Brand New Hearts. Photo: Jeff Senske
If you’re in a rock band nowadays, it seems like someone out there has a name for the type of rock music you’re making. It gets called indie rock, psych rock, garage rock. But when you’re talking about Houston’s Brand New Hearts, they’re pretty much a traditional rock band, and there’s nothing wrong with that. On their latest offering, the newly released EP The Kid Really Fucked Me Over, they play rock like you used to hear on the daily. With straightforward guitar, melodies for days, and drums that feel like they could snap a neck or two, it’s not hard to see why the band is respected so highly from pretty much everyone they’ve played with.
Wasting no time, things get kicked off with the guitar licks of “Little Sincerities,” where they don’t really emulate anyone currently playing. Blistering guitars squeal throughout before the hook heavy chorus and airy vocals kick in. Complete with a snappy pace and riffs that get mixed with leads that sound like they should be played in an arena somewhere, the song kicks things off with a quickness and ease that feel like second nature for the four-piece. They keep things up on the slower speed of “Ambitious Bite” without coming off like a ballad. There’s an almost falsetto vocal that comes in, but it doesn’t deter the strength of what feels like a band that’s trying new things while not changing too much. There’s still plenty of riffs and squeals that almost seem to remind you of seventies era rock bands where guitars seemed to rule the world.
The third track, “Here’s The Evidence,” returns to the band’s signature pop hooked sound. The snappy drums and dual guitars seem in step like interlocking elements while Nathan Parsons’ sweetly tuned vocals dance atop the track. There’s a guitar tone here that you might go mad attempted to recreate, yet things never sound anything other than straight ahead rock n’ roll. By the fourth song, “As Hard As It Looks,” you should know that these guys have a handle on how to play rock without a subgenre. The slower paced track with one of the catchiest choruses you can hear really sticks to your insides, which is more than likely the point. Complete with backing handclaps and a faintly phase pedal sounding guitar, when the band reaches the two and a half minute mark, the song takes a different direction without taking a hard one hundred and eighty degree turn. The meandering guitar that starts off before the other guitar comes feverishly on and off the track. It’s something you won’t expect, but also something you shouldn’t find yourself turning away from either.
Closing things out with an amazing cover of the Men At Work classic “Overkill,” Brand New Hearts prove that they still have plenty of tricks up their sleeves. Adding distorted vocals and faster pacing, you’ll easily liken this version over the original. The end result is another release from a band that seems to really know who they are as a unit, without ever overstepping their overall sound. Even if you think rock is dying, Brand New Hearts proves it’s not really going anywhere.
You can catch Brand New Hearts live at Satellite Bar on Friday, April 28. The all ages show has sets from The Ex-Optimists, Jealous Creatures, and Slow Future with doors at 8 pm and a TBA cover. from http://www.freepresshouston.com/brand-new-hearts-go-all-in-on-new-ep/
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Debtfair at Art League Houston. Photo: Art League Houston
On any given day, one can drive or walk around Houston and spot a dozen tantalizing public projects, exhibitions, and creative endeavors throughout the city. From new city engagement with public parks, bike trails, university campuses, and museum properties, there’s a plethora of signs of our artistic driven initiatives and dozens more to be found. Houston is an incredibly supportive arts city and more sustainable than its metropolitan counterparts. Of its many museums, institutions, nonprofits, galleries, and private institutions, there are myriad national and international projects on the burner building exposure for local and regional artists. Not all projects in this state are presented only for other Texans to see. We all know the story of the big fish in the little pond. However, as early back as the 1930s, Houston has been working on cross pollination projects with groups and organizations from around the world to build on that exposure and present our talents abroad and throughout the country. It’s certainly not a transcendent idea to build up the city’s arts reputation by exposing our creatives to other parts of the world, but there has been some exhilarating efforts recently. As a major museum, it’s mandatory to keep the international conversation fresh and at the forefront. Same goes for many of our veteran institutions and nonprofits. Spaces like DiverseWorks, Project Row Houses, FotoFest, and Art League Houston have worked diligently to maintain this ongoing conversation.
In 1948 The Foundation of the Contemporary Arts Association (CAA), now the Contemporary Arts Museum, became known within Houston’s playing field. Their first round of exhibitions focused heavily on internationally known artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Arthur Dove, and Joan Miro. The idea was to keep Houston validated on a national and international level and to continue to educate the local collector base and everyday art viewer, combined with the efforts of the Museum of Fine Arts. CAA, MFAH, and private collections such as The Menil Collection and their family efforts continued to grow and gain momentum and putting Houston into play worldwide. For the last 70 years the efforts to create a constant dialog has persisted as the primary motivation. Today, this can be discovered by just flipping through an art history book. As the years go by, the context of the dialog changes as the climate of the art world evolves. The presenting realm becomes vast, complicated, and difficult to navigate in different directions. The exhibition spaces as well as the artists surrounding them must remain nimble and dialed into these directions, ever changing and ever moving. Factors such as financial temperature, regional support, and overall stability certainly play a prominent role into what can and can not happen. However, remaining on a swivel with a 360 view is key and is certainly a pleasing quality we have recently seen in Houston.
Patricia Alvarez is an anthropologist and filmmaker whose scholarly research and creative practice develops in the folds between ethnography, critical theory, and the documentary arts. Her most recent works converge on issues of gender and ethnic representations in neoliberal, post-authoritarian Peru. Alvarez’s films and installations have been exhibited in national and international film festivals and galleries across the US and Puerto Rico. She completed her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology with a Designated Emphasis in Film and Digital Media, and her BA in Anthropology from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piers, and Alvarez is currently working a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Rice University. Her creative practice speaks volumes and while currently a Houstonian, she has aggressively traveled the last several years, presenting her stunning short film Entretejido, an observational-ethnographic film that weaves together the different sites and communities involved in making alpaca wool fashions. The film explores the varying representations of indigeneity that emerge out of these encounters, which both challenge and reproduce historically-rooted racism. A sensorial immersion into the textures that compose this supply chain from animal to runway, the film brings viewers into contact with the ways objects we wear are entangled in racial politics and histories. Much like her other works, there is depth and diversity in the overall delivery. Once through the documentary movements of the film, contemporary art delivered through fashion is brought to light as an art form cultivated through industry and branding, but originating from small Peruvian villages. Cutting from village-based storefront sewing circles to high end fashion runways, local craft becomes high art, while the film remains a story of heritage and new beginnings.
Over the past 6 years, Art League Houston has consistently reformulated its programming to incubate diversity and multinational reach. In 2015 Occupy Museums, a New York City based activist and progressive arts organization, and ALH joined forces locally on a recent project, Debtfair. The collective invited local artists to submit original works for a group exhibition based on their own economic realities as a way to explore how artists think about the concept of debt in relation to their own art-making practice. Debtfair, is an ongoing artistic campaign to expose the relationship between economic inequality in the art market and artists’ growing debt burdens, explores the idea that all spaces function with a layer of extraction just below the surface. Here in Houston, the project received mixed reviews upfront due in part to the city’s unique artistic financial structuring, but quickly cultivated a sweeping discourse over the next year presenting the project and Houston collaboration in Chicago and Warsaw, Poland. With momentum growing, the New York-based group was chosen to participate in the Whitney Biennial and brought along with them the Houston chapter, represented by ALH. “Michael Peranteau and I were excited to learn that the Debtfair project by Occupy Museums had been selected for the 2017 Whitney Biennial,” Visual Arts Director Jennie Ash eagerly commented. “It has been great to see a project that we believed in travel internationally to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw last year, and now be developed to reflect artists from around the country for an exhibition like the Whitney Biennial.”
Included in Debtfair and its international exhibitions was multidisciplinary artist and anthropologist Lina Dib. Her installations and compositions range from the experimental to the ethnographic and investigate socio-technical and ecological change. Dib is an affiliate artist at the Topological Media Lab at Concordia University in Montreal and Tx/Rx labs in Houston, and a research fellow at the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Rice University, where she also teaches. Dib and her practice are versatile and have landed her exhibitions at such institutions as Lawndale Art Center, Houston; Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco; MOP Projects, Sydney, and The Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Dib’s sculpture “Artists Time Management Machine (ATM Machine)” features a 1970s modified time card punch machine. Each time card, as it would be at the workplace, rests alongside in a unified slot system and punched with phrases such as “Writing,” “Fucking Off,” and “Thinking I Should Have Been a Doctor.” The sculpture reads more as an installation element, part of a larger picture, and I found this intriguing about the work. Her piece certainly maintained as one of the stronger pieces in the Houston collection and represented Dib’s ongoing archaeological creative process and complimented Occupy Museums’ participation at the Whitney.
Former CORE Fellow and Houstonian Harold Mendez was also selected to participate in this years Whitney Biennial. For the Whitney, in collaboration with Tiffany and Co., Mendez presents a sterling-silver pre-Columbian death mask, now a high end conceptual object, paying homage to his ancestors. “Let X stand, if it can for the one’s unfound (After Proceso Pentágono) II” features a crumpled and marred photo of a man’s head being yanked, punched, pulled, and attacked by unknown assailants from outside the frame. Mendez successfully recreated the photo by the Mexican art collective Grupo Proceso Pentágono. Both pieces show his depth and minimal approach of subject and object and his extraordinary grasp on culture, history, and political temperature. His time spent as a Core Fellow benefited both Mendez and the Houston community with his ongoing projects and collaborations with such spaces as Project Row Houses, Artpace, Sicardi Gallery, Lawndale Art Center, and a dozen more side projects. Now spending most of his time in LA, he continues to maintain a solid presence across the country with his exhibitions and begins on his MacArthur Foundation project in Havana, Cuba in 2018.
Houston sits on a solid foundation for new opportunities to emerge everyday. The creative community within the region is fertile and advantageous with a great many key supporters at hand. While at times still honing our national and international arts coverage through the glossy press world, the unique local structure allows flexibility and bold outlets for our artists and institutions. The benefit of this has been generating a strong community with prevalent diversity throughout exhibitions, collaborations, and the direction of local artists. The overall conversation Houston continues to provide is a catalyst for drawing in creatives from neighboring cities and countries and is ever present within much of the curations being set forth. Growing programs and festivals such as DiverseWorks’ Diverse Discourse and Mitchell Center’s annual CounterCurrent, which just concluded this weekend, are prime examples of these successful partnerships that import and export talent. Houston is the third largest arts city in the country and it is certainly satisfying to see our vision projecting past the foreground and beyond the horizon from so many local talents. from http://www.freepresshouston.com/houstons-arts-reach-the-overall-conversation/ In 2013 I very quickly went from being a frivolous, free-spending, single, young adult to a single mom of a child with a disability. Needless to say, my entire reality changed in what seemed like the blink of an eye. And while every part of my life has been touched by my sweet boy’s hearing […] The post Spend or Skimp :: A Single Mom’s Guide To Budgeting appeared first on Houston Moms Blog. from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HoustonMomsBlog/~3/sjQFAQTSN6s/ To judge character by the film Cezanne et moi you would think that artist Paul Cezanne never went to a dinner party where he didn’t wind up insulting all the guests. Writer/director Daniéle Thompson recounts the ups and downs of Cezanne’s relationship with equally famous writer Emile Zola, a contentious friendship that starts in childhood and continues into old age. Both men start out with the desire to become great in their respective fields and the film takes pains to ensure we see them as struggling and then successful. Zola seems content with his fame although as the years relentlessly roll on he becomes convinced that he will never again write novels like Nana or Germinal. Cezanne on the other hand is shown destroying his paintings and relations with loved ones over and over. Cezanne’s anger management looms larger than life. In the end, despite their longtime brotherhood, both men have burnt so many bridges that their friendship remains a distant memory. Thompson captures some beautiful outdoor scenes that breathe with the joy of creation even though she pairs such imagery with the underside of human nature represented by dark cafés, drunken revelry at art openings and dank apartments. Cezanne et moi stars two of France’s top actors, the two Guillaumes — Guillaume Canet and Guillaume Gallienne. Each actor (both also noted directors and both in their 40s) appears convincing in old age make-up. “Cezanne et moi” unwinds exclusively at the River Oaks Theatre. from http://www.freepresshouston.com/uncover-cezanne-and-zola-in-cezanne-et-moi/ Early last year, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers revealed the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems, a group dedicated to “identifying trends and developing the roadmap for all of the related technologies in the computer industry.” Following a SXSW keynote on the future of the tech industry, Georgia Tech professor Tom Conte spoke with Free Press Houston to discuss the history of Moore’s Law, why the industry needs to move past it, and how we can protect ourselves from the invasion of Internet privacy.
Free Press Houston: I will admit, before preparing for this interview I had no idea what Moore’s Law is. Can you talk about it and its significance, or perhaps the importance that it used to serve? Tom Conte: So, Gordon Moore is one of the founders of Intel, along with Boy Noyce. In 1965 [Moore] realized that the semiconductor industry was following a certain trend where the cost of transistors were getting half as expensive every two years. Sometimes the number changed to one-and-a-half years, and sometimes it’s been a little higher than two years, but it was usually pretty steady. For a long time, the way you made them cheaper was to make them smaller, and when you made a smaller transistor, you made a faster transistor. So Moore’s Law, for a lot of people, had been interpreted to mean computers get twice as fast every two years.
FPH: What exactly are you trying to do by “surpassing” Moore’s Law? Conte: Well, let’s talk about the problem. In 1995, it turned out that, even though the transistors were getting smaller, wires were getting longer. You have to charge up a wire to use it, so the wires started to dominate. So we started to slow down of the transistor wires by doing tricks in microprocessor design. Those tricks would do crazy things, I’ll just put it that way. Nobody knew. I mean, only a thousand people or so around the world knew what we were doing. In 2005, the fun ended. We hit a wall where we could clock the transistors faster to a point where we were clocking in at 1GHz, and they were dissipating 2(W/cm)^2. So to put 2(W/cm)^2 into perspective, that’s the same power density as an operating nuclear reactor core. It’s hard to get rid of that much heat, right? So what we had to do with Moore’s Law kept on giving us more transistors for the same price. We weren’t using them any faster, so we started to put down microprocessors with multiple cores, and if you look, most laptops and cellphones advertise how many cores they have. But that didn’t really speed up general programs, it only makes things faster when you have two completely independent things. So Moore’s Law effectively — not Moore’s Law, but the computer performance — effective ended. They were detonated. Since that time we’ve been trying to figure out other fundamentally different ways to compute that we could use to continue this exponential growth in computer performance or anyway to want to continue that is fundamental improvement in the human condition in every aspect of life. It isn’t just your iPhone, it’s anything from medical diagnosis to telecommunications to how your car runs. I mean, every single aspect of life was improved because of that, so we need to get back back on track then, right? So in 2012 I helped launch IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. It was an effort to look at fundamentally different ways to compute. We call it rebooting computing. And since that time we’ve been holding summits of experts, trying to exchange ideas, and we’ve come up with some cool ways to compute. Things like computing using devices that operate similar to how the brain is wired. Another one that people have heard a lot about is quantum computing, so computing using, in essence, the parallel universe nature of quantum physics. There are a lot of interesting ways we can compute. The question now is, how do we build all of that? Because the semiconductor industry keeps giving us the same kind of transistors. We don’t want that, we want something different that will let us build these unique kinds of computers. So that’s what the group is about, it’s about taking applications that we care about, like voice recognition and self-driving cars, and figuring out how the novel computers, how they have to work, and then figuring out how individual transistors we need to make to make it work.
FPH: What exactly is the IRDS? Conte: That’s the roadmap. That’s our entirety as a roadmap, the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems. By systems we mean computer systems; by devices we mean transistors and others things made of silicon or whatnot. We’re trying to link the two, and say, if we want to have a self-driving car that runs on a tablespoon of gasoline, or maybe 2 AA batteries — this is kind of silly, because they won’t — in other words, some extremely efficient way that’s extremely likely. We have to figure out how to get to build independent devices. We need to make that happen.
FPH: Do you feel that right now younger generations are where they need to be in terms of enthusiasm about tech innovation? Conte: That’s a good question. You know, I teach at Georgia Tech, which is one of those “egg-head” places. I teach freshman and sophomore up to graduate students, and the enthusiasm I feel is really strong among them. There’s a whole generation of tinkerers and hackers coming forward. These are people that started with gaming console, building a gaming computer, or just playing on their phones and figuring out how to go further. I mean, they are doing incredible things. It started with Lego Mindstorms and building robotics, and again, they kept on pushing the limit. It’s amazing, the kind of enthusiasm that this generation has. I think it’s fundamentally higher than others, and I’ve been in academia for coming on two decades. There’s no stigma attached to playing with computers. It’s not only fine, it’s cool to to try to make computers do something interesting. Back in the day, it was for the ultra-nerds who put on a beanie hat with a propellor on top; now, this generation has really embraced it. It’s great.
FPH: When the excitement occasionally lowers, what keeps you motivated to continue what you do? Conte: I really think it is the students. When I’m feeling down I go talk to some of the students or walk through a lab and see their enthusiasm. It makes me feel better, because, like I said, the enthusiasm in the next generation is really high.
FPH: I wanted to get your opinion on the recent controversy of congress and internet security, and the urgency of setting up a VPN; Is the problem as severe as the media has made it out to be? Is our privacy really for sale? Conte: So, the President, as you might now, signed a law that lets our ISP’s collect our browsing history, so for me, that’s an incredible invasion of privacy. I don’t know about you, but I’m running through a VPN, so that they can’t get ahold of it. I don’t want anyone to collect information about what I’m browsing. It just doesn’t make sense. They might as well put a meter in my bedroom. I mean, it’s way too private for me.
FPH: How is that information sold? Who is the typical buyer? Conte: Marketers. If they know what you’re browsing, they know what you’re interested in. They can start to do even more targeted marketing. You would contact AT&T, for example, and say “Who in Northeast Atlanta is interested in this? What are they interested in? Tell me what this one particular house is interested in, and we’re going to try to get him to buy targeted products.” I don’t want someone making up my mind for me, do you know what I mean?
FPH: It seems as if people like Elon Musk are modern rockstars. Do you think there is anything wrong with how quick he is trying to change the game of conventional innovation, whether that be with Tesla and SpaceX, perhaps even SolarCity? Conte: Well, it’s a self-fulfilling — I don’t want to say prophecy, it’s more anticipation. Having computers get faster and faster does more and more things, and people become to expect it. There is a lot of enthusiasm from trying to figure out how to keep that going. It’s a great time to get into computers because everything is about to change. We’re trying out novel things, stuff we haven’t really changed since the 40’s It’s an exciting time in the sense of people wanting to push the limit. Let me tell you another story. I tell it every now and then. Do you remember when I said since 2005 computers haven’t really been getting that much faster? I’ve had members of my family come to me and say “I’ve bought a new laptop, and it’s no faster than the one from five years ago. Why?” It’s finally dawning on people that, “Hey, there’s something going on.” I think it’s starting to sink into the zeitgeist that we have this bubbling catastrophe coming soon, so we have to do something about it.
FPH: Besides Moore’s Law, what is something that is critical for the public to do more research on that media is not covering? Conte: I think, really, the security issues we have, and just securing communications and transactions. You don’t need an alarm system today in your house, because that’s not where the money is, it’s in your phone and computer. People were cracking into our devices and stealing, and I think the awareness needs to increase to the public, and in the industry as well, to try to be fundamentally secure things that can’t be cracked. That’s the other tsunami I see: security. from http://www.freepresshouston.com/pros-and-cons-of-tech-in-2017-an-interview-with-prof-tom-conte/ Shonnie Murrell. Photo: Erica Nicole
I’ve found that no matter how many shows I attend, no matter how much I dig into the depths of the Houston music scene, there’s always an artist that seems to slip by from time to time. It’s just how it seems to go, which is possibly how myself and everyone else missed Houston’s Shonnie Murrell. Star of the BET series Season of The Tiger, an accomplished performer with her own signature line of drumsticks, and even a song credit with Drake, Murrell has been making waves since the mid-2000s. After catching her perform at Nightingale Room, I was blown away at with her intense drumming coupled with her stellar voice, and left feeling that she’s an artist every Houstonian should know about. Now with a new television show in the works and live performances being booked, the Louisiana-born and Houston-raised artist is gaining steam and headed to reach people outside of the 713 area code.
Free Press Houston: You were born in Jonesboro, Louisiana but you were raised in Houston, correct? What high school did you attend here and what brought you back here after college? Shonnie Murrell: Yes, that’s correct. I attended Sharpstown High School in which I made a numerous amount of history over there. After college, I just wanted to come back to establish my music and travel the world. Houston raised me.
FPH: You were the third female in the history of Grambling State University to be named Master Drill of their famed Tiger Marching Band. Has there been another since you graduated and did you ever consider staying there and leading the team after graduation? Murrell: There has been one more after me and we had a long conversation on what it takes to be in that position. I actually have certain individuals — females on the drum-line — that I mentor every year, mainly freshman who are having a hard time adjusting. They are hand picked by my band director who is my mentor Dr. Edwin Thomas.
FPH: You were featured on the BET reality series Season of The Tiger. Was it strange going from being a student to being on camera? Murrell: No, it wasn’t strange due to the fact that when you are apart of the “World Famed” Tiger Marching Band, you constantly have cameras on you. But I will say that often times I would forget that I had a mic on!
FPH: Since the Tiger Marching Band is such a male dominated group, was it difficult to lead? Did it solidify your drive behind performing as an entertainer? Murrell: Oh my god, yes! I really had to carry myself as a male and be extremely hard on everyone every single day and I could not let anyone get away with anything. It most definitely did solidify my drive as being an entertainer they made me stronger and made me realize if you want work hard for it. Blood, sweat and many tears!
FPH: You’ve opened for Lil’ Wayne and Rick Ross, you’ve performed alongside Al Jarreau and Miki Howard, and you’ve appeared in tracks with Drake and Warren G., to name a few. Has it ever felt like you’ve arrived or is it hustle from start to finish, no matter what you’re doing? Murrell: I have been truly blessed with all the great legends that I have encountered. No, I have never felt as if I arrived, still the same me all day, everyday. Plus, my village of people who raised me would not ever allow me to get beside myself! I have no choice but to remain humble in this industry which will take people a very long way.
FPH: As someone who has their own line of drumsticks, another TV show in the works, and is well known as a multi-instrumentalist who can sing, dance, and rap, is it difficult to find one path to focus on as an entertainer and artist? Murrell: No, it is not difficult by far. It’s really fun and exciting when you’re able to do more than one thing in this game. Now it’s like you have to be able to have so many things going on at once to stay afloat and other things on top of those things. Many options and I zone in on all to perfect my talents.
FPH: I know that you are driven by the ability to empower women in the music industry as well as in all walks of life. Do you have any advice for women or anyone who are getting into the music industry? Murrell: I have so much to say on this one. To all the artists I would have to say do not sell yourself short, trust your intuition, especially ladies, you do not have to sleep your way to the top, just work hard, never be anxious for anything, and perfect practice makes perfect. Two major things I will say is to be sure to believe in yourself because there will be times that you will not, and lastly, keep God first in everything that you do.
FPH: You went to college on a scholarship for drums, correct? Now that schools have begun cutting marching band funds, what can people do to make sure that schools still have the funding to keep a marching band going? Murrell: Yes, I went on a full music scholarship as well as academically. As a former band teacher who had nothing at this last school I worked at, I will say to pull in as many of your connections as possible! Fundraising is the ultimate key, getting parents involved and being sure that the staff is supports you 100 percent.
FPH: When I first saw you perform, I was reminded of the legendary Sheila E, except I don’t remember her having as strong of a voice as you do. I know you were just featured on a track with Houston’s Genesis Blu, but will we see a full length album anytime soon? Murrell: Oh yes, I get that quite often. She is one of my mentors as well. I have received her blessings as well as a few pointers. That’s like my God-Mom in my head. Thank you for the compliments. Absolutely, I am currently working on a full length album as we speak with my band, my management company BPM Music Group LLC, producer Eric Williams of Intervals Music Group, super songwriters and more. We will also be recording everything live, video shoot and listening party all at once. It will be invite only so I hope to see you there.
You should definitely keep an eye on what Murrell has going on in the next year. With a resume that stands out, and credits with some of the hottest artists going, Shonnie Murrell is proof that sometimes, you can do pretty much everything and still stay under some people’s radar. from http://www.freepresshouston.com/houstonian-tales-shonnie-murrell/
from http://houstonfoodblog.com/houstonfood/houston-food-blogs/avocado-salmon-stacks/ When I was in elementary and junior high school, whenever someone would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would answer, “a teacher,” “an orthodontist” {a really weird, short-lived phase that ended when I actually job-shadowed a dentist}, “an astronaut,” or whatever the flavor of the month profession was – […] The post Choosing Adoption After Infertility appeared first on Houston Moms Blog. from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HoustonMomsBlog/~3/BkRMwBys44o/ White Reaper. Photo: Jesse DeFlorio
Kentucky garage rockers White Reaper will begin their tour in Houston, filling as direct support for pop-punk group SWMRS. While this may be the first time that some will hear the name White Reaper, it’s worth noting that the group has landed on the radar of musical legends such as Eddie Vedder and Billie Joe Armstrong. Fresh off the release of their sophomore record, The World’s Best American Band, the band is likely to make a name for themselves within the next few years. Lead vocalist Tony Esposito spoke to Free Press Houston about their discography prior to their show on Sunday at Walter’s Downtown.
Free Press Houston: What makes you guys the world’s best American band? Tony Esposito: You need to make a really good record, kind of like we did. We’re just the world’s best American band.
FPH: It seems like Billie Joe Armstrong is no American Idiot, as he’s a fan of the band. What was it like reading something like that? Esposito: It was just crazy, that’s crazy to think about. [Green Day songs] are songs I’ve heard my whole life. I grew up with that music. It’s crazy to think that he’s listened to our band and likes it. Yeah, that’s wild.
FPH: And now you’re touring with his son! What is Joey Armstrong like? Does he resemble his dad? Is it basically like touring with Green Day? Esposito: I’ve actually only met Joey once, very briefly, before the tour. The tour starts really soon. If you come to the Houston show, I can come outside and tell you what I think [of Joey].
FPH: Eddie Vedder has also given you guys a shout out. Are there any others that we should know about? Esposito: You know that movie Cat in the Hat with Mike Myers? One of the kids in that movie’s a fan of the band. It’s pretty funny.
FPH: Have you officially done it again with this album? Esposito: Yeah, I suppose you could say that.
FPH: There are some obvious differences with this one, though, in terms of the sound being more rhythmic compared to the garage-er sound of the last one. Before you started writing these, were you out to do something entirely different? Esposito: I don’t know if we wanted to make something that sounded completely different, but we wanted to challenge ourselves. I think we worked a lot harder on this one. We just spent more time on the studio, and a lot more time on the songs. I think we wanted to see how we could challenge and improve ourselves with the instruments.
FPH: Who took that photo for the cover for the new album? Is it you holding the guitar? Esposito: Yeah, that’s me on the cover. A buddy of ours, Jesse DeFlorio, took the photo. It was a really fun shoot; We went to the studio with a white background and took, like, 300 photos. We finally got the image we were looking for, so then we just partied.
FPH: How exactly do you outdo yourself when your last album was described as “A half hour onslaught of sugary psychedelic keyboard leads and fierce-dirty hook filled garage punk?” Esposito: Well, it’s hard to outdo an onslaught. We put all of that stuff to the side and did this one like we’ve never done a record before. So, we didn’t want to worry about the last record while making this one.
FPH: Let’s talk about Kentucky rock bands. It seems like one group from there has become one of the largest touring bands. Do you have any history with Cage The Elephant? Esposito: I’ve met them at a show in Nashville, I think.
FPH: But you have some ties to My Morning Jacket. How important was it to you to have this record produced by Kevin Ratterman? Esposito: Kevin is a really good friend of ours. He worked on the last record too. It’s hard to imagine making a record without him at this point. It was awesome, and he’s basically another member of the band. He was really important in a lot of the decisions made about the songs, so it was great working with him.
FPH: Tone is arguably the most important faction of a record. What kind of tone can you get out of a hot dog? Esposito: It can be anything: baseball themed, etc. A hot dog means something different to each person. The possibilities are endless.
FPH: What gear are you using on this tour? Esposito: Well, the kind folks at Gibson in Nashville gave me a Les Paul. I’ll also be playing a Marshall 900. There’s a lot of interesting stuff we bring in our little trailer.
White Reaper plays Walter’s Downtown on Sunday, April 23rd with SWMRS and No Parents. The all ages show has tickets available for $17 at the door. from http://www.freepresshouston.com/crazy-to-think-about-an-interview-with-white-reaper/ |
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April 2019
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