Spent the day out & about with the fam, so I’m running late again, I’m afraid. But hey, this is Houston, where things (generally, anyway) start late and go later, so what the hell; between writing up shows & hanging with the munchkins, the kids win out…
Hearing — or watching, for that matter — Benjamin Wesley craft his music is somewhat akin to watching a sculptor work in reverse. He adds layer upon layer upon layer, building up rather than carving away, with sounds being introduced and stacked atop one another…
I mentioned a while back that local do-everything musician/one-man-band {Benjamin Wesley} had a new album coming out, and yep, that happy day is upon us. Er, days, really, to be completely accurate…
Crap, crap, crap. Tonight (Friday, March 30th) seriously snuck up on me, I’m afraid. And it’s a big, big night, too…here goes…
Damn. Late, as usual… I’d fully planned on mentioning this earlier on, but got caught up in day-job work, and, well, it just didn’t happen. sigh…
Once in a while I’ll come across a particular kind of album where I can admit that despite my overall not liking of a specific genre, this one could be the exception. Coming Out of the Pain, however, is not that exception…
This may not surprise readers who are already fans of L.A. band Seahaven, but I’m going to say it anyway: guitarist/singer Kyle Soto’s voice takes some getting used to. When “Goodnight,” the first track on Winter Forever, starts, it comes in like loud…
At a time when bands like Thrice, From Autumn to Ashes, and Atreyu took over the music scene, bands like Everyone Dies In Utah would have fit that old cliché “a dime a dozen” almost perfectly. Almost. However, at a time when music seems to be changing direction…
If you’ve heard one pop punk band that borders on dare-I-say-emo, then it seems like you’ve pretty much heard them all. So what sets Attaloss apart from all of the other seemingly countless bands out there that share a similar sound? I have no clue…
On to Saturday, Marc 24th today, and there’s plenty going on; I’ve got to keep it brief, I’m afraid, but here’s what sounds gool to me…
Arrrrrgh. Here we are, y’all, late once more — sorry about that, but non-musical things have had to win out many, many times this week. sigh. And now it’s tonight, Fri., March 23rd, and there’s some really good stuff going on…
Listening to England In 1819’s Alma, I feel less like I’m hearing an album and more like I’m watching some tragic, heartrendingly beautiful play unfold on a stage off in the distance. The music is stately and beautiful, all melancholy…
Damn. Just…damn. Listening to “All Static,” the A-side of this split-7″ from now-departed post-rock trio Sharks and Sailors, I can’t help but tear up a little bit…
sigh. Dropped the ball yet again, I’m afraid — it’s happening so damn often I’m sorely tempted to try to come up with some kind of football-related way to describe it, except I dunno a damn thing about the state of the sport these days, so eh. This freaking month, I swear…
The funny thing about music is that if I had heard this CD any time over a year ago, I would have thought that it was cute and probably good for kids, but I wouldn’t have really known what else to say about it. Hearing this now, while having a two-month-old son…
Jeff (Jason Segel) lives at home, although that probably goes without saying. In an effort to get him to do something, anything besides smoking pot in the basement, his mother (Susan Sarandon) sends him out to get some glue…
Okay, so after their song “We Are Young” ended up in a Super Bowl commercial, I’ll admit that fun. don’t need my help in terms of promotion, but hey, what can I say?…
It’s kind of a light day today, for Day Twelve of SXSW Overflow Fest at Super Happy Fun Land, so I’m going to go buck-wild crazy and do two days’ worth of writeups, all at once…
Several times in the press release for this album, The Beach Boys are mentioned by name. It also says how The Explorers Club are influenced by bands of the 1960s. So, does this sound like The Beach Boys? No, not really. Songs like “Bluebird”…
Yep, it’s Monday, March 19th, and here we are, back again with Day Eleven(!) of this year’s SXSW Overflow Fest — as always, hosted over at Super Happy Fun Land, otherwise known as the quirkiest/neatest venue in town…
sigh. Running behind again, seemingly as always… Here’s Pt. 2 of the writeups for tonight’s (Sunday, March 18th) SXSW Overflow Fest lineup over at Super Happy Fun Land. You’ve already missed the first several bands, I’m afraid, but there’re still some very cool bands to go…
Back up in the city proper now, so I’m back onto the SXSW Overflow Fest writeups, for all the bands playing tomorrow night, Sunday, March 18th, up at Super Happy Fun Land. It’s been quite a run so far, and it’s still rolling on strong…
What can I say, y’all? It’s been a hell of a month over here, and this weekend’s just another to add to the pile…sigh. I’d planned to post this weekend’s writeups, plus a heartfelt post about today’s KTRU Outdoor Show…
For this installment of SCR‘s Musician to Musician interview series, we sit down and chat with newcomers New York City Queens, who burst onto the scene last fall fully-formed, with full-length Somewhere Different, Somewhere New already in hand…
I’m going to be away from the laptop for a while this weekend, so this is going to have to be a twofer for the ongoing writeups of the ever-cool SXSW Overflow Fest up at Super Happy Fun Land…
Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrararrrgggghhhhh. Fuck, fuck, fuck. How in the hell did I let this show sneak up on me, dammit? I saw it, I listed it, and I said, “hey, I really need to go to that!” And then, here I am, at almost 7PM on Thursday, March 15th…
On to Thursday, March 15th, aka Day Seven of the 2012 edition of Super Happy Fun Land‘s SXSW Overflow Fest, and when things start up again tonight at 7PM…
Alright, so I’m feeling compelled to say something I never, ever thought I’d say, and I’m just going to come out and say it: thank God for Maroon 5. No, no, I mean it; I don’t give a crap about their more recent stuff, but look back at 2002’s Songs About Jane…
The list’s a little lighter today, but damn, I’m beginning to have some serious misgivings about tackling all these; not that it’s not neat to listen to all these bands, and some of ’em — Mittenfields, Dustin Wong, The Ugly Club…
Alrighty, now the lineups are starting to get heavy over at Super Happy Fun Land‘s SXSW Overflow Fest — and early, to boot, starting at, um, 3:30PM today, as in an hour or two ago…
With their most recent EP, Prisoner, quirky post-shoegazers Eternal Summers ride a fine, fine line, and right when it’d be all too easy to fall off completely and go one way or the other, they yank the handlebars back in the opposite direction…
Argh. Dammit, scrambling again, on Day Four (Monday, March 12th, to be precise) of SXSW Overflow Fest over at Super Happy Fun Land. sigh. I swear, one of these damn days…
There’s a great, great looseness to The Fresh Sum, the debut EP from Washington, DC band Mittenfields; it’s the kind of laidback, everybody-does-their-thing kind of feel that I hear far, far too infrequently these days. Hell, since the late ’90s, in fact…
A short while back, I was offered the chance to shoot photos of Radiohead and review their Houston show at Toyota Center. Of course, I jumped at the chance, but then I thought, what would I really write about the show that wouldn’t be said better…
Well, crud. Three days in, and already I’m blowing it with the Super Happy Fun Land SXSW Overflow Fest writeups. sigh. We’re on to Sunday, March 11th, now, and Day Three of the fest…
With Reports From the Threshold of Death, Junius prove themselves to be quite a strange, intriguing beast of a band. Right from the pseudo-Gregorian chanting at the start of “Betray The Grave,” which rapidly shifts over into thundering guitars and distant, echoey vocals…
Ouch. Tonight really, really hurts; it does, seriously. Why? Well, because while I’m at home watching two ailing munchkins — the wife’s going to a play with some friends — there’s a fair handful of cool, cool shows going on, shows I’m actually really bummed I won’t be seeing…
On to Day Two of this year’s SXSW Overflow Fest over at Super Happy Fun Land; still ramping up somewhat, with only a handful of bands playing (as opposed to, say, Tuesday, when there’re 13)…
Well, it’s Saturday now, March 10th, and once again, there’s plenty going on — hell, more than yesterday, if anything. Here goes…
sigh. The music scene in this city, as anybody who observes it for longer than six months or so, has a lifecycle all its own. Bands pop up, bands mutate into other bands, bands leave town, bands come to town (and yes, that one’s as much a mystery to me as it is to you…)
