Yep, missed a few days there, sadly -- with Mother's Day and all this weekend, it couldn't be helped. Only so much you can do with the Parental Units are in town. Anyway, there's plenty going on the next week or three; here goes:

Wed., May 16:
The Rapture/Shiny Toy Guns @ Warehouse Live
This is gonna be a big one. I could be wrong about that, but I think even in the cool-radio vacuum of Houston (other than KPFT/KTRU/KACC, of course), people know who The Rapture are, and based on last year's amazingly cool Pieces of the People We Love, I can't say I blame 'em. Imagine very, very sexy robots bumpin' & grindin' and then heading on up to their sleek metal pad to get it on, and you'll get the general idea of what the music sounds like.

Thurs., May 17:
The Clientele/Beach House/Flowers to Hide @ Walter's on Washington
A good one, I think -- I've heard The Clientele's new album, and it's pretty darn good, in a precious, Luna/Belle and Sebastian-esque Brit-pop kind of way. Should be a good match with locals Flowers to Hide, actually...

Cali Agents/Mic Skills/DJ Remix @ The Mink
Cool, cool, cool San Fran hip-hop. Planet Asia's the man; check out his collabs with Peanut Butter Wolf if you get a chance -- My Vinyl Weighs A Ton is badass.

Brian Vander Ark @ McGonigel's Mucky Duck
Okay, so this is more of a "morbid curiousity" pick -- even if you don't recognize the name, you'd recognize the guy's claim to pseudo-fame, "The Freshmen," by his erstwhile band The Verve Pipe. Oh, and you might've seen him as part of Marky Mark's "tribute" band, Blood Pollution, in Rockstar, alongside Slaughter(!) drummer Blas Elias, Black Label Society's Nick Catanese, and Timothy Olyphant, the bad guy from Scream 2. He's left those days behind him, though, and does a solo (apparently mostly acoustic) thing. Which is perfect for the Mucky Duck, which seems to've become the place to go if you had/have a career and then reinvent yourself as a moody troubadour (Steve Burns, I'm talking to you). If you go see Vander Ark play, it's probably not advisable to start yelling for "The Freshmen"...

Fri., May 18:
Young Love/Under the Influence of Giants/Play Radio Play/Liam & Me @ Walter's on Washington
Don't know a whole lot about these folks, but what I've heard of Young Love has been cool; the band used to be known as Recover, a handful of years back, but got signed to Island Recs and got all electronic/dancey.

Gaelic Storm/The Blaggards @ Fitzgerald's
Good, good, good. The Blaggards are probably the best Irish folk band H-town's currently got going; the closest comparison I can come up with would be Chicago's Tossers.

You Ain't Plugged In, featuring Morgue City, Donkey Punch, & Jalambo Chispa @ The Meridian This one wins for Neatest Idea of Late -- get a handful of really damn loud, sorta metal bands and make 'em play acoustic & show their softer side. Sure, Nirvana blew the idea all to hell a long time ago, but what the heck, it could still be fun.

Sat., May 19:
Arthur Yoria (CD release)/Spain Colored Orange/Southern Backtones/Quiet Company/Concrete Rose Cabaret @ Rudyard's (Camel-sponsored event)
Oh, man -- this is gonna be very cool. Not only is it Arthur's CD release party for his new album (which, I'm assuming, means he'll be playing stuff off of the new CD; more on that later), but it's also got the ever-amazing Spain Colored Orange, plus the Southern Backtones, who I keep meaning to catch more of. It's a Camel-sponsored deal, though (the first at Rudz, if I'm not mistaken), so to get in you'll have to corner a Camel rep out at a bar somewhere (or get a chain-smoking friend to do so) or get a hold of one of the bands.

Ms. Rosa's B-Day Bash, featuring PLF, Dead Roses, The Sporatics, & The Dimes @ The Southmore House (9PM; $5)
Ah, another good-sounding one. Lots of noisy, noisy, crazy, messy people (PLF & Dead Roses, specifically), plus punks (I think?) The Sporatics and The Dimes, one of the coolest indie-rock bands in town. And, of course, it also happens to be Ms. Rosa's b-day, and that's no bad thing.

Honky Tonk and Hot Rod Music Festival, featuring Jesse Dayton, Hayes Carll, The Weary Boys, Texas Sapphires, & more @ The Continental Club
Okay, so I'm not even a big fan of hot rods or country music, but damn, the two combined sound pretty enticing.

Mon., May 21:
Deftones/The Fall Of Troy @ Verizon Wireless Theater
Yep, the new disc's darn good. So good, in fact, that I find myself wishing I'd snagged it for myself instead of handing it off to my homey and trusty metal/hc reviewer Mel. What can I say? The guy loves the Deftones more than anybody I know; I just couldn't do that to him...

Tues., May 22:
The Willowz/The Scattered Pages/Papermoons @ The Backroom (The Mink)
I hate to admit it, but I'm not real up (yet) on the Willowz. I've liked what I've heard so far, but that's been pretty scant -- mostly what I know of 'em is that, well, everybody else in the universe seems to think they're Tha Shit. I dunno. What I do know is that The Scattered Pages are amazing, and so are Papermoons; even if you, like me, don't know the headliners, this show's worth the cover just for the locals.

Thurs., May 24:
Matt and Kim/Fatal Flying Guilloteens/Best Fwends/O Pioneers!!! @ The Mink
I'm kinda "eh" in Matt and Kim, I'm afraid -- they're a little too off-kilter for my tastes. The Fatal Flying Guilloteens, however, are one of those rare bands that truly gets better every goddamn time I see/hear them. It's kinda hard to believe they began life as a one-off joke band for a party, but hell, that's rock & roll for you...

Fri., May 25:
Laura Veirs/Saltbreakers/Lake @ Walter's on Washington
Ooh, cool. Laura Veirs "Galaxies" is an amazing little gem of a song.

Tody Castillo @ The Continental Club
Haven't seen Tody in quite a while, unfortunately, but I need to remedy that -- his self-titled album of a few years back is excellent, a real-live classic H-town pop album (and there aren't many of those, trust me), and live he's darn good.

Clandestine @ McGonigel's Mucky Duck
Damn, I'm glad these folks're back around; in their (original) day, they were one of the top Celtic folk bands in town. I'm guessing not much has changed.

Tower of Power/Three Fantastic @ The Meridian
Oh, hell yeah. Not just Tower of Power, but a local band opening for Tower of Power? Hoo-ah.

Program/The Fucking Transmissions/The Last Gasp @ Notsuoh
This is a bit of an odd bill, but heck, that's one of the best things about our little city's pseudo-scene. You get Program, a bunch of shimmery-sweet power popsters, paired up with The Fucking Transmissions, who are downhome, street-dirty indie hip-hop. Sounds pretty appropriate for H-town, really.

Free Radicals @ The Artery
Can't miss the Free Rads; improvisational, funky, jazzy coolness. And I hear The Artery's cool, too.

Sat., May 26:
Phuz/Tody Castillo/Josh Zulu @ Notsuoh
Wow. I'd always wondered what happened to these guys -- back in the '90s, Phuz were pretty much Houston's premiere/only Filipino pop-rock band, and they just sorta vanished around the turn of the millennium. Nice to see they're back.

Down for the Count/Before...There Was Rosalyn/As the Cancer Spreads/The Letting Go Process/Tomorrow's Too Late/The Last Place You Look/The Second String Rivals/The Lion of Wall-Street/Margot/The Western Civilization/Shattered Souls/Heroes Are Ghosts/Lunara/Tamerlane/Heptic Skeptic/Hollywood Black/Thorn vs. Side/While You Were Gone/The Hanks/The City Drive/The A Game/Barely Blind/Great American Actors/The American Masquerade @ Strawberry Park (Pasadena)
Not sure what the heck this is, but apparently there're a ton of bands playing in Pasa-gitdown-dena on the 26th, including good folks like The Western Civilization, The American Masquerade (formerly 1977), Margot, & While You Were Gone, and a ton of bands I've never heard myself. Going by the list, by the by, it looks like everybody's local/local-ish.

Sun., May 27:
Melt Banana/XBXRX/The Jonx @ Numbers
Oh, man. Those guys in The Jonx must be grinning from ear to ear right about now -- I can't honestly imagine a better matchup for H-town's favorite math-rock smart guys than Melt Banana & XBXRX (other than, okay, maybe NoMeansNo or The Minutemen, and neither of those're real likely). I can't claim to be a huge Melt Banana fan, but damn, this's like kismet all the same.

Labels: Things To Do

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