Houston Music Blog

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com. ​

Occasionally, you'll hear a band name and think, "Well this band has to be good."

Guerilla Maab, for instance, is a fabulous name. Guerillas are cool. Maab is a slang term for mob; slang terms are cool. Mobs are even cooler than slang terms. Combine them together and there's some exponential increase or something. Even regular gorillas are kind of cool. Did you know that gorillas can't swim because their muscles are too dense? Whatev - point being, even if you never ever hear one of their songs, you should just tell everyone you like Guerilla Maab on principle.

This is kind of how we felt when we first started receiving emails about an indie rock collective dubbed Holy Fiction. Fortunately, we listened to their music and it turned out to be that organic experimental rock that's perfect for listening to when you want to feel like you're really in the know. We got with band member Evan Lecker and asked him a bunch of stuff that didn't have anything to do with anything. He responded in kind. Holy Fiction, folks.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

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You are in the enviable position of someone about to witness history. Get ready for it. To help with the mood, why don't you go ahead and pretend like there are horns blaring in the background and somebody just released a flock of doves into the air. That's regal. And since we're pretending things, go ahead and pretend that we play in the NBA. Here we go: Introducing Country Store Buffalo!

CSB's Brad Boyer

​ Horns...Doves... Jump shots...

Perhaps a bit of background information is necessary. Seven months ago, we fitted folk singer Matt Harlan for the Artist of the Week crown. Then about two or so months ago, we came across Country Store Buffalo, a perfectly dusty quintet that's every bit as countryish, storeish and buffaloish we were hoping.

We hit 'em up for an interview and, lo and behold, Matt Harlan turned out to be a member. That's monumental. For the first time in the history of the column, one artist will have been fitted for the crown twice. If Harlan had two heads, he'd be way ahead in the crown-ownership game.

After the jump, read about cocaine abuse, drunk buffaloes and the non-inanity of breast enhancements.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

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Hi there. Welcome back to the most popular Houston-based weekly artist showcase on the planet. We sure hope you're in the mood to funk yo' soul til it rocks, because this go-round we've got funk-soul-rockers Kuumba Freeque on deck.

Despite what Microsoft Word would have you think - it red-squiggles the crap out of their name - KF is legit. They're two parts Erykah Badu (from Mama's Gun, mostly, when she was just the right amount of aggressive), two parts Lenny Kravitz (minus all of the song stealing, of course) and one part Nikka Costa (why are her eyes always so dirty-looking? It's really off-putting).

We tagged the duo for an interview to talk about their less than uncommon band origination, album trilogy and the (awful) idea of people plucking out their eyebrows and then drawing them back on.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

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In all honesty, before we started working for the Press, we were by no means fans of heavy metal. We listened to Metallica a bit, but only when they'd come on MTV, and even then we did so mostly because we knew it kinda bugged our parents when we did so.

And for some weird reason we used to write "Megadeath" all over our English notebook in middle school even though we couldn't name one single song they've ever put out. Oh, and there was a brief period where we unironically tried to get everyone to believe that there was this super-secret metal band that only we knew about because we were so cool called Masterz of Dizasterz.

Jesus, what an awful, annoying child we must have been.

But over the past two years, metal has become more and more necessary in our playlist. It feels very natural to take in. And it certainly has become our second-favorite genre of music to see live, because something crazy always happens at a metal show. Which is why we were so pumped when we first heard of BloodVoid back in June of this year.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

​About six months ago, we interviewed a performance poet named Outspoken Bean for this here column.

At the time, it was the first time we interviewed someone from his genre. Naturally, after his feature ran, we received a small snowstorm of emails from other poets who were looking to be written about. It's the same thing we see whenever we write about anyone, really. The majority of them were pretty much terrible (again, not unlike what happens week in and week out). One of them, however, seemed more than deserving of the Artist of the Week crown: Tina B.

Tina B. is almost exactly what you'd want a performance poet to be: observant, eloquent, charismatic and able to keep your interest long enough to make you realize that, despite all of the goofy stereotypes you want desperately to apply to the slam poetry genre, it is legit.

We nabbed a few minutes of her time to ask her whether or not slam poets are more genuine than all other artists, why there are never poets on Cribs and why they're always preaching about single mothers with HIV. Go.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to.introducingliston@gmail.com

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In high school there was this kid named Eric. He was a kinda mysterious, good-looking kid and he drove one of those older-style trucks that people like to recall with far more appreciation than they originally had for it. Also, he always seemed to be able to get beer. He perpetually looked like he might punch you in the nose on account of it being cloudy outside, but he was actually way polite to everyone. Naturally, he was extremely popular. And he's a pretty solid analogy for studio-rockers LEAF.

LEAF is a ten-year-strong rock band that we happened across while out on Nightfly duty. They rocked pretty heartily - in particular, bassist Chris Kubecka, who appeared to be trying to shake his eyeballs clean out of his head - so we searched them out and hit 'em up for an interview. After the jump, read about the great Bear Bare Hands debate, live show vs. the studio work, and how not to kill someone you have to hang out with for ten years.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

Photos by Elias Ibanez

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Sometimes, you happen across a band at exactly the right moment to make them meaningful or important or good or whatever to you. It's less about genres or musical tastes and more about sentiment (which might actually be how music should be experienced). That's what happened to us with prog-rockers The Live Lights.

We had been having a right shitty month this past September. Everyone has those stretches - at least, we hope they do - where everything goes wrong. Every day, something seemed to be kicking us square in the junk, regardless of how substantial it actually was or wasn't. (What?! We're all out of sliced cheese?! You have got to be fucking kidding me!)

Then, while researching for a separate article, we came across TLLs' MySpace page. The first song dialed up to play was "Song For Strangers," an electronica fit that felt like the aural equivalent to driving your car around and around 610 while crying your balls off. It was exactly what we felt like doing at the time. (The irony of the song title didn't strike us until we wrote that last sentence.) Following that was "Sky Will Fall," a ghostly, impending-doom track that allowed us to feel sorry for ourselves all over again.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

Photos by Flash Gordon Parks

​Sadly, we have never had the opportunity to watch a battle to the death. Oh sure, we've seen it happen on TV during sophisticated movies plenty of times (The Running Man, Best of the Best II, The Condemned) but never actually in person. It's always bothered us too. Like, seriously, there are more than five million people in this town. How have we not even heard about the possibility of something like this happening, let alone accidentally stumbled across a match while at that flea market on 59 or something?

Somehow, all of this relates to Michele Thibeaux, one of Houston's finer neo-soul performers. She's earthy and organic and completely natural in her delivery. You might've seen her in and around town with Hueston Independent Spit District, the nation of hip-hoppers that is apparently set on never, ever following up their 2007 smash The District (for real, guys, it's time to release another full-length, or at least an EP). We tagged her for an interview recently and she complied.

After the jump, read about her allegiance to H.I.S.D., Quentin Tarantino's non-overratedness and - that's right - her battle to the death with fellow neo-soul artist (and former Artist of the Week) Caretta Bell.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

Bess Garison

​A few weeks ago, we received an email championing a Houston-based rapper named Rob Jay. Now, we've been doing this column long enough to know that they'll pretty much give a MySpace page and email address to just about anyone these days, regardless of actual musical ability, so we took our sweet time before actually giving him a listen. That, it would appear, was a mistake.

Mr. Jay is unmistakably talented, possessed of a slick flow that is magnified because of his storytelling ability. More than that, though, he's got a song called "Uncreatively Creative," which is either a wonderfully clever satirical take on rappers' calling each other out for not being creative or a massively ironic four-minute stretch of music. Either way, we reached out and got him to answer a few of our questions.

After the jump, read about his non-ignorant status, why he'll eventually go Kanye crazy and the politics of the music scene.

​Each Wednesday Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

Lately, there seem to be more and more bands in Houston producing such a wide and eclectic array of sounds that categorizing them (Jazz, polka, metal, etc) is frustratingly impossible. Inevitably, they make you end up saying stuff like, "They sound like X, but with a hint of Y's grumbly guitar-work and Z's pop-sass" and sounding like a complete buffoon. Neon Collars is one of those bands.

They're a bubbly quintet that has amassed a strong following over the course of just a few months. This is usually the part where we describe why their sound is good, but since they've effectively nullified that part of our job, we'll just go ahead and jump to the interview and let you listen for yourself.

After the jump, read about how Erykah Badu *totally told them she's in love with us, how everyone is apparently trying to force their hand into fighting with another local band and how they describe their describeableless sound.

*not totally

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

Carlie Thompson

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With regards to our bubbling electro scene, we're not sure there's anybody better than wonderfully enigmatic Houstonian, by way of St. Louis, Shina Rae. Rae bleeps, boops, bounces and chirps all through her digital landscapes*, periodically stopping off to design a fashion show or lobby folks to sign her "Vote for me to play the ACL Festival" petition.

We nabbed her for a bit to talk about how she may or may not wear a veil while she grocery shops, why you should absolutely vote her past the Top 20 round of ACL's "The Sound and the Jury" competition and how will.i.am straight up told her beforehand that Fergie is little more than a white figurehead.

Shina Rae, "Touch (Hearsay's 64-Bit Remix)"

*This is sort of a simplification. Rae is actually way more diverse-sounding than we make her out to be, but she wears a lot of bright colors so we lump her into the electro category.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

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Gentlemen, you're free to just skip right on past this installment of Artist of the Week, because this go around we're featuring a baby-oiled-up interview with the (likely shirtless) R&B singer TILL.

TILL is a throwback to the golden era of male R&B ear-sexers. His lyrics are not up for interpretation - he would like to take your clothes off, and then he would like to break you off. It's that simple. There's something to be said for forthrightness. Hell, his name had to be put in all caps because his sexiness kept bursting out of the lower case ones (we heard). Listen for yourself.

Till, "She's My Girl"

We were able to steal a few minutes from him to get him to answer a few questions about his 18-month super-calendar, his new album and whether or not he's going to become Guy Beyonce. Enjoy. And ladies, make sure you've taken your birth-control pill for the day. Fair warning.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

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We've been handed CDs by band members before. We've seen pop-locking at the club before. But we had never been handed a CD by a band member who was pop-locking it into our hands. Then we met alternative metallers My Own I.

Really, after the pop-locking CD distribution, the album could've been 14 tracks of birds squawking at each other and we would've inducted them into the Artist of the Week line-up. Lucky for us, the CD was four pounding tracks of unmistakable Get The Fuck Outta My Way.

We grabbed some time with the guys for an interview and had them talk about their new and improved panty-dropping sound, Adam Lambert and bands they're better than.

Rocks Off: Real quick, how long has My Own I been together? Seems like it's been a while.

My Own I: The band as a whole has been together since around 2003 or 2004, but the band as the current line-up has been around for about a month. And we think it's the best so far.

RO: Why's that?

MOI: Everybody has their own style. We all bringing all of our ideas together and fusing it into one style. We call it alternative metal and it's just, you know, something we don't think the people have heard before. It's pretty, and pretty brutal. It's hard and heavy when it needs to be but it can also drop your panties if necessary.

Each Wednesday Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

Caption TK

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D.R.U.M. is arguably the world music band in Houston. They've been together, in one form or another, since the early '90s, released a few very good albums and won about a million world music awards. They are made men in the music community.

Even still, not nearly enough people outside D.R.U.M.'s genre are familiar with them. Admittedly, we didn't even start listening to their music until we met band member Anura Neysadurai a couple of months ago while working on an article about his business parter, rapper Zin. In light of that injustice, we reached out to the quintet to have them answer a few questions.

After the jump, read about the alphabetical complexity that lacks from one of the members' name, if they think they'll ever not win the Press' Best World Music award, and who would in a D.R.U.M.-Moodafaruka death match.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

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If you could input a bunch of information into a computer in a Weird Science-like effort to create the most indie band in the world, after the unexplainable lightning storm, Giant Princess would be standing in your room. Houston already loves them - we hear tell that every other local musician at Summer Fest this past weekend (Young Mammals, B L A C K I E, Tontons) was wearing a GP T-shirt.

They're brash and aggressive and sweet, and their music is way smarter than people realize. (At least that's what it feels like.) We finally got with them for an interview and, truth be told, don't think they actually answered one single question. It was way better than we were expecting.

Rocks Off: The first thing we feel like we need to ask about is the name. Why "Giant Princess"? Does it in any way involve Rick Moranis or Super Mario Bros., because that would be great.

Giant Princess: I had a dream that I was a little kid and the dad from Honey I Shrunk the Kids showed up in the dream. He repeatedly told me to touch his giant princess. I didn't know what he was talking about. He was mad and he threatened to shrink me with a Nintendo 64 controller. We all had this dream.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

​Last week we began the Top 25 Houston Rap Albums of All Time list. And one of the albums that we really wanted to include but ultimately couldn't find space for was Universal, The Legendary KO's 2001 smash. If it were the Top 40, the duo - who also made national headlines with their 2005 song "George Bush Don't Like Black People" - totally would've made it.

Fortunately, we were able to round up the group's two MCs for an interview. We got their thoughts on whether or not an alligator could beat up a shark - it's Shark Week, son - the worst song in the duo's discography and who the best underground MCs really are.

Rocks Off: For those who aren't familiar with the legend behind KO, fill 'em in a bit.

Damien: Here's the skinny: 2 MC/producers in the crew, Damien and Big Mon. Been doing our thing since '92. Put out a bunch of records on our own. Traveled the world. Helped put the Houston underground on the map. All without a major-label deal.

Big Mon: Because of being able to do so much on our own, we ended up laying the foundation for many of the up and comers in Houston hip-hop. We made our own path and made it easy for Houston MCs to follow.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

​Each week when we write the Artist of the Week column, we try to work in some way to subtly talk about ourselves. We've gotten pretty good at doing it, too. But if you don't mind, we're gonna go ahead and skip right over that and jump straight into the interview. We mean, it's the Tontons. They're rock stars right now.

After the jump, read about their new album, the answer to the "Who's the better vocalist, Asli or Kam?" question that everybody's thinking but nobody's talking about and a Lil' Keke cover band.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

Like it or not, South Park Mexican was the heart of Mexican rap, and when he got sent away it left a massive void in the niche. A few guys have unofficially tried to step in - Rob G, GT Garza, Juan Gotti, etc- but none have ever marshaled the dejection and isolation a lot of inner-city Mexicans feel near as well as SPM. It's not an easy task.

But if any of the current crop have a chance to do so, it's probably going to be Northside veteran Coast - who, coincidentally, is a former Dope House rapper. His flow is heady, casual and occasionally impetuous, his grit is becoming, and his ability to lyrically deliver a powerful sentiment with ease is natural.

We reached out, and Coast was pleasant enough to discuss how Google might hate him, the emotions he needs his listeners to feel, and why older rappers might be the most consequential.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

Courtesy 10th Grade Cutie

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: Rex and Blaine in Super Happy Fun Land's parking lot

We started listening to Friendswood punk rockers 10th Grade Cutie on a semi-regular basis about four weeks ago after someone emailed us their info. Since then - and this is not exaggerated one bit - our car broke down (the serpentine belt broke), one son got a wicked black eye (he was shoved into a table by his brother), we received a letter from the IRS saying there was an error on our 2007 tax return and we owe them a little over $1,000 and our DVD copy of the movie Blood In Blood Out got all scratched to hell.

Point being, if you listen to 10th Grade Cutie, horrible things will happen to you, which might make them one of them more legitimate punk rock bands in town. We reached out in the hopes that interviewing the band would somehow break this curse. After the jump, read about how there's an actual story behind their name, Ted Nugent's vigilante war and how they are not like the Young Mammals.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

Several weeks ago, we saw a middle-school-aged kid wearing a T-shirt that simply read "Tax the Wolf." We assumed it was a band, and since we were also wearing a shirt that supported a band (Austin electronica/indie-rockers Sounds Under Radio), we went ahead and asked him about it. It was a bad move on our part.

Roland Rangel

We pretty much ended up just standing there for a few minutes modestly saying things like, "Well, have you heard of X, do they kind of sound like that?" while he responded with "I don't know about X, but have you heard Y, it's a little like that." It was unexpectedly awkward and, in hindsight, we would not be surprised if he went home and told his parents that a pedophile attempted to pick him up. Such is life.

At any rate, we Googled "Tax the Wolf" and found them to be a very enjoyable indie-rock quartet. Their biggest achievement is that they shift nicely between ethereal spook-rock and somewhat bubbly pop with relative ease, particularly when you consider that they've only been in their line-up for about a year or so.

So we hit TTW up and asked them to talk about how one song reminded us of a movie starring the seventh-greatest action star of all time (Antonio Banderas), the Latino uprising in the local music scene, and "Merkexlla," our sleeper pick to make this year's Best Local Indie-Rock Songs list. Enjoy.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

taylorgahm.com

We're fairly big fans of the unkempt, lo-fi, super-indie-rock band sound. (Giant Princess is one of our favorite bands around, and they're probably the super-indiest of all the super-indie local bands.) We even have a pair of red Vans, and whenever people ask us how we feel about certain bands we always say, "Well, their older stuff was really good, but we just can't get into the new stuff."

But sometimes you just need to hear some properly gigantic-sounding mega-rock. And for that, the roughly six-year-old powerhouse band thelastplaceyoulook is about as good as it gets. They're booming and thunderous and make us want to run really fast. So we hit them up and had them answer a few questions for us.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

For some reason, back in 2002 we were super anti-fans of whine-rock goofballs Sum 41. We know it had less to do with them being from Canada (patriotism seems misplaced in any music argument that doesn't involve Toby Keith) and more to do with a girl and how she interpreted the lyrics to their hit "Fat Lip," but we're hazy on specifics.

At any rate, the genre always seemed ludicrous, but a couple of weeks we stumbled across BetterLuck, arguably frontrunners of Houston's growing pop-whine-rock genre. Their HateLoveLifeParty EP turned out to be very strong, and possessed of more depth than we we're expecting.

We got in touch with BL, and they agreed to answer a few questions for us. After the jump, read about the prostitution/drug/taco epidemic plaguing McAllen (sort of), whether or not they think they're better than Thee Armada and their response to criticisms that their genre is possibly a tad vapid.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

After last week's Artist of the Week set off a firestorm of offensive - and possibly genius - comments ("FUCK BARNUM AND BAILEYS... FUCK KRYLON... FUCK RESALE SHOPS..."), we set off to find a group whose music was capable of subduing the sweaty mass of commenters. Enter the Winter Wallace Band.

WWB is, for all intents and purposes, a phenomenally genteel indie band. They've got a certain Ingrid Michaelson/Cat Power-ness to them, with similarities stretch beyond similar song format or quirky clothing accessories or soft colors on their MySpace pages: they are legitimately talented. Collectively, they might be one of the best bands in Houston you've never heard of.

After the jump, read how their singer is named Winter Wallace but Winter Wallace is actually a band, the history of "Lisa," and the apparent awesomeness of Dan Workman.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

Growing up, we were big fans of conspiracy theories. They just seemed fun to discuss. From 1992-94 we argued ad nauseam with friends about whether or not a) the moon landing really happened (it did); b) Lee Harvey Oswald was merely a patsy (he was); and c) our middle school was knowingly covering up the fact that that Coach Bitzkie, our uncouth gym tyrant, was a werewolf (they were).

It's part of the reason that we were so amped to get some time with rapcore quintet Daylight Coma for this installment of Artist of the Week - the other part being of course that its music, a gnarly assault of chaotic rap-rock, owns.

After the jump, find out which Tomball venue DC was banned from playing and why, how 9/11 was absolutely, scientifically planned, and why the racial similarities between rapcore bands is of no real consequence to anyone.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist who isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

Artist Ilyria Guerrera is an urban Spanish performer with a tilt toward bulky production and hip-hop sensibilities. She's inventive and capable and every bit the Latina. We got with her to discuss her latest album, whether or not she's better than Karina Nistal, and if Enrique Iglesias is to blame for the "Latinos are so passionate" stereotype. Aces.

Rocks Off: Right off the bat, the beginning of your song "No Pasa Nada," which, as we all know, is Spanish for "this asparagus has a funny after-taste," is just great. It's very big. And it made us want to just start punching things and throwing rocks at people. Was that the intent?

Ilyria: [laughs] Not exactly. Actually, it's supposed to make you want to dance instead of throwing rocks at people. Anytime I'm emotionally stressed I dance. That's how I blow off steam. I invite you to do the same. Throwing rocks at people might get you arrested or something.

RO: Good point. Tell us a bit about your album. For someone who has never heard your music before, what should they expect to hear?

I: The album has been pretty interesting to make. We were a two-person army: my little, er, my younger brother and I. I can no longer call him little 'cause he's like six-two." [laughs]

He made the beats; I wrote, sang. And we did the production together. We had to kind of learn everything on the way, but it's good, 'cause with family you can get your frustrations out, and it's all good ten minutes later. People should expect to hear honest lyrics and great beats. They should feel empowered. Just please don't actually throw rocks at people. You can think about it, just don't act on that. Sing along, it helps.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

We first heard rapper TroubleSum's music about a year ago when we poking around Trae's MySpace page - which was in a totally music-related manner, by the way. We were totally not browsing around imagining what it'd be like if we were best friends or anything weird like that.

The self-proclaimed Teflon Diva, TroubleSum turned out to be one of Houston's top three female MCs, and better than a ton of male MCs, as well. Her variably hearty flow can stutter-step across any beat she's asked to perform over. It provides an entirely original sound for our region, and twists what might otherwise be standard bravado (bravada?) into its own endearing characteristic.

We reached out to TroubleSum and she was swell enough to tell us whether or not there is an application process one must go through to attain Teflon Diva status, how she got down Trae's camp, and the details on the heap of albums and shows she's got lined up for the summer.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

Every once in a while, after the Artist of the Week feature is posted each Wednesday, we'll receive a few emails from territorial fans informing us that our selection should have gone to a different band. Most of the time they'll start with something classy like "What a dumb shit you are..."

Now, given the intimate nature that involves following/championing a local band, this is a totally reasonable response, but that doesn't mean it's any less hurtful. So, in an effort to spare our sensitive, sensitive feelings, this week we got with one of Houston's most undeniably talented bands, Buxton.

We suspect one of the things that make Buxton so enjoyable is its blending a congenial, almost surreal folk-indie sound with some very sturdy lyricism. It's not quite peanut butter and chocolate, but it's an exceptionally formidable duo. Also, vocalist Sergio Trevino's wobbly sing-song voice is completely hip.

Read on to see what's what with Buxton's forthcoming vinyl release, whether or not that new drummer has worked out for them and whether or not one needs to be blasted on Lone Star to write a good Southern blues song.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

There comes a time in every man's life when he has to ask himself one serious question: Am I a fan of polished alt-rock?

Prior to a few weeks ago, we would've answered that with a succinct, if not curt, "no, bitch." The grittier stuff, we like. The experimental stuff is fun too. Hell, we even purchased a shoegaze CD back in 1998 when we were going through our Look How Mysterious Our Bangs Make Us Look phase. But the cleaner, shinier versions of alt-rock? Well, since we are fans neither slick nor glossy, anytime someone mentioned it we'd just called them turds and went on about our business.

And then we heard OSIRUS.

OSIRUS is a revolving eight-year-old alt-rock band that, despite apparently putting on a wicked good live show, you've never heard of. Shoot, we hadn't even heard of them until someone passed along their information a few months ago, so don't feel bad.

Each Wednesday Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

As part of our Nightfly tour of duty, this past weekend we headed out Vintage Lounge, a surprising venue that turned out to be more impressive than we anticipated. One of the noteworthy highlights of the night, aside from getting into a somewhat heated discussion with this guy who looked exactly like a balding Matthew McConaughhey about how he totally looked exactly a balding Matthew McConaughey, was a rock-steady performance by resident DJ Keelan.

What intrigued us most about the show was that Keelan, who has been DJing for nearly a decade now, had somehow managed to coerce what seemed like 90 percent of the women at Vintage onto the dance floor. He was like the pied piper, except some of his mice were way hot. (Others were rather mousy.)

After about eight seconds of deliberation, we decided that a man of such specific talents needed to be inducted into the always growing Artist of the Week federation. We got with Keelan a little later on to ask about what cool things a loner might say to pick up a girl, how old is too old to DJ, and how exactly he's garnered such a women-heavy audience. Aces.

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

In our week-by-week attempt to highlight every single non-crappy musician in Houston, we've come across all manner of acts freaks, geeks, sexpots, whatever. You name it, we've featured them. We're proud to say that, with guitarist/glittery pop songstress Cindy Pruitt, our list now includes the alt-lifestyle sect - and it only took 40 weeks!

Pruitt is a jovial performer, darting in and around the gobby-pop genre that has become so popular these days, and it took only a few listens to decide that we're looking forward to seeing her perform live soon. (Even if it is as part of a cover band.)

Lucky for us, when we reached out to her, she was patient enough to entertain our questioning. Press on to read about the scoop on the alt-alt-pop scene, the myriad bands she's been a part of, and rapper Trae's affinity for punching things.