[About a week ago, Houston's Linus Pauling Quartet returned from performing at Terrastock, the periodic psych-rock/noise festival, held this year in Louisville, Kentucky and a family vacation for LP4's Ramon Medina, his wife Rosa Guerrero and their son Orion. LP4's Charlie Horshack was kind enough to let us reprint his account of Terrastock that originally appeared on his MySpace blog, as was Guerrero with her photos. Sounds like they all had a fine time.]

Ramon Medina (top) takes a ride during Linus Pauling Quartet's Terrastock set.
All photos by Rosa Guerrero

So I'm back at my desk at work now after a very full weekend Louisville, Kentucky, for Terrastock 7, the seventh in a semi-annual string of psychedelic music festivals put on by Phil McMullen (and others assisting and managing) of the British psych magazine Ptolemaic Terrascope. They have these things once every few years since 1996, each time in a different city: Providence, Boston, Seattle, etc…

Aside from this most recent one, the only other one I've been to was Terrastock 4 in Seattle in 2000, also the last time my band the Linus Pauling Quartet played. I think in the future though, given the awesome time I had at this one, I may start making more of an effort to go to any and all future Terrastocks regardless of whether or not Linus is playing at them.

At Terrastock 7, thirty-nine bands played over three and a half days, from Thursday evening to Sunday night. Due to a lack of vacation days, I ended up coming mid-day on Friday, missing the handful of bands playing Thursday night and a couple more playing earlier in the afternoon on Friday. From around noon until around 11 pm or so Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night, they had bands playing almost constantly. It was held at the Mellwood Arts Center in Louisville, an old industrial plant/warehouse area converted into a sort of mini-mall for local artisans and craftspeople.

Seatlle noisemongers Kinski also played the festival.

You could walk all around the interior and see shop after shop of private artisans doing things like watercolor, photography, painting, framing, jewelry, etc. For Terrastock, we had a fairly sizeable outdoor area with a stage for the outdoor shows, and two indoor stages, one for regularly scheduled bands, and one for people to sign up to do largely acoustic performances and little one-off collaborations and such. This stage was pretty interesting, but more on that later.

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...If you either a) miss Astroworld; b) like to rock the eff out; or preferably c) both. From August 29-September 1, the former site of Six Flags Houston will be transformed into the grounds of the first-ever Rock the Bayou festival, starring many of your favorite hair-metal icons from the '70s and '80s while also prompting the deliciously existential question, "How can acts like Bret Michaels, Sammy Hagar and Yngwie Malmsteen 'reunite'?"

In any case, you can just go ahead and put those Rocklahoma tickets on eBay or Craigslist right now. Here's a partial Rock the Bayou lineup; further artists, including the second-stage performers, will presumably be announced soon.

Friday, August 29: Queensryche, Ratt, Skid Row, Lynch Mob, Gilby Clarke, Y&T

Saturday, August 30: Sammy Hagar, Dokken, Great White, Enuff Z'nuff, Bullet Boys (w/Steven Adler), Britney Fox, Little Caesar

Sunday, August 31: Alice Cooper, Warrant, Yngwie Malmsteen, Slaughter, Dangerous Toys, Lillian Axe, Pretty Boy Floyd, Black N Blue

Monday, September 1: Bret Michaels, Twisted Sister, Firehouse, Broken Teeth

Tickets, $99 for a four-day pass, are on sale now. Active U.S. military personnel get in half price with a valid ID. See www.rockthebayou.com for further information.

Because I care, I compiled several Rock the Bayou videos after the jump. Rock on! - Chris Gray

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We've just loaded up a slideshow of images from last night's STP concert. Happy viewing. -- KP

I knew I was forgetting something yesterday. Tonight at Walter's on Washington, Houston's Hollywood Black releases their Crooked Shepherd EP, the latest from the folks at Mia Kat Empire, who brought you Buxton's A Family Light earlier this year. Tambersauro and the Goods round out the bill. Cover is $10, and includes a copy of Crooked Shepherd.

Here's an appetizer: Hollywood Black's video for "Deeds & Idolatries." - Chris Gray

Photos by Alex Begley

Not many bands play at ground level, and fewer still invite audience members to sit in on drums. These were just a few of the many unexpected actions taken at Thursday’s Matt and Kim/Death Set/Team Robespierre at Walter’s. During the Death Set’s time on stage (or floor), lead screecher Johnny Siera let fans sip his drink, turned the mic towards the crowd so that one persistent reveler could sing along, and ended the set by tossing his guitar into a ceiling fan.

Later, Matt and Kim brought everyone onstage during “Yeah, Yeah,” and then later incited a food fight among some patrons who brought their own personal pan pizza. Afterward, Matt spent the rest of the night wiping sauce off of his keyboard, resulting in some crazy experimental music.

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Besides here, here, here and, OK, Stone Temple Pilots - if you're going, at least go early enough to catch opener Black Francis, whose new EP s vn f ng rs is excellent - and a bunch of free instores at Cactus Music, it's kind of a slow weekend for music in the Bayou City.

That makes it an ideal weekend to point your browser at the past and brush up on some Houston music history. The Houston archives at 1960's Texas Music are an excellent place to start, whether you were a regular at the Catacombs or just bought your first Thirteenth Floor Elevators album yesterday.

A few excerpts to whet your appetite for the weird:

La Maison: "I'm told it became a communal type place for Jesus Freaks in the late sixties."

Catacombs: "A number of great bands played at the Catacombs. Even Jethro Tull played there on their first US tour. Other national acts include the Shadows of Knight, the Outsiders, the Cyrkle and the Seeds."

The Living Eye: "The 'age limit' was 15 to 20. That means that, like the Vulcan Gas Company in Austin and a lot of other clubs, they didn't have a liquor license."

Jimmie Menuti's Lounge and Club: "Seemed to me it was owned by gangsters, but maybe that was just implied somehow by the name."

Have a fun and freaky weekend! - Chris Gray

Photos by Brigitte B. Zabak

Islands, a sextet of indie rockers from Montreal, Quebec, didn’t always have it quite so together. The last couple of years have been an unstable buoy upon which lead singer/songwriter Nicholas Thorburn floated unsteadily, waiting for people with the right combination of passion, dexterity and vision.

But now Thorburn has found his brethren in song, and the product of their union is a sound rich in texture and volume. This year's Arm’s Way, their sophomore release, is full of songs layered with macabre instrumentation and provocative lyrics that gain greater depth and momentum in a live setting like the large, enthusiastic crowd last night at Walter’s. If anyone ever wonders where American fans of the band reside, apparently a large number of them are right here in Houston. Who knew?

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Photos by Barbara Misto

Better Than: Unshiny ribs.
Download: The Gourds' classic cover of Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice." In fact, just watch this:

Former Houstonian and Gourds frontman Kevin Russell is one of the few performers who seems almost unbound from convention and routine. His solo shows are, if not entirely impromptu, certainly not rehearsed like an arena show or thought out with military precision like 99 percent of the solo shows we see.

Pulling material from his band The Gourds, from his own album Buttermilk and Rifles, from heavy hitters like Tom T. Hall, Snoop Dogg and Elvis Costello as well as the public domain, Russell leans into his solo shows like few others on the regional scene. The guy literally seems to be lifting more and more weight on every song he sings as the evening wears on. And he does it all with a mad twinkle in his eye, a smile on his face, and happy feet that dance constantly.

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Since I spend the rest of the day listening to music, most of the time I enjoy (for lack of a better word) waking up to Marc Vandermeer and Andre Ware on SportsRadio 610, even though they're both entirely too in love with the Texans. I mean, I know the Texans pay a good chunk of your salary, but come on guys - they're probably not going to the Super Bowl this year, no matter how much you want it to happen. Other than that, both tend to be very dismissive of opinions other than their own - shocking behavior for talk-show hosts, I know - but Vandermeer is a massive Zeppelin fan, and Ware sounds like an all-around cool cat - especially because he likes wrestling.

Anyway, this morning, when they weren't talking about the whole Shawn Chacon meltdown or announcing Craig Ackerman as the new Rockets radio guy, they were talking about athletes who enjoy busting a rhyme or two. Of course the impetus was Shaquille O'Neal's instant-classic "How My Ass Taste?" from earlier this week, but it turns out Jamaican-born Texans outside linebacker Marlon Greenwood has some flow too, in a Shaggy sort of way.

So when the Texans don't make the playoffs this season, at least they have Greenwood around to provide plenty of locker-room entertainment.

Let's see how the two stack up. First the reigning champion, Shaq Diesel:

Now here's miggety-Marlon. Give Sports Off Center's Craig Roberts a few seconds to introduce it.

Not bad. Greenwood actually performed at the Peter Tosh Memorial Festival over Memorial Day weekend in Pearland. Figure that one out. - Chris Gray

Travis Kershen (pictured) from A Thousand Cranes, who - despite how it appears the lovely poster - open Free Press Houston's Recession Thursdays tonight at Numbers with Tense, Future Blondes, Balaclavas and Voidmate was kind enough to send me his group's Mexican Refuge CD a couple of weeks back. To me it sounds like a five-part suite where "Refuge" might as well be synonymous with "Brown" - completely soothing and profoundly disturbing at the same time. Listen for material from ATC's upcoming album Wounded Crane tonight as well.

Here's some bonus video of Balaclavas at the Mink back in April. Get ready to adjust your monitor volume. - Chris Gray

My Morning Jacket
Evil Urges
www.mymorningjacket.com

I listened to this CD by a band called My Morning Jacket. To me, the name of the band made me think of “Pocket Full of Sunshine,” because sunshine is in the morning, but they turned out to be not as good. Here’s what I thought about some of the songs:

"Evil Urges": I liked the drums because they helped the instruments.

"Highly Suspicious": I liked this song because the sound goes from little to big. I like the sound of the guitar and drums. The singing sucks because it doesn’t go with the music.

"I'm Amazed": In “I'm amazed,” I’d like to know just what are they amazed about? They keep saying “I’m Amazed” and it’s making my head hurt. The instruments came together on the song, but it sounds like they copied the beats from some other songs. It sounds like country rock.

"Thank You, Too": This song sucks because they do a low singing. I like the high singing that’s on the other songs. Nothing feels right.

"Librarian": They're trying to be nice in this music about a librarian in this song. Also, this music is not funny. Actually, the whole song sucks. And the song sounds like old versions of a song.

"Remnants": The singing was horrible and they sucks.

So this is what I am saying: I don’t like this album. - Kishan Patel

[Today's Young Writers entries are both reviews of My Morning Jacket's Evil Urges. The view from sixth grade will be posted in a bit.]

My Morning Jacket
Evil Urges
www.mymorningjacket.com

One tends to judge what an entire CD will sound like by the first couple of songs. For My Morning Jacket’s CD Evil Urges, that does not work. With its up and down moments in the scale from “INCREDIBLE! I LOVE IT!” to “Good Lord, this song should be illegal!” in the end one tends to have a headache trying to balance out the good and bad parts of the whole CD.

First off, I would like to point out the way that, in a few songs, they seem to strain their voices. Wait. That’s an understatement. More like, “Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So La Ti DDDDDDOOOOO!!!!!”

I truly recommend that NO ONE hear “Highly Suspicious” at high volume. Not only that, but the deep, slow drawl of the “Highly Suspicious” choir is an absolutely frightful comparison to the high-pitched main singer. And you are condemned to hear the choir repeating “HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS” in weird melodramatic, want-to-be-opera-like voices chiming in your head for the rest of your day and dreams. The words make absolutely no sense. In “Highly Suspicious,” the song is batted down to the myths of hell by these very first words:

"Wasting time home alone dotting your I’s, peanut butter pudding surprise!"

I wonder how peanut butter pudding tastes?

Even still, most every song has beautiful lyrics — except “Touch Me or I’ll Scream.” Other songs like “Librarian” contained a nice rhythm and three-star words. “Remnants,” “I’m Amazed” and “Thank You Too” deserve to be mentioned among the better as well.

I now realize exactly what the great saying means about judging a book by its cover. This is a fool of a cover. It’s an incredibly gorgeous frost of gold but inside it’s cheap metal. In the end, I wouldn’t pay my money for this CD! Not over my dead body!

P.S. Please be aware of the eyes that pop out of the little boxes on the inside of the case. They will hunt you. - Evelyn Flores

Tonight, the Red Bull Big Tune Beat Battle returns to Houston at Venue (718 Main). "Not sure if you made it out last year, but believe me, this is an event you do not want to miss," swears former Houston rap-promotion shaman and current AustinSurreal point man Matt Sonzala, who plans to make the short drive down 290. Doors open at 8:30 p.m.; there may still be time to RSVP to www.redbullbigtune.com for free entry. Otherwise it's $5.

About a dozen up-and-coming beatmasters are scheduled to square off starting around 10 p.m. Sonzala recommends rappers and "all y'all in the industry" come out, because "you just might find your next new super producer." Also, Michael "5000" Watts will be your DJ for the evening, Willie D. of the Geto Boys will perform and a special award will be presented to Mr. Lee (Geto Boys, Slim Thug, Snoop Dogg). And supposedly Red Bull has some sort of new cola-flavored drink, so there's that too.

One of these 12 will outlast the rest:

Drewski
Lab Ox
S1
Sound Mob
Chinky P
Picnic
T Ward
Anwar Mack
Neon Collars
EQ (the contest's first-ever female entry)
Desiac
Mr. Rogers

To set the mood, we'll hand things over to Willie D, in a tonsorial state of mind... - Chris Gray

Austin roots-rockers the Black, whose frontman David Longoria is a satellite member of ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - he plays keyboards from time to time; ...ToD singer Conrad Keely sometimes returns the favor by sitting in on viola with the Black - and whose shows often feel like walking in on a lost session from The Basement Tapes or Blood on the Tracks, pull into the Continental Club tonight. Either their 2005 CD, Tanglewood, or last year's vinyl-only Donna EP will choogle you all the way around the block.

It's the first stop on their four-day "East Texas Tour" that brings them to the Stardust Room in Huntsville tomorrow, the Balinese in Galveston Friday and wraps up at the Revolution Cafe and Bar in Bryan Saturday. I don't know why more bands don't try this - throw in a stop at La Porte's the Landing (formerly the Forum) and somewhere off 1960, or maybe in Sugar Land, and they could make a whole week out of it.

Doors open at 8; Sasquatch & the Sickabillys are also playing. Here's the Black bringing it all back home at a bar in Indianapolis, courtesy of their MySpace page:

[The latest in our weeklong series of middle-schoolers weighing in on recent albums.]
3 Doors Down
3 Doors Down
www.3doorsdown.com

If you’ve heard of 3 Doors Down, then you probably know they have a new album. It’s called 3 Doors Down and out of the whole CD, it’s very difficult to pick a favorite song; there were some that really made me cry. When you listen to the CD it can really make you think about the old days and how it was really easy back then, how all you had to do was to believe in something and then work towards that goal, and because of that I would recommend this CD to every teen.

If you listen to alternative rock - Nickelback, Hinder, Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance, for example - then you’ll probably like this, as it’s a mixture of all of those songs. The songs are soft but still rocking.

The saddest song is definitely track 11, “When It’s Over.” It’s sad because, even though it rocks, it gives you those feelings of uncertainty and confusion (like Three Days Grace). It gave me memories of my boyfriend, and was kind of sad and depressing.

As a band, all of them were really good on this song and made the song awesome! It’s probably more a girl song than a boy song, though, because it talks about who’s going to be there to protect a girl from everything.

The lamest song was track 10, “Runaway.” It starts out all soft and stuff, but then thank goodness for the drummer and the guitarist because they were loud and rocked, even though the singer tried to ruin it. They sounded kind of like Two Killers here.

“Citizen/Soldier” and “It’s Not My Time” were also good. “Citizen/Soldier” is about soldiers saving people, and starts with some cool ancient or Indian music before it turns to rock. “It’s Not My Time” was no surprise. Those who listen to 96.5 on the radio will probably recognize the song. The beat is all rock and talks about dreams and love and how we won’t leave it behind.

If you’re a fan of 3 Doors Down, you should check out their new album. And if you’re not a fan, it still doesn’t hurt to check out new things. - Linda Medina