Macon Greyson

We all do it -- have those little what-I-shoulda-said internal conversations where we think up the perfect retort and verbally body-slam some dimwit who's messing up our worldview. You don't want to get into one of those with Dallas rockers Macon Greyson. On the band's new album, Translate, from the sneering opener, "Save Us All," Buddy Huffman and his musical chums throw down the lyrical gauntlet to cynical politicians, smug scenesters, half-hearted lovers and self-centered spewers of it's-all-good groupthink. Along the way, the band members leave behind any lingering illusions that they might be card-carrying members of the Texas music mess. Tracks like "Sidetracked" and "Own" bring back happy memories of times when Texas music meant True Believers or the Seeds rather than Green, Morrow and Creager. The brilliantly Tex-ified Ramones-style slam of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down," and the knife-in-the-brain "PCS" ("shut up, play guitar, write a song and tell me how to feel / folk singers got that shit all wrong / play your worthless country song") have a healthy dose of punk attitude -- something that's been sorely lacking from a Texas music scene that's taken itself way too seriously of late ("Wave on Wave," anyone?). With former Houstonian and Dishes drummer Pete Falcone anchoring the band, Macon Greyson has thrown down one of the tightest, hard-driving, outside-the-box albums so far this year on the Texas scene. So expect them to remain largely ignored.