Sometimes The Weekend arrives early, folks, and tonight, Thurs., August 27th, is one of those days. There aren’t that many shows going on this evening, compared to your average Saturday in the city, but damn, they’re nearly all freaking cool: Springfield Riots/Loxsly/Dan from Glasnost @ Boondocks I suck, suck, suck. I swore to myself that […]
Written on August 27, 2009 | Posted in
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Holy freaking crap. Y’know, I really hate it when one’a them pesky Internet rumors pops up on the screen and makes my stomach feel like it’s dropped into my feet, and I had that exact thing happen this AM when I read that now-venerable H-town venue Walter’s on Washington is moving (or maybe closing). My […]
Written on August 27, 2009 | Posted in
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Saturday, and of course, there’s still plenty to do tonight & tomorrow, so I wanted to do a little rundown of all of it (although I’ve blathered/ranted about some already). First off, though, I wanted to note a couple of things… I was very bummed to see that Chicagoans A Lull had dropped off the […]
Written on August 22, 2009 | Posted in
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That Matt Brownlie, he just doesn’t stop moving, apparently… The latest thing he’s involved with is called Dharma Punx Houston, and the idea is that it’s a Buddhist meditation/ discussion group for folks who want to, well, learn to be better Buddhists. (I think?) They’re welcoming all comers, regardless of “age, dress or lifestyle”; hence […]
Written on August 21, 2009 | Posted in
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Yep, it’s late-breaking update time — we’ve got a bunch of good new stuff up this week, in typical kinda-timely fashion… First up is a nice little chat with Toby Butler of The Duke Spirit, courtesy of Houston Calling (which you should really be reading, btw, if you don’t already) headman and SCR contributor David […]
Written on August 21, 2009 | Posted in
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Good news time, finally. In the midst of all the breakups and whatnot, it’s nice to see a cool, under-appreciated band that never quite hit it reuniting to give things a second shot. A few years back, Margot was one of a handful of mind-blowing bands that (briefly, at least) turned H-town into Texas Spacerock […]
Written on August 20, 2009 | Posted in
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I know I’ve mentioned this before, but hell, I happen to think it’s very cool, so I think it’s worth re-mentioning. Local musician and all-round cool guy Jason Smith, who plays bass/keys in sweet, flat-out rock band Alkari, also happens to be an architecture nerd, focusing on a particular local H-town architect named William R. […]
Written on August 20, 2009 | Posted in
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A bit of a late notice on this one, I know — just got back from some much-needed Galveston vacationizing and realized that holy freaking crap, that Mos Def show is tonight (Wed., August 19th, you calendrically-impaired people), with Jay Electronica (about whom I know zero) over at the House of Blues. And yes, this […]
Written on August 19, 2009 | Posted in
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Great though it was, the Free Press Summerfest brought with it a couple of bad, bad pieces of bad news for Houston music-scene fans. I’ve already moaned about Joe Mathlete‘s announcement that The Mathletes won’t be doing any shows for the forseeable future, but I missed the set from The McKenzies early on Day 2 […]
Written on August 15, 2009 | Posted in
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Yep, I’m a fan of H-town’s very own anarchist bookstore (the only one I’ve heard of, anyway), Sedition Books (901 Richmond) — I certainly wouldn’t call myself an anarchist, but I think it’s crucial to have some kind of a clearinghouse like this in our city, to provide access to information most Houstonians aren’t going […]
Written on August 15, 2009 | Posted in
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Yep, it’s true — after what seems like quite a while, local garage-rock(-ish) supergroup Guitars is finally officially releasing their debut full-length, White Night White Night, this afternoon around 3PM or so (I’ve seen a couple of different times so far) up at Cactus Music. Not sure just how it’ll go, but I think it’s […]
Written on August 15, 2009 | Posted in
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Yep, going for the abbreviated version of the cool-stuff-to-see/hear list, this week; hopefully I’ll be able to post a bit more about some of these later in the weekend but before they actually hit. It’s gonna be a good one, believe it: Fri., August 14: Passengers (ex-Teenage Kicks)/Roky Moon & Bolt/King Ghidora @ The Mink […]
Written on August 14, 2009 | Posted in
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Damn, this one kind of fell by the wayside in all the Summerfest madness… Last week yours truly got some fine new writing-type things up on SCR, and it’d be a shame to let them slip on by without a word, especially since a couple of bits here and there are a sorta-kinda timely. The […]
Written on August 13, 2009 | Posted in
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I mentioned a while back on this little blog how power pop heroes Teenage Kicks were no more, right? Well, drummer John Baldwin hasn’t been doing much relaxing since, apparently — not only has he been DJing as Urbane Guerrilla Sound System, but now he’s drummer for a brand-new band called Passengers, who’re playing their […]
Written on August 13, 2009 | Posted in
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And then, back again. I headed home Saturday night determined to plan a bit better for my foray back to the Free Press Summerfest, so I jammed a cooler full of icepacks into the bottom of my backpack, spent $4.50 on a 24-pack of water bottles at Walgreen’s by the house (the singles were $1.25, […]
Written on August 13, 2009 | Posted in
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Surviving Summerfest: Day Two (or, Where Am I Again, And Who Are All These People?) And then, back again. I headed home Saturday night determined to plan a bit better for my foray back to the Free Press Summerfest, so I jammed a cooler full of icepacks into the bottom of my backpack, spent $4.50 […]
Written on August 13, 2009 | Posted in
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I’m recovering, still. Recovering, but happy, I should say, because this past Saturday & Sunday at the Free Press Summerfest was a freaking blast, even if it smacked my aging old-dude ass to the ground. There were some glitches, to be sure — I have yet to even hear of a music festival that didn’t […]
Written on August 12, 2009 | Posted in
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Okay, folks — I’m afraid I don’t have time to ramble about all the good shows going on this weekend, partly because I’m kinda focused on the Free Press Summerfest thing. There is plenty else going on, though, so here’re my picks off the list: Fri., August 7: Method Man/Redman/Ghostface Killah/Duo Live @ House of […]
Written on August 7, 2009 | Posted in
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I’m not generally a fan of black metal, no; beyond my overall aversion to Cookie Monstering when it comes to any kind of singing, my gut reaction when I see somebody in corpsepaint, looking Mëtäl and wannabe-badass, is roughly the same as when I see barbarians with gigantic beer bellies and rode-hard wenches in chainmail […]
Written on August 6, 2009 | Posted in
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Okay, so I know I’ve talked about this a few times already, but I’m pretty damn psyched about this weekend’s Free Press Summerfest deal — good bands both local and non-, outside in the H-town sunshine (although I’d be really happy to forego the blistering heat), all for not a whole lot of $$$. I […]
Written on August 5, 2009 | Posted in
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Unless you’ve been dead for the past few months (or, okay, you don’t happen to live here in Houston), odds are you’ve heard about the sure-to-be-epic Free Press Summerfest spanning Saturday and Sunday of this next weekend (the 8th & 9th, non-calendar-having punks) at Eleanor Tinsley Park. And trust me, “epic” is the word — […]
Written on August 4, 2009 | Posted in
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I was able to interview Slug, half of Rhymesayers hip-hop masterminds Atmosphere, a couple of years back — he was one hell of a cool guy, very smart and laidback and cool, all at once. And I got out to see the duo on their tour for 2005’s You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re […]
Written on August 4, 2009 | Posted in
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Back again with part 2 of your SCR weekend rundown; here goes: Sat., August 1: ST37/Linus Pauling Quartet/Giant Princess @ Rudyard’s First up, some full-on psych/stoner/garage-rock for your hot summer evening. I’m not all that familiar with Austin’s ST37, but I’m a biiiiig fan of H-town’s own Linus Pauling Quartet — not only does guitarist […]
Written on August 1, 2009 | Posted in
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Those of the long-ago Scene may recall a handful of especially cool-ass shows held at The Oven (now resurrected as Mango’s) about a decade ago, collectively referred to as Hot Pop City and featuring a veritable shitload of excellent bands, folks like Silver Scooter, Red Monkey, Britt Daniels (yeah, that Britt Daniels), Port Vale, Japanic, […]
Written on August 1, 2009 | Posted in
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Rolling up on the weekend, y’all, and for some reason I can’t find very many damn flyers for all the shows going on. The hell? Nevertheless, there’s some good stuff; can’t write it all up now, but here’s Pt. 1: Leave Your Genre at the Door One Year Anniversary, featuring Sound Patrol, The Pocket, Buxton, […]
Written on July 31, 2009 | Posted in
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Not sure exactly what the deal is, but I just heard the news that something’s up over at the recently-moved Javajazz Coffee House up on the north side of town. Apparently they’re having to move all of their upcoming shows, as well, shifting them out to The Meridian (mostly) and Numbers. Wow. Hopefully the situation’s […]
Written on July 31, 2009 | Posted in
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I sorely neglected to mention the last installment of hip-hop/soul diva/entrepreneur Kam Franklin‘s cool-ass Leave Your Genre at the Door showcases, and I really, truly don’t want to make that same mistake again. This coming Friday, July 31st at Fitzgerald’s, she & her crew are celebrating the show’s one-year anniversary, and I seriously hope it’s […]
Written on July 30, 2009 | Posted in
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Halle-freakin-lujah, y’all. This is awesome news — Shane from listenlisten just emailed to break the news that his band just got a sweet, richly deserved writeup in Rolling Stone‘s Hype Monitor section. Congrats, you guys!
Written on July 30, 2009 | Posted in
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In case you hadn’t seen/heard of it yet, local H-town scene icon and Bring Back The Guns frontman Matt Brownlie has a new plan, which happens to sound a bit like an old plan. Back in the day, Matt had the grand vision of a series of self-perpetuating showcases for local bands, and he called […]
Written on July 30, 2009 | Posted in
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UPDATE: Just a bit of a note for those who A) can’t make it up to the Heights tonight or B) want an extra dose of Richmondians The Catalyst — just got word that they’ll (hopefully) be making an appearance on the Mutant Hardcore Flower Hour on KTRU tonight, as well. Tune in tonight between, […]
Written on July 30, 2009 | Posted in
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So…who here remembers the Pain Teens? Ridiculously influential, crazy-ass psychedelic, punkish noise band, signed to Trance Syndicate, then broke up a decade later, after like a half-dozen albums and a weird, not-really-into-it dance with the edges of fame? Yeah, them. Well, ex-Pain Teens/Culturcide/Truth Decay member Ralf, now of Future Blondes, and FB bandmate Kirston have […]
Written on July 24, 2009 | Posted in
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Good weekend coming, definitely, and since yours truly will sadly be out of town, I wanted to hit the stuff going on early next week, too. Here goes: Fri., July 24: Paris Falls @ Cactus Music (5:30PM) The earliest of all of ’em is happening in just a little while, actually — sorry for the […]
Written on July 24, 2009 | Posted in
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Um. What the…? Okay, so I happened to be looking through my Google Reader pile today, and I’m scrolling along through all the posts on various things related to H-town, music, or both, and — whoa, hold on, is that The freaking Skyline Network, posting again? And yes, yes, it is. Apparently ADR has decided […]
Written on July 23, 2009 | Posted in
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On the pseudo-administrative tip, I wanted to mention a couple of new-ish things… Like the fact that we now have the little “player” version of the official, sporadically-updated SCR H-Town Mixtape up on the main page of the site for all to see, click, & enjoy. You can also check out the full-sized Opentape site […]
Written on July 23, 2009 | Posted in
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Yep, yep, yep — in-between the ultra-short-notice posts I’ve been slapping up here lately, there’s been quite a bit of new stuff going on on the site, and I’m damned proud of the current pile, I have to say… First up, thanks to new-ish Austin-based contributor Chris G., we’ve got a cool preview-type thing for […]
Written on July 23, 2009 | Posted in
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Damn…feels like I’m doing this more & more lately…sigh. Just got a bunch of new reviews up on the site, including (most crucially for the moment) a writeup of the new one by palindromic Illinoians So Many Dynamos, The Loud Wars. My knee-jerk initial reaction was, “okay, so they sound like The Dismemberment Plan; I […]
Written on July 22, 2009 | Posted in
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Nice, nice, nice. The Houston Press‘s Chris Gray has a piece in this week’s dead-trees version of the paper called “Progress Report”, where he marks the coming of this weekend’s Houston Press Music Awards Showcase by taking an overview of the scene here in our currently-overheated city. For the most part, I think the article’s […]
Written on July 22, 2009 | Posted in
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Yes, the world of zines (and most other types of printed/self-published art & writing, whatever you want to call it) is a thing near & dear to my heart. And I know firsthand how much of a ridiculous pain in the a–er, labor of love it can be to get a zine from brain to […]
Written on July 22, 2009 | Posted in
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Yep, there’s a crap-ton of good shows this weekend, and not much time in which to type about it. Here goes… Fri., July 17: Austin Collins/The Small Sounds @ Firehouse Saloon I had, had, had to put this one first, not because of headliners Austin Collins, but because of local boys The Small Sounds, whom […]
Written on July 17, 2009 | Posted in
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Promised I’d mention this in a bit more detail, so here it goes… This coming Saturday, July 18th, a group called The Pure Water Project is throwing a festival/benefit, the Pure Water Music Festival, down in the La Porte ‘hood. It’ll run from 1-9:30PM at the Fairmont Park Church (10401 Belfast Rd.), and they’ve managed […]
Written on July 17, 2009 | Posted in
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