The Pharmacy, in what will be the final pastoral band-photo setting of their career.

So, this past year, for both Halloween and Election night, Seattle’s The Pharmacy took time off from tour and spent the days in New Orleans. And, they enjoyed themselves so much that they decided to move there, which we think is pretty bad ass, cause usually people move from the South to Seattle and not the other way around. We have to say that we spent Halloween and Election Day in Tulsa and Las Vegas respectively, and there is zero danger that we will move to either of those cities. (Full Disclosure: Nawlins is the city in which our dreaded Master Chief Editor In Recession adr was born. He has a tattoo of the star and crescent police logo on his arm that he just loves. Ask him about it.) And, like many smart people that have the Big Easy in their sights, they’re coming to Houston tonight for a big bill show at The Mink.

Adieu, Adieu, the closer from the latest full length Choose Your Own Adventure, runs straight through the playful pop ball room, and would be good for folks that enjoy getting the visceral speed and fury of foot tapping along to something like the Fountains of Wayne mixed in with the pleasurably bombastic orchestration of ELO. Check it out, along with other tracks from this album and others from their catalog on their MySpace.

Guitars get all dressed up to to celebrate living in a wasteland.

Guitars, an H-Town act on the bill that features members of The Monocles, Lenny Briscoe and Alarma, has got to have the most annoying band name ever. Don’t believe me? First off, you and a friend have a race where one of you tries to locate a webpage of Guitars using Google and the other does the same with Groceries (the band that became Bring Back the Guns, who are back in the studio practicing again, btw, which we are super stoked about). Yeah, add Houston to your search term if you want, it’s a super big help believe us. Winner gets to stop doing frustrating Google searches first. Secondly, the ducking band name is plural, but because it’s a singular noun, you have to constantly dick with your sentence structure to avoid writing dippy things like “Guitars is playing tonight.” But whatever.

The band, which reminds us of a rather nice take on Television-esque post-punk and Velvet Underground-ish pre-punk, unfortunately describes themselves as “the standard bearers for the heart and soul of American music” and then later make a comment about “the barren landscape otherwise known as Houston’s independent music scene” which you may have noticed is something we spend a rather large amount of time apparently wasting our time writing about. Perhaps that is why we are being such dicks. Also, we’re going to go ahead and presume that they don’t include their other bands in this calculation of collective output as crap. Hyperbole set aside (bands: please get someone else to write your bio and especially not someone that will describe you as “the best” or “the most promising”), the music is def worth a listen, and a surprising departure from any of the acts this well of souls draws from. We dug “Waiting for A Good Time” the most, but like all three of the tracks they have on their MySpace, and are looking forward to hearing more polished versions of them.

Three other bands are slated for the stage this evening, Seattletonians The Raggedy Annes,  Lake Charles’ Magnolia Sons and Local 2 News You Can Use punk junkers Teenage Kicks. Starts at 8pm and costs $8. The Backroom at the Mink is, unfortunately, 21+.

FRIDAY
Golden Axe, No Talk, Bald Eagle Burger and Burn The Boats @ Walter’s on Washington
As we previously mentioned, this is the first of two No Talk shows this week/end that will feature master of shredermonies Warren Hatfield (Golden Axe, Valiant Thor) on guest guitar. Bald Eagle Burger, if the tracks they have posted online is any indication, is a sort of weirdo political funk act. For some reason it makes us think of Sprawl. We can’t quite put our finger on the connection. That reminds us, did you know that a retrospective Sprawl live record came out this year? We kinda dropped the ball on that one. Nautically themed metal with a good wind in their sails Burn the Boats opens. Why is there no Sea Shantie Metal?

Finnegan, Jim and the Toms, The Plague, Sara Van Buskirk, City of Compton, Brandon Elam, Dave Rask @ Avant Garden
Like we said before, we can’t speak for anyone else on the bill, not being familiar with them yet, we’ve heard some great tracks from Finnegan, a sort of ‘when folks are in town’ project that features, among others, Noted DESTROY ALL SNARES drummer Matt Tantillo (Paris Falls, Defend the Ghetto). This sounds, NOTHING like anything Matt’s been kickin it for before, and has a pastoral almost folky (though not folksy) vibe to it. Looking forward to checking it out in person.

SATURDAY
Benefit for Airon Paul Dugas @ Walters on Washington
Airon Paul Dugas is a local musician who’s stock was most assuredly rising fast in our portfolio. On December 14th, he was struck by a motorist while riding his scooter, and sustained a rather nasty list of injuries (ATTN CAGERS: PLEASE BE MORE CAREFUL AND KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN FOR US). To help with the inevitable stack-up in bills (to say nothing of lost work time), some of his friends (also some of our favorites) are throwing a show to kick into the kitty as much as they can. $10 gets you in the door and gets you the warm fuzzies as you enjoy the non-catastrophic sounds of Paris Falls, Dannzig (a Danzig cover act featuring members of The Jonbenet, Monocles and others), Guitars, Teenage Kicks, Wild Moccasins, Friendship and others (we are told). They’ll be free Amy’s Ice Cream on hand, as well as a free Keg (hopefully not both at the same time though, gross), as well as a distro setting up shop with proceeds benefited to Airon. Oh, and raffles for cool stuff like free time with a tattoo artist, etc. Universally, Airon is said to be a good dude. Help a brother out.

ALSO
Saturday Secret Show @ The Shady Tavern
Born Liars, No Talk, The Wrong Ones @ Rudyard’s
Fat Tony, B L A C K I E, Female Demand, Caddywhompus, The Tontons @ Commerce Street Warehouse (2220 Commerce)
Toadies, House of Moist, Boom Boom Box @ Warehouse Live
Asylum Street Spankers @ McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
This Year’s Tiger, BetterLuck @ F.B.I. Rock Club

SUNDAY
Winter Wonderglam featuring Dead Roses, Backalley Sluts, ST-37, A Thousand Cranes, Future Blondes, Skullcaster, //TENSE//, Snow Cone, DJ Black Slacks @ River Oaks Theater
OK, now, aside from this being kind of a cluster of a bill (especially considering it doesn’t start until 11), it should be stated that shows at River Oaks have universally been hailed as a good time. A good bag of boundary pushers in the noise bin ensures that you’ll have an evening that is anything but predictable, and decidedly in the earplug category. $5.

Robert Earl Keen, Eric Church @ House of Blues
JP of the Big Star Bar has promised that one day, he will get Robert Earl Keen to go have a beer there. KGBeasley has stated that he would like to fight him. Sounds like this could be the evening when a honkey tonk throw down heaven could take place.

ALSO
The Old 97′s, The Drams, Jeff Boortz Band @ Warehouse Live

Favorite Live Band: Wild Moccasins
Special Comment by Keith Olbermann: If you are looking for consistency in energy and acumen at a live performance; when you want to be able to go to a show and know what you’re getting yourself into, the Wild Moccasins do have few peers, that’s what makes them the least worst people in the world. However, consider the perspective that perhaps performance with a greater deal of uncertainty at the front end can ultimately result in a different (and some might argue fuller) sense of satisfaction at what you see and hear mister President. Bands that consider their recordings as starting points, rather than scriptures, can just as easily soar as they can utterly disappoint, but on the whole we appreciate those that dare with the boundaries of their writing, their performing and even their own membership. For that reason, though we cannot disagree with a perspective on this category that put the Wild Moccasins on top, thats why in our special comment the leastest worstest is for Indian Jewelry.

Favorite Band in the Studio: Buxton
Special Comment by serious cat: Though cost can be a limiting factor (though real talk: it’s cheaper than you think at several places in town. Good places), one thing that the studio grants the performer is the ability to add depth and nuance to songs they have honed in the practice space and on the stage. Even if, as a band, you’re looking for a stripped down sound that provides no additional instrumentation or layering, the studio affords opportunity. When we listen through local records, one band in particular strikes us as having used the studio to extend their songs into new sonic spaces beyond where they exist live. Their recordings have consistently added complimenting guitars and pet sounds their solid straight-up performances. So while A Family Light is a fantastic recording in production, composition and execution, we cast our vote for the Papermoons.

Band that Blew up the 713: B L A C K I E
Special Comment by those two guys that own Suit Mart: At Suit Mart, we Dare to Compare. Men’s pleated khakis, Mervyn’s price is $23.99, at Suit Mart just fifteen bucks! If you had told us a year ago that a rapper from La Porte would be the band that would have garnered the most votes from The Skyline Network’s readers , we would have been all “Hooded Leather Jackets: Burlington Coat Factory Price $119.99, Suit Mart Price, $229.99!” Cause that’s like crazy! We’re the home of the 2-fer for crying out loud in a loafer. Suit Mart. Awesome!

Most Unfortunate Breakup: The Fatal Flying Guilloteens
Special Comment by Bert Shipley: the “un” in front of this must be a typo because, to be honest this shit’s been 11 years in the making. I mean, hey at least they finally accomplished something, breaking up. Great job guys.
p.s. you owe me $30 for an oil change on my old van.

[Editor's Special Comment: a member of the FFG swears to us that they have not, in fact, broken up and that shows will happen again soon.  In light of this, and in light of learning that Powerhouse actually has kicked the can, we reserve the right to change the results of this election and declare POWERHOUSE the winners.]

Favorite Punks: Something Fierce
Special Comment by Joe Walsh: Sometimes I can’t help the feeling that I’m living a life of illusion. And oh, why can’t we let it be and see through the hole in this wall of confusion. I just can’t help the feeling, i’m living a life of illusion. Pow! Right between the eyes, Oh, how nature loves her little surprises. Wow! It all seems so logical now. It’s just one of her better disguises and it comes with no warning. Nature loves her little surprises, continual crisis. Hey, don’t you know it’s a waste of your day, caught up in endless solutions that have no meaning, just another hunch based upon jumping conclusions. Caught up in endless solutions, backed up against a wall of confusion living a life of illusion.  Oh yeah, and because I know you are curious, yes, I am a tattoo on someone’s bicep.

Favorite Popsters: Wild Moccasins
Special Comment by The Lollypop Guild: Weeeeeee represent, the Lollypop Guild, the Lollypop Guild, the Lollypop Guild, and in the name of the Lollypop Guiiiiiiiiiiild, we wish to welcome you to Munchkin Land.

Favorite Rockers: American Sharks
Special Comment by the judges panel of American Idols and the Fonz:

Favorite WTFers: The Wiggins
Special Comment by Black Leather Jesus: WTF?

Loudest: The Jonbenet
Special Comment by Nancy Grace: Now, I’m not pretending to be anything but a crime victim who went to law school and tried a lot of cases. You know, part of what the problem is is that you and people like you are blinded by celebrity, when the truth of the matter is if everyone just carried a little Jonbenet locket around their necks and opened it when they needed to make a racket and scare off the bad people, all of this, including my own show, could be avoided. Actually, scrub that, nobody carry around the Jonbenet.

Quietest : Elaine Greer
Special Comment by Roger Taylor’s Roto Toms: Hi, it’s me, Roger Taylor’s Roto Toms. He’s the drummer from Queen and I’m those hella 80’s sounding high pitched tom drums that generally do not have a place on a respectable individual’s drum set. I mean, you literally have to be the drummer for Queen and responsible for something like the epic drum break ¾ way through ‘Fat Bottom Girls’ to get away with having me on your kit. So yeah, like Elaine, most of the time I’m pretty quiet. There isn’t really much occasion to use me at most moments, and so you don’t get to hear my forceful, distinct and yet muted percussiveness very often. But when you do, man, do I rule.

Favorite Solo Performer: Elaine Greer
Special Comment by Dick Valentine (Electric Six): SOLO!

Favorite 7” Record: The Monocles/News on the March Halloween Party Split
Special Comment by a delicious Dairy Queen Banana Split: Sup. Banana Split here. You know, all the time people are like “Damn Banana Split, why you such a contradiction? How you got fruit in there and it’s not even chopped up? How come you get to be the only sundae that has a topping that you might also slice up and put on your breakfast cereal.” And I’m like “Say, why so serious? Don’t you know that contrast is all the rage? Things that shouldn’t work together almost always do. It’s like Pigs and Frogs man, Pigs and Frogs”

Favorite Full Length Record: Buxton – A Family Light
Special Comment by the official Skyline Network iPod: We enjoy you so much, that it took too much of the wonder, beauty and fun out of you to ever do a proper review. We simply loose ourselves in the pure aural attainment. Them’s the breaks, and here’s to hoping your upcoming 7” is totally in the same vein. Unless you want a review.

Favorite EP: Wild Moccasins – Diamonds for Constellations
Special Comment by Chrystler and GM: HEY! This was a Grey Ghost release right? So you ended up only selling 13 of them. Well, we know a thing or two about only being able to sell a few of a product, and let me tell you, you can still make a living at it. Granted, yours was a quality product and is something that people actually want to own, but trust us when we say there’s no need for you to do a second pressing. That’s right, congressional bailout. Just take our advice and don’t fly your corporate jet down there when you go begging for gear funds. Phew, those senators are a helluva tough room. Gotta jet, gonna go camping in our Pontiac Aztek. Check ya later!

Favorite Artwork: B L A C K I E – Wilderness in North America
Special Comment by The Big Star Bar Fire Pit: Dearest BLACKIE. I am sorry that, during the climax of my own flickering and flaming, members of the band Black Congress felt compelled to feed your Sammy Awards to me. I am a primitive animal, nay even more instinct, and I cannot help but ingest what is placed in my roaring belly. It is my understanding that the aforementioned often go into fits of rage and engage in feats of strength upon learning that any other act has appropriated the colorful adjective in their nomer, which is why they are banned from all Black Crowes concert for eternity. May we suggest this be settled the only way gentlemen should settle things in these turbulent times: A Battle of the Bands in the parking lot of the Heights Sporting Club.

Favorite H-Town Label: Mia Kat and Dull Knife (tie)
Special Comment by Bono: You know, I really wanted to start my own label one day called These City Walls Will Crumble Beneath the Debt Forgiving Weight of these Glasses. However, it turns out that it’s not really a cake walk to whittle down which bands you want to put out and then the whole production process, to say nothing of sales and marketing and a big TRYING TO THROW MY ARMS AROUND THE WORLD to these labels cause like that’s a lot of work and I think it will be easier to get Zanzibar out from under their IMF loan.PS – Can I look like Lou Reed soon?

Favorite Happy Hour Bar: Poison Girl
Special Comment by John McLaughlin: On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 represents no mathematical possibility of it occurring and 10 being complete metaphysical certainty of coming to be, we would have to state that this answer is… 10! CORRECT!

Favorite Nite Time Bar: Rudyard’s
Special Comment by Jim Lehrer: Welcome to News Hour I’m Jim Lehrer. Our top stories tonight: readers of The Skyline Network vote Rudyard’s Pub their Favorite Nite Time Bar. In Pakistan, the government of Yousaf Raza Gilani faced new questions about its ability to rule effectively when it was revealed that he has an extremely similar last name to former NY mayor and recent Republican presidential contender Rudolph P. Giuliani. And in Houston, Rudyard’s British Pub took the opportunity of a mild freezing rain to raise the price of Lone Star to six dollars a bottle.

Favorite Venue: Walter’s on Washington
Special Comment by Coach Lohan Springer: Wow. I never thought I would live to see the day when this was actually the correct answer.

Favorite Local Festival: Westheimer Block Party
Special Comment by Perry Ferrell: Shit. Man. Yeah, this was kind of what I was going for. My bad to everyone who has paid $8 for a bottle of water at Lollapalooza or missed Lush while they were waiting in line in shit up their ankles to take a piss.

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.

Young Mammals and Mlee Marie - Photo by Ramon "LP4" Medina

Nutballs. That’s the only way to describe tonight. NUTBALLS.

-Jeoaf Monocles on the Halloween Show at Walter’s, which he organized

So. How was your halloween? Dish your memories in the comments.