I hope you guys had as much fun as I had this Saturday. I sure had a blast listening to great music, running into just about everyone I know, and it’s nice to see Westheimer with some hustle and bustle on its sidewalks.

Some highlights? OK! The Wild Moccasins played a great show outside Mango’s on a rickety stage that seemed to be on the verge of collapse from all the hopping and general Moccasins shenanigans. The added amusement for me was watching as my very serious and artistically minded six-year-old tried in futility to find a spot on stage stable enough for him to draw the five popsters. Damn it, how can I express myself artistically if you guys keep hopping around up there! Hearing Paul Winstanley and Lucas Gorham perform outside La Strada was wonderful too. I hadn’t heard Paul take a bass guitar to the edge like that in ages and it was wonderful and challenging to hear it again. Also fun was the (this time official) Cop Warmth and B L A C K I E gorilla set. Cop Warmth, for the uninitiated, is the musical equivalent of children running around the playground in pure chaotic frenzied joy. My favorite moment of the set was when Craig, running into the audience, made a woman squeal in fright. B L A C K I E meanwhile doesn’t so much a rap as spout words like a steel-driver laying down iron with every ounce of energy at his disposal. Balaclavas, at the acoustically pleasing space behind the Austin Layne Hotel, performed one of the best sets of the day as they kicked-out amazing new material that reminded you just how unique their sound is and how furious their shows can be. How they are not one of Houston’s biggest draws, I’ll never understand. Over at Mango’s, as we were waiting for Tambersauro, we got some drama as some drunk Asian woman was challenging another woman to some fisticuffs. Unfortunately, the fisticuffs did eventually occur outside but while no one was getting hurt, it was pretty amusing theatre of the absurd. Tambersauro though wasn’t about to be upstaged by a lone drunk and proceeded to tear into a raging set that almost made me forget that I was trying to see five bands in that time slot. Luckily a friend who knew this, poked me and pointed to her watch. Thanks mon ami! The McKenzies were quite a sight surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd of fans who had joined them on stage. Ah, those Houston pop bands sure know how to work-up a crowd. Buxton closed out the outdoor shows with an amazing set that had the entire crowd at the Austin Layne Hotel enraptured. After the first set, the audience clearly wanted more and thankfully JD (Secret Saturday Shows, Guitars, Lenny Briscoe, etc) demanded they play a few more and Sergio Trevino somehow agreed to it in his typical sheepish manner then proceeded to treat us with a work in progress that was much better than I think they realized. I think Trevino and company work their music with such expert care that they seem a bit worried about showing some rough edges. That’s OK because there is a bit of excitement about seeing a band not exactly knowing where they are going with a song and that vulnerability – that putting yourself out there with no net – is charming when you are as good a band as Buxton. Now for me that was pretty much the proper end of the Block Party for me. I was pretty tired by then but, like the Terminator, the Block Party just wouldn’t quit. Don’t get me wrong, I saw some amazing sets afterwards like Something Fierce laying down some serious and furious pop-punk and Satin Hook’s Lucas Gorham using a Tuvan throat singing technique for backing vocals but by the time the Jon Benet plowed into their set, I was physically fatigued. I’ll admit it. Another Block Party has left me beaten and bloody on the canvas. So, what’s new? At least I had fun getting pummeled.

Now one last thing before I get to the photos: Kudos to our heroic and fearless FPH leader Omar. Omar is the general behind all these operations; he books all the bands and gets everyone involved to little acclaim. That’s largely because he’s not one to self-aggrandize but, instead, seriously believes in the community of artists and people that live in this city. I for one, seeing a small bit of what he does behind the scenes, am always impressed at how the guy pulls it off twice a year. Of course Omar can’t do it himself and it’s only because of the efforts of all the local businesses, bands, artists, and the community in general coming together that makes these things so special. That’s also because, unlike the latter years of the wholly unrelated Westheimer Street Festival, this event isn’t just about attracting sponsors but about building and celebrating a community. That’s the way these things should be. So thanks everyone who helped and came out. I don’t know about you but I’m ready for another round next Spring.

Links:
Complete Sets on my Flickr.
* Westheimer Block Party (Link)
* Bonus: B L A C K I E & Cop Warmth’s Guerilla set (Link)

Oh and look:
Breakfast On Tour posted some pictures on their Flickr too (link)

The article printed in September incorrectly lists John Muzak’s Birthday Party at Super Happy Funland as being on 19 September; the correct date is Friday 14 September. My apologies to SHFL and John Muzak for the error.

John Muzak loves noise and loves performing it for people. That love radiates through performances that have brought him accolades from such non-noise bands as Drop Trio, Chango Jackson, and Guy Schwartz. Unfortunately, accolades don’t often get J.Muzak (or Houston Noise for that matter) much love in the local press. Performances in San Franscisco and Amsterdam be damned, here in Houston we see hacks getting paid to write witless columns dismissing the Houston Noise Scene as losers who can’t play their instruments. To these dismissals J.Muzak simply shrugs, “What’s funny about that is I used to write story songs with a Casio and a four track – mainstream stuff really. I even won second place in this songwriters contest for a country song I wrote called ‘I Want To Go To The French Riviera.’ That was back in 1992 but you have to understand I grew up with 60’s music – Jefferson Airplane, Beatles, Stones – and I played in a rock cover band with my brother when I was 17. I got into experimental music around ‘91 but I didn’t really ever see a noise show until 2024. But once I did…” Muzak doesn’t finish the sentence; he simply punctuates it with a big smile.

Chuck Roast of Vinal Edge experienced the birth of John Muzak first-hand, “He was musically a normal customer named Marty who didn’t know anything about noise. Then he got into the Legendary Pink Dots and would come into the store and give us these cassettes of music he’d made. At first they weren’t very good but then he brought in this tape where in it he was shouting, “Marty is dead! Marty is dead!” Suddenly he was no longer Marty but John Muzak and it was amazing stuff. He came in blind but damn if he wasn’t going to do it! That was the charm. He just put his heart into it. But that’s John, he isn’t trying to be cool – he’s just being himself.”

The turning point, as J.Muzak explains it, was a show at Sound Exchange. Hearing about the show on KTRU, Muzak walked into a show featuring Rotten Piece, Dethkraut and Black Leather Jesus. He was immediately hooked! Don Walsh then invited Muzak to a Commerce Street show. “Here was this music with this free feeling, it wasn’t structured, and you could do whatever. I wanted to do it but I didn’t know how but then I saw Domokos doing a Pink Cloud with just a microphone and a couple of pedals. It was noise! Crazy words! Sound on sound! I was inspired! So I went out, bought a mic and some pedals, and I began practicing at getting those sounds and learning to manipulate that sound.”

But J.Muzak doesn’t just manipulate sounds on stage – he gives a performance. When people first see J.Muzak the first thing that hooks people is his costumes. Let’s face facts; a guy performing in a wizard outfit will immediately disarm even the most hardened audience member. Chuck Roast loves this about J.Muzak, “What separates John from many experimental artists is his lack of pretension – a pure innocence. That’s not what you see with 9 out of 10 noise bands. Most are serious – they dress in black and have dark imagery – but John comes in with a wizard’s hat or dressed as a clown. You almost think he’s a kid having fun banging on a keyboard in a seemingly random way. And it’s absurd that this kid banging on a piano would leave home to do this in front of people. Noise artists are just so serious. They sit there not smiling, turning knobs, and looking serious. That’s not a show! Why am I looking at some guy with a fucking laptop? That’s boring. But John will give you a performance and he’s smiling.”

If you want to hear J.Muzak in a more straightforward manner you’d have to catch him performing as Acoustic? where he performs songs simply with an acoustic guitar but as John Muzak you will hear something quite different – a swirling pastiche of sound. Shaun Kelly of Rotten Piece suggests that J.Muzak’s music has a “Jazz vibe to it in that, like a jazz musician, he is constantly deconstructing the songs.” Yet that swirling chaos isn’t as random as it seems, “You don’t want too much sound – too much is just brutal noise. For me, I don’t want a consistent sound – I shift sound and noise, raise and lower the volume, blend the sounds, bend the sounds…it’s manipulation of sound but these are songs – written songs.”

I look at John and ask him what his wife thinks of all this. Then John sheepishly says, “She prefers the acoustic stuff. ” I ask him why that and not the John Muzak performances. He thinks about it for a second and laughs “Honestly, she thinks it’s a little crazy.”

Join John Muzak for his birthday party on September 14th at Super Happy Funland. Guests will include Last Bastions, Porch Creeps, The Annoysters and others.

Photography: Carol Sandin Kelly