Yr. Weekend, Pt. 2: Funeral Horse + Only Beast + Jealous Creatures + Feeeelin Goood Fest + sk8&Rock + Pets For Vets Benefit + Die Young + More

Alright, we’re on into Saturday, April 19th, this year’s Record Store Day, and if you couldn’t make it out today & snag some RSD-exclusive vinyl and whatnot, well, you can rest easy in the knowledge that there are a ton of cool shows going tonight, too. Here goes:

Houston Doom Brigade & Artificial Head Records’ 420 Rat Salad, featuring Project Armageddon, Funeral Horse (record release), Only Beast, & The Dirty Seeds @ Fitzgerald’s
First up, there’s a nice pile of loud/heavy/strange bands up at Fitzgerald’s, courtesy of ever-cool, surprisingly ambitious local label Artifical Head Records. I’ve yet to see anybody on the bill live, sadly, but I’ve heard damn good things about all of ’em, what I’ve heard in recorded form has been pretty promising.

There’s sludge-meisters {Funeral Horse}, for one (which includes Artifical Head honcho Paul/Carlos on guitar & vocals), and as mentioned real recently right here, I very much like what these guys are doing. If you’re into slow-moving, skull-crushingly heavy quasi-metal that sounds like the noise primordial ooze makes, well, Funeral Horse is your band. {Project Armageddon} also hail from the doom-y side of the spectrum, although they’re a lot more like The Sword or Venomous Maximus, melding stoner-ish rawk and fantasy-fueled lyrics with the thundering metal. And then there’s {Only Beast}, who I’m enjoying more & more with each listen — they’re like Sleater-Kinney if Sleater-Kinney were from the South and grew up on Muddy Waters more than Minor Threat.

The Beadles (Beatles tribute)/Fox Parlor/Jealous Creatures/Soa @ Notsuoh ($5/$10)
Next we’ve got an intriguing-looking lineup at Notsuoh; I’m not familiar with most of the bands playing, but hot damn I love me some {Jealous Creatures}. I spent part of this afternoon blissing out to 2013’s Bazooka, re-remembering exactly why I like ’em so much. There’s Sarah Hirsch‘s husky, Margo Timmins-like vocals, and Ian Hlavacek‘s moody, sharp-edged, but still kinda dusty guitars, and the band’s ability to build together songs that both sound like drone-rock and old-school pop, and the rock-solid rhythm section…put it all together, and you get one of Houston’s best, most unique bands. I swear, there’s nobody else around here (or hell, maybe anywhere) that sounds anything like this. Hear them now, trust me.

Feeeelin Goood Fest, featuring The New Mercies, Demonic Hen, P.L.X.T.X, Josiah Gabriel, Devil Killing Moth, RIVERS, Clockpole, Cop Warmth, Nikkhoo, Ghost Police, Keno Sims, FLCON FCKER, Deep Cuts, Children of Pop, Belvior, Violinda, Jon Black, Gio Chamba, The Trimms, Fox & Cats, Kose, The Vimanaswhit, Cashus, B.E. Godfrey, BLASTDAD, Mannequin Mishap, MLCBR, Vanilla Sugar, Uncle Dad & Auntie Mom, Renazons, Run CT, Sid of Arc’, HTXSUX, & more @ Avant Garden (3PM-12AM)
This one kind of snuck up on me, especially considering how many people are playing that I like; I hadn’t even heard about it ’til a day or two ago. So apparently there’s a festival up at Avant Garden today/tonight, with a wide-ranging slate of bands and music-makers that includes disparate folks like digital hardcore-ish breakbeat destroyer {P.L.X.T.X}, nouveau-grunge rockers {Rivers}, San Antonian surf-punks Ghost Police, electro-indie-pop crew {Children of Pop}, ’90s-tinged indie-rock/pop duo Fox & Cats, and downcast, ridiculously talented songwriter B.E. Godfrey. phew. It’s already going on, so get on up there right now…

Mountain Dew’s sk8&Rock Free Rock Concert Series, featuring Biscuit Bombs, Screech of Death, & Talk Sick Brats @ Lee & Joe Jamail Skatepark (103 Sabine; 7-9PM, free!)
Well, I’ve gotta say, this is a damn near perfect day for this. Head on over to the Lee & Joe Jamail Skatepark on the western edge of Downtown to witness a badass pairing of raw, loud punk rock with talented skateboarders. I can’t claim to be any good on a skateboard myself, but I’ve always been fascinated by people who are; even now, the tricks a lot of ’em do still seem freaking impossible to me.

And hey, skating and punk go together like peanut butter and jelly, so there’s that. I seriously like {Talk Sick Brats}, even though I’ve only seen ’em once a few years ago, and Screech of Death sounds pretty damn promising — it’s a new band with a bunch of old-school punk folks, including Sugar Shack/Party Owls member (and owner of punk clubs gone by) J.R. Delgado, a former member of The Hickoids, and a singer who’s worked with D.I. and Nina Hagen (among others), all of which pretty much guarantees it’ll be awesome. Oh, and the whole thing’s free; can’t beat that.

Houston Pets for Vets Benefit, featuring Die Young (record release), Vulgar Display, Snakeway, Walk The Graves, United Races, Blunt, & Badrat @ Walter’s
Last in my abbreviated list, but far from least, there’s a truly great benefit tonight up at Walter’s, for the Pets for Vets effort, which matches up returning military veterans with shelter animals who need a home, hoping to help those veterans deal with their emotional scars. It’s a good cause, at least in my book, and the show’s made even better by the fact that it’s the reunion for resurrected hardcore icons {Die Young}.

The band broke up back in 2009 when frontman Daniel Allbaugh moved up to the Northeast (Pennsylvania, if memory serves), but now they’re back, and best of all, they’ve recorded a whole new album, Chosen Path, which they’re releasing tonight. Damn good news, if you ask me; glad to have y’all back.

Runners-Up:
Showers/Archer Youngster/Children of Pop/The Huxtables/Grey Matters/DJ Robocop @ Tamina Hall (27434 Robinson Rd.)
The Creative Union: Interdisciplinary Art Culture, featuring The New Mercies, Mellow Riot, Re’Al, JayCee, Zech, & Comp-1 @ Alley Kat Bar & Lounge (free!)
Journey Agents/The Beans/Bel-Ami/Pal @ The Continental Club
Record Store Day, featuring Tightn’ Up!, Shotgun Funeral, Bury The Crown, & Journey Agents @ Heights Vinyl (1-6:30PM)
Dadsmom/Mannequin Mishap/Keno Sims/blastDAD @ The Ponderosa (1503 Nance)
Cafe Fire!: A 420 Music Festival, featuring Ruckus, Chase Hamblin & the Roustabouts, & more @ Last Concert Cafe (4:20PM-2AM)
Rave to the Grave 3, featuring Max Xandaux, Depressed Mode (Depeche Mode tribute), Fredster, & Lacey Youngblood @ Fitzgerald’s
Homegrown 420 Music & Art Festival 2014, featuring Finding Reason, The Hill Country Gentlemen, Charity Ann, Dr. Green Dreams, Lizzie Borden Had An Axe, Lonestar Hippie, Hybrid Soulz, 12 Gauge Awakening, Jay Pheonix, Whiskey Fueled Death, Zimmerman’s Gun, Gag Me I’m Gorgeous, Tabline, We Inhale Heavens, Paco & the Buds, Carter, A Beautiful Disgrace, Lazor Vision, & Shone @ Eastdown Warehouse (12PM-12AM)
Rekliner, featuring DJ Hyperactive, Andrei Morant, Henry Chow, & Sasha Braverman @ Jet Lounge
Music Inspired by Soundwave: Eternal Loyalist Exhibition by Felipe Lopez, featuring Paul Connolly @ Peveto (2627 Colquitt St.; 3-5PM)
Well Done, featuring Surain, Poe Junior, Vance Lawrence, DJ Fugue, Notic, JKB, DJ Weezar, Horizon, DJ Jefre, Jacob Brents, Yetti, & Proto-J @ Stereo Live