Kickstarter Inc.

This Week In Food Blogs: Why Some BBQ Lists Are Suspect and Gordon Ramsey

29-95: Can a national media outlet really name the "top" restaurants across the country without putting in the legwork that people such as barbecue blogger Daniel Vaughn do, driving over 10,000 miles to visit 'cue joints for his book Prophets of Smoked Meat? That's the question Syd Kearney asks in a ... More >>

Cannibal Ox Is Back, But Is Anybody Listening?

You may have missed it, but no one would blame if you did because you're not alone. In March, legendary indie hip-hop group Cannibal Ox announced they were making a comeback in a big way, launching a new album, their very own record label, and a Kickstarter campaign to fund it all. The last time Ca ... More >>

The Electric Six Is On Tour To Fund Live DVD Project

In my eyes, one of most underrated rock albums of the past decade has been Electric Six's Fire, released in May 2003. It remains a solid set of thirteen, smutty, decadent rock cuts, and personally I find it hard to find a favorite after all these years. "Gay Bar", "She's White", "Naked Pictures (O ... More >>

German Food Truck Der Brat Bus Seeks Funding on Kickstarter, Hopes to Make Houston Home

Despite Texas' solidly German heritage, Houston boasts only a handful of restaurants, a fact I've often lamented. If my favorite spot, King's Biergarten, were any closer to town, I would probably spend way too much time there. Though the cuisine might seem a bit antiquated by today's standards, th ... More >>

Brewery Incubator Wants to Bring Nano-Brewing to Downtown With Your Help

While American craft beer has often been called a small business renaissance, that doesn't mean that entry into the business is a cheap initial investment. Brewing space and equipment can push start-up costs well north of six figures and beyond. This prohibitive figure often means that some of the v ... More >>

Craig's List

Our Hlavaty's Top 10 local albums of 2012.

Get Out of the Van: thelastplaceyoulook Celebrates a Huge 2012

Last time Rocks Off caught up with the guys in thelastplaceyoulook, they were trying to get a new van. Like any other automotive purchase, the van wasn't going to be cheap so they turned to Kickstarter. That turned out to be a smart, albeit controversial, choice. Some $10,000 later, the band got th ... More >>

Music's Biggest Douchebags: 2012 Edition

The music world is bound to have a lot of douchebags. It's just an inevitability, considering that it's essentially a profession for man-children. Peter Pan syndrome? No problem in the music business. That's why you see so many rock stars going through growing pains sometime in their mid-forties. Re ... More >>

Is Funding Your Album on Kickstarter Insulting and Wrong?

I do a monthly Kickstarter round-up on Art Attack because I really do think that crowdsourcing is a great way to get projects off of the ground that might otherwise never see the light of day. Some wonderful independent video games, for example, exist because of crowd-funding, and it is certainly th ... More >>

Monte Pittman: Madonna's Texan Guitarist Has Deep Metal Roots

Just a guess, but when Madonna played to tens of thousands of fans at Toyota Center last week, most of them probably didn't know that onstage with her was a member of one of the most severe metal bands of the past 20 years. Rewind: Last Night: Madonna at Toyota Center But it's true. Native Texan ... More >>

Birds of Chicago

The Rocks Off 100: Brandon Lemons, Keeper of the Treaty Oak Collective

Who? Brandon Lemons is the man behind The Treaty Oak Collective, "a small record label/booking/promotion group here in Houston." He is also a member of Houston/Austin post-rock band Co-Pilot. Home Base: Lemons lives in La Porte but works in Houston. "The Steamboat Ampworks shop is my home away ... More >>

Lil Keke's Heart of a Hustla

Crowdsourcing or Exploitation? Amanda Palmer's Search For Volunteer Musicians

Warning: These videos aren't exactly safe for work. View at your risk, preferably at home with the shades drawn. Amanda Palmer is learning that Biggie was right: More money does in fact equal more problems. A while back Palmer created a Kickstarter project for her new album and tour. Her thousands ... More >>

Amanda Palmer & the Grand Theft Orchestra

5 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: Street Dogs, The O's, Kat Edmonson, Two Gallants, Etc.

Irish-tinged Bah-sten punks Street Dogs, who are tight with Scottish-tinged Ew-sten punks, mosh down to Walters Friday night with Detroit psychobilly freakouts the Koffin Kats. Street Dogs' fellow New Englanders Roll the Tanks, whose song "Toeing the Line" was recently featured on Alternative Press' ... More >>

thelastplaceyoulook Turn To Their Fans To Help Kickstart Their First National Tour

To make the most out of the chance of a lifetime, you may have to make some sacrifices. For thelastplaceyoulook that means quitting their day jobs, looking for more affordable housing, and leaving their families behind for six weeks. Having built a dedicated fan base here at home the band now find ... More >>

Without a Face's New Video Is Not Without Awesome

8:53: The lead singer is extremely entertaining. At one point he removes his shirt to expose his frail white body and angrily hollers into the mic, "Are you ready to rock, Chicago?!" That's from a review I wrote more than four years ago. It was the very first thing I ever did for the Houston Press ... More >>

Murder By Death

The 2012 Houston Web Awards

The Houston Press rides the wave to the next group of winners.

Southern Summer Comfort Book Tour

Jurassic Park Live

Last Night: Marshall Crenshaw & The Bottle Rockets At The Continental Club

Marshall Crenshaw, The Bottle Rockets Continental Club April 22, 2012 Sunday's Marshall Crenshaw/Bottle Rockets show again raised the question of whether Houston fans of intelligent, literate rock and roll should be disappointed that our city isn't more interested in this kind of music, or whether ... More >>

The 71's Raise An Astounding $12K For Latest Album

​Just how viable is Kickstarter in helping an up-and-coming band to raise funds? As much as it saddens us to admit it, it mostly seems to fail. However, for one of our favorite local rock acts, the 71's, it has been an astounding success. Fans of the band have raised a mind-boggling $12,541 f ... More >>

Openings & Closings: January 2012

After 45 years in business along Washington Avenue, Guadalajara Bakery is closing its doors on February 29. Unlike previous closing scares for the longtime breakfast taco purveyor, this one is concrete: New owners purchased the building and gave the family 30 days notice to vacate. A bar is planned ... More >>

How NOT to Raise Money to Make a Music Video

Friends and enemies, music videos are an enduring passion of ours, both filming them ourselves and reporting on the best that we come across year after year. We think the medium has only become better and better with technology being made easier and cheaper for the average independent artist to mast ... More >>

Radical Eats's Radical New Restaurant Sets Up Shop in Northside Village

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttRadical Eats is slowly transforming an old taqueria into a vegan paradise.​Handpainted words on an old window advertise tacos, tortas and menudo in bright red and yellow lettering. This little white restaurant with red trim at the corner of Fulton and Catherine used ... More >>

Dudely Jones: Extra Hugs For Extra Thugs

​Evan Cassidy of the Dudely Jones Comedy Tribe is one of the finest comedy rappers around. We've continuously chronicled his unique brand of hilarious hip-hop on subjects as vast as his pimptastic dinosaur sweater, being the most modest man in mainstream music, and his lament at his own ginger ... More >>

Is It Right To Ask Fans To Pitch In For Health Care?

​The current economic environment has made times a bit rougher for artists in America, particularly musicians. Take DJ Kool Herc. The pioneering hip-hop DJ, who created the music's breakbeat foundation by switching back and forth between the breakdown section of two different funk sides, was h ... More >>

Win Katy Perry-Signed Guitar At Girls Rock Camp Benefit Thursday

​Girls Rock Camp Houston recently surpassed its fundraising pledge goal with room to spare, but that doesn't mean the hard work is over. This week the nonprofit, which organizes a musical summer camp for girls aged 8-18, will have two more fundraising events to help buy supplies for the inaugural ... More >>