Kinky’s Got His Mojo Workin’
Here’s a conundrum: Kinky Friedman and Mojo Nixon are both one of a kind, and yet they are very much alike. Both are rootsy musicians with an interest in politics who talk a mile a minute — often dishing out the same well-honed patter they’ve been using for years. And…
What’s Eating Gilbert?
His shriek is one of the most recognizable sounds in pop culture. And whether he’s playing a smartass parrot in Disney’s Aladdin, a slimy businessman in Beverly Hills Cop or even his filthy self in The Aristocrats, Gilbert Gottfried is a straight-up scene-stealer. Audiences from every demo have fallen in…
Bossa
With Tom DeLay on his way out of Congress, there’s blood in the air, so I decide to head to Bossa (610 Main, 713-223-2622) for some sangria. A Democratic consultant buddy strolls in, grinning as he grabs a seat on the windy patio, and lights up a cig. We order…
Dreams Deferred
The Boys of Baraka, a fine documentary about a group of inner-city, at-risk boys who travel to Kenya to attend a special school, comes close to greatness. For more than an hour, the film is a sharp and blazing account of how boys with multiple challenges and little hope for…
Pretty Girls Make Saves
For record labels, video games and music are a match made in target-audience heaven. EA Sports pushes major-label names in rock and hip-hop on the company’s yearly Madden and NBA updates, and Tony Hawk games sport underground punk and metal soundtracks. While those are somewhat appropriate, the latest music-in-games development…
So Fast, You’ll Go Blind
If you’re looking for something fresh on the theater scene, try the Neo-Futurists’ Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. The writing, acting and performance troupe has been constantly creating and re-creating its show for 17 years. Too Much Light is a 60-minute show consisting of 30 topical, funny,…
Cat Scratch Fever
“Don’t cha wish your girlfriend was hot…like…me?” Kaitlin — who is five years old — is singing to me. She’s waving her arms in the air, tossing her hair and even doing a little shimmy with her hips. Okay, some context here: I’m with young Kaitlin, her sister Lauren and…
Various Artists
If recent breakouts by Mylo and Vitalic have proved there’s life left in house music and upbeat electronica (and they have), Idol Tryouts proves there’s also life beyond them. This double-disc set, compiled by the soothsayers at edgy Ann Arbor label Ghostly International, is split into two loosely associated categories…
Gold Metal
Emo, screamo, pop-punk — bor-ing! The music of the moment is metal. Yep, lotsa young acts such as Avenged Sevenfold are reviving it. (They were toddlers when their influences such as Metallica and Black Sabbath hit the scene.) The rockers from Huntington Beach have polished their sound, with lead singer…
Soaring Egos
The magical land of great theater bubbles forth from the minds of titanic narcissists and gorgeous madwomen in Austin Pendleton’s compelling Orson’s Shadow. Now running on the Alley’s Neuhaus Stage, the strange, funny play takes us back to the ’60s, during the sunset years of such theatrical monarchs as Orson…
Spank Rock
“Ass shakin’ competition champ / Ooh that pussy gets damp.” So begins “Backyard Betty,” the first track on Spank Rock’s full-length debut. Much like his breakout single, last year’s “Put that Pussy on Me,” it’s a bass-rattling, ass-dropping, beat-banging party-starter big on well-placed thuds and DJ Assault/Mike Jones-like repetition. Along…
Going Batty
Formed in Chicago in 1999 as singer-guitarist Eric Johnson’s solo project, the Fruit Bats have since become a revolving four-piece ensemble based out of Seattle. Soundwise, the band crafts melancholic and romantic acoustic pop songs similar in structure and personality to their Sub Pop labelmates the Shins. Lyrically, Johnson’s poetic…
Capsule Reviews
Closer Love goes terribly wrong in Patrick Marber’s award-winning Closer, which is given a very adult spin by Country Playhouse. Like an ice pick through the heart, this lethal, contemporary and dark comedy kills without leaving much of a wound. The hurt is internal. In this brittle battle of the…
The Flaming Lips
After the critical lovefest that surrounded the Flaming Lips’ last album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, it would be easy to suspect that the band would wander down the same road of futuristic leanings, drum ‘n’ bass and gargantuan stage shows, assured of the same success. But on At War…
Bring On ’07!
Could the bags under Jeff Van Gundy’s eyes get any plumper, we mused at the beginning of the Houston Rockets’ 2005-2006 season. Could he lose any more hair? Could his post-game-interview voice drop to a tone more defeatist than Willie Loman’s at the end of Death of a Salesman? The…
Trees and Rocks
Photographs of trees, leaves, rocks and dirt make up most of the work that’s part of FotoFest 2006’s central theme “The Earth.” (The fest’s secondary theme, “Artists Responding to Violence,” was reviewed last week.) FotoFest has an admirable desire to provoke discussion and to educate, but organizers could achieve those…
Calexico
Despite the persistent hints of dread on Garden Ruin, Calexico manages its worried blues on these gracefully stripped-down acoustic numbers. After ten years of sorting through multicultural influences, this Tucson collective has simplified its sound, allowing the occasional glockenspiel or Spanish lyric to gain a world-weary grandeur. Amid the record’s…
The Hunt for Orange April
Easter egg hunts rock, except for the part where some kid cracks an egg on the floor or you end up with purple dye all over your face. Avoid all the egg-related hassle and switch to disaster-proof citrus fruits at the Orange Show’s annual Easter Orange Hunt. Kids can roam…
Capsule Reviews
“Artists Responding to Violence” FotoFest 2006 has not one but two themes: “The Earth” and “Artists Responding to Violence.” The majority of the “Artists Responding to Violence” segment is at FotoFest’s Vine Street headquarters. It’s a typical FotoFestian conglomeration. The standouts at Vine Street are two videos: Two Brothers and…
Radney Foster
For a summary of the life of a singer-songwriter, Radney Foster nails it on his latest album, This World We Live In: “I belong in a honky-tonk barroom / Singin’ songs about the things I’ve gone through.” One of the primary artifices of country music is turning clichs into poetry,…
Carmen Electric
Poor Georges Bizet. Guy composes the opera Carmen and premieres it in 1875, only to scandalize a (not surprisingly) prim Parisian audience with the show’s saucy seductress and her onstage murder. He declares the show “a definite and hopeless flop” and dies three months later. Here’s hoping he’s watching from…
Cowboy Up
Publisher: Konami
Platform: PlayStation 2
Price: $39.99
ESRB Rating: E 10+ (for Everyone Over 10)
Score: 9 (out of 10)
Two Gallants
Two Gallants (accent on the second syllable, thank you very much) have a serious problem: Their live show is so real, so visceral, spellbinding, exhausting, hilarious and riddled with crazed pathos that no recording could possibly do it justice. Tyson Vogel’s relationship to his drum kit is among the most…
Twister Mixer
Just how has DJ Maneesh the Twister perfected his wicked East-meets-West sound? Well, deejaying in Austin and San Francisco, where he currently resides, has certainly helped. Through residencies and on-air gigs in those towns, Maneesh cultivated his signature mix of swirling sitars, upbeat breaks, throbbing bass lines and dub. His…
Naomi Then and Now
Ellie Parker (Strand) This extremely raw portrait of an actress trying — and failing — to make it in Hollywood showcases Naomi Watts in a wrenching and sympathetic performance. Writer-director Scott Coffey shot the movie over nearly six years, beginning in 1999, before Watts was a household name. Though they…
Texas Sapphires
The Texas Sapphires are a wonderful illustration of the differences between Nashville and Austin. Youngsters following their muses and dreams flock to both cities in search of kindred spirits. Myriad ensembles form, shift, disband. Inevitably, though, Nashville winds up making stars out of a neo-schmaltz pop outfit like Rascal Flatts…
A Heavy Salad
Don’t let the name fool you: Dance Salad is no light affair. The 11th annual installment of the festival, spread over three nights, features a stunning array of companies from China, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, New York, Florida and Germany. Also included are China’s Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the…
Our top DVD picks for the week of April 11
Caved In: Prehistoric Terror (Lions Gate) The Dark (Sony) Death Cab for Cutie: Directions (Atlantic) Deep Blue (Miramax) Dora the Explorer: Dora’s First Trip (Paramount) 18 Fingers of Death (MCA) The Greatest Game Ever Played (Disney) Laugh or I’ll Shoot Collection: The Naked Gun, Airplane!, and Top Secret! (Paramount) The…
Van Hunt
What the fuck is Van Hunt doing, man? His new album, On the Jungle Floor, is just as unclassifiable as his 2004 self-titled debut. The record has him bouncing from retro-funk to hard rock to tender love ballads without so much as a warning. Doesn’t he know that shit doesn’t…
Hot for ‘Bot
Playwright Greg Hundemer says anyone who turns out for his musical comedy Proto-hobo (also his senior honors thesis) is in for hilarity. “The audience can expect laughs, tears and, in short, the greatest musical they’ve ever seen,” he says. (Take that, Cats!) The nefarious plot concerns an evil scientist named…
Horse Flesh
In the East Texas hamlet of Kaufman last month, a fetid wind ruffled the stripes of the largest American flag in town. It had been a gift to the locals from executives of the pungent Dallas Crown slaughterhouse. A few blocks away, company president Michael de Beukelaar stood in City…
Lovely, Not Amazing
In Nicole Holofcener’s first feature, 1996’s Walking and Talking, the writer-director warmly portrayed an adult female friendship, nudging at emotional issues without resorting to shtick or melodrama. Five years later, Holofcener’s Lovely and Amazing attempted to do the same for a family of women, but with wildly different results: Virtually…
This Bunny’s Hoppin’
Nothing speaks to the miracle of the risen Christ like a dude in drag. The gay Easter extravaganza continues with the annual “Bunnies on the Bayou” celebration, this year’s being the 27th, which helps raise funds for charities serving the gay community. As the story goes, it all started in…
Brave New World
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. — Joni Mitchell The scene is like a New Yorker cartoon come to life: Chicken wire and chain-link fences protect a pair of small run-down houses where three scruffy mutts laze beneath fruit trees and clotheslines in a mostly grassless yard…
Jeans Pool
It’s a Monday night — my birthday, in fact — at Ruthie’s (1829 Richmond). I’m there with my buddy, whom we’ll call, for child custody reasons, “my buddy,” and we’re drinking pitchers of beer. Ruthie’s is a dive by just about any definition. I mean that in a good way…
Rock over Houston
The late, great schizophrenic artist and musician Wesley Willis is nothing less than a legend in the underground rock community. The Chicago-based giant is loved for his signature preset Casio keyboard drumbeats and his profane yet simple musings on subjects including superheroes (“I Whipped Spiderman’s Ass”), animals (“Suck a Camel’s…
Baby, Please Don’t Go
Like everyone else, we were pretty much blindsided by Tom DeLay’s sudden decision to quit the Congress. We figured he’d go out in one last blazing electoral race, reveling in the hatred of the socialist-feminazi-tree-hugging wackos, showing the world the carefree, can’t-be-messed-with grin that he sported in his Harris County…
Raw Deal
There was an hour-and-a-half wait for a table the first time I visited Ra Sushi, the wild new singles bar and sushi restaurant on Westheimer in Highland Village. It was a Thursday night, and the second-story joint was throbbing with loud dance music and crowded with well-dressed River Oaks club-hoppers…
Good Golly, Miss Molly!
Molly Ivins’s genius lies in her ability to take our leaders to task without being mean. The nationally syndicated political columnist and author aims her folksy, affectionate writing style straight at the hearts of politicians (and ordinary hypocrites), sweetly calling Dubya “Shrub.” Ivins’s candid 1992 book Molly Ivins Can’t Say…
Letters to the Editor
What a Wreck Legislators, take note: Thank you for publishing the cover story “Run Over by Metro” [by Todd Spivak, March 30], detailing the inner workings of that agency and how it tries to minimize accident statistics, keep documents out of the public eye, lowball accident victims and present a…
Make Mine Moldy
There’s just no getting around it, no nice way to couch it, no euphemism to protect the innocent — blue cheese is blue because of mold (normally, Penicillium roqueforti). That’s what provides its sharp, tangy taste and smell. The appetizer-size blue cheese pizza ($8) at Dharma Cafe (1302 Nance, 713-222-6996)…
Diggin’ on Digital
What do Game Boys, kazoos, empty bottles, laptops and slide projectors have in common? They can all be played at Share, a drum circle for the digital age and the first event in Aurora Picture Show’s interactive, multimedia festival Media Archeology: Software Cinema. According to host Dan Winckler, Share is…
Image of the Week
You might think Cinco Ranch High School junior Kathryn Svoboda is experiencing a pang of regret for her fashion choices. Instead, she’s just stressing out over some last-minute malfunction to her team’s robot at the First Robotics Lone Star Regional Competition held at Reliant Arena. Click here to enlarge…
Space City Snapshots
Between the 1920s and 1990s, photographer Bob Bailey and his brother Marvin captured iconic images of the Bayou City, which are showcased in the exhibit “Houston from Behind the Lens: Photographs from the Bob Bailey Studios Collection.” The Baileys offer up the Democratic National Convention of 1928, the ticker-tape parade…
¡Viva Eléctrico!
Madrid’s Aviador Dro is said to be the first punk band to form in Spain — way back in 1977. At the same time its Akron, Ohio, counterpart — a little band called Devo — started making (new) waves around the world, Aviador Dro adopted the synth-driven electro-pop sound that…
True Aim, Blue Flame
My dog-eared copy of the Trouser Press Record Guide (1991) gushingly declares Elvis Costello, at that point a mere 14 years into his career, to be “the King Kong of modern music.” Another decade and a half later, the cyberspace-era TP equivalent Pitchforkmedia posed the question of “when, exactly, Costello…
Retro Rave
Back in the ’90s, you could find an all-night dance-a-thon any weekend, anywhere. Sadly, those days have all but disappeared. But the promoters behind tonight’s Déjà Vu party at Club Havok have successfully resurrected the once ubiquitous dance party. For eight hours and in three rooms, the tunes will be…
Bill of Rights
Long before Stephen Colbert became our favorite pundit to wax politically insane, Bill Maher was attacking spinmeisters everywhere with his show Politically Incorrect. Audiences were glued to his celeb-panel talk show, which would find politicos of the day shouting about things such as welfare reform, while stars got angry (Janeane…