The relationship between sound and pictures is fascinating to me; it seems counterintuitive to think these two, seemingly disparate sensory pieces would fit together so tightly, would mesh together so well. And yet, they do…
Written on December 15, 2017 | Posted in
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Earlier this spring, some truly devastating news broke that Christian Kidd, founder, singer, songwriter, and guitarist for The Hates, Houston’s longest-running punk band, a band that’s been around since the late ‘70s…
Written on June 14, 2017 | Posted in
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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…
Written on June 2, 2017 | Posted in
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Once, there was a band called Featherface. They were awesome, an intense, thoughtful blast of fuzzy psych-pop goodness. They toured, played SXSW, moved up to Austin, made some trippy, strange videos, got some cool press, and then…poof, they were gone. Before what turned out to be their last-ever show…
Written on September 30, 2016 | Posted in
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The Wheel Workers are a Houston mainstay, with three albums already under their belts since 2011 (and one on the way), but for anyone outside of Texas, they are criminally not as well-known, despite their obvious greatness. So how does a band go about getting the word out? They hit the road for a six-date tour…
Written on July 8, 2016 | Posted in
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In preparation for their appearance Sunday, June 5th, over at NRG Park for Free Press Summer Festival 2016, SCR sat down to throw some questions at Blake Miller, frontman of L.A. band Moving Units.
Written on June 5, 2016 | Posted in
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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…
Written on June 3, 2016 | Posted in
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Frog Hair is JJ White (Drillbox Ignition, Dizzy Pilot) abusing a guitar, singing lead, and doing most of the songwriting. It was previously a two-piece (literally one guitar and one drum), and for their first demos, which recall the earliest, fuzziest Pixies…
Written on March 6, 2016 | Posted in
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The last time I chatted with Craig Kinsey — “The Reverend,” as many people know him — he was working on a novel. He’s a man I consider with great respect to be the Godfather of the Houston Americana Music Scene, and back in 2012 he was living in a sweet little 1920s Montrose-area apartment. Since then he’s moved on to a gorgeous 1950s mid-century modern apartment…
Written on July 25, 2014 | Posted in
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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…
Written on June 1, 2014 | Posted in
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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…
Written on May 31, 2014 | Posted in
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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…
Written on May 30, 2014 | Posted in
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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…
Written on May 27, 2014 | Posted in
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Art is reinvention; at least, it should be, if everything’s working like it’s meant to. Sometimes, though, that reinvention can catch us observer-type people completely by surprise. Like, say, when SCR learned that You(genious)…
Written on January 25, 2014 | Posted in
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From tomorrow, Saturday, November 23rd, through Sunday, November 24th, downtown Houston will once again play host to one of the coolest, most unique street festivals this city sees out of a fairly big pile of events each year…
Written on November 23, 2013 | Posted in
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Jeoaf Johnson and I go back a few years, to his days as a sound-man at The Mink club on Main Street. As a sound-man, he was friendly and hard-working and known for getting a lot of sound out of a very cheap and temperamental sound system. As a drummer…
Written on September 12, 2013 | Posted in
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Travis Starnes charts the complete chronology of Marvel Comics on his Website and in his podcast, The Complete Marvel Reading Order (CMRO). He strikes an informative and entertaining balance, with assistance from his brother…
Written on June 27, 2013 | Posted in
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My, how time flies! Looking through my articles and posts for Space City Rock, I realized that it’s been a long time since I’ve done a Musician to Musician interview. It’s not that I’ve interviewed everyone I’ve wanted to. It’s just that life took over…
Written on May 30, 2013 | Posted in
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Once upon a time, Houston hip-hop was a secret. Beyond a couple of well-known names like the Geto Boys or UGK (who, hell, were actually from Port Arthur), nobody outside of the immediate Houston/Beaumont area had any…
Written on April 20, 2013 | Posted in
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Sometimes, all I really want to do is rock the hell out. I just want to hear guitars, bass, drums, and yelling/singing, all loud as fuck, with distortion that’s just enough to not be metal, rough-edged vocals, and a solid, pump-your-fist rhythm…
Written on March 1, 2013 | Posted in
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Long, long ago, yours truly was in a band. We weren’t all that good, I’m saddened to admit, but we played some shows, recorded some songs, and had a blast for a while there. We found ourselves part of this amazing little scene and played, a lot of the time, only for ourselves…
Written on February 22, 2013 | Posted in
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Once upon a time, somebody sent me a CD. I was a little reluctant to give it a listen at first, honestly, because at the time it seemed like I’d been inundated with folky female singer/songwriters, and hey, it sure looked like yet another one of those…
Written on December 25, 2012 | Posted in
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For some bands, the only real goal they have in mind, ultimately, is the music equivalent of The Big Score. They want the mythical perfect record deal, where somebody’ll just throw money at them to make music, and they never have to worry about working again…
Written on December 15, 2012 | Posted in
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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…
Written on September 28, 2012 | Posted in
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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…
Written on September 28, 2012 | Posted in
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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…
Written on September 27, 2012 | Posted in
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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…
Written on September 13, 2012 | Posted in
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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…
Written on August 24, 2012 | Posted in
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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…
Written on August 14, 2012 | Posted in
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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…
Written on August 14, 2012 | Posted in
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I usually do these interviews by email, but when Craig Kinsey of the Sideshow Tramps invited me over to talk in person, it was a hard assignment to resist. For several years now, I’ve been wondering how Craig Kinsey and his Sideshow Tramps…
Written on July 25, 2012 | Posted in
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I had been hearing about Venomous Maximus for a couple years. From the name, I’d expected an all-out blitz of Slayer-type metal, a type of music that I have no interest in whatsoever. However, when they shared the Bryan/College Station Loudfest…
Written on July 2, 2012 | Posted in
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Free Press Summerfest 2012 is here! You can already smell the sweet, aromatic mix of beer, B.O., sun block, and swamp ass so unique to outdoor festivals in Houston. But before you plan on skipping out on the daytime acts (you know you thought about it), think about what this festival is really about…
Written on May 31, 2012 | Posted in
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For this installment of SCR‘s Musician to Musician interview series, we sit down and chat with newcomers New York City Queens, who burst onto the scene last fall fully-formed, with full-length Somewhere Different, Somewhere New already in hand…
Written on March 16, 2012 | Posted in
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Holy Fiction is a rare kind of band — they’ve got influences, to be sure, but at the end of the day, they sound like nobody but themselves. They’re the sort of band other bands get compared to; they’ve managed to craft a sound that rides the line…
Written on February 3, 2012 | Posted in
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While Jealous Creatures are not going to surprise anyone with a brand-new unique sound, they write songs that can sit up on the shelf next to some of the biggest and best classic rock songwriters. The band consists of singer/rhythm guitarist Sarah Hirsch…
Written on January 13, 2012 | Posted in
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The Manichean are one of Houston’s bands on the rise. They first got onto my radar a few years ago, when I went and saw them at one of those hodgepodge showcases The Meridian was known for, and their brand of drama-rock was an instant success to me…
Written on December 22, 2011 | Posted in
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When I stumbled across post-emo rockers Adelaine a year or so ago, the band almost sounded too good to be true, honestly. I mean, c’mon; how could I not like a band that melds melodic-yet-heavy, very emo-influenced guitar rock…
Written on December 2, 2011 | Posted in
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The Dead Revolt have quickly evolved into my favorite Houston band. They take cues from so many of my all-time favorite bands — Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Yes, and At The Drive-In, to name a few. And they do it all with just three extremely talented individuals…
Written on December 1, 2011 | Posted in
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I have seen The Wheel Workers three times in the past year. They are relatively neglected by the Houston music media, but hopefully I can begin to change that. There’s something about them that screams, “we should be on tour opening for The Decemberists”…
Written on November 3, 2011 | Posted in
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