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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Ah, this is cool -- and just in time for Halloween, too. (I'm guessing that was the general idea...)

If you're up for some weird cinema and eerie music in a tranquil urban-yet-green environment, well, tonight's your night. KUHF is putting on a set of old-timey silent films that'll be set to live music, meaning that there's an actual band/orchestra/etc. playing down there near the stage while the people up on the screen swoon and emote and all that. And tonight they're showing the classic, classic, classic vampire movie (generally recognized, I believe, to be the first vampire movie ever made) Nosferatu.

If you've never seen it, well, it's based on Bran Stoker's Dracula (although apparently the filmmakers couldn't get the rights to the book, so they had to change the names of the characters), it was filmed in honest-to-God Slovakia back in 1922, and it's very strange, very German, kinda creepy, and definitely groundbreaking. (And yes, it's the film that John Malkovich & Willem Dafoe are making in Shadow of the Vampire, which isn't nearly as interesting a movie as this one.) Austin's Golden Arm Trio will be there, too, playing the original score to the film, which means this'll be doubly cool.

Best of all, it'll be outside, up in downtown at Discovery Green, which I still have yet to visit but which I hear is pretty nice for an in-downtown park. The whole deal's free to the public, and it kicks off at 7:30PM -- no clue what the seating's like, so if you're going to go, I'd show up super-duper early...

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

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Okay, so this is somewhat of an urgent plea for assistance from local folk artist Cleveland "The Flower Man" Turner, whose house is a bona-fide landmark -- his place is the kind of thing that makes me happy to live in a city where somebody can just let loose their creativity without a worry in the world and be recognized (at least somewhat) for it. Unfortunately, it seems that Hurricane Ike did some serious damage to The Flower Man's house in the Third Ward, and the good people at The Orange Show are organizing a crew to get on out this weekend and help fix the building up.

Here's the details I got from the Orange Show folks:

Saturday October 4th 10am-5pm

Come Help Us Help The Flower Man!

The Good News

The Orange Show monument and The Beer Can House weathered the hurricane with minimal damage. Our staff and crew has cleaned up, repaired and restored both sites and we will re-open for visitors this coming weekend.

The Bad News

Unfortunately, Hurricane Ike did a number on The Flower Man's house and we need help putting it back together! Please join us Saturday, October 4th starting at 10am as we work to help Cleveland "The Flower Man" Turner restore his wonderful Third Ward landmark.

Some of the tasks include: staking up the fences, removing a large dead tree, fixing the leaking roof, repairing the front room ceiling and clearing debris from the yard.

The Orange Show will provide materials for general clean-up and restoration but please bring tools and work gloves, if you have them. In particular, we need pruning shears, at least one chain saw and a shop vac. If you have any additional tools that may be helpful please let us know. We will also have plenty of cold drinks and water available.

The Flower Man Needs Our Help

Saturday, October 4th
10am to 5pm
2305 Francis Street
(two blocks south of Dowling & Alabama)

Please call Wendy in the office if you are able to help.
305.804.8703 (Our internet is still down)

It is not necessary to RSVP!

Feel free to show up on Saturday if you can work for any amount of time. Cleveland needs our help!

There you go; get out & help if you can...

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

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Remember that whole Final Fridays thing at the Caroline Collective that got canceled back at the end of last month?

Well, it's back on, tonight, Friday, Sept. 26th -- the night will kick off at 7PM with badass jams from local up-and-comers The Wild Moccasins, followed by short films by Michael Rodriguez, which will then be followed by live viewing (and discussion and whatnot) of the first Presidential debate.

So, there you go: music + film + politics, pretty much all the things I like, at least, in one handy espresso-shot burst. Avoid the post-Ike depression and get the hell out of the house, eh?

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

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Damn. I already knew our 'hood got off lightly, but after seeing pictures here and here, I feel like an utter asshole for even bitching about not having power. The picture of Gilchrist wiped clean but for one solitary house makes me want to weep.

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

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I've been somewhat out of the political realm the past few years, after diving head-on into it back in 2001 or so; when my daughter came into my life, I simultaneously realized I needed to quit worrying about this shit quite so much and that I really, truly enjoy the music side of things more than the political. The Kid and Good Tunes are a hell of a lot more fulfilling than Political Wonkery. Plus, they have the added advantage of making me feel good, which politics almost never has. I mean, even on a good day, I still walk away feeling dirty & disillusioned.

That said, I do still love to indulge my armchair politico-geek. And right now, the awesome-awesome Electoral-vote.com site has me giggling like a GOP staffer watching Ann Coulter. It's very cool, a nicely-done encapsulation of the state of all the major races in the country, plus good links & some nice political musings, to boot. My grungy baseball cap's off to the anonymous(?) Votemaster for all his/her hard work...

Labels: Cool Web Junk, Political Stuff, Random Rambling, Things To See

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This may not mean a whole lot to some of the folks who read this, but I did a total double-take when I happened to glance up at the Numbers sign the other night, on my way in to that epic Recession Thursdays show: 10/18 Alison Moyet. Wha?

My wife happens to be a huge Alison Moyet fan, so over the years I've heard bits & pieces of pretty much her entire catalogue, from her albums with Yaz all the way through to 2004's Voice (apparently there's a 2007 album, too, The Turn, but I have yet to hear it). I initially dismissed her as more of the lame-ass '80s crap I couldn't wait to escape from at the end of that decade, but by and by, the wife's turned me around.

I still don't get that much into her earlier stuff, admittedly, mostly because the production is typical synth-pop crap, but damn, that voice was pretty incredible, even then. In more recent days, I think she's gotten better, if anything -- Hometime, in particular, is an awesome, awesome album where Moyet pretty much turns from rough-edged bluesy diva into a torch singer and makes it work. "You Don't Have To Go" makes me crumble every time. She's dark as hell, gritty, moody, and murky, and it's pretty great.

Anyway, trust me: this is going to be a good one. The kind fellow I spoke with at Numbers didn't know a lot about the show, saying it was being set up by some booking group up in Dallas w/the club just being used as the venue, but he guessed that the tickets would be in the $20-$25 range. A bit steep, yeah, but hell, I don't know when Moyet last came through Houston, if ever (Yaz reunited for a tour last year, but they skipped us), so it might be a once-in-a-lifetime deal.

You can buy presale tix starting today, if you're so inclined -- the price listed on the Ticketweasel site, though, is higher than I'd thought it might be ($39!), so you might want to wait & see if it gets any better later on...

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

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In somewhat cheerier news: the awesome-sounding Toypunks documentary will be showing tonight & tomorrow night (August 16th-17th) at the Aurora Picture Show. Showtimes are 8PM tonight & 3PM tomorrow.

The film looks at the crazy, Technicolor world of Japanese toys, which these days blend in with fashion, design, and art in general, w/lots of interviews with influential people in the field. Houston-based (I think?) filmmakers Chris Nelson and Carl Wormley will be there to show the movie, and Nelson's doing a talk at the Menil on Sunday at 1PM called "Video Salon: From Superflat to Anime Network to Toypunks". I have yet to see the movie, but it sounds damn cool to me (and no, I'm not a Japanese toy junkie)...

(Thanks, btw, to the Domy folks for the heads-up!)

Labels: Arty Shit, Moo-vies, Random Rambling, Things To Do, Things To See

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I tend to not watch a whole lot of videos these days, partly because I get bored watching some band pretend to Rock Hard while actually just miming at their instruments (sorry, folks, but playing electric instruments in the rain just does not work the way you wish it would) and trying to look Badass and partly because, hell, I work a day job where I'm lucky I get to listen to music, much less have the time to sit back & watch it. Takes too much attention, y'know?

That said, things lately have been looking pretty damn good, at least here in town. First there was the Southern Backtones video for "Forever" (which I think might've won an award, although I'm not positive), then The Dimes/Young Mammals had a fun little video shot in a local Kwik-E-Mart, then Sharks and Sailors got all moody in their video from a little while back (see here).

And now, local space-rockers Co-Pilot have thrown their hat in the ring, with a cool, contemplative video for "Low Earth Orbit" created by Norwegian filmmaker Morten A. out of band footage and footage he shot while driving around the States. Now, I love-love-love this song, so seeing the sound put to images had me a little nervous at first, but it fits absolutely perfectly. Makes me just want to drive off into the sunset down some lonesome Texas Hill Country road, windows down, playing the song on infinite repeat.

(And yes, I love the Backtones' video in part because they filmed it at Foodarama, esp. because it looks like the Post Oak location nearest to our new house. Foodarama rules; I always know where to find things there, unlike at, say, the Wal-Mart Grocery down the road. Heck, I think I'll embed that video, too, even though it's fairly old by now...)

Labels: Cool Web Junk, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Random Rambling, Things To See

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

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

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

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

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

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

For now, here's the list:

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

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

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

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

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

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Long-time e-zine/site readers and friends of SCR will probably recognize the name Marc Hirsh -- back in the day, Hirsh was one this site's earliest, best, and most hardworking writers, a guy who also served as the "Bad Cop" in the bugging-you-about-reviews realm. In the intervening years, he's moved up to Boston, attended and dropped out of grad school at Harvard, and somehow managed to make a living actually writing as a freelancer for places like the Boston Globe, MSNBC, NPR.org. If you read stuff on the MSNBC site about American Idol or Heroes, odds are you're reading stuff Marc's written.

On the side, he also does some improv comedy stuff, these days with ImprovBoston crew (mostly on the TheatreSports side, but sometimes in IB shows, as well, I think). Through a very odd set of serendipitous happenings this past spring, he ended up writing his first-ever musical (or, hell, play of any type, for that matter), and the Improv Boston folks wanted to put it on, so...

Well, Marc's first dramatic offering, What Does America Mean To Me, a musical comedy about U.S. history and the lack of knowledge thereof. Now, while Marc's new to the playwriting thing, he's not new to being funny -- he's honestly one of the funniest people I've ever met. No, really. Not to set the bar too high or anything, but it's gonna be good.

Anyway, the show's running a super-ultra-limited engagement up at the ImprovBoston theatre at 40 Prospect St., Central Square, up in Cambridge (duh), this coming June 26th through 29th. Sadly, yours truly will be feebly clawing his way out of the Grand Canyon right then, but if anybody out there is going to be in Boston right then (or really loves musical theater, enough to shell out the $$$ for plane tix), I'd like to encourage/pester you to go, go, go. If you won't do it for Marc, then do it for me, man.

P.S. Congrats, man. I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around this, but it's freakin' cool as hell nonetheless.

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

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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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I've been very remiss in posting about local faves Sharks and Sailors lately -- sorry about that, y'all -- but as part of my penance, I feel compelled to mention that this member of the "H-town's Most Likely to Succeed" crew will be playing tonight, Friday, June 13th, up at Walter's on Washington. It'll be S&S, headliners Riddle of Steel, about whom I know nada, sorry, and fellow locals Motion Turns It On, whose last release, Rima, is slowly percolating its prog-rock-y way through my consciousness.

Sharks and Sailors are who I think will rule the night, though -- no offense to any of the other bands, but I can't think otherwise, esp. after viewing the band's Teresa O'Connor-crafted video for "Cliffs":

Nice. Nice... I've said before that I sometimes miss the "old" S&S, what with its turbulent, heavy-ass guitars and all that, but damn, seeing this video & hearing this song (again, mind you) makes me drop any reminiscing and prepare myself to crown them the Neu-Gaze Kings & Queen of our fair city. Sleepy-making, yes, but in a good way.

And I do like the video quite a bit, to boot -- Teresa's a very talented lady (and, truth be told, a friend from Ye Olde Band Days), and I love it that it looks like the band's playing in some weird Sleestak cave straight out of Land of the Lost. If you feel the need to check the S&S video out full-size and art-style, you've got until tomorrow, Sat., June 14th, to run by Lawndale Art Center & check it out as part of Teresa's show with Danny Kerschen & Lynn McCabe.

Of course, the video doesn't quite capture the true S&S live experience, so for that you'd better get on out of the house tonight. Show's at 9PM, y'all...

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

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Okay, so now that I'm gonna have to enter Witness Protection or hope that the guys in the band alluded to repeatedly here are very forgiving, I feel the need for something entertaining. Serious discussion is great & all (and I think this thread is probably gonna go down in history as the longest this e-zine ever sees), but dammit, I think we all need to crack a smile or laugh or something. (Although I strongly suspect ADR is already laughing...)

So, courtesy of pal Anish, I give you pint-sized Argentinian heroes Gauchos de Acero:

I never knew "Eleanor Rigby" would sound so cool done a la punkish metal. Now for the kicker, which would be really lame if these kids didn't kick ass -- and yes, when I see the kids' niece come in and start doing her thing, I get eerie visions of my daughter's none-too-distant future:

Labels: Cool Web Junk, Musical Crap, Random Rambling, Things To See

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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

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Okay, so I was a bit confused about this one -- I'd thought today's Record Store Day thing I'd been hearing about from the Cactus Music crew was just something at their happy little store, but noooo...apparently it's North America-wide, if not further. Turns out lots of indie music stores all across the country are throwing wide their doors today and having all kinds of fun & entertaining stuff going on, as a sort of show of indie-store solidarity. Neat, if you ask me...

I can't speak for other stores, but the party's starting over at Cactus, it sounds like. They've got live music from the reportedly-excellent South Austin Jug Band starting at noon (er, right now, that is?), followed by James McMurtry at 3PM, (free?) beer from St. Arnold's, a bunch of new releases (like Jason Isbell's Live at Twist & Shout), free pizza from 1-3PM, a vinyl listening party from 4-7PM, and tons of unspecified freebies (I'm guessing things like stickers, buttons, & label samplers). Plus, you can enter to win a Red Hot Chili Peppers skateboard, autographed stuff, and maybe even a guitar. Hot damn...

So, there you go -- it's a beautiful damn day, so get on out & head over to Shepherd Plaza to enjoy some music and support one of the few true bastions of independent music left in this city (while you're at it, head on over to Sound Exchange, Soundwaves, & Vinal Edge, too; I dunno if they're "celebrating" the day, as well, but you've gotta spread the love, right?). Cactus (the new Cactus, that is) is housed at 2110 Portsmouth, around the corner from Freebirds & Amy's and across the street from all the horseshoe(?)-throwers at The Stag's Head. I swear, as soon as the freakin' lawn guy shows up ("I'll be there in 20 minutes!" was an hour and a half ago...argh), me and The Munchkin will be making our way over there for some big-ass Freebirds burritos & some cool music stuff.

Also On: Just in case you thought the brilliantly-conceived Secret Saturday Show thing had died an untimely death, take heart. I have it on relatively good authority that Austin/Houston dweller Thane Matcek (Sad Like Crazy/ex-All Transistor/ex-Linoleum Experiment/etc.) will be over at The Shady Tavern in the Heights (it's at 1206 W. 20th St.) this afternoon with his newest musical project, band The Judas Bear.

It's gonna be really freakin' cool, people, trust me -- I've been a fan of both Matcek and collaborator Mark's (Richardson, I think?) work for years now, and pretty much everything they touch is strange but good. And is "J.D." J.D. Tucker from Over Sea Under Stone/Lenny Briscoe? Even better...

Lomax over @ the Houston Press recently profiled "Sit Shiva", one of The J.B.'s neatest songs, so I'd highly recommend checking out the song and/or the band themselves up at the Tavern this afternoon. I dunno today's lineup for sure, but per normal SSS operation, DJs start up at noon while the bands play from 2-5PM. And hey, it's free-free-free (as is the Cactus Record Store Day thing, btw), so you can't beat that.

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

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Three words (well, technically two words, but y'know) come to mind when I look at the ginormous pile of cool stuff that's going on this weekend: why, God, why? See, 'cause while all you fortunate town-bound people will see your respective cups overfloweth, I will be shepherding three screaming children (not all my own) around Ye Olde Alamo and the Magical Land of Shamu, both of which are in San Antonio, not here. Fuck.

Don't get me wrong -- I love the kids, believe me, but I've honestly been looking forward to this weekend and, stupid me, neglected to factor in the pre-existing family-type plans (the type that involve relatives and nonrefundable airline tickets) when getting psyched about said cool stuff. sigh. I'd damn well better not be out of town when the Press Awards Showcase hits, too, or that's my whole spring/summer season blown...

Anyway, let's hit the high points, shall we?:

WESTHEIMER BLOCK PARTY: Yes, yes, yes. From humble beginnings, the Westheimer Block Party, a mutated, high-voltage descendant of the venerable, much-beloved/much-bickered-over Westheimer Street Festival that's been brought to life by the very cool Free Press Houston crew, has grown to be something pretty damn special. I'll admit that I was a little bemused on my first visit, but the thing's grown by leaps & bounds in the relatively short time since then. And hey, it's free to all, so that's hard to beat...

This time out -- Saturday, April 12th, to be specific -- the show looks absolutely fucking stellar. I'm not going to run down the whole schedule here -- you can go here for that (although be warned that, fate being what it is, some things are bound to shift between posting on the Internets and the Real World).

For this edition of the WBP, there're even honest-to-God headliners ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead & HEALTH, who're playing Numbers in the evening-time with badass locals Young Mammals (aka The Dimes, but I have to say, I like the new name much better; makes me think of The Discovery Channel, oddly...), Spain Colored Orange, & By the End of Tonight, as well as DJs Ceeplus Badknives & Damon. I'm not a huge Trail of Dead fan, truthfully, but I dig the hell out of a song or three ("How Near, How Far" is excellent, even several years past), and I'm told HEALTH kick ass -- as for the other folks, I can personally attest that yes, they all do indeed kick ass themselves.

Now, for the earlybirds, you've got your choice of stages, starting at noon or so tomorrow -- there'll be bands playing at the Avant Garden (ex-Helios/The Mausoleum; downstairs & upstairs), Numbers (inside & outside), & Mango's (ex-The Oven, next door to the Avant Garden; inside & outside). There will be bands assaulting your ears from left, right, and above, which can make this sort of thing disconcerting, so here're my personal faves to check out:

AVANT GARDEN (OUTSIDE):
2:15-2:45 -- The Watermarks
3:00-3:30 -- Buxton
3:45-4:15 -- Piano Vines (this one really hurts; every time these folks play, I'm out of damn town...)
6:00-6:30 -- Papermoons
7:30-8:00 -- Elaine Greer (not sure if this is with the rest of The Holly Hall or not)
8:15-8:45 -- Sabra Laval

AVANT GARDEN (UPSTAIRS):
1:30-2:00 -- Antarctica Starts Here
3:45-4:15 -- Cop Warmth
9:00-9:30 -- The Gold Sounds

NUMBERS (OUTSIDE):
1:30-2:00 -- American Sharks
2:15-2:45 -- Perseph One
4:30-5:00 -- Thee Armada (hate all you want; they're a damn good post-emo band...)
7:30-8:00 -- H.I.S.D.

NUMBERS (INSIDE):
3:45-4:15 -- Southern Backtones

MANGO'S (INSIDE):
4:30-5:00 -- The Takes
7:20-7:50 -- Satin Hooks

MANGO'S (OUTSIDE):
3:45-4:15 -- Rise Over Ruin
4:30-5:00 -- The Wild Moccasins

Obviously, there're more excellent people playing all over the damn place, but dangit, I had to pare the list down some so as to not overburden you, Dear Reader, unduly. I probably have anyway, seeing as some of the above folks are playing at the same time -- now'd be a perfect time to start working again on the old cloning project you've had sitting in your garage for the past six years, right? Whatever you do, just go, wander around, listen to bands; the beauty of this type of show is that you're absolutely guaranteed to hear/see something you like, even if you don't like all of it.

Good on ya, Free Press-ers. I really, truly, with my heart of hearts wish I was gonna be out on Westheimer tomorrow. But eh, the family thing's gotta come first, and the kids want some damn killer whales, so...

KTRU OUTDOOR SHOW: And then, even though you won't be recovered from all that sun & car exhaust & rock, well, you need to head on over to Rice University campus on Sunday, April 13th for the 17th Annual KTRU Outdoor Show. Being a former DJ, I've got a special place in my heart for KTRU, and the Outdoor Show's a significant part of why -- when I was but a wee student, the Outdoor Show introduced me to a whole slew of bands/musicians I'd never gotten to see or hear before, and it truly opened my eyes to musical life beyond the hedges, since in my day, most students rarely left campus unless they lived off-campus (I think it's changed, from the large no. of cars I see parked when I go by there now). The Outdoor Show was like bringing the music to the students, since the students wouldn't go to it.

My first-ever Outdoor Show, I happened to catch Alejandro Escovedo for the first time, and it dropped my jaw to the ground -- even now when I hear "By Eleven," I get this sad, wistful smile on my face and feel this strange tight feeling in my chest. It's crazy. And then there's the infamous NoMeansNo show, which was one of my first encounters with punk at its absolute wildest...

At any rate, this is a good, good deal. Like the WBP, the Outdoor Show's also free for all & sundry, and runs from noon-9PM, roughly. I think (although don't quote me) that there's even free food & St. Arnold's beer. And there're some damn good folks playing this time -- I dearly love headliners Parts & Labor, for one, 'cause they do that paranoiac/majestic-noise squall like nobody else, Nosaprise is downright decent local hip-hop, Balaclavas rock my socks off (need to listen to their 2 EPs again, actually), and Dead PA is actually the new(-ish) electronic project of Population Zero, an old friend from my band days, so I'm bummed I won't get to see him live & in-person for the first time in a loooong while.

So go, go, go. Fight the hangover & sit out on the grass with the students & parents & all that. Trust me, it's a good time.

HOUSTON INDIE BOOK FESTIVAL: Gotta run, but I absolutely can't forget to mention this, it's just too damn cool. The Gulf Coast journal & Domy Books are hosting the neato-sounding Houston Indie Book Festival this Saturday, April 12th, right down the road from the Block Party @ Domy -- it's free, it runs from 10AM-5PM, and it's going to be a blowout of indie/underground publishing madness. Here's the info from the organizers:

Readings by David McLean, Mat Johnson, and others.

From the organizers, publishers, and magazines. Browse hundreds of titles from the underground out in the sunshine. Grab a cup of coffee at Brasil. Rub shoulders with Marjane Satrapi.

Start the spring with books and magazine right with all the magazines and books you can carry off from our FIRST ANNUAL HOUSTON INDIE BOOK FESTIVAL and Fifth Annual CLMP Literary Magazine & Small Press Fair in Houston, where hundreds of regional and national independent literary publishers will converge to sell their discounted journals and books.

The fair is co-sponsored by Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts, Inprint, and The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses.

Inprint inspires readers and writers in Houston. Inprint programs and events provide something for everyone and play a vital role in Houston's rich and diverse cultural life.

CLMP is the nationís only nonprofit support and advocacy organization serving the independent literary publishing community.

This program made possible in part through support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

And yes, re-read that second sentence again: "[r]ub shoulders with Marjane Satrapi." Wow. Satrapi's the writer behind Persepolis, an awesome two-part bio-comic about growing up in post-Islamic Revolution Iran, and it's utterly brilliant. You might know what I'm talking about, by the by, because her books were recently turned into what I've heard is an excellent animated film. I'm totally flabbergasted that she's appearing in our little podunk city -- she's actually going to be doing a reading of some sort at Hobby Center, but she'll be dropping by Domy, as well.

Again: why, God? What did I do to deserve this? Couldn't you have scheduled the family trip for the weekend when REO Speedwagon & Up with People were in town, instead? sigh.

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

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

Quick note, 'cause I've got to run home to feed kittens & eat pizza (why do I hear Rowdy Roddy Piper in my head right now? weird...). There's what sounds like a very cool documentary playing tonight @ 7PM at Avant Garden, called BRAD: One More Night at the Barricades -- it's about Brad Will, a longtime activist and videographer who was shot and killed (possibly by a local governmental official) while filming the teacher strike/protests in Oaxaca, Mexico. I'd heard of Brad through Indymedia stuff, but sadly didn't know he was dead until I saw the note about this film...sigh. Damn shame; he sounded like quite a human being.

Anyway, the film promises to be impressive. From the organizers:

When Mexican paramilitary forces shot Brad Will in the chest, killing him, his camera fell from his hands. But it didn't stop recording. It continued moving from hand to hand telling Brad's story, as well as the story of the movement of movements that he was part of. From the squats of New York to the forests of Oregon, from the anti-globalization protests in Seattle, Prague, Quebec to the popular uprising in Oaxaca, Brad's camera paints us a picture of what his life was about, and what so many of his friends continue to struggle for.

They're asking for $5-$10 donations, but say that nobody will be turned away. Go check it out, y'all.

Labels: Political Stuff, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To See

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

This is absolutely priceless -- check out the video at the end. I'm bummed that there's no footage of Something Fierce, and Be My Doppelganger sound like they would've been cool to see, despite the blown-out videocam mic, but honestly, the part that kills me is the spliced-in post-shutdown commentary by Ramon & Rosa's adorable six-year-old son. I'm very heartened to know that I'm not the only parent with a ridiculously precocious, punk rock-loving kid who hates The Man.

Labels: Cool Web Junk, H-Town News, Random Rambling, Things To See

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

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

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

Since I've started trying to bring the little digital camera I got for Christmas to more shows lately, I've been feeling a bit nostalgic for the Days of Yore here in Houston's murky-yet-vibrant scene. There was a time when I'd bring my trusty Pentax to every damn show -- esp. the ones we played -- and try to get pictures of fellow H-town musicians doing their thing for, well, pretty much nobody but other H-town musicians.

They were strange times, but fun. And more and more lately I feel like our big-little scene's gone back to that time again; there are a ton of great bands, after somewhat of a dry spell with only a handful of brave stalwarts soldiering on through (Bring Back The Guns, the Guilloteens, etc.), and the people seem more tightly connected than they were before, kinda like what I remember of my own band days. We played with friends, for the most part, or people who became friends, and luckily, most of our friends were much better musicians/songwriters than we were. We didn't give a crap who came, but just got on a stage, plugged in, and played for the hell of it. Again, Now feels a lot like Then, at least to me.

Anyway, in the pre-moving frenzy, I stumbled across an old photo album where I'd fortuitously stashed a bunch of my attempts at rock photog-dom, pictures of such venerable bands as Pop Deflation, the aforementioned Fatal Flying Guilloteens, Ultramagg, & (I think) Inbred Whiteboy, heroes all. Seeing as these were all from the pre-digital camera-happy past, I had to scan all the damn things in, but looking at 'em now, I think it was worth it. Here're a few of my favorites:

Pop Deflation @ The Oven
(And yes, that's Melissa Lonchambon of Panic in Detroit/Sharks and Sailors fame sitting on the floor.)

Fatal Flying Guilloteens @ The Oven
(Pre-dual vocalists, pre-John Adams, and pre-McManus leaving town for the first time, even.)

Junior Varsity @ ClubSafeParking
(Holy shit, I miss JV.)

Ultramagg @ The Mausoleum
(Glad to know these guys are still around...)

Charlie (The Suspects/The Magnetic IV) @ Rudyard's
(The picture honestly doesn't capture the full awesomeness of this tattoo. The colors were amazing. I think he had the other arm done w/something like this, too...)

The Lonely Guys @ Mary Jane's
(Hey, Peter -- remember this one? You were damn entertaining that night...heh. I smell blackmail material...)

So, there you go -- if you care to check out all of 'em, there're online here and open to all. I've also been finding & slapping up some previously-digitized stuff from the old SCR print 'zine, so some of the pics may look familiar to readers of the actual paper version of this thing. I'm hoping to add some more soon, but my other photo albums are already packed away & stored in a closet at the in-laws' house, waiting to be (maybe) unpacked at the new place, so further scanning will have to wait 'til then.

Oh, and the astute viewers of this site might've noticed a new little doohickey over there on the right -- under Our Pics, I've finally got a Flickr badge running, cycling through all the SCR-/band-related pics currently in my Flickr account. This "Web" thing's turned out to be pretty neato...

RE: Moving: Since I hinted at it above, I might as well clarify -- yep, we're moving. Not the e-zine, mind you (the P.O. Box will stay the same), but my actual home. I feel compelled to mention, btw, that moving has got to be one of the most terrifying/frustrating experiences known to man. We just sold our current house & bought another, so now we have to figure out how to pack and move our ridiculously large amount of shit (we're both packrats, despite my wife's protestations that she's not), not to mention make it fit in the new space. Gah. This is why it's taken us five years longer to get 'round to doing this than we'd originally planned...

Labels: Admin Stuff, Cool Web Junk, Musical Crap, Random Rambling, Things To See

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

UPDATE: And