Stop the Presses!
In the homage to attorney Rusty Hardin in this week’s print edition of the Press, we confused matters a bit. Hardin is not representing U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent, the accused sexual harasser. He’s representing the woman Kent is accused of sexually harassing. We apologize to Hardin, Kent and the…
Drenched in Blog: Ryan Adams Loves Satan
Werewolves. Pentagrams. People wearing Druid cloaks. Fire. Lightning. Sounds like my house. This is a promo clip from Ryan Adams, for a supposed doom-metal band he’s got going on the side. Because if there’s one thing dude needs, it’s another side project. Pretty lofty for a guy who eats tofu…
Pot Hole: Live Oaks Lofts Snubs Stoners
An irate (and probably hungry) resident of Live Oaks Lofts sent us a copy of a flyer (included after the jump), which he said was given to the more than 40 residents of the complex, located in the warehouse district. It seems some residents are engaging in a particularly pungent…
Congress and Steroids: Um, Yeah, Nice to See the Politicos Follow Baseball
I just want to make a few observations about yesterday’s Congressional steroid hearings. 1. Ladies and gentlemen, Congressmen and Congresswomen: if you’re going to talk about baseball players, please learn how to pronounce their names. Miguel Tejada shouldn’t be that difficult a name to say. 2. Congresswoman Watson: Bud Selig…
Rockets-76ers: Night of the Living Dead
I’m tempted to bury this Rockets team. Scratch that. I’m not just tempted, I’ve already got a shovel in hand and the perfect plot of land picked out. It would be so easy to just throw the lifeless body of this season six feet under and be done with it…
What We Talk About When We Talk About Sitcoms from the 1980s
• Wasn’t it so weird that on “Growing Pains” Kirk Cameron’s character Mike Seaver had a friend named Boner? I mean, even back in the 80s, the term “boner” was used as slang for an erection, right? Hell, I think they’ve been using that term since the 60s even. So…
Drenched in Blog Extra: Why Stop Now?
That’s just great, guys. It learned to levitate… – Craig Hlavaty…
Parish Predators: SNAP’s David Clohessy Wants to Know What Took Cardinal Daniel DiNardo So Long in the Case of Rev. Stephen Horn
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo should tell Houston Catholics why he waited two months to announce that a diocesan priest had been accused of sexually abusing a child, the head of a victims’ advocacy group said in a press conference today. Standing outside the Archdiocese Chancery downtown, David Clohessy, head of the…
Drenched in Blog: SXSW Rumblins’
It’s kind of like the shocker, but not really… Here it comes. Just two weeks into the year and already the South by Southwest hype machine is churning. In the past week we have learned that Lou Reed will a keynote speaker, R.E.M will be stumbling down Sixth Street like…
Steroids and Miguel Tejada: Sucks To Be Ed Wade Right Now
After listening to the opening of today’s steroid hearings, I’m really wondering if Drayton McLane is questioning the whole decision to trade for Miguel Tejada. Especially since Congress has called for the Justice Department to investigate whether Tejada lied before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee when he was…
Bud Selig and Steroids: Today’s the Day, or Something
In non-Rocket related baseball steroid news, Congressional hearings will be taking place today with commissioner Bud Selig and union chief Don Fehr appearing under oath before a Congressional committee with absolutely nothing more important to do with its time. Now, if the Congressional reps on the committee are actually interested…
Giselle Bundchen, Carrie Underwood, Bridget Moynihan and Jessica Simpson — Yep, We’re Talking Football
He was an obscure quarterback who started his pro career as a backup. He’s become an all-pro putting up big numbers in a major media market. He’s rather handsome and on his way to becoming a big star. The guys want to be him. The women want to be with…
The Carniceria Connoisseur: Late-Night Chicharrones at La Michoacana Meat Market # 10
Chicharron de barriga tastes like crispy fried bacon Searching for a late night snack after a night out, I found myself at La Michoacana Meat Market # 10 at Gessner near the West Park Toll Road. Unfortunately, the kitchen was closing up when I walked in, so I couldn’t get…
The Cancer Researcher Who Went In To The Cold: Remembering (and Possibly Tracking Down) the Lockshin Family, Reagan-era Houstonians Who Defected to the Soviets
Jeffrey was 11 when the family defected One Sunday in October 1986, Arnold Lockshin, a recently fired cancer researcher at St Joseph hospital’s Stehlin Foundation, apparently got the communiqué from overseas he had been waiting for. He calmly wheeled the garbage from his carport and left it on the curb…
Drenched in Blog Extra: Why Not?
Your daily overdose, after the jump…..
Steroids and Roger Clemens: Another Lie Uncovered
I know I promised to leave this whole Rocket thing alone until he makes his appearance before Congress. But the good folks at USA Today have caught Rocket in another of what is turning out to be many, many lies. So I can’t let it go without commenting, or letting…
Drenched in Blog: It’s Bjorkin’ Time!
Well, it’s happened again. A rock star has attacked brutally attacked a poor little photographer. And no, it wasn’t a member of an infamous rap group or some cracked-out ex-sex symbol with two children. It was Bjork. Iceland’s favorite batshit chanteuse ripped into a photographer in a New Zealand airport…
$13 at Mama’s Café on Westheimer
Where: Mama’s Cafe, 6019 Westheimer, 713-266-8514 What $13 gets you: A sort-of hangover – cotton-mouth thirsty, red-faced tired, a little nauseous and a lot irritable. I’m a sucker for comfort food. And the fact that I’ve been to Mama’s Cafe three times in the last several months shows I’m also…
Barry Brust Blocks Beaucoup Shots, Aeros Beat the Moose Again
Jason Villanueva/www.aeros.com Before Saturday night’s 4-1 Houston Aeros victory over the Manitoba Moose in front of 8,178 fans at the Toyota Center, Aeros general manager Tom Lynn said the team’s “challenge is to show they are a good team in this league. To win the tough games. To compete against…
Over the Weekend: Football, Golden Globes and Bar Hopping
We got a bad case of that beginning-of-the-week malady described in Office Space. What was that called again? Oh, never mind. At least the weekend was fun. 1 a.m. at Bronx Bar and 1:45 a.m. at Avant Garden Our photog cruised from the Rice Village to the Montrose on Saturday…
I Miss the Awards Shows
Miss Pop Rocks realizes some of you didn’t even notice that the Golden Globes didn’t air last night; perhaps you were too busy watching the premiere of “Rock of Love 2: Now Even Skankier If That’s Possible.” But for a pop culture writer such as myself, I live for that…
Random Thoughts from a Stupendous Sunday of Sports
• I’m sick and tired of hearing about the Madden curse, the SI jinx, and the curse of the billy goat. You could combine the power of those three devious forces and still have nothing even remotely close to the devastating impact my man John Royal has with his picks…
To Do: Houston Roller Derby Tryouts
Our friends at Houston Roller Derby sent us a little note the other day. Another season is quickly approaching, and as such, if any of you young ladies have ever watched the Derby and wanted to give it a try, here’s your shot. Things get started this coming Wednesday at…
Douchebags and Death Threats: Todd Graham and Rich Rodriguez
Todd Graham may think being called a douchebag by The MOB is tough, but he should be thankful he’s not Rich Rodriguez, and he should be thankful that he hasn’t just left West Virginia for Michigan. Rich Rodriguez is the highly sought after football coach who revitalized the West Virginia…
The Cult of Ron Paul
We always knew Ron Paul supporters were a little zealous, but after looking at these two photos, we’re starting to understand why. The first: Ron Paul at a debate, no doubt talking about the fetters of intrusive government The second: Marshall Applewhite, leader of Heaven’s Gate, no doubt shilling for…
This Just In: The Hand Center’s Michael Brown Is Awesome
The Hand Center has sent out a press release saying medical license-loser Michael Brown is going to get a taste of his own medicine. No – no one’s going to beat him with a broken bedpost and kick him down the stairs. He’s going to undergo an operation on his…
Jason Friedman’s NFL Playoff Preview: Hillary Clinton is to the New England Patriots as Chuck Norris is to Jessica Simpson
This is it, folks: The pinnacle of the NFL season. Over the course of the next few weeks, we’ll witness what figures to be one of the most compelling playoff races in recent memory. The match-ups ooze with an intoxicating combination of drama, star power and sex appeal. In fact,…
America Wants Its God Dang Whoppers
On the heels of the New Hampshire primary, Miss Pop Rocks thought she would bask in the glory that is American democracy by taking a moment to reflect on Americans and American priorities. More specifically, she wants to take a moment to talk about Whoppers. Because apparently genocide in Africa…
John Royal’s Postseason NFL Picks: Jessica Simpson Edition
I did about as well without my playoff picks last weekend as I did with my regular season. I got two right. I got two wrong. But I’ve got this thing for punishment, so I’m back again. Which means…on with this weekend’s picks. SATURDAY: 1. Things get off to a…
Houston Aeros Goose the Manitoba Moose
Jason Villanueva/www.aeros.com With 5,932 school kids screaming at the tops of their throats for the Fifth Annual Houston Chronicle Education Game, the Houston Aeros took on the Manitoba Moose this morning and came out with the 3-0 victory. Center Steve Kelly started the scoring for the Aeros, getting a power…
Drenched in Blog: Amy Blondehouse
Insert stereotypical “junkie blonde joke” here, because this blogger is at a loss. Do blondes have more fun? You be lookin’ fierce, girlfriend! She looks like a John Waters movie on… well, blow. – Craig Hlavaty…
What Do You Want, a Medal?
The Texas Cultural Trust Council is taking nominations for the 2009 Texas Medal of Arts Awards until January 15. If you think you (or someone you know) have made a remarkable contribution to the Texas arts scene, fill out a nominee form here. Winners will be honored in an award…
The Carniceria Connoisseur: El Tiempo Marches On
Carne guisada and picadillo taco at El Tiempo Market on Washington Matamoros Meat Market No. 4 on Washington Ave. was once my favorite carniceria. It was simply a meat market that sold tacos, and it was part of the inspiration for this series. The first time I lined up to…
Get Lit: The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy, by Robert Leleux
The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy, by Robert Leleux, tells the story of what happens to Leleux and his larger-than-life, overbearing mother after his father walks out on them, leaving them in Petunia, Texas with a lot less money than they’re accustomed to. Robert thinks Mother should get a job,…
Artful Thursday: War and Peace – The Short Version
Dr. Terrence Doody is nothing if not brave. Here’s hoping he’s long-winded, too. The English professor from Rice University takes on the daunting task of boiling down Leo Tolstoy’s most famous novel during today’s Artful Thursday: War and Peace — The Short Version. Tolstoy’s story of love, intrigue and sacrifice…
“Flicker Fusion”
DiverseWorks’ main gallery becomes something of a multiplex with “Flicker Fusion.” The animation showcase features works from a group of international artists, some working with cutting-edge technology to create realistic, interactive art, others creating simple hand-drawn images in the tradition of early animation. “Flicker Fusion” will be shown in conjunction…
Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy
Growing up gay in East Texas might be enough of a challenge for some people, but Robert Leleux had a hysterical, self-absorbed mother to contend with as well. In The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy, Leleux details his wild, horrifying and often hysterically funny childhood. It was the mid 1990s,…
Jersey Boys
Kids today want to be rap stars, but back in the 1960s, it was rock and roll that beat in the hearts of bored teens. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons personify the moment in musical history that changed what it meant to be an American teen – from straight-laced…
The NeverEnding Story
The NeverEnding Story and Everlasting Gobstoppers: Neither is true to its name, but both offer layer after layer of goodness. You can stock up on both today at Alamo Drafthouse-Mason Park’s screening of the film, which tells the fanciful tale of Bastian, a preteen loner who steals a magical book…
The 5 Browns
Five sibling Juilliard-trained pianists all onstage at the same time. Pretty cool. Add to that the fact that they are former Houstonians, and it gets cooler still. The 5 Browns (and their five Steinway pianos) take the stage at Jones Hall today, playing music by Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Piazzolla, Prokofieff…
“Video Now: Artists Working in the Spirit of Bruce Nauman”
If you’re the type of art lover who gets aroused by the words “video installation,” thank Bruce Nauman. The San Francisco-based artist, whose works on and off the screen are on display at the Menil’s “A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s,” was one of the first…
Solstice for Trombone and Orchestra
Composer Cindy McTee was inspired by a coincidence. “[Last summer] I was talking with a friend about the various ways in which ‘shadow’ might be expressed musically in my new trombone concerto,” says McTee on her Web site. “She reminded me that it was June 21 — the day of…
“DIGITALIA: Intimacy in the Hyperreal”
“DIGITALIA: Intimacy in the Hyperreal” explores a hot topic of the information age. Deborah Colton Gallery assistant Evan J. Garza is making his curatorial debut with the group show, which explores sex, love and relationships in a technically advanced culture. Steven Miller’s “Bound” series of photographs depicts men hanging in…
Celebration of Beer Dinner
It seems strange for an Italian restaurant to host a Celebration of Beer Dinner — after all, aren’t Italians wine people? Yes and no, according to Italian native and chef Igor Rosi of Simposio Ristorante. “Although Italy is famous for its amazing wines, beer also plays an important culinary role…
“Opposites Attract”
The music of contemporary classical composers often takes second fiddle to that of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. But one of the great advantages contemporary music has over its aged peers is that since it’s performed in its intended time, its meaning and potential are more fluid. That’s especially true when…
“Intersections”
Something you might hear at an Art Chatter Critique Group meeting: “Hey brushy, brushy, brushy…STEE-ROKE!” Okay, that was pretty dumb (art/baseball analogies almost never work, do they?). What the invitation-only club actually does is get together, present work and talk frankly about it, as a way of what the group…
Sarah Tollemache
Sarah Tollemache wins laughs pondering subjects such as how much Paul McCartney’s ex-sweetheart Heather Mills’s beautifully crafted prosthetic leg must have cost. Tollemache says she’d probably only be able to afford one with “cankles and varicose veins.” She also jokes about her man’s addiction to Halo 3. “I don’t know…
See Me
Hope Stone will celebrate its tenth anniversary with something old and something new, as it premieres a new dance production by veteran choreographer Jane Weiner. SEE Me is based on the tale of five blind men and an elephant, in which each man touches a different part of the animal…
Brandon Lee and the Matt Lemmler Trio
Things are heating up at Tommy’s Seafood — no, not the food, the music! This weekend, trumpet player Brandon Lee joins Tommy’s house band the Matt Lemmler Trio (Matt Lemmler on piano and vocals, Erin Wright on bass and Daleton Lee on drums). Houstonians already know Lee — the HSPVA…
Doomsday VIII: The Pink Menace
A dark cloud looms over Gulf Coast All-Star Wrestling’s Doomsday division — well, actually it’s a sparkly-pink-spandex-clad wrestler named Precious Jewels — but it does loom! The gender-bending grappler has been frightening and freaking out fans of the wrestling show (named Best Comedy Show in our Best of Houston® 2007…
Sandra Worth
The Wars of the Roses isn’t one of the more History Channel-worthy conflicts, but its passionate lords and ladies, who undergo constant tests of loyalty and carry out delicate espionage missions, have made it fine fodder for the historical romances of Sandra Worth, a University of Toronto–educated expert on medieval…
Baby Loves Disco
Though hip moms have traded in 2 a.m. last calls for 2 a.m. breast feedings, there’s no reason they can’t still get their groove on with their rugrats at Baby Loves Disco (rugrats are defined here as children between ages six months and seven years). Catching on in clubs throughout…
“Hidden Children in Occupied Greece”
Anne Frank is the best known of the hundreds of Jewish children that were hidden across Europe during the Holocaust; thanks to “Hidden Children in Occupied Greece,” a traveling exhibition from that country’s Jewish Museum, we can now learn about the experiences of other youths like her. The exhibit, presented…
Tommy Chong
Getting sent to prison may have been the best thing to happen to Tommy Chong in years, careerwise at least. Before his “water pipe” company Chong Glass/Nice Dreams was charged in a federal sting against drug paraphernalia sellers, Chong was one half of a broken-up comedy duo whose stoned-humor shtick…
Chevron Houston Marathon
Good news, bad news. Bad news first: With 17,000 runners already signed up for the full and half marathons, the annual Chevron Houston Marathon is sold out. So if you aren’t already registered, you’re out of luck. Good news is, you can still be one of the more than 200,000…
17th Annual Swing Dance Championships
Swing dancing didn’t die (again) in the late ‘90s. Believe it or not, there’s still enough interest to fuel the 17th Annual Swing Dance Championships. Dancers who continued jumping, jiving and wailing after the quadrillionth revival of the 1920s-era culture will be strutting their stuff throughout the weekend in competitions…
Mediterranean Harvest
In an age when “eating healthy” means consuming foods that have had all the carbs, fats and/or cholesterols ripped out of them through chemical tinkering, Martha Rose Shulman has turned her focus on the “inherently healthy” foods. Taking down recipes and picking up herbs and vegetables as she travels, Shulman…
Jac Leirner
Artist Jac Leirner says she tries to find “a place for things that don’t have a place.” The Brazil-based artist takes everyday objects like cigarette packs, business cards and plastic bags — things that are used for a short time and then destroyed — and pulls them out of their…
New Stadium for the Dynamo in Downtown
I can’t believe I’m about to write this post. First, because I hate soccer. (Yes, I know it’s the great worldwide sport, but I find it the game to be as boring as a Richard Attenborough biopic.) Second, because I hate it when cities help to finance new sporting palaces…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Contemporary Conversations: Robert Ryman, 1976,” “Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection,” “Pompeo Batoni: Prince of Painters in Eighteenth-Century Rome,”
“Contemporary Conversations: Robert Ryman, 1976” It’s difficult to look at a Robert Ryman painting without an initial feeling of being cheated. The artist has limited himself almost entirely to the color white as a way of boiling down the essence of painting to a reduced process, the very act of…
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week
The All New Super Friends Hour: Season One, Volume One (Turner) American Carny: True Tales From the Circus Sideshow (Koch Vision) Cary Grant: 4-Disc Collector’s Set (Republic) Casablanca (Warner Bros.) Death Sentence (Fox) Eagle vs. Shark (Miramax) Evil Roy Slade (TMG) Golden Door (Miramax) Happy Tree Friends: Complete Season One…
Bayousphere
Do you know how hard it is to dye your hair to match your jacket…when your jacket is plaid? That, to be sure, is dedication to your art. Or maybe it’s just a trick of the light, as Erykah Badu belts one out at the Arena Theater recently, promoting her…
“Nan Goldin: Stories Retold”
Nan Goldin’s intimate snapshots pack one hell of an emotional wallop. Like Larry Clark at his most legendary, Goldin doesn’t flinch — not even when a man’s fist is aimed at her eye. To know Goldin intimately is to play a subject in the documentary of her life, which, in…
Immigration: Luck of the Draw
Juan Martinez strolls through the parking lot at the Carlingford Apartments, a sprawling complex in southwest Houston, carrying a plastic sack filled with Miller High Life cans. Martinez, a recent Houston transplant, is returning from his job at a nearby carpet and flooring company where he makes $6.65 an hour…
Immigration: Cubans Enter U.S. at Texas-Mexico Border
Enveloped by darkness, a tractor rumbles down the hills that surround Cuba’s western coast. The tractor pulls a cart loaded with a makeshift boat constructed from aluminum tubing and an old car motor. Fourteen Cubans cram into the craft, destined for a twisting river that leads to the Yucatán Channel…
Immigration: The Boss Nun
La Posada, a refugee shelter near the Texas border, is a pretty cosmopolitan place for the Rio Grande Valley. Along with Cubans, there are Somalis and Eritreans living in several small houses on ten acres of land. The refugees stay busy. There’s grass to be trimmed and trash to be…
David Olney
“Anytime anyone asks me who my favorite music writers are, I say Mozart, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Bob Dylan and Dave Olney.” — Townes Van Zandt Around Nashville, compliments don’t come much higher than that. Despite such high praise, Olney, who’s clocked 30-plus years in the music business, isn’t a household name…
HUNTERS PUB’S BLOODY BIKER
There are only three bars in my neighborhood: two that are scary-smelly, and Hunters Pub (10549 S. Post Oak, 713-283-5333). This quintessential neighborhood bar didn’t have a big New Year’s Eve celebration because, hell, everyone knows that’s amateur night. Instead, they threw a decent party the next day, complete with…
There Will Be Blood
A great brooding thundercloud of a movie, Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood arrives as if from nowhere on a gust of critical acclaim, lowering over a landscape of barren mesas and hot, scrubby hills. Anderson’s epic, no less than his career, is both fearfully grandiose and wonderfully eccentric…
Caroline, or Change
Somewhere in between tonal poetry and contemporary opera lies Tony Kushner’s admirably somber “musical,” Caroline, or Change. The word “musical” belongs in quotes because the thoughtful, complex history lesson that has arrived, finally, for its regional debut at Main Street Theater is nothing like the glimmering song-and-dance acts typical of…
Grace Is Gone
Eleven months after winning the screenplay and audience awards at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, writer-director James C. Strouse’s Grace Is Gone has received a musical makeover care of Clint Eastwood, who reportedly screened the film and thought that it could do with a new original score, which he offered…
Que Huong
The tempura softshell crab (#272) at Que Huong on Wilcrest is one of the wildest Vietnamese seafood dishes I’ve come across in years. The naked crab is battered and deep-fried, then cut up into sections, each of which includes some of the juicy body meat and some of the crispy…
Indianapolis 500 Legends
When I was 12, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway totally screwed me over. After visiting the famed Brickyard and eagerly paying ten bucks to take “a lap around the track,” I was placed in a golf cart that putted around the asphalt at a not-entirely-death-defying nine mph. This was not the…
Himalaya Restaurant
Kaiser Lashkari, chef and owner of Himalaya Restaurant (6652 Southwest Fwy., 713-532-2837), describes the Hunter’s Beef Plate ($11.99) as Indian-style pastrami, but this description of the typical Pakistani dish is lacking. A large portion of tender beef cubes, which have been marinated and cured in traditional spices and grilled, are…
American Gladiators, Religion, HAR Elections
We’d like to think it is only due to the lengthy writers’ strike, but we have to admit it’s much more likely due to the decline and fall of Western civilization: American Gladiators is coming back. In case you’ve forgotten — or haven’t caught the reruns on cable — Gladiators…
Tornado Burgers, New Year’s Play, Anthony Bourdain
The owner of Tornado Burger comments on “Iconic Burgers,” by Robb Walsh, December 20. Thanks for the accolades: My son Neil and I own Tornado Burger. It is people like you in the media who help deserving startups survive and grow. As you say, institutions are not created overnight. Little guys…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Altar Boyz, A Fertle Holiday
Altar Boyz There’s no accounting for taste. No show makes that clearer than the award-winning, audience-pleasing sugar cube now causing cavities at Stages Repertory Theatre. Altar Boyz, the dithering musical about a Christian boy band by Kevin Del Aguila, Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker, is supposed to be parody,…
Dug Pinnick: Strum Sum Up
You know those movies where some cocky kid runs around bragging about how good he is at something like playing the guitar? Then he comes across the wacky old town coot, and said coot picks up a guitar and rocks everyone’s face off? Dug (Doug) Pinnick would be perfect for…
Local Motion
Sig’s Lagoon 3710 Main, 713-533-9525 1. Jesse Dayton & Brennen Leigh, Holdin’ Our Own 2. Grupo Fantasma, Comes Alive 3. Doyle Bramhall Sr., Is It News 4. John Fogerty, Revival 5. Jon Dee Graham, Swept Away 6. Daniel Johnston, The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered 7. Sharon Jones &…
Joshua, Sunshine, 3:10 to Yuma, Zodiac: 2-Disc Director’s Cut
Joshua (Fox) George Ratliff’s movie, a sort of satirical take on Rosemary’s Baby, came and went upon its release; seems no one got the joke about how parents (Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga, in this case) are scared shitless of their own children — especially the titular Joshua, played by…
Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart
Stacey Earle’s Iris DeMent-like country drawl goes right through me; I’ve been hooked on it ever since her “When I Fall” duet on brother Steve’s 2000 LP Transcendental Blues (yes, that Steve). Some people just seem made to sing together, like they’re tuned to the same ideas, times and artistic…
First Sunday
Since promising Armageddon in the leadoff bars of Straight Outta Compton, star-producer Ice Cube has been one canny career man. In recent years he’s pulled up stakes in the foundering rap game and doesn’t seem to think twice about the cred damage that could come from pratfalling through PG family…
Sharks and Sailors, Ume
Houston indie-prog outfit Sharks and Sailors’ self-titled 2006 EP was one of the year’s sleeper hits, a turbulent but precise journey of push-and-pull dynamics that recalls the finer moments of Don Caballero and Maserati. Demos for the trio’s impending full-length debut, however, point toward calmer shores, with lucid, dreamlike guitar…
Sophie Milman
Sophie Milman is unusually well-traveled for someone who has yet to post 25 years on the planet. Born in Russia and raised in Israel, Milman now resides in Toronto, where she somehow manages to balance pursuing a commerce degree at the University of Toronto with her recording and touring activities…
Andrew Jackson Jihad
It’s not uncommon for a rock group to feature guest spots, rotating personnel or additional instruments. Add a guitarist here, substitute a vocalist there, mike that kit a bit differently, and the textures change. Usually, though, the band retains its foundational elements. Not so when the Andrew Jackson Jihad includes…
Top 10 Most Hated Rappers
There’s a host of cocksure yet affable rappers out there for whom people can’t help but cheer these days: Kanye, Lupe, etc. But who wants to read a list of the most beloved rappers in the game when there are so many jackasses worth writing about? Here’s a list of…
Lupe Fiasco
Though some believe Chicago’s Lupe Fiasco is too smart for mainstream rap, that’s not exactly true. Most of the lyrics on sophomore release Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool are pretty basic, clichéd stuff, right down to the CD’s opening monologue: “They thought it was cool to tear down the projects and…
Lee Boys
Even the holiest among us don’t expect to grab a piece of religion while hanging at the local dive bar. Then again, it’s not good to make assumptions like that if you haven’t heard the music of the gospel-y yet funky church band the Lee Boys. Fronted by affable lead…
Lawyers Avoid Medical Malpractice Cases when Patient is Poor
Aurora Ortegon calmly entered the emergency room at Park Plaza Hospital on a Wednesday morning suffering from nausea and dehydration. She hadn’t been able to eat much the night before and had vomited several times. Ortegon, 70, didn’t think it was serious, but her family took few chances with her…
Richard Lloyd
Minus the terrible cover art and the aberrant jock-rock boogie of the opening track, “Monkey,” the remainder of Richard Lloyd’s most recent solo outing, falls comfortably within the guitarist’s angular, ordered realm. Since his heyday playing second fiddle (figuratively) to Tom Verlaine in Television, Lloyd has released several efforts that…
Goodbye, Proletariat
Owning a nightclub, particularly one including music as a significant part of its business plan, isn’t quite the same thing as gathering a huge pile of cash in the middle of a room and setting it ablaze, but it’s close. Between the vast amount of capital required to even open,…
The Roches
It’s been over a decade since Maggie, Terre and Suzzy Roche released a new album together, but you wouldn’t know it from listening to Moonswept. The sisters’ distinctive harmonies still lock together so precisely that a younger listener might naturally assume them to be a result of technology as opposed…
Various Artists
An icon of 1960s free jazz, tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler had a singularly extreme approach that influenced figures as disparate as John Coltrane, Peter Brötzmann and Patti Smith. Healing Force pays tribute to Ayler’s oft-reviled late period, including late-’60s albums New Grass and Music Is the Healing Force of the…
Rock Star Resolutions
Since the Press has already analyzed what went wrong last year (and what didn’t?), we shall no longer dwell on the past. Instead, we asked several of 2007’s wayward musical newsmakers how they plan to get their acts together in 2008. Amy Winehouse: “How many of these resolutions do I…
Death Race 2008
One of musical prognosticators’ favorite January activities is wagering which personalities will be waved past the velvet rope into the Ultimate Afterparty sometime over the next 365 days (well, 366 this year). Last year, Britney Spears was flirting pretty hard with the bouncers, but somehow managed to stay off that…