Here’s a Halloween gift to all of you from our dear friends at Funwunce. It’s the latest Wicked Poseur music video starring the mysterious Tommy Wiseau. [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/31355814[/vimeo] Read More »

By Jack Daniel Betz Chugging diligently away, The Dead Revolt have already released their second album and it sounds markedly wiser and more disciplined. Still working within an aggressive prog rock framework, the music is more focused with less rambling despite the still-impressive track lengths. “Vanixer” employs a greater number of truly iconic and anthemic licks instead of bowing to the very real prog rock temptation of being pretentious and meandering. The noticeably short track (well for this band, anyway) “Indigo Fashion Show” is prime example of economic repetition and thematic riffing. Another shining example of this is the delightfully ... Read More »

That fog, That accursed fog.  It was everywhere.  Nobody could escape the heated glycerol mist that enveloped Mango’s on Friday night.  I know you don’t believe it, but I tells ya I saw it with my own two eyes.  First a band from Washington state, Christmas I believe their name was, went on the stage.  They were a female fronted post punk affair, and quite good really but no match for the fog.  It’s seemed that no amount of jagged bass lines or reverb washed guitars could hold back the mist and they were the first to disappear. Weird Party, ... Read More »

Johnny Depp gets some of his best moves playing a young incarnation of Hunter S. Thompson in The Rum Diary. Set in Puerto Rico during the late 1950s, Thompson arrives on the island to work for a newspaper. Depp obviously took this project as a typical labor of love having been friends with the late gonzo writer and even shaving his head for his role as the older Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Depp has resurrected director Bruce Robinson for the project and it’s a perfect fit. While Robinson hasn’t helmed a film since the early 90s ... Read More »

Mozart’s Sister (Nanneri, le soeur de Mozart) takes the conceit that the Mozart family was a traveling band of moochers living off the generosity of royal courts and aristocracy, all the while wowing their hosts with the beautiful strains of music produced by Wolfgang (10) and his older sister Nanneri (13). When their stagecoach breaks an axle (or something like that) they find themselves staying briefly in a convent where Nanneri (Marie Feret, daughter of director Rene Feret) makes friends with the young daughter of France’s King Louis XV. With one thing leading to another Nanneri finds herself befriending the ... Read More »

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By Jack Daniel Betz While lacking the concise hits of “Saturdays=Youth”, M83′s new album succeeds because it is so thoroughly listenable is its own musical universe. There aren’t any real standouts on this LP because it is so album-oriented in nature. That should be apparent even just from the impressive two-disc length. Previously, “Kim and Jessie” signalled, at least for a minute, a move toward a more concrete song structure when compared to the indefinite and boundary-less songs of past albums. Much the same for the long-winded but slightly pop-rock structured “Skin of the Night”. However, for M83 the pendulum ... Read More »

This Week’s Featured Show(s) Thursday, October 27 Wild Flag Drew Grow & the Pastor’s Wives @ Fitzgerald’s (Downstairs) Mastodon Black Tusk Venomous Maximus @ Fitzgerald’s (Upstairs) Crap talk about insane. Two awesome shows on the same night in the same venue!!!!  I mean seriously?  Wild Flag AND Mastodon? UGH!  What sucks is my schedule is such that I can’t get out on Thursdays but I will tell you that Fitz is where I’d be tonight were that not the case. First you have Wild Flag.  I’m a huge Sleater Kinney fan so when I found out that Carrie Brownsteinand and Janet Weiss ... Read More »

Fans of Mastodon, rejoice! From 4:30 to 6 on Thursday, metal moguls Mastodon will be at Cactus Music to sign records and meet with fans. There will be no performance at Cactus although there will be at Fitz. Tickets available here at StubWire. Excellent Houston metal act Venomous Maximus will be joining them. Read More »

Black Sabbath is one of those bands you don’t fuck with.  Sure, Ozzy’s kind of become a caricature of himself over the years and I can’t think of one mind blowing Sabbath song since Dio left but the early stuff – paricularly the Ozzy era – is some of the heaviest shit to ever make its way onto an LP.  You simply can’t argue that “Into The Void”, “Ironman”, “Snowblind”, and a whole host of other songs seriously kick ass even after all these decades.  That stuff became a template that has influenced countless bands over the years.  This weekend ... Read More »