The Talking Heads are one of my all-time favorite bands and everything from ‘77 through Remain in Light are, in my opinion, essential listening. Even the last three albums hold enough good stuff to make them recommended listening. Covering the Heads is a tricky proposition as the albums, particularly the ones produced with Brian Eno, have a quirky quality that defies simple interpretation. Add to this the band’s reputation as a live act. While this was most famously captured in Stop Making Sense, I’d argue that their earlier double live album, The Name Of This Band Is the Talking Heads, ... Read More »

Buxton is back with a new album and at Saturday's release party the band was clearly out of gum and ready to kick ass. Read More »

Warpaint, for those of you who don’t know, is an all-female, experimental, rock band from LA and they seem to like Texas because they already played Houston once about two months ago and SXSW a few weeks ago. The whole set was excellent but my two favorite songs were “Stars” and “Elephants”. Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman provided haunting, mournful, vocals that only intensified the power of the somber melodies the rest of the band played. Emily Kokal (guitar and lead vocals) and Stella Mozgawa (on drums) were hands down the best performers in the band. It was hard to ... Read More »

I hope you guys had as much fun as I had this Saturday. I sure had a blast listening to great music, running into just about everyone I know, and it’s nice to see Westheimer with some hustle and bustle on its sidewalks. Some highlights? OK! The Wild Moccasins played a great show outside Mango’s on a rickety stage that seemed to be on the verge of collapse from all the hopping and general Moccasins shenanigans. The added amusement for me was watching as my very serious and artistically minded six-year-old tried in futility to find a spot on stage ... Read More »

Well here it is, Monday, and not only did I survive the Hootenanny (link) but I also survived the Houston Press Music Awards. Having these two things back to back, admittedly, is pretty rough. So Sunday, being a bit worse for wear, I stayed away from the free booze and stuck to the vitamin water. One thing I have to say about the HPMAs this year is that the venues seemed farther apart than in previous years. Whereas last year you could step out of the Rice Hotel and immediately walk across to see say Insect Warfare, this year you ... Read More »

The numbers are in and we can happily report that last night’s Hootenanny was a huge success! Now I’ll admit that my expectations were lower at the outset for this Hootenanny because, while the last Hootenanny tended to focus more on indie/punk bands (Pixes, The Clash) and some less often covered bands (Nomenasno*, Jawbox), this Hootenanny tended to swing more toward more common Rock radio fare. I’m not saying the music is bad but that somewhere in the suburbs any night is some hacky cover band doing “Do ya think I’m sexy” and that doesn’t exactly make me jump up ... Read More »

No Beer or Jameson fueled review this week folks. This week I’m keepin‘ it straight edge. But even if you weren’t abstaining, I hope you were able to make it out yesterday to the Block Party! I kicked around until 5pm and had to leave due to some other obligations but five hours was still quite the overdose of music. In those five hours I caught 20 acts and the stupid thing is, when I had to leave, I was bummed about having to miss Elaine Greer, The Papermoons, Oh Pioneers, Young Mammals, Rusted Shut and a whole host of ... Read More »