While I'll freely admit I could generally give a crap about what SPIN publishes -- no offense to the mag, but I barely have enough bandwidth to read all the junk I already read, so I have to limit the music mag-ness to CMJ NMM -- I'm stoked as hell to see said big-time magazine devoting a whole two-page spread to my adopted hometown. (Scroll almost all the way to the bottom of the right-hand navigation thingy to see it.)

Houston Press Music Editor Chris Gray apparently got tapped by SPIN to write up our fair city, and he did a truly fine job of squishing all the music-related goodness 'round H-town into easily-digestible format. A lot of bands/clubs got a bye, obviously -- despite the relative obscurity we enjoy/endure here, you'd need a whole issue, in my book, to do this city's music scene justice -- but he picked some truly worthy stuff to highlight. Miss Leslie? Yesssss...she's awesome. Indian Jewelry? Oh, yeah; Tex & co. deserve far more acclaim than they're ever likely to get. And Notsuoh, and Little Joe, and...well, you get the gist.

Hrm. I may have to go out and actually purchase a copy of the magazine, for once. Big, big kudos to Chris for pulling this off. I do find something oddly comforting and neat about all the amazing people laboring all on their own down here, but I recognize that that's just me being selfish & wholeheartedly hope Houston gets dragged more often into the light. (Hell, this site wouldn't exist if I didn't want that to happen, obviously...) Great job, man. Should we ever meet real-live and in-person, I think I owe you a beer, at least.

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

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Way, way, way smarter than me, anyway. Not only was I impressed that Jon Stewart was willing to go head-on with the GOP last night on The Daily Show (in front of Peggy Noonan, no less), but he and fellow news-satirist Stephen Colbert made me laugh so hard I wept while reading the joint interview they did for Entertainment Weekly (hey! I read it online, dammit, so it doesn't eat my soul quite as much...). This was the capper of the whole thing, for me:

STEWART: We've got three financial networks on all day. The bottom falls out of the credit market, and they were all running around. On CNBC I saw a guy talking to eight people in [eight different onscreen] boxes, and they were all like, "I don't know!" It'd be like if Hurricane Ike hit, and you put on the Weather Channel, and they were yelling, "I don't know what the f--- is going on! I'm getting wet and it's windy and I don't know why and it's making me sad! Maybe the president could come down and put up some sort of windscreen?" By being on 24 hours a day, you begin to not be able to tell what's salient anymore.

Thank you both for being who you are, guys. America needs you, possibly even more than it needs hope & a new direction & love & everything else. Big thank-you also to Marshall for slapping this up on his lifeisathrill site so I could steal it...

Labels: Entertainobabble, Political Stuff, Random Rambling, Things To Read

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The fictional, damn-I-wish-Martin-Sheen-really-had-been-President one, that is, offering sage, world-weary advice to the guy who'll hopefully run the real thing some day soon. Maureen Dowd & Aaron Sorkin, you both rule.

Labels: Political Stuff, Random Rambling, Things To Read

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Among the devastation wreaked by that wee hurricane we all just weathered, two local landmarks were hit badly. First off was that (formerly) awesome culinary institution called Brennan's, which apparently was okay flooding/wind-wise but caught fire and burned to the ground while the staff watched, unable to stop the flames. Under normal circumstances, HFD maybe could've put out the fire, but because Ike was bearing down on the city, some fire stations weren't allowed to go out until the hurricane had passed over. By the time they got to the restaurant, it was completely ablaze.

Worst of all, there were people inside when the fire raged through the building, including Brennan's "Wine Guy" James Koonce and his 4-year-old daughter Katharine. Both were severely burned in the fire, making what would have been a tragedy in any case downright horrifying. I can't help but think of my 4-year-old munchkin every time I read/hear about it.

I've got no idea what the fate of the restaurant itself will be -- drove past it this weekend on our way out of downtown, and while the outer walls looked intact, the building definitely looked damaged, and it sounds like the interior's just plain gone. Breaks my heart; the wife and I went there for our first anniversary and had hoped to keep going back. As for the victims of the fire, they're in just as bad shape, sadly; the Brennan's folks have set up a fund for the Koonce family's medical expenses & such, so donate if you can. Here's the details, from the Brennan's Website:

Our "Wine Guy" James Koonce and his 4-year-old daughter, Katharine were seriously burned in the fire. We have set up a fund to help his family during the long recovery.

Any donation would be greatly appreciated, along with your thoughts and prayers.

Fund for Denise Koonce in Trust for James and Katharine Koonce
Please go to www.amegybank.com, for a complete list of our open branches.
You can make a donation at any of the branches by simply giving the account name.

You can also contribute by mail:

Bank by Mail
P.O. Box 4837
Houston, TX 77210-4837

I hope both the people and the establishment can recover; I've got my fingers crossed for the former and am somewhat disheartened about the latter.

Then there's The Balinese Room, which anybody who's watched TV in the past few weeks saw ripped from its moorings on the Galveston Seawall and deposited in pieces on the opposite side of Seawall Boulevard. Like Brennan's, the place was a landmark, an illicit gambling den and home-away-from-home for the likes of The Rat Pack and Howard Hughes back in the old days, and it had finally started coming back to life in recent years after sitting empty for a long time -- bands had been playing there, the place had been cleaned up and made livable again, the whole deal. And now it's utterly, completely gone.

I don't even really know what else I can say. Staring at the pile of timbers and debris on the television screen, my mouth just dropped open. It was one of those places you'd expect to somehow survive anything, y'know? Apparently not. And according to owner Scott Arnold, he won't be rebuilding the Balinese, at least not at the old location or in its old form. The Press has the info here, along with some truly depressing pictures of what little's left. Arnold's also trying to archive the history of the place, so check the Press story for info on that; it's definitely history worth saving, even if the building couldn't be...

Labels: H-Town News, Public Service Announcements, Random Rambling, Things To Do, Things To Read

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I honestly can't remember where the heck I stumbled across this site, but I've gotta mention it here -- FWMJ's Rappers I Know is pretty damn awesome, particularly for somebody who's severely lacking when it comes to knowledge of the local H-town hip-hop scene. I've never been big on the cash-guns-honeys school of rap, and site masters FWMJ, Kay (of The Foundation & Together Brothers), & The ARE (ex-K-Otix, Trackmasters, & Together Brothers) seem more interested in good beats, down-to-earth rhymes without the gangsta shit, and just generally being positive, so it's a match made in heaven for me.

They put up tracks and mixtapes by pretty much all of the best hip-hop artists in town right now, like the recent H.I.S.D. Summer Sessions deal they put up recently. Very cool -- very Roots-like, for sure (which makes some sense, as Rappers I Know's apparently affiliated somehow with Okayplayer), but also reminiscent of Blackalicious, Mos Def, X-ecutioners, or Blueprint/Soul Position at points, all of which is good, good, good by me. My only regret is that, well, summer's about to be over, so my chances to rock this in the car while I'm cruising around in the sun are slipping away. (As I type this, I'm hunkered down listening & waiting for a hurricane to hopefully not break all the windows, but eh, it still works.)

The one thing I'm not real clear on, btw, is what the site actually is; is it a virtual record label? A blog? A home site for all the artists (since The ARE & Kay are on there, and apparently FWMJ used to do some hip-hop stuff himself, too)? Got no clue -- it could be all of the above. At any rate, it's good shit, well worth checking out -- head on over & download to your heart's content. I mean, what else are you gonna do after you get sick of watching endless clips of Galveston being swallowed by the waves?

Labels: Cool Web Junk, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Things To Download, Things To Hear, Things To Read

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Yes, I definitely live in the digitalized-to-hell online world, it's true, but that doesn't mean I don't still keep warm a quiet, soft spot in my heart/soul for things made of paper. Once upon a time I scoured zine racks at SoundEx & Soundwaves, trying to find the coolest, most intriguing, most eye-opening/mind-blowing zines I could dig up, some local and some not (e.g., Punk Planet, I'm Not Afraid, Beer Frame, Cometbus, Brown Paper Sack, Velvet Comics).

These days, well, the realms of zinedom have shrunk considerably, I'm guessing due both to the advent of the Interwebs and cheap-ass blogging technology and the steadily-rising cost of living. I have run across some new(-ish) zine-like things in recent years, but not nearly as many as I used to. Which makes me sad.

One strange benefit of the Great Zine Die-Off, however, seems to be that the survivors tend to be very good. Take one of the newest arrivals, local photo/scene icon Rosa Guerrero's excellent, excellent, excellent Ditchwater photo-zine. Now, I dunno about you, but as cool as things like Flickr can be, I still get a weird thrill when I look at real-live printed pitchers, and with Ditchwater, that's what Rosa serves up -- all pictures, little text, no filler. Seriously, the zine's damn neat; if you've ever wanted a glimpse into the sordid, self-referencing, sarcastically earnest underbelly of the H-town scene, well, you can feast your eyes upon DW's often-candid, sometimes-dirty, always-intriguing Xeroxed pages.

To me, it's especially cool to witness Rosa's evolution as a photographer, which is why I'm totally looking forward to this Wednesday, August 20th, 'cause I'll be attempting to escape the house/couch in favor of the official, real-live, free release party for Ditchwater #2 at Sound Exchange. I'm dying to see the new stuff & how it compares, esp. since Rosa seems to magically appear at every cool show in town, camera in hand. What she's doing is documenting our scene in all its down-and-dirty glory, and that is absolutely the coolest thing, to me.

So, do like I'm going to try to do and get on out. Like I said, the party itself's free (although the zine's not, but that's kind of the point), it runs from 7-9PM, and it'll feature musical guests Chocolate Crucifix, about whom I know zero but a name (okay, and the fact that they're from Pasadena). Oh, and free Smarties will be available to all, in case that's what really gets you motivated.

Additional Memo to Narcissistic Wannabe-Scenesters: while I can't say for certain, I'm guessing pictures will be taken at the party, so if you want to maybe get yourself etched into the photographic record of the most bad-ass music scene currently in existence -- and no, I'm not making fun -- get your ass to SoundEx and somehow make yourself photogenic. Just don't be the annoying person who jumps in front of everybody. Nobody likes that.

Labels: Arty Shit, Musical Crap, Random Rambling, Things To Do, Things To Read

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In case you're some foolhardy soul who only reads this here e-zine/blog thingy (hah!), right now feels like high time to point you elsewhere, at least temporarily. 'Cause our compatriots in local music coverage have been pretty fucking on lately, and they deserve some recognition. And y'know what? No one blog, website, e-zine, or print mag can cover it all. We are as uncompetitive as they come, y'all -- anything that helps The Scene helps us all, in my view.

So, here're some reasons to check out our fellow Usual Local Suspects:

The Skyline Network: Firstly and foremostly, I've gotta hand it to ADR; every time I turn around, he's come up with some brand-fucking-new Extra-Special Cool Thing for his dang website, and it's usually one that makes the rest of us look like we spend our days listening to Kenny Loggins and combing our hair, rather than actually working on these strange "Internets" things. Lately he's just been over-the-top insanely prolific, throwing out so much good stuff that I can't be bothered to list all of it (hence Skyline being up here at the top).

Seriously, there's the nice rundown of local label haps, plus excellent reviews of Wild Moccasins, Hearts of Animals, long-forgotten H-town New Wavers The Mydolls, Insect Warfare, and fuck, I've lost track of what else.

Best of all, there's the whole Tite Jams Radio thing, which I really wish I'd had the sense to come up with first (okay, we're not completely anti-competitive, I'll admit it), and now there's this new Badassvertising thing, which means your po'-ass band can now promo its shows, for free, on the one site 99% of the indie cognoscenti in town read. Damn...

Free Press Houston: Alright, I'll admit it -- the main reason I dig the Free Press blogginess is because of Ramon's insightful live reviews (despite the whiskey & beer, he writes better about the bands & music than most stone-cold sober people I know), even-handed CD/record reviews, & truly awesome interviews. His ability to chat up cool local folk like Jenny Westbury & Born Liars turns me green with envy, and the interviews themselves make me realize I really need to get my shit together and take a serious listen to both. Which is no bad thing.

Houston Calling: Speaking of cool-ass interviews, Houston Calling's David Cobb has been going a bit long-form lately, which is very cool, 'cause he's a darn good writer. Case in point (and something you really need to read): his recent interview with Chicagoans Local H. The bit where Scott Lucas threatens to break Spin writer Chuck Eddy's face is fuckin' awesome.

Nonalignment Pact: Yeah, I've been off the NP for a little while now, partly because what I originally read the blog/whatever-the-hell-it-is for the aforementioned Ramon's cogent musings on The Rock in this fair city. Since he bowed out over there to devote more time to the FP, I've been sadly neglecting my NP reading. Except, of course, that every time I happen to pop over there and catch a piece by John Cramer, I either disgust my office-mates by spitting food across the desk or drop into a serious funk for the rest of the afternoon. (And no, the latter's not necessarily bad; if everybody in the world were cheery and happy all the time, I'd have to sell everything and move to Greenland to get away from them.) John, I dunno how you do it, but what you write gets me, man. "Pointy-chinned half-witted inbred field-fairies" -- 'nuff said.

There you go, y'all. Screw Stereogum, gorillavs.bear, and the 'fork -- read locally, people.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Fuck. I've been steaming about this for a couple of weeks now, but I just can't get over it -- I'm still mad as hell that Jericho got cancelled for the second damn time, this time permanently.

Beyond the fact that the CBS rocket scientists, in their infinite wisdom, put the show in a weird-ass spot at 9PM on Tuesday nights, when/where nobody could apparently find it (hell, I had a hard time watching it at that time & on that night, for some reason), it just feels like a total shame that such an honestly good show got shafted like this, particularly when total crap like Big Brother, My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad, & Don't Forget the Lyrics! are still on the air. (I can't even remember the name of that god-fucking-awful "spill the beans about all your past infidelities" show, sorry, or that'd be first on the list.)

In fact, I've been thinking about it and thinking about it, and I just can't shake the feeling that it was a truly great show, although arguably still in its early stages. (Warning: for those who have yet to see the show, some spoilers to come...)

It was really that good; I mean that seriously. I'd initally written it off as some kind of right-winger's wet dream of a show -- survivalism after the bomb, every-man-for-himself bullshit -- but it turned out to be something that crossed all lines and hit upon some of the deepest, darkest shit that's roiling under the surface of our wonderful, soul-shattered Modern America. It was all about community, about banding together to help one another rather than just looking out for your own (well, within your own town, anyway), about loss and grief beyond measure, about people not being all bad or all good but just being people, and about being able to pick up the pieces after disaster strikes and making a new life.

Oh, and it was also about some fairly radical ideas, like localism vs. nationalism, the government not always being in the right, screwing up and living with the mess, and unchecked corporate power. Heady stuff for a show about a small town in Kansas that's been all but ignored by the rest of the world (barring the desperate, warlike next town over and some ominous corporate mercenaries, anyway) after somebody decided to nuke most of the population centers in the U.S.

Plus, despite me & the wife making ruthless fun of some of the characters, particularly in the first season -- sorry, Sprague Grayden/Heather Lisinski, but for the bulk of the first season you were pretty much just some kind of combination between a hapless '50s housewife and Velma from Scooby-Doo -- the characters and actors showed some impressive development. Everyman semi-hero Skeet Ulrich/Jake Green was likeable as all hell, as resourceful as MacGyver, and yet still susceptible to things like, well, the urge to run out and blow the head off the guy who got his dad killed. That's what I'd call human, personally.

Not everybody was always right or wrong -- even Michael Gaston/Gray Anderson hit a few things on the nose, despite pulling such legally questionable shit as co-opting deputy Jimmy to interrogate Lennie James/Robert Hawkins when Anderson, um, didn't actually hold any kind of position of authority. Hawkins, for his part, was nicely vulnerable and real when it came to his utter failure as a dad and/or husband, in spite of being a badass at everything else. Which, honestly, makes perfect sense; I'd find a combo SuperDad/Secret Agent Man totally unrealistic, personally.

My favorite character-related bit, though, was the convoluted, Odd Couple-esque, growing-in-spite-of-everything relationship between Brad Beyer/Stanley Richmond & Alicia Coppola/Mimi Clark, which was -- for my money, anyway -- the best, funniest, sweetest, most believable on-screen chemistry I've seen since Rob Morrow & Janine Turner fought nonstop up there in little Cicely, Alaska. I can't honestly remember the last time I actually wanted a relationship to work out between two characters on a TV show as much as these two. It kills me not to be able to see what happens between the two of 'em.

The reason this is all coming to me right now, though, is more about the plot than the characters. While watching Season One on DVD (missed most of the first go-round, myself) and catching up to Season Two pretty much in time for The End, I've also been reading Michael Eric Dyson's excellent Come Hell or High Water, about the Katrina disaster/clusterfuck/tragedy. Dyson dissects the whole thing quite nicely, laying blame on everybody, Democrat & Repub, but primarily smacking down the federal government for utterly dropping the ball, whether due to patrician ignorance of how The Po' Folk live or good ol' cronyist incompetence.

It was the part about all the no-bid contracts that flew into effect quickly (but not quite quickly enough, as it happened) after Katrina that made me see the parallels between Jericho, KS, and post-Katrina New Orleans, LA. Two disasters, two inadequate responses from a fractured, self-interested federal government, and two near-takeovers by corporate power. 'Cause c'mon, that's exactly what's happening in New Orleans since the water came, believe it, starting with all those Big Red H rebuilding contracts.

Seen in that light, Jericho seems downright Mother Jones-ish in its condemnation of BushCo, USA. Hell, even the eventually-revealed blueprint for the attacks -- a contingency plan for a nuclear strike on 25 different American cities, written up by a contractor -- is ripped right out of the shady world of real-life, no-bid government contracting. A plan very much like that really does exist, although it's focused primarily on preparing logistics for the event, things like the number of bodybags to purchase and the distance a wastewater zone needs to be from a tent city. It's real and it's creepy as shit, trust me.

I know it'll sound eerily like I'm echoing the show here, but I know because I worked on the damn thing. Not as a writer, mind you, but doing editing and formatting and making it look purty/readable. The plan's part of a set of contingency plans created for a DOD program called LOGCAP, which stands for "Logistics Civil Augmentation," that gets awarded out to one of a handful of super-big contracting companies (including KBR, Fluor, and, I believe, Dresser & Bechtel). The contracted company commits to being able to provide all the services, facilities, manpower, etc., specified in the contingency plans they come up with, should the U.S. government activate one or more plans. Think of the whole thing as government outsourcing for big, bad events.

LOGCAP was how Halliburton got its foot into Iraq. It's also how they started billing the U.S. insane amounts for laundry, non-functioning trucks, and awful food for the troops. Don't get me wrong -- there are a lot of good people who work for Halliburton. It's just that that much $$$ flying around makes it real easy to start overcharging, scamming, and skimming. LOGCAP isn't that bad an idea, really, but when you hand off something like that to people outside the government, it gives those people a whole lot of money -- and power -- whether you're talking about Baghdad, Jericho, or, well, New Orleans.

See, there's also a contingency plan out there for a catastrophic event in the Caribbean or Latin America, with an ensuing mass of refugees in urgent need of shelter, food, water, and medical care either somewhere in the southern U.S. or at Guantanamo Bay. Sound familiar? Weirdly, I didn't see any sign of that particular plan being activated for New Orleans, but other LOGCAP plans were -- supposedly, the Blackwater mercenaries sent into The Big Easy after Katrina were part of a LOGCAP contract.

This is why I like/liked Jericho -- the people writing the show basically went head-on at both KBR/Halliburton (which are now two different companies, I know) and Blackwater, tying them to an ambitious Congressman from Montana who, it turns out, had close ties to KBR analogue Jennings & Rall/J&R. (And just to make the Jericho connection to Blackwater more explicit: "Blackwater" == "Ravenwood." Capisce?) All of which is pretty ballsy for a Big Three primetime TV drama. We're not talking Democracy Now!, here.

Anyway. I'm just wanting to express how impressed I was with the show, not to mention how sad it makes me that it's gone away. I've heard rumors that it might come back on cable, but I'm not real optimistic, as great as that'd be. And yeah, it'd be pretty great. (Watch the Season 1 DVDs and the Season 2 episodes online or on the SciFi Channel, if you don't believe me.) Keeping my fingers crossed that we haven't seen the last of Jake, Hawkins, Stanley, Eric, Mimi, Emily, & the rest.

Labels: Entertainobabble, Political Stuff, Random Rambling, Things To Read, Things To See

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I know, I know -- it's about damn time. This little site/magazine/e-zine's been rolling for 10+ years (counting the "pre-zine" days, at least), and we're only now getting 'round to covering the colossal musical clusterfuck/lovefest that is South by Southwest. Despite the fact that the happy little Austin music festival has ballooned in the intervening years to insane proportions and seemingly includes every damn band you've ever-ever heard of (including, this year, a decent-sized pile from H-town), we here at SCR have, well, pretty much ignored it.

I wish I could say this was because of some kind of principled stand -- a steadfast commitment to only-Houston coverage and/or a rabid hatred of all things Hill Country, maybe -- but dammit, none of that's true (heck, I'm from the Hill Country). The root cause, really, is that I've been lazy as hell about it. In a typical year, I cringe as SXSW draws near, wishing & hoping I could just go and cover the damn thing, but then the Day Job and Real Life intervene, and so I'm left waving at the taillights.

Which, actually, is still the case this year, for me. Bills to pay, vacation time to save (promised my dad I'd hike the Grand Canyon w/him in June, so I've gotta hold onto my vacation days for that), kid to tuck in at night, bank account to keep solvent, etc...yeah, I'm out once again. Maybe next year?

This time 'round, though, things are gonna be different, and Space City Rock will indeed be covering Southby in the '08, even if it ain't your humble editor guy providing the coverage -- brave Space City Rock writer Brandon Hernsberger will serve as our First-Ever Official Roving SXSW Correspondent, and a huge "thank you!!!" to him for being so gung-ho about it. If all goes to plan, Brandon'll spend the next several days meandering from day show to party to whatever and back again, sporadically posting his thoughts & opinions on this little blog for all to read & enjoy. In between, he'll be attempting to corner various musicians/artists and ask them questions in the midst of all the chaos, which should also be very cool.

Anyway, keep your eyes out for the carnage -- it's gonna be very cool, I think. And if you see Brandon out and about up there in A-town (that's him up there on the top right), please be kind to him; buy him a beer or something, eh?

Other People's Coverage: If you yourself are going (or considering going) to SXSW, btw, I'd recommend checking out both The Skyline Network and the latest issue of ENVY. He's only been "back" a day or so, but TSN's ADR has already been a busy, busy boy, and he's put together an awesome little map of cool Houston bands appearing at SXSW/SXSW-area shows over the next few days. It's not all-inclusive, naturally, but it's still very cool -- he's got badass locals like Something Fierce, The Western Civilization, Sharks and Sailors, Indian Jewelry, Bring Back The Guns, Fatal Flying Guilloteens, Satin Hooks, & Co-Pilot, among others. Take a look & see where your hometown heroes will be, then go & show some love. H-town bands need your support, folks!

On the ENVY side, Music Editor David Cobb has put together a stellar "Music Issue" this month, including a ridiculously in-depth scan of the various bands playing Austin this week. With writeups on everybody from Times New Viking to Chingo Bling to British Sea Power and listings of tons of parties & shows that're going on (not to mention "big" interviews w/the likes of Bun B and a neat feature on the rejuvenated Cactus Music), it's got my head spinning. If ENVY was like it's "Music Issue" all year long...well, I'd probably have to just quit this thing and apply for a job. Seriously. Great job, David. And SXSW-goers, make sure you pick up a copy on your way out of town...

Those of us left behind down here in Houston, meanwhile, will have to content ourselves with being Armchair SXSWers and enjoy the experience vicariously, both from this blog and these other fine establishments, all of whom will be doing some kind of SXSW coverage:

• donewaiting.com SXSW Blog
• The Skyline Network
• Chron.com: SXSW
• Free Press Houston
• Hands Up Houston board
• HoustonSoReal
• HouStoned

And don't worry that we're gonna leave the Houston crowd hanging -- no, no, no. Yours truly will be posting as often as he can about all the cool shows & such coming up, reveling in Blogger finally working once again (ah, the joy of being able to randomly type something in and hit "Post"...and having it work; feels so good...). Keep checking in, eh?

Labels: Admin Stuff, Musical Crap, 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

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

At the risk of being totally meta-referential by patting a guy on the back while he's patting me on mine, I'd like to urge all & sundry to check out Ramon Medina's two-barrelled blast of year-end wrapping up over at both the Free Press Houston and Nonalignment Pact sites. I've been meaning to point to Ramon's excellent writing at FPH for a while now, esp. his excellent interviews with Mlee of Hearts of Animals, Bring Back the Guns, and the Blades guys, and these two pieces are a nice bit of icing on the cake. There are many, many, many reasons to be very happy with the Houston music scene right now, and Ramon's a major one of 'em.

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

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

Jee-sus 'effin Kee-rist, it's been a hell of a couple of weeks. Yours truly has been hammered by multiple deadlines in advance of the coming days off (all next week! woo!), and as a result I'm just now managing to climb out from under my work-imposed rock to discover, holy crap, there's been a lot going on. Rather than post individually about each & everything thing, though (the prospect of which makes me break out in a cold sweat), I'm gonna try to hit as many as I can in one big catch-all post before I attempt to make it out to the 2nd annual Suspects reunion show tonight. Here goes...

• Latch Key Kids Reunion!: A little birdie emailed to let us here at SCR know that longtime local hardcore heroes the Latch Key Kids are planning to reunite, at least temporarily, & play one or more shows this coming February. That's all I've got on that one, unfortunately, but keep an eye out -- these guys were part of the whole early-to-mid-'90s pop-punk/hc scene, and they were pretty great while they were around. More details if/when I get 'em. I smell the scent of reunion in the air; hell, even Toho Ehio's apparently playing again in Feb...

• Butch @ Secret Saturday!: And speaking of blasts from the past, not only will 30footFALL be doing their traditional Punk-Mas show on December 25th up at Fitzgerald's (with Brian's Johnson & The World's Most Dangerous Band), but I hear frontman Butch will also be playing his own solo stuff -- which is apparently not to be confused w/30fF's music -- this coming Saturday at the Secret Saturday Shows deal. Which will, obviously, be very cool. Damn, gotta love those little birds passing out info like that. (Check the SSS Myspace, linked above, for the where/when/how.)

• Sad Like Crazy Back Together: Yes, it's true -- expat Houstonian indie-rock champs Sad Like Crazy have reformed, praise be to the gods, and are playing again. Better yet, they're playing here, at The Proletariat, on January 5th. Oh, and per their Myspace page, they're also writing & recording new songs. Hell, yes. Thanks, Santa! This beats the hell out of the power-washer I asked for...

• The Skyline Network Lists Every Piece of Good H-Town Music Made This Year: Holy shit, y'all. Due to my head being down all week, I've been totally missing out on The Skyline Network's "The Skyline 50" -- ADR has just finished listing off his fave 50 Houston-made songs of the past year, covering the gamut from The Western Civilization to Linus Pauling Quartet to By the End of Tonight to Arthur Yoria to The Tenspeeds. And damn, is it cool. I'm feeling the need to print the whole thing out & then go hit SoundEx yet again this weekend to pick up the stuff I've missed. Go, read, now: Part One; Part Two; Part Three; Part Four; and Part Five. You'll regret it if you don't.

• Houston Calling's Top 10 List Up: Yep, SCR friend/sometime contributor David Cobb has got his own list of top ten releases this year up on the ever-cool Houston Calling site. I read it and feel like a big slacker, but I swear, I'm sticking to last year's scheme of "best-of" lists only happening after the New Year. It'll get done, honest...

• Hootenanny On Its Way: More Skyline news...I dunno how the guy does it, but that dang site's throwing yet another show/shindig on January 5th. I know, I know -- the conflict with the Sad Like Crazy show above about makes my head crack open, but still...

  Anyway, this one's called Hootenanny, and it's gonna feature a ton of good local folks playing as the bands they feel influenced (at least somewhat) by. Blades will be playing as the Foo Fighters, John Sears as Sam Cooke (wha?), Indian Jewelry as Depeche Mode (ooh, I wanna see that...), Laws as Creedence, The Jonx as Nomeansno (although I'm bummed that they won't be playing "The Tower"; I tried to talk Danny into it, but no luck), The Dimes as the Pixies; The Mathletes as the Talking Heads; Grant Olney and the Brokedown Gospel (which includes ex-members of Panic in Detroit!) as Jawbox (double "!"), Something Fierce as The Clash (nice...), Satin Hooks as the Wipers, Awesome! as Weezer, & Papermoons as Pedro the Lion. Wow. It'll be at The Backroom of The Mink, so make plans to stop by.

  UPDATE: Whoops...sorry, I confused my mega-shows, apparently -- Grant Olney and the Brokedown Gospel, who I've been told include ex-Panic in Detroit people, are playing tomorrow night at the We Are The Hollow Men art/music deal. Panic in Detroit themselves, at least according to the Hootenanny flyer, will indeed be playing, I guess in their original incarnation & not as somebody's backing band.

• The Proletariat Definitely Closing: Fuck. This makes me really freakin' sad, although I can understand Proletariat owner Denise's feelings on it. Check out Chris Gray's excellent interview with Ms. Ramos for the details, but the upshot is this: train's a-comin', and the Proletariat's gettin' outta Dodge before it does. sigh. I'm sure I've said it before, but the place'll be missed.

• Southmore Gone, Too? Again?: Well, I'd thought the Southmore House had successfully relocated, but apparently that's not the case. I'm told that the ever-lurking beast the NIMBY Noise Complainer has once again shut the damn place down. Crap. No clue what that'll mean to the upcoming shows still on the schedule for the House; if anybody knows, tell me, eh?

• Local Booking People Awful Quiet: I dunno about you, but barring a few big shows it sure seems like the local booking stuff of the past year has slowed way down. The past year or two, we've seen a ton of Houston-area booking groups pop up, and for a while there the sheer mass of shows going on all over the city & the 'burbs was insane. And great, of course, but still insane. Lately, though, a lot of folks have been real quiet -- hopefully that doesn't mean they're going away...? I spoke with Willow of Hate Tank recently, and he said he was having to slow down a lot both because of burnout and the $$$ he lost this past summer putting on shows, which is totally understandable. He said, though, that he didn't think he could quit, so hopefully there'll be more HT shows to come...

• Super Happy Still Alive: Thank God not all local venue news is craptastic like the above. Seems the good people at Super Happy Fun Land have signed on the dotted line for their new space and are ready to share it with the world. As of late January, SHFL will be moving to 3801 Polk Street (77003), over east of downtown in those cool old warehouses. Good to hear, y'all.

• Mel House on Canadian MTV: I've threatened it once or twice now, but as of yesterday, it's the real deal -- H-town musician/writer/director Mel House now has his excellent video for Jonah Matranga's "Not About A Girl Or A Place" up on Fuse, aka "Canada's MTV but with more actual videos." Which is a major thing for an indie horror filmmaker like Mel; congrats, man!

• David Sadof on Chron.com: HandStamp's Sara Cress has been trying to recruit local music folk to start up their own "reader blogs" on the chron.Commons Website, and lo and behold, now David Sadof, formerly of the Lunar Rotation and High Fidelity radio shows, now has his own blog for all of Houston to see. Cool...gonna have to add it to the ol' Google Reader. Kudos to David and to Orange Is In's Jeff Balke for putting together some good stuff to read.

  (I'm somewhat embarrassed, by the way, to admit that when Sara sent out her email, I emailed back and said, "sure, I'll do it!"...only to absolutely zero. Sadly, I've come to the realization that I can barely handle this Website/blog, much less a whole other daily-written thing. Maybe one of these days...)

• Thee Armada Destroys Britney Spears & Makes a Video: Okay, I'll grant that it's not that tough of a task to blow Ms. Spears out of the water these days, but it still does my soul good to see that local boys Thee Armada whomped up on all comers at the end of last month on KRBE's "New Music Faceoff," where their track "Rock, Shock & Load" was thrown up against a ton of new songs by big-big-big-name acts and came out on top. Seriously -- they beat Britney & the Timbaland/Fall Out Boy "duet," both of which well and truly deserved the smackdown. Good job, you guys.

  Also, in more recent Thee Armada news, the band will be filming a video for "Rock, Shock & Load" tomorrow, Saturday, December 22nd -- it'll be at Irma's, at the corner of Commerce & Chenevert, over by Minute Maid Park, at about 3PM. If you want to be in the video, show the heck on up (under-18s, get your parents to sign the consent form on the band's Myspace) and rock out.

• Give Food, Feel Good: I know there are about a bazillion food drives going on this year, but dangit, this one's real close to home (spiritually, at least) -- Rudyard's is currently holding a canned-food drive at the club. It started a few weeks back, but hey, it'll be running 'til Jan. 1st, so you've still got time to go and assuage the credit-consumer guilt for buying that flat-screen LCD.

Argh. I feel like there's more, but that's all I can do for now...

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

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

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

Wow. I'm guessing that this has already been bandied about the Interwebs, but I hadn't heard 'til this AM (courtesy of Vice's VBS.TV venture), and it's utterly blown me away: My Bloody Valentine have reportedly reunited and are doing a new album (check out Soft Focus - Kevin Shields Part 1). Holy crap. Granted, Shields has been promising to finally do the followup to 1991's (fucking incredible) Loveless for a decade-plus now, but this time he sounds pretty concrete about it, and he says all members of MBV are onboard for it.

And man...Shields looks weirdly like a shy, not-real-good-with-people college CompSci 101 prof. And Ian Svenonius sounds nothing like how I'd expected him to sound (never heard him talk before). Very weird.

While I'm at it, while Vice tends to annoy me more than not -- it always seems too self-lovingly trashy, to me, and some of their "journalistic" pieces on world affairs (Central American gangs, jungle guerrilas, etc.) come off like voyeuristic teenager crap -- they've got a good article up now on troops who've fled to Canada to avoid either going to or going back to Iraq. Well worth a read.

Labels: Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Read, Things To See

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

Okay, so this one's Pt. 2, but it's technically Pt. 1 of this coming weekend, which is gonna be absolutely insane:

Fri.-Sat., October 12-13 -- The Axiom 20th Anniversary Party/Reunion @ Fitzgerald's
Yep, posted about this one before, but now's the time, folks, so brace yourselves: The Axiom is officially lurching back to life for two nights, albeit in a fairly different location. The kind folks at Fitzgerald's are giving over both floors of the place to a host of old-school Axiom alumni for both nights, and the lineup's pretty damn incredible.

Let's see... on Friday night they've got one of the best damn bands ever to come out of Houston (and, sadly, one that never managed to break beyond the city's boundaries), Sprawl, headlining the show, along with fellow local icons de Schmog, Blunt, & Fleshmop. I can remember seeing all those folks back in the day when I was a wee shrub of a college student (Sprawl were all or mostly Rice kids; even after graduating, they played somewhere on campus every once in a while), and I vividly recall being either blown away by how great they were or by how freakin' bizarre they were (and sometimes both).

I'm less familiar with the other folks on the bill -- never caught Toho Ehio, U.Y.U.S., Bad Samaritans, or Grindin' Teeth when they were around the first time, and I know nada about Cave Reverend, Anarchitex, or David Von Ohlerking and The Awful Truth except as names somebody (Justin, maybe?) scribbled on the great Houston band family tree once upon a time.

Saturday, Night #2, is equally cool, with the ever-badass Joint Chiefs, Sad Pygmy (whose Sometimes Nightmares 7", incidentally, was the first locally-released bit of music I ever bought, & the start of many long afternoons spent sifting through SoundEx's 7" bins), & Turmoil in the Toybox as the ones I know fairly well. I've heard of the rest, though, including Academy Black (which will include Michael Haaga of dead horse/Plus and Minus Show fame for the evening), Cinco Dudes, Bayou Pigs, Uncle Charlie of Dresden 45, the aforementioned Cave Reverend, Backyard Epics, & Jimmy Bradshaw of Squat Thrust.

Oof. Scanning back over the list, it's apparent that this is gonna be quite a (noisy/raggedy/wild/dangerous) party. And hey, it's pretty damn cheap, considering that a large chunk of these bands/people had to be flown in from elsewhere -- $12 for a one-day pass, $20 for both days. To make things even better, the whole shindig's a benefit for the Musicians Benevolent Society of Houston, which is an extremely worthy cause, at least to me.

A Side Note: I got sent a very cool link last week, for a blog called Chronological Snobbery, where Ransom, a self-described "thirty-something suffering from nostalgia," drags us all back kicking and shrieking to 1992 and the Infected: The Twelve From Texas comp on Sound Virus. Immediate reaction? "Holy shit, I'd completely forgotten about that damn album!" Secondary reaction? "Where the hell did all these people go?"

Seriously, that disc came out right when I was making my own tentative inroads into music in H-town, dragging skeptical college friends out to Emo's or Goat's Head Soup or The Abyss/Vatican or The Axiom to check out some band or another, always afraid I'd come back out & find my crappy little Toyota Tercel stripped to the frame. Montrose and Shepherd were rough places, downright scary to a relative kid like me, and Houston as a whole seemed like this grimy, dark, sorta illicit place to live. No one with money wanted to live in the city itself -- a far cry from today -- so things were ridiculously cheap. Nobody liked Houston, and that in itself was part of the city's charm.

And Infected served pretty well as the soundtrack to all that. Being broke 95% of the time, I had to settle for listening to/cringing at the copy we had at KTRU at the time, in the mysterious "Local" bin. All the bands on there were weird as shit, but they honest-to-God didn't care. They weren't playing to make it on the radio, but because they just wanted to make music, which is s