It’s Easier to be a Hypocrite – The Sour Notes
The Meat of the Fruit (Self Released)
With an exiled pedigree that’s as rich as the production on this, potentially the best sounding release to make it onto our countdown, we’re willing to take the title on ourselves to be sure this song, band and EP gets a wider audience (technically, this doesn’t qualify for the countdown as not a single member of the band lives in Houston anymore). There’s nothing particularly shocking or world music about the instrumentation, just judicious use of keyboards, background content electric guitars and fader levels that don’t stay in the same place the entire song (hello mute banks!). Again, a disheartening example of local talent putting out their best work after moving away and a reminder that by not opening ourselves up to a wider world, we’re leaving far too much aural pleasure on the table come desert.

Jazz June – The Tontons
Sea and Stars (Self Released)
Some people get the Tontons right away, and some people need a bit of a lense from which to view it. There was, for us, always something that kept us listening to their debut EP and sticking around for their shows long after we decided we didn’t really know how to approach either from a critical perspective. It’s clearly unique around town, worthy of its numerous accolades, and fires the same synapses that has us instinctively acquiring every Daptone and Stax track we can get our hands on, especially ‘Jazz June’ with its latin percussion and bright guitar chord work balancing out the bubbly leads that fill out the second half of the song. If we asked to pick a starting point for The Tontons evolution this would be it, cause we really feel this track and look forward to having a second chance on explaining how they register in our register on their next outing.

Lazy Bones – Papermoons
New Tales (Team Science Records)
Just last night, a friend of ours made the comment that coverage of local music was in grave danger of jumping the shark (we’d give them credit, but they’re not the type that’s into backlash) and we had to kind of sit there for a second and let it soak in that we were pretty culpable in that extremely truthful statement. Later, as we sat staring at the ten empty best records slots on the Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop ballot, we realized that there wasn’t much overlap between what we would tell you the ten best records this year were and what we were going to tell them. Now granted, we have a deliberately narrow editorial scope (we don’t even take into consideration for review most of the records that people outside the city would even know, such as I am..Sasha Fierce). But it was pretty gratifying to be able to type the name of this record in alongside the Fleet Foxes and Girl Talks and She & Hims of the world. Maybe we don’t have the momentum anymore to make it over the shark tank, but as we fall, too small not to fail, discovering records like this along the way certainly made it worth the ride.

Lead Skin – Buxton
A Family Light (Mia Kat)
We won’t hazard a guess as to how the members of Buxton ended up with a post-doc mastery of touching melancholy so early in their lives or catalog, and it goes without saying that their approach to it is neither hamfisted, corny, angsty or insincere. On ‘Lead Skin,’ for example, it’s clear they don’t actually have one, even if you block the lyrics out (which are great, btw). The song’s cripple creek acoustic guitars, lap steel specter and forceful piano are a sterling example of the outfit’s updated Americana and a reminder that quite a few acts in the city should be looking to their own backyard rather than the coasts for inspiration. A+ Very Fast Shipping Would Buy Again. No Shark.

Long Brown Hair – Welfare Mothers
Long Brown Hair 7″ (Self Released)
If 2008 was anything, it was the year of the return of the rawkus garage 7″, and this Sweatbox-recorded debut from the Welfare Mothers is decidedly part of that wave. Featuring an economy of sound and plenty of OH YEAHs, this ode to having a “sexy friend” doesn’t break any new ground but is a splendid gateway into an entire subgenre of good times, pull tabs, and the best satellite (or terrestrial) radio station going on right now. If you’re looking to get a bit of the throw-back feel without coming across as skate dad, catch this 7″ if you can and one of their shows like your button-up dickies top depends on it.

Migration – Future Blondes
1111 (Self Released)
At some point in the future, people from other planets (to say nothing of internet browsing teens from other cultures) will stumble across the Future Blondes recordings. Because theirs are electronic compositions, there is the temptation for us to think that they may be perceived as somehow more modern, or forward looking (as if the cheap-guitar industrial complex could ever be ground to a halt). But for us, these recordings and “Migration” specifically are so of this point in time and a deafeningly pessimistic short term outlook. The song’s title is randomly interjected into the track, distorted, with the force of strained neck muscles behind the all caps exclamation. Forced. This is the sound of forced, strained migration. Of men fleeing war and genocide. Of children and mothers rushing from broken levies and collapsing ice-shelf floodwater. Of wage-earners hallucinating to death in the desert, moments after begging to drink their compatriots urine just to try and cross a line on a map that will make it possible for them to send their children to school. Of gas running out and white flight from the suburbs and their collapse and ghettoization. Migration is an awful, nasty thing and that is what will make this recording so prescient to those that follow, for our future is their horrid past.

Modern Girl – Something Fierce
Modern Girl (Self Released)
Can these kids do no wrong? I mean, when is it that they’re going to come out with a batch of songs that makes us shrug our shoulders and say “meh” and go back to listen to whatever it was that they recorded before this. It’s like their future selves visited them in a time traveling telephone booth with a guy named Rufus and were like “Dudes. Here is your entire catalog, don’t make the mistake most bands make by not having each subsequent thing be better and more interesting than what preceded it, so go ahead and put it in the right order and get to releasing it” and they were like “That’s chill future selves, but we think we got this on our own” and then they went and setup a show in a Starbucks parking lot, and are so cool they actually ADDED scene points for doing that, and then got bonus mods because the whole thing was busted by the police and decided that rather than sitting on their ass and bitching about gas prices being to high to tour that they would spend the summer recording their next record even though IKE kept their power out for longer than anyone we heard of. So yeah, other bands, be more like Something Fierce.

Moving Pictures – News on the March
Almost Songs (Self Released)
Though Almost Songs was intended as a stop-gap recording just so they had something to get out there and consequently doesn’t feature the full arrangement of their live sets (and their released just too late to be considered for this countdown debut EP), this rendition of ‘Moving Pictures” is almost perfect as is. Sure, we’d like to hear the cello and drums in there, but the crucial elements are all in place: the songwriting and the vocal harmonies. From henceforth (and thank goodness someone finally proved everyone speaking to the contrary wrong) we shall no longer take “the vocal monitors in Houston clubs suck” as an excuse for why the singing in your band does. High fives News on the March, we’re totally stoked on spending some quality time with you in the years to come.

Nixon – Woozyhelmet
Get Down (Soda Pop Productions)
Way back in the day there was this girl in the scene named Jessica Nixon that was monkey barrel fun and for whatever reason we had a secret compact to always drink copious amounts of Goldschlager (ok, maybe just a shot) with her whenever we saw her even if it meant walking up the street to the store and buying a bottle and a flask so that it could be consumed in locations where it was not available and it was just like being back in college except that even in college we were smart enough not to drink that schleck and if there is any upside to her having moved to Austin it’s that we haven’t had to taste a drop of that yeech since she left. Oh, and this song is about that same Jessica Nixon and one advantage California Governor Schwatzeneger has over failed California Gubernatorial candidate Richard Nixon is that is that he can pack a bunch of ideas into a single long run-on sentence and get away with it because of his accent. Why aren’t you into this album yet?

Rickshaw – Sharks and Sailors
Builds Brand New (Self Released)
Not to contradict ourselves, but to completely contradict ourselves, we were actually big fans of all that hipster metal we said Sharks and Sailors had moved away from on this record, so it’s nice that they threw us a big riffed chunky bone of a treat to go bury in the backyard and retrieve when the situation warrants. A complete list of those situations is beyond the scope of this piece, but should be said to include overcooking the chicken during the final step of a long dinner preparation, playing 5 MINUTES OF HATE style video games, driving your tank around the Iraqi countryside, needing something to transition between Queen’s “Tie Your Mother Down” and Rusted Shut’s “Godstrike”on a mix tape, running from super fast zombies, making out with someone with bad breath and taking a quicker shower than you intended before work.

PS: Don’t forget to vote in the Sammies! Especially if you are into bands that are not from Pasadena, because those are the only people winning right now. Seriously.

Acrylic Tomb – Wicked Poseur
Wicked Poseur/Little Trooper 7″ (Shdwply Records)
More than their self-titled 2007 7″ debut, this split with Norfolk’s Little Trooper captures the primacy of guitars in Wicked Poseur’s live performance, a welcome evolution. Though still lock-stepped to the regular beat of a drum machine, by having the human touch of the six string at the forefront, the anything can happen element of frontman Arthur Bates’ personality gets a big bottom boost (along with the overall fullness of the composition). Simple China Girl  keyboard sprigs counterpoint vocals that rarely take a breather and punch up a surprisingly punchy dance track that manages to avoid the pitfalls of both New Wave worship and too-little too-late electroclashism.

Adventure Renor – Giant Princess
Grey Ghost #61 (Grey Ghost)
Spunky throwback to the uncollapsed heyday of early 90′s college radio. Makes us think of park bench polariods of little consequence that ecstatic fanboys will spend their afternoons fashioning into heady zines while the Pepsi goes flat and the doorbell stays broken. Certainly the best organized of GP’s tracks, and a peek into how rawness can be done right with a little bit of heart behind it. Sorry Mario, your princess is potentially moving on to bigger castles.

Aku Benci Kamu – The Secret Prostitutes
The Secret Prostitutes 7″ (Psycho Wolf/ArseGestapo1982/Death Exlamations/Cutthroat Records)
Almost Devoesque in the application of angular speed to concerted tightness. Simple riffs spit out over a matter of fact lyrical slate that could be about working in a cola mine for all we know (The Secret Prostitutes’ songs are sung in a language said to be indigenous to Indonesia). A minute and a quarter of deadly serious sounding goof that we hope isn’t meant to be taken seriously, because it’s some serious fun. Seriously.

Death Ride – The Monocles
The Monocles/News on the March Halloween Party Split (Self Released)
Putting the brakes on their usual Camaro tempo, “Death Ride” is the menace of a black and tint Coupe de Ville, jilted lover behind the wheel with tear streaks on his face that could be from sadness, anger or madness (and why not all three). Whitewalls slowly turning, the worse half of ourselves ascribe motive to why this man is on this particular street at this particular time of the night. With the methodical, tom-dominated drums and increasingly well honed dark guitar tone of The Monocles best recording to date as the soundtrack, don’t expect that it’s going to end well for somebody, if anybody.

Big Big Jokes Jokes – BLACKIE
Wilderness of North America (Self Released)
The most interesting (and shortest) track of BLACKIE’s Pasadenaization of Grime may lack such wiley features as a 2-step beat, it does convey the off-kilterism commonly thrown about when describing the genre. With a healthy ooze of refinery slime and a taste for massively clipping volume that somehow preserves a plink plink subtelty, Big Big Jokes Jokes shows, with its chiding battery of the stereotypes of taste and self image, that there is substance behind the slapdash smokestack of his sound (even if the entire enterprise is in danger of collapsing under the hype of a very narrow band of IP addresses. Cue BLACKIE fans who take the internet too seriously calling us ‘faggots’ in the comments).

Blue Line – Andy McWilliams
The Shoegazer EP (Three Ring Records)
Years ago, when we were spending a considerable amount of time paling around with the Scattered Pages’ multi-instrumentalist Andy McWilliams, he burned us a CDr of some recordings he had been putting together under an umbrella name of his ‘shoegaze recordings’ in response to our sharing some of our own work with him that we were doing under the same nom de rock. Though neither his work or our would fall under any conventional understanding of that jazz-mastering, jaguaring genre of swoony-balooney stompbox fetishism (we appeared to both be taking the approach of litterally looking at one’s shoes in shyness), what those recordings did do was blow our minds. Fastforward to the present, and those recordings are finally getting a wider release. Blue Line, with it’s pastoral acousitcs married to drum and bass sensibilities is a standout among a collection of mostly instrumental explorations of rich sounds, honey-eared melodies and sad summer days.

Builds Brand New – Sharks and Sailors
Builds Brand New (Self Released)
Casting off any remaining doubt that they are still the plodding, loud, hipster metal act that populated their debut EP, Builds Brand New (both the album and the song) demonstrates how a re-alignment of dynamics away from brute force and towards a wider battle between greater angles and lesser demons can be both more captivating and weightier. This single song walks through a blue-water beach and a dead-dog ditch; a dumptruck with a swan’s grace; a hope with horror in the foreground. It shouldn’t ever be a suprise to see a bill with a band doing something interesting visiting town and Sharks and Sailors opening up considering most of the songs on this album are better than most of the songs on this countdown.

Carter – Woozyhelmet
Get Down (Soda Pop Productions)
Now, just because Woozyhelmet can come to your house and play in your livingroom and transform your dull chips and dips New Year’s open house into a spontanious baccalorian chariot race doesn’t mean that they play an endless series of dumb party jams or have shifted their focus from songcraft to mindless destruction and self elevation under the guise of a musical act (something sadly common). Carter is one of those jams that has your head nodding one way to the beat and another to the Brian May-bright guitar riff on the top of it all. And just when it does seem to careen into a premature end, there’s the comeback – a second round gift from a band that knows the difference between milking and satisfying as well as they do ortund and sonorous.

Champagne – The Gold Sounds
Gold Sounds EP (Self Released)
So, when you plug an electric guitar into a tube amp, the first stage (the pre-amp) amplifys the weak signal coming from the instrument’s pickups to a more managable level using a series of vacume tubes. If you amplify that signal too strongly, though, it will attempt to extend itself outside the physical limitations of the tubes, forcing an unintended modification of the original signal that results in a series of harmonics and other whatseycallsits when it comes out the other end. In short, distortion. It’s a pure, simple concept that allows for endless tinkering and variables and outcomes. In other words, its the perfect meaphor for Rock and Roll itself. Champagne is one of those pure, simple rock songs that hits all the highlights. A good, catchy riff with an amazing sounding guitar, a solid rythm section, and a fine (if harried) voice to top it all off. It shouldn’t catch us off gaurd whenever we hear something something so understandable come off sounding so effortless, but it always does.

Crooked Shepherd – Hollywood Black
Crooked Shepherd EP (Mia Kat)
You know, this spring and summer we were dating a jaw-dropper of a law student who invited us to spend a week with her in Guanajuato, Mexico which is this amazing Spanish Colonial silver town hidden away from the greasy hands of narco-gangs, neon lights and American tourists. But rather than our memories of this place being making love to the sound of cobblestone streets below or rooftop breakfasts in private gardens or cups of coffe and quiet moments holding hands or watching old couples dance in public squares while the sun goes down and fantasizing about one day joining their ranks, all we can seem to recall is the endless hours we spent wandering around waiting for her to get out of class while we listened to this record and tried to figure out how to review it. We can’t think of that amazing place or that astonishing catch of a woman without thinking of regret and our own shortcomings and this song and vice versa. So yeah, fuck this catchy ass song.

They are both creatures of the sea, sharks and sailors; one upon it and one beneath. The duality is near perfect. One has been romanticized in song and story, from the earliest recorded history to every Tuesday night on the Discovery Channel. The other is loathed and feared, a black-eyed menace hunted to near extinction. Neither is as good, bad or indifferent as our narratives allow, but both fear and would kill the other should they stray across the edge that separates the domain of lungs from the kingdom of gills. So to do we find contradicting forces in the music of Sharks and Sailors, especially on this their fist full length. Angels whispering into canvas sails to bring one home versus rows of jagged teeth to part one with their skin and marrow. Leathered thought versus an instinct to commit unwitting murder.

Though not always manifest through the sheer (some might say searing) volume of their live performances (our favorite quote on the matter: “it IS Phil playing the drums, afterall”), S&S have scraped much of the barnacles from their Cutty since their debut outing. The gradation allows a more granular approach to their music; it’s no longer the hearty pleasure of impending cochlear destruction. This expresses itself primarily through the vocals and the guitars (the drums, though low enough in the mix to save one from the curse of Beethoven, sound like they are being hit even harder than before). In the place of hurricane-condition shouts, we find singing that is downright melodic; guitars that are let to ring rather than thrust as harpoons. Builds Brand New still has obvious links to their heavier past, such as on tracks like “Rickshaw” that schleps the weary seaman forth from the heavier grit of EP‘s “Topple the Pillar” and indeed the great syruped styrofoam cup tradition of scewed metal from the 713′s past (Menace of a Heartless Monster, Rustler, God’s Temple of Family Deliverance, etc).

The title track and “Cliffs” are particularly good examples of their evolving direction, with Melissa Lonchambon barely raising over an ethereal coo and Mike Rollin emoting with the best of the Midwest (but, you know, not in a pansy way). But always the Tope, the instrumentation; the leviathan swiftly approaching from behind and crushing you beneath the weight of the seas before you even have a chance to drown. The dynamics on this record are captivating. Like many who don’t rock at full sails every waking moment, you can anticipate their changes coming, but that doesn’t necessary stop one from learning that the word “boom” has its origins in sailing. These are rough seas, but they’re an absolute pleasure cruise to ride. Recommended.

Catch Sharks and Sailors swabbing the deck and your face at their CD release party, tonight at Walter’s on Washington with Ume (who, coincidentally, also have a sea beast on their record) and the Jonx (who play a mean game of pool, the sharks). In case the gratuitous plugs haven’t sunk in by now, The Skyline Network’s own DJ Under Warranty will be on hand playing a full set of the best of Houston. Party.

SHARKS AND SAILORS – ROXANNE

TODY CASTILLO – WON’T BACK DOWN

BUXTON – I MISS YOU

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Best New Act: The Tontons
Grand Opening, Grand Closing as the band is set to go for an extended period without doing much of anything while vocalist Asli Omar is out of town. Catch their smoky picnic table blues Friday at Fitz, Saturday at the Secret Show Festival, or next week at a few shows in Savannah Georgia.

Best Drummer: Shane Lauder (Sideshow Tramps/Born Liars)
Good to see the Liars getting some recognition (but it wouldn’t be going out on a limb to say that he won because of the words “sideshow” and “tramps.” Real talk, their recent release (among others) makes us think there should be a Best 7 Inch category next years. Actually scratch that, we are saving it for our annual awards.

Best Experimental: Studemont Project
Jandek snubbed again, and, as if UGK sweeping the Album, Song and Musicians of the year categories was not hint enough, we are all reminded that H-Town is a Rap Town, so notions of what constitutes “experimental music” varies widely.

Best Indie Rock: Spain Colored Orange
Ok dudes. Real talk. It’s time for the album to come out.

Best Keyboard Player: Gilbert Alfaro (Spain Colored Orange)
Hey dude. Real talk. It’s time for you to drop that album on us.

Best Tribute Band: Beetle
Beetle freaking rules and if you are thinking to yourself “gee, I really could use some wholesome fun on a Thursday early evening” then you clearly have not been to their FREE weekly Happy Hour gigs at the Continental. Epic. Yes, we were so shut out of the awards this year that we are digressing into the Tribute category.

Best Unclassifiable Band: Black Math Experiment
Hahah, pulled out of a nearly month-long retirement to both play a nominating showcase and then collect an award. For serious, though, BME’s fans have voted them at the top of every contest they have ever been up for (remember when they were elected to open for The Misfits?). ATTN OTHER BANDS – are the people who come to your shows that stoked about you?

Best Metal: Golden Axe
Agreed

Best New Club: Boondocks
We still haven’t quite figured out what all the hate is about this place. They have freaking free BBQ on Sundays, a photo booth and an upstairs. FREE BBQ SUNDAYS. Plus, $0 shows atleast once a week and a cheap as plastic Happy Hour. Oh, and the staff are all LORDS OF WHIPS. Although real talk, they got to do something about that late afternoon sun on the patio. Totally killing their scene.

Best Live Music Venue: Warehouse Live
Considering the number of defuncts (or nearly) to win and be nominated this year, we cannot believe that the Engine Room did not win.

Best Record Store: Cactus Records
Gotta say it, we never liked the old Cactus. Never did it for us, not really sure why. We like what the new one is doing in a big way. So even though Sound Exchange cannot be beat for the local selection, we dig heavy on this place now.

Best Equipment Store: Guitar Center
I hope the higher-ups at Guitar Center Corporate know that Levi Johnson has done more to ingratiate their brand to Houston musicians than all the radio spots and glossy direct mails they can produce combined. One aces as Mata dude with a love for music and musicians (and great taste in it too – now on our check-out list due to his recommendation: World’s Most Dangerous) did more for them than Evan’s Music City having an in-venue banner at every place where a vote was cast Sunday.

Best Radio Station: KPFT
Not even by a long shot. Although there are notable exceptions, the quality of programming at KPFT continues to spiral to new identity politics-driven lows. If you think nothing makes your blood boil more than the way Ed Mayberry pronounces “business”, spend a little time listening to this station.

Best Local Label: Mia Kat Empire
Buxton, Hollywood Black and others make up their roster. Serious props are due for beating out more nationally known outfits like Swisha House or Rap-A-Lot.

CONDOLENCES TO:
Fatal Flying Guilloteens and Indian Jewelry, who both lost in four categories each; Arthur Yoria and Buxton who walked away 0 for 3; Hearts of Animals, Sharks and Sailors and Scattered Pages who were likewise shut out of their two-each nominations; and Balaclavas, Bring Back the Guns, By The End of Tonight, Hell City Kings, Insect Warfare, Jana Hunter, The Literary Greats, The Mathletes, Penny Royal, Something Fierce, Two Star Symphony and Whorehound who each blew their one shot at fame. Better Luck Next Year.

Real talk:  Thats a long list of talent and a helluva good impression of our record collection.  What was your biggest suprise or upset?