As promised, I figured I'd give a quick overview of some of the bands playing tonight, the first night of Super Happy Fun Land's SXSW Overflow Fest; I'll try to do subsequent nights together, but I ran out of time (naturally) for this one...

JODY SEABODY & THE WHIRLS: Really liking what I've heard of these guys (and no, there is no actual "Jody," as far as I can tell. Raw, somewhat messy, metal-tinged rawk with lots of yelling and almost bluesy-sounding riffs -- they come off like the Foo Fighters at points, but there's really more of an retro-rock thing going on. (Oh, and these guys are one of only a handful of local Houston bands playing the Fest, just fyi...)

A BETTER HOPE FOUNDATION: Screamo from SoCal, and not bad for that; I'm not real up on my screamo bands, honestly, but the breakneck beats and thrash guitars work nicely while not breaking any particularly new ground. Singer Shaun thankfully doesn't do much Cookie-Monstering, instead aiming for more traditional-sounding screamy hardcore vocals. Has there ever been a circle pit at hippie-haven SHFL? Could be a first...

XPPR5-9: Okay, so this is likely to be one of the weirder things I've heard lately... Heavy politicized, anarchist-leaning, one-man-band electro-pop with sing-song-y melodies and lots of philosophical musings over '80s-ish keys that sound like they could be coming from a piano bar at a Ramada Inn somewhere off I-45.

THE MINT: Okay, so lied -- these guys are local, too. A previously-booked show, maybe, that got sucked into the Overflow Fest? Dunno, but eh, who cares? These guys are young, definitely, but they've got potential, even if they're not quite there yet... I like the bluesier moments; singer James McCowan has a decent soul-belter voice.

JUNGLENOIZE: From San Antonio, these guys supposedly do have vocals, but I'm not hearing 'em; they seem to mostly be a moody, murky, somewhat psych-like rock band. There're some decidedly jazzy/funky moments, and even a few heavier, more "metal" parts, but it all tends to move somewhat slowly. Not my favorite of the bunch, I'm afraid.

Again, like I said before, part of the fun is just in showing up & seeing what you pull out of the hat...

Alternative Time:
If none of the above sounds intriguing, there's also a cool-sounding free show tonight up at Sound Exchange -- recent Austin transplant Sandy Ewen will be playing, alongside contemporary belly-dancer cohort ms. Y.E.T. (aka Y.E. Torres, I think...), and something/somebody I've never heard of before called Strawberry Watermelon. I haven't seen Ewen solo yet, but I caught her performance with "main" band The Weird Weeds a while back, and the things she was doing to her guitar were pretty mind-blowing and don't really have anything to do with actually "playing" guitar in a traditional sense.

The idea of Ewen & Torres working together seems to be that Torres dances, while Ewen manipulates the guitar to fit whatever's going on. Er, something like that, anyway -- see here for some video of past performances. It's bound to be interesting, believe me... The show starts at 8PM, so get up there early for the weirdness.

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

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Oh, how I love me some acronyms... We're coming up on what I happen to think is one of the coolest local festival-type things to be found in this here city of ours, the quasi-annual SXSW Overflow Fest over at the most cheerily-named place in the Universe, Super Happy Fun Land.

From tomorrow, Thurs., March 11th, on through Wed., March 24th, the SHFL gang is playing host to a huge, quirky grab-bag of musicians and bands hailing from all parts of the U.S., plus a handful of other countries, encompassing pretty much any genre you can name. And best of all, unlike a certain festival that'll be taking place to the northwest of us, it's cheap as hell -- $8 for a night or a ridiculously low-ball $25 for the whole two-week deal.

I've missed out on the festival the past couple of years, unfortunately, but I went to a couple of earlier incarnations and had a ball. I view the Overflow Fest as sort of this Crackerjack Box-like event, where you never really know what you're going to get -- yes, I've seen a few bands that really and truly sucked, but barely twenty minutes later I'd have my mind blown by one of the bands that followed.

Past years have included folks like my personal fave Jonah Matranga, Tacks the Boy Disaster, Transmography, Nakatomi Plaza, & Two Ton Boa, plus several hundred lesser-known acts. It's an eclectic, chaotic, seemingly anything-goes thing, and I find that to be astoundingly cool.

In honor of this year's installment of the fest, I quizzed the Super Happy Crew a bit about their festival and how things generally work:

For the full lineup and times -- some of which have already changed pretty drastically since they first went up, so be warned -- check out the SHFL calendar page. I'm hoping to do exactly what the SHFLers mentioned above and listen to as many Myspace pages as possible, so keep yr fingers crossed for a sorta-kinda detailed rundown of who sounds like what and a list of my own personal picks. Or, hell, ignore me and just go and see what you get -- it's actually probably more fun that way, anyway.

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

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JOSHUA STARNES:

Joshua Starnes is Vice President of the Houston Film Critics Society. He is a contributor to Space City Rock. His Picks are below.

82nd Academy Awards

???Even if you've never heard of Punksawtaney Phil or you still get snowstorms after February it's still easy to tell when Spring is on the way, because that's when the annual Hollywood backpatting reaches the fever pitch that is Academy Awards.  For four-plus hours Hollywood becomes the center of the world (or more so than usual, at least if you live there) as they announce their picks for the best and the brightest from the previous twelve months.  And sometimes they even get it right.

Best Picture

For the first time since 1943, the Best Picture category has been expanded to 10 films (at one point in the 1930s, as many as 12 films were nominated), offering a great many more films the opportunity to advertise themselves as Best Picture Nominees. Cynics among us might suggest that this is largely a method to aid to the marketing of films (and film as a whole) during a recession, a complaint the Oscars have suffered under almost since their inception. Or we can be optimistic and call it a return to the Golden Age of Hollywood when politics had to less to do with who was nominated than merit. The reality is that situation is probably going to be about the same as it was before the category was expanded: a mixture of well-marketed films that get nominated because it seems like they should, films so good they can't be ignored, and the odd head scratchers leaving you wondering what the Academy was thinking. 2010's mix is a pretty much exactly like that, only more so:

Nominees

Avatar

The Blind Side

District 9

An Education

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Precious: Based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire

A Serious Man

Up

Up In The Air

The biggest change over the last few decades is that the extra slots, especially in a weak year, allows more 'entertainment-heavy' films into the pool, the one type of film the Academy generally loathes to nominate. While Avatar seemed like a shoe-in for a nomination, many thought the same of The Dark Knight last year. Then again, that's probably why we're talking about 10 films anyway and for all its faults the Academy rarely makes the same mistake twice in a row. District 9 and Up would probably never have been nominated, however, (particularly Up as the Best Animated Film category was specifically added to keep them from being nominated for the BIG award).

The Hurt Locker, Up In The Air and Precious were also certain to be nominated. The intense marketing pressure of filling that last slot would have driven out most of the weird nominees in favor of something safe that would settle for being honored to be nominated. But this year we get all of the above, with not one but two left field entries; The Blind Side and A Serious Man.

Actually, even though it has no chance of winning, The Blind Side isn't such a strange pick, particularly given the groundswell of grass roots support for it since it was released back in November. The real head-scratcher is A Serious Man (pushing out better and safer Oscar-bait choices like Invictus or Bright Star) as it it didn't make any particularly deep waves with audiences or critics. The most frequent response to it's nomination is a sudden realization that you haven't seen it or even heard anyone's opinion on it. The only rationale seems to be that it is a Coen Brothers film, and since they have such a sterling reputation for quality it must be good even though no one's seen it, and the people who have, have generally forgotten it. And that Clint Eastwood was probably getting too smug for his own good.

For the most part, though, it's a pretty good (and unsurprising) list, but only two films have any real shot this year: The Hurt Locker and Avatar (with Up In The Air coming in a distant third). The big award is without question the most politicized of the bunch, with winners often picked based on who seems like should get the award rather than who deserves it; what the picking of a certain film says about the people who awarded it. But there's always room for surprises and lot relies on how the Academy's memory. With it's Golden Globe win and stunning box office take, Avatar certainly has the most momentum at the moment, and a lot of years that would be enough. But James Cameron already has a couple of Oscars, for the last highest grossing film of all time that he made, and that sort of thing does matter. And while they may nominate one, the Academy generally hates giving big awards to sci-fi or fantasy unless they have no real choice.

This year they do have a choice, and that is The Hurt Locker. It's pretty much everything Avatar is not; small, subtle and with a taut focus on a complicated main character. It doesn't hurt that it's topical, quite good and it's the first nomination for most of the people making it, even though they've been in the industry for some time. It's actually a pretty close call, which is unusual for Best Picture (only the nominees are usually surprising). While Up In

The Air or The Blind Side could manage some sort of dark horse win, I think this will be one of the safer categories of the night, which is why I suspect the Best Picture of 2009 will be:

Best Picture

The Hurt Locker

(and just in case anyone was wondering, my own pick for best film of the year was Precious but it has practically zero chance; they're just going to have to be honored to be nominated).

Best Director

Just like with real elections, award voting tends to be strictly down ticket. This is most notable in the technical fields, where generally only critically acclaimed films are nominated despite the fact that a movie doesn't actually have to be any good to have great sound design or visual effects or what have you. But it's just as prevalent in the artistic fields, which is why Best Director nominees almost always follow Best Picture nominees exactly. And 2010 is no exception.

Nominees

Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker

James Cameron - Avatar

Lee Daniels - Precious (the title's too damned long to keep typing out)

Jason Reitman - Up In The Air

Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds

While a lot of the artistic categories will get their award 'just to give the film' something, Best Director usually also follows Best Picture; in fact it's often quite an upset when that doesn't happen. Cameron actually has more of a chance here than for Best Picture simply because of the immense technical job he did with Avatar (and which Avatar is much more successful as than as a movie). But once again, he's also already got one and I don't think the Academy will be able to pass up the chance to finally give a woman a Best Director statue, so the winner will probably be:

Best Director

Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker Also, we can probably take it for certain now that Quentin Tarantino will have to wait until he's about as old as Martin Scorcese was to finally get an Oscar for an inferior film, in order to make up for not winning for Pulp Fiction. Best Actor

In the reverse of most of the last couple of years, only Best Actor offer the opportunties for real surprises. Except for Colin Firth's admittedly deserved nomination for A Single Man, any single one of these individuals has a real shot. (Despite how good he was in it, A Single Man was probably the most turgid film of the year; most Academy voters were probably unable to stay awake through it to decide whether or not to vote for it).

Nominees

Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart

George Clooney - Up In The Air

Morgan Freeman - Invictus

Colin Firth - A Single Man

Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker

Clooney actually gave probably the best performance of his career as a termination specialist who's cut himself off from the human race and Freeman BECAME Mandela, so much so that it didn't really matter how accurate the movie was. But they both already have Oscars and Bridges doesn't, and that will probably cinch it. Which is perfectly okay. Bridges washed up old man doesn't just look like a country singer, he looks like a country song and Bridges inhabits him with skill and grace. The first half of Crazy Heart was probably the best first half of any film in 2009 and even if it didn't really know where it was going until it got there, you could easily award Bridges and not be wrong. Which is why this time next year we'll be seeing ads for Tron: Legacy starring Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges.

Best Actor

Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart

Best Actress

Unlike Best Actor, but very much like all the rest of the acting categories, there is no drama around the Best Actress award. A lot of that is the fact that Hollywood has a really hard time coming up with roles for women; for the most part they're just used as set dressing even when they're the star. More often than not you end up with some completely off the wall picks mainly because there weren't many choices and the queue has got to be filled somehow; 2009 wasn't quite as bad as that.

Nominees

Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side

Helen Mirren - The Last Station

Carrey Mulligan - An Education

Gabourey Sidibe - Precious

Meryl Streep - Julie & Julia

There's actually a couple of excellent performances from little films in here, so that the Academy wasn't left filling in spots with well known, well regarded actresses in lesser roles (though there was some of that, too). In fact, there were enough really good lead performances this year that there are some real gems missing here; specifically Abbie Cornish for Bright Star and Saoirse Ronan for The Lovely Bones (whether you liked the movie or not, much like A Single Man, she was very good in it).

But they weren't nominated and the rest is all cold, hard math. Mirren and Streep have Oscars, Mulligan and Sidibe are young and have the opportunity to be nominated again. That just leaves Bullock, in the midst of a major career resurgence and after receiving several other awards (including the SAG and the Golden Globe) in what is, if we're honest, probably her only chance to ever be nominated.

Best Actress

Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side

And if we continue being honest, as sentimental and sappy as "The Blind Side" was, Bullock was very good in it. And shit, if Julia Roberts can get one...

Best Supporting Actor

In a lot of ways the Supporting Actor category this year is the most and least surprising. The most because of who was nominated and who was not. Several people you fully expect to be here are here.

Nominees

Woody Harrelson - The Messenger

Christopher Plummer - The Last Station

Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones

Matt Damon - Invictus

Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds

Woody Harrellson gave the best performance of his life in The Messenger and made that movie worth watching (especially the notification scenes, which are probably the hardest couple of minutes of film to watch of anything made this year) while Ben Foster often threatened to drag it down. Stanley Tucci has been rightly noticed as probably the best thing about Peter Jackson's misguided The Lovely Bones. He got the showy role in that film, however; unfortunately overshadowing Mark Wahlberg's excellent turn in the film. I'd forgotten he can act when he puts his mind to it. Christopher Plummer is one of the real head scratchers; there's nothing wrong with is performance as Tolstoy in The Last Station but it strikes me more as an actor's lifetime achievement nomination for the film that is probably the least viewed of anything nominated for an Oscar that's not a foreign film or a documentary.

But the two big surprises are the inclusion of Matt Damon and the absence of Christopher McKay for Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles. McKay inhabited Welles in a way that every other actor playing a real person this year wishes they could have managed (doesn't hurt that Welles was very much larger than life even in his real life). And Damon, while solid in Invictus wasn't really a reason to watch the film. And considering how few nominations Invictus actually got, it's strange that this was one area they decided to notice it in. Freeman's performance aside, it wasn't a particularly actorly movie. Maybe it's the fact he held onto an accent. Actually Damon is a good actor, but for some reason he never gets nominated for his actually good performances. He really should have been nominated for Best Actor this year for his hilarious turn in Steven Soderburgh's The Informant! Perhaps this is to make up for that. None of that matters, however, because the reality is for the third year in a row, Best Supporting Actor is a foregone conclusion. Christoph Waltz's towering performance in Inglourious Basterds has won just about ever supporting award given out so far and will certainly win every one yet to come. It was probably THE performance of the year.

Best Supporting Actor

Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress

It's a really similar situation in the Supporting Actress category. As usually happens in the Actress categories, the number of actually qualifying roles dries up fast, leaving the Academy to scramble to find people who seem likely they should be nominated.

Nominees

Penelope Cruz - Nine

Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air

Maggie Gyllenhaal - Crazy Heart

Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air

Mo'Nique - Precious

Farmiga and Kendrick are rightly nominated for making "Up in the Air" work as well as it does. Those Twilight people are going to have to pay up to get Kendrick back for the next film. And it's hard to argue with Gyllenhaal's trepiditatious single mother in Crazy Heart but by then you can see the Academy working hard to find some good nominees. I'm actually a little surprised Diane Kruger and Melanie Laurent haven't gotten more notice for Inglourious Basterds. Gyllenhaal's nomination has a whiff of looking for a recognizable name in a role that you might be able to take serious. Which is how we get to Penelope Cruz for Nine. It's a movie that didn't really need to be made from a musical no one really liked to begin with. Cruz was probably the least annoying thing in the film but that doesn't say much, and if that's the requirements for an Oscar nomination nowadays, that's not saying much. But, as with Supporting Actor, none of this matters. No one is going to beat Mo'Nique for her performance in Precious. She may go down as one of the best villains of the decade for that role. It's surprising as it is harrowing; I honestly had no idea she could actually act. Short of some sort of upset from Up in the Air she's a lock.

Best Supporting Actress

Mo'Nique - Precious

Best Adapted Screenplay The screenplay categories get used often as gift awards for the Best Picture nominees that aren't going to win, and that may well be the case again this year. Every so often a screenplay is just so good it can't be ignored, but more often the not it wins for the movie, not the actual words behind the movie. In a perfect world that would mean In the Loop would win. A mixture of political theater and comedy, it was so dry it actually takes a minute to realize how insane it is, with some of the sharpest characterization of the year. But this is probably not a year when the most deserving is going to win, and it's going to have to be satisfied with being nominated.

Nominees

District 9

An Education

In the Loop

Precious

Up in the Air

The rest are all Best Picture nominees, which should seem fitting. The best films should have great screenplays to start with (which is the point where I point out once again the complete absence of Avatar from any but technical nominations; even Star Wars was nominated for Best Screenplay). There are several other excellent screenplays missing from this category, including Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Informant! But people often have a difficulty not nominating Best Picture nominees for a screenplay award unless there's a really good reason not too (*cough*Avatar*cough*) and the sheer number of nominees this year is swamping the screenplay categories. It's kind of a surprise The Blind Side isn't here, then again, maybe not. It's a film that works on a purely emotional level and has many flaws, it's screenplay not the least among them.

With Avatar eating up a lot of the Christmas air, Up in the Air's chances for a major award have begun to fade -- people definitely have a love it or hate it reaction to it's unsatisfying look at modern life -- and this will probably end up being its consolation prize for not getting anything else. Which is sad, because it's probably the weakest screenplay in contention in this category except for District 9 which only really works when the visuals are factored in. Which isn't the way it's supposed to be, but is often the way it is.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Up in the Air

Best Original Screenplay

This is the only artistic category that is a genuine toss up. Because so many of the best picture nominees are from adapted screenplays they don't quite overwhelm the category. And some of the nominees, like A Serious Man just aren't serious. They're they because it seems like they should be, because it was hard to decide what did. It's like the Martin Scorcese or Woody Allen factor. Eventually you just start getting nominated because there are five slots to fill and you're a known quantity.

Nominees

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

The Messenger

A Serious Man

Up

Up certainly deserves the Original appellation and The Messenger is surprisingly affective, though Moverman probably more deserved a nomination for I'm Not There two years ago. And The Messenger is a much more performance driven than script driven film.

This will probably come down to The Hurt Locker and Inglourious Basterds and there really is no telling which way the Academy will go. The down ticket affect is always a possibility, but Inglourious Basterds had by far the best dialog of the year and reminded people what talent Tarantino can be. If somehow Avatar prevails at the top spot this could be The Hurt Locker's consolation prize. I don't think it's going to play out that way, and Tarantino is probably due to be honored again. It certainly had the most original spelling.

Best Original Screenplay

Inglourious Basterds The rest of the awards will almost certainly be eaten up by Avatar. It is a technical triumph if nothing else. And that might be enough to put it over the top for Best Picture, after people just get used to voting for it, but I doubt it. There are actually a handful of places where it's not nominated, allowing Star Trek to be an Academy Award winning film, even it if is for Best Make Up (not really sure how the The Young Victoria got into that, unless it was for all the sideburns).

The Academy has gone to pains to make sure that no one is overlooked this year, and tamper down the furor of last year. It hates when people realize just how conservative and hide-bound it really is. Hollywood's all about being hip and in the now, after all. But it is, and this year's no different. Even with 10 slots, they still couldn't quite get it right and Invictus snub is quite strange, particularly in favor of stuff no one liked like A Serious Man.

More than anything else, this will be the year of the old hand for the most part, when people like Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges and Kathryn Bigelow, who have toiled for so long, finally get their rewards. Sometimes it's easy to forget how political this all can be, with its marketing campaigns and so many considerations that have nothing to do with the quality of the work itself. But that's the way it is. There were still plenty of snubs, like Amreeka for Best Foreign Film or Abbie Cornish for Best Actress of The Informant! for much at all (if there's any justice it will win Best Score, but that would require too much thought on the voter's parts). But overall it was a pretty decent year, if not particularly awe-inspiring. It's rare that the Academy has a real chance to pick the best picture as Best Picture, but this looks like it will be the one.

Unless Avatar wins.

ADAM WOODYARD:

Adam Woodyard is a contributor to Space City Rock, and gives his Oscar Picks below.

It's been several decades since the Academy last selected ten nominees for Best Picture. As critics everywhere scurry to try and apply old patterns to the new paradigm, let me assure you that they do not apply. Votes are split up between ten films, not five, and a needlessly complex mathematical system is now in place, that we needn't go into. Popularity of individual films means less than it ever did; all that is left is members of the Academy voting for the work done by themselves and their contemporaries. Other award ceremonies mean even less, as they are handed out by film critics and journalists. But looking at the history of the Best Picture Oscar, from 1927 to present, certain things—not all—remain consistent. The film most likely to win the Best Picture Oscar, in reverse order:

10. A Serious Man. The Coen Brothers just won the statue three years ago. The Academy feels that one is enough, at least for a few years… there are numerous instances of this, but the most recent would be all three Lord of the Rings films winning different awards, and not all winning the same award. Especially if (more resembling, say, Ron Howard, or Martin Scorsese), that Oscar comes many years into a well-established career.

9. District 9. The most talked about film of the year, at least until Avatar came around. No one is disputing the greatness of the film, but whether there are five nominees or ten, the effects-driven blockbuster does not win this award. Creative, yes… but it's not really actor-driven, is it? Other Best Picture Nominees in this category would include, say, Jaws, Star Wars, or The Sixth Sense.

8. Up in the Air. Essentially not a winner because of the same reasons as above. Also, in tying in with the same reasons as below, the Academy has more often favored big, sweeping epics with complex storylines and even more complex filmmaking. It is, at least in their view, simply a greater achievement to make a film with a cast of thousands. The exception is, of course, the year in which such a big sweeping epic doesn't appear (say, 2005-present), or, if an epic does appear, that filmmaker just won the award, so the Academy's focus is elsewhere (Letters from Iwo Jima, the first two LOTR films).

7. An Education. See above. Well-acted, well-written, but the Academy isn't going to give you the award if they haven't seen your film. See also, The Reader, The Shawshank Redemption. 6. Precious. While not even remotely the same film as #9 on the list, the reasons are the same. A well-made film from a first-time director, with its handful of leads turning in spectacular performances—this is reason enough to go see it. Does it move cinema forward as an art form? While it does admittedly shine a light into corners of our nation that are none-too-often examined… it is by no means unique in that respect. Awards? Yes. Best Picture? No.

5. The Blind Side. This selection is baffling. It's essentially what would happen if Precious were made for a mainstream audience , by a bunch of white executives. You'll leave the theater after Precious feeling depressed yet thoughtful. You'll leave the theater after The Blind Side feeling happy and in the mood to grab dinner at Chili's. The number of artistic liberties taken with this once-true story rivals that of The Great Debaters. The Academy loves Sandra Bullock, but this has as much chance of winning as Seabiscuit.

4. Up. An animated film hasn't been nominated since 1991. Then it kept not happening, so often, that a special category was created, and some fantastic films have won that award. But it never did have the same prestige, exactly, as Best Picture. Up is good enough to be in this category… as a nominee. Just as the actors and director from Precious put in some of the best work of the careers, the same can be true of the animators and writers of Up. But that's all. Someday the Academy may gives its highest honor to a film made entirely in one room… but not this year.

3. Avatar. A shoe-in chosen by people not paying attention, for two very large reasons. First of all, James Cameron just won the award in 1997, and hasn't made a film since. Second, Titanic had emotional weight and specific historical resonance, Avatar does not. Then there's the animation issue. But the real second reason, is that the script is by no means special or insightful, interesting or original. People who had never mentioned the word "screenplay" in their lives had this complaint over and over about Titanic, but the direction, quality of actors, and sheer spectacle, was great enough to overcome Cameron's mediocre screenwriting talents. While this is an old story updated in new clothes, it is still an old and standard story… much like Brokeback Mountain, another fine film that just didn't deserve the award. This leaves two films left, and while 10-3 are very cut-and-dry, the final two are by no means.

2. The Hurt Locker. One of approximately 900 films to be released regarding the war in Iraq, most of them largely forgettable. The Hurt Locker sets itself apart for all the reasons you've read—it is a timeless story, the focus is on the people and not the politics, Kathryn Bigelow is awesome, Jeremy Renner is the finest young actor you've never heard of. These are all true. I was more curious to see this film than all the other Iraq movies, for just that reason. I wasn't disappointed, and this is a truly great film that really does have the ability to render you in awe, if you let it. But watching it, can one really say, "This is an Academy Award Winner for Best Picture?" Bigelow shot reels upon reels of film, and may well win a Best Director Oscar. And until about a week ago, I had this film as #1 on my list. Then I watched it again… Best Pictures are not made to be watched once and then forgotten.

1. Inglorious Basterds. More like Chicago than The Return of the King, this is a sweeping epic for which lightning really may strike this year. Thanks to the relentless hype machine, the filmmaker and his film are not under the radar, nor mysteries. Whether people love or hate this film, they have actually watched it. And it is the Academy—not the popular vote—who gives the award. Whether you look at Wings (1927), The Apartment (1960), Titanic (1997) or The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), this film more than anything else on this list left movies different. The filmmaker created this … thing, this experience, and created images, made us feel things, gave us things to talk about that are both broad, and specific right down to the now, whether you're watching the movie in 2010 or 2035. Popular opinion has Basterds way down the list, far below Avatar or Up or New Moon. But let's remember one thing most critics consistently seem to forget—this is an award given by the people who make the films. And next month the film will win Best Picture… and in 25 years you can watch it again, and smile as you get nostalgic for that strange, controversial, violent, divisive yesteryear that was 2009.

CREG LOVETT:

I have seen all of this year's Academy Award Nominees. The Academy did not even nominate the best films, actors, writers or animators. The Oscar award was created to promote the studios, so that is how the Academy voters make their choices. They are rich social liberals from the 1950's. They are hopelessly out of touch with American society, and uninterested in Art. I'll make my predictions quickly because I have asked 2 of my favorite local critics to present their picks.

Best Picture goes to The Hurt Locker because a war movie with no point of view and no message is what passes for innovation in Hollywood. Avatar is a close second, but it with its hamfisted mash-up of world religions, philosophies and perspectives, it could have been directed by DJ AM for less $$.

Best Director goes to Kathryn Bigelow for reasons listed above. Not because she's a female. Though she is, and she's a foxy 60 year old action film director. If you haven't seen Strange Days, get it from Netflix. By the way, she directed Point Break. You love it.

Meg Ryan must be rolling over in her grave because Sandra Bullock is THIS CLOSE to winning Best Actress for doing what she was once the best at. I've seen the Blindside. It's the most unintentionally racist movie about racism since Crash. You'd have to be Canadian for this Hallmark Channel clunker to teach you anything about American culture. Luckily Merryl Streep will win Best Actress for playing Julia Child in Julie and Julia.

Best Actor will be Jeff Bridges. Waylon Jennings never looked more like Waylon Jennings when Bridges first takes the "stage" in a New Mexico bowling alley. His performance is unreal. Just look at the way he hold his guitar. Crazy Heart is also the most experimental film in the bunch. Look at the beyond-extreme-close-ups on Bridges face throughout the first two acts. A bonus is that the second half of the movie is set in Houston. The only thing they could have done to make this movie better for me is if it had been a 6 or 7 hour epic bio-pic, or if they'd have had Ryan Bingham had replaced Colin Farrell.

Best Supporting Actress can only go to Mo'Nique for playing one of the best villains I've ever seen as the mother of Precious in Precious. If I'd have had a vote, I'd have voted for her, the film and the script. It's a special movie. Don't miss it.

Best Supporting Actor will go to Christoph Waltz.

Best Animated Feature will go to UP, but the actual best cartoon movie wasn't even nominated. Ponyo came out on DVD last week. It's the best animated feature in a several years.

Best Adapted Screenplay will go to Up In The Air, but In the Loop was by far the best, smartest most clever script of any movie I saw this year.

Best Screenplay will go to Inglorious Basterds because I'm the only person who can't stand Tarantino's unnatural, not believable dialogue. A Serious Man was far better. Me, and Orson Welles should have been nominated here, as well as Best Actor for Christopher McKaye. Richard Linklater's movie was inexplicably not distributed even though Zach Efron and Claire Danes were great, the script was better, and Christopher McKaye played the best Orson Welles I have ever seen.

Best Foreign Film will be Un Prophete.

Best Documentary Feature will hopefully go to The Cove for exposing the slaughter of 35,000 dolphins ever year in a small Japanese fishing village. The dolphins are sold as phony whale meat to unsuspecting Japanese. The legendary trainer behind the Flipper TV series shows just how smart and benevolent dolphins are, and then he shows us horrifying footage of the dolphins being mercilessly murdered by poor fisherman. It is as compelling as any documentary I've ever seen. It is terrifying and inspiring at the same time. This was the most memorable movie I saw in the past year. Please don't forget to see this movie which could and would change your life if you watch it today. www.thecovemovie.com

Labels: Moo-vies, Public Service Announcements, Random Rambling, Things To See

Creg || Link || E-mail || 0 comments

I've got a few minutes to spare while the munchkins are napping, so let's hit the highlights for the rest of the weekend, namely Saturday, March 6th, & Sunday, March 7th. I'll be off tonight celebrating the happy union of a couple of friends of ours this evening (congrats, Angela & Kevin, in the unlikely event that you ever read this!), but that doesn't mean there isn't a crapload of stuff going on. Here's my list:

Sat., March 6:
Fired For Walking/The Jonx/The Bottom Four @ Rudyard's (free!)
Fired For Walking are fun -- nice, somewhat soulful/bluesy alt-rock with metal tendencies, played by a bunch of dudes who've been around the Houston scene block many, many times -- but to tell the truth, The Jonx are the reason to check out Rudz tonight. I'm horribly, terribly behind on my reviews, or you'd have wonderfully-written (yeah, that's the ticket...) electronic type all about the band's latest release, Vocabularian Herds, which honestly keeps the trend going that the band's established where every album of muscular, Minutemen-influenced, math-y rock improves upon the previous one to insane levels.

Sweat Free Houston Benefit, featuring Giant Princess, Muhammad Ali, Ghormeh Sabzi, Bambara, Rapeworm, & Cop Warmth @ Mango's ($5; 8PM)
Good Cause Gig #1 for the evening, looks like -- heard about this earlier in the week but didn't have a chance to post anything about it 'til now, sorry... Beyond being a pretty badass lineup (particularly the throwback, sloppy-great indie-rock of Muhammad Ali and the screw-you garage-y rawk of Giant Princess), it's also got a very cool goal: to prod the City of Houston, in which many of us live, to adopt a no-sweatshops procurement policy.

The group putting on the show, Sweat Free Houston, wants the city to no longer purchase garments (uniforms, etc.) from companies that use sweatshop labor, and personally, I'm all for that. Hell, I'm saddened to learn that that's not already the case... Naturally, though, that kind of organizing, petitioning, and legislating takes $$$ -- hence the benefit. Get out & support.

Peace Festival, featuring Electric Attitude, listenlisten, Spain Colored Orange, Much Love, Tyagaraja, Zachary Ford, Lapel, Macy McKinzie, Meghan Miller, Jordan Cervantez, & Micah Lamb @ Live Oak Friends Meeting (1318 W. 26th; 1-8PM)
Beyond the fact that a "Peace Festival" is always a cool thing to me -- I dig the Quakers/Friends for that -- and that there are some great folks playing, like listenlisten, Tyagaraja, Electric Attitude, & Spain Colored Orange, this show's worth checking out just to see the Live Oak Friends Meeting House up in the Heights. Went there for a wedding a few years ago, and it's a neat place, not much like any "church" you're likely to've been to before. And then, of course, good music + good cause (this one's Good Cause Gig #2, naturally). Oh, and dancing, apparently -- there'll be dance performances by Dancepatheater & the Brazilian Arts Foundation. Sounds like a good deal...

Chase Hamblin/The Sour Notes/Spain Colored Orange @ The Continental Club
Not sure who's headlining and who's opening, for this one, but hell, it doesn't matter. Been a Spain Colored Orange fan for a ridiculously long time, now -- I really need to rip the old cassette stuff of the "original" SCO, one of these days -- even in their current, more orchestral form, I dig Chase Hamblin's deceptively sweet/pretty retro-ified power pop, and I finally caught Austinites The Sour Notes (a band that now includes ex-Houstonian Elaine Greer) at the Festival at Mink #2 and was very impressed by their lush, shoegazer-y indie-pop. A bit of an oddball show for The Continental Club, but hey, nothing wrong with that.

John Mayer/Michael Franti @ Toyota Center
Oh, c'mon -- you know you want to see this just so you can say you were there when John Mayer had his latest meltdown. Don't forget about Michael Franti, though; I've been a fan of the guy since his Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy days (and yes, that's still one of the best damn band names ever), and his jazzy, reggae-tinged, smart-yet-laidback funk-rock thing has thankfully remained cool through the years. Most of what I've heard lately sounds a heck of a lot like Blackalicious' more melodic, funky stuff, and that's a good thing.

Eyes Burn Electric (CD release)/Uprise of the Fallen/The Vettes/Mothers Anthem/The Canvas Waiting @ Fitzgerald's
Just for clarity's sake, Eyes Burn Electric is the new-ish name (thank God) for Austin band Dremnt the End, and tonight's the party/show for their brand-new self-titled CD. Which ain't bad, in terms of dramatic, melodic, post-emo/Taking Back Sunday-esque rock. If that's your thing, hey, this is probably where you need to be.

Keka's Benefit Show, featuring Always Guilty, Los Desconocidos, The Failed Attempt, Dun Bin Had, Skaretas, & Ska Bones @ Dan Electro's Guitar Bar (8PM; $5)
Yep, ska, of all things, at Dan Electro's. I'm sure it's happened before -- in fact, I remember seeing Bone Simple, who were sorta-kinda a ska band, play there once -- but it doesn't happen real often. And hey, it's a cheap-ass benefit show (call it Good Cause Gig #3) with some decent bands (namely Always Guilty & The Failed Attempt), so where's the downside?

Strangers Family Band/Passengers @ The Pachinko Hut (3714 Main, in backyard; 9PM)
The Watermarks/Mobley/Smoky Mountain/Corners/Stiletto Chrome @ The Mink
Sisters Morales @ McGonigel's Mucky Duck
Dirty Honey, featuring Brett Koshkin & DJ La Zola @ Boondocks
Austin Collins & The Rainbirds @ West Alabama Ice House (4PM; show benefits The Avon Walk For Breast Cancer)
Pisces Party, featuring Clockpole & Darwin's Finches @ Super Happy Fun Land
Stephen Kellogg @ Cactus Music (3PM)
Needtobreathe/Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers/Graham Colton @ Warehouse Live

Sun., March 7:
Shock Treatment, featuring Brutally Normal, Penny Arcade, & Latch Key Kids @ Rocbar
Tough call as to which show I like best for Sunday, but this one wins out by virtue of old-school pop-punk/ hardcore guys Latch Key Kids being on the bill. They told me they were headlining the show, but it looks like they might be playing first, so I dunno what the deal is... Anyway, they're damn good, nearly legendary Back in the Day and reportedly even better now, and I'm told they're recording new stuff to release later in the year. Check 'em out.

Tim Barry/Ninja Gun/Mama Tried/Elaine Greer @ Walter's (8PM; $10)
I'm one of those folks who fondly remembers Virginia-bred punks Avail -- 1998's Over The James was really a defining moment for me, music-wise -- so I'm very happy frontman Tim Barry is out on his own these days (Avail being "on permanent standby," as Barry's said in interviews), doing a cool, down-to-earth indie-country/folk thing reminiscent of, say, Lucero or an Americana-ized Billy Bragg. It's good shit. And hey, Elaine Greer's reportedly opening the show, too, with her jangly, delicately pretty (yet still nicely rustic) folk-pop.

Elaine Greer/Clory Martin/Gretchen Schmaltz @ Khon's (rooftop; 3PM)
The second (er, first) Elaine Greer appearance of the day, and the third of the weekend, counting her Sour Notes gig tonight... This one's kind of a fun deal -- it's a mid-afternoon (3PM) rooftop show up on the roof/parking lot of Khon's in Midtown, put on by Nikki, the new editor at Citysearch Houston, a Website I'll shamefacedly admit I, um, didn't realize was still a going concern these days. (Sorry!) Sounds like fun, though; I like Elaine quite a bit, obviously, and I love Gretchen Schmaltz's fragile, unpainted folky stuff, too...

Resonant Interval Sound Series, featuring Six Strings That Divine Water (mem. of Wasp & Pear, Kai/ros, & Chiasma) & Josiah Gabriel @ The Husk (2808 Milam; 7:45PM, $5)
Yep, another Resonant Interval show, this time featuring a joint project of Donald from Wasp & Pear and J.D. of Kai/ros, Chiasma, & a bunch of other bands, entitled Six Strings That Divine Water. Sounds pretty intriguing, at the very least.

Rodeo Houston, featuring The Jonas Brothers & Demi Lovato @ Reliant Stadium
Yeah, yeah -- not proud of it, no, but I have to admit that Demi Lovato's album, well...it's actually surprisingly decent. Beats the hell out of the JoBros or Miley Cyrus, at least, although that ain't saying much. Don't you judge me, fool.

Rock For Layla Benefit,featuring The Canvas Waiting, Murder Plot, Marzi, Heavy as Texas, Tejas Heat, Strait Up, Chelle, & Sarah Alexander @ Wired Live (formerly The Meridian)
The Texas Buzz, featuring Vallejo, Rockett Queen, & Days Drive @ The Scout Bar (Clear Lake)
Russian Spring Festival, featuring Flying Balalaika Brothers @ Under The Volcano (3PM)
Great Big Sea @ House of Blues

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

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

Yet another busy Friday night (March 5th, for completeness' sake), and plenty to do. Here's what I'd do, were I not likely to be rocking a sick kid to sleep this evening; there's some good stuff, but honestly, two shows really stand out, so I'm going to pretty much just talk about them. Good? Good. Here goes:

Roky Moon & Bolt (tour kickoff)/Grandfather Child/Weird Party/Future Feature @ The Mink ($7/$10)
They haven't been around long, no, but in H-town scene terms, a year's pretty much a lifetime, and Roky Moon & Bolt (changed from just "Bolt" so as to more closely resemble Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars was my guess as to why, although apparently the real deal was more broad than that...) have packed quite a bit into that time. Their self-released EP last year was pretty stunning, an out-of-time slab of meaty, sweaty, don't-give-a-fuck bluesy glam-rawk that hit Rocky Horror, Bowie, & the New York Dolls all in one fell swoop.

Sadly, that's about all they've got out right now, but the band followed it up with a series of awesome shows -- at least, the ones I've seen have been awesome -- adding a new piano player along the way and cranking down the tightness to ridiculous levels. Tonight they're headed out on their first-ever tour as a band, bidding Houston adieu for a few weeks and swinging back through for (duh) SXSW up in Austin. This'll be your last chance to see 'em here 'til May, it looks like; don't miss out. They're really, really, really good, and the nicest, sweetest folks, besides. Check out Marc from Houstonist's excellent interview with the band, by the by; it's good stuff.

Plus, they've got some damn fine openers, particularly Grandfather Child, who're way up near the top of my Bands I Need to Talk About Even More Than I Already Do List (as are RM&B, I should note). Watching Lucas Gorham howl and bellow while abusing the heck out of the pedal steel and the rest of the band stomped and grinned along behind was one of the highlights of last year's Summerfest, pretty much beating out the bulk of the "big-name" bands in attendance.

Then there's Weird Party, who don't have a Website I can find but who sound damned promising, combining the talents/powers of members/ex-members of the Fatal Flying Guilloteens, Muhammad Ali, & Welfare Mothers into a scraping, slashing bundle of razorwire and punk sneering. For my money, they sound more like Steel Pole Bathtub than anybody else, but that's only based on hearing one measly song, "Sarah Palin" -- check out the, er, "video" for it right here:

And yes, this is the band's first show; I predict that they'll follow the example of their headlining brethren and suddenly find themselves adored by half the damn scene...

Houston Lights, featuring the last place you look, Nothingmore, From Guts to Glory, Streetcar Scandal, Another Run, & Dreaming of June @ Warehouse Live
Just in case I haven't made it clear before now, I really, really love the last place you look. Turn your nose up at 'em if you want, but they're honestly the best of the handful of excellent post-emo rock bands going in town right now (esp. since I hear Stadium broke up; damn). I dig the high, desperate/low, growly duet vocals (courtesy of bassist Kevin & frontman Nava, respectively), the roaring, crushing guitars, and the surprisingly thoughtful, emo-ish lyrics, the whole deal.

See the Light Inside You made my top-ten list for 2009 for a reason, and thankfully, the band delivers live, too. Seeing them, you can't help but forget that yeah, the band lives right here in our very own city -- they play like they own the fucking stage and have been doing it for decades now. Here's some video evidence, if you're curious:

TLPYS is playing with a bunch of bands tonight, but the one I'm most interested in is The Streetcar Scandal, who've got one measly song up on the Myspace so far (hrm...feeling a trend here...), "Your Crippled Tongue". Thankfully, that one song's fairly impressive, reminding me in a big way of late-'90s bands like The Jealous Sound or Longwave; I'm seriously looking forward to hearing what else these guys can do...

Runners-Up:
Dawes/Cory Chisel & The Wandering Sons/Jason Boesel @ Rudyard's
Frode Halti/Trygve Seim & Maja Ratke @ Norway House (3410 W. Dallas; 8PM)
Limb/Eat Grapes/CJ Boyd @ Mango's
Trashed, featuring Car Stereo Wars, Best Legs, & GRRRL Parts @ Boondocks
Rodeo Houston, featuring Mary J. Blige @ Reliant Stadium
Commotion, featuring Young $quaddy & Danimal @ The Mink (front bar)

Labels: Flyeration, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To See

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

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

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

A bit of a surprise show tonight -- I'd pretty much assumed garage-punks The Monocles were permanent denizens of Ye Olde Band Graveyard, what with frontman Pope Jon PPPP going off and focusing most of his time on Guitars and then, er, moving off to some podunk town in North Carolina to rock out. (And Jeoaf moving off to rock out behind the drum kit with Roky Moon & Bolt, to boot.) That sort of thing tends to put nails in the coffin of your "old" band, in my experience.

Which sucks/sucked, because I really like/liked the band -- I enjoyed the heck out of their self-titled 7" from back in 2007, especially the Sonics-esque facepunch of "Out of Your Mind". It was raw, wild, and yet tighter than it really had any right to be. I'd looked forward eagerly to news of a promised full-length...and then the band just sorta shrugged and stopped playing shows. They were toast.

And yet, it appears my assumption was premature. Jon's back in town, it seems, although for how long's apparently up in the air. While he's here, though, he's busy -- the band will finally put out that long-awaited full-length, tonight (yes, Wed., March 3rd), up at The Mink. And although I have yet to hear the full-length myself, it promises to be pretty badass.

The Monocles are headlining, but the openers are damn good in their own right. I was bowled over by Ghost Town Electric at the Lost In Space deal, with their thick, Kyuss-gone-Houston sludge-metal, and I've heard good stuff about quirky, freewheeling Darwin's Finches (who I think provided the flyer). Gonna be good, y'all.

Here's some added fun -- the video for "Out of Your Mind," courtesy of the Monocles Myspace:

Alternately...
And hey, if you're not into the garage-y stuff, South Houston-dwelling metalheads and/or people with cars are in luck, 'cause The Scout Bar down in Clear Lake has a pretty mindblowing show tonight. Sepultura side project Soulfly headlines, but for my money the reason to drive southward is because fucking Prong is playing.

That band defined that weird period of my college life where I was shifting allegiances from full-on "real" metal over to indie-rock and weirdball pseudo-metal like Barkmarket or Cop Shoot Cop; Prong, at least in their proto-industrial-metal phase, bridged the gap quite nicely. I still get a grin on my face when I hear "Snap Your Fingers Snap Your Neck" or "Prove You Wrong"...

Anyway, they're playing with Incite & Rotting Corpse, plus local boys Machina, none of whom I know but whom I think are all thrash bands. I've heard a wee bit of Machina, and it's not bad... But still: fuckin' Prong, man! Wow.

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

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

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

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

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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Holy shit, what a weekend we're headed into, y'all. Tonight (Fri., February 26th) is actually a bit lighter than some, but there's still some good stuff going on...

The Appleseed Cast/Dreamend @ Rudyard's
I really have to hand it to these guys -- The Appleseed Cast came around as part of the first "wave" of Deep Elm Recs-bred emo, effortlessly throwing out the heartbreakingly gorgeous The End of the Ring Wars way back in 1998(!), an album that's remained a serious touchstone in my own music collection.

Unlike the bulk of their peers, The Cast never crashed & burned or faded away to oblivion, instead continuing to expand as a band and shed chunks of the emo tag as they went along. Tonight they'll be doing a bit of a special show, playing all of their double-album set, Low Level Owl 1 & 2, an ambitious pair of releases that saw the band get a heck of a lot more atmospheric, trippy, and complex than a lot of people (myself included) ever thought a lowly emo band would be able to be. Ready yourself for a night of eyes-closed, stand-and-sway near-spacerock, people.

Heartless Bastards/Jeff Boortz Band/Runaway Sun @ Warehouse Live
Ah, yeah; I really, truly, genuinely love Heartless Bastards. Last year's The Mountain was a pretty phenomenal, nicely dark/murky roots-rock record, propelled along by singer Erika Wennerstrom to come off like the jaded, brooding, middle-of-nowhere child of Chan Marshall and Dax Riggs, armed with huge-sounding guitars and thundering drums. Here's hoping the crowd makes it out to the Warehouse tonight...

You & Yourn/Emily Lewis/ Framework/ Gretchen Schmaltz/ Doubtful Thomas/Cedar Boy Bailey @ Fuel Cyber Cafe (Humble; $7, 7PM)
Nice, nice, nice -- congrats, northsiders, you've got a heck of a cool indie-folk show going on tonight. Not familiar with everybody on the bill, but Gretchen Schmaltz (also of the seemingly-AWOL Western Civilization) does some great, honest-voiced songs and has quite a voice to boot -- seriously, she's one of the hands-down best folksingers in a town full of 'em -- Cedar Boy Bailey (aka Sergio from Buxton) is cool and low-key and warbly, and Hollywood Black frontman Ben Ellis's Framework project is interesting in its own right, at least from what I heard off his Intellect of Apes EP. Folks up in the Humble 'hood, here's your evening planned, right here.

Runners-Up:
Helstar/Plangency/Krankshaft/Decimation Theory/Blood Rooted @ Wired Live (formerly The Meridian; The Channel)
Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys/Rockin' Lloyd Tripp/Picture Book @ The Continental Club
Lizard Professor/Pacifist/All The Way To The Bank/Waverly Hills/The Nephilim Terror/Dinner at Dahmers @ The Junction
Leslie and the LY's/Christopher the Conquered @ Walter's
Richie Havens @ Dosey Doe Coffee Company (The Woodlands)

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

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Mentioned it before, but seeing as people's minds (i.e., mine) tend to wander, I figured it'd be a good idea to post a little prod up here about this Saturday's coming second-ever installment of The Festival at Mink, "curated" (so to speak) by Alkari-an Jason Smith and boasting a ton of excellent bands & musician types.

There've been a couple of changes to the previously-posted list of players, primarily that Mike Booher and the Wild Turkeys (which includes folks from Zykos and Zookeeper) and Orents Stirner are both unable to play, but the lineup's still damn good. Here's the current schedule, as it stands right now:

7:00	The Dry Season	[Swooning, swaying, somewhat psych-sounding indie-pop]
7:45	Covington	[Not a clue; haven't heard anything by these folks, sorry...]
8:15 (Downstairs)	Gretchen Schmaltz	[Sweet-voiced, unadorned-yet-beautiful indie-folk pop; member of The Western Civilization]
8:45	Flowers to Hide	[Hazy, brooding, Britpop-influenced rock that's reminiscent of Ride more than anything else]
9:15 (Downstairs)	Giant Battle Monster	[Wild-eyed, noisy, stream-of-consciousness, ADD-addled prog-metal]
9:45	The Sour Notes	[Beautifully delicate, electronics-tinged indie-pop that swoons like the best old-school Darla Recs stuff]
10:15 (Downstairs)	DuneTX	[A scene fixture; wide-ranging but always catchy & melodic alt-rock, like a Texafied OK Go]
10:45	Alkari	[Straight-up, unpretentiously label-free rock, one part Arcade Fire, one part 'Mats]
11:30	The Manichean	[Cool, literate indie-rock that's smarter than you]
12:20	White Rhino	[Snarling, heavy-ass, metallic, seriously retro-ified psych-rawk; like Clutch covering Mötörhead]

Anyway, it's going to be a pretty great show, and for a relatively-small $8 for the of-age types or $10 for the underagers. Come on out to The Mink this weekend.

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

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Damn, it's looking like quite a Thursday night tonight... I've gotta keep this brief, but here's a quick-ish rundown of what you might go and see/hear, were you inclined to go out and see/hear things. (Hey, it could happen. I hear the Akron/Family show the other night was pretty packed.)

Kennedy Bakery/Bright Men of Learning/ Christian Staehely @ Rudyard's
First & foremost, friends of yore Bright Men of Learning are playing tonight, opening for somebody I've got no clue about named Kennedy Bakery up at Rudz. If you've never seen the band -- and, mea culpa, it's been too damn long since I got out to see them, myself -- trust me, they're really, really freaking good. Even though they'll probably tell you that they're not. Not entirely sure how they did it, but their long-running blend of rootsy, quasi-countrified rock (think Son Volt, Lucero, Tom Petty, or Ryan Adams) and laidback slacker indie-rock (think Spoon or a less-twitchy Sebadoh) seems to've foreshadowed a crapload of bands out there right now. Except that, well, BMOL do it a whole lot better.

Plus, the opening-openers, Christian Staehely and his band, sounds intriguing. Apparently the bassist is Mark Andes, who used to play with Spirit, Firefall, and -- holy fucking shit -- Bad Animals-era Heart. Okay, wow. And hey, I've heard good things about the music, too, although I, um, don't have it right in front of me...

Killswitch Engage/The Devil Wears Prada/Dark Tranquility @ Warehouse Live
Hoo-ah. What can I say? These days, Killswitch Engage tend to pretty much be the yardstick by which I judge all other metal. Heavy, raw, bitterly emo at points, and utterly impossible to resist howling along with on the drive home.

Givers/ Caddywhompus @ Mango's
Ah, Caddywhompus -- I love, love, love this band, and yet I feel like I've been giving 'em short shrift lately. Quirkily heavy, yet still melodic and interesting, indie-rock stuff from a supremely talented pair of guys (who also happen to've been half of The Riff Tiffs, should you remember that maybe-now-gone band). "Absinthesizer" still blows me away, I swear to God. Hopefully the duo'll be back around these parts a lot more in the coming months, once school's out and all...

Dreaming of June/The Lotus Effect/After Time Has Passed @ Rocbar
Liking this one, too; I don't know any of the three bands real well, but I like what I've been hearing of The Lotus Effect, in particular -- nicely-done, almost Sevendust-ish (but not quite as heavy) alternarock. And hey, Dre is good people, so that's a bonus.

Sherwood/Hot Chelle Rae/Black Gold/Reece @ House of Blues (Bronze Peacock Room)
Dunno most of these folks, but I do really like Sherwood -- reviewed A Different Light back in 2007 or so, and was happily surprised to find that I enjoyed the hell out of the sweet, shiny-bright pop songs buried beneath the requisite Jimmy Eat World guitars. Not entirely sure they still sound the same, but I'd be willing to bet they're close.

Stryper/10th Grade Cutie/Choco Teef/F.G. and the Gunz/Nashville Snake (mem. of Cop Warmth/10th Grade Cutie)/Saviour Group @ Driveway on 6th St. (San Leon)
Okay, so I really, really doubt the band posing as "Stryper" on this bill is actually the Stryper. (Not that it'd make me want to see the show more, but hey...) That said, the guise promises something weird and probably bizarrely entertaining, as that's pretty much the stock-in-trade of those 10th Grade Cutie kids.

Runners-Up:
Together We are Instruments @ The Husk (2808 Milam; 8PM)
Songwriters Night, featuring Lisa Morales, Patricia Vonne, & Dustin Welch @ McGonigel's Mucky Duck

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

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