Downfall 2012, with Pimpadelic

Of Houston's rap-rock bands, this one is easily the most political. Whereas the lyrics of Simpleton and Faceplant are very much in the early Beastie Boys beer-n-bong-n-babes vein, Downfall's Daniel Gil takes more of a Rage Against the Machine approach, even though songs with titles like "Don't Fuck with the U.S.A." are few and far between in the RATM songbook. Elsewhere, the band (guitarist Andrew Zapatka, and brothers Adam and Josh Pazda on bass and drums, respectively) thunderously pummels its way through Gil's songs about teen mass murderers, love gone horribly wrong and the end of the world. There's even one based on a story that ran in these pages three years ago; Downfall's "Self Defense of a Third Person" is based on "Punks, Jocks and Justice," the Press story about the Amarillo punker run over and killed by an athlete whose sentence of probation astonished the less barbaric parts of the Lone Star State. As Gil screams, "We know the truth! Murderer! Murderer!"