Numbers: DJ Wes Wallace
Walter’s on Washington: Toxic Holocaust, Iron Age, Midnight, Grave Robbers
Meridian: Helmet, Burning Brides, Totimoshi, Sharks and Sailors
Proletariat: Fatal Flying Guilloteens, MV + EE, American Sharks, The(e) Freed
Bukka Allen
McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
October 30, 2007
Better Than: Other Texas Music son acts. Much, much better.
Download: “Behold What You Found” or “Confidante” at www.screendoormusic.com
For the release of new CD Confidante, longtime Jack Ingram sideman Bukka Allen brought his partners in Screen Door Music, cellist Brian Standifer and guitarist Rob Gjersoe, along to play, and they played like Gypsies. In a short, one-set show that lasted barely an hour, the group sampled tunes from Confidante and played several moody instrumental pieces from their film-score works.
Only two months ago, I saw Allen backing his father Terry at the Mucky Duck in a similar three-piece ensemble; unfair as they may be, comparisons are inevitable and further compelled by the obvious similarities between the two Allens’ styles. Sonically, much of Tuesday’s performance seemed to riff off Terry’s last major studio album Salivation.
This is from a children’s movie that came out in 1986. The Worst Witch was about a school for young witches, starring Tim Curry and Diana Rigg. The main girl witch was played by Fairuza Balk, who it seems has never appeared in a film where she wasn’t somehow involved in the occult. For his part, Tim Curry has never been a film where he didn’t come off as batshit creepy; even in Home Alone 2, that grin of his chilled my bones. I didn’t realize Curry had a music career early on, releasing reggae songs and appearing on The Clash’s Sandinista!. This is what we call in the biz “hipster cred.”
At this precise moment in most horror movies, my body reacts to the musical cue by placing not one but both hands on top of my face, what I call horror-movie reflexes. Since the dawn of masked serial killers who just can’t seem to die, horror movies have startled and alerted their audiences with subliminal musical messages that something bad is about to happen.
When eerie violin strings begins to play as a man walks alone in an empty parking lot, you know he’s screwed. Have you ever watched a horror movie on mute? Well, you would see scantily clad teenagers running at the same pace as my Nana. But, with the right music and visuals a horror movie can be down right bone-chilling.
Here is my essential horror movie music:
While all of you are waiting breathlessly for a mediocre dance-pop album from your favorite glitter- and Cheeto-dusted “starlet,” none of you seem to care that the world’s first right-wing screamo-metal album hits shelves today.
I finagled an advance copy of the new self-titled Avenged Sevenfold record. No, it wasn’t from the Houston Press music office. Why? Because we are hip as shit and still listening to all those Joy Division reissues. I took it upon myself to check out this muscled-out G’N’R, but I couldn’t get past the first track.
Last week, we wrote about trying to start up our own musical version of Day of the Dead here in Houston. In a nutshell, we want to fuse the Mexican holiday of remembrance with Blind Lemon Jefferson’s admonition to see that his grave was kept clean.
This Friday, I’ll be traveling around town visiting a few of Houston’s most prominent deceased musicians at their places of interrment. Let me know if you want to come along. – John Nova Lomax
Unoriginal as all this is, I had a hard time putting Rock & Roll Heaven down. I was unable to find out much about authors Dimery and MacDonald, although it appears from what little bio I could grab from the jacket and the ‘net and some of their editorial choices for inclusion -- Zac Foley of EMF, Mickey Finn of T. Rex, and Brian Connolly of Sweet, are all in – that both are Brits. Their work is marked by dab hands at selecting photos you aren’t sick to death of, as well as telling quotes, such as this one by Keith Richards on Kurt Cobain: “I figured he was in the wrong business. What’s so tough about being lead singer in one of the biggest rock n’ roll bands in the world? You just deal with it.”
During his musical life, Wagoner, born August 12, 1927 in the small Ozark Mountains community of West Plains, Missouri, was a singer, songwriter, bandleader, arranger, producer and television personality. His contributions to country music are “manifold and consequential,” writes Peter Cooper in today’s Nashville Tennessean obituary. Wagoner’s All Music Guide biography calls him “an artist often ahead of his time who has always appeared hopelessly behind the times.”
His signature songs include “A Satisfied Mind” and “The Green, Green Grass of Home,” as well as Dolly Parton duets “Just Someone I Used to Know” and “Making Plans.” Wagoner’s comeback album, Wagonmaster (Anti-), released in June and produced by friend and fellow Opry stalwart Marty Stuart, is far and away one of 2007’s best-reviewed country records.
Are the producers casting some hard-bitten young actress like Rachael Leigh Cook or some indie-film siren powerhouse? Nah. It’s the cheerleader girl from Heroes.
As I commented in one of last week’s tirades, I enjoy Hayden Panettiere. She looks like a hostess at TGI Fridays. And I love those little donuts they have for dessert. But why on God’s smog-ridden Earth would this girl be the right choice for such a project?
Better Than: Maroon 5. Oh, wait. They were there.
Download: The first six songs from the Hives’ new Black and White Album.
Maroon 5 may have received top billing, but Friday night belonged to the Hives.
Clad in black suits, white lapels and black and white ties, the Hives churned out 30 minutes of tightly wound ruckus, consisting of both old and new material. Guitarist Nicholaus Arson mugged and posed for press photographers while drummer Chris Dangerous tossed his drumsticks into the air and the audience. Frontman “Howlin’” Pete Almqvist commanded the stage with Jaggeresque prancing, David Lee Roth-worthy kicks and leaps off the drum kit, and swinging of his microphone by its chord.
Without a doubt, the Hives know how to work a crowd. Clearly, in their own minds, they are rock stars who have already arrived, and the rest of the world is just catching up.
Minor bun engine burn Benny Lava
Have You Been High Todaaayyy?
Happy WTF Friday!! Looks like the mescaline already kicked in...
Last night’s Solid Blues show at Miller Outdoor Theater might have been the start of something promising. Not so much for what it was (though it wasn’t bad), but for the untapped potential demonstrated by a couple thousand Houstonians – with plenty of room for a couple thousand more - turning up for a free blues show on a gorgeous autumn evening. If the City of Houston would hire someone savvy enough, and give them enough budget to aggressively pursue similar shows on a regular basis (and for God’s sakes promote them), the best mid-size live-music venue in town could turn out to be the one in the middle of Hermann Park.
See, some Scottish dudes launched a Web site asking their fellow Scots to name their least favorite Scottish albums ever. And an album called White on Blonde, by a group called Texas, took first place. To give you an idea of how much the Scots despise Texas, the survey rates their album as worse than ones by Sheena Easton and a group called Wet Wet Wet, which by its name alone assures them a place in hell.
See for yourself if the band’s worthy of worst-album status. Either way, they’ve indirectly maligned the Lone Star State, not to mention perverted the name of a legendary Dylan album. Why Texas picked that one, who knows? Maybe Shit on the Tracks was already taken. – Craig Malisow
