4 posts tagged “houston music”

Instead, you're reading this. Last night, I saw Yo La Tengo for the first time in 6 1/2 years. That's how long it had been since their last time in Houston (and you know I don't go anywhere else). I wrote a review of YLT's 2000 show for Space City Rock. Six years ago I was underwhelmed. Last night, my favorite band in the world reminded why they've been my fave since 1993. The show was nicely balanced between lengthy psych-rock jams and brief, softly sung pop gems. They played quite a few songs from I am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, while mostly avoiding the two preceding albums (Summer Sun, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out). They did draw heavily from older records, opening with "Double Dare" from 1993's Painful, and adding "Autumn Sweater" and "We're An American Band" from I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. They even played two from 1990's Facebook.

The only crappy thing about last nights show were a few fans near the front of the stage who kept yelling during the quiet songs and acting like jerks. According to BDM, there was one fan who was yelling all night and giving the "thumbs down" signal every time the band launched into a soft-rock number. Another dude, who was standing near us actually managed to provoke Jordan into telling him to shut up. Now, you know that guy was being an ass.

Anyway, I took some photos, and they're available on my Flickr page. Unfortunately, my best photo was one I took of Times New Viking, the lackluster amateur openers.

Speaking of photos, I thought this was worth mentioning again. Last.fm allows you to tag your Flickr photos with a unique, show-specific event tag they give you. Then, Last.fm will automatically pull your photos and display them on a custom page generated just for that show. The Last.fm page for last night's Yo La Tengo show is here, and if you scroll down you'll notice photos from the show (taken by me and others) have already been retrieved. You can see the photos on Flickr here. The implications of this feature are breathtaking, if you ask me. Every show has its own page, and all the photos are in one place. Each show page also has its own message board. For real, Last.fm might be the most useful social networking site there is.

Yesterday on the HandsUp Board, someone mentioned the old Firehouse 3, located just northwest of Downtown off Houston street.That place really was an old fire station, which was in distressed condition and no longer used by the Fire Dept. The owner converted the space into an art space and makeshift music venue. I saw more than a few shows there, including Groceries, Swarm of Angels, and Danny Mee's first band Gross National Product. That may NOT be Danny's real first band, but I'm pretty sure that's how I met Danny. Anyway, the place close a few years ago, and there hasn't been a show there in quite a while.

Anyway, the pictures below were taken during my first visit to the Firehouse. I believe it was an art opening for Heath Flagtvedt, who had, I think, returned from Georgia specially for the event. Anyway, Groceries and Woozyhelmet played and there was beer, and the whole evening was a lot of fun. These pictures are terrible, but since there's some interest in remembering the old Firehouse #3, I figured I post them anyway. If nothing else, there are a couple decent photos of Toto dressed in rumpled finery.

On July 26, 2003, Matt Brownlee's ambitious local music fest, Down with the Scene, went down as perhaps the most amazingly fun show I can remember seeing in Houston. For one day, Walter's, Mary Jane's (RIP), and Silky's (also RIP), played host to the best of Houston music, with some killer Austin / San Antonio / Dallas bands thrown in.

The lineup, so far as can be gleaned from this photo, was as follows:

Walter's
Chasmatic (now known as Bright Men of Learning)
Baboon
DJ Scuba Gooding Jr.
Knife in the Water
Groceries (now Bring Back the Guns)
The Skullening

Mary Jane's
Modulator
The Truth
Woozyhelmet
Lights out on Sound
Jana Hunter
Octopus Project

Silky's
The Jonx
Act of God
Defend the Ghetto
Benway
Swarm of Angels
Fatal Flyin' Guilloteens

The reason for this post, aside from the shameless wallowing in nostalgia, is that I have a ton of pics from the event I'd like to share. Below are just a few choice selections. The entire set is available on Flickr.

Yeah, it's a little late, but here are my favorite releases of 2006. 

No, it wasn't innovative or mindblowing. Actually, it sounds a lot like My Morning Jacket, with a little bit of Shins and Interpol thrown in. Even so, this record cobbled its recent influences into what is probably my favorite indie-pop record of this decade. I'm not sure how they did it, but every song on this record is perfect and perfectly sequenced. It's one of those records where the great songs (e.g., "Funeral," album closer "St. Augustine") are made even better because the band knows where to put them.

You know a band has thought a lot about how to sequence their songs when the first song on the record is called "The First Song." But sequencing is only one many things done right here. There's no clutter in the production. The songs are presented simply without a lot of Arcade Fire-style pomp and pretense. The focus is squarely on creating a solid framework in which singer Ben Bridwell's fluttering voice can shine. Yeah, he's going to remind a lot of people of My Morning Jacket with that aching tenor bathed in reverb. For me, though, this record is a lot more reminiscent of Coldplay's first record, Parachutes. Soaring, anthemic pop anchored by a killer voice and A-plus hooks. Like Parachutes, Band of Horses didn't blow me away, but in spite of their ordinary, derivative sound, I found myself listening again and again. Perfectly executed song-craft will do that to you.

Clipse - Hell Hath no Fury

I'm not even going to pretend to be a rap/hip-hop aficionado. I don't know nothing. Like legions of other noobs, it took Kanye West and Justin Timberlake to finally drag me out of my indie-rock centered listening rut. From there, I've proceeded pretty slowly. In my tentative early courtship with rap music I've learned two things. First, I agree with Kanye when he says it's all about cramming as many golden hooks as you can into a tight, tight space. Second, I still don'tdeal very well with that raw gangsta subject matter. I much prefer rappers who are focused on politics, parties, and girls. If, like Kanye, a rapper can present a nuanced deconstruction of thug life, the college boy in me can hang with that.

Clipse taught me something else. You throw enough brilliant hooks in there, and I will thoroughly enjoy your gruesome, fearsomely intelligent stories of crack hustling and casual murder. It took them forever to make this record. Apparently, the production consists of four-year old beats from the Neptunes at their peak. But it was worth the wait. There is not a single weak track. And there are no dumb ass skits to slow it down. So far, I don't think It's even sold 100k. But it's the best reviewed rap record of the year. Get it.

Justin Timberlake - Futuresex/Lovesounds

You can find a billion reviews written about this record, including my own written for my law school newspaper. I'm not going to rehash what's already been said. I'm only going to say this: the first five songs on this record are the best thing I heard all year. Were it not for a noticeable drop off in quality thereafter, FutureSex/Lovesounds would be my number one. From the gated rattlesnake snare that underpins the title-track opener to the Postal Service / Explosions in the Sky guitar coda that closes "Lovestoned", JT & Timbaland don't make a single false move. I danced by myself, people. In my car. While walking the dog. While surfing the interweb.

So, so good.

Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass

Full disclosure: Yo La Tengo has been my favorite rock band since 1995, when I purchased Electr-o-pura on the day it came out and popped it into the cheap stereo of my '86 Pontiac Grand Prix. YLT has never made the same record twice. Their willingness to reinvent their sound with each new release is one reason they've managed to make so many records (I Am Not Afraid is their 12th full length in 20 years). But on the last two records, Yo La Tengo has been in a kind of mini-rut. Sure, the melancholy dance tunes on And Then Nothing Turned Itself Out were pretty different from the breezy folk songs on Summer Sun, but internally, the songs on those records were awfully similar to each other. And the music was soft. Damn near adult contemporary, and part of me missed the guitar-noise freakouts and the garage-rock stabs at which the band had been expert in their younger

days.

I think Yo La Tengo were also a bit worried, because Beat Your Ass is a return to form that rocks as hard as its aggressive title indicates. The record is bookended by 10-minute long psych rock jams, with plenty of Ira Kaplan's feedback and skronky guitar. In between, the band surprises with some tender Motown-flavored soul and British-invasion pop complete with horns. It's a record so diverse it sounds like a career-spanning greatest hits album. But these songs are all new, and all great. I've been hitting the repeat button a lot, trying to figure out which one's my favorite. Here's hoping you have the same problem.

Joanna Newsom - Ys

This is the second record from the world's most famous harpist/singer/songwriter. This time she explores several other avenues into the meaning of the word "unique." For example, no one else is writing elaborate gothic allegories to disguise her very real personal confessions. She has said that each of these five songs closely tracks things that actually happened to her. But none of us will ever unravel how the tale of a monkey and bear escaping from the circus bears upon Newsom's real life. Guess what? It doesn't matter. These songs are riveting, as stories—and as songcraft.

Even with each song averaging a run time of 11 minutes plus, you will hardly notice the time pass. Much of the credit is due to string arrangements by the esteemed Van Dyke Parks. But Newsom has said she convinced Parks to contribute when she visited him in a hotel and played all five songs for him using only her harp and her voice. If you can get used to her elfin yelp of a voice and overcome your attention deficit disorder, you're in for an experience to which no other indie rocker even comes close.

Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies

Dan Bejar is now more famous for the few songs he's done with the New Pornographers than for his own fine work in Destroyer. But Rubies is Destroyer's 6th record in 10 years, and his best since 2000's Thief. In fact, the insanely catchy Rubies shares its pop accessibility with Thief, as well as its layered acoustic and electric guitars and tumbling bar-room piano. Of course, Bejar always sounds like Bejar, matching dense, obtuse lyrics with radio-friendly pop bombast all sung in his trademarked nasal whine.

With Rubies, Bejar is revisiting all his earlier albums (not just Thief). The songs are all new, but some of the passages have been lifted from earlier tracks and re-contextualized. The whole project really does sound like a meta-greatest hits package. Since Bejar's old records can be difficult to find, it's definitely a good starting place. Oh, and I feel compelled to mention that if you're a big David Bowie fan, you should definitely check out Destroyer. I'm not saying the comparison is perfect. It's just that no one's making better David Bowie records right now than Destroyer.

Brightblack Morning Light - S/T

On paper, this record shouldn't be as good as it is. Ten slow, two-and-a-half cord jams built on guitar, Fender Rhodes organ, and spare percussion. Many of the songs are simple, repetitive blues hooks running more than five minutes long and crippled with Hippie-nonsense titles like "Star Blanket River Child." Sounds like a noodle-y jam band, right? Run away screaming, right? Nope. Instead of brainless guitar solos and idiotic lyrics, BML serves up some irresistible, and surprisingly substantial, minimalist grooves. I didn't get bored or restless, even when the running time ran past 6, or even 10 minutes. Instead, Brightblack lulled me into enjoying myself, by establishing a pleasant guitar/organ motif and then adding layers of ethereal vocals, hand percussion, flutes, clarinets, and a horn section. But don't get me wrong; it's not background music. No, this is music that lets you slip into the background. Is that hippie enough for ya?

The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America

My rock band got to open for The Hold Steady at Walter's earlier this year. At the time I was unfamiliar with the band or their music, but I left the show completely sold. They've been pegged as a bit of a classic rock renaissance band, and I think that's fairly accurate. They certainly deserve all the obvious comparisons to Springsteen and Thin Lizzy. The combination of their soaring Born to Run piano and fist-pump-inducing dual guitars is intoxicating and nostalgic. Seeing them play, I wasn't quite as excited as the kids up front singing every word. But I had a smile on my face the whole time.

Like Springsteen in his prime, though, The Hold Steady are all about words. Frontman Craig Finn weaves wondrous tales of drugs, sex, rock n' roll, and horse betting that sound deliriously inspirational against the anthemic, bar-band backdrop. When those words start to sink in, the spirit sinks too. Because Finn is chronicling the post-manic phase of youth when John Cougar turns Mellencamp. Finn says, "It started recreational, it ended kinda medical." Sounds a lot like, "O yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of livin' is gone."

CSS - Cansei de Ser Sexy

Were I writing one of those sensational blurbs you see on the movie ads, I'd write "CSS is The Most FUN I've had on my iPod all year." Really, I think it's probably true. Many a dog walk has been kicked up a notch when "Music is My Hot, Hot Sex" jumps out of the Nano. CSS is the abbreviation of the album title, and it means "Tired of Being Sexy" in Portuguese. If that sounds similar to "I'm Too Sexy," I think that's appropriate. This debut album from the Brazilian sextet has a lot of same silliness and cheeky irony that made one hit wonders Right Said Fred and Chumbawumba so damn fun.

The difference is that CSS's concoction of art-punk, noise-pop, and disco is flying a little lower under the radar. The singer, Lovefoxxx, sounds like a Kim Gordon-influenced party girl, minus the self-serious art-damaged lyrics that sometimes causes Gordon to enter the unintentional comedy zone. The fun here all sounds purposeful and so do the hooks. There's very little filler, so it sounds like the six members of CSS might be aiming for a bit more staying power than your
average one-hit wonder. And because, realistically speaking, CSS actually have NO hits outside of college radio, and they're on the indie label Sub Pop, I'd look for the band to get stronger under the weight of modest expectations.

Something Fierce - Come For The Bastards

In Houston, it's been a good year for Pixies-inspired punk rock. Something Fierce and their pals, The Dimes (all with members who are either still teen-agers or barely in their twenties) have gained a ton of local admirers, and put out some incredible, really exciting music. The Dimes' self-released, homemade EP can be purchased at their show, and it's well worth the five bucks or whatever it costs. But Something Fierce makes this list with their full length debut. They haven't reinvented the wheel or anything. They've just banged out 10 insanely catchy pop-punk songs that MUST be played in a crappy car covered with all the best stickers: RAMONES, PIXIES, GREEN DAY, THE CURE, THE MISFITS…. er, you get the idea.

I have to be clear: this record doesn’t sound like some crappy local band that did a good job copying their heroes. It sounds likes some really talented kids who are figuring out how to write great music, and lucky for us, they know where to start.

I need a Something Fierce sticker for my car.
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Okay, so that's my list. You've probably noticed I'm posting this from my new Vox.com blog. Yes, I know I've moved around a lot lately, but I think I've finally found a non-Livejournal blog I can live with. As you know, I'm always trying out newfangled internet crap, and I've now moved my blog from Squarespace and Blogger. Part of that is just because I like to try out new internet crap. But another reason is that I just want something that works a little better than Livejournal. Well, for reasons I'll cover in a future post, I think Vox.com has a crapload of interesting features you don't get in Livejournal. But since Vox can crosspost to Livejournal, I can post on both blogs at once. More than all the other fancy bells and whistles, the ability post to LJ is what finally made me pull the trigger.