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October 19, 2006Last Night: Gram Rabbit at Super Happy Fun Land
February 1, 2008Playbill
August 12, 2004Lonesome Onry and Mean: New Records from Nicholas Tremulis and Felix Cavaliere
Nicholas Tremulis with Robbie Fulks, "Mystery Train" Some killer records have recently fallen through Lonesome Onry and Mean's cracks, either due to a lack of space in the paper or LOM having just found the CDs under the seat of his truck. Yeah, stuff happens. The Nicholas Tremulis Orchestra's Pinky is a monster blues-rock record. Actually, to call what Tremulis does blues-rock is to set a musical limit that doesn't exist. What does exist with this road-hardened band of full-grown men is a wit
November 25, 2008Tonight: Thunderado and the Small Sounds at the Continental Club
Thunderado's Paul Beebe (center) and friends at the Continental, Christmas 2007 Thunderado doesn't play around much. This is not to say it's not one helluva band, but guitarist Hunter Perrin has a day job that keeps him busy most of the year: backing legendary Credence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty. When Perrin is in town, however, he and bassman compadre Paul Beebe bring one of the rockingest three-piece combos in the area to the stage. Thunderado's bluesy, surf
November 26, 2008Tonight: Tejas Brothers at Greenspoint Mall
Tejas Brothers, "She's About a Mover/Give Me Back My Wig" If you're looking for a poster band for the Texican thing, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better one than Fort Worth's Tejas Brothers. Currently gaining momentum due to heavy play on Sirius/XM's Outlaw Country station, the Brothers sound like a simplified Sir Douglas Quintet - sticking closely to the gringo-ized version of Tex-Mex Doug Sahm and Augie Meyers popularized years ago with songs like "Guacamole." There's
December 4, 2008Lonesome Onry and Mean: Gwil Owen's Gravy
Gwil Owen Gravy www.gwilowen.com Here's another good record that fell through my cracks this year but deserves to be mentioned. Gwil Owen lives in Nashville and can write to the country form anytime he wants to - or his checking account tells him he needs to. But on his latest project, Gravy, Owen exercises his soul music muscle, both as a writer and singer. Once you realize Toni Price has been cutting Owen's songs almost as long as he's been writing them, it all sorta starts to make sen
December 4, 2008Lonesome Onry and Mean: Voices of a Grateful Nation
As has been noted in these pages before, my daughter is in the Air Force. I'm not too happy that right now she is on a six-month assignment in Qatar while her two-year-old daughter is in San Antonio. So her active duty certainly colors my opinions regarding the new discs Voices of a Grateful Nation Vol. 1 & 2. Vol 1, identified as "Texas Rock, Blues & Folk," is easily the better disc, featuring some great pairings we aren't likely to see anywhere else: Malford Milligan (r
December 9, 2008MySpaced Out: When Publicists Attack
It was War of the Worlds author H.G. Wells who famously said, "Advertising is legalized lying." I recently had the unpleasant occasion to have a brief tete-a-tete with a young lady in the music public relations business. They call themselves "publicists." Not liars. It all began innocently enough, a "friend request" in my MySpace inbox. I looked at the lady's MySpace site - I always look before I click - and saw she was a publicist of what is pejoratively know as "Texas Music" in some
December 10, 2008Lonesome Onry and Mean: Sounds of Texas Music Series Announces 2009 Season
Guy Clark, "L.A. Freeway," live in Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2006 In response to last week's feature on the Conroe/The Woodlands/Montgomery County Americana scene, we've just received word from the Sounds of Texas Music Series people regarding their 2009 season. Quote-unquote, "Season tickets are going fast." The lineup for the 2009 series at the historic (and completely restored) Crighton Theater on the square in downtown Conroe is: Los Lonely Boys with Del Castillo (Jan. 24); Chris Kni
December 12, 2008Aftermath: Raul Malo at House of Blues
Photos by William Michael Smith I've never been a particularly big Raul Malo fan. Sure, he and his Mavericks had a few stellar singles that were pure gold from the first note, most notably (for me anyway) the Dwight Yoakam-ish twanger "All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down." But my significant other, a pretty fair hit-the-notes singer in her own right, had been anticipating Malo's Wednesday night appearance at House of Blues almost from the first second I mentioned seeing him on the upcoming sh
December 18, 2008Merry Christmas from the Rocks Off Family
...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
December 25, 2008Tonight: Hayes Carll at Warehouse Live
Woodlands native turned Austin dweller Hayes Carll had an up-and-down year in 2008. His first Lost Highway release, Trouble In Mind, garnered worldwide attention. As he relaxed in the Ozarks with his in-laws before heading to Warehouse Live for tonight's gig with Band of Heathens and Adam Carroll, we caught up with him to look back... and forward. Rocks Off: What were the highlights of 2008 for you as an artist? Hayes Carll: The Stingaree Music Festival, playing the
December 26, 2008Tonight: Thunderado and the Handsomes at the Continental Club
After packaging delays and the usual record-business snafus, we finally got our hands on a copy of the new Thunderado, a project of Paul Beebe and Hunter Perrin. Like Thunderado's live shows, the album features a stripped-down, three-piece power trio; for the purposes of this recording, the third slot is filled by guest super-drummer Kenny Aronoff. Houston native and John Fogerty axeman Perrin's guitar essentially drives the album as he works his way through everything from folksy soft-rocker
December 25, 2008Lonesome Onry and Mean: 2008's Heavy Rotation
For the second (third?) year in a row, LOM didn't vote in either the Nashville Scene's best of country music poll or the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop best of American music poll. I'm just not a good list-maker. Detest that stuff. Just trying to compile a list of possibles makes my brain hate me. Anyway, I rarely get serviced by the major labels, and I don't listen to the radio stations that kowtow to the major labels, so I don't feel I have much context in which to wrestle with the important
December 30, 2008Aftermath Extra: The Best Concerts of the Year, Part 1
[Note: Aftermath attended all these shows and reviewed most of them. Even he couldn't see them all.] Six Organs of Admittance, Walter's on Washington, January 18: "[Ben Chasny's] quieter moments reminded me of the softer side of bands like Pavement and Guided by Voices, and the mournful specter of Townes Van Zandt made its forlorn presence felt more than once." Foo Fighters, Toyota Center, January 22: "Each song was embellished with the interplay between guitarist Chris Shiflett and Grohl
December 30, 2008Aftermath Extra: The Best Concerts of the Year, Part 2
Gram Rabbit, Super Happy Fun Land, January 31: "Gram Rabbit is the face of 21st century glam; denser than Scissor Sisters and more fun than Ladytron. If everyone who heard Roxy Music got these sorts of ideas, the world would be a vastly better place." (Chris Henderson) Over the Rhine, McGonigel's Mucky Duck, February 6: "Tempting the gods, [Karin] Bergquist segued into one of historic Cincinnati label King Records's most notable hits, 'Fever.' This could have easily become a cliché in less
December 30, 2008Aftermath Extra: The Best Concerts of the Year, Part 8
Cheech & Chong/Willie Nelson, Verizon Wireless Theater/House of Blues, October 31: "This morning Aftermath thought his notes had vanished entirely before realizing he had simply mistook the back cover of his notebook for the front. Halloween 2008 was high times indeed." Randy Weeks, Discovery Green, November 6: "New songs like 'Fine Way To Treat Me,' 'Hard To Believe' [and] 'Just A Little Bit of Sleep" all melded perfectly with Weeks' previous material and a funky cover of 'Down Home Gir
January 2, 2009MySpaced Out: Gram Rabbit Stirs in the High Desert
Gram Rabbit, "California Christmas" In case you're still in your holiday hangover mode like I am, here's one wonderful holiday YouTube video that our gallant Mr. Rocks Off left out of his holiday onslaught. Cute doesn't begin to describe this one. While we are on the subject, high desert California psychedelic art rockers Gram Rabbit are in the final stages of recording their fourth full-length. According to producer and good old Amarillo boy Ethan Allen, the new album will have more of "a high
January 6, 2009Lonesome Onry and Mean: The Gourds, Part 1
LOM recently conducted a wide-ranging interview with Kevin Russell of the Gourds. The Austin roots-rockers - for lack of a better term - released their 9th studio album, Haymaker! (Yep Roc), today, and play a Cactus Music in-store January 9 and later that night at the Continental Club. The Gourds will be featured in the January 8 - i.e. tomorrow's - print edition of the Press, but Russell is much too verbose and erudite to be confined to a 1,0000-word f
January 6, 2009Lonesome Onry and Mean: The Gourds, Part 2
Andy Goodwin [Note: Part 1 of this interview is here.] Lonesome Onry and Mean: You guys have been on several labels, have probably heard all the too-good-to-be-true come-ons, been to the meetings with label radio gurus and all. How do you look at the label system and the way things are done in the business today? Kevin Russell: The Gourds still operate from the position that radio should be free-form directed by DJs who are well-versed in the history of the music they play, and the label shou
January 7, 2009Lonesome Onry and Mean: The Gourds, Part 3
[Note: This is the final installment of Lonesome Onry and Mean's interview with the Gourds' Kevin Russell. Don't miss Part 1 and Part 2.] John Carrico Lonesome Onry and Mean: To a lot of critics, "Steeple Full of Swallows" on Heavy Ornamentals was singled out as a new quieter, serious sound for the band, almost like they were saying it didn't sound like a Gourds song. Did that carry over consciously as you put the new album together, or was that just something that happened and went? Kevin R
January 8, 2009Aftermath: The Magpies and Sideshow Tramps at the Continental Club
Photos by Chris Gray It didn't look good at the beginning. A few minutes after 9 p.m. Wednesday, the posted start time for visiting Cleveland roots-rockers the Magpies, the "count" at the Continental Club front door was all of 16 paying customers, and the band was nowhere in sight. Two chicken tacos at Tacos a Go-Go and one Lone Star at the Big Top later, things were much improved. The room was considerably fuller - and would go on to be one of the biggest Wednesday-night crowds Aftermath ha
January 8, 2009Lonesome Onry and Mean: Macon Greyson Puts the Moves on The Wrestler
The Press has touted Dallas rock band Macon Greyson numerous times. Music Editor Chris Gray had its 20th Century Accidents as one of his top albums of 2007. National mags like No Depression, Paste and Amplifier have all raved about the band while our sister paper in Dallas, the Observer, has studiously ignored MG for whatever hipster reasons that operate in Dallas. Go figure. Anyway, not to say we told you so - well, maybe a little - but Macon Greyson, who play fairly often at Goode
January 15, 2009Oh, Christ: Original Limp Bizkit Lineup to Reunite
Because things aren't already bad enough out there right now, the original lineup of crotch-rocking mooks Limp Bizkit annouced today they are reuniting. Here, according to a joint statement by the band's Fred Durst and Wes Borland, is their reasoning: "We decided we were more disgusted and bored with the state of heavy popular music than we were with each other." Well, thanks for that, guys. Here's the catch: So far the band is only booked at festivals in Eastern Europe and the for
February 12, 2009Could Alternative Country Work at the Rodeo?
February 26, 2009Steak Night: Under the Volcano
September 18, 2008Houston Astros, Dengue Fever and Felix Mexican Restaurant
April 17, 2008Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart
January 10, 2008Big Smith
December 13, 2007Playbill
July 15, 2004Tombstone Blues
The Nightfly
August 16, 2007Tori Amos
American Doll Posse
July 26, 2007The Music Critics Dictionary
Translating critic-speak
March 29, 2007Letters to the Editor
September 14, 2006Letters to the Editor
February 2, 2006Playbill
January 6, 2005Playbill
December 30, 2004Rotation
December 16, 2004Playbill
November 25, 2004Playbill
November 11, 2004Playbill
October 28, 2004Playbill
October 14, 2004Playbill
September 30, 2004Playbill
September 23, 2004¡Viva H-town!
Latinos come to the fore in this year's music awards
August 5, 2004MOFRO
June 24, 2004Letters
July 31, 2003Rock You like a Hurricane
The Press Music Awards Showcase brings a category-five storm of tunes
July 24, 200352 Pick-Up
July 23, 2009
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© 2009 Village Voice Media All rights reserved.