Webb Wilder, with Opie Hendrix and the Texas Tall Boys
I reckon most folks picture 1980s Nashville as some kind of retro country heaven; images of Randy Travis, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Clint Black swim like sugar-plum fairies before Budweiser-reddened corneas. Yet for every movement there is a countermovement, and in the midst of this overhyped, hyperventilated, narcissistic, stagnant…
Quelling Comments — Not Crime?
An honors freshman living at Texas Southern University’s Tierwester Oaks Apartments says she broke the code of silence about safety problems and suffered the consequences — from TSU police. The incident has caused some TSU students and faculty members to question whether the priorities of the university are on preventing…
Guitar Wolf
Tokyo’s Guitar Wolf is the coolest band on the planet. For almost two decades, the cult garage-punk icons have spread their hip, high-tension rock-and-roll etiquette across the earth and, if you believe the band members, beyond. Along the way, they’ve destroyed eardrums, speakers and stages in a Sapporo-fueled frenzy of…
Alabama Thunderpussy, with God’s Temple of Family Deliverance and Axehandle
Johnny Wells, Alabama Thunderpussy’s new singer, has helped make Fulton Hill the band’s strongest album to date. Wells combines the best qualities of Axl Rose, Chris Robinson, Phil Anselmo and Gary Floyd (from Sister Double Happiness and the Dicks) into a powerful, raw-throated roar. He’s also got the redneck attitude…
The Stud Next Door
Breathes there a man who doesn’t dream of starring in a porno movie? Well, yeah, actually. But don’t tell that to Will Hammer. When you have a name like Will Hammer, chances are you’re working in the porn industry. But Hammer isn’t just any porn producer — he’s a fighter…
The Music, with Morningwood
Like forebears Oasis and Coldplay, the Music has benefited from an industry that’s far more open to and effective at marketing new bands than it was in decades past. Hailed by DJ/journalist Steve Lamacq on Radio 1 as the best unsigned band in England (prompting a bidding war by the…
Dogs Die in Hot Cars, with Phoenix and Longview
Every review of Dogs Die in Hot Cars invariably mentions two things: 1) This Scottish quintet is the worst-named band since Butt Trumpet; and 2) its debut album, Please Describe Yourself, sounds a hell of a lot like a lost XTC record. This second point is particularly vexing. How does…
End of a Cajun Era
A trio of big men, whose like-sized bellies might deserve separate introductions as they sag over dinner-plate-sized belt buckles, stride across the parking lot of Pe-Te’s Cajun Barbeque House. They shout greetings to several friends in the extended cab of a pickup, gravel crunching under its wheels as it pulls…
Thai High
Thai Sticks Pad kee mao: $9
Tom yum koong: $7
Basil duck: $12
Seafood curry: $18
Massaman curry: $15
Letters
Zero Gains Common-sense discipline: Thanks for your column highlighting the continued woes of growing up in an HISD high school [“Mind Reading,” by Margaret Downing, February 17]. When a smart paper recognizes that even good kids do stupid things, hopefully both parents and taxpayers will prompt lawmakers to institute intelligent…
Get ‘Em While You Can
You’d better be in line before noon at Guy’s Meat Market (3106 Old Spanish Trail, 713-747-6800) if you want to try one of the 200 barbecue hamburgers ($3.93) they make Tuesdays through Fridays. The half-pound, handmade patties are slow-cooked on the barbecue pit until they reach a state of smoky…
John Davis, with Sam Ashworth
After winning a lengthy battle with the bottle, ex-Superdrag front man John Davis has found God, but you could have fooled me, at least where his music (as opposed to his lyrics) is concerned. I got about six songs in to his self-titled, R.S. Field-produced solo debut before I realized…
Applause Time
Michael Serazio, staff writer for the Houston Press, has been named a finalist in the national Livingston Awards competition. Judges selected him for his feature story “Gambling on Iraq,” in which he tells about people so desperate to earn money for themselves and their families that they sign on for…
Lynyrd Skynyrd and Montgomery Gentry
If you own and display the rebel flag in some form — or even if you find it distasteful but have a thing for Dixie — here’s a two-night serving of gen-u-wine Southern rock meat-and-three with a Jim Beam chaser. Lynyrd Skynyrd needs no introduction by now, though you may…
ABBA-cadabra
Let’s come out and say it: Musical theater can be really goofy. It is, after all, a genre in which individuals — regardless of situation — will abruptly break out in song at any given moment. But the charming, tongue-in-cheek Mamma Mia! revels in the goofiness with its raucous ABBA…
Mad About It
The Upside of Anger belongs to Joan Allen, who plays Terry Wolfmeyer, a wife abandoned by her husband and left to pick up the pieces and collect them in a giant bottle of vodka. Terry’s is the cold, composed visage of a woman struggling to keep it together; through her…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, March 17 No doubt, today you’ll be throwing down at one of the numerous St. Paddy’s Day events taking place around town (see See/Be Seen, page 38). But should you opt for something a tad more cerebral than green brew, old House of Pain tunes and a lot of…
Losing Steam
Katsuhiro Otomo’s Steamboy will be released nationwide in both subtitled and dubbed versions. At the press screening, both were shown simultaneously in neighboring theaters, leaving the reviewer to choose which one to see. Your critic went with the subtitled cut, not purely for reasons of cinematic snobbery, but mostly because…
Mazel Tov, Houston
If you thought U.S. hip-hop’s notorious East Coast vs. West Coast controversy was lethal, you obviously haven’t checked out West Bank gangsta rap. “Dear God, I wish you could come down, because I’m being persecuted,” spits right-wing Israeli rap megastar Subliminal. “My enemies are united / They want to destroy…
Ghost and the Machine
The Ring, Gore Verbinski’s 2002 remake of Hideo Nakata’s Ringu, offered sufficient closure that it didn’t exactly demand a sequel. The horror lay in wondering why a mysterious videotape kills viewers seven days after they watch it; to a lesser extent, there was the mystery of the creepy girl, face…
Beefcake
SAT 3/19 The chubby, affable guy in the baseball hat and overalls moseys over to the cash register, greenbacks in hand. Behind the counter, Charlotte Daingerfield and daughter Jackie Spears smile big at him. “Okay, a hand job — that’ll be $3,” says Daingerfield. “We’ve been waiting for you guys…
Bayou Polka
Almost as wide as he is tall, with a round but unremarkable face, Schultze doesn’t look like a rebel. Truth be told, he looks like Curly of Three Stooges fame or, less kindly, a mass murderer (well, he does bear a passing but disturbing resemblance to John Wayne Gacy). Schultze…
Run for the Money
These days, it seems like everyone in the world of sports is looking for the next “million-dollar baby.” They won’t have to look far, as this week the athletes to watch — Texas Southern University’s Tremedia Brice, Marcus Harris and Essence Jones (now that’s a name) — will be competing…
Elegant Elegy
The Crucible is hardly the late great Arthur Miller’s finest script — there is perhaps no American tragedy better than his Death of a Salesman. But under Gregory Boyd’s ever imaginative direction, the Alley’s current production of the 50-year-old play is remarkably powerful. Written in 1953, the script fictionalizes what…
Guinness Gracious!
THU 3/17 It’s St. Patrick’s Day, you fook! Time again to peel your ass away from the rosary just long enough to gulp down a few dozen pints of the green barley potion. And this year on Thursday, March 17, plenty o’ spots around town will be more than happy…
Capsule Reviews
Boston Marriage David Mamet, one of America’s most important living playwrights, is well known for his smutty-mouthed male characters — they scrape the bottom of the world as they eke out a bitter living, usually involving some sort of nefarious activity. His 1999 Boston Marriage, getting its regional premiere with…
Clayed Out
THU 3/17 He was really always more rock star than comedian — selling out huge venues, moving plenty of vinyl and inspiring devout fans who could sing (or, in this case, scream) along with his every word. That was especially true of the X-rated nursery rhymes that became almost mandatory…
Powerful Dialogue
A Negro Overpowering a Buffalo-A Fact Which Occurred in America, 1809 confronts visitors as they enter the Menil Collection. English artist George Dawe painted it in 1810, and it’s part of the exhibition “Deep Wells and Reflecting Pools,” curated by artist David McGee as part of the Contemporary Arts Museum…
Apocalypse Pretty Soon!
Clem Snide appears Saturday, March 19, at .
Of Montreal and Mahjongg, with Apollo Sunshine
Led by Kevin Barnes, Of Montreal has proved to be one of the standard-bearers of the underground psychedelic-pop scene, even almost ten years after its inception in Athens, Georgia. While it may seem a crime to label a band like Of Montreal as “pop,” in a way, they represent all…
Capsule Reviews
“Amy Blakemore: Recent Pictures” Amy Blakemore has photographed her subjects with a delicate, subtle skill, capturing lovely images that feel like accidents and have a warm, faded nostalgia about them. Blakemore uses a plastic Diana camera, whose low-tech cheapness imparts a hazy aesthetic to her subjects. Diana cameras tend to…
String Theory
Twinemen appear Friday, March 18, at the SXSW Overflow Fest at Super Happy Fun Land, 2610 Ashland, 713-880-2100. Mad Mike and the Downer Cows and Understanding New Architecture are also on the bill.
One Tree Hill Tour, with the Wreckers, Tyler Hilton and Bethany Joy Lenz
For the most part, when good news and bad news arrive simultaneously, recipients opt to hear the grim tidings first. With that in mind, here are some dire disclaimers about the One Tree Hill Tour. Teen troubadour Tyler Hilton (who answers to Chris Keller on the WB drama) aims for…
St. Patrick’s Day Guide 2005
It’s that time of year again. Don your green bowler and brush up on all your best Celtic pickup lines, because ’tis the season when everybody’s Irish. That means you’d better be able to down the drinks and sing a traditional Irish tune or two. St. Patrick doesn’t want to…
Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza
Every one of us has done it: We’ve rocked out in front of our family and friends, sung our little hearts out, emoted with eyes closed. And then when we opened them, we’ve seen a roomful or carload of people laughing their asses off because we got the words wrong…
The Break-Up, with Clueless, Harris Newman and Swayback
That ominous marching sound you hear behind you isn’t the long-awaited sleeper cell of Al Qaeda operatives activating, ready to wreak havoc on the Galleria. No, it’s the endless procession of garage-rock bands coming lockstep out of NYC like cloned, leather- and artfully ripped-jeans-clad automatons. Luckily, Brooklyn’s the Break-Up –…
Books, Bullets and Guns
Texas Southern University sophomore Ashley Sloan knew the dangers of the ‘hood. She’d grown up in the Pleasant Grove area of Dallas, where gunshots could be heard popping through the night. When Sloan graduated from high school two years ago, she wanted to enlist in the navy to get away…
Grace Under Pressure
Six Degrees Lounge is empty. They’re an hour into what may be the city’s best idea: a six-hour (get it!?) happy hour. Bartender Kelly serves me another beer and goes back to a conversation about hair weaves with the only other folks at the bar. Soon after, a busty blond…