Okay, y’all. I know that there is a lot of stuff going on tonight (Friday, September 13th) — and I mean, a lot, like, seriously, just freaking look at the list…
Yes, friends, is Thanksgiving Eve — or so I’m told; I’d never actually heard that term ’til this month — Wednesday, November 21st, and while it’s not as crazy as the weekends have been recently, there’s still a decent-sized pile of cool shows happening tonight…
So, it’s a Wednesday — November 14th, to be precise — and that’s not normally a big day/night for shows, at least not around here. Mid-week tends to be slow a lot of the time, y’know? Today, though, things are a little different…
Hey, y’all — been quiet lately, I know, and I’m sorry about that. I’ve been somewhat preoccupied with, um, other things lately…[mumble]thefateofthecountryandtexasturningblueandbetoandlizzieandstufflikethat[mumble]… So I’ve kinda fallen behind yet again; profuse apologies, and I swear, I am trying to get better. Unfortunately, I’ll be offline this weekend…
A few months back, the kid and I were able to catch one of her favorite DJs, What So Not, up at White Oak Music Hall. It was a damn good show, not just because of the headliner — who was very, very good, I have to say — but because of stellar opener DUCKWRTH…
Sigh. So, I’d hoped I would be out and about this evening — Saturday, October 6th — but it’s looking less like that and more like I’m going to be on Little Guy Duty tonight. Which I love, don’t get me wrong, because he’s the best Little Guy ever, but there’s a ton of cool stuff happening this evening…
I dunno what it is lately, but there’ve been a ton of excellent, excellent shows happening in our hot-fog-enduring city, more than I’d generally expect for this time of year; it feels like Summertime Part 2 around here, both music- and weather-wise… So let’s take a quick look at what’s going on tonight, Friday, October 5th, alright?…
I’ve been sadly remiss in posting about it before now, which sucks, but I wanted to at least give a big-ass thumbs-up to the excellent-sounding River Revival Music Festival, which starts today, Thursday, September 27th, and runs through this Sunday, September 30th…
This weekend, y’all…damn. There is a veritable shit-ton of awesome shows happening, starting with tonight, Friday, September 21st, so I feel compelled to try to blather about some of it, at the very least; apologies if I leave anybody out. Away we go…
Hey there, People My General Age, we need to talk. See, I’ve been talking to The Kid, just asking her curiously how she listens to music these days; she doesn’t have a CD player anymore, she’s never owned a radio, Spotify’s not working for her at the moment (and Napster costs money, so that’s out), and her non-iPhone/iPad headphones are busted…
We’re headed face-first a hell of a busy week, music-wise, and I’m honestly feeling kinda frantic, not wanting to let any of it slip by (even though, yes, I almost certainly will…). One of the coolest shows is happening tonight, though, Monday, September 17th, up at White Oak Music Hall…
I’m going to hang my head and admit with sadness that no, I never got to check out the old Canned Acoustica series of shows. I know, I know; it came along at a weird time for me, when I was dealing with a toddler (who is now big enough to survive on his own, thankfully) and just didn’t leave the house much, blah, blah, blah…
Once upon a time, there was an awesome, promising young indie-rock band called Ruiners; they released a handful of songs, one of which, “One,” lived in my head for about six months straight. And then, they were gone. Singer/guitarist Shan Pasha moved to London to go to school…
Being a music fan in this city is a hard, heartbreaking thing. As good as things are now when it comes to the people making music in and around Houston and the breadth of venues those people can play, I can’t help but feel a little weepy when I think back across the past couple of decades…
I know that for a long (long) while there, I kinda cringed every time somebody brought up the whole “nu-metal” wave of the late ’90s; I couldn’t help it, y’know? With Fred Durst’s face everywhere and each new godawful mashup of metal and hardcore and hip-hop getting worse and worse, it felt like a dark time for music…
Well, wow. There’s been an honest-to-God flood of music videos coming out of our city lately, so many that I’ve barely had time to even notice ’em before they fly on by. I feel like I’m constantly playing catch-up with this stuff, seriously, and figured I’d better take a minute to point to a handful…
Damn, it’s been a while — apologies for that, but first summer vacating took precedence (BTW, if you’re looking for a Caribbean getaway that’s gorgeous and laidback but actually real and not hyper-touristified & fake, Curacao is that place; our stay there was amazing), and then we had family visiting from the UK…
And here we are, y’all — back again for the third (and final) round of randomly-ordered previews/rundowns for Madness on Main Festival 2018, coming this Saturday, June 9th, over at White Oak Music Hall and The Raven Tower…
So, here we find ourselves again, for the second round of our annual rundowns of as many randomly-selected musicians & bands playing at Madness on Main as we can jam into our earholes before the big day (i.e., this Saturday, June 9th) up at White Oak Music Hall and The Raven Tower…
Ahhh, yeah. These days it seems like music festivals spring up in this city like mushrooms after a few days’ rain — that is, all over my lawn, goddammit, and never when/where I want them. Um, sort of; sorry, that particular metaphor got away from a me a bit… But the reality is that there seems to be an ever-increasing number of festivals/mini-festivals/etc. going on here throughout the year. And in general, I’m good with that, even if I can’t make it to every…
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…
Interviewing people is hard. Well, maybe not for everybody, but it definitely is for me; I’m just not very good at chatting people up, even when they’re people I like or who make music I love, y’know? It’s just not something that comes easily to me. So, here’s a little story: once upon a time, more than a goddamn decade ago, I got the chance to interview Will Sheff, frontman, guitarist, singer, and songwriter for Austin-dwelling band Okkervil River…
Got word of this a few days ago and have been meaning to post about it ever since… Lou Barlow, frontman of ’90s quasi-unwilling indie-rock icons Sebadoh, member of fellow iconic indie-rock band Dinosaur Jr.…
A bit late, I know, but there’re a bunch of outdoor festival-type things that were supposed to be happening this weekend, Sat. & Sun., April 21st & 22nd, that haven’t quite worked out like the organizers had originally planned. First off — and by far the largest of these — is the Great Texas BBQ Festival, a two-day festival that was meant to take place at Sam Houston Park this weekend…
Well, here we are, friends. The inaugural In Bloom Music Festival unfurls tomorrow, Saturday, March 24th, at the ever-picturesque Eleanor Tinsley Park. Do me a favor, by the way, y’all: don’t just chuck your garbage anywhere, okay? Every festival I’ve been to over there has had plenty of trash bins spread throughout the grounds, and sometimes separate bins for recycling…
Argh. Sorry for the delay, folks — yesterday my computer decided this was a good time to implode, and I’ve been scrambling to get it back up and running since. We’re finally once again functional, so now we can get going on Part 3 of Space City Rock‘s randomly-selected rundowns…
And here we are, back again, with Round Two of our inaugural bunch of previews/rundowns/whatevers for the musicians & bands playing at In Bloom Fest this coming weekend (Sat., March 24th, & Sun., March 25th). Before we get into it, though, I wanted to point to one thing that I saw…
Hey, all — heading full-speed towards the first-ever In Bloom Music Fest, this coming Saturday & Sunday, March 24th & 25th over at Eleanor Tinsley Park, which also happens to be one of my absolute favorite places in this whole damn city…
I know this is a bit on the late-notice side, but…well, what the hell. If you think your lip-sync game is strong (and I’m thinking here of Paul Rapp on The Jimmy Fallon Show), and you want the chance to jump up on stage and perform at the fast-approaching In Bloom Music Festival, hey, you’re in luck…
I’ve put this off to the last minute, as I plan my yearly trip to Austin. Every year, I try to find my new favorite band at SXSW, and many years, I’m successful. In the past I’ve found acts like Temples, The Milk Carton Kids, Band of Skulls…
Hey, y’all — been dealing with a puking kid and house/floor renovations all weekend, so I’m way, way behind on what all’s been going on, sadly. There’re still a bunch of awesome things happening tonight, however, Sunday, March 11th, and I didn’t want to let ’em all slip away. Here goes…
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…
Hey, people — I’m psyched as hell about some recent show announcements over the next few months (Superchunk, Okkervil River, & Mastodon, for three; check the shows list for the dates), but right here and right now, it’s shaping up to be a damn good weekend…
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…
Okay, folks — it’s that time again, Friday, January 26th, and it’s the first jam-packed evening of a jam-packed weekend of stuff, so I figured I’d better talk about it, at least briefly, before it’s upon us. First up, though, an apology: for some reason, I could’ve sworn awesome doom-sludge-prog-metal folks {Omotai} were playing up at The Secret Group tonight, but apparently that’s not the case…
Alright, y’all; running late for today, Saturday, January 6th, but I’d be seriously, seriously remiss if I let the stuff happening this evening just slide past, unmentioned. Because it’s neat stuff, truly…
Howdy, all — it’s Friday, January 5th, and we’re heading into a weekend with some very cool stuff happening, so I wanted to mention a bit of it before everybody makes their plans and all that. I know I haven’t done one of these in a long, long while, and I’d kinda sworn I never would again, but there’s too much going on, y’know?…
If you’re a fan of Texas-bred indie/emo, odds are pretty good that you’ve heard Matt Hammon, even if you don’t realize it. That’s the way it was for me, at least; I thought my initial introduction to the guy’s music…
While I’ve only heard Memphis-dwelling folksinger Julien Baker relatively recently, it hasn’t taken long for her to leave me stunned and amazed with my mouth wide open. I’m reluctant to use the “folksinger” tag, honestly, because it doesn’t really do Baker’s music justice…
