Another week ends in Purple Rain.

Yeah, it's been a pretty busy week. To your left you can see the the new Tubes I threw in my 50 watt Marshall. The Russian power tubes are pretty good if a bit heavy on the midrange. On the other hand the JAN "Made in USA" tubes (that's the small ones) are frikkin sweet!!! Fuck George Bush and all those fucking losers in Washington; if you want to feel some pride in the good old USA just buy yourself some US made tubes!

There was other bad assitude going on last week. The Westheimer Block Party was a kick. Heart of Animals at Numbers was almost surreal - one woman, her Mac, and a guitar in a dark cavernous room - adding this kind of lonely detached ambiance to the music. Spectacular. Paris Falls played some sweet tunes. I didn't realize that Jen was playing all those guitar licks on their album. Man, sister has a sweet tone and some great melodies on the six string. Even though the sound was crap I really came to appreciate them more after this. Dead Roses played their punk old school which was refreshing. Unfortunately things ran late and I missed Golden Axe but it rules is what I heard.

The Axiom Reunion was pretty fun even if I only caught a bit of it on Saturday. Essentially I was called in to handle projections for Turmoil In the Toybox on that day which was a pretty cool honor. The played a pretty rocking set as did the Cave Reverend and the bit of Bayou Pigs that I was able to see was pretty sweet. All in all pretty nice. Kudos to Julie Grob and JR Delgado.

Unfortunately, Friday's Axiom line-up was pretty awesome and circumstances were such that I had to miss it. Luckily Sprawl played a show at Rudyards on Sunday which was nothing less than sheer joyous madness. The band shuffled through its Texas white boy funk/ska set with so much energy and excitement that you pretty much forgot it was a reunion and all feelings of nostalgia were thrown aside to make way for what was happening at the club at that moment. The two big husky esses were ripping it up on the dance floor as Matt Kelly whipped up the crown into a frenzy. The horns were gorgeous and the dude on guitar who had to fill-in was incredible. Yet, for me the sweetest thing was Jeff Nunaly hamming it up for his daughters. Girls let me tell you, your dad is a kick ass bassist.

Last night, I skipped on Qui and instead went to The Mink to see Will Freed's new band. Admittedly having one of those Hermione Granger Time-Turners would have been handy on a night like last night but such is the complexity of shows in Houston - there is either too much or too little going on in this city. But I digress, The Freed was a chaotic jumble of garagey noise as filtered through a VU prism. It was a decent show (with Kudos to Gina S. for filling in on Keyboards on a moment's notice) but I don't think they are where they want to be yet. Still, given the talent involved I expect this will build up to something spectacular. Cop Warmth played its crazy hyperactive set. The bonus was the woman singing who somehow juxtaposed screaming nutters vocals with a body language expressing terrifying stagefright. Double bonus was the 10 minute drum solo at the beginning. I kept wondering why and then it was explained to me "Oh the guitarist is busy fighting with his girlfriend downstairs and the singer is huddled in a corner too terrified to perform live." Now, it is not for me to say whether this was true or false but it's a damn good explanation and pretty damn hilarious so I'm sticking with that version of events. Indian Jewelry redeemed itself from the disastrous Rudyard's performance from two weeks back and played a brilliant and pulsing open-ended trance-inducing set. Yes that's right those are Syndrums in that picture to your right being used by Indian Jewelry. That is some fucking classy shit there. I can remember writing songs with one of those beasts. We used to joke and call it the Sin-drum because it was such a terrible drum machine but Indian Jewelry made it work so go figure! The crowd certainly had a good time!

Lastly, we will leave you with this. I made a quick pass by Diverse Works to see what was going down at a KTRU related event. I wasn't there very long (though it was pretty cool for the few minutes I was able to be there) but I was there long enough to capture ADR (of Skyline fame) and his bottle of Purple Rain MD 20/20. Well, Gators on a stick! If that don't put a nice cap on another week, I don't know what does!


Links:
Too damn many this week You smart use Google!!!