Editor's Pick: Dear Santa, I would like everyone involved with music in Houston - the musicians, the press, clubowners, promoters, fans, etc. - to take themselves a little less seriously next year. I know music is some people's whole lives, and that some people are even lucky enough to make a living at it, but in general I think everyone in the scene just needs to relax. Rocks Off had to report on way too many petty feuds this year, and a few things that went a little beyond petty; we may have even started a couple of them. Above all else; music is supposed to be fun, so let's all try to remember that next year.
Marc Brubaker: Aside from shamelessly self-involved desires - a release from my band, and for my Houston music archival site to become populated with an abundance of information - I'd really like to see some proper releases from a litany of bands in this town. Some of them are new, and some of them have just never put out an album, EP, 7", even a damn cassette, for hipster-god's sake.
What's on this list? Weird Party, Frank Freeman, Finnegan, The Busy Kids, Ancient Cat Society, Josiah Gabriel, Brandon West & the Black Hats, and a whole heap more. So let's get to it, Houston. Get in the studio or bust out that four-track and put out some music, already.
John Seaborn Gray: Dear Santa,
There are a great deal of things that would help the Houston music scene out a lot, but if I had to choose just one thing, it would be parking. Parking, Santa, is important, and not just any parking: Free parking. It being 2010, many of us have gotten out of the habit of carrying cash, and with good reason: Cash spends much too quickly, and in these difficult financial times, it quite literally pays to mitigate your spending any way you can.
Yes, Santa, if you could deliver some good free parking onto the city of Houston, you could end the iron-fist reigns of obnoxious mandatory valets, the long walks in inhospitable weather, the glut of tickets left on windshields, and most important of all, the cocky, devil-may-care attitudes of Houston tow truck drivers, particularly along Washington Avenue.
Oh, to see the smug expressions slip from their bloated, pox-ridden fucking faces for even half a second... it would truly be Christmas all year 'round. I've been a good boy this year and haven't attacked or mauled half of the people I've wanted to, so I hope you'll see your way to give me what I respectfully request.
Your buddy,
John
p.s.: Are you Jesus? Or like, one of his angels or something? I've never really been clear on that.