Damn. I saw the horrible, terrible news yesterday, and I'm still somewhat stunned: Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse is dead, after shooting himself outside a friend's home.

I'm reeling, awash in sadness and anger at the same time; sad that Linkous thought things were so bad that he had to step off the stage permanently and angry that he'd leave his family, friends, and fans bereft like this. There're few things more selfish, to my mind, than suicide, and I'm having a hard time coming to grips with it.

I'm not going to claim to've known the guy personally, don't worry, but I do feel weirdly connected to him and his work, having listened to it and loved it for fifteen years. I happened upon a copy of the Sparklehorse "Hammering the Cramps"/"Spirit Ditch" 7-inch back in 1995 or 1996 (can't remember which, sorry), right out of college, and was immediately blown away by the eerie, dirty-sounding, yet hauntingly beautiful countrified psych-pop.

The debut album of Linkous' one-man band, Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, was a creaking, whispering, rambling mishmash of country, folk, pop, and little crufts of noise, and for me, at least, it was eye-opening. To me, Sparklehorse bridged the gap between Guided By Voices' rough-edged, catchy-as-hell pop and the Flaming Lips' swooning, primary-colored, high-voiced psychedelia -- it was strangely, gorgeously layered, something you could listen to over and over again and hear a new facet of the sound.

I only got to meet Linkous once, and that was by phone, back in 2006. I'm still not sure how I lucked into it, looking back. Some kind soul at his label at the time (Astralwerks) had sent his latest CD, Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain, so I'd emailed them just for the heck of it, to ask if there was any hope in hell of speaking with the guy.

Apparently not realizing how low-rent a publication they were talking to, the label folks set it up, and a few days later, I was calling Linkous at his home in the backwoods of western North Carolina. He was the nicest, most low-key guy, just sort of this apologetic country boy who made music and figured his career was going nowhere fast. He was surprised that people wanted to talk to him, to hear from him again, even though he'd fallen into a deep depression and had essentially walked away from music completely for several years. He was humble and grateful to be making music again.

It broke my heart, honestly. That this guy, who'd helped mold my love of music and showed me noisy, messy stuff could still be beautiful and sweet, would be so uncertain of himself that he figured nobody really wanted to hear it anymore... It was tragic, even then.

But things were on the upswing, it seemed like. He'd collaborated with the soon-to-be household name producer Danger Mouse on Mountain, and they already had plans to do more, which turned into Dark Night of the Soul -- it sounded amazing, but then got mired in legal bullshit and never saw a "real" release. Still, things were going pretty well, at least from my vantage point.

I guess they weren't going so well, though, from where Linkous stood.

Again, I can't claim to've been friends with the guy; all I know is that he and the music he made was pretty damn important to me, and now the music's all that's left. The funny thing is that although I've been listening to his albums over the past couple of days, they don't make me feel sad, not at all. Listening to songs like "Homecoming Queen" and "Gold Day", I can't help but smile.

So here's to you, man. I'm going to choose to celebrate what was and be happy for it. To that end, here're a few of my favorite Sparklehorse tracks:

Sparklehorse - "Hammering The Cramps"
Sparklehorse - "Someday I Will Treat You Good"
Sparklehorse - "Gold Day"
Sparklehorse - "Ghost In The Sky"

(I'm just posting 'em here by way of tribute, btw. If they need to be taken down, just let me know, and I'll remove 'em immediately.)

Labels: Free Stuff, Musical Crap, Random Rambling, Things To Download, Things To Hear

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Busy night tonight, esp. for a Thursday (March 4th, that is). Gonna try to keep it brief, so I can get some other stuff posted up here relatively quickly, but here's what I think sounds cool this evening:

B L A C K I E (tour kickoff)/ Rapeworm/ Wife @ 1816 Calumet (8PM; $5)
Never heard Rapeworm or Wife, sorry, but damn, I fucking love B L A C K I E. Even if I can't fully describe him, I've gotta love what the guy does -- it's hip-hop, yeah, but it's hip-hop like it might be interpreted by nihilistic aliens living somewhere out beyond the Van Allen Belts, who only get to hear old-school Yo! MTV Raps broadcasts with layers and layers of grimy static, tinny snare hits, speaker-destroying bass tones, and weird breaks and think, "okay, so that's what Earth hip-hop must sound like..." It's something you've got to see/hear to believe.

Here's a track from the Dope & Doper EP, for proof:

B L A C K I E - "No Future"

And hey, tonight's his tour kickoff, starting out a tour that'll see him making his way through Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, & Arkansas before coming back to TX for SXSW. Catch him now or pay big $$$ and rub sweaty shoulders with a million or so strangers to try to witness it...

Portugal The Man/Port O'Brien/The Dig @ Warehouse Live
For my money, this show's noteworthy not for headliners Portugal The Man (and yeah, I think there's a comma or a period in there somewhere, but I dunno where, so fuck it; it's a damn stupid band name anyway, folks...), but rather for opening acts Port O'Brien and The Dig. The latter are sweet and New Wave and romantic, like The Strokes really should have been when they made it big; the former are more delicate, kind of a ruralized, folkified indie-pop that sounds appropriately watery and ocean-going. Here's a taste of each of 'em:

The Dig - "You're Already Gone"
Port O'Brien - "Sailor's Son"

H-Town Footnote Time: Just noticed that one of(?) the guitarists for Port O'Brien is none other than Houston scene alumnus Gram LeBron, who made his bones playing 'round town in flat-out great bands like Schrasj, Jessica Six, and Sad Like Crazy before moving west and ending up in a little band called Rogue Wave. No clue if Gram's a permanent addition to the POB band, but he was playing with 'em as of last November, so maybe he'll be making it back to town tonight.

Inner Lights/Smoke and Feathers @ Rudyard's
Dunno a whole lot about these bands, but I do like the woozy, bad-trip-sounding psych-rock thing Inner Lights do, bridging the gap between swaying mid-'90s Britrock like Ride or The Verve and full-on '60s psychedelia, and it's just about guaranteed that any band with Kevin Richardson (ex-about a million awesome bands) is going to be good, so y'know...

Runners-Up:
Shock Treatment, featuring Born Liars & No Talk @ Rocbar
Chelsea Hotel/The Wrong Ones/Dead Roses @ Mango's

Labels: Flyeration, Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Download

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Damn, damn, damn. I did this last time, and I'm doing it yet again, I'm afraid -- running late in mentioning the latest Bandcamp/Bandcampus deal, going on today, Sunday, February 28th. (In my defense, I was up way, way too late last night & just couldn't bring myself to get back on the computer when I got back, ears & head ringing, from the Festival at the Mink; goddamn, White Rhino are looouuuuud...)

At any rate, the focus this time out is on "SXSW Prep," which means that the idea is to help bands get ready for making the drive up to Austin and trying to make themselves look good in front of the largest potential audience they're likely to ever see (well, most of 'em, anyway).

Today's Bandcampus deal will pair up attending musicians/bands with good-hearted volunteers who'll help 'em get a promo pack together -- both real-world and online -- which is pretty much a must for something where you're facing craploads of label and press people who maybe, just maybe, might think you're pretty cool and want to know more about you.

This afternoon the Bandcampus gang (led, as always, by the seemingly never-sleeping Matthew Wettergreen) will also announce the bands/musicians who'll be playing Houston@SXSW, a cool party that'll be held 3/15 at some place called Hudson's. Unfortunately, I'm afraid the deadline for nominations to play the dang thing has already passed, this past Thursday (just saw it, sorry!), but you can vote on the list of nominees from now until, oh, about a half-hour from now -- voting closes today at noon. To vote, get on over here: http://micropoll.com/t/KDrkEZBCok. You get to pick three bands, and it's one voting session per IP, so don't bother trying to blast the thing w/votes for yourself, eh? And yes, it's a damn tough list to pick the top three, 'cause they're all good...

Anyway, Houston@SXSW should be a good show -- I'll try to get more info up here about it as I get it -- and the SXSW preparatory stuff is good either way. (Hell, in my book it's good even if you're not playing SXSW, but that's another discussion...)

Details time: the thing's today, as I said above, from 2-4PM this afternoon, naturally up at the Caroline Collective. Matthew's not just looking for bands to attend, btw -- volunteers are needed to help out w/the graphic design, the Web stuff, writing band blurbs, and pretty much anything else promo-related. Get on over to the Collective if you want to help out.

Labels: Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, SXSW, Things To Do

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And yep, there's plenty else going on this weekend -- today (Saturday, February 27th), in particular, is pretty damn crazy -- here what sounds good to me:

Sat., February 27:
Free Press Houston 7 Year Anniversary Celebration, featuring Golden Axe, Papermoons, The Wild Moccasins, Young Mammals, Juzcoz, The Mahas, The Handshake, Fat Tony, Woozyhelmet, Black Congress, & Ceeplus Bad Knives @ Mango's (8:30PM-2AM; $10)
Okay, so in posting about the Mink's festival, I'll admit I've given somewhat short shrift to this one, the Free Press Houston 7 Year Anniversary Celebration, which is extremely unfair, esp. considering the lineup. Fully half the bands playing (The Wild Moccasins, Young Mammals, Fat Tony, Woozyhelmet, & Black Congress) are among my absolute favorites in town right now (plus Houston-gone-Austin band Papermoons), seriously, which makes the anniversary party damn enticing.

Btw, I've got to hand it to Omar & the rest of the Free Press crew A) for beating the odds and H-town history by keeping a real-live, non-electronic indie paper going for 7 freaking years in this city, B) for constantly expanding and growing and doing new shit, and C) for helping to make the Houston music scene as deep and amazing and flat-out cool as it is right now. Congrats, y'all -- I hope you keep it up for many years to come.

The Festival #2, featuring White Rhino, The Manichean, Alkari, DuneTX, The Sour Notes, Giant Battle Monster, Flowers to Hide, Gretchen Schmaltz, Covington, The Dry Season, & Orents Stirner @ The Mink (6PM-2AM)
And here's the competition, festival-wise. Like I said, talked about this one a couple of times already, but I'll say it again: it's gonna be a good damn show. Plenty of good, good bands.

Tegan and Sara/Holly Miranda/Steel Train @ Warehouse Live
Sadly, I haven't heard much of anything lately by Tegan and Sara, but I love-love-love their older stuff, at least; the back-and-forth vocals, the intertwining melodies, the smart, sharp-edged lyrics -- all mindblowing.

For their respective parts, I like what I've heard of Holly Miranda and Steel Train. The former is a sweet-voiced indie-pop songstress, breathy and nicely delicate, while the latter smartly eschews a lot of the typical post-emo bullshit to walk a Pixies-ish/Talking Heads-ish line full of wiry, pointy-sounding guitars and high/low vocals. Check out Tegan and Sara & Steel Train, below:

Tegan and Sara - "Walking With A Ghost"
Steel Train - "Turnpike Ghost"

Something Fierce @ Cactus Music (3PM)
H-town's Best Punk Band Going. Period. (No offense, other punk rockers; it's just damn near impossible to beat songs like "Teenage Ruins," "Where You Goin' Man," or "Aliens"...)

13 Black Coffins/Ese/The Dead Rabbits @ Hot Dog Shop
Day-glo colored, Goth-y, garage-y punk rawk at, um, a hot dog joint. No, really. That's just damn cool, if you ask me.

The Unknown, featuring music by The Invincible Czars @ Alamo Drafthouse Theater (7:30PM)
Not a "show" show, per se, but rather an old-school film experience. Austinites The Invincible Czars are playing at the Alamo Drafthouse Theater at West Oaks Mall, providing live music for the silent-film cult classic The Unknown, a weird-ass-sounding carnival flick starring legendary silent/horror movie actor Lon Chaney. The Czars are an entertaining bunch who do a lot of cool stuff w/traditional classical works, so it'll be interesting to see what they do with a bizarro silent film...

Latch Key Kids @ Trash Bar (Humble)
Few things have made me happier these past couple of years that to see some of my favorite bands of Days of Yore claw their way out of their filled-too-soon graves and stagger to their feet. And these guys, in particular, really needed to come back, 'cause the Latch Key Kids were high-flyers then and now, setting the bar for loud, fast, melodic pop-punk with hardcore guitars. Glad they're back.

Felix Da Housecat/Chris Anderson @ Wired Live (formerly The Meridian)
Not a huge Felix Da Housecat fan, I'm afraid, but I like what I've heard, and this should be an interesting one anyway -- it's the official-shmofficial (re-)opening of Wired Live, which show-going people might know as The Meridian. Same building, I'm told, but it's apparently being built out nicely; interesting to see how it turns out.

Keaton Branch & The Figure Eight/Prairie Cadets/Jacob Trevino @ Dean's Credit Clothing ($5)
Before There Was Rosalyn/Close Your Eyes/Uprise of the Fallen/In Vain/Waverly Hills/Scars of Eden @ The Junction (8302 N Eldridge Parkway)
Madlib/H.I.S.D./DJ Sun/B-Boy Craig @ Numbers
Johnny Cash Bash, featuring The Skeletons, Glenna Bell, The Band In Black, Craig Kinsey Band, & W.S. "Fluke" Holland @ Continental Club
500 Megatons of Boogie @ PJ's Sports Bar
Carolyn Wonderland/Stateside Stereo @ Dan Electro's Guitar Bar
Windsor Drive/Versecity/Abandon Kansas/Good Try/Street Car Scandal @ Fitzgerald's
Rotten Piece (CD release)/Wasp and Pear/Amputee/Gel Tab @ Super Happy Fun Land (9PM) The Battle for Atticus Metal Tour II, featuring The Nephilim Terror, Legion, Dinner at Dahmers, Injurious Physical Violence, Xatarus, Wasting the Day, & The Brace @ Wired Live (formerly The Meridian; The Channel) Haiti Relief Benefit, featuring Earhart, O Victori, KThanksBye!, Austin Norman, Fiskadoro, Fighting for Adella, Kelby Losack, & Skyline54 @ The Cherotel (Lake Jackson)

Sun., February 28:
Resonant Interval Sound Series, featuring Together.We Are Instruments @ The Husk (2808 Milam; 7:45PM, $5)
Another installment (#16, I think?) of the good-hearted, smart-minded Resonant Interval Sound Series, wherein organizers Lance Higdon & his gang showcase some of the best & coolest experimental stuff around, both from here in H-town and elsewhere. This Sunday's a "locals" show, with strange, "stonedustrialonic" band Together.We Are Instruments manipulating electronics to create oddball pseudo-ambient noisescapes. Should be intriguing...

No Resistance @ South Side Roller Derby (halftime show; 7PM)
Okay, so I know zero about the band, it's true; I just think it's extremely cool that they're playing the half-time show at a roller derby match.

The Transgressions @ The Mink (9PM)
Can't tell for sure if this is the band The Transgressions that's out of Madison, WI -- they are playing Texas right now, but their Myspace says they're playing Austin Sunday, not Houston -- but damn, I hope it's them. Great, awesomely catchy/crunchy shout-along pop-punk that could've stepped straight off anything from Lookout! Recs.

Atreyu/Drive A/Otenki/Fighting for Adella @ Wired Live (formerly The Meridian; The Channel)
Shock Treatment, featuring Blower, Chelsea Hotel, Dogs on Parole, The Dead Rabbits, & Mohawk Steve @ Rocbar
Hamilton Loomis @ McGonigel's Mucky Duck

Labels: Flyeration, Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Download

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Henry Rollins always seems to me to be pretty much a love-or-hate thing, and I'll freely admit that I fall pretty much on the "love" side of the line. The guy drives my wife nuts -- she's thinks he's a self-important idiot, and yeah, I can get how she thinks that -- but dammit, I find him ridiculously entertaining.

Not the music, so much, I'm afraid; the Rollins Band's always fe lt like warmed-over, not-heavy-enough metal with hardcore vocals, and it was pretty much just "meh" to me. The spoken-word stuff, however, was a major component of my post-collegiate years. Rollins freaking defined my life, at one point, to the extent that I'd quote him annoyingly to anybody & everybody. He was the first Beat Poet (of sorts) I ever truly got into, combining the humorous anecdotes of a smartass comic with the streetwise punk ethic you'd expect from the ex-frontman for Black Flag.

And live, trust me, he is pretty mesmerizing. I saw him perform a decade or so ago at Numbers, and it was funny, endearing, weird, and sarcastically smart, all at the same time. Granted, it's been a while, but I'm guess he hasn't changed his shtick that much...

At any rate, he's playing tonight, Tuesday, February 23rd, up at the House of Blues in downtown -- it's bound to be a bit less intimate than the Numbers show I saw, but I'm betting it'll still be good.

In the meantime, here's some of his stuff; the MP3s are somewhat older, and yeah, they're a little dated, but they still crack me up. I just wish I could find his Ronnie James Dio "Devil Woman" routine somewhere... Here goes:

Henry Rollins - "Airplanes" (The Boxed Life)
Henry Rollins - "Brazil" (Think Tank)

And here're a few videos, for good measure:

Labels: Flyeration, Free Stuff, H-Town News, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Download, Things To Hear

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 2 comments

Man...what the hell day is this? I could've sworn it was plain-old, nothing-special Wednesday, the mid-week lull before the weekend storm, and yet tonight (February 10th) is pretty badass.

Here are things that sound good to me:

Retribution Gospel Choir/The Bloody Mushrooms @ Wired Live (formerly The Meridian)
This first one's the biggest deal to me, at least, partly because I've been blasting Retribution Gospel Choir's "Hide It Away" and "Workin' Hard" on repeat for the past week or so and partly because we've got a brand-spanking-new review of the trio's latest release, 2, up on the site right over here.

It's good, good, good shit, albeit a bit surprising -- as a longtime fan of frontman Alan Sparhawk's day-job band, Low (although, yeah, I have to confess that I haven't heard much from their last couple of albums), I was absolutely not expecting an album's worth of straight-up, rough-edged rockers that sound, at least in some cases, like they could get airplay on old-school KLOL. Check out "Hide It Away," courtesy of label Sub Pop:

Retribution Gospel Choir - "Hide It Away"

Seriously, this one's my top pick of the evening; I'm a bit worried, though, that with multiple things going on, the Choir playing at a big-ass place like The Meridian (whoops! sorry, Wired Live) means they'll be playing to a half-empty room, and that'd be a damn shame...

Flogging Molly/Frank Turner/Architects @ House of Blues
I honestly doubt I'll have to worry so much about Flogging Molly's show at the House of Blues being half-empty, but it's still going to be freaking great, not least of all because of the headliners' rollicking, drunken, Irish folk-punk. Seems like there's a fair number of bands out there that do similar stuff, but hell, I don't care -- FM's amped-up Pogues-with-electric-guitars thing sounds damn fine to me.

The person I'd really love to see, though, is actually Frank Turner, ex- of British hardcore dudes Million Dead and lately more of a solo, Billy Bragg-esque protest-folk troubadour; SCR compatriot Mel first got me interested in the guy, and he's mind-blowingly cool, playing these sweet, deeply heartfelt, ridiculously smart songs over jangly guitar chords. He really is pretty much the only true successor to Billy Bragg that I've ever encountered, and that's no minor thing.

To whet your appetite somewhat, then, here's a few tracks to check out from both bands:

Frank Turner - "The Real Damage"
Frank Turner - "I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous"
Flogging Molly - "Irish Pub Song"
Flogging Molly - "What's Left of The Flag"

That's not all, of course -- if neither of the above sound appealling, here're a few more promising-sounding shows...

Runners-Up:
Nile/Immolation/Krisiun/Rose Funeral/Dreaming Dead @ The Scout Bar (Clear Lake)
Robert Ellis & The Boys @ Mango's
Free Radicals @ Avant Garden

Labels: Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Download

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UPDATE-UPDATE: Got some more info on tonight's cancellation; according to the good people at SHFL, A Lull's tour vehicle broke down, and they couldn't play, so the listenlisten guys decided to call the show a bust. Just fyi, folks.

UPDATE: sigh. Looks like I was a little quick on the "Post" button, because yes, per the listenlisten crew, tonight's show is indeed cancelled. Dang. Oh, well; enjoy the A Lull MP3, either way...

While I'll gladly give props to Lucas Gorham's Sad Gorilla project and residency at Mango's, I must admit that for tonight, at least, there's only one show on my personal little maybe-go-see list: A Lull, listenlisten, & Smoky Mountain, up at Super Happy Fun Land.

Well, maybe. All of the bands' various Websites, Facey-spaces, & whatnot list the show as going on, but SHFL, unfortunately, has a big "Canceled!" under tonight's date (Monday, February 8th, that is). Still trying to find out what the deal is, but I've got my fingers crossed that the show will go on, because if so, it's going to be pretty damn great...

Chicago-dwellers A Lull, for their part, do a neat, quirky brand of electro-tweaked indie-pop that sounds (to me, anyway) like a friendlier, less-bizarro Four Tet doing covers the best, gentlest songs from the Saddle Creek catalog, and they're pretty incredible at it -- the result is sweet and watery-sounding pop with the guitars and low-key voices up-front and Beta Band-esque electronics burbling along behind, and that's no bad thing, at least not to me.

In case you don't want to take my word for it, though, here you go:

A Lull - "Skinny Fingers"

I dunno Smoky Mountain at all, unfortunately, partly due to the fact that Googling "Smoky Mountain band" brings up a cheeseball-looking bunch of punks from the Philippines, and I'm guessing that's not these folks...

listenlisten, however, are another matter entirely; they're one of my favorite bands in town, and beyond that, they've steadily worked their way to being one of my favorite bands, well, ever. They're dark and spooky and heartfelt all at once, playing an alternate-universe hybrid of Appalachian folk, late-1800s sea shanties, and stark, brooding Americana, and it's freaking awesome, frankly. You owe it to yourself to check out last year's Hymns From Rhodesia full-length, I swear.

There you go; get on out if you can, and hopefully this thing'll actually happen. I'll update this post if I find out otherwise.

Labels: Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Download

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Holy fuck, I am loving this. Longtime Texas (and ex-Houston) scenester Mark Twistworthy has a new blog/site, Texas Punk Treasure Chest, where he's started putting up classic albums/EPs/etc. of Texas-based punk, hardcore, emo, & whatever else from the past few decades for folks to download and enjoy.

And while I probably shouldn't even need to say it, yes, it's awesome. There're a ton of Austin/DFW bands I don't know much about, but on the H-town side of things he's got stuff up by amazing, long-gone folks like Defend The Ghetto, The Trigger Quintet, Cedar Of Lebanon, The Desert Jet Set, Blueprint, The Stalag Seventeen, Sore Loser, Beast, Jessica Six, The Ka-Nives, The Tie That Binds, Vast Majority, and, most recently, Refuse To Fall. Every damn day, there's something new up there, which is both a huge public service and a mind-boggling amount of work. Hell, I don't post things to this blog every day, and I don't need to convert 'em from vinyl when I do post... (Yes, I know, I suck.)

Seriously, this site is like the collection of 7"s I managed to amass back in the '90s made electronic, and that's a beautiful, beautiful thing, because I myself have barely been able to get the time to convert any of it over myself (although I'm still planning on converting some ancient cassettes I picked up way back in the day, real soon). I did manage to get a few into MP3 format a while back, but TPTC already has all but the Act Your Age Comp. up there, and their conversion is probably more polished/better-sounding than mine, so y'know.

Best of all, Mark and cohort James are taking requests in the chatbox over on the right-hand side of the page; if you're looking for something punk(-ish) from the '90s, let 'em know. They may already have it ripped & ready to go, you never know.

James, Mark: thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm now going to go melt my brain.

Labels: Cool Web Junk, Free Stuff, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Texas Stuff, Things To Download

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These things always strike me as being damn cool, I have to say, and this year sounds like it's no different...

Today and tomorrow (Sat., November 21st & Sun., November 22nd), the Center for Hearing and Speech -- a local Houston nonprofit that helps kids who can't hear learn how to speak -- is having its 4th Annual Via Colori Festival. It's a street-painting festival, with something like 200 artists creating awesome murals on the city streets themselves, and it's pretty awesome.

On top of the art, the CHS folks have also recruited a nice lineup of local musicians & bands to rock the place from two separate stages while the artists do their thing. Today they've got Beetle, Spain Colored Orange, Flying Fish Sailors, The Texas Toast, Kristine Mills, Jerk Store, Two Star Symphony, & Stan Crawford; tomorrow there's Buxton, The Wild Moccasins, Grupo Kache, Runaway Sun, Eric Korb, Elaine Greer, John Quintin, & The Smooth Operator. Personally, I'd try my best to catch Buxton, the Moccasins, Kristine Mills, Elaine Greer, Flying Fish Sailors, Spain Colored Orange, & Two Star Symphony, but I think it'll be cool no matter who you're able to see. Check here for the schedule.

The festival takes place in Sam Houston Park, at the intersection of Allen Parkway & Bagby, and it'll run from 10AM to 6PM today and 10AM to 5PM tomorrow. And don't fret about the weather, because the weekend's supposed to be beautiful...

The whole thing's a benefit, btw, but it's free to folks who show up -- the "benefit" part is from companies & people who sponsor the festival, either directly or by sponsoring a specific square on the street that an artist will be painting. Get on out & enjoy it all.

Labels: Arty Shit, Flyeration, Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do

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Late on this one, as always... Plenty going on this weekend, of course, so here's some to start you off:

Dax Riggs/Duncan, Johnson, and the Gentleman @ The Mink
Ooh, yeah. Dax Riggs wasn't here all that long ago, really, but hell, I'm not complaining. A kind friend handed me his 2007 album, We Sing of Only Blood or Love (which, really, is a pretty fair description), a while back, and it dropped me straight to the floor. I can't remember a lot of the second half of the album, but that's mostly because by then the raw, blues-gone-to-hell sound has left me bleeding and dazed. "Demon Tied to a Chair in My Brain" is both one of the best songs ever written about mental illness and a song I feel compelled to force on all the people I make mix CDs for.

Justin Nozuka/Sam Bradley/Elizabeth and the Catapult @ The Meridian (Red Room)
Honesty time: I have no idea who either Justin Nozuka or Sam Bradley are, absolutely none. (Sorry.) But I do know who Elizabeth and the Catapult are -- they're a sneaky little band that's managed to worm its way past my defenses with single "Taller Children," which marries Aimee Mann-esque vocals to a bumping, can't-help-but-nod-along rhythm that comes off like one of the best New Wave pop updates I've ever heard. If you don't believe me, you can check out that song and the cheery, bouncy, playful-yet-smart "Race You", 'cause both songs are pretty awesomely catchy:

Elizabeth and the Catapult - "Taller Children"
Elizabeth and the Catapult - "Race You"

The funniest thing about these folks, actually, is that about a week after I first heard "Taller Children," I heard it again...while roaming the local Kroger. The hell? Anyway, if EatC's live show's anything like the tracks I've heard, seriously, this is going to be a good show. Go early.

Perseph One/Trills/Solanae @ Ray Courtyard (Rice Univ. campus; 8-10PM, free!)
Went back to my alma mater recently and was kind of confused wandering around the place; it seems like there's a whole lot going on there now that wasn't way back in my day. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you, esp. when some of it's like tonight's show. I truly, truly dig Perseph One, who reminds me of the awesome Jean Grae not only in terms of gender but in terms of how strong and straightforward she is in her rhymes; she's one of the best rappers we've got right now. Plus, there's also Trills, who SCR contributor Michelle was able to check out (um, kinda) recently -- see what she said over here. And yes, it's difficult to beat "free" in terms of price.

Musique Non Stop, featuring The Factory Party, A Thousand Cranes, DJ Ceeplus and the Bad Knifes, & Mr. Castillo @ Mango's
I know I'm putting that last, but don't take that as a half-endorsement, 'cause this is a good show -- I still owe The Factory Party a review of their most recent EP, but what I've heard has been good, and those crazy A Thousand Cranes folks make some damned intriguing, mind-blowing psych-rock noise. (And are very, very nice people, besides, which is always cool.)

Runners-Up:
Fistful of Soul, featuring Urbane Guerilla Sound System @ The Mink
Spain Colored Orange/The Tiles/Passive Aggressive @ Walter's
The Flamin' Hellcats @ Rudyard's
Fired For Walking @ Dean's Credit Clothing
Deafening/Saturate/Dine Alone/Deadbolt Zen @ Fitzdown
The Bright Light Social Hour @ Super Happy Fun Land

Labels: Flyeration, Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Download

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Mentioned this show briefly a few days ago, since we've got a review up of Moneen's first-ever DVD, but I figured I'd mention it again, 'cause it's looking like a particularly good one.

Say Anything headlines at Warehouse Live, which is a little bit shrug-worthy for me; I really liked the band's stellar full-length Is a Real Boy -- that was some painfully sharp, anti-hipster invective, right there, cloaked in some beautiful pop melodies and sneering vocals -- but what (admittedly little) I've heard since has only been okay. Your mileage may vary.

I'm less ambivalent on Eisley, thanks in part to friend/writer Marc Hirsh's prolonged evangelizing about this crew of Tyler-bred kids. Marc wasn't wrong, I'll give him that; the DuPrees know how to craft some freakishly gorgeous, baroque, elfin music, and so far I'm really enjoying Combinations (which Hirsh was kind enough to send my way).

Moneen, for their part, aren't bad, an emo band that thankfully doesn't only draw on Jimmy Eat World or Taking Back Sunday as an influence but stretches back a bit further to grab hold of some nicely off-time rhythms, Braid-style, but without the scratched-throat vocals. Sweet, pretty, guitar-heavy stuff, but a little prog-rock, which is no bad thing in my personal book; they're kind of like No Knife (anybody remember them besides me?) minus the sci-fi imagery.

The one I'd really be psyched about seeing, though (um, were I actually leaving the casa this evening and not rocking the midget to sleep), is Miniature Tigers. These guys are honestly one of the best damn indie-pop bands I've heard in years, with smart, smart, smart songs that manage to be clever without being pretentious, and the stuff they come up with is catchy as hell. I've had "Cannibal Queen", the kickoff track to their 2008 full-length, Tell It to the Volcano, stuck in my head for the last six months or so. And now, you will, too:

Miniature Tigers - "Cannibal Queen"

Miniature Tigers - "Tell It to the Volcano"

No locals tonight, sadly -- am I totally off-base in thinking that the Wild Moccasins, Young Mammals, or even The Western Civilization or Piano Vines would've torn up the stage nicely? I'm thinking not. Damn shame...

Labels: Flyeration, Free Stuff, Musical Crap, Things To Do, Things To Download

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Another cool-sounding thing happening tonight (Thurs., Nov. 5th, again), this time for all your musicians & band members & whatnot out there. Seems Martin Atkins (ex-Killing Joke/PiL/Ministry/Pigface) will be holding a "band seminar" tonight from 7-9PM at the AvantGarden, where he'll be talking about, well, the perils of touring.

He's apparently got a book out called Tour:Smart and Break the Band, and from the Website, tonight's deal sounds like it'll be somewhat like the not-too-long-ago BandCamp stuff on the same subject, only with Atkins providing his perspective from years of being on the road with various bands. He promises that if you show up, you'll learn "How to make more money on the road" and "How to get more people to come to your show," both of which are fairly critical things if you play in a band with any aspirations beyond playing to your spouse and her friends twice and year.

It'll be a 90-minute seminar -- which is free, happily -- followed by a 60-minute DJ set -- which costs $5, according to Atkins' site. If you want to check it out, you have to RSVP right here. If you're interested (and hey, band advice for free is never a bad thing, in my book), do it quick, because they'll apparently stop the RSVPing pretty soon...

(Big thanks to Marc over at Houstonist for the tip, btw; I'd have missed this one completely if not for him...)

Labels: Flyeration, Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Hear

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Here's another film-/music-type thing I ran across recently that sounded pretty damn cool, going on tonight (Thurs., November 5th) up at Röcbar in downtown. Caveat first, for this one: this is apparently an RSVP-only deal, where you have to go to this Website to sign up, and I've got no idea how many spaces they've got or if the dang thing's already fully-booked. As of now, the form's still online, though, so I figure it's worth a shot...

At any rate, what this is is a screening of a film called Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry, which is a biopic of sorts of legendary tatooist Norman "Sailor Jerry" Collins. I can't claim to be any kind of tattoo afficionado -- needles scare the shit out of me, and I'm not overly fond of pain, either -- but I find the art fairly fascinating, particularly the Japanese-influenced style that Collins is credited with bringing to American tattoo art.

Odds are that when you think of the WWII-era tattoos sailors and soldiers stationed overseas came home with, the designs that pop into your head were Collins' work. Collins himself has been dead since before I was born, sadly, so the film apparently consists of interviews with protégés Ed Hardy and Mike "Rollo Banks" Malone, among others, but it still sounds pretty cool to me.

As an added bonus, I've heard rumors that there'll be a couple of musical-type performances in conjunction with this -- supposedly Woven Bones, from up in Austin, are playing, and if the Hands Up board is to be believed, local facepunchers Black Congress may be making a "surprise" appearance, too. And yes, there will be lots of rum to drink, since, y'know, that's what sailors drink. Right?

I'm afraid I've got no clue how much, if anything, the screening actually costs, btw; the only other info I've got is that you have to be 21 to get in and that doors open at 7PM. I've been told it may be free, but even if it isn't, I doubt it's too high of a cover charge. Go check it out.

Labels: Free Stuff, H-Town News, Moo-vies, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To See

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A bit early for the weekend rundown, I know, but I wanted to mention a pair of shows going on tonight (Tues., November 3rd) and tomorrow (Wed., November 4th; duh), because I've heard bits & pieces of the headlining band of each lately and have found myself mightily impressed...

Surfer Blood/ Muhammidali/ Buxton @ Mango's
This one's tonight's one-show-to-rule-'em-all, and whoa, color me blown away. Florida boys Surfer Blood do their home state (and their badass name, although they apparently hated all the surfer kids they knew back in HS) proud with lead single "Swim (To Reach The End)," combining a Beach Boys-y melodic sweetness with an echoey Guided By Voices guitar roar, a fist-pumping Britpunk energy, and a heavy dose of Parts & Labor noise, and holy fuck, is it cool. Seriously, this is headed straight for the mix CD pile for me. Perfect music for driving in the sun, windows down, not giving a damn who hears you bellowing along. Check it for yourself right here:

Surfer Blood - "Swim (To Reach The End)"

Of course, that ain't all there is; what I've heard of the band's other tunes are more Beach Boys-y, really, although they take that '60s California sheen and grungify it nicely, running it through an amp stolen from either the Grifters or Silversun Pickups, I can't tell which for sure. "Floating Vibes" is sweet and fuzzed-out, "Harmonix" is New Wave-y in the best possible way (I'm loving the song-title-inspiring harmonics), and "Twin Peaks" is nicely buzzing and frustrated and messy.

Hat tip, btw, goes to Artrocker for convincing me to give these guys a listen...

And hey, I'd be really, truly remiss if I didn't mention the equally awesome local boys playing tonight, too -- Muhammidali, with their heavily '90s-inflected indie-rock sound, is a great complement to the Surfer Blood crew, and while their tour antics and public personalities tend towards the drunk & disorderly, the band writes some honest-to-God gems and pulls 'em off nicely.

Then there's Buxton, about whom I've said many, many, many things in the past, all of which they totally deserve. I love, love, love their jangly, indie-country-folk sound, not to mention frontman Sergio's impassioned warble, and they seriously can do no wrong by me. Check here for more fleshed-out gushing on the awesomeness that is their (relatively) recent "Feathers"/"Flint" 7-inch.

Mimicking Birds/Airon Paul Dugas & The Religion/Winter Wallace @ The Mink
Another pleasant surprise for tomorrow night's show, Mimicking Birds -- which is bedroom-recording songwriter Nate Lacy plus touring bandmates Tim Skellenger and Aaron Hanson on guitar & drums -- spin out some beautifully meandering indie-folk that reminds me equally of Kind of Like Spitting and Fleet Foxes. Lacy's music is gentle and sweet, with an Eastern Sea-ish warmth and half-scratched, ghostly, backwoodsy vocals that're reminiscent of Chad VanGaalen and that make me want to drift off to sleep under a tree somewhere cold (but not snowy, obviously; I've read my Jack London).

You can check out a bunch of Lacy's songs up on his Virb site, by the by, should you not be willing to take my word for it:

Mimicking Birds - Home and Somewhere else...

It's good stuff, truly, well worthy of being signed (as they are) to Isaac Brock's Glacial Pace Recordings. Hopefully the band's soft, quiet-but-not-melancholy folkiness won't get swallowed up by The Mink's boominess (assuming they haven't fixed up the place some since I was there last, obviously).

I'm hopeful, though, esp. considering that the openers for tomorrow night are two excellent local-type people, Airon Paul Dugas & The Religion and Winter Wallace. The former is an awesomely inspired, countrified folksinger who writes some great, great songs and happens to be backed up by members of the equally jaw-dropping Paris Falls, masquerading as "The Religion."

Winter Wallace, for her part, is a little different, less in the folk vein and more of a husky-voiced singer/songwriter like Beth Orton or Fiona Apple. And surprisingly, she pulls it off well enough to make the resemblance impressive. Her voice is wonderfully smoky and sultry, with arrangements that are pretty mesmerizing, and new song "Lisa" turns things down a bit but still works. Check out the review of her EP from last spring right up here.

More to come, as always...

Labels: Flyeration, Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Download

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Got some MP3s I've run across lately that I wanted to mention, esp. since some of 'em are fairly timely for shows tonight & in the near-beyond. I've got a bunch more to post, too, but am on half-time Baby Duty, so this'll have to do for now. Enjoy...

The Jealous Sound - "Priceless (Alternate Version)"
The Jealous Sound - "The Fold Out"
The Jealous Sound - "For Once In Your Life"
Yeah, yeah, I know Sunny Day Real Estate have reformed and are playing tonight (Tues., October 6) up at Warehouse Live, but honestly, the band's never elicited more than a shrug from me -- I love frontman Jeremy Enigk's more baroque, Lewis Carroll-meets-Jeff Mangum solo stuff, but the actual SDRE releases never struck me as living up to the hype.

What I'm more excited about, instead, is the fact that woefully underrated emo heroes The Jealous Sound are opening for 'em. I hadn't even thought the band was still around, so seeing 'em on the bill was pleasant surprise in itself... The band's always represented a lot of the best parts of the whole emo phenomenon, without getting overly weepy and saccharine; they seemed (and still seem) to meld the melodic shy-boy rock of bands like Jimmy Eat World with older, more shoegaze-y stuff like The Jesus & Mary Chain or Slowdive (or maybe the more shiny sci-fi-ish stuff done by labelmates No Knife), and the result's pretty damn majestic.

First track "Priceless" is actually an alternative version of the song found on the band's self-titled debut EP, found only on the excellent (and out-of-print) Heal the Bay comp from a half-decade or so ago. "The Fold Out" is from the Sound's 2003 full-length, Kill Them With Kindness, recently re-released on vinyl by Vinyl Collective, and it's a darn good track, but I couldn't resist including my all-time favorite Jealous Sound track ever-ever-ever, the burst-and-flame echoey roar of "For Once In Your Life," which is one of those songs that makes me sit back and say, "yeah, that's why I liked that whole emo thing, right there."

The Black Crowes - "I Ain't Hiding"
Okay, now this is not what I figured anything from The Black Crowes would ever-ever-ever sound like. (Ever.) I'm not the biggest Crowes fan, I'm afraid -- I respect what they do, but they've never really been my thing, y'know? With "I Ain't Hiding," off new pseudo-double album Before the Frost...Until the Freeze, though, I find myself surprised and impressed. Because this track veers far, far off the country-leaning, bluesy, retro-rock track the band's ridden since its inception, instead coming off as, um, full-in disco.

Yep, you read that right. The track's anchored by a funky, bumping beat that's straight off a Gap Band album, all the while incorporating dirty, raw-sounding guitars that kick the band's old stuff in the ass and send it home early from the party. Imagine The Black Keys playing a disco cover after snorting a hell of a lot of coke. Quite frankly, it's badass, and I don't think I've ever said that about anything I've heard from the band. (Oh, and the band's playing here in town next Wednesday, October 14th, over at the House of Blues.)

Former Ghosts - "Hold On"
Another one for this evening -- weather permitting, Former Ghosts will be playing tonight at The Orange Show ($10). I've never heard much from 'em 'til now, but I know a bit of the band's lineage: it's a pseudo-supergroup that includes both Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, Freddy Ruppert of This Song Is A Mess But So Am I, & Nika Roza of Zola Jesus (whom, okay, I've never-ever heard of before).

That pedigree would be pretty meaningless, obviously, if the music didn't measure up, and "Hold On," off the band's upcoming full-length Fleurs on Upset The Rhythm. It's rhythmic and dark and hypnotic in a weirdly Suicide-ish way, all distant synths and rumbling, plodding beats, with a keening almost-melody floating alongside Stewart's flat, disaffected vocals. If this one track's any indication, tonight's show should be intriguing, at least...

Labels: Free Stuff, Musical Crap, Things To Do, Things To Download, Things To Hear

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A huge pile of good stuff going on this weekend, starting, well, tonight (which would be Friday, September 25th). I'll have to hit the Sat./Sun./etc. stuff later on, but for now, here's your last-second list of good/cool things to do...

Sadly, for yours truly this looks like a bit of a Walk of Shame, mostly because three of the bands playing tonight (The Phlegmatics, Glasnost, & Chase Hamblin) have CDs they sent in sitting, listened to but un-written about, in my gigantic, massively overwhelming Pile of Stuff to Review. sigh. Sorry, y'all -- I suck. I've got 'em halfway written in my head, yes, but getting that translated to the screen

In my defense, things have been busy 'round SCR HQ, both with things personal and with the long-awaited redesign of this here Website, which will soon (hopefully) look fairly different from the way it looks now and will function like an e-zine should in the 21st Century, as opposed to looking/behaving like a relic from a decade or so ago.

At any rate, here're my picks for the evening:

Big Rock/Stompin White Pony/The Abyss/The Phlegmatics @ Fitzdown
Honestly, I could give a shit about the three headlining bands for this one; I don't know 'em, and I don't really care. The band I would dearly love to see (again), though, is The Phlegmatics, who're one of the best poppy punk-rock bands in town and who only play 'round these parts every once in a blue freaking moon. They make me think of Blue Album-era Weezer in the best possible way, and new album Billy the Star Fighter Pilot vs. The Phlegmatics is pretty great -- review on its way, I swear to Flying Spaghetti Monster...

The Dirty Novels/Passengers/Andrew Lee/Psychedelic Sex Panther @ Pachinko Room (3700 Main; free!)
Aaaaaand a close runner-up for the evening has got to be this here show at the Pachinko Room (which I think is yet another chunk of the whole Continental Club/Sig's Lagoon/Mink Main St. Axis), mostly because I really, truly like Passengers, a new-ish crew of garage-y, raw, psychedelic-ish rockers drawn from the ranks of folks like Teenage Kicks. I've yet to see 'em live, but I've heard good things. Heard good things, too, about headliners The Dirty Novels, making their way up here from New Mexico with a why-didn't-I-think-of-that band name.

Jah Ruhl (mem. of Golden Cities)/Forests/Cosmic Sound (mem. of Ghost Mountain)/Limb @ Khon's Bar (2808 Milam; $5, 8PM)
This one's at a bit of an oddball location -- I have yet to see a show at Khon's Bar, although I hear the rooftop's very cool -- but it promises to be badass. BTEOT spinoff Limb opens, I hear, despite not being on the flyer, followed by (in some order I'm not clear on) Ghost Mountain's Stephen Farris (he's the electronic-voice guy, not the rapper) doing his Cosmic Sound side project, indie-ambient post-rock thing Forests, and brand-new supa-group Jah Ruhl, which is Lance and Marcus from Golden Cities and friend Scott playing krautrock-slash-dub. (No, seriously.)

Birds of Avalon/Fired For Walking/Hell City Kings @ Rudyard's
A night of raw-ass (okay, that sounded better in my head) rawk going on at Rudz tonight, with local alternative-tinged rockers Fired For Walking and garage-punks Hell City Kings opening for NC's Birds of Avalon. Gonna be good, but bring yr earplugs.

I am Mesmer @ Mango's
Said it recently already, but I'll say it again: awesome. Mind-blowing. Go. Dance. Get your gypsy on.

Ra Ra Riot/Princeton/Maps & Atlases @ Warehouse Live (Studio)
I've been hot-and-cold on what I've heard of Ra Ra Riot, I have to say, but I've liked some of the stuff I've heard from Princeton -- check out "Calypso Gold" for a taste.

Glasnost/Modern Touch @ The Mink
sigh. Yeah, the Glasnost guys sent me a copy of their debut EP, Great Divide, and I've been meaning to write it up, but... Anyway, what I've listened to has been surprisingly cool (surprisingly for me, at least, since I'm not normally into this sort of stuff), kind of a hybrid mishmash of dancefloor beats and New Wave coolness.

Chase Hamblin @ Brasil
And here's the last in (tonight's, anyway) Walk of Shame, with excellent retro-popster Chase Hamblin -- who I'd had pegged unfairly as some kind of flower child folkie but who is far, far closer to Ray Davies than Bob Dylan. Get on over to Brasil quick for this one, 'cause they don't generally follow the same late-nightstarting times as some of these venues...

Runners-Up:
Voice of the Wetlands Benefit Show, featuring Tab Benoit, Cyril Neville, Anders Osborne, & Big Chief Mongraux @ Fitzgerald's Freddie Gonoria and The Gunz/Moth Fight!/Chant @ Super Happy Fun Land Chris Sacco @ The Big Top
Everytime I Die/Bring Me The Horizon/Oh, Sleeper/The Architects @ House of Blues

Labels: Flyeration, Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Download

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Yep, it's that time -- weekend roundup time, and plenty going on. (And yeah, it's at least mostly good; those Blood On The Dancefloor kids are just way, way, way too young for me...) Here goes the first bunch:

Scott H. Biram/The Wayward Sons/DeadEnd Cowboys @ Rudyard's
Oooh. This is gonna be a good one -- Scott H. Biram does that awesome mashup of country-boy rootsiness with full-on rawk that I'm coming to love more and more, and he does it supremely well (double bill with him & Grady, anybody? please?). It's raw and hard-drinking and melancholy, all when it needs to be. Here're a couple of tracks:

Scott H. Biram - "Judgement Day"
Scott H. Biram - "Still Drunk, Still Crazy, Still Blue"

It's stuff like this that's making me take a hard second look at country music in general, and that's no mean feat.

wood & felt/My Milky Way Arms/Casinos/Sils/Chairs @ Super Happy Fun Land
Nice, nice, nice. wood & felt (who I think used to call this place home) play here far, far too infrequently these days, seems like, and that's a shame, because their (his?) little drifting, head-nodding electronic symphonies always make me think fondly of stuff like Tangerine Dream, Spiritualized, & Ulrich Schnauss -- all in a good way, btw.

And yes, I know SCR and My Milky Way Arms have had our -- ahem -- differences, but I still have a soft spot for those former Houstonians' (also now dwelling in A-town) brand of swirling, spacey/loopy electro-pop, and their new stuff sounds pretty good -- check this one out:

My Milky Way Arms - "Fillenium Malcon"

There's supposedly some kind of a Star Wars connection, but beyond the title, I ain't getting it, sorry...

Giant Battle Monster (CD release)/Fucking Thief/Female Demand/Tax the Wolf @ Mango's ($7)
Another cool one, this time with an all-Houston cast. It's Giant Battle Monster's CD release, obviously, so they're the stars of the show, and I've heard very good things about 'em, but I've heard similar about Fucking Thief and Tax the Wolf, too, and the one time so far I got to see Female Demand, my jaw hit the floor, I swear. Busy, jazzy but not pretentious, bass/drums nü-prog, and I mean that in the best possible way.

The Tyburn Jig @ Walter's on Washington
Awesome...I was afraid The Tyburn Jig were dead & buried, but now they've resurfaced and started playing shows again, which is very cool. Anybody remember Death Valley, the Austin spaghetti-Western/surf-rock band from the '90s? Well, these guys take that whole murky/spooky, A Fistful of Dollars feel, grab onto the rockabilly/surf guitars, and throw in a heavy dose of Nick Cave on top of it. They're pretty great, truly.

Ember/Forever Falls/Fake Believe @ The Scout Bar (Clear Lake)
Dunno the headliners, sorry, but I caught Fake Believe recently and was fairly impressed -- solid, solid pop-rock, definitely, and well worth a listen.

Woodstock 40th Anniversary Celebration, featuring Rory Jagdeo, The Psychodillos, Johnny Smith, Tom Loud, Dr. Rick & the Burners, TATE, Kozmik Steel, Lisa E. Harris, New Jack Hippies, El Gato Negrito, Revolving Minds, Moonshine Summit, Jimmy Lee Dean, Sils, Hilary Sloan, Fahl & Folk, Bateman Red, 2 Dollar Sound, & Kid Red @ Dan Electro's Guitar Bar
Not sure what the schedule is for this, since it runs from Friday, Sept. 4th through Sat., Sept. 5th, but eh, just show up & you're bound to catch some great local folk/rock/jam-band stuff.

Runners-Up:
Flametrick Subs/Sean Reefer and the Resin Valley Boys @ The Continental Club
Project H/Irene @ Fitzgerald's
Ian Moore @ Listening Room (NiaMoves; 508 Pecore)

More soon...

Labels: Flyeration, Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Download

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Yep, another day, another review -- sorry to be late on this one; I wrote it up last night but couldn't get it posted 'til just now... I really wanted to review the Fruit Bats' latest, The Ruminant Band, btw, because I truly, truly dug Spelled In Bones and felt damned bad that we missed out on writing 'em up the last time around (thanks to a former writer who cheerily requested a bunch of good stuff and then absconded with it). "Silent Life" has been in steady rotation on my iPod since way back then, and somehow pops into my head every time I feel like making a mixtape/CD for friends & coworkers.

Imagine my surprise, then, when The Ruminant Band turned out to sound like it was crafted by a totally different band. Gone are all the Shins-y shiny pop bits, the Say Hi-esque synths, and the distant spaciness I loved so much the first time 'round -- four years on, the Fruit Bats are now, well, pretty much a full-on '70s pop band. As in Elton John, as in Harry Nilsson, as in Paul McCartney. Hell, especially McCartney; I can't help but hear his influence all over the album.

None of which is bad, of course -- I was resistant at first, but I've been steadily coming around and finding different tracks from the disc locked into my brain throughout the day. I mean, if you're going to dive headlong into '70s pop warmth and goodness, you really couldn't do much better than to grab hold of McCartney and not let go, right? Anyway. If you're up for more blathering from me on the subject, head right over here.

Plus, the band will be playing in town tonight (Thurs., September 3rd, naturally), up at Walter's on Washington, where they share the bill with fellow Sub Pop folks Death Vessel, who're also very damn cool in a folky, back-to-the-past kind of way. Local heroes and idols of mine News On The March will be opening, too, and I honestly can't think of a more perfect combo than these folks' sweet, ragtime-y country-folk-pop (which also has a serious back-to-the-past thing going on) than Death Vessel. It's gonna be a pretty ridiculously great show.

Oh, and for those who're on the fence, here're three of my fave tracks from both the Fruit Bats and Death Vessel:

Fruit Bats - "My Unusual Friend"
Fruit Bats - "Silent Life"
Death Vessel - "Bruno's Torso"

More Options!:
And yeah, this being Houston, that ain't all that's going on. If you're not headed to Walter's, be sure to head for The Continental Club to catch always-awesome (and seriously, they get better each time I see 'em) indie-popsters The Wild Moccasins.

Or, on the other side of the spectrum, you could go all-out noise/mess/skronk over at Super Happy Fun Land, where entertaining locals The Annoysters, Organ Failure, & more play with a biiiiig crew of DFW-bred noise bands like the awesomely-named Wu Fru De Lu & Ruuu P. Versus Space Dragon Killah. Whoa.

Lastly, for the more bluesy set, H-town expat Carolyn Wonderland will be gracing us again, this time at McGonigel's Mucky Duck. There you go, y'all...

Labels: Flyeration, Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Reviews, Things To Do, Things To Download

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Sweet -- it makes me damn happy that the Zine Fest Houston folks are still doing their thing, and it's nice to see 'em re-running the Zine Night thing they did a while back, over at CopyDotCom on Westheimer. Tomorrow night, Wed., September 2nd, the ZFHers are throwing their second installment, with the doors thrown wide open to zine creators & interested parties of all kinds. Here's the details:

An informal gathering of zine creators (and those who are interested in creating zines) for the purpose of networking, skill sharing and collaborating.

Last time, we created a 24 page zine using collage materials found on site.

CopyDotCom staff will be available to help with technical issues. Slight discounts may be available on some CopyDotCom services during the event.

Admission is FREE. Feel free to bring zines you have made, projects you are working on, ideas for skill sharing, questions for the technical experts, collage materials and ideas for collaborative projects.

Keep real-live paper-and-ink zines alive, y'all.

Labels: Free Stuff, Things To Do, Things To Read, Zine-Type Stuff

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Just a quick update this week, I'm afraid -- thanks to indefatigable writer (and token in-house Metal Dude) Scott W., we've got two brand-new reviews of two bands, both on cool-ass label Tee Pee Records, that're playing here in town this very weekend.

First up is Iron Age, a throwback metal crew from Austin who (to my ears, anyway) dive headlong over the line into old-school, Metallica-style thrash with tons of chugging guitars, albeit with more gravelly, growly vocals and some Mastodon-esque fantasy imagery. I accidentally caught the band once a year or two back, and while I wasn't blown away, they were pretty damn entertaining.

Scott checked out the band's latest, The Sleeping Eye, and had some thoughts of his own, some good & some bad; check out the full review here, and check out one of the tracks from the album below:

Iron Age - "Burden of Empire"

If you want to check out the metalheads live, they're playing this coming Sunday, August 30th, opening for Weedeater at Walter's on Washington alongside Dixie Witch (holy shit, they're still around?) & H-town's own (I think?) Bowel.

Then there's Nebula, who're playing here Monday, August 31st, again at Walter's (duh), headlining a show with The Entrance Band & locals The Trian Woodburns & Ghost Town Electric.

Scott checked these guys out, too, and was more impressed with the band's progression from its stoner-metal roots into poppier/trippier realms, which shows somewhat in the following track from new album Heavy Psych:

Nebula - "The Dagger"

To my ears, it's got way, way more Hendrix and Sly & the Family Stone in it than Sabbath, and that's a very cool thing. It's always cool to see a band pushing its own limitations; check out the full review up here, listen to the track, then make plans to pretty much live at Walter's this weekend. (Well, maybe, anyway.)

Labels: Flyeration, Free Stuff, Musical Crap, Things To Do, Things To Download

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Good news time, finally. In the midst of all the breakups and whatnot, it's nice to see a cool, under-appreciated band that never quite hit it reuniting to give things a second shot. A few years back, Margot was one of a handful of mind-blowing bands that (briefly, at least) turned H-town into Texas Spacerock Heaven, up there with Antarctica Starts Here, Storms Threaten To Destroy, and the sole survivors of that scene's depressing crash, Austin/Houston crew Co-Pilot. When Margot called it quits, it felt like the nail in the coffin.

Happily, though, the guys in the band are now back. Here's the official statement from the band:

After over 2 years of silence, we’re thrilled to announce that Margot is back in action. Admittedly, we all thought that Margot was dead once and for all, but like Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees, she refuses to die.

So, why has Margot been gone for so long? In a word, "life." From getting married and having kids to just being lazy old men, any number of reasons can be attributed to the lengthy break. But what’s important now is the break is over and we’re ready to make up for lost time.

To make the comeback, the band's playing their first show in two years this coming Saturday, August 22nd, at The Mink with aforementioned pals Co-Pilot (who, by the way, are pretty damn great in their own right) and Austinites Closet Drama.

And to make things even cooler, the Margot boys are offering all of their 2006 release, I Want To Be What Destroyed the Dinosaurs, free for download by anybody who wants to check it out. Then or now, it's a sweet, skyward-pointing chunk of Explosions in the Sky-meets-Mineral post-emo atmospherics, so this is a fun freebie. Click here to grab it for yourself, then check out the real thing live Saturday.

Labels: Flyeration, Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Download

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Unless you've been dead for the past few months (or, okay, you don't happen to live here in Houston), odds are you've heard about the sure-to-be-epic Free Press Summerfest spanning Saturday and Sunday of this next weekend (the 8th & 9th, non-calendar-having punks) at Eleanor Tinsley Park. And trust me, "epic" is the word -- they've got a slew of badass headliners, folks like Broken Social Scene, The Sword, & Prince Paul, plus about a million of H-town's absolute best bands.

Seriously, if you gave me a piece of paper and asked me to come up with a list of everybody in town right now who rules, it'd look pretty much like the lineup for this thing: O Pioneers!!!, Muhammidali, Buxton, Fat Tony, The Tontons, Roky Moon & Bolt, The Small Sounds, Perseph One, etc., etc., etc. I won't bore y'all with the full schedule, but it's available right up here for those who need to know who's playing where when.

You can check out some very nice writeups, by the way, of folks playing the Summerfest, both over at Brigitte Zabak's blog I Keep Mine Hidden and at David Cobb's Houston Calling site. They're good writers and good people. Brigitte's already written News on the March, B L A C K I E, The Tontons, Young Mammals, and Austinites Explosions in the Sky, What Made Milwaukee Famous, & UME, and David's so far previewed Buxton, The Octopus Project, & Chase Hamblin. I applaud these two fine, fine writers for taking on a task that I myself am too freaking lazy to do...

But wait, there's more! As per the tag line up there, the ever-cool Omar of Free Press Houston, who're throwing this shindig (duh) has been kind enough to hand over 4 passes to the festival, which we'll be giving away to four lucky, totally-randomly-selected people out there who happen to read this.

If you want one, email me at "gaijin at spacecityrock DOTDOTDOT com" with the Subject: line "Sunstroke me, please!" and include your name, your email address, and your phone no. (just in case). You've got 'til 8AM tomorrow to get your name in the hat; at that point, we will use our usual ultra-scientific method of selecting names, which typically involves cajoling the house midget into pulling four scraps of paper w/names scrawled on 'em out of a hat.

Fire away, folks. And if you don't win, don't do anything drastic like jumping off the Hazard St. bridge -- day passes are still only $10, with two-day passes for $16 -- it's recession-style affordable, yo.

Oh, and if you want to see a truly, truly disturbing (and funny) promo for the festival, well, you're in luck:

FREE PRESS SUMMER FEST COMMERCIAL from mark armes on Vimeo.

Labels: Charitable Things, Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Read, Things To See

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I was able to interview Slug, half of Rhymesayers hip-hop masterminds Atmosphere, a couple of years back -- he was one hell of a cool guy, very smart and laidback and cool, all at once. And I got out to see the duo on their tour for 2005's You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having, which turned out to be a little, well, weird.

Us Houstonians were doing our usual "stand w/arms crossed" thing, although the crowd did seem to be into it from where I was standing -- even got an impromptu between-sets show of breakdancing from some talented folks waiting for people to get on stage. Everybody was smiling and nodding along, but apparently something was pissing Slug off, because he seemed to spend about half the show on the verge of dropping his mic and stalking off-stage. Not sure if it was our non-go-nuts crowd chillness, sound issues (it was at Warehouse Live, which can have its issues and sound like a big, boomy room), or what, but the vibe was pretty angry and unhappy. We cheered & clapped, but I dunno; something was off, I guess.

Now, four years on, Atmosphere are headed back our way, stopping here tonight, Tuesday, August 4th; they're at the Warehouse once again, touring on last year's When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold and celebrating the re-release of the 2002 classic God Loves Ugly.

While they're at it, they also just released a new, free EP, the appropriately-titled Leak At Will -- the band "leaked" it online themselves, giving it away to anybody who signs up for a user account on their new online Fifth Element Online store. Go here for the info, then download away.

From where I sit, Leak At Will ain't bad, although it does feel a bit like an odds-and-ends EP of outtakes. They're short as hell, laidback and loopy, but still with Slug's trademark bleak, street-level storytelling. I'l admit that I miss the manic, fuck-it-all energy of You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having (it's hard to beat the facepunch touring madness of "Bam"), sure, but Leak is a nice glimpse into the group's collective mind. Instead of the manic, we get hazy, low-to-the-ground, laid-back beats and meandering story-verses.

"C'mon" is probably the most aggressive, in-your-face track here, at the same time serving as a somewhat touching story about youth, struggle, and growing up, while "White Noise" is a damning indictment of our always-on culture of marketing overload with a bumping, almost Dead Prez-like funky groove and "Feel Good Hit of the Summer 2" is a head-shaking warning (sort of) about drugs and the dangers of not knowing your limits; the bit about 'shrooms and "please stop pretending that it makes better music" cracks me up.

The best track, though, is closer "Millie Fell Off the Fire Escape," a chilling, heartbreaking tale of youth gone wrong, all over some nice, Jackson 5-sounding backups. A kid makes a mistake, runs, wants to do the right thing, and then one false move makes it all horribly final.

I am a bit bummed, btw, that we're not getting P.O.S. this time out -- still need to see that guy -- but I've heard openers Eyedea & Abilities (dunno first-players Attracted to Gods, sorry) before, and they do some damn smart, twisty hip-hop themselves. Get on out, y'all.

Labels: Free Stuff, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Download

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= UPDATE: FYI, since the initial post I've heard from The Golden Ghost himself, and apparently not only has he recovered from last year's injuries, but he will be competing again this year. Go support, y'all!

I know, it's a little hard to fathom, even for somebody like me who's spent countless hours air-guitar-ing (okay, I actually mostly air-drum, to be honest) to the metal albums of my youth. But the U.S. Air Guitar Championships do exist, even still, and the Houston regionals are this coming Saturday, June 13th, at Warehouse Live. Hordes of fame-hungry vapor-lick-playing heroes will "rock" the stage in garish, sometimes terrifying outfits, doing anything and everything they can possibly think of to blow the audience away and win a coveted slot at the nationals.

Just ask Jacob "Hurricane Bear" Calle -- last year he entered the competition as "The Golden Ghost" and, as (weirdly) uncovered by the heeb'n'vegan blog (and hilariously pondered upon after by the Houston Press's Dusti Rhodes), he broke his freaking leg jumping down from the ceiling of the club. While "playing" Mötörhead's "Ace of Spades," naturally. Rumor has it that he was favored to win 'til his fall, but he ended up placing third, with Houston sending Rip Darko to The Big Show instead.

Folks, that's dedication, right there. Breaking a limb's bad enough when you're rocking out on an actual guitar with a real-live band, but doing it with nothing up there to back you up...damn. I can't even contemplate it.

Now, with that in mind, we here at Space City Rock are happy to announce that we're in a position to hand out 2 guestlist spots to one lucky winner -- it could be you, ladies and/or gents. If you want to check out the air-wankery for yourself this weekend, just drop an email to "gaijin" at "spacecityrock dot com" with the Subject line "The Golden Ghost lives!". Do it fast, because we've got to pick a winner pretty quickly...

By the way, in case you think this is all utterly ridiculous, um...okay, yeah, you're pretty much right. But hell, I'm all for ridiculousness, and I have to admire the U.S. Air Guitar folks' sincerity and dedication. Here's their official mission statement:

US Air Guitar is devoted to taking our nation's unofficial pastime out of the bedroom and putting it up on the world stage. Founded in 2003, the US Air Guitar Championships have grown into a major national event that reaches more cities, fans and competitors every year.

In a time when US political, economic, military and athletic dominance faces unprecedented challenges around the world, it is our belief that air guitar represents one endeavor our country can dominate without controversy. US Air Guitar is here to make this possible.

Wow. Air guitar as the key to world peace? I can't even really make fun of that; it's too damn cute to mess with, y'know? And c'mon, how cool would the world be if we all air-guitared one another instead of shooting and blowing one another up? It certainly couldn't be worse.

Final Note: For all you wannabe pseudo-rockstars out there, be aware that yes, you can still enter the H-town regionals. Should you dare...

Labels: Cool Web Junk, Free Stuff, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To See

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