Continuing the week's theme of "continual freakin' updates out the ass," today we've got yet another brand-brand-new review up just in time for a dang show. This time it's The Dutchess & the Duke, a Seattle duo who make some awesomely, awesomely dark, retro-'60s pop that sounds like it was smuggled forwards in time from when my parents were kids and the optimism of the era hid a grim, bleak-as-hell underbelly. Their disc, She's the Dutchess, He's the Duke, is astounding, seriously, like a distillation of everything cool you ever heard from the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Mamas & the Papas all rolled into one inescapable set of songs. Oh, and it's fueled by a crushingly heavy sense of disillusionment, suspicion, and bitterness. Whoa. Full-length, rambling review up here, for those who care.

And yes, the band also happens to be playing this very evening (Wed., August 20th, for the calendar-less), starting around 8PM over in Midtown at The Mink. Baytown troubadour Benjamin Wesley is on the show, too, I think in the opening slot (but don't quote me), and James Jackson Toth (aka Wooden Wand) headlines, so it should be a good night overall.

Of course, you'll want to hit the Ditchwater zine release party at SoundEx, too, but it starts at 7PM, so you may be able to swing it so you've got plenty of time to run on over to the Mink after. 'Cause that's what you'll wanna do, right? Obviously.

Labels: Musical Crap, Reviews, Things To Do

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

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

Yep, we've got a ton of new stuff up on the SCR site, w/more going up pretty quickly... Yours truly has been shamefully slow about getting reviews online, and I'm trying to rectify that with a small hoard of ultra-timely reviews.

Starting pretty much now, in fact. Why? Well, because tonight San Franciscans The May Fire are playing @ Warehouse Live, along with expat Houstonians Astra Heights (who previously got some good reviewage here), Monte Negro, & Johnny Goudie (again, reviewage here, albeit extremely old reviewage by this point). I've enjoyed what I've heard from Astra Heights in the past, myself -- sorry we missed the boat when they still lived here, sadly -- and while I did start off lukewarm on The May Fire, new EP The List is steadily growing on me like a riff-heavy, husky-voiced fungus. Okay, so maybe that doesn't sound so good, I'll admit it, but hey, you get the idea.

Anyway, check out the writeup of The List here, then roll on over to the Warehouse to check 'em out. The band ain't perfect, no, but they've got a lot of potential, and from the sound of their recorded stuff, I'd bet they're a blast live...

Labels: 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

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

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

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

[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

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

Yeah, you read that title right -- tonight's another "damn, I wish I had a cloning machine..." night, with great, great things happening all over our (not-so-)fair city...

Option Uno: Tops on my list is tonight at Rudyard's, where Clevelanders mr. Gnome will be blowing the roof off, setting hair on fire, and creeping everybody out, all at once. Seriously; I've been listening to their full-length, Deliver This Creature, just about nonstop for the past three or four days, and it's really, really, amazingly, mind-blowingly good. Just put up a review of the album here this very afternoon, for those who're interested, but the short of it is that the music's this weird, woozy mash of ultra-heavy guitars that'll crush you like a sociopathic child crushes bugs with a rock just for fun and delicately eerie atmospherics that sound more like they could've drifted out of Tori Amos's dressing room than anything else. It's an odd mix, granted, but damn does it work. And singer/guitarist Nicole Barrile's voice is just over-the-top incredible, going from a Jana Hunter-esque growl to a Karen O howl in a heartbeat.

Anyway, check it out if you can; if I can get away from the casa tonight, this is most likely where I'm headed, "After the Sun" and "The Machine" still ringing in my head. They're playing with some darn good locals, too, Fired for Walking -- never seen 'em live, but I like the songs I've heard and have liked the members' past stuff. I dunno anything about Treehouse Project, sorry, but I've heard they live in a treehouse not far from Rudz, and that's got to count for something, right?

Option Dos: If mr. Gnome aren't your thing, or maybe you're not looking to get pummeled by sound tonight, well, The Mink is the place to be, friend. Awesomely cool folky guys Papermoons are headlining, along with the also-awesome roots-indie rockers Bright Men of Learning (and no, don't believe the Press -- Marshall is still solidly behind the wheel of the BMOL ship), out-of-towners Ninja Gun (who we reviewed here, I believe), and cool young'uns The Wild Moccasins, who're well worth a visit all by themselves. I dunno for Ninja Gun, but the other three will rock you in a laidback, quasi-folky/bluesy way that's just hard enough to make you smile. Which, really, is never bad.

Option Tres: And here's my third pick for the evening, Dizzypilot, Murdocks, The McKenzies, and All In Your Head up at Walter's. I'm not familiar w/The McKenzies or All In Your Head, I'm afraid, but I've been meaning to check out Dizzypilot for ages now (even have the damn CD sitting in my car...argh) and non-locals Murdocks are very cool, explosively catchy rock, kinda like a feral, less-polished Superdrag (review up , if you care).

So there you go. No need to feel sad that you got slighted & didn't get the invite to the Houston Press Music Awards nomination shindig going on tonight at (um, I think?) Warehouse Live -- heck, if you hit one of these shows, instead, you'll most likely be having a better time. Okay, maybe. You'll def. have to pay for your own drinks, though, so keep that in mind. Anyway, if it were me (and I am skipping out on the HPMA nomination party, although it's very kind of the Press folks to keep inviting me like they do; somebody there must like me or something...) and I could escape the house-fixing-up, I'd definitely roll my three-sided die and choose one of these shows, instead. Your roll.

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

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

How do I always end up like this? Argh...the day just slip-slides away from me, I swear... Anyway, I wanted to post 'cause in the past 7 days or so we've now put up two separate batches of reviews & such, and I was woefully unable to post about the first bunch before leaving town last weekend. Dang.

But hey, here I am now, so that makes it all okay, right? And tonight's a rush-rush deal, as always, because one of the folks we've reviewed this week, The Ruby Suns, happen to be playing tonight (April 16th) over at The Mink's Backroom annex, along with headliners Scout Niblett & Throw Me The Statue and excellent locals Elaine Greer and Sew What.

It's a show jam-packed with goodness, honest -- the Suns themselves make this crazy, sunbaked Southern Hemisphere-centric brand of psych-pop that for once sounds weirdly like where it's from (i.e., New Zealand), and while I'm not super familiar with Niblett, I really like her cover of "Uptown Top Ranking," weird as it is. Throw Me The Statue I don't know much about, unfortunately, but anybody who takes their name from an Indiana Jones movie's alright by me. Plus, they're on Secretly Canadian, and pretty much everything that comes out of SC is gold, at least to me.

Of course, I can't forget the lovely local folks doing the opening, namely Ms. Greer & Sew What; Greer has been making some big waves in our little scene of late, on the strength of her excellent songwriting & singing skillz, and even though this 'pears to be a solo-acoustic deal and not a "full" gig with her band The Holly Hall, it promises to be good anyway. And Sew What's been entertaining when I've seen 'em in the past, doing their quirk-folk thing; very odd, yes, and yet strangely appealing...

So go. Read the review here, then go. Go, go, go, get out of the house and go in my stead, 'cause I'll be packing damn boxes all night long. Gah. Moving sucks ass. (The doors open at 8PM, btw, and the cover's $10 -- don't let the double digits dissuade you, though, cheapass. Remember, some of these folks are coming all the way from NZ...)

While you're checking out reviews, by the by, I would heartily recommend you see what else we've got up -- there's brand-spankin'-new reviews of new (and some new-ish) stuff by Sun Kil Moon, The Raconteurs, Goldfrapp, Casy and Brian, La Brea, & a ton more. Here's the full two-week-sized pile:

Reviews: The Ruby Suns; Sun Kil Moon; La Brea; Casy and Brian; All Teeth and Knuckles; The Raconteurs; Goldfrapp; Worrytrain; The Epochs; A Step Behind; The Johnbenders; Vopat; ZibraZibra; Danger Radio; Paperwork; partlycloudy; & Shangoband.

More to come, y'all...

Labels: Musical Crap, Reviews, Things To Do

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

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

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

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

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

Tried to get this up last night after watching more episodes than intended of Jericho Season 1 on DVD -- just couldn't shut the damn TV off, somehow -- and I couldn't do it; sorry, y'all, for this being a bit down-to-the-wire. sigh... I wanted to make absolute damn sure to get some new reviews online today, at the very latest, specifically so I could rant & rave about holy-fuck-they're-good pop-punk-folk duo The Femurs. I must confess that I'd initially set the band's album, Modern Mexico, aside for one of our writers after a cursory listen (this is what you do when you're the editor, yo), and only picked it up again when I saw the band listed on the schedule for tonight up at The Mink.

And dear lord, am I glad I did. Having the CD spinning near-continously for the past three days or so has almost made me feel less like the heel of The Man has crushed me down this week, and that's a very, very nice thing. The Brothers Femur (not their real name, obviously) play a desperate-sounding, fast, impassioned (but not, mind you, emo) kind of folk-pop with totally "clean" guitars, driving rhythms, a smart-guy smirk, and the best, most picture-perfect pop sensibility sense, well, Fountains of Wayne. The songs these two guys throw out are smart and romantic without the irony, sweet and beautiful and head-nod-inducing all at the same time. They're like The Ramones, if The Ramones listened to a hell of a lot of Jonathan Richman or Nick Lowe. I could go on and on, but instead I'll aim you towards the brand-new review, up here.

Now, of course, I'm struck by a terrible dilemma -- hang out with the fam at the house this evening, like I'd initially planned, or risk my wife's displeasure by bailing and running over to The Mink to catch the band, along with cool-as-fuck locals Something Fierce & Teenage Kicks, as well as headliners Teenage Bottlerocket & Broadway Calls. So basically, I have to choose between an evening of catchy, garagey pop-punk heaven and, uh, marital bliss. Dammit...

Anyway, we do have some more new reviews up, as well; sorry to get off-track, there. On top of the Femurs disc, there're also reviews of a cool new album by The Milwaukees, the long-awaited full-length from Chris Thile's Punch Brothers project, and a solo disc from ex-Erase Erratta frontwoman Jenny Hoyston (who, sadly, was scheduled to play this week but had to cancel due to illness striking down one of her band members). Good stuff, all, I swear. And if I can bolt myself back to the computer at some point later on this weekend, there'll be a couple pretty new live reviews up here, too, so check back for that. Here's the whole deal for now, though:

Reviews: The Femurs; The Milwaukees; Punch Brothers; Jenny Hoyston; Cricket; LEK; Gary Reynolds and the Brides of Obscurity; & So They Say.

Check back soon, y'all.

Labels: Pseudo-Reviews, Random Rambling, Reviews, Things To Do

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

Yes, yes, yes. Had to skip a day or two since they actually went up, but here's the deal on the new stuff, either way... I'm extremely proud, for one, to announce that our super-duper-official 2007 Top Ten Lists are now online. While most mags/e-zines/blogs do their best-ofs in the actual year, we here at SCR firmly believe in our music-nerd-obsessive little hearts that you can't truly judge the year 'til it's over, dammit. The people who run the Oscars know this; that's why the awards show's in Feb. In our view, then, all those best-of-ers who published their lists in '07 and claimed to know The Real Deal were full of crap, 'cause the year was not yet done. They are but poseurs, and therefore our opinion is all that matters. (Or something like that.)

Anyway, this year we've doubled the size of the damn thing from the '06 lists, with a full ten writers contributing -- big "thank yous" go out to Dwayne Cathey, David Hanrahan, Brandon Hernsberger, Mel House, Henry Mayer, Danny Mee, Andrew Perkins, Bill Reed, & the lone stabilizing force of female-ness, Brigitte Zabak. It pretty much covers the gamut of things musical, movie, and otherwise, and we think it's very, very good. Go read it now. No, really -- the rest of this blog post will still be here when you get back.

Moving on... We've also got some fine, fresh new reviews up on the site, including Damon Murrah's timely review of The Black Crowes' new disc, Warpaint -- read it here and revel in the fact that unlike some publications which shall go unnamed, our writer actually listened to the thing. Similarly, our writers listened to the rest of the reviewed discs, as well, 'cause that's just how we roll. And several of 'em are also somewhat timely.

Jonah Matranga: More on this later on, but Jonah will be coming through H-town on an impromptu visit this next Tues., March 11th, and because of the short-notice-ness of it all, he'll be playing at the warehouse/work space/studio of pal & SCR guy Mel House, located at 3612 Mangum Rd., #209. The show'll start at 8PM or so, and as per usual w/Jonah, the cover's on a "what can you pay?" sliding scale. I'll definitely rave more about this in a day or so, but 'til then you can content yourself w/reading the review of his latest disc, And, here.

Astra Heights: Another crew that's coming in from California, Astra Heights at least know their way around -- they're actually H-town expats of a year or two ago, having fled to band-friendlier climes out on the West Coast. This'll be their "homecoming" show of sorts, opening for Nicole Atkins & The Sea, Papermoons, & Parlour Mob at The Mink on Mon., March 10th, and it promises to be very cool. Check out the review of their album here.

Silverstein: And lastly, these guys are swinging through town this very Fri., March 7th, playing at The Meridian with The Devil Wears Prada & A Day To Remember. Our review of the band's latest isn't super complimentary, unfortunately, but the band still shows some promise, I think, and if you're into the whole post-emo Taking Back Sunday/Straylight Run/Jimmy Eat World cohort of rock, well, the band's probably right up your alley.

As always, there's plenty more up on the site, too; here's the list:

New Feature: We Like Things, 2007: You will like them, too..

Reviews: The Black Crowes; Jonah Matranga; Astra Heights; Silverstein; Arise and Ruin; Guns Are For Kids; Little Brian; & Not So Quiet on the Country Western Front.

More to come, y'all, so keep watching...

Labels: Admin Stuff, Features, Reviews, Things To Do, Things To Read

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

Yes, yes, yes. Had to skip a day or two since they actually went up, but here's the deal on the new stuff, either way... I'm extremely proud, for one, to announce that our super-duper-official 2007 Top Ten Lists are now online. While most mags/e-zines/blogs do their best-ofs in the actual year, we here at SCR firmly believe in our music-nerd-obsessive little hearts that you can't truly judge the year 'til it's over, dammit. The people who run the Oscars know this; that's why the awards show's in Feb. In our view, then, all those best-of-ers who published their lists in '07 and claimed to know The Real Deal were full of crap, 'cause the year was not yet done. They are but poseurs, and therefore our opinion is all that matters. (Or something like that.)

Anyway, this year we've doubled the size of the damn thing from the '06 lists, with a full ten writers contributing -- big "thank yous" go out to Dwayne Cathey, David Hanrahan, Brandon Hernsberger, Mel House, Henry Mayer, Danny Mee, Andrew Perkins, Bill Reed, & the lone stabilizing force of female-ness, Brigitte Zabak. It pretty much covers the gamut of things musical, movie, and otherwise, and we think it's very, very good. Go read it now. No, really -- the rest of this blog post will still be here when you get back.

Moving on... We've also got some fine, fresh new reviews up on the site, including Damon Murrah's timely review of The Black Crowes' new disc, Warpaint -- read it here and revel in the fact that unlike some publications which shall go unnamed, our writer actually listened to the thing. Similarly, our writers listened to the rest of the reviewed discs, as well, 'cause that's just how we roll. And several of 'em are also somewhat timely.

Jonah Matranga: More on this later on, but Jonah will be coming through H-town on an impromptu visit this next Tues., March 11th, and because of the short-notice-ness of it all, he'll be playing at the warehouse/work space/studio of pal & SCR guy Mel House, located at 3612 Mangum Rd., #209. The show'll start at 8PM or so, and as per usual w/Jonah, the cover's on a "what can you pay?" sliding scale. I'll definitely rave more about this in a day or so, but 'til then you can content yourself w/reading the review of his latest disc, And, here.

Astra Heights: Another crew that's coming in from California, Astra Heights at least know their way around -- they're actually H-town expats of a year or two ago, having fled to band-friendlier climes out on the West Coast. This'll be their "homecoming" show of sorts, opening for Nicole Atkins & The Sea, Papermoons, & Parlour Mob at The Mink on Mon., March 10th, and it promises to be very cool. Check out the review of their album here.

Silverstein: And lastly, these guys are swinging through town this very Fri., March 7th, playing at The Meridian with The Devil Wears Prada & A Day To Remember. Our review of the band's latest isn't super complimentary, unfortunately, but the band still shows some promise, I think, and if you're into the whole post-emo Taking Back Sunday/Straylight Run/Jimmy Eat World cohort of rock, well, the band's probably right up your alley.

As always, there's plenty more up on the site, too; here's the list:

New Feature: We Like Things, 2007: You will like them, too..

Reviews: The Black Crowes; Jonah Matranga; Astra Heights; Silverstein; Arise and Ruin; Guns Are For Kids; Little Brian; & Not So Quiet on the Country Western Front.

More to come, y'all, so keep watching...

Labels: Admin Stuff, Features, Reviews, Things To Do, Things To Read

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

phew...another late night, another update. Big thanks to all the hard-working writer folk, by the by, for getting this stuff in -- this little e-zine would die a sad and lonely death with only yours truly doing the writing for it, I swear. Everybody, your efforts are very much appreciated. I owe you all beers.

Oh, and it seems that for some reason, Blogger and/or Network Solutions is/are working like they're supposed to once more. Wish I knew why...argh. Not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth, though, so please join me in thanking the Gods of the Bloggernet for somehow granting my wish that I be able to blog again without having to republish 17 times and then turn off my computer for the night & go to sleep hoping. I will sacrifice a USB cable in your honor, o Gods...

Anyway, we've got a brand-new interview with local folk-ish mysteriosos listenlisten now, which answers burning questions like, "how in the hell do y'all capitalize your band's name?" and "who came up with the wooden CD sleeve idea?" The band seem a bit on the shy side, and they profess to not be very good at interviews (which makes, uh, four of us, y'all), but all things considered, I think our little chat was damned interesting. Plus, they're playing soon, March 15th up at Rudyard's, opening for Sunburned Hand of the Man & Citay, neither of whom I know a damn thing about, sorry. Go to see listenlisten, if nothing else.

In somewhat earlier news, though, you might recall that I mentioned Paris Falls very, very recently in this li'l blog -- well, now there's a sparkling-shiny-new review up of their newest opus, Vol. II, which happens to be very, very good. Check out the review for the details, then hit Boondocks tonight to see the band play live for their official, fancy-shmancy CD release shindig. Gonna be good, honest.

On top of both of those, we've also got new reviews of both big-ish shots The Besnard Lakes and local post-emo heroes While You Were Gone, the latter of which have put out a heck of a compelling new EP that's been stuck in my head for a few weeks now (esp. "Thief"; man, I love that song). WYWG also happen to be playing in the relatively-near future, w/shows on both March 7th & 8th -- the former's at the First Baptist Church in Shepherd, TX., wherever the heck that is, and the latter's up in Humble at Fuel Cyber Cafe with Artist vs. Poet. Again: read about, then go see. This is what we're here for, people...

Anyway, there's more up there, too including happy-slappy reviews of NYC's The Forms, Austin's Built By Snow, & more. Here's the pile:

New Interview: listenlisten.

Reviews: Paris Falls; The Besnard Lakes; While You Were Gone; The Forms; Built By Snow; The King Hen; Miller; & Used Alien Mind.

More next week...

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

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

Yep, got a bunch of new stuff up lately, including a nicely-sized (I think, anyway) pile of reviews. There's one of the new NOFX live disc, which is surprisingly good despite the title (these days I find myself blasting "You're Wrong" and "Franco-Unamerican" while driving around, at least as long as my daughter's not in the car), and the band themselves will be here in town on 2/26 at Warehouse Live with No Use For A Name, The Flatliners, and Houston's own resurrected pop-punk heroes the Latch Key Kids, plus an after-party with fellow H-towners The Hates. Gonna be good; check out the review here.

On top of that, naturally, we've got a good-sized pile of other reviews, including former King's X frontman dUg Pinnick (the capitalization's his, I swear, not mine), ASG, Emily Jane White, & ex-Casket Lottery/Small Brown Bike-ers Able Baker Fox, among others.

Oh, and I'd meant to post about 'em a long time before now, but we've now got some new Featured Band writeups up, for incredible local folks like Buxton & The Gold Sounds. Here's the whole pile:

New Featured Bands: The Riff Tiffs; The Gold Sounds; Buxton; & Latch Key Kids.

Reviews: NOFX; dUg Pinnick; ASG; Emily Jane White; Able Baker Fox; Plastic Idols; Patient Patient; & The Playing Favorites.

That's it for now. I'm gonna head to bed so I can wake up early & prepare my monkey suit for wearin' tonight. sigh.

Labels: Featured Bands, Musical Crap, Reviews, Things To Do

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

Argh. Just goes to show where my head's at, lately, with this damn illness thing I can't seem to shake -- just this AM it occurred to me that I never actually posted about last week's new batch of reviews. Apologies for that, folks; a well-oiled machine this e-zine is not, sadly (and yeah, that's pretty much all me...d'oh!).

At any rate, as of last Friday or so we've had a cool pile of new reviews online, with especially good ones for the really-truly-brand-new Cat Power, a somewhat, ah, older Schoolyard Heroes disc, and an overlooked gem from locals Deathbed Repentance.

And cooler still, the latter two bands are playing here in town soon. Deathbed Repentance are playing Fri., February 8th at the Rats in the Attic CD release show; it's at someplace I've never heard of called "Dead Baby Distro", over at 2502 Leeland, and along with DR and Rats in the Attic, they've also got Unlikely Heroes, the failed attempt, & Molotov Compromise on the bill. Get over there and check out Deathbed Repentance if you can, seriously -- while they do tend to wear their Social D/Billy Bragg/Clash influences on their sleeves, Why Do We Even Try? made my jaw drop. It's good shit, honest.

Then there's Schoolyard Heroes, who're a little further down the calendar -- they're playing The Meridian on Tues., February 26th, opening for Aiden (whose latest ain't bad, btw) and The Birthday Massacre (Farewell To Freeway also open). Never seen 'em live, but if you're into the whole horror-emo subgenre that seems to have crept out from the shadows in the past couple of years, this is your show.

Oh, and not to belittle our "headline" review: Cat Power rules. Chan Marshall's amazing; always has been, always will be. Here's the whole pile that's up now:

Reviews: Cat Power; Schoolyard Heroes; Deathbed Repentance; Dimestore Dandelion; John Hoskinson; & Sunspot.

More to come, incl. a Foo Fighters live review, a handful of interviews, and (of course) a metric ton of reviews...

Labels: Reviews, Things To Do

gaijin || Link ||