Austin’s Black Cock has probably the best name for a band in all of Travis County.  Until you discover that the band is named for a rooster as opposed to something a little more phallic.

That said, Black Cock answers the age-old question of what a band would sound like if its sound was created from the mating of Autolux with Six Finger Satellite.  You get some of that effeminate vocals over blustering guitar minimalism and big drum rhythms turned inside-out plus the added bonus of crazy synthesizers yelping and droning AND atonal bursts of noise.

At the core of Black Cock’s fucked-up rock sound are claustrophobic pop songs trying desperately to crawl to the forefront.  “Starfleet Destroyer” has a winning bubblegum ‘70s Saturday morning cartoon cheery boy-girl back and forth thing filtered through distortion and whining Moog; “45” buries the darkened tentativeness of the vocals beneath heavily tremoloed guitars and helicoptering LFO’s and math-rock drums.; “Cheating” makes you think they are gonna play straight with you before it explodes into feedback guitar and harmony vocals.

And that’s pretty much how the rest of Robot Child With a God Complex rolls.  A fresh spin on the tried and true formula of catchy pop songs encased behind indie post-rock mathematical unease.

Black Cock plays tonight @ The Stafford Main in downtown Bryan.  9pm

The Buzzcocks are one of the greatest punk bands of all time.  That is a universally-accepted truth.  See them live to find out why.
- Thursday @ The Mohawk, Austin

Cracker may be slightly more commercial than its immediate predecessor Camper Van Beethoven but it doesn’t feel as smarmy and insider-jokey and can flat out rock.  That they are opening for The Reverend Horton Heat on this tour is just icing on the cake.
- Thursday @ Stubbs, Austin

Folks who know me know that I am a huge fan of instrumental post-rock.  One of the best bands these days cooking from that recipe is Mono.
- Thursday @ Rudyards, Houston

GBH = hardcore punk.  Hulk smash punk rock.
- Thursday @ Warehouse Live, Houston & Saturday @ Emos, Austin

Austin’s The Great Nostalgic makes pretty, melodic and melodramatic indie pop with winsome girl/boy vocals.  Wish they were better at writing choruses, but that’s pretty much how modern indie rock bands roll these days.  Mood over hook.
- Thursday @ The Stafford, Bryan w/Subrosa opening.

I cannot believe that over 30 years later Iron Maiden is still cranking it out and continuing to blow minds with their trademark strident prog-esque heavy metal.  Many imitate, but these guys are pioneers that continue to stun today.
- Friday @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Houston w/awesome modern prog-metalists Dream Theater opening.  What a one-two punch!

Imagine classic rock through the modern through the modern indie rock filter and you’ve got Austin’s Bright Light Social Hour.  I mean, both crowds already got the crazy Al diMeola beards in common, right?
- Friday @ Revolution Cafe & Bar, Bryan w/Austin fashion plates Wine & Revolution opening.

C’mon shorty, party like it’s 2005 with 50 Cent.
- Saturday @ Arena Theater, Houston

Who’d go spend two hours with The Village People live?  They only got two songs, right?  So?  I bet this one would be really fun, if only to do the YMCA dance without about 20,000 other people.
- Saturday @ Sam Houston Raceway Park, Houston

Get some more of that sound over substance indie rock business from Austin’s Foe Destroyer (formerly known as Oso Closo).
- Saturday @ Revolution Cafe & Bar, Bryan

How do you pick just one band to single out for Married To Mayhem ?  I mean, there’s a dozen good punk rock bands beating the daylights out of the rock at The Stafford in Bryan Saturday night in celebration of the nuptials of Gene and Kristen.  Y’all all know Gene, right?  Drummer/guitarist/Irishman (well, Irish-descended).  Getting hitched.  In The Stafford.  Officiated by Wonko The Sane?  And punk rock action from The Flak Jackets, Stay In Touch, The Beasts, Kill The State and The Hangouts. If you are into punk rock then this is indeed THE show of the year for you.

Erykah Badu started innocent enough in the mid ’90s on the smooth neo-soul new jack hip-hop tip and then went pretty much over the edge into her own steez, turning the genre inside out, innovating and setting herself up as one of the new millennium’s most interesting soul artists.
- Sunday @ Verizon Wireless Theater, Houston

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For the rest of my life I will associate Lynyrd Skynyrd with my former Korean immigrant neighbor in Seattle, Arnell.  I will never forget the sound of his lovely voice singing “That Smell” while mowing the lawn in summertime.  “Ooh dat smale!”  Such a beautiful melody.
- Sunday @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Houston w/Southern rock survivors .38 Special and hairspray metal progenitor turned reality show pretender Bret Michaels opening.

Get a full dose of modern blast-beat drop D brocore at The Stafford in Bryan Sunday with AM Feelgood, High Five Jersey, Heaven Declares War, Zero & Falling, Surrounded By Monsters, Somewhere In September, Falsetta Metal, Love Loud and Fit For rivals.

I worship Lou Barlow.  I think it’s pretty fair to say that I would have his babies if he and I weren’t having babies with other people.  Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, Sentridoh, Folk Implosion…man, those bands mean so much to me.
- Monday @ The Mohawk, Austin

People talk so much about the birth of alt-country and how it came fully-formed from the two-headed splitting Zeus of Tweedy & Farrar, but I think folks tend to forget the true alt-country forefathers, Canada’s Cowboy Junkies.  I’ve never liked anything they’ve done as much as their debut album (it was much more hoodoo than the more country approach they became famous for) but Margo Timmins has one of the sexiest voices in modern music.
- Tuesday @ House of Blues, Houston

Louisiana’s Villain For a Moment comes to The Stafford in Bryan Wednesday night with their radio-friendly modern rock.  Imagine Evanescence if you stripped the interesting parts (the gothic creepiness) and voila!  We Are The New Year opens.

Very little is known about Houstonites God’s Favorite Animal. Most of what is known sounds almost too fantastical to be believed. Their biography reads almost like an old West Louis Lamour novel written in Cyrillic by Krishna Das. Formed from the ashes of The DEE:USE, God’s Favorite Animal gets off on the cadences of gospel hour ministry in full flight, fuzztone upright bass, Greedo vocals and the intense discomfort of not really knowing whether G.F.A. will ask for your testimony, set you on fire only to piss the flames out, or inject minimalist art-damaged spazz punk straight into the back of your skull.

God’s Favorite Animal plays The Revolution Stage Friday @ 10pm
God\’s Favorite Animal – The John Kirk
http://myspace.com/godsfavoriteanimal

The Ex-Optimists are probably the Brazos Valley’s worst band. No really. Many of their noisy early ‘90s college rock songs devolve into chaos, with dudes lying on the floor slowly turning guitar pedal knobs until it seems like your pores are oozing and melting into puddles of kerosene, lit on fire by ring modulation, echo pedal oscillations and tribal scream therapy drumming. Somewhere inside that cacophony is an inspired rock band screaming out noise pop angular beauty. Until the Nixon mask comes out, and then all bets are off.

The Ex-Optimists play The Revolution Stage Saturday @ 2pm
The Ex-Optimists – Fireboy
http://myspace.com/theexoptimists

College Station is blessed to have a good solid old school good times punk rock band like The Hangouts in residence. They have that early ‘80s southern California breakneck punk rock sound down pat with a chick singer that has sass, swing and a really fucking mean upper cut. Probably the most fun you’ll have in the pit at Loudfest this year.

The Hangouts plays The Stafford Main Stage Saturday @ 11:30pm

http://myspace.com/thehangoutsrule

The true metal vocalist is a rarity these days. It seems like most metal bands these days rely on a charismatic frontman who does very little except try to make completely subhuman demonic grunts, or just screams like their girl pants are restricting their hang just a little too much. What I like about B/CS metal band Illysium is that their vocalist Chad Settles is very versatile. He can do Anselmo; he can do Halford; he can do Osborne. And he blends all those influences into something his own. Add that to a more than capable modern metal backing and you’ve got something unique.

Illysium plays The Revolution Stage Saturday @ 4pm
Illysium – Mortal Damnation
http://myspace.com/illysiumtheband

Miss Gothic Manners spins dance music for the mascara and Doc Martins set…black required, lace or leather optional school between bands @ The Stafford Main Friday 8pm—close and Revolution Café & Bar 8:30p—10p

DJ Skull Orchard pretends he’s again hosting his old college radio show from 1994 with indie, post-punk, lo-fi, metal, hip-hop and such between bands @ Revolution Café & Bar Friday 7:30p—9p and Saturday 5:30p—8p

Dr. Briggs digs deep in the medicine bag and puts forth eclectic, goth, indie and beyond between bands @ Revolution Café & Bar Friday 9:30p—close and Saturday 11:30p—close

Jay Satellite rocks dreamy shoegaze noisepop between bands @ Revolution Café & Bar Saturday 2:30p—5p

Cody Marx Bailey will share some danse punk, new wave and industrial between bands @ The Stafford Main Saturday 7p—9:30p

Travis Cagle is the mystery DJ between bands @ The Stafford Saturday 10p—11:30p

Drake is kinda the hot new thing in hip-hop.  Yawn.  I feel old listening to modern commercial hip-hop.  I remember when it was so much fresher.
- Thursday @ Verizon Wireless Theater, Houston & Friday @ Stubbs, Austin

Get in some Thursday night headbanging with Sammus Theory and Predominant Mortification at The Stafford in Bryan.

L.A.’s Steel Panther makes a punchline out of ’80s lipstick glam metal.  Part Poison, part Spinal Tap, completely fun.
- Friday @ House of Blues, Houston

In my previous life I was an FM radio music programmer.  Easily the biggest egomaniacal douchebag I have ever met (besides my program directors) was Pat, the lead singer for Train.  Then again, I had also met this dude before they blew up about 13 years ago at an in-store at the record store I worked at in the afternoons and he was a prick then too.  Now, many years later, Train seems to have a second wind.  Wonder if he’s as big a jerk now as he was then.  Maybe 7 or 8 years of nowheresville has put that shit in check
– Friday @ Verizon Wireless Theater, Houston w/former Aggie Jason Castro opening

Friday night and all day Saturday at Revolution & The Stafford in downtown Bryan.  One $5 wristband gets you in both venues both days/nights.  Metal, punk, indie rock, DIY synth, alternative hip-hop, etc.
http://www.bcsloudfest.com

Looks like Of Montreal retired the white horses and funny stagecraft to focus on the music this tour.  Can they entertain you with that all that mumbo-pocus?
- Sunday @ The Mohawk, Austi

Austin’s Vast Massive Satellite takes the dark sound of early ‘80s British post-punk and marries it to the roar of dreampop guitars and lo-fi pop smarts. This is what happens when three metal geeks discover The Cure and Sugar. Space travel rock & roll.

Vast Massive Satellite plays The Revolution Stage Friday @ 11pm
Vast Massive Satellite – Transparent

http://myspace.com/vastmassivesatellite

Bryan/College Station loves its metal, and Culture In Ruin are some of its favorite local sons. Sez Foilface from Brazos County Metal News: “Culture In Ruin’s Brazos County Metal style flows from them with ease and overcomes everyone with their Metal Madness. They kill it every time!” That pretty much sums it up.

Culture In Ruin plays The Stafford Main Saturday @ 9:30pm

Culture In Ruin – Wasteline

http://myspace.com/cultureinruin

Richard James & The Special Riders relocated from New York City to Memphis, and I can think of nothing better for this modern rockabilly band than to feel where the music came from, the white trash appropriation of speed-riddled Black urban rhythm-and-blues. To really soak up that shotgun wedding mess that begat the music. This band brings sexy back, right back to where it belongs, in hi-octane muscle car rock & roll with that Memphis hipshake.

Richard James & The Special Riders plays The Stafford Main Stage Saturday @ 7:30pm
http://myspace.com/rjames6