Y’know, it’s funny, but I hadn’t realized just how long it’d been since somebody put out a comp of Houston (or at least Houston-area) bands. Back in The Day, when CD burners & whatnot were prohibitively expensive, that often seemed to be the only way a band would get on a CD, to go in […]
I mean, what the hell? These next two weekends are so over-the-top insane it’s ridiculous; you (and me, too) have your hands full trying to decide where to go & what show to check out. Here’re my personal picks for the next couple of days: Fri., May 8: American Fangs/Dremnt The End/Fat Tony/The 71’s/A Dream […]
Yep, it’s the latest installment of the Bandcamp deal this Sunday, May 10th, over in Midtown at the Caroline Collective, and once again it’s a damn useful topic for folks in bands & labels & whatnot. They’re calling it Bandcamp: COPYRIGHT, and as the name (hopefully) suggests, the focus this time out is on copyrighting […]
Damn, damn, damn. I don’t honestly yearn for my not-misspent-enough youth real often, but there are days when I miss the freedom of being a kid & being able to just get up and hit the bars any damn night you want to, watching bands play & hanging out ’til the cash runs out. Tonight’s […]
Yeah, like always, I’m way, way after when I originally thought I’d be. sigh. I’m gonna catch up, one of these damn days… I ended up heading out to Rudyard’s a handful of Fridays back (4/17, to be precise) to check out Springfield Riots; I didn’t know a lot about ’em at the time, except […]
Y’know, Mondays don’t have to suck — it’s not like it’s a requirement or anything, but rather more about mindset, at least to me. And hey, when you’ve got two cool-ass shows going on the same damn Monday (namely, tonight, May 4th), what the hell’s there to complain about? MC Chris/Whole Wheat Bread/I Am The […]
If you pay much attention at all to music ’round these parts, then yeah, you probably already know what went down at the recent (and first) Jandek show here in his own stomping grounds. The enigmatic “outsider music” icon showed up and got on the Rudyard’s stage with two session musicians who were obviously talented […]
Well, thanks to fucking Blogger fucking not fucking posting the damn posts it’s supposed to, the past 24 hours or so were blown clean out of the water. Argh. I swear, things will be changing on that front, and hopefully soon… At any rate, we got a bunch of new stuff up on the site […]
I’m generally a non-drinker, myself, it’s true, but even still, the entire concept of Poison Girl‘s Drink Houston Better deal. What’s the idea? Well, you go to a bar (Poison Girl — duh), drink up, and the bar donates the proceeds from every bottle, shot, etc., you buy to a truly worthy cause. This Sunday, […]
Yes, yes, yes, folks — it’s that time of year, again, when we Houstonians get to fly the middle finger high in the face of other burgs and say, “our bands could wipe the sidewalk with yours.” Yep, I’m talkng about the Houston Press Music Awards, for which the nominating started yesterday. So go, go, […]
Absolutely non-music-related, but still, this is amazingly cool. At one not-too-distant point in my life, I went on a seriously heavy travelogue-reading jag, devouring books by smart, quirky people going places nobody in their right mind (or, at least, nobody I actually know) ever goes to. Not all of it was great, I’ll freely admit […]
It’s a full-on, no-holds-barred psychedelic throwdown tonight at Boondocks, folks… In one corner, lay-dees and gents, we have the booze-/pot-fueled fury of the Linus Pauling Quartet, all 500-something pounds (okay, I’m estimating, here) of unhinged stoner-rock geetars, stomping proto-punk rhythms, and sung/howled lyrics about mighty barbarian warriors, alien abductions, and gettin’ down. They’re loose and […]
Gotta make it quick for the rundown of good things to check out today, Sunday, April 26th — doing the family thing, manning the grill all day & now gearing up for the sporadic game of Scattergories. Here’s the list: Phantom Orchard: Zeena Parkins & Ikue Mori @ Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex (2201 Preston St.) Definitely […]
I’ve been giving somewhat short shrift to the Houston International Festival this year, I’ll admit it — and that’s a little weird, given that the theme country this time is Ireland, a country that’s fairly near & dear to my heart, being that I’m a Generic Western European Mutt who’s marginally more of Irish descent […]
Late, late, late — I’m afraid some of these shows are already underway, but I just couldn’t get this up here ’til now, having spent the day bouncing between hardware stores & kids’ birthday parties…ah, the joys of parenthood. Here’s what’s going on tonight, Sat., April 25th, that I think looks pretty badass, and yeah, […]
Some weeks, it seems like every time I turn on the computer there’s a new Website/ezine/whatnot focused at least partly on the H-town music scene. And hey, that’s pretty awesome — the more exposure this stuff can get, the better it’ll be for all parties: the bands, the fans, the labels, everybody. As I think […]
I have to admit that my heart did a weird little skip-step when I saw the flyer: “Java Jazz Farewell Show”. (I’m guessing I may’ve not been the only one, because I’ve since seen a much-modified version of the flyer for the same show…) I mean, what the hell are screamo/emo/hardcore kids from the northern […]
Fuck…has it been a week already? This week feels like it’s gone screaming past me, leaving me confused and behind on everything. Not good… Anyway, I figured I’d do a quick hit on what all’s going on this evening, Friday, April 24th, so here’s the stuff I think is going to be worth checking out; […]
I’ll be honest about it: the whole MUNNY thing? I don’t get it. Maybe I would’ve as a kid, back when I was a D&D nerd who loved (but sucked at, frankly) painting miniatures, but these days, eh, it ain’t really for me. A totally blank, featureless toy I’ve gotta paint myself? Why the hell […]
Yes, it’s Saturday, and no, the rock doesn’t stop. Rain or no rain, still plenty of things going on; I’m not sure what they’re doing for the downtown International Festival (go, Ireland! Woo!) in the wet, but the Texas Crawfish Festival out at Old Town Spring proudly declares that the show out there’ll go on, […]
I’m a little hazy on the background of the whole Record Store Day thing — meaning that it seemed to magically appear out of nowhere a while back, and yet musical-type people I know acted like it was some long-standing holiday or something. Did I just miss those first ten years of Record Store Days, […]
Nature, why do you toy with me? Here I was (er, am), all set to try to decide what the hell to do with a free evening, and then the sky darkens like it’s nighttime at 3PM, a gigantic stormcloud hovers over most of SE Texas, and, loser that I am, I find myself contemplating […]
For those who like things cinematic (and good, obviously), there’s some really, truly cool stuff coming up. Today (Thursday, April 16th, that is) marks the start of the third-annual Houston Palestinian Film Festival, a showcase of movies by Palestinian filmmakers, and it looks pretty great. Here’s the overall mission statement, if you’re curious: The second […]
I didn’t know her, myself, but the tragic death of local artist and Houston Photography Center staffer Leigh Boone has rocked the local arts/music community here pretty hard — it’s awful to see somebody taken so young and in such a bizarre, freak-accident kind of way. Now, if you want to help out with the […]
If you can’t make it over to Rice to catch the previously-noted KTRU Outdoor Show — since, y’know, folks do have stuff they have to do during the day, generally — you’re happily not out of luck. Plenty, plenty more going on this evening, so I figured to do a quick rundown of all of […]
Ah, yeah. Fond, fond memories of KTRU Outdoor Shows past, I have to say, both while and after I went to the university to which the station’s attached. The folks running the deal (who’ve changed over the years, obviously, but still) somehow manage to consistently bring in awesome, unique people who all those sheltered Rice […]
Wow. Well, last weekend may’ve been light, but this weekend’s certainly making up ground quick. I’ll hit Saturday later on, but here’s what up for tonight, Friday, April 10th. Now, I’d originally intended to post separately about a few of these — notably the Mango’s grand opening show & the Psychedelic Sock Hop Travis from […]
Got another pile of reviews up too-late last night, just in time for this sure-to-be-insane weekend. I’ll be hanging with the fam this weekend, myself, but if you’ll be out & about, well, you’re in luck. First, we’ve got two reviews for two different badass-sounding shows tonight, The Gary & Many Birthdays… The guys in […]
It’ll sound odd, but I really can’t express how happy it makes me to see that they’re now sporadically showing movies outdoors downtown at Discovery Green. Stupid, I know, but in movies of “cool” cities, the thing that always kills me is when Protagonist & Love Interest manage to end up at an outdoor showing […]
Still one day to go for the weekend, and while there’s not a ton of shows, again, this is quality vs. quantity here. The two shows that do look to be good this Sunday, April 5th are relative biggies: Jandek @ Rudyard’s ($4; 2:30PM!) This will be absolutely, completely sold-out; I’d just about bet on […]
Like I said before, not enough time to hit everything — and even on a relatively light weekend, there’s a lot to hit. Sunday’ll have to wait, though, because honestly, the stuff going on both Saturday and Sunday deserve special attention. First (er, second) up, then, is the stuff for tomorrow, Saturday, April 4th: The […]
While I’ll admit this weekend isn’t as insanely jam-packed with show-going goodness as some in recent days, you’re making a big ol’ mistake if you dismiss it & decide it’s DVD-renting time. We’re talking quality here, folks, not quantity. I can’t get it all listed right now, but here’s some more of what’s up tonight, […]
Yep, we’ve got a pile of new reviews up online as of late-late-late last night, so I figured I’d better point ’em out, esp. since one of the bands reviewed, Austin’s Grady, is playing tonight (Fri., April 3rd) up at The Continental Club. I honestly hadn’t heard of these folks ’til this Houston visit, but […]
I’ve often suspected that there’s some kind of quasi-Newtonian Law of Houston Scene Coolness Equilibrium at work here, y’all. Every time something genuinely good and cool happens, bad shit follows. sigh. Naturally, right after posting about Something Fierce gearing up to put out stuff on Dirtnap Recs, I get word that another one of my […]
UPDATE: After long and careful consideration, I’ve added my own little recommendations to the graphic over there on the right (click it for the larger, easier-to-read version, btw). Bands/musicians with a red star next to ’em are folks I’m going to frantically attempt to see, either because I know they’re badass (i.e., The Western Civilization, […]
Er, forests. I spent the day frantically trying to meet a biggie work deadline and gather/pack all kinds of camping gear for the midget’s first-ever family camping trip the starts tomorrow, up in the Sam Houston National Forest (where they let you have actual campfires — woo-hoo!), and I have flat run out of time. […]
Just a quick, quick mention of where you should probably be this evening — 7PM! free! — and that’s up at Sound Exchange on Richmond, (gently) rocking out to the quirky, ridiculously clever (yet not pretentious) nerd-pop of The Mathletes. Imagine the sweetest, friendliest bunch of people you know, throw in large heaping helpings of […]
The site-watchers out there (yeah, I know there’re a few of you) may’ve already noticed, but just in case, we’ve got a new batch of reviews up on this here site, and we’re pretty darn proud of ’em… First and foremost, yours truly reviewed the debut self-titled full-length from Canadians Women, who happen to be […]
Well, we’re just about there — the lucky, non-work-having bastards among us, that is. Yours truly blew all his time off flying to London & back earlier this month, so he’s once again going to have to miss the SXSW shenanigans once again…I’m gonna make it there one year, I swear (still working on the […]
Whoa…almost completely forgot to mention all the insanity going on tonight, which is a ridiculously bad thing, considering how good this stuff is. Before I lose my mind again, here’s the pile of good things with which to while away your Happy Irishy Day evening: Beach House/Jana Hunter @ The Orange Show (7PM; $10) At […]
