With El Payaso, it should come as no surprise that Texas’ legendary Johnny Goudie (of Johnny Goudie & The Little Champions) is still rock’n along and just as prolific as ever, albeit this time with a twangy country tinge, happier, pop-rocky explosion…
I can’t entirely put my finger on why, but it always seems to take me quite a while to fully wrap my head around an Arbouretum album. With 2007’s Rites of Uncovering, I found myself compelled to listen and re-listen and re-listen to the disc…
Digable Cat spent two years working on Letters from my Dreams, and it shows, but not everyone may be able to handle the emphasis on the singing. This band originates in Illinois, but singer Alina Giurgiu is Romanian, and she packs a punch…
Remember when two-piece bands were a novelty and seemed so exciting and new? Now they’re as commonplace as the acts that they pretend to be superior to. Chinese is a two-piece instrumental act from Seattle that’s just released a “noise-rock” adventure…
Paranormal Activity screened for the press last night at AMC Studio 30, and by the looks of the crowd this may be one of the only reviews you’ll see in Houston, as everyone else appears to have been “Caller Number 9” on an FM radio station. They, and many people you know have petitioned Paramount […]
The Whore Moans’ Hello From the Radio Wasteland is an energetic little piece of music from Seattle that sounds ready to take on the world. It consists of passionate singing that leads to screaming by the end of the line, lots of backup vocals to carry on the intensity…
This band has potential; trust me, a lot of potential. This record could signal a decision point, because they have two sounds going: a punk approach like that of At The Drive In, and a post-hardcore, early Drop Dead Gorgeous kind of vibe…
Too “indie” to be punk… Really, I can’t understand this mentality; it’s the fun, happy “go out and party!” attitude and approach to making music, and I just don’t understand. Sure, some of the songs on Survival Mode are okay…
If music is aural communication with the spiritual, then the blues would be its sacred book of hymns. That’s just what the Snake Charmers’ sultry release Been Gone Too Long personifies in spades. As lead singer and songwriter Marie Angell seductively sings…
I hope that when it’s my time to die, the new Dodos album will be playing in the background for my last 45 minutes. The indie group released its fourth album, Time To Die, on September 15, and I like it a lot…
For all of you beginner students: Class of 1984 will be on the exam, so now’s the time to become learned in class-speak. Jon and James, (fine Irish brothers) have been jammin’ “backwoods filthy rock” in and around Eire since early 2006…
I’m going to be honest and lay the facts on the table. This review has been over due for about two months. Okay six, but who’s counting? Well, okay, maybe my editor is, but that’s beside the point. This review is late partly because I became overwhelmed and put too much on my plate…
Back again, still sleep-deprived but feeling at least a little bit healthier; thankyew, antibiotics… Which is good, because tonight, in particular, is a veritable bear of a night, show-wise. Sat., October 3: Tody Castillo (CD release)/ Springfield Riots @ The Continental Club Damn, damn, damn. I know it seems weird, given the amazing amount of […]
The Black Crowes have just released Before the Frost/Until the Freeze, a double album — sort of. This innovative release is the hard copy of Before the Frost…, with an online code for …Until the Freeze…
Capitalism: A Love Story Reviewed by Creg Lovett At the preview screening for Michael Moore’s new movie Capitalism: A Love Story people hissed, booed, gasped in horror, applauded, laughed out loud and cried real tears. Liberal Democrats Chris Dodd and Barney Frank bore the brunt of the films heavy handed guilt trip, and Republican congressman […]
They don’t make them like this anymore. One of the most surprising things I found about Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was that I hadn’t seen it yet. A friend of mine (who knows I’ve see everything) just naturally assumed I had…
Yep, got new stuff up this week, including one review for tonight, Sat., September 19th — local psych-hop mavericks Ghost Mountain are opening for what promises to be a mind-blowing Devin The Dude show tonight up at the Warehouse Live, so we’ve got a review up of the band’s most recent release, the VHS-only Summer […]
It feels like an eternity ago that Joshua Tillman found me, on that infamous, international, online “social” (yet not so social) networking site. I suppose if there’s any redeeming quality to Myspace beside the huge impact it’s had on the music world…
More than anything else, Searching for Signal’s new EP, It’s So Bright, feels, well, deliberate. Each note feels carefully selected and placed right where guitarists Matthew Salois and Michael Aziari want them to be, anchored from floating off on its own…
Battle for the Sun is a much-anticipated CD for those die-hard Placebo fans who were disappointed by the band’s last album, Meds. This CD, number six, reverts back to band’s old style, with somewhat squealing guitars over Brian Molko’s nasal but forever reassuring voice…
Plenty has been said of Oh No Not Stereo and their brand of emo-laden pop rock. Of their latest release, 003, some say their pop sensibilities are too formulaic and forgettable. Others say that Oh No Not Stereo has arisen to fill the musical void left when New Found Glory and Good Charlotte changed their sound…
Experimenting with different genres yet staying true to their overall sound, The Nuclear Children have come up with an EP that would knock aside some of today’s big acts. While throwing in a few references to The Rolling Stones, The Nuclear Children have a sound that mixes The Vines…
The Informant! is the story of Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), a scientist, VP, and whistleblower at the giant agri-business food additive company Archer Daniels Midland, which specializes in using corn to take over the world…
The Guns of Detroit. The name alone got me. I hadn’t heard one lick of their music, and yet I already knew that I wanted to review their album, Monsterattake’s. It was a gamble I knew I had to take. The Guns of Detroit, I thought, could’ve been death metal from the dark corners of Sweden…
So you say your band’s releasing its new album only on cassette? That’s so, er, early 2009, y’all. Want to really take a totally noncommercial, ultra-indie stab in the dark with your band’s next release? Follow the example of strange, candy-like electro-hip-hopsters Ghost Mountain…
Just when you think that the album’s going to be an intimate experience between just you and Chad VanGaalen, slowly he starts cranking up the volume, changing your opinion of the path the album will take little by little. Then track five, “Bare Feet On Wet Griptape,” comes on…
For the past few years, Canada’s indie-rock scene has been dominated by one label that encompasses one genre and even one city. It’s the kind of warm and calm folk-infused indie-rock that’s completely unobjectionable and well-received by all, like maple syrup or the concept of universal health care…
Hey, all — got a new bunch of reviews up this evening, so I wanted to put a quick note up here about ’em, especially since two of the bands, Fake Believe and Electric Attitude, both happen to be playing tonight (Sat., September 12th) at The Festival at Mink (which I already blathered about here, […]
Man at Arms is a crazy-cool two-man band that will have you turning your head to see if there are any more band members. It’s insane how these two guys can simply blow you out your mind with their short but punchy EP, A Waste Of Time And Space…
While there’s nothing strictly wrong with the first two tracks of Fake Believe’s five-song EP, Talk Speak, I’ll admit they had me a little worried. The too-slick, hipster-ish dance-funk grooves on the verses of both “Pornography” and “Another Dead Romantic” didn’t get more than a shrug out of me…
Electric Owls’ Ain’t Too Bright is an album that I’d recommend to a dope-smoking pre-pubescent. If nothing else, you can expand your street drug vocab. From the song “Kamiakin”: “Summertime won’t be so bad / We can all get high over at my uncle’s trailer / He’s a real cool guy…”
I’ve been dancing around it a while in my head, and I just can’t think of a friendly, nice way to talk around it, so I’m just going to say it: I don’t like the guitars on Electric Attitude’s latest EP, Laser Laser Laser Beams. At least, I don’t like ’em as much as I feel like I should…
Dillinger is Dead is called writer/director Marco Ferreri’s masterpiece. It recently screened at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston as part of their Revival Series (http://www.mfah.org/films), a restored 35mm print that looks and sounds brilliant…
There’s just something strangely cool about seeing the new Behemoth CD/DVD, Evangelion, advertised in the Sunday ad for Best Buy. Right next to upcoming indie-rockers and pop-start wannabes is this trio of corpsepaint-wearing Polish Satanists. Fucking awesome…
It hit me in the car, on my way back to the house yesterday, and suddenly, it all seemed plain as day: it’s Paul McCartney. That’s who Fruit Bats’ Eric D. Johnson reminds me of, more than anyone else, at least on the band’s latest, The Ruminant Band…
Yep, another day, another review — sorry to be late on this one; I wrote it up last night but couldn’t get it posted ’til just now… I really wanted to review the Fruit Bats‘ latest, The Ruminant Band, btw, because I truly, truly dug Spelled In Bones and felt damned bad that we missed […]
I’m honestly not sure what I was expecting, but I know this wasn’t it. I think I could be forgiven, though, for being blindsided by Sleepy Sun’s Embrace, especially considering the way the band shifts gears partway in. The album starts off with the thumping, dark, nearly funky murk-croon…
Yep, got one new review up today, in time for a show tonight (Wed., September 2nd, that is) — SF psych-rock outfit Sleepy Sun are playing this evening over at The Orange Show (as part of their cool-sounding 2009 Fall Concert Series), and after hearing the band’s most recent full-length, Embrace, well, wow. It’s going […]
Hailing from the hipster central town of Austin, Iron Age offers their latest, The Sleeping Eye, for all to enjoy. Hopefully. When you see any album from Tee Pee Records, there’s a good chance that it should come equipped with rolling papers…
Psychedelic music often gets a bad rap for its close kinship to ’60s hippie culture. Despite modern psychedelic rock’s distance from its groovier brethren, its dedication to mind-altering substances often does the music more harm than good…
