Houston Music Blog

Photos by Chris Gray

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Under the Volcano does not feel like Under the Volcano. The TVs are off, so no more NBA on ESPN. Hayes Carll's Trouble In Mind has come and gone - in its entirety - on the jukebox, taking its bad livers, broken hearts and drunken poet's dreams with it... mostly.

Earlier, a regular - appalled that there were actual music stands in the bar's small performance nook - asked Rocks Off if he should "mess with" the members of the Houston Symphony and other area orchestras setting up for Wednesday evening's "noncert," a bizarre program that will turn out to be half classical recital, half happy-hour mixer.

"That's up to you," we told him, managing to hold our tongue any further. "This isn't exactly three chords and the truth."

Now the musicians are ready to begin, and the evening's MC has an announcement. They understand it's a bar, so they're cool with people talking during the upcoming music, or as cool as they can be for people accustomed to performing in complete silence. But, he adds, "If you're breaking up with your girlfriend on your cell phone, you should probably go outside." Or, ahem, hitting on the blonde at the bar.

Marc Brubaker

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Things could have gone smoother this past weekend on lower Westheimer. No one is denying that. Rocks Off has learned to live with the inevitable scheduling delays and interminable sound checks, as we're sure most Westheimer Block Party regulars have, but performers please take heed: Swapping stage times with each other willy-nilly, and especially not showing up at all, are no ways to win over new fans - or, really, to even keep the ones you've already got.

Marc Brubaker

​Yes, chaos is as much a part of the Block Party's DNA as the Super Happy Fun Land puppet shows and the Dead Roses/Future Blondes crew running around sipping MGD tallboys shrouded in brown paper bags. And we know it's hard as hell to keep your mind on selling T-shirts, serving beer, running sound, etc., after you learn a dear friend has just died. But there's something to be said for keeping the trains running on time (or at least reasonably on time), especially when you're trying to make a good impression on city officials in the hopes of resurrecting the Westheimer Street Festival.

Because even if the Block Party doesn't need any more bands trying to copy Vampire Weekend, Houston needs the Block Party or something very much like it. The event may not make much of an impact on the national or even regional musical radar, but really, who cares?

Block Party is a stark reminder of just how much musical talent we have around here. And as we could tell by the swarms of kids still well short of their 21st birthdays running around, its influence on budding local musicians is incalculable. Rocks Off is willing to bet the farm we'll see a lot of those kids again soon enough - only this time up on the stage.

Craig Hlavaty

Room 101

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Day 2 of the Westheimer Block Party started with slightly cooler temperatures and an hour-long caffeine-fueled session speaking with the 9/11 conspiracy booth in the parking lot at Numbers. Did you know that there were three shooters at Columbine, and bombs planted inside the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995? That's another blog for another time and place, where we're not being followed by corporate spies with guns that shoot ice bullets and rayguns and whatnot to stop Aftermath from giving you the facts.

We finally got to catch Springfield Riots after close to year of milling around not doing it when we had the chance. We have been missing out on some chill keyboard-plinking indie-rock this whole time, and their quick set outside Numbers was perfectly satisfying. Across the way at Mango's, things got started with Room 101, Roburt Reynolds' punk/video project. Playing to recorded drum tracks and playing live guitar, Reynolds plays Gang of Four-like screeds against all manner of political injustices and slights. The clips shown behind him ranged from old-school bomb-test footage to scenes from propaganda films. Any time you get the chance to see Room 101 is an education.

Right now Rocks Off HQ looks more like a MASH unit as we slowly recover from this weekend's Westheimer Block Party. We won't be on the shelf for long - not with the Marleys, Dwight Yoakam, Neko Case and lots more coming up soon - but while we take a day or two to recover, we hope you enjoy these videos shot by intrepid lensmen Marc Brubaker and Craig Hlavaty, who in some cases risked life and limb to get their footage. It's almost like being in the mosh pit all over again.

After the jump (and Little Joe), a spastic dancer at the KTRU Stage, Hula Hoop war, raging pit at Female Demand, prime rump shaking, very dark Benjamin Wesley and more. Boy, do we need a nap.

Brittanie Shey

Dead Roses - that's the ubiquitous Ralf Armin in the hat at left - on the roof of La Strada

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You know how sometimes you'll learn a new word, and in the weeks that follow you'll realize you're hearing that word everywhere, eavesdropping it in conversations and reading it in the newspaper. Call it the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, or call it confirmation of bias, but whatever you call it, it was the theme for Aftermath this weekend.

A few weeks ago, we met Ralf Armin while eating lunch at Rudyard's. That same night, we ran into him at the Surfer Blood show at Mango's. This weekend at the Westheimer Block Party, he was everywhere: On the balcony of La Strada Beatles-style with Dead Roses Saturday afternoon; freaking people out inside Mango's during Sunday's brief rain with Future Blondes.

We even ran into him at the Cinema Arts Festival after-party Saturday night in the old Alabama Theater. In the midst of a hectic and entirely too long weekend, knowing we'd be running into Armin wherever we looked was the one thing that gave us a sense of consistency.

Marc Brubaker

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Saturday's Westheimer Block Party began on a wobbly note, as most music festivals do with fans and staff still trying to find their bearings, aided by alcohol or otherwise. The scene on the ground seemed chaotic just an hour into the first day of the event. Organizer and Free Press Houston editor Omar Afra walked from venue making sure everything was going off without a proverbial hitch.

The first thing we saw on Saturday was renaissance rapper Nosaprise on the Helios outdoor stage, doing a solo guitar cover of Gorilla Biscuits' "Start Today." His version was slowed down to half speed, but had all the same working-class fire of the 1989 original.

Nosa's mix of guitar work and drum machine beats has always made him stand out, and now with Fat Tony picking up the habit and B L A C K I E rumored to working with a live band, Houston indie hip-hop should be taking an interesting turn in 2010. All three artists have been bitten by the American Hardcore bug as of late.

Photos by Groovehouse

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We'll get the obligatory platitude out of the way first. If any of you didn't Day 1 of the one-and-only two-day edition of the Westheimer Block Party, then you missed an excellent day of music and community in Houston. As we walked between stages spanning the corner of Westheimer and Taft, we found ourselves amidst a broad cross-section of Houston life and culture out enjoying the fun and festivities.

Nosaprise

​We could give some credit to the City Of Montrose itself for playing host to the diverse array of people, but it didn't hurt that a rollicking portion of the Houston music scene was on display for the people's enjoyment. Toss in the various artisans with wares spread across the Numbers parking lot and you've happened upon a festival that inculcated quite the party mood.

Musically, we found nary a group that missed its mark. Caddywhompus provided some punky indie rock, while Muhammidali offered up its special brand of riotous, gritty hardcore-tinged noise-punk. Nosaprise rocked a rather empty parking lot at Avant Garden early in the day, impressively treating the 20 people present like they were 200.

Update: In a Facebook note Friday afternoon, Free Press Houston editor/publisher Omar Afra announced that this weekend's Block Party will be the last one in its current form due to safety reasons surrounding to his inability - or the City of Houston's unwillingness - to close down Westheimer during the festival.

"The streets must be shut down, the city must get behind the event, and I can no longer personally foot the bill," he said. "Our staff can no longer handle the capacity of the growing festival and squeezing all of these people into the same block is becoming hazardous."

According to Afra, he has an on-camera commitment from Houston runoff mayoral candidate Annise Parker to lobby the city to shut down Westheimer and bring back Block Party as, once again, the Westheimer Street Festival. Rocks Off hates to say we told you so, but in this case we support Afra's efforts 100 percent and urge our readers to do the same. Stay tuned... - Chris Gray

​This weekend's Westheimer Block Party is already going through some minor scheduling changes, just less than twenty-hours away from the time Bryan Jackson cracks open his first Modelo on Taft. Facebook and MySpace (yeah, we know) have been awash the past two days with changes to the lineup and set times. A recent Facebook status update from WBP sponsor Free Press Houston said this: "I don't know when your band is playing. Bands keep on trading slots like trading cards. It is what it is."

FPH is also supposed to have a Block Party announcement at 5 p.m. today - as in, now - on KTRU's Revelry Report. Stream it here.

Let's break some of it down for you before you head down to the event tomorrow afternoon. And as always, make sure to follow us on Twitter at @hprocksoff for all the breaking news related to the event, and ya know, drunken bons mots about douchebags and jerk-offs.

All this week, Rocks Off is previewing Saturday and Sunday's Westheimer Block Party by asking WBP performers to fill out a list from Lisa Nola's Music Listography book we're so fond of.

Next up, Jesus and Mary Chain-y alt-rockers Flowers to Hide tell us the saddest songs in the world.

claudiabelle

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Jonathan Espeche (guitar, vocals) and Stephen Anderson (vocals, guitar)

JE: The promise of good times and fun are always used in popular music to sell something because it doesn't challenge people and appeals to their basest sensibilities. Counterfeit happiness is cheap, easy to fabricate, and easy to digest. I don't know about you, but I usually look for a deeper level of expression in music.

I recognize these as songs that strike a chord within and resonate. They're bittersweet like how a stirring scene from a movie can make your eyes well up. They give you goosebumps or send a chill down your spine. You recognize your own emotions in others even when maybe you're hesitant to embrace them yourself. It just depends on whether you let it spur you on or drag you down. Maybe these songs don't that for you, but whatever the case, here's a sampling of some that do for us...

SA: Sadly, this band is only known here for one song ["Bitter Sweet Symphony"] and considered to be a one-hit wonder, which is shame because Northern Soul is just as good as Urban Hymns. This is the sound of a band falling apart and man is it beautiful. You can hear it in Richard Ashcroft's voice, like his voice just might give out. There is a lot of soul in this song and I don't know if he is singing to his band or to a lover or both.

All this week, Rocks Off is previewing Saturday and Sunday's Westheimer Block Party by asking WBP performers to fill out a list from Lisa Nola's Music Listography book we're so fond of.

Next up, four-fifths of local electro-tinged post-punks the Watermarks choose their favorite duets.

Jessica Brand

My favorite duet, knee-jerk reaction, would have to be PJ Harvey and Thom Yorke singing "This Mess We're In." I love the desperation and the way their voices overlap and tangle like ocean waves. Plus when this came out, I was going through, um, a thing. But I have trouble remembering things about myself, so if you ask me this question tomorrow, I may give you a different answer.

All this week, Rocks Off is previewing Saturday and Sunday's Westheimer Block Party by asking WBP performers to fill out a list from Lisa Nola's Music Listography book we're so fond of. It's not too late for your band to be up here, either; just email chris.gray@houstonpress.com by noon Thursday if you want to play.

Next up, rabid Tom Petty/Replacements fans and infrequent performers (though more frequently of late) Bright Men of Learning remember the music their parents loved.

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Benjamin Davis Murphy, Guitar/Lap Steel

​Crosby Stills & Nash, Crosby Stills & Nash: I used to hate this record when I was a kid, but at some point in my freshman year of college when i was listening to folky, indie-label stuff like Palace and Elliott Smith,. I realized that what i liked so much about those bands were the elements that reminded me of that CSN album I heard so much as a kid. I still listen to that first CSN record regularly.

Marshall Preddy, Vocals/Guitar

From birth until I was almost 6, I lived in Pasadena. And this was the Urban Cowboy heyday, so my dad was a huge fan of the day's country radio hits. I remember loving Johnny Lee, Don Williams, Kenny Rogers, Conway Twitty, and Charley Pride. My dad also bought me my first two cassettes ever, which were the Lovin' Spoonful and the Ventures. I still love all that stuff.

My Mom was more pop-oriented, and she owned a lot of vinyl. She had Blondie, Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, Beach Boys. But my brother and I would always beg her to play us the same 8-track cassette in the stereo of her '79 Mustang: Queen's News of the World.

All this week, Rocks Off is previewing Saturday and Sunday's Westheimer Block Party by asking WBP performers to fill out a list from Lisa Nola's Music Listography book we're so fond of. It's not too late for your band to be up here, either; just email chris.gray@houstonpress.com by noon Thursday if you want to play.

Next up, neo-classic rock family band Paris Falls' Ray Brown tells us what he likes and doesn't like about music in the movies.

The Circle Jerks' lounge version of "When the Shit Hits the Fan" (Repo Man): Emilio Estevez responds with, "I can't believe I used to like this band." I'm a huge Circle Jerks fan. The scene of them playing is in the background, and I guess an inside joke. You really have to watch. It also has Chuck Biscuits playing in it. He is on my top 5 drummers list. He never recorded with the Jerks, but ended up recording Danzig's first four albums.

All this week, Rocks Off is previewing Saturday and Sunday's Westheimer Block Party by asking WBP performers to fill out a list from Lisa Nola's Music Listography book we're so fond of. It's not too late for your band to be up here, either; just email chris.gray@houstonpress.com by noon Thursday if you want to play.

Next up, in a twist on the evergreen "Desert Island" meme, recent Artist of the Week the Live Lights choose ten albums they'd take with them should they ever leave the Earth's atmosphere. Sounds like they'll have a lot of Thom Yorke to keep them company.

Victor Montemayor, Guitar

Radiohead, OK Computer: I love the way the album flows from start to finish. "No Surprises" is one of my all-time favorite Radiohead songs.

Radiohead, Kid A: It has one of the best opening songs ("Everything In Its Right Place"), for me, on an album I've ever heard.

Radiohead, In Rainbows: I really like how simple the songs are, yet it delivers so much.

All this week, Rocks Off is previewing Saturday and Sunday's Westheimer Block Party by asking WBP performers to fill out a list from Lisa Nola's Music Listography book we're so fond of. It's not too late for your band to be up here; just email chris.gray@houstonpress.com by noon Thursday if you want to play. First up are Lake Jackson post-punk art-rockers Fiskadoro.

Rich Kimball, guitar

Robert Rental: This guy is criminally obscure. I think he played with Daniel Miller's band The Normal for awhile. He made a couple awesome early synth-pop singles in 1979 on Miller's Mute Records. In 1980 he made a great record with Thomas Leer called The Bridge that was released on Throbbing Gristle's label, Industrial Records.

The record hit No. 9 in the UK Indie Charts, and after this he pretty much retired from music, leaving a lean yet incredible discography of music that is influencing electronic musicians to this day. He died in 2000. Kirston from After Party and KTRU's post-punk show needs to donate an hour to this guy.

Photos by Chris Gray

Robert Ellis & the Boys, under the blue neon

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It's no secret Rocks Off is a big fan of the country music, which is why we're starting to get a little excited about the inner-loop honky-tonk scene that's taking root. Over the weekend, we caught Sean Reefer & the Resin Valley Boys doing their hemped-up Hank Williams thang at the West Alabama Ice House, and Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers' Sunday-evening sets (6-9 p.m.) at the Continental Club, a fine way to wind down the weekend, have been drawing a steady crowd for the past couple of months.

But it's Wednesday nights that are becoming the real boon to boot-scooters. We headed out to the railroad tracks last night to get a gander at Robert Ellis & the Boys at Blanco's; the ragtag group of Montrose ruffians - including Austin Sepulvado, Hilary Sloan, Ryan Chavez and Geoffrey Muller - was evidently on loan from Mango's (where they return Nov. 18), but they slid into the hardwood-floor and shuffleboard environs of the River Oaks lounge like clockwork.

Next Tuesday, Rocks Off Movie Night at the Mink returns with the 1980 "classic" Urban Cowboy. Classic if you're from Houston, anyway.

The film kicks off our three-week series on movies filmed in and around Houston proper. Ben Stiller's directorial debut Reality Bites and Wes Anderson's hipster-baiting Rushmore follow in the coming weeks. We were going to show Robocop 2 tonight, but the Mink is having a hard time finding a replacement bulb for its projector, and most of the Rocks Off crew is going to be at Surfer Blood anyway. Also, Robocop 2 pretty much blows fajita chunks.

We don't know if it's the election or what - actually it's not, but bear with us - but this afternoon Rocks Off got to wondering whether or not Houston had its own official song, lyrics and music officially sanctioned and ratified to embody the Space/Bayou City's hopes and dreams. This being Houston, we figured no way would a city so willfully ignorant of its abundant musical heritage and talent (officially, anyway) ever take such a radical step. Surely any composer who dared even suggest such a thing would be laughed right out of City Hall chambers.

Well, we consulted a couple of senior Press staffers who are wiser than us in such municipal musical matters, and it turns out we were dead wrong. Houston does have an official song. Houston has had the same official song since 1915, as a matter of fact.

Other events that happened in 1915: Typhoid Mary was placed in lifetime quarantine; D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation premiered in L.A.; Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis was published in the original German; Babe Ruth hit his first career major-league home run for the Boston Red Sox; and Rocks Off's late paternal grandmother, Lavonia Adelle Montgomery Gray, was born in Burkeville, Tex.

Photos by Adam P. Newton

The Factory Party

​In Aftermath's opinion, there are few things more enjoyable than spending an evening together with friends at the beloved haunt that is the Mink. We're able to toss back a drink or four, catch up on each other's lives, and hopefully hear some really great music. So Friday night, we gladly made our way out to the corner of Main and Alabama to hear Springfield Riots, Ringo Deathstarr, and The Factory Party, along with the hopes that we would get to hear some new stories from the venue's lively door guys.

As we had never partaken of the sounds of The Factory Party, we were pleased to finally experience this band's brand kinetic of post-punk. Yes, there might be plenty of groups out there today borrowing from Joy Division and New Order (much less Interpol), but we didn't locate too many chinks in this Houston-based quartet's musical armor.

All of the core elements were present: the deep, thrumming bass lines; the chiming, echo-laden guitar riffs; strident, pained vocals; and the sort of relentless, syncopated drumming that forced us to dance no matter how hard we resisted.

It's a well-known fact that most band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we're trying hard to decode Houston's oddest monikers in order to find a little meaning.

Brandon Holley

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The Manichean is a - well, it's band that plays music here in town. Define them, you say? Not these easiest task in the world. You could just say that they're awesome, of course, but that's no real illumination of the nature of this local union of weirdness. It's loud and experimental and it's got horns and strings and it's full of weird spoken-word and atmospheric moaning, and most of all it really REALLY rocks your socks off.

Hell, it rocks the socks off of people who have yet to buy socks, but may in the future. But what is a Manichean? We sat down with vocalist Cory Sinclair to find out. It turns out that Manichaeism is an extinct Gnostic religion that flourished until the 14th century. Though never as popular as Christianity or Zoroastrianism, it spread very quickly from Rome to China, and was almost universally feared and suppressed by other religions. Even the Buddhist gave them a hard time, and they usually leave people pretty much alone.

​When Rocks Off started asking local musicians to fill out music-related lists as suggested in Lisa Nola's Music Listography, we never expected to get one like this one from one-man skronk-blues machine Room 101, known to a few select people as Roburt Reynolds. Reynolds, who plays Thursday at the Mink with Digital Leather, the Energy and DJ Psychedelic Sex Panther, and again Friday at the Canvas (708 Telephone Rd.) with Giant Princess, Strictly Buisness, DogHouse and the Dead Leslies, chose to fill out "List Bands You Do NOT Like." All well and good.

But, as you'll soon see, he went a little above and beyond the call of duty. Which is why, of course, we started this in the first place. Enjoy.

1. I don't like bands of military officers trained at The School of the Americas (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). They are involved and engaged in committing decades of human rights violations, torture, murder, indigenous massacres, indigenous displacement, corrupt, brutal, and puppeteered governments, and the destruction of REAL humanity (from the Atlacatl in El Salvador to the current regime in Honduras). These bands of military officers have been trained by United States and International Military personnel on United States soil (Fort Benning, Georgia) for over 60 years.

It's a well-known fact that most band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off, we're trying hard to decode Houston's oddest monikers in order to find a little meaning.

We mean this with affection and sincerity: 10th Gräde Cütie destroys everything they touch and should be booked only with the utmost caution.

They've been banned from Super Happy Fun Land (recently lifted), Dan Electro's Guitar Bar and especially White Swan for a legendary physical altercation with the staff. They are loud, drunk and rude. Eh, it's punk rock. Whaddya gonna do?

So why call a band of degenerate reprobates that sounds like Sloppy Seconds 10th Gräde Cütie? Rocks Off shot the band an email to find out.

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farm1.static.flickr.com

I.J. Gosey

​For the past few weeks, local blues scholar and Down In Houston author Dr. Roger Wood has been interviewing several of Houston's leading blues musicians about their experiences in "The Soul of Houston Blues Stories." For Wednesday's concluding program, a conversation with I.J. Gosey and Diunna Greenleaf about spirituality and the blues, we can't imagine a better location than Museum District metaphysical redoubt The Jung Center.

Rocks Off reached out to Dr. Wood Tuesday and got him to tell us a little more about Wednesday's program.

"The program will include a brief intro lecture in which I will trace some of the connections between the old songs called spirituals and the blues, including the evolution from spirituals to gospel music," he says. "My two guests will join me for the heart of the program.

"We will discuss, among other things, their personal experiences as music performers who got started in the context of in the church-house but eventually migrated to the blues stage. We will also talk about the concept of music - in general, but particularly gospel and blues - as medicine for the soul.

"And especially through I.J. Gosey's personal history, [we will] trace the phenomenon of long-standing weekly blues gatherings that are, in many respects, analogous to going to church.

www.myspace.com/thefactorypartymusic

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It always amazes Rocks Off how we'll start liking one band - Bunnymen-loving London post-punks White Lies, in this case - and then a little while later, stumble across a local band who could be their twin. If only, you know, they weren't from halfway around the world.

That's what happened with Houston's The Factory Party. Just as we were ending our extended honeymoon with White Lies, which lasted from a week or two before Austin City Limits to the trio's date opening for Kings of Leon at Toyota Center a few weeks back, TFP's After Death There Is Nothing EP showed up on our desk.

No big secret where TFP gets its name. The quartet's cascading two- and three-note guitar lines and rigid rhythms, equal parts kinetic and airless, spring straight from the template established on New Order's first two or three albums. Those records came out on Factory Records, the label founded by late Manchester music impresario Tony Wilson that also released albums and singles by the likes of Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark and Happy Mondays.

​Houston loses another band after this weekend, as Pavementesque indie-shoegazers GTRS relocates to the more touring-friendly enviorns of Asheville, N.C., where they plan to open a recording studio. Sigh. We're sure they'll come back to visit, and on tour, so let's just say so long and not goodbye. Besides, you've got one more chance to see GTRS as Houstonians, Saturday night at Big Star Bar with A.P. Dugas & the Religion, Sew What and DJ No Fun.

In between packing their stuff, the members of GTRS were kind enough to divulge their favorite make-out songs as a parting gift. Smooches.

Download two songs from GTRS' upcoming split with Australia's Spider Vomit here.

JD & Stacey

Joan of Arc, "Let's Wrestle: "'Cause Stacey and I used to make out to it all the time."

Spider Vomit, "Tail Points to Hell": "'Cause when you're making out, blood is the only smell."

Valient Thorr, "No Holds Barred": "'Cause all things go while making out."

Peaches, "Fuck the Pain Away": "'Cause that's what it's all about."

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.

Jay Lee/ www.baldheretic.com

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Anyone who's seen them knows that local "Stout Irish Rockers" Blaggards' front man Patrick Devlin's natural place is center stage. But even he has artists he wouldn't mind stepping back for, so we asked him to list us a few in advance of Blaggards' free concert at Discovery Green Thursday evening with Flying Fish Sailors.

10. Neil Diamond: "I wanna dress like the man."

9. Madonna: "Good way to learn her material."

8. Dropkick Murphys: "Burn the bagpipes."

7. Bruce Springsteen: "Be nice to shed a few pounds."

6. Monty Python: WOW, 'Sit On My Face' LIVE!!!!"

​Our friends and neighbors at Free Press Houston just posted the lineup for the next Westheimer Block Party, November 14 and 15 on lower Westheimer. Rumors it's soon to become the Washington Avenue Block Party in an attempt to coax some of those sweet, sweet yuppie ad dollars out of the Social, Pearl Bar, Block 7 Wine Co., Blue Label, Pandora, etc. are - for now - greatly exaggerated, so all you "Montrose Forever!" types can chill.

Headlining are Brooklyn-based hip-hop rabble-rousers Dead Prez and Jersey garage-soul provacateurs Japanther, along with pretty much every local band you ever heard of. Several of Rocks Off's favorites are scheduled to play - give or take the inevitable addition/cancellation, of course - including:

TSU Jazz Ensembles (yay!)

The Gold Sounds

Chase Hamblin

Bright Men of Learning

Something Fierce

Female Demand

Alkari

​Vince Bell's Houston roots go way, way back. When Anderson Fair opened its doors in the early '60s, Bell was one of the troubadours who not only played the joint, he also lived in the Montrose. If you can believe him, he ate so many of his meals at the club that he often refers to Anderson Fair in conversation as "that spaghetti restaurant."

Bell cut his teeth with folks like Lucinda Williams, Eric Taylor, Townes van Zandt, Gurf Morlix, Steve Fromholtz, Guy Clark and Blaze Foley at the old (and still open) Grant Street club.

Bell comes to town today with two purposes. The first is to hawk copies of his book, One Man's Music, 6:30 p.m. at Brazos Bookstore. The book is a chronicle of Bell's old days in Houston's folk scene heyday, but also details his struggle to recover from major brain damage he suffered in a car wreck.

Welcome to another in our series of local musicians filling out random lists from the book Music Listography: Your Life In (Play)Lists. Today, Hell City Kings lead guitarist Bill Fool remembers his musical formative years in the Windy City.

​Budgie, "Breaking All The House Rules": My dad was a drug dealer back in the 70's and 80's, and if I heard the opening riff to this song I knew it was "No school for me tomorrow."

Frank Zappa, "Joe's Garage": Zappa was the norm in my house. At the age of 6, I got a kick out the line "Why does it hurt when I pee?". Now that I'm older and play in garage bands, I can totally relate to this record.

MC5, "Kick Out the Jams": I'm from Chicago, so it's pretty normal to have a hippy father who was at the MC5 show when the cops attacked during the '68 Democratic National Convention. He would always tell me how by the stage was a big piece of concrete that he threw at a cop when the riot started.