Three Bands, Three Releases, All Tonight: John Allen Stephens + Tee Vee + Rome Hero Foxes (+ A Bunch More, Besides)

Damn, it’s been a while — apologies for that, but first summer vacating took precedence (BTW, if you’re looking for a Caribbean getaway that’s gorgeous and laidback but actually real and not hyper-touristified & fake, Curacao is that place; our stay there was amazing), and then we had family visiting from the UK (with whom we went to see The English Beat, at long last), so I’ve been a little bit swamped over here, sadly…

That said, I couldn’t let tonight (Friday, August 3rd, that is) slip by without saying anything, because holy shit there is a lot going on.

Some of it is obviously higher-profile than most of the rest, like hip-hop icon Slim Thug‘s 20-year anniversary party up at White Oak Music Hall, which will likely be pretty insane (although I have to confess that I’m not clear what it’s the 20-year anniversary of; Slim Thug rapping, I guess? I know his birthday’s sometime in September, so…)

And then there’s Panic! At the Disco at Toyota Center, which my 14-year-old is extremely bitter about not getting to go to, and I’ve got a weird soft spot for metal dudes Five Finger Death Punch, who are playing out at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion tonight.

What’s got my attention the most, however, are the three (well, okay, two-and-a-half) release shows for badass H-town musicians this very evening…

 

JOHN ALLEN STEPHENS:
First up, John Allen Stephens of the sadly-departed New York City Queens, a band I loved pretty damn dearly, is now out on his own, using his considerable skills as a producer to craft his first full-length, radioclub.lp. The album release is also tonight and also up at the WOMH, with Tee Vee (hold tight on that one), Pearl Crush, and DJ Rahrye.

And wow, what an album it is. Given his history with NYCQ, I’d kinda assumed Stephens would be doing a rock-ish thing, maybe more of the indie-rock bent his previous band hinted at at times, but no, this is something totally different. Stephens has gone in an electro-pop direction, instead, crafting these sleek-but-sensitive tunes that combine clicky ’80s beats, Postal Service-ish keys, hazy backgrounds, and Stephens’ own sincere, soulful, agile vocals (plus vocal appearances by Tee Vee and fellow NYCQ alum and partner Daniela Hernandez).

radioclub.lp reminds me of Freelance Whales at points, but that’s not really a great comparison; there’s far, far more soul/R&B going on here, to my ears, with tracks like “Forever” sounding like they could be drifting out of a stereo right after, say, The Weeknd or hell, Nick Jonas or something (and yes, I mean that in a good way; he’s the only Jonas I’ve ever liked much at all). The more I listen to it, the more I want to hear, and that’s not something that happens to me a lot these days. Check it out; trust me.

TEE VEE:
Next up, and both on the same stage and kind of in the same general vein, there’s Tee Vee, AKA Teresa Vicinanza, who’s opening for Stephens tonight at the WOMH and celebrating a release of her own, brand-new single “Dreaming”.

I said “kind of” in the same vein as Stephens above because both artists are pretty heavily electronic and pretty resolutely poppy. Tee Vee shows some of that same ’80s sensibility I mentioned earlier, although in her case it’s less R&B and more like New Order, especially that band’s “Bizarre Love Triangle”. There’s a yearning to it, and a fragility, both of which make me think of the band, albeit with a resemblance to CHVRCHES and Houston’s own Hearts of Animals on the vocal side of things.

And yeah, it’s pretty ridiculously addictive, just sweet, bouncy synths and Vicinanza’s Kate Bush-esque voice and lyrics about (yes, you guessed it) dreaming about somebody she desperately wants to be with. It’s a single, of course, so I can’t help but feel like it’s just an introductory taste, a teaser for what’s to come, but if that’s the case, it certainly does its job well. I need to hear more of this, too…

 

ROME HERO FOXES:
Last up comes a band I’d only heard of peripherally til fairly recently, Rome Hero Foxes. I can’t entirely explain why I hadn’t heard much of these guys before now, except that they kind of walked into the music scene here backwards, it seems like, jumping straight from being a bunch of high school kids to putting out their first full-length, 2016’s For When You’re Falling Backwards, with the backing of Kurt Travis, the former frontman of Dance Gavin Dance. So maybe they’ve been focused a bit more outside of Houston, if that makes sense? If so, I totally get it — if you can do that and make it work, more power to you.

Happily, with new album 18 Summers, they definitely can do it. I’d gone in expecting a big mess of math-y post-hardcore, given the DGD connection, but what the five-piece band delivers, instead, is bright, shiny, pop-tinged rock that only occasionally sticks its toe into prog-rock or post-hardcore sounds, preferring instead to dive into surf-y, punkish rock or throwback pop sounds. It’s sharp and straightforward and catchy as fuck, particularly on tracks like “Chest Piece” or the Black Mirror-referencing “San Junipero”.

Listening along, I find myself thinking of The Stereo and No Knife, the latter on the proggier, more mathcore-sounding tracks and the former on the songs that owe more to pop-punk or indie-rock; both good touchstones, at least to me. With that said, these guys don’t truly sound like anybody but themselves, at the end of the day, and 18 Summers is a great showcase for that.

You can see Rome Hero Foxes tonight up at a place called JNJ BNB (711 Hyde Park), where they’ll be officially releasing the new album, with help from excellent dudes Camera Cult and No Rehearsal. Things kick off at 7PM, so don’t be late…

 

Runners-Up:
Summer Sad Fest 2018, featuring Anchor North, Highdive, Outside at Night, Blood Between Us, The Daphne Blue, & Moonlight Hotel @ Spruce Goose Social Flyers Club (6PM-12AM; $10)
John Evans/Emily Bell @ McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
MFAH Music on the Plaza, featuring The Heights Funk Collective @ MFAH (6-9PM)
Poor Dumb Bastards/Screech of Death/Zeroheros/The Smashed Idols @ Rudyard’s
Daggerhead (tour kickoff)/Dandruff @ The White Swan
Mother Ghost/Trembler/Imposter Boys/Z.I.T.I. (mem. of Ruiners/Talking Forever) @ Leon’s Lounge
Los Skarnales/In The Whale/Liberty & Justice/Los Wasted Tones/DJ Mexican Blackbird @ Fitzgerald’s
Bob Schneider/Dollie Barnes @ The Heights Theater
Matt Mejia @ House of Blues
The New Offenders @ Cottonwood Houston