Yr. Weekend, Pt. 2: Buxton + Mikey & the Drags + The Tyburn Jig + March to the Sea + Fox & Cats + Pope + More

Another slow-moving Saturday, yes (November 30th, for the calendar-less), and yet another pile of ridiculously-late bands that you really, really ought to try and see anyway. If you aren’t already out and about, well, here’s where you ought to be:

Buxton @ Fitzgerald’s
And the winner is…well, a show I can scarcely believe is happening, honestly. Tonight up at Fitzgerald’s marks the 10-year anniversary of awesome, awesome, astoundingly talented roots-pop band {Buxton}, and holy freaking crap, I cannot believe it’s been that long. These guys have evolved from a bunch of upstart, country-sounding younguns from the wilds of LaPorte into bona-fide elder statesmen of the Houston scene as a whole, and along the way, they’ve created some truly, truly great music.

I can’t even entirely explain why I love this band so much, but dammit, I do. They pull in a lot of different influences, sure, but in the end, they sound like nobody but themselves. And that’s a wonderful thing; get out and celebrate with ’em. Here’s to another decade to come, y’all.

Saint Arnold FOAMRAISER, featuring The Tyburn Jig & Mikey & The Drags @ The Orange Show
A little ways across town, The Orange Show is holding their annual “Foamraiser” benefit, which is an excellent-sounding event I’ve always meant to try to get out to… There’s plenty of beer, obviously, courtesy of Saint Arnold (duh), and also plenty of badass music, from both Mikey & the Drags and {The Tyburn Jig}. The former are a flat-out great throwback garage-pop band, the kind that’ll make you long for leather jackets and Sonics records, while the latter filter Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti Western sound through Nick Cave and a whole lot of booze. Go now, and hopefully you’ll still be able to catch at least one of ’em…

March to the Sea (EP release)/Cashus/Sleeper Street/Devil Killing Moth @ Fitzgerald’s (free!/$5)
One of the coolest, most promising new bands in town, {March to the Sea} are up on the other floor from Buxton tonight, celebrating their first-ever EP, Forest, with some similarly-talented friends. MTTS are brooding and moody in the best way imaginable, rumbling along in a thoughtful, just-distorted-enough, post-grunge vein that skirts indie-rock and more radio-friendly alt-rock equally. Well, well, well worth checking out, trust me. You’ll be hearing a lot more from this band.

Fox & Cats/Vanilla Sugar/Kose @ Montrose Proper ($5)
I’ve raved a few times recently about indie-pop-rock duo Fox & Cats, I know, but dangit, I’m gonna do it again. The more I listen to the band’s recent This is Your Brain on Love EP, the more addicted to it I get; the songs are packed full of bright melodies, desperately strained vocals (think Bright Eyes or Jawbreaker), and sneakily dark lyrics, and they all work really, really damn well. Full review up over here…

Pope (EP release)/Kymodo/Zoofeelia/Whoa, Man @ Satellite Rosa (4331 Tulane)
Last up is a show that kind of blindsided me, at a venue I’ve never heard of before, and from a band that I’m both excited and bummed out about. See, there was this neat little band that popped up a while back called {Harts of Oak}, and they released a very cool EP, Birds & Bees, and played some shows and whatnot, and sent me a T-shirt (which was a little small for me but fit my daughter ’til she got freaked out about the deer missing its head, but thank you guys, either way)…and then they kind of vanished.

I’d feared the worst, since y’know, this is Houston, and bands — even damn good ones — come and go more quickly than some people change their clothes. And sadly, it looks like that fear wasn’t unjustified; the band didn’t split up so much as move, to New Orleans, and then morph into a “new” band, Pope. I haven’t had a chance to check ’em out yet, but given how much I liked HoA, I’ve got my fingers crossed. Glad these guys are still making music, even if they’re not living here anymore.

Runners-Up:
Agrimonia/T.O.A.D. @ Mango’s
Come See My Dead Person/Two Star Symphony/Jake Levinson Band @ The Continental Club
Blanco’s Last Dance, featuring Miss Leslie, Snit’s Dog & Pony Show, & many more @ Blanco’s (2PM-2AM)
Protest the Hero/Architects/Affiance/The Kindred @ Warehouse Live (Studio)
The Swamps/Lulu and the Vipers/The Rest @ Notsuoh ($5/$8)
Girl In A Coma/Celestial Centerfold/Electric Attitude @ Numbers
Vestibule/Havoc Wagon/Page 9/This Time I Brought Bombs/Sun Thieves @ Super Happy Fun Land
Soul Sessions, featuring DJ Moonstomp @ MKT Bar (1001 Austin; 8-11PM)
Space City Beat Battle: Episode 14, featuring DJ iPodAmmo & DJ Arsnik @ Warehouse Live (Green Room)
Wayne “The Train” Hancock @ Goode’s Armadillo Palace
Guy Forsyth & Carolyn Wonderland @ Dosey Doe (Spring)