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A guy named Donovan over at The Fresh Xpress, "The PULSE of Young Black America," writes that Beyonce's newest video is "a porno audition tape set to music" that will "spawn another misguided female anthem." His argument:
First, the single is going to perpetuate this trend of unloved/unwanted/unappreciated Black women. Not to mention, it's really just cheap pandering. I mean, let's be honest, what women doesn't feel like their obvious dopeness goes unnoticed.
He goes on...
And here comes the tricky part: Beyoncé is a married woman! So she, like Dateline and Steve Harvey, are simply pimping the single Black woman trend for monetary gain. She's getting her listeners all whipped up into a frenzy about putting a ring on it when she waited 6 years before Jay-Z married her... The point is, all of that leotard-wearing and gyrating is pretty entertaining but it's not real.
Where, oh where, do we start? For one, like Hollywood movies, not every lyric to every song recorded has to be based in fact. Some people have imaginations and are able to make things up. Secondly, this dude seems to think marriage is the answer to all of life's problems. Beyonce can't possibly feel underappreciated! She's married! And she has a lot of money!
Runaway Sunhas released a new promo video on their
Vimeo page, which looks like them just fooling around in the studio and cracking jokes. It's fun! We got
this linkfrom
Jeff Balke:
Alice Cooper says there it's impossible to find a good young guitarist, bands that don't write good songs are lazy and young musicians should listen to the Beatles, Burt Bacharach and the Beach Boys for songwriting inspiration.
Hear hear! Speaking of Balke, he riffs on our Concert Etiquette for Dummies over at Broken Record. • Houston pianist Jennifer Grassman's newest album, Serpent Tales & Nightingales, was recently reviewed by Christianity Today agazine (they review secular music too). The reviewer gave the album four out of five stars and called it "One of the more intriguing albums I've heard in a while." Andrew Dansby at the Chronicle talks to Indian Jewelry about their new album, Totaled. Whatever you do, don't call their music "dark". And here's Dryvetyme Onlyne's review of the album. HoustonMusicReview.com has revived its Texas Two-Step feature with a review of The Stone Coyotes at Dosey Doe. The New York Times has been all up in Texas' business lately. This week, The Gray Lady is proclaiming Dallas' Deep Ellum as the hip new place to be. While we're on the subject of Dallas, here's a homecoming for ousted American Idol contestant and Fort Worthian Casey James. Here's a live version of Flowers To Hide's "Love's Twisted Trap," recorded just last week at Rudyard's. Metafilter picked up MCM's story last week about the 40th anniversary of the KPFT bombing. Not that we want to toot our own horn or anything, but the post is interesting to read for all the commenters hyping their favorite programs on the progressive listener-supported radio station.
Caddywhompushas a new video out for their song "Guilt" and you can download a copy of their album
Remainderat
Community Records. Today is the start of the
Houston Fringe Festivalwhich, in addition to theater performances and film will also feature local music. The festival runs through May 23, and full details are on the Web site. The
Sideshow Trampsare hosting a weekly
Gong Show-style open mic nightevery Monday at Mangos. The event features cash prizes for winners, gong sounds for losers and fun for all. This project will end in late July and culminate with a final Gong Show. The
Fondue Monksplayed Last Concert Cafe this past weekend. If you missed them, you can catch up with the band
by reading their interviewwith Houston Calling. Houstonist has
a reviewof
sIngsnew EP
Hells. Thanks to y'all,
Tyagarajais going to
Bonnaroo. And here's another review of
Grandfather Child's"Waiting For You/Dog Water"
7-inch. Friday's shaping up to be a busy day 'round H-town. In addition to a lot of great touring acts, the
Wild Moccasinsare celebrating the release of their new album
Skin Collision Pastat Walters. $10 cover gets you a copy of the new CD. Saturday is the
Free Press Summerfestposter show
at Cactus Music. Robert Ellis and Ghormeh Sabzi are performing, starting at 7 p.m. Rocks Off showed you
14 of the postersa few weeks ago. Houston Calling is profiling some of the acts performing at Summer Fest. This week
they look atSomething Fierce. And finally, on Saturday
The Timbertoeswill perform their
first and only showon the roof of Khon's with
Golden Axeand
Blades, at 8 p.m., for free. We do not know what this is about, but we like it.
Attention local musicians, music bloggers and music organizations: have something that should be included in Magnolia City Mixtape? Leave a comment below or email brittanieshey (at) gmail (dot) com.Keep the Houston Press Free... Since we started the Houston Press, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Houston, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Houston with no paywalls.