It hasn’t even been a full decade since the first time I heard The Wheel Workers — which was then less a “band” and more just frontman/songwriter Steven Higginbotham yelling (okay, okay, speaking eloquently) into the void — but in the intervening years, it feels like we’ve seen change enough to last a century…
Being a music fan in this city is a hard, heartbreaking thing. As good as things are now when it comes to the people making music in and around Houston and the breadth of venues those people can play, I can’t help but feel a little weepy when I think back across the past couple of decades…
Hey, y’all — been dealing with a puking kid and house/floor renovations all weekend, so I’m way, way behind on what all’s been going on, sadly. There’re still a bunch of awesome things happening tonight, however, Sunday, March 11th, and I didn’t want to let ’em all slip away. Here goes…
Alright, y’all; running late for today, Saturday, January 6th, but I’d be seriously, seriously remiss if I let the stuff happening this evening just slide past, unmentioned. Because it’s neat stuff, truly…
And now, here we go with what’ll most likely be our last installment of the random previews thing we do every year for FPSF (aka Free Press Summer Festival, although these days it’s minus the “Free Press” part), which will be happening starting tomorrow…
It’s that time in H-town’s musical year when it feels like the festivals just keep popping up left and right and left again, y’know what I mean? Hell, we’ve already had a couple slide by, namely Houston Whatever Fest and The Munchies Picnik…
Anybody can write a political song; conversely, very few people can write a good political song. For every Public Enemy or Billy Bragg out there, there’s a metric ton of flat-out terrible also-rans. And then, thankfully, there’s The Wheel Workers, who take political songwriting and graft it to smart, clever, earworm-packed pop…
Back again, as promised, for Round Three (aka The Final Round) of SCR‘s happy little preview/writeup things for Yes, Indeed! Music Fest 2016, which will be unfurling tomorrow, September 17th, over on the eastern fringe of downtown. 25 damn cool bands/musicians, from here and elsewhere, will be doing their thing at four stages…
The Wheel Workers are a Houston mainstay, with three albums already under their belts since 2011 (and one on the way), but for anyone outside of Texas, they are criminally not as well-known, despite their obvious greatness. So how does a band go about getting the word out? They hit the road for a six-date tour…
This is one hell of a busy weekend, it’s true, but there’re some cool things that rise to the top of my personal little list, at least. One of those things is happening tonight — Saturday, May 28th, that is — up at Walter’s…
Screw that whole “bands get quieter and more mellow as they get older” thing; who the hell wants that? The Wheel Workers, for one, sound like they’ve actually gotten louder and angrier as they’ve matured, band-wise, and I’m here to tell you that yes, that’s a very good thing. See, back in 2013 the band released their stellar second album, Past to Present, which pretty much took any problems I might’ve had with the band’s earlier stuff and threw them, smiling, into a running garbage disposal…
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…
Attempting to get a jump on things at least slightly this week (although as with all weeks, I’d intended to post this days ago; sigh). Tonight’s not quite the weekend, strictly speaking, but close enough, because it’s Thursday, April 23rd, and there’s some extremely cool stuff happening, a bit of which I want to mention…
Getting late, and my eyes are rapidly melting in my skull (in part because I stupidly started Andy Weir‘s The Martian after dinner and haven’t put it down until just now), but I didn’t want to drop the ball on this one — it’s pretty damn important. In December of 2013, a woman driving down Waugh hit and killed a 24-year-old Whole Foods employee as she biked home from work…
Hey, y’all — there’s some very, very cool stuff happening tonight (Thursday, October 3rd), and I didn’t want to let it slip through my twitchy little fingers without it getting a mention up here…
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…
Moving into Saturday, April 13th, now, and there’s still a crapload of excellent things going on. Quite a few are early in the day, for some reason, so I’m trying to get this in somewhat early, at least…
It’s looking like one hell of a day/night today, Saturday, April 6th, so I’ll skip the usual blather and just get right to all the cool things happening. Here we go…
There’s a small pile of benefit-type shows coming up, and hey, each one’s excellent and worthy in its own unique way, certainly. I must confess, though, to being somewhat biased towards one particular benefit concert going on tomorrow, Saturday, April 5th…
Yeah, it’s looking like a pretty damn good weekend, folks, starting with tonight, Friday, April 5th, and rolling on from there. Here’s what I happen to think looks cool…
When you have been in bands for 25 years, you can tell when a band has put everything they’ve got into a performance. This kind of effort was on display at Fitzgerald’s last night. With the release of their new album, Past to Present, The Wheel Workers…
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…
On the road again today — Sat., March 16th — but I’ll try to get a quick post in while the wife oh-so/kindly drives (ah, smartphones & wives are awesome…). Here we go: Eric Clapton/The Wallflowers @ Toyota Center What can I say? I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t go see Clapton if […]
It’s Saturday, March 2nd, now, y’all, and there’s plenty of good stuff happening both today & tonight. Here’s what I’m liking…
With Past to Present, The Wheel Workers attempt a truly delicate balancing act, one that’s impressive to witness. See, the album takes a big, big risk, in that it’s essentially two things at the same time: a pitch-perfect orchestral pop-rock album and a strident, intensely political call to arms. There are bands that can do those things, to be sure, but very few can do both at the same time and succeed…
Sometimes, all I really want to do is rock the hell out. I just want to hear guitars, bass, drums, and yelling/singing, all loud as fuck, with distortion that’s just enough to not be metal, rough-edged vocals, and a solid, pump-your-fist rhythm…
Dang, y’all — late as usual, I’m afraid, but there’s still lots going on tonight, Friday, October 12th. I’ll forego the chitchat, given the untimeliness of this; here we go…
On to the next one… It’s Saturday, August 25th, and yep, there’s still a ton of great stuff happening, seriously. Get off your lazy ass and out of the house, eh? Here goes…
I went in without a plan. It was stupid, in retrospect, but that’s how it happened. After meticulously plotting out who I was going to see and when for the past three installments of Free Press Summerfest, this year…
Day Two of the weekend, Saturday, August 4th, and there’s a ton going on, naturally. I’ve gotta keep it somewhat brief tonight, so let’s just get into it, eh?…
Damn…it’s Friday, July 13th, and the weekend’s completely crept up on me, I have to admit; just had too much going on to keep track of the days, y’know? Now that I’m focusing back on things musical, though, I’m getting psyched about what’s going on this evening, for damn sure…
First “real” day of the weekend today, Friday, June 29th, and while it’s not quite as jam-packed as last night was with good stuff, there’s still plenty going on…
Okay, so this feels a little strange. Back in the spring of 2011, I reviewed an album called Unite, by a band called The Wheel Workers that I’d never heard of before but which had seemingly popped, fully-formed, onto the scene…
I didn’t really enjoy the Free Press Summerfest… I devoured it. When I go to a concert with my wife, I try to enjoy myself, take it slow, kick back and relax, but by myself…
Free Press Summerfest 2012 is here! You can already smell the sweet, aromatic mix of beer, B.O., sun block, and swamp ass so unique to outdoor festivals in Houston. But before you plan on skipping out on the daytime acts (you know you thought about it), think about what this festival is really about…
A bit of a quieter day today (Sunday, May 13th, that is), which makes a little sense, both in that it’s a Sunday and Mother’s Day, and hell, musicians have mothers, too. Well, most of them, at least. There’re a few that I’m pretty sure were hatched in a lab somewhere…
On to Saturday, May 12th, and if anything, it looks like there’s more going on today than there was yesterday. Before I get to that, though, I wanted to mention a couple of things. First, in case you didn’t see the very nice {Rocks Off} post about it…
Moving somewhat slower than I’d initially planned to, with this one… There’s a very cool-sounding show going on tomorrow night (Sunday, April 15th), up at veteran Montrose haunt Rudyard’s — it’s called MS Understood : music for a cure for multiple sclerosis…
Yep, it’s Friday, March 9th, heading into the weekend — a little late, I know, but heck, there’s plenty still going on. Here goes…
Yep, we’re pretty darn impressed with the good people over at ZenHill Records. It’s partly because, hey, they’re from here and are working to support bands (mostly) from here, and we dig that…
