With H.C.K., garage-y, grimy, facepunching “deathpunk” gang the Hell City Kings — whose name I freaking love, by the way — have definitely found where they need to be. I was a bit underwhelmed by the band’s previous full-length…
Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching and reading far, far too much post-apocalyptic stuff lately, but to my ears, at least, there’s something seriously end-of-the-world-sounding about Venomous Maximus’s latest EP, The Mission…
Okay, I think I get it now. I was confused, at first, by the Bexar County Bastards’ name, of all things — it just didn’t seem to fit with what I knew/know of Bexar County, that chunk of Texas centered around San Antonio. Bastards?…
Rather than mine the pop-punk-y hooks that’ve become the template for the vast majority of punk bands lately, or even really hew close to the garage-rock that’s surged to the surface in recent years, on Deceiver, The Wrong Ones dive straight into the gutter…
Yeah, I know I’m way, way behind on this one… For some reason, the debut 7″ from metal dudes Venomous Maximus has just taken a little while to grow on me. I’m not entirely sure why — this stuff is really and truly up my alley, especially lately…
Whoa. A gang of legendarily wild, tattooed, hard-drinking dudes from right here in H-town versus a similarly-tattooed, leather-clad trio from Austin, both of which I’ve heard insane party/show stories about? That’d be one hell of a brawl, right there…
Weekend coming down, and there’s plenty to do & hear, despite the freezing-ass cold. (Seriously, y’all, we’re Texans. We’re adapted to survive the blistering, soul-melting heat of the Houston summer, not bitterly cold winds…)
I have to admit it: when I caught The Mahas live, back in the summer at the Free Press Summerfest, I wasn’t all that impressed. They weren’t bad, by any means, but as they banged on their guitars and yelled to a relatively sparse crowd…
Just when I think I’ve got the Born Liars all figured out, have ’em pegged down neatly on the Great Big Board of Bands as a no-frills garage-punk band and not much else — and hell, that’s great right there — they go and change on me…
Now, this is what vinyl’s really meant for, as far as I’m concerned: two sides of badass, heavy, bang-your-head rock on one solid slab of wax. Of course, in this case each side’s by a particular band, but since the bands in question are both heavy and raw…
Got the fam in town today (Friday, September 24th), so I’ve been a bit occupied, I’m afraid, and I’ve gotta keep it somewhat brief for the rundown… Been a rough week, folks, and I’m still playing catch-up….
One of the best damn punk labels in town, I’d love Cutthroat, honestly, if all they did was put out records by local garage-punk/rawk heroes {Born Liars}. Happily, that’s not all they do…
So I’ve kind of gone about this bass-ackwards, to be up-front about it, but honestly, I’m now thinking maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. You see, I got a hold of a copy of the Hell City Kings’ 2009 LP, The Road to Damnation…
After a lot of thought, I’ve realized that the thing I like the most about the Born Liars, what makes ’em stand out from the crowd of loud, punkish, garage-y rockers, is, well, that they’ve got heart. It sounds sappy, I know, but it’s the truth…
