Houston Music Blog

​Most mornings, Rocks Off wakes up to Elizabeth Cook's country-as-cornbread drawl on her Outlaw Country satellite-radio program, "Apron Strings" (Sirius 63, XM 13, 5-9 a.m. Mondays). On her 2007 LP Balls - produced by the Houston Kid himself, Rodney Crowell - Cook was as frank and charming on songs like "Times Are Tough In Rock and Roll" and "Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be a Woman."

Cook recently appeared in the stage musical The Conway Twitty Story as the Arkansas-born crooner's daughter Joanie; her next album, this time produced by Don Was (Willie Nelson, Rolling Stones), is due in March. Rocks Off spoke with the rural Florida native earlier this week as she traveled from her home in Nashville to Texas, where she opened shows for Guy Clark in Austin and Dallas in addition to her date with Dwight Yoakam at the Arena Theater Saturday.

Rocks Off: Are you as chatty and homespun in real life as you are on "Apron Strings"?

Elizabeth Cook: I think so. I don't know. I haven't really had the time or energy to develop any persona that I would adopt for purposes of the radio show, so yes.

RO: Do you use any notes for your airbreaks, or are they completely off the cuff?

EC: It's completely off the cuff. No notes. I did at first. [Cook has been doing "Apron Strings" a little more than two years.]

Providence, R.I., band Deer Tick may hail from "Up North" but their sound is purely steeped in grungey folk and rockabilly yelp. They, in fact, hear this description so much that the band has started to rebel against it by in fact upping the dosage on their new More Fuel For The Fire EP, which just hit iTunes this week.

The band has been the brainchild of lead singer and songwriter John Joseph McCauley III since the very beginning in late 2004. He was joined by a full band in 2007, right before the release and recording of that year's War Elephant full-length. Around this time, the band gained a rep for playing what lazy critics would call "alt-country" rather than the Creedence Clearwater Revival stomp that McCauley was building in his mind. War did incredibly well critically, as did follow-up Born On Flag Day, which features probably one of the best songs with Houston in its title that isn't necessarily about our city, "Houston, TX", but instead about a heartbreaking girl from around these parts.

Not content to just make records, Cambodian surf-pop band Dengue Fever's projects have included multiple soundtracks, a documentary film, and now, an original score.

Rocks Off can think of few other bands whose music perfectly fits the exotic otherworldliness of the 1925 silent version of The Lost World, based on the book by Aurthur Conan Doyle. Dengue Fever will be at Warehouse Live Saturday night for a one-off performance of their original score for the film. The score was written for the San Francisco International Film Festival this summer, and Houston's screening is presented by the Cinema Arts Society.

Bass player Senon Williams talked to Rocks Off about the film, the band's writing process and their relentless touring schedule.

Ryan Russell/ www.myspace.com/converge

​

Out of the four bands playing tonight's big "Adult Swim Presents" tour, Converge sticks out like a shard of bloody glass embedded in your foot. Opening doomers High On Fire and co-headliner Mastodon are both devastating bands who orchestrate monolithic walls of precise metal sludge, akin to the kind that cartoon headliner Dethklok both spoofs and executes so succinctly. Where Converge fits in is a happy mystery, but Rocks Off is just happy that they are in the mix converting impressionable kids into pit-dwelling psychotics in ripped jeans with Botch records under their arm.

Formed nearly 20 years ago by teens Jacob Bannon and Kurt Ballou, Converge and Cleveland's Integrity churned out eviscerating stabs of thrash and hardcore, pioneering the sound that would become metalcore and eventually spawn bands such as Hatebreed and Shai Halud. Picking up where their 1998 release Petitioning An Empty Sky left off, Converge released Jane Doe in 2001 to a sea of accolades and praise. It revolutionized their signature sound, while also birthing a whole new generation of bands who would see Jane Doe as their own personal Pet Sounds.

In 2004, the band moved to Epitaph Records, which had always traditionally been a punk label, which stirred many purists into a tizzy of hand-wringing and message-board bashing. The band has released three albums of their best work on Epitaph while also shoving stuff out on their own custom indie shingle Deathwish Inc., starting with You Fail Me.

Lucero "Sixes and Sevens" from Lucero on Vimeo.

​A decade and six albums into their career, Memphis country-punks Lucero made the leap late last year from their own indie label, Liberty & Lament, onto Universal/Republic Records. The band's rabid, boozy following may have been hesitant at the time of the signing, fearing a dilution of the band's sound at the hands of corporate handlers. But anyone who has given last month's 1372 Overton Park a spin will instead hear Lucero venturing into stranger territory only hinted at on previous albums.

This weekend, Lucero hits Texas to play Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin ahead of their date Monday night at the Meridian. They are currently touring the country behind 1372 with fellow Memphis act Cedric Burnside & Lightning Malcolm and punkier kids the City Champs and the Dirty Streets. We talked with lead singer Ben Nichols while Lucero was getting ready for a gig out in Cleveland, Ohio. We discussed the bands new direction and some of the ingredients that are shaping their new, soulful tone.

Rocks Off: 1372 Overton Park seems like the next logical progression after the past two albums, 2005's breakthrough Nobody's Darlings and 2007's Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers. What's been the biggest thing defining this new direction?

Ben Nichols: With Darlings, it was just the four of us, the four original members. Then we added Rick Steff on Rebels, Rogues and just the addition of Rick on piano and organ allowed us to expand the idea of the band a little bit. It allowed us to do stuff we weren't able to do before. It was more fully realized on 1372. We went into the songwriting process more intentionally, if that makes any sense.

​Plastilina Mosh has a new CD out, All U Need Is Mosh, on Nacional Records, and brings its international sound to Houston Thursday for a free concert with Venezuela's Los Amigos Invisibles. That's right, it's free - all it costs is a very worthwhile trip outside the Loop.

Rocks Off hasn't picked up All U Need yet, but here are three picks from the album that should convince you to do it:

"My Party"

"Let U Know"

"Pervert Pop Song"

P-Mosh (you try spelling it correctly!) is made up of only two members, J.R. Gonzalez and Alejandro Rosso, both from Monterrey, Mexico. Rocks Off caught up with Jonaz in Brazil at the beginning of the duo's "All You Need is Mosh" tour.

[Note: Read Part 1 of the interview here.]

​RO: What is your favorite John Williams movement from the soundtracks?

AD: Curiously, it's one from The Phantom Menace, and I know some will be surprised by that. There's a wonderful Egyptian-type march before one of Anakin's pod races. It's got a great Egyptian, eastern and slightly discordant, very much written in their notation and scale. It's very exciting with lots of brass. Oh, and of course the piece with Darth Maul, the guy with the red horns. His is such an exciting and violently threatening piece. But thinking back, there's actually nothing I don't like.

RO: What has been your most rewarding interaction with fans over the past 32 years?

AD: When a parent comes up with a child, and says "Can you do the voice?" The kids don't believe you are C-3PO, then I go (drops into the signature voice) "Hello, I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations!" You see the kid digest the sounds, and you see the smile recognition. That in its simplest way is hugely rewarding. Even though I am not always in costume, there are elements in my performance and the script that make it very clear who I have been for thirty-something years.

Photo courtesy of Anna Garza

The Girls Rock Camp Houston Board (l-r): April Brem Patrick, Linda Younger, Dianna Ray, Anna Garza

​Long before Anna Garza thought that Houston needed a girl-centric music camp, she put the city on the map as a viable tour stop for indie bands as talent buyer for booking collective Hands Up Houston. Bringing the Bayou City artists like Blonde Redhead, Coco Rosie and TV on the Radio, the collective proved to be one of the most successful local ventures of its time. Garza also helped organize the first local Hootenanny showcase and second installment of the Noise & Smoke festival.

Currently, her focus is readying the next generation of female musicians and working to organize via the first-ever Girls Rock Camp in Houston. The Rock Camp's mission is to empower girls and women of all backgrounds and abilities through musical education and performance art.

Acting as founder and director, Garza has assembled an impressive roster from our local music and arts scenes to direct, including MyDolls bassist Dianna Ray, Cinema Arts Managing Director Kim Castillo, MyCityRocks Community Outreach/music therapy teacher Veronica Llanos-Butler and Anime Networks' National Advertising Manager April Brem Patrick.

A few weeks back, Rocks Off had the pleasure of speaking with actor Anthony Daniels, the man in the golden suit and the physical embodiment of one of the most iconic characters in popular science fiction. Since production began in 1976 on A New Hope, better known of course as Star Wars, Daniels has been C-3PO for better or worse, through sand and sweat, through near amputation by Jawas to probable immolation at the hand of the Ewoks. His character has been in all six Star Wars films and continues to be seen today on the computer-animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars series on the Cartoon Network.

​On tour with the Star Wars: In Concert roadshow, Daniels acts as the emcee of the evening and narrates the action onscreen as John Williams' score is performed by an orchestra led by conductor Dirk Brosse. The saga of the six films has been re-cut and told in a more linear format, telling the story of Anakin Skywalker and his extended family and the personal tragedies he encounters.

At its heart, the new tale is very much about a man and his journey through life and all the choices he has to make and the repercussions of each. The tour's multi-million dollar sound and screen set-up is just icing on the cake for fans of the two trilogies, all of whom would no doubt follow this content anywhere and to any venue.

Daniels spoke with us about the rigors of the tour, his favorite selections from John Williams' epic scores, life as the golden Threepio, and gave us a glimpse into his private home life in rural France.

​Local legend Texas Johnny Brown is a living link to blues history. The 80-year-old was a key player in the genesis of the electric form of the genre, penning hits for the likes of Bobby "Blue" Bland, supporting stars like Ruth Brown and recording under his own name as far back as the late 1940s. Combine that with a childhood spent doing street performances across the South, and Brown has quite a biography.

You can hear the tale from the man himself when he appears tonight at the Jung Center for The Soul of Houston: Blues Stories. Music historian Roger Wood will host; Rocks Off spoke to Wood about what makes Brown, and this event, special.

Rocks Off: How is [the event] going to work?

Dr. Roger Wood: I'm going to do a brief introductory lecture about Johnny and what our topic is that night, and then he'll do an onstage interview. We'll probably play a few of his recordings and discuss them to illustrate certain points. Towards the end it'll open up to the audience for some Q&A.

www.myspace.com/arringtondedionyso

​Now that you've had a chance to familiarize yourself with Old Time Relijun front man and solo aural dissembler extraordinaire Arrington de Dionyso, it's time to see what he's got to say for himself. Rocks Off put the screws to de Dionyso in a late-September email interview, and as you'll see below, he was very forthcoming.

Rocks Off: What does [forthcoming album] Malaikat dan Singa translate as in English?

Arrington de Dionyso: "Angels and Lions."

RO: I have to know: is it true that you wrote and recorded Malaikat dan Singa to impress a girl? If so, did it work?

ADD: It's absolutely true! It worked! She's on tour with me right now! (She won't be by the time I get to Houston, she could only take three weeks off for the tour.) It was one of those situations where I knew I'd only have one chance to win her heart, so I spent two months teaching myself Indonesian and wrote and recorded an entire album of new songs that only she (and 500 million Indonesian speakers) would understand.

I'm not being "obscurist" though, at all. This album is some of my best, most inspired songwriting ever. After the album is released I'm going to put together a little book with lyric translations so people will get to know what I'm talking about.

​Most people in the world of music videos may not recognize the name Nahala Johnson, but lately, they've recognized his nom de film: Mr. Boomtown. The Port Arthur native (he now splits his time between Houston and Dallas) is a nominee for the BET Hip Hop Awards' Director of the Year. The show will be held October 10th in Atlanta.

He's nominated for his work on two videos that really couldn't be any more different from each other -- Slim Thug's "I Run," with its breathtaking night-time aerial views of Houston, underground clubs, bling, and wads of cash; and Mike Jones's "Next to You," which features the aforementioned Mr. Jones and his sweetie shopping at Greenspoint Mall and eating Corn Flakes in unbridled domestic bliss.

But after ten years of producing videos for the likes of Scarface, Bun B, Paul Wall, and Mya, Mr. Boomtown is ready for just about anything. We caught up with him this week, but only for a brief phone chat -- as you can imagine, a fellow with the name of "Mr. Boomtown" has quite the busy schedule.

We started by asking him what Slim and Mike differed in their approaches to making videos.

​

Once upon a time, not so long ago, three young lads from West London started a band. They called it Fear of Flying, and found a niche in the neighborhood's "Way Out West" club scene, a promoter's idea to raise money for a local football club and expose the neighborhood teenagers - who, according to a 2007 article in Time Out London, were pretty much stuck in an area known as a "haven for antipodean pissheads moshing to Nirvana tribute bands [rather] than for any musical creativity" - to some new music.

Soon enough, Fear of Flying wrote a song called "Unfinished Business" and were sufficiently inspired by its dark, brooding overtones and how easily it came to them - they wrote it in 15 minutes - to make a clean break with the past and rechristen themselves White Lies. Almost instantaneously, reports their PR bio, "Their image blackened to suit their new mood, and their gigs began to rage with such devout intensity that some fans were literally driven to tears."

So were bloggers and even a few regular folks on this side of the pond when White Lies played at SXSW earlier this year - shortly after the trio's debut album, To Lose My Life..., reached No. 1 in their native UK. After a busy summer of festival after festival, White Lies is back on these shores for - what else? - one more festival. Rocks Off spoke with drummer Jack Brown Monday morning from Minneapolis, where White Lies was preparing to open the first date of the Kings of Leon tour that brings them to the Austin City Limits festival this weekend and Toyota Center next Tuesday.

Rocks Off: What was the band doing at this time last year?

Jack Brown: I think we were probably already a little way into touring. We did a few festivals last summer, not even half as many as we did this year, but I think this time last summer we were probably doing a small headline tour of our own. I really can't remember. I know we've been on the road now for the best part of a year and a half, though, so it's pretty likely we were playing somewhere around the world.

LeAnn Mueller

​Joe Satriani is a hero to Guitar Player subscribers and a bit of an enigma to everyone else. His name is synonymous with a distinctive style of guitar playing - highly advanced fretboard wizardry, often referred to as "shredding," that draws equally from rock, metal, classical and jazz.

Recently, however, Satriani has been grinding his axe in the considerably grungier Chickenfoot. What began as a no doubt tequila-fueled lark in Cabo San Lucas between Van Halen pariahs Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony and their bud, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, is turning out to be perhaps 2009's unlikeliest hard-rock success story - Chickenfoot's self-titled album, released in June, toes a tenacious line between serious chops and serious fun.

Rocks Off spoke with Satriani from his San Francisco home last week, as "The Professor" prepared to leave on the final leg of Chickenfoot's inaugural U.S. tour, which hits Verizon Wireless Theater Wednesday night.

Rocks Off: Was Chickenfoot a spur of the moment sort of thing, or was there a lot of planning that went into it?

Joe Satriani: Sam, Mike and Chad had been jamming down in Cabo San Lucas for about six months, so I came into it late. [In 2007] Sammy gave me a call inviting me down to Las Vegas for like a little celebrity jam for his encore at the Palms Theater. So I went down there just to sort of party, and the jam was so good we decided, "Let's be a band." But I was unaware they were plotting before then, which was great, because I guess everyone was getting ready to put a lot of time and effort into it.

Unfortunately, I was just getting ready to master and release my record [2008's Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock] and had 11 months of touring to do, so that started our journey where we would get together for two days and wouldn't see each other for two months. That would repeat itself three or four times until we got to the end of the year, when we finally spent December finishing the record at Skywalker Studios.

​He's been around the world. He has played in locales as exotic as Paris, Rome, Berlin and Dubai. He has probably shagged women who would sooner cross the street than look at you. And yet, DJ/producer/remixer King Britt doesn't mind coming down to Houston and entertaining us mortal folk with his hypnotic grooves. The Philadelphia native took some time out to talk about his upcoming gig tonight at La Strada, what it takes to be a good DJ, his latest projects and why he's just so got-damn cool!

Rocks Off: The last time you were in Houston, we believe, you played the dearly departed Engine Room (now the Jet Lounge). Now, you're playing La Strada Restaurant. How did that gig come about?

KB: Hmmm, not sure. They call my agent and he sends me a list of gigs. Anytime Houston is listed, I am there!

RO: As a DJ, do you prefer playing someplace more low-key and intimate like a restaurant or lounge, or do you prefer playing big rooms or events, like the Sin City Festival in L.A. you're playing the next day?

KB: I love both environments. A good DJ can rock in any situation. It keeps you on your toes. You can be much more creative however in an intimate environment!

​Don't ask us why, but ever since Rock's Off read Chuck Klosterman's "23 questions I ask everybody I meet in order to decide if I can really love them" from Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, we've wanted to do interviews comprised exclusively of those questions. Perhaps it's a nostalgic throwback to our days in high school, tormenting eighth-grade speech tournament competitors with impromptu pantomime topics such as "you are light; behave as both a particle and a wave" (and yes, we actually did have friends back then, although we don't fault your disbelief).

Regardless, we finally found someone willing to indulge this inexplicable desire; Eric Johnson of Fruit Bats. We went looking for him at Walter's several hours before doors opened on last Thursday night's show. The band was running late, and we were turned away by Walter's owner Pam Robinson, who mistook us for Chris Gray; we're not sure if we should feel flattered or ashamed.

When we came back shortly before the show, we met up with the hungry Johnson, and threw a few of these ramblingly bizarre questions at him before his growling stomach sent him off down Washington Avenue looking for something to eat.

Rocks Off: Let us assume you met a rudimentary magician. Let us assume he can do five simple tricks - he can pull a rabbit out of his hat, he can make a coin disappear, he can turn the ace of spades into the Joker card, and two others in a similar vein. These are his only tricks and he can't learn any more; he can only do these five. However, it turns out he's doing these five tricks with real magic. It's not an illusion; he can actually conjure the bunny out of the ether and he can move the coin through space. He's legitimately magical, but extremely limited in scope and influence. Would this person be more impressive than Albert Einstein?

www.myspace.com/paintedonwaterband

​Rocks Off knows the humidity make it feel like it sometimes, but if Houston were Istanbul, Painted on Water would be playing Toyota Center this evening. The Turkish duo's eponymous CD showed up on our desks a while back without a clue to their background - turns out singer Sertab Erener is like the Mariah Carey, or maybe Diana Krall, of Turkey - (she's very popular) or what they sounded like.

We're glad we did - it's a languid palette of sophisticated modern jazz, Steely Dan or Santana-like rock and mysterious echoes of far-off shores. Many, many years ago, we're sure, Erener's sultry, flirtatious vocals could have charmed the sultan right out of his kingdom. Rocks Off spoke with Painted on Water's other half, guitarist and songwriter Demir Demirkan, last week as the duo was gearing up for its trip to Houston and tonight's show at Meridian.

Rocks Off: Where did that name come from?

Demir Demirkan: The name actually comes from the art, ebru. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. Actually the artist paints on oiled water, and then prints that painting on some kind of special paper.

It also has a kind of deeper philosophical meaning - the impermanence of life. I guess that would be the closest way to explain it. If you paint something on the water, you know it's just gonna stay for a while and then just kind of disappear.

Photos by Craig Hlavaty

​

"Going from musician to politician is definitely a step down," says Kinky Friedman, who announced his Texas gubernatorial candidacy Tuesday morning. "But I'll take it for Texas."

Of course, it's a step that Friedman, author of songs such as "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Any More" and "The Ballad of Charles Whitman," as well as numerous mystery novels, took once before in 2006, when he took about 13 percent of the popular vote as an independent. Running as a Democrat this time, Friedman is a master of the sound bite but hadn't even come up with a campaign slogan until he was leaving the Press offices Tuesday evening.

"Smart president, smart governor - how about that?"

Rocks Off: Why do it again?

​Kinky Friedman: That's a really good question. You'd have to ask a few psychiatrists for the answer to that one. I think you do something until you get it right. I think I shouldn't have run as an independent, in retrospect. No independent's ever won in Texas except for Sam Houston. I've always been a Democrat, my heroes have always been Democrats and it just made sense. A lot of the things that I stood for in my last campaign are still true. George Washington wasn't wrong; there's still a lot of flaws in the two-party system. But that's what we have.

So I've seen the light. I will play by the rules, and I'll run in the Democratic primary and if I were to lose, I would endorse and campaign for whoever does win, and I would assume they'll do the same for me. And spiritually, the Democrats are a very populist party. That's what's made them such a power over the past century. That's where I come in. I see myself as maybe the only man of the people in the race, considering all these other people are flying around in their private jets all the time. I'm a Southwest Airlines kind of guy. By choice.

John Van

Melt Banana at Walter's on Washington, November 2007

​All of you who think last night/today's news that Walter's on Washington will close at the end of October is another nail in the coffin of Houston's indie scene can relax. Rocks Off reached owner Pam Robinson around 12:30 p.m., and she said the club will open at it's new location (she can't say where yet) within days of closing on Washington, and that none of the club's shows will have to be moved or rescheduled.

Rocks Off: So it's true?

Pam Robinson: Walter's is moving, yes. It's moving, not closing. Walter's on Washington will have to be Walter's off Washington now (laughs).

RO: What happened? The building got sold?

PR: The property was sold. It was a private sale. Walter's has been a little tired of the lack of parking and - how can I put this kindly? - the area sucks. I live here and I love my home, which is right behind the bar, and I loved the neighborhood for many, many years. I'm still hopeful that eventually it will get back to what it used to be, a lovely community with a lot of diversity, but it's been overrun by the non-Walter's type.

And I just can't fix my parking. We don't have any parking. That's no bueno. The city has been really cool to work with me, and I won my [noise-complaint-driven] lawsuit, so that was all great, but then it's other problems. My shows are selling out, we have to turn people away. I don't really have to worry about the noise anymore, but I do about parking. This is bad. My daughter's car got hit on the street. It's getting bad.

nicolemariella.files.wordpress.com

Incubus' Brandon Boyd in his art studio

​After year-long hiatus from touring and recording, Calabasas, Calif.-based rockers Incubus have jumped back on the road to promote their first greatest-hits collection, Monuments and Melodies. The band is using the time on tour to workshop new material for a release said to be hitting the streets next spring or summer.

It's been a long and varied career for the band, who started in 1991 as little more than teenagers armed with a Red Chili Peppers tab book and unfinished algebra homework. By 1995's self-released Fungus Amongus, the young band had melded into an affable funk-metal outfit with pronounced spacey tendencies. In 1997 they came above ground on debut Sony EP, Enjoy Incubus. Incubus' first proper full-length, S.C.I.E.N.C.E., followed the same funk-metal course and the band toured heavily with bands like Korn and the like-minded 311.

But the next album, Make Yourself, turned the band away from the monotony of punk-funk into more soulful, organic territory. Overnight, Incubus seemingly took a turn from mookish modern rock into straight-up makeout-core. Singles "Stellar" and "Drive" ruled the radio waves and pushed the album to sell nearly three million units. Follow-up Morning View (2001) took that template to the nth degree, and, with its lush sonic textures and singer Brandon Boyd's surfer-soul vocals, remains the band's magnum opus. If Make Yourself was a makeout record, then Morning View was full-on sex.

​

With his distinctive blonde mohawk, Jean Beauvoir struck not just a memorable visual presence in the '80s, as his hard-charging singing and playing shone first as a member of notorious punks the Plasmatics, then Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul and finally a solo effort, 1986's Drums Along the Mohawk. His "Feel the Heat" ended up as the theme song from the Sylvester Stallone cop flick Cobra.

And then, Jean Beauvoir just disappeared - or so it would seem to U.S. audiences. But over in Europe, he kept busy releasing solo records, efforts with his groups Voodoo X and Crown of Thorns, and also writing and producing for other acts.

Beauvoir has since hooked back up with Little Steven, whose Renegade Nation multi-media empire includes a record label (Wicked Cool), two satellite radio stations, a syndicated show - Little Steven's Underground Garage, heard in Houston Sunday nights on 93.7 the Arrow - film division, and even a talent agency.

Note: Read Part 1 here.

​In 1994, Bob Woodruff was a hot Nashville property. He was New Jersey rocker who suddenly began to pour out great country songs, which lead to a deal with Asylum Records in Nashville and a well-received album, Dreams and Saturday Nights. But Woodruff eventually left Asylum without making another album.

Lonesome Onry and Mean: What's your version of what happened at Asylum? We've heard several versions and are sure all these versions contain elements of fact and fiction.

BW: After Dreams and Saturday Nights came out, Asylum didn't pick up my option for a second record. Instead they suggested I do more co-writing and offered me an advance and a budget to record masters for part of a new album.

I agreed to do more co-writing, but I had done that development-deal thing before with the first album and felt the label at that point should either commit to a second record or let me go. I really liked the people there, but in my heart I felt that the label was changing and becoming a less suitable home for my music, so I basically walked away with no hard feelings. I then met with ex-Sony Records president Roy Wunsch and became the first signing at his new label, Imprint Records, but that's another story.

Mike Ruiz

​They say man can't exist on indie-rock and metal alone, or something like that. Rocks Off firmly agrees, so when we hear good mainstream pop we ride that horse for all it's worth. That's why a little over a year ago, when Katy Perry hit with her single "Ur So Gay," we were enamored with the raven-haired California native. It wasn't quite bubblegum, and it wasn't quite rock and roll, but it was catchy as hell. Plus it was delivered in such a non-plussed pinup/rocker-girl motif, that many likened her to a curvier American Lily Allen.

Houston and Perry have had quite the hit-and-miss relationship over the past year. She has had to cancel her last two appearances in the 713 due to illness (or SXSW) and, well, an American Idol slot. Until Sunday, the last time Perry performed in front of a Houston audience was last year's Vans Warped Tour at Sam Houston Race Park. Her 2008 album One Of The Boys has already yielded the pop songstress four hit singles including "Hot N Cold," "I Kissed a Girl," "Waking Up In Vegas" and the ballad "Thinking Of You."

Each cancelled date bothered Perry, she swears, and she hopes to be able to do something for her Bayou City fans who have waited patiently for almost seven months to hear her live. Over the phone, she suggested a pizza party, and we countered with "How about a booze party?" Rocks Off temporarily forgot we are actually a part of the silent, drunken male minority in her core fanbase that prefers Lone Star to slices of pepperoni and cheese.

Photos by Henry Rizoh

 

As you no doubt have heard, this past Wednesday's Trae Day, a celebratory day established last year by the city of Houston recognizing rapper Trae tha Truth's work with at-risk youth, was sullied by post-festivities gunshots.

Rocks Off was able to steal a few minutes out of Trae's day Friday to briefly discuss how it affected him as a father, whether or not he's planning on doing it again next year and our own fandom.

Rocks Off: Guess we'll talk about the unfortunate stuff first. We know you're a business, but as a father - and we actually met some of people backstage and they all had nothing but great things to say about you - but as a father, how did that whole situation affect you?

Trae: There wasn't nothing right about that whole situation. They jeopardized babies' lives. There was nothing cool about that. I'll never stand for that. They could've waited until they got far away and done that. Or if they couldn't wait they could've gone in someone's backyard. I'm telling everybody that was not the move.

 Tonight, Judas Priest, led by the inimitable metal god Rob Halford, hits the stage at Verizon Wireless Theate less than a year since the leathermen last graced Houston. They came to the shed out in the Woodlands last August, headlining the "Metal Masters" tour with Motorhead, Testament and Heaven & Hell.

The band is currently on the road touring behind their fifth live album, A Touch Of Evil: Live, as well as celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the landmark British Steel release. Halford and crew will be performing Steel in it's entirety on each date, including the one tonight.

The album stands as a steadfast testament to the band's artistic tenacity and metal master prowess. It holds up magnificently well, with singles like "Breaking The Law" and "Living After Midnight" still blowing away today's puny heavy metal folk by miles. Plus, Halford still has the pipes to keep up with the material, unlike some dudes who need teleprompters and diapers to rock sold out shows.

Rocks Off phoned Halford while he was in Cleveland for a stop on the band's current tour with Whitesnake to get his thoughts on British Steel and his band's mark on metal.

But more importantly, do we want it to be? And, God help us, what if it already is?

When Rocks Off polled a cross-section of Houston music insiders for his "dead-tree" column this week - thanks for the term, Jeremy at Space City Rock - he was forced to omit one question from the final version for space reasons. It was a question he didn't even really want to ask, but given Houston's tenuous relationship (especially from a musical point of view) with our neighbors to the north and northwest, he felt like he had to.

As someone who spent nearly 15 years covering the Austin music scene, professionally, Rocks Off is well shut of it. (Personally is another story.) Like the Traveling Wilburys sang in "Handle With Care," at this point it's been "sent to meetings, hypnotized/ overexposed, commercialized." Watching its fledgling counterpart in Houston practically reinvent itself from scratch over the past two years, however, has been a revelation.

As long as Austin keeps calling itself the "Live Music Capitol of the World" and as long as it's not even 200 miles up the road, it's going to cast a shadow. But what Houston does within that shadow is entirely up to us. As for Dallas, it's not going anywhere either. Dammit.

Rocks Off: Is Houston any closer to losing the Austin/Dallas chip on its shoulder?

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.

Photos by Jamaal Ellis

A few years back, Houston was the city the rap world was talking about. Artists like Paul Wall, Slim Thug and Mike Jones showed the entire nation (and beyond) what H-town had been up to for years. Those days are gone now, though, and the city is left wondering where local musicians are planning to take us next. No one has taken the reins as of yet, but after sitting down with the Nice Guys, the local group may be next at bat.

The Nice Guys - MC Yves Saint, producers Free and Christolph and DJ Candlestick - say they're "rappers of truth" whose creed is "Good clothes, good music, nice guys." Some artists make their primary focus dreams of material things they can only hope to someday own, but that's not what the Nice Guys are about. They've only been making music since March, and are only 80 percent done with The Show, the album they hope to officially release this fall.

"We'd been recording songs and not doing anything with it. Then we got a kick in the ass from someone saying, 'you need to do something with your music,'" explains Free.

"No matter how good you are, people won't come and find you," elaborates Christolph.

There was a time when world music was simply just a trend. That odd section in Barnes & Noble, the one where people with beaded jewelry and Birkenstocks went to buy their Christmas presents. Now, it's a widely respected genre that includes exactly what its title professes, blending in a mix of music that can be heard anywhere from a shack out in La Porte to a remote jungle in South America. It has no specific style or feel, it represents a culture. Since 1991, D.R.U.M. has brought this musical combination to H-town.

On their latest album Loveternalightruthealingrowthappiness, there is a distinct reggae element on each song, but it's hardly the only thing going on. There is also a mix of smooth-jazz horns that compliment the R&B vocals. This can best be heard on the slower "No Good," about the pains of being a bad relationship. Within this track, a reggae beat once again sets the rhythm, but there are also rock guitar riffs, jazz horns and piano and a rap vocal accompaniment. Though this seems like too much on one song, it's honestly beautiful.

Throughout the album, each genre is given just enough space to show that it's there on the song without overpowering the others, which highlights the various backgrounds and ethnicities of D.R.U.M.'s membership very well.

Rocks off got the chance to talk with D.R.U.M guitarist and backup vocalist Frank Zwee before the band's CD release show Saturday at the Continental Club.

Give the drummer some!

Over a career spanning decades, Joe Vitale's drumsticks have pounded for a who's who of classic rockers both in the studio and onstage. Ted Nugent, Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton, Neil Young, Dan Fogelberg, The Eagles, Bill Wyman, Ringo Starr and (most lengthily) Crosby, Stills & Nash have all employed his skin thumping services over the years. That's his big beats on FM staples like "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo," "Rocky Mountain Way," "Life's Been Good," and "Southern Cross."

But Vitale is also a pretty busy man these days with his own projects. There's a autobiographical book about his rock and roll history (Backstage Pass, written with wife Susie), new solo CD Speaking in Drums and also son Joe Jr.'s debut CD, Dancing with Shadows, which dad helped write and produce.

The gregarious Vitale spoke to Rocks Off from his home in Ohio just before embarking on the European leg of CSN's 40th anniversary tour.