Texas Monthly, Bound for the Recycle Bin?
There’s an interesting supplement in the new issue of Texas Monthly, the one with all-but-declared gubernatorial candidate Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison on the cover. It’s a 32-page mini-mag called Texas Bound for Music, and appears to be TM’s attempt at… well, it’s not really clear exactly what the magazine is trying…
Can’t Get It Out of My Head: Kleenex-Core with Justin Townes Earle’s “Mama’s Eyes”
I will be the first to admit that when it comes to music, I get misty at points. I guess it’s the sentiment of a song, if it lines up with something that I could never intimate to someone else. Love, death, remorse, all the biggies that get that lacrimal…
Finally, More Details On That Bizarre Galveston Police Incident
In December, Hair Balls brought you the story of Dymond Milburn, a 12-year-old girl whose family is suing several Galveston police officers after the cops allegedly beat and injured her while trying to arrest her for suspected prostitution. The lawsuit claims that the police hopped out of an unmarked car…
Fish Story: Zen Tuna Roll
The two kinds of tuna in the Toro Crunch at Soma give the elegant sushi roll a huge tuna flavor. The presentation is a Zen composition of symmetrical shapes and restrained colors. Chopped fatty toro tuna and chives are the soft center while a strip of bluefin tuna strides the…
The Schools Of Houston Are (Allegedly) Filled With Ghosts
If you’re looking for a little Hump Day time waster, we suggest strangeusa.com, which lists haunted locales across the country. Houston has a bunch of them.Many on the site are ones we’ve heard before – the Spaghetti Warehouse, La Carafe, the old Jeff Davis Hospital, various cemeteries – which are…
Houston Architectural Firm Gets In Trouble Near San Antonio
People here expend lots of energy bitching about how HISD implements a bond program — and with good reason, god knows — but they should see how things are done in the school district of Judson near San Antonio.A Houston architectural firm is in the middle of a messy battle…
Thrift Store Cowboy: The Move
The best thing about digging around thrift-store CD bins is discovering someone else’s cast-offs. The records that people got sick of, or had absolutely no regard for how awesome it could be. Months back, a wife seemingly threw out her husband’s entire punk-rock collection during routine housecleaning, and I found a…
Chamillionaire’s Inaugural Diary, Part 3: The Inauguration
The inauguration events started early. The people that left the hotel late last night were smart. They knew it would be too packed and too crowded. The police were blocking off all of the entrances to where the inauguration of the first black president would be held. My friend who…
Nathan Winograd, No-Kill & BARC
Since its inception, Houston’s Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care has been defined by mismanagement. Relegated to an unsightly corner of Houston’s Fifth Ward, the facility, which operates with a staggeringly high 80-percent euthanasia rate, has been a historically low priority for Houston’s leaders.While other cities throughout the country have…
Artist of the Week: The Sans-Bayonet
Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group “Artist of the Week,” bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn’t awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com. It was recently mentioned to us that in…
Victory Over The River Oaks Shopping Center! Kinda
That proposed restaurant in the River Oaks Shopping Center that had everyone up in Armani-clad arms?It’s not going to happen.It wasn’t the Lexus Revolution that killed it, though — the city gave Weingarten Realty pretty much everything it asked for in the way of variances.No, it was the economy that…
Dave Wrangler Mauls Animal Collective, Stands Up Ludacris
Houston mash-up master Dave Wrangler recently remixed Animal Collective’s “My Girls,” from the Brooklyn buzzmongers’ brand-new Merriweather Post Pavilion, for German Web site Byte.fm. It’s something of a hit – “Since I put it out, I’ve had numerous inquiries for DJ bookings all over the country,” he reports. Check it…
HISD Gives Out Bonuses Like They’re Going Out Of Style
You should feel really bad if you work for HISD and you didn’t get a bonus this year.The school district announced this morning that 88 percent of eligible employees got a bonus because of the “tremendous academic growth of its students.”The total handed out rose from $24 million last year…
Playboy’s Finalists for Sexiest Sportscaster: Erin Andrews, Bonnie Bernstein, Charissa Thompson, Lauren Shehadi and Molly Sullivan
Playboy.com has named its five finalists for this year’s Sexiest Sportscaster. And despite my best efforts, neither Carrie Milbank nor Suzy Kolber got the necessary number of write-in votes to qualify. The finalists are Erin Andrews, of course, Bonnie Bernstein, Charissa Thompson, Lauren Shehadi, and Molly Sullivan. Erin Andrews was…
Playboy’s Finalists for Sexiest Sportscaster: Erin Andrews, Bonnie Bernstein, Charissa Thompson, Lauren Shehadi and Molly Sullivan
Playboy.com has named its five finalists for this year’s Sexiest Sportscaster. And despite my best efforts, neither Carrie Milbank nor Suzy Kolber got the necessary number of write-in votes to qualify. The finalists are Erin Andrews, of course, Bonnie Bernstein, Charissa Thompson, Lauren Shehadi, and Molly Sullivan. Erin Andrews was…
Happy Belated Birthday, Mozart
Overture, La Nozze di Figaro Rocks Off can usually be counted on to forget at least one thing per day, and yesterday it just happened to be that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, known in his day as the Elvis of Salzburg, was born January 27, 1756. A quarter of a millennium…
La Marque City Manager Decides He’s Had Enough
Hair Balls talked to La Marque city manager almost two weeks ago about events in his city, which included a crime spree, a resigning mayor, and calls for, well, the city manager to leave too.Robert Ewart admitted things were a bit hectic, but he indicated it wasn’t anything he couldn’t…
A Super Bowl In Rice Village
We’re only days away from what’s become known as America’s biggest secular holiday — the Super Bowl.This year’s match-up is underwhelming, to say the least: the Pittsburgh Steelers should beat the Arizona Cardinals easily enough.But the atmosphere surrounding The Game has long become bigger than The Game Itself.Which makes it…
Fish Story: Arctic Char
There are lots of fishing camps in Nunavik, Quebec’s arctic region, devoted to fly fishing for arctic char. There’s even an annual arctic char fishing derby in Whale Cove, in case you want to try your luck. The highly prized freshwater game fish is a traditional food of the Inuit…
Sun Rises In East, Sets In West
Headlines that make you stand up and go “whoa”: Well, not really.Fox 26 reported on a Houstonian who got picked up in Thailand for his habit of diddling young children.The headline? “Captured Fugitive Led Secret Life.”Nooooo shit. We’re just shocked the guy chose not to follow what is apparently the…
CAMH’s New Director A Rocker At Heart
Bill Arning, the current curator of the List Visual Arts Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will assume his position as director of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston on April 6, 2009. His hiring ends a 10-month search.”It was a long process,” Arning tells Hair Balls, “but I’m very…
Robison Brothers Too Sick to Play Mucky Duck; Hayes Carll and John Evans Step In
Rocks Off just got an email from McGonigel’s Mucky Duck owner Rusty Andrews (so did everyone else on the venue’s mailing list, but never mind) saying that Bruce and Charlie Robison have had to cancel tonight’s show due to illness; he says a reschedule date is planned, but doesn’t know…
Tapes ‘N’ Tapes: A Cassette-Only Label?
Yesterday, Bright Men of Learning (right) guitarist and solo performer Ben Murphy (far left), known to everyone on the Hands Up Houston message board as “bdm,” announced his intention to start a cassette-only label whose first release would be a tribute tape to pacesetting ’90s indie-rockers Sebadoh. Has enough time…
Two Men Jump Out of the Way as Shards of Glass Rain Down From Houston Office Building
Just after 1 p.m. as the lunch crowd was making its way out of downtown restaurants and back to their office cubicles, the general peace was disturbed by one of those true OMG moments.The wind was gusting pretty high when two guys sort of ran sideways on the sidewalk and…
The Mayor’s Race, In Chart Form
The race to replace term-limited Bill White as Mayor of Houston is starting to heat up, in terms of various candidates leaking word that they’re interested. The conventional wisdom so far counts four major candidates; unless the conventional wisdom is wrong (and when has that ever occurred?), one of these…
Digitalia: Microsoft Songsmith Corrects Artists’ Glaring Oversights
Billy Idol, “White Wedding”… sort ofMicrosoft Songsmith, a music-making computer program, has already racked up plenty of Internet accolades based on its eerily terrible commercial, wherein normal, everyday people dealing with normal, everyday problems – such as being tasked to write an ad campaign for glow-in-the-dark towels – suddenly burst…
Galveston’s Di Bella’s Restaurant Survives Ike, Gets Hit By Fire
Di Bella’s, a cozy little Italian place (we guess we should call it a “joint”) in Galveston, got hit by Ike but opened its doors a month or so after the storm.So it really sucked that the place was knocked out by a big fire early Monday morning.No one was…
The “Taco Man” Truck at Bubbles
The egg and chorizo breakfast taco comes with a free roasted jalapeño and your choice of red and green homemade salsas at the taco truck parked behind Bubbles Carwash at Westheimer and Bering. The business is called the “Taco Man” and its run by two brothers from San Luis Potosi…
If You Live Near The Menil Collection, Listen For The Bulldozers
As has been reported, the Menil Collection is looking to expand and has hired a British architect for the job, because getting updates on construction is so much classier when it’s done in a haughty accent.The Menil owns a lot of property around its current location — that’s why the…
Chamillionaire’s Inaugural Diary, Part 2: Scoping the D.C. Scene
When I landed, I thought I was gonna see snow because I was told that it was six degrees in Washington, D.C. There wasn’t any snow but it was so cold that I could feel the air piercing my ears and making my eyes water. Me and my travel party…
Star Trek Ashes: To Deep Space, Via West U
A Houston company is gearing up to — no, goddammit, we will not do a “go where no man has gone before” reference.But from an office in West U, of all places, the planning is proceeding for the ultimate star trek — sending some of the remains of Majel Roddenberry…
Bruce Springsteen Confirms Second Houston Show in a Year
Alejandro Escovedo with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band,”Always a Friend,” Toyota Center, April 14, 2008 After last year’s sold-out show that ended with both Alejandro Escovedo and Joe Ely duetting with the Boss, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are headed back to Houston for their second show within a…
$7 at New Hunan Restaurant in Missouri City
Where: New Hunan, 2345 FM 1092 (Murphy Road), Missouri City, 281-499-3061 What $7 gets you: An assortment of mainstream Chinese dishes with more than half offered in the spicy hot Szechuan style. We had one dish that stepped over into the under-$13 range, but it wasn’t any better than the…
When It Comes To Fossils, Only Houston Says “I Love Lucy”
When Lucy came to Houston’s Museum of Natural Science, she was a smash hit. Over 200,000 people came to see the 3.2 million year-old bones of the humanoid ape that (or is it who?) might have been an ancestor to each and every one of us.The 2007 exhibit was such…
Soundtrack This Crazy Tweaker Video
A friend emailed this clip of some cops separating a shirtless dude from his beloved drug lab, but Rocks Off thinks the snarky cookie-cutter commentary – even from Kids in the Hall and The Larry Sanders Show alumnus Scott Thompson – doesn’t really do it justice. Leave your suggestions for a better…
Man The Barricades For Dogs And Cats
Have some free time at noon today? If so, and you feel the city is ignoring problems at the Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care, you might want to scoot down to a demonstration at City Hall.No Kill Houston wants the city to approve a contract to bring a supposed…
25 Super Bowl Memes You’ll Be Sick Of
It’s Super Bowl week. The game is on Sunday, but by the time kickoff rolls around we’re going to be so sick of the hype that nobody is going to care about the game. The memes have started coalescing, so here’s a little primer for every storyline that you will…
25 Super Bowl Memes You’ll Be Sick Of
It’s Super Bowl week. The game is on Sunday, but by the time kickoff rolls around we’re going to be so sick of the hype that nobody is going to care about the game. The memes have started coalescing, so here’s a little primer for every storyline that you will…
Lil Wayne, Live In Living Color
After all the hype and air-guitar awards-show appearances, Lil Wayne’s much-anticipated debut as a full-on rock performer, “Prom Queen,” has finally leaked. This will be above-the-fold news on whatever content-aggregator supplies your RSS fix, but only because for the music business right now is about as slow as things get. And…
Even Lawyers Fall For Clumsy E-Mail Scams
So have you ever given your checking account info to a Nigerian prince, only to kick yourself the next day when you woke up to find out $1 million wasn’t deposited into your account after all, and instead you were bled dry? Well, don’t kick yourself too hard – these…
The Bush Twins’ Real Letter to the Obama Girls
Did you hear how the Bush twins, Jenna and Barbara, recently sent an open letter to the Obama girls, offering up advice for surviving life in The White House? Now, to be honest, I thought their original letter was a truly sweet and lovely gesture, and I actually think the…
Last Chance for Some Hot Dogs, Hep Cats and Veggie Burgers
Scout’s Honor Rescue, the group that took in the pit bulls from the SPCA after Hurricane Ike, is launching a new adoption location in the Heights and wants everyone to come out to see Dexter — one of the few pits the SPCA has ever allowed to live — and…
Video Flashback: The Last Place You Look at Warehouse Live
“Don’t Make It So Easy”/ Video by John Gray…
Photos: One Pot Showdown at Saint Arnold Brewing Company
We’ve just loaded up some photos from Jeff Balke of Sunday’s Saint Arnold shindig. Click here for plenty of lip-smacking action…
Memorial Hermann Gets Wrist Slapped Over Anti-Trust Claims
There’s been a battle brewing for some time between the doctor-supported Town & Country Hospital and mega-health-care firm Memorial Hermann; the smaller hospital says the bigger one out of business.They claim Memorial put pressure on insurers not to do business with competitors. “At the same time,” the AGs office said…
Mail Call: Diagonals, Fountains of Wayne, Jason Isbell, Chess Records, Sally Crewe and More
After a hot minute, Mail Call returns in a slightly revamped format… Pick of the Litter Diagonals (Austin), Valley of the Cyclops (Monofonus Press) They Say: “A sweet-and-sour dark-pop soundtrack for the dawn of the post-Bush era.” Rocks Off Says: Loose-fitting, lo-fi melodic garage that may have been inspired by a…
Over the Weekend: Video From Artopia
We shot some video during last weekend’s festivities and have managed to cram it onto an already full-to-bursting YouTube. Enjoy. Houston Metropolitan Dance Company Performs at Artopia…
Madison High’s Ray Seals Honored By NFL, As Vince Young Finally Does Something Right This Year
Ray Seals, head coach at Madison High, has been chosen the 2008 National Football League High School Coach of the Year. Two of his former players, Vince Young of the Tennessee Titans and Moran Norris of the Detroit Lions, nominated Seals for the award. In his essay, Norris called Seals…
Showdown at the IPA Corral
Houston’s favorite brewery, Saint Arnold, held their sold-out Second Annual One Pot Showdown yesterday afternoon on the kind of overcast, slightly chilly day that was perfect chili (and gumbo and stew and curry) eating weather. The rules for the One Pot Showdown were simple yet challenging: teams could create any dish they wanted (desserts excluded)…
Chamillionaire’s Inaugural Diary, Part 1: Getting There
[Houston rapper Chamillionaire, whose Mixtape Messiah 6 is in stores now and LP Venom will be out soon, was kind enough to keep a diary of his trip to Washington, D.C. for Barack Obama’s inauguration last week. Rocks Off is glad he’s feeling better, too. Today: Leaving Houston from an…
The Web Conducts Yet Another Calm, Reasonable Discussion
The Houston Chronicle reported today that the burgeoning problem of jail overcrowding may be dealt with by releasing low-risk offenders. They are also, as we mentioned today, eventually creating a mental-health court that will aim to treat the ill instead of simply repeatedly sending them to jail.The new Harris County…
A Foray into Locally Grown, Grass-Fed Beef
The freight train that is the slow / local / sustainable / organic / community-supported food revolution continues to barrel ahead into the consciousness of Houston food lovers.A recent visit to several of Houston’s farmer’s markets found them bustling with vendors and customers alike with an outstanding selection of produce,…
Isabella Court
When I first heard the Chronicle was doing a story on the building I live in, Isabella Court, I thought, “Oh great, is rent going up now?”Yesterday, after the story appeared, I was accosted by a nice family on my way to run an errand. “We read about this place…
Rosa’s Photo Corner: “B” and Born Liars in Kodachrome
Kodak Elite Chrome color slide film a/k/a Kodachrome was spotlighted on today’s Engines of Our Ingenuity, and in fact, has been immortalized by Paul Simon in song. The modern professional version of this legendary film is the Kodak Ektachrome brand. Here I am teetering on a ladder, shooting “B” in the very…
AC/DC to Piledrive Wrestlemania
Do people still watch professional wrestling? We stopped watching when the Rock left to make awful mummy movies and Stone Cold Steve Austin started fighting women instead of other dudes in black Speedos. That, and we graduated high school. Nonetheless, World Wrestling Entertainment’s Wrestlemania XXV is hitting Reliant Stadium April…
A New Werewolf Movie Is Out: Can It Stack Up With The Five Best?
Compared to their cinematic horror counterparts, werewolves don’t get no respect. While vampires and zombies have been done to death in recent years, it’s still rare to see a werewolf in a movie without some vamps thrown in to secure the teenage-girl demographic. Here then are some of the best…
Aftermath: Wild Moccasins at Walter’s on Washington
They kind of sound like the last day of school, don’t they? Or, you know, those animal shapes you punch out of a fruit roll-up? They sound like that. The visceral anticipation of something great. Wild Moccasins brought their infectiously youthful exuberance to a sold-out Walter’s Friday night, equipped with…
Over the Weekend: Houston Artopia at Winter Street Studios
As you should know if you’ve been following the Houston Press recently (and why wouldn’t you?) we held a little get-together called Artopia at Winter Street Studios in the Heights to honor and showcase local artists and performers. Sandwiched in between the railroad tracks and various industrial factories, Winter Street…
Houston Aeros Keep Fighting
The Houston Aeros are not the most skilled or talented of hockey teams. They win hockey games by playing smart, executing the fundamentals, and by not being stupid. Even then, they still struggle to pull off the win more often than not. “It started off in the first period. We…
Houston Aeros Keep Fighting
The Houston Aeros are not the most skilled or talented of hockey teams. They win hockey games by playing smart, executing the fundamentals, and by not being stupid. Even then, they still struggle to pull off the win more often than not. “It started off in the first period. We…
Turning the Screw: Patrick Sims, Lil Wayne, Notorious, Suge Knight, Wale, Just Blaze, Devin the Dude, Klondike Kat and More
Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off’s weekly rap post. It probably won’t rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: “Chill,” Patrick Sims Wire To Wire Weezy has announced an April release date for his forthcoming rock LP. His…
Over the Weekend: Leon’s Lounge, Community Bar and Boondocks
We’ve got plenty of coverage of Artopia coming up, but to help keep you in the weekend mood, we’ve loaded up three slideshows from Bill Olive of further nightlife action. Click the individual pics to get the goods. 11:43 p.m. at Leon’s Lounge…
Healthy But Flavorless Pecan Oil
I shelled out almost $13 for this bottle of pecan oil at Whole Foods. It doesn’t taste like pecans–the manufacturer says that’s a good thing. They were doing a demonstration at the store using the pecan oil to fry fish. The fish tasted fine, but I wondered why no flavor…
ConocoPhillips Keeps A Ball Or Two
Houston petroleum giant ConocoPhillips never realized just how much people loved their balls.Not “their balls” in the sense of the guts it takes to charge four bucks a gallon for gas (Am I right or am I right, people?!), but their balls as in the red, round “76” signs that…
Coach Leads His Team To 100-0 Victory, Gets Fired
The Covenant School in Dallas got hit with a bunch of unfavorable publicity after its girls basketball team beat another school 100-0. (That score is not a typo.)School officials posted a message on its web site apologizing for the game, saying “the school and its representatives in no way support…
Harris County Mental-Health Court Still A Ways Off
After hearing about a recently-approved mental health court for felony offenders, a Katy woman — who wished to remain anonymous — was thrilled because she thought it would work perfectly for her 17-year-old son. He’d been in and out of jail since last summer, after originally being arrested for assault…
National Leftover Pie For Breakfast Day
That’s a lot of leftover cherry pie. No I didn’t bake it from scratch, I baked it from frozen. It was a Chef Pierre frozen pie, Sara Lee’s food service industry brand. My brother, who works for a restaurant supply company, left it in my freezer. And I was too…
Local Actor J.D. Hawkins Dies
J.D. Hawkins, who’s been making a name for himself on Houston stages and in film productions here, has died.He’d appeared in plays at the Alley, Stages and the Ensemble; throughout his career he had worked with stars like Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Joan Allen and Sam Elliott.It was at the…
Attacker Suffers From Mental Illness, Antiquated Weaponry
Apparently there was something going on in the nation’s capital on Tuesday. We at Hair Balls were too full of cough syrup and Tylenol PM to remember what it was with any clarity (the entire Houston Press building is sick), but it must have been a big deal to overshadow…
The Cornbreadd Report: A Moral Victory, If Nothing Else
Well, things didn’t quite pan out for Houston MC Cornbreadd on MTV’s 50 Cent: The Money and the Power. After a good run, he came in third, lasting until last night’s season finale. A couple of dozen people assembled at Boondocks to watch the finale and wish Cornbredd well, but…
Astros Bring The Game To Acres Homes
Major League Baseball, the Astros, and Mayor Bill White unveiled plans today for the Houston Astros MLB Urban Youth Academy, which will be built on the north side of town in the Acres Homes community on Sylvester Turner Park.The academy will include a show field with room for around 2,300…
The `80s, As Revealed By Local TV Ads
As Cairo is to fine Mexican cuisine, so Houston has long been to the fine art of local TV ads.A few more gems from our proud history have popped up in the past few months. (We examined some others here a while back, and since Michael Pollack still reigns as…
Tonight: Killola at Chances… Free
Led by frontwoman Lisa Rieffel, Killola is a California pop-punk four-piece, forever destined to be compared to Blondie because of the color of Rieffel’s hair. But no one says blondes can’t rock. The band has developed a cult following primarily via a grass-roots Internet effort and through Rieffel’s co-starring role…
Eat Your Vegetables: Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music
Consisting of nothing more than one hour of two overlaid tracks of guitar feedback, Metal Machine Music ranks near the top of music history’s shit list in terms of total amount of critical bile received. Houston’s own Ramon Medina summed up the album’s status succinctly on the NonAlignment Pact blog:…
Remix Rev. Joseph Lowery’s Inaugural Benediction
America is now basking in the glow of our new President and his hottie of a First Lady. That is if you aren’t Sean Hannity, Michael Berry or John McCain, we guess. The whirlwind inaugural festivities and musical performances are slowly fading from memory as the new administration gets its…
Political Change (Here And In DC) May Help Murder Victim’s Mom
Carrie Ruiz of Humble is praying that President Obama and his promised commitment to foreign diplomacy will help bring her daughter’s killer to justice.Nine years ago, Ruiz’s teenaged daughter, Felicia, was stabbed to death 26 times in an open field. Two of the three attackers are now behind bars, but…
Bellaire Police Victim Comes Home, But It Ain’t Over Yet
Robert Tolan got shot by Bellaire PD, and all he got was this lousy bullet lodged in his liver. That’s all he’s gotten so far, at least. Tolan was released from the hospital yesterday, and Hair Balls contacted his attorney to see what their next move is.”Let me quote my…
Chances The Next Issue Of UH’s Alumni Magazine Will Feature A Photo of Renu Khator With The “BP Buggy”: 100 Percent
In recent history, BP has faced a few public relations challenges. But the company has a vehicle for refurbishing its image: the BP Buggy. It’s been gifting them all over the place, to parks, nature centers and universities. And the latest recipient is the University of Houston, which received its…
The Houston Suburb Known As The Hill Country
Things we learned today: The Hill Country is a suburb of Houston. At least to Canadians.The National Post, a Canadian newspaper, took note that Barack Obama was the first “urban” president in a long while.They had to stretch things a bit, saying that JFK “made his primary home at the…
The Lemur News You’ve Been Waiting For — A Rare One Is Born In Houston
It turns out that the Houston Zoo is getting national attention for something besides elephant herpes — they are the home to a newly delivered rare baby lemur.Lemurs aren’t exactly the most glamorous species — they’re right up there with sloths in the public mind — but rare is rare…
Tonight: Gloria Gaynor with the Houston Symphony
Who knew one song would take Gloria Gaynor from Newark to the Jones Hall stage with the Houston Symphony? Yes, she’s had other hits (“Never Can Say Goodbye” and “I Am Who I Am”), but it’s “I Will Survive” that people most remember. And it’s a sure thing that Gaynor’s…
Living In W’s Hood
Josh Harkinson used to write for us here at the Houston Press before he decided that living in San Francisco was somehow a lifestyle upgrade.Now he writes for Mother Jones, continuing his stellar career of raking muck.It turns out that Harkinson grew up just six blocks from where George…
National Pie Day: Do Your Part and Have a Slice
You may not know it, but today is National Pie Day (at least according to the folks at the American Pie Council, which, by the way…sweet gig!). It’s the 23rd anniversary of the venerated holiday, which was created — appropriately, if rather disgustingly, enough — to commemorate Crisco’s 75th anniversary. Yes, we are…
He’s Not Only Silver-Haired, He’s Reckless
The “Reckless Robber” has struck again.Although if he’s so “reckless,” as the FBI has dubbed him, why’s he so successful?Maybe it’s the silver hair. (“This unique fellow spray paints his hair silver prior to his robberies, perhaps thinking it makes him harder to recognize!” says FBI spokeswoman Patricia Villafranca.)A Wachovia…
Lonesome Onry and Mean: A Tribute to Chris Gaffney
Chris Gaffney Right on the heels of Wednesday’s announcement of Vanguard’s new Doug Sahm tribute album comes Yep Roc’s tribute to Chris Gaffney, The Man of Somebody’s Dreams. Ironically, it includes some of the same high-profile roots artists who pay tribute to Sahm: Dave Alvin, Los Lobos and Alejandro Escovedo. Gaffney…
Michael Irvin Brings Dallas Cowboys Reality Show to Spike TV
Are you a Dallas Cowboys fan? Are you disappointed with the way the season ended? Do you think that the problem might have a little something to do with head coach Wade Phillips? Or offensive coordinator Jason Garrett? Perhaps you’re like Troy Aikman who thinks the problem is that Tony…
Michael Irvin Brings Dallas Cowboys Reality Show to Spike TV
Are you a Dallas Cowboys fan? Are you disappointed with the way the season ended? Do you think that the problem might have a little something to do with head coach Wade Phillips? Or offensive coordinator Jason Garrett? Perhaps you’re like Troy Aikman who thinks the problem is that Tony…
Five Spot: Smoove Up In Ya
Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we’ll examine a recent bit of music news and list five reasons why it’s either brilliant or dumb-assed. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Michael Keith, formerly one-fourth of R&B man-band 112, has released a solo album. (He’s not the guy that you’re thinking of,…
Finally, Some Good News For The Bolivar Peninsula
Good news has been in short supply on the Bolivar Peninsula since Ike hit, but something that could pass — these days, anyway — as good news was announced this week.Crenshaw, a pre-K-8 elementary and middle school on the peninsula, will reopen February 4, GISD announced to the applause of…
The Buffalo Bayou Pedestrian Bridge Needs A New Name
No one can tolerate the name of Houston’s newest pedestrian bridge, the Tolerance Bridge (get it?).The Houston Chronicle reports that the mayor’s office is seeking new names for the $7 million bridge over Buffalo Bayou near Allen Parkway and Montrose after city council members cried “lame.”The Houston Arts Alliance will…
Tonight: Cornbreadd’s Season Finale Watch Party at Boondocks
Houston MC Cornbreadd, frontman for vicious rap-rockers Tha Fucking Transmissions, is one of those people you call with a couple of simple questions and wind up on the phone with for 20 minutes. That’s hardly a bad thing; he’s as congenial a person as you’ll ever want to meet, but…
Attagirl: Transsexual Police Officer Nominated Grand Marshal of Pride Parade
The nominees for Grand Marshal of the Pride Parade were announced recently and Houston Police Officer Julia Christina Oliver is among the women named. That couldn’t have happened two years ago when Oliver was still a male. In 2006, Oliver, who had been on the force for more than 25…
SXSW Update: Watch Out for Devo; Peter, Bjorn & John; Justin Townes Earle; Hungry Villagers and More
Devo on the BBC’s Top of the Pops 2 With the big bad final band announcement coming next week, all is quiet on the SXSW front. For now. This past week was slow, with the biggest names confirmed being Devo, Cursive, Peter, Bjorn & John, and Justin Townes Earle. Devo will…
Evolution Vs. Science, the Deathmatch: Cynthia Dunbar Goes Down
For previous coverage of the Scopes Monkey Trial of the 21st Century, click here. A guy in gray sweatpants, an olive green hoodie and hiking boots just walked in, stood next to me, and scratched his butt. Thoroughly. I can’t you tell if he’s for or against the strengths-and-weaknesses language…
Young Mammals Wrapping Debut CD… Today
Some exciting news for fans of Westside indie-rockers Young Mammals, of which Rocks Off understands there may be a few out there in Houston (including himself). The Strokes-ish quartet is wrapping its debut full-length, begun way back when the band was still known as the Dimes, today and already announced…
Tonight: Brett Dennen at Warehouse Live
There’s forlornness in Brett Dennen that puts a lump in your throat and makes you want to buy the guy a beer and let him have your last two cigarettes. He somehow manages to marry the vocal quiver of Antony Hegarty (of the Johnsons) and the tender strum of British…
Houston Trucker Takes a Hike, Sues Promaxima Manufacturing
Updated July 28, 2014. Editor’s Note: The case against Promaxima Manufacturing was dismissed for lack of prosecution. At 2 a.m., Houston trucker Daniel Moye was the only driver on the road, speeding through the remote mountains of northern California to meet his deadline and drop off a load of exercise…
Gothtopia: Searching for the Perfect Vampire Anthem
Note: Lost in all the inaugural hoopla this week was the fact that Monday was Edgar Allan Poe’s 200th birthday. No better time, then, to debut Rocks Off’s new Goth column… Recently, my wife and I made our way down to the Houston Public Library to hear a talk with Charlaine…
Korean Corn Tea: As Bad As It Sounds
My favorite lunchtime stop during the week is Super H Mart, the enormous Korean grocery store / food court that occupies an old Flagship Randall’s off Bingle and I-10. Not only do they serve up some mean kimchi fried rice and bulgogi in the food court, you can always be…
Federal Judge Says Needville Shouldn’t Have Kept Long-Haired Native American Boy Out of School
A federal judge ruled this week that the Needville Independent School District was wrong to keep a five-year-old Native American boy out of kindergarten because of his long hair. “You stand up for something that you believe is wrong, and you let people know and it gets fixed,” says Adriel…
Celebrating the Year of the Ox with Dragons
If you have never seen the dragon dancing performance that ushers in the Chinese New Year, make it a point to check it out. Bring your camera–and your kids. Sometimes the dancers perform outside, sometimes the dancers burst into restaurants with drums pounding and do a ritual good luck dance…
New H-E-B Store Says Go Fish
The scene at the grand opening of the new H-E-B (8900 Highway 6 in Sienna Plantation in Missouri City) last night was more low key than the opening of the nearby Kroger this past weekend. There were a few red balloons tied to the wrists of kids, but no bands…
Upcoming Texas Twists on 30 Rock
Regular readers may be aware that Rocks Off has become somewhat obsessed with NBC’s 30 Rock lately. Actually, that’s not true. He’s been obsessed with the show since the first time he saw it – Alec Baldwin is a comedic genius, and oh, that Tina Fey – but its recent tendency to…
Kale to the Rescue
Times like these call for food superheroes: foods that are tasty, healthy, easy to fix and — most of all — cheap. And, if it’s your thing, easy to grow, too. And that’s where kale comes in. Kale is one of the more unappreciated leafy greens, playing second fiddle to…
The Whole Wide World: Kodo’s Heartbeat
Kodo Heartbeat: Best of Kodo 25th Anniversary (Sony Music Japan) www.kodo.or.jp The remote Japanese island of Sado is pretty much devoid of the distractions of modern life. Due to its distance from the mainland – for centuries it was a place where people were sent to when forced into exile…
Who Would You Rather?
So the other night my dear friend Tamarie and I spent too long on the phone engaged in a game called Who Would You Rather? You know, that classic girl game of who you would rather sleep with. The problem was that Tamarie was high on prescription cough syrup, and…
Opera in the Heights’s Macbeth lecture
Before you go to the Opera in the Heights’s presentation of Macbeth, maybe you should brush up on your Verdi. Ann Thompson, well-known local music expert, leads the Pre-Opening Night Lecture, an entertaining and casual discussion of the backstory of the composer and the opera. (Like why Verdi took Shakespeare’s…
David Sheff & Nic Sheff: A Reading with Father & Son
Journalist David Sheff took a personal tragedy and turned it into Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction, a story of hope for others. His son Nic Sheff took the same experience and turned it into Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines, a cautionary tale. Father and son come…
The History of the USA
Go from King George to George Bush in under an hour with the InterActive Theater Company’s The History of the USA. It’s a funny version of American history on fast-forward for kids, starting with our break away from England to ending with today’s multicultural, multilingual melting pot. 9:30 a.m. Talento…
“Barry Stone: Highway 71 Revisited”
Maybe Highway 71 isn’t quite as legendary as Route 66, but it has given Austin-based photographer Barry Stone plenty of artistic fodder. He created an entire body of work around — and under — the 253-mile central Texas roadway, Barry Stone: “Highway 71 Revisited.” Stone, who moved back to Texas…
ActOUT at Mrs. Warren’s Profession
Enjoy an especially happy happy hour at the Alley Theatre during today’s ActOUT pre-show mixer with the Greater Houston GLBT Chamber of Commerce. Theatergoers will enjoy complimentary appetizers from Picazo Restaurant Bar & Grill, an open bar, music and, most importantly, schmoozing on the Alley’s 4th Floor Terrace Room, which…
Houston Press Artopia
You can expect one hell of a debut for the first ever Houston Press Artopia, where fashion, music, art and food collide. “This is an upscale event featuring all types of artists,” Houston Press Marketing Coordinator Allisen Picos tells us. “There’s going to be lots to look at; we’re having…
Momma’s Man
There’s something about the American psyche that seems forever young, and that’s not always a good thing, especially in Azazel Jacobs’s Momma’s Man, a 2008 independent film screening at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The story focuses on Mikey (Matt Boren), a husband and father who stops in to…
Houston Center for Photography’s 2009 Print Auction Exhibition
If you’ve always wanted to make the leap from “appreciator” to “collector,” the Houston Center for Photography’s 2009 Print Auction Exhibition is a good place to start. The world’s top artists, galleries and collectors have contributed photographic art for the February 12 event, whose entire proceeds go to producing exhibitions,…
Vickie Shaw
Vickie Shaw looks like your typical effervescent Southern belle: Her bright blond hair is teased, sprayed and occasionally fluffed for emphasis with her manicured fingertips. But for this Beaumont-born comedian, the stereotypes end there. It’s been nearly a decade since the wife and mother started sneaking out of the house…
Mr. and Mrs. Iyer
University of Houston President Dr. Renu Khator shares her favorite film today when she presents Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, the story of Raja, a Muslim man, and Meenakshi, the Hindu woman who saves him from a group of Hindu extremists. The two meet as they board a bus for a…
Grease
Danny and Sandy are at it again during Stage Door’s production of Grease. The rock and roll musical has the bobby socks-wearing, gum-chewing Pink Ladies and their boyfriends dancing and singing their way through high school. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Through February 1. Stage Door Center…
Upside Down, Inside Out
Poke around in the drawers and look under the chairs at Upside Down, Inside Out, an event held simultaneously at both the Rienzi and Bayou Bend house museums. Some of the furniture and objects at each of the two homes will be opened or turned over so that visitors can…
Friday Afternoon Lecture: Sisters of the Brush and Palette: Mary Cassatt and Her Contemporaries
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s Curator of Paintings Erica E. Hirshler shares her expertise with us during Saturday Afternoon Lecture: Sisters of the Brush and Palette: Mary Cassatt and Her Contemporaries. Hirshler discusses Cassatt and other women painters of the late 19th century, who enjoyed never-before-seen opportunities as female…
Saint Arnold One Pot Showdown
Combining the cutthroat machinations of a competitive cooking event with the boozy fun of a beer festival, the second annual Saint Arnold One Pot Showdown should make everyone happy. Teams will be competing for fabulous prizes with recipes that contain beer. Fortunate ticket holders will get to sample the goods,…
Friday Afternoon Lecture: Sisters of the Brush and Palette: Mary Cassatt and Her Contemporaries
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s Curator of Paintings Erica E. Hirshler shares her expertise with us during Friday Afternoon Lecture: Sisters of the Brush and Palette: Mary Cassatt and Her Contemporaries. Hirshler discusses Cassatt and other women painters of the late 19th century, who enjoyed never-before-seen opportunities as female…
Ron Shock
When born a misanthrope, you really have but two choices. One: struggle through life while silently noting the worst of humans’ antics. Or two: build a career out of said revelations. Ron Shock chose the latter, and the world is a funnier place because of it. He plucks headlines that…
Mehmet Murat Somer
A kickboxing drag queen who dresses like Audrey Hepburn is an unexpected heroine for a best-selling Turkish mystery series, but author Mehmet Murat Somer didn’t let that stop him from creating the outlandish comedic character, star of the Hop-Çiki-Yaya whodunit series. With lip gloss and gossipy friends in tow, the…
Bill Burr
One of the most caustic comedians out there today, Bill Burr wields his mike like a weapon — especially when it comes to matrimony. “Why do people get married? Statistically, one out of every two marriages fail. If you’re skydiving, and they tell you there’s a 50 percent possibility your…
Una Noche con Familias de Flamenco
Two of flamenco’s gifted families come together for Una Noche con Familias de Flamenco. Seattle’s Carmona Flamenco and Houston’s Lucia y Valdemar Gitanerias Flamenco join forces for a performance of passionate song and dance. 8 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. Talento Bilingüe de Houston, 333 South Jensen Drive. For information,…
Behind-the-Scenes Tour: Wiess Energy Hall
Get to know the complex, volatile and sometimes dangerous oil and gas industry that’s been an integral part of Houston’s history for more than 100 years during the Behind-the-Scenes Tour: Wiess Energy Hall. 6 p.m. Houston Museum of Natural Science, 1 Hermann Circle Drive. For information, call 713-639-4629 or visit…
Thomas Perry
Jane Whitefield is back for the first time in ten years in the new release Runner. The protagonist in Thomas Perry’s series of thrillers. Native American Whitefield once worked as a guide helping people “go from places where somebody is trying to kill them to other places where nobody is.”…
De Lange Conference VII: Transforming the Metropolis: City of God
Most of the characters in the Brazilian film City of God are pretty godless. They’re hoodlums, gangsters, thieves, drug dealers, rapists and killers. In the middle of all this is Rocket, a boy who dreams about becoming a photographer but has little chance of escaping the slum. His chance comes…
Call of the Wild Lecture
Colombia’s cotton-top tamarin monkeys weigh just one pound and are tiny enough to sit in your hand. You can see why they might need a little help fighting off poachers and other threats. For today’s Call of the Wild lecture, Rosamira Guillen, project director for Proyector Titi, along with Anne…
Festival of New Spanish Cinema
The films in Festival of New Spanish Cinema take an unblinking look at the lives of today’s Spaniards, complete with terrorist attacks, isolation, violence, love and humor. In Jose Luis Guerin’s In Sylvia’s City/En la Ciudad de Silvia, it’s desire vs. reality. The mostly silent film focuses on a man…
Batsheva Dance Company
Israel may be a place best known for its history, but when it comes to dance, the movement coming out of Tel Aviv in the form of the Batsheva Dance Company is like something from the future. The company, co-founded by Martha Graham and the Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild in…
Gloria Gaynor with the Houston Symphony Orchestra
Who knew one song would take Gloria Gaynor from Newark to the Houston Symphony stage? Yes, she’s had other hits (“Never Can Say Good-Bye” and “I Am Who I Am”), but it’s “I Will Survive” that people most remember. And it’s a sure thing that Gaynor’s signature song will be…
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
It’s hard to improve on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare’s flawless theatrical masterpiece, but it’s also enticing to imagine what it would be like if the tale of feuding fairies, magic flowers and royal weddings were set to song. The Houston Grand Opera will fulfill this fantasy with an opera…
Houston Tango Festival
This is not a typo: The Tango Festival’s Saturday-night Milonga (dance session) runs from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. That’s a lot of twists and turns. Saturday’s is just one of four scheduled during the festival (the others run to a conservative 2 or 3 a.m.). Along with the dance…
Sheila Dansby Harvey
Here’s what you need to know about Houston author Sheila Dansby Harvey: She writes great sex scenes. Her latest release, Aww Sookie Sookie: Omar’s Revenge, features African American Raven Holloway, a woman who’s made being a bad girl into an art, and her revengeful ex, Omar. 2 p.m. Kendall Library,…
Adam Shepard
Adam Shepard is outrageously good–looking, fabulously young and scratching his way toward fame in that hunky-writer way, with his controversial new memoir Scratch Beginnings. In the narrative, Shepard chronicles his months after college, when he decided to strike out on his own in America with nothing, as he says, but…
Seven
Brad Pitt might be a suave, socially responsible Mr. Angelina Jolie these days, but back in 1995 he was just another very pretty actor trying to make a buck. That year he starred in Seven, a thriller directed by David Fincher. In the film, Morgan Freeman is the wise but…
Jami Attenberg: The Kept Man
In Jami Attenberg’s debut novel, The Kept Man, Jarvis starts off as a trophy wife for an up-and-coming artist. When he falls into a coma, Jarvis’s life is put on hold. At first she’s waiting for him to wake up, but as time goes on, she realizes she’s waiting for…
Capsule Art Reviews: Hedwige Jacobs — New Drawings, Hot and Grounded, Neva Mikulicz: Recent Work, Perspectives 164: Stephanie Syjuco: Total Fabrications, Susan Chen: Butterflies Shift North
“Hedwige Jacobs — New Drawings” Raised in the Netherlands, Hedwige Jacobs must have drawn upon the sprawling landscape of Houston — she currently resides here — rather than her Dutch upbringing to create this set of new drawings. Though at first glance some of the works look like large-scale doodles,…
Out of the Cold With the Wild Moccasins
It’s cold in Cody Swann’s house, and there aren’t many lightbulbs. “I don’t like changing lightbulbs,” says Swann casually, as he walks through rooms where Christmas lights and lamps substitute for ceiling fixtures. Apparently, Swann just hates changing out-of-reach bulbs. Just off Broadway, close to Hobby Airport, is Swann’s childhood…
Sultan’s Mediterranean Grill
Sabrina Samemy, who moved to Houston from Turkey 20 years ago, just opened Sultan’s Mediterranean Grill (12280 Westheimer, 281-493-0034). “My father is Turkish and my mother is from Afghanistan,” she says. “My family used to have a restaurant in Istanbul, and we wanted to continue doing something we knew well,…
Ike, hooters, Snack Wrap and Budge and Bistro
Galveston Today Online readers respond to Hurricane Ike’s Wake,” by John Nova Lomax, January 8. What to do: Now you tell us what happened, but the important thing is to tell us what we can do about it. PHYLLIS from GALVESTON BOI trouble: So far, it’s you all, Galveston Daily…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Arms and the Man, How I Learned to Drive, The Light in the Piazza, The Sins of Sor Juana
Arms and the Man G.B. Shaw’s sparkling romantic comedy from 1894 takes on manly soldiers who are praised for desertion, a middle class as snooty as the upper class, headstrong servants, blustery fools, romantic heroines who save the enemy because they’ve just seen an opera where such a thing happens,…
Cafe Rita
“When I opened on Monday morning at ten-thirty, there were people standing in line out front!” George Sarikhanian, the gregarious cashier/owner at Cafe Rita, told me when I asked him how business was. When he asked them if they were there for breakfast, they said they were actually trying to…
Beware Metro’s Ninjas
Kumar Arya, a City of Houston engineer, was summoned to his department’s downtown offices last summer to defend his rejection of a Metro site plan. He didn’t think the design would work. Leaving the meeting, Arya decided to ride the Metro rail back to his office at 3300 Main. He…
Better Than Candy at Catalan Food and Wine
Better than candy: Insiders know that there are two schools of thought when it comes to eating the foie gras bonbons ($11) at Catalan Food and Wine (5555 Washington, 713-426-4260). One says you should pop them in your mouth whole, so that when you bite into the crisp exterior, made by…
Trinity Jazz Festival
Since 2002, the Trinity Jazz Festival has brought some of the top names in jazz (Ellis Marsalis, Jason Moran) to Houston in a most sanctified setting: Trinity Episcopal Church at Main and Holman. This year’s headliner is Dizzy Gillespie-schooled trumpeter Jon Faddis, whose hefty résumé also includes stints with Lionel…
Community Bar
Conventional wisdom tells us that, generally speaking, any Midtown bar that opened in the past few years is apt to be filled with young, shiny pricks — and that these days, DJs generally take the path of least resistance. Conventional wisdom, it would appear, ain’t necessarily so. Meet Fernando, single-named…
Badfish, Scotty Don’t
Long Beach-based ska-punk band Sublime was on the verge of becoming a national success when front man Brad Nowell died of a heroin overdose in 1996, just after the band completed its major-label debut 40 oz. to Freedom. But that didn’t stop the band from achieving its goal; all by…
Beaver’s Belt Strap
BEAVER’S BELT STRAP The brunch special lured me to Beaver’s (2310 Decatur St., 713-864-2328) a few Sundays ago. Reading over the Bloody Mary menu, I considered writing about how “bacon-infused vodka” ranks up there with the wheel, movable type and Post-it notes as one of the greatest inventions ever. But…
Single File
Single File Foxboro Hot Tubs, “Dark Side of Night”: I know, I know — big-time rock superstars get restless and bored. So between radio-friendly unit-shifters, they go on these incognito larks for a giggle and little else. Scott Weiland does this sorta shit under his own name and it’s not…
Leave Your Genre at the Door
Who doesn’t love a good buffet? Or a good sequel? This second installment of Leave Your Genre at the Door — the stylistic hodgepodge of local acts that audaciously aims to expose them to audiences beyond their own micro-scenes — certainly sounds more Dark Knight than Caddyshack II. Reason alone…
Thin Steak and Samuel P. Huntington
Dear Mexican, Mi hermano y yo tenemos un dispute. We all know that Mexicans love their bistec sliced muy thin, but why? My brother is adamant that the diet of free-range vacas mexicanas results in tough meat, necessitating a thin slice for easy mastication. I think the reason is purely…
Oz the Great and Terrible
On January 26, the world celebrates Australia Day. This week, in honor of the only country we can think of with its own international holiday, we celebrate ten essentials of Aussie rock. The Living End, “Prisoner of Society”: The Living End is Australia’s greatest punk-rock band, and “Prisoner of Society”…
Reading Rainbow: Inkheart
Brendan “Kids’ Choice” Fraser returns to the multiplex day care as “Mo” Folchart, antiquarian-book-repairman-cum-adventurer. In Inkheart’s opening chapter, he’s identified as a member of a race of “Silvertongues” — those who, when they read aloud, can suck people out of and into the texts that they’re reciting from. Mo has…
Dollyrockers, Hellbound Hoedown
Funny. The last thing I wrote before this review was something about how little I cared about American Idol starting up again. Albums like this are precisely why. A confluence of ’60s Link Wray biker rumble, ’70s Deep Purple stoner sneer and ’80s Cramps jungle boogie, Hellbound Hoedown is —…
Wealth and Woe in Mrs. Warren’s Profession
Woe be to the mother who raises an unappreciative daughter. Mrs. Warren, the title character of Alley Theatre’s firecracker production of George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession, can tell us all a thing or two about such girls. When Vivie, the daughter Mrs. Warren raises to blueblood respectability, learns how…
KRS-One
Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone, or KRS-One as he’s known to his close personal friends, is a towering and seminal figure in hip-hop. He’s often praised for spawning the concept of the Lyrically Judged MC Battle (see: the destruction of MC Shan), laying the foundation for the hardcore ideology…
Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
Animal Collective’s ninth record, named after a Maryland concert venue, is grounded in the Floydian tradition of creepy, spooky psychedelia, but the product of modern-day studio trickery — resulting in the most bombastically cohesive album to come around in a long, long time. MPP is about relationships between AC’s three…
Celebrating Houston’s MasterMinds
A long time ago, in another era of TV land, there was a show called The Millionaire. It wasn’t reality TV so it didn’t really happen, but it played to the daydreams of many viewers looking for a bit of luck. The millionaire (never seen on camera) made it his…
T-Pain, Thr33 Ringz
How has T-Pain done it? He’s not attractive, his fashion sense leaves much to be desired (at least for those lacking Dr. Seuss/LSD fetishes) and his voice is nothing special without the benefit of the computer program Auto-Tune. And yet, considering his hip-hop and R&B radio dominance, critics can’t argue…
The Last Place You Look
Buzz listeners, don’t forget your own backyard. Houston’s The Last Place You Look is rockin’ it just as hard as — if not harder than — any radio-ready Warped Tour success, churning out hard rock with a punk-rock attitude. Leading H-town’s post-hardcore movement alongside groups like Thee Armada and Glass…
Freddie Krc
Foggy London town seems like the last place on Earth to inspire a country album. A polyglot postmodern road map like M.I.A.’s Arular or jittery riff encyclopedia like Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am Not, sure, but steel guitars and honky-tonk shuffles in the land…
