DO YOU DEMAND SHREDERTAINMENT?

HEY! Were you looking for a reason to hit up the Shady Tavern during the week? By this we mean, we've become rather fond of the North Heights joint via the increasingly whips Saturday Secret Shows (last weekends was perhaps the best lineup to date, and flickr is littered with images of the literal whos who of folks in attendance), but were needing something just a wee bit more to bump us over the edge for a second weekly trip. How about the option to try your hands at one of our favorite 2007 jams on a massive TV? Word? WATCH AND BE DOWNTRODDEN AT YOUR FAILURE TO MEASURE UP! CAN YOU EVER MIMIC THE MASTERY OF BY THE END OF TONIGHT'S WEST SIDE BORING:

THE SKYLINE 50: PART TWO

Part two of our all week series of the best tracks to come out this year

Eight For Eight - The Dimes
Wires and Buttons (Grey Ghost #47)
We love the Dimes. We love this song. We love the man who recorded it. But treading as gently as possible on the feelings of all those involved, a much tighter version of it is begging to exist. The springing and sprightlyness of the guitar lead, which screams, “we may have developed a new form of cowboy rock” plays along like saddle soap with the souza march of the snare, both flowing well into the sort of SEND UP THE ROCK breakdowns we’ve come to expect from this soon to be differently-named foursome. But secrets – re-record soon.


Everyone is Gay – Black Math Experiment
All You Need is Blood
We hope that you never find yourself wandering aimlessly through the falling snow on the grounds of an empty ski resort in the Utah mountains, asking yourself if you have made the right relationship decisions and if maybe burying things in the snow to try and find later was a good idea. Never question yourself like that. You made the right decision. Put this song on repeat, go wander around in the woods for awhile and feel better. It’s so catchy and fun you’ll completely overlook the fact that it’s bemoaning how much other people do not rule, but you rule even less. But isn’t that the job of a good pop song? To confront you with temporary truths of your life and make you feel better about them?


Exist – Papermoons
Papermoons 7”
This is such a delicately beautiful song on such a delicately beautiful ep. Timid little guitar strokes and drums low in the mix, with vocals telephoned and dialed down to being barely audible during the breaks. On record, this perfect little warbler is a bird in the nest, asking why we can’t just live. On the stage, Papermoons are a rockier and a rollier, and this song tells you unequivocally that you are living, and that this is one of the best expressions of it you’ve heard all year.


Fire For Wings – Gretchen Schmaltz
Laced Up Tightly
Sometimes we wonder if the brushes in the opening verses of this song are on a drum, or maybe a little bit of percussive time-keeping a loathed step-daughter makes as she sweeps the cold and foot-worn wood floors; wanting release, wanting to let go, wanting to go to the ball. Making an afternoon of mope and the way the light filters through the blinds and dust into her own private waltz, Gretchen’s voice Huck Fins you into her chores with equal parts husk, soult and unknowing.


Goodnight, Goodluck, Godspeed and Goodbye – Listen Listen
Listen Listen
The Listen Listen formula for (whips!) songwriting is to start with an instrument raid on the store-room of the Grande Old Oprey. Make a getawy in an olde time medicine huckster’s covered wagon/traveling stage horse-drawn contraption. Trot lazily through the night, drinking every brown bottle of snake oil rattling on the shelves until you fall asleep. Pick up an extra few wandering musicians by the side of the road. Stop at a revival tent near dawn. Be forgiven. Sleep through the day in the light of the Lord.


Goons, Hired Goons – Blades
Who’s the Creampuff Now
Quick! Make for the exits! Lock the doors! Watch out for snakes! Beware the CBS Saturday Murder Mystery! This empire is not Holy, or Roman, or even an empire! Who’s the center square! Stay out of Wollworths! This song has a way of running its riffs through your memory bands, connecting one thought to another in ways unaccustomed. It’s a hard one to concentrate on any one thread throughout it. Presumably, it’s about goons – but there’s nothing particularly menacing about it. Neither does it lumber and disappoint like so many Homers. BEHOLD, THE FACE OF HELEN!


Granny Clampet’s Pure Grain Know-it-All – Dizzy Pilot
**** Out the Bones
ROCK YEAH! Lest the last few tracks make you think otherwise, we are into things that get the heart a pumping and fist a shakin’. We can’t make word-one out of the vocals on this banger, but we’re totally content with any song where the don’t put down the phone and spell things out to us. The perfect soundtrack for sketchy 80 mph cab rides down the back-streets of Lafayette, Louisiana in a car whose head-liner is being ripped away by the pummeling gust-stink from the open windows and which hasn’t been washed since the meter stopped working four years ago.


The Grey Call – benjamindavismurphy
Grey Ghost #43
One of the best things about the Grey Ghost series (there could be no one best thing, cause it’s about as whips an idea as soup in a breadbowl) is all the old tracks clamoring around on people’s four-track tapes that wouldn’t otherwise see the light of day. Like this minute and a half jangler from friend of the Skyline Ben Murphy, for example. It’s a reminder that the best chicken is nuggets, and that it’s generally pretty chell to go ahead and put your stuff out there.


The Guards – Gretchen Schmaltz
Laced Up Tightly
Were it not for this track (and, in fairness Elaine Greer as of late), you wouldn’t be able to ever convince us that there are any solo-flying songstresses out there that weren’t on the sad train to bummersville. Not that this sort of expression doesn’t have it’s place, but just like every rose has it’s thorn, so too must it want nuthin but a good time (and it don’t get better than this).


He’s Home With Bones that Grow the Way They’re Supposed to – By The End of Tonight
He’s Home With Bones that Grow the Way They’re Supposed To
To paraphrase our own review, it’s like a bunch of miscreant school-yard jump-ropers from planet Angry Purple Sun got together and tried to tell the story of the Bayeux Tapestry through a combination of freaking you out and stealing your lunch money to buy you pomegranates they later hide under your pillow. If this song was accidentally swapped out with whatever was on the phonograph record they put on the Voyager spacecrafts, an entire terrified universe is going to preemptively invade us just so their children can sleep at night.

REVIEW: BY THE END OF TONIGHT / TERA MELOS - COMPLEX FULL OF PHANTOMS

All of us, every one that has ever played in a band where we were not the lyricist has experienced it. It’s a whips Sunday afternoon, and we’re sitting enjoying the day – outside perhaps – strumming the strings or plucking a few notes here and there. Daydreaming about a person or a memory or a thing or a history yet to be written; and out of it emerges a riff. And from the riff, a progression, and from the progression, an entire song. My lord, how hilarious, just the thought of Robin or the love you had to hide away or the time you went tubing down the Guadalupe and you met the fair Brazilian you would never cross lines with again turns itself from daydream into song. No words, of course – that’s the job of other men, but it’s the source, the hot spring from the mountain as it were. And in the end, they guy with the microphone and the pen and the pad ends up writing a song about someone called Lola. Lo Lo Lo Lo Loooolah. How discouraging.

The power of the voiced word is immutable. A picture may be worth a so many thousands, but a single sentence caption can change the entire meaning. Similarly, the dreaded context that the voice brings can utterly destroy the original meaning of a chord progression. I once sang a song that others wrote the meaning for. I do not think they meant for it to be all love spirited away and holding out hope for divorce paperwork to be signed. Atrocious. Let us never speak of it again.

Similar then, the power of the instrumental composition, be it rock or jazz or classic or electronic – how it gives us so few words, just the title, and lets our own hearts and ears connect the dots between the notes and the stated intent. Riding the A train. A watermelon man. A higher state of consciousness. Kings of snakes. Delaware is Depressing. Phil Collins is a filthy man. Perhaps that is what is so liberating about By The End of Tonight’s best recording to date, their split with Tera Melos, Complex Full of Phantoms. That, ironically much in the same way text-driven Sierra adventure games once did, so much imagination in required when we elevate it from potential film score to scripted narrative.

Its true too that we, the listeners, bring so much of our own baggage to these compositions to derive meaning. Nowhere is this made more clear than in the closing seconds of Ghost Boat, where this dialog, lifted from somewhere, unfolds between a man and a child:

Stories? Tell me.
They’re not the kind of stories you can really tell.
Too Dirty?
I suppose they’re dirty too, but only incidentally. Mainly, they’re angry, sensitive intensely felt, and the dirties of dirty words –

And then BAM!, into the closing track of BTEOT’s half of the record with no indication of what the dirtiest of words might be. Is it love? hate? Hope? Fear? With so many of their engaging songs having ignorable goofball titles, the Alvin foursome (er, trio right now), forces us to ignore their stated meaning and find one of our own. They hold a mirror up to us polished so sharply, that we cannot even pretend that we aren’t making our own fables for their works. Every one of this compositions has a different meaning to every single one of us. Whips.

Much in the same way a photographer might have evolved from disc film to 35mm to digital to polariod, this record is a next level achievement by the band. No doubt this is due in no small part to the production values of the record itself. It was recorded by Chris Ryan at Dead City Sound earlier in the year, and even the limited sneak peak listen we were granted of it when visiting there oh so many months ago, it was obvious that By The End of Tonight had fantastically come into their own. Those of us that have never personally recorded with him, nor heard legend of his laid-back style behind the glass and levers, certainly like to imagine Mr Ryan an angry Viking in the most anti-Christopher Walken as Bruce Dickenson sort of way – storming out of the control room into the studio’s live room screaming such ultimatums as “I SAID LESS DISTORTION AND MORE GAIN, DANGIT” and “WHEN I SAY TRY IT IN 7/4 TIME I DON’T MEAN 14/8!! TRY IT AGAIN” But in reality he is just good at what he does, and has produced the best sounding BTEOT release to date. Mad Props.

We could go into detail here about how emblematic of the actual BTEOT this release is in contrast to the solo EPs we have spent the week reviewing. We could talk about how great a pairing they are with Tera Melos. We could make up something about the sound of a hulking space freighter trying desperately to run the blockade or whatever else these songs make us think of. But we won’t. This is a record you really need to hear. This is a record you need to put your own narratives in. We know it seems like we're always recommend every record we review, but that’s because we like them to the point we’re at home writing about them when we should be out trying to meet a nice girl. We don’t waste our time on things that aren’t worth it. And conversely, we spent our entire week listening to, thinking about, and spouting out our thought on one of the city’s serious treasures. Think about it. Recommended.

MP3: By the End of Tonight - Philty Collins

REVIEW: BY THE END OF TONIGHT - HE'S AT HOME WITH BONES THAT GROW THE WAY THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO

This record totally freaks us out. SHIPOOPIE! It's like Vern Fonk decided to stop making mind blowing car insurance commercials, bought a four track, and started taping angry school-yard jump-rope and marching band chants, spliced em up, and then played guitar over them. Clicking sticks, smashed up against raunchy bursts of beats. Yet, with its defining characteristic probably being chaos, He’s Home with Bones That Grow the Way They’re Supposed To is unexpectedly, well, listenable. We’ll admit it – we’ve never been good with the noise thing, in spite of a concerted effort to get on board. Maybe it’s the purveyors, maybe it’s the nay sayers, maybe it’s all the treble in the mix – we dunno, we just can’t get into it.

But this. Damn.

Even when it’s dirging along, it doesn’t sit still. It has this way of drawing you closer, ears peering deeper into the mix, then poping up with a predictability that is anything but Old Faithful (though just as likely to sulfur burn you. DO NOT STRAY FROM THE TRAIL!) This is a soundtrack for punishing your throbbing brain for indecision the night before. It is the ants that come to mercifully spoil the picnic you really didn’t want to be at at all.

Closing out the solo EP series for the week, this release differentiates itself not just in its flat out, well, weirdness, but in its much fuller embrace of organic sounds than the others: live drums; human voices; strummed guitars; sounds from the world as it might be after the era of electricity (though a little of the electro slips through). Everyone needs a few completely insane records in their collection. For crying out loud, ditch the last few Tricky releases and buy this instead. Recommended.

By The End of Tonight Week concludes tomorrow with our review of their latest, The Complex Full of Phantoms split with Tera Melos. Stoked.

MP3: By The End of Tonight - The Sister's Crey

REVIEW: BY THE END OF TONIGHT: THE IMAGINARY EP

Lets talk about speakers. In our life, there are often several sets that we encounter sound through on a given day. The clock radio in the morning. The car stereo on the drive to work. The laptop speakers in the office. The earbuds as we walk to lunch. And then finally, the best speakers for last, the evening speakers. If your ritual is similar, then we share a great pleasure, one which conjures up in our mind only the early proclamation in Tolstoy’s War and Peace: A nap in the afternoon is golden. These are the best speakers no doubt due in part to the fidelity of their sound reproduction, but more critically, because they are, for the first time all day, the speakers we deliberately and listen to. Seated in a comfortable chair, facing them, with the perfect balance and positioning, rapt and surrounded by the music emanating from them.

Not writing, not reading, not IMing – just ingesting, as intent as though waiting to hear the name of a loved one called aloud so we can stand and cheer. For the first time compositions are more than just the buzz that cuts through the perilous distractions of our life: the traffic, the report to be completed, the menu to be pondered. We’ve never been meditating types, and not one among us thinks we could ever blot out all the thoughts that distract from pure contemplation of the self. But we think we know the peace that it brings, and we find that peace here, in front of these evening speakers.

It wasn’t until taken through this golden afternoon nap that we could really begin to wrap our heads and hearts around By The End of Tonight’s The Imaginary EP. Many recordings, by this band and others, are more immediate, and can be processed and neatly stored away in our gray matter databanks in jetports or propeller planes. But not this. This is a true evening speaker record, much in the same way Orbital was once described as an arm-chair and headphones dance band. Josh Smith’s entry in to the quartet of solo releases combines subdued live guitar with sequencers and the occasional foley-stage chip-in, resulting in our desert-island EP of the series.

Imagine the score for an uplifting moment by Darren Aronofsky, balanced with yesterday’s winter and tomorrow’s sun; bliss in the light and very little fear in the dark, just a slight chill of the wet air sneaking its way between the teeth of your zippy’s zipper. Delightful like the evenings speakers. If you don't have this ritual, start it. If you do, spend an evening with The Imaginary. Recommended.

MP3: By The End of Tonight - When It Rains I Think of You

REVIEW: BY THE END OF TONIGHT / O PIONEERS!!! – SWEET JUNK

(OH SNAP TWO FER TUESDAY!)
Gotta love Team Science Records. I mean, if you wanna talk about a seriously below the radar local label that is putting out a slew of seven inch gold, this is the one. It’s the record-releasing arm of i heart you productions, and they already have one of our current favorites, the Papermoons debut, in their catalog, along with releases by The Jonbenet and bands from other zip codes. Oh, and on their forthcoming list? A little something from Golden Axe. YUSS.

This split's title, Sweet Junk, implies a pair of throw away b-sides; THINK AGAIN. We’ll start with O Pioneers!!! “I-10”, in which Eric I Heart You sounds, well, about as thrilled as someone stuck in Katy Freeway traffic. With their trademark disdain for the low end, OP pulls to the side of road, shouting and throwing gravel at passers by, who no doubt do more freaking out than loosing cool at the sight of it. Bluetooth headsets are falling all over the place as frantic hands wind up open windows as the guitar weaves in an out of the same part of the spectrum as the cymbals, its cold jangle taking a back-seat to the fury of the vocals. The result is the impact of the song as a whole, rather than any hook or riff – a giant orange plastic barrel full of salt and water and likely to pummel you only less slightly than concrete.

On the flip, By The End of Tonight’s "I Love Technology, I Love You To” finds you in a place of slightly less fury, but the flurry is there like a tour van in a blizzard. Foreshadowing the breakthrough in both sound and composition that will follow later in the year (and later this week) on their split with Tera Malos, this song shows why BTEOT are the peerless masters of instrumental dynamicism in this town. It’s not that they stop and turn on a dime or the ability build up the tension/volume/bigness of it all that gives them this crown, but how they are able to combine the two and string together an avalanche of totally whips (and often thrown away!) parts in such a short space of time. It’s like a movie then – you couldn’t quote the whole thing, but you know all the good lines; and this narrative has tons of em.

REVIEW: BY THE END OF TONIGHT: THE GUNSLINGER EP

The Gunslinger. Were there ever a more celebrated icon than you? In boots and belts of leather, your ever step is captured by the gaze of Sergio Leone; lead in copper shafts on your waist, no girl in your heart, Ennio Morricone in your ear. You are the hero with a thousand faces, for whom there is no sleep at night - only the darkness that hides your enemies.
You know nothing of the world of Marty Robbins.

Your hands are steady. Your eyes are steel. You pick up the controller, plastic with paddle, buttons on frets. Lo gunslinger, surely there is none that you cannot beat. You pick "West Side Boring," a track from BTEOT guitarist Stefan Mach’s contribution to the solo EP series. It begins:



AND YOU ARE UTTERLY DESTROYED. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? YOU REALLY THING THERE IS ANY CHANCE IN HELL YOU COULD PLAY EITHER OF THE METAL SHREDDERS ON THIS EP? It’s like the guy made a paste out of Golden Axe, dissolved it into tea, fired up a drum machine and dared the world to keep up with him. Good grief. EPIC! JUMPING OUT OF PLANES INTO FIRE! PROCEED DIRECTLY TO THE MOUTH OF THE VOLCANO!

Special thanks to Chris Ryan for showing us this video.

MP3: By The End of Tonight: Uncontrollable Like a Teenage Daughter

REVIEW: BY THE END OF TONIGHT: MY MOM CAUGHT ME IN MY ROOM BEAT BOXIN' EP

Earlier this year, each member of By The End of Tonight released a solo EP, no doubt in tribute to the Melvins, whose individual 7”s will, for now until eternity, clog the dwindling half-shelf of single releases available at the SoundWaves on Montrose. Each of these gems, issued by Temporary Residence Limited, was pressed on one of those hilarious little 3” CDs that will never work in your car stereo, iMac or other suction-induction cd loading mechanism.

We start our week of reviews by looking at the My Mom Caught Me in My Room Beat Boxin’ EP, the three song release by rumbler of the fours, James Templeton. If you, as we were, hoping for a descent into Basses Loaded-style wickedness, accompanied by some OMG DOUG-E-FRESH beat-boxing, you will not get it. This entire EP contains not a single live instrument, owning over entirely to the use of synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines (a trend that carries through on the other releases in the series, though only here is there so total a retreat from the band’s signature sound palette).

Opener “Thou Art That,” in all its teasing glitchyness and delicate instrumentation, invokes an earlier, still listenable, phase of the Aphex Twin catalog. Typing and percussing along, it won’t let you nail down the beat for two long before chopping up the magnetic tape, throwing it in the air, and letting the splices lie where they may. It slides gently into the ambient “What Must and Shall Be”, an ethereal ambience that might accompany Decker gliding around the Tyrell skyscraper and other dark-as-gold structures doing his Blade Running thing and trying to decide if there should be a voice over to all the post-modern shelter-pr0n filling your screen at that particular moment. Oh snap, he fell asleep and dreamed of a unicorn (that cursed Skin Job)! Closing things out is the decidedly more upbeat “JQ10”, with forays into the sort of minimalist house territory that keeps Surgeon’s Counterbalance Collection on our go-to list for any time we wanna chill with a beat.

All told, Beatboxin is perhaps the most unexpected of BTEOT’s slate of 2007 releases, perhaps in part because it makes you wonder when the city’s most exhausting van-inhabitants have time to learn anything other than the instruments they are known for. Back in the day, we were fairly convinced that the release of the Outkast Speakerboxxx/The Love Below split would, once and for all, demonstrate that Big Boi is a street-wise, grit-rooted straight-up hustler and Andre 3000 the outer-space time-traveling player-hater player. It turns out, however, that they’re both from Mars. Beatboxin serves as a good introduction to the BTEOT ep series because it has the opposite effect. It totally destroys the idea that the individual members of the group are instrument wielding cogs that, when disengaged from the others, would spout out as best an approximation as they could make of the collective whole. We’re pretty stoked on that. Recommended.

MP3: By The End of Tonight - Thou Art That

WE HAVE A SERIOUS PROCLAMATION TO MAKE

Did you know mayoral proclamations are actually rather easy to come by? It is true. There is even a helpful online guide where you can apply for it. Quaint. BUT some proclamations are much harder to come by - there are no forms, no application fees and no committee to decide: only the dictatorship of the one (and, sadly in this case, no actual certificate of proclamation). As it is now December, the month in which many an arbitrary best-of list is proclaimed, we are no exception to the rule of declaring things. As the month unfolds, you be treated to our list of the 50 best tracks to come out of Houston this year, culminating with the announcement of all of the winners of THE SAMMIES, including your picks for Best Band, Best Record, Best Live Performer(s) and Best Thing Ever. We're stoked - are you?

BUT BACK TO THE PROCLAMATION! By the power invested in us by register.com, we hereby declare this week, the first week of December 2007, to be BY THE END OF TONIGHT WEEK. Yusss. We're so far behind in reviewing the aces slew of hits cargo-dropped by this Alvin quartet (six in all), that we're dedicating an entire week to the review of their records, starting today with the first of four of their solo EPs released earlier in the year (Kiss style). Yes, by the end of each day you will have just a little bit more know-how about By The End of Tonight, and by the end of this week you'll be completely current with their catalog and ready for whatever number of thousands of records they release in 2008. Slammin. Get to celebrating.

BY THE END OF TONIGHT RELEASE NEW SPLIT IN CONTINUING QUEST TO PREVENT OUR EVER BEING CURRENT WITH REVIEWING THEIR CATALOG

Let's take a second and count up all the By The End of Tonight releases that are sitting in our 'to review' pile. 1) Their split 7" with O Pioneers!!! 2)The Gunslinger EP 3) My Mom Caught me in my Room Beat Boxin' ep 4)He's Home with Bones that Grow the Way They're Supposed to EP 5)The Imaginary EP. Granted, we've subsequently learned that the final four EPs, which were released on those 3" mini-cds and each recorded by a separate band member in the style of Kiss (or Outkast), technically came out before we starting reviewing music and bringing you the gossip about which you have little interest, but still, they are on our stack.

NOW ADD to that their newest baked potato bar of hits, a split on Temporary Residence with the band Tera. The CD release (though it will also be out on limited edition vinyl) is tonight at the White Swan, with a bill that includes O Pioneers!!!, Blades, Paper Moons and Lisa's Sons. YUSS. We heard these tracks, though perhaps in a bit of a rough form, during a visit to Chris Ryan's Dead City Sound earlier this year, and we have to agree with his assessment that this is the set of bangers that has the potential to take this hard touring foursome to a new plane of national visibility. We sure hope so - maybe a bit of fame will help put the breaks on their release schedule so we can play catchup.

MP3: By The End of Tonight - Setting Sail in April (from A Tribute to Tigers)

GLITTERATI: SCENE ON THE TOWN

Oh beautiful Houston scene, you are so captured better in image than word. Scope who online made our A list this week:


Elaine Greer (Elaine and the Boys) flashing her trademark “I’m younger and funner than you” smile during the hootenanny-filled country records throw down at Leon’s Lounge earlier this month. Is that a vest? LOVE IT. (from a chron.com Scenester gallery shot by Jordan Graber).



At Danseparc’s 5th Anniversary party, DJ’s Shoe and Stacey show up the young Mrs. Greer with a duo of vests. And Michael, what is that pattern? Fun flirty summer sun. We love it, don’t just keep it for the night time. (from Danseparc’s gallery of the nights beautiful and sweaty goings on).



Lauren of Ume, who has traded in her straight locks for something with a bit more body, showing all the ladies (and gents) that the best accessory for a summer dress is still a Stratocaster (from Jvan’s flickr collection of the Ume/Those Peabodies/Che Arthur Show).



By The End of Tonight’s Jeff Wilson (who saddens us with his impending departure from the band), shows of this season’s hottest footwear. But darling, please, save the shorts for the gardening won’t you? (from John Sear’s flickr).



Roy Mata: a man for every season with a plaid for every day. You’ve got it, and it works baby. Don’t change for noithin. (from Carrie Murphy’s flickr of the recent Fatal Flying Guilloteens show in Austin)

Want to get your photos of the beautiful fashionistas you catch out on the town up here? Be sure you flickr tag them theskylinenetwork. Love it baby, love it.

OH SNAP! FREE O PIONEERS!!!/BTEOT SPLIT

HEY KIDS WHAT DO WE LIKE? QUALITY! AND HOW DO WE LIKE IT? FREE! Usually, when we think about quality and free, it’s more along the lines of the packets of Fancy Heinz Ketchup that the folks at Wendy’s throw in the bag along with your burger and fries. And while these packets of the olde king of condiments may last forever in your kitchen drawer, there is something equally (or perhaps more) delectable with a similarly enduring olde king status – the split seven inch. Let’s face it – it isn’t every day that one comes across one anymore, especially not by a pair of local bands.. and especially not for free.

Well, aren’t you going to have a good day.

If you’re one of the first fifty folks through the door at Notsuoh tonight, you’ll be the sudden and cash-free owner of a new split record by locals O Pioneers!!! and By The End of Tonight. Ecstatic. And it’s a good bill to boot, with (in classic Notsuoh style) approximately 80 bands on the bill. Ok, actually, there are just seven, but as a general rule we always round up to 80. The cover is a measly $8 for this all ages show, with doors at seven. WHAT ARE THY LINE UP, OH SHOW OF SHOWS: Daniel Striped Tiger, By The End of Tonight, B., Mammoth Grinder, Dick Chesney, O Pioneers!!! and Fire Team Charlie. SQUEEZE THAT OUT ON YOUR BURGER!

BY THE END OF THE TOUR BY THE END OF TONIGHT’S VAN WILL NEED AN OIL CHANGE BY THE END OF JULY

Tonight, Alvin-based instrumental hot-rockers By the End of Tonight kick off their June tour at Walter’s on Washington. Having on just recently been in the studio to record their latest release for way way well rostered label Temporary Residence Limited, the guys are packing up the gear and carving a path of punishment through the west. Seriously guys, no would be upset if you didn’t sneak in a day off or so:

Jun 1 - Walter's on Washington - Houston, TX
Jun 2 - 715 Panhandle - Denton, TX
Jun 3 - The Conservatory -Oklahoma City, OK
Jun 4 - Bash Riprock's - Lubbock, TX
Jun 5 - The Warehouse - El Paso, TX
Jun 6 - Verb Albuquerque, NM
Jun 7 - TBD - Tucson, AZ
Jun 8 - Ramsey's in the Foothills Mall - Tucson, AZ
Jun 9 - Modified Arts w/Chinese Stars - Pheonix, AZ
Jun 10 - TBD - LA, CA
Jun 11 – TBD - ANYWHERE IN SO CAL!
Jun 12 – TBD - ANYWHERE IN SO CAL!
Jun 13 – TBD - ANYWHERE IN SO CAL!
Jun 14 – TBD - ANYWHERE IN SO CAL!
Jun 15 - Pizzaland - Fresno, CA
Jun 16 - Fool's Foundation - Sacramento, CA
Jun 17 - Holland - Reno, NV
Jun 18 - Satryicon - Portland, OR
Jun 19 - Ground Zero w/Tera Melos, and Facing New York Bellvue, WA
Jun 20 - Empyrean Coffee - Spokane, WA
Jun 21 - The Venue - Bosie, ID
Jun 22 - Kilby Court - Salt Lake City, UT
Jun 23 - Velour - Provo, UT
Jun 24 - The Element - Colorado Springs, CO
Jun 25 - Piano Warehouse - Colorado Springs, CO
Jun 26 - Warehouse 21 - Santa Fe, NM
Jun 27 - Absolute Zero - Clovis, NM
Jun 28 - Red 7- Austin, TX
Jun 29 - The Fallout - Baytown, TX

Originally scheduled for July, their tour of the nation East of the Mississippi will now get the party started in August, with dates already scheduled in Minneapolis, Cambridge and New York City (local luckys O Pioneers!! will be on tour with them for atleast part of this too).

But REAL TALK: Tonight’s kickoff show at Walter’s has an ACES lineup, including Riff Tiffs, whose new CD we have made a copy of and placed in our canoe should the rain continue (aka N2IT). If that wasn’t enough, you’ll also get treated to Nathan Kalish and the Wildfire, O Pioneers!!!, Buxton and Blades. YUSSSS. Drive safe guys.

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