And here I’ll bet you thought not a damn thing happened out there in the south-of-Houston ‘burbs… There’s a new group operating down in the Alvin ‘hood called On Your Feet Foundation, and they’ve started putting on shows at the Alvin Bowling Center (300 Motel Drive — in Alvin, obviously). Which is very good news […]
Cool one tomorrow evening… As part of Tuesday’s KTRU Local Show, host Ian has thrown down the glove to local destructo-hip-hop hero B L A C K I E, who’ll be doing an actual live set downstairs from the KTRU studios in the Rice Student Center courtyard while Ian channels it all live out onto the airwaves. If you can’t be […]
And behind Door No. 3… There’s a new music resource-type site starting up, called Indiehouston, and they seem pretty promising so far. Not a whole lot up there right now, but they’ve got a Myspace page up already. Of course, like any startup deal, they need a wee bit of help w/the financial end of […]
Aaaaaaaaand…if you’re not gonna be at Cactus tomorrow (again, Saturday, September 6th) but you still like A) good music and B) free beer, with the added benefit of C) good causes, you should head on over to The Orange Show for their Foam Raiser party in partnership with — wait for it — St. Arnold’s! […]
In dates a bit further afield… I heard the rumor a while back myself (in the Press‘s own Music Awards coverage, I believe) that long-gone ska heroes The Suspects were reuniting, and not just for some one-off show like they’ve done the past couple of years. I was a wee bit skeptical, so when rhythm […]
Think you’re metal? Think you’re one hard-ass motherfucker? Nope. You’re just a pussy wannabe compared to these guys. I mean, have you ever started a riot because somebody proclaimed that Rob Halford is the best metal singer ever? Didn’t think so. Slayer Mob rules! These guys are like Heavy Metal Parking Lot gone batshit-crazy. Vice, […]
Well, at Cactus Music, at least; this coming Saturday, September 16th (from 1-5PM), Cactus is hosting its first-ever Mia Kat Empire Day, focused on the award-winning-est local label in town, they of the tyrannical-yet-lovable cat. And seeing as they’re an actual record label that puts out actual music, yeah, it kinda makes some sense that […]
This may not mean a whole lot to some of the folks who read this, but I did a total double-take when I happened to glance up at the Numbers sign the other night, on my way in to that epic Recession Thursdays show: 10/18 Alison Moyet. Wha? My wife happens to be a huge […]
Well, it has been 24 hours, sufficient enough to reflect on the experience that was Rock The Bayou 2008. This was the inaugural event for the Houston version of the highly successful Rocklahoma. A 4-day musical orgy featuring the bands that flooded MTV screens with images of L.A. bands knee deep in spandex and hair […]
Lame-ass attempt at hip-hop lingo aside, this past week’s Recession Thursday deal at Numbers turned out to be pretty freakin’ awesome. I managed to drag along coworker and fellow music snob Jowell, forcing him to haul his ass all the way in from the Heights, and we both walked away stunned & amazed. (Some pics […]
Dang, what’s with these freakin’ postponings & cancellations? Argh. I got a note a few days ago about The Wild Moccasins playing at Caroline Collective as part of the artspace’s “Final Fridays” microcinema screenings, and it sounded very, very neat…except that when I go to the CC site today, lo and behold, the damn thing’s […]
That’s a hell of a lineup, right there, one mighty enough that yes, yours truly will attempt to drag his sorry ass off the couch this evening (although the thought of watching Dragon’s Den with the wife is sorely tempting) and rock out up at Numbers. This is part of the Free Press Recession Thursdays […]
Got a recent note from John of local power-pop/punk trio Teenage Kicks about new songs they’ve got up on their Myspace, saying that we SCR folks were apparently among a select few who really liked the band’s demo earlier this year. And frankly, that’s fucking ridiculous, because these three guys craft some of the best, […]
Crap. It’s been a long, long, looooong time since I listened to any Seaweed, but the announcement that they’d reformed & were coming through town had me pretty excited — felt like I’d stepped into the Wayback Machine and rewound back to college, all of a sudden. I was rarin’ to get my mid-’90s indie-rock […]
From SCR Writer Scott Whitt: In a recent blog, our erstwhile leader showed extreme displeasure with the ticket prices for the Rock The Bayou fest (August 29th-September 1st). Jeremy stated that even though he was once a longhair ne’er-do-well, the price tag out weighs the chance to relive his youth. I want to show that […]
Nope, it’s not here in H-town, but it’s still damn ridiculous. I’ve been a fan of Austin rockers The Boxing Lesson for a few years now, since their 2005 EP, so the news out of Austin about the band left me stunned. Apparently Boxing Lesson drummer Jake Mitchell got busted for growing pot and has […]
Bad news + possibly-confusing news, I’m afraid, w/a couple of tonight’s shows. First off, just got word from Jason, bassist for Alkari, that tonight’s Free Press Houston Recession Thursday show is a no-go. Something Fierce, Generation Landslide, Alkari, & Television Skies were all supposed to be braving the torrential downpour tonight at Numbers, but A) […]
Dammit, dammit, dammit. Yes, it makes total fucking horribly perfect sense that once the Powers That Be (in this case, the Copyright Royalty Board, rather than the RIAA, but they’re all heads of the same terrible beast) took down Muxtape, they’d go after dear, sweet, kind Pandora. And yes, they are. Crap, crap, crap, with […]
Continuing the week’s theme of “continual freakin’ updates out the ass,” today we’ve got yet another brand-brand-new review up just in time for a dang show. This time it’s The Dutchess & the Duke, a Seattle duo who make some awesomely, awesomely dark, retro-’60s pop that sounds like it was smuggled forwards in time from […]
Ah, fuck. I knew it was too good to be true for long… Apparently the joy-sucking, soulless, we-drowned-our-inner-child-in-the-bathtub-for-$5 jerks at the RIAA have taken down the very-popular Muxtape site. Ah, yes — another well-placed strike on that dastardly segment of the music-listening population that actually likes music they can’t hear on the similarly soulless radio […]
Some more good news, even if it’s a little bit late for the band. Ramon over at the Free Press posted last week that iconic local grindcore act Insect Warfare, who called it a day earlier in the year, was finalizing a deal with grind/power violence heavyweights Earache Recs to reissue the band’s World Extermination […]
In addition to the The May Fire review I posted about earlier, there’s a whole pile of other cool stuff up recently. One of the coolest is a review of local H-town-area noise-rapper B L A C K I E; his debut, Wilderness of North America, is an angry, free-jazz-informed combo assault of thick-sounding City of Syrup hip-hop, hazy avant-noise, and […]
Got a brief email a week or so ago from Mike Fuller, ex-lead singer/guitarist of back-n-the-day H-town power-pop band The Sperlings, with some pretty neat news: The Sperlings are being resurrected from the dead. All four members Mike Fuller Carl Sandin Rob Smith Bruce Stone Will be working on new material for release at the […]
Yep, we’ve got a ton of new stuff up on the SCR site, w/more going up pretty quickly… Yours truly has been shamefully slow about getting reviews online, and I’m trying to rectify that with a small hoard of ultra-timely reviews. Starting pretty much now, in fact. Why? Well, because tonight San Franciscans The May […]
Yes, I definitely live in the digitalized-to-hell online world, it’s true, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still keep warm a quiet, soft spot in my heart/soul for things made of paper. Once upon a time I scoured zine racks at SoundEx & Soundwaves, trying to find the coolest, most intriguing, most eye-opening/mind-blowing zines I […]
I feel almost sacreligeous mentioning this right now, given the bad-bad-bad local news of the day/weekend, but fuck, I need the good to balance out the bad. And the good is that Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby (who happens to be Eric’s wife, as of this past April) are apparently playing September 14th at The […]
Hey, remember Super Happy Fun Land? Yeah, I know — with the quiet of the past few months, my hopes for the place’s eventual re-opening have been sinking lower & lower, sadly. The SHFL crew isn’t giving up the ghost, however; they’re reportedly still working on those pesky city permits for their new-ish digs at […]
Holy crap. Got this forwarded from good pal Mel, who apparently knows one of the women involved; apparently late Thursday night the co-owner & the sound guy over at local loud-shit club The White Swan attacked a group of kids who’d been at the show, one of whom had knocked on the club door to […]
Sorry for the quiet, folks — we’ve had to undergo some fairly major behind-the-scenes changes of late, site-wise, and things aren’t quite yet working the way I’d like, so I’ve been having to put off the ranting/philosophizing a bit. Basically, Blogger started up with its semi-monthly Bartleby phase again, refusing to post sometimes ’til a […]
No, I’m not talking about those cheesy “we’ll buy your scrap metal and strip your wires for free!” ads on late-night TV, but about the upcoming Rock the Bayou metalliganza that’s coming this Labor Day, August 29th-September 1st, over at what used to be Astro World (S. side of 610 at the Astrodome/Reliant Stadium/etc.) but […]
Update time, and somewhat of an urgent one, to boot — in the spirit of Just-In-Time Reviewing (which is all the trend these days, don’tcha know), we’ve got a brand-new review up of Papermoons inaugural full-length, New Tales, and holy crap, they just happen to be playing tonight. Imagine that… Anyway, the band’s playing up […]
I tend to not watch a whole lot of videos these days, partly because I get bored watching some band pretend to Rock Hard while actually just miming at their instruments (sorry, folks, but playing electric instruments in the rain just does not work the way you wish it would) and trying to look Badass […]
Yeah, I got out there a bit late — I didn’t make it to this year’s Houston Press Music Awards Showcase downtown ’til 6PM or so, which meant I missed 2 hrs’ worth of cool-ass bands. Perils of domesticated life, unfortunately; it gets hard to force myself to hop in the car & abandon the […]
The best-laid plans, damn…every time I put off posting about this stuff, it bites me on the ay-uss. We got some new stuff up last week — brand-new show reviews! — and earlier this week — brand-new reviews! — but I procrastinated, figuring I’d post about it sometime this afternoon. I had a quickie medical […]
UPDATE II: Okay, so I started posting this yesterday at 3PM. When’s it go up? Today, long after at least a third of the listed shows actually happened. Fuck you, Blogger. Every time I think shit’s improved, you folks prove me wrong. UPDATE: I found out just a wee bit too late that yeah, the […]
Mark yr calendars, all & sundry — Saturday, July 26th will see the cataclysmic return of The Skyline Network‘s Hootenanny, rechristened the Twotenanny this time around. Once again The Mink Backroom will play host to a slew of H-town’s best & brightest as they live out their totally un-ironic rockstar karaoke dreams. (I mean, c’mon […]
Okay, so maybe it’s not that bad, but check out Ramon’s chilling rundown of all the talented musician-type people leaving Houston for other parts. Danny from The Jonx I knew about, of course, but Sabra Laval, too? Papermoons? I know I mentioned before that one-fifth of The Church of Philadelphia‘s now living in Uganda (he […]
Ah, the wonderfully pungent smell of victory in the War of Online vs. Offline Reviewing-Type Publication Thingys (thanks to Paper Thin Walls/HypeBot for the link). Of course, the survey also says that it’s the opinions of friends & social-networking contacts that really do the job (response for which: duh), but screw it, I’m not gonna […]
Okay, so it seems I inferred incorrectly from a very-very-very brief conversation w/Jacob Calle that he was also doing some kind of organizing for the Creature Comforts Art Show this coming July 12th, and I’m currently feeling like a big ol’ idiot. Per more informed sources than me, Jacob’s not running the show, but just […]
UPDATE! Argh, I screwed up — ignore the art show stuff at the bottom & check the next post, instead… Yesterday evening I dragged homeboy Jowell on up to Notsuoh for the rescheduled, shifted-around, and somewhat downsized (Ex-)Keene St. Warehouse Party. I had some serious misgivings about the whole thing, I have to admit — […]
