Houston Blog

Wait...Lomax ees leeveeng? Does thees meen I yam feeneeshed? Aye yai yai, what weel I do?

i agree with bdm, there should be alot more focus on local acts. i would email about all of my bands local shows to see if i could get some mention and the ONLY time we did was when we were suppose to open for a touring act... pretty sad. i barely go to the houston press site, my routine is pretty much space city rock, the skyline network, the free press and houston calling for all of my local music reading.

The sections needs more freelance articles by writers of Italian descent.

Reduce or eliminate the Wack section.

I agree with M.Williams completely.Hell I'm opening for a touring act on July 20th (RX Bandits and Portugal the man at Meridian) and though all the other bands were listed, and even though I was the one that emailed the event in, I didn't even get listed on the site as one of the acts playing when I'm the only non touring local act on that bill...(okay I'm done whining)Maybe you guys could have a calendar that only covers local shows?Sometimes it's hard to get through the touring/yuppie event fluff before I actually find a good cheap (or even free)local show to go to:(

Welcome back!

This is very good news! Long may you reign.

I could do with less of the Wack section as well... Too much of it's just sniping at easy targets. I'd love to see more live reviews of local stuff as well. Those and the album reviews have generally been great recently.

I don't know exactly how this would fit in with the format, but it would be really great to have some sort of semi-regular feature on old school-type Houston bands that aren't around anymore. Half "where are they now?" for the curious/out of touch, half "who they were then" for the youngsters.

What are we doing well?

I liked when you were doing a preview blog.

I enjoy reverberations.

The HPMA Showcases are always fun

Live reviews of shows are always nice be they local or national.

Local reviews are a good read even when they are bands I don't care for.

Not so well?
as was already said - more local coverage. there's a lot going on and if you can get someone to not simply capture the music but the experience that would be awesome.

your webpage layout is still atrocious.

your slideshow is brutally slow. here is an idea simply refresh the slide and not the whole page? I know you are trying to score that ad revenue but jeeez.

while on the subject of pictures. CONTEXT CONTEXT CONTEXT. Jeez I mean look at Jordan's work over at the chronicle; he bothers to get people's names. I mean at the recent Caroline collective wouldn't it have been nice to see a caption telling you that in this one particular picture was the artist whose work was being exhibited? I'd like to know who these people are.

and I Just to want echo the above - whack the whack section. that is the biggest turd i've ever seen and it never smells better no matter how enamored you guys are with it. It's a smarmy hacky unreadable waste of ink and bits. The worst offense is that on-line you don't have any warning and before you know it you realize it's some bullshit article. man that is annoying! At least have it as it's own section on-line so we can all ignore it in peace.

Which parts of the section are most useful to you readers?

I like the local stuff - obviously. kudos to Dusti for example.

Which parts do you just skip over?

freaking whack!

Any blog that is a solely a link to freaking youtube. NO! Weak!

gossipy national music celebrity crap. my eyes just glaze over. Who cares who is shooting up what, what a freak so and so is, and whatnot. ZZZZZz.

What should we be covering that we’re not?
What are we covering that we might as well leave alone? What are some artists, bands and local music landmarks – venues, blogs, whatever - you’d like to see us write about?

I think the important this is to have writers who are out there in the trenches who can convey what is exciting to them.

Also anything that is about ideas is really good. Was it smith who wrote that article on that rag and how it was fake journalism? That article was interesting because he was discussing ideas. neat!

For houstoned - Look at the work Skyline and Space City Rock do. They've kind of run circles around the HP coverage over the years. Hey, smart and clever writing that gives a shit. who'd a thunk! I sometimes think that the HP blog doesn't know what it wants to be or who it wants to write for.

ok that's enough I'm sleepy

More stories about what incredible thing Will Adams did this time.

Actually MCA,

Did I swipe? I missed it.

Oh and by the looks of it I was long gone by the time you got there. You missed out on some great food, booze, and gelato. Braaaaap! :P

Hmm. jeez then I have no clue what you look like if you were there.

But yes aces on CC. Too bad I won't be here this weekend. Lebowski is a great film! So, have a drink in my stead and I'll toast one to you in Kentucky. :p

re. all the hue & cry for more local... in my experience this is a veiled call for kissups. very few local bands will want to see what we really think in print if we write it. and if "more local" is just a cry for more "XXXband is playing YYYclub. they rock," who needs it?

As a reader/consumer, I don't care whether the articles deal with national, regional, or local, just so they give an accurate representation of what a band/event is and what one can expect. There's so much good stuff we don't cover just because there isn't space enough. I'd rather read about Justin Earle or Jubal Lee Young than a review of Paul McCartney or Tom Petty. I particularly like to read about something I'm not yet exposed to, like the recent Dax Riggs thing or Lomax's Monotonix. On the other hand, nothing kills it for me more than a high-praise, hypish, I'm-a-thinly-disguised-groupie writeup of a band that turns out to be mediocre at best. That's the kiss of death.

As a writer, nothing works better for me than walking in someplace, hearing a band I don't know, liking what they're doing, and writing them up (like the first time I saw The Hollisters). It's especially great if they're local. But the reality usually is that the majority of local bands are missing something, some key element. Which is why they are still local after years and years. It's like the Honky Tonk Heroes putting out p.r. about their new record that describes them as "Houston's favorite band" or somesuch. This is a huge turnoff and credibility killer. My son is in the business, and my advice to him is always the same: shut up and play; if you're good, someone will find out about it.

I always tell locals who are jumping up and down waving their new cd in my face, "Be careful what you ask for."

"let's not "joey guerra-ize" the music section"

I think this is my favorite comment of the decade.

Oh yeah one more thing. "Houstoned Rocks" is kind of, uh, an embarrassing name for a blog. No disrespect to whomever came up with it, but it has the smell of "HOUSTON, IT'S WORTH IT. KINDA." rather than "Houston: It's seriously whips" or even "Houston - more than just stoner jokes and roaches"