[Ed. Note: writer/blogger Rock Houston sent this in a few days after the Houston Press Music Awards Showcase, but yours truly was out of the town & swamped after that, so it didn't go up 'til, well, right now. Enjoy...]

Rock Houston here. The following are my thoughts on the bands I saw at the HPMAS and the festival in general. Before I start, a big big thank you to The Houston Press for putting on this festival! It looks like a LOT of WORK coordinating this thing!

I parked around Fannin and Preston and made my way to Dean's as it was one of the few clubs I actually knew where it was. I kind of forget all these places because they don't usually have local original bands (that's too bad). Some of these places are pretty cool, but I guess they know where their bread is buttered, and it's not with local bands, right? I made my way down to Flying Saucer for Dune.tx, a band which should be nominated for the Houston Rock Hall of Fame (if it existed) for their longevity and rocking prowess.

Dune.tx shouldn't need a description, but in case you don't know them, they are Hendrixesque power-pop. They spend half their time in psychedelia and the other half in the realm of Matthew Sweet/Superdrag/Fountains of Wayne. The mix is just right and Chris, Rusty, and relatively new drummer, Kevin, deserve a lot of credit for rocking all these many years.

I tried to get over to see a little of Born Liars, but they were breaking down as I arrived. There were 4 or 5 acts at 5pm that I had wanted to see, including Benjamin Wesley, Elaine Greer, and Born Liars, but I settled on Dune.tx because they were my favorite act from last year's showcase. I stuck around to see 3 songs from Ryan Scroggins and the Trenchtown Texans. They played The Specials influenced ska/reggae with impeccable harmonies. Not my kind of music, but I have to recommend anyone who likes reggae and ska to see them because their vocal blend was amazingly pitch-perfect. Part of my goal today was to get out and see some bands I have never seen, so I was happy to see these guys. But a few songs of them was all I needed and I wanted to see a little of Ozeal, another artist I've never seen that has been recommended to me by friends.

I walked my way back up to Dean's and caught about 3 songs of Ozeal's set. It was pretty crowded at Dean's. I love this little bar, but not so hot on the way the stage is set up because it's hard to make your way to the bar when the band has a lot of fans. But I managed to make my way to the back. Ozeal does "sexy love you right" soul music. He's got a grooving band behind him and his vocals are smooth. It's interesting to see this style done in a local setting. You get used to hearing this kind of music in clubs or on tv, but it was refreshing to witness it in a small club. My friends were right in recommending Ozeal.

Around this time I looked at my schedule and realized that the HPMAS was 3 separate festivals in one. I could at this point decide to go to House of Blues or Hard Rocbar for the rest of the night or I could stick it out on Main. The festival was way too spread out for me, even with the shuttle service and rickshaw cab drivers. I decided I would just stay on Main street. There were plenty of bands I wanted to see there. But walking past several empty and unused venues I wished all of the festival could have been on Main. Oh well, House of Blues is a great place, but I wasn't going to make it over there.

Instead, I walked around the corner to finally hear a band I've heard about for years and always wanted to see, Free Radicals. They had a really nice crowd at the Red Cat Jazz Café. I ordered a drink, sat down, and enjoyed some jazz. Particularly interesting was their midi-vibrophone. It's a midi controller that you play like a xylophone. I want one! The vibes player was a standout in a group full of standouts.

I made my way back around the corner to Dean's again to see the last 3 songs of The McKenzies. I've seen the power-pop punk quartet several times over the last couple of years. They never have written songs that quite click with me, but they make up for any qualms I have about their songcraft with pure energy and the determination to entertain the crowd with FUN. And their crowd responds in kind!

As 8pm approached I walked down the street to Martell's to see The Tontons. A lot of people had the same idea. It got packed in there pretty quick. The Houston Press had just done an article on The Tontons, so it was hard to understand why they stuck them in this shoebox-sized club. They deserved the main stage at House of Blues. Next year, I guess. Asli and the boys proved (again and again) why they are the best thing going right now in Houston. You will have one more chance to see them at Summerfest before they go on a short hiatus. Make sure you do. I spent my last $8 on their new album on the way out.

I ended the evening seeing Buxton, a band I've only seen once previously, and that was when they performed brilliantly as Björk at Twotennany. They were an amazingly energetic yet drunken (them, not me) way to end the evening. Their singer wailed away like a yelping Bob Dylan. It was one bluesy train shuffle after another, but their fans made the show. The Buxton fans showed that Houston is the place to be for friends, music and camaraderie.

Final thoughts about the festival in general... I would like to see staggered times. Let's say Dean's has a band starting at 6pm, maybe Martell's could start at 6:30pm? Then you could go from place to place and always have music going on. Next, I know it's good to be eclectic, but maybe venues could be more genre specific. I could expect to see several of the nominees of a certain category at a certain place. I could also see it starting at 4 instead of 5 to fit more bands in. I mean, half the nominees were left off the bill? Is that fair to the voting process? If mostly bands that played yesterday end up winning then I think you can tell it's not fair... Finally, of course I would like to see more venues involved on Main St. But all in all, it was a fun time for me and for everyone I talked to, and I already look forward to next year's show!

Labels: H-Town News, HPMAs, Live Reviews, Musical Crap, Random Rambling

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 3 comments

Nice, nice, nice. The Houston Press's Chris Gray has a piece in this week's dead-trees version of the paper called "Progress Report", where he marks the coming of this weekend's Houston Press Music Awards Showcase by taking an overview of the scene here in our currently-overheated city.

For the most part, I think the article's spot-on. Houston seems to be hitting this weird moment where there are A) a veritable shitload of great, great, wildly varied bands & musicians (see decidedly non-comprehensive personal list here), nearly all of whom seem to be B) releasing new stuff every few months (if not more), to the point where local music cover-ers like yours truly find themselves with a gigantic pile of excellent Houston-born albums/EPs/7"/etc. to listen to, and many of whom are currently C) touring the rest of the state and country like mad, trying to get their name (and Houston's name in general) out there for all to see.

I do disagree with Chris on his assertion that "Houston has only relatively recently decided it even wants a scene" -- anybody who remembers the late '90s here knows that's a goofy statement to make -- but the rest of his article had me nodding and muttering under my breath in agreement, and he correctly notes that a "scene" isn't made up solely of bands but of the labels, media, venues, graphic artists, booking agents, & the rest that work with and around those bands. H-town's attempts at scene-dom in the past were hampered not by a lack of good bands (although as I've said elsewhere, no time since I've lived here compares to now) but by the lack of infrastructure.

And, maybe, by a lack of confidence. There's a part of me that loves Houston's screw-you-we-do-what-we-like attitude when it comes to promoting and pushing music made here elsewhere, but honestly, that's an unsustainable model. You can only make music for your friends for so long before it becomes a pointless exercise. So parts B & C above feel like a huge step forward in this vibrant-yet-unknown scene's life; bands here aren't content anymore (well, not all of 'em, anyway) to just sit back, play shows where most of the crowd is in another band themselves, then go home & play PlayStation. A lot of 'em -- the best of 'em, in a lot of cases -- are working their asses off to be able to play bigger shows to more people, sell more records, get written up in the press, and travel further & further from home. And that's an awe-inspiring thing to be able to witness.

My hat's off to all of y'all, seriously. I've blathered before about the great bands, but Gray & company are absolutely correct that they're only part of the equation, the other parts of which are finally (finally!) falling into place. The Press piece is a good read, as is the companion blog post with Eggs of Breakfast on Tour.

Of course, a scene is only truly a scene if it has fans. Which makes this weekend's Awards Showcase shows the perfect damn time for anybody and everybody who reads this (I know there're a few of you, and you're not all in bands) to get out & hit downtown, bouncing from venue to venue to see as many of the bands in part A as you possibly can. These bands, they're us. They're our music, from our city, and they deserve to be celebrated.

So skip hanging out at The Woodlands tonight trying to snag Coldplay tickets for too-damn-much money and spend that cash on a wristband this Sunday (July 26th, if you were wondering), instead. Roam the downtown clubs and bars, and I guarantee you'll find at least one band/musician you've never heard before that'll make your jaw drop. If you don't, well, you should probably just carve your ears off now, Van Gogh-style, because you're obviously not using them correctly.

C'mon, Houstonians -- do it for your city.

Labels: H-Town News, HPMAs, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 3 comments

Sweet...looks like the Houston Press's Chris Gray (on whom I flaked ridiculously a while back and am sincerely apologetic, btw, should he ever read this; sorry, man...) has put up the list of nominated folks for this year's much-anticipated Houston Press Music Awards. And when I say "much-anticipated," I swear I'm serious; more awesomely good shit has come out in the past six months or so than a poor, defenseless music writer like myself can ever keep up with. My pile of CDs I Really Need to Listen To Soon is growing at a seemingly exponential rate.

Going down the list, I'm happy as hell to see a bunch of folks I voted for, myself, made the cut -- the last place you look, The Wild Moccasins, American Fangs (and seriously, Something Fierce's "Teenage Ruins" was 2008's Song for me, but this year's is definitely the Fangs' "Le Kick"), The Small Sounds, Benjamin Wesley, & Something Fierce, for a few. I'm kinda disappointed Springfield Riots, Scale The Summit (Best. Metal. Band. In. Town, I swear to God), Tambersauro, Phillip Foshée, & listenlisten didn't make it, because they all really, truly rule my life right now, but eh, I'll take it.

What's left? Nothing but a month or two of mulling-over of your voting options before the Awards Showcase madness on July 26th, which'll most likely feature the bulk of the bands listed; mark yr calendars now...

Labels: H-Town News, HPMAs, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Read

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 0 comments

Yes, yes, yes, folks -- it's that time of year, again, when we Houstonians get to fly the middle finger high in the face of other burgs and say, "our bands could wipe the sidewalk with yours." Yep, I'm talkng about the Houston Press Music Awards, for which the nominating started yesterday.

So go, go, go, and nominate your favorites for anything & everything you can. You can also pick up a real-live paper copy of the Press and do it that way -- all nominations are due by 9AM on May 18th. If you don't bother to nominate, any bitching and moaning about the actual ballot when it comes out merits a punch to the head, so watch yourself.

I'd just like to say, BTW, that Craig Hlavaty hits the nail on the head in his post about this when he says H-town music fucking rules. Because right now? It really, truly, truly does. Trust me. I've lived here more than half my life, now, and I've been listening to and/or playing music in our sweat-stained city for all but a couple of years of that. And in the time I've made Houston my home, I've never, never, never seen this huge a quantity of bona-fide awesome music.

There've been great, amazing bands in eras past, yes -- Sprawl, Panic In Detroit, Celindine, etc. -- but right now bands like that are literally falling out of the fucking trees, I swear. It's like some mad scientist deep in the heart of the Montrose is busy blending together just the right amounts of indie sensibility, badass songwriting abilities, and quirkily unique musical style to crank out band after band that makes me smack my head and go, "wow! How in the hell do they do that?" Right now, I'm more apt to stick a CD by a local band in my car stereo than I am, say, the new Coldplay. (Which, yes, I do actually like, so it's not a totally unfair comparison.)

I'm serious about this, I really am. Now, my friends, is The Time. The people making music here, right at this very moment, they could go toe-to-toe with all the most hipster-hyped bands in Brooklyn, Portland, Vancouver, and Austin combined and likely still come out on top. When I force friends to listen to The Mathetes or American Fangs or The Western Civilization, you can see the confusion in their eyes as they try to process it: "This band's...from here? Wha? Really? No, that's not poss...wait, is it?"

Of course, that makes nominating badass Houston-band types for the HPMAs a difficult task; I know my personal list of Bands I Like Right Now is getting to be gigantic. Here's everybody currently doing their thing 'round town right now that I can think of that I happen to think are very cool & worth checking out -- maybe it'll kickstart your brain, maybe it'll give you some ideas of folks to try to catch later on, whatever. Here goes:

• A Thousand Cranes
• Alkari
• American Fangs
• The American Masquerade
• Antarctica Starts Here
• The ARE
• Thee Armada
• AWAKE
• B.
• Babel Fishh
• Balaclavas
• B L A C K I E
• Blackmarket Syndicate
• Blaggards
• Bolt
• Born Anchor
• The Born Liars
• Bright Men of Learning
• Bring Back The Guns
• Buxton
• Caddywhompus
• Campfire Stories
• Tody Castillo
• Clouseaux
• Come See My Dead Person
• Co-Pilot
• Cory Derden
• Devin the Dude
• Dizzy Pilot
• Airon Paul Dugas
• Electric Attitude
• Robert Ellis
• John Evans
• The Factory Party
• Fat Tony
• The Favorites
• Fight Pretty
• Fired For Walking
• 500 Megatons of Boogie
• The Flamin' Hellcats
• Flowers to Hide
• Phillip Foshée
• Free Radicals
• Tha Fucking Transmissions
• georgia's horse
• Ghost Town Electric
• Giant Princess
• Glacier Pace
• The Gold Sounds
• Golden Axe
• Golden Cities
• The Goods
• Elaine Greer
• Chase Hamblin
• The Handsomes
• Hearts of Animals
• Hell City Kings
• H.I.S.D.
• Hollywood Black
• Hungry Villagers
• Indian Jewelry
• Inner Lights
• The Jonbenét
• The Jonx
• Kam
• Ladyheat
• the last place you look
• The Last Starfighter
• Latch Key Kids
• Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers
• Like Yeah
• Limb
• The Linus Pauling Quartet
• Lisa's Sons
• listenlisten
• The Literary Greats
• The Loving Ones
• Mantis
• The Mathletes
• The Mayapples
• The McKenzies
• Mechanical Boy
• Menus
• The Monocles
• Motion Turns It On
• Muhammid Ali
• News on the March
• Karina Nistal
• No Talk
• Nosaprise
• O Pioneers!!!
• Oppressed by the Line
• Paris Falls
• Peekaboo Theory
• Perseph One
• The Phlegmatics
• Piano Vines
• Ragged Hearts
• The Ride Home
• The Riff Tiffs
• Room 101
• Rustler
• Satin Hooks
• Scale The Summit
• The Scattered PAGES
• Gretchen Schmaltz
• Ryan Scroggins & the Trenchtown Texans
• Searching For Signal
• The Secret Prostitutes
• Sew What
• Sharks and Sailors
• Sideshow Tramps
• sIngs
• Los Skarnales
• skyblue72
• The Small Sounds
• Something Fierce
• Spain Colored Orange
• Springfield Riots
• Stadium
• The Suspects
• Tambersauro
• Tax The Wolf
• This Year's Tiger
• Together.We are Instruments
• The Tontons
• Two Star Symphony
• The Tyburn Jig
• Winter Wallace
• The Watermarks
• Welfare Mothers
• Benjamin Wesley
• The Western Civilization
• While You Were Gone
• The Wild Moccasins
• The Wiggins
• Woozyhelmet
• The Wrong Ones
• Arthur Yoria
• Young Mammals
• Yppah

Dang. Okay, I know I'm forgetting people/bands, and probably a lot of 'em -- if you come up with other awesomely cool local people, put 'em in the comments to this post... (And yes, I'm well aware that the Bands page on this here site needs some work. sigh. I swear, you'll start seeing some updates soon, and a bunch of the folks listed above will get their very own writeups. Really. I mean it this time.)

Seize The Time, folks. Get out there, see these folks play now, while you can, buy their CDs/7"s/tapes/whatever, and -- probably most importantly -- tell your friends about 'em, too. Because these things do go in cycles, unfortunately, and while I'd like to claim that this wondrous Golden Age will last forever, it won't. Folks leave town, bands dry up like leaves & blow away, people break up; it'll all pass, sadly. Even from the list above, Ladyheat are currently preparing to flee to L.A., and I had to leave a bunch of supremely talented folks like Sabra Laval, Papermoons, & Jenny Westbury off here because they've already skipped town. Grab the moment while you can. (And again: nominate!)

Labels: H-Town News, HPMAs, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Random Rambling, Things To Do

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 1 comments