REVIEW: HELL CITY KINGS/I AM WOLF SPLIT

In the beginning, there was Rock and Roll and there was no need for supplemental adjectives. Times were simpler then. But now, longer in the tooth perhaps, but just as vital, we find rock and roll to be like nearly anything out there – requiring clarification. Classic Rock, Hard Rock, College Rock, Indie Rock, Punk Rock, Country Rock, Christian Rock, Math Rock, Art Rock, Progressive Rock, and on and on and on. Even the great one, Billy Joel, in his bemoaning celebration of the back-beat’s diversity (‘It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me), is unable to take a completely rejectionist standpoint, employing himself a number of the quick and dubiously descriptive labels on which we all rely for such things as the sound of white boys playing with skinny ties.

Now old enough to be teased about its age with a birthday party of black balloons and greeting cards with instructions on ear-hair grooming, Rock and Roll, as an unaccompanied descriptive label, has gone full circle post-modern. Originally, “Rock and Roll” was slang from the Black Venacular to mean sex (‘rock’ being ‘shake up’ as in “rock the boat” and ‘roll’ being an English term for the nasty in use for hundreds of years, such as “roll in the hay”). So, while we may have it shatterpainted onto our brains the third part of the phrase “Sex, Drugs and….”, its pretty unlikely that very man of us drop the needle on a Roy Orbison LP and think of it as Sex Music.

No. Nowadays, Rock and Roll, and a description for a particular form of rock music, has come to describe an approach to the genre which hyper-embodies the particular cultural connotations and myths associated with the phenomenon. Sex and drugs are a part of this. So is hard living, fast dying, deals with the devil, a general toughness, the preference for volume and directness over subtlety and a predilection for living by one’s own anti-societal rules with the consequences not generally rising to the necessity of changing one’s behavior. Banging your head for an example to put meaning to our Liberal Arts mumbo jumbo? Go pick up a copy of the Hell City Kings/I am Wolf split 7”.

On it, the Kings put forth two convincing exhibits as to why they are among Houston’s best in Chuck Berry-ish parent frightening, popping up seamlessly in any coctail party (ok, Jaeger and Lone Star drinking binge) where Rock and Roll re-invigorators like Turbonegro and The Murder City Devils would be welcome. Their contributions to the split, ‘Soundtrack to the Apocalypse’ and ‘Rock it Like You Talk It’ are maximizing in their attitude, invigoratingly straight-forward in their structure and positively uninterested in navel-staring lyrical contemplation on topics such as the loss of a favorite cardigan. Streets run with blood; the devil comes calling; the fight of your life; switchblades, freight-trains and dead-end roads. The guitars blister from the heat of their licks and the gain of their overdrive; the drummer is not taking it easy.

I Am Wolf is a perfect pairing for when you flip the acetate, even though there is far greater temptation to throw the word ‘punk’ into one’s description of them (you are free to disagree – anyone who owns Damaged only so they can play ‘TV Party’ at hipster-dance parties is far from qualified to say what is and is not punk rock). Though with song titles alone (‘Devil in You’ and ‘Drinking and Thinking’) IAW lay out a convincing and fun Rock and Roll argument that refuses to use coasters on nice furniture. It too is ragged, most likely does not closely monitor compliance with the FDA food pyramid and is definitely not on a first name basis with their local drycleaner. Recommended.

The Hell City Kings/I Am Wolf split is available online from Interpunk, and features screened artwork designed by local poster hero Give Up. You can catch the Hell City Kings June 9th at Rudyard's with Whorehound. I Am Wolf's next Houston outing is June 26th with Looser Life at Notsuoh.

JUGENDMENT DAY: HELL CITY KINGS TO OPEN FOR TURBONEGRO

Remember last week when we told you the Hell City Kings were taking some time off to work on new material? Well, sorry 'bout that; turns out that we'll just have to hear those songs one more time as the Kings are putting their hiatus on hiatus to warm up the crowds for Norway's Turbonegro, March 15th at the White Rabbit in San Antonio. So - to get the timeline straight - in February they played a set as Turbonegro and in March they will play a set with Turbonegro. Oh, and in there somewhere are two 7" releases, a new CD and those new songs they are writing. Yeah, but what are they really doing with their free time?

STREAM: Hell City Kings - Various Tracks

Week in Review: Other News

A Summary of our Other News postings from last week.

• Miss the Contingency as Fugazi? They're playing that set 2/18 at Rudz
• Free Sporatics CDrs at their Shows this Week
• Hell City Kings: Tonight is our Last Show For a While
• Turkeys/Act of God Show Moved to PJ's
• Houstonist Weekend Mardi Gras Picks
• Handstamp Seeks Reader Rodeo Reviews
• John Nova Lomax and Daniel Mee Talk about Indie Rock
• Milli Vanilli film to be made
• SNEAK PEAK: Rough Mixes of New Tracks by The Kimonos
• YUSS! Beyonce is SI's Swimsuit Issue Cover Model
• Houstonist Announces Light Rail Pub Crawl
• HoustonSoReal Covers the Bun B Style Wars Screening and Afterparty
• The Wiggins/RUA MINX, The Sporatics, others Saturday Night @ Notsuoh
• Boo Goo Doo Boom Offers Helpful Valentine's Day Mix
• Mourge City and The Contingency Wish You a Very Jugend Valentines
• Red Star of the Solar Federation Discuss Desire to Become More Radio Friendly
• Hosuton Press Unveils Mixtape Series that Includes no Houston Bands
• Houston Punk Archives Review Spikefest
• Sharks and Sailors/My Education/Red Sparrows 2/21 @ Walters

Hell City Kings Make it Even More Obvious That You are Sitting Around Not Doing Jack

There are those days when you feel like you’ve been pretty productive: cleaned your room, knocked out the groceries, paid some bills and even got your oil changed and worked on your Peter, Bjorn and John vs. Jay Z remix. And then you hear what the Hell City Kings have in their queue and realize that you haven’t quite done squat. Yes, the Turbonegro-covering men of Texan denim have a full spring of releases and other plans that put your to-do list quite to shame. Due out next week is a split 7” with Houston punks I Am Wolf (available for sale Tuesday on their MySpace page). In March, Cutthroat Records will issue their Southern Belles 7” and then, after some time recording, they’ll be putting out a CD of 6 studio tracks and 5 or so live ones.

When asked about why they were taking some time off from playing live, guitarist Bill Fool responded that they have been playing the same stuff for quite a while, and with the impending SXSW musical anti-dearth it seemed like a good opportunity to take some time off and work on new material. But your reprieve won’t last long: Fool states that the gang will be back on the stage in late March or April. If you don’t feel like waiting till then, check them out tonight at Rudyard’s with Whorehound and Austin’s Broken Teeth. Rippage.

Fitz Bands Rock the Cecils Jukebox...and are Really Really Really Good

Fitzgerald’s, and the bands that play there, are the butt end of many a joke about the state of music in our city. Yet there it is; the keystone of a much larger and better-attended rock and roll scene than that which might be called the loose assortment of acts defined in the tag cloud in the column to your right. Yet, as indie snobs, when reading that a gaggle of said acts will be spending an evening covering as oh-no-he-did-nt acts as Fugazi, Rage Against the Machine, the Pixies and other staples from the jukebox at Cecils, it could be understood how one might absolutely throw down $10 for an evening pre-judged as “awesomely bad.”

Got that one wrong.

From the moment we arrived, close to the end of Mourge City’s downstairs set as The Cult, it was pretty clear that an evening spent in cap-lock LOL wasn’t going to be so because it was bad, but because it was actually pretty good. As they launched into a set ending (duh) version of Fire Woman, it finally occurred to me that these guys weren’t dressed like a bunch of dingleberries: they were dressed as The Cult (ok, I should have been clued in two songs earlier by the drummer’s hilarious wig). Holy crap, I remember this video; the singer isn’t just singing like Ian Astbury, he’s performing like him too. That extra umph of shtick, not just playing their songs but actually being the band, was a theme that was executed pretty much perfectly for the entire night, piling on the fun.

Oh, and these bands all played really really well too.

Heading up the stairs, which more memories of high school being coming back with each step up those bizarrely familiar stairs, there were moments to spare before Full Release launched into a pretty much spot on stomp through the highlights of Rage Against the Machine’s self titled debut. And, again, it ruled (though they cheated as they are actually a full time cover band). It started to sink in at this point that the silly appeal of the music played by the like S.A.R.S., Big Brown Truck, lizfits and Sports, cover bands that we know and love, translates just as easily in the 90s as it does the 80s; Bombtrack is just as fun, and terrible, after all, as Holiday Road.

Back downstairs for The Contingency’s set as Fugazi (another thing oft forgotten about Fitz – they stagger their shows so you can see pretty much every band play every song and don’t have to stand around picking your nose while backlines are being changed out). Covering a band as deadly serious and revered as the cornerstone of Dischord Records is risky business. But The Contingency did it, and did it well. They’ve been on our list of acts to check out for a while now, and with this performance they moved quite a bit closer to the front of the line.

Back upstairs, Hell City Kings, Turbonegro. No surprise here, a band fronted by the commandant of the local Turbojungend nailed it, look and sound alike. As the jugend poured on the beer, front man Christian (in a wig, no less), poured on the Norwegian. It’s fun to see guys who look tough as the coffin nail geek out so freely. Well done.

Ok, now its time to blow minds: The Smoke Eaters as The Pixies. We’ve never heard or even heard of this band; they didn’t look familiar from the grocery store, the bar or the borough (that includes their broken-thumb friend that they signed on for Kim Deal duty). Who have no clue who these people are or what their story is, but if there solidly curated and fancifully executed performance as the Pixies is any indication, this could be the best band in Houston you’ve never heard of. We cannot emphasize the point strong enough: this band floored us.

Even Lonestar Pornstar surprised us a bit with the raw earnestness with which they tackled the Red Hot Chili Peppers catalog. And while we would never ever ever advocate listenership any band fronted by a white guy sporting both ‘Soldier’ and ‘Fueled by Hate’ tattoos, they way he thanked Fitz for asking them to be the Chili Peppers for the evening was, awe, kinda sweet. Oh rad, GIVEITAWAYNOW!

And so then there we were, outside the center of a very different scene in the very same city; one that books bands whose publicity photos alone send eyes reeling and who won’t get rid of those damn damn damn blacklights. The door guy doesn’t know what Hands Up Houston is, and he doesn’t seem to care. Just like us, he’s got his scene and he’s not terribly curious about what’s going on just over the tracks. Cheers to you man.