Good Morning Coffee, Let's Write a Rambling Blog!

Well it's been a slow week after the craziness that was last weekend. We had the Wols show and Texas Gone Garage. Personally I think Wols was the best live show I'd seen all year; in fact, so good that I knew that the Sunday night Texas Gone Garage would be, no matter how good, almost an afterthought. But you can read my full review of that show on the Free Press here in my weekly recap for that paper (Spot the Local Music Crumudgeon - Christmas Edition).

Texas Gone Garage's Texas Psych Night itself went quite nicely. The Mike Gunn played as good if not better than they ever played. Even John's biting stage persona was nowhere to be found though dude in the front seriously needed to chill and could have used a snide remark. (No, not every song needs to have your skinny ass arms jutting out of you wife beater with your fists clenched.) It was also nice to see the John Cramer and Tom Carter dual guitar action again. That's what is admirable about Tom for a guy who gets so much press in the chin-scratching intellectual music crowd, Tom has no "this is beneath me" issues with just rocking out. It was also nice to see that Scott Grimm could still play a show and disappear the second the last note finished ringing. Kurt Almaron Macky behind the kit and playing around the beat (surely to Scott's annoyance) was also quite refreshing. And yes Heids, you'll be happy to know they opened with "Bullinga".

The Mirrors reunion was also fun as people were dancing themselves into a frenzy. During the set, Travis (the promoter of the festival) came within inches of getting his ass kicked when he tried to join in with the dance pit (nigh a mosh pit). The people there were in a frenzy but they were generally self-contained with a few exceptions. Of course, just outside this area was some meathead who had the look of "I just can't wait until the first one of you motherfuckers bumps into me so I can kick your ass!" So, of course, when Travis tries to jump in the pit to his left he inexplicably careens backwards to his right and into, of course, Joe Meathead and his girlfriend and sure enough Travis came within inches of getting his ass kicked and would have were it not for others pulling the dude away. The funny thing to me about all this was that the second I saw Travis walk towards the stage, my first thought was "How long until Travis finds himself at the wrong end of that dude's fist?" The answer was mere seconds.

Other acts that played that evening were Austin's Sew What whose songs are good but she made the mistake of having a terrible backing band. Whenever she just stood on stage by herself and played her songs she was fine but when joined by her band it was like "time for a beer". The Freed played a decent set sounding like one long instrumental version of Hawkwind's "Master of the Universe". Hearts of Animals was, as usual, simply inspiring stuff. If I could sum up 2007 in Houston music it would simply be Hearts Of Animals' Mlee Suprean who I think just took all the rules and preconceptions of what a musician should be in Houston and ran them through a shredder (but I'll leave that tome for my Free Press blog later this week). And yes Scott, it is Rock and Roll. I won't say too much about my band's set. Let's just say that if you like to see a show with me retuning my guitar for long (really really long) stretches between songs then this was your kind of show. To my bandmates, who themselves played quite well (with the exception of the tempo on Monster), I simply offer my apologies.

Also, last night was the Free Press Houston Christmas Party which was kind of a low key affair at Helios. I had hoped to catch the Sideshow Tramps but they were getting ready to start just as I had to leave. Instead, as I was downing free beers, I went upstairs and who should be playing but Million Year Dance's Johnathan Welch. The scary thing is, when I walked in, he was actually singing in a (I shit you not) a bluesy style. The even scarier - it actually kind of worked. Without the theatrics and just an acoustic guitar he was actually quite good. Who would have thought? Surely not me.

After his set Sabra Laval was scheduled to play and, given ADR's unending praise mixed with my bad luck at trying to catch any of her other shows this year, I figured I'd try to stick it out. Unfortunately, the band simply played one song and then walked away. Pretty disappointing as it gave you no time to get settled into any groove and see what she can really do. Short sets are fine but a three minutes set can be summed up with "What? huh? Did someone just play?" Not sure why it was planned that way but it surely wouldn't have been met with any objections by the Sideshow Tramps if she'd played say a 10 or maybe 15 minutes set. Mrph.

Oh and hey, by the way, if you want to read an excellent wrap-up of Houston music as artifact in 2007, (despite the absence of Insect Warfare's release) you may want to skip on over to Skyline Network's Skyline 50 parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 which makes any other local lists moot. Also, I liked Space City Rock's review of Grey Ghost's 42,43, and 48 and not just because my band got reviewed side by side with Mlee Marie and Ben Murphy (which is insanely cool and humbling company to be lumped with) but mainly because Jeremy Hart goes into a nice John Sears/Grey Ghost appreciation post; it's nice to see John Sears and his clever idea get some well deserved props.

The Christmas blog this year falls upon John Cramer who I hear is goign to blog about his unending love of Mannheim Steamroller. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night see you at the Hollow Men tonight.

Credits:
Wols Photo by John Van

Links (in order of appearance):
Wols
The Mike Gunn
The Mirrors
Sew What
The Freed
Hearts of Animals
Johnathan Welch
Sabra Laval