7Horse playing their AAA Top 40 single "Low Fuel Drug Run"

A 20-year member of Los Angeles rock ensemble Dada, drummer Phil Leavitt is no newcomer to the music business. Leavitt and Dada bassist Joie Calio formed their own band 7Horse last year, and dropped the hard-rocking debut, Let the 7Horse Run.

The first single, "Low Fuel Drug Run," managed to make the AAA Top 40 radio chart, a rare event for an indie band without a label.

After touring hard most of the year, Leavitt and Calio decided to release one more single from the album, a raw, explosive rocker with a riff from hell called "Meth Lab Zoso Sticker."

The response from radio has been, according to Leavitt, "dismal."

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Sshhh... Just let the radness overtake you.

If my gym is any indication, Olympics Fever is spurring folks into action. There used to be plenty of elliptical machines, barbells, and room in the pool available during the time of day I would go. Now it seems like every elliptical machine is taken except the one in front of the wonky TV that only ever picks up staticky Fox News, the line for a lane to open up in the pool looks like the line to get into a Tony Bennett concert -- old people love the pool -- and the barbells section is in total disarray from newbies who bit off way more than they could chew, felt something pop, and limped the hell out of there, leaving the barbells to lie where they fell.

Yes, seeing the ultimate victories of total strangers who have been busting their asses to obssessive-compulsive levels their entire lives has given people who would have otherwise let their gym memberships quietly leech $25 a month out of their debit accounts the will to go work out.

Which is great! We're all for motivation, however it happens. But it fades so quickly, doesn't it? In another short week, the Olympics will be over. How will Pavlov's gym rats find the will to get back inside the gym without hearing John Williams' hypertrumpets blasting the Olympic fanfare 200 times a day?

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Photos by Jay Lee

Dick Dale
Continental Club
April 13, 2012

Dick Dale, the king of surf rock and grandfather of metal, played decades of music Friday night at the Continental with his near-thrash guitar licks. He's the man behind that iconic riff opening the movie Pulp Fiction, which was also borrowed for an annoyingly catchy Black Eyed Peas song.

Of course, figurative flames were bursting behind him as he was laying down tunes. Dale was even properly positioned onstage to have his hair blowing throughout his vintage shredding.

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If you are lucky enough to have already gotten a Turntable.fm invite, and you work somewhere that is down with your listening to streaming jams, then right now you could be listening to the Stone Roses and Stereo MC's in Rocks Off's new Houston Press Rocks Off Spin Off on the social DJ site.

Naturally, the first song we spun on the site was the Rolling Stones' "Rocks Off," because you have to say a prayer to Keith and Mick before any major life decision is made, and this was no different.

We started playing with it yesterday after we got an offer to do a charity DJ set on the site and we were enthralled. It's a hell of a lot of fun, and the applications for the blog here are limitless. We can have our bloggers spin their favorite stuff, or go track for track with an artist they are interviewing. Can you imagine Shea Serrano and Slim Thug trading licks? Sounds good to us.

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Little Bigs, the slider joint at the corner of Westheimer and Montrose, is spinning some of Houston's best and brightest bands and it's all because of owner/chef Bryan Caswell's dream of having his own jukebox.

Life-long Houston resident Caswell opened up the slider hut just a few months back. He bought a jukebox from the owner of an icehouse off 290 that was closing down. The jukebox came with the requisite beerhall fodder: Seger, Skynyrd, Journey and the like. You know, the kind of stuff your Dad used to listen to in the garage as he fixed the lawnmower your stupid teenage ass broke.

Caswell's musical journey began as an adolescent sneaking into the Big Easy off of Kirby, which was just blocks from his house, to see the blues artists and generally soak up the vibe.

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