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…
Once upon a time, Houston hip-hop was a secret. Beyond a couple of well-known names like the Geto Boys or UGK (who, hell, were actually from Port Arthur), nobody outside of the immediate Houston/Beaumont area had any…
Sometimes, all I really want to do is rock the hell out. I just want to hear guitars, bass, drums, and yelling/singing, all loud as fuck, with distortion that’s just enough to not be metal, rough-edged vocals, and a solid, pump-your-fist rhythm…
Long, long ago, yours truly was in a band. We weren’t all that good, I’m saddened to admit, but we played some shows, recorded some songs, and had a blast for a while there. We found ourselves part of this amazing little scene and played, a lot of the time, only for ourselves…
Once upon a time, somebody sent me a CD. I was a little reluctant to give it a listen at first, honestly, because at the time it seemed like I’d been inundated with folky female singer/songwriters, and hey, it sure looked like yet another one of those…
For some bands, the only real goal they have in mind, ultimately, is the music equivalent of The Big Score. They want the mythical perfect record deal, where somebody’ll just throw money at them to make music, and they never have to worry about working again…
And on we go… The big day is fast approaching — Saturday, September 29th is the date of the bound-to-be-cool !Yes Indeed! Music Fest, so we’re back again with third installment of this little SCR Tiger Beat writeup thing…
Here we are again, with the second installment of our SCR Tiger Beat Q&A with bands and musicians playing at this Saturday‘s much-heralded (and rightly so) !Yes Indeed! Music Fest up in downtown…
As we mentioned a short while back, this coming Saturday, September 29th, marks the debut of !Yes Indeed! Music Fest. It’s up in Downtown…
Okay, so let’s say you’re in an indie-rock band. (I mean, c’mon, isn’t everybody, these days?) If you do, well, you owe Boston punk experimentalists Mission of Burma a big, big debt. I know that sounds like a pretty far-fetched blanket statement…
Many moons ago, a mischievous gang of ninjas ravaged a young boy’s town, killing his parents and leaving the boy a homeless orphan. As the dawn broke and the smoke cleared, another, kinder gang of ninjas came to the aid of the boy, taking him in…
Eight or nine years ago, I wrote a negative review of a Doug Cheatwood album, and I’ve been hooked ever since. In 2004, I couldn’t wrap my head around it fast enough to write the review I wish I’d written…
If you’re not familiar with the guys over at PODiMOUTH, they have been working tirelessly over the last four years promoting our local music scene through their podcast…
I usually do these interviews by email, but when Craig Kinsey of the Sideshow Tramps invited me over to talk in person, it was a hard assignment to resist. For several years now, I’ve been wondering how Craig Kinsey and his Sideshow Tramps…
I had been hearing about Venomous Maximus for a couple years. From the name, I’d expected an all-out blitz of Slayer-type metal, a type of music that I have no interest in whatsoever. However, when they shared the Bryan/College Station Loudfest…
Free Press Summerfest 2012 is here! You can already smell the sweet, aromatic mix of beer, B.O., sun block, and swamp ass so unique to outdoor festivals in Houston. But before you plan on skipping out on the daytime acts (you know you thought about it), think about what this festival is really about…
SXSW is amazing. Sure, “amazing” is a clichéd word, but it just fits when describing the overwhelming clusterf*** that is the four (now five!) days of music at SXSW. (Unfortunately, I found out about the 5th day a little late…)
I feel like Rip Van Winkle. I’m not sure how the hell it happened, but one minute I’m sitting here watching the munchkins open presents at Christmas, and I blink, and what the fuck? It’s April? Wow. It’s like the start of 2012′s just zipped past…
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…
Holy Fiction is a rare kind of band — they’ve got influences, to be sure, but at the end of the day, they sound like nobody but themselves. They’re the sort of band other bands get compared to; they’ve managed to craft a sound that rides the line…
While Jealous Creatures are not going to surprise anyone with a brand-new unique sound, they write songs that can sit up on the shelf next to some of the biggest and best classic rock songwriters. The band consists of singer/rhythm guitarist Sarah Hirsch…
I bought a used Nikon D80 in the summer of 2010 and was instantly discouraged by my photos. It took a lot of reading, looking at others’ photos, adjusting my camera, buying new lenses (most of these are taken with a 35mm f/1.8), and messing around to finally get in a photography groove…
The Manichean are one of Houston’s bands on the rise. They first got onto my radar a few years ago, when I went and saw them at one of those hodgepodge showcases The Meridian was known for, and their brand of drama-rock was an instant success to me…
When I stumbled across post-emo rockers Adelaine a year or so ago, the band almost sounded too good to be true, honestly. I mean, c’mon; how could I not like a band that melds melodic-yet-heavy, very emo-influenced guitar rock…
The Dead Revolt have quickly evolved into my favorite Houston band. They take cues from so many of my all-time favorite bands — Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Yes, and At The Drive-In, to name a few. And they do it all with just three extremely talented individuals…
I have seen The Wheel Workers three times in the past year. They are relatively neglected by the Houston music media, but hopefully I can begin to change that. There’s something about them that screams, “we should be on tour opening for The Decemberists”…
My first interview subjects are Kenny Hopkins and Steve Wells from the up-and-coming Houston indie/psychedelic rock band Featherface. Featherface are everything a young Houston indie-rock band should be…
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…
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’s been a busy couple of years for Houston-dwelling post-emo rockers the last place you look. After lurking under the radar a while and releasing debut full-length The Lies We Tell Ourselves to mixed reviews, in 2009 they released a vastly different followup…
After having played together for about a year, Yello Echo have still managed to remain mostly unheard of, for reasons I can’t fathom. When I first saw them playing at an art exhibit opening a few weeks ago, I was quite literally staring…
Believe it or not, I can remember the first time I heard The Smoking Popes. I was in college, and one afternoon I ran into a friend who was DJing at the college radio station, a friend who happened to be completely freaking out, ecstatic over this awesome, incredible song he’d just heard…
The fourth in my ongoing series of Caroline Sessions interviews; this one features Runaway Sun and Tim Qualls, along with the standard free BBQ and beer. It’s sure to be a great show with these two…
The Caroline Sessions are doing some real good this weekend. Sunday (tomorrow) they’ll be hosting a Benefit for Japan at Caroline Collective, with funds going to the Red Cross. Plenty of bands and sponsors have volunteered their time, money, and effort…
For the second on-the-road Caroline Session, Melissa Savcic and File Under Jeff played last Sunday at the Spacetaker ARC. Despite the occasional interruption by a passing train, they both played solid sets…
I was never in marching band. It wasn’t that I hated the brass or snare or tuba, nothing like that — it’s just that I saw all those poor bastards practicing outside on the parking lot tarmac in the Texas afternoon heat, wearing those hideous, heavy woolen uniforms…
So, the Grammys are well and over, so I guess it’s about time to get the Official Space City Rock Top-Ten Lists of Amazingly Cool Things You Must See/Hear/Whatever (late, late, late, sure, but hey, we meant to do that, alright?). Read it, and obey…
Chris Becker is a recent addition to the Houston avant-garde music scene. He’s an electronic musician and a composer whose work ranges from improvised pieces for silent films to hour-long compositions for ballet and contemporary dance…
Thursday January 20, 2011 was not only my birthday but it was also the day Underoath started their Headlining winter Disambiguation tour. I had an interview with Keyboardist Chris Dudley at 6 but La June and I decided to arrive earlier. At that time it seemed like a good idea but after sitting outside in the freezing cold; it wasn’t a good idea after all.
Houston has always, always had awesome, amazing bands. Screw the naysayers; it’s the honest-to-God truth. Even in the lean times, even when 99.9% of this city thought “Houston music” was pretty much ZZ Top, Destiny’s Child, and nothing else…
