Oh, hell yes. From the very first blast of boogie-rawk guitar and distorted, half-snarled vocals on their eponymous debut LP, the Knights of the Fire Kingdom make it absolutely goddamn clear both what they are and what they are not, in equal measure. What they are is a straight-up, nitro-burning rock band…
Yeah, yeah — I know The World’s About to End (again), what with a maybe-hurricane maybe-bearing down on Houston, but that doesn’t mean all movement has to cease, right? That’s especially true today, because H-town rawk dudes Knights of the Fire Kingdom cut loose with some big, big news. Not only have they finally announced the release of their long-awaited full-length (which I swear to God I’ve been listening to for in some form or another for close to two years now)…
It’s late notice, I know, and I’ve had to back away from the weekend previews for a bit because they were starting to give me an ulcer, but I couldn’t let this one slip past. Tonight — Saturday, June 13th, 20-year-strong H-town ska heroes {The Suspects} will be playing what I think is their first show at the downtown location…
At long last, my friends, here we are, standing on the precipice before the steady collapse into heat-induced delerium and music-induced euphoria that accompanies every Free Press Summer Festival just as surely as the sun rises every morning. It’s gonna hurt, yes, but you’ll love it just the same…
Annnnnd here we are, once again, with the third installment of SCR‘s forever(?)-annual FPSF rundown deal, where Jason Smith and Jeremy Hart yammer and gush about a randomly-selected pile of bands that just so happen to be playing this coming Saturday, June 6th, and Sunday, June 7th, over at the festival’s backup venue…
Yup, we’re back again, as promised, with Part II of our yearly rundown/preview thing of as many of the bands playing at this year’s (and weekend’s, June 6th & 7th) FPSF as our intrepid writers Jeremy Hart and Jason Smith can cram into their respective earholes before it’s go-time and they have to trek out […]
Yes, it’s that time. Time to once again brave the blistering Houston summer heat, damage our eardrums, get our favorite t-shirts filthy (Pro Tip: Do not wear your favorite t-shirt.), spend a shit-ton of money, listen to a lot of awesome music, nearly pass out a few times, high-five friends, smile at some very cool […]
Screw that whole “bands get quieter and more mellow as they get older” thing; who the hell wants that? The Wheel Workers, for one, sound like they’ve actually gotten louder and angrier as they’ve matured, band-wise, and I’m here to tell you that yes, that’s a very good thing. See, back in 2013 the band released their stellar second album, Past to Present, which pretty much took any problems I might’ve had with the band’s earlier stuff and threw them, smiling, into a running garbage disposal…
Sometimes, even when I really, really like a band — like is the case with, say, Houston-dwelling emo purveyors Football, etc. — there’s just some little thing/person/whatever missing to shove the whole thing over the edge into “holy crap, this is amazing” territory. Going by Football, etc.’s new four-song EP, Disappear, it looks like that thing is badass producer J. Robbins. Okay, that’s not all that’s happening here…
I have an admission to make: I yell at the TV every weekend. No, not during Fox and Friends (well, okay, I do that sometimes, too), but during Texas Music Scene, or rather, right at the beginning of Texas Music Scene…
As I’ve proclaimed a few times before in these pages, it’s no small thing to try to convey an emotion, a feeling, using music alone. With a vocalist standing out in front of the band, you can make things a lot more clear, declare your intentions more succinctly, and actually pull the audience along with you to where you want them to go emotionally. If the lyrics of a song are about someone dying, then odds are good…
Oh, how I love this band. {The Suffers} may be the ones getting all the press right now (and deservedly so), but my own personal Magic 8-Ball proclaims/hopes that {The Wheel Workers} are the next H-town band to surge upwards into the spotlight. They are simultaneously brilliant and down-to-earth, sincerely progressive and catchy as hell, that rare band that can incorporate thoughtful politics into music while keeping things fun and engaging. All of which explains why I’m so, so happy to see/hear new full-length Citizens coming down the pike…
Alright, friends and countrymen and everybody else, we’re back once again with another batch of writeups (possibly the last one before the actual thing starts) of all the awesome folks playing this year’s Madness on Main Street Music Festival tomorrow, Saturday, May 2nd. There will be 30 or so excellent bands…
And here we are, people, with the second bunch of writeups for this Saturday‘s (May 2nd, to be precise) Madness on Main Street Music Festival over in the Mid-Main ‘hood. Before I dive headlong into that, though, I wanted to quickly point out that you can (and probably should) get your tickets in advance…
Alright, so there’s a big, big pile of no-shit, truly-awesome stuff happening tonight — Friday, May 1st, that is. Before you make your evening plans & such, though, I wanted to point up one show in particular as being eminently worthy of consideration, I didn’t want to miss the boat. See, this evening the House of Blues plays host to H-town’s own {Second Lovers}, who’ve grown over the past few years now into one of my hands-down, absolute-favorite roots-rock bands…
Yes, yes, yes. It’s May, just starting to edge into the warmer months here in H-town, and that means it’s time once again for the ever-awesome Madness on Main Street Music Fest. Virtual high-five to both organizers Jason Smith and Phil “Bassman Pep” Peterson for pulling this thing together once again, damn near out of thin air — they’ve worked their asses off to put on one hell of a music festival…
I found it really difficult to write this review, a whole lot harder than I’d ever expected I would. Now, in case you’re one of those people who only reads the first paragraph of a review and makes their mind up then and there, let me clarify that I don’t mean this review was hard to write because I don’t like The Church of Philadelphia’s long-awaited second album, We’re Gonna Dance Tonight. On the contrary, I absolutely love it…
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…
Got word today that in spite of several spirited attempts to convince the owners of Mango’s that they should keep the place alive, the venue is now gone, having hosted its final show yesterday. It doesn’t seem like there was a whole lot of advance fanfare/warning as to the actual closing date, although this has been coming for several months now; I know a lot of folks, myself included, had hoped the place would get a reprieve, but it wasn’t to be…
Yeah, I know it’s only a Monday (April 20th, for you non-stoners out there), but there’s a fair pile of stuff happening already, even this early in the week, and I didn’t want to let it slip past. Here goes…
Alright, y’all — I know it’s late, and I know I’ve been freaking godawful at doing these lately; apologies on both fronts. Trying to do better, honest. First off for tonight (Friday, April 17th, for those not bothering to keep track), {The Tontons}‘ scheduled show over at Market Square Park was cancelled due to the nasty-ass weather…
There’s a veritable ton of good music going on today/tonight (Saturday, April 11th, that is) — including Earth Day Houston over at Discovery Green, which I completely had no idea was happening ’til just now…argh — and while I can’t get to most of it, there’s one show in particular that I want to point everybody to…
Yep, it’s that time of year once again, when venerable, now-online/HD radio station KTRU throws wide its arms and has its big annual party, otherwise known as the KTRU Outdoor Show…
Four years is a long time for anybody, and even longer for a musician, who’s liable to spend large chunks of that time on the road, scrabbling and scraping for any way they can somehow get ahead and avoid going broke doing what they love. It’s a long time in which you might stumble, might fall…
Midway through listening to A Sundae Drive’s most recent full-length, the followup to 2011’s excellent, You’re Gonna Get Me, it hit me just how, well, how dark it is. There’s a murky, bitter edge to the band’s sound on here, despite the seemingly cheery pop melodies…
Getting late, and my eyes are rapidly melting in my skull (in part because I stupidly started Andy Weir‘s The Martian after dinner and haven’t put it down until just now), but I didn’t want to drop the ball on this one — it’s pretty damn important. In December of 2013, a woman driving down Waugh hit and killed a 24-year-old Whole Foods employee as she biked home from work…
Hey, all — got a ridiculously late start tonight (Friday, March 27th), I’m afraid, and I’m sorry for the delay. There’s still a ton of stuff going on tonight, though, so get your ass out there right now, alright? Alright. Here goes…
Alright, folks — it’s Saturday, March 14th now, and I’m writing this while on the road, so I’ll get it up online when I can; no guarantees it’ll be timely, though. There’s a ton going on, by the by, what with early St. Patrick’s Day stuff and festivals and all the rest, so I’m going […]
Heading into the actual weekend now, Friday, March 13th, y’all, and there’s a truly gigantic pile of good stuff happening, so much that there’s no way in hell I’m going to be able to talk about all of it. So here’s us hitting a few highlights; here we go…
Getting a jump on the weekend, for once, starting with tonight, Thursday, March 12th — I couldn’t pass it by, honestly, with so much excellent stuff happening. Here we go…
For Floridian doom-metal heroes Torche, Restarter feels kind of like a homecoming. I say “kind of,” mind you, because this isn’t really a step backwards as much as it is an integration of the band’s earlier, heavier sounds with the poppier experiment that was 2012’s Harmonicraft. At the same time, though, the album feels very much akin to Meanderthal…
It’s Saturday, February 28th, and it’s a cold-ass day outside, I know (for Houstonians, anyway), but there’re at least two reasons to get out of the house, even still. I know the title above makes it look like I’m talking about a couple of ski resorts, but no…
It’s been a hell of a week, y’all, and I’m still recovering; these updates will get more timely again soon, though, I swear. Tonight’s Friday, February 27th, and there’s a crapload of excellent stuff happening — I’ve got to make it quick, but here’re the highlights: Buxton (record release)/John Moreland/Dollie Barnes/John Egan @ The Continental […]
I’ve never seen A Place To Bury Strangers live; after hearing Transfixiation, I’m not sure I’d survive the experience. Part of me wonders that, if I did, once I staggered, blood dripping steadily from my eardrums and my head full of darkness and fear and ruin, back out onto the street, maybe some new facet of the world I’d never fully recognized might suddenly reveal itself to me. Or, on the other hand, I might just pass out in the gutter, sobbing uncontrollably and unable to remember what all had happened. Still, it’s damned tempting to give it a try…
Annnnnnd there we are, folks; the balloon has gone up, at long last. The good people in charge of the Free Press Summer Festival (aka FPSF) have released the big-ass pile of names playing this year’s festival. A whole bunch of it makes me excited, some of it makes me shrug, and a bit of it makes me scratch my head and say, “really?” Overall, though, I’m pretty happy with what’s on the menu. In terms of the big names on the list, the ones I like the best are Skrillex, St. Vincent, Belle and Sebastian(squee!…
After four long years, it’s here at last. Seriously, since the first time I heard Quiet Company’s We Are All Where We Belong, I feel like I’ve been holding my breath to see what comes next. Of course, that doesn’t mean the band’s been sitting still the whole time — far from it, in fact…
Argh, argh, argh. I’d fully intended to get to this earlier in the week/day, but here I am, it’s late on Friday, February 13th, and there’s a great big pile of awesome things to do, most of which are already underway. Here we go…
Time sometimes mellows a musician, and in a lot of instances, that can be a very, very bad thing. On Another Mutation, though, a little bit of mellowing and stepping backwards helps, allowing singer/multi-instrumentalist Mlee Marie’s clear, beautiful voice to shine through without some of the more experimental/noisy trappings of her early work cluttering things up. And once that happens, another thing immediately snaps into focus: she’s truly one hell of a songwriter…
You can’t resist The Suffers; seriously, it’s impossible. Their music is just so infectious, so warm and mellow it’s like one of those rare perfect spring days when the sky’s bright and blue and cloudless, the weather’s warm but not yet hot, and all feels right with the world…
As most of you hopefully know, it’s now the weekend — Friday, January 23rd, to be exact — and while I’m getting a late start tonight (as pretty much always), there’s still some excellent shows going on…
