Subject: Omar Afra

• Seasons Mother-effin' Greetings!

  December 20, 2006

• Free Press Houston Announces "Summer Fest" Line-Up

  The chill dudes across town at Free Press Houston dropped an awesome bomb this afternoon, announcing their two-day "Summer Fest" shindig, set to go down August 8 and 9 at Eleanor Tinsley Park. Tickets are at $7 for each day, with the line-up spread out over those two days. The headliners that Editor Omar Afra and his team have secured are mind-blowing, in addition to the amassed stable of talent that Houston has begun to build up in the past few years rounding out the bill. This show is some

  June 3, 2009

• Readers In Ireland Sadly Misinformed About Houston

  You know the old saying – “any publicity is good publicity.” But might not some publicity be utterly pointless? We ask, because we have come across some that seems to be just that. Now ordinarily, a little blurb about your event in a paper like Dublin’s The Irish Independent would be a PR coup. After all, the 103-year-old paper is Ireland’s most widely-circulated daily newspaper. But why on earth would they be sending a shout-out to local alternative paper Free Press Houston’s

  November 20, 2008

• Mango's Becomes Full-Time Music Venue Next Weekend

  The Houston scene has another music venue in the mix, as Mango's Café on Westheimer has its grand opening next Friday with a huge show headlined by the Sideshow Tramps. Took 'em that long to get the joint cleaned up from the Homopolice show, we imagine, and let's hope they got the restroom situation sorted because we can't afford any more tetanus shots. Though Mango's made its debut as a music venue last weekend during the Westheimer Block Party, it officially goes live in earnes

  April 2, 2009

• Hit the Evening Showcase and Keep Corporate Hands Off the Westheimer Block Party

  March 26, 2009

• Art, Music and Crap

  It's all there -- in a neat little package -- at WestFest Compressed

  October 13, 2005

• Fresh Fruit

  Mango's attempts to resurrect Westheimer's bohemian past.

  April 30, 2009

• The Last Roundup: Paul Weller, South Memphis String Band, Indian Jewelry, Robert Ellis and More

  www.breakfastontour.comHere's another installment of what's been blowing up other Houston music Web sites' skirts recently. If you'd like us to look yours over (your site, not your skirt, though we can talk about that too), email hprocksoff@gmail.com. Breakfast on Tour caught the brand-new South Memphis String Band at the Continental Club April 25 (above): "Their stage interaction was as natural as any band that had been playing together for years." 29-95.com gave some love to Black Joe Lewis, w

  May 6, 2009

• MP3 of the Day: Yes, There Are Summer Fest Tickets Left

  ​Rocks Off just got off the phone with Free Press Houston editor/publisher Omar Afra, the Bill Graham of Saturday and Sunday's Summer Fest. After disguising himself as "that guy from that punk band you wrote those bad things about" - dude, you're going to have to be more specific than that - Afra asked us to get the word out that although no more Summer Fest tickets are available online or in stores, plenty will be available at Eleanor Tinsley Park tomorrow. The box office opens at 10 a.m.; th

  August 7, 2009

• Aftermath: Free Press Summer Fest at Eleanor Tinsley Park

  Photos by Amber Roussel/ Click here for slideshows from Day 1 and Day 2​ They said it couldn't be done, that no one in Houston would dream of spending two days in the punishing August heat at an outdoor music festival.An anonymous Of Montreal member shows off his tiger style.​Rightfully (somewhat), the Bayou City has acquired a reputation where indie-minded bands like Explosions in the Sky and Of Montreal went to die before they stopped coming here at all. And although there has never been a

  August 10, 2009

• Aftermath: Even More Summer Fest at Eleanor Tinsley Park

  Photos (except where specified) by Adam P. NewtonHipster... or hippie?​ Let's get the obligatory Summer Fest comments, critiques and criticisms out of the way first: yes, it was hot; yes, unfortunately, there was limited water available; and yes, there was a glaring lack of box-office infrastructure Saturday. Did you really expect anything different from a first-time festival being held in August in Houston? To dismiss this past weekend's overarching success based on such situational happensta

  August 11, 2009

• Coming of Age

  August 13, 2009

• Houston Music Fight Club: Michael Berry vs. Outlaw Dave, Don Walsh vs. Dirty Jeff Smith, Notsuoh vs. Mango's

  ​Another week and yet another clash of the sorta-titans, wherein we pit some of Houston's best and brightest music luminaries against each other in brutal mortal combat. This week we will briefly take a step away from the burgeoning Bayou City indie scene to spotlight two of the town's radio personalities who dabble in the musical milieu. Believe it or not there are folks who don't sit outside behind Poison Girl chain-smoking cigarettes or pass out at the bar at Boondocks. [Ed. note: Shut up.]

  September 10, 2009

• Aftermath: Local Music Takes Center Stage at The Festival at the Mink

  Photos by Marc BrubakerElectric Attitude​Here at Aftermath, we're aware that some people don't always appreciate a good festival, especially when in terms of the logistics: attendance requires you to stay in relatively one place for an extended period of time and share the same small set of bathrooms with the same set of people for hours on end, amongst other potential inconveniences (say, blistering temperatures at outdoor events). However, Aftermath is certainly a fan of the concept behind a

  September 14, 2009

• The Lost Weekend?

  November 12, 2009

• Free Press Staffer's Death Darkens Westheimer Block Party

  www.freepresshouston.com ​The first bit of news to report from this weekend's Westheimer Block Party is not a happy one at all. Late Saturday night, Free Press Houston staffer Lee Powers, 19, fell to his death from the Hazard St. bridge over U.S. 59. Powers, who also worked as a cook at Mango's, did many different tasks for the Montrose publication that produced this weekend's Block Party, a visibly shaken editor/publisher Omar Afra said Sunday afternoon. Among other things, Powers inter

  November 16, 2009

• Aftermath: Peace, Love, Little Joe and Hooker Heels at Westheimer Block Party

  Photos by Groovehouse​ We'll get the obligatory platitude out of the way first. If any of you didn't Day 1 of the one-and-only two-day edition of the Westheimer Block Party, then you missed an excellent day of music and community in Houston. As we walked between stages spanning the corner of Westheimer and Taft, we found ourselves amidst a broad cross-section of Houston life and culture out enjoying the fun and festivities. Nosaprise​We could give some credit to the City Of Montrose itself

  November 16, 2009

• Aftermath: Puppet Shows, Neo-Rastas, Freddie Gonorrhea, Black Congress and an Impromptu Nap Saturday at Westheimer Block Party

  Marc Brubaker​ Saturday's Westheimer Block Party began on a wobbly note, as most music festivals do with fans and staff still trying to find their bearings, aided by alcohol or otherwise. The scene on the ground seemed chaotic just an hour into the first day of the event. Organizer and Free Press Houston editor Omar Afra walked from venue making sure everything was going off without a proverbial hitch. The first thing we saw on Saturday was renaissance rapper Nosaprise on the Helios outdoor st

  November 16, 2009

• Aftermath: A Weekend With the Magically Reappearing Ralf Armin (and Some Really Gross Portapotties) at Westheimer Block Party

  Brittanie SheyDead Roses - that's the ubiquitous Ralf Armin in the hat at left - on the roof of La Strada​ You know how sometimes you'll learn a new word, and in the weeks that follow you'll realize you're hearing that word everywhere, eavesdropping it in conversations and reading it in the newspaper. Call it the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, or call it confirmation of bias, but whatever you call it, it was the theme for Aftermath this weekend. A few weeks ago, we met Ralf Armin while eating lunc

  November 16, 2009

• One Final Word About the Westheimer Block Party, and the Rest In a Few Easy Clicks

  Marc Brubaker​ Things could have gone smoother this past weekend on lower Westheimer. No one is denying that. Rocks Off has learned to live with the inevitable scheduling delays and interminable sound checks, as we're sure most Westheimer Block Party regulars have, but performers please take heed: Swapping stage times with each other willy-nilly, and especially not showing up at all, are no ways to win over new fans - or, really, to even keep the ones you've already got. Marc Brubaker​Yes, c

  November 16, 2009

• Honky-Tonk Revival

  November 19, 2009