Norway’s Beach House might be the reigning royalty for the Chillwave movement.  Their records are kinda boring in a good way.  Not entirely sure how well that will go over live.
Thursday @ Emos, Austin & Friday @ Walters, Houston

Now that they’s all out of jail Cleveland hip-hoppers Bone Thugs N Harmony are taking you back to the crossroads just like they did 15 years ago.
Thursday @ House of Blues, Houston & Saturday @ Emos, Austin

If you are a serious student of hip-hop then you already know that one of the most interesting and influential MC’s of all time is Del The Funky Homosapien.  Almost completely unsung when his original round of releases came out in the early ’90s Del has found an audience thanks to his appearance on the first Gorillaz album and other cool releases, like the Rainydayz remixes of the most recent Radiohead album.  Get yiggity with Del in person this week.
Thursday @ Warehouse Live, Houston

Get some commercial rock with Dirty Little Mouth, Fareview and Trebuchet at The Stafford in Bryan Thursday night.

Austin Psych Fest 3 is going on all weekend in Austin, featuring dozens of great ’60s influenced garage bands from the past and the present.  Headliners are ’60s Bay Area electronic pioneers Silver Apples and retro garage punters The Raveonettes and many, many others.
Friday – Sunday @ The Mohawk, Austin

The beef has been called off and Houston’s most successful dirty south hip-hop exports Chamillionaire and Paul Wall have kissed and made up and are touring together.
Friday @ House of Blues, Houston

I hardly ever recommend anyone go see a tribute band, but in this instance I make the rare exception.  My friends and former practice room roommates Hells Belles are on the road.  They are awesome and have AC/DC’s stamp of approval, having opened for them for several European dates.
Friday @ Continental Club, Houston & Saturday @ Continental Club, Austin

Wow.  Coolio is sure looking kinda scary these days, but at least he’s alive and working right?  And coming to College Station Friday night for Duck Jam at Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater.

These guys kinda snuck through here earlier in the year and wowed the hell out of the fortunate few who caught them.  Now you can rectify that mistake and catch Canadian alt-country duo Twilight Hotel Friday night at Revolution Cafe & Bar in Bryan.

Jeff Beck really nailed it at this year’s Grammys, and I was surprised to learn that Beck has been leading a shit-hot band for the past few years that roams stylistically from rockabilly through heavy rock and fusion with the greatest of ease.  At his age to be still as vital a performer as he is, well, that’s no small feat.
Saturday @ Verizon Wireless Theater, Houston

I am beyond pissed that now that I live in King’s X‘s backyard that everytime they play near here I can’t go for some reason or another (usually because I’m playing my own show).  And it’s happening again, dammit.
Saturday @ Old town Spring, Spring

The iconic Willie Nelson headlines Duck Jam at Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater in College Station Saturday night.  Wild-eyed southern boys .38 Special opens.

It’s loud punk rock & roll you’ll hear streaming from out The Stafford’s doors in Bryan Saturday night.  Captain Fantastic, Blunt Force and The Hangouts are all on the bill.

If you want indie and punk instead you can walk across the way to Revolution Cafe & Bar Saturday night for The Ex-Optimists, Almost Handsome, Jay Satellite and Stay In Touch.

Or you can stay at Northgate Saturday night and get some commercial alternative at Schotzis with Literary Greats.

It’s sometimes easy to forget in all the showbiz that has surrounded ZZ Top since the early ’80s that they are probably one of the finest swamp boogie bands to ever pick up guitars and grow serious beards.  Of course, they’ll be lots of lights and sparkle but these dudes are still pretty darn awesome.
Sunday @ The Backyard, Bee Cave

How those dudes don’t have whiplash I’ll never know.  Bonnie Blue plays The Stafford in Bryan Sunday night.  Since it’s Sunday and it’s a metal show expect the Boys in Blue to also make a performance.

Old school thrash metal.  Overkill will show you how it’s done, son.
Monday @ Emos, Austin & Tuesday @ Scout Bar, Clear Lake

Coheed and Cambria is one of the strangest bands to be so commercially successful.  What do you call those dudes?  Helium-voiced indie art prog-metal?  Chick repellent?  Atarimatt would just say “fucking awesome” and so should you.
Tuesday @ Warehouse Live, Houston & Wednesday @ Stubbs, Austin

Florida’s Copeland started off life as a Radiohead clone, but rather quickly grew into something a bit less challenging but no less affecting, taking the same intricacy but making it a bit more commercial.  Whereas Coldplay took The Bends and popularized it, Copeland did the same for the OK Computer era.  And now Copeland’s era is coming to a close, and to close it out Copeland are on a farewell tour to celebrate/give you closure.
Copeland – Thursday @ Emos, Austin

L.A.’s Steel Panther takes the Sum 41′s “Pain For Pleasure” joke to the nth degree, taking something that was rather unintentionally funny at the time (ie. late ’80s pop glam metal) and making it that much more ridiculous.  Kinda like Spinal Tap without the subtlety.  I know lots of folks think this is awesome, but the music leaves me dry.  The shows look like fun though, and you never know who’s gonna show up and sing a song with Steel Panther.
Steel Panther – Thursday @ House of Blues, Houston

College Station’s Almost Handsome is closest thing to an unpretentious classic new millennium indie rock band that we have around here.  I recently reviewed their album for the March issue of 979Represent and while I didn’t care much for the recording itself the songs are great and I’ve been assured that live this band is much more rock than the record would have you believe.
Almost Handsome – Thursday @ Schotzi’s, College Station

When North Carolina’s Southern Culture On the Skids first emerged on the college rock scene in the early ’90s it was a much-needed poke at redneck culture.  20 years later and we’ve been through Jeff Foxworthy and Larry The Cable Guy as national cultural figures.  SCOTS deserve a place at that table.
Southern Culture On the Skids – Friday & Saturday @ Continental Club, Houston; Tuesday & Wednesday @ Continental Club, Austin

CircleBirds.  Yeah.
CircleBirds – Friday @ Revolution Cafe & Bar, Bryan

Can you imagine an American festival packed to the gills with hundreds of thousands of people digging the fuck out of VNV Nation?  It happens all the time in Europe, where electro-dance is still embraced, regardless of its gothiness (reference Cruxshadows).  In America, it’s tiny clubs for them.  Good for you though so you can get up close and see what’s going on.
VNV Nation – Saturday @ Elysium, Austin; Sunday @ Wired Live, Houston

I am still somewhat filled with a secret self-loathing inside that I once owned a G. Love & Special Sauce LP (on vinyl no less).  Ah, the things I used to do, I ain’t gonna do them no more.
G. Love & Special Sauce – Saturday @ Antones, Austin

Alicia Keys is a rarity among modern soul neophytes.  She’s actually a pop star at the same time as she is a protector of roots soul.  Talent, beauty & popularity.  It shouldn’t be fair, but girl’s got the goods.
Alicia Keys – Saturday @ Toyota Center, Houston

Saturday night has become the Night of the Dueling Dance Parties in downtown Bryan, with The Stafford hosting Pixel Explosion 2.0 with Spazz, Vegenaut, DJ John Em, Bart Black, Luna, Gondra and Ostrich Death Dance, while Revolution Cafe & Bar plays host to High Voltage Sounds.  Bring plenty of water to balance out all that Vitamin K…

The Wedding Present have been such a great jangly, indie rock band for so long it’s pathetic that it should be a crime that Americans do not know this band.  That is easy to rectify, my friends.
The Wedding Present – Monday @ Emos, Austin

Imagine James Brown reborn as an Indian CIS student frontng Otis Day & The Knights reconfigured as a bunch of Swedes (instead of American black dudes) with the hottest but ugliest cheerleader you’ve ever seen.  Imagine this and you’re almost at King Khan & The Shrines.  If i ever start my own fraternity a la Old School these dudes are definitely playing rush week.
King Khan & The Shrines – Monday @ Emos, Austin

Our good friend Metal Cindy is awesome.  Not only does she promote awesome shows around here with Hostile Land Productions but she’s also, well, pretty awesome on her own.  Cindy’s having a birthday party at Revolution and all her best buds from The Ex-Optimists, Red Meadow and Magic Girl are gonna bro down to celebrate.
Cindy’s Birthday Bash – Tuesday @ Revolution Cafe & Bar, Bryan

Everything old becomes new again sometime.  the Big Pink makes mid’80s gothwave sound new and fresh again.
The Big Pink – Wednesday @ Wired Live, Houston w/A Place To Bury Strangers opening.

Y’all know how chillwave was the next big thing as hyped by Pitchfork last year to emerge as the national indie music pastime?  Sure you do.  Do you remember what the one before that was?  Shitwave.  Yeah.  Shitwave.  While Beach House, Toro y Moi and others are still riding the chillwave, it was Ohio’s Psychedelic Horseshit who was predicted to ride the shitwave to 4-track noisiness taking over the land.  It didn’t quite work out that way, but PH isn’t paying any attention to that.  They continue to suck outloud with or without the bloggers’ attention.
Psychedelic Horseshit – Wednesday @ Notsuoh, Houston

Musically I was always down with Megadeth but there was something that just bugged the shit outta me about Dave Mustaine and I never really understood why.  Maybe because he whines when he sings.  Still, what a fucking bill put together for this tour, with Testament and Exodus also on the bill (Slayer was supposed to tour with them too but health problems forced them to withdraw).  That’s a lot of classic thrash metal in one day.  Can ya handle it?
Thursday @ Verizon Wireless Theatre, Houston
Friday @ Stubbs, Austin

Mavis Staples is a living soul legend, having been pretty much born and bread on the stage with her family the Staples Singers and as a solo performer for the past 40 years.  Witness how the blues, gospel and soul can be melded into one purely American artform right before your eyes. 
Friday @ Paramount Theatre, Austin.  Legendary soul organist Booker T. opens (who has his own show Saturday @ Wired Live in Houston)

Modern day punk rockers Alkaline Trio and Cursive co-headline a tour of dueling distortion pedals and bro-hugs.
Friday @ Warehouse Live, Houston
Sunday @ Emos, Austin

It’s a night of modern post-emo post-rock indie bands at Schotzi’s on Northgate Friday night with They Mean Us, Words In Windows, Blinded By Bears, Same As Sunday and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

Yet more classic thrash metal music comes your way courtesy of Kreator.  These guys have kept motoring through 20 years now.
Saturday @ Emos, Austin
Sunday @ Wired Live, Houston with the original line-up of Fear Factory opening

Stop fronting.  You know you loved you some Hall & Oates back in the day.  Today they are embraced by soccer moms as well as ironic yacht rock hipster poseurs.  But I will be straight-up with you.  The first cassette tape I ever bought was back in 1981 and it was Private Eyes.  That’s how I roll, cuz.  But seriously, a lot of their earlier blue-eyed soul and a bit of their new wave era stuff holds up really well.
Saturday @ Long Center, Austin

Poor Soul Asylum.  They are one misunderstood band.  Blasting out twangy, Midwestern post-hardcore indie rock throughout the ’80s it was their very Tom Petty-ish hit single “Runaway Train” that they will forever be known for, and it is totally not what that band was about.  After years of on-again off-again the Asylum is back on the road, showing you what a sober and slightly less talented Replacements would sound like today.
Saturday @ Warehouse Live, Houston

Saturday is the grand opening of The Navasota Skatepark down on the corner of Brule and Stadium.  It’s pretty big and totally concrete (though a lot of it is just flat).  10AM.  Skate it while you wait on our skatepark to built.

College Station dweeb punks The Hangouts bang out some tunes for The Brazos Valley Derby Dolls who are holding an informational meeting with raffle and screening of “Hell On Wheels”, a documentary about roller derby in Texas. 
Saturday @ Revolution Cafe & Bar, Bryan.  6pm

Oh fuck yeah!  Dude, this was the jam in 6th grade way back in the Hot Tub Time Machine from 1986.  2 Live Crew.  Fun party jams, dirty raps, unlikely poster children against censorship and the 1st Amendment….Luther Campbell live in Dallas now, so little gigs like Saturday at Schotzi’s in College Station is easy to do.  You wanna go, I know you do.

Illysium takes their hi-octane metal out to the Beer Joint in College Station Saturday night with some other awesome metal bands TBD opening.

Saturday night College Station’s Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheatre is being turned into a good ol’ fashioned Dirrrrrtyy South barbecue by nearly two dozen rappers, most noticeably Mike Jones, Lil Flip, Cory Gunz, Young Hash, Papa Reu, Young Problemz and about 20 others.

Detroit bro-metal band Laid In Stone parks the tour bus in downtown Bryan at The Stafford Sunday night with Knockturnal Madness, Seven Hills Steel and Broken Anatomy opening.

Ever wonder what dancey emo rock would sound like with Autotune?  Me neither, but apparently Starluck did.  Catch them at The Stafford Sunday night with Subscene, Sorry For the Mess and jamnaked opening.

Portlanders Ted Leo & The Pharmacists are back to the rock, with a new album showing that they are putting their sorta sensitive wussy mid-period behind are back to doing it the way they started out doing it.  You know, with balls. 
Wednesday @ the Parish, Austin

Ween don’t really play live anymore so if you want to catch the awesomeness of Ween live then you’ve got to check out Gene Ween play his solo shows (though they are usually with a full band).  Gene’s playing Cactus Cafe in Austin Thursday and Friday nights.

Um…yeah.  Killswitch Engage is at Warehouse Live in Houston Thursday night.

Get your bro metal fix Thursday night with Nothingmore, Life In Recuse and Ceremony at The Stafford Thursday night.

Canadian indie pop twins Tegan & Sara play at Bass Concert Hall in Austin Friday night and Warehouse Live in Houston Saturday night.

The Bob Dylan of Muhlenberg Co., KY John Prine plays at Bass Concert Hall in Austin Saturday night.

Modern commercial alternative rock courtesy of The News Can Wait and Clairmont, with metal from Legacy Fails and Fistfull of Dollars at The Stafford in Bryan Saturday night.

Local boy on the AAA tip Russell Huie comes home for a show at Revolution Cafe & Bar in Bryan Saturday night.

I guess I’m not Irish enough to understand.  Dropkick Murphys are playing at Warehouse Live in Houston Tuesday night and Stubbs in Austin Wednesday night.

Get your commercial post-punk action on with Manchester Orchestra at House of Blues in Houston Tuesday night and Emos in Austin Wednesday night.

Crazy South American metal from Soulfly live at The Scout Bar in Clear Lake Wednesday night.

Come out and support the 979 Represent this Saturday at Revolution Cafe & Bar. All proceeds from this show will go toward paying the bills for all those free papers we keep slinging out. Not to mention that it’s going to be one helluva show that’d be more than worth the $5 anyway! Guaranteed no bands with more than 2 members (Be it man, woman, bear or spirit of Tron Guy)!

Real Book Fake Book

Female Demand

The Tron Sack

Butcher Bear & Charlie