Photos courtesy of Liz Countryman
You know the feeling of putting on a homemade scarf just woven by your 90-year old great-grandma? That scarf is Deerhunter; only now two of your seventh-grade bullies are standing on either side of you pulling it as tightly as they can if only to choke you out.
Deerhunter is a pillow made of porcupine, or staring at the moon during a hurricane. Giant needles poking the arm floaties of a three-year-old trying to learn how to swim (and now the water is turning
...and so say all of us! - Chris Gray, Craig Hlavaty, Dusti Rhodes, Keith Plocek, William Michael Smith, Bob Ruggiero, John Nova Lomax, Ernest Barteldes, Brandon K. Hernsberger, Jef With One F, Michael Arceneaux, Linda Leseman, kris ex, Kathy F. Mahdoubi, Rosa Guerrero, Nick DiFonzo, Jason Ferguson and Shea Serrano
Photos by Brandon K. Hernsberger
Elvis Perkins, sly as a foxtrot, sings folk music that like sounds old people disguised as a dance floor - like ba ba ba, or skip-to-my loo. Bring in the ironic headbands, or: folk singers talk like nice people, probably because they totally love all up on Jesus. Which is a weird context to bring to Walter's, mostly because those who frequent the venue are oftentimes there only because they want to say they were, or are there so they can prove to themselves that
Photos by Brandon K. Hernsberger
Better than Ezra sounds like biscuits look after being popped from a can in your grandma's kitchen the Sunday after Halloween, belly full of candy. Like junior high - or more like high school (post-acne) - they're an Ansel Adams painting hung on the wall of your hotel room after prom. So click your Apple IIg on sepia and, in your best Zack Morris voice, say, "do the Bartman." These are the pop-up video days of our lives.
That was the general feeling Saturday nigh
Photos by Brandon K. Hernsberger
A good way to kick off the HPMAs is to see a musician who makes you daydream about cheese grits on a holiday, preferably one that takes place in wintertime. Or reminds you of riding a horse at sunrise alongside your best friend John Denver. Glenna Bell, you made it happen. This longtime local favorite earned her due at Dean's, the paltry to not-so-paltry audience basking in the folky goo of a hootenanny. The folksters hummed and swayed with straight teeth and
GroovehouseLos Skarnales just wouldn't quit at House of Blues Sunday.
Rocks Off is just about recovered from Sunday's HPMA showcase mayhem, or as recovered as we're going to get. Despite some bitching on Hands Up Houston - what else is new? - everybody we've talked to had as much of a blast as we did. But in case you missed something, just follow these links to Rocks Off's various reports from the field and pictures, pictures, pictures. By the way, the winners will be announced Thursday eveni
Mark C. AustinB L A C K I E holds court at Dean's on Showcase Sunday.
We heard a rumor bubble up a while ago about how a couple of the Houston Press Best Underground Hip-Hop nominees were supposed to be working on a group track together. There was even supposed to be a co-sign from Bun B worked in there somewhere.
The names rumored to be involved with the project periodically changed, but the message remained the same: the song was to be an official signaling that these were some kids who int
