SXSW: Von Bondies at Red-Eyed Fly
Everything seemed so fresh and so clean this afternoon at the Little Radio party at Red-Eyed Fly. It was just Wednesday. The streets weren’t yet completely littered with flyers and rocksters. No one was that drunk. Heck, we hadn’t even had a sip when we arrived in the middle of…
SXSW Stream: Notes From The Field
So far the SXSW rumor mill has spun out tales of private or surprise performances by Kanye West, the Roots, Jane’s Addiction and Bob Dylan. Further details, if there are any, to follow.Estimated badge pickup time – media: 15 minutesEstimated badge pickup time – artists: hoursWaiting for his badge, Rocks…
Scenes from Sixth Street: Free Hugs from Quiet Company
Today’s award for most ingenious low-fi promotion goes to Quiet Company, who are walking up and down Sixth, handing out free hugs. Rather than having to walk up to random passersby, they have people walking up to them. We gave their CD a quick listen on the headphones they provided,…
SXSW Snapshot: Hipster or Homeless?
You make the call…..
Guilty Plea In The Trial Of Texans Involved In GOP Convention Protests
We’ve written before about the tangled set of circumstances revolving around Brandon Darby, a Pasadena native who was an FBI informant on a group staging protests at last year’s GOP convention.Darby Darby has become a villain to the left. He was a key piece of the case against Austin activists…
Is She Really The “Heidi Fleiss of Houston”?
Sometimes one flip remark transforms things.One Houston cop calls a woman “The Heidi Fleiss of Houston,” and the media goes nuts (Hey, including us.)But we’re really not convinced Debbie Turbiville is up to Heidi Fleiss’s standards.Until we see Joel Osteen’s name on a credit-card bill, we’re withholding judgment, but come…
SXSW: The Air Up There
Well howdy, Houston! This is what Rocks Off will be looking at until noonish Sunday. How’s the weather back home?…
Yao Ming’s Wax Statue Is Hideous, But It Does Contain More Heart Than Tracy McGrady
Madame Tussaud’s, who has had a monopoly on the wax-museum business for far too long, has unveiled a new Yao Ming statue.The guys at Best Week Ever don’t like it. The “Yao Wax Monster” is, “let’s say, walking distance from the heart of Unflattering City,” they write.They really exaggerated accurately…
Life On The Rodeo Road: Smoking Brakes In The Middle Of Nowhere
Photo by Paul KnightName: Annesa SelfHometown: Valley View, TexasEvent: Barrel RacingI got into rodeo because my mother and my father both did it. My dad roped, so I just kind of followed in his footsteps. I was five years old when I started winning ribbons, and when I got a…
Artist of the Week: O Pioneers!!!
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. If we were forced by threat of death…
Late Nite Pie Takes a Dirt Nap
Photo courtesy of happykatie. Late Nite Pie, the longtime bastion of 2:00 a.m. pizzas in Midtown, closed two weeks ago according to anecdotal reports. Not wishing to believe this was true, I headed out to Late Nite Pie this past weekend and poked around on a Sunday morning. No signs on…
Area Man Asks: What’s It Gonna Take For McDonald’s To Fix All Those Ike-Damaged Signs
Chris MacGregor has a bone to pick with McDonald’s and the Facebook group to prove it. “Six months ago Houston was hit hard by Hurricane Ike,” he writes on the page he calls McDonald’s Broken Arches Are a Blight on Houston. “Six months later you can drive through most…
SXSW: Once More Into The Breach
By the time you read this, Rocks Off will be winding his way toward Austin for his 15th SXSW in the last 16 years. Every year he wonders if this is going to be it, if his feet, his fingers and/or his liver will finally up and say “Uncle!” He…
The Battleship Texas Gets A Boost…If It Can Raise $4 Million
The limping Battleship Texas, which has fallen into disrepair but has really been one of the underrated attractions in Houston, got some good news today: The state released $25 million in bonds for drydocking and repairs for the aging World War II ship.The not-so-good news: Supporters need to raise $4…
Tonight: Women at Rudyard’s
Women Women www.flemisheye.com Allegedly recorded on boomboxes, gathering in garage pop, tape loops, lo-fi folk and chiming math-rock, the eponymous debut from Calgary quartet Women is an unpredictable and untotalizable mess. Casual listeners drawn in by minor blog hit “Black Rice” will find nothing to compare to it on the…
Idol Beat: The Top 11
Traditionally, I’ve concluded the first Idol Beat of any given week with predictions as to who the American Idol judges or viewing public will send home the next night. This week I’m upending that, and predicting that no one will go home. That’s right: all eleven of the remaining finalists…
25 Random March Madness Facts
It’s once again time for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, or as most refer to it, March Madness. And instead of doing an analysis and picking the winner, like I do (badly) every year, I’ve decided to go another way. I’m sure you’ve all seen those Facebook 25 random facts…
25 Random March Madness Facts
It’s once again time for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, or as most refer to it, March Madness. And instead of doing an analysis and picking the winner, like I do (badly) every year, I’ve decided to go another way. I’m sure you’ve all seen those Facebook 25 random facts…
St. Patrick’s Day In Houston: We’ve Got The Photos
Hey, hungover Houston, yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day. You probably realized that.I guess we’re supposed to throw in a bunch of Ould Sod cliches, but instead we just urge you to check out our slideshows. Here’s the action from Poison Girl, and here’s what went down at Grif’s.And remember, a…
Free Tickets For House of Blues’ Spring Break Reggaefest
Rocks Off has a whole heap of free tickets for Friday’s Spring Break Reggaefest at House of Blues. Since he’s headed off to SXSW, he stashed them at the front desk of the Press, 1621 Milam, Suite 100 downtown. Come get some. Performing for your irie pleasure will be Idiginis,…
Mickey Raphael on Willie Nelson, Naked and Clothed
For a disarmingly large number of his worldwide fans, Willie Nelson burst onto the country music scene in the mid-’70s, fully hirsute, sporting an earring and proclaiming the joys of being on the road again. Real aficionados know that his “overnight success” came only after decades of struggling as a…
Friends & Family Free at Five
Get your grub on today — for free! — at the grand opening of Houston’s first Five Guys Burgers and Fries at Bunker Hill and I-10. All you have to do is become a fan of Five Guys at their Facebook fan page and free burgers and fries are yours, today…
A Politician’s Blog Actually Worth Reading
Every politician these days is doing The Twitter, or having some unpaid intern blog for them. It’s great if you’re looking for the latest in boilerplate rhetoric.And then there’s Texas State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democrat from San Antonio.Check out his blog, Poli-Tex.Here’s a note to former secretary of…
Carl Landry Shot in Leg, Not by Own Gun
Carl Landry, the second year Rockets forward, was shot in the leg while driving home early this morning. And, no, he did not Plaxico Burress himself in the leg, somebody else shot him. The shooting happened at about 2:30 this morning. Landry was heading home after getting back into town…
Carl Landry Shot in Leg, Not by Own Gun
Carl Landry, the second year Rockets forward, was shot in the leg while driving home early this morning. And, no, he did not Plaxico Burress himself in the leg, somebody else shot him. The shooting happened at about 2:30 this morning. Landry was heading home after getting back into town…
Tofu & BBQ
Jang Guem Tofu & BBQ House in the giant Asian shopping center at 9896 Bellaire, is one of two Korean “tofu and barbecue” restaurants in town. Tofu Village, located in the shopping center across the street, also specializes in this unlikely-sounding pair-up. But once you try some fiery “soon tofu”…
Tonight: Crystal Stilts at Rudyard’s
Crystal Stilts hails from Brooklyn, N.Y., and specializes in the sort of shoegaze-indebted garage rock that’s so dangerously laid back it’s just short of comatose. I’ve never caught ’em live, but my guess is that their shows are rapturous, daze-inducing events – religious drone-pop experiences, one suspects. Aside from the…
The Feds Determine A Lack Of Love In This Marriage
Indicted for conspiring to commit marriage fraud? The feds are going after gold-diggers these days?The US Attorney’s office has indeed announced the indictment of two people for “conspiring to commit marriage fraud,” but it’s got nothing to do with “Of course I’m not marrying you for your fortune, honeybuns. I…
Fog Everywhere But Downtown
Here’s your weird weather phenomenon of the day: Driving in from the southwest side, you are blanketed, absolutely blanketed, by dense fog.The kind where you can’t see people 15 feet away, in spots. And on the Southwest Freeway it’s little better. Even as you come in down Travis, the downtown…
A Different Look At That 2200 Post Oak Boulevard Demolition
We’re not saying Keith Plocek did a bad job covering the demolition of 2200 Post Oak Boulevard, it’s just that it’s difficult to shoot compelling photos when you’re a block away and, ummm, not pointing your camera at the building when the explosions start.Luckily, a friend of Hair Balls works…
Aftermath: Clint Black at RodeoHouston
Not only does Clint Black know how to play to the home folks – after being introduced by his daughter Lily, he said hello to Tomball, Spring, Pasadena and his hometown Katy (but where, Aftermath would like to know, was Friendswood?) upon taking the RodeoHouston stage Friday night – but…
St. Patrick’s Day Special: The Pogues, “If I Should Fall From Grace With God”
Fun Fact: Perpetually soused Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan’s first band was the Sex Pistols-inspired, excellently named Nipple Erectors – later known as the Nips…
Inside The “Houston’s Heidi Fleiss” Ring: Asti Champagne For Just $25!
Hair Balls has been fascinated with this prostitution-list story – so much so that we had to check out the archived pages from some of the websites that police say were run by the “Heidi Fleiss of Houston.”There, we’ve been introduced to some of the “friends,” including Kate, who enjoys…
St. Patrick’s Day Special: Flogging Molly, “Fuck You I’m Drunk”
Fun Fact: Before he found Irish-punk religion in L.A., Flogging Molly frontman Dave King sang in front of ex-Motorhead and UFO members in ’80s UK hair-metal also-rans Fastway…
Peace Befalls The Gay Guerrilla War
The Great Gay Guerrilla War appears to be over…for now.As we reported last week, gay Houstonians were banding together to target one “straight” bar and flood it, part of a phenomenon that’s happened in LA and New York. The picked out the Union Bar in Midtown, and results were complicated.Gays…
St. Patrick’s Day Special: Donohoe & Grimes’ cover of Denis Leary’s “Traditional Irish Folk Song”
Fun Fact: On November 21, 1920, Michael Collins’ squad of fighters killed 14 British Army officers, police officers and civilians, wounding five. In retaliation, members of British paramilitary group “The Auxiliaries” drove their trucks into Dublin’s Croke Park during a soccer match and began randomly shooting into the crowd. 65…
Lil Rustlers Have Big Time at Houston Rodeo
For the last 20 years, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has held a very special event for some very special kids. The Lil Rustlers’ Rodeo, which took place the 4th, 5th and 11th this month, is an event held each year to allow physically and mentally challenged children in…
St. Patrick’s Day Special: The Waterboys, “Fisherman’s Blues”
Fun Fact: Waterboys frontman Mike Scott’s 1995 solo debut Bring ’em All In was based on his experiences at Scottish eco-commune the Findhorn Foundation, a founding member of the Global Ecovillage Network…
Worst St. Patrick’s Day Ever: Getting Punctured By Hidden Hypodermic Needles
It was St. Patrick’s Day two years ago and traveling businessman Douglas Hodge of West Virginia decided to stop for the night at a Super 8 motel in Baytown. (Because if anything screams “luxury” it’s the phrase “Super 8 in Baytown.”) After getting ready for a good night’s sleep, he…
Aftermath: Darius Rucker at RodeoHouston
Aftermath always wondered what it was like to not be known to the public by your birth name, but by the name of your band. In the beginning, some club owners thought that David Lee Roth’s name was Van Halen. I’m sure somewhere along the line Ian Anderson was called…
Texas Gets Into The Gaming Industry
News flash — Texas is getting into the gaming industry!!!Unfortunately for poker junkies, we’re not using “gaming” in the euphemistic sense that gambling boosters use it. Instead it’s in the video-gaming sense, of young people wasting and warping their lives by holing up in darkened rooms playing fantasy games while…
Life On The Rodeo Road: Don’t Trust Canadian Doctors With Your Credit Card
Photo by Paul KnightName: Zach DishmanAge: 26Hometown: BeaumontEvent: Bareback RidingI got into rodeo because my dad rodeoed, and his dad college-rodeoed at Texas A&M. I started getting on calves when I was real young, and at ten years old I was going to youth rodeos. By the time I got…
St. Patrick’s Day Special: Sinead O’Connor, “You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart”
Fun Fact: This song was written by Bono and his childhood friends Gavin Friday (Virgin Prunes) and Maurice Seezer, and featured in the 1993 Jim Sheridan film In the Name of the Father. It lost the 1994 Best Original Song – Motion Picture Golden Globe to Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia.”…
How To Squeeze Even More Money Out Of Red-Light Cameras
Just when you thought red-light cameras couldn’t be more of a pain in the ass, there’s this: Now cities are going to nab and ticket drivers who are uninsured, whether they plow through a red light illegally or not.As we noted before, some HPD cruisers already have cameras that can…
Recession Dining at Gravitas
As J.C. Reid so aptly pointed out in his recent post about culinary schadenfreude, recession dining is becoming increasingly popular. And we “foodie recession profiteers” (my new favorite phrase; thanks, J.C.!) are reaping all the benefits. One of the latest restaurants to introduce a reduced-price menu to attract diners…
St. Patrick’s Day Special: Ten Great Irish (Or Irish-American) Musicians and Bands
St. Patrick’s Day is, well, today, so, rather than hit the pub to celebrate – which we’ll probably still do, to be honest – we thought we’d put together a mixtape for you of our favorite Irish and Irish-American bands along with a favorite tracks by them. Pint of Guinness…
St. Patrick’s Day Special: The Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks”
Fun Fact: Undertones lead singer Feargal Sharkey is now the director of UK Music, which lobbies the British Government on behalf of the UK’s commercial music industry…
State Rep Wants To Break Up Houston & Dallas School Districts
Everyone knows the Houston school district has some problems — it’s an urban school district, after all.But it’s got nothing on the problems going on in Dallas. Investigations, a budget shortfall, vicious and public fighting between board members, parent groups, administration officials, it’s a mess.So one Dallas state rep wants…
Album of the Week: The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem In Person At Carnegie Hall
The Clancy Brothers The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem in Person at Carnegie Hall: The Complete 1963 Concert www.legacyrecordings.com During the early ’60s folk boom, no one did more to expose audiences to traditional Irish music than this singin’ and playin’ quartet of brothers Liam, Paddy and Tom Clancy and…
St. Patrick’s Day Special: Thin Lizzy’s “Whiskey In The Jar”
For much more on Thin Lizzy, click here…
“Houston’s Heidi Fleiss” Is Arrested
As KHOU first noted, the Heidi Fliess of Houston has been arrested.Deborah Turbiville and her husband allegedly ran a call-girl ring out of the Galleria and Memorial areas, where johns would pay $350 or so for a session of emotionless sex.More tantalizingly, there’s a list of clients; as always in…
For St. Patrick’s Day: The Five Least Convincing Irishmen In Movies
St. Patrick’s Day is more than just an opportunity for amateur drunks to get in fights after drinking since noon, it’s also when all of us claim (usually bogus) Irish heritage. I can personally trace my Irish ancestry back to the 17th century. Of course, they were Ulster Huguenots and…
Have a Beer, It’s St. Patrick’s Day!
Green beer may be your thing, but this pint of Harp and Guinness “half and half” looks pretty good to me. At the Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery on Highway 6 green beer and a corned beef and cabbage dinner are among the St. Patrick’s Day Specials being offered today…
Astros Sign Ivan Rodriguez
After denying interest for most of this past year, the Houston Astros yesterday inked catcher Ivan Rodriguez to a one-year $1.5 million contract that also includes $1.5 million in incentives. Reportedly, the Astros had not been interested because he didn’t mix well with pitchers, but supposedly Astros ace Roy Oswalt…
Astros Sign Ivan Rodriguez
After denying interest for most of this past year, the Houston Astros yesterday inked catcher Ivan Rodriguez to a one-year $1.5 million contract that also includes $1.5 million in incentives. Reportedly, the Astros had not been interested because he didn’t mix well with pitchers, but supposedly Astros ace Roy Oswalt…
Shamrock Hotel, We Hardly Knew Ye
Today at 9 am, near the corner of Main & Holcombe, a small group of dedicated fans will once again pour out some Irish whiskey and toast the demise of the Shamrock Hotel.Today marks the 60th anniversary of the legendary hotel’s opening. The dream of Texas oilman Glenn McCarthy, the…
Slideshow: Pre-SXSW Party at Caroline Collective
We just loaded up some photos from Thursday’s pre-South By party at Caroline Collective. Click here for more action…
Slideshow: Pre-SXSW Party at Caroline Collective
We just loaded up some photos from Thursday’s pre-South By party at Caroline Collective. Click here for more action…
Texas 1, Evil 0
For at least one brief, shining moment, the world has stopped going to hell in a handbasket.Against all the forces of dark and evil, against Satan, Pazuzu, Belial and the ACLU, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has stood up and declared that the moment of silence in Texas…
Rodeo: The Ride of The Vaqueros
Despite the inclement weather and subsequent soggy boots and jeans, Fiesta Charra was yet another great reason to head on down to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo yesterday. The exhibition, now a staple at Go Tejano Day, showcases charro traditions common to the early, working ranch. For the last…
How To Treat A City’s Ills: Lame Jokes!
We’ve written before about the…ummm….interesting things going on in La Marque.City officials have been resigning, the crime rate is rising, there are Ike recovery issues to be dealt with, people are pissed.So let’s lighten up with a joke, right? That’s what La Marque Mayor Bill Charbonneau thought.As the Galveston County…
Hobby Airport, Kicking Some Customer-Service Ass
Airports Council International has recently confirmed what Hair Balls already knew: Houston Hobby is one of the best mother-effin’ airports in the world! William P. Hobby Airport was recognized in the ACI’s Airport Service Quality Awards as one of the five top-performing airports of its size in the world, and…
Hearst’s Seattle Paper Goes Online-Only As Houston Chronicle Cuts Loom
It’s official: Hearst, the company that owns the Houston Chronicle and several other large papers (as well as TV stations and magazines), has killed off the print edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.Ominous times.The rumor mill is working overtime here in Houston; many expect the latest (and biggest?) round of Chronicle…
MP3 Monday: Music From Teenage Kicks, LSPS, Hash Brown & Fat Tony, OSIRUS and Dave Wrangler
[A while back, Rocks Off sent out a call for Houston bands and musicians to send him MP3s of their recent work. It took a little bit, but here are the fruits of that planting…] Here’s some snappy punk from Houston trio Teenage Kicks… …and some STP-esque power-rock from LSPS…..
Rice Says A Person’s Looks Influence Loan Decisions. Let’s Assess
Who says you can’t judge a book by its cover? It appears that banks and other lenders know a trustworthy face when they see one – or at least that’s what a study co-authored by Rice professor of real estate finance Jefferson Duarte indicates.Using loan information and photographs from the…
Houston May Be Getting Its Irish Up
Authentic Irish weather greeted this weekend’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, but the chilly rain didn’t deter over 150 entrants from promenading down Caroline and San Jacinto streets in honor of Ireland’s patron. According to information we received, it may be that some of them had partaken of what the Irish…
Aftermath: “Beatdown” at Baybrook
Friday, Aftermath ran over to Baybrook Mall after work to catch the guerilla acoustic show in front of the Hot Topic, pitting Friendswood’s own “Christian death metal” band Hematidrosis and scum-punkers 10th Grade Cutie. Nothing was set afire. No guitars were wielded as axes in some sort of teenage gladiator session…
Life On The Rodeo Road: “The Steer Stopped And Run A Horn Through My Face”
Photo by Paul KnightName: Lee GravesAge: 37Hometown: Calgary, AlbertaEvent: Steer WrestlingI got into rodeo because I was raised around horses my whole life. I got involved with some neighbors who roped and stuff, and that’s about it. I was playing a lot of hockey at the time, and I was…
The Distillery: N.A.S.A.’s The Spirit of Apollo
Truth be told, we envy N.A.S.A.’s bumptuous production acumen almost as much as we envy principal astronauts Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon the depths of their Rolodexes – even if, somehow, they couldn’t rope Lil Wayne into their genre-mashup free-for-all. Seriously – as you’ll see below – N.A.S.A.’s debut,…
Legislature To Decide If Cocks Are For Fighting
Tomorrow’s a big day for cockfighting.Not meaning that there will be special St. Paddy’s Day cock fights (“Foightin’ Timmy O’Rooster takes on The Carrickfergus Cock!!!”). But a house committee in Austin is holding a hearing on a bill that would toughen anti-cockfighting laws in Texas.(There’s got to be the equivalent…
Turning the Screw: Famous & Trouble Sum, Solange Knowles, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, The Kanye, Trick Daddy, Bill Clinton, Thom Yorke, J-Dilla, Geto Boys 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 “Poppin’,” Famous feat. Trouble Sum Wire To Wire Solange Knowles can single-handedly lower deer populations. (We’re fairly certain this…
Aeros Salvage Bad Weekend With Come-From-Behind Victory
“We had a feeling in the locker room that we were going to get this thing done,” Danny Irmen said from the Houston Aeros locker room after Sunday’s 5-4 come from behind victory over the Rockford IceHogs. But midway through the second period, Irmen and his teammates might have been…
Aeros Salvage Bad Weekend With Come-From-Behind Victory
“We had a feeling in the locker room that we were going to get this thing done,” Danny Irmen said from the Houston Aeros locker room after Sunday’s 5-4 come from behind victory over the Rockford IceHogs. But midway through the second period, Irmen and his teammates might have been…
Cutout Bin: The Official Bump Ball© Record
The Bumpers (aka The Combinations) The Official Bump Ball© Record Pickwick/Milton Bradley, 1968 Does it have rules? What makes you think it’s a game? Is it a game? Will it break? It better break eventually! Is there an object? What if you tire before it’s done? Does it come with…
Guerrilla Gay Bar: In And Out At The Union
As we told you last week, the “guerrilla gay bar” concept was coming to Houston. It did this weekend, and caused a ruckus.The GGB phenomenon simply consists of a big group of gay people going to a straight bar for the night. Friday night, the lucky bar was the Union…
Over the Weekend: Saez and Zouk and a Big Boom
Dang, it’s chilly. We thought the last cold spell was supposed to be the last cold spell. Anyway, what’d y’all do this weekend? We stayed out late at Saez and Zouk and then got up early to watch the implosion of 2200 Post Oak. Click the photos below for more…
Mariachi Rodeo — The Torch Has Been Passed To A New Generation
Meet Houston’s newest mariachi – Catalina Garcia of Mariachi Hermosura. “I’ve only been playing in the group for four, almost five months now,” she tells Hair Balls backstage at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s Mariachi Invitational competition. Hermosura isn’t in the running this year (they’re acting as the show’s…
The King of Tex-Mex Is Dead
Third-generation Tex-Mex legend Matt Martinez, Jr. died last Friday at the age of 63. With his family, he owned Matt’s Rancho Martinez and Matt’s No Place restaurants in Dallas. He also had an interest in Matt’s El Rancho, the legendary Austin Tex-Mex restaurant founded by his father in 1952. His…
In The Audience At One Of Those Fake-Judge “Reality” Shows
There isn’t much better in life than the daytime courtroom drama, so when Hair Balls had the opportunity to sit in the audience for a taping of the Judge Alex show, we jumped. To our disappointment, however, Judge Alex does not hold court in an actual court room, but in…
Demolition of 2200 Post Oak in the Galleria Area
Photo by Keith PlocekClick here for plenty more photos of the boom. We just got back from the Galleria area, where we watched 2200 Post Oak go bye-bye. It appears the demo went off with a slight hitch, as a pile of rubble landed on an 18-wheeler Cherry Demolition had…
Orange Show’s Van Zandt Tribute Postponed
This wintry blast (don’t let anyone from Chicago hear you call it that) has claimed its first victim: The season opening of the Orange Show.Tomorrow night was to be the premiere of Heartworn Highways, a tribute to Townes Van Zandt, but it’s been canceled “because Saturday’s forecast is cold and…
Feuding Friendswood Bands to Throw Down at Baybrook Mall
Rocks Off been so far removed from mall culture that we had almost forgot that Hot Topic existed. Not that we ever meditated on where on 14-year old girls get their “Twilight” shirts and metal gauntlets from or anything… Apparently local Hot Topic locations have been hosting acoustic shows by…
Saving Country Music Rides to Rocks Off’s Aid
This has been a fun week down in the Rocks Off foxhole, as Toby Keith’s loyal minions have besieged us with comments taking issue with our review of the Big Dog Daddy’s lackluster RodeoHouston performance Wednesday. (Come on, guys, we did say the guitar work on “Stranglehold” was pretty badass.)…
Working With A God: How That New Musical By Pixies’ Frontman Came About
Photo by Keith PlocekWe told you yesterday about how Pixies founder Black Francis is collaborating with Houston’s Catastrophic Theatre on a new musical play. Now we have the details of how the seemingly improbable event came about.Jason Nodler, formerly of Infernal Bridegroom but now the heart (or, at least, one…
Working With A God: How That New Musical By Pixies’ Frontman Came About
Photo by Keith PlocekWe told you yesterday about how Pixies founder Black Francis is collaborating with Houston’s Catastrophic Theatre on a new musical play. Now we have the details of how the seemingly improbable event came about.Jason Nodler, formerly of Infernal Bridegroom but now the heart (or, at least, one…
Suckfest – Sorry, Buzzfest – XXII Lineup Announced
In the midst of getting our collective Rocks Off panties in a twist over SXSW next week and the impending sweat-stained Westheimer Block Party, it’s easy for us to forget what it’s like on the other side of the music-snob fence. That’s the other, seamier plane where lame-ass tricks like…
The Texas Fitnessgram Idea May Not Be As Awe-Inspiring As Our Governor Would Have Us Think
Earlier this week, Governor Rick Perry called a press conference to announce the results of last spring’s statewide Fitnessgram assessment of Texas public-school students. According to a press release, the results were based on six tests “taken by more then two million students in grades 3-12, representing 85 percent of…
Free Press Exposes Local Scene’s Disturbing Turtle Fetish
While Rocks Off has been valiantly battling the evil forces of pop-country, preparing for SXSW and breaking news about Frank Black’s upcoming collaboration with the Catastrophe Theater folks, Free Press Houston has totally scooped us on some disturbing news out of the deceptively innocent-seeming “H-pop” scene. As our 7th grade…
The Fearless Critic Does SXSW
Although South by Southwest doesn’t take place in Houston, you wouldn’t know it from all the hoopla that goes on here in the days and weeks leading up to the festival. And because plenty of Houstonians will be making the trek to Mecca Austin to see their favorite bands play…
It’s Gonna Blow Up Real Good Near The Galleria This Weekend
Cue up the Queen, another one is biting the dust in Houston.Early Sunday morning (a/k/a An Ungodly Hour), that non-descript seven-story building at 2200 Post Oak, across from Maggiano’s and Kenny & Ziggy’s, will go boom.Streets nearby will be closed from 6 am until 9:15 am, although parking should be…
H-Town Hangman: Ready For Round 2?
After getting off to a lukewarm start, it seems as if Space City finally decided to get in the game, and all it took was a reference to maritime inebriation. It’s only natural that a Texas port city would find that a rallying point. That said, here’s the much-anticipated second…
Rabbit, Run: Young Actor In Stages Play Seizes The Moment
In the emotion-packed play Rabbit Hole, now being presented at Stages Repertory Theater, one of the standouts among the five actors on stage is the young actor playing Jason, the teenager who was driving the car that caused a death. It is a demanding role and one that calls for…
Bill White vs. Michael Berry: The Deathmatch!! No Politeness Allowed!! (Updated)
The folks at bloghouston listen to Michael Berry’s talk show on KTRH, so they’ve become aware of the recent run-in between Berry and Mayor Bill White.They provide mp3s of two recent Berry segments: one, a somewhat contentious interview between Berry and White over the city’s “sanctuary policy,” which conservatives feel…
Rodeo Clowns, Rejoice: You’re Not Among The Five Scariest Clowns Ever
Nobody likes clowns.Oh sure, maybe people tolerated them in generations past, when the horrors of real life were such that ghoulish monstrosities actually could be considered entertaining. I guess anything’s funny compared to bread lines and the Holocaust.Today, only rodeo clowns get a pass, and that’s because there’s always the…
Carnivores Behaving Frugally
That’s Your Big Boy If the three-martini lunch was the status symbol of the go-go ’80s (Gordon Gekko and all that), then surely the steakhouse dinner replete with a bottle of Opus One and a finishing cigar was the defining dish of the naughty ’00s (pronounced “aughties” by the way)…
The Flying Dutchman Sails Again
Just in time for Spring Break, the last restaurant that was still closed on the Kemah Boardwalk — which took heavy damage during Hurricane Ike — has reopened. The Flying Dutchman is open for business as of today, March 13. Like many of the Boardwalk’s waterlogged restaurants, it underwent a facelift during the cleaning…
March Madness Now Includes A DWI Crackdown
It’s March!! Time for Spring Break!! And March Madness!! And, ummm, a DWI crackdown by the Harris County DAs office.We don’t know what kind of crazed marketing mind came up with the title “The ‘March Madness’ Anti-DWI Enforcement Campaign,” but someone did, and DA PAt Lykos’s office is putting out…
Houston Astros Spring Training: Prognosis Not Good
As the Astros guy around here, I feel obligated to say something about the team. But seriously, just what is there to say about a team that is 1-10-1 so far in spring training play? That the team is bad is actually something to be expected. And the fact that…
Houston Astros Spring Training: Prognosis Not Good
As the Astros guy around here, I feel obligated to say something about the team. But seriously, just what is there to say about a team that is 1-10-1 so far in spring training play? That the team is bad is actually something to be expected. And the fact that…
Five Spot: Pimp C Was Pretty Good
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. So we were reading this Bun B interview the other day, and among discussions of how the final UGK album is…
Six Months Ago, Ike Officially Entered Bastard Status
What were you doing at this time six months ago?One thing you probably weren’t doing, if you lived in the Houston area, was checking blogs on the net.Today’s the six-month anniversary of Hurricane Ike, the third-most destructive hurricane ever to make landfall in the US. Unfortunately, it made landfall right…
Fields of Dreams: Last Organic Outpost Expands
The Last Organic Outpost has a tendency to fly under the radar. They don’t have a flashy booth at the local farmers markets, just a simple stand with a burlap tablecloth and a few bunches of fresh greens. They don’t sell most of their produce, in fact; the volunteers who…
Life On The Rodeo Road: “It’s Either Go Party Or Do Nothing”
Photo by Paul KnightName: Colby LovellAge: 21Hometown: MadisonvilleEvent: Team RopingI got into rodeo because my family’s done it forever. I started roping when I was four or five, and I won my first buckle when I was like seven. If I didn’t rodeo, I would probably be ranching. I still…
The Sister Cities Of Houston: A Critical Appraisal, Part Two
With the recent addition of Karachi, Pakistan, Houston now is a sister to 18 other cities around the world. Hair Balls is on the case – we studied all of them so you wouldn’t have to. See the first half here.Sister: Luanda, AngolaHow we are sisterly: Houston’s only African sister…
Project Runway Star Talks Houston, AIDS & Stigma
Former Project Runway contestant Jack Mackenroth’s been to Houston before, although he doesn’t remember us. “I know I’ve been to Dallas, Austin and Houston, but in my brain, I can’t remember which is which. So I look around while we’re driving and I think, ‘This looks familiar,’ but I don’t…
Spring Concert Series at Discovery Green Announced
Susan Cowsill, “Just Believe It” Cut from the same cloth as Party on the Plaza comes this year’s concert series at Discovery Green. If you haven’t visited the downtown park since it opened last April, you’re missing one the greenest and absolutely most beautiful facets of our town. In the…
Sharpening Your Skills
Any chef or cook will tell you their most important tool is their knife. And anyone who’s worked in a kitchen will tell you that a dull knife is the most dangerous piece of equipment to have around. Dull knives mean that you exert more pressure trying to cut or…
A Brennan’s Hatchling and Fancy Movie Food: CityCentre Updates
Studio Movie Grill is now open for business, the second of the anchor tenants to open up at CityCentre in west Houston. CityCentre is the latest in a series of “town center” mixed-use developments that have sprung up around the city. This one is slightly different from its cousins in Sugar Land,…
Pixies Founder To Develop A Musical In Houston
Hey…There’s news for Houston fans of the Pixies: The heart of the band, Frank Black (going by his name Charles Thompson), is going to be working with the Catastrophic Theatre to produce a “musical play” based on his album Bluefinger. (Which was released under the name Black Francis, but we’re…
Pixies Founder To Develop A Musical In Houston
Hey…There’s news for Houston fans of the Pixies: The heart of the band, Frank Black (going by his name Charles Thompson), is going to be working with the Catastrophic Theatre to produce a “musical play” based on his album Bluefinger. (Which was released under the name Black Francis, but we’re…
Spring Concert Series at Discovery Green Announced
Susan Cowsill, “Just Believe It” Cut from the same cloth as Party on the Plaza comes this year’s concert series at Discovery Green. If you haven’t visited the downtown park since it opened last April, you’re missing one the greenest and absolutely most beautiful facets of our town. In the…
Rick Perry Chooses The Perfect Place To Make A Bold Stand
Governor Rick Perry boldly announced today that he won’t take a half-billion in federal stimulus funding because…part-time workers might benefit.There’s a stance for you.The proposed stimulus funds are designated for unemployment benefits, but come with a mandate that part-time workers also get unemployment. That’s a no-no in Perryland.Small-business owners (How…
BP Gets Its Wrist Slapped Again; Still Doesn’t Hurt
Any hopes that BP would be forced to pay more than the measly $50 million suggested as a settlement to the Texas City explosion case were dashed today by US District Judge Lee Rosenthal.Victims of the blast, and their relatives, have been fighting to increase the BP penalty, since $50…
Tonight: Houston SXSW Mixer at Caroline Collective
If you’re from around these parts and headed to SXSW – whether the film, music or interactive festivals – or just curious about who is, head down to Caroline Collective, where this year’s Houston delegation will be rubbing elbows and quaffing drinks starting at 5 p.m. “Our goal is for…
Bill Cosby Remembers A Segregated Houston
From time to time, Hair Balls talks to celebrities (real celebrities, not the “I invented a purple potato” type of pseudo-celebrities). And from time to time, those celebrities can be, oh, shall we say, unconventional. (Larry Harlow once slammed us for not being Puerto Rican.) So, we weren’t too surprised…
$13 at A Moveable Feast
Where: A Moveable Feast, 9341 Katy Freeway, 713-365-0368 What $13 Gets You: A sandwich to beat Subway any day. $13 will get you more than a sandwich at this popular health food store cum restaurant named after Ernest Hemingway’s memoirs. And if sandwiches aren’t your thing, you can fill up…
DA’s New DNA Policy Still Might Not Find Past Mistakes
A non-working DNA lab and lack of proper policies were among the biggest contributors to the wrongful incarceration of Ricardo Rachell, District Attorney Pat Lykos said today at a press conference in the Criminal Justice Center.Lykos and Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt apologized to the public and to Rachell, who…
Lonesome Onry and Mean: A Brief Chat With Mickey Clark
Unless you were around here almost 30 years ago and traveling in the music scene, Mickey Clark probably means nothing to you. But the inside liner sleeve on Clark’s new album, Winding Highways, is the Anderson Fair music calendar for March 1980. Nanci Griffith and John Grimaudo both had two-day…
Texas Leads The “Filthy 15”!! Ummm, Yay?
In case you were worrying that the air in Texas was getting too clean and all, you can rest assured it’s not.Now it’s coal ash that has the greenies up in arms.The National Resources Defense Council has released a list of states that are proposing to build enough new coal…
Life On The Rodeo Road: Follow The Ten-Minute Rule
Photo by Paul KnightName: Luke ButterfieldAge: 24Hometown: Ponoka, Alberta Event: Saddle Bronc RidingI got into rodeo because my family rodeos, my dad and mother. They have a feed lot up there [in Canada] so I’ve always been around cattle and livestock. I played hockey all through high school and saw…
Aftermath: Reba McEntire at RodeoHouston
Reba McEntire is the closest modern country will ever get to the artistic heights of its pioneering female vocalists. Sure Tanya Tucker had her run but the booze, powders and Glen Campbell took their toll. Shania Twain was just a Nashville/Pat Benatar Frankenstein project. And all the others were B-teamers…
Sole Of Houston: East Side Story — Trains, Tequila, Dogs & Grief
I just can’t get enough of Houston’s East End/Second Ward/Ship Channel area, so that is where the latest installment of the Sole of Houston took us. I don’t think I can recreate the route with anything more than about 90 percent accuracy, but my best guess is that it looked…
Last Night It Was Just Me and Don Julio, Unadulterated
A couple of weeks ago we wrote about a tequila cocktail pairing dinner at the Hotel Icon’s Voice restaurant. The review was generally laudatory with the exception of the final cocktail in which the limited edition Don Julio 1942 (so named for the year the Mexican founder began producing high…
Houston Company Exploits Vietnamese Workers, Suit Claims
A Houston company has been exploiting Vietnamese workers by promising big bucks, bringing them over here to work near the Ship Channel and then gouging them for rent and transportation costs while putting them up in dilapidated housing, a lawsuit claims.Thus it has been in America since…well, since America began…
Idol Beat: The Final 13 Results
A new wrinkle in the elimination curve! The return of a prodigal Idol winner! A performance from a self-important pop-rap blowhard! Two more contestants falling under the proverbial sword! The first of the dreaded Ford-sponsored videos-cum-advertisements! Gratuitous decolletage courtesy of Paula Abdul! This…is American Idol! * Get this: the judges…
They Looked Like Jellyfish But Boy Were They Tasty at the Pagoda Vietnamese Bistro and Bar
We were all given score cards right from the start. This was a media tasting dinner, and one that was more workmanlike from the start. At each plate was a card on which we were asked to rate the dishes and wines served us during the next hour and a…
Houston’s Sondheim Drought Won’t End Anytime Soon
TUTS has announced its musical choices for the 2009-10 season; the information is embargoed until Sunday, so we can’t divulge it, but let’s just say there are (as usual) no surprises.If you’re a Sondheim fan, you’re out of luck. Not that we would expect TUTS to put on any Sondheim…
The Sister Cities Of Houston: A Critical Appraisal, Part 1
With the recent addition of Karachi, Pakistan, Houston now is a sister to 18 other cities around the world. Hair Balls is on the case – we studied all of them so you wouldn’t have to. In the interest of brevity, though, we are parceling out our findings over the…
Album of the Week: Heartless Bastards’ The Mountain
Heartless Bastards The Mountain www.heartlessbastards.com Gnarlier than a century-old Live Oak, Heartless Bastards’ The Mountain plugs the Cincinnati-born trio’s scorching postmodern blues – their debut, 2006’s All This Time, could skin a cat – into the eerie backwoods folk of Greil Marcus’ semi-mythical “old, weird America.” Opener “The Mountain” is…
Recession, Depression…Either Way, I’m Drinkin’
Folks, I am scared shitless. Yet I am unable to properly process this shitless feeling. The economic situation is not good. In fact, it is very bad. I am regularly breaking out in cold sweats, dreaming of Suze Orman (not in a good way), and practicing my rendition of, “Brother,…
St. Patrick’s Day
Go green with Ireland’s favorite patron saint with a slew of events including a festive St. Patrick’s Day Parade and a huge After Parade Party. This year, the 50th anniversary of the celebration will include more than 125 floats, marching bands, waving politicians, drill teams and just plain folks who…
New York Metropolitan Opera: Madama Butterfly
All the incredible singing, music and theatrics of New York’s Metropolitan Opera are closer than you think. Grammy-winning conductor Patrick Summers, who has served as musical director for the Houston Grand Opera since 1998, leads the famed New York Met in a performance of Puccini’s classic Madama Butterfly. Chilean soprano…
Repository: Photographs and Videos by Sarah Sudhoff”
Illness, especially cancer, is never something you really want to think about, but it’s worth it in the case of “Repository,” a photo and video exhibition by artist Sarah Sudhoff. After being diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2004, Sudhoff began to artistically document her illness and its effects, photographing herself…
“Purple Hearts — Back from Iraq”
Nina Berman’s “Purple Hearts — Back from Iraq” project centers on powerful portraits of wounded Iraq veterans, each photograph providing insight into the lives of the American soldiers. Combining her haunting photos with interviews of soldiers dealing with life after combat, the project eventually found form as a photography exhibit,…
Dan Beachy-Quick
Moby Dick has inspired dozens of books over the years, but none more inventive than the highly original A Whaler’s Dictionary by Dan Beachy-Quick. (Whaler’s Dictionary is a series of short essays on topics taken from Moby Dick, such as fate and vengeance.) He’ll be reading from it and his…
The Airborne Toxic Event
Everybody loves the sampler platter, right? It makes for a convivial atmosphere, a harbinger of good times to come. The Airborne Toxic Event is like that. The L.A. band leaves no 21st-century indie touchstone uncovered, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. ATE has gotten more than a bit of…
Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation
If you’ve got a sick sense of humor and dig cartoons, Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation is your Sundance. Imagine everything parents never want a kid to see, and you’ll get a good idea of the festival’s offerings. Since its inception in 1990, each incarnation of…
To Kill a Mockingbird
Boo Radley, Scout and Jem are among the most well-known characters in American fiction. See their story at the Montana Repertory Theatre’s performance of To Kill a Mockingbird today. Set in the segregated South in 1935, Mockingbird is a poignant tale of prejudice, injustice and courage told from the point…
Return to the Ancestors: Builders of New York
The speaker for today’s Return to the Ancestors: Builders of New York lecture has a pretty cool gig. As Director of the African Burial Ground Project, Dr. Michael Deblakey heads a research team investigating the gravesite of some 400 African slaves buried in what’s now Manhattan. Discovered during construction for…
In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel
Tennessee Williams wrote some of today’s famous American plays — A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie and Suddenly Last Summer. He also wrote some less famous, though equally hard-hitting, plays, including In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel. In Bar, Williams reveals a married couple, rich and famous —…
Stephanie Elizondo Griest: Mexican Enough
Texas-born author Stephanie Elizondo Griest hasn’t had a normal life for a while now. Since 1997, she’s been living out of a backpack, hopping from one country to another, writing about her adventures. She’s released Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing and Havana and 100 Places Every Woman…
Doubt: A Parable
The first line of Doubt: A Parable is, “What do you do when you’re not sure?” Playwright John Patrick Shanley spends the rest of the show not answering the question. Although it’s set in 1964, Doubt discusses issues that are hot buttons today. A hard-line nun accuses a liberal Catholic…
“The Listening Post”
Want to bitch about your boss? Snitch on a two-timing girlfriend? Call Tim Brown, the artist behind “The Listening Post.” He has a free and anonymous say-anything call center, but it’s more than just random chitchat; it’s art. “I used to work at a call center, and…I started drawing portraits…
Houston Ballet’s Masters of Movement
The Houston Ballet goes from the whimsical to the weighty with the three works it’s performing tonight in Masters of Movement, all of them new to the HB repertoire. First is the late, great Antony Tudor’s ultra-romantic The Leaves Are Fading, a dreamy, lilting work he created in 1975 and…
Artania
In a galaxy far, far away, there is a magic ring…no, wait a minute, wrong story — in a galaxy just down the road called Sam Houston Race Park, there is a magic circus ring called Artania…ah, that’s much better. Artania is a circus (we use the term loosely) that…
Bill Cosby and the Houston Symphony
Break out your sweater and have a pudding pop, Bill Cosby is coming to the Bayou City. Dr. William H. Cosby Jr. is, of course, one of the biggest names in comedy. Today most people remember him as the much put-upon, sweater-wearing dad on The Cosby Show, his 1980s sitcom,…
Emily Fox Gordon
Considered a talented memoirist, Emily Fox Gordon has released her first novel, It Will Come to Me. Set on a large Southern university, the comedic and tart Come to Me pits Ben and Ruth, a middle-aged couple settled in to a staid academic existence, against a just-arrived younger couple who…
The Monster Among Us
Filmmakers Allen Mondell and Cynthia Salzman Mondell document the anti-Semitism currently growing in Europe in their film The Monster Among Us. As the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, anti-Jewish violence is on the rise. According to the film, the increase in hate crimes and acts of violence can be directly…
Cinema Bomar: Goodbye, Mr. Germ
The vintage-filmstrip collective Cinema Bomar brings a promise of a better tomorrow…from yesterday. This round of 16mm Movie Night includes 1940s-era solutions for ridding the world of all things bad. How did the old guys propose we do it? Goodbye, Mr. Germ Nat’l Tuberculosis Assn explains how using a radio…
4th Annual Readers Theatre
Arriving from around the country, the brand-new scripts at Theatre Southwest’s 4th Annual Readers Theatre will be performed by actors today. Reader’s Theatre includes California writer Arthur Jolly, who wrote How Blue Is My Crocodile, about a family waiting for a wheelchair-bound dad to come home from Iraq. On the…
Kindness and Courage on Death Row
Author Thomas Cahill will discuss one man’s experience with the Texas justice system at Kindness and Courage on Death Row today. Based on his newly released book, A Saint on Death Row, Cahill’s talk recounts the life of Texas inmate Dominique Green. Just 18 when he was convicted for murdering…
“Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Festival and Visual Exhibit”
A forward-thinking 16th-century Mexican poet, playwright and nun is at the center of “Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Festival and Visual Exhibit,” opening today at MECA. All of the works, by local Latina artists, are inspired by the life of Cruz, the first person in the Americas to write…
Randy Wayne White
Novelist Randy Wayne White’s thriller Dead Silence starts off with a failed assassination attempt against a U.S. senator. When that goes wrong, she’s kidnapped. Dead Silence’s protagonist Doc Ford has just 36 hours to find the senator, but that’s going to be a little difficult since she’s been buried alive…
Jeff Guinn: Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie & Clyde
Warren Beatty made an entertaining movie when he starred in Bonnie and Clyde, but he wasn’t too concerned about telling the truth. On the other hand, when Jeff Guinn wrote Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie & Clyde, the truth was a priority. After months of research…
Jon Lajoie
Canadian comedy is sometimes difficult for Americans to understand, so you’ll forgive us when we say we don’t know if we should believe Jon Lajoie’s claim that he killed 40,000 people when he was working as a ninja is true or not. Or his claim that he has a cult…
Children’s Museum Grand Opening
There’s more to explore at the Children’s Museum of Houston, which has expanded and installed seven new permanent exhibits. The daylong Children’s Museum of Houston Grand Opening Celebration features a first look at the new digs, along with live entertainment and a street dance. The interactive exhibits — several of…
Ralphie May
Thousands of viewers thought Ralphie May gave the winning performance in the 2003 reality show Last Comic Standing — unfortunately for May, the judges thought differently. He didn’t get the title, but his career took off anyway. He counts a platinum DVD, a rare standing ovation for his performance on…
Closing Weekend of “Hot Glass, Cool Collections”
It’s the Closing Weekend for the “Hot Glass, Cool Collections” exhibit at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. To mark the occasion, HCCC is hosting several events. On Saturday, artists Matthew Eskuche and Paul Stankard will demonstrate glasswork techniques, and there’s a cocktail party. On Sunday, world-famous glass artist Paul Stankard…
Jurassic Jackpot: Massive Dinosaur Graveyards
Catch up with Jane and Mike at today’s Jurassic Jackpot: Massive Dinosaur Graveyards presentation. Jane is the dinosaur at the center of a heated scientific debate — is she a pygmy tyrannosaur or a young T. rex (we vote for a pygmy rex). Mike is Michael Henderson, paleontologist and curator…
Peelander-Z
They might be Japanese-cum-New Yorkers, but Peelander-Z’s brand of “action comic” punk feels like an intergalactic anthem for fun fun fun until daddy throws the joystick away. In the spirit of humorcore bands like the Toy Dolls, every song becomes both a crunchy riff factory and a hoot-and-holler singalong. Peelander-Z…
Bam, It’s Kam!
The first time Chatter heard Kam Franklin was about 11 months ago. She was then an emerging vocalist with a gift for traversing musical genres, but mostly known only in the hippest of circles. Now, as both performer and promoter, she appears to have taken over the local music scene;…
That’s So Craven: The Last House on the Left
“That was the most offensive display of sexualized violence I have ever seen,” one wilting fellow in need of a camphor hankie was overheard saying in the elevator. Such blanching is the reaction The Last House on the Left is trolling for, but I doubt it will be typical. Permissibility…
RegularFellas In Gomorrah
Martin Scorsese may be presenting Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, but this corrosive, slapdash, grimly exciting exposé of organized crime in and around Naples comes on like Mean Streets cubed. Detailing daily life inside a criminal state, it’s a new sort of gangster film for America to ponder. Gomorrah takes its punning…
Capsule Stage Reviews: John, His Story, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Nursery School Musical, The Pie Dialogues
John, His Story If you’re looking for a bit of Sunday school mixed with sturdy theatricality, then you’ll enjoy A.D. Players’ production of Jeannette Clift George’s clever rendition of Christ’s seven miracles, or “signs,” as they’re called in Johannine literature. If you remember your theology, John is the “beloved disciple,”…
Center Stage
Through its annual Sounds of Texas music series, Conroe has become known for top-notch Americana music, but the community also gets a cultural infusion of classical each March when the Montgomery County Performing Arts Society sponsors the Young Texas Artists music competition. While twang echoes from The Corner Pub on…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Danny Rolph — Accelerator,” “Get a Rope,” “Perspectives 165: Contents Under Pressure,” “PRISMATTAK”
“Danny Rolph — Accelerator” Ostensibly, “Accelerator” is a kind of crash-’em-up homage to trucking culture and fast living. London-born Rolph’s mixed-media pieces seem both to celebrate, and to caution against, gasoline-guzzling lifestyles. Fittingly, Rolph’s surface material is Triplewall, clear, polycarbonate sheets used to protect windows and doors from hurricane-force winds…
Bayou City Buzz
The overall number of Houston artists performing at SXSW may be a little down compared to the past few years — for official showcases, anyway; many, many more will be playing various parties and pirate events around Austin next week — but when it comes to sheer talent, this may…
Eric Taylor, with Andrea Parodi, Massimiliano Larocca and Marco Fecchio
I never really understood how huge Texas music is in Italy until I reviewed a James Talley album recorded live in Italy a few years ago. Through corresponding with Talley, I learned not only how big that scene is over there but how many great Italian players and singers there…
Washington Avenue’s upscale but low-key Pandora Lounge
Let’s be clear about one thing: If given the opportunity, we would absolutely punch Christian Audigier in the nose. Audigier is a French fashion designer — let that sink in for a second — and the clothing lines Affliction, Von Dutch and Ed Hardy, among others, are his brainchildren. For…
T.I.
With smash single “Whatever You Like” racking up almost 140 million plays on T.I.’s MySpace page since last summer, one would think the Atlanta rapper would be planning a massive arena tour to capitalize. He’s been plastered all over music rags like Blender and Vibe in the past few months,…
Through Being Cool
The other morning, Noise heard a commercial on the radio for McDonald’s, which is apparently selling espresso now. The spot was called “Confessions of an Ex-Hipster,” and some guy was prattling on about how he’s traded in his love of “French films, indie-rock and not bathing” for football, khakis and…
Airborne Toxic Event
Everybody loves the sampler platter, right? It makes for a convivial atmosphere, a harbinger of good times to come. The Airborne Toxic Event is like that. The L.A. band leaves no 21st-century indie touchstone uncovered, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. ATE has gotten more than a bit of…
What’s Up with Sheriff Joe Arpaio?
Dear Mexican, Not sure if this has been asked before, but how do you feel about Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio? I think the guy’s a fucking racist who’s just out to get Mexicans to fulfill his racist agenda. He’s been relevant lately due to the protests in Arizona against Section…
U.S. Military Deserters Once Again Flock to Canada to Avoid War
Just five feet tall, with a baby strapped to her chest and a soft, faltering voice, Kim Rivera is anything but soldierly. Yet two years ago she was a Texas private in the War on Terror, guarding a gate with an M4 rifle and frisking Iraqi civilians at a base…
Find your Irish side at this year’s festivities
This St. Patrick’s Day, head into town for the annual parade and a visit to your favorite pub. The next day might bring a headache to those of us who can’t hold our liquor as well as others, but who can resist a holiday where drinking more than you should…
Papermoons
Whether or not the association with origami is intended, Papermoons is nevertheless a fitting moniker for a band whose sound is a shapeshifting melange of fragile soundscapes and zen-like calm. On last year’s New Tales LP, the former Houstonians’ music flits around various elements of indie-dom’s softer side, never really…
The Tastes of Textile
It was a Saturday night and the place was swinging. The music playing over the sound system was incredibly well chosen, representing the relaxed edginess that Textile, Scott Tycer’s newest restaurant, tries to present: Wilco, Coltrane, Lou Reed, Iron & Wine. It turns out that the maitre d’, who chooses…
The Game
Rapper The Game’s reckless, bizarre, whiny tendencies make him a wholly unique hip-hop character. Though the Compton native is among the handful of rap stars who still move many hundreds of thousands of units, he’s no thug superhero like collaborator-turned-foe 50 Cent, and no drug-addled weirdo savant à la Lil…
Huynh
Just when you thought that there was no hope for Old Chinatown, the Huynh family has opened one of the best Vietnamese restaurants in the city, called Huynh (912 St. Emanuel, 713-224-8964). And it’s a family affair, with sisters Cindy and Annie out front and more family in the kitchen…
Tricky, with Natalie Stewart
Yeah, you can spend St. Paddy’s Day drunk off your ass, sipping dishwashing-liquid-green libations while punching people in the shoulder for not wearing green. Or you can take the alternative route and attend the most un-St. Patrick’s Day event that’ll be happening in this town — the Tricky/Natalie Stewart show…
You Can’t Go Wrong at Café Byblos
If you find yourself at Café Byblos (6134 Richmond, 832-251-0505), Houston’s finest Lebanese restaurant, and can’t decide what to order, get the delectable mixed grill ($16.95). It comes with a kafta kebab made of minced lamb, a shish taouk, wonderfully moist pieces of marinated chicken breast, and a beef kebab,…
Smoking, Metal Detectors, Drug Sweeps and Houston Pavilions
Hair Balls blog readers respond to “City Says Smoking Ban Has Had No Impact On Bars,” By John Nova Lomax, February 26: An alternative to smoking bans: If the public was honestly and truthfully informed about the effects of second-hand smoke, there would be fewer no-smoking laws in this country…
COMMUNITY BAR’S F.M.B.
Chelsea, one of the genial bartenders at Community Bar (2703 Smith, 713-526-1576), has worked in Houston, Chicago, San Diego, Salt Lake City and now Houston again. She’s been a student, a research scientist, a nutritionist, a personal trainer, a yoga enthusiast and soon she’ll be a schoolteacher (!). Bartender might seem like an odd…
“Face” Value
There is a new, relatively small exhibition at The Menil Collection, “Face Off: A Selection of Old Masters and Others from The Menil Collection,” which, according to museum materials, “examines one of the most primary elements of human interaction: to look upon the face of another.” The work, in both…
Quanell Critics, Harvard Law and Extreme Recycling
COURTS X Out The Uniform No badges for Quanell critics Some working stiffs would love to hear their boss tell them, “Hey, don’t worry about those stuffy work clothes.” But when that boss is HPD Chief Harold Hurtt, and those stiffs are three officers announcing a lawsuit against two men…
