IT'S THE FREAKIN WEEKEND

While we here in Los Angeles working very very hard to prevent another Sublime record from coming out, we are sure the rest of you will be having a very jolly weekend back in the seven-one-three. Considering how hectic the last few weeks have been, it's nice have a bit of a breather, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty going on. Though we wish we could join you, we hope that atleast one of the following helps chase the rain away.

Friday
Okkerville River, Campus Band and Tee Double – Ray Courtyard @ Rice University
(Ok – we can’t find anything else out about this show other than it’s on the Jagjaguwar tour page and a mention on a website somewhere else that we now can’t track down. It’s not on on the KTRU website or anywhere on the University’s schedule. If you know something about this show, like when it starts, please post it in the comments section.)

Saturday
Jana Hunter’s There’s No Home CD release party, w/ Jracula, Balaclavas and Arthur Bates as master of ceremonies @ The Proletariat

Co-Pilot, Margot, Attack Formation, Sinews @ Notsuoh

Sunday
Keith Sweat, K-Ci & Jo Jo, Teddy Riley, Cut Close, Silk @ Reliant Arena

HOOK, LINE & WIPER

Hey, have you stopped by Satin Hook's MySpace page lately? Oh, No? Well, you might take a minute to do so, because they've posted a rough mix of a track from their recent recording sessions, a cover of The Wipers' song 'Mystery'. Tuff. Singer Kerry tells us that they're not sure if the final version of this track will be on the forthcoming album (which he also revealed will be called FALSE FLAG - ACES!) or an EP following the release. We dunno when the hooks are playing next, but catch em when they do.

JANA HUNTER - THERE'S NO HOME

If our editor in chief would let us, we could easily do several Jana Hunter superfan stories a week. Here she is filling in on bass for the Castanets on their March swing through town; there she is nailing an R. Kelly penned Isley Brothers song; Oh look, over there we see her having the scientifically demonstrated most superior of all birthdates – and those are the things we didn’t write about. You can imagine, then, the Doublemint it is for us that we have something indisputably meritous to write about this evening, namely her new record.

The most striking reflection about There's No Home, almost from the get-go, is that it’s an ideal record for an afternoon on the beach (yes, we realize that some of the album was penned on a sailboat, but we’re saving our Two Years Before the Mast references for another time). This will be surprising to fans of her first LP, which we internalized as a soundtrack for such character forming moments as getting one’s son up before dawn and taking them sleepy eyed to the barn to witness the putting down of the sick old grey mare. But yeah, the beach, though it’s not necessarily California Girls and Beach Blanket Bingo that we’re talking about here.

There are sunburns, and patches where all that glitters is broken glass, and days with flies and rotted kelp and weeks where the morbid beauty of a flotilla of purple invertebrate carcasses will have to make up for the lack of bare midriffs. There is the lurchey stumble forward of footsteps in sinking sand, and the silver danger of the wading angler’s lure as her hooks arc toward you before the reel is cast seaward. Is that really a guitar tossing over and over, or is it a discarded plastic sack, trying to make its own way Home but sentenced forever to summersault and dance in the undercurrent only inches from the respite of packed sand?

Yet, for every moment that we have to remove our headphones to determine that the waves we are hearing are in the world around us and not on the record inside, we’ve got our shoes off and are holding hands and throwing sticks. Here, at that very same beach, we’re laughing and pedaling our cruisers so fast on the sidewalked outskirts that we can’t say absolutely if those circling Vultures aren’t just gulls caught up in the mischievous ocean gale we credit ourselves with making. And at times, we can stop flying our kite only long enough to join the entire collection of our best mates around the bonfire and kick a few rounds of ‘Bird’ up to the moon.

There's No Home is one of those records that fills an empty slot in your go-to list you may have not realized you had before. It plods, it gallops, it cries, it giggles, it hurts, it hopes – and it does it with the comfort of saltwater ebbing from your heels and returning again. That’s a good feeling, no matter how cold the water is. Recommended.

Jana Hunter’s There's No Home Release party is this Saturday night, March 31st at the Proletariat. Also on the bill is her band Jracula and local locals, Balaclavas.

MP3: Jana Hunter - Babies

NEW TRACKS: SOMETHING FIERCE

Hey Something Fierce, remember our first and only skateboard and the frenetic pace of life when backpacks and a set of three numbers and lunch menus and somebody having a cool older brother with a car mattered? Grass was pushing up faster, and the lawn had to be mowed with increasing frequency, but its cool because after another six weeks the three months that followed were gonna last forever, and we don’t even have a job but its chill because allowance will get us by and we got this ten speed and a watch.

Yeah, we could have used you in our walkmen back then, but SERIOUSLY we don’t really hold a beef up on that because you can’t go back, but you can go forward and we just wanna say thanks for posting these new tracks ‘Teenage Ruins’ and ‘On Your Own’, cause they really are taking us back to a seriously better revisionist vision of what our life was back then, and giving old people a trip back to before they had to shave and manage the allocation of their 401(k) assets is a real gift, so please keep doing it. WE DON’T WANNA!

Stream: Something Fierce – Teenage Ruins; On Your Own

CALIFORNIA DREARING

We are saddened to report that, for the next ten days, the entire staff of The Skyline Network is on forced assignment in the city that made white Broncos famous, Los Angeles, California. In some ways, the City of Angels could be compared to our own: they have Compton, we have South Park; they have Hollywood, we have many many many Hollywood convenience stores; they have Long Beach, we have Kemah; they have Predator 2, we have Robocop 2; we have they have traffic, we have traffic. But in spite of all that might remind us of home (the air quality, for example), it serves only to make our buckles and brims turn longingly east. Please excuse the sparser coverage of the rock that matters to you during our sabbatical, and likewise send any news you may hear our way. Lord knows, we’re not leaving this hotel room anytime soon. Ok, actually we’re about to goto Knox Berry Farm, but after that, we’re staying put.

Oh wait, is Universal Studios here too?!

SPECTACLE SPECTACULAR

A few scenes from last night's brouhaha at the Proletariat. More pictures here. You can also read more coverage on Handstamp, which also has a video.


David Arquette sings 'You Cannot Kill David Arquette' with the Black Math Experiment


Brandon from Co-Pilot shows off the wrestling belt that Mr. Arquette signed. The two would later arm-wrestle on a pool table.


Ben Murphy (Bright Men of Learning) dons the Reagan mask.


Mr Arquette on Mr. Murphy's scooter, now sporting the promotional Reagan sticker from The Tripper (thanks to Carrie Murphy for the pic).

HAVIN' A RONI: HOUSTON

Usually, we leave coverage of the rap game in our fair city to the far better connected and qualified Houston So Real, but we feel compelled to mention that a documentary co-produced by former local scene maven Lance Walker is being shown on vbs.tv in ten minute segments this week. If you are (like us) completely not in the know about the sound that made South Park famous, take a few minutes out of each day this week to get caught up on slabs, grills, syrup and the next townhome target, the third ward. CHOICE!

CONFIRMED: SLASH AND RIFF TONITE @ PROLO

Well, the rumor that you read here first was out and out confirmed over the weekend. In case you missed the gory details from us or Donewaiting, Handstamp or Hands Up, here’s the beef: David Arquette will be at The Proletariat around nine tonight showing clips from his directorial debut, the upcoming slasher pic The Tripper. The plot? SO SAYETH THE ORACLE: “A Ronald Reagan-obsessed serial killer targets a bunch of hippies who are heading to a weekend-long concert.” Yuss.

Performing as part of the Hollywoodness will be locals Black Math Experiment, who will presumably take an axe to yr skull in their most important performance ever of the song “You Cannot Kill David Arquette.”

After the blood is squeegeed from the floor, find your buddy (NOT the blonde bimbo or the only non-white person) and stick around for the haunted house of acts that includes Greg Ashely (Gris Gris), Brian Glaze (Brian Jonestown Massacre), Jenny Westbury, Josh White (Dizzy Pilot, Drillbox Ignition) and Erin Dance (Southern Bellegosi) This is all free, btw. GET KNIFED IN THE EYE!

A WEEKEND AT THE CITY BLOCK PARTY

After a slow, rain resistant start, a little bit of schedule shifting, and the sausage-on-a-stick vendors not quite ready as early as we would like them to be, Saturday’s Block Party kicked it up into a great afternoon. Along with hundreds of others, our staff wore a path into the sidewalks surrounding the intersection of Taft and Westheimer. Here are some of our highlights (you can check out all of our pictures here).

More than any act, we were determined to get out from behind the curve on Sabra and the Big Brothers. And for our awkward pacing around the venues, moments in the rain and missing of another act on our list, we were generously rewarded. ‘Gentle Man’, the one track we had heard up until the first pluck of the banjo, is far from a fluke (earlier, while conferring about schedule and stage changes, we asked “So, did you just decided to record one ACES song and say ‘ok, that’s enough, we can stop now.’?”). Her songs are beautiful lullabies of dread, spooky and sparse every one. And she’s one of the coolest cats we met up with all day long; every time our paths crossed it was like running into an old friend.


And speaking of cool cats, while waiting for Sabra to go on, we ran into Mlee (who we have decided is a prankster, but we have no proof for this) of Hearts of Animals/Mlee Marie (left). She dished us out the goods on tape on topics ranging from the benefits of solo-ism to her upcoming metal project Vaarg. She also introduced us to crooner Elaine Greer (center), a name we’re sure we’ll be typing more in the future, and artist Terry Suprean.


From Helios, we headed over to catch Flowers to Hide at the Numbers outside stage and then wandered around rather aimlessly as we tried to find something to catch our ears (Western Civilization cancelled, but they packed it in pretty good at Walters later that night for their CD release party).


At one point we happened upon the Medicine Show plying their olde-timey trade on the sidewalk as buses and beamers barreled.


And then caught some Satin Hooks – by this point in the afternoon, everything was running pretty fast – the loitering and rain and extensive note-taking of the noon hour was sliding off the bottle like a wet label.


The Riff Tiffs did not disappoint.


And neither did Spain Colored Orange.


Mega Dittos for the Scattered Pages and the cadre of dancing girls who are an apparition regardless of the setting in which they execute their decidedly unintentionally dancey poppers.


For us, the Party ended with only as long of a glimpse of the Generic Tribe’s set as we could squeeze in before heading the the Western Civilization show (and then from there to Balaclavas, whose CD release was also that night – OUR THOUGHTS COMING SOON). A good day, all told; more pink than red on the neck where the collar stops the burn; many suspicions confirmed, and several must-see-agains added to our calendar. Did you go? Did you take pictures? Did you catch .belville for crying out loud (we missed em, again)? COMMENT!

More schedule updates

After quite a but of lingering and watching and waiting for the numbers outside stage to be setup, we have been informed that Sabra will be moved to numbers inside at 5, and possibly earlier at helios or mangos. Taking a look at the schedules posted outside the clubs, it is pretty clear that other changes have been made, so be sure to take a look at them.

Schedule update

Just talked to Sabra et all, and the outside stages are having their schedules pushed back 50 minutes due to the rain, which has stopped and now the sun is peaking through the clouds. Could turn into a lovely afternoon.

Weather update

At the numbers outside stage, where Sabra and the Big Brothers are about to play. There is intermitten light sprinkles falling and no hear on the stage as of yet. Though somewhat balmy, a light breeze has started in the last few minutes, or perhaps it is our proximity to the hippie huls hooping girls that comprise the entirety of the audience of two.

LIVEBLOGGING: WESTHEIMER BLOCK PARTY

Well, our camera phones are charged, our dictaphones are rewound, our pencils are sharpened and our memory cards are empty - we're just minutes from all piling in The Skyline Network Satellite Live Truck and heading down to the Block Party. Though from where we are (about a mile away) there is a light mist in the air, the weather forecast keeps the chance of rain slim for the whole day, so we are gonna go for it. If you're on your way there too, be sure to browse our recommendations or the complete schedule before you go. We'll be sending updates throughout the day, so tune back in for the latest before you go. SEE YOU THERE.

PHOTOS: LE THARGIC & THE KIMONOS

Photos of Le Thargic and The Kimonos from their show at Rudyard's last night. See the entire collection of evidence that we need a better camera/camera operator here.

ATTN THIS WEEKEND: ARE YOU KIDDING US?

We know that you’re like us, that you thought after two non-stop weeks of Noisy, Smokey, SXSWesty music, you’d finally have a weekend where you could just chill and drink a gallon or two of JUG with your friends. Well SORRY BOUT THAT, ALLEY CAT. The pace doesn’t let up for a second this weekend, and though the end of the dry-clean-only workweek is only hours away, we’re pleased to put in front of your our RECCOMENDZ for the next couple sunrise/sunset pairs.

FRIDAY
Le Thargic, The Kimonos, and The Charms @ Rudyards
Church of Philadelphia, Listen! Listen! and Comrade @ Notsuoh
The Dead Science, Parenthetical Girls, Graustark, Something Really Dirty @ Super Happy Fun Land

SATURDAY
Westheimer Block Party (daytime)
Western Civilization (CD Release Party), Buxton and Peekaboo Theory @ Walter’s
Clipd Beaks, Balaclavas (CD Release Party), Church of the Snake, Wicked Poseur @ Notsuoh

SUNDAY
Good grief, take a night off already!

PRAISEWORTHY: CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA

Ok, let’s get one thing out there right at the beginning: Woodlands-based Church of Philadelphia sings Gospel. Not gospel the Kirk Frankliny musical genre, where everyone gets a matching shiny graduation gown and stands on risers swaying in synch. No. Rather, Gospel in the literal sense of the praise of Christ and the glory of redemption through Him. Unlike a a Sufjan Stevens song, for example, where spiritual references are in the form of his walk in the Kingdom of Earth interwoven with the intersects of his Walk; or in Bono lyric, where God more often than not is a punching bag/complaint department – these are songs of genuine praise and worship.

If that turns you off, that’s too bad, ‘cause they have a lot of good songs, especially on those where they kick-up the pace a bit and pour on the instruments. While we feel we must tread as lightly as possible on the works of worship of other artists, most praise music we’ve encountered hasn’t done much for us. So, it’s exceptional that the joyful noise unto The Lord that is their self-titled EP hasn’t just found its way onto our iPod, but is in heavy rotation in such dreadfully secular settings as the office, the commute and the room we do the dishes in.

With pianos, folk guitars, and the occasional organ, they sometimes catchily, sometimes almost drearily, offer it up on high with some pretty aces hooks and a bright nod to what is coming from them next. Witness their Witness tonight at Notsuoh with locals Listen! Listen! and touring kids Comrade.

ATTN GUITARISTS: DON'T BLOW IT

Maybe you didn't know this, but there is a non-Houston band that we cover, and that band is SPACEHOG. Why? Well, quite frankly, unless your band is Focus, SPACEHOG is way way holiday better than your's will ever be under any possible circumstances. SPACEHOG snores better jams than you could ever write, learn or attempt to decontruct. UNLESS, that is, YOU JOIN THEM!

Or what's left of them, rather. Most of the original members of SPACEHOG are now in a band called ArcKid, and they are looking for a new guitar player. SO IF YOU THINK WHAT YOU GOT IS WHAT IT TAKES, then we heartily encourage you to apply. Seriously. There are prizes waiting for the people with the most interesting try-out story. Send yours to us. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE CRUEL TO BE KIND!

WE PLAY FAVORITES: WESTHEIMER BLOCK PARTY

Yeah, so, 50 bands. Technically, the venues are close enough together that you could catch all of them, as long as you stayed for no more than a single song, hustled like Hanover and wore a camel-bag. Don’t do that. So, because you must choose (and because you may be in the camp that thinks Guns of Detroit is a Panic In Detroit/Guns of August SUPERGROUP), we are pleased to provide the following suggested path through Candyland. Please note that, just because a name of an act was left off our list doesn’t mean that they aren’t ACES. Indeed, if you’re kind of tired of the sort of music we cover, by all means, use the following as a list of acts to avoid and spend your day in a menagerie of rap, funk, punk and electronica instead. (Complete schedule here).

NOON
Sabra and the Big Brothers @ Numbers Outside Stage - Southern spook-folk under the moss of a cypuss tree.

12:50 PM
NOVICE @ Numbers Outside Stage – Texas City Poprocks and Diet Coke experiment
OR
The Rudyments @ Mango’s Outside Stage – SKA (c’mon – you know you love ska)

1:40 PM
.belville @ Numbers Outside Stage – Remember when we talked about the Skeleton Coast?
OR
Honeysuckle @ Mango’s Inside Stage – Folk rock stompers that should consider pioneering use of the ELECTRIC JUG

2:30 PM
Flowers to Hide @ Numbers Outside Stage – They kinda ruled at Vietnam/Black Angels on Wednesday
OR
The Western Civilization @ Mango’s Inside Stage – We <3 this record, miss them here? Catch them at Walter’s that night

4:10 PM
Guns of Detroit @ Mango’s Inside Stage – COLLEGE STATION REPRESENT

5:00 PM
Rusted Shut @ Mango’s Inside Stage – Make every pore of your body deaf.
OR
Riff Tiffs @ Numbers Inside Stage – Make every pore of your body smell like Numbers

5:50 PM
Spain Colored Orange @ Helios – Go hear our Feel Good Hit of the Summer Nominee
OR
Satin Hooks @ Numbers Outside Stage – WHO ARE THE AD WIZARDS THAT PUT THESE TWO BANDS ON AT THE SAME TIME, DAMMIT!

6:40 PM
The Scattered Pages @ Helios – You shall be entertained, we wish only that their mellotron was portable.
OR
Pennyroyal @ Numbers Outside Stage - GLAM-O-AMOUROUS

7:50
The Generic Tribe @ Helios – Pace yourself, this will be worth remembering

With the weather outlook being as good as it is, the fact that it’s free and crock full of HYPE bands, plus the entire thing wrapping up plenty early to take in more shows that evening, we’re not doing well in the excuses not to go department. So, get in your car or hop on your bike – we’ll see you there.

RECORD RELEASE: THE WESTERN CIVILIZATION

We can’t remember the book specifically, but we’re pretty sure it’s Samuel P Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. No seriously, it’s a wicked page-turner. And, if we’ve got the book right, somewhere in it is this great statement about how, in spite of all the bitching and moaning to the contrary, Western Civilization (as opposed to Islamic or Hindu or Orthodox or Sinic or Latin American or Sub-Saharran) hasn’t really caught on in the rest of the world.

This proposition doesn’t dispute the rather one-way transmission of Western cultural and commercial brands and iconography like Pepsi, Elvis or the Marlboro Man. Rather, it posits that things like the rule of law, freedom of thought or expression and representative government are the true embodiment of Western Civilization, and that nobody should really get that worked up that a cab driver in Serbia is listening to The White Album.

Put another way, who gives a lick that some bastard Sudanese is wearing Levis when he commits genocide; him liking Donald Duck doesn’t count for spit if he hasn’t bought into the theory that you shouldn’t maim, rape and/or kill people because they have different ideas about what God is.

Ok, how does this record review feel so far? Pretty heavy, right – you weren’t exactly expecting a Darfur reference when you typed in the URL were you? Yeah, now find the opposite of that response: That’s way more akin to the listening experience of Letters of Resignation, the debut full length by local kids The Western Civilization.

First off, from its core to the carmel skin around it, this is a pop record (and we do not consider that a derisive label, quite the contrary). It’s rich and textured and beautifully produced, full of duets and accompaniments, be they male/female vocals, live/machine drums or guitar/ harmonica/ chimes/ organs/ whatever. Real Talk: This is one of the best sounding local releases to come out of Houston in years. Unlike the sparseness of WestCiv member and Mia Kat Empire label-mate Gretchen Schmaltz’s solo work, this record doesn’t want you going through it alone; even at its quietest moments, they make sure every instrument has at least one hand to hold.

And while Letters is not peck-and-a-smile blush-pop, even in its most dire gullies you still get the sense that the travails of which they speak are surmountable; that far from no hope, they are on the chapter subsequent or at the very least know that the stitches will be out soon. You will not find the grit and balm of too much time lived in the heart of smog on Letters. For every time this record will make you want to get off the highway and take a meandering FM road, there are an equal number of moments where you'll mash the gas and beat the cameras when yellow turns to red.

No doubt some of you, our readers, will not like this record. “I don’t like the words” or “It sounds like someone else” you might say. And that’s ok. The Western Civilization isn’t trying to be as one-size-should-fit-all Western Civilizationally as gender equality. They’re a great pair of jeans, and while they may not fit everyone, they fit us – and Letters of Resignations is more than worth trying on for size. Recommended.

Catch The Western Civilization Saturday at the Westheimer Block Party, 2:30 PM on the Mango’s inside stage. Or, wait until later that night, when they’ll be playing their own record release party along with Peekaboo Theory and Buxton at Walter’s on Washington (cover charge includes a copy of the CD).

RUMOR: DAVID ARQUETTE to hang out with Black Math Experiment… AT THE PROLO?!

HAHAH WTF?!! Ok, its been a while since a rumor has come our way, and we guess its must be because the old mill has been busy cranking out a really good one. So, you know the band Black Math Experiment? Right, well they have a song called “You Cannot Kill David Arquette”, which is pretty hilarious, in-fact, even David Arquette himself thinks so. SO – Tuesday (March 27th), Mr. Courtney Cox himself will be in town promoting his upcoming film The Tripper, and that same night, Black Math will be playing a show at the Proletariat – so here’s what we’re hearing: somehow the two parties hooked up, and ARQUETTE WILL BE HANGING OUT AND PROMOTING HIS MOVIE AT THE PROLO THAT NIGHT.

SO YEAH – In addition to the fact that Greg Ashely (Gris Gris), Brian Glaze (Brian Jonestown Massacre), Jenny Westbury, Josh White (Dizzy Pilot, Drillbox Ignition) and Erin Dance (Southern Bellegosi) are playing, you’ll be able to SHOUT ALONG TO YOU CAN’T KILL DAVID ARQUETTE WITH DAVID ARQUETTE. OH – AND IT'S FREE. OH AND ITS TUESDAY, SO FREE POOL TOO! IF THERE WAS SOMETHING TO TOP CAPSLOX WE WOULD ACTIVATE IT NOW FOR GREATER EMPHASIS!

Hilarious. We’ll update when we know more.

MP3: Black Math Experiment - You Cannot Kill David Arquette

SPRINGTIME FOR HEARTS EVERYWHERE

HEY YOU KNOW WHAT WE LIKE? Springtime, which officially began yesterday. HEY YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE WE LIKE? Good shows. AND YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE? Unusual places too see said jams. Yes, though our heady and virile and totally still in their 20s staff is just as guilty as anyone as sticking to the trusty trifecta of Montrose venues, it doesn’t hurt to get out once in a while.

CONSIDER THEN seeing Hearts of Animals at HBU tonight, where she’ll be doing a set of her fun-in-thee-springtime-sun guitar and drum machine pop as part of the University’s Awareness Concert Series. Totally free. The show is in the MD Anderson Student center at 8pm and also has the impossible-to-Google Sam Jones on the bill.

CAN’T MAKE IT? Then spend about four minutes visiting HOA’s MySpace, download some tracks (SO ACES when bands let you do that), insert into iPod and go take a nice walk down to the dog-park, the vacant lot with all the birds or atleast the pet store. Enjoy your spring – it's not going to last.

PS: After Hearts of Animals, get back to Walters on Washington to catch Dischord Records’ Antelope, along with local kids Bring Back the Guns and Dizzy Pilot.

DUMB QUESTIONS/SMART ANSWERS: THE RIFF TIFFS

Every now and then (Thursdays), we subject someone in a band that reps the real to some pretty dumb questions and post their responses. This week, we sent off our set of music journalism 101 prompts to Sean Harts, drummer for the Riff Tiffs.

What's your favorite record lately?
Closer, Joy Division's second and final album from 1980. I just picked up the vinyl version and re-discovered it in a way, their songs never get old to me and no band has really come close to duplicating their sound. As for the band we all love, the new Explosions in the Sky record All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone. Their best yet? Not sure yet but we love it.

Is there a Houston band who you've been digging lately?
The Rudyments (also known as The Skandals , ex King Louie and the Swinging Monkeys members) play a really fun set with the possibly the most catchy ska songs I have ever heard from a Houston ska band. It seems like they’re playing classic ska covers they are so well thought out, but no, they are all originals. Someone needs to get them into a real studio, because they are gunna make a badass record when they do.

What is your day job?
I work in a law office, filing and taking phone calls. We are all full time students though.

What websites do you frequent?
Because my occupation (see above question) requires me to sit in front of a computer all day, alluc.org is great. I also like to read about random shit on Wikipedia.

What's your secret Houston place?
Tofu Sandwich shop (don’t know the name) in some weird Asian minimall on Milam. 2 dollar sandwiches are delicious! ask for no pepper, unless you’re crazy.

Who is skipping Houston on an upcoming tour that kinda has you bummed?
I havent seen Mars Volta in 18 months, and that is a problem! The Colour Revolt came to Houston last week and I didn’t know about it until after it happened. I am officially bummed.

What do the Riff Tiffs have in the works right now?
We are preparing to release our second album that triples in length from the first. It’s alot of new progressive music we have been working on since last summer. It will be out in April.

You can catch the Riff Tiffs not once but TWICE on Saturday during the Westheimer Block Party(slackers!). Your appointed viewing options are 5PM on the Numbers Inside Stage or 6:20 on the Mango’s Outside Stage.

IN SEASON: THE GENERIC TRIBE

We’ve been into television featuring boats lately. No, not Cruise Ships, but small, weathered, wooden sea-craft whose function is income rather than pleasure. Maybe it’s the start of the third season of the greatest television show of all time (SBT Lost!) Deadliest Catch, on April 3rd. Or perhaps the fact that TNT seems to be playing The Perfect Storm on repeat like it’s an episode of Law and Order. Hmm. OH WAIT – CRAWFISH SEASON.

Yes, as we dig (and oh how we dig) into those hot steaming piles of mudbugs, potatoes and corn, cold beer in hand and friends at our sides, the easy-breezy scene has about zero in common with the oh-dear-oh-my that is life on the Andrea Gayle or the Rollo. And we’d like to think that this is because crawfishing is nothing like the hunt for cod or crab. Rather than ice, waves and terror, it suits our stars better to think that the good ship Lollypop dips her nets gingerly in a placid Galveston bay, in full sight of the patio of the Sunset Lounge, and puts herself on autopilot as The Generic Tribe, plays their rambler ‘Momma Come Quick’ over and over.

For a band with six albums(!) to date, the GTs aren’t showing up much on the local fish finder. Maybe it’s the totally puzzling critical comparisons to Emenem that has kept them out of your nets in the past. But if the MySpace tracks from (their presumably forth-coming SEVENTH record)(!)(!) The Dressmaker, the Drone and the Yellow are any indication of their past work, it’s well worth setting a trap for. Check out The Generic Tribe at Helios this Saturday at 7:50. (Yep. More Block Party Coverage.) Now, please excuse the lack of posts for the rest of the day as our staff is going to drink beer and crack tails for a couple hours. Laterz.

ORANGE NOONERS: SCO@BLOCK PARTY

Dang Spain Colored Orange, 69 SXSW appearences weren't enought for you? Well, apparently not, because rather than, say, have a weekend were they might be warriors, they'll be joining the lineup for the Free Press' Westheimer Block Party. There was a slight shifting of the timeslots as they, Generation Landslide and hip-hoppers Noon joined the bill, with Free Radicals, Prodigal Sons and Skyblue 72 no longer on the list. Check out the updates at our somewhat cited comprehensive schedule. Bewildered by all the choices? Well, for the infrequent among our readers we have been and will do stories about acts we really dig on all this week, culminating with a playing-favorites guide on Friday. See you in the parking lot.

HOOKED UP: SATIN ON THE VERGE?

You wouldn’t know it from our report of their early Wednesday SXSW set, but there may have been no more appropriately named place for Satin Hooks to have played than the “On The Verge” stage (you can’t blame them, after all, for signing up for a showcase that wasn’t promoted). Why? Well, they’re about a year into recording a full length with producer/engineer Sinclair Ridley, at least half of which is brand new material. People that have heard it (off the soundboard, as there sadly isn’t a single track to leak yet) have been saying things. Very positive things. Things like “I don't think anything has sounded like this coming out of Houston in a VERY long time.”

Guitarist/Vocalist Kerry Melonson gave us the skinny during a recent email exchange “It's gonna be 12 pop songs, a few weird interludes, and will come as a double disk on it's first run with either a DVD of the band's videos (Directed by Mark Armes) OR a screwed ad chopped version (Michael 5000 Watts, DJ Princess Cut or DJ Overdose... maybe a collaboration of all three!).”

Screwed and Chopped Hooks? Dang we’re stoked. Guess that explains how a rock outfit won the Houston Press’ 2006 Experimental/Avant Garde award.

So – do you too want to be on the verge? Well, if you play the drums using the elusive make-people-rock-and-dance method, you may be in luck, as the current Hooks drummer is involved in far too many things to be in the band. It’s a high bar to meet, as Melonson has nothing but praise their current stick-er, but if yr N2IT, consider talking to one of the guys when you run into them.

Satin Hooks, who are playing their third festival in as many weeks, will be on the Numbers outside stage at 5:50 during the Westheimer Block Party. Get Yr Hook Up.

FLOWERS TO HIDE: ALL UP IN THIS BUCKET OF CHICKEN

Flowers to Hide is a wicked hard band to write about. We suspect that more than a little of that has to do with the fact that TSN’s Publisher and Chief Executive was once in a band with guitarist Mike San Luis. When you rock that closely with someone and spend hours on a shabby little couch in continuous utter awe of what they write and how they play it, the tendency is to quickly crash and burn into a zone of Bruce Dickenson-esque hyperbolics that manifests in phrases like “he doesn’t play guitar, he plays gold records” and “you call it a mustache, we call it a hit machine.”

But no, Flowers to Hide does not have a hit, let alone a machine full of them. And likewise, they don’t have a gold record (actually, they don’t have any record). We agree with Donewaiting’s assessment that there isn’t really any other band in Houston that sounds like this right now – and haven’t really, as they have been doing this thing for years. And this is odd, because it seems like somehow this shouldn’t be the case, given the rising prominence of whatever label you want to throw on the bucket of chicken that includes acts like Serena Maneesh, The Warlocks, stellastar*, Longwave and the Black Angels – all band’s they’ve played with.

As Brooklyn starts to burp out more and more vans containing more and more copies of Catherine Wheel and Afghan Wigs cassettes in their center consoles, it’s not hard to wonder if this year’s expected release of their long-overdue recordings isn’t expertly timed. In spite of their long tenure in this city, they haven’t stood still musically, and it’s certainly not by default that they’ll be opening up again for the Black Angels tonight (this time in the significantly larger Warehouse Live setting - and with VFW fashion raiders VietNam). Don’t have the scratch? Well, they’ll also be on the Numbers Outside Stage at 2:30 for the Westheimer Block Party Saturday. GET LUCKED!

ADD TO PLAYLIST: .belville - Vie Olin

You know that tendency to put labels on things? To give bright and arbitrary edges that separate this from that and the other? That’s probably why we are such big fans of the Skeleton Coast, a stretch of Namibia where the desert meets the Atlantic. Who is to say, in this empty, foggy, inaccessible and utterly demising part of awful earth where the beach ends and the desert begins? Who and why will draw lines in this sand and say ‘Sorry – no deck-chairs in the desert’? How granular a separation between two things can be made when the separation may not be important at all, for if shipwrecked there, you are going to die in the sand.

Maybe that’s why we’re so keen on .belville. They’ve got a dot at the beginning of their name like they’re a file type extension, like you could plug them into a computer and tell immediately if they were a PowerPoint or a Word document or a movie file. But listening to Vie Olin, we can’t tell if the moisture and the salt staining our collective collars is the sweat of running through the desert towards the coast or the last few drops of seawater evaporating away as we hurl ourselves from the ocean towards death inland.

MP3: .belville – Vie Olin

Catch .belville (who we will now give a hard time for having, by their own admission, three albums of material that they have yet to record – GET ON IT) at 1:40 on the Numbers outside stage at Saturday’s Westheimer Block Party.

JANDEK BLOWS UP!

If SXSW is about anything, it is about getting the word out about acts that are still under the proverbial radar (well, for the bands – for the rest of us it is about the proverbial wicked free day parties). Exactly how low that radar goes, of course, depends on what level of Chuck Taylor and beard density one is looking for in their fan-base – so it therefore might come as some surprise (or perhaps not, but we were surprised) to find that the Houston’s SXSW media winner was none other than the Whole Foods-shopping man of mystery himself, Jandek (congrats to Bun-B, who was a close second, but as a consolation prize will sell millions more records).

In addition to mentions in the Chronicle and the Austin American Statesman, our friend on Corwood picked up mentions in old media outlets across the country, including Style Weekly(!) , Canada's National Post and the old grey lady herself, the New York Times. And let us not even begin to talk about the eZines and the blogosphere. Ok, just kidding, let’s begin to talk about that.

Posts that contain Jandek per day for the last 30 days.


The chart above shows the number of posts that Technorati has found on blogs where Jandek is discussed (a big thanks to Jandek for being named Jandek and not something completely un-googleable like Joe Smith). Go here for a list of blogs. And of course you know that the kids over at Pitchfork got some coverage (they also have the best pictures of his set). Add on to that the several Chron.com blogs about waiting for and going to the show, and it’s clear that, in terms of publicity, our local recluse was the one with the big spotlight. Congratz to Jandek. Alanis Morissette is writing a song about it as we speak.

DOES YOU IPOD KNOW: SABRA AND THE BIG BROTHERS

It’s hard to beef on a free festival with five stages all within a block of each other sporting almost 50 acts. But if there’s any performer whose timeslot and stage is out of place at saturday's Westheimer Block Party, it would probably have to be Sabra and the Big Brothers noon appearance outside Numbers. Granted, we have some concern that performing so early in the day might set them up for the sort of audience Satin Hooks was misfortuned with in Austin last week, but more than that, Sabra’s music evokes nothing involving open blue skies above.

MP3: Sabra and the Big Brothers - Gentle Man

'Gentle Man', admittedly the only piece of her music that we have ever heard, really should only be performed at dusk. When the last few shades of white have already been stained grey, and you have to take the long walk alone past the Boo Radley house – the rotting wood palace with no lights inside and a towering ancient oak in the front-yard so immovable that God himself uses it as a foothold to pull the night ever westward. There, on the porch in an old wicker chair, the tip of her boot alone visible through the murk, Sabra plays guitar with only a ghost-rustle of bending leaves as accompaniment.

Is it a lullaby to calm the beasts in the walls behind her? Is it a siren song to lure you to them? Is it both? Can such a mystery ever be pierced without peril? It can, we guess, if she’s playing in the sun – but of all the acts we are looking forward to this weekend, Sabra and the Big Brothers may be the only one where we sit in the alley, back to the fence in listening bliss, and hoping that she and Boo don't see us.

REST UP: YOU HAVE ANOTHER FESTIVAL TO ATTEND

Oh dearest March. Your weather is as beautiful as a Spring Break bar tab; you are the month when southern Oaks shed their leaves; and you are the month in which we are given music upon music upon music. Tis true, this month, not only will Noise and Smoke and SXSW be making major guest appearances in your Live Journal, but you've still got The Free Press' Westheimer Block Party to go. Yes, with no fewer than seven separate spaces to be entertained Saturday starting at noon, you'll need to think long and hard about perhaps not going and checking out Widespread Panic Friday night afterall. SCHEDULE THYSELVES:

Numbers Outside Stage
NOON - Sabra and the Big Brothers
12:50 - Novice
1:40 - .belville
2:30 - Flowers to Hide
3:20 - Thee Armada
4:10 - Stadium
5:00 - Medicine Show
5:50 - Satin Hooks
6:40 - Penny Royal

Numbers Inside Stage
NOON - Deep Above Surface
12:50 - The Prodigal Sons Generation Landslide
1:40 - The Chapter
2:30 - Bowel (link not safe for work)
3:20 - Ninja Stars
4:10 - Mic Skills
5:00 - The Riff Tiffs
5:50 - Concrete Rose Cabaret

Mango's Outside Stage
NOON - Soledad Sons
1:00 - The Rudyments
2:00 - Suspenderman
2:20 - Doo Doo Butter
3:20 - Muzak John
3:50 - Cartwheels in Central Park
4:20 - Brains for Dinner
5:20 - Organ Failure
6:00 - Police State America
6:20 - The Riff Tiffs
7:20 - The Krinkles

Mango's Inside Stage
Noon - The Jane Frequency
12:50 - The Ride Home
1:40 - Honeysuckle
2:30 - The Western Civilization
3:20 - Nine Volt
4:10 - Guns of Detroit
5:00 - Rusted Shut
5:50 - Buxton
6:40 - The Umbrella Man
7:50 - Poison Apple Martini

Helios
Noon - Jesse's Delight
12:50 - Skyblue 72 Noon
1:40 - Arthur Yoria
2:30 - The F'ing Transmissions
3:20 - Guy Schwartz
4:10 - Nosaprise
5:00 - Million Year Dance
5:50 - The Generic Tribe Spain Colored Orange
6:40 - The Scattered Pages
7:50 - The Free Radicals The Generic Tribe


Also, all day long (as best as we can tell) you will be treated to the Rebel Crew and Joe B on the Mango's Patio and CeePlus Bad Knives at La Strada. NOW - HOW EVER SHALL YOU SORT THROUGH WHICH BANDS TO SEE? How will you be sure that you don't miss out on an ACES gem because you wandered into a beer line at the wrong moment? WELL NEVER FEAR. We'll be shining the light on our favorites from the lineup all week - so keep reading, and we'll try and put this champagne down long enough to keep writing.

UPDATE: Schedule change, the Free Radicals and Skyblue 72 are out, Spain Colored Orange and Noon are in.

EXCLUSIVE - FATAL FLYING GUILLOTEENS: WE <3 EXTREME SPORTZ

No, they may not be a new RAPMETAL version of your favorite Huey Lewis and the News record, but at SXSW the Fatal Flying Guilloteens were interviewed by none other than the extreme-sports cable television channel Fuel TV. Taking a moment out from covering snowmobile racing and people doing untoward things with motorcycles, Spike TV's younger, angrier brother took note of one of the G_TEENS many sxsw sets and pulled in their cameras for a close up and a few questions.


Though we don't know when the segment will air, we were given the razor thin on the final moments of the interview, when the Frenchkiss boys were asked to say "We're the Fatal Flying Guilloteens and you're watching Fuel TV." According to our source, after a bit of prodding, the coup de gras went down as follows: Guitarist/Drummer and Skyline contributor John Adams stared into space while Vox/Guitardo Shawn Adolph talked on the phone and other guitarrior/singer Brian McManus applied ample amounts of Fuel branded chap-stick, all the while mustachioed bassoonist Roy Mata spoke into the microphone as voxy/drummery Mike Bonilla whispered into his ear what to say.


It was pointed out to us that the above Fuel TV button looks very much like an ACES illustration of said bassist. In other SXSW/Guilloteen related news, we were informed that they were, infact, at the Vice Party when the structure of the building at which the party was being held gave way. According to our source, again, no one was hurt, but it did pretty much end the show and will lead to a pretty bummerific Monday meeting for the local Elks Lodge. BRUTAL.

MORE FRIDAY & SATURDAY TEXT MESSAGE UPDATES!

OH ME OH MY! Many more good updates came in yesterday and today from our tireless field reporters. Here are thee updates:

FRIDAY
7:04 PM Will Adams (The Ka-Nives)
Wiggins confuses the crap out of a bar full of working class Mexicans on the East side.

8:25 PM John Adams (Fatal Flying Guilloteens)
Beauty Bar was mini Houston and Kiss Kiss Kill Kill Played. Free drinks, my new fave is whiskey and grapefruit.

8:50 PM Chris Ryan (Dead City Sound)
Stood in line for Les Savy Fav for 3.5 hours. Got 4 people from the front and then they told eveyone to go away. Pissed!

SATURDAY
2:59 AM Will Adams (The Ka-Nives)
Ran into Thurston Moore at a party. He asks "Hey are you in the Ka-Something?"

6:32 AM Jana Hunter
[Jana sends us a video of Health playing, but we can't get it from our phone to YouTube]

10:20 AM John Adams (Fatal Flying Guilloteens)
Jordan Graber is throwing some d's on it. Taking pics of basketball players at the hotel.

2:37 PM Will Adams
A wasted Ariel Pink was man-handled by a sound man because he wouldn't stop playing.

2:38 PM Will Adams
I'm having difficulty finding [the right accessories] to take before the Jandek show.

2:39 PM Will Adams
Boris [unprintable]ing ruled.

SXSW UPDATES

Our intrepid cadre of reporters continues to scour Austin's streets for all the REAL TALK info about SXSW goings on. Here are some check-ins and check-outs:

Carrie Murphy (Awesome!)
Open barz. Wasted by noon. Lotsa Vanz. Hipsters. More Later.

John Adams (Fatal Flying Guilloteens)
Heard Spacehog yesterday. MSTRKRFT mashed it up with Matt and Kim

Matt Brownlie (Bring Back the Guns)
At the Mess With Texas party front and center. Matt and Kim about the play, the someone, then ERASE ERRATA. Not moving from this spot until after Les Savy Fav. Having way more fun than expected.

Jana Hunter
First stop: Marnie Stern, then Health, again. Furniture Records was putting this (amazing show) on, free, at Hole In the Wall. Met Will Adams to pick up the bell set. Biked (in pain) with a heavy bag and a heavier bell set to the church, dropped off the set, biked to Pedernales and 5th for as much as possible of the Dirty Projectors packed and incredible set. Stopped by Arthur tent at the French Legation Museum, to say hi, no one was on. Further gathering of equipment for the show. Ate pizza (and like, wtf, cause I work at a pizza place.) Ran the set. PLAYED IN A CHURCH. Ate a myspace hot dog, slammed beers in the van, watched Nina Nastasia & Jim White.

Highlight of the day - hearing Jim White play in that church. Somehow missed every Baltimore related event all day long, still bummed. Watched Vashti and crew. Watched Castanets (full band, so goooood!) Met Houston at a bar, more Houston, punched folks, had to go, had to
get out of there, helped tremendously by [Guilloteen Shawn] Adolf and [notorious Houston photographer Jordan] Graber in getting a cab, went "home", crashed hard, crashing ever since.

EDIT:

Marnie Stern got turned down and then cut off cause the Willie Nelson bartender fcking HATED it. I liked it.

UPDATE:
sorry. wet brain.

THE MELVINS! were great. Sharber got me in to free food. Rhapsody party? I think. A+ tacos. I think that makes for tacos, pizza and hotdogs yesterday. I win. Ran into [impossible hot/cool Houstonians] Delaney HF and Adriana on campus. They're even hotter when you think they're in college. This is all out of order. There is no method of keeping track. There is no allowance for open containers on 6th street.

In talking to Jim White, discovered that the friend at his side was from Houston. Jonathan Tobin, I think? Dated somebody in deSchmog, left way before I got there, but was familiar/friends with a lot of the old Lexington scene. We talked Houston, mostly to try to explain it to Jim, who seemed curious but wary. Appropriate!

John Hunter (Inoculist, Dethro Skull) and Will Adams decided on starting an annual music conference in Houston.

I won't be out again til later tonight, to bounce around between the Monitor, Carpark, and Ecstatic Peace showcases. I'll try to get some vids, pics, soundbytes.

Thankee to all our contributors, especially Jana, who obviously had more than a cell phone at her disposal for sending in the latest. We'll keep you updated throughout the day and night. ACES! Are you at SXSW? Do you have Houstonesque updates, texts, camera phone pix or videos? Send them to adifferentryan@gmail.com or (713) 202-8968. Don't forget to include your name.

Danny and The Nightmares tape Sugarhill Session

YO - CHECK IT. Did you know that there is sometimes music played on KPFT? No, we're not talking about when a guest on The Prison Show bursts into song. For atleast an hour a month Pacifica's ditches the talk and gets to the rock in an hour-long live-on-tape show called the Sugarhill Sessions. And, on Wednesday night, Waller-based but Houston-claimed Daniel Johnston brought his band Danny and the Nightmares up to the studio to record a some songs for an upcoming broadcast.

The tracks, recorded as part of the Houston-is-crazy-right-now SXSWeek, will be on the air at a TBD time in the future - You'll know when we do.

For those of you reading from Austin and sporting one of those bandgey/wrist-bandy things, you can catch Johnston in the home-town of his most famous graffiti, playing with his Nightmares at the Austin Convention Center Day Stage today at 5PM or tomorrow at the Ritz/Blender Bar at 11pm.

(ok - before leaving a sensy-fensy comment about there being lots of music on KPFT and that its Klan-inciting talk programming serves an important role in the community, please understand our propensity for JOKEZ and let us take this opportunity to send big shouts to everyone involved with the station, especially some of our favorites like Soular Grooves, Reprogram Radio and radioACTIVE.)

VIDEO: FFG @ Frenchkiss Records Showcase

YUSS. First video from our WIDE ANGLE LENSE on everything SXSW. From Brian McManus' Hanging Out His Onion, video of the Fatal Flying Guilloteens at their record showcase last night. BE THEE DESTROY-ED.


AND

THE UNBEARABLE LIKENESS OF BEING FIRST

We have just received word from Skyline Network correspondent and beard-on-the-street Will Adams that the Satin Hooks just played their set at the Chron.com's On The Verge SXSW stage to an audience of exactly one: Skyline Network correspondent and beard-on-the-street Will Adams. Sadly, them's the breaks at day parties sometimes - they face such stiff competition from each other that the larger ones (and even the lines to get in them) can completely decimate attendence at smaller, further away and Un-Chunklet or Pitchforky ones - especially for the bands in the early slot.

FEAR NOT YOUNG HOOKS - THE WEEK IS YOUNG.

(PS - Did anyone else even know that there was a chron.com stage? We certainly can't find it anywhere online. For the curious, it is alleged to take place at 12 5th and Trinity).

UPDATE: From the comments, Sarah @ HandStamp has posted the lineup, along with the deets on the Chron's involvement in the stage (a last minute sponsor, not an organizer). Go thee there now and get thee infoknowledged.

DUMB QUESTIONS/SMART ANSWERS: BRING BACK THE GUNS

Usually on Thursdays we subject you, our readers to the responses to ho hum journalism 101-style questions that we have emailed to a band. This week, however, we are pleased to have had the LOL opportunity to convince Verizon Wireless Theater that we were deserving of a press pass.

Tight and together, the strings and skins punched out their final peak and valley, giving the cue to the audience that it was their time to respond. "TOA-DIES! TOA-DIES! TOA-DIES!” came the retort from a small but vocal segment of the sold-out venue. Try to imagine, being in a band that hasn’t put out an album in over a decade, how great would it be to hear that.

Unfortunately, it was not the Toadies on the stage at this point. It was Bring Back the Guns.

The scene could not be more different from that just five days earlier. Instead of a shout-along crowd 60 that, in many cases, had seen them several if not dozens of time before, they were on the dwarfing stage playing to an audience of 3,200 indifferents and hostiles, with a sprinkling of enthusiasts.


Rewind the tape an hour or so, back to the their dressing room while we’re talking with Guns Matt, Eric and Shaggy (drummer Thomas was out getting food) and our casual REAL TALK is briefly interrupted by way way thunderous applause for openers The Feds.

"hear that, do you hear that? Cause we're not gonna hear that when we play", Shaggy interjects.

You’ve played with the Toadies several times before, Including Monday in Austin, what is it like to play to a crowd that big?
S: it's not the size of the crowd, it's the people that make up the crowd. Austin, for example, shows appreciation through vibe. [changes to a semi hippie voice} How much is this cd? $12?! Boo man! I got your songs in my heart.

M: We were talking about this earlier, we saw some really young kids in a Pixies shirt or a Shins shirt. Those kids I think will like it. Also the age of the crowd, it’s still really young, but there's definitely a lot more 25-30 year olds.

So Austin was younger?
M: Yeah – Austin was super young

Who has a nicer dressing room, Verizon or Stubbs BBQ?
S: At Stubbs we had our own port-a-potty

Did you get a wicked bbq spread at Stubbs?
S: Yeah, oh hey [Eric], I meant to apologize, I left my bbq in your van.
E: Dude I ate that stuff at like 2 in the morning.

So, in that sense, Austin is better than Houston?
S&B in unison: No – never say that

Not even the fact you got free bbq?
S: You can give us the freest bbq in Austin, and I would still pay for Thelmas before I said Austin was better than Houston.


Do you get nervous before shows?
M: I get excited

Is this different?
M: Lil bit - Not even that there are so many people, its just such a weird show. Like, a weird show in front of 30 people its all 'Hey guys, weird show' but then with 3,200 people its like 'hey –we're gonna be weird for a while'

And Matt is right, it is a weird show. BBTG, though a perennial winner of Houston Press music awards, have an appeal that is distinct, unconventional and nearly jarring when sandwiched between a set of Dr. Rockso-esque hootenanny and the familiar jams of a band that still gets radio airplay every day in every city in the nation. So why are they on this bill?

E: It's just bro time. They could have put whoever the hell they wanted on these bills. I was talking to [Toadies member] Clark the other night and he was like 'yeah man, when we decided to play these shows, we thought 'who are our friends?' They brought us here to hang out with us and drink and play a show. They are willing to help out their pals that way. They’ve always done that.”


Whats the worst part about being a band?
S: Waiting for the opening band to finish.

Whats the worst opening band you've even played after?
S: There have been a few. There was a band called The Foilies.
M: No – The Foilies are the BEST band that has ever opened for us –

What makes them the worst and the best?
M: There is seriously no way to tell this story before we go on.


But tell they do, in the last final minutes before leaving their cramped ski lodge vs middle school locker room waiting area, they tell stories of faux-gutter punkers playing terribly and getting literally thrown head-first out the front door by an unforgiving old-schooler. And they take the stage. And they play well. The audience sometimes politely applauds, sometimes genuinely cheers, and sometimes is drowned out by the bro-hams who view BBTG as an obstacle rather than entertainment. The band is authentic. There is no difference between who they are and how they act when they play to those 30 friends or 3,200 strangers. And that’s refreshing. They get it. And so does the crew and the other bands on the side of the stage – their heads nod from appreciation rather than pre-knowledge.

To their largest applause of the night, Matt announces that the Toadies are next and they exit the stage. Reassurances all around: “You can’t mind the cattle man,” “Toadies audiences can be tough”, “Ouch, and this is your home crowd too.” But they don’t really seem to need them. It was fun. It was bro-time. They got a free 12 pack of beer and an excuse to bring family and friends into town. In that sense, from that perspective, was playing Verizon really any different than Noise and Smoke the week before?


We try to engage them in a conversation about The Arcade Fire’s latest record debuting at #2 on the Billboard charts, and if that means something; if worthwhile music is coming back into vogue; if tolerable and un-nascent rock will creep back into the public consciousness as it did back in the era when the Toadies first hit the airwaves. It’s not really an interesting prompt, and not surprisingly, there are better things to talk about: plans for getting to Austin to discuss, Jamison to drink, merch sales to joke about and friends to go see. It was the biggest show on their resume, and it wasn’t really anything. ACES.

SXSW ALL ACCESS EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE MANIA

We bet yesterday you thought "dang, it's like the whole TSN staff just up and went to Austin and didn't leave a goodbye note or talk about how their more-platinum-than-a-Slim-Thug-record all access press pass was gonna lead to ACES insider coverage of things like Jandek doing keg-stands in his dressing room." WELL, sorry 'bout our day job yesterday.

BUT - FEAR NOT. You, our readers, knew we were going to bring back more guns than Matty and Mossy with our completely unique perspective on the festival's goings-on; the whose, the hats and the wares. AND you were right - for the next few days, until at least Saturday, we'll be live-blogging the festival from the totally un-covered perspective of Houston. Not Houston as in the scene or the bands or the whatever man, like physically, we will be here in Houston until Saturday.

BUT - we know that you may want a more in-yr-face experience than the focal point of our so long a lense on the happenings could provide, so, in the meantime, we suggest you check out (former Houstonian and current Fatal Flying Guilloteen) Bryan McManus' blog about the Ausfest for the Philadelphia Weekly or coverage on chron.com (It's not clear if The Press is going to be using that pesky blogging technology that the kids seem to like from Austin, but we can rest assured that they apparently have SXSE coverage on LOCKDOWN).

PS: Don't forget to consult our list of who has pointed their vans east and helpful show infographic of what shows to check out if you're still in town. HACKEY!

1977 DROPS NEW F.G.H.O.T.S. CANDIDATE

HEY GUESS WHAT? We like a good pop song. So we’re than more than happy to send a grin-out to the guys in 1977, who just posted a pretty good one for you to use the next time you need to get back in the back of a station wagon like back in the day. You know – the ones where the seats face backwards and you’re tearing around a rural Midwest county and you know nothing of cloudbursts, hail damage or seatbelts.

Stream: 1977 – Tungsten Lights

To catch the guys who list Stevie Ray Vaughn as an influence but mercifully do not have one iota of similarity to him, gas up your ’83 Dodge Aries an hit up the Scout Bar on the 14th, Fitzgerald’s on the 16th or Warehouse Live on the 19th.

MORE VIDEO: BRING BACK THE GUNS @ NOISE & SMOKE

Featuring the crowd-surfing house-plant that singer Matt Brownlie assures us will be there for their performance tomorrow night with The Toadies at Verizon Wireless Theater.

VIDEO: THE KA-NIVES @ NOISE & SMOKE

Here they are, playing one of only two songs they allegedly completed before the evening turned into a drum-kit crowd surfing free for all. Video by c:/.

RE-RITA-CIZE! HOUSTON RE-INVADES AUSTIN

Well hello thar. Its time for the annual non-hurricane inspired trip to Austin for ye olde SXSW. Many of our readers will no doubt take this opportunity to see quality traveling acts, like Spacehog, that skip Houston on their tours, like Spacehog, or are only reuniting so that they can rise from obscurity to get signed, like Spacehog. However, some of you out-of-towners may be looking for where you might catch some of the best that the former Haliburton Headquarters city has to offer - and hence this guide. Do you like our banners? We do, and we don't get to use them nearly enough. Drive safe, and remember, Keep Austin Far.


Wednesday 11:30 PM - SXSW FESTIVAL @ KARMA
Saturday 7:30 PM - FLA TAPES HOUSE PARTY @ 1418 Fairwood


Wednesday - Pat Todd's Rank Outsider Records Day Showcase @ Room 710


Friday 6:00 PM - Epoch Coffee


Wednesday 9:00 PM - Frenchkiss Records Showcase @ Red Eyed Fly
Thursday 1:00 AM - Free Party @ Creekside Lounge
Satuday 12:00PM - Mess With Texas Party @ Red 7


Thursday 11:00 PM - Party @ 901 Edgecliff Terrace
Friday 3:00 PM - Victory Grill
Friday 11:45 PM - SXSW Blender Balcony @ The Ritz


Thursday 8:00 PM - Central Presbyterian Church


Saturday 7:00 PM - Central Presbyterian Church


Thursday 6:00 PM - Southbysouthfest @ Sound on Sound Records
Saturday - Redrum


Thursday 3:00 PM - Southbysouthfest @ Sound on Sound Records
Friday 10:00 AM - Quote Unquote Breakfast Party @ Monkeywrench
Saturday 3:00 PM - Snake By Snakepit Party @ The Blood Bank


Saturday 9:30 PM - Load Records Showcase @ Room 710


Friday 12:00 PM - SF Underground Party @ Cream Vintage


Friday 6:00 PM - The Parlor


Wednesday 10:00 PM - The Parlor
Thursday 12:00 PM - South By So What Party @ Bella Blue
Thursday 3:00 PM - Cheapo Records
Friday - Texas Music Magazine Party @ Scholz Garden
Friday 2:00 PM - Hole in the Wall
Saturday 4:10 PM - Day For Night Party @ Whiskey Bar


Friday 1:00 PM - Hole in the Wall


Wednesday 3:00 PM - Turbojugend Tejas Throwdown @ Red Scoot Inn
Wednesday 1:00 AM - Pretty Activity Records Showcase @ Tap Room
Friday 1:00 PM - Friday Fiasco Day Party @ Creekside Lounge
Friday 3:00 PM - Free Day Show @ Plush
Saturday 6:00 PM - Free Day Show @ The Parlor


Wednesday 11:40 PM - Habana Calle 6 Patio


Saturday - Free Day Show @ The Parlor

VAST MASSIVE SATELLITE LAUNCHES LP STRAIGHT INTO THE HEART OF THE HEARTLAND

Well, the kids in Vast Massive Satellite sent out a note letting the world know that their LP The Last Laugh of the Here After, is out and ready for a spin in a cd player near you. The band is including a free copy of their Mr. California EP with the first 100 orders, along with screen-printed packaging by Levi Fuller/Ball of Wax. (Mail order info)

We'd suggest that you just go ahead and pick up a copy of the CD at their show this week, but that will apply only to those of you currently reading this from Indianapolis. Yes, it's true, VMS is on tour right now (with no Houston stop! What's up Grizzly Bear?!), with shows in Indianapolis on Thursday and Louisville and Owensboro Kentucky on Friday and Saturday. In fact, the closest to a 713 set our crazy much recording friends have in the near future is March 31st in Brenham. Hello Blue Bell tour.

ON REPEAT: TAMBERSAURO

You know, Tambersauro is a really hard band to write about (or maybe we’re still not quite recovered enough from the weekend). Sure, we thought the draft where the game Body Boggle serves as a fulcrum for a cultural pendulum between dim lights and dust on the one hand and over-gated snares on the other was kind of clever. Oh, and in another, we were all a chuckling over our use of the phrase “the band that Star Trek 2 name-checks like a Sucrets.” But really, these compositions are going nowhere, and we need to hurry up and tell you to that they’re playing tonight.

In a sense, it isn’t really a surprise that, as we have Tambersauro’s recent 10” split (on Esotype Records) blasting on the newsroom’s PA system, we aren’t able to consolidate around a theme or a thought long enough to fill our rather strict way of defining what counts as a post-able narrative. Just as their 11 minute ‘One Picture Frame and One Half a Picture” shifts all around in tempo, arrangement, melody and affect, so too did we find ourselves hopping from making a Phil Collins Hair Product joke in one sentence to then wondering aloud about how it is possible for there to be so many Godspeed You Back Emperor records at Sound Exchange.

When talking about their sound and how a Latin teacher, an accountant, a radiologist and a petroleum landman came put everything together and had it come out like it does, Drums/Keyboards/Vocals/email responder Lance Higdon commented “we draw from our jobs, our city, our belifs, and our position as guys who don't really fit in anywhere.” Fair enough.

We still aren’t really able to nail down a clever way to induce you to go to their show tonight (with Lebanon, Sinews and Blades at Rudyard’s) or tomorrow (with the Nautical Mile and Six Parts Seven at Notsuoh), so let us just say that you should if for no other reason than to pick up a copy of their 10” and get just as lost in wandering thoughts as we have.

THE NAUTICAL MILE BREAKS UP

DANGIT. Well, if you like what you heard of The Nautical Mile in our podcast last week, you’d best get yourself to Notsuoh Tuesday night – 'cause their performance there with Tambersauro and Six Parts Seven will be the band’s last show. After a three year run, the band made the low-key announcement in a short statement on their blog earlier today. As far as we know, the ending is amicable and prolly has more to do with the relative geographic remoteness of the members than anything else. We wish all of them our best and hope they get involved in other projects soon.

REAL TALK: LAST WEEKEND

Soooo – what a weekend. Haliburton annouced it is moving to Dubai, the guy from Boston died and that movie that was so kind enough as to increase our MySpace photo quota took the top spot at the box office. What else? OH YEAH – NOISE AND SMOKE.

You know, we were going to do a big hefty write up of all the who’s and what’s – all the notes and all the bands and the this and that. But – whether through a combination of laziness and neck-breaking subsequents or just plain old scatterbrainery – we just can’t seem to set aside the post-performance bliss and compose anything that would do the humid memories of it justice (props to Ramon Medina’s write-up of Friday Night on Nonalignment Pact, though). Every draft we’ve penned to describe how Bring Back the Guns and Satin Hooks played the most convincingly aces sets we’ve ever witnessed them do comes across as clichéd cheerleading. Our attempts to explain how Jana Hunter could unintentionally reinvent honky-tonk happenings or theories on why the Ka-Nives don’t even need to play at their shows anymore (showing up is enough - photos) just sound like foolspeak compared to the actual experience.

And so, we hope you were there – we hope you have your own summary to walk away with. And we hope that organizers Joey and Liz, though now both sporting area codes states and counties away, find their way through the frustration and the footwork to do it again. THAT, would be worth writing about. Thanks again to the organizers, the bands and the people that showed up. SMOKED!

IT'S THE FREAKIN WEEKEND

Obviously, with everything going on, this is one weekend we were totally working for. And that's pretty much all we have to say. Be safe, take cabs and we'll see you next week.

PS: If you need something to do before N&S Saturday night, The Orange Show is having a grand re-opening.

INDIELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA: TWO STAR SYMPHONY

You know those movies where some kid moves or is introduced into an artistic environment of some kind where there is a rigidly defined norm as to their particular form of expression being done in a certain way, but our hero come from outside this mainstream and SMASHES THE STATE with their fresh and edgy and underground unconventional view of things? You know – the ones where they soften the furrowed brows above aging spectacles and youth is king and it’s like OH WHAT A FEELING FOR JUST A STEEL TOWN GIRL ON A SATURDAY NIGHT! Still drawing a blank?

So are we. No, it’s not Flashdance.

Regardless of the fact that we can’t remember what example of this narrative we are trying to think of at the moment, it is a compelling one – and one that most of us enjoy. And it’s part of Two Star Symphony’s appeal too – because it’s fun to think that season ticket holders for the HGO would clutch their shawls and react in monocle-dropping horror if they knew a string ensemble was going to be playing on the same stage that had also hosted a band called whorehound.

Oh – and the other part of their appeal? Totally aces good.

The use of strings and other non-Chuck Berry instruments has slowly been rising in prominence over the past few years, just take a look at the ‘Years Best’ from any number of noted ezines for an example of what we mean. If you’re in the “less rock in the monitor” camp too, then you’d prolly do well to add Two Star Symphony to your party shuffle – that is, if you haven’t caught them already.

From performing a live score to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to work in the theater, to their recent contributions to the new Spain Colored Orange record, to their upcoming work with the dance group Freneticore on a production based on Bowie's Outside, Two Star Symphony (who performs under the name Two Star Symphony Orchestra when they ramp up to a full nine members for some performances) is all over the place.

And tonight they’ll be all over the place at Rudyard’s, with a show March 13th at Corkscrew also in the works. Headed to Austin for their paltry imitation of our Buzzfest? You can check the kids who don’t need six strings to shred March 16th at the Hole in the Wall.

RECORD RELEASE: LACED UP TIGHTLY

Yeah. We got this one out late, but surely more than a few of you are still trolling the internet looking for something to do tonight. Well happy lucky happy for you for, as it turns out, the record release party for Gretchen Schmaltz’s Laced Up Tightly ep is tonight at Mojo Rising. A copy of her debut, put out by the local Mia Kat Empire label, is included with your cover, as are performances by Mlee Marie and those guys who we said had “goofball synths” in one of their songs, label-mates The Nautical Mile.

Schmaltz’s folk leaves country-western out to sulk in the garage while she wanders around a big wooden Southern Gothic house, strumming and crooning while a band plays in the other room even as she stops to smirk at the occasional sunflower or rummage through a sad, departed relative’s steamer-trunk. So, if Clutch isn’t really your thing, maybe try this out instead.

DUMB QUESTIONS/SMART ANSWERS: THE SPORATICS

Every now and then (Thursdays), we subject someone in a band that reps the real to some pretty dumb questions and post their responses. This week, we sent off our set of music journalism 101 prompts to Omar Olivares, vocals and guitars for The Sporatics.

What's your favorite record lately?
really havent been listening to albums lately...just kinda put my ipod/itunes on shuffle...but it would prolly have to be Between the Buttons(UK) from the Rolling Stones, Psychocandy by the Jesus and Mary Chain and Bravery Repetition and Noise from the Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Is there a Houston band who you've been digging?
the Wiggins!

What is your day job?
teller for a bank

What websites/blogs/internet foolishness do you read?
the usual: pitchfork , handsuphouston, myspace

What's your secret Houston place?
umm...Tepatitlan on Shaver and Spencer. Its not a secret if ur from Pasadena but if any of you Houston folk are in the neighborhood, they've got some damn good tortas.

Who is skipping Houston on an upcoming tour that bums you out?
im pretty content w/ who is coming this spring but it would prolly have to be the Stoooges, since theyre playin sxsw.

What never leaves your side?
The Stooges' Fun House, newly acquired ipod and cell phone.

Catch the Sporatics opening up the Saturday bill of Noise and Smoke at The Axiom (seriously, only a few more days where it seems like every post mentions this beast).

KEEP ME IN PILES KEEP ME ON SWEET SMOKEY MESQUITE FILES

GET YER BIBS ON – The Toadies are dragging Bring Back the Guns kicking and screaming up to Austin on Monday for their sold out show at Stubbs BBQ. As we previously reported, BBTG will also warm up the possum kingdom when the reunited Dallasonians take the stage at Verizon Wireless Theater next Wednesday (also sold out - ATTN: VWT - CAN WE GET SOME PRESS CREDENTIALS PLZ KTHNX).

Oh, and since we’re on the subject, the trumpeters of remembrance will be playing Friday night at Noise and Smoke, have a SXSW appearance at Epoch Coffee and will be visited by the police when they play Walter’s with Antelope and Dizzy Pilot on March 22nd. BRISCUTY.

STEREOTYPE SHOW SELECTOGRAPHIC

So. As much as we like Dick Vital, we think the Morton's Salt girl is a more adorable mascot, therefore, rather than MARCH MADNESS, we have decided to turn into a kitten and name these next few weeks WHEN IT ARE RAIN IT ARE POUR. It being that time of year, there are about one million shows in the next few days, and we can't possibly list all of them, let alone attend them (however, there are some good lists at Space City Rock, Houstonist and Done Waiting). So, our crack research team has created the following helpful chart, which seemed like a much more clever idea before we realized how poorly it would look even after hours of effort. We hope it helps.

APPEARENCE	IN THE MOOD FOR	THEN GO SEE	HERE
THURSDAY MARCH 8
	Dude - Metal like I have never seen before, again	Clutch	Warehouse Live
FRIDAY MARCH 9
	I kinda wanna think.	Two Star Symphoney	Rudyards
	I like cold beverages	G Love and His Special Sauce	Warehouse Live
	Darn Hipsters, Get off my Yard!	Noise and Smoke Festival	Notsuoh
	Dude. Metal.	Winger	The Scout Bar
SATURDAY MARCH 10
	CHURKIN LURKIN!	Deerhoof	Numbers
	How Many Nights is this thing?!	Noise and Smoke	The Axiom
	I wanna kinda check out some locals I haven't heard before	The Smoke Eaters	Fitzgerald's
	Dude. As much Metal as inhumanly possible.	Texas Metal Fest	The Meridian
SUNDAY MARCH 11
	Some more locals would be cool	Co-Pilot, Margot, Antarctica Starts Here	Walter's
	MEDIUM RAAARE!	Peelander Z	Fitzgeralds
	I need material for my Live Journal	Snow Patrol	Verizon Wireless
MONDAY MARCH 12
	Dude. What if like there was metal that was faster than fast and had 12 minutes guitar solos about medieval battles	Dragon Force	Verizon Wireless Theater
	Sup.	Fck Up / Fatal Flying Guilloteens	Walter's
	I am totally on a winning streak with this local stuff	Lebanon/ Sinews/ Tambersauro/ Blades	Rudyards
TUESDAY MARCH 13
	say man.	Big Business	White Swan
	i'm broke. something free and pitchforky	Birds of Avalon, Ladyhawk, Looks Good to Me, The Castanets	The Proletariat
	I'm going for a four-peat. C'mon clutch city!	Tambersauro, The Nautical Mile, Constants, Six Parts Seven	Notsuoh
	HAY THAR GUYS! WHATS GOING ON?	Shout Out Out Out	The Mink
WEDNESDAY MARCH 14
	Talk to me, now, I'm Lonely	Albert Hammond Jr.	The Meridian
	SPICE MUST FLOW!	Datarock, The Presets	Engine Room
	Oh Word?	Pelican	Walter's
	THIS would NEVER happen at the MUCKY DUCK	The Toadies, Bring Back the Guns	Verizon Wireless
THURSDAY MARCH 15
	MY GOD. IT ARE FULL OF STARS.	John Digweed, MSTRKRFT	Warehouse Live
	Something my older cousin liked	The Tragicly Hip	Scout Bar
FRIDAY MARCH 16
	A sassy British lassy.	Lilly Allen	Engine Room
	Sup. Dance Time. Problem?	Scissor Sisters	Verizon Wireless Theater
SATURDAY MARCH 17
	Think Hop time again	RJ2D	Warehouse Live
	Chill	Sharks and Sailors, This Moment In Black History, Sinews	Walter's
SUNDAY MARCH 18
	Guess I should see atleast one touring show	Deerhunter, Black Lips	The Mink
	Boys	Hella	The Proletariat
	YEAAHH BOOOOOOY!	Public Enemy	Warehouse Live
	HAY THAR. WHAZ GOIN ON?	ZZ TOP	The Rodeo

N&S - SET TIMES

Can you believe it? It’s already Wednesday afternoon and we haven’t yet done a single post about Noise and Smoke yet?! It’s like our entire staff has a day job or something. But what possible news could there be after weeks of saturation coverage? How about the set times and lineup – BAM:

Friday @ Notsuoh
6:00 Cop Warmth
7:00 Eat Grapes
8:00 Jana Hunter
9:00 Finally Punk
10:00 Bring Back the Guns
11:00 Satin Hooks
12:00 The Ka-nives
1:00 Ume

Saturday @ The Axiom
8:00 Sporatics
9:00 Blades
10:00 The Wiggins
11:00 Skullening
12:00 Something Fierce
1:00 Indian Jewelry

Yes, that is correct, Friday gets kicked off at 6pm sharp, so don't dally during your happy hour. Also, we're not sure that we've ever pointed out that this whole shebang is all ages. N2IT.

PS: The bass player for Blades has had a catastrophe with his bass head and is on the look-out for one to borrow or rent. If you are so inclined, email him.

WOODLANDS NATIVE RELEASES RECORD

A band fronted by a guy originally from The Woodlands, Edwin Farnham Butler III, apparently released a record of some sort today. We tried contacting them through their MySpace, but I guess they’re busy or something. Though he has gone Canadian, we’ve heard that the new record is pretty good and that you might want to like check it out or something.

(Yeah, it’s a slow day, so what.)

HEAR FOR YOURSELF: JANA HUNTER: "DUETS ARE CORNY"

You know that annoying way we sometimes talk about tracks or whatever that we have heard but you haven't and so you instead are forced to read our middle-school poetry metaphors about it (annoying, isn't it)? Well, we are as pleased as punch to be able to transport you through time and space back to the fabled Faegan House living room/recording studio and relive the funny haha of John McCauley/Deer Tick and Jana Hunter talking about recording some duets. Let thy ears do the writing:

MP3: John McCauley and Jana Hunter - Duets are Corny

Jana, as we have reported in one million other posts will be playing Noise and Smoke at Notsuoh Friday night and has at least one appearance at SXSW later in the month.

BECAUSE WE WERE BORED: Episode #1

Are podcasts lame? Prolly. Are they the product of people with as much time as ego on their hands? likely. Which is why The Skyline Network is pleased to announce our occasional podcast series, Because We Were Bored. We have no idea how this stuff works, so just download it below and pretend like you got it from the iTunes store or something.

Click here to download

In this episode of BWWB, we're taking a look at that whole 'bands in outer-space' thing we talked about a little bit ago. Here's what you'll hear excerpts of and asinine commentary on:

Hemyah - A Silent Visit
Margot - T Minus 120
By The End of Tonight - Setting Sail in April
Blades - Thickass Cable
Tambersauro - One Picture Frame and One Half of a Picture
Storms Threaten to Destroy - Intelligent Ape
Sharks and Sailors - Topple the Pillar
The Nautical Mile - The Air Over
Antarctica Starts Here - Shannon
Co-Pilot - Low Earth Orbit

SCO: We Wish You a Deathy Christmas

Over the weekend we got a new roommate, found lost sport coat, scored the last copy of the Blue Letter/Tambersauro 10“ split from Sound Exchange (attn Esotype Records: get to re-stocking) and were leaked a few more tracks from Sneaky Like a Villain, the forthcoming Spain Colored Orange LP. And, it turns out, in addition to containing the foremost candidate for feel good hit of the summer (‘Who Am I’), the new record also contains a track that might well score the Grammy for “Best Christmas Song to Put on Repeat while Using a Gas Oven as a Pillow.”

Ambient and creepy, ‘Christmas Night’ slowly drips down the walls to join a puddle of black tar on the floor below. Forget jingle bells and heralding trumpets, all you’ll find here are lonely piano clinks, sad horns, choral moans and the spooky strings of Two Star Symphony (whose accompaniment is found throughout the album).

Oh and the other tracks are good too – and confirm our earlier sentiments. We’ll share when we can.

BUZZFEST ANNOUNCED: YOU CAN SKIP TO THE NEXT POST

OH NO WHAT SHALL WE DO! OH NO HOW WILL WE DECIDE! The Buzz announced the lineup for BUZZFEST 19 today, and it turns out that both of Houston’s embarrassing annual music festivals take place on the SAME DAY (April 21st). So, shall you drive downtown to see George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic, or shall you charter a flight to the Woodlands for the following:

Main Stage: Seether , Puddle of Mudd , Papa Roach, 3 Days Grace, Hinder, Jet, Chevelle and Smile Empty Soul

Side Stage: Blue October, Buckcherry, Finger 11, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Saosin, The Exies, The Vanished and Autovein

VOM!

IT'S THE FREAKIN WEEKEND

Some Weekends, we just can’t help but put on our best sequins for. Rep the Real:

FRIDAY
The Turkeys/Act of God @ PJ’s Sports Bar
Balaclavas @ 1415 California
By the End of Tonight/ O Pioneers!!!@ Notsuoh
Le Crash Club @ The Mink
L.A.nce Martin’s C-Ya Later Karaoke Party @ The Proletariat

SATURDAY
Bright Men of Learning @ Last Concert Café (2pm!)
Houston Rollergirls Present DERBYOKE 3 @ The Proletariat
Danseparc @ Numbers
Spain Colored Orange/Paris Falls/The Kimonos @ The Balinese Room (Galveston)

SUNDAY
Bobby Conn @ Notsuoh
The Jonbenet @ Walter’s
Justin Timberlake @ Toyota Center

IN PROGRESS: JANA HUNTER/DEER TICK DUETS

What highlight to pick from an evening with Jana Hunter and Deer Tick sharing a few tracks from their in-progress duets album: Was it instances of affected Texas accents? Was it the Black Velvets, a mix of champagne and Guinness that Mr. Tick (whose driver’s license gives him the nickname “John McCauley”) introduced us to as the favored drink of Roaring ‘20s NYC Mayor Jimmy Walker? Was it an open-doored pickup truck piloted by Will Adams roaring down the street with John Hunter on the roof of the cab? Was it the pizza? Or was it the on-tape dialogue between Jana and Deer that contains the retort “Duet albums are Corny”

We’ll save the context on that last one for another day (i.e. MP3 coming soon).

But yes, its true, like Nat & Natalie, Sinatra & Bono and Huey & Gweneth before them, Jana Hunter and Deer Tick are in the middle of recording not just one, but an entire album’s worth of duets. The track list includes ‘Stranded in Your Love’, ‘Islands in the Stream’ plus a healthy assortment of country and soul miscellania that shall remain cloaked in mystery for the moment.

Wherever did from such mischief spring? Sayeth Jana: “One impetus was definitely john's wicked crooner style. And I was [messed] up on a tour that was way monotonous, oppressively so. The idea could have easily been something more ridiculous and even worse than a duets record.” Well, it may be ridiculous, but it sure sounded aces.

Even the unfinished, unmixed arrangements that we got a taste of showed that Deer Tick is, in fact, a wicked crooner, and that the fever between her cat and his scratch will be worth the wait. And wait you shall, as Hunter doesn’t expect the album to be out until late this year at the earliest as she and recent local beard-club president Will Adams work on the arrangements (John has returned to his native Providence – come back soon).

Fear not, Jana’s second full length, There’s No Home, comes out on Gnomonsong April 2nd. And you don’t even have to wait that long – the album’s release party is hosted by Wicked Poseur’s Arthur Bates at the Proletariat March 31st . That evening, Jracula, Jana’s band with Aaron Bartz, Jay Crossley (woozyhelmet) and Toto Miranda (woozyhelmet/The Octopus Project) will ascend from their coffin crypt to suck out our blood alongside stage-sharers Balaclavas. Corny.

Oh yeah, SXSW INFO HERE.

Stream: Jana Hunter - various
Stream: Deer Tick - various

DUMB QUESTIONS/SMART ANSWERS: BRIGHT MEN OF LEARNING

Every now and then, we subject someone in a band that reps the real to some pretty dumb questions and post their responses. This week, we sent off our set of music journalism 101 prompts to Marshall Preddy, vocals and guitars for Bright Men of Learning.

What's your favorite record lately?
Brian McManus left a comment on my year-end Top 10 list recommending Ghostface Killah's Fishscale. I'm embarrassingly ignorant about rap/hop music, and I don't own a single Wu-Tang record, but I bought Fishscale, and I can't stop listening to it. Not being a rap music aficionado, I can't reliably tell you why it surpasses the limited number of other rap musics I've heard. But along with the new ones from Clipse and Lupe Fiasco, it's among my best purchases this year.

Is there a Houston band who you've been digging lately?
I love Something Fierce. LOVE THAT BAND. Love their record. They're really nice kids, and their songs -- this will sound dorky -- are really well constructed. All the tracks on their new one have these swell choruses that avoid leaning on the typical LOUDsoftLOUD dynamic. They're just loud. But like the Dimes, you can hear a clear Pixies influence in the changes. Yeah, it's still formulaic punk, but it's easy to forget they're using a formula. And it's nice to hear a modern pop-punk band get their guitar tone right. I'm not sure why all these emo bands take their stacks into the castrati zone, but it needs to stop.

Also, I saw Inoculist recently (probably for the last time, unfortunately since I think John Hunter and/or Heath Flagtvedt are moving). The entire show was pretty great, but I love listening to Heath play guitar. He's been a pal of mine for ever, but that Inoculist show surprised me. He's vastly improved from his days with Matty and Mossy, and he was really good then. He's just one of those gifted players who can get away with these sweetly languorous guitar solos. He's no technical virtuoso, but his brand of slowhand is full of purpose and grace. I could listen to him play all day long.

What is your day job?
I need to get one pretty soon. Right now I'm a law student at the University of Houston. I am also good at the Internet. And lately I've been playing a lot of Zelda on the Wii.

REAL TALK: CRUCIAL WEBSITES?
I don't read a lot of Music sites anymore. The music sites I do read are local blogs, namely Nonalignment Pact and Houston Calling. Ramon Medina and company have been doing a really nice job with NAP. And Skyline Network, of course. Mostly though, I read a mix of Web/tech blogs ( e.g., Techcrunch, Ars Technica) and legal blogs (The Volokh Conspiracy, Concurring Opinions). Lately I've been doing a ton of reading on Insurance Law. I know that sounds fascinating.

Sites I use on a regular basis:
News: Slate, NYTimes
News reader: Google Reader
Music: Last.fm, Emusic, ReverbNation
Social networking: Facebook (so much better than Myspace)
Blogging: I use Vox for my personal blog.

What's your secret Houston place?
I'm not sure I have a secret Houston place. I've lived here continuously for more than 30 years, so there's definitely some nooks and crannies I prolly know about. Recently, though, I ate at the District 7 Grill for the first time. They've been around since 2003, but I have yet to talk to any pals who know the place. Part of the problem is they're located on Hutchins, to the east of Downtown. But they have a new location in Midtown at 501 Pierce. Holy crap, it's seriously the best all-American food I've had in this city. It's the only place I know of that comes correct with their gumbo. It's working class gumbo. Not as good as that what my cajun folk make, but it's close.

Who is skipping Houston on an upcoming tour that kinda has you bummed?
I just got my tickets to Yo La Tengo. First time they're coming in six years, and they've been my favorite band since '93. Nothing else matters. I am a happy man.

What is never far from your side?
My girlfriend, Jordan.

What does BMOL have in the works right now?
We're about to go into the studio to start our second record. We start tracking March 24. We're using Chris Ryan (aka Dead City Sound) again, since he did a great job with our last one. He's got a new place now, with isolation rooms and all that. We recorded the last record at Clark's (a nightclub), which, uh, was less than ideal. This is also the first time that we're recording with Ben Murphy as our glorious fifth wheel/cowbell specialist. Since he can play several instruments and knows a crapload about recording, I think adding him is going to have a pretty big effect on how this record sounds. It's probably going to be a bit more polished and pretty. There will definitely be some keyboards, some harmonies, and a few other nice touches. And there's going to be a lot more variety in the songwriting. Yeah, I'm still writing and singing lead nearly every song, but there's a bit more range among our new tracks. There are some nice slow jams, some guitar freakout stuff, and a few other curveballs. So yeah, there will be differences. We're still trying to rip of the Replacements, though.

But before that record comes out, you can check out Bright Men of Learning Friday (March 2nd) 2pm live on KTRU, or at about the same time on Saturday where they will be playing the Rise Benefit at the Last Concert Cafe.

MP3: Bright Men of Learning - Cross