And then, back again. I headed home Saturday night determined to plan a bit better for my foray back to the Free Press Summerfest, so I jammed a cooler full of icepacks into the bottom of my backpack, spent $4.50 on a 24-pack of water bottles at Walgreen’s by the house (the singles were $1.25, […]
Surviving Summerfest: Day Two (or, Where Am I Again, And Who Are All These People?) And then, back again. I headed home Saturday night determined to plan a bit better for my foray back to the Free Press Summerfest, so I jammed a cooler full of icepacks into the bottom of my backpack, spent $4.50 […]
I’m recovering, still. Recovering, but happy, I should say, because this past Saturday & Sunday at the Free Press Summerfest was a freaking blast, even if it smacked my aging old-dude ass to the ground. There were some glitches, to be sure — I have yet to even hear of a music festival that didn’t […]
[Ed. Note: writer/blogger Rock Houston sent this in a few days after the Houston Press Music Awards Showcase, but yours truly was out of the town & swamped after that, so it didn’t go up ’til, well, right now. Enjoy…] Rock Houston here. The following are my thoughts on the bands I saw at the […]
Yep, yep, yep — in-between the ultra-short-notice posts I’ve been slapping up here lately, there’s been quite a bit of new stuff going on on the site, and I’m damned proud of the current pile, I have to say… First up, thanks to new-ish Austin-based contributor Chris G., we’ve got a cool preview-type thing for […]
I had been hearing about Mechanical Boy for awhile now, and it had always been my intention to check them out. So while I’m on their Myspace one day, I figured, “I really dig these guys,” and I send them a friend request. That was the first mistake in a downward spiral of circumstance and innuendo that would culminate in a face-to-face confrontation at their July 10th Warehouse Live show…
It was hot. I was hot. Really, really, really fucking hot, the level of hot at which sane adults begin to wonder what the fuck they were thinking in the first place. At least, that’s what was going through my head as the two teenaged members of Ghost Mountain ambled onto the stage to start […]
I got the chance to hear some of Nico Vega‘s first full-length album they released earlier this year and was very impressed. Their heavy, melodic sound and in-your-face vocals had me pondering what kind of live performance they would give. With that kind of genre, it was going to be either sloppy or brilliant…
Busy, busy, busy-ass Thursday night, so I wanted to post a bit about what all’s going on. First things first: just got a few new things up on the site, like two surprisingly-timely live reviews by hardworking writers Quinn & Teri Sue, who ably covered the recent shows here in town by Nico Vega & […]
Hey, all — heading off to yet another family dinner thing for the long weekend, but before I go I wanted to mention the new stuff that’s up as of, well, just now… For one, we’ve got a brand-spanking-new interview with the mysteriously cool georgia’s Horse., purveyor of dark, sweet-yet-melancholy folk-country rock, up right here, […]
We didn’t make it to the show in time to see much of Black Joe Lewis. First, it was hard for us to get out the door that night. While waiting for the babysitter, our daughter began to get sick (ah, the joys of parenting). After putting her to sleep, we were finally able to get on the road, only to be stuck outside the door waiting in the Will Call line…
New week (er, two weeks), so new stuff up on the site, in typical oh-so-timely SCR fashion. First up, San Franciscans City Light will be opening for the also-excellent Her Space Holiday (see Wes B.’s review of the last time HSH came through town here) tonight up at Walter’s on Washington, along with the utterly […]
In case you hadn’t noticed, venerable funk superstars Parliament swung through town back on April 30th, playing to what was reportedly a good-sized crowd over at the House of Blues. A friend of SCR (who shall remain anonymous to save ’em from any reprisals & whatnot) went and said the show itself was great, but […]
Well, thanks to fucking Blogger fucking not fucking posting the damn posts it’s supposed to, the past 24 hours or so were blown clean out of the water. Argh. I swear, things will be changing on that front, and hopefully soon… At any rate, we got a bunch of new stuff up on the site […]
“It sure does smell in here.” That was my prevailing thought while standing in a packed Verizon Wireless Theater, waiting for Lamb of God to take the stage. The legions of metalheads had packed the venue for the No Fear Energy Tour. The odor of two thousand metallic fans sweating out a sugar coma-inducing energy drink was way too prevalent. Apparently, the scumbags that run the Verizon stuck the $5 “service fee” in their pocket and could not be bothered to turn the AC on…
For a musician that’s been making music since the mid-’70s, that fact that Paul Weller has never fully caught on in America is a shame. The singer’s distinguished and varied career is full of political punk anthems and soulful pop gems that continue to influence new crops of British musicians. This night’s concert (moved from The Warfield to the more intimate Regency Grand Ballroom) shows why the nearly 51-year-old is still able to maintain a dedicated following…
I’m gonna make it quick this time, I think… Got some new stuff up on the as of this AM/evening, including a new feature on Canadian alt-/emo-rockers Silverstein by new contributor Rafael here, and a handful of reviews. There’s a review of the new split-7″ The Eastern Sea & News on the March officially released […]
What? I’m posting a report on the Free Press Houston Westheimer Block Party this damn late, more than a week after? Hell, yes. That’s just how I roll, yo. (Come on; it’s not like anybody out there was actually eagerly waiting for this, right? Nah…) Okay, actually, it’s just been a crazy couple of weeks, […]
Despite feeling all week/weekend like a truck’s run over me repeatedly (I’m blaming the heavy doses of antibiotics I’m on thanks to an infected tooth I had to get root-canaled on Wed.), I ventured out last night (Sat., March 14th) to check out Adele at Warehouse Live, in the pseudo-scuzzy converted warehouses of Old Chinatown. […]
Yep, yep, yep — Friday night, and so here I am again posting this last-minute little note to mention that we’ve got a pile of brand-new reviews up (along with the excellent MI Ami interview I blathered about a few days ago). The reason for the hurried posting? Well, because this latest batch includes a […]
Gifted song writers don’t quit writing songs just because some people say that most of their hits are far behind them. Two of the founding members of classic rock group America, Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley, demonstrated that they are the epitome of that saying, bringing material both old and new to their sold-out performance last Saturday night at the Stafford Centre…
Got two updates for the week, although if I get my shit together, there’ll hopefully be a few more reviews going up soon… First of all, I owe a big thank-you to new writer Michelle, who tracked down Scottish free-improvisation vocalist Maggie Nicols for what turned out to be an intriguing interview (check it out […]
The Wild Moccasins. Dang, that was a good one. Seriously — I haven’t seen a show as flat-out, nonstop, good as this past Friday’s Wild Moccasins CD release show with Buxton & Teenage Kicks in quite a while. There’ll hopefully be a full rundown at some point soon, but I had a blast & wanted […]
No burning must-see bands/CDs burning a virtual hole in my/our virtual pocket right at this second, but we’ve got good new shit up on the site, nonetheless, courtesy of our hardworking crew of writers & volunteers, some of whom were apparently working harder than, um, I was over the holidays. (Dang…) Anyway, it’s a good-looking […]
It was Sunday evening and it was getting late. Another weekend was about to give way to a work week. But wasn’t giving in yet. I decided to venture out anyway, into the cool, dark night to Houston’s Washington Avenue while the rest of the city headed to bed. As I pulled up to Walter’s on Washington, I couldn’t believe how few cars were there — I almost got to park in the miniscule parking lot, only two cars on the street. I was shocked. I mean, Murry Hammond, the coolest, railroad-lovingest part of Old 97’s was playing…
I think the last time I caught The Supersuckers live, they were playing with Jesse Dayton (of course) at Fitzgerald’s. That was back in my “I’m in a silly punk band” period…which was a while ago (although I was still old enough to know better). At any rate, that was the last time I saw the “Greatest Rock n’ Roll Band In the World” on stage, although I’ve kept up somewhat with their recorded output since…
I’d originally hoped to do a big-ass update of all the reviews & interviews & such we’ve been stockpiling the past several weeks, but alas, that hasn’t happened. Instead, I’ve been piecemealing things up on the site as necessary, like the Coldplay review David Cobb did or the Caddywhompus and Parts & Labor reviews yours […]
And then we all got sick. Yeah, all of us. There were six of us in the car, one of whom was sick on the way up and I guess all the coughing and sneezing in that cramped little car and then on the floor of that cramped little apartment got into the systems of […]
Just woke up from a long, incredibly long day in Austin at Fun Fun Fun Fest, and I’m fairly confident in saying that my god festivals take work. First, though, I wanted to say a big thanks to Jeremy (man, you gotta come to one of these some day!) for allowing me access to his […]
As hinted at previously, it’s been a loooong time since I posted up here about all the reviews, interviews, featured bands, & such. That doesn’t mean, though, that we’ve been sleeping — not even a fucking hurricane can keep this li’l e-zine down, y’all. So, in the interests of letting y’all know about all the […]
If it were a dog, the dog would live in a pink leather purse carried around by some actress or another being filmed by TMZ. If it were a color, the color would be in blinking neon on a sign outside a strip club that prides itself as classy. If it were a cereal, it would be warm Grape Nuts eaten by a man late for his tee-time at a country club in River Oaks…
Blimey, mate! Last Saturday night at the Houston-area Stafford Centre was an incredible, retrofitted return to the musical influences that once resonated from the original British Invasion era in American rock music. Frontman Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits brought with him an entourage of fellow musicians to recapture moments from this previous mid-’60s style of pop-rock fare…
I didn’t think I was going to make it at all, honestly; the wife was out of town all weekend, so it was just me & the midget on our own, which meant that during the day Saturday we spent our time at The Disney Store at the Galleria and watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua (no, […]
Well, it has been 24 hours, sufficient enough to reflect on the experience that was Rock The Bayou 2008. This was the inaugural event for the Houston version of the highly successful Rocklahoma. A 4-day musical orgy featuring the bands that flooded MTV screens with images of L.A. bands knee deep in spandex and hair […]
Often I find myself bemoaning the number of bands skipping Houston on tours, and with a recent history of poor show turn-outs and the Two Gallants incident weighted against the city, I know this unfortunate trend isn’t likely to change overnight. Even bands from our neighboring Austin seem to be giving us the cold shoulder from time to time, making me all the more grateful…
Lame-ass attempt at hip-hop lingo aside, this past week’s Recession Thursday deal at Numbers turned out to be pretty freakin’ awesome. I managed to drag along coworker and fellow music snob Jowell, forcing him to haul his ass all the way in from the Heights, and we both walked away stunned & amazed. (Some pics […]
In addition to the The May Fire review I posted about earlier, there’s a whole pile of other cool stuff up recently. One of the coolest is a review of local H-town-area noise-rapper B L A C K I E; his debut, Wilderness of North America, is an angry, free-jazz-informed combo assault of thick-sounding City of Syrup hip-hop, hazy avant-noise, and […]
It’s hard to write about a Tilly and the Wall show. Very hard. Because people will inevitably expect you to write about the tapping. Or about the balloons. Or about the exploding confetti. Or about the adoring (read: a wee bit crazy) fans who make cupcakes for the band and bring Silly String to shoot square in the face of unsuspecting music writers trying to sip a beverage…
Try saying this out loud: “Michale Graves, former lead singer of the Misfits, is playing an acoustic show at a church in Conroe.” Shit, you got my attention…
Update time, and somewhat of an urgent one, to boot — in the spirit of Just-In-Time Reviewing (which is all the trend these days, don’tcha know), we’ve got a brand-new review up of Papermoons inaugural full-length, New Tales, and holy crap, they just happen to be playing tonight. Imagine that… Anyway, the band’s playing up […]
