Half Baked
Does the world really need a new film from Woody Allen every single year? Yes, he is one of America’s great auteurs. Yes, he’s responsible for some very fine movies, many of them comedies (Annie Hall), several of them tragedies (Crimes and Misdemeanors, Another Woman) and some hovering in that…
Drag Queen
After graduating from hot-rod school (not kidding!) at the ripe ol’ age of 16, racing phenom Erica Enders began tearing her fellow Junior Dragster competitors new exhaust pipes with such frequency and abandon that her original dragster now rests at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum (again, not kidding!) in…
Fortunate Son
Sahara is a stunning piece of work — stunningly inept, stunningly incoherent, stunningly awful in every single way imaginable. How this didn’t go direct to video or cable or airplane or bootleg is unfathomable. Actually, that’s not entirely true. It gets a proper blockbuster theatrical release through Paramount Pictures because…
Auto-Erotic
SAT 4/9 Sure, your dusty, dented ’93 Corolla loves you and means well. Still, you can’t help but fantasize about a sparkly silver Acura with shiny rims, a killer sound system and little TV screens in the seats. Your cheatin’ heart needs an escape, and you can get it at…
Head in the Sand
If nothing else, give Dana Brown credit for enthusiasm. A documentary filmmaker in name only, he is really the camera- and microphone-equipped president of several booster clubs — among them what might be called the International Society of Beach Bums and, thanks to his latest exercise in hero worship, the…
Joel Jams
TUE 4/12 Oh, so you don’t like Billy Joel? More into, like, Franz Ferdinand? Listen: A Billy Joel phase is like the chicken pox. We all had it when we were younger, and if you seriously haven’t gotten it yet, you will when you’re older. And then it will be…
Truth Be Damned
Journalists are supposed to tell the facts — not embellish, alter or fabricate them. But that didn’t stop Steven Glass from making up 27 stories that were published in The New Republic, Harper’s, Rolling Stone and the now-defunct George in the late ’90s, about everything from partying Republican youths to…
Onward, Christian Rockers
“This has been my dream…to play music for a living.” — Dylan Brady, vocals “It’s my dream come true.” — Jerry Nettles, guitar “I’ve wanted to do music as soon as I was born.” — Doug “JD” Adams, drums “As soon as I figured out you could make money playing…
Capsule Reviews
Bad Dates An icky date can happen to anyone. But Theresa Rebeck’s one-woman show is a reminder of how hilarious they can be in retrospect. The whole production takes place in single mom Haley’s bedroom, where she primps and dresses for several dates as she tells us about her life…
Where’s the Beef? Right here in H-town
Well, Houston, at last we’ve arrived as a hip-hop city: We’ve finally played host to physical combat between two rappers with national reputations. On March 24, Atlanta’s T.I. and Houston’s own Lil’ Flip rumbled Grease-style, and fittingly enough for a rap “beef,” the brawl was at Cloverburger, a joint in…
The Foxymorons
Turning 21 as an indie rocker is the mother lode. Turning 31 as an indie rocker is just a mother. If you’re still playing music, you’re supposed to have, you know, evolved. Go Brazilian. Compose minimalist film scores. Anything but the same old, same old. Which is exactly why the…
Paper Trail
Most artists have little scraps of drawings and doodles lying around their studios. Sometimes these things are saved, but most of the time they get tossed out. You can’t keep everything, right? And what the hell are you going to do with random sketches on bits of newspaper and dry-cleaning…
The Bolivar Kid Strikes Again
And sometimes I can’t believe I did all that for a song / Hey I’m glad I came just wish I hadn’t stayed so long. So sings Hayes Carll in the chorus of “Wish I Hadn’t Stayed So Long,” the opener to Little Rock, his long-awaited second album. For Carll,…
Bloc Party
Every great musical trend reaches a breaking point. Sure, the band that jump-starts a movement usually deserves fame, and a few good bands follow, but a far-too-derivative act inevitably rings the death knell. Grunge had its Candlebox, boy bands had their 98 Degrees, and next up for expiration is the…
Capsule Reviews
“Deep Wells and Reflecting Pools” David McGee combed through the Menil’s vast holdings, seeking to create a dialogue between selected works. He chose ancient to modern art and objects related to people of African descent — everything from a fifth-century BC Greek vessel to a certificate from a slave auction…
Monsters of Hip
A little background for the uninitiated — Urban Outfitters (Galleria; also Rice Village) is a retail apparel and furnishings store. On the surface, it sells pretty standard fare: clothes, knickknacks for the home and goofy trinkets (Mr. T air freshener!? Why I never…). But delve just beneath the topsoil and…
M.I.A.
London’s Maya “M.I.A.” Arulpragasam has received one of the most dubious honors in hip-hop: A two-page piece about her recently appeared in The New Yorker, which is to cutting-edge rap coverage what Condoleezza Rice is to party girls. That’s no reason to dismiss her new disc, though. Arular won’t tempt…
Poured Out
A veteran owner of a Houston bar and restaurant thought he had a good grasp of the state laws and the lengthy interpretations of them by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. And yet during one inspection, a TABC agent came growling to him about a flagrant violation: On his outdoor…
Daft Punk
Human After All draws Daft Punk away from its famed disco-house sound and closer to the mechanical Kraftwerk roots that girded brittle, looping singles such as “Around the World.” It starts off strong: “Human After All,” with the chorus “We are human / rock and roll,” serves as a cheeky…
Los Skarnales
A year or so back, I called Los Skarnales the Dropkick Murphys of Houston, a band that drew on its ethnicity, its working-class roots and its home turf and came up with music that represented the soul of its home city in some ways. That’s still right, I think, but…
Breaking the Birthday Binge
Susan Wagener wanted to be the first to congratulate her oldest son, Michael, when he turned 21 back in 1999. She called him about 7 a.m. on his birthday. The roommate who answered told her that Michael, a senior majoring in environmental design at Texas A&M, hadn’t returned home the…
Al Green
Al Green cleared his throat with I Can’t Stop, his smooth, formulaic return to secular form in 2003. With Everything’s OK, the Memphis minister is in full voice: His second disc with longtime producer Willie Mitchell finds the two at the top of their game. Largely written by Green, Everything’s…
Baby Bash
Baby Bash has come a long way since stepping on the hip-hop scene in 1994 as part of Bay Area group Potna Deuce, which he followed by stints with N2Deep, Jay Tee and Latino Velvet. Bash finally struck gold in 2003 with his hits “Suga Suga” and “Shorty Doo Wop”…
Encore or Bust?
Last year was an unforgettable roller-coaster ride for Astros fans. The season started with hopes higher than ever before; it soon plummeted to a dismayingly long slump that left the team for dead; it ended with a record-setting rush of wins and a first ever playoff-series win. Being the Astros,…
Hot Hot Heat
Hot Hot Heat has bet its cred by making this major-label debut so endlessly catchy. Sure, catchiness has been a calling card of this Victoria, British Columbia, quartet since 2002’s Knock Knock Knock, a Sub Pop EP that marked the addition of guitarist Dante DeCaro and the abandonment of synth-noise…
MC Chris, with Yugant and 1AM Records
Whereas most rappers make a name for themselves by slaying competitors in freestyle rhyme battles, MC Chris came up through strange circumstances — namely, providing the voice for a cartoon spider. Fans of the Cartoon Network’s cult favorite Adult Swim series should know MC Chris for lending his hyper-obnoxious pipes…
Know Your Astros! Quiz
1. Carlos Beltran is: a. An All-Star center fielder with speed, power and defense. b. A pawn in the court of that greedy shyster Scott Boras. c. Going to be treated fairly and generously by the ever-sensitive New York City sports media. d. Now outpacing the GDP of his homeland…
Exposed Nerve
Houston-based Cyberonics has made millions of dollars implanting its patented pacemaker in kids and adults with epilepsy around the globe. This is high-tech, last-ditch, no-other-options stuff. The company’s pacemaker has been shown to succeed where medication and brain surgery fail, ending years of torture for people battling their own bodies…
Q and Not U, with Food For Animals and Manhunter
When Q and Not U first appeared on the radar, it seemed that longtime Washington, D.C., label Dischord had finally found its party band. Far too funky to be lumped in with angular prophets like Fugazi and Lungfish, “the Q” was looser, more playful, seemingly less eager to rein itself…
Letters
Mutiny on the Bounty Showing they’re badasses: I expected that the Houston Press would probably give HPD a reaming for engaging in as much undisciplined lawlessness as the “bounty hunters” of Keith Plocek’s article [“The Thin Gray Line,” March 24]. Thank God our police officers care about the “minutia” of…
French-American Alliance
Steak frites is French comfort food at its best. At Laurier Café (3139 Richmond, 713-807-1632), they’ve taken this bistro staple ($17) to a new level by serving a 12-ounce, dry-aged New York strip from Northern California’s Niman Ranch. Dry-aging the beef imparts a flavor like no other method — the…
Tiger Army, with Lost City Angels and the Unseen
Admittedly, the psychobilly scene isn’t exactly known for its diversity. As long as it’s loud, fast, twangy and propelled by a bass fiddle that slaps harder than Joan Collins on Dynasty, the tattooed and pompadoured will show up in droves. At the forefront of the genre is California’s Tiger Army,…
Pantie Parade
Through April 24.
Philly on Scott
The sandwich maker at South Philly Steaks, a new shop at Scott and Alabama, was a big black guy wearing a do-rag. The griddle where he was frying steak slices is behind a big picture window, so you can watch him work. I checked out his technique for a while,…
Canned Heat, with Diunna Greenleaf & Blue Mercy and the Daddylongnecks
You may not think you know Canned Heat’s music, but if you don’t TiVo through commercials, you most certainly do. “On the Road Again,” “Going Up the Country” and “Let’s Work Together” have been used to shill for everyone from Miller and Pepsi to Chevy and Target in recent years…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, April 7 We at Night & Day can think of a million things we’d do if we were hypnotists. Infiltrate the White House and restore some sanity. “Convince” certain Victoria’s Secret models to fall in love with us. Get lottery officials to redo those winning numbers to match ours…
Tony Furtado, with Sky Blue 72 and Fahl and Folk
On his latest CD, banjo-plucking jam-grasser Tony Furtado highlights a newfound joy in songwriting, and his own singing voice is another welcome addition. Produced by Dusty Wakeman (Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam), These Chains comprises nine original nuggets plus a dusting of old-timey traditionals. In collaboration with Nashville auteur Jim Lauderdale,…
Boy, Oh, Boy
When was the last time you walked out of a theater feeling shell-shocked, saying to anyone who would listen (in language more profane): “Dude, that was some seriously messed-up stuff!” Not your garden-variety messed-up stuff, mind you, like in Saw. Not the messed-up revelations of political docs. We’re talking the…
Over Oprah
MON 4/11 “In terms of people I admire,” Jonathan Franzen says, “I think Alice Munroe and Don DeLillo are more important than Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay. Probably to my own personal detriment, I can’t help thinking that fiction is really important.” Pretty much every critic that read The Corrections…