Email Author John Nova Lomax

2003 Stories by John Nova Lomax

• Always Darkest Before the Dawn

  published December 25, 2003

  If you've ever read one of these jive-ass year-enders before, you'll know that (insert year here) was full of plenty of Ups and Downs. That for... More >>

• A Bevy of Benefits

  published December 18, 2003

  'Tis the season for benefits, and if you don't want to be haunted by a bunch of chain-clanking phantoms of your dead mean friends on Christmas... More >>

• I'm Not Dreaming of a White Christmas

  published December 18, 2003

  Ho ho freakin' ho, it's Christmas time again, and time for Racket to get his Scrooge on. But instead of trashing a bunch of half-baked yuletide... More >>

• Acid Test

  published December 18, 2003

  Getting a story out of Linus Pauling Quartet on the occasion of the release of their positively stellar new album, C6H8O6, is one of the... More >>

• Rallying Round Al

  published December 11, 2003

  When you think about musician-playwright Alejandro Escovedo, you start thinking about religious icons. It's easy to imagine his image painted on... More >>

• A Kinky Kind of Campaign?

  published December 4, 2003

  First, there was Jesse Ventura in Minnesota. Then there was Ah-nuld in California. What's next in the world of politainment? How about Kinky... More >>

• Hip-hop, Tejas

  published December 4, 2003

  All my friends know the low rider / The low rider is a little higher / The low rider drives a little slower / Low rider, is a real goer. --... More >>

• Computer Error

  published November 27, 2003

  Slowly but surely, the Web site www.allmusic.com has become the permanent record your teachers always... More >>

• Banjos and Body Piercings

  published November 20, 2003

  "Texas rules. I always have a good time down there. I wish I was there right now." So says 25-year-old singer-songwriter, banjo... More >>

• Return of Los Vatos Rudos

  published November 13, 2003

  Los Skarnales are the Dropkick Murphys of Houston. As the Murphys reflect Boston and its dominant Irish-American subculture, the Skarnales are the... More >>

• City Under Siege

  published November 6, 2003

  Last week we brought you the story of, as they would say in a movie trailer, one man with the courage, the passion, the desire to take the... More >>

• Solas

  published October 30, 2003

  St. Patrick's Day may fall in the springtime, but for me the best time of year for Irish music is fall, or whatever you want to call the beginning... More >>

• Sweet Recovery

  published October 30, 2003

  Musicians get their gear ripped off all the time. Someone unhitches a band's trailer and hauls ass. Another guy snatches a guitar off the stage... More >>

• Pleasure Club

  published October 23, 2003

  Houstonian by birth, New Orleanian by choice, skull-faced and sharp-dressed James Hall is the founder of Pleasure Club, purveyors of what a bunch... More >>

• Sean Reefer and the Resin Valley Boys, with Zombilly

  published October 23, 2003

  If you think Country Legends 97.1 is a misnomer because they don't play any Webb Pierce or Lefty Frizzell, this show and this band are for you. A... More >>

• Roll Over, Eric Clapton. And Tell Stevie Ray the News.

  published October 23, 2003

  It's official -- the blues is in again, if indeed it ever was out. Following the release of its epic DVD How the West Was Won, blues-rock... More >>

• The Carlsonics

  published October 16, 2003

  Out of northern Virginia/Washington, D.C., it comes, a band with malice toward all and goodwill toward none, a mod/neo-garage quintet that kicks... More >>

• Hype This

  published October 16, 2003

  Ho-hum, here we go again. Another sports and entertainment palace opens in Houston, and the Chronicle pulls out all the stops saying it's... More >>

• Califone, with Clem Snide and Scattered Pages

  published October 9, 2003

  Here's a little word problem for you. If a van containing Son Volt, whose members are listening to the Harry Smith anthology, is traveling at 70... More >>

• Do You Know the Way to Balmorhea?

  published October 9, 2003

  Jesse Dayton has always been a man of motion. His band names (the Road Kings, the Alamo Jets) reflect a sense of movement, as does his restless... More >>

• Sleep

  published October 2, 2003

  Things you could do in less time than that which drags past, ponderously as an elephant on quaaludes, on the title track of metal act Sleep's new... More >>

• Houston 1, Luftwaffe 0

  published October 2, 2003

  Well, folks, it was fun while it lasted, but after about nine months Stuka's blitzkrieg of Houston nightlife is now officially over. The club that... More >>

• Brown Suga Suga

  published October 2, 2003

  There's more than one thing that's pretty old-school about Baby Bash and his hit single, "Suga Suga." First, there's the song itself: a... More >>

• Reprogram Your Life

  published September 25, 2003

  To Racket, at least, chaos is usually more interesting than order, certainly in the case of post-Garland Ganter KPFT. Ganter's streamlined "Sounds... More >>

• Flaco Jimenez

  published September 18, 2003

  The problem with Flaco Jimenez's recent career is that he has often sounded like a guest star on his own albums. For years, every rock and country... More >>