Yes, friends, neighbors, Houstonianites, it’s just about time again for the “other” half of the bi-annual music festival extravaganza that’s known either as the Yes, Indeed! Music Festival or Madness on Main Street, both put on by super-organized people Jason Smith and Phil “Bassman Pep” Peterson…
Written on September 15, 2016 | Posted in
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I know I’ve been missing a ton of great shows lately, but dammit, I can’t let this one slip by without a mention. Keeton Coffman, who the longer-memory-having folks among you might remember as the frontman of gone-too-soon band The 71’s, is my absolute favorite guy singer/songwriter in town these days…
Written on September 9, 2016 | Posted in
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So, it looks like Arthur Yoria has come back home to Houston, and oh, man, am I glad to see it. The last I’d heard from Arthur, back in 2010, he was moving up to Brooklyn to try out his sweet-voiced, sometimes stoner-like pop songwriting chops on the hipsters that dwell there…
Written on September 9, 2016 | Posted in
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I don’t get out much these days; it’s a sad, sad truth of my near-suburban Soccer-/Theater-/Cub Scout-Dad existence. When I see a show coming up, even one that sounds truly, truly awesome, my immediate, instinctual response is, “ah, fuck, I’m too damn tired, it’s gonna be too far away, too late a night; I should just stay home and watch TV or read.” So, in a lot of cases, that’s exactly what I do…
Written on September 8, 2016 | Posted in
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Alright, back with Part 3 of this rundown thing for Madness on Main Street 2016, which may well be the last, since this thing starts in less than 24 hours — see Part 1 and Part 2, over here…
Written on May 7, 2016 | Posted in
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Over the past year, I’ve missed and/or dropped the ball on a whole bunch of stuff, I seriously have. I’ve got a to-do list like you wouldn’t believe. And one of the things I want to punch myself in the face for most is all the awesome, excellent, strange, quirky videos from Houston bands and musicians I’ve let slip past these past 12 months (or more, honestly)…
Written on January 29, 2016 | Posted in
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And now, here we are. After much hyping, Day for Night is finally here, bursting into life tomorrow, Saturday, December 19th, and Sunday, December 20th, over at Silver Street Studios (2000 Edwards St.). And to me, at least, said hyping looks very much justified…
Written on December 19, 2015 | Posted in
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One of the things I love best about the scene here (and yes, I’m well aware that lots of other cities have music scenes that are similar in this respect) is that after a while, you start to see a lot of the same characters roaming in and around, joining up in different configurations and doing stuff that they’ve maybe never tried before. Sure, people do leave, and it’s a bummer when that happens, but if you look at a lot of the coolest, most interesting bands in H-town…
Written on September 23, 2015 | Posted in
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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…
Written on May 7, 2015 | Posted in
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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…
Written on May 1, 2015 | Posted in
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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…
Written on April 17, 2015 | Posted in
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So, if you live in a small hole in the ground and only communicate with squirrels or something (or alternatively, if you just plain hate music and joy), you may not have heard that H-town’s own awesome soul-rocksteady crew {The Suffers} just happened to make their big-time network TV debut this past Monday, on The Late Show With David Letterman…
Written on April 1, 2015 | Posted in
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Alrighty; been on vacation of late, both out of town and offline, and I know I’ve missed quite a bit — apologies for that, folks. Trying to pick things up again now, though, and I figured I’d start with a musical-type thing tonight (Wed., March 25th, that is) that’s a bit of a twofer…
Written on March 25, 2015 | Posted in
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Hey, folks — I’m headed to SXSW this week, and I wanted to give a quick rundown of the 15 new-by-newish bands I can’t wait to see at SXSW. They’re in alphabetical order, with very short descriptions of each and a video that you should watch to decide for yourself…
Written on March 17, 2015 | Posted in
Features,
Live Reviews
Okay, so I know there’re actually several very, very cool shows happening tonight, but the absolute top of my list is happening at Bayou Music Center tonight, where ridiculously great Manchester band The 1975 will be rolling through town. Others may disagree, but for my money, the band’s self-titled debut was one of the best damn things I heard all of last year…
Written on November 26, 2014 | Posted in
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Some cool news today that I wanted to share/disseminate/etc… After a while spent quietly working away on their forthcoming full-length, excellent indie-rock band {Glass the Sky} have resurfaced, not only with brand-new single “Touch,” but also a video for said brand-new single…
Written on October 21, 2014 | Posted in
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Alright, folks — back again with installment #3 of the previews (see installments #1 and #2 over here and here) for the rapidly-approaching Madness on Main Street Music Fest, coming up this Saturday, May 9th over on the Mid-Main strip. Get your advance tickets now, BTW; I’m told they’re running out fast…
Written on May 9, 2014 | Posted in
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Alright, so this may sound a little familiar, but…do you remember last month, when we got all psyched about the return of Roky Moon & BOLT!? Of course you do! And why in the hell am I bringing it up yet again?…
Written on March 27, 2014 | Posted in
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Well, wow. After dealing with a house full of sick people the past few days, this was seriously some welcome good news. See, way, way back in 2007, yours truly was frankly pretty disillusioned with music in general. All the bands I loved from around here were dying off or moving away, it seemed like, and I was having a harder and harder time liking any of it, y’know?…
Written on March 25, 2014 | Posted in
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Welcome to my “Baker’s Dozen of Must See (Relatively) New Acts at SXSW 2014” Blog, if you’re heading to Austin this week…and why wouldn’t you be? I mean, we’re all teachers who get Spring Break off, right?…
Written on March 10, 2014 | Posted in
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Live Reviews
It’s been a while since we last took a peek ’round town at what our favorite local folks have been doing, video-wise…and it turns out that, holy crap, there’s been a lot of cool videos released over the past 8 months or so. Here’re a few…
Written on October 18, 2013 | Posted in
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Hey, y’all — there’s some very, very cool stuff happening tonight (Thursday, October 3rd), and I didn’t want to let it slip through my twitchy little fingers without it getting a mention up here…
Written on October 3, 2013 | Posted in
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If there’s anything I’ve learned in all the years I’ve spent doing critical writing, both in college and after, it’s that you can make anything have a theme. Not that everything actually has a theme, mind you, but rather that if you read…
Written on July 17, 2013 | Posted in
Features,
Live Reviews
While I do try to keep the political stuff a little low-key on this blog, sometimes I can’t help it. So, here we go: I, like a lot of folks down here in Texas, apparently, spent Tuesday night (and parts of Wednesday) glued to the TV/Internet as Senator Wendy Davis…
Written on June 27, 2013 | Posted in
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Keen-eyed observers of things musical (and artsy) in our fair city may remember around this time last year when ultra-cool, ultra-dramatic rockers {The Manichean} debuted their then-new album, LOVERS in an unusual setting…
Written on June 25, 2013 | Posted in
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Moving on to Saturday, June 22nd, now, but before I get to the shows that are going on, there appears to be one that isn’t. I haven’t been able to completely confirm it, but it sure looks like the Pull The Plug Fest that’d been originally…
Written on June 22, 2013 | Posted in
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Those Treaty Oak Collective folks are sponsoring a cool (if somewhat odd for them, generally speaking) thing tonight, Friday, June 21st, up at Domy Books on Westheimer…
Written on June 21, 2013 | Posted in
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Hey, all — I know it’s been somewhat quiet over here in recent days; sorry about that, but yours truly’s been pretty well snowed-under by multiple things, and blog postings tend to fall by the wayside. sigh…
Written on May 17, 2013 | Posted in
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Busy, busy day coming up, on into Saturday, May 3rd — there’s a ton going on, so much that I’m not going to have time to really talk about even most of it. But hell, let’s hit the highlights; here’s what I’m thinking looks & sounds cool…
Written on May 4, 2013 | Posted in
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Yep, it’s Sunday, April 28th, and I hope everybody out there survived yesterday’s deluge; we took in a couple whose SUV got swamped while they were headed to their engagement party, and that ended up being our primary excitement of the evening. But hey, the weather’s holding off so far…
Written on April 28, 2013 | Posted in
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On into Saturday, April 27th, today, and again, there’s a crapload of good stuff happening. Here’s what looks/sounds good to me…
Written on April 27, 2013 | Posted in
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Yes, another year gone by, and another (ridiculously-late) set of top ten lists from us folks here at SCR of all of the good/amazing/awesome things we ran across in 2012. Your intrepid writerly-type people have gone through literally thousands…
Written on April 23, 2013 | Posted in
Features,
Interviews
Too much to do, too much to do, and time tick-tick-ticking away, but dangit, there’s a lot of stuff going on this evening (er, right now, as a matter of fact), Friday, April 19th. Without further ado, let’s go…
Written on April 19, 2013 | Posted in
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Ah, Sunday; usually the day so quiet and laid-back I don’t need to worry about posting about it, but that’s definitely not the case today, April 14th — there’s actually a fair number of things going on, although the bulk of ’em are somewhat outside-the-Loop. Here goes…
Written on April 14, 2013 | Posted in
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phew. Hey, folks — I’m back in town and online. And holy crap, does it feel like I missed a lot; apologies for not updating from the road, but I was so exhausted in the evenings (chasing a hyperactive 3-year-old around is no picnic, especially when he refuses to nap and has a cold) I mostly just crashed out…
Written on March 15, 2013 | Posted in
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Alright, people — the rest of this weekend, yours truly will essentially be lit on fire and running screaming through the streets (okay, metaphorically, but still). So here’s what’s going on tomorrow, Saturday, March 9th, before I run out of time to talk about it…
Written on March 9, 2013 | Posted in
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I had a late start, but at this point I am absolutely drowning in the music of the acts heading to Austin to promote their wares at 2013’s incarnation of South by Southwest. I’ve been jigsaw-puzzling my schedule together for the last few days…
Written on March 8, 2013 | Posted in
Features,
Live Reviews
Today’s a big day, at least in the realm of H-town music media, because it’s the 10-year anniversary for two of my favorite publications/sites/etc., namely {Free Press Houston} and {Houston Calling}…
Written on March 8, 2013 | Posted in
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It’s Saturday, March 2nd, now, y’all, and there’s plenty of good stuff happening both today & tonight. Here’s what I’m liking…
Written on March 2, 2013 | Posted in
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Okay, so I know the Ra Ra Riot show tonight up at Fitz is all sold out, but don’t lose hope just yet. You need to head to the other floor of the club, instead; trust me on this, people…
Written on February 21, 2013 | Posted in
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