If you happen to live under an actual rock, you might not have been aware that Houston’s music (and journalism) world is currently on fire, largely because a major player in that scene, Omar Afra, the Free Press Houston CEO, head honcho of famed music/art festival Day for Night, and co-founder of the sadly-departed Free Press Summer Festival, has been accused of sexual assault by at least two women…
Alright, so by now you’d have to be pretty damn out-of-touch to not know that the much-loved/much-derided summertime Houston music festival known variously as FPSF, Free Press Summer Fest, or just Summerfest is no more. In its place (kind of) is In Bloom. The revamped/rebranded festival is now not in the summer (hence the “kind of”) but will instead be happening in the springtime, on Saturday & Sunday, March 24th & 25th, at the ever-awesome Eleanor Tinsley Park just west of Downtown…
Well…wow. I’ve been behind on Houston-related music news lately, it’s true, but out of all of it, this definitely takes the cake. We got word this morning that our city’s iconic nine-year-old music festival, alternately known as Free Press Summer Festival, FPSF, or Summerfest, is changing in a fairly big way…
Now that the floodwaters have receded (mostly), and things have finally started to cool down (temporarily), we figured it was way past time to look backwards to happier days (again, mostly), namely to this past summer’s FPSF, back when we didn’t know who in the hell “Harvey” was, we weren’t all experts at ripping out drywall…
It began with a screwup. On my part, mind you, nobody else’s. Before I get to that, though, there’re some things that need to be said about FPSF, aka The Festival Formerly Known As Free Press Summer Festival…
And now, here we go with what’ll most likely be our last installment of the random previews thing we do every year for FPSF (aka Free Press Summer Festival, although these days it’s minus the “Free Press” part), which will be happening starting tomorrow…
If I were to have to write up a list of the most absolutely intriguing bands to ever come from the Houston scene, well, it’d probably be a fairly long list, but also, Khruangbin would be up there near the top…
Here we are, again, back with another randomly-chosen look at the bands and musicians who’ll be up at Eleanor Tinsley Park (hopefully) on the edge of Downtown this weekend — Saturday, June 3rd, and Sunday, June 4th — for the musical festival-type thing known as FPSF…
Alright, people — we’re doing this, dammit. If this feels like it’s getting off to a late start, well, it kind of is, partly because we here at SCR have been having to shift focus to and from all the other festivals going on around here lately, and that’s pushed this back a bit…
With FPSF 2017 less than a week away, it occurred to me that over the eight years this festival’s been alive and kicking, I’ve been fortunate enough to witness some really, truly awesome bands and musicians. So I thought it might be cool to trawl back through memories…
It’s that time in H-town’s musical year when it feels like the festivals just keep popping up left and right and left again, y’know what I mean? Hell, we’ve already had a couple slide by, namely Houston Whatever Fest and The Munchies Picnik…
I’ve gotta be honest: I was skeptical that White Oak Music Hall, the new purpose-built venue for local music-promotion icons Pegstar, was ever going to really materialize. Ever since the new venue was announced a little over a year ago…
First Thing #1: Apologies for my slowness in getting this online; as happens with the whole having-kids thing, summertime means not only Free Press Summer Festival, but also Vacation Time…
First off, I’m very saddened to learn of FPSF attendee Megan Tilton‘s death. It makes reviews like this seem very trivial. I am praying for her family and hope they get to the bottom of the story of how she passed on…
I don’t know his name. He was just a random fat guy in an extra, extra, extra large t-shirt that read “Clinton Lewinsky 2016” and had some crude carnal phrase in smaller print below that. He was wearing a Donald Trump baseball cap that may have said “make America great again”…
And here we are, the day before Free Press Summer Festival 2016 truly kicks off (Sat., June 4th, & Sun., June 5th, over at the mercilessly flat, heat-reflecting NRG Park Yellow Lot), back with another (and probably final) pile of previews…
I didn’t get King Finn‘s music at first. I am a graybeard. Think: Van Halen posters and Flying V guitars. The oldest guy in this band was born after I’d crashed my first Mustang. So admittedly, this all begins with a little butt-sniffing, and finding common ground on what it means to be in a rock band in modern-day America…
Hey, all — sorry for the delay on Round Two of the preview-y-type things for this year’s Free Press Summer Festival, but I was knocked down flat the past 24 hours with a nasty (and hopefully quick) bout of the flu. While I’m feeling somewhat better now, I don’t remember much from about 9PM yesterday to 5PM today…
And now, with less than a week to go before Free Press Summer Festival 2016 hits, here we are with our annual bunch of randomly-ordered writeups of as many of the 66 or so bands/musicians playing as we can pack in over the course of the next several days. Some of ’em we already know and love, and some we absolutely don’t, but hopefully by the time FPSF kicks off, you (and us, too) will know who to make sure to catch and who you can skip…
Yep, believe it or not, Free Press Summer Festival, aka “Houston’s Best-Loved, Best-Known, Most-Bitched-About Music Festival” (depending on who you are), is right around the freaking corner. If you live under a rock — and this year? I feel like I’ve been living under a damn rock…
Oh, yes. Ever since the very first-ever Free Press Summer Fest hit this city, there’s been grumbling and griping out there (and from me right here, it’s true) about why in the sweet fuck did Omar Afra and his Free Press Houston crew decide to schedule their big-ass music fest for the hottest part of the H-town summer? And could we please-please-please make it “Fallfest” or “Winter Fest” or something?…
I’m still recovering from this past weekend’s absolutely insane Free Press Summer Festival 2015 — and yes, it’s going to be a long recovery, ’cause dammit, I’m old — but in the meantime I thought it might be enlightening to dump out the trusty old backpack and see what the hell’s in there. I figure that, hey, I do alright at this “festival” thing, so you might get some enlightment from the unpacking process. Learn from me, my children, and be wise. Or something…
At long last, my friends, here we are, standing on the precipice before the steady collapse into heat-induced delerium and music-induced euphoria that accompanies every Free Press Summer Festival just as surely as the sun rises every morning. It’s gonna hurt, yes, but you’ll love it just the same…
Annnnnd here we are, once again, with the third installment of SCR‘s forever(?)-annual FPSF rundown deal, where Jason Smith and Jeremy Hart yammer and gush about a randomly-selected pile of bands that just so happen to be playing this coming Saturday, June 6th, and Sunday, June 7th, over at the festival’s backup venue…
Yup, we’re back again, as promised, with Part II of our yearly rundown/preview thing of as many of the bands playing at this year’s (and weekend’s, June 6th & 7th) FPSF as our intrepid writers Jeremy Hart and Jason Smith can cram into their respective earholes before it’s go-time and they have to trek out […]
Yes, it’s that time. Time to once again brave the blistering Houston summer heat, damage our eardrums, get our favorite t-shirts filthy (Pro Tip: Do not wear your favorite t-shirt.), spend a shit-ton of money, listen to a lot of awesome music, nearly pass out a few times, high-five friends, smile at some very cool […]
Annnnnnd there we are, folks; the balloon has gone up, at long last. The good people in charge of the Free Press Summer Festival (aka FPSF) have released the big-ass pile of names playing this year’s festival. A whole bunch of it makes me excited, some of it makes me shrug, and a bit of it makes me scratch my head and say, “really?” Overall, though, I’m pretty happy with what’s on the menu. In terms of the big names on the list, the ones I like the best are Skrillex, St. Vincent, Belle and Sebastian(squee!…
Alright, people — it’s officially begun. The blind pre-sale for FPSF 2015 (aka the Free Press Summer Festival) is now open, as of about 15 minutes ago, and tickets are already going insanely fast. They’re out of the first three tiers of General Admission tickets, and the cheapest tier of the Fancy Pants tickets…
Outside the gates of FPSF 2014 were members of the Communist Party of America passing out one-sheet pamphlets and issuing their warnings. Outside the gates were Wu-Tang Fans, too poor or too smart to enter…
I’ve been a fanatic fan of a singer named Jimmy Gnecco for 15 years now. Gnecco is the singer of the band OURS that made its debut back in 1999 with Distorted Lullabies and has done four albums plus a Jimmy Gnecco solo album…
Okay, y’all — after a week of randomly-selected previews (see here, here, and here, plus interviews with {Venomous Maximus} and {New York City Queens} here and here (and there’s a more to come on that front), we’re nearly there…
In the six years or so I have been following The Tontons, I’ve seen them play at least two dozen times, but I’ve never actually sat down to interview any of their band members…
In our preparation for Space City Rock‘s coverage of FPSF 2014, I realized that New York City Queens were holed up in the studio tracking their third LP, tentatively titled Glass House, set for release this fall. What a great chance for me to make an excuse to sneak in to hear some tracks in progress…
Yes, yes, yes. We’re on Part 3 of our rundown series (here’s Part 2 and Part 1) for this year’s Free Press Summer Festival…
Howdy, all — back again with Part 2 of this year’s previews/rundowns/whatevers for Free Press Summer Festival, which will be exploding this coming weekend, Sat., May 31st, and Sun., June 1st, in the sweaty, muddy, noise-filled bowl formerly known as Eleanor Tinsley Park (i.e., just west of the big pointy parts of Downtown)…
It’s 5:00PM on a Sunday, and I may have woken Gregg Higgins from Venomous Maximus. He won’t say. “Sometimes I don’t even know what day it is, either,” he adds, almost seeming to brag…
Yes, friends, it’s time. Well, almost time. This year’s Free Press Summer Festival is approaching fast, a mere handful of days away, and yeah, passes are running out — don’t be stuck like last year, when the whole damn thing sold out, right? I haven’t seen word yet that there are no more passes available, but odds are pretty good it’ll happen, seriously…
Yes, yes, yes, yes. The kind folks who run the Free Press Summer Festival popped up today, less than a month before this year’s festival kicks off (Saturday, May 31st, & Sunday, June 1st), to release two very, very awesome things: the official schedule for the festival and the mobile app for the festival…
BOOM, there we go. After several months of anxious waiting from us out here in the Houston music world, the organizers of the Free Press Summer Festival (FPSF, for short) just released the official lineup for this year’s festival. And yes, it’s looking pretty damn good…
I’m supposed to be on vacation! And here it is July, and I’m finally finding time to write about my Free Press Summer Festival experience. Right after FPSF I headed out on an incredible California and Oregon trip to surprise my sister for her birthday, as well as see…
