The Wild Moccasins
Late, late, late on this one, as always. The Wild Moccasins have been steadily been making a name for themselves for quite a while now, and they just keep getting better and better as they go…
Balaclavas
Okay, so I’ve needed to add Balaclavas to this here list for a long time now. Beyond the perennial culprits that are my general laziness and slowness, there’re a couple of outside factors to blame…
The Literary Greats
The most maddening thing about rootsy pop/rock guys The Literary Greats is just how sneaky they are. They stroll through song after song (three albums’ worth, since 2007) like they’re just there to have fun, smiling the whole damn time…
Scale The Summit
Most of the time, when I hear about a Houston band that’s got some promise or already sounds pretty cool, it starts small. I’ll hear a song or two online somewhere, or see their set at a festival or something…
Muhammad Ali
One of the best rock bands in town right now, Muhammad Ali (also spelled variously “MUHAMMADALi” or “Muhammadali”) are at first glance just this raw, noisy, messy force of nature, howling and hammering away at their instruments to create a furious squall…
Lisa’s Sons
I’ll admit that I wasn’t real sure about these guys the first time I caught ’em. The two “Sons,” Stefan Mach and Jordan Brady, climbed onstage to stand in front of a modest bank of keyboards and samplers, then dove headlong into a primary-colored, synth-heavy, freakishly earnest, sugary-sweet pop explosion…
Written on November 29, 2009 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
American Fangs
Oh, yes. American Fangs are really-truly one of the best damn things going in this city right now — they’re a rock band, to be sure, equal parts punk, alt-rock, and metal, with an added streetwise edge that makes them pretty freaking unique…
B L A C K I E
Hip-hop as full-on, break-your-skull assault; that’s what B L A C K I E (all caps, w/spaces) is all about, at least sonically speaking. The one-man show behind the hoodie, Michael Lacour, spits rhymes over beats he’s cobbled together from Cat Stevens and Abba samples…
the last place you look
It’s funny, but I looking back I can say with certainty that I never would’ve predicted where these guys ended up. Long, long ago, guitarist Richard Sherwood and vocalist Justin Nava used to be in a very cool, awesomely promising funk-rock band…
Written on May 27, 2009 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
The Born Liars
I don’t really know why I waffled on these guys as long as I did — I’d been hearing great, great stuff about the Born Liars for a couple of years, but I’d always kind of shrugged and blew ’em off. I’d liked frontman/guitarist/singer Jimmy Sanchez (who apparently also writes all the songs) in his […]
The Suspects
Back again, once is the incredible…yes, it’s true — The Suspects are back & rejuvenated. Hep, hep, hep… The band broke up for several years there, after nearly a decade of full-on old-school ska, and man, was I bummed. The band had hit some rocky points, due to some personnel shakeups and a general lack of time…
The Mathletes
I love pop. Honest, I really, truly do — I do the dark-and-dour thing, too, but few things make me happy like a well-crafted, intelligent, quirky pop song. Which explains, frankly, why I dig The Mathletes so damn much. In spite of all protestations to the contrary…
Written on January 1, 2009 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Blackmarket Syndicate
These guys have relatively quickly managed to become one of my favorite cruising-in-the-car bands, based pretty much solely on the strength of their debut full-length, Why Do We Even Try?. Which doesn’t happen all that often, I have to say…
Written on December 23, 2008 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Something Fierce
Damn. I just can’t say enough things about these crazy kids. You wouldn’t think it to look at ’em, but when this little threesome picks up their instruments, their brand of catchy, bitterly tuneful, raw-but-not-messy garage-rock just plain knocks me off my feet…
Written on December 23, 2008 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Sharks and Sailors
Holy fucking shit. I can’t believe it’s taken me this damn long to put these folks on this little page. Why? To put it bluntly, because they’re probably the best indie-rock band in town right now; no offense to the many, many other talented bands doing their thing here in H-town, but Sharks and Sailors are truly something else…
Young Mammals
Damn, that energy is incredible. It took me a while to really get into Young Mammals (formerly known as The Dimes, before some punk-ass bunch of Oregonians threatened ’em over the name), but after finally getting to see them full-force at the Houston Press Awards showcase…
Written on August 26, 2008 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
The Tontons
I know it’s the height of cliché to declare that some band’s sound is “unique,” but damn it, that’s where I’m at with The Tontons. They really, truly sound like no other band I know, whether you’re talking about Houston or parts further afield. The band meshes together heavy, head-nodding psychedelic rock…
Written on July 14, 2008 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
listenlisten
I know, I know — I’m slow on this one. Did an actual interview with these guys, and yet it takes me this long to actually get ’em up here? Sad, sad, sad…. Especially so because listenlisten (or LISTEN!LISTEN!, apparently) is one of the absolute leading lights of Houston’s undersung…
Written on July 14, 2008 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
By the End of Tonight
Against all odds, yes, this quartet from the rural down-home-iness of Alvin (just south of H-town) has turned into one of the city’s few true indie success stories. They sent off their self-reeased A Letter to the Sandbox EP off to hipster-cred haven Temporary Residence Limited…
Written on July 13, 2008 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
georgia’s Horse.
I’m breathing a sigh of relief on this one; when I finally downloaded a track or two from the band’s MySpace site, I was utterly bowled over…only to discover that they’d broken up not long before. Ah, crap… Luckily for me, they appear to once again be back together…
Written on July 13, 2008 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Buxton
Straight out of LaPorte, out in the Houston ‘burbs, comes some of the coolest mostly-acoustic music you’re likely to hear this side of Austin. Buxton are one of a small handful of indie-folk bands in town who’ve taken the current folk idiom and pulled it backwards to an earlier time…
Written on February 3, 2008 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
The Gold Sounds
These three guys came out of nowhere, both with respect to yours truly and actual geography — they’re right out of Deer Park, on the edge of the ever-scenic Houston Ship Channel, and the first I heard of ’em besides their name came in the form of a self-released CDEP and DVD they sent in…
Written on February 3, 2008 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Latch Key Kids
Hot damn, they’re back together… Nearly a decade after they split up, the Latch Key Kids are back together — older, wiser, and hopefully just as good as they were back in the day. I can’t say what they sound like this time ’round, but the old stuff cool California-style hardcore punk…
Written on January 29, 2008 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
The Linus Pauling Quartet
Long time coming, this one. Six freakin’ albums in, and I’ve finally been sucked in by the LP4’s heavy-ass, sludgy brand of psych-rock. Their latest, All Things Are Light, is what really hammered it home for me, honestly — it’s got fuzz thick enough to slice and spread on toast…
Written on January 7, 2008 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Piano Vines
Yeah, I’ve been fully intending on putting these folks on here for a while, but I held off in the foolish hope that I’d either eventually A) get to see ’em live or B) manage to glom onto an actual CD. Neither of which, unfortunately, have happened. That’s partly my own damn fault, obviously…
Written on December 31, 2007 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Hearts of Animals
With Hearts of Animals, singer/songwriter Mlee Marie Suprean has managed to create something very cool and unique, at least within our insular little Houston scene. I mean, we’ve got a metric ton of folkies with guitars, enough to re-populate Lilith Fair several times over, but Suprean’s thrown the whole idea on its head…
Written on December 17, 2007 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Ryan Scroggins and the Trenchtown Texans
I was depressed as hell to hear that the seemingly indestructible Los Skarnales had finally called it a day, but I have to admit that I’m damn happy to see what’s come out of the wreckage. It seems like nearly every member of the band has gone on to form another band; it’s like they’re the Rodan of Houston ska, seriously…
Written on October 3, 2007 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
I-45
Yeah, yeah, I should’ve put these guys up here long ago…oh, well — they’re up here now, alright? Anyway, the mysterious duo/trio known as I-45 (Tripp Von Slipp, Tech Ron B., aka Techronious, and either DJ Rudy Martinez 2000 in the early days or DJ Destro more recently) happen to be one of the few…
Written on October 2, 2007 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Jana Hunter
Yes, Matty & Mossy is unfortunately dead and gone, its members scattered to the four winds, but thankfully, vocalist/guitarist Jana Hunter is still making music, now out on her lonesome. These days it’s just her, a guitar, and a Mini-Disc full of backing tracks…
Written on October 2, 2007 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
The Phlegmatics
Man, there are too damn few bands in town like this; most rock bands that try to be funny seem to do so at the expense of the actual music, instead throwing lame jokes at half-assed punk tunes or faux-hardcore posturing. Which is a damn shame, because The Phlegmatics manage to fit in both sarcastic, self-deprecating humor…
Written on September 27, 2007 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Tody Castillo
Yep, another one I’ve been very, very remiss in listing. Actually, Tody was on this very page once, what seems like a really freakin’ long time ago — he fronted a band called Tody and the Royals, who put out one excellent, excellent tape…
Indian Jewelry
I’ll be as up-front as I can as to the reason why I’ve neglected to put Indian Jewelry, or Swarm of Angels, or NTX + Electric, or NTX + Erika Thrasher, or Nikki Texas up here: I have no freakin’ idea how to describe ’em. All these bands (they’ve also gone by the names Corpses of Waco, Turquoise Diamonds…
Written on May 22, 2007 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Co-Pilot
I’ve been very remiss in putting these guys up here, especially since I’ve had a handful of their songs on my iPod for, what?, a year now? (Guys, are you ever going to put up any new tracks on the MySpace page? Please? I know they were promised at the end of Feb., but I sure haven’t seen anything new)…
Written on May 9, 2007 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Miss Leslie and Her Juke-Jointers
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere here, I can’t stand most country. Despite (or maybe because of, in fact) spending my life from middle school onwards in Texas, I’ve managed to always save a special sort of loathing for the “country,” at least, that I grew up with…
Written on April 4, 2007 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
The Western Civilization
Whoa. I should probably note straight off that I never-never-never put bands up on this list merely on the strength of a couple of MySpace songs. (Well, almost never, anyway.) I usually try to at least see a band before I put ’em in here, just because, well, that’s been my general rule…
Written on March 10, 2007 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Bright Men of Learning
Okay, so here’s the (basic) scoop: Bright Men of Learning frontguy Marshall Preddy used to front a band called the Wholesome Rollers back in the day. They fell apart, so he formed another band, called telluride. They got sued by two country bands from the ’70s, so they became Chasmatic, figuring (rightly?) that the safest […]
Written on February 22, 2007 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Devin The Dude
Who would’ve guessed you could build a whole damn career rapping about weed? I’ve got to give it to H-town MC Devin “The Dude” Copeland, though — he’s definitely got his subject matter down. Of all the tracks I’ve heard, only a handful have anything to do with something other than herb…
Cameron Dezen
First off, I should say that I’m not generally a fan of female singer/songwriters. I don’t know why, really; maybe it’s because the majority that I’ve heard seem to be either too saccharine-sweet or overly arty, one or the other…
Written on November 16, 2005 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
Arthur Yoria
Okay, so this is embarrassing. Not only is H-town rocker/all-around nice guy Arthur Yoria undoubtedly one of the best singer/songwriters in the city, but we’ve even done an interview with him…and yet I’ve somehow neglected to put him up here…
Written on November 10, 2005 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
The Handsomes
Y’know, I hate to say it, but I wasn’t expecting much from these guys when I first saw ’em. I walked into a club packed wall-to-wall with over-dyed bimbos and beefy guys who looked like they were trying really hard to ignore the fact that they were edging into middle age…
Written on November 9, 2005 | Posted in Bands | Leave a comment
