By Michael Bergeron When Free Press Summer Festival comes to life this month, people will be rocking out at what has become the city’s premiere outdoor music festival. But how many fans are aware of some of the movie roles performed by artists on this year’s lineup? And I’m not referring to the songs heard on movie soundtracks or concert DVDs or SNL appearances to which many of the bands can lay claim. Chan Marshall a.k.a. Cat Power not only appears as a character in Wong Kar-wai’s My Blueberry Nights (2007), she also supplies the song “The Greatest” heard throughout ... Read More »

By Will Guess Photos by Cat Roif By the time you read this, Los Angeles surf rock band Wavves will have released their new studio album, “Afraid of Heights.”  With no label support, Wavves is going for a completely DIY approach, paying for the album on their own. In 2010, their album “King of the Beach” set the bar for fuzzed-out, beach-bum garage rock music and inspired numerous copycats who just didn’t match up to the band’s songwriting skills. With this new album, they’re aiming for something completely different.  FPH had the pleasure of speaking with bassist Stephen Pope about ... Read More »

My first year at SXSW when I saw At the Drive-in back in the 90′s it hardly looked like anything of what it is today. Then you could remember everything on a Post-It note and you’d be good for the weekend. Then evolution took it’s place and now SXSW has been smothered by the mainstream.  Hipsters are walking around with manilla folders with 20 pages of spread sheets that are filled with party info of where the bands and free beer are at. Wow, sounds like a head ache. Who has time to research these free parties and RSVP for ... Read More »

Not going to SXSW? Me neither. Yeah, there’s lots of stuff going on in ATX this week but don’t despair. If you can’t make the journey there’s still plenty to do close to home. Who needs Austin when you’ve got Houston? Wed. 16: Clockpole/Japanther/Muhumad Ali/Daikaiju @ Mango’s -CBGB’s veterans The Fleshtones @ The Continental Club -Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (OMD) @ The House of Blues -Uh Huh Her/Diamonds Under Fire @ Fitz Thurs. 17: iLL LiAd @ Numbers -SXSW overflow fest featuring dozens of artists (going on all week) @ Super Happy Fun Land Fri. 18: Football etc. (album ... Read More »

Well here we are now at the end of our tale. We close with three excellent shows of hallowed awesomeness and one that was just, eh, OK: King Kahn and the Shrines First up was King Kahn and The Shrines at Waterloo Park. Now I don’t know how but somehow from our Motel to the park it went from chilly and cool to hot as hell. But no matter, we got there just in time for King Kahn to be introduced and watched from the back only to realize very quickly that this was better experienced up front. So we ... Read More »

Yes, you’ve probably been wondering where our posts have been over SXSW. Well, first off, only I was supposed to to do daily blogging; Levi and April were going to do theirs this week as recaps. So why no posts? Well, lets just say that the rest of my posse showed up Thursday and when you are in the middle of a hurricane you just try to make it through alive. See here is the thing about SXSW, sure you have all the issues revolving around this big overblown marketing beast where small independent bands scream to be heard above ... Read More »

OW! OW! My head! OK, maybe I overdid it last night; it’s 1PM and I’m just now starting to recover from last night. I’ll catch y’all up soon…Casa De Gallo, Lou Barlow, and a hella lotta booze Read More »

Whereupon I learned three things: One - Walgreen’s batteries suck! Two – My satchel’s HOA sharktooth button will survive anything. Third – I look like a complete and utter indie rock pussy to doormen. I arrived to Austin sans posse. One of my peeps caught a bad bout of food poisoning and wouldn’t arrive until Thursday leaving me pretty much on my own for the day. So after consulting the night’s shows the way I figured it was, if I wanted to take in some hardcore, this was likely the night to do it. But first a little indie rock ... Read More »