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?…
The dreaded common cold. It came out of nowhere, only two weeks after I endured the flu and one day into my Thanksgiving vacation. But it didn’t stop me from heading out to a sold-out House of Blues to see one of 2013’s feverish break-out synthpop bands, CHVRCHES…
My reason for going to Buzzfest, aside from photography, stems from an interesting summer I had this year learning Stone Temple Pilots basslines. I became a Rob DeLeo (bassist of STP) fanatic during this time, getting down about 18 songs of theirs note-by-note. I briefly joined a Stone Temple Pilots tribute band…
Sometimes a show is just a show. That sounds sad, but it’s the truth; not every show is mindblowingly awesome, and even the good ones are just “hey, that was cool”-level good, most of the time. Call me a cynic if you want, but I’ve been to a ton of shows…
I’m supposed to be on vacation! And here it is July, and I’m finally finding time to write about my Free Press Summer Festival experience. Right after FPSF I headed out on an incredible California and Oregon trip to surprise my sister for her birthday, as well as see…
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…
What was I, a person who considers Jeff Buckley’s Grace to be the pinnacle of modern musicianship, doing at a black metal concert? A person whose only real venture into harder music consists of ownership of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s…
When Gary P. Nunn began to play “What I Like About Texas,” I said to Dosey Doe Music Cafe house photographer Dave Clements, “It reminds me of when Ray Wylie plays ‘Redneck Mother’.” “Ray Wylie hates playing ‘Redneck Mother’,” Dave said…
Fresh off an appearance on the slightly insane but brilliant cartoon Adventure Time, LA’s experimental producer Steven Ellison, aka Flying Lotus, recently graced Houston with his presence at Warehouse Live…
As it does every year I’ve gone (six times since 2004), SXSW overwhelms me, exhausts me, and most of all makes me glad to be a musician and music fanatic. Anyone who throws the one-liner out there, “there’s no good music anymore!” is just…
Odds are if you’ve only ever heard one song by The March Divide, that song would be “Still Analog.” In that catchy pop song, Jared Putnam (formerly of The Conversation) mostly spends the chorus begging someone named Shannon to come see him…
When you have been in bands for 25 years, you can tell when a band has put everything they’ve got into a performance. This kind of effort was on display at Fitzgerald’s last night. With the release of their new album, Past to Present, The Wheel Workers…
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…
Recently, while waiting around at Fitzgerald’s for sound check before the Axiom reunion, I had an unearthly feeling. As I wandered around the old club, I felt like a ghost and I could see the shadows of crowds and bands who I had seen there before. I saw familiar, unforgotten faces, old friends…
I have Houston promoter Hector Del Valle to thank for my first exposure to The Bright Light Social Hour; he brought them from Austin to Houston for the Daniel Johnston 50th birthday party concert. I was actually there to see my friends…
As a precursor to this review… I was completely unfamiliar with the term “steampunk,” and only just read about it when researching Rush. Now that I know what it is, I can see how they would be interested in such fantastic designs. In a nutshell, steampunk deals with a futuristic vision using only items of the distant past…
Madonna occupies a very special place in my heart. It’s a place where a lovesick 15-year-old boy dreamt of a perfect, unrealistic love. At 15, I was the prince of infatuation and unrequited crushes. The number one infatuation was a crush on a girl named…
Two Saturdays ago, a much-needed cold front swept through Houston and greeted beloved Georgian Ernest Greene to Fitzgerald’s. Two years after releasing his exquisite debut, Within and Without, Greene returned to Houston…
“I know it seems as if we’ve been sitting on the couch eating Twinkies for the past seven years, Houston,” a bittersweet Shirley Manson exclaimed to her faithful fans. If you wanted to see the ball-busting, heart-throbbing, and hair-raising Garbage…
Sometimes it just feels like no one is on your side. Well, okay, I did get a photo pass and free ticket to the show, so that’s something. But here’s the thing: as long as I’ve been going to House Of Blues, they’ve had a photo pit…
On Saturday, September 29th, 2012, the eclectic and intriguing Florence + the Machine returned to Houston for the second time this year. I was lucky enough to have been able to attend both shows, the first having been at the Bayou Music Center (fka Verizon Theatre) back in May…
“Your great pal Jason Smith has deferred me to you, and you are now approved to shoot Incubus and Linkin Park.” This was the news I awoke to on the morning of August 25th, 2012, a day that forever changed…
The 2012 Rockstar Energy UPROAR Festival arrived in The Woodlands like a travelling circus of hard rock and metal music. Unlike the skater-punk vibe of the Vans Warped Tour, this tour is decidedly mainstream nu-metal and hard rock…
You’ve gone to one electronic music festival, you’ve gone to them all, right? Naaah. Yes, superficially it might seem as though they seem to imitate one another — an echoing hard electronic beat here, a neon tutu and furry leg warmers there, perhaps…
I’ve been trying to figure out what to write about the Kiss/Mötley Crüe (with special guests The Treatment) concert I went to a few Friday nights ago at The Woodlands Pavilion. I was able to work out a photo pass…
I went in without a plan. It was stupid, in retrospect, but that’s how it happened. After meticulously plotting out who I was going to see and when for the past three installments of Free Press Summerfest, this year…
I’m an old-timer. It’s true; I’m that weird older guy you see at shows, the one still wearing the band t-shirt (my wife can attest to the fact that band shirts make up a significant chunk of my wardrobe) and trying, presumably, to seem young. I’m That Old Guy…
Friday afternoon, I got the email: “You are approved for a photo pass for tomorrow.” I had actually forgotten I’d asked for a photo pass to the 94.5 The Buzz Bud Light Weenie Roast, and I don’t remember why I asked, aside from the chance to practice photography…
By Sunday, I felt like I was a pro at getting around on the Free Press Summer Fest grounds. The festival organizers were also getting better at knowing what they needed to change…
I can’t recall the last time I saw Say Anything live — it must’ve been at least three years ago, maybe more — but I finally got to see them again in April, the first time since then, and let me tell you, they put on a heck of a show…
With three EPs under their collective belts, The Manichean boys — Cory Sinclair, Justice Tirapelli-Jamail, and their capable entourage of musicians — are not the young upstarts that I met three years ago…
I didn’t really enjoy the Free Press Summerfest… I devoured it. When I go to a concert with my wife, I try to enjoy myself, take it slow, kick back and relax, but by myself…
This was the fourth installment of an exhilarating, up-and-coming summertime weekend music festival in the fair city of Houston, thrown by the preeminent local events and entertainment rag of the same name, the Free Press. In its first year, the Free Press Summer Fest featured Broken Social Scene as one of the headliners. Don’t get me wrong…
ZZ Top cancelled their June 23rd Houston show; beer drinkers, hell raisers, bikers, and bearded freaks alternately pouted and cussed. SCR bought a ticket to see them in Manshantucket, Connecticut, during the first weekend of their “Gang of Outlaws” tour…
I’ve been seeing John Mills-McCoin around at Houston shows for years now. I finally introduced myself to him at Mark C. Austin‘s Houston Invasion shindig at SXSW; anyone he meets is an instant friend. There are a handful of Houstonians that I see more than anyone else at shows I attend…
As has become the standard every few months, The Supersuckers have returned once more to put on a good old-fashioned rock show at The Continental Club. And once more, the show delivered on all fronts…
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…
Disclaimer: I spent a lot of time in high school and college watching anime. I loved it and even now, I get a little giddy thinking about Hayao Miyazaki‘s next film. So when SCR passed around a flyer…
On Saturday, October 29th, Halloween came early this year at legendary Fitzgerald’s. For, seemingly from the bowels of hell itself, up came The Age Of Hell Tour. For the night, this included four notable bands…
Sometimes daily life gets in the way of doing very important things that perhaps on their own might not necessarily require a significant amount of time to complete, but when paired with the humdrum requirements of day-to-day prior obligations…
