Houston Music Blog

Michael Hogue

​A little over seven years ago, we wrote about the South Park Mexican trial.

The rapper, born Carlos Coy, had it all: money, his own record label, a nightclub and, most importantly, the ear of a generation. He was the voice of a new type of person: the Southern and Southwestern Mexican-American who acclimated to American life through black culture - specifically hip-hop - instead of white. As Tejano music and culture started to wither and die in the wake of the murder of Selena, SPM stepped into the breach with a new style and swagger.

As the '90s progressed, young Texas Latinos stashed their hand-tooled leather belts, ostrich-skin boots and Charro-style hats and replaced them with, as commentator Rolando Rodriguez recently put it, " 'south side fades,' fitted Astros hats, oversized t-shirts, [and] gold grills in the mouth spittin' Southern slang."

And then Coy's weakness - a predilection for sex with underage girls - came to light. In June of 2002, Coy was convicted of the aggravated sexual assault of the nine-year-old daughter of two family friends and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

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This past week, Internet search-engine giant Google introduced a new music-search tool that immediately opens a pop-up window for people searching for a song, where either the entire song or a snippet will play for them. It's still in the beginning stages, so not all songs are available.

We started off trying our current fave, Husker Du's Flip Your Wig track "Makes No Sense At All" and we heard 30 seconds of the song, almost instantaneously. For Rocks Off, this will undoubtedly be a very useful tool, especially when writing blogs or reviews. Plus, it can always handily settle bets, like Wikipedia does. We can't count how many times we hear "Wiki that shit, yo!" being yelled around our house during a pop-culture dispute.

Songs are either available in their entirety or in just the aforementioned snippet; it seems to depend on the service they are culled from. MySpace let us play all of Devo's "Whip It," while we only heard the first half-minute of Metallica's "Sad But True." Sound quality also varies, as does the date of the recording. When Googling The Association's "Windy" you will hear a newer recording by the band, with tinny '80s sonics.

As for Texas and Houston bands, we dialed up the Wild Moccasins' "Fruit Tea," and were quickly hearing a version as clear as the one on our Microscopic Metronomes disc. This one came from online store Lala.com and played for the entire duration. We chilled out to Lightnin' Hopkins "Mojo Hand" soon after, also in full. Ditto for Benjamin Wesley's "Have You Ever Died" and Mitch Jacobs' "Jukebox Fool."

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Although Rocks Off had every intention of rambling about something different this week, we thought it would be a lost opportunity to not examine an issue that seems to have been revealed by readers' responses last week. Although many fantastic points were made, we were fascinated to detect that woven amongst the thoughtful insights was an ambivalence about how we as a community view the impact technology has had on our relationship with music.

This topic is pretty broad, so we're going to have to set aside the digital/analog audiophile debate for another time. We also recognize this issue touches on all segments of global culture, from journalism and books to film, philosophy and visual arts, but please, we've only got 500 words here.

Since it's always easier to bag on something than defend it, let's start with technology as an obstacle. From that perspective, the ascent of the MP3 has led to a Brave New World in which the album as a work complete in itself has been undermined by a cultural shift toward singles, and community record stores are dropping like flies (much love to ours in Houston that have survived).

[Ed note: Until Indie Rock Band is released - we can't wait either - come play Beatles Rock Band with us in the Rocks Off Loft upstairs at Thursday's Best of Houston party.]

Photo illustrations by John Seaborn Gray

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Harmonix Music Systems / MTV Games, March 15, 2011 - There have been a lot of rumors swirling about these past few months, and we want to take this opportunity at SXSW 11 to affirm that this time they are true: Indie Rock Band is real, and it's on its way!

We could ignore the pleas of desperate hipsters no longer. Jaded after hours of jamming along to Stone Temple Pilots and Boston, you asked for something better, and we are now answering.

After the success of last year's Eagles/Chicago-centric Lite Rock Band, we have accepted that niche Rock Band titles are not just viable, but actually clamored for. At long last, you will be able to step into the overpriced but cheap-looking shoes of all your favorite indie-rock darlings, including the New Pornographers (above), Broken Social Scene, Okkervil River and many, many more. 

[Update: Click here for a slideshow.]

The Pi Studios "blackshirts," sitting on a corn flake...

Hate to quote Nickelback, but what the hell: We all wanna be big rock stars, live in hilltop houses and drive 15 cars. Rocks Off is still working on the hilltop house and 15 cars part, but we got a little taste of what it must feel like Wednesday evening at our Beatles: Rock Band party at Coffee Groundz. The Midtown java joint shut down its drive-thru so we could set up the game, and a good 75 to 90 people showed up to mash some buttons and sing along to "I Am the Walrus," "Come Together," "Revolution," "Hey Bulldog" and lots more.

Rocks Off even managed to get a perfect score of 100 singing the vocals to our all-time favorite Beatles song, "I Saw Her Standing There." True, it was only on the "Medium" difficulty setting, but permit us our small moment of glory. We'd like to thank everyone who made the event happen, especially J.R. and the Coffee Groundz crew, Lori Alexander and Allisen Picos from the Press and the "blackshirt" boys from Pi who kept things running with a minimum of technical difficulties.

In short, we had a blast, and we're already planning our next Rock Band soiree, so stay tuned. Now that we actually know what we're doing, ain't no stoppin' us now. Check out some more videos after the jump.

Photos by Craig Hlavaty

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It's like Christmas morning here at Rocks Off today. We just got our copy of The Beatles: Rock Band and, like a car wreck or the Williams Tower waterwall, can't stop staring at it. (Must... look... away...) It looks like developer Harmonix spared no expense - and, at $250 for the limited edition, neither will you - but even before hooking the damn thing up, Rocks Off can kind of understand what all the hype is about. As an old bassist ourselves, we're especially looking forward to strapping on the digitized replica of Paul McCartney's signature Hofner.

And, best of all, we're sharing it with you. Come ride the "Yellow Submarine" (and drink a couple of Yellow Submarines) with Rocks Off this evening at Coffee Groundz, 2503 Bagby. "Helter Skelter" zero hour is about 6:30 p.m. See you there, and see more pictures after the jump.

In less than a week, Rocks Off will be giving our dear readers the first chance to play the new Beatles edition of "Rock Band." Next Wednesday we are taking over CoffeeGroundz in Midtown for one night of boozin', Beatles and inept drunken video-game play. A bartender will be on hand dishing out Beatles-themed shots and drinks, including the "Helter Skelter," "Long And Winding Iced Tea," and "Lennon Drop." In addition to the booze, there will also be a costume contest for concert tickets around town. Rocks Off will also be giving away a few of the catalog reissues that hit stores this Tuesday.

Our handlers even let us spring for the limited edition which includes a Paul McCartney-style Hofner bass guitar and a fancy new Ringo-riffic drum set with the band's iconic logo on front. Something tells us that there will be a hideous inter-office fight over who gets custody of the game after the party. Rocks Off has already retained Dick DeGuerin for the imminent court battle.

Whoever he is (was?), Scooby's iPod wasn't short on R. Kelly.

​So a couple of weeks ago, after three or four years of increasingly faltering service, Rocks Off's 30 GB iPod finally died. Completely. Out of sheer broke-assedness, we had held on to it for longer than most. By the end, its quirks and shenanigans were endless, not least its inability to hold a charge whether or not it was actually turned on, so perhaps it was something other than foolishness that impelled us to wear it out in the rain one afternoon. Maybe, it was, as Quincy, M.D. would have put it, iPod moy-da.

But at any rate, we are still broke-ass muthas, and now we didn't have any tunes other than a couple of transistor radios. Impoverished or not, Rocks Off would have to replace that sucker, even if it meant rice and beans, hand-rolled cigs, and watered-down coffee for the next month.

Our first thought was Craigslist. We arranged to meet a guy to whom we were about to pay $100 for a replacement 30 GB model, but negotiations broke down when the guy didn't show up. So the next day, we thought what the hell, why not go see what our friendly neighborhood Third Ward pawnshop had in stock.

Jackpot.

Daniel Kramer

​Via the Houston site of examiner.com, anti-viral software company McAfee ranks Beyonce near the top of celebrities for whom Internet searches are likely to lead to pages containing spyware, viruses or other technology-borne maladies. Searching Beyonce and other boldfaced names like Jessica Biel (No. 1 this year), the study says, could lead to pages "designed to damage one's computer." And you thought that "Single Ladies" video was viral.

Jennifer Aniston, Tom Brady and Jessica Simpson round out McAfee's Top 5. Rocks Off Googled Beyonce Wednesday morning and the first page or two of returns looked fine - her official site, Wikipedia and MySpace pages, YouTube playlist, etc.. (Not that we actually clicked any of the links... we're not that gullible.) Once we hit the 60s and 70s, we started getting sites like "Musicthatmakesyoudumb" and Photoshop Disasters. We caved in and clicked that last one - it's a picture of some amateurish airbrushing of B's phoenix outfit from the cover of Atlanta Social Season magazine - and nothing crashed except our opinion of her wardrobe designer.

Chris Gray

Wilco's Jeff Tweedy at Verizon Wireless Theater, March 2008

​If you're reading this at all, Rocks Off will just assume you're fairly familiar with the Internet, and therefore that you more than likely also have a Facebook page. Congratulations - don't you feel special?

Rocks Off was recently "tagged" by several of our Facebook friends with one of those "notes" things, which usually ask you to come up with some list or another and share it with up to 25 of your fellow social-networking addicts. This one asked users to list 50 or more bands they've seen live, to which we say "child's play."

We have been to literally thousands of concerts since we started writing about music full-time around 1995, so to be fair, Rocks Off confined our list to concerts we have attended (and saved ticket stubs from) since moving to Houston a little more than two years ago. That still came out to 70 shows on the nose. We asked partner in crime Craig Hlavaty to pick eight numbers at random between 1 and 70. See which shows they match, then it's your turn.

This week in the paper edition of the Press (remember that?), Rocks Off examines the state of the local music scene on the eve of the Houston Press Music Awards showcase and awards ceremony. There are a lot of reasons to be encouraged - a bumper crop of fine local releases across all formats, new venues opening up, local artists actually touring beyond Texas and an overall sense of community and possibility that has seldom if ever been there in the past.

But even though he lives on one, no man is an island, so Rocks Off reached out to a panel of insiders with a few simple questions about the state of the scene. One who didn't quite reply in time for the print edition, but who Rocks Off definitely wanted to hear from, is "eggs," one of the founders and editors of peripatetic Houston music blog Breakfast on Tour. "My focus is on all types of different music and sizes of bands," eggs told his readers earlier this week, "but hopefully I can do a better job in helping Houston command the respect that it deserves."

Rocks Off: Do you think the local music scene is better or worse than at this time last year? Why?

Eggs: Hands down better. Houston's local music scene is finally starting to pull together in efforts of bringing more people out to shows. The best example I can think of is Free Press Houston's bi-annual Block Party. I have been attending these events for years, but just within the past year, attendance has at least doubled in size. While the addition of several big-name headliners certainly helped the increase, it was many of our local bands that were truly drawing the masses in.

Deron Neblett

The Hollisters at the Fabulous Satellite Lounge, circa 2000

For a solid decade, Washington Avenue's Fabulous Satellite Lounge was Houston's go-to spot for roots-rock, alt-country and pretty much anything else that might get covered in the late, recently resurrected online No Depression magazine. Though he was living in Austin throughout the Satellite's run (it closed in January 2003), Rocks Off remembers a Dick Dale/Drive-By Truckers gig that was especially sick.

Turns out other people remember it as well. Reflecting on his love of Wilco (hear hear), attorney and Paste magazine contributor Jeff Leven shared a few florid memories of the Satellite - which he says "scurried at the frayed edges of Austin's shadow, literally on the wrong side of the tracks on the deader side of downtown's outermost sprawl" - on L.A.-based music blog Aquarium Drunkard last Saturday. Reminiscent of the Truckers' "I never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd, but I did see Molly Hatchet" lyric, Leven never saw Wilco at the FabSat, but he did see Son Volt.

"If my teenage bedroom was the cauldron where my obsession with music was concocted," he says, "for a time the Satellite was one of my most consistent markets for new ingredients."

Rocks Off is no less fascinated by the Twitter phenomena as when we began Twittering in earnest back in February. (We still prefer that to the other term for those 140-character-or-less updates, 'tweeting.') Since then, we've built up a Twitter-verse of about 420 'followers' and about 100 more 'followees' (or whatever you call them) and decided to put all that scrolling through their messages to good use. Every day, we'll bring you 10 or so of the funniest, silliest or even most useful Tweets from our page. Be sure to add us here and we may even post yours...

 

Rocks Off would like to extend our congratulations - we guess - to our lieutenant, Craig Hlavaty. Craig's picture of him sitting on Santa's lap (above), culled from his slideshow of Houston-area mall Santas last December, went bad and nationwide Sunday, appearing on the hilarious picture blog Look At This Fucking Hipster.

Our feelings about 25-year-old dudes (Craig has since turned 26) sitting on grown men's laps aside, Rocks Off thinks Craig looks just fine - especially compared to the girl in the right half of the picture, who appears to be wearing about 13 different layers of clothing. Maybe it was the man-purse/scarf combo - the only thing that screams "hipster" more than a long scarf like that is an ascot. So don't go getting any ideas there, Craig.

Now that you've browsed the various rock, soul, country and rap musicians who have spent time serving their country, Rocks Off thought a playlist might be apropos, something to listen to while you barbecue, watch the parade or whatever it is you do to honor fallen soldiers. We've selected some choice tracks dealing with war, soldiers and the trials that plague them, both domestic and foreign.

Alice In Chains, "Rooster": Written about guitarist Jerry Cantrell's father, who served in Vietnam and was nicknamed "Rooster", this song is a vivid portrait of what goes through the mind of one soldier neck-deep in the shit.

Mark C. Austin

Let's face it, by this point on Friday Rocks Off - and a lot of others, he'd wager - is pretty much brain-dead, and has been watching 30 Rock on Hulu for the last hour. But before we sign off for the weekend, here's some stuff we picked up from browsing other musically inclined local Web sites. Y'all feel free to do the same.

Andrew Dansby of 29-95.com - yep, the cyber-elephant at 801 Texas the Chronicle still can't bring itself to acknowledge, even though they have really hot pictures of dolls fucking (this week's position: The Bathroom!) - thought Wednesday night's Spoon show at Warehouse Live (above) was "deliciously lean." Rocks Off agrees, but he still can't figure out why he was oddly reminded of Billy Joel more than once during the evening.

Texas Music up-and-comer Randy Rogers, whose eponymous band plays House of Blues Saturday night, told Houstonist "We consider ourselves country. Not mainstream, not alternative, just country."

indiehouston.org published the tracklisting for the forthcoming KTRU Live vol. 1 CD, including Born Liars, Giant Princess, Tontons, Golden Axe, Elaine Greer and lots more.

For the past six months, the music business has been aghast and/or enthralled with the AutoTune craze. There seems to be no stopping the phenomenon, which is now crawling into the public's brain at an alarming rate.

No one seems to be immune to the 'Tune, with rappers Lil' Wayne and T-Pain seemingly using it the way Stevie Ray Vaughn used a guitar. Kanye West recorded 808's & Heartbreak using the software, giving his Blood On The Tracks-style breakup album a haunted, broken feel.

This past week, a hoaxer from the website hellohomo.com took a soundboard recording from a Beyonce gig on the Today Show and manipulated the vocals from her "If I Were A Boy" performance to make her sound like a bunny rabbit being fed through wood chipper. The video caused a massive uproar, and soon the hoaxer made clear that he merely did the project to prove some sort of point (which was never actually made clear).

Either way it was hella entertaining, if only for the first three viewings.

 

blogspot.thevinylvillain.com

The Vinyl Villain in earlier days.

Some bloggers ignore the criticism leveled against them that they're the major culprit in the music industry's decline. Others bark back ferociously.

JC over at The Vinyl Villain opts for the latter approach. In a recent post, he wrote: "Any of those dmca bastards that say bloggers are killing the art of buying music ought to have a look at my next bank statement."

He then added, "I'm not looking for any plaudits or medals... simply a recognition that those fuckers who insist we are the enemy have got it very badly wrong." Can someone give him a round of applause? I mean, this shy guy is doing good work over there.

Rocks Off has a feeling Billy Bob Thornton will be slightly more coherent than above ("shit is all jacked up") when his roots-rock band the Boxmasters is the featured artist on this month's edition of KPFT's Sugar Hill Sessions. But you never know. Listen today at 2 p.m. at 90.1 FM or in streaming audio at www.kpft.org. By the way, we always loved Highlights magazine too.

Gwazda

Dan Deacon seems to be everywhere these days, both in person and in the press. The electro-wizard from Charm City (Baltimore) is about as ebullient a musical figure as you're likely to find, and his particular brand of hyper-active "future shock" dance madness is just what the doctor ordered for an entire nation with the doldrums.

Rocks Off caught up with Deacon between stops on his busy U.S. tour - which stops at the Orange Show tonight, weather permitting - trying to get a feel for what's in store.

Rocks Off: Sorry to interrupt you in the middle of your busy tour schedule.

Dan Deacon: No problem.

RO: So, let me see, you're in Atlanta right now, is that right?

DD: Athens, actually, we haven't left yet. I am literally laying in the road. The show last night didn't get out until 7 a.m. So pardon me if I'm kind of out of it.

RO: When you played in Houston last year, I was actually at that show, and I was not at all initiated into what your music was when I got the assignment to go review your show. I had no idea what to expect.

DD: That's always the best.

Hhhoo-kay. This was the story that made us here at Rocks Off check to make sure it wasn't April 1 again. It would be just like April Fool's Day to feature us in some kind of cosmic Groundhog Day sequel without letting us know first.

But no, evidently this really happened. Fred Durst of jock-jam pioneers (and recently reunited) Limp Bizkit tweeted Neil Diamond thusly: "I am a huge fan of yours. We should do a collaboration - Neil Diamond meets my band Limp Bizkit. Sounds fresh."

Instead of reacting like most of the rest of us did - splashing our monitors with holy water - Neil tweeted back that the idea sounded pretty gosh-darn dope to him too (in so many words).

Despite the fact that this collaboration is way more likely to tear the universe a new asshole than several Large Hadron Colliders, we hope it happens, if for no other reason than to satisfy what we now recognize as a very dark, sick and morbid curiosity. That curiosity has mutated; we are now obsessed with imagining other musicians who might hook up through Twitter.

Photo by Craig Hlavaty

The fruits of Hungry Villagers' labors have seemingly paid off. Today, while perusing the concert industry website livedaily.com, we saw the Houston indie-pop group has today's free download of the day, new track "Tree Full Of Ghosts." Further investigation led us to the music blog for influential Seattle indie station KEXP 90.3 FM championing the band, describing them as a "burst of hope and fresh spring air."

Hungry Villagers consists of three Houck brothers - David, Jacob and Abe - and drummer Ferrick Hallaron IV. Jacob and Abe both share vocal duties and remind us, respectively, of Leonard Cohen and Arcade Fire's Win Butler. Their shadowy sound falls somewhere between that of the aforementioned Arcade Fire, spindly Britpop like Echo & The Bunnymen and Fleet Foxes' wintry blasts of folks. No wonder KEXP is so enamored.

TK's atomic mullet is no match for Rocks Off and Saving Country Music's poison pens.

This has been a fun week down in the Rocks Off foxhole, as Toby Keith's loyal minions have besieged us with comments taking issue with our review of the Big Dog Daddy's lackluster RodeoHouston performance Wednesday. (Come on, guys, we did say the guitar work on "Stranglehold" was pretty badass.) They even enlisted the flacks at CMT to help assail our defenses.

Now, like the cavalry in some John Ford Western Keith probably wishes he could remake, the Saving Country Music blog has come to our aid. "Luckily, the forces of REAL country music have found an ally down there in the form of the Houston Press," SCM posted today. Be sure to check out their "It Hurts When I Pee" podcast while you're there, too.

If you're from around these parts and headed to SXSW - whether the film, music or interactive festivals - or just curious about who is, head down to Caroline Collective, where this year's Houston delegation will be rubbing elbows and quaffing drinks starting at 5 p.m.

"Our goal is for Houstonians attending SXSW to have the opportunity to share ideas, goals and contacts before going to what is arguably one of the better networking and promotional conferences each year," writes CC director Matthew Wettergreen on the collective's Web site. "Therefore, if you are going to SXSW this year and are from Houston, this is a must-attend event."

Besides syncing your schedules with other Houstonians, another reason you might want to show up is that SXSW has donated one badge for the interactive festival - which starts tomorrow - that will be given away tonight. Must be present to win; register here.

5 p.m. tonight at Caroline Collective, 4820 Caroline, carolinecollective.cc.

Courtesy Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

Turns out Solange Knowles had a pretty legit reason for being off her game at last Friday's rodeo concert: While she and her band were en route from Austin, their tour bus plowed headlong into a colony of deer. Solange is one of the most prolific Twittering musicians out there - 24,000 followers, 1,760 updates - and last night she used the microblog to relay her account of what happened:

"I'm on the phone baking like betty in my bus bunk and CRASH! Thought I was dead, but turns out we ran into a family of dear:( ...  I can't believe it. Were all ok tho! Guitar player flew out of bunk n hurt his hand a little:( ... Really sad for the deer. One didn't make it:( ... Craziest thing is when your in your bunk , you have no access 2 windows so it really scared me.I just felt bam!"

Besides emoticons and "baking like betty" - something tells Rocks Off she ain't talking about making muffins there - Solange is also a big fan of Chairlift, so look for her in the audience at one of the Brooklyn indie/electro-poppers' SXSW appearances. 

The Style Scout

Lily Allen

Boy oh boy, Rocks Off is getting carried away with this Twitter business. As addictive as it is, though, it's not without its disappointments. We were amazed and flattered when Bjork decided to follow us, and then just a little heartbroken when a quick glance at her tweets en masse reveals her account is most likely run by an assistant/label wonk/possible bot; it consists almost completely of plugs for her concerts and releases, nary a hint of the Ice-English babble we've come to love from the little pixie.

To add to the grief, we found out Nick Cave's wasn't really Nick Cave; our first hint was when we finally looked at his profile and saw his name was listed as "Fake Nick Cave". If it had been the man himself, it would have qualified as one of the best examples of self-referential genius of all time. Sample tweet: "@LisslaLissar Polly Jean's cat always enjoyed 'Sweetheart Come.' I wrote the Boatman's Call for her, you know. For the cat." However, setbacks aside, Rocks Off has found some genuinely readable Twitter feeds that, by all appearances, are written by the artists themselves.

We know: we fanboyed out a little, too.

Mark C. Austin

Caroline Collective was all a-Twitter at Thursday's Twestival, featuring music by local alt-rockers Wayside Drive and more. Click here for a slideshow.

Wayside Drive

Tonight at Caroline Collective, Houston will be joining over 175 cities across the world for the Twestival. The Twitter-spawned event was set-up to benefit Charity:Water, a nonprofit group that helps build wells in underdeveloped countries to help bring fresh water to their communities.

The all-volunteer event begins tonight at 5:30 p.m. with musical guests Wayside Drive, the Snake Charmers, Blue Funk Zone, and R.C. & The Pirates. A ton of local businesses and institutions have donated prizes for a door raffle.

Drinking is all taken of, kids. Saint Arnold's is showing up to do their Christian duty and give out free booze. Coffee Groundz and Sauté Bistro will be on food detail.

One of Houston's principal sources for news, reviews and gossip about the local music scene has gone dark. Visitors to the Skyline Network this morning - we'd normally link to it, but there's not much point now - were greeted with the above image and a message from Webmaster adr (aka Ryan Clark) that "After quite a bit of contemplation, I've decided to spend my time on other pursuits."

At first Rocks Off and a few friends were convinced this was a hoax. (Clark can be a bit of a card.) It's not, though. We pressed Clark for a few more details and he sent us the following email:

Rocks Off is what a good friend likes to call "last caveman to the fire," meaning whenever some form of new technology comes along, he procrastinates as long as possible before embracing it. However, once he does come around, it's with guns blazing - for example, he's a texting fiend (especially after a few drinks) and has finally just about mastered this whole cameraphone thing.

So even though he has no idea exactly what it is or what real purpose it serves besides one more online distraction at work - and trust him, there's already plenty of those - he has taken the advice of several friends, colleagues and acquaintances and set up a Twitter account at www.twitter.com/hprocksoff. If you're so inclined, please click and sign up to "follow" him, whatever that means. Maybe you can help explain why this seems to be so important these days.

To help things run smoother, Rocks Off has also set up a brand-new blog-only email address at hprocksoff@gmail.com. Please send posters/flyers, news tips, MP3s, show announcements and anything else you think may help us keep Houston up to speed with what's going on musically. See you on the Interweb!