The Sports Animal 790 Is a Turkey
I want to give a shout out to the folks over at The Sports Animal, 790 KBME. I’m giving them a shout for reporting yesterday afternoon the breaking news that TSU had fired its athletic director. Which must have been breaking news because Chron.com had the story on Monday and…
Steroids, Roger Clemens and Congress: Lies, Lies, Sweet Little Lies
The cage match is over for today. And we didn’t learn much during the second half…well, except for this: maybe Rocket did drop by the Canseco party on the way to the ballpark after his round of golf. I’ll try to weigh in with more substantive thoughts tomorrow, but here…
Date Night: A Valentine’s Day Idea That’ll Cost You More Than a Hyundai
Last week we gave you five ideas for tomorrow, a.k.a. the ulimate date night. Here’s one last option, though; it was so obscene, it couldn’t be ignored. Got a spare $14,000 lying around? Then the Hilton Americas (1600 Lamar) has a Valentine’s deal for you. This package includes limo service…
This Just In: Conviction Upheld in Case of Man Who Stomped on Pregnant Girlfriend’s Belly
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today upheld the second conviction of a Lufkin man in the gruesome stomach-stomping deaths of his girlfriend’s unborn twin fetuses. Attorneys for Gerald Flores, now 22, argued that a recent Texas law that applies capital murder charges to the killing of a fetus was…
Steroids, Roger Clemens and Congress: Did Someone Say Nanny in a Bikini?
Okay, I’ve got a little advice for you out there, in case you’re ever called before a Congressional committee. First, never engage Rusty Hardin to be your counsel. Second, if the committee asks you, on a Friday afternoon, to provide the name and a way to contact a nanny who…
Steroids and Clemens: Roger Dodges Congress, Throws Debbie Under the Bus
A few observations from the two-hour mark of the Clemens/McNamee cage match. First, I would really like to know when Debbie Clemens is filing for divorce since Rocket’s pretty much thrown her under the bus. He claims she did use HGH in 2003. That McNamee did the injections, and that…
Ten Great Hip-Hop Breakup Songs (Because Valentine’s Day Is for Suckas)
“I Hate U Bitch,” Z-Ro: Z-Ro is at his most vulnerable in this balmy, spring-like guitar and keyboard track. Break-ups are often confusing, and Z-Ro teeters here between tearful rage and pounding your fists into bloody pulp sadness. (Just as effortlessly as he shifts gears from singing and rapping.) There’s…
Steroids, Baseball and Roger Clemens: Rocket and Brian McNamee Appear Before Congress Today
Baseball Festivus is upon us, and soon the Airing of the Grievances will begin. True, without the presence of Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch and Kirk Radomski, there may be less grievances to air, but what fun we’re about to have. So that you’ll be a little better prepared for what…
Drenched in Blog: Cookin’ with Coolio, a Kitchentastic Voyage
This blogger doesn’t condone or support any of the attitudes expressed in this clip. Though I do have an aversion to “salad eating bitches.” You know, I hope this is fake, as much as I want it to be real. This is momentarily famous ‘90s rapper Coolio’s cooking show, Cookin’…
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition on the Racks (Pun Intended)
Lost in the uproar of tomorrow’s Clemens/McNamee Congressional cage match is the fact that today is one of the most important days for heterosexual males in North America. Yep, it’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition day. This year’s lovely cover model is one Marisa Miller. And inside, along with all of…
This Just In: “Bodysnatchers” at the Woodlands
Get those credit cards ready, because the band that has little use for traditional album recording and distribution procedures – but isn’t exactly going to let fans name their own price for concert tickets just yet – has announced when they’ll be in our neck of the woods. The Woodlands,…
Toxic Town: Linda Faust Loses to BNSF Railway
Linda Faust has lost her years-long battle with BNSF Railway. The Somerville resident blames her stomach cancer on toxic chemicals emitted from the small town’s century-old wood-treatment facility. Late yesterday afternoon, after a four-week trial, a jury decided that the railway company was not to blame. Faust’s case represented the…
Better Late than Never: Free Pancakes at IHOP
IHOP is serving up free short stacks until 10 p.m. today in honor of National Pancake Day. According to the folks at IHOP (and why would they lie?), “National Pancake Day dates back several centuries to when the English prepped for fasting during Lent. Strict rules prohibited the eating of…
Slideshow: 14 Really Lame Valentine’s Day Gifts
Tired of getting laid? Prefer lonely nights eating chili out of the can while watching M.A.S.H. reruns? Fed up with all that affection? We’re here to help. — Keith Plocek…
Houston: Still Scoring Points With the Pharmaceutical Crowd
Hopefully you’ve already read – and, most likely, commented on – Shea Serrano’s blow-by-blow account of last Friday’s Bun B concert at Warehouse Live . He wasn’t the only media wag in the house, though. No less than The New York Times sent one of its two chief pop music…
Grateful Coogs
The Grateful Dead’s seemingly bottomless music vault will ensure live releases long after the band actually resembles their skeletal doppelgangers in the “Touch of Grey” video. But their most recent issue has an H-town connection sure to spur memories of packed seats (and packed bowls) all across the city. Unlike…
Steroids and Roger Clemens: Andy Pettitte Won’t Be There When Mr. Clemens Goes to Washington
The good news for Roger Clemens is that Rusty Hardin kept his mouth shut on Monday. The bad news for Roger Clemens is that Andy Pettitte has asked to be absent from Wednesday’s hearings because, quoting the New York Times, Pettitte “did not want to say something to hurt his…
Leave Chris Berman the !@$&#% Alone
If you’re like me, you’ve taken some delight from the pirated video that’s been hitting YouTube the past couple of weeks of ESPN’s Chris Berman being an all-around asshole. But while there’s been some enjoyment, I’ve got to express some puzzlement. I’m not the biggest Berman fan, but I can’t…
Rick Casey, High-Minded Columnist
So Rick Casey’s a stoner. Who knew? In his Sunday column, the Chron crank tucked a bizarre anecdote about once getting fucked up on reefer while on assignment. The column was particularly meandering and unintelligible, even by Casey standards. He leads with a weak example of a possible conflict of…
Drenched in Blog: The Dimes Cash In Their Name
Houston’s Dimes are now the Young Mammals, a name change that went into effect over the weekend and comes just in time for next month’s SXSW festivities. Including the Houston Press’s very own showcase March 13 at the Tap Room. Oh, you better be there. This is what YouTube gave…
Steroids and Roger Clemens: Long Road Ahead
It just doesn’t stop. Roger Clemens news, that it is. It was strange enough last week, when Brian McNamee said he gave Mrs. Roger Clemens shots of HGH before she was photographed in a bikini for Sports Illustrated in 2003. But now there are a couple of different revelations. First…
U23D + Marq-E = OK
My 11-year-old son John Henry hates U2. I can’t really figure it out, since he digs Coldplay. I thought it might have something to do with South Park’s recent skewering of Bono, but if I recall correctly, he has hated U2 since long before that episode aired. A year or…
Lost is Turning Me Into a Methhead
I don’t mean to make light of meth addictions, but seriously, ABC’s Lost is turning me into a twitching, crazy, freaker tweaker! By the time 8 pm on Thursday rolls around, Mr. Pop Rocks has to bring out some downers and convince me that The Others aren’t really outside in…
Over the Weekend: Bun B, Poison Girl, Katie Pell and Hockey
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and we’ll be sharing all kinds of love this week. But you don’t know where you’re going till you know where you’ve been, or something like that, so let’s look back over the weekend real quick Bun B at Warehouse Live The King…
Aeros Heating Up in February
The Aeros flamed out to end January, playing dispirited hockey that saw them drop out of the playoff race. Luckily, February arrived and the Aeros have rediscovered the joys of winning. Since February 1, the Aeros are 4-1-0-1 and have won three of the first four games of their current…
Two Nights Ago: Bun B and Other Members of the UGK Family
The Return of the Trill Warehouse Live February 8, 2008 Better than: The first time you pulled off that dance move from House Party where you hold onto your right foot with your left hand and then jump over it with your other leg. Download: “Pocket Full Of Stones,” “Front,…
Get Lit: American Unzipped: In Search of Sex and Satisfaction, by Brian Alexander
In the acknowledgements of American Unzipped: In Search of Sex and Satisfaction, author Brian Alexander (msnbc.com’s “Sexploration” Columnist) thanks his wife first: “My wife, Shelley, deserves an award of some sort. If you have to ask why, you haven’t read this book.” For the project, Alexander set out to discover…
Steroids and Roger Clemens: Don’t Forget Debbie
According to the New York Daily News, Brian McNamee told Congressional investigators that he injected the wife of Roger Clemens with HGH in 2003 before she was to be photographed in a bikini for Sports Illustrated’s 2003 Swimsuit issue. I kid you not. And if that’s not enough, Rusty Hardin…
Q&A: Porn Stars, Rock Stars and Katie Pell
Click here for a slideshow of images from all four shows currently at Lawndale. Katie Pell’s “The Best That I Can Give You and Less Than Half Of What You Deserve” is currently showing at Lawndale Art Center. Assistant Night & Day Editor Dusti Rhodes called her up to ask…
Weekend Music: Sublime Lives (Sort Of)
One of the stranger stories in recent pop history hits the Meridian tonight in the form of Sublime tribute band Badfish. Tribute bands are nothing new, of course, and it’s been more than a decade since Sublime’s Paul Leary-produced 40 oz. to Freedom became the backbone of modern-rock radio –…
Drenched In Blog: Car Stereo (Blogs)
If anyone knows Drenched, you know we love to dance. The moves have been described by bystanders as looking something like Henry Rollins being molested by Mick Jagger, fueled by whiskey, amaretto and denim. Tonight at Boondocks, the official bar of Drenched In Blog, Austin’s Car Stereo (Wars) will be…
Chris King Update: Three Chords and the Truth
To my discredit, it was only yesterday that I got around to visiting Chris King in Kindred Hospital. The universally beloved bassist and drummer in countless prominent local bands (notably Carolyn Wonderland’s Imperial Monkeys and Jug O’Lightnin’) suffered a serious head injury in a car accident in early December. However,…
“Mustang Sally”: White People’s Mating Call
Mr. Pop Rocks and I headed over to The Big Easy last weekend to listen to the stylings of Houston’s own Trudy Lynn, a fabulous blues singer and genuine kick-ass lady. During Trudy’s breaks, her (excellent) back up band played several numbers. As I just said, they were excellent, but…
Q&A with Daryl Morey: Talking Trades in the No Balls Association
It’s been awhile since we’ve talked to our favorite number-crunching GM, and with the trade deadline just around the corner (February 21) it seemed like the perfect time to catch up with Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. Needless to say, with the Rockets rolling—after last night’s 92-77 victory over Cleveland,…
Cock Fight: Pedro Martinez and Juan Marichal Throw a Couple of Chickens into the Ring
Mark Graham This possible new sports uproar involves two pitching legends, a couple of chickens, and a perfectly legal event. Not that something being legal has ever stopped the whack jobs with PETA. For those who don’t know of what I’m speaking, there was, briefly, a video posted on YouTube…
Steroids and Roger Clemens and, um, a Wookie
As many of you have probably figured out, I haven’t been too thrilled with the attorneys for Roger Clemens — yes, I’m talking to you, Rusty. Roger’s in deep, and it’s only getting deeper. That said, I think I have the perfect defense for Rocket. Ladies and gentlemen, I give…
This Just In: Houston Bringing It to SXSW
SXSW released its initial band list this morning, and Houston artists did very well indeed. Out of the more than 1,300 artists now confirmed for the March 12-16 festival, 47 Houston-area acts will perform, a significant increase over past years. (The efforts of new SXSW staffer Matt Sonzala doubtless have…
Steroids and Roger Clemens: The Needle and the Damage Done
It’s not that I’ve deliberately avoided covering the latest revelations about Roger Clemens, but damn, it seems like whenever I start to write something, something else happens. So I thought, okay, stop. Let things play out and then write. But damn it, I can’t do that now. Here’s a quick…
Aeros Defeat Rockford and Quad City
The Houston Aeros are taking today off after back-to-back games. The Aeros defeated the Rockford IceHogs, in Rockford, on Tuesday by a 3-1 score. Left wing Peter Olvecky scored the game’s first goal to put the Aeros up 1-0 in the second and right wings Joel Ward and Cal Clutterbuck…
Last Night: Over the Rhine at the Mucky Duck
Over the Rhine McGonigel’s Mucky Duck February 6, 2008 Better Than: Super Tuesday… and most any other damned thing with Super attached to it lately. Download: For the full flavor of Over the Rhine, check out “If A Song Could Be President” and “Jesus in New Orleans” here. See you…
Top Ten Food & Sex Scenes in the Movies
Dinner and a movie at home can be very romantic – especially with the right food and the right flick. Here’s a list of the Top Ten Food & Sex Scenes in the Movies to consider while planning your “quiet” evening at home. 1. 9 1/2 Weeks (1986) The scene…
Cover Story: Saving Lobo from Montgomery County’s Animal Control Department
Lobo, a six-year-old Siberian husky mix, never bit or attacked anybody. But last month, Montgomery County officials seized and impounded the dog, then sentenced him to die. Why? Because one neighbor kept complaining that Lobo was off his leash. Dog attacks, of course, can be brutal, even deadly, and they…
“Mardi Gras Galveston! — Phyllis Hand”
See 200 never-before-exhibited photographs in “Mardi Gras Galveston! — Phyllis Hand.” A society photographer, Hand documented the annual Tremont House Masked Ball from 1985 to 1998. Before you dismiss the exhibit as just a bunch of mug shots of Galveston’s elite, consider this: Hand shot the ultra-colorful balls in black-and-white,…
Labei Ritual
Kitty may be shitty, but that doesn’t mean other maidens shouldn’t take on metal. Labei Ritual — which we’re guessing is the plural form of labia — is an all-dame death metal band that’s everything fans of the genre (read: mostly dudes) dream about (read: hot chicks who play metal)…
“The Thames Mudlarks: A Group Show of London Artists”
The Thames Mudlarks are a group of Londoners who have been wrestling the mud along the famed river’s bank since 1980. The group searches for toys, weapons and other objects dating back to medieval times and preserved thanks to the mud’s low oxygen content. The exhibit “The Thames Mudlarks: A…
“The Best That I Can Give You and Less Than Half of What You Deserve”
Katie Pell thinks you’re worth it. She tells you so in “The Best That I Can Give You and Less Than Half of What You Deserve.” “I wanted to do a piece where it was a like a diorama but the person who was walking through the painting was part…
“Miwa Yanagi – Deutsche Bank Collection”
There’s a nasty joke in Japan about unmarried women older than 25: They’re called “Christmas cake” — as in, no one wants them after the 25th. Much like our own culture, Japan’s suffers from an obsession with youth and beauty, and it is this bias that inspired the exhibition “Miwa…
Tommy Davidson
Sly Stallone is beating the dead horse also known as Rambo one more time, and fans everywhere are cringing in their theater seats. But there’s one way to improve Rambo: See Tommy Davidson’s stand-up routine first. That’s right! The very same Tommy Davidson made famous by In Living Color, Boo…
Sarah C. Reynolds’s Houston Reflections: Art in the City, 1950s, 60s and 70s
How did Houston go from a cow town to a metropolitan arts center? Sarah C. Reynolds has at least part of the answer. In 1992, author and curator Reynolds started interviewing local artists about their recollections of Houston and its art scene during the period from just before the 1958…
Moving Bodies – Moving Minds
Houston’s most devoted ballet fans probably can’t remember a time when the name Dominic Walsh wasn’t at the forefront of the local scene, so it may come as a surprise to learn that his company, the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, is only five years old (he founded it in 2002…
Love’s Last Shift
Support the arts and spend absolutely no money! The opening show of Houston’s brand new Classical Theatre Company is not only funny, it’s free. The group, which is devoted to plays “at least 100 years old,” according to Artistic Director John Johnston, is opening with Colley Cibber’s Love’s Last Shift…
Illyria
Ah, Illyria — an ancient land where nothing is quite what it seems, and everyone is someone else. At least that’s the way it is in the musical Illyria, currently making its regional premiere at the Texas Repertory Theatre. Set in the 17th century, Illyria follows Viola and Sebastian, twins…
“GENOME: The Secret of How Life Works”
What do you get when you cross a human and a banana? A 50 percent match in the gene pool. According to the press release for “GENOME: The Secret of How Life Works,” half of our DNA is similar to that of the favorite food of monkeys. The Museum of…
Shat
Prepare to be Shat on. The New Jersey foursome combines punk, metal and comedy in “Vagetarian,” “Fuck, I Stepped in Shit” and other tunes too obscene (even for us) to print. If the lyrics aren’t enough to drop your jaw, check out their costumes, which include a dildo-Mohawk helmet, a…
Kathy Kelley’s Suckling Is Continuous
For Suckling Is Continuous, local artist Kathy Kelley covered ten-foot, eight-foot and six-foot balls with pieces of leftover tires. The scraps are twisted to form shapes resembling nipples and sucking mouths, but it’s obviously more than an attempt to tickle our less-than-mature sense of humor — well, not completely. “The…
My Neighbor Totoro
Troma is the nation’s leading stock house of horror-comedies — films filled with levels of gore and nudity the word “gratuitous” doesn’t even come close to describing. Disney is an international conglomerate specializing in all things marketable and cute. The one film released by both is Hayao Miyazaki’s 1988 masterpiece…
Luv Ya Maroon
Aghast Aggie: This story [“Rotten to the Corps,” by Paul Knight, January 24] has my blood boiling. As a graduate of Texas A&M University, I could not be more appalled, ashamed and amazed at the events that have taken place. These are the kinds of stories that need/require national press coverage…
Diana Ross
If you want to see Diana Ross discuss her rise out of the Detroit projects to become one of the top female entertainers in American history, you may want to bring binoculars (unless you have front row seats). For the first time ever, the love child of soul will take…
“Icons and Hieroglyphs”
Self-taught artist Dune-Micheli Patten researched cave paintings and primitive artwork in Central America and Europe, then tried out their methods and aesthetics himself. The result, “Icons & Hieroglyphs,” at Elder Street Gallery, is a den of sculptures, paintings and installations meant to evoke modern-day Houston. “Undiscovered Genius of the Third…
Alma y Fuego (Soul and Fire)
Flamenco music developed in India and Spain, with influences from Islamic, Gypsy and numerous other cultures. So, when you hear this complex, passionate style live, you want it in the hands of professionals. Thankfully, Lucia y Valdemar Gitanerías Flamenco has been performing together professionally since 1983. The group will present…
The Ravi Coltrane Quartet
It’s hard enough to be a musician following in the same line of work as a famous parent — just ask Julian Lennon. But when dad was not just an innovator of a genre but a spiritual leader with an entire church based on his music, those are giant footsteps…
Chantal Akerman: A Sampler
In Je, tu, il, elle, one of the films being screened in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston series Chantal Akerman: A Sampler, the lead character, played by Akerman (who also directs), explores -obsessive-compulsive behavior and sexuality. In the first part of the film, Akerman uses her signature extended single-take…
“Artists of Permanence: The Fine Art of the Tattooist”
The human body is often the focus of art, but at “Artists of Permanence: The Fine Art of the Tattooist,” the human body is the canvas as well. Tattoos, around for almost 10,000 years, have evolved considerably during the last two decades, maturing in both quality and aesthetics, as tattooists…
Analyzing While Waiting (for Time to Pass): Contemporary Art in Tehran
As the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s annual Iranian Film Festival demonstrates, the Islamic Republic has developed a thriving industry of well-produced, well-financed and professionally written films. And wherever there is a mainstream movie scene, there’s a slinky art-house underground. So, while the MFAH is offering the best mainstream films,…
UGK for Life
When the Houston music history book is penned, a significant portion will be devoted to Bun B and Underground Kingz, the duo he started in 1987 with late childhood friend Pimp C in their native Port Arthur. Bun’s poignant, down-home flow has inspired legions of other rappers, and even in…
Local Motion
Sig’s Lagoon 3710 Main, 713-533-9525 1. Revorgandrum [Rev. Horton Heat], Hi Fi Stereo (CD) 2. Radiohead, In Rainbows (LP) 3. The Judy’s, Washarama (CD) 4. The Judy’s, Moo (CD) 5. The Judy’s, Land of Plenty (CD) 6. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Jukebox Explosion (LP) 7. Levon Helm, Dirt Farmer (CD) 8. Smokey Johnson, It Ain’t My…
Flying Objects: “Jac Leirner” at Gallery Sonja Roesch
Petty theft plays an integral part in many of Brazilian artist Jac Leirner’s works. For Corpus Delicti, a project for Documenta IX in Kassel, Germany, the peripatetic artist systematically snagged ashtrays from the armrests of about every airline she flew. Then she chained them all together, as if trying to…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Frozen, Jersey Boys, The Magic Flute, Young and Fertle
Frozen The “Arctic frozen sea” of a pedophile’s mind lies at the chilly center of Bryony Lavery’s smart, mesmerizing Frozen. The play about a child killer and his victim’s raging mother was so affecting when it opened on Broadway in 2004, it was nominated for several Tony Awards, including Best…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Agustina Nuñez: Little Polymorphous,” “Claire Ankenman: Slices,” “Contemporary Conversations: Robert Ryman, 1976,” “Howard Sherman: In my mind, you’re inflatable,” “TexasMade” and “Option-H,”
“Agustina Nuñez: Little Polymorphous” A quick once-around of this mural by Argentine artist Agustina Nuñez won’t unlock its mysteries. A brief glimpse only reveals the apparent: scenes of playing children scattered among misshapen human appendages and animals. Sometimes the body parts and creatures coalesce, as in a twisted, hairy hand…
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week
Across the Universe (Sony) The Apartment: Collector’s Edition (MGM) The Aristocats: Special Edition (Disney) Blonde and Blonder (First Look) Boy Meets Girl (Unearthed) Drive-In Cult Classics: 8 Movie Collection (Navarre) Feast of Love (MGM) Fierce People (Lionsgate) The Jane Austen Book Club (Sony) Midnight Express 30th Anniversary Edition (Sony)Psychotronica: Volumes…
The Bravery
Playing smooth post-punk with electronica influences, not unlike Bloc Party, the Bravery are known primarily for their highly publicized 2005 feud with the Killers and that year’s single “An Honest Mistake,” whose video evokes the Smiths on Prozac and caffeine. The New York quintet’s second album, 2007’s The Sun and…
Valerie Sarofim Says She Was Taken to the Cleaners
When Houston socialite, jet-setter and fashionista Valerie Biggs Sarofim opened up her mail one Thursday last October, she was shocked by what she saw. A friend from England had sent Sarofim an article published by a newspaper in India about an old chum, fellow blue blood Stefan Wathne of Iceland,…
Open City in Midtown
When Tamer and Nadine Aly moved here a year ago from D.C., where they had run a couple of Mediterranean restaurants, they already had the name of their new restaurant in mind. They called it Open City (2416 Brazos), after Roberto Rossellini’s landmark 1945 movie Roma, città aperta. That’s where…
Special Sexy Edition
Dear Mexican, After working with Mexicans for years, I have noticed that Mexican men have a double standard when it comes to homosexuality. Why is it that the “giver” is not regarded as being as equally gay as the “receiver”? El Vaquero Dear Cowboy Gabacho, I think all heterosexual societies…
Auto Erotica: Burnout Paradise
Long have we waited to be taken down to the Paradise City, where the girls are green and the grass is pretty, or whatever. Now, thanks to Burnout Paradise, we know what all the fuss is about. Burnout, the crash-happy racing series from EA, puts the pedal down once again…
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Brave One, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Imitation of Life: Special Edition
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Warner Bros.) Beautifully shot, masterfully acted and 19 hours too long, Assassination is an uneven mix of the artful and the arty that never had a shot at bringing in the audience that Brad Pitt’s chiseled melon should’ve delivered. Pitt…
Pity: Fool’s Gold
When a friend recently told me that she’d been confused by the poster for the Matthew McConaughey-Kate Hudson fortune-hunting romp Fool’s Gold adorning her local multiplex — that she’d thought for sure this movie had already come and gone — I understood her bewilderment. Even as a professional film critic…
Chuck Rosenthal on trial, Metro Q Cards and a Scandal Scorecard
Houstonians had been eagerly awaiting the federal court hearing where Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal would try to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt for deleting thousands of e-mails subpoenaed as evidence. The event didn’t disappoint, if the report of our observer is any indication. No final…
Dead Meadow
“I can’t tell if we’re running from, or coming to,” muses Dead Meadow singer/guitarist Jason Simon on the folky, elegiac “Ain’t Got Nothing (To Go Wrong),” his decentered voice dripping with idiosyncratic weariness. He could easily be opening up to a lover, making a statement about the accelerating decline of…
Cat Power
It’s easy to dismiss Jukebox, Cat Power’s second covers CD, as Matador’s lazy way of dealing with head kitty Chan Marshall’s latest bout of writer’s block, but any indie-rock hipster knows she always stuffs her live shows with other people’s songs. Marshall already did the interpretive thing on 2000’s Covers…
There Will Be Blood in The Lieutenant of Inishmore
Bloody good fun is going on at the Alley Theatre right now, and I’m not speaking in metaphor. Martin McDonagh, whose brilliantly creepy The Pillowman ran at the Alley two seasons ago, slathers the stage with guts and gore with his latest offering. A 2004 Tony nominee, The Lieutenant of…
Steve Poltz
Ask people about the ultra-prolific Steve Poltz, and one word keeps coming up: insane. It comes in several shades of meaning: “brilliant,” “creative” and, well, “clinically nuts.” One record-store clerk spoke about Poltz as though he were an undiscovered musical Van Gogh; another shrugged and said, “He’s good, but I…
Spazmatics = Revenge of the Replicants
Ah, Houston. Increasingly, we seem to be a city that loves its chain stores, a franchise-friendly haven where people get their groceries at Wal-Mart and will drive right past places like Lankford Grocery to get their burger fix at Mickey D’s. And now, that Fertitta-fied philosophy is apparently extending to live music…
Balaclavas: Balaclavas (EP) Inferno (EP)
Young experimental punk trio Balaclavas are part of the reason 2007 was a banner year for Houston indie rock. Released separately, last year’s Balaclavas and Inferno EPs are close enough in tone, sound and time to effectively be two parts of a full-length record; together, they’re among the more strikingly…
Various Artists: The Great Debaters: Music From & Recorded for the Motion Picture
Rare is the soundtrack that goes to the effort of soliciting original recordings, and rarer still is one that puts considerable thought into those recordings’ direction. For The Great Debaters, a film about the 1935 debate team at Wiley College (a tiny African-American school in Marshall), director/star Denzel Washington and…
Save Lobo: A Siberian Husky Mix is Sentenced to Die
All his life, Lobo had the run of his neighborhood. Then last month Montgomery County officials seized the six-year-old, 85-pound Siberian husky mix and sentenced him to die. Lobo’s crime? It’s hard to say. Lobo’s owners Erik and Rosalyn Frazier say their family pet may look big and intimidating, but…
Black Mountain: In the Future
Rock nostalgia doesn’t always result in great art, but it can sound pretty bitchin’ blasting from a car stereo. In the Future, Canadian group Black Mountain’s second album, provides further proof (after 2007 single “Druganaut”) that for these five Vancouver residents, the future sounds like a hazy black-lit garage in…
The Return of the Kashmere Stage band
Maybe it’s some mysterious cosmological force that, outside the movies, only allows storybook endings to happen around Super Bowl Sunday. However, this particular story had nothing to do with the undefeated New England Patriots allowing the 11th-hour touchdown pass that gave the underdog New York Giants one of the biggest…
Kevin Devine, the Jealous Girlfriends
Perhaps the only thing more damning than being hailed as the next Dylan is being perpetually stuck in the shadow of Conor Oberst. Such has been the fate of Kevin Devine, a Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter who deftly balances personal and political sentiments through largely acoustic, emotive ballads. The former Miracle of…
Fish Frenzy at Tokyo One
The salmon sashimi at Tokyo One had such wide diagonal stripes of white fat running through it that each slice looked like an orange-and-white candy cane. And one by one, a half a dozen of them melted in my mouth. I followed the salmon with some succulent escolar slices. Also…
Hearts of Animals
Even in a city whose musical denizens have a well-documented propensity for band-hopping, Mlee Marie Suprean is an especially prolific co-conspirator. Her shimmering and coyly pretty voice, elegantly phrased guitar work and slightly skewed pop sensibility can be found in no fewer than four consistent projects, with frequent cameos in…
Poor Boys at BB’s Kitchen
A hot mess: “If it ain’t messy, then it’s not New Orleans style,” said the waitress to a customer. She was talking about the wonderful poor boys at BB’s Kitchen (2710 Montrose, 713-524-4499). And messy they are. While you can choose from at least ten different versions, my favorite isn’t a…
The Mars Volta take Manhattan
If there were a word that got at it better than “masturbatory,” I’d use it, but there’s not, so “masturbatory” it is. The Mars Volta have been onstage for two-and-a-half hours. Another minute longer and they might go blind, and we deaf. The din here on a frigid Monday night…