Various Artists
Songs about bad men doing bad things for revenge have had a long history — from Elizabethan/Appalachian murder ballads and “Stagger Lee” to today’s gangsta rap and narcocorridos. These songs from the southern Italian region of Calabria may celebrate the Mafia, but don’t expect “Sonny’s Last Tollbooth” or “The Death…
Your Cheatin’ Art
H. L. Mencken said that no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. Bobby Goldstein is a wealthy man. The shameless culture that begat The Dating Game, Cops and When Animals Attack! has perhaps reached yet a new low with the off-network cult hit Cheaters. Goldstein…
Blue States
About five years ago, everyone was jonesin’ for that fusion of chilled beats, acid jazz and world beat simply known as “downtempo.” But much has changed since then. What was once cool because it sounded like French porn from the ’60s is now uncool because it’s like French porn from…
Ça C’est Bon
No one who works at Café Artiste (1601 West Main, 713-528-3704) speaks with a Cajun accent, but the menu sure does. The Cajun omelette ($6.99) is a tasty gathering of what any Cajun might have left over in his refrigerator or pantry — except maybe the Pearl Beer and yesterday’s…
dune*TX
First things first, goldenARM is not Machowagon Pt. II. Where dune*TX’s last record took the elephantine bombast of stoner rock and gave it a popped-out, surf sort of feel — raising the band to new heights in the process — the new CD reverses that process by taking indie rock…
Fish Tales
Legend has it that the two brothers who opened St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin (300 Main, 713-227-1511) funded it by reeling in a really big fish. First prize in the Bertram-Hatteras Shoutout that year was half a million bucks. And the Zotoses’ haul, a 554-pound, 17-foot blue marlin that now hangs…
People Under the Stairs
Don’t fall for the myth that rap is made by scowling artists for scowling people who love to sit back, listen to a CD and, well, scowl. Oh yes, rap can make you giddy. An impeccably rambunctious rap track should bring sheer joy and exhilaration, a rush of excitement that…
Dickey Betts and Great Southern
Even veteran classic rock fans used to frequent lineup changes were surprised when the Allman Brothers Band summarily ejected guitarist Dickey Betts just prior to their 2000 tour. After all, in addition to co-founding the band in 1969, Betts was a key component, writing and singing lead on signature tunes…
Space Invaders
Boy, that World Space Congress really is something. At least if you’re judging by the amount of space the Houston Chronicle is devoting to it. The Chron lately hasn’t met a convention it didn’t love. To death. With some, such as this year’s national conventions of LULAC and the NAACP,…
Alligator Dave and the Couch Band
Looks like? A random assortment of frat boys, led by the unfortunately dreadlocked, self-styled “Gulf Coast Honky,” who probably was the rest of the band’s weed hook-up in college. Sounds like? Scatological Southern rock meets fake funk, or pretty much exactly what you’d expect, based on a description of their…
District 25 Forecast: Campaign Heatwave!
After a fairly low-key start, the contest to pick a successor to District 25 Congressman Ken Bentsen is starting to crackle as candidates fire away at each other’s business backgrounds. There’s fresh fodder after Republican Tom Reiser disclosed he has sold his Houston casualty and property insurance firm and “retired”…
El Guapo, with Kill Me Tomorrow
Are they art punks? Avant-garde knob twirlers? This tough-to-categorize trio from the nation’s capital specializes in minimalist sound collages far removed from most of their mates on noted punk label Dischord. Bizarre instrumental loops, swirls, squeaks, robotic rhythms, vocal chanting, sound snippets — they’re all part of El Guapo’s current…
Doing Justice
Doing Justice O’ mother of mine: The past seems to come alive for me [“Justice for Some,” by Scott Nowell, October 3]. I have a son on death row in the Oklahoma state prison. When I think of him, the past is all I have. I believe that the justice…
Wade Hayes with Daryle Singletary and Rhett Akins
The past decade has offered many case studies indicative of just what is wrong with Nashville country music today. One of the clearest is that of Wade Hayes. This Oklahoma-bred singer-guitarist would seem to have everything Music City wants and more: youthful good looks, a preternaturally mature baritone voice, musical…
A Taste of Caramelo
It’ll be a short trip down I-10 for Sandra Cisneros when she comes to town to read from her new novel. The Latina poet and writer lives just a few hours away in San Antonio. With its convoluted mix of Mexican, Texan and American cultures, San Antonio is the perfect…
Black Heart Procession
The Black Heart Procession may hail from San Diego, but their music has nothing to do with good vibes and constant sunshine. Instead, it’s proof that love not only hurts, but is an agonizing, crushing, dehumanizing torture that, paradoxically, has probably never sounded this grand. In the tradition of The…
Pasta, Wine and a Fake Leg
Let’s face it: Deep down, people who love mob shows kind of wish they were wise guys. After all, the position has great benefits: rich Italian food, snappy clothes, money, booze, sex. If mobsters’ job descriptions didn’t include offing people, and they didn’t have to take bullets instead of pink…
Tapeheads
Such like a psychic, a cinema critic must look through a movie and see the other side. In the case of the new thriller The Ring — a remake of the 1998 Japanese hit, Ringu — the formative forces swim into focus without effort. There’s a Dreamworks boardroom, some executives…
Calories for a Cause
Except for a few liars out there who claim to hate sweets, everybody loves an excuse to eat dessert. And from now until the end of the month, there’s a way to have your cake and contribute to an important cause, too. Breaking your diet is more than a treat,…
Happy Gilmore Gets Serious
Punch-Drunk Love is a Paul Thomas Anderson film — Paul Thomas Anderson of Magnolia and Boogie Nights fame. It is also an Adam Sandler film — Adam Sandler of Little Nicky and Wedding Singer fame. In terms of story, it has far more in common with Sandler’s previous work than…
Bread Head
A veteran of eatZi’s, Empire Bakery and the Corner Bakery of Chicago, Michael Zakowski came to Houston six years ago to work at the Galleria eatZi’s location. He has also worked at such renowned restaurants as the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas. Last week, he opened a new retail…
To Die For
Death is too often taken literally, and this unfortunate perspective is sustained by much cinema, despite the medium’s dubious kiss of immortality. There’s easy drama in tragedy and grisly ends, but moviemakers do not commonly successfully deliver symbolic death, the subtly grim yet vital bridge between lively verses. Happily, director…
The Tower Son
J.T. Van Zandt remembers just about every detail of his first visit to his father’s world. Townes and his mother Fran had divorced before he was a year old, and until he was nine, J.T. only saw his father when Townes came to Houston to see his own mother. This…
String Beings
They’re back! Those nasty little puppets from Bobbindoctin Puppet Theatre. And as always, the creepy — yet strangely beautiful — beings, erupting from the violently carnal imagination of puppet master Joel Orr, are up to no good. In the past, Orr’s handmade friends have joined forces with a corrupt Mormon…
Rap Avengers
You wanna make Dälek laugh? You know, say something that just makes the man double over? Then tell him that a lot of people out there don’t rate his home base of Newark as a hip-hop hotbed. It’s so funny to him, it’s almost offensive. “That’s kinda hilarious,” says a…
Little Girl Lost
I am sitting in the dark at the Menil Collection staring at a wall-sized video projection waiting for something, anything, to happen. The frame is filled with the head and shoulders of a woman underwater, her eyes closed, her face lit from the side, her dark hair floating in an…
Buenos Aires Virus
Glover Gill doesn’t look like a tango lover. His forearms are heavily tattooed in green, red and purple; his hair is slicked back in a John Doe-like coif; and a metal prosthetic leg has replaced the one he lost years ago in a motorcycle wreck. Even the name isn’t right…
Moscow on the Bayou
The voluptuous, dark-haired belly dancer is putting on an astonishing exhibition of muscle control. And I thought wiggling one ear at a time was impressive. As her act nears its climax, Boris, one of my dining companions, turns to me with a sly smile and says, “The food at this…
Fiddle Femme Fatale
To hear Catherine Burnside talk about her ambitions, her dreams of stomping with the big dawgs, as they used to say on Martin, is almost spine-tingling. At only 23 years old, the native Houstonian talks about becoming the coolest, sexiest violinist alive. It sounds like she’s a character in a…
Moving On
Outside, a police officer repeated pleas that echoed throughout the apartment complex from a tinny bullhorn. “You don’t want to do this,” he urged the man, holed up in his unit with his baby and a gun. “Come out. You haven’t gone too far yet.” Malana West heard the efforts…