Rocks Off is pleased to announce the lineup for tomorrow night's Houston Press Music Awards ceremony at Warehouse Live: Nick Gaitan & the Umbrella Man, Fat Tony, Lee Alexander, Los Skarnales, Grandfather Child and Tax the Wolf. Most of them performed at this past Saturday's HPMA showcase on Washington Avenue, from which, frankly, Rocks Off is still trying to recover.
It wasn't easy directing a team of writers and photographers around the 11 venues scattered up and down the corridor. Not in that heat, and not while still trying to catch some music ourselves, but we're not complaining. (Our favorites, by the way: Satin Hooks, Staci's Edge, the Literary Greats, B L A C K I E... we only wish we could have seen more.)
Rocks Off is going to have to see The Manichean a couple of more times before we figure out exactly what it is they're doing, but we will. And watching Downfall 2012's heavy-metal makeover of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" was pretty special. (Jealous, Craig?)
Anyway, after sifting through all the words and images (finally), we have to agree with what team Rocks Off said time and again, in several different ways: Houston is blessed with ridiculous amount of musical talent these days that feels like it's heading toward some kind of critical mass. Quickly. It's amazing how many times this has come up in our recent musical conversations across a range of people nearly as diverse as Saturday's lineup.
We're not sure what that's going to be yet, but Rocks Off hopes we're in the thick of it when it happens. We hope you are too, and we feel the same way about tomorrow night's awards ceremony. We've already had a gander at this year's winners list, and just like the ballot, there are a lot of new faces on there, including a couple of upsets we can almost guarantee will touch off a lot of conversation over the next few weeks.
Warehouse Live opens at 6 p.m. for the nominees and their guests, and 7:30 p.m. for the public. We hope you can make it. It's free.