In the movie The Hero, Nick Offerman tells Sam Elliot that he doesn’t like to hear other people talk about their dreams. Elliott asks Offerman if he likes movies. Because movies are other people’s dreams. A couple of films available this week could very well put the viewer in a dream state. The Beguiled beckons those seeking a gothic psychodrama while Okja literally defies easy description. One film will be available to Houston audiences at select theatrical venues while the other will be streaming on the interweb. It’s not likely that the average adventurous moviegoer has seen the 1971 version of the Civil War drama The Beguiled, directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood. While a cult film in its own right it’s not classic in the sense of Eastwood’s iconic roles from that period. Sofia Coppola has made a version of The Beguiled that immerses itself into the mood and texture of the story. Siegel’s version remains superior mainly because Eastwood dominates the film in a way no actor working today could possibly hope to emulate. Despite the typical studio hard lighting used throughout the film, Siegel finds ways to ratchet up the suspense that aren’t present in the contemporary remake. That being said, Coppola envisions a moody environment where natural light plays a part in the proceedings. The Spanish moss hanging off the trees illuminated by shafts of sunlight and the shadowy interiors makes the story more complicated than it is. Union soldier Corporal McBurney (Colin Farrell), wounded and wandering in the forest in enemy territory, takes refuge at an academy for young women. At first their Southern allegiance dictates that they turn him over to Rebel troops. But since his injuries require extended medical care, a bond forms. Nicole Kidman (Miss Martha) runs that academy with help from Kirsten Dunst, sharing time with other co-stars like student Elle Fanning. During the arc of the story McBurney interacts with all of the women while he’s healing. Whose room McBurney chooses to visit at night when he becomes well enough to walk forms the basis for the revenge thriller that follows. There’s so much attention to atmosphere and costumes that it may be hard to notice that much of the life has been sucked out of the story. The Beguiled opens at area theaters including The River Oaks on Friday. Okja plays like a kid’s film that’s made for adults. South Korean director Bong Joon-ho shows a visionary insight into the relation between human and animal. A nefarious corporation has bred superpigs at locations around the world. In the forest of Korea a young girl Mija (An Seo Hyun) grows up with one of these massive beasts, affectionately named Okja, which matures to the size of an Asian elephant. Much of the interaction uses puppetry and the cute aspect of the girl and her pet pig reminds one of the German fantasy film The Neverending Story (1984). That tone changes when Joon-ho shifts the story to New York and elements of Fast Food Nation take over. Tilda Swinton plays sisters who run the multi-national company that owns the superpigs. A strong supporting cast includes Jake Gyllenhaal playing a wacky scientist and members of the Animal Liberation Front who have their own agenda for Okja. Co-stars include Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood), Lily Collins (Rules Don’t Apply) and Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead). Joon-ho finds clever ways to weave social commentary and satire together. Okja also uses John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” in a most sardonic way. Okja is available to watch through Netflix. from http://www.freepresshouston.com/okja-the-beguiled/
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Birthday Club. Photo: Bryan Chan
You don’t have to look far to find indie rock bands with plenty of pop hooks, and while that’s become the norm, it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that you’ll remember a catchy track just by hearing the name of the band who performs it. That’s what happens to me when someone mentions the band Birthday Club. The Houston four-piece, which rose from the mind of Stephen Wells after the demise of his old band Featherface, dropped an EP last year that featured several songs I just couldn’t shake. After song premieres in national publications, a tour, and slots at some great shows, Birthday Club is ready to spread the sounds of Lighten Up to other parts of the country. Free Press Houston caught up with him prior to the band’s tour kickoff show this Friday to see what we should expect from the band at their show and what they have planned for the future.
Free Press Houston: For those who don’t remember, you were in a band called Featherface before this band. Can you tell us why Featherface ended and what prompted the formation of Birthday Club? Stephen Wells: We had started touring around the country quite a bit towards the end of the band and there’s an interesting thing that starts to happen when you’re locked in a van day after day for 4 to 8 hours at a time. The van becomes a strange sort of isolation chamber where you’re given many, often much needed, opportunities to be alone with your thoughts. I think at that point we had been a band for a little over 5 years, and although things really did seem to be picking up for us, it was definitely getting harder and harder to ignore the fact that we were beginning to go in different directions. It’s the natural cycle of things that people grow and change, and no matter how hard it can be in the moment, it’s always an incredible experience to remind yourself that you have the ability to create a new reality at any moment. We all went through that extremely challenging process of breaking up, and the rest of the band ended up moving out to Los Angeles. I decided to move back to Houston from Austin to begin working on my new material and start getting a band together. You can hear the end result on the Lighten Up EP.
FPH: The indie rock landscape is a pretty large one. Were you concerned about breaking into such a crowded marketplace with a new indie rock band when you started Birthday Club? Wells: Honestly, I wasn’t really thinking about that when I started the band. I had all of these songs in my head, and I definitely wanted them to be heard by as many people as possible, but my main focus is always first and foremost trying to find a way to accurately convey whatever is bouncing around in my head. The songs won’t stop bothering me until they finally get let out, so that’s my focus, for my own sanity. I think as long as you’re working on staying true to your vision and voice, it doesn’t really matter what genre or label gets applied to the end result, because the end result will always speak for itself.
FPH: You’ve added what sounds like plenty of Britpop influence and hooks on the Listen Up EP, what were you listening to when you wrote and recorded it? Wells: I’m definitely able to admire a well written pop song, but the genre tends to be what I listen to the least. It’s like candy for me, so I can really only take so much of that without getting a little sick. I listen to a pretty wide variety of music from day to day, and I think part of what’s so fun about songwriting is that you’ll notice that these little artifacts from everything you read, listen, watch or experience start popping up in your writing in really unexpected ways. At the time I was writing and recording, I was thumbing my way through a sliver of the Smithsonian Folkways catalog and spinning an awful lot of Lata Mangeshkar, Kim Jung Mi and Big Star. The album art for the Lighten Up EP, which was shot at our first show at Walter’s, is actually a bit of a nod to the cover art of Big Star’s Radio City LP.
FPH: For the tour kickoff coming up this weekend, you went with a warehouse instead of a traditional venue. Was there a reason you decided to do it all on your own rather than the traditional space? Wells: We knew that we wanted to have the tour kick off party in a space that would not only provide the visual canvas that we wanted for the projectionists, but one that would also get people excited about experiencing something new in an unexplored space, right here in Houston. The venue is located at 215 Grove Street and it’s owned by an very generous and active member of the community who also operates the Preston Theater. When we first stumbled upon the space and pitched the show concept, he was extremely enthusiastic and encouraging about it, so things sort of fell into place organically. I think it’s really exciting for us because we love seeking out spaces that bands and artists may not ordinarily consider, like when we had a big listening party for our EP at TOMO Magazines in Montrose before our fall tour. It’s also been inspiring playing and visiting the great shows that Mario and Elizabeth throw at the Wonky Power Records warehouse, which could also be considered a non-traditional venue. They’re actually helping us put the whole tour kick off show together, and we’re really grateful for their help in the community. It’s honestly just a whole lot of fun to do something different!
FPH: The lineup is pretty diverse, including Galveston’s EL LAGO and the visuals of Austin’s Ether Wave. What gravitated you to working with both and what should people expect from the pay what you can show? Wells: I was first exposed to Ether Wave’s work as liquid light show projectionists during my time living in Austin with Featherface, and I was completely blown away. Ether Wave has done projections for Austin Psych Fest and more recently for the Japanese band Kikagaku Moyo. They use a combination of live liquid light performance with both analog and digital video manipulation that constantly shifts and morphs into itself. It’s really beautiful. While I don’t necessarily consider Birthday Club to be a “psych” band, what really attracted us to their work is their skill at seamlessly blending, interacting and accentuating different elements of a band’s performance on the fly and in the moment, regardless of genre or sound. As far as the bands go, people can absolutely expect shredder sets from Holly Halls, EL LAGO and a few guest DJ’s, including Pearl Crush. Holly Halls are an incredible new band that we stumbled upon during one of their shows at Axelrad. They are a pretty new project in the music scene but we really believe in their music and I’m really excited to see where they go from here. Don’t miss their set! EL LAGO have also become friends of ours and we’ve also become big fans of their band. We’re really looking forward to hearing their new record when it comes out.
FPH: We’ve discussed this in the past about how a band should ultimately spread a wide net that goes well outside of their stomping grounds. Do you ever think that people don’t get that you’re not against the scene here, but rather that you’re looking at having a presence in a larger pond than just in Houston? Wells: I think it really depends on what a band is looking to achieve with their music and how they are willing to share it. Some bands and artists are content with putting out singles or records and then just playing a few shows here and there, in or around town. That’s definitely nothing to look down on, but it’s also something that I don’t think we’re interested in. For us, we’re working as hard as we can to spread our music as far as we can because it’s so exciting and fulfilling for us to physically share and spread something that we really believe in, no matter where the audience happens to be. Houston is our home base, but it’s not our end goal. It’s such a great place to live and develop as an artist, and I’m very thankful for the community we are all growing, but I think that our hometown is just one piece of a very large, challenging and fulfilling puzzle we’re all working to put together. I don’t think that’s anything to look down on, either.
FPH: At this point, the EP is getting closer to a year old. What’s next for the band after this tour is done and when should people expect a full length? Wells: Since the EP came out on September 30th, we’ve been doing several rounds of national touring through the South and Midwest, but there’s still plenty of touring left to do on our EP throughout the year, especially out to the west coast. Our summer tour is taking us on a two week long run along the east coast to NYC and back, and we’re hitting a lot of spots along the way that we’re really excited to get back to — I’m looking at you, Mobile, Alabama. We are constantly working on new music, and there’s definitely going to be some new material not found on our EP performed at our set this Friday. As far as what our next release might be, we’ll have to make that a separate interview.
No matter what you think, Birthday Club is nothing if not ambitious and driven to make it in every place they play. You can stream their “Lighten Up” EP at all of the usual platforms, you can purchase it here, and you can catch them at 215 Grove St, on Friday June 30 for their tour kickoff party. The show has doors at 9 pm and a pay what you can cover, with sets from EL LAGO, Holly Halls, a DJ set from Pearl Crush and Ether Wave visuals, with all of the details here. from http://www.freepresshouston.com/birthday-club-prepares-for-tour-kickoff/
from http://houstonfoodblog.com/houstonfood/houston-food-blogs/better-make-a-reservation-for-brunch-at-nazifs-turkish-grill/ Well, HELLO to July in Houston. There’s no doubt you’ve made your presence known, as my electricity bill can fully attest. We hope all of you are enjoying some downtime with your fam bams, perhaps some vacations, rainy movie days, and more. What I absolutely love about Houston is that even in these hot, hot, […] The post A Houston Mom’s Guide to July appeared first on Houston Moms Blog. from http://houston.citymomsblog.com/houston-moms-guide-july-2017/ Photos by Mark Armes The City of Houston is back at it again, and by again I mean finding new and inventive ways to criminalize the poor. We already run a debtor’s prison in Harris County, and now some new misguided ordinances recently passed by City Council are receiving quite a bit of attention, both locally and nationally. Under Annise Parker’s leadership in 2012, the city passed an ordinance that made it illegal to feed more than five people on public property without a permit. The 2012 feeding ordinance certainly had an impact on people experiencing homelessness, and last month the city stepped up their efforts by going after access to shelter and resources through two new ordinances. Ordinance No. 2017-261 is the new ‘anti-encampment’ ordinance. The ordinance specifically states, “Encampment means any one or more of the following: (a) The unauthorized use of fabric, metal, cardboard, or other materials as a tent or other temporary structure for living accommodation purposes or human habitation; or (b) The unauthorized use of a heating device; or (c) The unauthorized accumulation of personal property (other than durable medical equipment) that would not fit in a container three feet high, three feet wide, and three feet deep.” Did you catch all that? No longer are people in Houston allowed to have anything that resembles shelter. Not even cardboard, and certainly not tents. Also, any personal items that you would like to keep cannot be stored in a container that is anything bigger than 3’x3’x3′. And well, sorry, no grills or heaters allowed either. All three of these violations carry the risk of arrest and a fine of up to $500. Ordinance No. 2017-256 is the new ‘anti-panhandling’ ordinance. Assuming you can’t technically criminalize asking people for money, the city decided instead to limit who has access to our roadways, sidewalks, and streets. What’s really telling about the ordinance is the exemption that allows city employees to solicit charitable contributions via, you guessed it, a roadway! Gotta make sure churches, fire departments and soccer moms can block those roads and take your money. Just don’t be poor and need to do that same thing! This ordinance paired with the Mayor Turner’s new campaign – Meaningful Change; Not Spare Change – will surely hurt the folks who panhandle to get by. We understand that the city thinks they are helping. It’s obvious that these issues are not easily fixed. There are multiple organizations who are constantly trying to find resources and funding to meet the needs of folks living on the streets. They aren’t just dealing with homelessness, but all of the trauma that led to a person finding themselves without the ability to meet their basic needs. That isn’t exactly a situation that’s easy for anyone to navigate, but criminalizing folks who have limited access to basic things like food and shelter is not the answer. Part of the problem is that we consistently attempt to use law enforcement to fix issues they are not qualified to fix. Half of what makes up these ordinances is detailing what police are allowed to do when people do not comply. You cannot criminalize the poor or mentally ill and expect it to go away. We should demand better of our elected officials, and ourselves for that matter. For real change to happen in society we have to start humanizing each other. Our values and beliefs are so misguided when it comes to understanding the trauma and marginalization that occurs to the majority of the population under capitalism. And the people who have the real resources to fix these issues that plague our society are the ones who benefit from this bootstraps mentality we so often hear and see. We should work on how we think and talk about the poor in this country, and also why we criminalized them. To truly deal with this issue we don’t just need funding, we need a culture shift; one that moves away from the tired trope that it’s the fault of the poor that they find themselves in such a situation. We are better than this. So try harder to be kind and stop believing what our wealthy overlords are dishing out. We live in the richest country in history, if only there was a way to rid our communities of homelessness and poverty. Oh, wait. That said, one thing missing from the coverage around these new ordinances is the voices of the people who are most impacted by them. So we spent some time on a rainy Sunday afternoon under the US 59 overpass and listened to anyone willing to share their experience. In an effort to be more in line with our beliefs as a community paper we wanted to dedicate most of the space for this article to those stories, which we’ve compiled into a photo essay below. Out of respect for their privacy, we will only be printing first names. ________
Mikala Jay If the city really cared about what happens to us they would do things like bring us water. Instead they spend money to put up fences so we can’t access our tents. Just a few weeks ago I had some issues with the police when they stopped me for jaywalking. If they had taken me to jail like they were threatening it would have impacted my studies. I just hope they realize that sending me to jail isn’t going to help my situation. I am just going to continue to end up on the streets. I agree with Mikala, I am not looking for a handout. I am working on bettering my life, I just think the city should be more understanding of the struggles we face. Tammy I am working with the ACLU on a lawsuit against these new ordinances. Our lawsuit says the city is in violation of the 1st, 4th, 8th and 14th amendments. I am hopeful that the courts will rule in our favor. It is unreasonable to think that we can fit all of our belongings in a space as tiny as 3x3x3. I am one of the lucky ones though, hopefully next week my paperwork will be finalized and I can move into an apartment. But that doesn’t mean I won’t keep fighting for the family and friends I have made along the way. No one deserves to be criminalized because they found themselves in hard times. Patrick & Diamond Steve Darius & Renesha (Engaged) Darius Renesha I would love to have access to an apartment, but I am worried about the strings attached to accepting help from the same city who is trying to criminalize me. I’m a grown woman, and want to be treated as such. A few rules are understandable, but I just think they are going to try and control my life and that isn’t something I can deal with. from http://www.freepresshouston.com/homeless-in-houston-in-their-own-words/ Roberta Harris. “Flight Time” (detail)
Amongst the many artistically talented and conceptually strong artists in our city, one particular artist is about to show forth her lasting and lyrical work through a special exhibition downtown through Arts Brookfield, Wing It! Effervescent and elegant, thoughtful in both application and meaning, Roberta Harris will showcase a variety of work dating from 1995 to the present. She has created work in the times of dramatic artistic changes during the 1970s, when famous artists walk amongst her studio and other creatives such as Phillip Glass invited Harris and other artists to his rehearsals. Over the years, Harris has cultivated a visual voice all her own, ethereal and joyful in nature while paying close attention to magical details. The work on display at Two Allen Center, curated by Sally Reynolds, lends itself to winged creatures in a kaleidoscope of colors. Harris was kind enough to answer a few questions for Free Press Houston to reflect on her career and her recent show.
Free Press Houston: Within the workings of your aesthetic, when did you begin to become attracted to such subjects as vines, birds, particular colors, etc? Roberta Harris: When I was a young girl, I lived next to a forest. This was the first place where I journeyed alone. There, in that wilderness, I discovered great mystery: above me, below me, to my right and to my left — a 360-degree cacophony of life. Before a banquet set for senses, amid… the sounds of insects and birds the sensation of wind, rain, and humidity, teeming in swampy puddles, I became sensuous. Although I have thought of that experience often, I am just now paying attention to how this “nest” shaped my soul and my work.
FPH: What were some of the moments that made you ponder and turn towards art? Harris: As a young child, I remember having a blackboard on an easel. I mostly drew ballerina’s standing on point. Those ballerina’s managed to find their way into many of the collages and paintings I did in the late ’80s and early ’90s. In regards to a connection to the “arts,” the only art we had in our home was a pair of framed prints of standing females. They were probably copies of 19th Century American Portraiture & Genre Painting. Placed over our upright piano, I looked at them all the time as I practiced my piano lessons. In elementary school we took a field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts. I remember being most impressed with a very detailed portrait of a queen which we were told was painted with only a few hairs of a paintbrush! Her garment was truly lavish and bejeweled. Only now as I write this, am I realizing that was probably the first moment I related the idea of “time” to making art. When I was 8 years old, we took a trip to my uncle’s home in New Jersey. He was a landscape muralist. His living room depicted a beautiful floor to ceiling landscape that covered two long walls. In his kitchen he had hand-painted apples everywhere….walls, cabinets, doors and ceiling. I was astonished to totally surrounded by hand-painted apples! At that time I told him that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. His words to me were to be a commercial artist because then I could make a living. My father was a master craftsman who worked with glass. For many years he worked for one of the major glass companies that installed windows, mirrors and intricate installations in private and commercial spaces. He and his team installed the huge windows of the control tower at the Hobby Airport in the ’50s. As a young adult, I would go out to his studio (our one-car garage) and help him with some projects. From this experience with him, I learned one of my greatest art and life lessons: “Necessity is the mother of invention”. My mother taught herself to be an architect and designed a number of homes, which she and my father built. She also loved ceramics and mosaics. So, between the two of them, geometric forms and the idea of construction was very much implanted in my being. When I was in the 8th grade, I won a scholarship to the MFA. Other than my wonderful 7th grade art teacher, this was really my first experience with art and being in the museum on a regular basis. Another huge artful influence in my teen years, was my infatuation with the Neiman Marcus ads in the Houston Post and Chronicle. Every Sunday there would be a full page of an avant garde drawing of a figure, showing the fashions of the moment. I was enthralled with the line quality and freedom of expression in creating an image. I decided that I wanted to go to New York to study and learn how to do that! It’s a long story, but eventually I did go to New York after a year of studying in Texas, and was accepted at Parsons School of Design and Hunter College. I majored in Fashion Illustration and Fine Art. This was in the mid ’60s when the art world in New York was on fire and American art history was being made. I was so privileged to see the beginning of Pop Art (Andy Warhol and the soup cans), the art of the action painters such as DeKooning (who all my classmates emulated in life painting class) as well as new art of Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Jasper Johns, Lee Bontecou, Louise Nevelson, Jim Dine, Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Lewis, Marisol, James Rosenquist, and Phillip Pearlstein. This was an education up close. Returning to Houston, I got a job at Dillard’s when they opened the new store in the Galleria. My job, a full page in both papers, was to create an avant garde figure showing the fashions of the moment (After a couple of years, the management decided they wanted to show more salable, recognizable imagery and my job there was over). After my daughter was born, I returned to the University of Houston and majored in Fine Art.
FPH: Over the course of your career, what were some of the breakthroughs and/or milestones that still run through your current work today? Harris: Being accepted into the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1972 was a very important milestone in my life. Again, this was a time of history-making art in America. My equipment at that time was a compressor, an air gun, glass, natural pigments, Rhoplex, chalk and canvas. My assigned studio was on the edge of Chinatown, in a large room plus the vault, in the basement of a bank, which was now being used as an off-track betting company (I was told to not fool around with the enormous vault door because no one knew where the key was). After making a heroic size painting that was about 16 feet wide, I decided to stop everything I was doing and just absorb, learn and grow as an artist while I was there. Just few of the artists who came to the studio were Lucas Samaras, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Smithson, and Chuck Close. One of the comments that stands out from Lucas Samaras was “Making art is like making a salad. It’s not enough to have the ingredients….everything depends on what you do with them.” Another great memory is being in Chuck Close’s studio and seeing him work, with all his accoutrement neatly around him at the end wall of a large loft. Phillip Glass, the musician, was another memorable person who talked with our group. We got invited to his private practice sessions with his ensemble. They met on an empty floor of a gutted out loft building. Beautiful rugs were spread out in the middle of the room and we sat on the floor and listened to these extraordinary musicians, making sounds we had never heard before. I think that the thread that runs through my work is about an experiential experience. This goes back to the forest where I grew up and the sensation of experiencing everything around me all at once. I have, for most of my life, believed that just as everything exists in the world simultaneously, so can it all exist in what I do. It’s my salad. The vocabulary I’ve used has included numerous iconic forms such as birds, sticks, hearts, figures, plants as well as geometric forms. I am mostly interested in the experience of seeing and feeling and being left with an uplifted spirit.
FPH: Tell me about how you came up with the title of your recent show and how it reflects in your work? Harris: Sally Reynolds curated this show and decided to use some of my available bird images…or works that relate to birds and nests and other winged forms. As I understand, choosing the name of the exhibition was a spontaneous idea that occurred to Sally and the Brookfield Arts group when they knew birds were the theme. I thought it was a perfect title. I love what Sally said in the essay she wrote for the show. Just a few lines: “What do we do when we wing it? Well, sometimes we trust ourselves to fate, we let go, probably unprepared, and we do the best we can. We improvise as if we were an understudy in the the wings of the theatre who didn’t quite learn all the lines, we push on. We try to fly! We join our feathered friends and at times get a new perspective an elevated look at a broader landscape. And the birds, sitting, hovering, flying, beckon each of us to courageously take wing as they do.”
FPH: What has it been like to work with Sally Reynolds and Arts Brookfield? Harris: Working with Sally Reynolds and Brookfield Arts has been totally pure pleasure. Sally is a magnificent person and a real art professional who has a brilliant eye, a big heart and a beautiful soul.
FPH: What are some thoughts or concepts you hope appear in between the lines of the exhibition? Harris: Throughout my career, through a variety of media, my mission as an artist has been to inspire hope and its corollaries – dialogue, joy, encouragement, strategy, peace, kindness and imagination. The feeling of “UP” is what I hope to convey. Given the challenges that we face, hope demands courage, commitment, endurance and renewal. If I can contribute to that, then I’m doing the job I was sent here to do.
Roberta Harris’ exhibition “Wing It!,” curated by Sally Reynolds and presented by Arts Brookfield, runs through September 7, 2017 at Two Allen Center located at 1200 Smith Street, 2nd Floor. from http://www.freepresshouston.com/visual-vernacular-roberta-harris/
from http://houstonfoodblog.com/houstonfood/houston-food-blogs/first-bite-roka-akor/ Mockingbird Brother. Photo: Nikki Machacek
There are times when a band is so dynamic that they produce a sound stronger than any genre you could place them into. Sometimes a band can be more than the sum of its parts, can take on multiple sounds, and create something that’s unique only to them. For Houston’s Mockingbird Brother, that’s pretty much the case. Mixing emo core, math rock, and screamo, they’re really more than the three members who comprise the band. Full of spite infused energy, their latest track “Dry Heave,” found exclusively here, is passionate and intense, making you wonder where they would fit if you tried to pigeonhole them, though you’d probably be best to steer clear of any labels with music this eclectic.
Starting off with a more emo opening, the subtle beginning gives you impression of an easygoing band, which is far from describing them. Opening with just guitar and vocals, things start off in a simple, almost endearing manner. However, the build afterward is anything but straightforward and becomes more intense with each passing note. The drums come in like the beginning stages of a heart attack, while squealing guitars and bass find their way into the song before the group employs a math heavy and scream induced howl. The song, as per the band, has themes of depression, alcoholism, and simply being honest with yourself. However, even if you didn’t know any of that, the fierce and acute precision they offer up together creates a sound that’s catchy but far from polished. The way in which the instruments mix with the gut wrenching vocals, the intensity of the riffs, and the stride of the song, it sounds like the band could explode at any given moment.
The end result is a track that captures multiple sides of a band that’s stronger than many of the others within the genres they criss cross. The way the song maintains a catchy demeanor without too much effort, not to mention that it feels like it’s being performed on stolen gear, it’s hard not to wonder why Mockingbird Brother isn’t more prominent in Houston.
You can catch Mockingbird Brother with Bernie Pink for their tour kickoff show at Avant Garden tonight. The 21 & up show will get going around 11 pm and it’s free. from http://www.freepresshouston.com/mockingbird-brother-drops-new-song-before-tour/
from http://houstonfoodblog.com/houstonfood/houston-food-blogs/hermit-crabs-take-the-stage-at-little-woodrows/ By most normal standards, I am a single mom. I’m the custodial parent. I have assumed most of the responsibilities for caring for and rearing my son. However, I choose to consider myself a fully present co-parent. Thankfully, I have the capacity to work full time, actively parent, and maintain a reasonable amount of sanity. […] The post How to Engage a Partially Present Co-Parent, Husband, or Spouse appeared first on Houston Moms Blog. from http://houston.citymomsblog.com/partially-present-coparent/ |
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April 2019
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