Damn. Just as I was finally going to write these guys up, I heard a hint that the three guys in Tambersauro — guitarist Michael Blackshear, bassist Jeff Price, and drummer/laptop-mangler Lance Higdon…
These three guys (guitarist/singer Kirke Campbell, bassist Stewart Anderson, & drummer John Baldwin) are one of the best damn bands in town right now, no lie. I’m not quite sure how they do it, but they’re like the freakin’ embodiment of power-pop. They take everything I love about all those bands…
Been meaning to add these folks for a while now, but I kept running into one big-ass stumbling block — how the hell do I describe ’em? The Riff Tiffs don’t really fit into any particular box, stepping easily from Secret Machines-esque spacerock to Explosions in the Sky instro-rock atmospherics…
Seen these guys a few times now, and each time they impress me more and more. First and foremost, well, they’re absolutely insane, and ear-destruction-level loud. They play Estrus-style garage rock/pop, really, all the while dressed up in silly outfits…
It’s nice when things make sense sometimes. I mean, how the hell can I not like Stadium, considering that these guys have a pretty distinguished pedigree — guitarist/vocalist Jeffrey Stilwell, guitarist/vocalist Ramzi Beshara, bassist Stephen Henderson, and drummer Clay Jasper have all been in badass H-town bands…
Okay, so this one’s been out-of-date for a while, unfortunately… The story starts back in the day with a band of ska kids from Texas City called Secret Agent 8. I first saw ’em at the 2nd Annual Zippfest (can’t even remember what year that was, now), and even then I was impressed…
My, how they’ve grown… I’ve been a fan of The Jonx for a few years now, from back when the band was a member or two larger than it is now (ex-Jonxers Shawn Durrani and Viki Kenner have moved on to other things), and heck, I remember guitarist Stu Smith from back in both our college days…
Yes, it may be somewhat hard to believe, but there’s finally a gospel (well, sorta) band in town that appeals even to a heathen like yours truly. And really, it makes sense if you look at these folks’ combined pedigrees — they’ve apparently got a ton of experience under their belts individually…
Y’know, I like a fair number of bands in this town (as evidenced by how freakin’ long this page has gotten), but it’s still pretty rare that anybody just blows me away. Occasionally, though, it happens…
Yeah, that’s just a wee bit embarrassing — one of the best, most original, neato-est bands in my own damn city…and I end up learning about ’em (pretty much) in the pages of CMJ. Argh. Granted, I’d heard of the band, heard good things about ’em, but never actually heard them…
Okay. I get it now. It’s taken me a while, admittedly — I first had these guys pegged as just another spazzcore band with a weird, kinda morbid name and who wasn’t good for much beyond giving me a headache. I’ve got a low, low, low tolerance for stuff like Dillinger Escape Plan or Converge…
Okay, so I feel pretty stupid. Local pop-rock guys Mansion have been floating around this city for a long, long, long time, and I’ve somehow managed to avoid them for just about the whole time. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I finally caught them live recently…
Houston’s got a rap scene a mile deep, but you might not know it from the major media (outside of the Houston Press, who these days do a ridiculously good job of covering it) or the indie-rockin’ bars inside the loop…
