National Public Radio

Big Boys: Texas Punk Pioneers Find a Fresh Towel With LP Reissue

Big Boys, the hugely influential Texas punk band that, among other things, inspired two Austin music festivals, have been getting some big press lately thanks to the reissue of their first full LP earlier this month. Industry Standard/Where's My Towel, a record born from Big Boys' frustrations with ... More >>

EPIC: The 20 Most Overused Terms In SXSW Band Bios

Before I take any trip to Austin and SXSW, I always take more than a few days to peruse the schedule and check out a few of the hundreds of names on the roster and read their bios. Some years there are more bands with "wolf" and "space" in their monikers than usual, and some years there are random ... More >>

SXSW's 2013 Panels: EDM, Nashville, and Tony Bennett's Headphones

Since 2010 or so, while I am at SXSW in Austin I have started to make the panels during the day a priority for my time at the conference. The trick is waking up by 10 a.m. most days. They are usually filled with industry celebs I can geek out on (like singer-songwriter Paul Williams) and almost al ... More >>

Tift Merritt Looks Outside Herself to Kindle a Spark

Tift Merritt makes country music for city dwellers, the kinds of songs that NPR adores but Nashville doesn't have much use for anymore. Still, the thirtysomething singer-songwriter managed to score a Best Country Album Grammy nomination for 2004's Tambourine. But a couple of songs from that record, ... More >>

Saturday Night: Girl In a Coma at Fitzgerald's

Girl In a Coma Fitzgerald's February 2, 2013 In the same way that Girl In a Coma's hometown of San Antonio is both beautiful and haunted, the band's aesthetic sound and presence lingers in your mind long after you push play. With rich tones and a confident demeanor, this attitude is amplified durin ... More >>

War/Photography

Images of battles won and lost paint us all with the brush of brutality at a searing, resonating MFAH exhibit.

Rocks Off's 10 Best Musical Discoveries of 2012

The thrill of discovering freshly minted treasure or a previously unheralded favorite is one of the main reasons music writers get into this racket in the first place; every so often it can make wading through the ocean of crap mediocrity that is pop music worthwhile. Rocks Off asked our contributor ... More >>

Historic Local Station KCOH Sold to Catholic Radio Network

Radio is generally in a constant state of upheaval. Witness the line-up changes throughout sports radio and the rise of News92 FM from the ashes of formerly all news KTRH. There are two FM music stations playing the exact same stuff every day because one was sold and not reformatted. The plug was pu ... More >>

KCOH, Houston's Last AM Bastion of Old-School R&B, Is Sold

This post also appeared on our sister blog Hair Balls -- ed. Radio is generally in a constant state of upheaval. Witness the lineup changes throughout sports radio and the rise of News92 FM from the ashes of formerly all-news KTRH. There are two FM music stations playing the exact same stuff every ... More >>

Set It To Blow: 5 Musical Bombs to Promote Internet-Jukebox Anarchy

Recently my Twitter buddy John Seaborn Gray wrote a blog for Rocks Off in which he gave the world five simple suggestions for how to use Internet jukeboxes more effectively. He makes a lot of good points and if you're good people you'll read it, digest it and put his rules in to practice. I am not ... More >>

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 >>

Nutritional Value of Organic Food Challenged by Stanford University Study

A recently released Stanford University study, which reviewed and analyzed more than 200 previously conducted studies comparing the health effects of organic and conventional foods, suggests that organic food may not be a shining star in the department of nutritional value. The study's findings, in ... More >>

5 Ways to Tell If You've Politically Lost Your Damned Mind

If you're a sane person then you are dreading the next four months leading up to the presidential election. Every single election cycle has gotten more and more crazy, but I have a feeling this is going to be the one where we end up developing airborne thorazine to try and chill folks the holy hell ... More >>

Top 10 Zaniest "Call Me Maybe" Covers & Remixes

In case if you haven't heard Canadian songstress Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," above is the song's official music video. You can also find this jam, which is currently comfortably sitting at the very top of the Billboard charts, blaring after about every other song on most top-hit radio statio ... More >>

Should Cell Phones and Cameras Be Banned at Concerts?

This past weekend a staffer at NPR music blog All Things Considered went to see M. Ward and Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Upon entering the legendary venue, writer Bob Boilen spied a sign on the door with the message "Tonight, no photography or videos. Including cell ... More >>

Chron Admits Journatic Stories May Have Had Fake Bylines

Tucked neatly beneath a photo of Pitbull and next to the lotto numbers in Tuesday's Houston Chronicle A section (page 2, if you're curious) was a "Note to our readers" that detailed the Chron's recent discovery that stories provided to them by Journatic and affiliate Blockshopper had used pseudonyms ... More >>

Know Your Local Media: KUHF's Paul Pendergraft on Engines of Our Ingenuity, Talking Pigs and Steely Dan

If you pay attention to local radio, you know Paul Pendergraft, but despite his receiving numerous accolades including an Edward R. Murrow award and appearing virtually every day on the radio in Houston for over 20 years, you might miss him. Pendergraft is an affable, soft-voiced senior producer for ... More >>

David McGlynn: The Door in the Ocean

iFest: Top 5 Argentine-American Musicians

The Houston International Festival enters its second weekend tomorrow, with featured musical acts WAR, Joe Louis Walker, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Texas Tornados, Del Castillo, Steel Pulse and lots more. Although iFest's performers come from all over the world, all around the main stages will be the sig ... More >>

A Small Matter of Taste

NPR recently aired a fascinating storyabout the physiology of taste. The segment featured an interview with Barb Stuckey, author of Taste What You're Missing: The Passionate Eater's Guide to Why Good Food Tastes Good. The book discusses the variety of tastes that we all experience. By this, I do n ... More >>

Hahn & Enigma Variations

The Worst Moments from SXSW 2012

The last few days, Village Voice Media's indefatigable music staff has been regaling you with stories of the best from SXSW 2012. In the midst of these discoveries, we've been culling another list: the worst shit. The acts that ranged from huge bore-fests to downright lame. Below, you'll find our cr ... More >>

Top 5 Podcasts You Should Be Listening To

Every couple of weeks, someone on Facebook inevitably poses the question, "Which podcasts should I be listening to? Not This American Life." It's the second most frequent post after "I lost all my numbers. Text me ur cell." If you are one of these curious people, or have a friend who is, then this i ... More >>

Five Years Later: Food Trends That Fizzled Out

I'm still waiting for Mupcakes to catch on.​It's that time of year again: No, not the time when society's ever-emphasized consumerism is rammed even more forcefully down our gullets, disguised in festive Christmas trimmings and manipulative Coca-Cola commercials. It's the time of year when eve ... More >>

Gifts Galore

Wrapping up Houston's holiday shows.

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 >>

Gothic Council Mutinies Over "This Corrosion" Cover

We still haven't gotten around to setting up our iTunes account on the new phone yet. Since we mostly listen to the NPR live stream in the car anyway it's not a big deal, but every once and a while we get a sudden urge for a certain tune. Usually YouTube solves the trick nicely, and it was during a ... More >>

Emanuel Ax plus Tchaikovsky 3

Comment of the Day: Japanese Kit Kat

​Here on Eating Our Words, the commenters absolutely make the blog, and our Comment of the Day honors the best of the bunch. Every day, we read you guys and pick the commenter, or commenters, who made us laugh, cry, salivate over something delicious, or think about things in a new way. In re ... More >>

Ingredient of the Week: Soy Sauce

Photo by John SuhKikkoman low-sodium: good for dipping sauces​Last week, we brought you fish sauce, the essential ingredient of southeast Asian cuisines like Thai and Vietnamese. This week, we feature a sauce of Chinese origin whose use has spread all over Asia and even the world. Read on, a ... More >>

Paula Poundstone

Odd Pair: What Wine Do You Serve with Doritos?

​When asked what factors had shaped his palate and his wine collection when he first began collecting fine wine, rockstar (literally, not just figuratively) and winemaker Maynard James Keenan answered: "Mountain Dew and Doritos. Like most American kids, that's what I grew up on." This was a fe ... More >>

Whole Foods vs. Ramadan: The Original Email

​Since our post yesterday on Whole Foods's reluctance to promote Ramadan this year after a few customer and blogger complaints, the story unexpectedly went viral. Saffron Roads CEO Adnan Durrani called the post "a tempest in a teapot" when interviewed by CNN. And NPR reported: "Looking to set ... More >>

John Nova Lomax: I'm on the Next Episode of This American Life

John Nova Lomax: Unlike the NPR segment being taped in this photo, his This American Life piece will air.​It was one of those things in life you just can't quite believe. A few weeks back, I received an e-mail from Robyn Semien telling me that This American Life was interested in a story I had ... More >>

Dallas Blocker, Houston's R&B King Of The Hook Shots

OG PR​That's Dallas Blocker. He is an R&B singer. He's more talented than you. He's more handsome than you. He's cooler than you. And he works harder than you. He became regionally famous last year when he told women that he wanted to touch their bodies, touch their bodies all night long, an ... More >>

Nocturnal Classical Fans: No More Requests Or Local Hosts For You

Roll over Beethoven, tell the playlist bot the news.​Looking for a refreshing jolt of Rimsky-Korsakov to get you through that wee-hours cram session? If you've been getting your fix through KUHF's overnight classical DJs, you are going to have to look elsewhere after the dust settles on the ... More >>

Last Night: Gogol Bordello At House Of Blues

Photos by Groovehouse​Gogol Bordello House of Blues April 12, 2011 Check out our pics of the Gypsy punks. Maybe a Jolly Roger would have helped. Tuesday night at House of Blues, Gogol Bordello had the captain's wheel, center stage. They had the ocean, in the form of the seething pit of huma ... More >>

KUHF Head Mocks GOP

As if NPR wasn't in enough trouble.

KUHF CEO John Proffitt Thinks You Are Stupid, Rejoices He Is No Republican

John Proffitt gives ammo to the NPR hatahs​KUHF John Proffitt thinks you are a moron.Well, that's what you could say if you saw his Facebook page a little earlier this week.With NPR dealing with the fallout from its recent right-wing sneak attack, you'd think everyone even remotely in a position ... More >>

March Madness

At SXSW 2011, almost everything that could go wrong did — except the music.

Dale Earnhardt Died Ten Years Ago Today: Five Highlights from "The Dale Trail" in His Hometown

Celebrating The Intimidator​Ten years ago today the NASCAR world was rocked to its core by the death of Dale Earnhardt. He drove cars, we're told, and did it very fast. If you see a vanity license plate from a Southern state with a "3" on it, the driver is an Earnhardt fan and probably does n ... More >>

MCM: More Local Music News Than Parties In Cairo

Todd Spoth​Welcome back to yet another installment of our semi-famous Magnolia City Mixtape. Rocks Off works hard to scrape every barnacle of local music news from our ship that sails the high seas of the Internet - or something like that. Slim Thug welcomed everyone back to Texas for the Sup ... More >>

Poison Pen Reading Series: Matthew Zapruder

Lauryn Hill, DMX Hit The Rocky Comeback Trail

Ed. Note: According to our New York sister blog Sound of the City, Hill's show Monday night at legendary NYC jazz club the Blue Note went much better, although she still didn't go onstage until almost midnight. Santiago FelipeLauryn Hill at the Blue Note, Manhattan, January 3​Lauryn Hill's co ... More >>

Asylum Street Spankers

Brew Blog: Great Lakes Brewery's Dortmunder Gold

​Listening to Wait, Wait ...Don't Tell Me on NPR a few weeks ago, a caller from Cleveland was challenged to come up with something positive about his city. After a long silence that drew plenty of laughs, he said, "Great Lakes beer." The Cleveland-based brewery is definitely one of many reaso ... More >>

Tea Party Time: Texas Will Be Ground Zero For How They Govern

Time to govern​Second-day opening paragraphs on stories about disasters such as air crashes always include something about "picking through the charred wreackage." And that's what Democrats are doing now in Texas, where the state legislature races were, well, a disaster.No other state in the count ... More >>

KTRH & Right-Wing Radio: Can You Predict The Results Of Their Online Polls?

KTRH's vox populi: Out on the edge​One of the fee remaining joys of listening in the morning to KTRH, once the city's proudest newsradio station, is not weather or traffic.Sure, those are about the last reliable things the station broadcasts, but that doesn't mean there's no other entertainment va ... More >>

The Krayolas

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