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

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

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

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

Yeah, this last update was a big one -- we're gonna have to skip a week or two after this, as I'll be flying out tomorrow AM for Arizona, off on The Great Grand Canyon Adventure/March of Death '08, so we tried to get a large bunch of new things up on the site...

First -- and possibly foremost, your mileage may vary -- we've got a brand-new interview up with super-ultra-badass Party Guy Andrew W.K. Honestly, when I sent out the email, I did not expect a response. Even after talking to his management, I fired off a ton of questions I'd hoped were insightful and witty and what-have-you, in the hopes of drawing out Mr. Wilkes-Krier for a bit of a chat, but I kind of did it figuring, y'know, that'd be the end of it. It's happened before, believe me. (ahem -- guys from The Talk: what the heck happened?)

In the end, though, while Andrew didn't answer about two-thirds of the questions I sent (including an incredibly leading question about "Steev Mike"; Google if you care), the ones he did answer came out pretty nice, I think. I've never, ever done an interview where the interviewee flat-out says not just that he doesn't give a crap if people dislike him or laugh at him, but that it's a perfectly valid reaction to his music to do so. Wow. The guy's starting to sound like some kind of metalhead bodhisattva or something...

Anyway, I'm tickled as hell to have been able to talk to Mr. W.K., especially since he'll be coming to town in the not-too-distant future, nearly right after I get back from AZ on July 5th over at the Keene St. Warehouse for Jacob Calle's gonna-be-epic Keene St. Warehouse Party -- see here for more info. I mean, with Andrew W.K. on hand, how could it not be epic? I'm seriously psyched about this, y'all; not only is one of the most intriguing, mystifying entertainers I've run across playing, but so are local folks I love dearly, like The Riff Tiffs, Bring Back the Guns, Papermoons, & The Watermarks. I liked the thing so much, I, uh, kinda-sorta offered to help sponsor it (I think?). Save the date.

While you're at it, scribble out anything you might've had a week from tomorrow, on Sat., July 28th, 'cause Hollywood Black are playing the release show for their awesome new EP, Crooked Shepherd. I'll admit that I wasn't a big fan of the band in the past, but damn, I am now. It is good, good, good -- the title track alone, with its murky, rock-back-and-forth-on-your-heels threat, is reason enough to check the band out. Plus, they're playing with The Goods, who I really like, and Tambersauro, whose CD I got a really long time ago now & still need to listen to. (Sorry...)

On an administrative note, in my absence you will hopefully start to see new posts to this here blog by people other than me. Y'all may remember Brandon from the SXSW coverage back in March; this time 'round he'll be joined by a few other folks, incl. Jef With One F (formerly of The Black Math Experiment) & Brigitte, who's been writing reviews & such for us for quite a while now. Be gentle with them.

Beyond all that, yep, we also have up shiny-new reviews of the Dengue Fever show at The Orange Show a while back, the French Kicks/Young Mammals/Hearts of Animals show earlier this month, & more reviews than you can shake a stick at. Here's the full list:

Interviews: Andrew W.K.

Live Reviews: French Kicks/Young Mammals/Hearts of Animals; Dengue Fever

Reviews: Hollywood Black; The Raveonettes; Your Black Star; Alkari; Speaker Speaker; Melissa Giges; Jon McKiel; pArAdOx OnE; Plök; & Sunny Day Sets Fire.

There it is, at least for the moment -- see y'all when I get back...

Labels: Interviews, Live Reviews, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Reviews, Things To Do

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I haven't seen a lot of press on it (although, admittedly, I haven't been scouring Google Reader much this week), so I figured I'd make a quick mention of a show this evening... Nairobi-by-way-of-NY band Extra Golden is coming through town, playing tonight at the ever-interesting Orange Show (2402 Munger) at around 7PM.

And it should be a very cool show, going by the band's new album on Thrill Jockey, Hera Ma Nono. After brief listens earlier on, I was able to slap it on the home stereo this morning and was blown away by the joyous, happy sound -- it's like it's the actual sound of sunshine, seriously. I know just about zero about benga, the type of Kenyan/African music this band fuses to good-old American-style rock & roll, but the stuff on Hera Ma Nono sounds amazing. It all has all has an awesomely relaxed beat to it, plus a nice, almost gospel-sounding vocal delivery on several songs. Despite the seemingly wide gulf between the two source musics being mashed together, it all works astoundingly well, so much so that it doesn't feel like it was put together. It feels natural as hell.

There's even a track entitled "Obama," which -- duh -- is an ode to America's currently most famous Kenyan-American, who apparently helped the band (pre-presidential run) get visas to come to Chicago for a U.S. gig at the 2006 Chicago World Music Festival (heck, according to the press materials, the song also thanks his wife & mom for their help). And yeah, I can't help but like a band that namechecks our hopefully-future president in a cheery little Luo song of praise...

Anyway, I'm stumped for anything else to say to describe these folks, so let the music do the rest of the talking -- check out the band's Myspace page to hear what the heck I'm blathering on about, then head on over to Munger for the real-live deal.

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

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

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

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

Okay, not literally, but that's kind of the idea. Y'see, yours truly will be hopping on a jetplane at the end of this month to fly to beauteously hot Tucson, Arizona (which is a lot neater, somehow, than it was when I was a child & was forced to spend my summers there). There I'll meet up with my Dad & drive north listening to his Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits CD on infinite repeat, all the way up to Flagstaff & the Grand Canyon, where we'll fulfill Dad's lifelong desire to hike the damn thing.

We're no Supermen, mind you -- I think the trail we're taking (Bright Angel Trail down from the South Rim, hang around at the bottom a bit, visit Phantom Ranch, then back up to the North Rim, where we'll pass out & wait for the once-a-day shuttle bus back to the car) is pretty much the Grandma Route -- but Dad's planned the whole thing out pretty nicely (I hope), so it should be a cool, if painful and exhausting, trip. If we don't die, that is, or collapse out of sheer exhaustion because we're both in a lot worse shape than we think we are (honestly, I think he's in better shape right now than me).

And yes, over there on the right is my daughter, who's mad as hell that she doesn't get to go with Daddy & Grandpa. Assuming I survive this, munchkin, I promise...

At any rate, seeing as I'm going to be stuck with my Dad's godawful musical tastes for a full week, I've been frantically cramming my iPod full of as much "Grand Canyon-esque" music as I could possibly think of (to be fair, he's bought his very first MP3 player for this trip for pretty much the same reason). I tend to get a little nuts about stuff like this -- for our last trip, to Sweden, I packed my iPod with candy-shiny-sweet Swedish/Norwegian pop, spending hours and hours culling through piles of music to see what the absolute perfect songs would be, y'know? In the end, sadly, since I was traveling with the wife, the midget, & my wife's mom, there never really was any "alone-time" to ever listen to the damn playlist.

On the good side, the last time we went to England I did pretty much the same thing; I had two separate playlists, one of more pastoral, folky British stuff (for those long drives through the twee English countryside, obviously) and one of more Mod-ish, urban-sounding stuff. And again, it being a "family" trip, there wasn't a whole lot of time on my own, so the iPod stayed in my backpack for 95% of the trip (other than the mind-destroyingly long plane ride, that is).

One day, though, I ended up by myself on the train out from London to Windsor, sick as a dog and wishing I'd done like I almost had and stayed on the platform 'til I could catch the bus back to my sister-in-law's house. So, since nobody was paying much attention to me and standing felt better for my stomach & head than sitting, I put on the headphones and went to stand by the doors, watching the bleak train tunnels roll by. And listening to the "urban England" playlist was freakin' perfect, I swear -- The Jam really is the best possible soundtrack for the blighted, graffitied, concrete-and-rubbish side of Britain. (Although yeah, Cock Sparrer and New Model Army worked pretty well, too.)

These days, though, my Music Library's big enough it's gotten away from me, and so despite already spending a ridiculous amount of time picking and choosing songs for this next trip, I'm left feeling like I'm missing a whole bunch of songs I could be putting on my rapidly-growing Grand Canyon playlist. I'm also feeling a bit more pressured since I long ago topped out my iPod and now have to judiciously remove stuff if I want to put anything "new" on there -- I already had to remove some stuff so I could fit Joel R. Phelps' awesome Blackbird on there.

So, seeing as I've pretty much hit a wall, I figured I'd throw it out there for any & all to contribute -- any suggestions? Anything particularly Grand Canyon-like that I ought to put on there? I'm not talking specifically about songs that refer to the Grand Canyon, mind you (although I've already got Sugar's "Hoover Dam," which isn't too far from there), but more about songs that'd work for me hiking my out-of-shape ass down into the heatstroke-inducing bowels of the earth and/or staring up at the clear-black night sky for the first time this decade. I've kinda been leaning towards lower-key, more stark, country/spacey-sounding stuff so far -- Explosions in the Sky, Son Volt, Damien Jurado, Death Cab, etc. -- but hell, I'd love to hear ideas, if anybody's got any.

Comment away, if you feel so inclined...

Labels: Admin Stuff, Musical Crap, Random Rambling, Travel Stuff

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 6 comments

...this seems awful damn cynical, even to a non-fan like me:

[Kiss manager Doc] McGhee said "I believe that Kiss can go on forever. I believe that there is a way - and we are talking to people and we're pretty close to getting it done - about finding the four new members of Kiss."

Um. Is it just me, or did the man pretty much just admit that the band's a total fabrication, so it doesn't really matter who's behind the makeup? Wow. smack! "Take that, all you Kiss diehards -- we know you're such losers you'll come see the band even if there are no original fucking members in it!" Cue maniacal laughter...

Labels: Entertainobabble, Musical Crap, Random Rambling

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

Damn. I am so on the wrong press-release lists, y'all, seeing as I missed out on this one from local hip-hop house Rap-A-Lot Records:

Fresh off the heels of a #1 Rap/R&B album, Bun B and Rap-A-Lot Records are looking for the nation's next rap superstar and have teamed with Microsoft Zune to launch the ultimate contest for aspiring artists to win a chance at stardom. Through July 1, entrants can download an exclusive Bun B instrumental Mp3 track from Zune Marketplace, record their own original rap over the track, and submit their demo to Rap-A-Lot Records. At the completion of the contest one winner will receive an expense paid trip to Houston, TX where they will record the track in a studio with Bun B and have a chance at an exclusive recording contract. The winner's track will also be featured as a free download on Zune Marketplace in September.

Props to HandStamp, who I unfairly left out when listing local e-pubs doing good things (Sara & Joey: y'all always rock, so I couldn't call you out for something in particular, right? That's the story I'm gonna stick with...), for putting this one up, because it's made my day.

I dig Bun B and have a lot of respect for all that Rap-A-Lot's done for H-town rap, but still... Beyond the inherent silliness of an "expense paid trip to Houston, TX" -- Ooh! Can I get some free tix to Poughkeepsie, while you're at it? -- it's hard not to find this funny. The best part, though, is Sara's writeup & vow/threat to submit her own, um, "unique" rap. Which, frighteningly, could actually work.

There you go, indie-hipsters: the gauntlet has been thrown. Spit some verses & show the world what H-town's scenesters are made of!

Labels: Entertainobabble, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements

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

Okay, so I just rechecked cool ex-Proletariat person Shawna's initial post about this and saw it listing the party as being on Friday (i.e., last night), not today like I'd thought, and had a brief moment of panic...crap, did I miss another of these damn things?

Lucky for me/you, though, it turns out that tonight -- Sat., June 7th -- is actually the real-live Grand Opening party for H-town's newest artspace, Caroline Collective. It'll be at the Collective itself, naturally (4820 Caroline, in the Museum District), and will run from 7-10PM, with drinks (courtesy of St. Arnold's & Tito's Vodka), food (from chef David Grossman), music/beats, art, and whatever else that happens to be around.

The event's apparently co-hosted by ArtStorm, and will kickoff an exhibit of collage art by a guy named Patrick Turk; and sadly, I know zero about either ArtStorm or Mr. Turk, although the one bit of his collages that's up on the CC site looks kinda neat. (Sorry -- despite being a music guy for many years, I'm still woefully uneducated when it comes to the badass local art scene...)

The Collective sounds pretty intriguing, from the descriptions I've seen... I'm told it's "Houston's first coworking venue," but that's somewhat of a mystifying description, at least to me. Going by what it says on the place's About page, though, it sounds like the idea's to create a place that's both a workspace for artists, tech people, etc., and a cool social atmosphere:

A unique combination of private workspace, public art space, and open collaborative desk space, Caroline Collective provides a place where citizens can work in collaboration or privately, with a conference room and individual desks. Furniture, ample power outlets, secure broadband internet access and the general amenities of an office environment will be provided according to need.
...
Caroline Collective is more than collaborative work space. It’s also a collaborative meeting space. After hours, Caroline plays host to some of Houston’s regular technology happy hours and meet-ups which provide technologically minded people the opportunity to re-up their knowledge base or to provide their services to others who need technology consulting for their non-profit organizations.

Additionally, the space will host movie nights, book club meetings, non-profit events, seminars, salons, art openings, and product launches.

If I were a freelancer rather than an office-bound Company Man, heck, that'd sound pretty enticing to me -- I think I need to forward it on to my freelance/work-at-home friends & see what they think...

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

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

Been meaning to do this for a long damn while now, gathering up tidbits of info here, there, & everywhere. It's a testament to how vibrant our much-bemoaned local scene actually is that there's a bona-fide shitload of stuff going on: bands breaking up, bands forming, CDs coming out, local press shakeups, side projects, yadda, yadda, yadda. Does any of it matter to you or me? Well, I can't speak for you, but given the people involved, I'd say, um, yeah.

With that, here goes. Apologies if I miss anybody/anything or post old-as-the-hills news all you in-the-know scenesters knew about three months ago; we cater to all types here, including the woefully uninformed:

Wedding Bells, Er, Rung for Bright Men, The C. of P.: This is kind of in the good news/bad news vein, I'm afraid. First off, it seems that a handful of cool local music folks have been tying the knot lately, and that's always a good thing in my book. (Not that I'm some kind of marriage zealot, mind you, but good people happily getting together is pretty cool.) Homeboy Marshall of Bright Men of Learning got hitched a few weeks back to his lady -- pictures are up here, all you voyeuristic vultures -- so hats off to the two of them for that...

Beyond that, not one, not two, but three members of another of my favorite local bands, The Church of Philadelphia, tied the knot recently, two of 'em to one another. Singer/guitarist Chris got married recently, as did guitarist/etc. guy Brian & vocalist/keyboardist Lindsay.

The latter two were sweet enough to invite yours truly to the Memorial Day festivities, although I unfortunately couldn't make it out for the happy event. Once Brian & Lindsay get back from their honeymoon, they're off to Jinja, Uganda for a one-year-but-maybe-more stint working at some local businesses owned by Brian's cousins. It sounds very, very cool, the experience of a lifetime, and I wish 'em all the best.

The downside is that with Brian & Lindsay in Africa for at least a year, The Church is pretty likely to, um, go on hiatus for an extended period of time. Which bums me out, esp. since I was looking forward to the band/project's next release. Brian assures me that he & Lindsay will keep doing things musical, though, and hinted that the band might well go on without 'em. Guess we'll have to see what happens, eh? Either way, best wishes to Marshall, Brian, Lindsay, Chris, & their respective partners!

Side Project Time w/No Talk, Les Veines, Black Congress, BLACKIE, & Meat Gloves: As always, Houston music folk are a busy-bee bunch, constantly splitting out & starting side bands and sub-bands of their main gigs. No Talk is the new-ish deal from Beau of Insect Warfare infamy, a loud, raw, angry punk band that harks back to the days before super-processed vocals & shiny-sweet guitars; think The Dicks, Black Flag, or locals The Hates. And hell, they've already got 2 different 7"s coming out -- how fuckin' punk is that?

Then there's Les Veines, the new side deal of Something Fierce's Steven G., which is noisy and pretty-but-raw, with almost dreampop-y guitars, nearly subliminal drums and keys, and S.G. doing his best New Wave detached-vocal thing. Recommended for fans of Rough Trade stuff, I'd say. And I can't forget the highly-lauded Black Congress, which includes Roy from the Fatal Flying Guilloteens (and a million other bands) -- the band's ferocious & math-y, with a fury that brings to mind bands like Drive Like Jehu or Paul Newman, and supposedly there's an EP on the way.

Less on my radar is Balaclavas side deal Meat Gloves and a project called Foes Like These (or Thieves Like Us; I've seen both listed) that includes members of Sharks & Sailors and Sinews -- I haven't yet heard 'em, but hey, given the pedigrees, they're all bound to be worth a listen...

There's also BLACKIE, who used to be known as The Alsace Lorraine -- not a side project, really, but a fairly major name change & it seems like they've shifted gears a bit. There's a new album out now, too, reportedly called Wilderness of North America.

Bands Go Away -- Blades, Rustler, Black Math Experiment Pack It In, At Least Temporarily: And yes, where there is new life, something's gotta die; it's the H-town Band Circle of Life, yo. Local instro-rockers Blades called it a day a while back, and more recently fellow instrumentalists Rustler had to put the live thing on the hold because drummer Jason skipped town for (I think?) Austin. Dang.

On the plus side, the band is still releasing their full-length, Shark Week, hopefully sometime soon, and I've been assured that Jason's gonna be back in town occasionally for a sporadic Rustler show. In the meantime, the two remaining Rustlerites are scouting around to start a new band. Keep your eyes out for that...

Back on the bad, nasty, evil side of the news, David Arquette-beloved/-loving rockers The Black Math Experiment have also sadly decided to hang up their outfits... They're apparently not strictly "breaking up," but are going on indefinite hiatus after their DVD filming June 14th. From the sound of things, the band's just moving on to other projects, and aren't necessarily slamming the door on coming back together at some point later on.

Bands Come Back -- The Scattered PAGES, Riff Tiffs, & Clandestine: Okay, so some of 'em weren't gone for real long, but hey. The Scattered PAGES are finally off their temporary "break," as of this very evening; hopefully the time away means they're working on a new album, eh? Similarly, The Riff Tiffs have resurfaced, this time with a brand-new single and plans to spend the summer crafting new songs.

In more long-term comings-back, local Celtic folk legends Clandestine have recently reformed and have released a new CD of their own, besides, entitled Red. I haven't heard it yet, but pretty much anything these folks have ever done has been great.

And Even More Music on the Way from The Jonx, Papermoons, Etc.: phew. Even with Skyline's excellent rundown of upcoming local releases, we can also look forward to new stuff from indie-folkies Papermoons, Mia Kat Empire-based indie-rockers Hollywood Black, emo crew While You Were Gone, & ambient-ish popsters Wood & Felt.

There's also the long-awaited Sharks & Sailors full-length(?), due out August 1st, which I'm very much looking forward to. The new songs I've heard are almost dreampop-y, with sweet, sweeping vocals and less fist-pumping roar than I'm used to, but I'm finding that I honestly don't mind; I like the new shit nearly as much as the old. The "new" S&S draws a serious line back to mid-'90s indie-rock, with some nice chiming guitars and Spent-esque vocals.

Possibly even better than even the S&S deal, though, is news that tough pseudo-pro/math-rock The Jonx are putting out a new one, too. According to Jonxite Danny Mee:

The Jonx working on new CD: Anyway, we've been hard at work on songs for our third full-length album. As yet the album is untitled, although we've already rejected "Passion of the Jonx," "the Unbearable Lightness of the Jonx," "God Emperor of the Jonx," "Sex and the City (and the Jonx)," and numerous other titles that didn't live up to our exacting standards of obliqueness and difficulty of recall. If you have any suggestions let us know. We're currently under the working title "Out Before the Sharks and Sailors CD."

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

Houston Gets a House of Blues: Yep, the House of Blues chain is opening a franchise in our fair city. It'll be at 1204 Caroline, according to the Website, part of some kind of entertainment complex that's going up near Toyota Center. I dunno how the complex is progressing right now, but they're supposed to be up & running by October. Can't say what the H-town H.O.B. will be like, but I went to the Big Easy version a long, long time ago, and it was pretty damn cool.

Saying Goodbye to Scene Fixture Kirk "Guitar" Carr: We've had a rough time in recent months in terms of losing -- or nearly losing -- members of the local Houston scene. Chris King was thankfully doing better the last I heard, although apparently he may never fully recover. Our own special crazy blues legend Little Joe Washington had his own brush with serious illness, but happily is doing fairly well these days. And then, of course, there's the tragic death of Art Car curator Tom Jones.

Another one that I didn't see much press about, though, was the death this past May of Kirk "Guitar" Carr, a fixture of the '80s/early '90s scene 'round here. He was in a band called Non Dairy Creamers back in the day (before my day, in fact), and also played in The Hightailers and probably a ton of other bands besides. Kirk was diagnosed with late-stage cancer and passed away May 12th, sadly. I don't know the details beyond that, but it's a damn shame... Check out Carolyn Wonderland's blog (linked above) for a heartfelt tribute to the man.

Trenchtown Texans Recruiting New Members: Well, it might mean the band's been going through some personnel changes, but heck, at least Ryan Scroggins and the Trenchtown Texans haven't yet broken up or something nutty like that. What they are doing, though, is holding auditions for new members to play shows with this month & the next. Click here for details from the band.

Gah. Okay, now my brain hurts. Time to go, y'all...if anybody's got any other news they'd like to share, def. let us know, eh?

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

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

Hey, Bands/Music Types: A Film Opportunity (Maybe) For You [6/06/2008 09:59:00 PM]:

Ran across this today on the Hands Up board & thought somebody might be interested...

Hello Musicians,

I'm with a local production team that is entering the 48 hour film competition this weekend, and am looking for local artists that would be willing to let us use their music in the film project. All types of music wanted, as we won't know until tonight what our genre/topic will be.

If you are willing to sign a release allowing us to use some songs, and could send us some digital samples of your music, please send an email to "allietcarr" at "gmail dot com"

For more info on the film competition: http://www.48hourfilm.com/houston/

Thanks!
Allie

If you're up for it, you'd better do it ASAP; the competition's this weekend, after all...

Labels: H-Town News, Moo-vies, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do

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

New Practice Space: Elemental Rehearsal Studios (+ Other Places to Practice, Too) [6/04/2008 02:29:00 PM]:

If you're in a band, odds are you need someplace to stow your stuff, practice your hot guitar licks and/or faces, yell at your guitarist for not playing the riff right for the seventh time, and sit around and try to think of stupid words/phrases to sing over Bush's "Glycerine" for hours on end (okay, so maybe that last bit was just my old band, but you never know). And weirdly, for a city with so many freakin' bands, Houston has ridiculously few practice spaces for rent -- most bands I've known have made their homes either at their, uh, homes or squeezed between the sweaty concrete walls of the venerable Francisco's.

So, given that, it's nice to hear that there're newer places opening around town. We got a little note from a new one called Elemental Rehearsal Studio that sounds pretty nice -- it doesn't sound like they're officially open yet, but they're looking for suggestions on how they can "provide the best possible service to our local musicians." If you've got an opinion (or need to find a space), stop on by their site...

While we're at it, here's the scant bit of info I do have on local rehearsal spaces:

Francisco Studios: 2300 McKinney; 713-225-3112; "houston" at "franciscostudio dot com"
[Possibly the oldest rehearsal studio around, nearly every band in town has practiced in this grimy concrete hellhole at one point or another. I think they only go monthly, not hourly, but that was way back when I used to practice there, like a decade ago. Apparently the guy who owns the place has other rehearsal spaces in different parts of town, but I've never seen 'em. And hey, who knew Megadeth and Bobby Brown used to rehearse there? It's kinda hard to picture, I have to say...maybe they were at one of the mysterious other locations?]

Rhythm Room Rehearsal Studio: 1410 Brittmoore, Suite A, B, & C; 713-465-6122; "info" at "rhythmroomrehearsalstudio dot com"
[Never been here, but the rates look pretty good, comparable to others I've seen, and they do both hourly and monthly, which is nice. Plus, you can rent equipment if you need it, and the pics make it look awful nice & clean.]

Rock Center: 7330 Ashcroft Dr.; David @ 713-981-6555; "david" at "rockcenterhouston dot com"
[What the hell? This place is literally a three-block walk from the house I just moved out of, and I never had any idea...crazy. Sometimes that no-zoning thing's handy. Apparently the place's well-soundproofed, because I heard no thundering metal guitars at 1AM, thankfully... Anyway, the rates again look comparable, and they do both hourly and monthly. If you're doing the hourly thing, you can apparently rent a PA, drums, and amps if you need 'em. Hours for the hourly rooms are 10AM-2AM.]

Sound Check Music Complex: 5881 W. 34th; 713-682-2312
[Only went here once, but it was fairly nice. Back then it rented hourly, $15/hr with a 4 hour min. for a 20x20 room with floor monitors and mics and drum kits rent for $25 per session, and 30"x36" lockers for $50/month. Can't find the Website these days, so they might be out of business...]

Those're the only ones I've ever heard about, I'm afraid -- if anybody knows of any others, feel free to mention 'em in the comments. I'll update this post if there're a bunch of places out there I've missed...

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

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

...And This Just In: An Update on That 6/12 Western Civilization Show [6/04/2008 10:26:00 AM]:

A mere handful of hours after yours truly blearily slapped up a post on how local indie-folks The Western Civilization (about whom you can read more here) won themselves a spot on the Warped Tour and are playing H-town next week, I logged back in to the email to find, lo and behold, a message from Reggie of the Western Civ.

Here's the gist of what he said: in spite of the "$5 over $10 under" noise on the show flyer, apparently the band is keen to get you, me, and everybody (of age, at least) we know out to Club XO/XO Bar & Lounge for the show, all for free, thus making the flyer more accurately read, "$0 over $10 under." Seems the band's been handed an unlimited guest list for the 21+ crowd, and hey, they'll gladly put you on it so you can come on out. (Sorry, 18-and-uppers; age discrimination sucks, but there you go...)

Just send a message to the band at "westerncivbooking" at "gmail dot com" or via their Myspace if you're interested (and yes, trust me, you are) with your name and the name of anybody you want to bring with. Heck, you can even just put in your name and the number of fellow beings you'd like to drag along with you. Then just show up, rock (gently) out, and enjoy.

Reggie also says Via Audio, with whom they're playing is very, very cool -- and he's spot-on, going by what they've got up on their Myspace. The music's kinda Palomar-esque, sweet and smart and insistent all at the same time. Oh, and the video for "Presents" that's up on their Website disturbs me in a way I really can't describe. Tourmates Jukebox The Ghost aren't bad, either, a little Death Cab for Cutie-ish to my ears.

So there you go -- you get to see one of the best bands in town, plus two respectable out-of-towners, all for zero dollars. Can't beat that w/a stick...

Labels: Free Stuff, Musical Crap, Pseudo-Reviews, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do

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

Warped Tour Gets Westernized/Civilized (Plus, 6/12/08 @ XO Bar & Lounge) [6/04/2008 12:46:00 AM]:

I know a ton of local bands have been vying for spots on this year's Warped Tour when it hits Houston, but the only one I've seen so far that's made the cut (there may be more) is the supremely awesome Western Civilization, who'll be playing on the "Kevin Says" stage (whatever the heck that is) -- woo-hoo! Y'all truly deserve it, folks; just make sure you hydrate the hell up beforehand, right?

And hey, if you can't wait 'til July, the band's apparently now back in town -- they'll be playing at someplace called XO Bar & Lounge on Thurs., June 12th (a week from tomorrow), along with Via Audio & Jukebox The Ghost. Never heard of the club before, but it's at 2611 San Jacinto @ McGowan; 8PM, $5/$10 to get in. It's gonna be good...

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

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

Other People Who Rock [6/03/2008 10:05:00 PM]:

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

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 4 comments