Believe it or not, I can remember the first time I heard The Smoking Popes. I was in college, and one afternoon I ran into a friend who was DJing at the college radio station, a friend who happened to be completely freaking out, ecstatic over this awesome, incredible song he’d just heard…
The fourth in my ongoing series of Caroline Sessions interviews; this one features Runaway Sun and Tim Qualls, along with the standard free BBQ and beer. It’s sure to be a great show with these two…
There’s an oddly back-of-the-bar vibe to Art Institute’s Second Audio Demon; by that I mean that it comes off like it’s music that’s meant for the crowd of twenty or so afficionados gathered in the dimly-lit space rather than the partiers up front…
I know I can tend to be overly effusive when it comes to reviewing music, especially from local musicians, so I’ve made a vow to be more exacting, more harsh — less Fresh Prince and more Samuel L. Jackson. And that’s going to happen right after this review…
There’s a nicely sludgy, grungy (or rather, grunge-y) feel to Mind Your Mind, the debut full-length from RIVERS; like a lot of bands from a decade or two ago, the band rides the line between bluesy rock and bass-heavy, Sabbath-y metal…
One of the problems with being a critic is watching the same stories over and over and over again, and however well told they might be, the lack of freshness can’t help but be a strike against them. This is especially true of light summer entertainment…
Those Tijerina boys just don’t quit, do they? They never seem to stop moving, always making music with one band or another — Charlie was in The Factory Party before this, while Pete was in Program, and Springfield Riots after that…
2006’s Food and Liquor prophetically announced the arrival of “the hip-hop generation’s next great vanguard”: Lupe Fiasco. While the rest of the world drenched themselves in the intoxicating and trite gibberish noisily spat of the mouths of Dem Franchize Boyz and Chamillionaire…
Yeah, I know I’m way, way behind on this one… For some reason, the debut 7″ from metal dudes Venomous Maximus has just taken a little while to grow on me. I’m not entirely sure why — this stuff is really and truly up my alley, especially lately…
I know I really should be fairly used to it by now, but for some reason, it still makes me scratch my head a little to hear sounds like this coming out of ultra-urban Brooklyn — sounds that are warm and rootsy and homespun, the kind that’d sound more at home heard through the swinging door of some rural honky-tonky outside of Huntsville…
The main plot of Rubber follows an old, used truck tire rolling down Route 66 encountering typical road-movie types: motel workers, a bored local kid, a local sheriff, and a sultry female in a vintage convertible…
Talk about a transformation. Back when I reviewed The Sour Notes’ Hot Pink Flares 7″, I noted that the band I was listening to was a far cry from the band I’d heard the first time I saw the Notes live, not even a full year before. They’d shifted directions…
Right from the faux-crowd noise intro of “Live in Ruin,” The Energy seem determined to live up to their name, in a big way — they literally barely stop for a breath throughout the rest of second full-length Get Split. The band operates less like an actual band…
New York City synth-pop, New Wave band Cold Cave returned this month with Cherish the Light Years, the follow-up to the band’s debut release Love Comes Close, both out on Matador Records…
More than anything else, Shilpa Ray And Her Happy Hookers’ Teenage and Torture makes me think of a dimly-lit, half-remembered night spent trawling through the seamy, sordid underbelly of some grimy, unnamed Big City, full of pain and lust and exploitation…
I could be completely off the mark, but when it come to live music, it’s always felt like Houston has been starved for choice. Maybe it’s the numerous venues that have been torn down to be replaced by generic bars, or maybe it’s the fallout from the Walter’s on Washington incident…
It’s funny what a little gender-flipping can do. I remember being bowled over when I first listened to Damone’s classic debut From the Attic, and then hitting the floor a second time when I learned that the songs were originally written by the band’s guitarist…
Pigeons, the sophomore album from Brooklyn-based indie-rock band Here We Go Magic, is a collection of experimental, sometimes trippy songs with unique, interesting sounds similar to a very toned-down Animal Collective…
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone to the HOB, and on this night, I remembered why. I hate the fact that there is nowhere to sit unless you are buying a drink at the bar, for one thing; also, the crowd doesn’t get as wild as it does at other venues…
Okay, so I thought the reason I was looking unshaven and scruffy when I rolled into The Mink on a Saturday night about a month ago was because I’d gotten rushed that week and just didn’t have time to mess with the beard…
Something Fierce is out to change the world. Not in any kind of end-world-hunger kind of way, mind you, but still, that’s the feeling I get after listening to Don’t Be So Cruel, the trio’s latest full-length. I mean, sure, they’ve always been about making things better in general…
“Come and watch the pretty lights!” exclaimed the 1966 Pink Floyd poster that inspired producer Derek Vincent Smith to name his electronic music project Pretty Lights in 2006. Four years later, after releasing the two-part Filling Up the City Skies…
The Caroline Sessions are doing some real good this weekend. Sunday (tomorrow) they’ll be hosting a Benefit for Japan at Caroline Collective, with funds going to the Red Cross. Plenty of bands and sponsors have volunteered their time, money, and effort…
Whoa. A gang of legendarily wild, tattooed, hard-drinking dudes from right here in H-town versus a similarly-tattooed, leather-clad trio from Austin, both of which I’ve heard insane party/show stories about? That’d be one hell of a brawl, right there…
Alright, so I’ve got to confess that I’ve got no fucking clue what the difference is between a mixtape and a “real” release, these days, except that (maybe?) you give the former away for free. I mean, look at Das Racist’s Sit Down, Man…
Look, I know definitions change. Hell, I work with words for a living, day in and day out — I’m well aware that a word can mean one thing and then shift into meaning something else. That doesn’t mean, however, that I have to like it…
Someone on this humble blog once called Rugz D Bewler’s “Super Bad” a “truly terrible” track; a song with fantastic minimalist beats that unfortunately “can’t polish lyrical shits” spewed out by Mr. Bewler. That opinionated writer was speaking of Ski Beatz’ 24 Hour Karate School…
Talk about your appropriately-named bands; Philadelphia duo Sun Airway (aka Jon Barthmus and Patrick Marsceill) hit every note it sounds like they should be hitting, from the name, swooping and soaring their way…
After several listens, I have to say that Country Mice’s Make Your Own Damn Fun 7″/EP wins the award for the most schizophrenic musical identity scattered across the fewest number of actual songs. A-side “A Good Old-Fashioned Barn Raising” starts deceptively…
If you squint, Sun Hotel’s Coast almost — almost — sounds like it emerged fully formed out of the Northern woods, full of Gibbard-y solemnity, Arcade Fire grandeur, and Moondoggies atmosphere. Dig deeper, though, and the vibe of the band’s Louisiana home bleeds…
For the second on-the-road Caroline Session, Melissa Savcic and File Under Jeff played last Sunday at the Spacetaker ARC. Despite the occasional interruption by a passing train, they both played solid sets…
At first blush, Austin band The Bright Light Social Hour’s self-titled debut would sound perfectly at home on just about any classic-rock station you can name, although unlike a lot of their retro-rock contemporaries, they don’t reach backwards to the Stones, Byrds, or Zeppelin…
It is really, truly a different age for making music, folks. Not to get all grandpa-like, but back when I was in a band — which wasn’t that long ago, honestly, in the grand scheme of things — I only knew one band who’d ever put together a video…
Okay, so I’m honestly not sure what this release is, really. I know SF-by-way-of-Canada electro-pop visionaries GOBBLE GOBBLE have two separate 7″s out right now, Wrinklecarver and Lawn Knives, and this pile of songs includes the title tracks of each…
I was never in marching band. It wasn’t that I hated the brass or snare or tuba, nothing like that — it’s just that I saw all those poor bastards practicing outside on the parking lot tarmac in the Texas afternoon heat, wearing those hideous, heavy woolen uniforms…
Cancer is no joking matter, but if we ever want to be closer to a cure, we need to first try a Linkin Park IV of Mike Shinoda synths and Chester Bennington vocals, with Joe Hahn‘s scratches, Rob Bourdon‘s drumming…
Back when Oxnard-based metalcore dudes The Warriors released their last album, Genuine Sense Of Outrage, I listened and mostly gave a shrug, pushing it off to the side as yet more hardcore-tinged metal pit filler…
This time I arrived at Warehouse Live right on time for the interview with Cory Brandan Putman, lead singer from Norma Jean. When I called the tour manager, he told us to come inside and hang out during sound check…
Facebook lies. That’s one of the main lessons I learned from the show a week or two ago at The Mink; I could swear the Facebook invite said the doors would be at 8PM, but when a friend and I rolled in at 8:30 or so…
What is it about Canada and its proclivity for musical collectives? Black Mountain is yet another, based in Vancouver, with a large regular lineup (check) and an even bigger group of people on records (check). But unlike a similar group who recently performed at the Grammy Awards…
