King Crimson

Top 10 Educated Guesses for Free Press Summer Fest

Tomorrow, we will know who will be playing the fifth annual Free Press Summer Fest June 1 and 2 in Eleanor Tinsley Park. We know this because Monday, our rivals over at the Houston Chronicle revealed that they will have an exclusive announcement of the FPSF lineup sometime Thursday, thanks to what w ... More >>

15 Notable Houston Concerts of 2012

As we look back over 2012 this week, it is now time to revisit some of this year's memorable shows. It wasn't easy narrowing the list down to 15. Concerts are in chronological order. CHRIS GRAY DAY, The Continental Club So much local talent and so much love. Uh, if I'm maybe a little too biased on ... More >>

Explaining Classic Rock Bands to Kids

This past Sunday, The New York Times ran a piece by Paul Greenberg where the author explained how important the Beatles were to music and pop culture to his five-year old son. The child didn't know that the band had albums, but only knew the Fab Four from iTunes playlists. "When the Beatles record ... More >>

Last Night: Crimson ProjeKct at Warehouse Live

Crimson ProjeKct Warehouse Live July 8, 2012 Let's get one thing straight from the very beginning: King Crimson, by any other name, is still King Crimson. This requires an understanding of the nature of the band, which fans have come to learn over the years. King Crimson is a living, breathing enti ... More >>

Always Evolving: 64 Years Of Brian Eno's Best Nonproduction Work

Although he has more than 15 solo albums to his credit, Brian Eno's legacy in terms of popular music will always be defined by his work with others. Whether it was his time as a member of Roxy Music or his nearly 40-year production career, his best-known works have always come in the form of collabo ... More >>

Readers Poll: Who Is the Most Overrated Artist in Rock History?

The concept of "overrated" and "underrated" has always confused me. There are groups that are critically lauded, yet got little commercial love, like The Band. And then there are groups that were almost universally reviled by critics, like Journey, who consistently managed to sell out shows, sell mi ... More >>

Travelin' Band: What Do The Features Listen To On The Road?

So The Twilight Saga has exactly two things that keep the films from being absolute torture. The first is Ashley Greene in all her pixie-hotness, and the second is that there really are some excellent bands that end up on the soundtracks. Case in point, the Features were featured recently in Break ... More >>

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs Rush...Again

Photo by Jeff Balke​A couple years ago, I was sitting on the back porch at the Continental Club talking music with a fairly well known music writer who seemed to believe that anything with a big hook or the slightest inkling of musicianship beyond the garage band aesthetic was utter garbage. I ... More >>

RIP Guitar Hero: 10 Songs The Game Gave New Life

​Thursday, Activision killed the musical video game Guitar Hero after six years of turning young ears into heshers, glammers, and classic-rock devotees. The debt that older bands like the Ramones, Poison, Black Sabbath and Rush owe to the game is immense. True, the kids (and drunk adults), wer ... More >>

Last Night: Blitzen Trapper At House Of Blues

Photos by Jason Wolter​Blitzen Trapper House of Blues October 12, 2010 Because Aftermath only found out former KLOL morning DJ Mark Stevens had died a few hours before Blitzen Trapper went onstage at House of Blues Tuesday night, we couldn't help thinking about that while the Portland six-pie ... More >>

Kanye West's New Toy: Twitter

​If there was any other pop-culture wonder in need of a worldwide soapbox to spout off from it was Kanye West. Yesterday sweet dreams became a beautiful nightmare when West got his own verified Twitter account, @kanyewest. Little wonder this comes right before the run-up of publicity for his n ... More >>

Edge Of Twilight: The Secret History Of Forgotten UK Proggers Gentle Giant

​ Who Dat? Ah yes, the '70s, fertile ground for prog-rockers of mostly English descent like Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Jethro Tull and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. But a cult has grown around the (many would say) even more complex and experimental Gentle Giant - a quintet that, among them, could pla ... More >>

Remembering 1969, Part 3: The Beginning of the End for the Beatles

Note: see Part 1 here and Part 2 here. For most of 1969, the Beatles were pretty much comatose - after the disastrous Get Back sessions (which would later spawn the Phil Spector-produced Let It Be), they reconvened to the studio that spring to record the music for what would become their final reco ... More >>

Get Lit: Bill Bruford: The Autobiography by Bill Bruford

As the "godfather of progressive rock drumming," Bill Bruford has done stints on the road and in the studio with many of the genre's biggest bands. He was a founding member of Yes, spent years with King Crimson, and also thumped skins for Genesis, Gong, and U.K. before forming his own groups and the ... More >>

Get Lit: I Hate New Music: The Classic Rock Manifesto by Dave Thompson

If productivity alone conferred greatness, then flinty rock scribbler Dave Thompson would be the Trollope of pop-culture quick reads. I Hate New Music is the latest of over 100 titles this insta-book wizard has blinked into being. And dig the intro penned by the legendary Richard Meltzer, the Big Ba ... More >>

Kelly Hansen Joins "Hot Blooded" Rockers Foreigner

Head games

Tonight: California Guitar Trio at McGonigel's Mucky Duck

Simone Cechetti/ cgtrio.comCreated in 1991 after taking part in Robert Fripp's League of Crafty Guitarists, the trio formed by Paul Richards, Bert Lams and Hideyo Moriya forms a rare musical partnership that reaches across various genres without any form of prejudice. During the trio's live se ... More >>

Sunday Sunday Sunday: Zechs Marquise at the Mink

A natural talent for psychedelia must be as common as Y chromosomes in the Rodriguez-Lopez family DNA. That gene pool has produced a trio of rockers - Omar, Marcel and Marfred - that has proved its mastery of the genre in more than one incarnation. The most notable, of course, is Omar, co-masterm ... More >>

Overnight Express: In Case You're Not Sick of Me Going on About Tom Petty...

David Rice

A songsmith picks up the pieces and returns to Houston in triumph

From the Stacks: DJ Shorty's Faves

King Crimson's Heir

RIP, Syd. And RIP, 'Cid.

A psychedelic pioneer and the drug that helped do him in are both sorely missed

Got Milk?

Double Ax

Eric Johnson and Adrian Belew fret for you at Club V

Dirty Projectors

The Getty Address

The Mars Volta

Frances the Mute

An ABBA to Zebra of Guilty Pleasures

Music figures tell all abou their most shameful faves

The Class of '03

Grab your gift certificates and trade in your white elephants -- here's what you really wanted for Christmas

Here's Mud in Your Ear

Repeat after us: The Dirtbombs are not a garage rock band

Lost in Space

Meet the new radio, XM. It's big. It's bad. It's nationwide.

Playbill

California Guitar Trio with Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto

International Festival

Yakety Yak

Sara Hickman makes her audience part of the show

Prog's New Face

Deadwood Forest isn't your father's progressive rock band

Rotation

Sparking Interest

David Rice finally throws the switch on greenelectric

Out of the Swamp

The Good with the Badfinger

A Houston producer pays loving tribute to an enduring -- if cursed -- band

Decay Becomes Him

Ex-Chili Pepper John Frusciante sleepwalks through a rock and roll nightmare

Fat Chance

Call it integrity or call it stubbornness, but the Joint Chiefs won't slim down their bursting-at-the-seams jazz/grunge/funk act