BE THERE: SHOWS TO CATCH TONIGHT

The live music inclined have four pretty decent outing to pick from tonight, and it’s a sure thing that you’ll be able to get to atleast two. Check it:

MAN MAN, The Extraordinaries, Spain Colored Orange @ The Proletariat – Happy Hour
Philly natives Man Man, whose music has been described as “Viking-vaudeville punk-wop rock-and-soul” bring their own particular kind of meyham (particular enough to have landed three of their songs in an episode of Weeds) to the prolo for an early show.

Carribou, Born Ruffians @ The Engine Room
Forget the Press’ dismissive tone, Andora is one of our favorite ’07 releases to date, in fact, we’re so enthralled with it that we’re honestly considering skipping this show so that we aren’t left with a bad taste in our mouths on behalf of the Room’s notoriously un-subtle sound (this is a total headphone album, and we love the little tiny nothings on it that are sure to get lost in the bassyness of the space).

Ryan Adams @ Verizon
You know if you want to see this show or not. Probably the best option if you’re in the contemplatively dreary mood and would rather a banjo than a pick-me-up. Real talk, if there’s a someone special missing from your life, this is the place to try and meet them tonight.

Golden Axe, Satin Hooks @ Boondocks
This is a free show. Allow us to explain the event in precisely one thousand words:


Rusted Shut, iAlarma! @ Rudyards
It will be loud, it will be drunk, it will be destructive, you will not get to sleep on time.

SPAIN COLORED ORANGE CLONE BASSIST, REVEAL ALBUM DETAILS

Hello Thar! Before we get to the real news, are we the only person that thinks SCO’s new bassist, Steve, could pass in certain lighting situations for their former thumper of the fours, Steven. Go ahead, take a look:


Can you figure out which is which? It’s like having Bloody Marys with the Walker twins while Sam and George are working the bar. Ridiculous. This joke is going nowhere.

ANYWHOO. We are all frosting-in-the-middle to be able to announce, however, the latest deets on SCO’s long anticipated Bill Racine-produced released. Sneaky Like a Villain is now set to come out December 11th on Lucid Records. Along with the CD release, there’ll be a limited run of 500 on orange vinyl with a different set of artwork (all the artwork, btw, is being done by local cool cat Rene Cruz, who we think also did the cover for the forthcoming Bring Back the Guns release. What a guy). SHALL WE EXAMINE THY TRACK LISTING, OH VILLAIN:

1. Intro "The Radio's On Again"
2. Who Am I?
3. Hide
4. Cheap Thrills
5. Music Box
6. Better Left Alone
7. Uh Oh, Trouble
8. I Remember It Was Christmas Time
9. One Million Reasons
10. You Think You Know
11. Birds and the Bees

The skin-saving quintet will also be working with Jared Paul Boulanger (Slaovak Republic) to make a video for 'I Remember It Was Christmas Time,' which they’ll be unveiling at their CD release party. Awe. What a nice stocking stuffer.

SCO will also have a new track, 'Give me a Minute,' in the January issue of Harp Magazine. So, ya know. Time for someone to open a Hudson News franchise or something. Course, you don’t have to wait long to be at the mercy of the lovely orange rein: SCO will be headlining the Proletariat’s 5th birthday party on the 29th. Krakatoa!

Stream: Spain Colored Orange - Who Am I

WANTED: BASS COLORED ORANGE

Quite a weekend for the Orangemen, one minute, you’re playing Erica Cruz’s (Meowcifer) wedding (congratz, btw), the next, you’re sending out an APB for a new bass player. Yes, long-time thumper of the fours Steven Barnett has parted ways with the band to pursue other things, and while they wish him well, they’ve also got some low end to fill up – and on the double. With shows coming up this weekend, keys-and-croons Gilbert Alfaro wrote us to say that they are looking for someone experienced who is chill with their approach to practicing (actually practicing) and touring (actually touring).

So, if you play beautifully enough to get the nod from Olay, consider throwing your hat into the ring and drop the band a line at vivaspaincoloredorange@gmail.com.

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: SPAIN COLORED ORANGE FIGHTS CANCER!

WELL WELL WELL. With Hollywood already reaching into the Houston talent pool this year, is it any suprise that Madison Avenue isn't that far behind? The folks at Olay skin care, as part of Skin Cancer Awareness Month, put together a little PSA (directed by Whitey of Jackass, no less) that features none other than the track "Who am I?" from the forthcoming Spain Colored Orange LP. WAY TO GO OUR TEAM!

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.

FIRST LISTEN: NEW SPAIN COLORED ORANGE

Yesterday Gilbert, the man behind Spain Colored Orange’s vocals, keyboards and best hat (not shown), leaked to us a few tracks from the group’s upcoming full length Sneaky Like a Villain. Well, not at first. First he sent us the track ‘Hide’ and let us stew on that for a few hours while we tried to figure out a response. Anyone familiar with the band’s sound will understand why the following attributes of the arrangement left us at a welcome loss for words: 'Hide' has drum machines and a synth for bass; no guitar and no trumpet. ‘Departure’ is an understatement – ‘gutsy’ probably is too.

After the most politely worded inquiry we could draft regarding whether the entire band had been fired in the studio, the man who sits at the Rhodes wrote back with three other tracks and more about the shape the album is taking: “There is a bit of a departure from the EP [Hopelessly Incapable of Standing in the Way]. The album is way more diverse. This time around, I really focused on what I wanted to do as far as song writing. Being....electronic, weird-spooky-jazz-pop, or just feel good 70's rock. Not so straight forward rock, like the previous release.”

And we’d have to agree. From the tube-socked roller-skate down the boardwalk with the love child of Tom Jones, Chuck Mangione and the Turtles that is ‘Who Am I’ to the Goulet dune buggy mischief of ‘Cheap Thrills’ to the glitch drums and string section in Music Box, all we can really say is that Villain will prolly be as (if not more) pub PA friendly as Hopelessly while taking the headphones experience up the light rail several stops.

No doubt at least a little bit of the recording (which took place at Sugarhill with Steve Christensen assisting) during December with some mixing done last week, benefited from having Bill Racine there for the recording. Racine, who has worked with a bunch of nobodies you have never heard of like Mogwai, Sparklehorse, Mercury Rev, Rouge Wave and the Flaming Lips, met SCO while they were on tour with Mates of State and offered to do their next album. The twelve-track album will come out towards the end of the summer on a TBD label.

Spain Colored Orange will be playing Saturday, with Paris Falls and The Kimonos, at the Balinese Room in Galveston as part of the first Sandblast Scooter Rally. And though our editorial calendar tells us that we shall most likely repost the following information on March 14^th, here is SCO’s ‘we’re taking it easy’ SXSW schedule:

March 14 @ The Parlor- Spain Colored Orange (11pm), Cartright (10pm), The Quiet Company (9pm), The Quiet Life (8pm)

March 15 @ Bella Blue- KVRX & I Eat Records party! Spain Colored Orange, YipYip, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Black Before Red, Mae-Shi, Greg Ashley (of Gris Gris), The Six Parts Seven, Ladybug Transistor

March 15 @ Cheapo Disc- Spain Colored Orange instore at 2 pm.

March 16 @ Scholz Garten- Texas Music Magazine party

March 16 @ Hole In The Wall- Invincible Czars, Two Star Symphony, Spain Colored Orange and others.

March 17 @ The Whisky - Shout it Out Loud / Boys & Girls Club Day Party! O' Death, Kid 606, CeePlus, Foreign Islands, Shit Disco, Datarock, Spain Colored Orange, David Vandervelde and others.

stream: Spain Colored Orange - Hide

REAL TALK: THE NEW PUBLIC NEWS

As of this week, the long-gone Public News is back in the racks. We won't ponder on the folly of launching a newspaper into the current publishing environment (though if we did, it would be pretty much Mike McGruff's insights read verbatim), and will consider that separate and unrelated to our inquest of her editorial.

We are of the commonly held view that Houston, as perfect as she is, contains among her few flaws a lack of indigenous publishing, comment, promotion and critique (this has been on a lot of lips lately, in private conversation, a recent Lomax Houston Press column and even Houstonist's post on the PN's return).

In his inaugural column, publisher Ken Petty states with no uncertainty his thoughts on the state of music coverage in this town:

It’s always fun to see what these guys think is important to cover. The one thing that I recall is the continual glaring and almost intentional omissions of notice that there is even a music scene in Houston. One writer, who will remain nameless, but we shall call him ‘One Lova Nomax’, continues to cover things that no one really gives a rat’s asterisk about.

Great local bands are being birthed and are dying out with out much more than a mere mention of their existence in the newsweekly paper’s entertainment section. One of them, since 2004, decided that Harris County was not for them and they won’t distribute their product here anymore.

So, as it is with us and others, local music is more than a little important to the Public News' publisher. So is it with sharp vision that they tackle their first local artist feature, an interview with members of Savage Evolution?

Absolutely not.

Though the piece is unattributed, its hard not to suspect that it was penned by the author of the accompanying sidebar, Connie Parker, the Promotions Director for the Houston Band Coalition. The ham-handed incorporation of the Coalition into both pieces is beyond snikerable; whether they are local or not, having a PR person write about the bands they rep is not the hallmark of serious editorialship. A band listing a Clear Lake club as their “favorite Houston venue” and holding down a monthly gig at Rocbar is anything but underground rock and roll, and it begs the question does the PN know that the meaning of the word ‘Alternative’ has shifted radically since they last published?

Locals like Jana Hunter, Spain Colored Orange, Indian Jewelry and the Fatal Flying Guilloteens are slowly gaining national attention but are still virtual unknowns where they live; did none of these blindly innovative acts merit more exposure than a band opening up for Winger next month?

The Public News is back, but not yet back on its feet. We’re not looking to push them down. We hope that they turn it around, ditch the spokesmenship and take a harder look at what’s really going on here. You can diss on local coverage all you want Public News, but show you’re not part of the problem first.

PS - What the hell is with the cover?

Spain Colored Orange, Paris Falls, The Kimonos to Play Sandblast Rally

March's Sandblast Rally, which is expected to draw scooter nerds from across the Lone Star state for a weekend of riding in Galveston, is set to include Spain Colored Orange, Paris Falls and The Kimonos on the bill for their Saturday night entertainment. From its perilous pier-perch over the Gulf of Mexico, The Balinese Room, whose stage was once graced by luminaries such as Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope, will soon be home to pretty much every band who might once have counted Erica Meowcifer as a member.

No doubt, SCO bassist and beard farmer Stephen Burnett had something to do with their being on the bill, himself being the owner of a number of scooters over the years, some of which are even rumored to have run. Uninterestingly enough, Burnett was once the bass player for The Kimonos, whose live shows have become as rare as the sushi rolls that no doubt kept me from going to work today. Rounding out the bill is fellow Rhodes scholars Paris Falls, who are forever dear to us for a note multi-instrumentalist Jennifer Brown left in a shared practice space asking if we might do a better job of keeping the floor clean so she could walk around bare footed "ya know, tiger style." Adorable.

More Info: Sandblast Rally

Katrina Relief - Yet More Updates

Some more stuff has been annouced in the way of benefits and ways to get invovled. Plus, the flyer for the Can's For Keg Cups party.

Katrina Benefit September 10th and 11th @ Numbers
2 Days of music with 16 bands, including: Arthur Yoria, Bring Back the Guns, Sharks & Sailors, Spain Colored Orange, Heist at Hand, Inner Lights (Jon Sparrow) + More.

All Ages. Live bands Saturday & all day Sunday.
$8 per event - $12.00 for 2 day pass.

7 pm - 2 am Saturday, September 10
3 pm - 10 pm Sunday, September 11

Donations of clothing, canned goods, and toiletries also welcome.
All donations and bar profits will benefit The McCormick Tribune Foundation Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund and the American Red Cross.

NOAH: Project SHONOF
(repost)A group of Houston musicians led by prominent pianist Paul English, vocalists Gigi Hill and Tianna Hall, Johan Keus and others have formed a group called "NOAH" (New Orleans and Houston) whose mission is to reach out and support the displaced New Orleans musicians by providing them with housing, venues in which to perform, instrument replacement, etc. The project is named: SHONOF (pronounced “sho’nuff”: Safe Harbor for Our New Orleans Friends). Primary goals are:

1. To contact New Orleans musicians, wherever they are, and let them know there is a support group in Houston ready to help them, provide housing, get gigs, etc.

2. To line up apartments, rooms, etc. for these people to live in until they can get on their feet.

3. To organize an instrument clearing house whereby the musicians can get access to needed instruments in order to perform and make a living.

4. To urge local venues--clubs, restaurants, hotels, etc.--to expand their use of live musicians.

5. To organize and hold benefit concerts featuring the New Orleans musicians, supplemented by the best of Houston musicians, to raise money to help the musicians and the project.

6. To share their current gigs with the New Orleans musicians, either by adding a player or two to their performing group or by relinquishing an entire gig.

Contact Info:
Gigi Hill
(713) 503-3518
gigi@noahleans.org
www.noahleans.org