VIDEO: WESTHEIMER BLOCK PARTY COMMERCIAL

OH SNAP! No time to talk, gotta run!

FREE PRESS ANNOUNCES FALL WESTHEIMER BLOCK PARTY

OH SNAP GET YR HAIRNETS READY! The details of this fall's twice annual Free Press Westheimer Block Party have been unleashed upon us, and, like a gigantic strawberry topping funnel from the sky, we will now cover you with that sweet sticky knowledge. Scheduled for Saturday October 13th, it will feature all the usual confluence of music, local artists, and cold chicken strips, BUT ALSO a new "Abstraction Art Show" in the recently re-opened Avant Garden (where Helios once was, but now its actually the kind of place you would want to go to). Not enough for you, hippy? How about a solar-powered stage at Numbers? Let's just hope it doesn't rain like it did this spring (but we still had an ACES TIME!) Other venues in the mix include La Strada and Mango's Cantina. BUT WHO SHALL PLAY THESE STAGES? Word we are hearing right now is that, among the 50+ acts to eventually rock a mic, these are confirmed:

Spain Colored Orange, Golden Axe, The Scattered Pages, Karina Nistal,
.bellville, skyblue72, Million Year Dance, Tha Fucking Transmissions,
Peekaboo Theory, Elaine Greer, Generic Tribe, Free Radicals, Ernie
Banks, Captain Asian and the Electrics, Rise over Ruin, Dirtybird,
Studemont Project, Novice, Medicine Show, Econo, Riff Tiffs, Organ
Failure, Guy Schwartz, Nosaprise, Prodigal Sons, Dead Roses and Concrete
Rose Cabaret.

The complete list, along with, we are told, schedules, are set to come out September 15th. Keep it tuned here to get that hot carmel from the sky.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.