Omotai, I’ve missed you. It feels like I just haven’t been listening to enough truly, truly heavy, head-kicking, ear-shattering music lately, probably not for nearly a year; hell, even the metal I’ve been listening to recently has been generally on the more melodic side of the spectrum. Beyond that, I’ve been on a fairly steady diet of synth-y pop, EDM, and ’70s throwback rock lately…
Attempting to get a jump on things at least slightly this week (although as with all weeks, I’d intended to post this days ago; sigh). Tonight’s not quite the weekend, strictly speaking, but close enough, because it’s Thursday, April 23rd, and there’s some extremely cool stuff happening, a bit of which I want to mention…
Hey, all — been awful quiet of late, I know… The holidays quite literally stopped SCR in its tracks, but fret not, because we’re slowly staggering back to life/consciousness, and our New Year’s resolution is to more fully get our (er, Jeremy’s, since it’s mostly his fault) shit back together once again…
Rarely have I seen an album title as apt as Omotai’s Fresh Hell; and no, not because it’s bad by any stretch of the imagination, but because of the images of menace and dread it conjures up. There’s a weird sense of foreboding you get while listening, like something truly, ineffably horrible is waiting for you, just around the next corner, and it’s going to get you no matter what you do. It’s your destiny, inescapable…
Yes, another year gone by, and another (ridiculously-late) set of top ten lists from us folks here at SCR of all of the good/amazing/awesome things we ran across in 2012. Your intrepid writerly-type people have gone through literally thousands…
Moving on into Saturday, February 9th, now, and damn, it’s going to be a busy day. I won’t be able to make any of tomorrow night’s shows, myself, because the wife’s planned some special pre-Valentine’s Day that she’s being very mysterious about…
Yes, folks, it’s now Friday, January 11th, and against all odds, the weekend is indeed upon us. And yes, there’s plenty happening, and a lot of it’s good, especially this evening. Here’s what sounds/looks cool to me…
Wow. Tonight’s the first night of the weekend, Friday, December 21st, and it’s not only the first day of Christmas/holiday vacation for some of us (okay, fine; mine was yesterday) but also — if you listen to people who think science is all made-up nonsense but paranoid ideas about aliens and magnetic pole reversal…
Whoa. Alright, so I may have been listening to Omotai’s brand-new album, Terrestrial Grief, just a little bit too loud. Final track “Yuri” just marauded and destroyed its way to the end, and now I’m just sitting here…
Alright, so I should’ve mentioned this days & days ago, but dammit, things keep piling up, higher & higher. sigh. I didn’t want to let this slip by, though, because it’s very freaking cool…
Holy shit. That is one hell of a jam-packed evening, y’all; tonight (Friday, August 24th) is literally over-freaking-flowing with great, great shows, so many that I’m going to have to leave a few out, I’m afraid. Here we go…
sigh. Totally blew most of last weekend — being on the road between here & San Antonio sometimes makes the show-rundown thing problematic, as does being exhausted from dealing with two munchkins who are less like children & more like perpetual-motion machines…
It’s Saturday now, y’all (June 23rd, to be exact), and holy-freaking-wow is there a lot going on, folks. Here goes…
In recent weeks the kindly folks in {Omotai} and {Peloton} (okay, “folk,” in the form of bassist Melissa (Lonchambon) Ryan, who plays in both bands) sent me some of their latest music, and seeing as I freaking love Omotai and am heartily impressed by Peloton…
sigh. The music scene in this city, as anybody who observes it for longer than six months or so, has a lifecycle all its own. Bands pop up, bands mutate into other bands, bands leave town, bands come to town (and yes, that one’s as much a mystery to me as it is to you…)
Late, I know, but I couldn’t pass these by… Tonight’s Sunday, February 19th, right before Ye Olde Day of Presidents, and while there’s not that much going on, there’re two lights shining bright out there this evening…
Yes, folks, it’s now Friday, February 17th, and don’t let the rain get you down, because there’s a ton of stuff going on tonight, a lot of which is very, very cool. I’ll get right to it…
Yep, as of yesterday evening, those tireless folks over at the {Houston Press} have officially tallied up all the nomination ballots (more than 9000 votes!) and released the official-schmofficial ballot…
I’m just going to come right out and say it, folks: Omotai isn’t really a “band.” What they are, rather, is some sort of massive sonic beast birthed beneath the crust of the planet, way down where it’s dark and hot and inhuman…
Damn. In case you hadn’t already heard, there’s been some news — of the bad variety, in my view, but I’m sure there’re others out there who’ll be happy — regarding Midtown indie-hipster venue The Mink…
Saturday (July 30th, you calendar-less bastards out there) is upon us, and there’s a ton of stuff going on. Before I go into that, though, a bit of bad news: tonight’s show out at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion with Kings of Leon…
Damn. First off, yes, I do realize it’s been two freaking weeks since the end of this year’s Free Press Summerfest, and a week-and-a-half since the first installment…
Sorry I missed last night’s show madness, folks — especially since there was a lot going on. Yours truly is traveling at the moment, and apparently all the nearby wifi networks are locked-down…
Not quite as much going on today (that is, Sunday, May 8th), but there’s still some good stuff happening that’s worth checking out… For one thing, it’s the final day of this year’s Houston International Festival…
Another weekend, another big-ass pile of shows to (potentially, at least) check out… I’ll keep it short & sweet for the moment, if I can, for tonight, Friday, April 22nd. First off, The Mink‘s got the winner tonight, at least for yours truly…
Saturday, April 2nd, and even though there was plenty of cool stuff going on last night, it kinda feels like the weekend’s just getting started, honestly… Lots and lots going on this evening, y’all. First & possibly foremost to a lot of folks is the continuing Big Dance Concert Series thing…
So, the Grammys are well and over, so I guess it’s about time to get the Official Space City Rock Top-Ten Lists of Amazingly Cool Things You Must See/Hear/Whatever (late, late, late, sure, but hey, we meant to do that, alright?). Read it, and obey…
One of the best perks of this SCR deal is that sometimes the kind-hearted folks who actually make the music about which I tend to obsess will occasionally throw some of their newest, coolest stuff our way before it pops up in the general eye…
Houston has always, always had awesome, amazing bands. Screw the naysayers; it’s the honest-to-God truth. Even in the lean times, even when 99.9% of this city thought “Houston music” was pretty much ZZ Top, Destiny’s Child, and nothing else…
Later than I’d hoped to do this, but we’ve got company in town, so my evenings have largely been shot playing cards & just hanging out ’til the wee hours; I figure it’d be crappy to pull out the laptop & frantically blog away while chatting, y’know?…
Argh. It’s late, I know — this is what happens when the midgets don’t want to go to sleep on time… sigh. But even with the lateness, I couldn’t let tonight slip past, right? Still quite a bit going on, both tonight and tomorrow night…
Day 2 of a busy-as-hell weekend… Today (Saturday, December 18th) is a pretty massive one, particularly on the local front — and believe me when I say that that’s nothing to sneeze at. Anybody who thinks nothing worth listening to…
There’s been some good, good stuff popping up in the past few days on our local H-town music-media/etc. friend sites, and I wanted to take a sec to just point a wobbly finger at it and say, “Go! Read! Now!” (assuming you haven’t already, that is)…
Lots of good/big shows coming up, and I wanted to get a little bit of a jump on ’em, at least, and mention one that’s pretty near & dear to my heart. If you’ve read this blog much, you probably know how big a fan yours truly is of the Girls Rock Camp Houston deal…
Hey, all — one insane weekend coming up (yeesh…don’t y’all band people go visit your families & whatnot for Thanksgiving?), but unfortunately, I’m kinda short on time to talk about it all, so I’m going to have to run through the next three days (Fri.-Sun., November 26th-28th) real quickly…
This coming Thursday (October 14th, to be exact) is going to kill me, I swear — not only is it the night of the final-ever(?) show by {The Jonx}, but it’s also a rare appearance…
Got the fam in town today (Friday, September 24th), so I’ve been a bit occupied, I’m afraid, and I’ve gotta keep it somewhat brief for the rundown… Been a rough week, folks, and I’m still playing catch-up….
Fans of good, good music, you’ve got a difficult choice to make tonight (Thurs., September 16th). There aren’t a ton of shows going on, no, but there two in particular that should be cage-match battling for your attention this very evening. Here’re the contenders…
When I first tried to type this, I found myself trapped in the sixth circle of Hell, otherwise known as the DMV office, having already waited in two lines to get a number to wait to get into a third line. Ah, the joys of adulthood…
Trying to get a little bit of a jump on the rest of this weekend, so here’s what looks/sounds good to me tonight, Saturday, July 10th — and yep, as you can see, there’s even more good shit going on than there was on Friday. Here goes…
