The countdown to happy hour is well underway, assuming you even observe such formalities. Here on Upper Milam, things are moving a little slow today thanks to the Detroit Cobras and Willowz, who sent a packed house at Rudz last night home sweaty, happy and not at all sober, if a little confused. Willowz are from Anaheim, but sound and look like they’ve been holed up in a decommissioned GM factory since 1974, listening to nothing but Stooges albums and growing their hair. The Cobras, meanwhile, perfectly captured the rough-edged honky-tonk attitude of L.A. bands like the Knitters and Rank and File; I realize Bloodshot Records signs their checks, but still. So while my strength slowly returns (Against Me! Tonight!), I decided to scour the Internets for a spell. Here, luckily, this counts as “working.” Journalism rocks! Besides, sometimes this shit writes itself anyway.
Many of you may be congregating in Houston’s various karaoke establishments this weekend, so be careful with that song selection. Courtesy of Idolator and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer , here’s the tale of a girl who really, really hates Coldplay’s “Yellow,” so much she wound up in the King County Jail charged with investigation of assault. Most likely they’ll add resisting arrest, as it took several Seattle PD officers – including a couple from the Gang Unit – to finally slap the cuffs on her.
Some cool Houston-related YouTube clips after the jump, including Morrissey at Record Rack in 1992 (featuring some extremely clueless local TV anchors), U2 hustling some Houstonians at pool, the White Stripes tearing through “Jolene” at Rudz and – speaking of hairy dudes – deadhorse at the Axiom in 1989.
First we have Channels 11 and 13’s bemused reports, posted by our very own Abrahan Garza, on Moz’s visit to Record Rack (who else misses that place?) in July 1992 on a brief promotional tour for Your Arsenal. People waited in line for 29 hours; the kid who was first left a comment. One guy flat-out breaks down sobbing after meeting his idol, and others contribute great quotes like “His music gives me a reason to live,” “they’re asking people not to hug him – it takes too long to hug and autograph” and “there was a riot, but we got it under control.” Even better is the girl who describes Smiths classic “Girlfriend in a Coma” – which completely baffles then-Channel 11 anchor Steve Smith – thusly: “It’s kind of a fun song about his girlfriend in a coma,” she says. “It’s nothing really too heavy.”
Do you really think she’ll pull through?
Continuing on, here’s the White Stripes covering Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” at Rudz on the White Blood Cells tour (and shortly after 9/11). Jack sounds a little hoarse, but Meg is cute as ever. Love those pigtails!
Infernal Bridegroom Productions unfortunately had to shut down last week, so here’s a clip from the Axiom in happier times, when deadhorse throttled the joint in 1989. (Might they reform at this fall’s Axiom reunion? Stay tuned.) The sound isn’t the best, but the gist of “Murder Song” comes through just fine.
This is a good one: U2 shooting pool and singing some country tunes at a local bar during some down time on the Joshua Tree tour. As usual, Bono just makes up the words as he goes along, but Edge has Hank Williams’ “Lost Highway” down cold. If anyone knows what bar this is, please speak up.
Finally, here’s a 10-minute Choppaholix interview with recent multiple Houston Press Music Award winner Devin the Dude that popped up when I typed “Screwston” into the YouTube search engine. Have a nice weekend!
This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2007.
