Oh, how I love this band. {The Suffers} may be the ones getting all the press right now (and deservedly so), but my own personal Magic 8-Ball proclaims/hopes that {The Wheel Workers} are the next H-town band to surge upwards into the spotlight. They are simultaneously brilliant and down-to-earth, sincerely progressive and catchy as hell, that rare band that can incorporate thoughtful politics into music while keeping things fun and engaging. All of which explains why I’m so, so happy to see/hear new full-length Citizens coming down the pike…
Written on May 7, 2015 | Posted in
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Alright, so there’s a big, big pile of no-shit, truly-awesome stuff happening tonight — Friday, May 1st, that is. Before you make your evening plans & such, though, I wanted to point up one show in particular as being eminently worthy of consideration, I didn’t want to miss the boat. See, this evening the House of Blues plays host to H-town’s own {Second Lovers}, who’ve grown over the past few years now into one of my hands-down, absolute-favorite roots-rock bands…
Written on May 1, 2015 | Posted in
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Yeah, I’m way, way slow to pull the trigger on this one, but apparently the rest of y’all out there weren’t. A couple of days ago, Zack Palmer, son of the late Pam Robinson, the much-loved owner of Walter’s who passed away late last year after a fight with cancer, kicked off an IndieGogo project to help the downtown venue pay its debts and remain open…
Written on April 27, 2015 | Posted in
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Got word today that in spite of several spirited attempts to convince the owners of Mango’s that they should keep the place alive, the venue is now gone, having hosted its final show yesterday. It doesn’t seem like there was a whole lot of advance fanfare/warning as to the actual closing date, although this has been coming for several months now; I know a lot of folks, myself included, had hoped the place would get a reprieve, but it wasn’t to be…
Written on April 21, 2015 | Posted in
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Annnnnnd there we are, folks; the balloon has gone up, at long last. The good people in charge of the Free Press Summer Festival (aka FPSF) have released the big-ass pile of names playing this year’s festival. A whole bunch of it makes me excited, some of it makes me shrug, and a bit of it makes me scratch my head and say, “really?” Overall, though, I’m pretty happy with what’s on the menu. In terms of the big names on the list, the ones I like the best are Skrillex, St. Vincent, Belle and Sebastian(squee!…
Written on February 25, 2015 | Posted in
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Alright, people — it’s officially begun. The blind pre-sale for FPSF 2015 (aka the Free Press Summer Festival) is now open, as of about 15 minutes ago, and tickets are already going insanely fast. They’re out of the first three tiers of General Admission tickets, and the cheapest tier of the Fancy Pants tickets…
Written on January 20, 2015 | Posted in
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Some cool news today that I wanted to share/disseminate/etc… After a while spent quietly working away on their forthcoming full-length, excellent indie-rock band {Glass the Sky} have resurfaced, not only with brand-new single “Touch,” but also a video for said brand-new single…
Written on October 21, 2014 | Posted in
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Okay, so I’m guessing not everybody who reads this little blog managed to get out last night to see {Deep Cuts} at their EP release show up at Fitz — heck, I definitely didn’t, myself. If you hurry, though, you’ve got a second chance to catch ’em this weekend, starting at 3PM over at Cactus Music…
Written on September 20, 2014 | Posted in
Posts
Got some bad, bad news this afternoon from Mark C. Austin, one of the folks behind Untapped Houston, the very, very cool music-and-brews festival that we talked about just the other day, and which was scheduled to happen tomorrow, Saturday, September 20th…
Written on September 19, 2014 | Posted in
Posts
Alright, so I’m way behind, naturally, on this, but I wanted to point out to the woefully-clueless who don’t already know that the justly-ballyhooed Houston Press Music Awards are once more upon us…
Written on July 16, 2014 | Posted in
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Yeah, yeah; I know, I still need to get my damn writeup online about this year’s awesome FPSF (soon, I swear by all that is good and holy…), but while you’re waiting for that — as I’m sure you all are, with bated breath and everything — there’s been some badass-sounding news this week about another music festival, which will be having its inaugural run August 9th and 10th…
Written on July 11, 2014 | Posted in
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Heard some sad, sad news via the Houston music grapevine (i.e., Facebook) today, and now I feel compelled to at least try to say something, in my own fumbling way. Bear with me, if you could… Back in May, at the supremely fun Madness on Main Street music festival, I was sitting and watching {Sand Dollar Swing} play their set at the patio of The Pachinko Hut. The duo segued into a gentle, bluesy waltz and encouraged people to dance, so a handful of folks did; most danced with other people, but one brave soul…
Written on July 3, 2014 | Posted in
Posts
Hey, folks — thanks to the keen attention of two SCR readers/commenters, we learned of a fairly massive technical issue with the Website, one that’s been going on, apparently, since April. Argh.
Written on June 25, 2014 | Posted in
Posts
Yes, yes, yes, yes. The kind folks who run the Free Press Summer Festival popped up today, less than a month before this year’s festival kicks off (Saturday, May 31st, & Sunday, June 1st), to release two very, very awesome things: the official schedule for the festival and the mobile app for the festival…
Written on May 7, 2014 | Posted in
Posts
Alright, so this may sound a little familiar, but…do you remember last month, when we got all psyched about the return of Roky Moon & BOLT!? Of course you do! And why in the hell am I bringing it up yet again?…
Written on March 27, 2014 | Posted in
Posts
Well, wow. After dealing with a house full of sick people the past few days, this was seriously some welcome good news. See, way, way back in 2007, yours truly was frankly pretty disillusioned with music in general. All the bands I loved from around here were dying off or moving away, it seemed like, and I was having a harder and harder time liking any of it, y’know?…
Written on March 25, 2014 | Posted in
Posts
Hey, all — in case some folks haven’t yet heard, I wanted to pass along some bad (although not as bad as it could be) news. This past Friday night, while playing with his band {Alkari} up at Fitzgerald’s, guitarist/singer Mike Beatty had a heart attack…
Written on March 2, 2014 | Posted in
Posts
Holy freaking hell yeah, people. Yes, the much-mourned Roky Moon & BOLT! are apparently reuniting at the end of March for a couple of badass-sounding reunion shows. Granted, that doesn’t mean it’s a “real” reunion beyond those couple of gigs, but hey, I’ll take it…
Written on February 19, 2014 | Posted in
Posts
BOOM, there we go. After several months of anxious waiting from us out here in the Houston music world, the organizers of the Free Press Summer Festival (FPSF, for short) just released the official lineup for this year’s festival. And yes, it’s looking pretty damn good…
Written on February 12, 2014 | Posted in
Posts
Hell. Yeah. The attentive among you might recall back in the spring, when expat Houstonian writer/photographer team Lance Scott Walker and Peter Beste came through town to talk about their forthcoming one-two punch of books…
Written on October 9, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
Ah, yeah. Like the title says, this coming weekend marks the return of the Yes Indeed! Music Festival, and holy crap does it look awesome. This year the venue’s shifted somewhat, from the Main Street area…
Written on September 10, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
When we think of film noir, we think of few things over and over: Humphrey Bogart, dim lights and dark shadows, Humphrey Bogart (hey, he played Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade, what do you want?), thugs with guns, and dames that are never up to any good…
Written on August 3, 2013 | Posted in
Features,
Posts
While I do try to keep the political stuff a little low-key on this blog, sometimes I can’t help it. So, here we go: I, like a lot of folks down here in Texas, apparently, spent Tuesday night (and parts of Wednesday) glued to the TV/Internet as Senator Wendy Davis…
Written on June 27, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
Moving on to Saturday, June 22nd, now, but before I get to the shows that are going on, there appears to be one that isn’t. I haven’t been able to completely confirm it, but it sure looks like the Pull The Plug Fest that’d been originally…
Written on June 22, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
If you follow any of the music coverage in our fair city, you know Mark C. Austin‘s work, even if you don’t know the man himself. His work’s graced the pages of the {Houston Press}…
Written on May 31, 2013 | Posted in
Features,
Posts
Yep, as promised, we’re back again with more writeups of the rapidly-approaching (and, as we’ve said before, completely sold-out) Free Press Summer Fest that’ll be happening this Saturday & Sunday (June 1-2) over at Eleanor Tinsley Park…
Written on May 29, 2013 | Posted in
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Alright, so this feels a little weird. Us SCR folks had fully planned to do the little Free Press Summer Fest writeup thing we’ve done the past few years all along, but it’s always been kinda-sorta with the thought…
Written on May 28, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
Walking through the exhibit hall yesterday, I noticed a man in a Superman cape bouncing quarters off a slab of granite onto a table filled with drinking glasses and plastic cups adorned with superheroes. The man’s name is Ryan Dawson and his company, The Hidden Cape Foundation, is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping families […]
Written on May 26, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
Yeah, yeah — I know I’ve been extremely remiss (again) in posting about this year’s nominations for the Houston Press Music Awards, to the point that, um, the deadline to submit your nominations is today…
Written on May 22, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
Got word today that yes, the official-schmofficial schedule for this year’s Free Press Summer Fest is now online…
Written on May 1, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
On into Saturday, April 27th, today, and again, there’s a crapload of good stuff happening. Here’s what looks/sounds good to me…
Written on April 27, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
Whoa. There’s a ton of stuff going on tonight, Friday, April 12th, so much of it that I feel like I’m just barely skirting the edges of what looks/sounds cool to see & hear. Hell, I can’t even think of anything else to say, so let’s get to it…
Written on April 12, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
Next day of the weekend today, with Saturday, March 30th, and it’s kind of on the crazy side tonight; there’s a ton of stuff going on. Here we go…
Written on March 30, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
sigh. Been a crazy day, y’all — I’m bummed that I completely missed out on the first day of this year’s Haute Wheels Houston food truck festival, especially since they had very cool people like {The Wheel Workers}, {Craig Kinsey}, & {Southern Backtones} playing, dammit…
Written on March 23, 2013 | Posted in
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Moving slow as usual; this week was a bear at work and at home, unfortunately, so I’m still catching up. Some good stuff’s happening tonight, Friday, March 22nd, though, so don’t miss out, eh? Here goes…
Written on March 22, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
Dang. It isn’t often, lately, that I end up writing up what all’s going on on a freaking Sunday, but here we are, and tonight, March 10th, is looking pretty good. A lot of things are ongoing already, unfortunately — and it kills me that I blew mentioning the {Jandek} show earlier tonight at St. Paul’s Methodist Church…
Written on March 10, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
Alright, people — the rest of this weekend, yours truly will essentially be lit on fire and running screaming through the streets (okay, metaphorically, but still). So here’s what’s going on tomorrow, Saturday, March 9th, before I run out of time to talk about it…
Written on March 9, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
Today’s a big day, at least in the realm of H-town music media, because it’s the 10-year anniversary for two of my favorite publications/sites/etc., namely {Free Press Houston} and {Houston Calling}…
Written on March 8, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
Hey, all — already into the weekend, I’m afraid, but there’s still lots going on tonight, Friday, March 8th/b>. Get on out the house, y’all…
Written on March 8, 2013 | Posted in
Posts
I don’t know Christian Kidd, not really; we’ve exchanged emails a few times, sure, but we’ve never met in person, never had a conversation longer than a sentence or two. I think the closest I’ve come to introducing myself to the guy — who over the many…
Written on March 8, 2013 | Posted in
Features,
Reviews
