Franz Ferdinand
The postpunk revival is the new grunge. Not since the early days of Nirvana and Soundgarden have a group of bands seemed so intent on cultivating a retro aesthetic. There’s nothing wrong with wearing your influences on your sleeve, but these revivalists — led by the Strokes, Interpol, the Rapture…
Cry of the Wolves
Scavengers took what they could haul away from these isolated 26 acres, starting with the gate that had once protected the rutted dirt entrance off Tommy Smith Road. Now thick barriers of mud and brush are the sentries blocking access to this reclamation project of nature, pushing deeper into these…
Star-Crossed
Never in their lifetimes have Houston Astro fans gone into a season with such optimism. The team that famously has never won a postseason series is all but assured of a World Series spot, if you listen to the “longtime listeners, first-time callers.” Hair Balls would never dampen those hopes…
Terry Allen
If Terry Allen hadn’t grown up to be Terry Allen — renowned sculptor, artist, songwriter, playwright — he probably would have grown up to be David Lynch. Throw Lynch’s violent masterworks Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart in a blender with maybe Burroughs’s Naked Lunch and Paul Bowles’s The Sheltering…
Baklava Bravissimo
Our hostess waits patiently behind the walk-up counter while the four of us stare at the pretty pictures of kabob plates mounted on the wall above her. Judging from the photos, the lamb, beef and chicken are all skewered and grilled equally well at Bijan Persian Grill, the upscale kebaberie…
Exit Wounds
At night she sees him, standing between her and the open car door. She doesn’t see him with the gun, and she doesn’t see the muzzle flash when he shoots her. Just his face. Those eyes. I want you, they say. I don’t want your money. I don’t want your…
Various Artists
Songs Inspired By The Passion for the Cash, more like. My, what a trend we have in Jesus…
Smokin’ Duck
Tortellini was first written about by a 15th-century personal chef to a patriarch in Aquileia, an ancient urban center in the far northeast corner of Italy. The once vivacious village of traders and artisans was located on fertile land that produced abundant wheat, the main ingredient in pasta. The tradition…
A Bellyful
A voice-mail spews forth with the gruff voice of a man identifying himself as “The Mitchell Residence”: I don’t want to be bothered with this anymore, about the belly dancer. She ruined our birthday party. And I ain’t gonna give you no comments. She was very rude with the kids…
Clumsy Lovers, with Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash
A Clumsy Lovers show can be likened to the Pogues mating with those sweating Riverdance people. It seems fiddle dervish Andrea Lewis can’t play if she’s not dancing, so no matter who’s singing or picking, the spotlight of the mind tends to stay firmly fixed on the dramatic Lewis. Her…
Letters
The Wrong Lessons Fear and intimidation: You did an outstanding job on the Katy ISD story [“Watching You,” by Margaret Downing, March 18]. The policies and actions of those school administrators are unfortunately typical today. Quick to action, short on individual thought and long-term consequences and solutions. Alternative school placements…
Zepfest 2004, Featuring No Quarter
As recently as a couple of years ago, Led Zeppelin was sometimes seen as something of a joke, an exemplar of Spinal Tap-ian excess and all things unironic, a band loved only by geeks, grayhairs and heshers — the mullet crowd, in other words. What a difference a DVD makes…
Bound for Greatness
One moment can change your life. Li Cunxin was no different from any other child living in northeast China under the reign of Chairman Mao: Impoverished, frail and unkempt, he went to school in a tattered building and sat at a rickety desk. Then one day, in walked several of…
Grupo Fantasma
As one of their band members put it, Grupo Fantasma’s shows are like recess. The Laredo-by-way-of-Austin mambo-funk, jazz-dancehall, rock-cumbia collective turns you loose and orders you to dance on a playground of south-of-the-border sonic delight. The group’s new album, Movimiento Popular, further develops its self-titled debut; the sweetly stinging and…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, April 1 What’s up, fools? Today is National Freebie Day, the one day a year when you don’t have to pay for anything. All the stores in town are opening their doors and closing their cash registers for a day of free shopping. Take what you want; they’ll make…
Bitch and Animal
Ani DiFranco once said metaphorically that she has both spots and stripes. Righteous Babe Records’ Bitch and Animal literally have both: Bitch sometimes has a row of dots over her right eye; Animal has been known to sport a bright red Mohawk. They sound like a pro-wrestling tag team, but…
Just a Second
Back in April 2001, when Jonathan Harvey founded the Fan Factory Theatre Company, he wanted to do shows that were “less theatrical” and “more real and genuine.” Without a doubt, no one’s more real in this world than the guy who always comes in second, which is why New York…
Sleepy Labeef
“Goose-bump music” is 67-year-old Sleepy Labeef’s immodest if utterly accurate self-description of his craft. A six foot seven, 270-pound behemoth of a man, Labeef hollers like a mountain giant and plays guitar as if his heart were on fire. His CDs, though very fine, have never captured the man’s essence…
Flickering into the Future
As film and video technology advances, artists find new ways to exploit it. Of course, the use of film and video in gallery installations is nothing new; it’s been happening since the early 1960s. But during the past two decades, the movie theater and the museum have moved closer together…
Mosquitos, with Sancho
A lot has happened for the indie pop/samba Mosquitos since they buzzed through town a couple of months back. Juju Stulbach’s breathy, Ipanema-delic “Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-dum-baah” chorus, from the band’s single “Boombox,” has become background noise to the zeitgeist, gracing commercials for Baileys Irish Cream and Intel and a recent episode of…
Civil Wars
FRI 4/2 If your job description included diving into burning buildings or tackling armed felons, you’d probably need more than a cold beer and a sitcom to help you unwind at the end of the day. Police officers and firefighters lead stressful lives — danger can come from any direction…
Rufio, with Senses Fail, Don’t Look Down and Autopilot Off
While stuck-for-an-angle rock writers proclaimed that pop-punk had run its course in 2003, the kids are proving them wrong, again. Case in point: Rufio. Yet another barely-out-of-high-school quartet from California, the band steadily sells out its high-energy gigs, fueled by the 2003 album MCMLXXXV. Rufio’s members — including drummer Michael…
Get Riddim
FRI 4/2 You’d figure Houston would have a bigger dancehall scene than it does. Hell, with all this tropical foliage and sweltering heat, we might as well be in the Caribbean. Maybe we get our fill of skanking guitar from all the Tejano bands around town — or maybe not…
Blarney Rubble
As a proud sponsor of the Colin Farrell media blitz, Intermission opens on the lad’s salable mug, basically sporting the same buzz-cut-‘n’-tats look from his punky cameo in Veronica Guerin. It’s a cunning editorial move, pushing the product from the get-go, yet it gets interesting as Farrell’s dumb thug Lehiff…
Those Bastards!
FRI 4/2 Though the Man in Black, who inspired the band’s name — and gave his blessing to it against the advice of his attorneys — is no longer here, the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash aim to keep the spirit of “outlaw” country alive. Formed in 1995 under the…
A Tall Order
Before Star Wars and Indiana Jones, audiences thrilled to an epic big-screen trilogy of a different sort: the tale of one righteous lawman and his big piece of wood. Based on the real-life exploits of Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser, the first Walking Tall movie (1973) made lead actor Joe Don…
Dizzee Miss Lizzee
It is in the nature of buzz that it obscures the sounds behind it, so it’s no surprise that one of the year’s most astonishing — and astonishingly hyped — albums has become one of the hardest to hear clearly. In the year or so since the idiosyncratic British rapper…
The Meat Market
The back lobby of the Warwick Hotel is dotted with Xeroxed “No Smoking” signs that have been futilely taped to the wall. A cluster of European FotoFest participants is pointedly ignoring them, nervously lighting up their stockpiled foreign cigarettes. The only signs that matter are the ones that indicate the…
Family Feud
Well, hip-hop has survived a full quarter-century since the 1979 release of Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” a tune that we’ll adopt — for the sake of argument — as the first hip-hop record ever. A generation has been born and raised, gone to college and gotten jobs since then…
Capsule Reviews
“Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective of Drawings” Born in Turkish Armenia in 1904, Vosdanik Adoian would grow up to be Arshile Gorky, one of America’s most important and influential artists, but he would never forget the land of his birth and the village of his difficult childhood. This intimate retrospective at…
Funeral Blues
March was exceedingly tough on the local music community. As noted in this column two weeks ago, Texas Music News scribe Bill “the Boneman” Gonce passed away on the ninth. Since then, three more Houston music luminaries have died, each one tragically: Celtic music institution Lloyd Gibson, world music maven…
What a Messed-Up World
Stephen Adly Guirgis, one of the newest voices in American theater, has been called “immensely gifted,” “startlingly fresh” and “the poet laureate of the angry.” Bruce Weber of The New York Times even went so far as to say Guirgis “may be the best playwright in America under 40.” After…
Van Hunt
The cover of Van Hunt’s self-titled debut has a picture of our man’s face framed by psychedelic squiggles and a comic-book speech balloon announcing his name. Kinda funny when you think about it, seeing as how the hyped neo-soul movement of the past few years has graced us with a…
Capsule Reviews
Birthday from Hell What has six arms, six legs and three heads — and is one of the greatest comedy shows on earth? If you correctly guessed Radio Music Theatre and its three loony creators (Steve Farrell, Vicki Farrell and Rich Mills), then you’re probably still laughing about the latest…