While I twiddle my thumbs wait for InMotion to get back to me on my support ticket, I figure it's way, way past time for me to mention a second awesome-sounding show that's going on this evening...

Some might remember that way back in May or so, yours truly did a little writeup on the then-forthcoming album from one of my absolute favorite bands in this city (or, hell, any other city, for that matter), listenlisten, Hymns From Rhodesia. The band sent me the songs from the album like a month before that, so at the time I was feeling way, way, way late in reviewing it...except that then the album didn't materialize. Whoops.

As of tonight, however (again, Friday, September 18th, all you non-calendar-havin' punks), that's finally going to be remedied. Tonight the listenlisten boys are having their official release party for Hymns up at Mango's -- which I hear now has a renovated/elevated stage, so us poor suckers stuck in the back can actuall see; woo! -- closing out the night after openers Peter and the Wolf, I am Mesmer, & Sew What. Things should start at 9PM or so, and while I dunno what the cover'll be, odds are it'll be cheap.

I'm also not sure, btw, if the CDs themselves will be available for sale -- the "official" date for their release is apparently 9/22, so the show's a few days early... Either way, though, this show will be downright amazing, I absolutely guarantee it. listenlisten are so utterly, freakishly unique that I honestly have a hard time describing 'em musically; it almost works better to describe 'em, well, chronologically, if you will.

They sound, at least to me, like the music my great-great-grandparents might've heard growing up in the backwoodsy parts of this country, or maybe like the music Civil War-era soldiers might've listened to as they drowned their sorrows between bloody, pointless battles against their former neighbors. It's music that's timeless, yet seemingly out-of-time, if that makes any sense at all. The band plays murky, somber, bleak, intricate music about death, life, and the struggles in-between, all on instruments that sound like they've been hanging in the closet of some Appalachian cabin for the past 80 years or so. Think Murder by Death without the kitsch, or The Black Heart Procession with more words, or contemporary folks like The Builders and the Butchers (with whom listenlisten really need to play a show, and soon -- prod, prod), and you'll be close to the strange territory these guys have staked out for themselves.

On CD, the band's incredibly good, but live, they up the ante further, coming off almost like some kind of fire-and-brimstone tent revival gone horribly awry. The last time I saw them, at the most recent Free Press Block Party, Ben Godfrey, Shane Patrick, & Marshall Graves all stood in a line at the front of the stage as the last remaining sunlight faded away, pounding away at their instruments, eyes closed and howling out the end of a turbulent, raw-nerves-exposed song like they were the only people for miles and miles around. I literally couldn't look away.

And hey, the openers are very much worth checking out, too -- Austin's Peter and the Wolf play great, crazy, reality-shifted, apocalyptically-tinged indie-folk, I hear I am Mesmer are amazing (and the band seems to grow every time I hear about it), and Sew What's quirky, half tongue-in-cheek (I think?) folkiness is always fun to see/hear.

Added bonus time: listenlisten recently released the first video from Hymns From Rhodesia, from the slow-moving, methodical track "On The Water," and it's appropriately weird, atmospheric, and creepy as hell. Check it out:

Oh, and for the true diehards (or the people who can't make it out on a Friday night, which may well include me), you can also catch listenlisten tomorrow, Saturday, September 19th, over at Cactus Music at 1PM. They'll be playing a free(!) CD release show there, which should also be well worth seeing.

If you want more details on these guys, I interviewed 'em back in February of last year -- check that here -- or, for more up-to-date info, you can check out a nicely-written interview the Houston Press's Chris Gray did with the band over here.

Seriously, I just can't stress enough how utterly spellbinding these guys are. They're one of those bands that make me want to burn a bunch of mix CDs and then blast them out to everyone I know so they, too, can listen in awe.

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

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Cool news -- I'd worried for a while now that H-town-bred Pavement-gone-Wilco guys Bright Men of Learning had gone the way of Bring Back the Guns or the Guilloteens, fading out without so much as a final "seeya" message to their fans. Thankfully, that's apparently not the case, and the band are back in action.

They're playing tonight (Fri., September 18th), in fact, up at Rudyard's; it's a CD release party for their brand-new Champion Sound EP, recorded straight to 8-track by local recording ace and eschewer of all things polished and lame John Sears. $3 gets you into the show, and another $2 gets you a copy of the EP -- can't beat that with a stick, yo.

To make things even cooler, the show's openers are cool, muscle-y/math-y rockers The Jonx, plus Side Arms, the new band of Sharks and Sailors Al Hendrix, and Skyline Network honcho ADR on the turntables.

The BMOL guys were kind enough to send over the Champion Sound tracks, btw, and they're pretty great. If anything, the downtime appears to have both honed the band's guitar playing and loosened up frontman Marshall Preddy's trademark slurring snarl. "Texecution" is warm, bright, and just dirty enough, with some great droney, shimmery guitars towards the end. It's crazy to think this was all live to the 8-track; it sure doesn't sound like that. Not sleek and shiny, no, but it still sounds damn good -- my one gripe would be that Marshall's voice is mixed too low, but hell, with guitars that badass, I can definitely live with it.

"Champion Sound," the second track, is urgent and Uncle Tupelo-sounding, with overdriven guitars that evoke Where You Been-era Dinosaur Jr. at points, and the third, "Good Driver Bad Actor," is rawer and more "rock," with an interesting, almost AC/DC feel to it. I'd say it sounds like it could get airplay on some B-side-prospecting classic-rock station, but, well, some might take that as a jab (and no, I don't mean it as one).

The songs get in, do their thing, and get out, never overstaying their welcome, which has occasionally been kind of an issue in the past for me with some BMOL songs. Maybe it's because they had no-frills engineer/producer Sears on board to keep the boys honest? Whatever did it, it worked. "Champion Sound" sounds about right.

And hey, if that whets your whistle, keep an eye out -- the Learned Men of Brightness have reportedly been hard at work on a new full-length with a dozen or so totally, completely different tracks, most likely due out at the start of 2010. Good to hear...

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

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Okay, so I now know why I've been feeling twitchy & off-kilter lately: it's been too damn long since I posted anything about fave pop-punks Something Fierce, obviously.

Remedying that right now, then. Singer/guitarist Steven G. just sent word (along with some sort of kinky threat/invite that I'm not gonna go into here) that the band would soon be crashing back into our collective lives with a new 7" on cool-ass local label Action Town Records, which happens to be run by John Baldwin, Stewart Anderson, & Andrea Hain, the first two of whom have cemented a happy little area in my heart for life by being two-thirds of Teenage Kicks and have since gone on to excellent-sounding things like Passengers. They're aiming to release sometime in the next month or two, so keep an eye out for it...

The 7" tracks will be "Where You Goin Man", off SF's early-this-year full-length, There Are No Answers, and what promises to be a mind-blowingly cool cover of "Spray Coat", by long-dead H-town punk legends The Party Owls. The former track happens to be one of my favorites (although it's a difficult choice, given the competition) off Answers, with those awesomely bright-sounding high guitar bits, a melody that subtly bows down to The Clash's "Death or Glory," and the sweet yearning in the vocals. It's good shit, seriously.

BTW, if you, like me, missed out on the Owls when they were alive, you can check out the original version on over here (courtesy of Killian Sweeney's Disclexington "Track du Jour" thing), then prepare to revel in the fury and fire of the new version. I have to know, though -- will there be saxes on the Something Fierce take/tribute? Please? 'Cause y'know, that'd pretty much rule.

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

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This afternoon's a good one for heading over to Midtown, because today (Sun., June 14th), from noon-6PM, is the rejuvenated & resurrected Swap N Bop fair/festival at The Continental Club. There'll apparently be lots of folks there selling and/or trading stuff, Mr. Adam the BBQ Man will be cooking away, and there're some darn good bands/musicians playing, besides.

I'm told Chango Man, Opie Hendrix, the excellent Carrie Ann and the Apocalyptics, & Carl "Piano" Smith will be playing, although I've got no clue as to the schedule. And hey, it's all free; sounds like a pretty cool thing, at least to me.

To celebrate, btw, the good folks at Continental Club "companion" store Sig's Lagoon will be having a sale in conjunction with the Swap N Bop, with some nice deals on CDs & records & books & such. Check it out...

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

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It's been a hell of a week for good news, I have to say. 2009's already been a good year for H-town music, but with some recent little bits of news, things are looking upwards even more.

Springfield Riots Release an EP:
Firstly, pseudo-newbie band Springfield Riots is officially releasing their debut EP, Say When, tomorrow, Sat., June 13th, at 4PM over at the ever-awesome Cactus Music. I've seen & heard quite a bit of these guys -- ex-members of popsters Program, plus current members of Co-Pilot & Spain Colored Orange -- lately, both live and in recorded form, and it's damn impressive.

Now, I know I'm sounding a bit like a broken record, by this point, but I absolutely cannot say enough about good things about this band or their music -- warm, fuzzy, expertly done, slightly '70s-tinged indie-pop that hits all the right marks. They've got two of the songs from Say When up on their Myspace, and if anything, they build on the stuff I've heard before now, adding to the purplish haze of the addictively poppy concoction they've created. Check 'em out now -- the show's free, you get free beer, & you get to hear very cool music, to boot. Can't beat that...

The Phlegmatics Re-Emerge with a New Full-Length:
Just when I'd started to get worried... About this time last year, I'd gotten word that some of my favorite smart, nerdy, hook-writing, Weezer-loving indie-rockers, The Phlegmatics, were working on the followup to excellent debut album Alumnus, tentatively entitled "Sophomore Effort." Then...nothing. Not a word, 'til now.

Per the email I got yesterday, those crazy Phlegmatics guys thankfully hadn't succumbed to the H-town curse and collapsed on themselves, but have indeed been hard at work on the new album, now called Billy the Starfighter Pilot vs. The Phlegmatics, and they're emerging from hibernation to play a show, lo and behold, on Saturday, June 27th at the Frenetic Theater (5102 Navigation), starting around 8PM. I can't tell from the email if they're done with the disc -- they just say they're "preparing to release their second and possibly also critically acclaimed album" -- but hell, just getting to see these guys is a rare treat these days. Mark the calendar, y'all.

Black Math Experiment, Alive Again for Phase 2:
Ah, this makes me happy. After years of missing the band by a hair, I finally got to see strange-yet-addictive, over-the-top popsters the Black Math Experiment at last year's Houston Press Awards Showcase, and they were a blast to witness. Only one problem: by the time of the showcase, they'd already broken up, only reuniting because their devoted fans nominated 'em for an award. After the show -- poof! -- they vanished back into the ether, another piece of Houston Rock History.

Or not, as it turns out. As divined by the wise souls over at 29-95.com (namely, Sara Cress), the BME are supposedly re-forming right now and preparing to rock Houston yet again. Sweet. No word on when they'll be playing again, but they're claiming it'll be within the year. Good to hear, definitely...

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

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Tonight, tonight, tonight...punker-than-you H-town label/print conglomerate Ditchwater Records is staging its second-ever (I think?) record release show extravaganza tonight, Friday, May 29th, up at Rudyard's.

It's a joint 7" release thing, celebrating new releases from both sneering, knife-wielding glam-rockers The Wrong Ones (not to be confused with the Glaswegians of the same name) and crazed noise-punks Dead Roses, and both bands will be doing their thing throughout the night -- I'm told Dead Roses play first, then the Wrong Ones, then a second set's worth of Dead Roses-ness, for those who either can't make it in time for the first one or just can't get enough.

The insanity begins at 10:30PM, and the $8 cover gets you both 7"s, which is way fucking cool by me, yo. Plus, Ditchwater Head Honcho Lady Rosa Guerrero is also releasing the brand-new, eagerly-anticipated issue #3 of the companion Ditchwater photo-zine she does, and that on its own is worth seeing; she's doing a fine job of documenting in film the many strange and wonderful denizens of our inbred little scene.

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

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Y'know, it's funny, but I hadn't realized just how long it'd been since somebody put out a comp of Houston (or at least Houston-area) bands. Back in The Day, when CD burners & whatnot were prohibitively expensive, that often seemed to be the only way a band would get on a CD, to go in with a dozen or so of their friends & try to share the cost -- that's how Broken Note Records' whole No Approval Needed and Noncompliance series came about, for one, and I suspect it was the basic idea behind the awesome Songs From the Icehouse (put together by badass recording guy Marco Saenz of Aztlan Recording & Production, brother of country artist Mando Saenz), the Static House studio comp full frequency package, and Pinche Flojo Records' good-but-uneven Scene? What Scene? comp (which deserves respect for trying to bridge the gap between pop, ska, and punk bands all on one disc).

Back then if you liked a band here in town, your options were generally to A) hit up a show and buy a cassette or 7" from the band then or B) hit Cactus, Sound Exchange, Vinal Edge, or (maybe) Soundwaves to see if they were on some compilation somewhere. Sure, you weren't going to like everybody on the disc, of course, but odds were good you'd like some of 'em, and a handful of 'em you might discover & love. It was both a cheap way for bands to put music out there and a sneaky/excellent attempt at cross-promotion that forced, say, Southern Backtones fans to listen to the Latch Key Kids and D.R.U.M.

These days, though, local comps seem to be few & far between; not sure why that is, really, although I'd guess it has to do with the lower cost of CD burners, printers, etc. (hell, you can't buy a computer now without a CD burner), and maybe a bit to do with the fact that you can now put together an "album" of MP3s up on a Website somewhere and never even need to mess with a physical release. Whatever the reasons, it feels a little weird to me that the last local compilation I can think of that wasn't explicitly a label sampler-type comp (no offense to the Mia Kat or Esotype crew!) was the Mustache Records I Hate It Here, I Never Want To Leave disc. (Okay, actually, there's also the Houston Band Coalition's Music for the Masses comp, from back in 2006 or so, but I haven't actually heard that one myself, so y'know...)

So, random rambling/reminiscing aside, I have to say that it makes me happy to see new comps coming down the pipe. I've heard of but not yet seen the KTRU Live Vol. 1 comp Ian Wells put together, which sounds very cool, and there've apparently been a couple more besides (Chris Gray chats a bit about 'em here, along with some more oldies, some of which predate yours truly by a few years), but this Saturday, May 16th, at The Mink marks the release of the most interesting-sounding I've heard of yet, ArtStorm Records' Summer Exposure.

(Sidebar on the ArtStorm thing, by the by: didn't the collective all come crashing down? I could've sworn I heard/read that someplace, but judging by this, it's not the case, and I'm damned glad for that...)

The release show promises to be off-the-wall badass, with everybody who's featured on the comp plus some special, extra-awesome guests playing, starting at 4PM or so. The list reads like a cross-section of the most exciting bands in town right now, folks that deserve giant piles of praise: Young Mammals, News on the March, The Mathletes, Buxton, B L A C K I E, Elaine Greer, Roky Moon & Bolt, Giant Princess, listenlisten, Alpaca, The Brood (Georgetown), & One Hundred Flowers (Austin). Not sure if that's the order, but however it's lined up, that's a damn good show.

Sadly, I will be in San Antonio watching penguins frolic this weekend and have yet to hear the comp -- supposedly engineer/NotM member Joe Weber's been working like a dog to get it all done -- but the lineup above makes it pretty promising. And hey, the $10 cover includes a copy of the CD, which is always cool. Maybe this'll mark the beginning of a new explosion of local everybody-in compilations? Got my fingers crossed.

Oh, and as a bonus, if you run across Joe Mathlete wandering through the crowd, hit him up for a copy of his own CD-R EP, which is apparently Joe grabbing hold of classic tunes by all your favorite H-town boys & girls -- Something Fierce, The Wild Moccasins, Giant Princess, etc. -- and revamps them in his inimitable style. Got no idea if he'll be charging anything for them, but if he's got copies left, trust me, it'll be worth it...

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

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I'm a little hazy on the background of the whole Record Store Day thing -- meaning that it seemed to magically appear out of nowhere a while back, and yet musical-type people I know acted like it was some long-standing holiday or something. Did I just miss those first ten years of Record Store Days, or something? Okay, apparently not; per the email I got from the good folks at my own personal indie-music-store hub, Cactus Music, no, the Day's only been going on since 2007. phew. I hate to feel more uninformed than usual, y'know?

But hey, that matters very little in the long run, especially because anything that focuses on the dying breed that is the independent, non-megachain record store is very, very cool. They're well deserving of respect & love. So today (Sat., April 18th), get on over to Cactus to show some of that respect/love, starting around 12PM -- the store's got a bunch of cool stuff going on, including cool-ass rockers The McKenzies at 12:30PM, The Octanes at 2:30PM, & Centro-Matic frontman-gone-solo Will Johnson at 7PM. Johnson will also be showing his baseball-centric paintings at the Record Ranch Gallery next door.

Yes, Cobra Starship was supposed to be there at 4PM, not to play but to sign autographs & such, but they reportedly punked out. Thanks, assheads. Not like it's a big loss, though -- no offense to the CS fans out there, but I sure as hell wasn't planning on standing in line for God-knows-how-long just to get a glimpse of a bunch of people who made their bones on a novelty song for a movie that sounded like it blew in a big way. (And no, I never saw it, nor do I plan to. My Netflix queue's got more dignity than that.) Fuck 'em.

Anyway, sarcastic bitching aside, there'll be plenty more good things to occupy your time, including a ton of free shit. Some of it you have to register for & some are buy-something-get-something-else deals, but when I went by last year I got a bunch of stuff dumped in the bag without doing anything else. (And, um, I have yet to listen to most of it. Damn. [face reddening]) Go here and here to download a couple of PDFs listing some of what's available.

Keep in mind, btw, that it's all first-come, first-served -- you wait 'til 6PM to slide on over there to Shepherd Plaza, & there may not be much left...

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

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I'll admit that I'm tempted by tonight's show at Fitzgerald's, because The Hudson Falcons are pretty great, but honestly, The Mink is The Place to Be this evening. Local boys Tambersauro will be opening this evening (Wed., March 4th), starting around 9PM, for Baltimoreans (Baltimories?) Thank You and San Franciscans (and ex-Black Eyes members) Mi Ami, both of whom sound freakishly, insanely cool to my little ears.

Headliners Mi Ami are probably the craziest of the bunch -- they do alternately jerky and low-key, almost tribal-sounding, Minutemen-esque dub-punk that combines trippy, dub-y rhythms and shards of Gang of Four guitar with vocalist/guitarist Daniel Martin-McCormick's bizarrely high-pitched yelp (seriously, the guy's got the highest voice I've ever heard from a member of the gender, and that's before he does anything in what sounds like his falsetto). The end result is like some mutant crossbreeding of PiL and the Blood Brothers, and it's definitely unique, intriguing stuff.

And hey, we've got a cool-ass interview with frontman Martin-McCormick up here for your perusal, courtesy of new-ish writer Thomas M.. It's dang good, if I do say so...

Thank You are no slouches, btw, playing a harsh, claustrophobic brand of post-rock with a proggy bent and ton of sharp edges -- they're almost like a mostly vocal-less Parts & Labor at points (and anybody who reads this blog regularly should know much I fucking love P&L). The songs swirl and crunch nicely, and the drum parts seem to require something like six arms to play 'em right. It all skitters like bugs trying to avoid being caught in the light just as the door to an abandoned room opens.

All things considered, though, Tambersauro's my personal draw; they haven't been playing out much since the release of the excellent Theories of Delusional Origin last year, but thankfully now they're gearing up again, busy recording stuff for a new LP due out this next August and playing like bona-fide crazy people.

Which is a damn good thing, since they're one of the most intriguing bands in town -- they make my head spin at times, but I'm in utter awe of what they're able to do, taking these frantic, muscular-sounding songs and wrestling them to the floor while yelling/muttering surreal Slint-esque storylines. And as I've mentioned elsewhere, they do it all without coming off pretentious and over-arty. Check 'em out, folks; you won't be disappointed.

As an added bonus for tonight's show, too, the first 50 folks in the door will get their very own copies of a two-song Chick Tracks single of remixes by LIMB (aka one of the guys from By the End of Tonight, I think?) and Narreme -- I've heard the remix of "Make Water Sand", and it's pretty mind-bendingly cool (of course, it helps that it's one of my favorite tracks off Theories, but y'know).

$7 for the whole dang bucket of awesome; can't beat that.

Labels: Interviews, Musical Crap, Pseudo-Reviews, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Get

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Barely three weeks into 2009, and believe it or not, there's already a seeming torrent of eagerly-anticipated releases exploding out of H-town. Seriously; there's now new stuff out by The Wild Moccasins and The Born Liars, with stuff right around the corner from Young Mammals, The Tontons, Teenage Kicks, and listenlisten. Oh, and then there's reports of impending things from Buxton, Tody Castillo, .belville, and Paris Falls.

All of which is good, good news, because the bands we Houstonians are fortunate to have lurking around the dimly-lit bars and coffee shops of our sludgy, freaky, relatively economically un-depressed city fucking rule. Honest. As I type, I'm listening to tracks from the upcoming listenlisten release, Hymns from Rhodesia, and it's incredible, all staggering-yet-beautiful sea shanties and murky lyrics -- and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

And as they come flying out, we're going to do our best to cover 'em (although please, be patient w/us, eh?). First out of the gate is Microscopic Metronomes, the brand-new release from The Wild Moccasins, who craft some incredible, light-hearted, joyful/laidback indie-pop, the kind labels tend to wet themselves over once the band's got a good Pitchfork review under its belt. It's truly, truly great, good enough that it makes me grin no matter what kind of crap-ass day I've been having. Full review up here.

For an added bonus, tonight (Fri., January 23rd, that is) is the Mocs' CD release show over at Walter's; they're playing with fellow badasses Buxton (melancholy, impassioned country/indie/folk) and Teenage Kicks (raw, catchy, old-school Brit-style power pop), with Skyline Network honcho ADR DJing between sets & whatnot.

Further details: the door's $7, which gets you pizza, cupcakes, and your very own copy of the band's new CD. The first 50 folks through the door can also get a cool-ass handmade poster for the show (assuming they want one, obviously). And if you bring a blank T-shirt and ask politely, the Mocs will silkscreen their limited-edition, one-show-only new T-shirt design onto it for you for free. Which is a sweet, happily eco-friendly idea, if you ask me, 'cause how many leftover odd-sized T-shirts do bands always print up & then never sell? Trust me, this one is way worth the measly $7.

(Oh, and while not's not exactly an incentive to going, I'm planning on being at the Wild Mocs show myself; it's gonna be pretty great, seriously.)

Now, not to miss the rest, we've also got a cool review of the brand-new Born Liars LP, Ragged Island, which takes the promise of their last full-length, Exit Smiling, amplifies it, and lights it on fire. It's fucking great, but I'll just point you here for the complete review-ness. There's plenty more, tool, like new stuff by Dillinger Four and Wilderness, both of which are damn good in their own right. Here's the list:

Reviews: The Wild Moccasins; The Born Liars; Talkdemonic; Wilderness; Dillinger Four; Totimoshi; I, Octopus/Metronome the City; Joetown.

More on the way soon, definitely.

---------------- Now playing: Shoes And Socks Off - I'm A World Class Assassin via FoxyTunes

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

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No, it's not what you think -- it's just that the HandStamp folks broke the news that local old-school country diva Miss Leslie, who's utterly phenomenal, is giving away autographed copies of her 2008 album, Between the Whiskey and the Wine to anybody who sends her their email addy (to be put on her mailing list, natch). (Thanks, Joey & Sara!)

Check either her website or Myspace page for details, then get to sending. While I sadly have yet to hear Whiskey (yeah, I put my addy in, too), I've seen her and her Juke-Jointers live a couple of times now, and they're awesome. She's one of the few musicians I can willingly drag my Patsy Cline-loving wife out to see, which should say something about how good she is (the only other people The Wife'll leave the house for, these days, are Okkervil River or Sharon Jones).

Of course, you can always check Miss Leslie and the Juke-Jointers out live and in-person -- they'll be playing this coming Friday, January 9th at someplace I've never heard of called Aubrey's (774 West Gulf Bank Rd.), starting at 9PM. Good, old-fashioned, classic-yet-unique country; you won't be sorry, trust me.

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

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Of course, it being the holidays and all (not to mention Houston in general; when people gripe about this city, they fail to recognize that in a place this big, there's always something cool going on, somewhere. There's literally a festival every freaking weekend in some part of the city, some film being shown at a microcinema somewhere, some band rocking out to a too-small crowd of hipsters, or some art crew displaying their stuff.

You may have to look for it -- for the art stuff, btw, I'd heartily recommend Spacetaker.org; they list a ton of stuff I'd never hear of otherwise -- and you may have to drive a little bit, but hell, this is Houston. If you're not driving, you're obviously just visiting the neighbors three houses down. We may not be a tourist-friendly town (as the wife's Swedish relatives, who'd come here expecting to be able to tour the city via mass transit -- hah! -- can attest), but fuck that. Who wants a horde of tourists roaming around, anyway? Instead, we get to keep the cool local happenings all to our local selves.

Today, for example, there appear to be a ton of Christmas/art markets going on. There's the Winter Holiday Art Market at Winter Street Studios (2101 Winter Street) from 12-8:30PM (it's also going on tomorrow from 12-5PM), and another, Mistletoe Madness at 548 West 19th from 12PM 'til I dunno when and featuring a caroling contest (& a shuttle to the WHAM). Both sound very cool, and I suspect they're just the tip of the iceberg.

The one that's really caught my eye, though, is the 4th Annual Taft Street Art Market, which is held over in Montrose at Ecclesia/Taft Street Coffee (2115 Taft @ Welch) and runs from 10AM (i.e., right now) to 5PM. There's reportedly piles of arty stuff for perusal and/or sale, from clothes to soap to ornaments to photo prints, all(?) by local artists, craftspeople, & entrepreneurs. I can't speak for everybody, but I've been trying to come up with a cool, artsy gift for the wife (esp. since she keeps telling me not to buy her any jewelry or anything expensive...sigh), and this seems like the perfect place to look. Gonna have to hit it myself in a little while, I think...

Labels: Arty Shit, Charitable Things, H-Town News, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Get, Things To See

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Good, good, good news. Meant to post about this last week, but eh, Thanksgiving... Anyway, now I can say it with authority, having actually heard the new Something Fierce album, There Are No Answers: you really need to get yourself a copy. Really. It's bad-fucking-ass, honest, a fiery burst of poppy punk with irresistible melodies and singalong hooks that will reduce you to a grinning, head-nodding stupor. (In a good way, of course.)

Not only does it include classic Something Fierce tracks like "Teenage Ruins" and "Modern Girl", the likes of which have only been available on vinyl and/or in MP3 format 'til now, but you get some good new stuff besides, songs like "Aliens" (which, to be fair, began life as a Les Veines track) & "Second Son". I'm heartily planning on reviewing the whole deal at some point very, very soon, but hell, you don't need the details -- go, right now, and pre-order the damn thing here. It's a measly $10 + shipping, which is several bucks less than you'll be spending on that goofy-ass Extreme album your brother wants for Christmas (those guys still exist? yeesh...).

Added Bonus Time: If you put in the pre-order, you don't have to wait for the real-live physical version of the CD to hit the shelves (the official release date's December 19th), but will get a handy downloadable version of the whole damn thing. Holy Digital Age, Batman.

Added Bonus Time #2: Better still, if you pre-order now, then when the CDs do come in, you'll not only get There Are No Answers but the long-delayed "Modern Girl" 7-inch. Blue vinyl rules, as does the ability to make your less-musical friends & family scratch their heads and say, "people actually still put out records?" Loads of fun, let me tell you...

Then, after you plunk down your digital $$$, make plans to get on out to Walter's on Washington on the 19th for the official release show. It looks to be your last chance to catch the SF crew live until February (they're off to the West for a tour starting in Jan.), so don't miss out.

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

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Yeah, I totally get it now. Wow. It's been barely three days since I got my Jesusphone -- er, iPhone -- and I completely and totally get the nickname. I feel like a kid who's been riding a tricycle all his life, only to be abruptly plopped down in the driver's seat of a fully-loaded Volvo and handed the keys. I'm in awe of this little slab of plastic & glass.

The funny thing is that I'd actually stayed well clear 'til now; I figured I could wait out the price a bit longer, I didn't really want to mess with our current phone setup, and I'd heard bad, bad things about the enormous bills we'd get saddled with if I got an iPhone. Oh, and two of my coworkers waited in line for four fucking hours to get one. Nope, not doing that, nuh-uh.

Then fate intervened, as it sometimes does. First my third-and-final Handspring Visor (bought off eBay, naturally, since Palm split-offs Handspring got gobbled back up by Palm a few years back and quit making 'em) died inexplicably, refusing to sync or, eventually, even turn on no matter what I did. It was only its many years as a trusted companion (okay, it and its predecessors, anyway) that saved it from me picking it up and playing hockey with it in the driveway. "Fine," I said, "I'll just use my damn phone. It's got a decent to-do list, it can hold all my contacts, and it's supposed to sync with my Mac, so that'll do." Of course, when I finally tried to sync my contacts, it didn't work -- turned out I had a too-old version of the Mac OS running on my laptop.

Then the laptop died. Or, rather, the legacy Airport card I'd bought on eBay & installed a year or so before died, having basically been fried by the heat from the damn laptop itself. (And yeah, I was using a little stand that lifted it off the desk, even.) Damn. Can't live without a laptop -- off I went to the Apple Store, and came back with a shiny (er, murky) new MacBook. Which is very nice on its own, definitely. And hey, it finally synced my contacts, although it did it weirdly, breaking each contact up into different personas for each phone no. And I had to keep track of calendar stuff separately. But eh, not a big deal; some is better than none, right?

Then we went to the beach. I had a fleeting thought as we parked the van up on the Galveston Seawall that I definitely needed to put my phone in the beach bag before going in the water -- I didn't want to leave it in the car, 'cause I'm a paranoiac who's sure the alarm people will be calling the very second I turn it off to say we're being broken into. Somewhere between the van and the water, I totally forgot about the phone. We set up, and my dad pumped up his big old innertube, which Abbie immediately wanted to ride, except that the hole's a little big. So here, she could sit in Daddy's lap. We rode the waves on our little tube, paddling madly when the swell neared us and actually catching a few, and as we slowly started floating back in, my hand brushed against the pocket where my phone was. Oh, shit.

I'm proud to say I was very philosophical about it. The first thing I did was start laughing hysterically, because I fucking knew I was going to do exactly that thing, and yet, being the bonehead I am, I went and did it anyway. And hey, it's just a waterlogged phone, right? It would probably be fixable, and besides they're replaceable.

Well, kinda. The salt water did a number on the phone -- if you do like me and dunk yours in the ocean, make sure you rinse it with fresh water before it dries. Otherwise the corrosion apparently sets in. So my phone was toast, dead as a doornail. And it turned out the one I had we got a good deal on; normally they cost $300 or so. Gah. So I went on eBay and found what I thought was the same model & brand of phone.

The folks who sold it to me (greenstreamtechnology, I believe) were speedy as hell -- I ordered it on the weekend and received it on Tuesday. I got it and quickly realized it wasn't the same phone I'd had before, but eh, that wasn't that big a deal. Heck, in some ways, it was better; I was finally able to sync both my contacts and calendar events, although the contacts still did the weird multiple personality thing. What the phone didn't do, though, was take pictures. At all. Every time I hit the camera button, I got a message saying "Busy. Please try again later." A little Googling, and it seems this is something common to phones of this model -- and it's a hardware, not a software, issue. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

This was turning into a mess. The greenstreamtechnology folks were extremely understanding and immediately offered to do whatever it took to make me happy, but I was still out a fully-functional cellphone. So one night when the wife & I were watching TV, I mentioned my dilemma with the phones and grumbled that someday I'd have to go to an iPhone if I really wanted a phone that'd work fully with my Mac. Her response: "Well, why don't we just get you one and quit messing around with these other phones?"

And off we went to the AT&T store (after I'd picked my face up off the floor and demanded to know what this impostor had done with my wife), where we picked up a brand new 3G model for me for $200 or so, plus an extra $30 a month on the cell bill. I cringed when we decided to go for it and get it, expecting to be told we'd need to come back on the fifth alternate Tuesday or something to wait in line with half of southwest Houston to get the phone, but the lady just said, "I'll go and get you one out of the back." And there it was.

I'm sold. This is the future of phones, absolutely and completely. I'm not going to declare that it's perfect, but damn, it's perfect enough for me, anyway. I've got all my contacts and calendars synced, I can happily read/send both home and work email (woo!), I'm watching more movies on YouTube than I ever have in my life, I've got some nice-looking pics I've taken with the camera, plus a hundred or so I've synced over from iPhoto, I've bookmarked a pile of stuff I want to read on it, and I've downloaded every free little app I could find. I'm bummed I missed out on the iSaber, unfortunately, but Dual Level is very cool (it's the one that most impressed my DIY-loving father-in-law, naturally). Plus, there's Pageonce, which lets me immediately get all my info on everything from my Netflix queue to our mortgage, and the CW39 Houston Traffic app, which is -- no lie -- free almost-real-time webcams of various traffic spots around Houston.

Oh, and y'know the one thing I haven't really been using the 'phone for? Music. Weird, I know, but it just doesn't gel for me, not yet -- I find myself enjoying the heck out of the phone's other features, enough that I haven't bothered to move much in the way of music over to it at all. Besides, I already have a fully-stocked iPod, so why do I need another? Maybe when they come out with a 60GB iPhone, in 2015...ah, I can dream.

So happy freakin' birthday to me, dammit. (It was yesterday, but I'm still celebrating.) I'm loving my little present-to-myself. Now I've just got to figure a good way to blog from the thing...

Labels: Random Rambling, Things To Get

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Damn...my head's spinning and I really, really need to get to bed, but dammit, this sounds too cool to pass up writing about. According to our inside source over at cool-ass Midtown record store Sig's Lagoon (which is coming close to eclipsing my love of Cactus, I have to say), awesome poster artist Uncle Charlie will be having a show this weekend (Saturday, to be specific, June 21st, from 6PM-midnight) of his artwork.

If you don't know who the guy is, well, trust me -- you may not realize it, but you actually do. The guy practically created the whole bright-colors-and-kitschy-iconography style of poster art that's been the mainstay of show flyers everywhere, and he's like some kind of Godfather to the whole hot rod art scene, I think. After 18 years, the man's a bona fide legend. Oh, and he'll be selling his stuff at the show, too -- everything that's on display, apparently -- so take some of that "incentive" money The Man threw just at you like a scumbal john throwing dollar bills at a cheap-ass hooker and put it to good use buying some capital-and-lowercase-"A"/"a" art. (Hell, if you're feeling extra-special generous, you're welcome to splash out & get some for me, eh? No? Fuck off? Ah, well -- worth a shot...)

Labels: Arty Shit, Public Service Announcements, Random Rambling, Things To Do, Things To Get

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Big, big, big "thank-yous" to my little bro for pointing out this news. Not only will The State, probably the funniest sketch-comedy troupe outside of the original SNL cast (okay, and maybe SCTV), be finally releasing their long-awaited DVD set(?), but they'll be doing a reunion show, to boot. Holy fuck. Once I see that, I'll be able to die happy.

Labels: Entertainobabble, Random Rambling, Things To Get, Things To See

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So, I've had my 4G iPod for a few years now -- same one I initially bought, never replaced or upgraded or anything like that. It kept me sane during my time as a contractor, esp. at The Big Red H and ExxonMobil's Bell St. office (right next to the elevator; yay!), and while I haven't been as diligent about keeping it in good shape as I should have, it's still working fine, and I love it.

Well, except for the battery, that is. Seems that Apple's got some battery issues they have yet to address, and I've done pretty well to have avoided running into it before now. Lately, though, I've been noticing that my iPod barely holds a charge -- by the time I finish mowing the lawn (which, I'll admit, is a multi-hour deal), the damn thing's just about empty. Running it in the car with the iTrip & the radio drains it even faster; I was stunned last week when I sat down in the car on the way home, plugged it in, and -- poof -- gone. Dead.

Now, seeing as I'm headed off to the outlet-less Grand Canyon in a week or so, I started to get kinda alarmed. While the lure of an 80GB "Classic" iPod is hard to resist, shit, I don't have that kind of money to blow right now, y'know? I went out and slapped down some cash, instead, for something I'd wanted for a while, the Solio Hybrid 1000 solar charger (see up there on the right). Clips onto a backpack, comes with USB/mini-USB connectors that'll let me charge the iPod, my cell, and my cheap-ass digital camera (plus a bunch of extra phone connectors I'll never use), the whole deal, and it weighs nothing and is just a smidge longer than a paperback book. I was also happy to discover that it actually stores the charge, rather than just channeling it through, and it'll both charge and put out power at the same time, so you can suck down solar energy and power your gadgets at the same time.

The only downside is that it doesn't charge the iPod real fast -- it took quite a while to recharge using the Solio, even in bright sunlight w/the iPod not running, 'cause just a little bit of use was zapping the 'pod so damn much. So if I spend 4+ hours trudging along behind my dad in the hot, hot sun, I figured the iPod'd still die somewhere within the first two hrs. or so. Not so good.

The other option, then, given that I couldn't (and still can't) justify the $250 for a new iPod, was to replace the battery. After the first uproar over the whole battery-life thing, Apple started offering its own service to "replace" the battery, but you have to actually send the iPod in question to them (paying your own way w/the postage), and they'll send you back a new/new-ish iPod with a new battery. While the price has gone down some since that initial deal (now it's about $60, plus the cost of shipping), I just wasn't able to force myself to send the whole 'pod off for God-knows-how-long -- especially since I'd be leaving town within a week or so. And beyond that, Apple doesn't actually transfer anything to the replacement iPod, and the thought of uploading all 4000 songs all over again made my stomach do backflips.

Thankfully, in the yawning vacuum left by Apple in the iPod battery aftermarket, a number of folks have started making and selling their own DIY kits for ripping out the old, dead battery and sticking in a new one. When I initially saw the procedure described, I'll admit that I broke out in a cold sweat -- I'm not particularly handy w/electronics, so I wasn't real keen on cracking open my beloved musical friend. Particularly since doing so, uh, voids Apple's warranty.

Now, though, I'm a few more years down the line, totally out of warranty, and halfway to buying a new iPod anyway, so I figured, "why not?" Why not try the battery replacement, considering I was able to find a battery for my 4th gen. model for about $40? I dug around a bit and found a decent-looking upgrade/replacement kit (including "iOpener," patent pending -- woo!), from San Antonio-based iPodjuice/Milliamp LTD (who also run the handy iPodBatteryFAQ.com, although it's a little cheesy the way they promote themselves there), the battery for which purports to last 100% longer than the default iPod battery, and I took the plunge.

And I have to say, I'm still somewhat stunned at how easy the whole thing was. I mean, seriously, seriously easy. Easy. My new battery kit, complete with Crutchfield-style instructions, arrived about 2 days later, so after the wife & munchkin went to bed one night, I set everything up at my nice, static-free kitchen table and went to work.

One thing to note: the instructions iPodjuice provides point out that actually opening the iPod is the absolute hardest part of the whole thing, and believe me, they're not kidding. Getting the 'pod open took me roughly a half-hour of sweating, cringing, and swearing, and after watching the instructional video on the iPodjuice site (after the fact, naturally), I think I did it wrong, 'cause that guy cracks his open like he's shelling walnuts. I think the key is that you have to jam the iOpener down in there pretty hard, then slide it sideways, even if it doesn't look like it'll go -- once I finally got it going, it was like unzipping the thing around the edges.

If you ever decide to give this a shot w/the same kit I used (or another, actually; I think most of 'em include a tool of some kind), do not use anything but the provided tool to open your iPod. I made the mistake of using a thin kitchen knife to try to pry it open when I had the iOpener jammed down in there, and not only did it not pop out like I thought it would, but I, uh, bent in the metal sides somewhat. Fuck. Ah, well -- my 'pod's a tough customer, and he lives in his little Marware carrier most of the time anyway, so eh.

Also somewhat tricky -- and again, the iPodjuice people warn you up-front -- is balancing one half of the iPod "shell" on its side and holding the battery up somehow while you're trying to pull out the tightly-seated battery leads. (Which are, of course, very fragile.) Partway through I found myself wishing my wife hadn't already gone to bed, but I persevered with the help of a mini-screwdriver to jimmy the lead connector up & out. After that, I slid the new iPod battery in, shifted the cable around under the motherboard-looking thingy (like I said, not handy with electronics), and carefully snapped the two sides of the shell back together, trying not to pinch any wires in the process.

I let it charge for a full six hours or so, and praise be to whoever, it works. Minus the creases some idiot (cough) put in the metal on the sides, it looks and runs as good as new -- hell, better, even. I may be imagining it, but I'd swear the battery charges faster and runs down more slowly than the old one ever did, even when it was brand new.

Moral to the story: if I can do this, trust me, you can. I've done some rudimentary wiring/installation-type stuff in the past, but it's always been ceiling fans, light fixtures, Crutchfield car stereos, stuff that's meant for morons to be able to do it. This was way easier than the last two ceiling fans I had to put up, so that's a big plus in its favor. Heck, I think it might've even been simpler than switching out my car stereo. I'd highly recommend the iPodjuice folks if anybody reads this & decides to give it a go, but you can also get batteries and replacement kits from Laptops for Less, PowerbookMedic, the iStore, and RapidRepair. There're probably others, too, but those are the ones I ran across while researching this stuff.

I'd also recommend checking out methodshop.com's handy info on fixing whatever goes wrong with your iPod, and definitely BatteryUniversity.com's awesomely informative page on prolonging the life of lithium-based batteries. Apple uses lithium-ion batteries for its iPods, and they operate very differently in some ways from other types of rechargeable batteries -- for one thing, they actually do better with short, frequent charges, rather than the old-school way of letting the whole thing run down to zero before recharging. (This goes for a lot of current cellphones, too; I now keep mine plugged in at night no matter what, and the battery performance seems to've improved.) Anyway, there you go -- learn from my experimentation...

Now I've gotta head home & get to packing.

Labels: Cool Web Junk, Public Service Announcements, Random Rambling, Things To Do, Things To Get

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

Been meaning to mention this for a little while now -- with the "on hiatus" nature of things over at Super Not-So-Happy Fun Land, I was really, really worried that the Zine Fest Houston extravaganza was going to get cancelled or postponed indefinitely.

Which would suck, frankly, because zines -- not the digital kind like this one, mind you, although I am somewhat fond of it, but real-live paper ones (as, in fact, this e-zine used to be) -- are totally fascinating to me. I started picking 'em up everywhere I could find 'em while still a wee student, devouring 'em as fast as I could, amazed that those brave, crazy kids could put something out there into the world like that, warts and all. Most were intensely personal, many were intensely obscure, some were out-and-out hysterical, and with a few exceptions, they were almost all entertaining as hell.

When this site first came about, one of the first things I did w/it was start writing up little reviews of all the local zines I came across, lovingly scanning the covers in on the Day Job scanner (didn't have my own, at the time) and slapping 'em up online -- due to time constraints and a heavy dose of nostalgia, some of 'em are still up here for all to see/read. I hit the zine racks at SoundEx, Soundwaves, and Cactus constantly, always looking for a new one I hadn't seen yet. After a while, people were even sending me their zines to check out. It was a blast.

And looking back, I'm not sure this site or e-zine would even have ever existed without me flipping through all those Xeroxed, scissored, & stapled pages. Along with a handful of big-name out-of-town magazines/zines, folks like I'm Not Afraid (who did very cool pieces on Jawbreaker, Celindine, & Spent, among others), Russell Etchen's Smack, The Toilet Papers, Ah Lost Taco, and music/surfing zine Red Flag (which was like my personal Holy Grail of Local Zinedom for many years, because I could never find a damn shred of info about the fucking thing, and I only ever got my hands on one issue) inspired the birth of the long-lived-yet-relatively-sparse print run of the Space City Rock paper zine.

Then, as the '90s ended, I had to sadly watch as the DIY Wave seemed to crest and crash and leave not a whole lot standing but, well, the Internet. Which is cool and all, but I still miss the days when I could pick up a new issue of Dance Party or Out of Order at SoundEx and marvel at Russell's awesome artwork or wonder how in the hell I could ever get some of the records talked about in the other zines. It felt like the end of an era.

Don't get me wrong; e-zines are great, and I enjoy doing this one (most of the time). It's not the same, though, as holding that little stapled-together thing in your hands and feeling how much actual work went into producing the one copy you yourself got. Printing or copying and distributing something is a whole other ballgame, let me tell you. So, given that, I'm very, very heartened to see zine-making alive and well, and like I said, I was horrified to realize that with SHFL being shut down, the Zine Fest might be toast, too.

Thankfully, that didn't happen, and the resourceful Zine Fest folks have found a new home, at least temporarily. They'll be doing their thing this coming Saturday, May 24th, as part of the always-entertaining Secret Saturday Show deal up in the Heights at The Shady Tavern (1206 W. 20th). The insanity starts at 12PM with DJs & such, continues with a handful(?) of super-duper-secret bands playing in the Tavern's open-air space (which looks oddly like my garage, only cleaner), and continues on into the night, finally winding up at 9PM(!).

From 6-9PM, as well, they'll be staging an auction to benefit the beleaguered and aforementioned Super Happy Fun Land. Who, frankly, need all the help they can get, and who in turn we as Houston music/art lovers need to help keep The Scene alive. Oh, and there're door prizes, we're told. Gotta love door prizes...

In addition to the bands/DJs, of course, there's going to be a ton of zines, comix, art, books, and whatever else media-ish you can think of -- it is a Zine Fest, after all. And hey, you can participate, too, although you probably ought to get on it, since I dunno how much space they've got. Here're the details on that from organizer Shane:

Artists, zinesters, organizations, publishers and distros interested in setting up tables can contact "shane" at "zinefesthouston dot org" for more information. Table space is free. Bring your own table.

Zine Fest Houston (formerly known as The Houston Comix and Zine Festival) is an event dedicated to promoting zines, independent/ small press comics, minicomics, and other forms of self-publishing and independent, alternative, underground and diy media & art.

It is also a grassroots attempt to build the local zine, self-publishing and comics scenes and form networks with comics and zine creators in other areas.

Admission is free and free table space is available for zinesters, cartoonists, writers, artists, publishers and distros.

The festival is a new and different experience every time, offering a new crop of zines and comics every year (including many never before seen anywhere else) and other unique sights (such as a live chicken manning one of the exhibitor tables during our first festival).

The goal of the event is for attendees to not only discover new zines, but also to be inspired to create their own diy projects.

So, there you have it -- take advantage of the last gasp of Spring (hopefully?) and hang out under the shady trees whilst perusing handmade/printed/etc. writings and art, listening to cool music, and drinking cold beverages.

Labels: Arty Shit, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Get, Things To See

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

I suck, suck, suck. In my frantic rush to post about Record Store Day, I woefully neglected to give even the briefest shoutout to the wondrous, magical Midtown haven that is Sig's Lagoon (3710 Main, if you were wondering). Which is doubly stupid considering that in the past six months or so I've shopped there more recently and more frequently than I have anywhere else. Argh...

Sig's folks, I'm really sorry -- y'all are a fine, fine store, and I truly didn't mean to leave you out; I'm just a scatterbrain, is all. I've learned, btw, somewhat belatedly (been offline since lunchtime, I'm afraid, hanging with a certain midget who loves Shrek, rock music, and ice cream, in that order), that Sig's is participating in the Record Store Day shenanigans, and hey, since the day ain't over yet, and the store generally seems to be open late...why not stop by, eh?

Seriously, if you get a chance, even if it's not today, I'd give 'em a look, 'cause it's quite a place. And if you happen to be in the Midtown 'hood between now & closing time (which I think is midnight, but don't quote me), I'm told Sig's is selling all used vinyl at 50% off and are throwing in some cool promo vinyl, too. I hit Cactus this afternoon, and while it was a bona-fide madhouse, they had some truly neat stuff; I'm guessing Sig's is the same kind of deal.

Sorry again for the miss...but hey, while we're on the subject, it 'pears Sig's is having a bash of its own a little further down the road -- they're hosting the Night of the Living Tiki art show, featuring (duh) tiki/hotrod/exotica/skull/etc.-themed art by Crash (aka Cindy Raschke) on this May 12th from 6-10PM. It's a little ways off, sure, but it sounds cool, esp. as the art I've seen so far is pretty stunning and the music for the event will be provided by Clouseaux, Sig's owner Tomas Escalante's tiki-lounge-weirdness band and a badass crew I don't see playing shows nearly enough these days. They're awesome, truly.

That's it, then -- hopefully I'll get something up at some point on the craziness of today, but for right now I've gotta pack and listen to the sound of my glass courtyard door quietly falling to pieces as the warmth of the day leaves... (Lesson-learned memo to homeowners: if you have a courtyard w/glass doors in it, do not have any yard guys you hire weedwhack in there. Weedwhackers are very, very bad, and glass gets expensive when it's door-sized. Seriously.)

Labels: Arty Shit, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Get

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I've always thought of myself as being relatively environmentally-aware, but man, having a kid puts that whole thing into overdrive, believe it. These days I find myself become maniacal about checking labels, avoiding super-processed crap, and feeding as much organic food as possible to the curly-haired, Gogol Bordello-/Hannah Montana-loving midget who lives in my house. Since having Abbie, we've become hyper-sensitive of hormones, preservatives, sugar, and all that other fun junk that regularly gets pumped into food to make it more "appealing." Uh-huh, right.

Luckily, several friends of ours are into the same sorts of things, so a couple of 'em (one of whom works for local nonprofit Urban Harvest) eventually prodded the wife & I into meandering over to the Bayou City Farmers Market one Saturday. The market's held every Saturday morning (getting there early is best, I've found), from 8AM-12PM, in a parking lot back behind the building at 3000 Richmond, on the north side of Richmond at Eastside, just east of Buffalo Speedway & north of 59. Our first experience was a little underwhelming, admittedly -- it was hot as hell w/almost no shade in the parking lot, and there weren't very many vendors there that day -- but since then we've been trying to go back as often as we can.

And over time, we've been pretty impressed. While my wife insists she could easily be a vegetarian, I'm a can't-help-it carnivore, so I was blown away when we showed up one morning to find the Olde World Farms booth all set up, w/piles and piles of gorgeous-looking all-natural beef on display. It's a little pricey for me in general, but damn, their sausages are good. We've gotten some good organic veggies, homemade bread, candles, honey, even flowers, all grown by Houston-area folks (sometimes in areas you wouldn't expect, actually; there're apparently some community gardens down in Westbury that sell produce at the market). And the milk? Whoo, boy. When the milk people come by, it's hard to beat.

The best of the bunch so far, though, was the morning when a local shrimper had brought their catch to the market. For $9, I bought a pound of the biggest, freshest (they didn't even smell like fish, which was pretty cool) shrimp I've ever seen in my life. We took 'em home, peeled & deveined 'em, slapped 'em under the broiler w/some butter, garlic, oil, & shallots, and gorged ourselves on shrimp scampi that night. They were awesome, if I do say so myself. (Now my wife makes me make scampi every time we get shrimp from anywhere, which is cool, 'cause I don't get to do much cooking these days...)

Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning all this is because tomorrow, Saturday, March 29th, the market's having its annual(?) Kids' Market Day, where they encourage folks to bring their munchkins out to check out the goings-on, pet some animals, get their faces painted, see some demonstrations, and supposedly even take home a free tomato plant. Plus, there'll be music from singer Danielle Reich and jazz bassist Thomas Helton, both of whom I've actually heard of before, so that's cool.

Of course, it's free, and it supports strictly local growers, craft-y types, and businesses, which is a nice, consumerism-minded way of sticking it to The Man ("The Man" in this case not referring to the City of Houston, but rather to the Wal-Marts & factory-farm monstrosities we're all tied to by the purse strings. Fight the power, yo.

Oh, and if you're feeling really greenie tomorrow, you can also participate in Earth Hour 2008, where millions of people all over the planet will turn off all their lights. It's meant to be a statement about climate change and global warming, but it's also interesting to see what you can do without having all the lights in the house on. The last time the power got cut in our neighborhood, it was actually kinda cool -- we all sat in the living room and read books or scribbled in journals by candlelight. (But then, we're pretty dorky.) So there you go...

Labels: Environmental Junk, Political Stuff, Things To Do, Things To Get

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Well, after last year's ridiculously good bumper crop of local releases, I'd kind of wondered what 2008 would bring -- I feared it'd be a quiet year, relatively, with everybody touring on past CDs & 7"s & such, and no new stuff out 'til later on. What the hell am I gonna do without new stuff from the billion or so excellent bands making music in this city?

Looks like I needn't have worried. We're only just halfway or so through the first month of '08, and I've already heard & seen evidence of a veritable flood of H-town releases coming our way. Here's a quick glance at the ones I've heard about, at least, for bands I like -- if anybody knows of others, hey, feel free to mention/plug 'em in the Comments. And just so nobody gets their feelings hurt, I want to make clear that these are not in order of preference/coolness/whatever, but just in the order they generally popped into my little head. Here goes:

While You Were Gone, Heavy Lies The Crown:
Been waiting for this one for a while now -- WYWG hit it somewhat big at the Houston Press Awards a year or two back & then mostly dropped off the radar, which is a damn shame, because they're one of the best emo-ish rock bands going in this smoggy city. There're some heavy Christian undertones, for sure (take this lyric from "Sinner," for example: "I am a merchant / and I sell good news"), but with rock this lushly gorgeous and emotive, eh, I'm down with it. Besides, they're so damn earnest I just have to respect it, y'know? I have yet to see 'em play live, but reports compare 'em to Austin's Cruiserweight, which makes some sense, and vocalist/pianist Misty Gray has some of the baddest-ass soft-post-punk vocals out there today (and no, I'm not talking about just within SE Texas).

Anyway, everything I've heard so far off upcoming EP Heavy Lies The Crown is great, great stuff -- esp. "Thief," which is just plain heartbreaking in an almost Eisley-ish way -- so keep an eye out for it. The release date's 1/25, and the band'll be playing their CD release show that night at Fuel Cyber Cafe up in Humble. You can pick up the new EP there and enter a contest to snag 2 tix to see Emery & As Cities Burn in Feb., to boot.

Buxton, A Family Light:
Yep, LaPorte's favorite sons are back with their second full-length, A Family Light, which is a jangly, jaunty-yet-sad, countrified affair that tramps deeper into the backwoods than the previous one, Red Follows Red, ever did. It's good, oddly familiar, old-timey, "warm"-sounding music that brings to mind The Elected, The Mendoza Line, Iron and Wine (the faster bits, at least), or Murder by Death (no, really; check out "Blood On The Streets"). I've heard some of the band's earlier stuff, too, but I think I like the new stuff better, believe it or not -- they sound like they're really coming into their own.

The release show for this one's on 1/19 at Walter's on Washington, with excellent fellow locals By the End of Tonight and Papermoons and a fourth band, Ghost Mountain, about which I know nada. Oh, and if you hit the show you not only get a free copy of the new album, but you also get a copy of Red Follows Red & an EP the band, uh, never got around to actually releasing. Can't beat that, damn...

The American Masquerade, Unveiled:
Haven't yet heard all of Unveiled, but I've been waiting for this disc since first hearing about these guys over on The Skyline Network. Following a name change (or two? can't remember...), the Masquerade released this one, although I can't tell for sure when it was released (dammit, people, this is what those Myspace blogs're for). If there was a release show, I missed it, unfortunately, but I'm happy to see these songs hit the light of day, even still. Unveiled is interesting, entertaining stuff, in the vein of The Killers and Interpol -- and despite what you might think, I don't mean that as a slam. I enjoy both bands, personally, and the Masquerade boys acquit themselves admirably here in the same general camp of retro-'80s, glam-y, dramatic, electronified pop-rock. No clue where you can pick it up, sadly, but I'd bet you can contact the band via Myspace and snag a copy (or hell, just catch a show).

Hearts of Animals, 7":
I wish-wish-wish I knew more about this one, but here's what I do know: HoA will apparently be putting out its third "real" release (counting the two Grey Ghost EPs Ms. Mlee's done to date), a real-live 7", on Dull Knife Recs in early-to-mid February. I dunno what songs'll be on it, but going by her previous work, it's bound to be goooooood. Seriously. There's a release show already planned for Feb. 12th over at Rudyard's, with Hearts of Animals, Nat Baldwin of Dirty Projectors fame, & somebody I've never heard of before called Whiskey Priest. So here's what you need to do, in order (trust me, I'm a technical writer, so I know these things): 1) Go to show. 2) Listen. 3) Pick up jaw. 4) Fumble frantically for cash to buy record. 5) Go home and put new record on stereo. 6) Pick up jaw second time.

On top of that, the last time I saw Hearts of Animals play, Mlee said that there'd be a new "release" coming out this spring, which would seem logically to be the aforementioned record, but when I asked if it'd be an actual CD, she said "yes." So maybe -- hopefully -- this means that there's an honest-to-Jeebus album in the works? Dunno. In the loudness of Rudz, maybe she didn't hear what I asked and just smiled and said "yes" so I'd get lost. But hey, I can hope...

Something Fierce/The Monocles, Modern Girl/The Monocles:
Yep, I've babbled about this a bit about Something Fierce & The Monocles before now, but I've got a little correcting to do, I'm afraid. For some damn reason, I saw "record release" on the note about last Friday's show w/both bands and assumed it was a split record with the two of 'em. Turns out that's not the case -- the two bands are out on tour together, yes, but they're putting out two different records, one for each. Which is badass, obviously; hell, we've already reviewed the dang Monocles disc here. I swear, I've got no clue where I got the idea that there was one record and it was a split w/both bands...weird. Sorry for the confusion, y'all.

At any rate, I can tell you for absolute-freakin'-sure that both records are excellent, and since you're unable to get your old-school pop-punk fix for the duration of the "Teenage Mustache" tour (I think they're somewhere in Georgia as I type this), do yourself a favor and head on over to SoundEx or Vinal Edge and grab two pieces of cool-ass vinyl to tide yourself over. Cool?

Rustler, Shark Week:
Hot damn. Not too long after the release of their great-great-great debut EP threw me into a gleeful spiral of prog-and-not metal worship, apparently the three Big Easy transplants in Rustler are hard at work on their second release, to be entitled Shark Week. Which, weirdly enough, fits pretty much perfectly with the band's jazzy/crazed take on instro-metal -- I mean, seriously, why the hell aren't Rustler scoring Discovery Channel specials? It works for the Dub Trio, right? Anyway. No sign of the new tracks yet, but I'm awaiting the new disc with bated breath nonetheless.

Tody Castillo:
This one's been in a the works for a while now -- sounds like Tody underestimated how long it'd take to put together the followup to his awesome debut CD from a few years back -- he says it'll most likely be out in March/April of '08. I haven't heard it yet, but David from Houston Calling apparently has, and he says it's gonna be good. Keep yr fingers crossed.

Sharks and Sailors:
Dunno the details on this, but per ADR over at Skyline, the new S&S album's all done & ready to go -- it just needs to be mastered. Damn cool.

Balaclavas, Balaclavas/Inferno:
Not really "new" releases, no, but according to Ramon at Free Press Houston, the band's re-releasing its two self-released EPs on vinyl on Phonographic Arts/Compound Recordings. Good to hear...

Mantis, namas te:
Okay, so this one's got me totally confused, but what the hey... I really like what I've heard of these guys, kind of a cool, bluesy, pseudo-classic rock thing, but I'm a little at a loss for details on what looks like an upcoming release, namas te, which their Website says will be both the band's first full-length and nine free tracks for absolute free. I'm guessing they're planning on a strictly digital release, but I can't tell, 'cause that's all the info there is. Gonna have to keep an eye out for that one.

Labels: H-Town News, Public Service Announcements, Things To Get, Things To Hear

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It just seems like it's been one thing after another lately, doesn't it? Clubs closing down left and right (R.I.P., Cosmos Cafe, the most recent casualty that I've heard about), musicians passing away or getting injured (I'm sure everybody's heard about Pimp C's untimely death -- heck, it made the nightly news last night -- but there's also local musician Chris King, who per the folks on the Last Concert Cafe mailing list was in a car wreck over the weekend and was pretty badly hurt; more info here and here...), folks leaving town (like Lanky or bound-for-Austin Matt Sonzala), and even local video stores and theatres going belly-up or getting torn down (Movies The Store is gone, and the Landmark River Oaks Theatre may soon be, too)...it's been a parade of craptacular news of late.

Dammit, I need some good news. Seriously. Otherwise, no amount of holiday cheer is gonna keep me afloat. So here are some good, happy, to-be-thankful-for things to keep us all from getting too down in the dumps:

• Super Happy Fun New Home!: Yep, Super Happy Fun Land has reportedly found a new home, over in the east-of-downtown warehouses near the Last Concert Cafe (near the Atomic Cafe, maybe? is that still around?). And thank goodness for that, because not only does this city desperately need a weirdo-music/art/whatever place like SHFL, but downtown is seriously in need of upping its coolness quotient. I dunno if the deal's final yet, but the SHFLers have nailed down at least a date range for the move: January 11th through January 23rd. If you want to help -- having seen the old SHFL, I can attest that moving will be a monumental task -- and email "info" at "superhappyfunland dot com". Help 'em out, eh?

• Southmore, Too!: I hadn't realized 'til recently that the Southmore House had found a new place to dwell, too -- they're now cohabitating, as it were, with the Bill Hicks Resurrection Labs at 2915 Delafield. Big "thanks" to their Bill Hicks Labs compatriots for putting 'em up...

• Cactus Does Shows!: Ah, nice... Not that I don't love SoundEx, but when I think of fun in-store performances, Cactus Music is what immediately jumps to mind, mostly because, well, I saw more bands play there back in its Mk. 1 Alabama days. And thankfully, with the rejuvenated, reopened (and freakin' awesome; I blew a ridiculous amount of $$$ there recently on stocking stuffer joke gifts & random CDs) store back with the living, so too are their in-store shows, starting tomorrow. They've got Ben Lee playing this Thursday, December 6th, at 6PM, which sounds intriguing (I haven't heard any of Lee's last few albums, but I liked the first few quite a bit), and then they've got The Derailers and The Gougers on December 7th and 8th, respectively. Hot damn, I'm glad Cactus is alive & kicking again. (Oh, and it's now over at 2110 Portsmouth, across from the 59 Diner.)

• The Sammies!: Local fave The Skyline Network's answer to the Houston Press Awards, except a lot more straightforward, category-wise. Go, vote, and let your favorite Houston musician/band/artiste bask in the warm glow of local-scenester adulation.

• Stuff Online at the Free Press!: I'm a confirmed fan of the Free Press Houston, but for some damn reason, I hadn't been able to find much of the mag's content on their Website for quite a long while. Which sucks, 'cause they don't even drop the HP in my part of town, much less the FP. Post-Website update, though, they are an online-music-coverin' machine, with LP4 ringmaster Ramon Medina seemingly leading the charge -- his article on the excellent Hearts of Animals is particularly killer.

• The Judy's on CD!: Not sure where I saw this first, 'cause it popped up on my Google Reader from all over the place at once -- TSN, Houston Calling, the Hands Up board, wherever. Anyway, the upshot is that the back catalog of inimitable works created by The Judy's, possibly the most-beloved H-town band ever (locally, at least), is now available on CD via the band's own resurrected (was it ever really dead?) Wasted Talent Records label. Just in time for Christmas, naturally; place an order for your nearest & dearest now.

• Rosa's Ditch Water Photo Zine!: I picked up local photog/scenester Rosa Guerrero's new "fotozine," Ditch Water, at SoundEx last weekend, and I'm very glad I did. Not only is it cool to see actual, real-live paper zines once more (found a few other new ones at Domy, as well), but it's awesome to be able to finally put names to faces for some of the local (and non-local) music folk Rosa's photographed over the past couple of years. For a homebody like myself, that's kinda neat. Plus, she's a darn good photographer -- I think my fave photo is the one of Chris Ryan (I think that's him, anyway) sitting on a chair outside Notsuoh as the Metrorail train blurs past. Or maybe the one with the guy (Tody Castillo, maybe?) crouching down behind his old-school amp, with the amp in sharp focus and the guy blurred. Nice. Get your copy soon, as there're only 50 in existence, and I've got #12 in hand...

There. I feel better now. Maybe the scene's not doomed, after all...

Labels: H-Town News, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Get, Things To Hear, Things To Read

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

Just a quick note to let you know that this next week's installment of the Grey Ghost CD-R series is gonna be ever more supremely badass than it usually is -- it's reportedly one eleven-minute Hell's Angels clusterfuck entitled "Hawg!", by none other than the Linus Pauling Quartet, who thanks to their latest album All Things Are Light have lately swooped on up to sit on/near the top of my personal heap of Cool H-Town Bands. No, I have yet to hear the new(?) song on GG #48, but I have no doubt that it'll be something special (although which definition of "special" you'd care to use is totally up to you). Get on up to Domy this coming week to grab your copy before they're gone forever.

Labels: H-Town News, Musical Crap, Things To Get, Things To Hear

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Yes, it's true. Scenester/erst-and-again booking guy Bucky has decided that dangit, he just hasn't done enough music-related crap in this here city, so now he's opening his own record store, to boot, called On The Mouth. Not only is the new enterprise named after one of the best.damn.Superchunk.songs.EVER (okay, yeah, I love the OtM album, too), but it's also carrying some very cool, somewhat hard-to-find stuff. Lots of local (Papermoons, By the End of Tonight, O Pioneers!!!, Sore Loser, etc.), but also stuff like Shotbaker, Monikers (ex-Discount), Deadline, Coalesce, Strikeforce Diablo, & that ever-awesome First Crush emo comp that came out a long damn time ago. More will apparently be forthcoming in the near future.

Oh, but here's The Twist -- 'cause y'know, we live in the Age of the Police Procedural, where there's always got to be a Twist ("But wait...the nanny and Mrs. Schrodinger are the same person! She murdered herself and got away with it!"). On The Mouth is not yet its own separate bricks-and-mortar entity, no, but instead resides in the back portion of the existing (and absolutely awesome, I should add, since I don't know that I've ever given 'em their props here) music emporium Sig's Lagoon, over at 3710 Main next to The Continental Club & Tacos-A-Go-Go.

The store will carry Bucky's stock, and Bucky will be there to sell it from 11AM-9PM Monday-Wednesday and 11AM-12AM Thursday-Saturday (he goes home to sleep on Sundays, apparently). You can also call the meta-store at 713-533-9525, if you either can't make the slog over to Midtown or just fear the evil Light Rail that has claimed so many lives, er, fenders. Go. Buy things. We need more places like both On The Mouth and Sig's Lagoon (and Domy, and SoundEx, and Vinal Edge...) in this city. It's fucking criminal that a city this size can count the cool record stores on one of its sweaty, pimpled hands. Get out there, people.

Labels: H-Town News, Public Service Announcements, Things To Get

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