Email Author John Nova Lomax

2005 Stories by John Nova Lomax

• Hard 'n Phirm

  published December 29, 2005

  Chris Hardwick and Mike Phirman constitute this L.A.-based, Tenacious D.-like duo, and Horses and Grasses is a heapin' helpin' of... More >>

• Farewell to the Twenty Nickel

  published December 29, 2005

  "Next year local rapper Slim Thug will break big nationally, big things will come out of the Swisha House posse, and the city's hip-hop scene will... More >>

• Yule Fuel

  published December 22, 2005

  For several consecutive Christmases when I was a kid, my aunt Libby (who is only seven years older than I am) and I had an odd musical tradition.... More >>

• Spain Coloured Orange

  published December 15, 2005

  Spain Coloured Orange is an apt name. The spelling of "Coloured" gives away their Anglophilic tendencies, while both "Spain" and "Orange" connote... More >>

• Stairway to Heaven

  published December 15, 2005

  This past year has easily been the weakest of the three since we started stealing Greil Marcus's method of scoring rock and roll deaths. As with... More >>

• Kapusta Kristmas

  published December 15, 2005

  For several years back in the '80s and '90s, rock and roll keyboard legend Al Kooper had a very cool yuletide custom. Kooper was (and is) an avid... More >>

• Do You Hear What I Hear?

  published December 8, 2005

  Another year, another rich haul of Christmas CDs. But instead of coming up with just another essay about holiday music, this time around we... More >>

• Sisters Are Punking It for Themselves

  published December 8, 2005

  By day, Melissa Bransfield-Waters teaches pre-K tots at the Rise School, a private facility near the Astrodome for kids with disabilities and also... More >>

• A Pack of Mutts

  published December 8, 2005

  As far as music goes, I am not a tribal person. I am not prodded by Pitchfork, nor narcotized by Relix, nor are my spirits lifted by No... More >>

• Reach for the Stars

  published December 1, 2005

  Two years ago, Astra Heights was just another band on the local pub circuit -- a semi-regular name on the marquee at hip joints like Rudyard's and... More >>

• Paranoia Self Destroyer

  published November 24, 2005

  Even as the freakishly named Tropical Storm Gamma lumbered through the Caribbean far to the south, the arrival of our first proper norther last... More >>

• Various Artists

  published November 17, 2005

  Forty years ago, the Beatles escaped the boy-band ghetto of their bubblegum early years with Rubber Soul, the first in their string of... More >>

• Neil Diamond; Bobby Bare

  published November 17, 2005

  Ah, yes, the old reinvention album. Recent years have seen Dolly, Cash, Solomon Burke and Loretta Lynn utterly rebrand themselves, with or without... More >>

• On Da Lingo, Part II

  published November 17, 2005

  A little more than a year ago, we discussed the meanings and origins of three ubiquitous hip-hop terms and their connections to Houston (" More >>

• Bun B

  published November 10, 2005

  Some MCs are dancers and dodgers -- they're like Barry Sanders on the mike, and it's hard to get a grip on them. Bun B is not one of those... More >>

• Black-Ass Fleas

  published November 10, 2005

  The Black Eyed Peas -- man, where the hell do you begin? It appears there isn't a more qualified group to write about for this particular... More >>

• Low Ride, Take It Easy

  published November 10, 2005

  For the second time in three years, I'm at the Los Magnificos Car Show at Reliant Center, and it hasn't changed all that much since '03. There's... More >>

• Redneck Renaissance

  published November 3, 2005

  Don't look now, but in Nashville, there's a new moon (pie) on the rise. The big-city glitz and suburban kitchen-sink melodrama of Shania Twain and... More >>

• Base Raps

  published October 27, 2005

  As if we needed any more proof that rock is, if not dead exactly, then certainly seriously hurtin' here in Houston, we have the musical aftermath... More >>

• Walk Away, Walk Away

  published October 27, 2005

  Hard to believe, but Friday night's rock and roll lollapalooza at Toyota Center will mark the 12th time U2 has tripped through Houston's wires... More >>

• Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers

  published October 20, 2005

  Wailing pedal steel, crying fiddles, alternately growling and keening Telecasters, plunking upright piano figures and songs about the trouble... More >>

• Rev Run

  published October 20, 2005

  Are you in touch with your inner 12-year-old? Rev Run sure is, and if you are too, you'll love Distortion. Virtually all the lines he... More >>

• Ain't Saying He's a Gold Digger

  published October 20, 2005

  Like a lot of us in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Micah Nickerson and Damien Randle of local hip-hop duo the Legendary K.O.... More >>

• Best Beats from the Bayou

  published October 20, 2005

  As we approach the end of the fattest, dopest, flyest, funky-freshest year in H-town hip-hop history, it would behoove us to take a brief look... More >>

• Rockin' Renewal

  published October 13, 2005

  Some years back, I had a conversation with City Councilman Gordon Quan about our city's lack of a proper entertainment district, and he put forth... More >>