Gaaaaah. This week, I swear… If it isn’t the nerve-wracking deadlines at the day job necessitating long, long hours, or family members falling ill, it’s sewage backing up into the shower from a busted line somewhere under the yard. sigh…
I’ve got to hand it to Cymbals Eat Guitars: I was fished-in right from the start of lenses alien, the Staten Island quartet’s latest full-length. The band makes me think of that sadly short-lived period in where bands got crazy merging…
These days it feels all too rare to find a “heavy” band that doesn’t fit into some neat little categorization or sub-categorization — doom metal, stoner metal, black metal, all these rigid little boxes upon boxes bands get shoved into…
Got some good news recently about awesomely cool band {The Tontons}, namely that they just released their latest EP, Golden, which folks like me’ve been looking forward to for a few months now. And from a quick initial listen, yeah, it’s pretty jaw-droppingly cool…
Sunday coming up — September 25th, to be precise — and somewhat surprisingly, it’s pretty damn busy, at least for a Sunday… Of course, tomorrow night’s the second day of the still-cool Houston Press BestFest…
Holy shit, there is a lot going on tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 24th. I can barely wrap my head around all of it, seriously, so I’m going to have to just hit the highlights, y’all. The biggie, of course, is the Houston Press Best of Houston BestFest…
It’s crazy, but tomorrow (Sat., 9/24) is turning into Festival Day 2011, I swear… There’s the awesome-sounding Houston Press BestFest 2011, the Houston Wine Fest…
There’s a new music store in town, which is extremely cool — the more, the merrier, in my book, and I’m damn glad to see a music store open in this city rather than close. They’re called Heights Vinyl…
It’s not quite the Halloween season yet, no, but the dead’ll be rising tomorrow (Sat., September 24th) all the same… Tomorrow is the 2011 Houston Zombie Walk, apparently…
Yes, yes — it’s now the weekend, and there’s a lot going on. Things’ll get crazier as the weekend goes on, but even tonight, Friday, September 23rd, is pretty damn nuts. First off (and coming up pretty quick), those crazy art-punks in the aptly-named {Art Institute}…
Hey, all — been offline most of this week, sadly, trying to get many, many things handled on various fronts, but I didn’t want to let tonight (Thurs., September 22nd) totally slip through the cracks, because there’re some very cool shows going on…
I can’t deny it, no matter how hard the cold, dark parts of my soul want me to: with Glazin’, Jacuzzi Boys have thrown together one of the flat-out cheerful-est things I’ve heard in recent years, and yeah, it’s fun…
Back again, still sore from yesterday’s carpentry extravaganza; I always forget how much I loathe doing moulding ’til about a half-hour into it, when I’ve already cut the pieces incorrectly about six times. sigh…
Hey, all — running late, unfortunately, after spending the whole day cutting and measuring and cutting crown moulding for the hallways…gah. There’s quite a bit going on tonight (Sat., September 17th), though, so I didn’t want to miss out on it completely…
The first time I stumbled across Athens/Asheville gang Reptar, I honestly had no idea what the hell was happening. I walked into their debut EP, Oblangle Fizz, Y’all, pretty much blind…
Dang. There’s a lot coming up tonight (Friday, September 16th, that is — and how the hell is it already mid-September? yeesh…), folks, so I’ll get to it as soon as I can & let you know what all looks good to me…
Maybe it’s just me, but some days it sure feels like every emo/punk frontman is secretly a down-home country troubadour at heart. While I haven’t heard much of what Brett Detar’s “real” band, The Juliana Theory, has been doing the past several years…
On Friday, September 2nd, Houston was served up a wonderful and reflective night of peace, love, and retro-fitted classic rock from the ’60s and ’70s, as “Hippiefest 2011” came groovin’ into the Arena Theater…
Damn, damn, damn. This show just might make me break out of the weekday-evening slump and head on up to Fitzgerald’s, because I really, truly like all three damn bands playing up there tonight…
We came, we saw, we left early. We were berated for lack of press pass (thanks, booster club!). We rather unsuccessfully tried to reaffix our apparently fictional press passes back to our shirts, pants, sweaty legs, and, finally, camera bags. We jammed…
Sorry I neglected to post about yesterday’s shows, folks — ended up spending the weekend down in Surfside, digging in the sand for little clams and crashing through the waves, and the wi-fi was less than reliable, sadly…
I’m just going to come right out and say it, folks: Omotai isn’t really a “band.” What they are, rather, is some sort of massive sonic beast birthed beneath the crust of the planet, way down where it’s dark and hot and inhuman…
It was the kid who opened my eyes on this one; I can’t take credit, not really. I’d put the Sideshow Tramps’ brand-new full-length, Revelator, on in the car on the way to school/work, and partway through lead-in track…
It’s Friday yet again — September 9th, this time — and as (almost) always, there’s plenty going on that sounds pretty cool… I’ve only got time to hit a couple right now, but I’ll do my best. Cool? Cool…
While I’ll admit that part of me is desperately wishing I could hang with Mos Def & Talib Kweli at the House of Blues tonight…
When bad news hits, it all hits at once, it seems like, and this week’s no exception; got word the other day that {Mydolls}/{No Love Less} guitarist Kathy Johnston, passed away…
I suppose it’s only appropriate that J Mascis, the king of the slackers, released his first solo studio album after 25 years of guitar-lacerating band recordings. An almost entirely acoustic album, Several Shades of Why stretches his talents…
Damn. In case you hadn’t already heard, there’s been some news — of the bad variety, in my view, but I’m sure there’re others out there who’ll be happy — regarding Midtown indie-hipster venue The Mink…
In a day when most label-bound music is starting to sound eerily similar, it’s rather refreshing to uncover a band like The Black and White Years. The critically-acclaimed, Austin-based quartet…
Back in the late ’90s, I was in a magazine with Atlanta metal dudes Sevendust. No, really; okay, so it wasn’t me so much as it was my now long-dead band, but still. It was a pretty monumental thing for us at the time…
Sunday, September 4th, heading on into Labor Day, and there’re a few cool-ass shows still going on, despite everybody heading out of town for the three-day weekend & all that…
As hinted at yesterday, there’s a veritable crapload of stuff going on tonight, Saturday, September 3rd. There’s so much I’m honestly having a hard time even talking about all of it…
The fact that you’re reading this on a Website rather than in a newspaper or book somewhere should tell you, whether you realize it or not, the current state of flux in media. The newspaper, and the news business as we have known it, is dying…
Heading into the Labor Day weekend with Friday, September 2nd, and I have to say, I’m feeling pretty psyched, not just about the weekend and not just because it’ll be yours truly’s birthday this coming Saturday, September 3rd…
Take the most stately, delicately grand — but not overwhelming — music Kate Bush ever recorded, all fragile, glacially beautiful keys and soaring, angelic vocals, then weld to it a funkier, more ’80s-influenced sound…
It’s not a surprise to say that Hollywood — and audiences in general — loves a good revenge thriller. Watching a hero blow things up and kill villains is fun, and with bad guy who has it coming, it’s even more fun…
