Elf Power, with Summer Hymns and Modulator
Walking with the Beggar Boys is supposed to be the album on which indie-pop group Elf Power abandons the hippie-mystical trappings of its early work. But listen to some lyrics from the title track, delivered call-and-response-style, between Elf Power vocalist Andrew Rieger and guest Vic Chesnutt: “I was you /…
Letters
Jailhouse Blues Provide due process: Thanks for the article on Mr. Briggs [“Total Contempt,” by Sarah Fenske, April 22]. While the use, or the threat of the use, of contempt-of-court charges may be helpful in some circumstances, the fact remains that the individual so charged is simultaneously found guilty –…
Children of Bodom, with Iced Earth and Evergrey
The relationship between metal and mirth can be strained at times. Bands that seem too happy to embrace irony and self-mockery (or are too happy, period) risk being labeled parodies. This Is Spinal Tap is a tour-bus staple, and a generation of metalheads has grown up laughing at it, but…
Italian Jobs
There’s a lot more to Italian cinema than Clint Eastwood westerns and Fellini flicks — especially lately. The country’s film industry is finally emerging from its post-’70s slump with a crop of promising young directors. And some of the best are screening here in Houston as part of the Museum…
Local H
“I’m in love with rock and roll, but that’ll change eventually,” Local H front man Scott Lucas sang on 1998’s Pack Up the Cats. Since then a lot has changed for the Chicago duo — whom many of you will remember from that song “Bound for the Floor,” or “that…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, May 6 If you love to talk about “nothing,” then you’ve got to drop by Louis Shanks for an appearance by the real J. Peterman. The bona fide inspiration for the Seinfeld character of the same name will be in town promoting his new line of furniture. Be sure…
Vendetta Red, with A Static Lullaby, Retisonic, the Bled and Lonely Kings
Jesus, it’s torture living in Seattle. All those furry trees, flannel shirts and froufrou lattes. Must be a bitch. Vendetta Red uses its hometown as inspiration for carrying on the woe-is-us tradition, becoming yet another platoon in the multiplying army of young bands with their hearts on their sleeves and…
Getting Hed
In a normal world, there’s really nothing entertaining about familial abandonment, blatant artistic theft or grossly disfiguring surgery. But much like a mime being punched in an alley, an unfortunate event, when played correctly, can be incredibly fun to watch. And anyway, Hedwig & the Angry Inch isn’t set in…
The Paladins, with the Weary Boys and Molly and the Ringwalds
Though their raucous live shows regularly attract girls with Bettie Page haircuts and guys with ducktails and custom car-emblazoned jackets, the Paladins are anything but a simple retro or parody band. Formed in San Diego in the late ’70s by high school friends Dave Gonzalez (lead vocals, guitar) and Thomas…
Hot Plate
Approach with reverence the Milanese of beef tenderloin ($16.95) at Backstreet Cafe (1103 South Shepherd, 713-521-2239). Let there be no talking until the first bite is tasted, chewed and swallowed, lest you miss a single delicious detail. This dish is art. Two pieces of tenderloin are pounded so thin you…
Moving Masterpieces
Whether it’s an impulse road trip to Austin, “Chinese” fire drills on Westheimer or the backseat after prom, Houstonians do it better in their cars. So naturally, folks from around the country flock to our Art Car Parade. The annual weekend salute to man’s best friend on wheels begins at…
Sister, Sister
That sound you hear is the stampeding feet of millions of pubescent and prepubescent girls, racing to movie theaters this weekend to catch sisters Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen in their first feature film since 1995’s It Takes Two. The Olsen twins began their acting careers at the age of nine…
Riding High
SUN 5/9 It used to be that the average person’s exposure to polo was either watching Willie Mays perform baseball miracles at the Polo Grounds or spending a Sunday hitting golf balls in a Polo shirt. That other thing, the sport with the ponies and mallets, was left to Hapsburgs…
Fear Factors
When a pleasant Italian comedy called Mediterraneo won the 1992 Academy Award for best foreign-language film, a lot of observant American moviegoers scratched their heads. Gabriele Salvatores’s fairy tale of Italian soldiers happily stranded on a gorgeous Greek island during World War II was an outright charmer, but it certainly…
Listen Up
For local DJs back in the day, competing for space amidst grunge acts was damn near impossible. DJ-producer-personality Sean Carnahan remembers it well: “When I started out, we had places like Power Tools, but there wasn’t a huge conglomerate where new guys could really spin.” Now Carnahan is a minor…
Monster Makeover
“We must keep the atmosphere electrified!” announces creepy Igor in reference to an abominable experiment in Van Helsing, but he could be appraising the entirety of this enormous event-movie. Breathless cutting, nonstop special effects and a pummeling soundtrack camouflage silly plotting and mediocre-to-sappy dialogue — and yet the thrash-and-burn technique…
Strange Heights
SAT 5/8 The folks at Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre claim to be taking it down a notch for their upcoming outdoor performance at the Sabine Street ArtPark. “We are doing a hand-puppet show about Lenin,” says Jenny Campbell, one of the creators of Oh Lenin. “We got so highbrow that we…
Lifestyles of the Ricas y Famosas
As F. Scott Fitzgerald put it, “The rich are different from you and me.” But if “Ricas y Famosas,” a new exhibition at the Blaffer Gallery, is any measure, the rich in Mexico are really freaking different. Photographer Daniela Rossell’s portraits of “rich and famous” Mexicans are so shockingly over-the-top…
Shrimp N’ Ice Cream
The shrimp masala sounds good, so I order some for lunch. “Hot or mild?” the guy behind the counter at Fish N’ More asks. “Hot!” I answer. I grab a soft drink from a glass case and sit down to wait for my food. A pattern of fire-engine-red chile pods…
Capsule Reviews
“Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective of Drawings” Born in Turkish Armenia in 1904, Vosdanik Adoian would grow up to be Arshile Gorky, one of America’s most important and influential artists, but he would never forget the land of his birth and the village of his difficult childhood. This intimate retrospective at…
Hang the Airwaves
It’s Saturday night at Numbers, and Shu Latif is frazzled. As one of the three members of the DJ collective Danseparc, she isn’t accustomed to getting to the club at 11. Instead, she customarily arrives there hours early, pores over what she’ll be playing that evening and makes sure everything…
A New Cut
You won’t find Elmer Fudd singing kill the waaaabbitt, kill the waabbit at Houston Grand Opera’s rock-and-roll staging of Gioacchino Rossini’s Barber of Seville. This production is its own animal. But with or without updating, the brilliant 1816 comic opera — featuring Rossini’s beloved score and Cesare Sterbini’s madcap libretto…
Decent Folk
“I just got done frying up some bacon and eggs,” says Summer Hymns leader Zachary Gresham with a lazy, Jimmy Carter drawl. “Now I just have to wash the pot.” Cleaning up after breakfast at two in the afternoon, Gresham is living the life most would-be rock stars dream about…
Capsule Reviews
Birthday from Hell What has six arms, six legs and three heads — and is one of the greatest comedy shows on earth? If you correctly guessed Radio Music Theatre and its three loony creators (Steve Farrell, Vicki Farrell and Rich Mills), then you’re probably still laughing about the latest…
Defending the Dirty Thirty
If you missed it last week, we put forth a score and ten songs by Texans as “the Dirty Thirty” — the worst ever tunes to come from this state. To put it mildly, some of you were unamused. Let the readers speak: A woman in the Seattle area sent…
House Music Scratches for a New Vibe in Houston
On the drunk side of midnight, in a stylish Midtown lounge called Union, the dance floor is chaotic, yet benevolent; the DJs, effusive, yet democratic — laying down beats in a way that’s part free-for-all, part group effort. They trade off tag-teaming the decks, passing the turntables around like hot…
Loretta Lynn
I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: A couple of times a year, you get an album that puts all others in perspective, one that makes everything you heard recently that you thought was great sound merely good, everything you thought was good seem average, and everything average…
Gotta Dance
Sean Carnahan, local promoter, producer and DJ, refuses to accept that his dance scene is dead. It’s a quarter past midnight at the grand opening of Spundae’s new Saturday residency at M Bar. The dance floor is packed and everyone looks up toward the balcony, where headliner Ferry Corsten is…
Dead Prez
Cops and white men beware: Dead Prez has secured another record deal and is ready to unleash its onslaught once again. Four years ago, the act’s debut, Let’s Get Free, criticized the government, the school system and the police force, not to mention other artists who waste music by singing…
Hurtt So Good
New police chief Harold Hurtt didn’t waste much time putting his stamp on the department, implementing sweeping staff changes announced April 27. The changes have been largely applauded — HPD’s top spots are now filled with a younger, more diverse crew than before. (Which means any grumbling is coming from…
Various Artists
Fat Mike, singer for the punk band NOFX, felt guilty that he never voted or cared much about politics. His apathy over, and outraged at the Bush administration’s stubborn, go-it-alone-and-fuck-the-world policies, he decided to create the organization Punkvoter, which hopes to enlist registered punkers in an effort to boot Bush…
Lessons to the Left
Their thoughts are ridiculed by other students and often, they say, by the professors themselves. They are required in class to watch movies to which they are opposed and then offered no forum afterward to discuss their opposition. They are the minority on campus, yet some lectures from some professors…