Houston pop-rock king Arthur Yoria is giving away a new song called “The Libyans.” As usual, it’s catchy as hell, but Yoria’s skillz in the studio continue to develop. The spare, skeletal intro blossoms into something as spacious, big-sky and vaulting as Indian classical music. More after the jump...
Lumar Leblanc, T.S.U. grad, snare drummer/bandleader for the Soul Rebels Brass Band, and post-Katrina Houstonian, has a new Houston-based group.
The New Orleans Hustlers Brass Band is available for “parades, stage shows, jazz funerals, weddings and parties.” In LeBlanc’s words, the Hustlers will “travel the world over and provide quality music for any occasion.”
Here, after the jump, are two proofs of that claim, a YouTube interview with LeBlanc and Soul Rebels/Hustlers bandmate Marcus Hubbard (along with some footage from one of the Soul Rebels Houston shows), and booking info for the Hustlers:
Much like Santa Anna, we were sleeping at the switch on Monday and missed San Jacinto Day. In belated honor of that anniversary, we’ll post this free mp3 of my late buddy and LaMarque native David Schnaufer playing the mountain dulcimer and guitar instrumental “Santa Anna’s Retreat” from his album Dulcimer Player Deluxe.
Download it free and give it a spin on the old battleground some day. At two minutes, 25 seconds, seven consecutive plays would take you through the duration of the battle. – John Nova Lomax
Here’s a little nugget from the vaults. In 2000, when punk/rappers Simpleton released this, there was more excitement about baseball here than there had been since about 1986.
The Astros were moving into Enron Stadium! It was Lima time! The Killer B’s! We were gonna go to the World Series! Rap-rock ruled the earth! Man, it all seems a lifetime ago.
Judas Bear is another of Thane Matcek’s many aliases, and the title of this song, which I originally thought had something to do with Hinduism, in fact refers to the Jewish period of bereavement after the death of a close relative.
Matcek has always been a wildly inconsistent artist. Previous of his bands – All Transistor, Sad Like Crazy, an eponymous project – were full of Alpine peaks and arid valleys.
The song might not make mention of all the recent developments, but with its "what's your name again?" and "I got 13 pages of honey-do's," it definitely has some fun. -- Keith Plocek
At 19 or 20, Asli Omar, vocalist for local psych-blues-rockers Tontons, might just be the finest young female vocalist in Houston, possessed of pipes that can shift gears between languid breathiness and heretofore undiscovered metal-melting alloys. You can hear elements of Bjork, Billie Holiday, the Amy Winehouse family of singers (Nina Simone, Esther Phillips, Shirley Bassey), and Norah Jones, but ultimately Asli Omar sounds like Asli Omar. She has the big it factor, a voice you can instantly recognize as hers and hers alone. (Actually, and probably nobody will remember this band, but she reminds me more than a little of Melora Zaner, the singer in the briefly legendary mid’80s Nashville proto-grunge band Raging Fire.)
That said, this Zeppelin-conjuring song as a whole has the feel of a demo. There’s a nice guitar solo, but in the end the song lacks the epic finale Asli’s voice requires.
I dunno, this track makes me nervous, and I guess that’s the point seeing as how it’s all about the ongoing Fat Cat developer’s rape / destruction of Montrose. And I like the guitar interlude. But overall this feels too hectic and jittery and I’m the kinda douchebag who likes my hip-hop danceable. Improves on second and third listens. Grade: 75.9. – John Nova Lomax
Here's the title track of London/Houston underground MC/guitarist Nosaprise's CD, which will be released on Speakerboxx night at the Mink on April 27.
You can’t go wrong with “I Was Made to Love Her,” one of the most infectious singles in American history. It provides a good balmy backdrop for Nosa’s crisp, almost metallic flow. I heard him perform this at one of Shady Tavern’s Secret Saturday shows a few weeks back, and it sounded no less like a hit in that setting than it does here. Love the nod to John Denver halfway through. The only thing that could make it better would be a bridge – the verses and chorus are great, but they start to wear out their welcome towards the end. Grade 93.7 – John Nova Lomax
David Arquette’s H-Town BFFs Black Math Experiment are the first to get with the program here at new and improved Houstoned Rocks. They sent along this droll rendition of Chris Isaak’s haunting 1990 top ten hit “Wicked Game”:
Few can sing match Isaak’s soaring Orbisonian tenor, so Black Math’s singer Jef With One F was wise to give it this stentorian, actorly, damn near Nimoyesque reading. Backing is good, despite organ a little too hot in the mix. I dig Christy Lain’s cooed backing vocals. Grade 85.78 – John Nova Lomax
The official version of “Think Twice” barely dented the pop charts in 1966, though it was something more of an R&B hit.
This NSFW version, recorded just for fun at the end of a recording session, was never even released. And given that the two of them sing about cocaine, reefer, cunnilingus and sing just about every swear word in the English language, right up to the C-word, it’s easy to see why.
I’ve been feeling pretty down about a bunch of crap lately – the march of condos all over town and the douche-ification of Washington Avenue, among other things -- but the Sideshow Tramps' Craig Kinsey has gone and cheered me up with this here jazzy little ragtime-feeling “Montrose Boulevard Blues,” a Houstoned Rocks World Exclusive.
That is some handmade music, people. It makes me homesick for the neighborhood I called home for so much of my life. (Now if only someone will pen a song even half as good about Stella Link.)
Click the buttons below for "Honey Fleaux" (feat. Rochelle Terrell) and "Intoxicating Fleaux," two tracks from Austin rapper Bavu Blakes.
Bavu plans on releasing a new flow each week, for what he's calling the '08 So Great series. Stay tuned for more. -- Keith Plocek
