Well, wow. I’ve got to admit that I didn’t see that coming… The City of Houston held a press conference this afternoon to announce that this year’s Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo has been canceled, for the first time since 1937.
This is heartbreaking… I can’t claim to know Punk Rock Stacy (aka Stacy Hartoon) personally, but I’ve long been a fan. She’s been a rock in Houston’s punk scene for years now and is a beloved fixture at Rudyard’s…
The Linus Pauling Quartet is dead; sad, I know, but it’s the truth, and I’ve been meaning to post about it for a long while now, since I got the bad news in July of last year. It’s definitely signified the end of an era in terms of the H-town music scene, at least for me — the LP4 had been fixtures here since 1993, practically the entire time I’ve even been aware of Houston music…
Tonight — Wednesday, February 28th — is a bit of a quiet night, music-wise, around here, but there is a show this evening that sounds very, very cool, at least to me. You might recall a while back when local singer/songwriter Cameron Dezen Hammon put out an album of covers…
I’ve played guitar (badly) for most of my life at this point, at least sporadically, but I’ve never, ever been a gearhead. In my younger days, I was more of a whatever-I-can-get-my-hands-on-head, because I couldn’t afford actual decent equipment; when I finally got an okay-paying job, literally the first two things I ran out and bought were a new guitar and (more crucially) a new amp…
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…
Argh. Been fighting a nasty cold, y’all, and desperately hoping I kick it before the big day, so I’ve been slipping a bit on talking about the rapidly-approaching Day for Night festival, which happens just over a week from now, Dec. 15-17, at Post HTX…
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…
It’s been a few years, I know, but it felt like high time to get back to the sporadic Hear This Now thing we were doing for a little while there, pointing/listening to cool H-town bands we’ve been listening to lately…
You might recall that we posted a little while back that the good people behind Day for Night, Houston’s coolest music-and-other-stuff festival…
This year, I swear to God. Some days it feels like everything in the whole freaking world has been upended, from the insanity in the White House to every remaining musical icon dying (rest in peace, Fats Domino) to the Houston Astros winning the World Series…
As mentioned a little while back, this year’s edition of Day for Night — which yours truly was lucky enough to check out last year, and which made me kick myself for not going the first year of the festival, as well…
It’s about goddamn time we got some good news, y’all. Half this city’s still ripping out its floors and walls and replacing every thing they own, schools and libraries are closed or relocated or damaged beyond repair, businesses are shut down until further notices, big, fun music festivals and conventions are rescheduling or just plain canceling, and every time it rains, we all cringe like a dog that’s been kicked…
Well, damn. I’d wondered, honestly, if it might happen — after all, we’ve seen a lot of cancellations of shows of various sizes, but so far the raft of upcoming festivals seemed to be somewhat immune…
What a week. I haven’t been online much, I know, at least not on SCR — I’ve been stuck to Facebook and Twitter like the rest of Houston, trying to keep tabs on friends and coworkers and loved ones…
Yes, folks, it’s time once again to grapple with one of Houston’s worst aspects (I mean, beyond the heat, mosquitoes, grime, um…okay, let’s move on): hurricanes. I hope everybody around here is being safe and getting prepared, because it looks like it could be very bad; if you’ve already headed for the hills, yeah, I get that…
So, this right here is a very, very cool thing. Everybody knows that if you have a band or play music solo or whatever, you need to have pictures of yourself, of some kind. Really, you do; as somebody who often has to use said pictures, trust me, you fucking need them…
Yes, it’s true — the list of nominees for this year’s Houston Press Music Awards has been released. Hang on…3, 2, 1, okay there we go — cue the complaints about the new format, gripes about deserving bands being overlooked, diatribes about how it’s all pointless anyway…
Oh, man. I got a bit wrapped up in the countdown to Yes, Indeed! 2016 last week, so I let this one slip a bit, and that means that unless you’ve been sailing a raft across the ocean for seven or eight days now — or, alternately, hate music and/or joy, in which case I don’t have a clue how you’re reading this — you know that the organizers of Day for Night, FPSF‘s quasi-sister festival in the winter months, released the official lineup…
I know I’ve been missing a ton of great shows lately, but dammit, I can’t let this one slip by without a mention. Keeton Coffman, who the longer-memory-having folks among you might remember as the frontman of gone-too-soon band The 71’s, is my absolute favorite guy singer/songwriter in town these days…
So, it looks like Arthur Yoria has come back home to Houston, and oh, man, am I glad to see it. The last I’d heard from Arthur, back in 2010, he was moving up to Brooklyn to try out his sweet-voiced, sometimes stoner-like pop songwriting chops on the hipsters that dwell there…
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…
This is one hell of a busy weekend, it’s true, but there’re some cool things that rise to the top of my personal little list, at least. One of those things is happening tonight — Saturday, May 28th, that is — up at Walter’s…
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…
Damn. In case you hadn’t already heard, this past month has been rough for the Houston music scene. Most recently, longtime Warehouse Live staffer and all-round awesome booster of H-town music Morrow “L.A.” Potts passed away last week at the way, way too young age of 38, apparently due to a heart attack…
I’ve been sorely neglecting things on the upcoming-show front lately, so updating the list these past couple of weeks has made me nearly freaking giddy with excitement about some of the shows we’ve got coming down the pipe. I don’t have time go into details about ’em now (sorry), but I do want to point to two that are coming up real fast, as in, um, tonight, Friday, January 15th. See, apparently the Hoary Gods of Houston Musicks decided that not only should there be one…
First off: yeah, I know it’s been a while. This whole past year feels like a giant wave that washed over yours truly and never let up, and because of that, SCR has taken a definite back seat to a whole lot of other things. The plan, though, is to turn that around and get shit moving once again. Part of the reason why I’m dying to get things back to an even keel, I should note, is because there’s so much damn cool stuff going on right now in Houston’s scene…
Man, this whole dang “time” thing, it really gets me sometimes. Late last week, I fully, completely intended to post about Cameron Dezen Hammon‘s (of both {The Rebecca West} & solo effort fame) brand-new covers album, which she’s been trying to get funded via PledgeMusic by tomorrow, Tuesday, December 15th…and then I left town with the fam and was completely offline all weekend. Sigh…
Hey, all — I know, it’s been a while, right? This past fall yours truly has been somewhat on hiatus, swamped with work and home-related things and reluctant to even touch the damn keyboard (unless it has to do with stupid-ass political debates on Facebook, mind you, because people are stupid and because yes, I’m one of those stupid people who argues with other stupid people online even though it makes no difference)…
Today’s the day, folks — the official lineup for brand-new music (and other stuff) festival Day for Night, which takes place at Silver Street Studios on December 19th & 20th, was just released a short while ago. And yeah, it’s pretty damn impressive, both in scope and diversity…
Holy shit, y’all. Okay, so I’d heard the rumors that this was happening for a few months now, but I was afraid to take ’em to heart and potentially be let down. And yet, it’s actually happened: KTRU, long the only radio station I would listen to in this here city and a place where I myself used to DJ many moons ago, will be back on the FM radio waves as of next Friday, October 2nd…
One of the things I love best about the scene here (and yes, I’m well aware that lots of other cities have music scenes that are similar in this respect) is that after a while, you start to see a lot of the same characters roaming in and around, joining up in different configurations and doing stuff that they’ve maybe never tried before. Sure, people do leave, and it’s a bummer when that happens, but if you look at a lot of the coolest, most interesting bands in H-town…
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?…
It’s been a big, big year for ska-soul outfit {The Suffers}, and from where I sit, they fully, truly deserve it; they’re a damn fine band, and they’ve worked their asses off to get to where they are. Despite the ridiculous highs of 2015, though, they’re not done yet — next up, they want to make their first full-length album. And they want you and me to help ’em do it…
Ever since the news first broke about local booking maestros Pegstar opening their very own purpose-built venue, the sweet-looking White Oak Music Hall, it’s felt like it was only a matter of time before the other shoe dropped…
Yep, I’m waaaay late to this party, unfortunately, but not quite too late, which is always good. The ever-excellent Houston Press Music Awards are still open for voting, right up until August 12th (i.e., tomorrow), at 11:59PM (i.e., midnight). If you have not yet cast your vote — you can only do it once, sorry — well, you’re in luck…
Hey, folks — yes, we’ve rolled around to that time again, when H-town gets together to pick the local cream of the crop, as it were, of our city’s burgeoning-but-underground (and yeah, we don’t give a damn if you recognize it) music scene. The nominations are now wide, wide open for this year’s edition of the Houston Press Music Awards…
Yeah, yeah — I know The World’s About to End (again), what with a maybe-hurricane maybe-bearing down on Houston, but that doesn’t mean all movement has to cease, right? That’s especially true today, because H-town rawk dudes Knights of the Fire Kingdom cut loose with some big, big news. Not only have they finally announced the release of their long-awaited full-length (which I swear to God I’ve been listening to for in some form or another for close to two years now)…
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 […]
Got a nice surprise in the inbox this week: the Pegstar folks have officially released their plans for their long-promised new venue, which they’re planning to have up and running early next year. The new place is going to be called White Oak Music Hall, a name that has pretty lofty aspirations and a nice historical tie both to the current Pegstar venue, Fitzgerald’s…
