I think what I’m liking most about From Beyond One Year EP is that while it is heavy, make no mistake about it, it’s not too heavy; it’s just the right amount of stomping, crushing thunder so that it doesn’t get dragged down…
Gotta keep this quick, quick, quick folks, which sucks somewhat, because tonight — Friday, July 20th — is looking extremely damn full. Apologies for giving anybody short shrift in this little writeup, but I’m barely able to stay afloat at the moment…
I’m honestly kicking myself now for not listening to this sooner. College Station band The Ex-Optimists have been on repeat in my headphones for a while now, drowning me in a turbulent squall of Sonic Youth guitars, driving ’90s indie-drone-rock melodies…
For all the layers of sound on Bang Bangz’s debut EP, there’s a quiet, somber darkness that’s worked through the whole thing, from start to finish. Simply put, it’s a “night” album, but it’s not a “whoo, I spent all night partying with my bros” album…
Trying to be a little more timely for today (which is Sunday, July 15th), at least… Before I get into the shows going on today/tonight, though, I wanted to point out something I realized while scanning through the show listings yesterday…
Now on to Saturday, July 14th, and while it’s not the busiest Saturday we’ve had lately, no, there’s still some very, very cool stuff going on, even though I’m getting this up a little bit late… First, though, some notes on upcoming (or not, in this case) shows & such…
Damn…it’s Friday, July 13th, and the weekend’s completely crept up on me, I have to admit; just had too much going on to keep track of the days, y’know? Now that I’m focusing back on things musical, though, I’m getting psyched about what’s going on this evening, for damn sure…
These days, it’s getting hard to throw a rock in this city without hitting a roots-rock/indie-folk-country band, and while it’s true that a large number of ’em are good, it can be tempting to get jaded and cynical each time a new one comes along…
Okay, so I’ll grant that the shiny-yet-dystopian future depicted in Justice‘s brand-new video for “New Lands” isn’t the nicest place & is obviously corrupt as hell, but the game depicted therein might well be the most badass sport ever invented…
I never got to meet Chuck Schambaugh, sadly, but it kills me even still to hear about somebody so young (he was only 25) leaving so suddenly, especially when they’re a hardworking, heart-in-the-right-place part of the scene here…
It’s Saturday now, July 7th, and there’s nearly as much cool, cool stuff going on today as there was yesterday. Here goes: Nava’s Beardy B-Day Bash, featuring the last place you look, Nothingmore, & Recovery Room @ Warehouse Live (Studio) Ah, yeah. I swear, those guys in {the last place you look} are flat-out great, […]
Just to follow up on the other week’s blog post about Vinal Edge Records moving from the Far North into the Heights…
Holy wow, y’all. It’s Friday, July 6th, which means the weekend’s started, and damn, it’s a busy, busy, busy one, in the best possible way. Before we dive into it, though, I just want to give a heartfelt thumbs-up to {The Tontons}…
Grace — that’s what it is, I think. There’s this weird, serene feeling I get whenever I listen to The Eastern Sea, this strange calmness that rolls over me like a wave (appropriately enough), leaving me drifting along, pulled by the music…
As with probably pretty much every guy my age, yes, I once had a Nintendo (one of the early ones, before all the extra letters got added in later versions). Okay, I didn’t have it, technically; my parents bought it for all three of us, my two brothers & I. And we played the crap out of that thing…
I had been hearing about Venomous Maximus for a couple years. From the name, I’d expected an all-out blitz of Slayer-type metal, a type of music that I have no interest in whatsoever. However, when they shared the Bryan/College Station Loudfest…
Last day of the weekend, Sunday, July 1st, and yep, there’s still some good things happening. First, though, just as an FYI, the Corey Smith show set for tonight at the House of Blues has been cancelled…
ot some cool news regarding tomorrow’s (Sunday, July 1st, that is) Vans Warped Tour stop here in Houston. The Warped folks partnered up once again (I believe, anyway) with guitar string makers Ernie Ball…
sigh…late, late, late, as seemingly always. It’s late-evening on Saturday, June 30th, and yours truly just got done entertaining friends & friends’ children here at the house, so I’m only now getting back to the laptop…
More than anything else, on Summer Us, Jody Seabody and The Whirls feel like a band out of time. Sure, the trappings of more straightforward, radio-friendly alternarock are in there, definitely — especially in the opening tracks of the album…
First “real” day of the weekend today, Friday, June 29th, and while it’s not quite as jam-packed as last night was with good stuff, there’s still plenty going on…
Okay, so this feels a little strange. Back in the spring of 2011, I reviewed an album called Unite, by a band called The Wheel Workers that I’d never heard of before but which had seemingly popped, fully-formed, onto the scene…
What the…? Is it really only a Thursday (June 28th, to be exact)? Then how in the hell are there so many damn cool things going on tonight? Seriously, there’s more good stuff on the calendar tonight than there is on Friday…
It’s been a little while since I’ve run across The Wild Moccasins. I dearly loved 2010’s Skin Collision Past, but I’ve been sorely missing them in the intervening couple of years, not even managing to catch the band live at Summerfest this year…
You’ve got to love a band (and EP) that makes its mission statement clear right from the word “go.” Weird Party’s new 7″ EP, The Secret Lives of Men, does just that, blowing the quasi-artiness of the title apart with an introductory frenzied…
Whoa — while we do get sent a crap-ton of MP3 links for various bands, it’s not often that I open the Inbox to find not one but two new tracks from bands I love, particularly not both from right here in H-town…
UPDATE: Okay, so apparently I misunderstood the rules for the voting. You can vote not just once, but once per day on the ballot for whoever you want to win, from now until August 5th…
Coming into Sunday, June 24th, now, and despite it being, well, a Sunday, there’s still some good stuff going on. Here’s what sounds/looks good to me…
Very often there is a fine line between making jokes and being a joke. Van Halen does not concern themselves with that line. That’s something I’ve always appreciated about the joy with which they approach their show…
It’s Saturday now, y’all (June 23rd, to be exact), and holy-freaking-wow is there a lot going on, folks. Here goes…
Aaaargh. How does this happen? I always, always plan to get this shit posted earlier, and yet, without fail, things conspire to stop that from happening. sigh. Sorry about the slowness, y’all, but there’s still some really great stuff going on tonight, Friday, June 22nd. Here goes…
Leave it to the Linus Pauling Quartet to come up with something like this, seriously: a monolithic, fuzz-drenched, utterly badass chunk of headbanging stoner-psych-rock all about Cimmerian gods, post-Apocalyptic wastelands, playing D&D, and (of course) somebody else smoking all your pot. If you think I’m kidding, well, you’ve probably never heard the LP4 before…
I swear, the more I hear of new-ish noisy, messy, too-smart-for-their-own-good rockers {Peloton}, the more I love ’em. They’re like a holdover from those mid-’90s days when a band could play music that was full-on noise, all sharp-edged guitars, crushing, bottom-of-the-sea bass…
I’ve been sitting on this album for a while, because I was hoping that if I went back to it I might like it a bit better. The first song, “Loverboy,” is catchy in both the lyrics and the music — it’s got a great toe-tapping beat that makes me wish the whole album was like this…
It’s short notice, I know, but among the pile of pretty great shows going on tonight (The Cult/Against Me!, football, etc., Dr. Ralph Stanley, & Rel the Chosen are all very cool, too), there’s one that stands out for me…
Last day of the weekend, Sunday, June 17th, and while there’s not a lot going on, what is going on is pretty much all badass. Unfortunately, I’ll be off doing Father’s Day stuff this evening, most likely, but I may try to make it up to Fitzgerald’s, should the opportunity arise…
It’s Saturday, June 16th, and unfortunately, the little guy decided not to take a nice, long nap this afternoon, so I’ve got to keep this one a little on the brief side, too. I didn’t want to miss out on tonight’s shows, though, because there’s some awesome stuff going on. Here we go…
Just got some cool, cool news from Jack over at Post Punk’d, who’s one of the organizers of the Sound & Vision music showcases that’ve popped up on the list a few times…
Gotta keep this brief, but there is some cool stuff going on tonight, Friday, June 15th. Here goes…
With Gasconader, the guys in Denver band Flashbulb Fires have seemingly abandoned their previous orchestral indie-rock tendencies aside in favor of sweet, sweet, candy-lush indie-pop that floats and bounces along through the ether…
