Music with Jameson & Lone Star: pre-SXSW with Deer Tick & Stardeath And White Dwarfs at Rudyards 17 March 2009

Good morning folks, I've gotta get packing for just got into Austin but I figured I'd let y'all know how the Deer Tick show went last night over at Rudyard's. Yes, I know I missed Jana Hunter and Beach House over at The Orange show but hey, I'll be seeing Jana with Tara Jane O'Neil at Domy Books on Friday so we'll catch up on our beloved miss Hunter then.

Anyhow, let me jump to the penultimate band of the evening - Oklahoma City's Stardeath And White Dwarfs. I want you to take a good look at these photographs...





...and I know what you are thinking. This looks pretty bad-ass. And you are right in that they had a spectacular light show. The set up was amazing with multi-colored lights flashing to the music under a haze of fog. There was only one problem - that's all they brought with them. Let's break it down. The light show was spectacular but their performance and songs were neither here nor there. And this problem was evident from the start. Their choice of opener - a note for note cover of the Butthole Surfers Sweat Loaf. That's right this band starts off with a cover of the Butthole Surfers covering Black Sabbath complete with the piped in intro. Hey, I can hear that album at home guys! NEXT! The second song was actually OK but from there it was downhill: an entire set of cool lights and no content. I mean look, I caught Hearts of Animals play the Mink on Monday night - just one woman with a guitar and a voice - and she blew these clowns away. OH wait, she bothered to write songs! Oh wait, she actually has talent! Oh wait, she doesn't need to hide behind a wall of lights to hold people's attention! It's like the juxtaposition of Celine Dione and Elliot Smith at the Oscars: one, a hollow artifice hiding behind flash and glitz and , the other, a lone individual doing nothing more than simply saying what they need to say without ornament or frills - where the work speaks for itself. Take your pick but I'll take Hearts over Stardeath anytime, thank you.


The evening closed with Deer Tick which was really my reason for going because Deer Tick's John McCauley is also one to lay his soul bare through his music. If you saw him a long while back at Sound Exchange perform sitting on the floor with only his voice and his guitar you saw a phenomenal performance - one that left everyone in the room in awe. That night McCauley demanded your attention both because of his beautifully crafted songs as well as the pure unrestrained emotion. So having seen him perform that show, last year's SXSW, and my endless admiration for his debut on Feow records a few years ago, I had some pretty high expectations. Unfortunately, to my disappointment this performance, while fair, lacked any of the spark an immediacy of his prior performances. It was almost as if the band was going through the motions performing few new songs and losing any momentum with a flat rendition of a Lightning Hopkins song that seemed endless. That may sound harsh and likely makes it sound worse than it was. I mean, I had a fine time and I can't say it was a terrible performance but it just was a long way from that young kid belting his soul out on the Sound Exchange floor.

OK! Time to hit the streets of our capital. See y'all soon.

More Pics on my Flickr (Link)

Music with Jameson & Lone Star: Sleeping in The Aviary, Dizzy Pilot, Hearts of Animals at Walters 12/13/2009

It wasn’t until I got to Walter’s on Saturday that I realized I’d forgotten to charge my camera’s batteries and to bring my handy dandy notebook so this will be a somewhat brief review and without the usual number of snapshots. Still, it was a nice night of music. Opening was Hearts of Animals who I haven’t seen perform live since the release of her new Cave Lights CD so it was wonderful to hear new songs like the heart melting Sister Stories performed alongside the older songs. Sleeping in The Aviary’s set was driving and solid with singer Elliott Kozel belting the songs out like his life depended on it. The night closed with Dizzy Pilot plowing through its songs with more muscle than I’d ever heard them lay out before (as impossible as that sounds) with the looser more improvisational aspects really shining. The three sets were made all the better by the Terry’s great work behind the sound board; he, along with Joe over at Rudz, are the kind of sound guys bands should thank every time they work with them. Seriously, those guys make the bands that work with them shine.

A few quick asides...

I spoke with Cley (who was backing up HOA on the first song) before the set and he told me the new Young Mammals album is slated for release this spring. So add that to your already heavy schedule of highly anticipated releases for 2009.

I also spoke with Sleeping In The Aviary who were horribly nice people. Celeste and Elliot went on at length about a show they recently played in Little Rock where they found themselves suddenly burdened with a three hour set. Not knowing what else to do, they started taking requests for covers from the audience and the requests eventually evolved into an impromptu 90’s set where someone in the audience would call-out something like Oasis which would be met with like a third of the audience booing the request then that very same third of the audience would be singing along and cheering to Wonderwall. The whole thing sounded pretty hilarious and fun especially since the band was figuring out the songs on the fly. But that’s the impression you got from SITA, that for them it’s just a whole lot of fun. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing them return next summer.

Hearts of Animal's Mlee Suprean
(with Cley Miller of Young Mammals)

Links:
A few more pics over at my flickr (link)

Sleeping In The Aviary on Myspace (link)
Dizzy Pilot on Myspace (Link)
Hearts of Animals on Myspace (Link)

Music with Jameson & Lone Star Part I: Dannzig, Monocles, News on The March, & Young Mammals at Walter's 10/31/2008

OK folks, let's get one thing out of the way here. If you go to a hardcore show there is this thing called a circle pit. People run in a circle that's very much like the running of the bulls where, if you jump in, you may get hurt but, if you stay out, you will likely be less likely to be hurt. I say less likely because, of course, you'll sometimes get pushed, shoved, or even elbowed but that's not done on purpose but is the result of a simple accident that goes with the territory. Let's face it, generally speaking, Hardcore kids are about community and not about banging heads. So why the fuck is it at a JonBenet show like Friday's Dannzig performance do you occasionally get a small group of mentally deficient meatheads who probably just drove in from the suburbs to play a game of hardcore for a night? I'm not saying this is reflective of all the JonBenet fans in any way but all it takes is like 3 or 5 morons to be a bother. Seriously, this same shit happened at the Hallow Men show last year where the band (as they did Friday) had to tell some morons to chill. Sorry, I know you THINK this is how hardcore is supposed to be but what you are engaging in isn't a circle pit - it's a circle jerk; put your tiny dick back in your pants, go home, and play in your little boy's only clubhouse. Not cool, not punk, not hardcore, just self-absorbed poseur bullshit from a bunch of thick necked apes.

Ahhh OK now that I've addressed that idiocy can I get to the rest of the evening? It was actually a pretty good evening and, mind you, the morons I speak of couldn't ruin it.

I missed the always fun the Wild Moccasins but got there in time to see Young Mammals who were looking to bat 300 with this - their third - performance as The Pixies. Jeff of Bowel/Brian's Johnston filled in on the drums dressed as The Hulk (pretty hilarious as he'd grimace like Lou Ferrigno while holding his sticks). But his stage presence and antics aside, my one small quibble for their performance was that his drumming style is a better fit for some plodding sludgy metal than the upbeat driving pop of the Pixies. Again that's quibbling as, despite that "Is my turntable running just slightly slow?" feeling at times, the band hit the songs solidly and had the crowd singing and dancing. I mean you can't fail with Cley Miller's guitar work and guest Mlee Suprean handling Kim Deal's parts.

News On the March followed with a good performance but not their best. They had a blast on stage with some silly Halloween bit where this was supposed to be a News On The March reunion twenty years in the future where we got to see see what will have happened to all the members . It was funny and cute to be sure but, in hindsight (and having seen the band at Walter's before with impeccable sound), the antics got in the way of the music and the performance. The humorous asides and silliness simply seemed to stall any momentum the band had built up. That's not to say that people weren't amused and having a good time, but I'd wonder what, if any, impression News on the March would have made to those not already familiar with their work. Is that quibbling? Maybe it is, as the songs were played well, but there is a reason why bands dread things like breaking strings and that's because building momentum and keeping a flow is so crucial. Still it's Halloween the important question is was it fun and that was a resounding "Yes!" so let's not over analyze.

The Monocles meanwhile didn't bother with skits (though Jeoaf was sporting a dashing police uniform). No, fuck that, just start her up, grab the wheel, and put the pedal to the floor. Damn straight, you don't need any frills, just straight up garage with the pop pop pop of drums, an overdriven guitar, a driving bass and a whole lot of sweat. Not just any sweat - rock and roll sweat - the kind that has you dancing and shouting "Monocles! Monocles! Monocles!" Well done lads.

Dannzig (the always brilliant Jonbenet) closed the night with a pitch-perfect tribute to Glen Danzig. For my taste, I'd have liked to have heard a bit more Misfits material in the mix but, again, I'm in a quibbling mood this morning. You know the score - shirtless blood-soaked men playing loud - and that's exactly what you got. People were packed at the front of the stage with their fists up in the air and singing along. Sure there were the handful of meatheads I mentioned in the beginning of this review but even their idiocy couldn't mar the performance and the audience's revelling in all things Danzig. I'll bet you any amount of money that if you saw the real Glenn Danzig on Wednesday at the House of Blues, you probably got a shittier show for more money. Ironically, this was the real deal.

Young Mammals Going 3 for 3 as the Pixies

Cley Miller
(insert Rod Stewart's Hot Legs Here)

Mlee Suprean reprising her role as Kim Deal

Nobody had the guts to tell Jeff Bowel
that the Hulk was never in the Pixies

Cris Cascio crashes the party

News on the March were all smiles

Austin in his finest Hugh Hefner

"Hey Joe, I got a Snickers and M&Ms. What did you get?"
"I got Rocks!"

Don't ask. Really, you really don't want to know.

Say it Say it!
Monocles! Monocles! Monocles!

That's not sweat...

...That's Rock Juice!

Dannzig playing the soft feel-good hits

Nothing will get the boys more excited than
a shirtless dude flexing on stage.

Bow to my rock!

Dude, Warren Buffett is so into Danzig!

Links:
More Pictures on my Flickr (Link)

Young Mammals (Link)
News On The March (Link)
The Monocles (Link)
The Jonbenet (Link)

Hearts Of Animals (Link)
Bowel (Link)
Bryan's Johnston (Link)

Christmas comes early for The Music Crumudgeon

You know I've been anticipating this when my reaction to seeing this in my hands is to literally jump in the air and say "WOW!" then proceed to drop it in my I-tunes and put it on an infinite loop. On the quick here, there are lots of great instrumentals like the spacey where's-my-bong of The Next Day, the lovely sax harmonies of the unlisted final song, or the cheeky retro 80's dance floor of Pillow Fight but, for my money, it's the songs that are like manna from heaven. Suprean's gift for melody, phrasing, and lyrics are all here. Drain Me (easily the highlight for me) is HOA at her lyrical best - wrenching stop the world on its axis stuff - and, without giving anything away, the way the song ends is nothing short of brilliant. Sister Stories has a sweet chorus that is nothing short of intoxicating. The pretty and melancholy Sad Dancing sounds like the sad counter part to ABBA. Sit Right Here shares themes of longing and anxiety that were a hallmark of best of the songs from Lemming Baby. The biggest curve ball is a guest vocal by Joe Mathlete on Versus which sounds like Suprean and Mathlete doing some fucked-up version Berlin era Bowie. But yadda yadda yadda, I need to get back to editing these photos for tomorrow's Jameson & Lonestar but I just had to share my excitement. Woo!

Weekend Update - news from the local music scene - 1 September 2008

Well a few things to report this weekend.

First off, it was announced today the classic post-punk band The Mydolls will be playing Noise and Smoke II on November 15th. Awesomeness!


In other news Born Liars have a fan in Little Steven who has played the band quite a bit on his Underground Garage radio show. Bill Fool's a bit matter of fact about it all saying " We have been played a bunch on the Underground Garage station and last week Little Steven's assistant e-mailed me saying Little Steven loves us and wants everything we have to play it on the national show." Neat that this band is getting some well deserved national recognition.


Speaking of Born Liars. Ditchwater zine is expanding into the realm of 7"s in the form of Ditchwater Records and the inaugural release (which has been sent off to the pressing plant) will be by Born Liars. If that isn't cool enough the second release will be a reissue of the classic lost Gay Marriage EP (previously unreleased except via a few CDRs) with additional tracks. If you aren't familiar with Gay Marriage here is a review I did of their EP a few years back (Link). Look for the band possibly reuniting for the record release towards the end of the year. That logo was created by none other than the great Daniel Shaw.


Artstorm is also getting into the music release game and it seems that Hearts of Animals is finally looking to release some new material on Artstorm Records. In addition to HOA, the label has plans for other releases including music from Ironic Bong.


Artstorm is located within Caroline Collective which will be the location of a music conference of sorts called BandCamp (Link) later this year. Ian Wells of the KTRU Local Show/ Revelry Report contacted me about it:

"Matt Wettergreen, Phillip Beck (also from KTRU, great guy), and myself are organizing an event at Caroline Collective in late October, called Band Camp. Essentially, we'd like to get everyone in Houston who makes music together at Caroline and have a day-long "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Making Music but were too Afraid to Ask" collaborative session/hang-out/bbq/whatever."

Music with Jameson & Lone Star: The Young Mammals & Hard Place @ Artstorm 12 July 2008

As if to counter the John Lomax's "our scene sucks" mantra, Saturday's Creature Comforts art opening at Art Storm (located within Caroline Collective) was a raving success. Unfortunately, the traffic from Galveston resulted in my arriving just in time to hear Wicked Poseur's last notes ring but, judging from the wild applause, they did pretty alright indeed.

I wish Wicked Poseur had traded slots with Hard Place because I honestly could have done without them. You know that Spongebob Squarepants episode where Squidward is assigned to lead the half-time ceremonies at a football game and the orchestra plays this terrible painful parody of an 80's song? Sure, the bit is mildly funny for its minute or so run-time but picture that for 30 minutes - that's Hard Place! Yeah, exactly! It's annoying as fuck. It's like a band that looked up every hipster cliche and decided to make that caricature real. Of course I know it's supposed to be tongue in cheek but to pull that off requires some wit and Hard Place displayed none though they clearly seemed to think they possessed it in spades.

The crowd may have dug Hard Place's set but, my irony meter reading in the red, I merely took the time to check out the art which was a much better use of my time. For a show like this, I like to just look at the art first then go back with a program and see who created what. The funny thing was that when I made the second pass with the program the same name came up again and again without fail - Eli Sebastian Brumbaugh (Link). On the right is Ezekiel 44:31, one of his paintings on display and it, like the rest of Brumbaugh's work, displayed wit, playfulness, and joy without a hint of smugness - a perfect antidote to Hard Place's set. Thank you.

The Young Mammals closed the night with their typical verve. The band is one of Houston's best and a perfect example of why those who decry Houston bands as mediocre need to get out more. Their songs and performances spring with energy and the band engages in the kind of jocular repartee during their set that is simply endearing. This was one of the band's last shows with their drummer Iram and I hope you savored his performance if you were there. Very few drummers can upstage their bandmates but Iram, though seated throughout, plays with the energy of a crazed trucker careening his 18-wheeler just to the edge of the cliff - sticks fly, he falls off his stool, and collapses on his kit as he drips in sweat from hurling every ounce of energy into his performance. Is it any wonder he'll be missed? Not to under-sell the rest of the band: they are just as much fun as they hop and jump like stand-ins for The Beatles in HELP! So, of course, people ate-up their performance. Be it alone or with guest Mlee Suprean (Hearts of Animals) on one new song, the band radiated everything that is so great about a summer evening in Houston.

Culture is alive and well in Houston folks so leave the wide-screen TVs and Wiis at home.

"Houston's drawbacks: mediocre bands,
terrible radio, second-rate venues,
poor public transportation, killer
sprawl and a diverse populace
of mildly paranoid, cynical souls. "
- John Lomax

"Sure, our local bands, venues and sound men
are not the greatest, true enough, and cliques
can be off-putting to newcomers and less trendy
music fans." - John Lomax

Iram's drum kit sums up my reaction to Lomax's
obsession with the Two Gallants show from
two years ago. Any guesses as to how many
people stayed home or even thought of that
show Saturday night?
If you guessed one, that's too high.

"The minute people stop trying to figure
out what's wrong, they'll start to get it right."*
- Mlee Suprean

Yet another poorly attended Houston show.
Why was nobody there?
Just ask John Lomax and he'll tell you:
mediocre bands, a substandard venue, and a cynical populace.
Oh yeah and Two Gallants.

Links

Wicked Poseur (Link)
Young Mammals (Link)
Hard Place (Link)
Art Storm (Link)

More Pictures on my Flickr (Link)

* regarding Lomax's article and the resulting Hands Up Houston discussion.

Music with Jameson & Lone Star: French Kicks, Young Mammals, & Hearts of Animals @ Walter's 06 June 2008

Well, that's quite the news to get in the afternoon. Hands Up Houston announced that Frightened Rabbit had canceled their performance due to their van breaking down. That was a shame as I really love this Scottish band's droll and energetic Sing The Grays album and it sounded like they might translate pretty well live and possibly give the Dimes a run for their money. The upside though was that the always solid Hearts of Animals was called-in to pinch-hit at the last minute - you couldn't have ask for a better resolution.

Now, I don't know about you but when I drove up I was immediately overwhelmed by a swarm of headlights ahead of me and behind me! I thought, "What the fuck is with the traffic on Washington Avenue?" Then, when I turned the corner, I saw the unspeakable. A sight as frightening and improbable as turning that same corner and seeing Big Foot and Fulad-zereh fucking on the street while Abraham Lincoln stood watching and smoking a fattie. There, running back towards Washington Avenue with slicked hair and a pristine white shirt, was a valet! Yes, you got that - a fucking valet on Washington Avenue! I then rounded the block and it turned out everyone was just as confused as I because the carpark in front of Walters had open spots. Incredible! Then as I got out of my car some dude on his cellphone asked, "Is this valet parking here?" Somehow, between thinking "Are you fucking with me?!!" and "If you have to ask...", I mustered a cranky "If you're looking for valet parking you want douche-central across the street." I'm sure the bouge motherfuckers who constantly harass Walters with noise complaints are more than happy with the new desirable clientèle at the Pearl but, for the rest of us, all we can do is shake our heads and think poor poor Washington Avenue.

Thankfully, inside the doors, Hearts of Animals had already taken the stage. Over the PA, beats and backing tracks from Mlee's Powerbook pumped while her guitar layered lovely finger-picked notes above them and suddenly the gentrification convention outside didn't matter anymore. The familiar melodies of her older songs (as well as that new one that I love with Cley of the Young Mammals) are always welcome sounds and the performance was exactly what you'd expect - inspiring. The excited voices of some new-to-HOA women standing in line to the bathroom seemed to confirm that summation. The Superunison folks couldn't have been smarter in picking her to fill-in.

The Dimes followed and after a few "Let's go team!" hand slapping they proceeded to slash and hack through their set in that fashion we're so used to seeing and likely take for granted here in Houston. It's the Dimes: Iram pounding the drums while stealing the spotlight from behind the kit with his charming impish performance, Cley dancing with his guitar in a manner suggesting he'd do a good job of wrestling a giant rubber snake in some crazy B movie, and Carlos (all smiles) leading the charge with his voice while his rhythm guitar, along with Jose's bass, keep it all from sprawling into chaos. They are a world-class live band and the new songs just show great and unique they are as a band. This is one Houston band that - high gas prices or not - needs to get on the road, take it to the people, and show them how it's done.

Closing it all was Brooklyn's French Kicks. The performance was sharp, the sound was crisp, and the harmonies and instrumentation were gorgeous. And while some songs are wonderful and will make you break-out in an uncontrolled admiring smile, the simple fact remains that the French Kicks are a very good band. I have been spinning their new album and enjoying some of its songs quite a bit but, here is the rub, both the Young Mammals and Hearts of Animals are better and more consistent songwriters and, when it comes to a live show, the electrifying Young Mammals energy is unbeatable. The latter may not be particularly fair to French Kicks given what they do but, honestly, as their performance continued, I did get that "OK got it!" feeling by the last third. God, that sounds awful because it makes them sound as if they were bad but they weren't; the bar had simply been raised so high that even a band of their talents simply couldn't overshadow what had preceded. But that was just me as everyone else in the packed crowd clearly loved it from the first note to the last. So, ne vous inquiétez pas French Kicks - it's not about who doesn't salute, it's about who does.

Hearts Of Animals
Pinch-hitting for the Scots

The Young Mammals
Breakin' out in a Cold Sweat The French Kicks

Basculez la maison

Links:
Frightened Rabbit (Link)
Hearts of Animals (Link)
Young Mammals (Link)
French Kicks (Link)

More pictures on my Flickr (Link)

Music with Jameson & Lone Star: How Metal are you? (Golden Axe, Jonx, Hearts of Animals, Young Mammals, & Wicked Poseur)

Yes Houston Indie kids, this week we will discuss your lack of Metal worthiness but first let's have a recap of this weekend's shows eh?

Friday Evening

Wicked Poseur, Young Mammals, & Hearts of Animals
at the Orange Show

Ahhhh, did you smell that too? The animal may have been an unrecognizable blob of fur but the smell was not - that was the smell of fresh roadkill. So, as I walked my way over to the Orange Show, I kissed away any appetite I might have had earlier. Mercifully, I wasn't really coming down for the loose meat sandwiches or even the fabulous art cars for that matter (don't get me wrong the art cars were a hoot especially the one that shot the flames 30 yards into the air) but I was here for the music - the cool evening and the art cars were simply a bonus.

Hearts of Animals opened with an excellent set - no surprise there. I hadn't heard these songs live since the Casiotone show so Friday it was as welcome as the cool breeze blowing that evening. The big kick was hearing that new song that Mlee performed two shows ago enhanced by Cley Miller's guitar work. The song had previously used that Trio Da Da Da Casio beat but this night Cley took Mlee's pre-written parts and added his unique style that gave the song this additional level of interplay and warmth that wasn't there in the previous performance. Cley may not be a shredder but he has a feel for the instrument that is enviable. His contribution here was a testament to that and a great compliment to Mlee's skills as a writer.

Young Mammals followed with their first set since the Block Party and the band was at its most playful and energetic. They ripped through familiar songs with all the verve you'd expect then, out of nowhere, they threw in two new songs. Both songs were great but the first had an added treat - Mlee Suprean guesting on guitar and lead vocals. The song was great and it was funny how well Mlee and YM meshed. While the music was clearly classic YM, the vocal melody was all Mlee which only highlighted how gifted she is with pulling melodies out of the air. I couldn't make out her lyrics but it didn't matter, her voice and phrasing are always a kick. To hear her writing new material is always thrilling and collaborating with YM shows just how nimble she can be. The other new song was also a blast with Iram leading the charge. If a band is defined by their drummer then Iram certainly sets the tone for the band with a scrappy playfulness that is irresistible. At one point, Carlos leaned over to Iram to say something along the lines of "This feels weird." Iram smiled, leaned over, touched the tip of his drumstick to Carlo's teeth, gave him a quick flick, and laughed. That jovial gesture pretty much summed up their set.

Wicked Poseur closed the evening and their set also delivered in spades. Arthur Bates was in fine form; he's the sweetest drunken smart-ass you'll ever meet. Earlier in the evening, Arthur was rambling and riffing on anything and everything and during the set he was no different causing Chris Cascio to start begging Arthur to "Just Play!" even as he was laughing. All Tom foolery aside, the songs and the two guitar attack was a blast. Earlier this month, Ben Murphy made a point about solid state amps and how tubes may get all the love but anyone with a good ear who knows how to put it to good use can make any amp sing. Even as a devoted fan of tubes, I had to concede his point; he not only won the discussion, he won it decisively. As if to rub my nose in it, Chris, with my most reviled solid state amp (a freaking Peavy), was ripping it up with sounds that couldn't have been more perfect for the material. It's funny but for all the electronic aspects of Wicked Poseur, the guitar work is what makes it rip like Led Zeppelin doing Can. Arthur' vocals were at their brattiest while Chris' danced, swayed, and moved like his life depended on it. Great band, great songs, and a great performance - pretty par for the evening.

Saturday Night
The Jonx, Golden Axe, & Awake
at The Mink Backroom
I have to apologize for missing Awake. Last time I saw them, they played an inspiring set. I wish I could say that I had a damn good reason for shirking my journalistic duties but the truth of the matter is I was drinking whiskey and chilling at a friend's house and time just kind of got away from me. Chris Gray would later comment that I seemed in good spirits. Yeah, after three glasses of whiskey, I'd better be!

When I arrived, Golden Axe had just started and the crowd was eating it up...well eating it up in the way Houston Indie rock kids do. If you were looking for heavy metal parking lot - this wasn't that crowd. [See epilogue for a fuller discussion of what I mean.] But all teasing the crowd aside, my favorite thing about Golden Axe is how they take something that is so riddled with clinches and make it work. If you don't think Metal is capable of intelligence and wit, you clearly have never heard Golden Axe. There is no other band in Houston that can make me laugh out loud without uttering a word. Warren Hatfield and James Love make Metal that's droll without a hint of a nudge nudge or a wink wink - theirs is a metal guitar led assault that makes no apologies. I grew up with so many amazing metal guitarists who could run circles around most mortals but their Achilles heel was that their compositional skills were never on the same level. Warren has such a sharp sense of composition atop of his fretwork skills that it should make people like Yngwie Malmsteen and their followers hand their heads in shame. Long live the The Axe!

The Jonx closed the night and reminded me just how wonderful a trio they are. The trio plays music like a drunken mathematician raving about a favorite theorem. Yet, for all its mathrock qualities, the Jonx music is never cold - it drips with feeling. Stuart Smith's guitar is as capable of crunching out dissonance as it is capable of throwing out a lovely melody, Trey Levigne's bass work is always aggressive and muscular, while Danny Mee's drumming is ever nimble and powerful. Together they interact in the same manner as one of those Japanese animae robots where various robots combine their powers into one super-robot. Appropriately, all before them were crushed into submission. I'm so glad that Danny Mee's move to Austin didn't mean the end of the Jonx.

EPILOGUE
(Due to the limits of our template's layout - please, click on image)




PICTURES

Hearts of Animals' Mlee Suprean
Miss coolness herself

The Dimes
They is On Fire!!

Wicked Poseur's Chris Cascio
gets his Jimmy Page on.

Golden Axe's Warren Hatfield
Wow! Tough crowd!

The Jonx's Trey Levigne
as the Hulk

LINKS & CREDITS:

Bloodstock photo by John Ashby
(Check out his flickr page - amazing stuff)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnashby/

More pictures on my Flickr Page:
Hearts Of Animals, Young Mammals, and Wicked Poseur (Link)
The Jonx and Golden Axe (Link)

Band Links
Hearts of Animals

Young Mammals

Wicked Poseur

Awake

Golden Axe

The Jonx

Music with Jameson & Lone Star: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Clue to Kalo, Hearts of Animals @ The Backroom 06 April 2008

Sunday was just one of those nights where you had two very good choices from which to choose. On the one hand you had the International Noise Conference over at the Jet Lounge while The Mink Backroom had Casiotone and HOA. I'd actually considered trying to catch both but then realized how club hooping is generally a recipe for disaster and simply staked my claim with the show at the Backroom.

Opening was Hearts of Animals who I've seen so many times that it would generally seem pointless and redundant to catch yet another performance but everyonce in a while you catch one performance like this and you remember what's so particularly special about HOA. Sunday night saw HOA perform under some dodgy circumstances: a Mac with its battery nigh dead, an odd little drum machine whose signal never fed properly to the board, and pre-amp tubes that weren't cooperating thus refusing her the crunchy distortion that we have come associate with HOA. But after a futile request for a distortion box, HOA simply forged ahead and, the thing was, I never missed the distortion. Perhaps because she had to fight the circumstances somewhat and knowing that her Powerbook could go at any moment, this HOA performance had a little but of the sass that had been missing from her SXSW performance. The clean guitar was actually quite enjoyable as the clear ringing notes had nothing to hide behind and, being a fan of her simple yet effective finger picking style, it was nice to hear that unfiltered and pure. That being said, despite the excellent performance, one thing kept ruining the music for me and that was the dude who was writhing on the floor, bumping into the microphone, and engaging other generally annoying behavior that would a suggest a person who clearly is desperate for attention. First off, I am still shocked that dude was not on drugs but more importantly the question that should be posed to people like this is "Did I just pay 8 bucks to watch you make an ass of yourself or did I pay 8 bucks to see someone play some songs that they worked pretty damn hard to perfect?" followed by the inevitable "No dude, that is a rhetorical question."

Clue to Kalo followed with a pretty shaky set. Don't get me wrong Clue to Kalo have their share of good solid songs (check out Love Check Music Game on their myspace for a lovely example of the band at their best) yet, there was something that never quite took off. You could argue that the sound didn't do much for the type of clean poppy instrumentation and harmonies in which the band prefers to tread and sure, they came off as pleasant, charming, and droll enough but the set never really left me engaged beyond a shrug of pleasantness. Perhaps this is a band better left to the controlled and precise world the studio which, by the way, is no dis.


Closing the evening was Casiotone for the Painfully Alone who played a sweet set. Now, I've been pretty shaky on his voice on his recordings (perhaps because he at times employs some good vocalists to share duties) but in a live perfoemance his voice is charming, sincere, and endearing. Now don't get me wrong with these qualifiers for his vocals, Owen Ashworth's main strength lies in his ability to write lovely little personal pop songs and arrange them with some lovely keyboards that at times give me the same fun kick I'd gotten when I'd first heard latter day Kraftwerk. His is all about the beauty of simplicity and Sunday's performance was appropriately ungilded; he simply laid out those songs and charmed the audience with his low key and humble stage personae. The oddest and funniest bit of banter came when he explained to the audience how the legs on muppets freak him out which may seem a bit of a shaggy dog but it pretty much captured the spirit of the evening which was simply a bunch of people sitting together listening to some songs and enjoying each others company. Now how much more pleasant a Sunday night would you want?

Hearts of Animals

Photography: Theresa K. © 2007

It’s a bright Saturday afternoon in the Montrose. The Westheimer block party has just begun and the larger crowds that will eventually pack the area have yet to arrive. As you step into Numbers, the darkness envelops you until your eyes adjust. On stage is a woman behind a microphone holding a guitar; a Macbook sits atop a folding chair to her right. She reaches down - punches a key. A drum machine echoes though the cavernous room. She begins picking notes on the guitar and she sings. The songs she sings evoke a loneliness and weariness earned through experience: bright poppy melodies that ring of hope and beauty with an undercurrent of sadness. If pop music is intended to be trite and disposable, in the hands of Mlee Suprean’s Hearts of Animals pop becomes something more – through her lyrics, sense of melody, and rich textures – it becomes literary.

You could argue that music is in her blood. Her father’s a talented bass player whose hook-filled work graces a few Hearts of Animals tracks. Her mother’s side of the family were talented West Virginian folk musicians and the family still retains old scratchy records of family members performing Appalachian songs. Mlee retains that organic approach to music. She graduated with a music degree (half of a double major) from HBU yet, to her professor’s frustration, she resisted music theory; “It was like re-wiring my brain. I play by ear, so it was very difficult learning and applying the math of music. I let my emotions write my music instead of trying to force my technical learning into my songwriting.” Her latest EP is a perfect example of her writing from her gut. “I was going through a separation, I was ready to move on, and I’d never acted on that before.” It had been a year since she had written anything then “one night that summer I sat on the balcony and wrote three songs.” She later followed up this spark with four more songs that appeared on the Hearts of Animals debut EP Lemming Baby. It’s an EP rich in emotion and immediacy. Stars Say No, for example, deals with the realization that the one you are with may not be the right person. The song plays on a Big Audio Dynamite song; in response to Mick Jones’ Mr. Walker saying, “We’re heaven made”, Mlee’s Mr. Walker concedes that the astrology is all wrong. Twenty Questions’ bouncy bass line and sweet melody are belied by the nastiness of being confronted by a lover’s suspicions. It’s all pretty heavy stuff for a pop song but not all of her debut is all dramatic soul searching. Take Underwater Staggie’s psychedelic pop which puts you next to Mlee as her friend Stagner discusses 2012, giants, astrology, and Houston’s eventual submersion into the Gulf of Mexico. The songs lyrical content is playful, the melody is gorgeous, and the attention to texture, instrumentation, and arrangement is nothing short of masterful.

Hearts of Animals’ current incarnation was something Mlee arrived at through an evolutionary process. The project became a personal challenge to prove to herself that she could indeed hold an audience’s attention, “By nature, I’m antsy. If I get bored with a band, I leave. Last summer I was playing at coffee houses then, I threw-out beats and people freaked out.” Beats and volume are hardly a coffee house staple but she followed her instincts and audiences loved it - volume and all. The physicality of volume is something Mlee relishes, “With a show, I want ears to hurt a little bit otherwise I’d be at home listening to the record.” The use of prerecorded tracks came a bit later as she initially felt it would be “cheesy” but after some prompting she gave it a go and, again, the risk paid off.

Beyond the rich melodies, textures, and performance, what holds audience's attention is Mlee’s ability to write songs that are universal and yet very personal. The songs are not mere melodrama but are honest and conflicted internal dialogues where the narrator remains unsure and hesitant because, in life, choices have consequences. Mlee then takes that tension between fear and hope within the songs and grounds them in a particular sense of place – take the recurring seaside motifs for example. These sprinkled settings create a very real and tactile world yet there is a haze between what is literal and what is metaphorical and between what is said and what is unsaid. “I think there is a skill in expressing something without saying it. I like a story with lots of color, where I give them a window, but where people are left wanting more. I don’t want people settled; I want them engaged and intrigued. It’s like the end of Lost in Translation. What does he say?”

Hearts of Animals performs at the final night of The Texas
Gone Garage festival on Sunday December 16th at Rudyard’s. For more
information see http://rudyards.s425.sureserver.com/TGG/.

====Additional Web Links and Information===

Hearts of Animals plays with the Dimes and Sunset at Sound
Exchange on Friday 07 December 2007 (Poster)

Also, there is a nice Houstonist article on Hearts of

Animals that was juts posted today that is a nice compliment
to this article.

See: http://houstonist.com/2007/12/07/interview_mlee.php

Hearts of Animals on Mysapce

MleeMarie on Myspace