It's hard to single out just one of the Cactus Music in-stores Rocks Off is sponsoring Saturday, so we'll go with... both! At 1 p.m., mystical Houston singer-songwriter Tyagaraja previews his new solo acoustic EP As Is, before his Warehouse Live Green Room show Saturday night with DJ Sun and Resolution.
Then at 3 p.m., locals Grandfather Child cook up some scorching lap-steel blues to advance their eponymous debut album that drops a few short days later on Aug. 28. You can read more about Grandfather Child in our next print issue next Thursday (Aug. 30), just in time for the band's homecoming show at Fitzgerald's with the Suffers and Marmalakes.
Speaking of Cactus, Rocks Off ran into the Wild Moccasins' Cody Swann there one recent evening as he was getting off work and he and the lovely Zahira Gutierrez were about to do the town. He told us the Moccasins had made some progress in writing the followup to the group's Skin Collision Past. Whether or not that means they'll play any new songs Friday at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's monthly Mixed Media mixer, but why not come find out? It's one of Houston's brightest young bands in one of the world's best art museums, plus Austin "celestial pop" auteur Orthy and local DJs Ceeplus Bad Knivers, Mr. Castillo and Josh Dupont. Starts at 8 p.m.
The last Rocks Off thought we heard about local swaggering garage-punks Weird Party, it was that they were breaking up. Come to find out not only are they intact, they have a new album, Hussy. (Great cover, too.) It comes with a release party tonight at Mango's with Crime Wave, Hamamatsu Tom & the Unmanned CIA Drone Band and Vipers. If there's one show this weekend where someone onstage is ending up without pants, it's this one.
Don't forget the big Tom Carter benefits at Rudz tonight and at the RailyardHTX Saturday. See more in Nathan Smith's blog from earlier today.
Craig Martin's Classic Albums Live series brings the Eagles' elegantly wasted 1976 masterpiece Hotel California to Miller Outdoor Theatre at 8 p.m. tonight. Still can't kill the beast.
The Continental Club is throwing a "Customer Appreciation Night" Saturday night, and by "Customer Appreciation Night," they really mean "free show." The good-timin' Allen Oldies Band gets things sock-hopping at 8 p.m., and then the hard-rocking Mike Stinson Band honky-tonks the night away starting at 11. Meanwhile, the lovely Allison Fisher Band cooks up some cool classic jazz and R&B over at the Big Top, all for the low, low "Customer Appreciation Price" of absolutely free.
Grinning Merseybeat oldsters Herman's Hermits, makers of at least one song that has been lodged inside your head for an entire day during your lifetime, stop by Stafford Centre Saturday night. Who the Hermits are these days in anyone's guess, but Herman himself, impossibly cheerful front man Peter Noone, will definitely be there. Does anyone else think that song "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" is a little creepy?
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