In addition to the The May Fire review I posted about earlier, there's a whole pile of other cool stuff up recently. One of the coolest is a review of local H-town-area noise-rapper B L A C K I E; his debut, Wilderness of North America, is an angry, free-jazz-informed combo assault of thick-sounding City of Syrup hip-hop, hazy avant-noise, and pop-culture samples that crushes the eardrums in the best possible way. It's like CEX if he was less obsessed with Nine Inch Nails, cLOUDDEAD with less drugs, or Mike Ladd with more righteous fury. Oh, and it's good.

Check out the writeup here, and then you can check out B L A C K I E himself August 28th (as in a week from tomorrow) at Numbers, where he'll be doing the Free Press Recession Thursdays thing alongside fellow luminaries The Mathletes, The Goods, & Giant Princess. Holy fuck, that's gonna be a good show; that hadn't really sunk in 'til now...

Since we tend to not do these things just one at a time (well, not always), we've also got two new live reviews up, one of Tilly and the Wall and one of Michale Graves, the latter playing acoustic versions of his Misfits & solo songs at a church/venue up in the Conroe sticks. Read 'em here & here.

Also, there's a bunch more new reviews, including one of the brand-spankin'-new Conor Oberst solo disc, the (awesome, awesome) Jealous Girlfriends, Cherry Suede, Sputnik Monroe, Athletic Automaton, & more. Full list time:

Live Reviews: Tilly and the Wall; Michale Graves

Reviews: The May Fire; Conor Oberst; B L A C K I E; The Jealous Girlfriends; Sputnik Monroe; Athletic Automaton; Cherry Suede; Elemental Zazen; The Show Is The Rainbow; The Velocet; & You.May.Die.In.The.Desert.

More coming soon, y'all.

Labels: Live Reviews, Musical Crap, Reviews, Things To Do

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

Update time, and somewhat of an urgent one, to boot -- in the spirit of Just-In-Time Reviewing (which is all the trend these days, don'tcha know), we've got a brand-new review up of Papermoons inaugural full-length, New Tales, and holy crap, they just happen to be playing tonight. Imagine that...

Anyway, the band's playing up at Boondocks (which I've never been to, but which sounds interesting), accompanied by fellow local hero Benjamin Davis Murphy (Bright Men of Learning/ex-Lucky Motors/ex-We've Got Airplanes/ex-Pop Deflation/ex-Panic in Detroit/ex-a billion other bands). It's going to be a frickin' great show, especially as the Papermoons men are bidding farewell to our sweaty hellhole of a city, moving on to bigger, better things, um, somewhere else. No, I've got no clue where they're headed, just that it's "away" somewhere. Damn. I can't say I blame 'em, things in my beloved/behated city being what they are, but it still makes me sad.

Heck, I never even really got to know the guys in the band (which, btw, seems to be the kiss of death for a band; I finally meet you in person, then you break up/move to Poughkeepsie/get in a car wreck -- I hide myself away to protect you, Houston Band People!), having only been introduced super-briefly to one of the 'moons recently. I console myself by quietly murmuring: "They'll be back...they always come back. Hey, look at Indian Jewelry..."

But take heart, because we've got other stuff for you, too, beyond things to make you sad. Writer extraordinaire Brandon H. was so perturbed by Frightened Rabbit's recent no-show here in Houston that he methodically tracked them eastward, following their spoor like Chingachgook 'til he finally cornered them in a dimly-lit bar in far-off Washington, DC., and skewered them with questions. The guy's tenacious, I tell you -- how many writers do you know who, when a band they're due to interview stands 'em up, follows 'em halfway across the fucking country so he can talk to 'em? For free? (Sorry, dude. I'll, um, reimburse you?) The guy's got stones. And hey, it's a great interview besides, so go check it out.

Oh, and skipping back over to here, we've also got a review of the brand-new Sharks and Sailors full-length, probably the most anticipated local disc of the year (when other bands start using your band's release as a deadline for when they'd better release theirs by...). And luckily, it lives up to the hype -- check the review here. The band will perform it all live this coming Friday, August 1st up at Walter's, along with excellent half-expats UME & The Jonx, somebody named This Man Is Art, & DJ Under Warranty (aka ADR from Skyline). It's gonna rule. I'm gonna attempt to be there. If you didn't see them at the HPMAs, you seriously missed out; "Fix Your Radar" and "Builds Brand New" rip walls down live.

Plus, we've got a long-awaited review of Paul Weller's latest disc, 22 Dreams -- writer Damon M. blew off my sad admissions that I just couldn't get a hold of the damn thing for SCR, found it himself, and proceeded to wax poetic over it in spite of everything. Review here, along with reviews of This Holiday Life, Autovein, & a bunch more. Here's the full list:

Interviews: How Heads Roll Off: An Interview with Frightened Rabbit

Reviews: Sharks and Sailors; Papermoons; Paul Weller; Autovein; This Holiday Life; The Delta Block; Aaron English; Los Doggies; Melba Toast; & The Willowz.

See you in August, folks...

Labels: H-Town News, Interviews, Live Reviews, Musical Crap, Reviews, Things To Do

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

Yeah, I got out there a bit late -- I didn't make it to this year's Houston Press Music Awards Showcase downtown 'til 6PM or so, which meant I missed 2 hrs' worth of cool-ass bands. Perils of domesticated life, unfortunately; it gets hard to force myself to hop in the car & abandon the wife & midget, even for a few hours. But after cramming down some leftovers for dinner, I finally jumped in the car & went, parked beneath Bayou Place, and emerged into the summer-evening heat to see as many bands on the schedule as I could. Some I missed (The Wild Moccasins, Miss Leslie, Two Star Symphony, Flyish Fish Sailors...sigh), but the ones I did see were just about uniformly awesome. H-town reaffirms my faith in its homegrown music, once again. Rather than blather about the thing as a whole, btw, I thought this time out I'd try my best to remember the mental notes I was making during each performance I caught (turns out I didn't have Blogger Mobile set up like I thought I had, or I would've done more than mentally make notes; argh...). Oh, and I tried to take pics, but it got to be progressively more & more of a pain, so I eventually gave up. Gotta ditch this camera & get a new one, dammit. The whole set of pics is here, those who care... The Scattered PAGES @ The Flying Saucer:

• First place I came to, so what the heck; I always like the PAGES (or is it just "Pages," now? no freakin' clue).
• Damn, the crowd for these guys is a lot more receptive than the last time I saw 'em play, over at Venue.
• The music definitely fits the vibe of the place, too.
• Down side? Not everybody's there for the band -- seems like half the room's there to drink fancy-shmancy beers & socialize.
• Can't get a view of the band that doesn't involve a big column or standing real close to somebody's girlfriend; time to move on.

Pale @ Venue:

• Man, I haven't seen these guys in forever -- seriously, the last time I saw 'em, I was still in a band & they were like Ultramagg's proto-emo/indie-rock pals.
• They've evolved, for sure; now they're more like a cross between Radiohead & The Killers.
• Makes sense, really -- Calvin's voice always sounded ill-suited to the whole emo thing, to me -- this fits a lot better.
• Mmmm, smoke machine.
• Why aren't these guys played on The Buzz by now? They blow most craptastic Buzz Bands out of the water, they're still alive and/or releasing music (gotta love how "Your New Music" includes music by a dead guy named Kurt and a good dozen bands that don't exist anymore), and they're relatively accessible.
• Crowd seems to like it; bouncers aren't into it, but the folks watching are.
• Hrm. Where the fuck is Jowell? He said he was going to try to get here about now...
• Why can't I check my email in here? Are the walls lined w/lead or something?
• Is that Hank from Southern Backtones filming everything?
• Wait a second...I think I know the crew 2 tables over from the Hash House Harriers. Weird.
• Last song, heading outside to figure out what next; got a text msg from Jowell telling me I'm on my own. Ah, damn.
• The Tontons are next, so back in I go.
• David C. Sighting #1.

The Tontons @ Venue:

• Holy fucking shit. I should just go home now; nothing will top this.
• (Okay, so that turned out to almost be true.)
• Ramon Sighting #1.
• Asli is amazing, like Nina Simone fronting The Experience.
• Love how she's sultry & playful, all at once.
• Never seen so many guys w/cameras taking pictures of the same woman at the same time.
• The band seems honestly humbled by the reaction they're getting.
• Hey, a Jay Lee Sighting!
• Raw and awesome; the bass makes my chest vibrate, & I love it.
• Band's almost done -- time to try to catch part of Black Math Experiment.
• God damn, BME's a long ways off; The Real Sammies is all the way past Notsuoh.
• Nice chat w/Rosa on the way up -- she's going for Wiggins, so I might, too.
• Ramon Sighting #2.
• Whoops...passers-by inform that Wiggins're done. On to Sammies.

Black Math Experiment @ The Real Sammies:

• Fuck, my feet hurt. Ingrown toenail surgery sucks ass.
• Damn, missed most of the show.
• For a reunion of a now-defunct band, they seem totally into it.
• Heck, why'd they quit?
• That Jef With One F, he's something else.
• Final song reminds me (favorably, somehow) of musical theatre, like a Rent outtake.
• Ah, for a toilet-paper gun/leafblower that actually works...
• (Apparently the key is better-quality toilet paper, as half the crowd informs Jef after. How do they know this? I'm afraid to ask.)
• Undaunted, Jef uses leafblower on tables & people's clothes. Sometimes you improvise, yo.
• Lady from the Press looks like she's ready for BME to get done.
• Nice to actually meet Jef in person; damn nice guy.
• And weirdly, he looks almost exactly how I'd pictured him, which hasn't ever happened before.
• Quit bugging Jef so he can load out, time to hike down to Notsuoh.
• According to people walking ahead of me, BME didn't play "You Can't Kill David Arquette," for some reason.
• Run into Justin & Larry Prkl8r (aka "my sometime accountant") @ Notsuoh while waiting for Hearts of Animals.
• Oh yeah, Buxton & Spain Colored Orange're right now, too...can I do all three?
• Larry heads off to talk to Jim Pirtle, so I tag along w/Justin to Buxton.
• Sounds like Twotenanny was good, if hot/packed; Sharks and Sailors as The Police == good.

Buxton @ Butterfly High:

• Never been here before; odd little bar.
• Wow, these guys are good live.
• And they sound different from A Family Light, too; louder & more countryish.
• Actually, reminds me of Lucero or Springsteen more than anything folky.
• Normally it really bugs the shit out of me when the singer explains the song before they play it, but here I somehow don't mind.
• Ah, and there's the Björk cover from last night @ Twotenanny. Justin says it's better here, but it may be that the sounds better.
• I really hope these guys record something new soon...
• Halfway through, so time to head over to Spain Colored Orange.

Spain Colored Orange(?) @ Havana Latin Grill and Bar:

• Um. What?
• Who the fuck is this? Did SCO & Espantapajaros get switched?
• Lot of people here to see Spain Colored Orange, but I honestly can't tell if it is them.
• If so, Gilbert looks like the love child of Santana & Tommy Chong these days.
• Whoa -- I haven't seen this band in a decade, since The Oven was still around. [NEXT-AM UPDATE FROM JUSTIN: It turns out that was, in fact Spaincoloredorange and the bearded guy was Gilbert. It seems they have changed.]
• Lots of funky horns, R&B rhythms, and keys.
• Why don't they require that bands have a big poster behind 'em w/their name? Wouldn't that be good publicity for the bands?
• Eh. Not doing much for me.
• Justin stays to see who the band actually is; I bail and try to catch Hearts of Animals.
• Ah, crap. HoA's backing band (I think?) Young Mammals just passed w/their gear.
• Yep, the set's over. Sorry, Ms. Mlee!

Sharks and Sailors @ Notsuoh:

• Hey, at least I'm here early for S&S.
• Need...soda...
• Wow, I've got a whole bench to myself. Lean back & close my eyes for a sec.
• Ramon Sighting #3.
• Hey, now I've got ADR from Skyline sitting next to me. Trippy...
• Stand up on bench to see the band, 'til I feel all vulnerable & exposed and sit back down.
• These folks still rule; "Fix Your Radar" rips the roof off. Like old-school Jawbox come back to life.
• David C. Sighting #2.
• Ramon & David C. are taking a picture of S&S's drummer at the exact same time, barely three feet apart. This cracks me up, proving I need sleep.
• Damn, partway done -- better go next door to see Bring Back The Guns.

Bring Back The Guns @ Dean's:

• Dear God is it hot in here. I can't breathe.
• Good old Matt...
• Sure hope that fratguy in front of him doesn't do anything stupid while Matt's all wrapped in that plastic banner.
• David C. Sighting #3.
• Ramon Sighting #4.
• Damn, the sound sucks. What the hell? Why's it sound like BBTG are playing through toy speakers?
• I can't do this; I've got to get out.
• Heading south to catch Young Mammals.

Young Mammals @ Butterfly High:

• Oh, wow. Tie w/the Tontons for best fucking performance of the night.
• I've never seen a crowd at the HPMAs react to a band the way these folks are digging Young Mammals.
• They're so damn driving, it's awesome.
• The drummer (Iram, I think?) truly is the engine of the band. Damn shame he's moving away...
• I think Clay's trying to get people onstage w/the band.
• Holy cow -- they just transformed the whole place into an indie-rock dance par-tay.
• Nice to see smiling faces all 'round; these people know they're witnessing something special.
• Only seen the band live once before, but this blows that performance out of the water. Incredible.
• Ramon Sighting #5. How does he move so damn fast?
• After, they're all genuinely nice guys, friendly & humble & all.
• Clay's kind enough to take me down the street to his car to give me a CD.
• Part of this wants this to continue all through the night, but another part of me says "hell, no."
• Time to hike back to Bayou Place & the car.
• On home...

I hurt. Damn, I feel old. Nighty-night, all.

Labels: H-Town News, Live Reviews, Musical Crap, Pseudo-Reviews, Things To Do

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

The best-laid plans, damn...every time I put off posting about this stuff, it bites me on the ay-uss. We got some new stuff up last week -- brand-new show reviews! -- and earlier this week -- brand-new reviews! -- but I procrastinated, figuring I'd post about it sometime this afternoon. I had a quickie medical foot thing to get taken care of around 3PM, and then I could go home & just chill at the laptop.

But alas, 'twas not to be. Here I am, three hours later, with an aching foot, a limp, and a head full of Hydrocodone, and I'm only now able to post about the new stuff we've got up and some of the cool stuff that's going on in the next few days.

First off, tonight, Thurs., July 24th, the ever-astounding Mathletes will be playing at Rudyard's, along with Lazy Horse (who I've heard are really good) and The Misfires (who I'd never heard of before). I'll shamefacedly cop to never having seen an actual Mathletes show, but Joe Mathlete was kind enough to send a copy of his latest full-length, #$@% You and Your Cool to us here at SCR. And it's fucking beautiful, seriously. It makes me think of a ton of things (all good), but for some reason right now I keep thinking of soft-yet-snarky indie-popsters Eggs, with whom the Mathletes share a talent for quirky, tongue-in-cheek, smart, but still wonderfully-written pop songs. Check the review here.

They're good, y'all, and reports I've received from other folks say that live they're in a whole other galaxy. Sadly, I'm gonna miss it yet again, seeing as I'm sitting here feeling fuzzy around the edges and in no shape to rock out. Thankfully, a new ep of Burn Notice is on tonight, so the night's not a total loss.

And lucky for me, we're not done yet w/the good stuff. As anybody in this town who likes music undoubtedly knows by now, this Sunday, July 27th, is the 2008 Houston Press Music Awards showcase scattered all 'cross downtown and featuring probably 85% of the really, truly talented bands in this city (no Something Fierce? no Western Civ? no Stadium? damn...). Including The Tontons, who we've got a long-overdue review up for, for 2007's Sea and Stars EP. They're playing at Venue, which I don't think I've ever been to, and seeing as they don't play in H-town a whole lot these days (lead singer Asli is apparently currently studying at the Savannah College of Art & Design -- "SCAD," for short -- waaaay over in Georgia). The music's pretty incredible -- jazzy and jam-y but not just boring noodling, bluesy and raspy in the best way, and psychedelic like people've forgotten how to be these days.

Of course, this being H-town, there's always Plan B. And in this case, that'd be the show that same night with Tucson's Mostly Bears at Rudyard's with good local folk Over Sea, Under Stone. Check out Brandon H.'s fine, fine review here, where he sings the praises of the band, comparing 'em (favorably) to The Arcade Fire & Radiohead. And -- sad but true -- this show's even more of a big deal because it's (dum-da-de-dum) OSUS's last gig. Dang. Go see 'em now, while you can. If the HPMAs wear you down, take the Plan B route and just head on over to Rudz, pull up a chair (believe me, after an hour or two at the showcase, you will desperately yearn for a chair), and rock out with a smile on your face.

So, there's the future, at least w/regard to SCR reviewage. There's plenty of other stuff, too, like reviews of the new and old Mudhoney discs -- the Superfuzz Bigmuff reissue and the band's latest, The Lucky Ones -- Mission Giant, The Drawing Board, Spanish Prisoners, & others. Check 'em here.

And hey, can't forget the live stuff. Contributing writer Jef did a very cool writeup of the latest Underworld show at Numbers, featuring local heroes Ex-Voto & strip -- ahem -- burlesque performers Cardinal Cyn & Ruby Rocket. Plus, there's Brigitte's glowing review of the Manchester Orchestra show from back in April...oh, and uh, Say Anything, Biffy Clyro, & Weatherbox played the show, too, to a not-so-glowing reaction.

That's it for now; here's the list:

Live Reviews: The Dark Knight -- Ex-Voto, Cardinal Cyn, & Ruby Rocket; Manchester Orchestra (with Say Anything, Biffy Clyro, & Weatherbox)

Reviews: Cardinal Trait; The Drawing Board; The Kindness Kind; Marqui Adora; The Mathletes; Mission Giant; Mostly Bears; Mudhoney; Spanish Prisoners; & The Tontons.

More on the way, y'all...

Labels: H-Town News, Live Reviews, Musical Crap, Reviews, Things To Do

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

Back at the keyboard once again, post-Grand Canyon debacle (which I will post about, btw, for those who give a crap; still trying to organize thoughts & force myself to actually type it up), and we've got two updates' worth of new stuff up for all to ogle and admire and deride, as they/you see fit.

Anyway, first up I feel completely and totally compelled to mention that there's this badass show going on tonight (Tuesday, July 15th, for all the poor fools who have no calendars) up at The Mink's Backroom. Headliners are Sleepercar, which is Jim Ward's (ex-At The Drive-In/Sparta) new band, plus excellently awesome locals The JonBenet, Buxton, B., and -- most important to SCR at this particular juncture -- Giant Princess. We'd like to emphasize the coolness of Giant Princess specifically, esp. 'cause we just slapped a review of their free-to-all self-titled CD-R up on the ol' Website (courtesy of Jef "With One F" Rouner; thanks, Jeff!). No slight intended to any of the other fine bands playing, mind you -- we like The JB and Buxton a hell of a lot and have heard very nice things about B., too. It's just that being the ADD-addled people we (okay, I) are, we've gotta focus on what's in front of us, y'know?

Which means this coming Thursday, July 17th, leaves my little brain in twitchy, spastic overdrive. Because not only is Darkest Hour -- a fine, fine metalcore band from DC we here at SCR have been fans of for many moons (old-school interview Ruben did back in the day up here) -- playing that night over at Warehouse Live with At the Gates, Municipal Waste, & Toxic Holocaust (about all three of whom: sorry, no clue what they're like...), but the Free Press's Recession Thursdays thingy will feature mind-blowingly awesome local folks The Riff Tiffs as headliners, playing alongside Lisa's Sons, longtime fave Pale, The Takes, Come See My Dead Person, & DJ Ceeplus Bad Knives.

And just so you're not totally uninformed as to what's going on, we've kindly posted two reviews for you, one of the Riff Tiffs latest EP, festival/snflwr, which you can pretty much only obtain from the band themselves, so pester 'em if you see 'em (I was too slow last time, myself, and they'd already run out of copies) and one for Darkest Hour's latest, Deliver Us. There're other reviews up, as well, like writeups of the new My Morning Jacket, Gallhammer, No Age, Sigur Rós (oh, how I loathe formatting Icelandic characters in HTML...), Pomegranates, & others. Check 'em all out here

While we're at it, we've also got a couple of new show reviews on the site, writeups on the recent Her Space Holiday/Lymbyc Systym/We Were Wolves show at Walter's (here) and the not-as-recent Black Mountain show at The Meridian back 'round SXSW-time (here). We're very proud of 'em, and we're slowly, slowly catching up with the slew of show reviews our indefatigable contributors have been cranking out lately. Y'all do good.

Lastly (but certainly not leastly), yours truly has been finally attempting to rev back up again on actually updating the "Featured Bands" list -- I've kept a ton of deserving folk waiting in the wings for far too long to receive the dubious honor of having me blather about them on the Bands page. I'm working on rectifying that, so now you can read my quasi-insightful writings about local heroes By the End of Tonight, Deathbed Repentance, and listenlisten (sorry that one took so long, you guys!). More will come, I swear.

For now, here's the list:

New Featured Bands: By the End of Tonight; Deathbed Repentance; listenlisten

Live Reviews: Her Space Holiday/Lymbyc Systym/We Were Wolves; SXSW Spills Over with Black Mountain

Reviews: Giant Princess; My Morning Jacket; Darkest Hour; Pomegranates; I Love Math; The Riff Tiffs; Sigur Rós; Gallhammer; Jordan; No Age; Driver Side Impact; Hello Tokyo; Eric Layer; Little Name; Pain Principle; The Gena Rowlands Band; Jet Black Kiss; Juhu Beach; The Oswald Effect; & The Soulshake Express.

Enjoy it, folks, & come on back...

Labels: Featured Bands, Live Reviews, Reviews, Things To Do, Things To See

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

UPDATE! Argh, I screwed up -- ignore the art show stuff at the bottom & check the next post, instead...

Yesterday evening I dragged homeboy Jowell on up to Notsuoh for the rescheduled, shifted-around, and somewhat downsized (Ex-)Keene St. Warehouse Party. I had some serious misgivings about the whole thing, I have to admit -- I was halfway afraid we'd get there & find Notsuoh shuttered and locked down, with nobody in sight. Even if it was still going, I had a horrible feeling that there might only be a handful of people there. I figured, though, that I needed to make a go of it in spite of all that, with SCR acting as one of the show's sponsors & all.

Luckily, I was way off. The show did go on, and there was a pretty big crowd in attendance -- big enough that it was hard to move around inside the venue. I didn't see a whole lot of familiar faces, but hey, I'm thinking that's a good thing; I've been to more than enough shows that were attended pretty much solely by members of other local bands. The more kids that come out to shows, esp. the local ones, the better.

As soon as we got to the club, we ran into show organizer Jacob Calle, meeting him in the flesh for the first time, and I was mightily impressed. I've been to some shows where the booking folks just set the bands up to play & bail, but Jacob stuck it out the whole time, constantly bouncing from one part of the place to another. He explained the hassles he & Eric of I Heart U Productions (not to mention their army of kind volunteers) had gone through to get the show together, and man, the guy's had a rough week of it. Apparently the owner of the Keene St. Warehouse promised the moon w/regard to renovations and not only couldn't deliver but kept telling Jacob he'd have the place ship-shape in time for 7/5.

Alas, 'twas not to be. When Jacob & Eric finally got a look at the place, it still had no roof, no floor, and no power. The pair decided to take matters into their own hands and started building out the warehouse specifically for the show, but then nature intervened -- it rained, and when Jacob came by to finish the floor, he found four inches of water standing throughout the place. That's when the word went out that the whole shebang was cancelled.

Luckily, Jacob didn't want to give it up quite yet, so he headed on over to Notsuoh to see owner Jim Pirtle & beg and plead to be able to shift the show over to his home/club/coffeehouse, in part so that the organizers could begin to recoup some of their (substantial) losses. Pirtle, being the cool guy he is, immediately agreed -- from what I heard, he didn't even take any $$$ at the door.

So the show was a go. I don't know how much Jacob & co. still lost (as of 11PM or so, they had $500 of free beer that they couldn't do anything with), but things seemed to roll along nicely. And Jacob himself was hands-down the nicest guy, seriously -- I'm happy as hell I got to meet him.

Unfortunately, due to family stuff, we didn't make it up to Notsuoh 'til 8:30PM or so -- but the three bands we caught were pretty damn incredible. I'd heard all three before, but never seen any of 'em, so I was looking forward to checking 'em all out live for once. (Got some more pics up here on Flickr, if you're curious.)

O Pioneers!!!: Whoa. Color me impressed. I'd been up-and-down on these guys for a while, having only heard some of their older(?) recorded stuff, and I hate to say it, but it mostly just made me shrug and say "eh..." Live, though, I was bowled over -- Eric (who also does the I Heart U stuff, I believe) has nicely rough vocals, and the clean-yet-loud guitars make me think (favorably) of Against Me! or American Steel. Plus, Eric managed to put the evening into perspective nicely, summing up the show's difficulties by saying: "Fuck it, y'know? It's Saturday night; let's have some fun!"

The Riff Tiffs: Okay, so I still feel like an idiot for not realizing that the cute girl taking money at the door was Althea from the Tiffs; I asked her who was playing, and then spotted the list of scheduled bands and pointed to the Riff Tiffs' name and said, "yeah, they're who I'm really here to see." She gave me a funny smile, and I couldn't figure out why until I saw her step onstage and pick up her bass (at which point I slapped myself on the forehead). The band was freaking awesome live, hypnotic and mesmerizing and roaring all at once; surging, fiery guitars, high-pitched dreampop-y vocals, and the best damn rhythm section I've seen in a while. Jowell loved 'em, too (this was his first exposure to the Tiffs), comparing them to Royskopp and Sigur Rós, which makes some sense, although he said he lost the comparison when the band kicked it into overdrive.

By the End of Tonight: Another one I was somewhat uncertain about... I've heard BTEOT on CD many times, but it never really clicked for me, y'know? It was always too disjointed, too all-over-the-place, so much so that it gave me a headache and not a whole lot else. I think, though, that the live environment is really where the band shines -- they were absolutely fucking insane, spellbindingly so. The all-over-the-place-ness suddenly made perfect sense as the band threw itself across the floor of Notsuoh, stitching together a dozen different styles and tempos, and the whole thing just kind of snapped together for me: "Holy shit, this is what this band's about." The music was constantly on the verge of collapsing completely, but somehow pulled back from the precipice every time.

I should note, btw, that it was pretty obvious by the crowd reaction that By the End of Tonight was who the bulk of the crowd came to see, and people were going apeshit by about halfway through their set. The band played on the floor (as did O Pioneers!!!; Riff Tiffs took the actual stage), with their gigantic-ass speakers occupying the stage; bassist James (I think that's his name) climbed the stacks towards the end of the set and crouched on top, banging on his bass and screaming, "We will all be dead by the end of tonight!" at the top of his lungs. It was a beautiful sight to behold. When we left Notsuoh (with a brand-spankin'-new custom Space City Rock banner under my arm -- thanks, Jacob!), our heads were ringing, our mouths were open, and our necks were sore. All of which is a good thing, in my book.

So in the end, it all worked out, and Jacob finally got to throw his party, even if it didn't go quite like he'd planned (anybody know what they did with all the beer?).

UPDATE: Gah! Ignore the bit below -- real-live accurate info to come shortly...

Never one to rest on his laurels, though, he's got another show coming up, a combination art/music show on July 12th called Creature Comforts -- it'll be over at the ArtStorm/Caroline Collective (4828 Caroline), with a bunch of artists (incl. Jacob, Lisa Marie Godfrey, Eli Sebastian Brumbaugh, & others) and a bunch of cool bands/musicians, (incl. Young Mammals, Wicked Poseur, Hard Place, & News on the March). Check it out, y'all...

Labels: H-Town News, Live Reviews, Musical Crap, Things To Do

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Yeah, this last update was a big one -- we're gonna have to skip a week or two after this, as I'll be flying out tomorrow AM for Arizona, off on The Great Grand Canyon Adventure/March of Death '08, so we tried to get a large bunch of new things up on the site...

First -- and possibly foremost, your mileage may vary -- we've got a brand-new interview up with super-ultra-badass Party Guy Andrew W.K. Honestly, when I sent out the email, I did not expect a response. Even after talking to his management, I fired off a ton of questions I'd hoped were insightful and witty and what-have-you, in the hopes of drawing out Mr. Wilkes-Krier for a bit of a chat, but I kind of did it figuring, y'know, that'd be the end of it. It's happened before, believe me. (ahem -- guys from The Talk: what the heck happened?)

In the end, though, while Andrew didn't answer about two-thirds of the questions I sent (including an incredibly leading question about "Steev Mike"; Google if you care), the ones he did answer came out pretty nice, I think. I've never, ever done an interview where the interviewee flat-out says not just that he doesn't give a crap if people dislike him or laugh at him, but that it's a perfectly valid reaction to his music to do so. Wow. The guy's starting to sound like some kind of metalhead bodhisattva or something...

Anyway, I'm tickled as hell to have been able to talk to Mr. W.K., especially since he'll be coming to town in the not-too-distant future, nearly right after I get back from AZ on July 5th over at the Keene St. Warehouse for Jacob Calle's gonna-be-epic Keene St. Warehouse Party -- see here for more info. I mean, with Andrew W.K. on hand, how could it not be epic? I'm seriously psyched about this, y'all; not only is one of the most intriguing, mystifying entertainers I've run across playing, but so are local folks I love dearly, like The Riff Tiffs, Bring Back the Guns, Papermoons, & The Watermarks. I liked the thing so much, I, uh, kinda-sorta offered to help sponsor it (I think?). Save the date.

While you're at it, scribble out anything you might've had a week from tomorrow, on Sat., July 28th, 'cause Hollywood Black are playing the release show for their awesome new EP, Crooked Shepherd. I'll admit that I wasn't a big fan of the band in the past, but damn, I am now. It is good, good, good -- the title track alone, with its murky, rock-back-and-forth-on-your-heels threat, is reason enough to check the band out. Plus, they're playing with The Goods, who I really like, and Tambersauro, whose CD I got a really long time ago now & still need to listen to. (Sorry...)

On an administrative note, in my absence you will hopefully start to see new posts to this here blog by people other than me. Y'all may remember Brandon from the SXSW coverage back in March; this time 'round he'll be joined by a few other folks, incl. Jef With One F (formerly of The Black Math Experiment) & Brigitte, who's been writing reviews & such for us for quite a while now. Be gentle with them.

Beyond all that, yep, we also have up shiny-new reviews of the Dengue Fever show at The Orange Show a while back, the French Kicks/Young Mammals/Hearts of Animals show earlier this month, & more reviews than you can shake a stick at. Here's the full list:

Interviews: Andrew W.K.

Live Reviews: French Kicks/Young Mammals/Hearts of Animals; Dengue Fever

Reviews: Hollywood Black; The Raveonettes; Your Black Star; Alkari; Speaker Speaker; Melissa Giges; Jon McKiel; pArAdOx OnE; Plök; & Sunny Day Sets Fire.

There it is, at least for the moment -- see y'all when I get back...

Labels: Interviews, Live Reviews, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Reviews, Things To Do

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[UPDATE: Anybody know how to convert all my blog posts over to WordPress? I posted this damn thing last evening, and yet, when I got back online this AM, lo and behold, it still wasn't up there. Fuck. Sorry, y'all...]

Update time, update time -- if you happen to glance at our happy little homepage, you will notice (hopefully) three things: A). it, uh, looks differnt; B). hey, new reviews!; C). holy shit, an actual interview!

So, in order: A). Yes, it does. While trying to think of ways to make my life easier when deciding what review/feature to put up where & when, I decided to split the dang thing up into two columns and widen the whole shebang. If it now sails off the right side of your screen, my apologies, but my Sanity required it of me. I dunno, btw, how well it'll look on all browsers -- if you've got an older browser, you may only see the one column and have to scroll way down to get to the features. Time to upgrade, yo!

B). Double yes! New reviews, and many, many of them, including cool stuff by The Sword, Wild Sweet Orange, Band of Annuals (more on two out of those three in a sec), The Old Haunts, Normal Love, Fuck Buttons, & more. Enjoy them here. (Caveat!: some reviews may or may not be negative and/or cause bad feelings. Read at your own risk.) Oh, and we've also got some very cool reviews of live shows by Radiohead & Citay -- the former's from May, but the latter's from back in March, 'cause we're still trying to catch up. Look for more show reviews soon.

C). Yes, yet again! I was able to chat a bit with Tim Guerinot of legendary and now resurrected Houston punk rockers the Latch Key Kids, and I think the interview came out quite nice. Check it out here. I'm afraid we missed their show up in Austin last weekend, but hopefully there're more shows to come -- we'll try to keep you better informed on that front.

Now, naturally, that's not all -- two of our reviewed bands of the day also happen to be playing this very evening, as does another quite-worthy crew of locals. You've got your choice tonight:

1. You can head to Rudyard's to catch full-on sword-and-sorcery-lovin' metalheads The Sword, who're laying down the stoner/thrash jams alongside Torche (who I've heard are good) and Stinking Lizaveta (whose name irks me, for some reason). Haven't seen The Sword live, sadly, but Gods of the Earth is a fine, fine album, especially when listened to while reading old-ass pulp fantasy novels.

2. You can hit Boondocks and alternately drown your sorrows or smile cheerily with the oddly-matched pair of Band of Annuals and Houston's own Program -- I love both bands, don't get me wrong, but melancholy, gentle country and all-out pop/rock? Eh; either way, the bands themselves are excellent. Band of Annuals' Let Me Live has itself been living in my car stereo for the past several days and makes me want to take up drinking in a big way.

3. You can venture over to Mojo Risin', which I think is the cool little coffeeshop right next to the also-cool eatery Spaghetti Western, up in the Heights, and see/experience the swaying, dreampop-y indie-rock of husband and wife team Lenny Briscoe (who are both extremely nice folks, to boot), plus delicately strange folkster Like Yeah. Jerry Orbach would be damn proud.

There's your mission for the evening. Go to it. In the meantime, here's the full pile of new stuff:

Interviews: Latch Key Kids

Live Reviews: Radiohead; Citay

Reviews: Band of Annuals; The Sword; Wild Sweet Orange; Fuck Buttons; The Old Haunts; The Dagger Brothers; The Grand Archives; Normal Love; & The The Pleasures of Merely Circulating.

Stop back in & see us soon, eh?

Labels: Interviews, Live Reviews, Musical Crap, Reviews, Things To Do

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Spent most of the day either having an impromptu pool party with The Munchkin or driving to & from the in-laws' house, but I managed to make a relatively quick stop at the Zine Fest Houston up at The Shady Tavern (still going on, actually, so stop on byi; check the details here). And while it wasn't packed to the gills, it was relatively well-attended, at least better than the one Secret Saturday Show I'd been to. A random scattering of hipster/scenester folks, some more on the punkish side of the spectrum, plus a heavy dose of Super Happy Fun Land-esque H-town hippies, all happily browsing zines and chatting out in the heavy midafternoon heat.

Picked up a few things, including an awesome issue of Cometbus I'd never seen before -- I've gone a few treasured issues packed away in a box somewhere -- and a cheery old-school photocopier-and-paste zine called Houston Punk, the writer/publisher of which told me, "It's mostly words; I tried to make them smart ones." As good a sales pitch as any I've heard, y'all... Bought a nicely-done zine called Giant Steps from Teenage Kicks frontman Kirke, as well -- he had a bunch for sale, but this one looks like he published himself back in 2006. Another kinda old-school zine, but with a design style that reminds me happily of Russell Etchen's old Cool Beans Press stuff, from back before he transmuted his love of comics and art and whatever else into Domy.

Also stopped at a table manned by a couple of guys from Film Monitor, a cool publication that reviews underappreciated/under-reviewed films (I think both currently in theaters & on DVD). They put out issue #1 back in Feb., apparently, and are working on June now -- good writing, I have to say, and I agree with what I've read about some of the movies they've reviewed (the ones I've seen, anyway). The zine's small, small, small, about the size of a "standard" zine but all printed on one big piece of paper & folded in quarters, but hey, it works. I look forward to more...

As I was meandering around, somebody got up on the stage outside the Tavern and started to tune up, and when I looked, it turned out to be none other than 30footFALL frontman and Texas expat (I think he goes to school in Virginia, these days?) Butch. He played a sweet acoustic set, sounding for all the world like a rough-voiced Damien Jurado, and split the songs between his own originals (both w/30foot and not, I think) and well-loved covers.

I didn't catch the whole thing, but I really dug 'em all, the 30foot songs I recognized reimagined as Pete Seeger-style acoustic ballads (esp. "Fuck Y'all We're From Texas"), the new songs (well, "Jesus, Elvis, and Richard Petty" was new to me, anyway), and the covers, all three. The highlight of latter category for me was Jawbreaker's "Kiss The Bottle," which made me drive home listening to every Jawbreaker album I own on the iPod.

I had to leave too damn soon, unfortunately, but next time I'm going to forcibly drag everybody I know, I swear...

Labels: Arty Shit, H-Town News, Live Reviews, Things To Read

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Yep, got some more new stuff up online this week, including a review of shaggy-headed Tyler boys Ivoryline, who're playing tomorrow (Sun., 4/6) at Warehouse Live with Family Force 5, The Myriad, & The Maine -- I dunno a thing about the rest of the bill, but Ivoryline aren't bad, at least not on record. You can check out writer Bill Reed's review of the album here & see if it's your thing, as well.

Plus, there're writeups on the new Mark Lanegan/Greg Dulli collab/project The Gutter Twins, the Fake Problems disc that brought writer Teri Sue back to the musical world, and the cool new Marion Brown tribute disc by Michiganders His Name is Alive. All of which, btw, are damn cool. Reviews of all three are up on the site.

On top of that, we've got up reviews of a couple of shows, like the badass punk nostalgia-fest with NOFX, No Use For A Name, The Flatliners, & lone-gone local guys Latch Key Kids and the Beach House/Papercuts show at Walter's a little while back -- check 'em out here and here.

Here's the full pile:

Live Reviews: NOFX/No Use For A Name/The Flatliners/Latch Key Kids & Live: Beach House/Papercuts.

Reviews: Ivoryline; The Gutter Twins; Fake Problems; His Name is Alive; The Autumn Offering; The Millions; Scott Reynolds & The Steaming Beast; & Stereo Total.

More to come this month; keep checking back.

Labels: Live Reviews, Musical Crap, Reviews, Things To Do

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Yep, we are officially all-all-all about the just-in-time updating, today. Like I just slapped a review of the latest A Wilhelm Scream disc, Career Suicide, up on the site, in the hopes that it will get some of you crazy, wonderful people out there to go, go, go see this band when they play this very evening (3/26/08) up at Warehouse Live with Unseen, The Krum Bums, & Blackstar. You've gotta go, honest. Seriously. No, I mean it. I have trouble getting into words just how deep into my soul 2005's Ruiner slammed me, and while Suicide's not quite to those heights (er, depths), it's still damn good.

Plus, live they're a fucking tornado of punk-rock fury, a far cry from their proggy, metalhead/nerd, post-ironic selves on CD; the pit the one time I've gotten to see 'em live was utterly insane. If you want more prodding, you can check out the review here, but otherwise, can I just say, "go, see, be amazed"? Trust me on this one.

Beyond tonight, of course, there's more going on, and today's update is all over that stuff, too. We've got awesomely awesome new reviews of Kelley Stoltz, who's playing with The Dirtbombs and our own Dead Roses at Rudyard's on 3/28/08 (and boy-howdy is that an odd bill...), Girl in a Coma, who'll be at Chances (yes, that Chances, you know the place) on 3/29/08, and H-town power-popstars Teenage Kicks, who're playing The Mink on 3/31/08 with Pink Razors, Erin Tobey, & Elaine Greer's new band, The Holly Hall. See reviews for all three here, and then get your ass out of the house. There: we just planned the rest of your week for you. Nice of us, eh?

On top of all that, we've got brand-new live reviews up, one of John Fogerty's recent Rodeo stop in our fair city and the other of the not-too-distant MGMT/Yeasayer cage match/tour, from which Yeasayer apparently emerged the victory (per our Brandon H., at least). Read 'em & weep that you weren't there in person.

More reviews are up, as well, but dammit, I've gotta run -- check the homepage, yo.

Labels: Live Reviews, Musical Crap, Reviews, Things To Do

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Damn, I'm beat. Not because I spent today trudging around Austin in the hot, hot sun, mind you, but because I spent today kiddie birthday party-hopping, hitting two exhausting, extremely loud gatherings of munchkins in one long, long afternoon. I managed to overdose pretty severely on frosting, greasy pizza, bouncy castles, and Hannah Montana, all in the span of about five hours.

Which is pretty sad, really, but after last night I don't feel that bad about it -- who needs Austin, anyway? I managed to coerce/cajole buddy Jowell into coming over to Midtown with me to check out the Teenage Bottlerocket/The Femurs/Broadway Calls/Something Fierce/Teenage Kicks show at The Mink and happily walked away reassured that even when SXSW is on, the rest of the musical universe doesn't just stop moving. I've got some pics of the show below, with a few more up here for anybody who's interested.

Teenage Kicks

First off, I'm now heartily jealous of anybody who lives in the Montrose or along the Midtown edge of the Main corridor; that one block-long section of Main St. that includes The Mink, The Continental Club, Sig's Lagoon, The Big Top, Tacos A-Go-Go, & Julia's is an awe-inducing chunk of condensed coolness these days, not to mention one of the few areas in town where you can -- hey, imagine that! -- actually walk from one music venue (sorry, but dance clubs downtown don't count) to another. It was fucking cool to be able to step out of the show for a minute (more on that in a sec) to drag my fellow showgoer over to Sig's to gaze in awe at the copies of Down in Houston they've got for sale (one of which I will be buying someday soon), meander over to see who's playing at The Continental, and then head back in to catch the rest of the show.

And what a show it was. Despite a somewhat low turnout at the beginning and some technical difficulties w/a bass cabinet that'd been dropped down the stairs earlier on, local boys Teenage Kicks utterly ripped the floor off the Backroom, proving to be probably the highlight of the night, at least for me. You wouldn't think it to look at 'em, but they do a ridiculously good job of channeling the spirit & fire of late-'70s punk/pop, stuff like The Buzzcocks, The Undertones, The Boys, or The Jam, and trust me, I don't throw around comparisons like that lightly.

I'm still somewhat in shock that a trio of guys who look like they're young enough to be students are able to spit out snarling-yet-poppy tracks like "Bound For Glory" or "Electric Girl," but hell, there it is. Plus, the banter & occasional string-changing gave the whole thing a down-to-earth feel that was pretty entertaining, like we'd all just happened into a really, really together, on-fire band practice or something. Picked up a copy of their new demo, so look for a review of that sometime soon...

Something Fierce

Something Fierce took the stage next, looking somewhat tired but still, um, fierce -- Stephen G. said they were worn-out from a weird-ass outdoor house party show out in the hot Austin sun where the house itself was apparently so filthy the band was afraid they'd picked up scabies. (And if that ain't punk, well...) Even with the tiredness, though, the band rocked it, tearing through a some of Come For The Bastards and the 7" tracks, along with some newer(?) stuff I didn't know as well. "On Your Own" came off even better this time than the last time I saw SF play, and "Modern Girl" proves pretty much indisputably that these kids get better with every single thing they release, seriously.

My ears were ringing pretty badly by the time SF had finished, so I decided to make the aforementioned trip down to Sig's Lagoon & my car (for earplugs, although I somehow neglected to actually get them when I got back to the car...argh). Jowell & I ogled the CDs at Sig's, admiring the goofy books & such they sell, too, before we realized that hell, we'd better get back upstairs. Sadly, we missed all but the last two songs by Broadway Calls, which sucks, 'cause what we did hear actually sounded pretty good, quite a bit like the Alkaline Trio, whom I happen to really like. Dang.

The Femurs

Honestly, though, they weren't who I'd come to see -- the band I was most curious about had to be Seattle/NYC duo The Femurs, who I'd heard & fallen in love with pretty much just this past week. On disc the band comes off like a cross between The Ramones and The Beach Boys, all down-strummed acoustic power chords & earnest-boy vocal harmonies, but the live show turned out to lean heavily towards the Ramones side of the equation.

Rather than the ultra-clean guitars and pretty, amped-up love-lost melodies of Modern Mexico, the live Femurs were loud and distorted, so much so that it was hard to hear the harmonies and get past the full-on punk fury. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you, but I was kinda bummed that songs like "Crazy Girl" and "Not Giving Up" didn't have that nice sheen they had on the actual recording. I never thought I'd actually want a band to sound flat & jangly like a couple of coffeehouse bohos, but in this case, I think I do.

The nonstop, rapid-fire onstage banter between Rob & Colin Femur (friends since age 13, hence the witty repartee) made up for the over-distortion somewhat, and the band blew the doors off the place with "Crazy Girl" (distortion and all), "Plastic Swords," b-day song "September 1st," and "Peter Wolf" -- especially loved the Noo Yawk sneer on that last track. The vocals were a little rough at times, but all in all, it still worked for most of the set.

Sadly, at that point in the evening, yours truly had to bail and head for home; I'd promised the wife I wouldn't get home at or after 1AM, like usual. Sorry to the Teenage Bottlerocket guys -- I'm old & lame. sigh. On the way out, got to chat a bit with Austin/Houston-dweller Travis of He Said She Said Presents, finally meeting him for the first time after much email, and met Jon of Teenage Kicks, who also apparently runs the Always Summer Booking crew. Good people, both.

After that, Jowell & I wandered smiling & happy with the world out into the street, enthusing about the bands and dodging the light rail trains and the cops rousting some guy from Tacos A-Go-Go as we started to make our way on back to the near-'burbs of the Heights & Meyerland. Screw Austin; here in H-town, we make our own good times, and we don't need an industry lovefest to do it, right?

Labels: H-Town News, Live Reviews, Pseudo-Reviews, Random Rambling

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Well, I pretty much lucked out, I think, this past Thursday. The wife was having a moms' group thing (something involving chocolate & a lot of women) at our house, so the munchkin went to Grandma's for the night & I was banished temporarily from the premises. And lo and behold, in spite of it being a weeknight, there seemed like a wealth of shows to check out.

I took a bit of a walk down Memory Lane first, since I had some time to kill. After a quick stop at the Bellaire Broiler Burger, I headed on over to Montrose, stopping at Diedrich's to sit outside like I used to back in my Montrose-dwelling days, drinking iced mocha and reading a bit of Rory Stewart's The Prince of the Marshes (which is good, by the way, if a bit on the pro-CPA side). Then on up the road to Soundwaves, which I still can't help but thinking of as "the new Soundwaves," despite it being at its current location for, what, a decade now? Picked up the awesomely good soundtrack to the movie Once (yay, Netflix!) and proceeded to cruise around listening to that the rest of the night.

On up to Walter's -- God damn, there are a lot of condos up there now. The 'hood seems far removed from the days when friends would get mugged walking back their cars from a show at the Abyss or Fitz or Mary Jane's. Now there are winebars, "urban housing" showrooms, swanky restaurants, ultra-high-end furniture stores, and block after block of townhouse/condo/whatever things. Granted, I've never yet been a Heights resident, but it still feels a bit like visiting an alien planet these days.

Anyway, I got there just in time to see The Church of Philadelphia do a short set, which is good, considering that they were who I really wanted to see; the last time I tried to go see them play, I ended up having to stay home to tend to a sick wife & midget. I'm still amazed at the way the C of P crew can so blithely switch instruments up there on the stage, seemingly without even having to worry about tuning or whatnot; one of 'em will just drop the guitar, and the other'll pick it back up and start playing. And the singing -- oh, man. It's enough to make me want to start going to church (well, almost).

Plus, I love how each of their songs starts of unassuming and delicate and steadily builds and builds to an Arcade Fire-like crescendo. Not every band can do that, and it takes something special to really pull it off. The band hit all my personal high notes, including "This Time Around," "Recover," and "Never Give Up," and even "Kingdom of Hearts," which I'm not as keen on on the CD, worked really well live. Oh, and it was nice to see the harp onstage, despite the snickering of the near-teenage brats to my left. It takes cojones to have a harp in your band these days, people.

(Apologies for the craptacularness of my photos, by the way. I am too damn chickenshit to get right up at the stage and have this irrational fear that if I pop a flash in somebody's face, they're gonna drop their guitar and pound me one, art or no art. This, coupled with my fumbling ignorance of how my camera works, means that most of the photos I get turn out washed-out and trippy at best. Sadly, I am no rosaphoto, Jordan Graber, or Ramon. I am but a schmuck with a cheapo digital camera. More online here, if you care.)

I'd intended to bail right after the Church finished playing, figuring to head on down to Rudyard's to see Kvalla play, but it was barely 9:30 when they started taking their gear off the stage, so I decided to stick around for at least part of Brooklynites The Jealous Girlfriends' set. And I'm glad I did, actually -- the band was really, really good, kind of drifting and dreampop-y at points and late-'90s indie-rock at others. For some reason I kept thinking of Space Mtn, but that might've been because of brunette lead singer Holly Miranda (who I thought looked oddly like a skinny Jennifer Connelly). Her voice, though, hits notes I can't put my finger on -- raspy and sweet, growling and sultry at the same time, like an old-school blues belter fronting an nu-shoegaze band. By the time I had to leave for Rudz, I was really regretting it and wishing I'd gotten more cash out of the bank so I could pick up a CD. Damn...

On to Rudz -- south and a little bit east, and here I am again, back in the old neighborhood. Oddly, even though I was psyched back when I moved to Montrose proper, prior to the exodus out to Meyerland, thinking "hey, this is awesome -- I can walk to Rudyard's!", guess how many times I actually went to Rudz in the two years or so we lived at the house on Willard? Answer: zero, nada. Didn't go there once in all that time. Sad, sad, sad.

I made it to the bar intact and headed upstairs to find a mostly-empty room; I'd kind of figured that'd be the case, despite the 10PM start time, since nothing ever starts early at Rudyard's. The only people there were members of & friends of the bands (and the bartenders, naturally). I planted myself at a table and checked my email via phone -- god damn, sometimes I love modern technology -- hoping to get in touch w/homeboy Mel, with whom I'd been tentatively planning to meet up that night, and lo and behold, the poor guy was home sick with something SARS-like. Mel, if you're reading this, I hope you're doing better, man...

Just as I was finishing the phone-surfing, the members of ¡alarma! meandered onto the stage, grabbed their gear, and silenced whatever conversation was going on in the room with an explosive "is this thing on?" guitar noise. Frontwoman april5k apologized sarcastically (I'm assuming, anyway) for interrupting everybody studying for their midterms, and then the band launched into some interesting proto-punk-sounding rawk.

They didn't get real far, unfortunately -- it took 'em a little while to find a groove, partly because they're still working in new drummer Noah, but right after they did, as bad luck would have it, guitarist Ryan broke a string. He didn't have a spare, and attempts to borrow a guitar from headliners Shat seemed to backfire, so the band called it done and ambled back off the stage the same low-key way they'd come.

Next up, Kvalla, the band I'd come to see. And holy fucking shit, were they something else. And loud. Looooouuuuud. Like, literally the loudest band I've ever experienced in a small(-ish) room. There was one note the bassist ("Fosterdad," per the band's Myspace?) would hit that made the fillings in my teeth vibrate, to the point where I was worried they might start coming out. I mean, damn, y'all.

Luckily, they were not only loud, but good, to boot. The songs tended to bounce between Mastodon-esque crunching metal and ISIS-like slow-roiling turbulence, both of which I dig in general; I've got no idea what "Mouse" was singing about, but hell, I don't care. This isn't Ronnie James Dio "devil-woman-look-out-tonite!" metal, but rather the kind where you just sit back and let it wash over you like building-sized ocean waves. My eardrums hurt afterwards, even though I did keep the earplugs in the whole damn time for once. Nice.

I feel I should mention, by the way, that if Danny Mee hasn't yet been nominated for "Best Drummer" in the Press Awards, he really, really needs to be. I dunno how the whole anti-nepotism thing works there, since he freelances for 'em these days, but still -- anybody who can play fills and rhythms that intricate while playing that freakin' loud really merits at least the nomination. And that's on top of his stellar work with The Jonx. Danny, you're The Man (on Drums, that is).

(In the case of the Kvalla pics, I was less afraid of being beaten up by the band & more afraid that sheer force of The Mëtäl stripping the skin from my eyelids or something if I got too close. Oh, and I'm lazy. Therefore, all pics were taken while sitting in my comfy chair about 10-15 feet from the stage. A few more pics here, for all you foolhardy souls with more time and bandwidth than sense.)

About one song from the end of Kvalla's set, the wife called out of the blue -- all the ladies had left, the chocolate was making her sick, and there were creepy noises coming from the back of the house, so could I please come home soon? (This always happens when she watches that damn Paranormal State show...) I promised I would as soon as the band finished, so I headed back in for the rest of the final song, then made my goodbyes. And dammit, I felt like the biggest heel ever, 'cause it sure seemed like nobody was going to stick around for out-of-towners Shat, on tour from Jersey and apparently prepared to do evil, evil things to all our moms. While somewhat intimidating, with lots of tats and muscles -- if I hadn't known better, I would've thought they were some Sick Of It All-style hardcore band -- they were really friendly, nice guys, so I felt like a jerk for bailing. Gotta do what you've gotta do, though; I packed it in and blazed on down 59 to home, yelling along with Glen Hansard the whole way.

Postscript: Apparently all was not lost for Shat, in the end. According to Danny, the Rudz folks opened up the upstairs area, which brought about 30-35 people in for the band's set. They apparently paraded through the downstairs wearing, um, dildo helmets & such, which I can imagine would've been more than enough to entice the average Rudz-goer to follow them, Pied Piper-style, up to the second floor. Glad to hear it, y'all.

Labels: L