Artist: Dallas singer-songwriter Taylor Davis

Song: "Is It OK"

The inspiration: Says 25-year-old Davis, "It's about a 39-year-old lady that I am completely in love with. I wrote the song a few years ago after meeting her through a friend. ... The song is kind of about how she is way cooler than me, and I would keep it secret if she ever wanted to be my older lady, I guess."

The result: "Is It OK" is a toe-tappin', piano pop tune, accented by hand claps and tinkly bells. Davis' sweet-but-not-too-sweet vocals perfectly match the boy-meets-cougar theme of the song. The most tragic lyric: "I'm getting older every day/The calendar can't prove what I've seen."

In their own words: "As you can imagine, it didnt really work out. And I even made her cupcakes on Valentine's Day and left them on her doorstep. Oh well!"

See him live: Tomorrow night at the Cavern.

Taylor Davis, "Is It OK":

I've seen the Zac Brown Band play a few times. At an outdoor venue in Austin, in a dirty bar on Lower Greenville, and even on a Carnival cruise ship in the middle of the ocean (don't even think about asking). And every time I've seen the band play, I've been drunk. Not that you need alcohol to enjoy this Georgia group's fun mix of downhome country originals and unpredictable cover tunes (Rage Against the Machine, anyone?). But too much beer (and sometimes Jager) makes the whole experience juuuust right.

That's why we felt the need to have beard-tastic lead singer Zac Brown tell us his five favorite songs to play while sippin' a cold one. If this list (or the above video) inspires ya, catch the band tonight at House of Blues. Tickets are only $10.50. See you there.

Hank Williams' "Jambalaya" - "You have to cool down the Cajun flavor in this song with a cold beer, juking ... and I can taste dem crawdads right when it starts."

Steve Earle's "Rivers of Babylon" - "Spirit of the people moving thru this song and the sway of the background vocals makes me thirsty."

Ryan Adams' and David Rawlings' "To be Young" - "It's all in the title."

Crosby Stills Nash and Young's "Suite Judy Blue Eyes" - "Incredible acoustic guitar, harmony, and the development into a huge fiesta at the end. Perfect arrangement and execution."

Wayne Scott's "It's The Whiskey That Eases The Pain" - "Honesty, that real old country swagger, and traditional instruments make this one # 5".

Wait, did I say "should be"? I meant "is," since we already have a taste of it for ya:

Max Moon, "Mr. Colorful":

(The other rapper on the song is a San Antonio artist, Cerebral Vortex.)

A little birdie in the know passes on the the following items about Ghostbar...

Cisco Adler (remember him? Mischa's former beau?) will be performing there tonight, and MTV will be there filming it.

Katy Perry (left), who graces our cover today, will also be in the house tonight because she's dating Travis McCoy. (Who apparently was arrested yesterday for hitting an audience-member in the head with a microphone, after he was taunted with a racial slur.)

Timbaland is scheduled to make an appearance at Ghostbar on Friday. He won't be performing though -- they say. Who knows what'll happen once the drinks start flowing.

If you really want to get crazy with the gas thing, there's also a DART bus that drops you off on McKinney Ave and Armstrong, directly across the street from the pub. I've taken it before. It's nice.

I'm curious as to how this place is going to do. They're taking over the old Babylon spot, a place that fared horribly, but they've spruced things up to make it feel upscale. They're also eschewing the usual upscale Dallas lounge formula by having (gasp!) African-American and Latino nights, right off the bat. Most places wait four or five months before appealing to the minority crowd. I don't know why that is. Do minorities not have money to spend?

On a personal note, sorry I've been gone for awhile. I was on vacation in Mexico City and then I came back to the worst stomach virus EVER. But I'm better now. Although the thought of drinking tequila makes me want to gag.

It pays to be on Denton singer-songwriter Robert Gomez's e-mail list (which you can sign up for by hitting his MySpace page and scrollin' down a little). Today, the e-faithful recieved a free MP3 of Gomez covering Baptist Generals song "Under a Cloud."

He sent it out to give folks something to chew on while they wait for his just-finished new album to come out. We're entering a period he calls "release-waiting-limbo."

Speaking of Denton musicians covering Denton music, there's a show on Saturday at Dan's SilverLeaf that's built around that very concept. Starhead, Ryan Thomas Becker, the Heelers, Brent Best and Deep Snapper will try out tunes by their Little D contemporaries. Sounds like good, clean American fun.

Former PPT member Picnic put his superb production skills on display and repped Dallas at a recent Red Bull-sponsored competition in Houston. He took third place at the June 25 event, dubbed Red Bull Big Tune. Judging from his enthusiastic presentation methods (above), we say he deserved the top prize! Down with H-Town!

I'm glad I caught Florene's set at Good Records early Saturday evening, because the guys say that may have been the last live show for a couple of months.

The experimental Denton duo put out a MySpace bulletin this morning announcing that it's taking a short break from performing live to finish a full-length record.

Our plan is to go up to beautiful Ruidoso, New Mexico and submerge ourselves in music and the beautiful nature around us. After that's complete the tracks will be off to be mastered somewhere and then it shall be shopped around to see if anyone cares to release it (let's cross our fingers!).

Members Gavin Guthrie and Aaron Mollet shouldn't have too much trouble finding someone to help with the release. These guys and their friends in Mom are among the most innovative, forward thinking musicians in North Texas. But one would be wrong to assume that Florene's music is just like Mom's because both make ambient, mostly lyric-less soundscapes.

Yeah, the two duos use a slew of keyboards, live instruments, effects pedals and other gadgets to achieve their sounds, but that's where the similarities end. While Mom creates foundations with acoustic guitar lines and found-sound samples, Florene works from menacing electro beats, adding in fuzzed-out electric guitar parts and haunting vocal notes. If Mom is earthy, Florene is from space.

Not that the people who are interested in such music need a lesson from me on Florene's sound. There were plenty of folks standing in Good Records' aisles yesterday who knew just what to expect, and seemed to dig every minute of it.

The biggest challenge for Florene might have been keeping things visually interesting. That would explain why, halfway into a song, Mollet suddenly smeared white paint all over his face. But they needn't try too many things like that (cool as face-paintin' might be), because just watching them make the music is interesting enough. I'd sign up for a tutorial in a heartbeat.

- Today's cover story was about the DJs of the Party (above), who are going Hollywood for their second-anniversary event tonight.

- There was another cover story earlier in the week on Beauxregard, a new-wave revivalist band that celebrates the release of its new EP at Hailey's this weekend.

- Liner Notes had items on the Theater Fire (about the forthcoming album), Doug Burr (about this weekend's Psalm song show) and the Tah-dahs' decision to call it quits.

- Speaking of the Theater Fire, I talked to member Don Feagin for a "Tale of the Tune" feature on new song "Uncle Wayne." (video above)

- I did a "Road Test" review of rock band Moving Atlas' new EP Elephant Gun.

- Skinny Fresh gave us the lowdown on the Texas Urban Music Summit in the Sure Shot.

- Ayo's got his priorities in check, including the Centro-matic show in Five to See Live.

- And for you movie freaks, I did a little side-by-side comparison piece on Wanted and Wall-E, both of which will sell out theaters today.

Sayeth Burr:

We recorded all basic band tracks beginning at 11 p.m. and ending shortly after the sun came up on the 21st. We tracked all the basic tracks live. We later realized we had practically made the whole record on the shortest night of the year. The next day as we were adding overdubs, we had an assist by a celebrity choir, including Josh Pearson, Emil Rapstein, Chelsea Callahan, a couple band members, and led by Steve Collins [of Deadman]. All expectations for this project -- by every one of us -- were exceeded.

If you want to hear the songs they recorded, you best show up at All Good Cafe on Saturday, where Burr and band will share a bill with the lovely Kristy Kruger.

Both Burr and Kruger received nominations for this year's Dallas Observer Music Awards, which were announced in today's edition of the alt-weekly paper. I'd point you to the rest of the nods online, but they don't seem to be posted just yet.