THE SKYLINE NETWORK

UPDATE - 7:37 PM: Hi.  We just took a nap.  It was awesome.  But while we were sleeping it turns out that the Keane Street Warehouse Party folks were hustling and have subsequently gone from canceling their show to just moving it to a new location, mainly Notsuoh.  According to yet another Hands Up Houston post, the event will no longer feature The Octopus Project or Bring Back the Guns, but will include (as of this writing) everyone else including free beer and food.

ORIGINAL POST: BUMMER.  Hard not to feel awful for organizers Jacob Calle and Eric IHeartYou upon reading the news that, hot off the heels of Andrew WK’s last minute decision not to play at their warehouse party tomorrow, the entire event is to be shut down.  Frakly, we feel a little sorry for ourselves too, as we were looking forward to the full day of bands, fun, suds and sun.  According to a post on Hands Up Houston, the show was pulled at this late hour because of the rain.  If this doesn’t make much sense, that inclimate weather could result in something being shut down, then you prolly need to head on over to Ramon’s Medina’s Free Press Weekend Music Preview and take a look at the pictures of the venue - it might clear things up. HAPPY FOURTH! BE SAFE OUT THERE!

Classic Review Week of Reviews of Classics continues with this review of Paris Falls’ Vol. II, which should have originally appeared earlier this year, but we so totally dropped the ball on it that we didn’t realize it had come out yet until just recently. Our Bad

We first got the gams for Paris Falls back last February when we caught wind of their stellar track “Shelter”. Not shortly thereafter, we finally got our hands on their freshly minted debut full length Vol. I, only to discover that the song wasn’t even on it. Turns out, the band was on such a roll when they put the wraps on their first record, that they never stopped writing and recording, and had Vol. II almost completely in the bag by the time its predecessor had gotten the mastering and packaging treatment. It’s important, therefore, to see Vol. II not as a sequel, but as a continuation of something that you’d only seen the fist part of (think Lord of the Rings rather than The Matrix if you require a Hugo Weaving example). And yet, the songwriting, the engineering and the performances on Vol. II shows that the Paris Falls was already evolving, improving on their writing, their pop-craft and their engineering.

It plays well into our schlocky writing style, then, that the album opener is titled “Progress” and is a departure from form, simply Ray Brown’s heart spelunking vocals over a chunky guitar. “Shelter”, whose Rhodes piano smashes, jagged guitar and reversed Starr drums outro, is still on our down-about-it go too list and sets the tone for the record - expect jubilation, veneration and a lingering kiss of gray morning regret. Vol. II features a greater diversity of textures than its predecessor, while still sticking to essentially the same instrument pallet. A favorite example of how this plays out is the initially waltzy “Satellite”, with its Bernard Herrmann-esque violin stabs and lonely piano giving way to sunspot cool electric piano and tambourine and eventually succumbing to full on prog rock guitar importations. The album closes with “White Rose,” a closer that effortlessly puts the cap on both volumes of the band’s output to date, fading out in the end while the music continues on strong. If there was ever a hint that you were in the midst of a trilogy, this would be it.

But given that we haven’t yet heard any tracks off this imaginary Vol. III, perhaps the band is taking a pause and stepping into a new narrative, a new branch of aural elixirs to itch that evolving pop ailment that growing on, marriage and parenthood can bring (note - NOT adult contemporary music). Were this the case, we’d be stoked, but we can’t even say for a minute we’d be disappointed if their next record was a return of the king. Recommended.

You can get Paris Falls’ Vol. II at Sound Exchange, possibly Cactus, or order it online from their MySpace page. Better yet, pick it up in person at their show tomorrow night, July 4th, at Rudyards with Inner Lights.  OOOR, you can catch them at HOOTENANNY 2: TWOTENANNY!! July 26th at the Mink, where they’ll be playing as RUSH.  ROLL THE BONES!

Stream: Paris Falls - Various Tracks

If you’re like us, then you’ve no doubt been more than a little stoked about this shin-dig behind this poster:

I mean, not only does it feature one of our favorite mic shunning outfits, Octopus Project, but it isn’t just a coincidence that that young man’s vomit spells out Andrew WK. If we freaked out any more about how solid the local lineup was, we would probably be accused of pandering. Well, unfortunately for folks who were just about the writing in green, the following message was posted on andrewwk.com this evening:

I’m very sorry that the Houston show fell through. We did our best to salvage it, but the opportunity vanished. I’ll come back to Houston soon and the party will be better than ever. We were advised by some of the show organizers that their original plans had fallen through, and in their opinion, we should cancel, rather than show up and not be able to play.
I was sincerely looking forward to seeing many familiar faces and old friends, and I’ve been deeply frustrated by this turn of events. It wasn’t meant to be this time, but there will be a next time, and it will be great.

Bummer. All fears of a burning warehouse jokes set aside, the party is still happening and still as solid a way to spend your Saturday as we might imagine. Words from party organizer Jacob Calle:

we are all ubber bummed. Trust me. [co-organizer] Eric [iheartyou productions] and I have thought of everything and can not get Andrew to change his mind. The party is still going to happen and will be [d]ucking amazing. We encourage all to bring BBQ pits or bring your hotdogs and tailgate it with others. There are going to be a [poop] load of people.

Ok, we added the duck sounds, but you get the idea, and we have to say we agree. That’s still one helluva lineup. Note that, according to our sources, there will also be ice cream and free Sparks, which makes it two consumables better than Rudyards. For everyone going, note that the show has an early start time and, though the party will go till 4 am, the bands will be over by ten (Octopus Project now headlining). The Skyline Network Glitteratti gang will be there, so be sure you look good.

OH SORRY, SHOULD WE HAVE SAID NSFW?! MAYBE SO, CAUSE THIS RENE CRUZ POSTER IS EPIC WHIPS AND IS NOT SAFE FOR ANY POSSIBLE SITUATION WHERE OWLS WOULD NOT BE WELCOME, INCLUDING MOST OFFICES. LOOK LOOK:

STOKEDTACULAR!

PS - If you like Rene’s artwork, be sure to attend the opening of his wicked sounding next exhibition, “Paradise/Gravedigger” July 11th, 7-9pm at Domy Books.

UPDATE: 2:26 PM: Breakdown of the Ballot by Artist and number of nominations. Fatal Flying Guilloteens and Indian Jewelry come out on top in our cloud with four each:

• Fatal Flying Guilloteens (4) – Musician of the Year, Best Guitarist, Best Punk, Best Male Vocalist
• Indian Jewelry (4) – Best Album, Best Song, Musician of the Year, Best Unclassified Band
• Arthur Yoria (3) – Best Songwriter, Musician of the Year, Best Male Vocalist
• Black Math Experiment (3) – Best Album, Best Song, Best Unclassified Band
• Born Liars (3)– Best New Act, Best Drummer, Best Traditional
• Buxton (3) – Best Local Album, Miscellaneous Instrumentalist, Best Neo-Folk
• Spain Colored Orange (3) – Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist, Best Keyboard Player, Best Indie Rock
• The Tontons (3) – Best Local Album, Best New Act, Best Female Vocalist
• Hearts of Animals (2) – Best New Act, Best Experimental
• Scattered Pages (2) – Best Drummer, Best Neo-Folk
• Sharks and Sailors (2) – Best Bassist, Best Indie Rock
• Balaclavas (1)– Best Indie Rock
• Bring Back the Guns (1) – Best Guitarist
• By The End of Tonight (1) – Best Experimental
• Golden Axe (1) – Best Metal
• Hell City Kings (1) – Best Punk
• Insect Warfare (1) – Best Metal
• Jana Hunter (1) – Best Neo-Folk
• The Literary Greats (1) – Best New Act
• The Mathletes (1) – Best Experimental
• Penny Royal (1) – Best Unclassified Band
• Poor Dumb Bastards (1) – Best Punk
• Something Fierce (1) – Best Punk
• Two Star Symphony (1) – Best Unclassified Band
• Whorehound (1) – Best Metal

UPDATE 1:56 PM: Born Liars are (oddly) in the Roots Rock category, while Buxton, Jana Hunter and the Scattered Pages all turn up in another new designation “Neo-Folk.” Arthur Yoria and Shawn Adolph (Fatal Flying Guilloteens) are both up for best Male Vocals, while The Ton Tons Asli Omar is in for the Female side of things. Everything else is just details and write ins! Phew what a rush!

UPDATE 1:52 PM: The Experimental category is unreal, with Hearts of Animals, The Mathletes, By the End of Tonight and The Wiggins all competing for the glory. Likewise Indie Rock with veterans Spain Colored Orange, Sharks and Sailors and Young Mammals being joined by newcomers Wild Moccasins and Balaclavas. Something Fierce, Hell City Kings, Fatal Flying Guilloteens and the Poor Dumb Bastards will all likely lose to Los Skarnales in Best Punk. The new category (we think) best Unclassified Bands sweeps up The Small Sounds, Black Math Experiment, Penny Royal, Two Star Symphony and Indian Jewelry. Metal has a tough call to make between Whorehound, Golden Axe and Insect Warfare.

UPDATE 1:46 PM: Moving into the instrument categories, Erik Bogle (Bring Back the Guns, Fatal Flying Guilloteens) is up for Best Guitarist, Shaun Lauder (Born Liars) and Andy McWilliams (Scattered Pages) for drums, Erik Jackson (Spain Colored Orange) and Jason Willis (Buxton) for Miscellaneous Instrument, Melissa Lonchambon (Sharks and Sailors) for Bassist and Gilbert Alfaro (Spain Colored Orange) for Keyboards.

UPDATE 1:42 PM: Best New Act is another full slate of our favorites: Born Liars, Wild Moccasins, The Tontons, Hearts of Animals and The Literary Greats. Arthur Yoria gets a nod for Best Songwriter, and is also up for Local Musician of the Year along with the Guilloteens and Indian Jewelry.

UPDATE 1:39 PM: Skyline Favorites sweep Best Local Album, with releases by Indian Jewelry, Buxton, Black Math Experiment and The Tontons up for nomination. BME and Indian Jewelry also up for best song with “Everyone is Gay” and “Swans”, respectively.

UPDATE 1:32 PM: Ok, Our sources indicate that the truck has arrived. Banner ads have started popping up on the Houston Press website with links to the ballot. We’re pouring over it now. We couldn’t be more excited. We’re huge dorks. From our initial look, it’s full of CONTROVERSY! For example: Neither Bring Back the Guns’ Dry Futures or The Fatal Flying Guilloteens Quantum F*cking are nominated for Album of the Year.

WOAH WOAH HOLD ON THERE VACATION - WE ALMOST FORGOT A THING. Yep, it’s our favorite day of the year - BALLOT DAY. Today, The Houston Press will unveil the candidates for this year’s Music Awards. Then the PR campaigns begin, including a bacchanalian showcase of showdowns (July 27th this year, when you will be no doubt recovering from your evening spent at HOOTENANY 2: TWOTENANNY!), and culminating in an awards show complete with musical performers, trophies, no-shows and Michael Garfield, the High Tech Texan! STOKED! It’s like Oscars season, just with different zip codes, somewhat smaller budgets and a much higher percentage of fixed-gear bicycle ownership.

SO - it being the start of the season, we have rushed back to Houston on The Skyline Network Most Extreme Party Call Me Of The Gods jet and touched down only hours ago, going full tilt on our Segways to the nearest Houston Press corner newspaper box only to discover…. LAST WEEK’S ISSUE!!! We messaged our most extremely secret contact at the Press, and they told us that there may be a problem with the truck delivering the papers, and that they weren’t out on the street yet. OH MAN WE NEED A NEW STORY GRAPHIC:

“TRUCK PROBLEMS” delivering the ballots?! Sounds kinda Mugabe to us!!! Don’t worry Houston - we will be sure to keep our eyes of the freedom eagle on this breaking story, and will post updates as needed. It’s good to be back home and we’re super stoked about today and the month to come. PARTY CALL US!!!

Classic review week continues with this review that originally appeared on the Skyline Network Radio Broadcast Hour during the mid 1950s.

Hey Daddy-Os and Paper Shakers, this edition of The Skyline Network is brought to you by the National Biscuit Company, featuring the new flavor taking the nation by storm - the Saltine. Perfect with any get together and goes well with soda pops and milk alike. Try the new Saltine Cracker from NaBisCo - crackers that snap! Now, before you head to the Hop to hang with the other Heps this evening, we wanted to give few words about this sensational new album of sides titled Houston Jump Blues 1950s. Now, all you hips in the orbit already know all about jump blues as it’s been around since RKO radio, but it’s taken on a new dimension in the past few years and by golly oh molly you’ll flip your wings when you hear the songs in this collection - strictly Fish Under the Sea! For all you squares, jump blues is like that big daddy bent blues from the delta, but with that large jazz ensemble arrangements, crazy cool electrified guitars and enough saxaphone to make you think there’s no shortage of reeds in the world.

This is the perfect introduction for all you cubes, as it features nine of the city’s greatest band leaders, including our personal favorite King Curtis (he’s got four unnamed instrumentals mixed in the records - stop and make up a name you crazy duck!) Let us tell you cats, this music rocks. It Rolls. It’s going to need a new catchier description soon, cause Jump Blues just is not going to cut it. If this music was a jacket, it would be a double letter in varsity football and being a greaser. Speaking of guys and cars, you’ll go ape when you hear Peppermint Harris’ Bye Bye Fair The Well - its like a wheelie down the main drag, launching over the heat, and landing perfect in a drive-up diner for burgers and a shake. Tasty.

Like all jump blues, the lyrics are, like an too tight poodle skirt, a little on the bawdy side. Scandalous to adult ears to be sure; they just aren’t ready for tracks like Preacher Stevens’ “Whoopin and Hollerin.’” But we’re kookie for it and don’t much care what the old folks say - we’ve got this leather jacket and we’re sticking to it. But it’s not all rambunction and rebel spirit, ballads like the Stevens’ “So Far Away” give the album depth and make you wish there was some sort of way you could make a collection of songs for your best girl and give them to her and include this.

The collection concludes with Mr. Peppermint Harris’ “The Blues Aint Nothing”, the lone man and piano arrangement. It brings it back closer to the roots of this uniquely American form of folk music as you’ll find on the collection, but trust us when we say you’ll be throwing the first side back on the gramophone as fast as a hottie roddie. So cherry, every track start to finish. Recommended.

Houston Jump Blues 1950s is available at the Sig’s Lagoon Record Swap alone, as it was somehow made only for Japanese audiences. So put down the comb (you’ll never master the duck tail anyways), jump in the bent eight and agitate the gravel on the asap to get a copy. Thanks, and thats all for today’s presentation of the Skyline Network, brought to you by the new National Biscuit Company Saltine - the cracker that snaps!

You know, we’re not sure that the economy is actually in a recession, technically speaking (two consecutive quarters of negative Real Domestic Product growth). But don’t worry, we’ll get there eventually, and in the meantime we’ve got the fine folks at the Free Press to thank for another month of Recession Thursdays, their cheap as nothing weekly live night at Numbers. Check out July’s lineup:

Woah - what’s happening Ronnie?! See you there.

Our week of reviews from the archives of The Skyline Network continues with this first look at the Houston Loud! compilation, and was initially published in late 1989.

For too long, Houston has been unfairly characterized in zines and mixtapes as a home to plain old blues, roadhouse blues, Texas blues and soft rock. A queit place. A quaint place. A place where Paul Lekakis has the headspace to write “Boom Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back to My Room).” Party. But NO MORE, thanks to a totally boss new comp from the most decidedly un-Reagan label of love known to us all as Anomie Records. Houston Loud! is the name, and if it’s destined to do anything, it’s going to get you buggin out while it blows the dust off those disintegration-prone orange fuzz pads on your cheapie headphones.

Houston Loud! is the scene according to Ralf Armin (Pain Teens, Ms. Carriage & The Casual Tees), The Axiom (playing at which was a litmus test for inclusion on the comp) and above all Scott Ayers (who recorded most of the tracks, plays in Non Dairy Creamers, Ms. Carriage & the Causal Tees and the Pain Tees and is the person to whom you actually make your check out to if you want to buy this potentate of perestroika by mail order). This makes sense, as up until now the ten or so cassette and vinyl releases by Anomie has been exclusively by the Pain Teens (Ayers and Bliss Blood being the headcracking duo at the core of the madras madness).

Former Party Owls Sugar Shack hop and shake right out the gates with “Got A Match,” putting a blister on the eardrum and sticking around like swimmer’s ear full of Ship Channel foam. It’s heavy, but deliberately paced; not really dirty - we think that grungy might be a better word for it. Whatever this new sound is, it makes us want to wear flannels and long johns under our shorts. Ok, actually, its too hot to wear that right now, but you get the idea. More traditional punk sounds are explored by Blind Ignorents (whose weirdo “Pieces of Santa” will appeal to Big Boys fans), Dresden 45 (whose take on “Pipe Fittin Man” is actually a cover of Iron Butterfly’s “In a Gadda Da Vida”) and Bayou Pigs’ “Rise Up!”.

The rest of the tracks on the 12″ range from heavy and bizarre (da Plug Uglies’ “Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things” to the heavily bizarre, like Grindin Teeth’s “Glue Factory” and Red Star. (Real Talk: Don Walsh and Sibly Chance should rust the door shut on Grindin Teeth, find themselves an aspiring young noise mullet, and start a new project just the three of them - don’t worry about how long it takes for them to put out a record, it will be worth it.) Never partial to convention, the Pain Teens outings are expected Tienanmen (aka totally messed up). “EKG” is the roach’s ear view of an iron lung patient’s hospital room, felt through the octoped’s feet as the looping noise-sanity of life monitoring and sustaining equipment makes waves on sea-foam green tiles. “Geraldo 666″ is an angry blind hurricane slowly freezing in the icebox while the television program of its namesake echos off wood paneling from the living room.

On an LP full of weirdness, perhaps the oddest track of all is “Yo Gramma Knows”, by the Non Dairy Creamers. Rather than being the screechy scratch of outsider experimentation that populates the rest of the album (including NDC’s other track, “Chuck”, a Charles Manson referencing punk ditty) it’s straight up Texas Roadhouse blues (THIS IS WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO GET AWAY FROM!). Granted, this is blues about one’s grandmother knowing that you are an LSD head, but musically speaking, its entirely conventional. That makes it weird. Are we being clear enough? Bogus.

Our favorite track on the comp is “No Salvage” by Ms. Carrige and the Casual Tease (dudical puns!). This koozbane bass and violin hymn over drums more percussive then time-keeping is given a legit creep factor by Ralf Armin’s deadpan vocal delivery. We’re totally Noid for it, and not cause we want to avoid it or anything - just cause its both as confusing and simple as pizza (take a step back and think about how totally tard pizza would be if you had never seen one before).

All told, this is waynar to the max! Are there really that many comps out there worth buying - especially from bands that you can see pretty much whenever you want to provided The Axiom and Emo’s never close their doors. Get your butt off the couch and get the Sound Exchange or Vinyl Edge or Tapes N Tapes and go get it! Party! Owls!

Man. Vacation is BRUTAL. All this sitting around in more Paris than Paris cafes drinking strong coffee, reading Treasure Island and being forced to approve comments about a review we clearly shouldn’t have written in the first place. We need another week, so we’re going to stay in Mexico and walk the streets of Guanajuato for just a bit longer. And because writing has suddenly taken a turn for the not fun, we’re going to just reach back into the archives and re-print some old reviews that you may have missed at the time. Hell, network television has discovered the technology of the re-run, so why not us. This first review originally appeared in early 1996. Enjoy.

GOOD MORNING HOMESLICES! Did you see that Deep Blue beat Kasperoff in chess last night?! Off the heasy! Yeah we were up all night watching a vhs of it we taped from cable and didn’t have a chance to check out the totally bitchin new 7″ from Blueprint. PSYCH! You know we went to the Sound Exchange release party at midnight, waiting in line like it was Use Your Illusion, picked it up like Ross and Rachel, and headed home to get throwed and throw it on. And let’s just say this - SCHWING! Gilbert Alfredo and company have done it again Tony! Toni! Tone! style with this split, putting out their best recording to date. It’s a mid-tempo master, opening with a bass bit you’ll already be rocking your head back and forth to when the guitars come in, high up the neck and stabbing at the heart with delish precision. The six strings drive this song along, guiding the many tempo and mood changes that accompany the start and stop of the vocals, from ringing single string plucks to full on collapse the moon chord strikes. This song has more parts than a labor contract - whoah dudes save some for the full length!

With Sunny Day Real Estate gone too soon and forever, it’s going to be up to bands like Blueprint to plow forth the field of emotionally concerted rock, as sadly few others seem poised to do so.

As for the flip side, we’re not to sure about this Jimmy Eat World band, they kinda seem like fart-nockers. Granted they’ve got a few 7″ records under their belts, but they just don’t seem to be built to last, frankly. I men, can you really see them around in ten years and being so big they fill up Numbers or something? That’s whats great about Blueprint, though, always looking to give another band a few hands_up, even if this Jimmy Eat World band seems likely to cry uncle before ever putting out a full length and splitting into more local bands than all the oranges in Spain.

We gotta wrap this up, cause we’re running out of AOL minutes (does anyone have a free disc they can send us?) Yeah, we’re gonna hit up The Oven tonight cause Blueprint is gonna be playing and they are rumored to have a few new songs to play. Tight! Laters!

God rules, and not just in the sense that he is all powerful. Granted, there’s all those kinda asshole old testament laws about the specifics of which kind of slaves you can have and which you can’t and all that. And don’t even get us started on the dichotomy of the new Testament’s only major female participants being a virgin and a whore. But really, when it was time for Him, as all God and all man in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, to reveal Himself and His powers, how did he do it? Water into wine. No joke, God first manifested the power of His miracles by turning a dry wedding into a week-long kegger. Party. Salvation and the liberating hope of His message set aside, this is the kind of guy you wanna hang out with, even if part of His plan includes sunburn.

Hollywood Black is unafraid to both express their belief in and confront the Christian faith in their music. On Crooked Shepherd, they explicitly criticize many of the power structures that have grown up around contemporary Christianity. This should be the the very definition of Christian Punk Rock, where anger at the system Venn Diagrams with the unfortunate shortcomings of a faith that relies upon imperfect men to execute itself in the physical world to reveal a new conception of what it should really mean to be a Man of God. They are, it should be said, on point. But as impassioned as they may be to shout out at the things of Cesar’s that have slipped into the house of the Lord, we have trouble looking beyond the flaws in their execution.

The carelessness of the lyrics on this album border on offensive, even from the first line. In “Crooked Shepherd”, Hollywood Black opens their EP by calling a megachurch an “empty room full of people”, a blanket dismissal of the thousands of American Christians whose path to faith has been through these non-traditional larger denominations. Disagreeing with the conception of Christianity as a framework for self-improvement while still in the Kingdom of Man is ok. Believing that their version of Christianity is watered down is ok. Criticizing the uncomfortable centrality of these congregations’ iconic leaders to the message of the gospel is ok. Dismissing the sincere faith of thousands whose theocratic differences with your own are probably so small they would fit on a postcard is not ok; it’s just shitty hyperbole masquerading as anti-establishment insight, and it’s an unavoidable mistake repeated again and again on this record.

Take this lyric, for example:

The Bible Belt is getting tight around its greedy waist, so tight/
It’s like the so called holy hands that choked the neck of Jesus Christ

The play on words (the Bible Belt, a region, being an actual belt) and the maintaining of the rhyming couplet seem to be more important than the meaning. Was it Judas’ greed or Jesus’ instance that he would betray him that caused the apostle to turn him over to the Romans? Did Judas (or anyone) choke Jesus, even in a metaphorical sense? Those are powerful images for a person of faith to be taking poetic license with. The second track, “Memoirs of a Televangelist” isn’t actually written in the voice of the televangelist, so how is it his memoirs? Considering the same topic is covered on the opener and parts of that song are actually written in the first person, shouldn’t THAT be the ‘memoirs track’? “Old Grey Mare” and “Revolution” are packed with more laughable platitudes than a gumball machine.

The quiet/loud/quiet/loud song structure isn’t going to win any converts either. The music itself, though not particularly innovative, is catchy at times, but the vocals are so loud in the mix that we’re never able to get past the lyrics.

Talking about people’s art is stressful. It’s not the sort of thing that you do on vacation, frankly. On vacation you load up on trashy science fiction books and copies of Robert Louis Stevenson classics and fill your days with stories of space battles and pirate ships while sipping micheladas under an umbrella. Talking about people’s art that happens to include a strong vision of their own faith is even harder. It’s giving us more of a stomach ache even than making fun of the Almighty in print. But we’re putting this out there because, in spite of what you might surmise from the above, Hollywood Black are technically capable musicians and passionate, however careless, in their songwriting. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to do better next time around with a few more years under their belts. We’re actually kind of looking forward to it.

Hollywood Black’s release party for Crooked Shepherd is Saturday night at Walter’s on Washington with Tambersauro and The Goods also on the bill. Cover for the show includes a copy of the EP, which is a dirt-simple idea that more bands should try.

Stream: Hollywood Black - Various Tracks