couple months back is also of really high quality. Judging from this well-produced clip, more country-rock gold can be expected from their next album, which is expected in the spring and is produced by the man I posted about the other day, David Lowery, even.

Speaking of thier live performance, you can see them for free as they open up forCharlie Robison at the Granada Theater, this Friday night in Dallas! Be the first to email me at kelly@thegobblersknob.com, with “The Trishas” in the subject line and you will win 2 tickets, compliments of our friends at The Granada Theater. If you don’t win, go over to the theater’s site for tickets. You’ll be glad that you did!