Okay, so the writeups I’ve seen for New Jerseyans River City Extension make a big deal about how the band’s the only band to ever be asked to play both the Newport Folk Festival and the Vans Warped Tour, but…
On Saturday, September 29th, 2012, the eclectic and intriguing Florence + the Machine returned to Houston for the second time this year. I was lucky enough to have been able to attend both shows, the first having been at the Bayou Music Center (fka Verizon Theatre) back in May…
“Your great pal Jason Smith has deferred me to you, and you are now approved to shoot Incubus and Linkin Park.” This was the news I awoke to on the morning of August 25th, 2012, a day that forever changed…
There’s a wonderful, jaw-dropping intensity, not to mention a full-throated confidence, to Animal Joy, the latest full-length from Austin’s Shearwater. The same core people may be at the reins — frontman Jonathan Meiburg…
I first came across Goodnight Neverland when they were coming to The Mink on a national tour. I went online to see what the band out of Clearwater, Florida, was about; little did I know that that search would deliver me my top band of 2012…
Here’s how the story of The Static Sea unfolds: There once was a man who didn’t know what to do with his life, so he became a fisherman because it seemed noble enough. As he went out to sea one day, he fell overboard…
It’s hard to listen to Balmorhea’s new full-length, Stranger, and not think of other things. I’m talking partly about other bands, obviously — there’s a whole heck of a lot of resemblance to fellow Austin instro-rockers Explosions…
God, I would have loved to have been in the pitch meeting for this thing. “Okay, so it’s like The Terminator, right? Except John Connor’s the bad guy, and the Terminator’s target is himself. Oh, and people can move shit with their minds…
And on we go… The big day is fast approaching — Saturday, September 29th is the date of the bound-to-be-cool !Yes Indeed! Music Fest, so we’re back again with third installment of this little SCR Tiger Beat writeup thing…
Here we are again, with the second installment of our SCR Tiger Beat Q&A with bands and musicians playing at this Saturday‘s much-heralded (and rightly so) !Yes Indeed! Music Fest up in downtown…
Regardless of how you may feel about The Shins, odds are good that you at least know who they are. They’re one of those bands that I feel became popular because of Zach Braff, who really is somebody that I wouldn’t go to for music advice…
As we mentioned a short while back, this coming Saturday, September 29th, marks the debut of !Yes Indeed! Music Fest. It’s up in Downtown…
The 2012 Rockstar Energy UPROAR Festival arrived in The Woodlands like a travelling circus of hard rock and metal music. Unlike the skater-punk vibe of the Vans Warped Tour, this tour is decidedly mainstream nu-metal and hard rock…
While I thoroughly enjoyed Roanoke, Virginia, trio (well, then still a duo) Eternal Summers’ debut album Silver, I remember thinking that the album was more of a stepping stone for what would come next…
The more I listen to We Are The Seventy Ones, the more it feels like it’s both an album out of its time and one that’s just right for right now. Better still, it’s damn sneaky about it. See, it took me a little while to realize…
Okay, so let’s say you’re in an indie-rock band. (I mean, c’mon, isn’t everybody, these days?) If you do, well, you owe Boston punk experimentalists Mission of Burma a big, big debt. I know that sounds like a pretty far-fetched blanket statement…
When you’re as confident as George Lewis Jr., life must not present much of a challenge. After all, how difficult are things for Lewis when the desire to picture an “attractive male on the cover of [his] album” is fulfilled with a glamour shot of himself?…
First off, let me confess that I’ve loved this album since the very first note, and here’s why: Future of the Left combines the sound of many of my favorite bands. In any particular song, I can hear something like System of a Down without the metal, Sex Pistols and…
I know this’ll sound weird, but go with me on it, okay? There’s this great, great feeling of downtrodden world-weariness to David Ramirez’s Apologies, one that infuses every track, even the more upbeat, more overtly roots-rock-y songs like “Stick Around” or “Mighty Fine.” Ramirez sings like a man who’s been broken down by the very life he’s chosen, roaming from place to place to place, never really finding a place of his own to hold onto…
You’ve gone to one electronic music festival, you’ve gone to them all, right? Naaah. Yes, superficially it might seem as though they seem to imitate one another — an echoing hard electronic beat here, a neon tutu and furry leg warmers there, perhaps…
The title track of Keith Sewell’s album The Way of a Wanderer can be seen as a declaration of purpose for this singer, songwriter, and musician. In creating the album, he chose to play most of the instruments himself, infusing bluegrass melodies…
With Shut Up!, Black Pistol Fire has delivered a five-song EP that is the songs of Little Richard, only with their BPF sort-of punk rock sound added into the chorus. Confession: whenever I get music, I never actually read the press release. Well, sometimes I do…
If you listen closely enough to Actual Magic, the debut full-length from Houston-based psych-pop band Featherface, you realize suddenly that the whole thing’s going in about eight different directions all at once. And yet, they’re subtle about it…
It’s funny, but I honestly figured it’d be the other way around. I figured I’d like the first album more than this little tossed-out EP. But I apparently had things backwards. I’d liked what I’d heard of Tyagaraja’s music in the past, and I was amazed a few years before…
Some old, some new, and the hell with what went before — that’s what I walk away with after listening to Weird Party’s “debut” full-length, “Hussy”. See, there’re several songs on here that have been floating around a while now…
Many moons ago, a mischievous gang of ninjas ravaged a young boy’s town, killing his parents and leaving the boy a homeless orphan. As the dawn broke and the smoke cleared, another, kinder gang of ninjas came to the aid of the boy, taking him in…
If your “music” absolutely must have melodies and sweetly-sung vocals and nice, clean production, well, you’re going to want to stay far, far the fuck away from P.L.X.T.X’s debut EP, TIME. If, on the other hand, you’re willing to listen to music that’s rough…
Whenever I hear the title MTV Unplugged, my first thought is always of the epic performance that Nirvana gave, which would go down as one of their greatest albums. While I may have at one point in time owned Eric Clapton Unplugged on cassette, I also had bootleg cassettes I taped…
I’ve been trying to figure out what to write about the Kiss/Mötley Crüe (with special guests The Treatment) concert I went to a few Friday nights ago at The Woodlands Pavilion. I was able to work out a photo pass…
I went in without a plan. It was stupid, in retrospect, but that’s how it happened. After meticulously plotting out who I was going to see and when for the past three installments of Free Press Summerfest, this year…
Yeah, I’ll admit it — those New York City Queens kids have charmed me, thoroughly and completely. I was skeptical of the band at first, and hell, I couldn’t even tell you why, but when they popped up, seemingly out of nowhere, and nonchalantly tossed their debut…
Eight or nine years ago, I wrote a negative review of a Doug Cheatwood album, and I’ve been hooked ever since. In 2004, I couldn’t wrap my head around it fast enough to write the review I wish I’d written…
If you’re not familiar with the guys over at PODiMOUTH, they have been working tirelessly over the last four years promoting our local music scene through their podcast…
Um. Whoa. I just finished listening to Guardian Alien’s new full-length, See the World Given to a One Love Entity, and I’m feeling a little overwhelmed, to the point where my head’s still spinning somewhat. Give me a second…
I’m an old-timer. It’s true; I’m that weird older guy you see at shows, the one still wearing the band t-shirt (my wife can attest to the fact that band shirts make up a significant chunk of my wardrobe) and trying, presumably, to seem young. I’m That Old Guy…
Friday afternoon, I got the email: “You are approved for a photo pass for tomorrow.” I had actually forgotten I’d asked for a photo pass to the 94.5 The Buzz Bud Light Weenie Roast, and I don’t remember why I asked, aside from the chance to practice photography…
At face value, it’s hard to view Memoryhouse’s debut LP as anything more than the generic musical expression of a subculture guided by the easily-digested values of Urban Outfitters or American Apparel. Maybe it’s the obscure photography jargon referenced in both the band’s name…
Okay, so this doesn’t happen real often… A little over a week ago, on Saturday, July 28th, we got word that Aaron Brown, one of our SCR writers and our de facto political blogger, had been arrested…
CAMPAIGN is a kick in the teeth. CAMPAIGN is about being over your head in debt, having to work a job that you hate just to put food on the table for an ungrateful wife and kids. CAMPAIGN is the face of the working class who are tired of being seen as working class…
It took me a few listens, I’ll admit it, to get Year Of The Witch, California band RACES’ debut full-length. The first time I threw it on, I mostly shrugged and said, “Next!,” putting something else on after barely a song and a half…
