10 Important ’80s Thrash Bands You Should Remember
After recently re-examining thrash metal’s “Big Four,” I began to think back on a lot of the other bands that fans of the genre were listening to back in the 1980s. Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth got a lot of attention, they were far from the only popular bands playing…
Leaving a Show Early (or Coming Late) Is Only Cheating Yourself
A music parable that dates as far back as five minutes ago, when I dreamt it up, begins with a large dinner party that arrives at a steakhouse for supper and orders a full-course meal. The patrons are excited as they heartily consume the appetizers, raving at the delightfulness of…
Remembering Beloved Local Drummer Mando Perez Jr.
Imagine running a marathon inside an enclosed space where everyone is drunk and the room is filled with smoke. For decades (before the smoking ban), that is what it was like be be a rock and roll musician in Houston. And drummers, who almost always take the most physical pounding…
Would a City-County Merger Jeopardize Progress at Houston’s New and Improved Crime Lab?
When the Houston Forensic Science Center took over the Houston Police Department crime lab in April 2014, it inherited some major problems. The lab was dealing with a backlog of over 6,000 rape kits. Lab tests on drugs took months, in some cases years. Rather than languish in jail fighting the…
Foster Care, Dead Children and Greg Abbott’s Cognitive Dissonance
When it comes to protecting children, Greg Abbott just doesn’t get it. According to emails obtained by the Texas Tribune, Abbott took a personal interest in the January 2015 murder of a two-month old girl who had been removed from her mother by Child Protective Services and placed temporarily with a…
13 Important Facts From the New Pimp C Documentary
Hip-hop has started cranking out documentaries about its mythical figures and subjects the same way Hollywood is dipping into comic-book mythology. It’s a necessary achievement for the medium; the constant exploration of what were the building blocks of what we have now. The more we hear stories about Atlanta’s Organized…
Beyoncé Sues “Feyoncé” Peddlers, Reminds Everyone She Runs the World
It’s been a while since the Superbowl, when Beyoncé marched across the field with dozens of leather-clad women in formation, speaking out against police brutality, reminding people of the Black Panthers and causing rancor among police unions across the country. So just in case you forgot that Beyoncé basically runs…
The ERA Cowboys Tour Is Finally Making It to TV Tonight
For years there’s been a push in the professional rodeo industry to get a more streamlined version of the rodeo on television. And now it’s finally happening. Tonight the Elite Rodeo Athletes, the new rodeo touring organization for the top athletes in the sport, will pass a key milestone in…
Last Night’s Houston Press Menu of Menus Extravaganza Showcased a Melting Pot of Cuisines
Two Houston restaurants have reason to be extra-proud this morning. Last night at the annual Houston Press Menu of Menus® Extravaganza, chef Lyle Bento of Southern Goods won the Iron Fork Chef competition in an extraordinarily close match at Silver Street Station. Out on the floor, CityCentre restaurant Texas de…
Tod Waters Comes Home to Houston, and Rock and Roll
DieFast is not a new band. They’ve been around for years, yet this latest incarnation is something new and may look familiar, especially if names like Emo’s, The Abyss or The Axiom mean anything to you. That’s because DieFast’s founder and front man is none other than Tod Waters formerly…
7 of the Most Awesomely Awful American Cars of the 1970s
The 1970s is a decade that lots of people look back to with a sense of nostalgia, and it’s easy to see why, especially in the case of people who weren’t actually around or old enough to have experienced it first-hand. The ’70s look sexy and glamorous to a lot…
Being Transgender in Houston After HERO
When the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance failed at the ballot box last November, it didn’t just kill short-lived protections for LGBT Houstonians (as well as for 14 other protected classes of people vulnerable to discrimination in employment, housing and public spaces). Within Houston’s transgender community, there’s lingering pain from the…
It Looks Like the Feds Have Killed the Halliburton/Baker Hughes Merger
On the heels of a lawsuit filed Monday where the U.S. Department of Justice directly criticized the proposed merger between the two Houston-based oil field services giants, Halliburton and Baker Hughes, the Houston Chronicle is reporting DOJ regulators are going to file a lawsuit to block the deal. In other…
Five Country/Americana Podcasts You Need to Hear
Podcasts have become the go-to format for many types of artists to share their gifts with the world. Over the past decade, though, it seems geek culture (Nerdist), comedy (Adam Carolla, Marc Maron) and podcast-friendly forms of journalism (This American Life, Serial) have seemingly been far more popular for smartphone…
Planned Parenthood “Sting” Videos Led to More Violence, Death Threats Against Abortion Providers
The series of videos anti-abortion activists began releasing last summer to claim Planned Parenthood sells fetal tissue – or “baby parts” – didn’t just spark multiple state and criminal investigations into the abortion provider. Not only were there widespread calls for lawmakers to defund the organization, but violence, harassment and…
The Best Houston Music We Heard In March
LOST ELEMENT Stereo Dream EP Houston’s Lost Element have been refining their sound since 2010, but I only heard of them last month, likely because I don’t listen to the radio frequently. But thanks to support from local DJ Rod Ryan, the band has already been afforded a number of…
The Boss Isn’t on Melissa McCarthy’s Level
A she-wolf of Wall Street with a spiky ginger Suze Orman shag, Michelle Darnell, the anti-heroine of fitfully funny The Boss, is the latest of the Rabelaisian wonders played by Melissa McCarthy. The actress specializes in characters with indestructible bravado, no matter where they stand on the socioeconomic ladder; Michelle,…
The Feds Don’t Seem Thrilled With the Halliburton/Baker Hughes Merger
After months of assumed ambivalence, the U.S. Justice Department has finally tipped its hand and shown what the antitrust regulators actually think of the proposed merger between Halliburton and Baker Hughes, the second and third largest oil field services companies in the United States, respectively. They’re definitely not entirely for…
