Greg Trooper
I was standing outside the Mucky Duck in late February when co-owner Teresa Andrews looked up from her rocking-chair guard post and asked, “Have you heard Greg Trooper’s new album?” I hadn’t, so she insisted that husband Rusty rummage through the car for a copy. “I think it’s just the…
First Places
Houston Press food writer Robb Walsh has won a 2005 Bert Greene Award for “Sex, Death and Oysters,” a study of the oyster industry in the Houston area. The contest is sponsored by the International Association of Culinary Professionals to honor excellence in food journalism. Walsh won in the newspaper…
Ben Lee and Har Mar Superstar, with Maria Taylor
This must be a weird time for Ben Lee. Back in the ’90s, as a late teen, he was sort of the poster boy for the sensitive folk revival. His incredibly honest and up-front songs about love and growing up were both clever and naive, somehow free of the embarrassing,…
Jurassic Live
To many in the new generation of electronica fans, vinyl records are a thing of the past. But for many DJs, they’re precious artifacts. You could call these DJs the archaeologists of music — after all, they dig for obscure audio relics in record-store racks the way frenzied scientists dig…
Macon Greyson
A band in the alt-country tradition of Uncle Tupelo, Macon Greyson — and its mad-scientist front man Buddy Huffman — give us hope in the midst of the current sea of Texas Bowel Movement meatpuppets and wanna-be-a-Nashville-star strumpets. More Wilco-ish than Willie-esque, more like Ryan Adams than like Jerry Jeff,…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, April 28 Regina Taylor’s musical comedy Crowns revolves around a coterie of African-American women whose power and identity are worn on their heads for all to see. The story has been woven together from testimonials of actual “hat queens” and is told through the eyes of an adolescent girl…
Earlimart, with Okkervil River
L.A.’s Earlimart sounds like a lightweight version of Californian psych-pop bards Grandaddy, which is not as much of a slight as you might think. Grandaddy guitarist Jim Fairchild is a new addition to the band, and he and front man Aaron Espinoza co-produced Treble & Tremble, Earlimart’s latest album. The…
Bella Lea, with the Good Life and Make Believe
To see Maura Davis perform with Denali was to know she was destined for bigger things. Though appealingly ethereal, the group struggled to create worthy vocal vehicles for Davis’s operatic range and elegant phrasing. Denali dissolved when Maura’s brother Keeley left to pursue Engine Down, but she surfaced last summer…
Making the Videos
SAT 4/30 Houstonian director-producer John Tucker has scored big. Crazy big. The TSU alum jumped on board with rapper Mike Jones and directed the video for Jones’s breakout single, “Still Tippin’.” Now Tucker’s vid is getting some seriously heavy rotation on MTV. To help you score this kind of crazy…
The Mighty Orq CD release Party
Houston’s most prominent blues-rock power trio — now consisting of singer-guitarist Orq, bassist Jessica Will and new drummer Matt Johnson — hopes that their new CD can break them beyond regional stages. After spending three years playing for the Tony Vega Band, Orq fired up his own act, the Mighty…
Ballsy Bikers
Dang that Ricky Carmichael. Apparently the Suzuki motocross rider missed the memo that he was supposed to wait until this weekend to clinch the THQ World Supercross Grand Prix championship. Instead, he accumulated enough points to take the title during the April 16 race in Seattle. Fortunately, the THQ American…
Jokes? What Jokes?
Author Douglas Adams died at age 49 on May 11, 2001, of a heart attack suffered during a workout at a Santa Barbara gym. His biographer, M.J. Simpson, blamed Adams’s demise in part on his unending battle to get The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on a big screen, insisting…
Women of the Street
WED 5/4 The females of New York electro-booty duo Avenue D are fans of 2 Live Crew, the group responsible for the ever-classic anthem “We Want Some Pussy.” So it’s little surprise that their music is full of horny energy. Daphne and Debbie, the two hot-to-trot ladies who make up…
Bad Daddy
If it’s been a while since you’ve seen a great work of art, perhaps you’ve forgotten what it feels like: It feels euphoric. At least, that’s the glorious, heel-kickin’ boost that resulted after a screening of Look at Me, by French writer/director/actress/superhero Agns Jaoui. There was euphoria — and jubilation…
Quite a Jolt
FRI 4/29 There’s something you should know about the frenetic show Megawatt, Full Strength: “This is not traditional, sleepy modern dance!” says Jonathan Wolken, artistic director of modern dance company Pilobolus. “And it’s not a show to see after you’ve had a nice, full dinner and expect to just sit…
Something Old, Something New
At the Axiom, that cauldron of a theater, the folks of Infernal Bridegroom Productions are conjuring the ancient Greeks to help them create something entirely new. Under the guidance of Euripides, one of the oldest playwrights in Western civilization, director/adaptor Charlie Scott has created what may be the most innovative,…
Divided Attention
Gyrating belly dancers can be distracting. But the wonderful braised rabbit ($14.95) at Marrakech Restaurant (500 Westheimer, 713-942-0800) demands attention, too. Braised in Moroccan spices with more than a hint of lemon, the rabbit is cooked in a thick, well-spiced sauce with a saffron-yellow hue. It comes to the table…
Bono for Pontiff
You heard freshly minted Pope Benedict XVI; the 78-year-old said his would be a short reign. Who’s got next? We submit that Bono would make an excellent candidate for pope. Yes, Bono for pope. He’s outlandishly charismatic, reasonably eloquent, vaguely spiritual, tremendously photogenic. His popularity, meanwhile, is unparalleled — the…
Capsule Reviews
Billy Bishop Goes to War As much as we love Canada and all things that sweet country to the north represents, John Gray and Eric Peterson’s Canadian import Billy Bishop Goes to War is a hard play to get excited about. The Stages Repertory Theatre production, directed by Chelsey Santoro…
Rust Belt Blues
The adjectives “scuzzy,” “primordial,” “gutterlike” and “primitive” might not be considered complimentary when applied to, say, the new Rob Thomas CD. But for the rambling, shambling blues-punk duo the Black Keys, made up of singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, those terms are badges of honor. “I love that…
An iFest Fan (and Former Music Programmer) Responds
Dear John, As you know, I have not been associated with the Houston International Festival since the 2003 festival honoring Mexico. I am speaking here for myself, as a music lover and a citizen of this city, not on behalf of the festival, which I hope will summon its own…
Kitchen Kitsch
As far as titles go, Woman Talking to Meat Patty is about as descriptive as you can get. There she sits, a little ceramic lady straight out of 19th-century France, her head tilted in rapt attention as she engages a grilled slab of ground round. The patty is about twice…
Lucky Stars
The barstools at Goode’s Armadillo Palace are topped with big leather saddles. They look cushy, but my ass keeps sliding down mine, and I have to balance myself to keep from slipping off. I was never very good on horseback either. I would’ve made a lousy cowboy. Located next to…
Teenage Anarchy
I’m guilty of it: grabbing hold of my pale and pimpled cheeks and spreading them just wide enough to release a wheelbarrow of critical dung on the head of sweet Ashlee Simpson. Poor girl can’t get a break. First was her Milli Vanilli impression on Saturday Night Live. Many feel…
Capsule Reviews
“African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection” This show is filled with fresh, smart and gorgeous work. But like every individual collection, it represents one person’s taste and point of view. Jean Pigozzi began collecting contemporary African art 15 years ago; his private collection, the Contemporary African Art…
Stomped Out
First, the cramping, followed by the feeling that she had to move her bowels. In the middle of the night, 16-year-old Erica Basoria slipped into the bathroom, sat on the toilet and noticed the blood between her legs. Scared and hurting, she called for her sleeping boyfriend, Gerardo “Jerry” Flores,…
Nouvelle Vague
The problem with most postpunk music, for me anyway, is that it was utterly sexless — a miasma of cold monotone vocals, frigid synths, gloomy lyrics, robotic bass lines and brittle, tinny and too-loud electronic drums…It was the aural equivalent of a cold shower, of little help to a schoolkid…
Million-Hour Madness
Suzii Paynter and her small band of intrepid, faith-based foot soldiers recently found themselves trouping down to the basement of Christian Life Commission in Austin for an unusual experiment of sorts. Most of her crew were longtime retirees who had helped the needy and helped the state in the past…
Mariah Carey
Full (and damning) disclosure: This correspondent and Mariah’s publicist were the only two people to publicly claim the universally reviled Glitter soundtrack was the best thing Ms. Carey had ever done. I was the only one who meant it and still insist that collection of ’80s-inspired froth and naked confessionals…
Nailed by the Cops
If you were pitching it to Hollywood, it would be CSI meets Beauty Shop meets Cinderella. For the want of a fingernail, a criminal kingdom was lost. The Spring police department got a call March 22 from a pair of aggrieved newlyweds whose home had been broken into. Jewelry, TV,…
Tim Lyddon
Recently relocated to Houston from his former New York stomping grounds, this jazz pianist is wasting little time establishing himself in his new home. His second (and most recent) CD, 2003’s Shades of People, showcases his light yet highly skilled work on both originals like the joyously up-tempo “Impromptu and…
Getting Hammered
It’s difficult to stand out these days with a protest against our own Tom DeLay. The folks at DriveDemocracy.org and TrueMajority.org thought it’d be a good idea to have a 12-foot Uncle Sam spank the House majority leader, but it looks like Sam got carried away. No word yet on…
Matt Bianco Featuring Basia
As with Pink Floyd, don’t ask which member of this smooth/Latin jazz combo is Mr. Bianco, for the man doesn’t exist. The moniker refers to an imaginary superspy concocted by the group, which has just reunited three quarters of its original lineup for the first time in 20 years on…
Letters
Vineyard Views Good deeds: When I saw the latest cover regarding Satan and the Easter festival, I had to have a look because I knew it was about my church [Hair Balls, “What a Devil,” April 14]. Surprisingly, a great deal of what I read was correct. There was a…