Music with Jameson & Lone Star: Artstorm Jeremy Jay @ Artstorm and 500 Megatons of Boogie, The Jonx, and Together we Are Instruments at Rudyards

Well, by now you already know that the whole Keene St. Party imploded between my Friday preview and Saturday. It went from full steam ahead to dead to an unexpected resurrection at Notsuh. Refunds went from none to some to all. Bands and DJs dropped like flies but in the end five bands held-on and, by the looks of it, the smaller scale version at Notsuoh seems to have been (albeit under much humbler goals) a success. Jeremy Hart at Space City Rock did a nice job of reviewing the whole thing (link). Me? Well, trying to figure out what was going on eventually wore me out - Keene Street burn-out. So, I decided to roll through two shows of a little lower profile.

The first was a pass by Caroline Collective where Artist Patrick Turk's exhibit was coming to a close with K records' Jeremy Jay. It was a pretty low-key affair with Jeremy Jay playing his poppy songs on a small stage on a hot and humid Houston night. It was pleasant and I preferred the more jangly numbers but the audience seemed to sway more towards the songs powered by the more vintage Korg sounds. Sure the crowd wasn't what you'd call a throng but have you ever had one of those crowds where it seems every time you turn your head you find yourself wrapped in a conversation? Yeah, this was one of those crowds - a good peeps crowd - and that's always a pleasant enough way to start an evening.

From there it was off to Rudyard's. I was pretty interested in seeing Together We Are Instruments and they delivered the electronics and textures. The only issue I had was the vocals which were somewhat distracting from what was going on underneath. This was their first time with vocals so I'll let that go. Their strength lay in the electronically generated textures and the ability of the players to feed off each other's improvisations to build into an engaging whole. It's classic Houston Noise/Experimental - the kind of stuff that Super Happy Fun Land hosted often. That's not everyone's bag of tea but their use of beats under the textures was particularly nicely done. All in all pretty nice stuff and worth showing up early for.

The Jonx followed with another standard Jonx-style ass kicking. I mean that seriously even though I've likely said similar things a million times. I was telling Stuart how, after writing about them for so long, I honestly just don't know what else to add. I mean here you have this amazing drummer, a brutal bassist, and an unstoppable guitarist who dodge and parry their way past most bands with their math rock meets punk rock hybrid. The thing that sets them apart is that they take that and combine it with some great guitar and bass lines that you find yourself humming almost immediately. It's not just aimless chord and time changes but honest to goodness hooky songs that I put up with anything out there nationally or internationally. The show Saturday was more of the same - punch drunk hooks cleverly interspersed with sonic blasts of dissonance. If you missed them, see them on August first with Ume and Sharks & Sailors and then try to tell me you aren't impressed.

The evening closed with 500 Megatons of Boogie whose name was a constant source of amusement for some friends ("That was only 100 megatons! You owe us 400!!!") Now, I have to say that I mixed myself up on Thursday's preview and wrote what in effect was a preview for the Squishees and not 500 Megatons of Boogie. Why the error? Ok look it was late true but basically 500 Megatons is an offshoot of the Squishees but with a different drummer. 500 Megatons eschews the crazy time signatures for more straight-up (if not necessarily less histrionic) rock and roll. So, that cleared up, let me just say that Saturday's show was a riot. Guitarist and singer Eriq Fancypants is one mean guitarist and he moves on the stage and grimaces like someone who stuck something electrical and unpleasant in his ass. The band may take its rockin' seriously (consider the heaviness of It Gets Me Blue) but they clearly are just goofy geeks who are just out to have a blast. And Jesus come on down and make with the wine but they ripped a kick-ass version of James Brown's It's a Man's Man's Man's World. Hallelujah! Now if they could only play that in Fortran!

Jeremy Jay popping it up at Caroline CollectiveThe event was the closing for Patrick Turk's
art exhibit (that's his sparkly daughter)

Together We Are Instruments - I'd recommend pairing them
with a good wheat beer and spinach quesadillas.

The Jonx ripping through their punishing
12-minute epic Scent of the Earth at Rudyard's

500 Megatons of Boogie gave us 501 Megatons of Boogie
especially when they covered James Brown

Links:

More images at my Flickr (link)

Caroline Collective

Jeremy Jay
Together We Are Instruments
The Jonx
500 Megatons of Boogie

Papermoons

Papermoons self-portrait

It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m sitting with the Papermoons outside King Biscuit in the hot Texas sun as guitarist Matt Clark and drummer Daniel Hawkins are getting all In Search of... on me. A house party on their upcoming tour is right near the hometown of the legendary Moth Man which, as you can imagine, is a local legend involving some creature that looks like…well...a Moth Man. The supernatural is an odd little diversion for the Papermoons. “We went to an old graveyard in Sleepy Hollow at night.” says Daniel, “That was some freaky shit!” Cleary not freaked out enough on that tour, they plan to spend some time this tour visiting Gettysburg where ghosts are said to roam and people can visit at night. It’s all par for the course for a band that clearly loves not only making music but also travelling. Talk with them for any length of time and it’s clear that, for these two, touring is still a grand adventure filled with the promise of the unexpected and the memorable.

That love of the road is actually quite appropriate as the duo met while touring in different bands. Danny had been drumming in Houston’s Little Compass and Matt had been in playing guitar in the Akron, Ohio band Adios. The bands met through the internet, toured together, and the two immediately hit it off. Then, when the bands were coming to their logical end, a night at Late Night Pie sealed the partnership. “We were talking about quieter bands like Wilco,” says Matt, “and it turns out we had similar ideas of what we wanted to do. We started sending tapes of songs back and forth between Ohio and Texas where one of us would build on the ideas of the other. Eventually, I was over with school and had nothing keeping me in Ohio so I moved to Houston.”

The new duo soon discovered the challenges and rewards of the new less-is-more approach. “There’s a freedom in just playing a backbeat and not overplaying.” says Danny, “Believe it or not, it’s actually easier to overplay than to just hold-back but it’s amazing how much a song can be just as powerful without resorting to simple volume.”

“My guitar has to do a lot more work,” explains Matt, “and I have to try to fill the sound. But if you can play a song – just vocals and a guitar – and it holds up, that’s a good song. That’s my benchmark.”

“When we work on songs, we hear arrangements in our heads,” says Danny, “so if we don’t feel that, we drop it. This new album was written pretty fast. We wanted to release it in time to tour during the summer so all the songs were written and recorded under that time constraint but we didn’t compromise in the process. This album is exactly the album we wanted to release.”

The album was partially written in our small apartment. “Danny set up his drums here in the living room,” says Matt as he sketches three very small rectangles in an L shape with stick figures on my note pad. “I was in the bedroom here, and in this small bathroom between the two rooms is where I set my amp. We recorded the entire thing on Adobe Audition starting with Danny’s drums and I’d layer on top of that. We’d start with the music and find the vocal harmonies.”

“Harmonies were the first thing on the table when we started his band!” exclaims Danny. “We love killer harmonies so that’s one of the things we concentrate on. We’ll work out the melodies and Matt will write the lyrics.”

“I’m not much of a lyricist,” says Matt as his leg shakes up and down under the table, “I’ll try to write broad lyrics that everyone can relate to. Some of it is from stuff I’ve experienced but the lyrics are never specific. I just try to find that one line and, once I’ve got that down, the rest of the lyrics flow from that one line.”

Matt may be humble about his lyrics but there is a simple honesty in his words that seem as organic and of-the-earth as the music. Take the opening track – Follow The Sun - from the new Papermoons album. Chiming guitar notes play off a lonely slide guitar as vocals sing a gorgeous melody evoking a melancholy joy. They sing “Yeah, I chose this life/ a life with no money at all/ and you get what you put in/ if you do what you love/ give in/ just give in.” That is the Papermoons in a nutshell.

The Papermoons’ new album “New Tales” will be available in July on Team Science.
Their tour kicks off on July 11th with their record release at the Backroom at the Mink.

Link:
http://www.myspace.com/thepapermoonsband

The Music Crumudgeon's preview for the Week of July 4th 2008

THIS WEEKS SPOTLIGHT
KEENE STREET WAREHOUSE PARTY!!!!

ANDREW WK, THE OCTOPUS PROJECT, WINNING, ANDY DIXON, BRING BACK THE GUNS, THE WATERMARKS, RIFF TIFFS, O PIONEERS!!!, PAPERMOONS, AMERICAN SHARKS, LIMB, WELFARE MOTHERS, B., LISA'S SONS, BLACKIE
@ KEENE ST. WAREHOUSE
1620 Keene St.
1PM - 4AM
Bands end at 10PM.

It's been an interesting week for promoter Jacob Calle - Andrew WK has already dropped out and more worrisome was that I kept hearing rumblings about the state of the fire-ravaged warehouse. While no official reason has been given for YK canceling, I figured we'd at least look into the condition of the venue and either dispel or confirm the rumors so I made a trip out this morning. I figured "Eh, I've already plunked down my $12 so we'll see huh?" I mean even with Andrew WK saying no, it's a pretty solid line-up of bands and DJs but if some of the rumors were true, people may want to know. So, I was somewhat surprised at what I saw so I called Eric whose I Heart You Productions had been asked to do two tasks in this event - sell tickets on-line and manage the show as it took place (man the door and stuff like that). Clearly he got more than he bargained for. The story goes that the owner had insurance and said he'd have a roof in place by now but one thing is what the property owner had hoped for and another is reality. Thus, Eric and posse spent two days this week cleaning up the place. Given what he signed up for, I think that's pretty admirable.

What the pictures show below is a tidied up shell of a building that caught fire months ago. Eric tells me that today and tomorrow they will be working hard - adding a tarp (to keep you dry should it rain), building a stage (the bands will appreciate that), and lastly bringing in a generator that will power the whole endeavor. Eric said he'll send me pictures when they add the tarp and the stage so you can see how things are moving along. Here, as a preview, are some pictures I took. I have a few more posted on my Flickr (link).

The burned out but recently cleaned-up
Keene St. warehouse on the morning of July 4th

A tarp, stage, and generator
are to be in place by tomorrow

So there you have it. Given the line-up, it should be pretty fun and as Eric puts it "The way to look at this as a glorified kegger in someone's house." Wooo! Kegger! See you there tomorrow.

ALSO THIS WEEK


Friday, July 4

This Moment In Black History/Black Congress/Camp X-Ray/The Monocles/Thieves Like Us
@ Walter's on Washington
Man what a way to celebrate the birth of our country but with some fucked up shit from Cleveland. TMIBH are a noisy chaos of freaky energy - funny, weird, and certified "what the fuck" in all the right ways. As for local super-group Black Congress, you know the score - local manly men playing hard, loud, and sweaty. The Monocles play garage by taking the garage and beating it over your head until you hand over all your beer and dope - gawddang!! Thieves Like Us clearly are a band that bought that Joy Division boxed set that came out a while back. I wonder if the bassists slings his bass as low as Peter Hook? God Bless America!

Geto Boys
@ Warehouse Live
Do I even have to write anything about these guys? Really, I mean these guys are so iconic that they can do a song about cereal and get away with it! You try to pull that off! But more importantly this is the group that settled the question that had long plagued theoretical physicists for decades as to the maximum velocity attainable by "real gangsta-ass niggas". God Bless America!

Dethklok/Chimaira/Soilent Green
@ The Meridian
You! The guys smoking a bowl and watching adult swim. First, "Don't put Marbles in Your Nose!" and second, dig creator Brendon Small as he gets his metal geek on! A friend of mine said she was going and I couldn't help but be totally jealous. God Bless America!

Mike and The Moonpies, Jonathan Terrell, Stephen Reynolds Band, Whiskey River Revival, Dead End Cowboys, Texas Contraband, The Trian Woodburns, John Garza Jr., Wolf Explosion, Leo Rondeau, & more
@ Fitzgerald's
Ok I get the Free. That's cool. I get the Country/Rootsy bands. That's awesome. You can see the downtown fireworks with drinks, snacks and snow cones! Ok coolness! But here's what I don't get - kid friendly parking lot. "Hey Kids go play in a parking lot!" OK, I'm sure it's roped-off but it just sounds weird. Should be cool. Oh, and God Bless America!

Freedom Over Texas
@ Elanor Tinsley Park
OK, yes it's the lamest music of all the music options I've listed thus far but....It's about the fireworks dummy! God Bless America!


Mission Control, featuring Mic Skills & DJ Remix
@ The Backroom (The Mink)
DJ, dancing, booze, God Bless America!

Saturday, July 5

500 Megatons of Boogie/ The Jonx / Together We Are Instruments
@ Rudyard's
Well I raved about the triple powerhouse of the Jonx on Thursday. Well 500 Megatons of Boogies are kind of like The Jonx's oddball older brothers. They sport the same odd time signatures and energy sure but you can't help but wonder, "Hmm If I asked them to play that in Fortran would they do it?" TWAI is a damn cool collective of improvised loops, electronics, and god knows what! Very cool experimental stuff so I suggest you arrive early to see them.

Charlie Wilson & the Gap Band @ Arena Theatre
Charlie Wilson will indeed drop the bomb on you!


Willie Nelson's Family Picnic, featuring
Merle Haggard, Ray Price, Los Lonely Boys, Asleep at the Wheel, David Allan Coe, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Billy Joe Shaver, & Johnny Bush
@ Sam Houston Race Park
Willie's family Picnic! Woooo!


Sunday, July 6


Vans Warped Tour @Sam Houston Race Park
You know Van Warped Tour just makes me wonder...why didn't bungee Kyacking take-off as an extreme sport?

Sabra Laval/Warren Jackson Hearne/Cory Derden/Sew What
@ Notsuoh
You know how it works - Sabra plays quiet lovely folk and you go see it.

RTX/Imaad Wasif
@ The Backroom (The Mink; 8PM)
Jennifer Herrema's half of what was the Royal Trux. Straight-up scummy rock and roll is the order of the day with RTX. Opener Wasif I think seems the more interesting of the two. Not sure yet if I'm enamored by the songwriting or the production on his new album. Like on that song Oceanic at about two and a half minutes where that guitar hits the melody that plays off that low burping note. Man, that is a great guitar tone!


Monday, July 7th

Gravy Train / Bridez @ Walter's On Washington
Attention Handstamp's Sara Cress. Keyboards and irony...I think I found your show! Bring your skinny jeans!

Burning Brides / Middle Class Rut/Fired For Walking
@ Rudyard's
Fired for rocking!

Suzi Trash / Black Black Gold
@ Boondocks
Black Black Gold are inspired by that 60's International Artists psychedelia and their inspiration leads them to some pretty cool territory. Suzi Trash sounds like every teenager's 4-track-demo made in their garage - sloppy, slightly inept, and yet horribly charming.


Tuesday, July 8th

Harry and The Potters w/ Fishboy, Math The Band, Uncle Monsterface
@ Walter's On Washington
Attention Gie Gie! Fishboy is playing! You know what that means! QUATTRO!!!!!!

The Umbrella Man @ The Continental Club
They play weekly so it's easy to take for granted but do note that they rock.

Beppe Gambetta @ McGonigel's Mucky Duck
Un Italiano que fare la musica folklorica degli stati uniti. Non so se tutto e' buono ma giocca la chitarra bellissimo.

Wednesday, July 9

Sex Vid/No Talk
@ Sound Exchange
(8PM; free, but donations encouraged)

Beau Beasely's post-Insect Warfare band has a lot of people pretty excited. The band kick it old school - we're talking early 80's punk rock hardcore. You think that poster is a Really Red reference? Hmmm. Regardless expect a bunch of homo-erotic shirtless brotha's getting all sweaty and bumping into each other. And if that isn't enough there's
Seattle's Sex Vid. Ok maybe instead of explaining Sex Vid I'll just let this video from a house party in Olympia do the talking.



Gifts From Enola / Maps / Antarctica Starts Here
@ Walter's on Washington
This is the mellow pill to counter the Sound Exchange show. Antarctica Starts Here are my favorite local shoegazer band - echoes of chiming guitars and atmospheric vocals. It's a great pairing with Virginia's Gift from Enola which have the same inspiration. Load up the car, load up the bong, and go!

Sleep State /Tambersauro / Geraldo! / Stove Blow
@the white swan
Take this pill if you aren't ready to come down after the Sound Exchange show and want more manic music. Missouri's Sleep State will keep your nerves on edge and manic time changes and inane energy can be summed up in one word - Tambersauro! Man Tambersauro are great. If you want to get your math rock on - they are your band!



Thursday, July 10 -

Peter Murphy/Ali Eskandarian @ The Meridian
Get out your trenchcoats kids, it's summer!! Eh, as great as Bauhaus was, I never much cared for his solo stuff though he did do a decent job on a Pere Ubu cover.

Recession Thursday's Featuring
Studemont Project / Wicked Poseur / Wolves at the Door / Trusty Tape Recorder
@ Numbers
Our weekly showcase. We'll have more details on our Thursday Blog in super special Hype-O-Rama. I will say though that Wicked Poseur are indeed a wicked live band!

Tonight's Recession Thursday - The Jonx, Closet City, Mesus the Thesus, Sew What, Lennie Briscoe all for $5 at Numbers

The Jonx - This band alone is worth $5 and more. With a triple threat of incredible drumming (Danny Mee), razor sharp guitar (Stuart Smith), and nimble and brutal bass (Trey Levigne), The Jonx are and have been one of Houston's best and criminally undervalued bands. I still pop in their last album and marvel at how goddamn good that album is from beginning to end.

Closet City - Oh yeah, these guys. They were pretty awesome musically. The weird thing is they had this amazing juxtaposition of hardly moving while playing this insanely aggressive music. So my reaction when I clicked on their myspace and realized it was them was a big dopey grin. Rock dudes!

Mesus The Thesus - MESUS THE THESIS LOVES REESES PIECES! I mean that sells it, doesn't it? Ok OK well how about the fact that they say "Our beats are hotter than the devil's drawls, more hip than those Westheimer hipsters, cleaner than the snuggle bear, and mo' crisp than a new can of DP." Mo' crisp than DP? DAAAAMN!

Sew What - Truly one of Death Metal's most esteemed and feared performers. Rachel's vocals and guitar make blood flow from the ears of all posers while Corey's instrumentation is truly worthy of Satan himself. Yes, truly metal as the dark lord intended...errrr or maybe it's late, I'm tired, and they are really a folk band. Check out the crushing Iron Maiden like gallop of "Chocolate Water" and you tell me.

Lennie Briscoe - Who's in Lennie Briscoe? Let's just say it's a secret and you'll have to come on down to find out. ;)

The Skyline Network presents Hootenanny II: Twotenanny

July 26 @ The Mink's Backroom
Words by David A. Cobb
Photo by Rosa Guerrero

(The Ka-nives have since cancelled)

Many people shudder when they hear the term "cover band," but the crew over at The Skyline Network knows a good idea when it strikes: get some of the best local bands together to play as their favorite classic bands. After the inaugural Hootenanny in January--which featured 10 bands and seemed to be way past capacity--it was pretty much a sure thing that there would be a sequel.
This month's show, which is July 26th at The Mink's Backroom, features another excellent, varied line-up: The Ka-Nives as The Lemonheads, Flowers to Hide as The Cure, The Kimonos as Blondie, Buxton as Bjork, Custom Drinker as Rod Stewart, Tody Castillo and Friends as Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and Friends, Sharks and Sailors as The Police, American Sharks as The Cars, Judas Bear as Spoon, and Paris Falls as Rush.
Sharks and Sailors' Mike Rollin says the inspiration for their set came from their admiration of The Police. "We're all big fans, and we wanted to do something fun," he says. "It's also a good chance to rip off...I mean, learn some new chords. Andy Summers is a wizard."
As for which bands he's excited about seeing at the Hootenanny, he says, "The Ka-Nives' set will be insane. I also want to see Paris Falls doing Rush. I want to hear "2112" in its entirety...Marshall covering Rod Stewart will be fun, and Flowers to Hide's three-guitar attack should lend itself well to The Cure."
Tom Petty is an obvious choice for local crooner Tody Castillo, who will play alongside a Who's Who of local musicians, including Ben Murphy, Travis Foster, Kurt Coburn, Arthur Yoria, and Ryan Chavez. It's nice to hear from you. "All of these guys are big Petty fans and we're psyched to be doing it," Castillo says. "We're going full force rock on this one..."
Musician Ray Brown (Paris Falls) says Rush wasn't the band's first choice but that it works perfectly with their current line-up. "We first thought Alice Cooper but we didn't think many people would know the tracks we wanted to do," he says. "Iron Maiden was out of the picture because we needed more guitars. We didn't want to come off doing a band someone would expect us to do like the Beatles. Since we're a three-piece band now, it worked out to do Rush songs. We will be doing a 2112 song but unfortunately not [The Temple of] "Syrinx." We couldn't land the Taurus pedals. Also expect songs from Signals, Moving Pictures, Hemispheres..."
"Plus we all grew like three sets of extra balls each and we needed to use them," he jokes.
Brown also says he's looking forward to seeing The Kimonos and Sharks and Sailors. "And bands with more sweet 'staches, naturally, even if Mikey's isn't."
Cover is a mere $5, so you really have no excuse.

\American Sharks as The Cars
Buxton as Bjork
Custom Drinker (Marshall Preddy) as Rod Stewart
Flowers to Hide as The Cure
The Kimonos as Blondie
Paris Falls as Rush
Sharks and Sailors as The Police
Tody Castillo and Friends as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Welfare Mothers as Johnny Cash
Wild Moccasins as TBD