If local punk band reunions have shown anything, it’s that the genre that started as a culture and music of rebellious youth is no longer just a youth movement and, that despite its best efforts, the culture and the music has actually aged gracefully.  One thing that happens with maturity is the ability to look back and contextualize what at the time seemed chaotic, anarchistic, and  fleeting.  Local scribe David Ensminger, has been doing just that for quite some time.  His Ozone City Outrage blog has been a treasure trove of old and not so old Punk flyers and his Left of The Dial zine has ... Read More »

Punk Rock has been so commercialized, commoditized, and tamed that these days you can likely turn on Disney channel and find some teen sitcom with a character that superficially swipes from the genre. But it wasn’t always that way. Punk actually had something to say and that made a lot of society antsy and given the political turmoil of the Reagan 80′s the genre was filled with biting social commentary and youthful angst. Houston’s scene was no exception and so music and art flourished in the ”scary” Montrose where all the stoners, hippies, faggots, and other walks of society shunned by suburbia resided. It was ... Read More »

Editor’s note: This is the first in a five part series exploring the myths surrounding Houston underground legend Malcolm McDonald. Check back for updates. By Alex Wukman When Kerouac wrote that the only people for him were the mad ones, “the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk…desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles, exploding like spiders across the stars…” he didn’t realize that he was writing the description of a man who one day would become a legend ... Read More »

OK ladies and gentlemen let me say this right now – Room 101 is likely the best shit you can possibly check out right now! Holy crap! Here I was muddling over whether to go-out a second night and I figured, yeah I’d been wanting to go see the Anarchitex, why not just go for a bit and make it an early night. I’m sure glad I got off my ass – thick yellow phlegm or not – because the second I walked past the Rudz curtains I was hit with a rush of “Holy shit! What the fuck is ... Read More »