SXSW Foto File: Wednesday
Scenester Central: Emo’s courtyard Austin banjo-picker Michael is clearly not afraid of heights…
SXSW: Guitar Shorty and Kimya Dawson
Two free parties on South Congress this afternoon presented a study in opposites. Down at Yard Dog Gallery, Guitar Shorty tore it up, searing through the blues, all with a half-crazed, white-toothed grin on his face. Dude even played with those teeth for a while…
SXSW Extra: What’s In My Pockets?
Good thing I didn’t wear my skinny jeans… I’ve never been a big fan of the SXSW tote bags, decorated though they are by noted artists like Mike Judge and Daniel Johnston. I think they scream “tourist,” and save the odd lighter or notepad, there’s never much in there worth…
SXSW Day 1: Tricks of the Trade
The crowd at SXSW gets younger every year. Wednesday sightings: Eddie Spaghetti and John Croslin, ex-member of Austin cult heroes the Reivers who produced Spoon’s debut Telephono, in the Convention Center’s panelist greenroom; R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills waiting for the “Executive Suites” elevator at the Omni I guess every time…
Wednesday Night SXSW plans: Saul Williams and Lick Lick
After a 20-minute power nap I’m heading out to let poet/hip-hopper Saul Williams get my blood flowing and my mind exploding. If you didn’t catch Williams when he was on tour with At the Drive-In or Mars Volta, then I suggest joining Lunchbox and me at the Austin Convention Center…
Do See Headlights at SXSW, Don’t See YACHT
Do: Check out Headlights if you’re into jangly, upbeat, keyboard-infused rock. I’d heard about this Illinois quintet but had never heard them until today. They live up to all the compliments; lovely female vocals with a Feist(y) feel are complimented by softer male backups. The Headlights play two or three…
A New Reveille for Texas A&M
Reveille VII, the collie that has served as a mascot for Texas A&M University for seven years, is retiring. Purely as a protest for the firing of Dennis Franchione, we’re sure. A&M has appointed a committee to determine whether the next Reveille should be a collie too, or whether it’s…
Be of Good (Blue) Cheer
For more than 40 years he’s been making eardrums ring and, according to his physician, growing calluses on his own. But Blue Cheer founding bassist/vocalist Dickie Peterson shows no desire to turn down the volume knob on his power trio. Houstoned Rocks recently spoke with the sage stoner while he…
It’s 3 a.m., and the Kid in the Bed Is Voting for Obama
“It’s 3 a.m., and your children are safe and asleep…” Unless you’re a moron, you know the Clinton ad I’m talking about. And a few weeks after its debut (and a million mostly unfunny parodies on YouTube later), it’s come out that the little girl in the bed is now…
Spring Training: Draft Dennis Quaid!
It’s no secret that I think the Astros’ starting pitching sucks. But thanks to a New York Yankee signing on Tuesday, I think I’ve come up with just the answer to the team’s rotation problems. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the new number two starter for the Houston Astros…
SXSW from A to Z
Still figuring out your plans to see hundreds of bands in five days? Check out this handy scheduler. Or if you’re more into visuals, we’ve got a slideshow of SXSW bands from A to Z. — Keith Plocek…
Spring Training: Pain, Pain and Ball Girls
Time for another round of spring training notes. The Astros seem to be having injury issues. Lance Berkman injured himself, again, yesterday. Kaz Matsui has butt issues. J.R. Towles has hamstring issues. And pitcher Felipe Paulino, who for some reason was in the mix for a spot in the starting…
Last Night: The Slits and Friends at Numbers
The Slits, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, Future Virgins, ShellShag Numbers March 10, 2008 Better than: Wallowing in self pity wishing you were an “industry” person so you’d have somewhere to be on a Monday night. Download: Shellshag’s Happiness and Slits debut The Cut, which turns 30 next year…
Jameson’s Rarest Vintage Reserve at $250 a Bottle
Jameson’s Irish Whiskey has launched a $250-a-bottle super premium label – just in time for your St. Patrick’s Day gift shopping. I am used to spending $20 a bottle for Irish whiskey, which has long been my favorite winter nightcap. Bushmills, Jameson’s and Tullamore Dew are three I buy regularly…
Rockets-Nets: Just Another Step Along the Road to Redemption
“………..nineteen!” Unfathomable. How else to describe the Rockets’ run — now 19 games and counting after Monday night’s ridiculously easy 91-73 victory over New Jersey? After all, this is a Houston team which spent the season’s first two and a half months giving absolutely no indication it was capable of…
Friday Night: Wilco at Verizon Wireless Theater
Wilco Verizon Wireless Theater March 7, 2008 Better than: Sitting around chatting at a friend’s dinner party, with Being There or Sky Blue Sky in the background. Sadly, some people thought they actually were. Download: Stream Sky Blue Sky bonus track “The Thanks I Get,” which you may recognize from…
Spring Training Doesn’t Count, Except for When It Does
The powers that be like to tell us that it’s just spring training. That the stats don’t matter and that the pitchers don’t care because they’re working on various pitches. Which, in some ways, is a valid point. But if it’s just spring training, and if the stats don’t matter,…
Last Night: Hannah Montana at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
After weeks trying to get press tickets from the Houston Rodeo, I finally had them in my hands. Walking away from Reliant Center, I called my nine-year-old niece Jade. I couldn’t wait to surprise her. “Guess what I have in my hands?” I asked when she picked up. “Hannah Monana…
Aeros Win Two More, Thanks to Barry Brust, Ryan Hamilton, Steve Kelly, Benoit Pouliot…a Lot of Guys, Actually
The Houston Aeros always celebrate three star players at the end of every game. Friday night, two of the stars were undoubtedly goalie Barry Brust and left wing Ryan Hamilton. The third pick was Adrian Foster, but the true star of the game, in my opinion, was a guy who…
Over the Weekend: Fotos, Dogs and Sausage. And Hannah Montana Too.
SXSW Film kicked off this weekend. We were too busy hanging out down here to bring back any reports, but just wait till next weekend. Oh, just you wait. We’ll have beaucoup coverage of SXSW Music. Promise. Opening Night of FotoFest 2008 Friday night brought out socialites Lynne Wyatt and…
Miss Pop Rocks Loves Some Whole Foods Boys
Fine, fine, fine, I know that the post I put up 100 years ago about old man Lance Armstrong and the Olsen spawn was going to come back and bite me in the butt, and here you have it. I am the biggest 31-year-old hypocrite because I am in love…
Geraldo Rivera Is Stupid: A Review of His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S.
Day One: A copy of Geraldo Rivera’s His Panic: Why American Fear Hispanics in the U.S. just hit my desk. I haven’t even opened it and already I have some concerns. For one, the title, His Panic. Gosh, what are the chances Rivera hopes to fan the immigration flames some?…
Sausage Fest: Bangers and Mash at Red Lion Pub
Ask your typical Brit or Anglophile where the term “bangers” comes from, and you’ll hear a stiff-upper-lipped tale of World War II, meat rationing and high water content in sausages which popped when cooked too long. This 2005 BBC News story on “The politics of sausage” sums up that version…
To Do: Hockey and Roller Derby
Sunday afternoons are tough this time of year. Football’s over. And baseball is still about a month away. So what are you supposed to do with afternoons? Watch the NBA? Go to the Rodeo? Watch rednecks make left turns for three hours? I don’t think so. So I’m here to…
Weekend Music: Help Save the Houston Music Scene
With a record number of Houston artists accepted into SXSW this year, sold-out crowds at shows like Hootenanny at the Mink and Bun B at Warehouse Live, and everyone from Fatal Flying Guilloteens and Karina Nistal to Hearts of Animals and Indian Jewelry raising eyebrows well beyond the Harris County…
Reverberations Extra: The Love Me Nots, etc. Live at Rudyard’s
What’s so wrong about some young guys in love with the reverb knob? When, like Black Black Gold, they’re helping carry on the legacy of Texas garage, nothing at all. BBG may lack polish, but they make up the difference with energy and a fine set of ears, and Thursday…
To Do: Little Chenier at the Angelika
Little Chenier breaks your heart, one slow, swampland minute at a time. The story of Beaux Dupuis (Johnathon Schaech), his mentally challenged brother Pemon (Frederick Koehler) and their unlucky lives, Little Chenier is set in the bayous of Louisiana, where the sheriff gets around by outboard and most people live…
Parish Predators: Father Antonio Gonzalez and the Missionary Position
In another stunning reminder of how being a Catholic priest is one of the best ways to pull a piece of underage ass, a Roman Catholic order will pay a Houston woman $1.35 million to settle a suit over a priest she says sexually abused her from the ages of…
Drenched in Blog: SXSW Bitchin’ Band Alert: Holy Shit! Motorhead?
Trucker speed? Check. Black leather pants? Check. Grim reaper tattoo? Check. Useless umlaut? Check. Crusty sleeveless jean jacket? Check. Drenched in Blog in the audience? Duh. When I saw this poster last night, my lungs and heart looked up at me and said “Duuuuuude! You totally hate us, don’t you?”…
Spring Training: What a Glorious Place to Be, Unless Your Name Is Carlos Lee
Spring training is an experience that every baseball fan should experience. The games don’t count. Most of the guys who play will never make the majors. The stars barely play. But there’s just something about the atmosphere. Something about sitting in the Florida sunshine in March and watching baseball. I’ve…
Dear Patrick Swayze, Please Get Better Fast. Love, Miss Pop Rocks.
Miss Pop Rocks is the first to admit she has a tendency to be, well, a little sarcastic or facetious or downright mean-spirited sometimes when it comes to celebrities. But I really and truly do have a soft spot inside of this cold, cold heart for many of them, and…
Spring Training: Shea Stadium Sucks. Dave Raymond and Brett Dolan Too.
Okay, I’ve got a note for Dave Raymond and Brett Dolan. Dudes, it is the Tampa Bay area, and the city of Tampa happens to be a part of that area. So when a team is named the Tampa Bay Rays, it is not the Tampa Rays. And when that…
He’s Roger Clemens, and He Supports That Message
The Rocket’s mission to sell baseball cards in Bellaire has been aborted. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. In the case of Roger Clemens, you can see just how far at Bellaire Little League’s Jessamine Field. As at many well-heeled Little League ballparks, the outfield fence is for sale to…
Exclusive: Craig Kinsey’s “Montrose Boulevard Blues”
I’ve been feeling pretty down about a bunch of crap lately – the march of condos all over town and the douche-ification of Washington Avenue, among other things — but the Sideshow Tramps’ Craig Kinsey has gone and cheered me up with this here jazzy little ragtime-feeling “Montrose Boulevard Blues,”…
Super Bummer Sad Land: The South By Southwest Overflow Fest Is Dead
The next couple of weeks were shaping up as a big one for Super Happy Fun Land. Hell, it was looking to be a great week for music lovers in the city of Houston, as some 60 or 70 or more of the nation and world’s top up-and-coming bands had…
Rockets-Pacers: All Aboard the Chuck Wagon
This is what a 16 game winning streak looks like: Carl Landry entering the game and immediately throwing down a pair of filthy dunks within his first 60 seconds of action. Rafer Alston — formerly better known as public enemy No. 1 — electrifying the home crowd with moves so…
Recommended Reading: The New Yorker’s Story About T. Don Hutto Residential Center
The detention of immigrants is the fastest-growing form of incarceration in the United States, according to an excellent story in The New Yorker by Margaret Talbot that focuses on abuses against immigrant families with no criminal records at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center – a former medium-security prison in…
Q&A with John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants stop into town tonight, but last week Dusti Rhodes spoke with John Flansburgh about influences, kids’ albums, the band’s 25-year career and his views on today’s music scene. How do you guys go back and forth between writing a kids album like Here Come the 123s…
FotoFest: Pozos Children’s project
In 1979, the photographer Geoff Winningham visited Pozos, a tiny mining town near Mexico City. Nearly 30 years later, Winningham and his wife now spend at least half the year there, and the area has become something of a colony for American artists. So it’s no surprise that the photographer,…
The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands
Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and the dashingly debonair Dean Martin are alive and well and living it up in a Broadway-style musical revue called The Rat Pack Live at the Sands. Can’t you just see it? The year’s 1960. Frank Sinatra’s filming the original Ocean’s Eleven in Vegas, and…
We versus the Shark
The last time we saw Athens, Georgia’s We Versus the Shark in Houston, the group seemed headed into a more instrumental territory. But luckily, the members didn’t rush into anything, because their latest collection of experimental, hardcore rock is the most interest-ing yet. With complex instrumentation backing multiple screaming, singing…
Othello
Director Scott Schwartz is striking the set for Othello, Shakespeare’s tale of an interracial love poisoned by rumors and doubt when the Moor Othello, madly in love with Desdemona, is driven to murder by the lies of the racially driven Iago. For this production of Shakespeare’s drama, Schwartz decided to…
“Obsessive Compulsive Awesome”
When Arthur Bates and Christopher Cascio aren’t rocking the crowd, they’re decking the halls. The locals known in the music scene as Wicked Poseur are part of the art scene, too; each has created painstakingly detail-oriented drawings for the show “Obsessive Compulsive Awesome” at ArtStorm. Bates’s intricate black-and-white ink designs…
For Better or Worse
As new construction floods the East End, dozens of buildings are being torn down — buildings that photographer Michael Monreal says are “filled with memories.” Monreal, a longtime Second Ward resident who only just moved out of the area, recently spent two months documenting area buildings that are on the…
solo zydeco festival
This year, the rechristened Solo Zydeco Festival moves the party to its new home in Humble. The fest kicks off Friday night with a dance featuring Chris Ardoin and NuStep at the Venecian Club and then rolls into the Humble Civic Center for a two-day showcase with ten of the…
Dan Zanes and Friends
Dan Zanes is known for making actual family music, not kids’ songs adults can somewhat tolerate. With his trademark green jacket and ringleader’s hat, Zanes has the vibe of an old-time entertainer. On albums like the Grammy-winning Catch That Train, he sings folksy songs crafted for a kid’s ear. But…
Exiled
Part of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s “FotoFest: Pan-Chinese Cinema Now” series, the Cantonese-language flick Exiled is an intense but often humorous homage to Hollywood thrillers and the spaghetti western. Set in Macau in 1998, the film centers around five gangsters (and childhood friends) in the twilight of their…
Lang Lang and the Houston Symphony
It’s been four years since Houston has experienced Lang Lang, and classical music fans are jonesing for a fix. Who can blame them? The 25-year-old pianist is one of the most exciting — and controversial — classical musicians of the day. Some critics toss around lofty phrases like “one in…
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
It’s time to wake up, wake up, wake up: Bone Thugs-n-Harmony are going onstage. For those twenty- and thirtysomethings who’ve forgotten, Bone Thugs were all over MTV and the radio in the ‘90s with “1st of tha Month” and “Tha Crossroads.” These hits might not have garnered any spelling-bee trophies,…
The Love Me Nots
You can’t help but disobey The Love Me Nots. In other (incorrect) words, you can’t not love them. The Phoenix foursome rounds out a mix of sleek, fuzzy garage and surf ditties with riffs and beats too infectious to ignore. In true ‘60s/’70s fashion, each song is driven by jangly…
Houston St. Patrick’s Day Guide
Houston’s got more than cowboys and refineries — we’re also proud of our imported Irish roots. Our annual St. Paddy’s Day parade has been going strong for almost 50 years, and we’ve downed more glasses of green beer than you can count. Go ahead, kiss us: We’re Irish! So in…
Pompeii
When Mount Vesuvius exploded above Pompeii, Italy, in late August A.D. 79, it sent a fury of boiling mud and gases down its slopes at nearly 100 miles per hour, burying the city in ten feet of ash. Much of Pompeii — from household objects to humans (down to their…
The Beer Can House
Take one down; pass it around — and it won’t make much difference. More than 50,000 cans of beer make up the walls of the Beer Can House. John Milkovisch began building the quirky Houston landmark in the late ‘60s — way before it was cool to be green. The…
8:10 Assembly
Houston’s Suchu Dance has been putting on thoughtful and creative modern-dance shows since its conception nearly ten years ago. The brainchild of artistic director Jennifer Wood, Suchu has received many prestigious nods, including the Houston Press award for Best Modern Dance Company in 2005. Wood’s latest creation is 8:10 Assembly,…
Everything’s cool
One of the main problems facing activists who hope to get the public to take action against global warming is that the message often comes across as preachy — thanks in part to a certain former vice president. Is it possible to find humor in the lesson? That’s the mission…
Le Bonhuer du Vent
Since we just gave the friggin’ Best Actress Oscar to Marion Cotillard, does that mean it’s safe to love the French again? Let’s hope so, because Houston’s Et Voilà Théâtre is mounting the French-language puppet show Le Bonheur du Vent. Playwright Catherine Anne builds a fictional/factional story based on real-life…
Fotofest opening
From hushed museums to stylish -department-store windows, crowded coffee shops to sophisticated corporate offices, FotoFest is taking over walls all over Houston. “FotoFest is presenting 11 exhibitions by 34 artists citywide. That’s 1,000 photographs,” Vinod Hopson, press coordinator for the festival, tells us. This year’s theme is China. All 34…
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Amtgard, Howard Stern and Infernal Bridgroom
That’s Debatable Houstoned blog readers comment on “Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in Austin,” by Keith Plocek, February 21. Hope not: The “hope” being sold by Obama and his true believers is misplaced. Obama can’t deliver; he can’t save; he can’t improve individual circumstances by redistributing wealth and talking to…
Risky Bizniss
If you ever participated in one of Jacob Calle’s video scavenger hunts, prepare to get a (pleasant or unpleasant) reminder. Calle saved the videos from his contests, which feature hipsters participating in Jackass-style stunts for cash. He’ll show a “greatest hits” collection of his stash at Risky Bizniss, an art/music…
Cinderella
The character Cinderella has seen many incarnations, from Disney’s wistful songbird to Drew Barrymore’s defiant dreamer in Ever After. The latter version disposed of the notion of Cinderella as a mild pushover. But as it turns out, Houston Ballet artistic director and choreographer Stanton Welch beat Barrymore to this image…
Jewish film festival
For the fourth year in a row, the Jewish Community Center has scooped up the best recent films with a Semitic theme for the Jewish Film Festival. It kicks off today with a screening of the documentary I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal, directed…
Bobby McFerrin
Unless he shoots the President or something, Bobby McFerrin will always be best known for his insipid yet insanely catchy feel-good song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” But that was a long time ago, and since then the ten-time Grammy-winning vocal gymnast with a four-octave range has made a career leading…
Dagoberto Gilb
In Dagoberto Gilb’s latest novel, The Flowers, 15-year-old Mexican-American Sonny Bravo is what high school counselors call “overly sensitive.” When his mom suddenly marries a white man, Sonny is transported from his Mexican neighborhood to the racially mixed apartment complex Los Flores. There, white-vs.-black-vs.-brown prejudice is seething just below the…
“Breaking Earth”
The exhibition “Breaking Earth” is an improbable mixture of sights and sounds. The multimedia installation, created by filmmaker Alfred Guzzetti and composer Kurt Stallmann, features natural images — trees, rivers, oceans, clouds, rock, sand, etc. — cast on five large screens. Soundtracks that would normally complement these environments accompany the…
Astros Giveaways: Biggio Bobbleheads, Dollar Beer, Miguel Tejada Syringes and Mini Tractors
The Astros are going to suck this season. And Drayton McLane’s not going to have Craig Biggio’s quest for 3,000 hits / farewell retirement tour to increase attendance. So he’s going to have to try something else. The good folks at the Home Run Derby blog have actually studied what…
My Morning Jacket, Yo La Tengo
Could there be a more perfectly conceived pairing than these two bands? Particularly early in their career — think covers album Fakebook — Hoboken indie stalwarts Yo La Tengo flavored their sonic experimentation with plenty of country and Americana. Always strongly connected to the musical zeitgeist, YLT and their finely…
The Black Hollies: Casting Shadows
Jersey City quartet the Black Hollies inhabit the space between the apex of mod and the dawn of psych-rock. Sophomore release Casting Shadows essentially exists within the same parameters as debut Crimson Reflections: The whole record (ten tracks at around 35 minutes) is one huge hook drenched in familiarity. On…
Goodbye, Chango Jackson. Hello, Chango Man and Yoko Mono
Back in about 2003 and 2004, you couldn’t find a more consistently great live band in Houston than Chango Jackson. The self-described “cock-rockers for the new millennium” brought it at their shows every time. The night the first “shock and awe” bombs over Baghdad fell, and the entire nation was…
Sia
Some People Have Real Problems is the third studio effort from Sia, a contributing vocalist for British electronica artists like Jamiroquai and Zero 7. True to the title, it’s a collection of flavorless (to the point of phony) pop songs that makes Natalie Imbruglia look as wild and groundbreaking as…
The Cribs: Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever
The Cribs are three British brothers whose first two albums didn’t make much of an impression in the States — mainly because they weren’t released here. But their new Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever slams down one killer riff after another, igniting both their career and Britpop in the process…
Fast and Loose: The Bank Job
“Based on a true story,” brags The Bank Job before diving into the clear blue water of the Caribbean, where, in 1970, a topless woman frolics with two swimming mates — just another day in Paradise. The trio retires to a hotel room for a sweaty, breathless afternoon quickie, which…
The Cookie Jar and Be-Wiched, Thyme Table Cafe
“She’s the sweet one, and I’m the savory,” says David Gerst, describing his wife and partner, Robin Pacholder, and himself. The two share adjacent spaces and a common entryway in a two-store restored property on Westheimer, where they recently opened The Cookie Jar, and Be-Wiched (1846 Westheimer). Already the lunch…
Strapped-a-Lot
It’s standard operating procedure, really. After you turn an independent label into a regional powerhouse boasting a dynastic roll call of Southern MCs, then guide a start-up boxing company to Olympic gold and manage a few world champions, the next step is obvious. You sell some condoms. It’s the same…
Tax Break for the Rich II
There’s one thing we do know: Mayor Bill White got a million-dollar reduction on his Memorial-area home’s tax assessment. Why he got it seems to be more problematic. Here’s the scenario so far: Houstonian Tim Hebert first noticed the reduction late last year; when he asked the Harris County Appraisal…
Mussels at Timpano Chophouse & Martini Bar
The simple things in life: At Timpano Chophouse & Martini Bar (610 Main, 713-223-2622), the presentation of the skillet-roasted mussels ($9) is dramatic. The dish comes on a two-tiered stand with an empty bowl for shells on the bottom and a steaming-hot, cast-iron skillet full of mussels on the top…
Stranded by Oscar: Into the Wild, Radiant City, SNL in the ’80s: Lost and Found, The Love Boat: Season One, Volume One
Into the Wild (Paramount) Sean Penn waited a good decade before adapting Jon Krakauer’s book about Chris McCandless, who graduated college in 1990 then disappeared into the American unknown, reemerging as Alexander Supertramp before his final, tragic farewell in the Alaskan wilderness in ’92. Penn’s patience is evident in every…
The Importance of Being Earnest is Just About perfect
Oscar Wilde’s 1895 delicious comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest, is verifiably one of theater’s masterpieces. A perfect play, it works like gangbusters on the stage. Wilde’s mad boys from Mayfair, London are magnificently loopy and exotic — I mean, really, who still eats cucumber sandwiches? In this…
Capsule Stage Reviews: “Hello, Dolly!,” “Lady,” “Last Acts,” “Regrets Only”
Hello, Dolly! So who stuck a pin into Jerry Herman’s buoyant classic 1964 musical and let all the air out? You recognize the music — almost all the songs in Hello, Dolly! have become Broadway standards — and you certainly recognize that sumptuous Victorian red dress Dolly Levi wears as…
Bayousphere
Click to enlarge…
The Mainstreaming of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
For an obscure tale of a virginal London governess who discovers her true calling running interference for a giddy night-club singer, the 1938 English novel Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day has enjoyed a pretty lively renaissance. Knocked off in six weeks by Newcastle homemaker Winifred Watson while she washed…
A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita
As Hurricane Rita thundered towards him, Garrett Deetz lay terrified and confused on his bunk, locked up inside a cell at the United States Penitentiary in Beaumont. For the past two days, he and about 1,300 other maximum-security inmates had watched and listened to news coverage on television and radio…
Capsule Art Reviews: “A Visceral Valentine,” “Death and Shit Like That,” “Perspectives 159: Superconscious, Automatisms Now,” “Tony Berlant”
“A Visceral Valentine” More visceral than valentine, the current group show at Apama Mackey Gallery delivers a darkly comic look at love. Riffing on the February 14 holiday, there’s also an exploration of color, particularly red and pink, on display here. Jennifer Tong’s comic book panel A Romance depicts a…
Mexican Godparents and Socialism
Dear Mexican, Why do Mexicans have padrinos for everything? I never understood why. Can you help me out? The Godfather Fan Dear Wab, Many gabachos have long wondered about the galaxy of godparents that surrounds Mexicans from birth to death, but it’s no misterio. Ostensibly, godparents (padrino is a godfather,…
It’s Hip to Be Square at Masraff’s
As the trio struck up a Brazilian samba tune and warm sunshine streamed in through the high windows, we settled back into our chairs to take in the elegant surroundings at Masraff’s. This posh “Euro-American” restaurant has been around since 1999, and up until a couple of weeks ago, I’d…
Back Door Slam
Although their name induces thoughts of hardcore porn of the anal variety, Back Door Slam is actually the newest in a long line of British boys infatuated with the blues. Consisting of teenagers Davy Knowles, Ross Doyle and Adam Jones, the band, despite its inexperience, drew quite a bit of…
They Might Be Giants are Still Blocks Away from Easy Street
“You know what’s really nice about being around for 20-plus years? It’s that people stop comparing you to other bands,” says John Flansburgh, one half of They Might Be Giants, regarding the duo’s 25-year career. “My heart goes out to bands, like any band that is starting out — it’s…
BEER ISLAND’S HAWAII FIVE-O
Open-air icehouse Beer Island (2631 White Oak Dr., 713-862-4670) has a gazillion beer offerings, but I opt for a cheap domestic because I’m broke and my buddy with cash is nowhere to be seen. No problem; I slow down and watch all of the familiar strangers. The Sunday crowd is mostly…
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week:
Archie’s Funhouse: The Complete Series (Classic Media) Army of the Dead (Maverick) Arranged (Film Movement) Ben 10: The Complete Season 3 (Turner) Billy Wilder Film Collection (MGM) Dead Moon Rising (Anthem) Half Moon (Strand) Lonesome Dove: Season One (Echo Bridge)Magnum P.I.: The Complete Eighth Season (Universal) Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium…
High School Photo Contest: Primary Winners
We asked Houston’s high school students to give us photos of color, and they brought back reds, blues, yellows and everything in between. Newcomer Reggie Smith of South Houston High School takes home first place for his clever lineup of Converse All Stars. Frequent contributor Yasmeen Smalley of Bellaire High…
Local Motion at Sig’s Lagoon
Sig’s Lagoon 3710 Main, 713-533-9525 1. Radiohead, In Rainbows 2. North Mississippi All-Stars, Hernando 3. Cat Power, Jukebox 4. The Dirtbombs,We Have You Surrounded 5. Mike Doughty, Golden Delicious 6. Various Artists, The Great Debaters: Music from & Recorded for the Motion Picture 7. The Judy’s, Washarama 8. Rivers Cuomo,…
Joe Ely, Ryan Bingham
My younger brother spent time in several West Texas colleges on short-lived athletic scholarships — short-lived because he majored in skipping class and honky-tonkin’. When we hooked up in Holland in 1976, he pulled out a white-jacketed LP and, with the drop of a needle, put a warp on my…
Rusted Shut,A Thousand Cranes
Here’s a brief sampling of how the Press has interpreted Rusted Shut over the past decade or so. An uncredited writer in our 1996 Music Awards preview pegged them as “noise rock with a bad attitude.” Three years later, when they captured the Best Industrial/Noise HPMA, Bob Ruggiero said the…
Blood Money: The Counterfeiters
Near the beginning of The Counterfeiters, a fact-based Holocaust drama by Austrian filmmaker Stefan Ruzowitzky, we meet Jewish money forger and former jailbird Salomon Sorowitsch (brilliantly played by Karl Markovics), packing to flee Berlin in 1936 with a suitcase full of fake money. We know from an opening coda that…
The Slits
Malcolm McLaren, following his success with Sex Pistols — interestingly enough, John Lydon was once married to the mother of Slits frontwoman Ari Up — weaseled his way into the Slits’ camp and tried to use the group as a means to hop aboard the disco money machine. Thankfully, the…
It’s Always Dead at The Club
To all the gun-toting video game bad guys out there: Please stop standing next to exploding barrels. Seriously now. Of the hundreds of places you could squat and shoot, you and your henchman pals always camp beside the neon orange canister with “FLAMMABLE!” painted on the side. Really, we don’t…
Plastic Idols : Singles, Demos & Live: Houston Punk ’78-’80
From 1978 to 1984, Houston’s Plastic Idols managed to sustain themselves through numerous lineup changes and the ongoing rapid evolution of underground music. Local label Hot Box Review’s compilation Singles, Demos & Live: Houston Punk ’78-’80 shows the Idols traversing an astonishing amount of territory, from angular post-punk jams (“I.U.D.”)…
Blue Cheer
There was a brief period in late-1960s television when middle-aged variety show hosts like Ed Sullivan would bring on longhaired freaks as something for the kiddies. Bespectacled Steve Allen’s simple and direct introduction of this San Francisco-based act remains the best ever. “Blue Cheer!” he warned his audience. “RUN FOR…
Indie Rock Rediscovers the Motherland
In 1951 Folkways Records, on their Ethnic Folkways imprint, released the two-LP set Negro Folk Music of Africa and America, 24 field recordings from exotic and unknown (at least to most Americans) regions of the world, from South Africa, French Equatorial Africa, Zanzibar and Ethiopia, to Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Puerto…
The SteelDrivers: The SteelDrivers
If one record stands the bluegrass world on its ear this year, it’ll be The SteelDrivers; no “bluegrass” record in recent memory changes the lay of the land more. With Nashville heavyweights like mandolinist Mike Henderson (a Mark Knopfler sideman whom Jesse Dayton describes as “one sick puppy”), Lake Jackson…