HUGE Punk show tonight at the Stafford, including the return of The (elusive and not-so-aptly named) Hangouts!

Yeah it’s raining.  The weather is pure shite.  It’s not like yr gonna have a backyard picnic tonight so come indoors to The Stafford in Bryan and get indoctrinated by some righteous punk rock.

Six bands.  $5.  That’s a recession-era bargain fo sho.  What do you get for $5?

The Open Casket represent smashmouth Austin punk rock with over-the-top HR-styled vocals over a frenetic rollercoaster backing.  Also kinda like Bad Brains too.
http://www.myspace.com/theopencasket

Houston’s Something Fierce bring power-pop smarts to their punk root.  Maybe not quite so literate as Joe Jackson or Elvis Costello but the spirit of melody is certainly there, with songs about goofy shit.
www.myspace.com/somethingfiercehouston

B/CS’s very own The Hangouts make punk rock that really reflects upon the life of lead singer Niki Pistols.  I want to do my own thing and don’t flip me any shit about it, married to scattershot punk-via-metal riffs and a Red Bulled rhythm section.
http://myspace.com/thehangoutsrule

Ska punk nearly drove the momentum completely out of old school punk rock.  Austin’s Head Panic avoids those obvious pitfalls.  They can rock it out, they can skank it and turn it on the drop of a dime.
http://myspace.com/headpanic

Dallas’s Television City rock out the classic hardcore sound with an energetic and magnetic frontman that you just can’t take your eyes off of.
http://myspace.com/televisioncitydallas

Bryan’s The Flak Jackets are reunited to kick out the jams snot-nosed, smart-assed Misfits style with R2-D2 drums and songs about Star Wars.  Nerd punk.
http://myspace.com/theflakjackets

A fine way to get the party started this weekend at Danse Party Thursday night at The Stafford in Bryan, featuring the electro DJ skills of Cody Marx Bailey plus the smoked-out electro prog of great unwashed luminaries.

Justin Warfield has had the most interesting career. From late ’80s alternative hip-hop pioneer to new millennium Human League revivalist. Still, I love those She Wants Revenge albums dearly, even if Phil Oakley should sue them to high heaven. She Wants Revenge brings their robot love songs to Emo’s in Austin Friday night.

Get some live hip-hop (something we don’t see an awful lot of around here) with Betaplayer behind MSC at Rudder Fountain on Texas A&M’s campus Friday at noon.
EDIT: Cancelled due to bad weather.

Agent Ribbons are a strange band.  Three girls, singing, guitars, drums and cello.  The songs are simple, childish and very 1980′s K Records (think Beat Happening).  There is an almost cabaret throwback kitsch to their music, and they put on a very charismatic show.  If you’re expecting to rock then this probably isn’t your bag.  But I guarantee their show at Revolution Cafe & Bar in Bryan  will be the most entertaining thing in town Friday night.  Wine & Revolution opens.

College Station’s The Ex-Optimists make college radio rock like it was 1991 all over again, the Year That Punk Broke.  Nirvana were poised to break, Jane’s Addiction was the genre’s big star…mooks in Seattle were artfully blending indie, punk, freedom rock and metal into an unholy potion.  Yeah, that’s where the X-Ops come from.  The Ex-0ptimists play The Stafford in Bryan Friday night with local maximum minimalist doom-stoner collective Skullfucker obscure European cosmic avant art-folk duo Fang Boner who are making their U.S. debut.

And speaking of Houston punk rock…you really can’t say those words without mentioning Something Fierce.  This trio will bring its power pop skinny tie inflected punk rock to The Stafford in Bryan Saturday night as a part of the 979Represent/Sinkhole Texas Punk Party featuring performances from The Open Casket, The Hangouts, Television City, The Flak Jackets and Head Panic. All kinds of punk rock happening that night: polticial punk, sleazy ’70s punk, Star Wars punk, ska punk, So Cal dirtbag punk…you name it.  Show’s early at 8p and DJ Skullbone spins classic punk, hardcore and metal in-between.

I love me some Secret Machines. Vaguely spacy kraut-ish nu-prog mixed with indie rock and pop smarts.  What’s not to like?  They went nearly all the way pop a few years back, only to find their way back to where the lamb lies down on Broadway.  Or, in non-music geek terminology, dude they sound like Zeppelin and Floyd.  Like Floyd Zeppelin.  Good enough for jazz.  Secret Machines open for And They Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead at Warehouse Live in Houston Saturday night.

OK, it’s a bygone conclusion.  Nickelback sucks.  Everyone agrees.  Yet, if everyone agrees, then why do people still buy their records and go to their shows?  I mean, even my wife hates Nickelback but surprisingly finds a few of their mp3′s on her iPod.  Her verdict?  “Yeah, his voice is awful.  I know it’s bad but…well, I kinda like some of their songs too.”  Those of you in non-denial Nickelback denial, well, you get your fill of mookrock at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion Saturday night with those crazy gravel-voiced Canucks.  Slightly less successful mooks Hinder and Papa Roach open.

Metal Mondays continue at The Stafford in Bryan.  This week’s installment is courtesy of bro-metal band Fit For a King (check out the synchronized headbanging in the chorus – nice touch) and Overseer.

I read Perez Hilton, I am not ashamed to admit.  But I will also admit that I don’t know who half the people are that he feels necessary to report on all the time.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Sugar Ray for the nu millennium hip-hop group Shwayze featured that Weird Al lookalike guy Cisco Adler.  I mean, I thought the only thing that dude did was have really, really big balls.  Well, turns out he can churn out boring ass party rap too.  Shwayze and dude’s hellabig sack will be at House of Blues in Houston Tuesday night.

You remember that nerd dude who lived down the hall from you in the freshman dorms who loved Dave Matthews and spent a lot of time writing dorky songs?  That could’ve been Jason Mraz who started out marketed as a sort of boho pop Beck kinda guy but was quickly transformed into a hitmaking adult contemporary star.  Years later dude is taking his awkward rock to the bank.  Jason Mraz plays the Erwin Center in Austin Tuesday night and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Houston Wednesday night.  The ’90s version of Mraz G. Love & Special Sauce opens both nights.

Chickenfoot is the ultimate good time drinkin’ ’80s supergroup, except considering their parts they probably should’ve done something a lot cooler than how it turned out.  When you’ve got Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani and Chad Smith (WTF dude?  You’re better than this!) it should have some serious hooks and musicianship.  Except Sammy phones it in, Chad’s picking up a paycheck, Joe lives for his solo spot and Michael’s just glad someone remembers who he is.  What a waste.  Unless, of course, you like that sort of thing.  Then, right on! Chickenfoot steps into Verizon Wireless Theater in Houston Wednesday.

Trailer trash pyscho, extensions having car crash waiting to happen.  That’s Britney Spears. Except a funny thing happened on the way to her overexposure and subsequent crash.  Her high-profile celebrity trainwreck happened via TMZ and Perez Hilton, we all saw it and somehow she was able to salvage a career out of it.  And here she comes back to Houston to the Toyota Center Wednesday night (she was there earlier this year) for another sold-out performance on one of the last year’s highest grossing tours.  That’s how she rolls.  Ciara opens.

I know its kinda early to start hyping, but thats the way we’re gonna roll!
6 Killer central Texas punkrock bands including the long awaited reunion of B/CS’s own dirtbag dickweeds
THE FLAK JACKETS!

Mark your calendars now and prepare to get there EARLY!
MOHAWKS=FREE
FEAUXHAWKS=$10+extreme riddicule
EVERYONE ELSE=$5

Tonight at The Stafford in Bryan…White Rhino, Original Glitch, Head Panic & Eminent Heroes.

White Rhino are from Austin. This band should have mustaches and wear denim shirts with Joe Camel’s hard pack in the breast pocket. White Rhino plays salt-of-the-earth working man hard rock mixed with good ol’ early ’80s riff metal and Motorhead jackhammer rock. Like a less-weird Queens of the Stone Age, or a less ironic Eagles of Death Metal. At this year’s LOUD!Fest White Rhino singer/guitarist Michael Gibson slid all around the stage like a honky James Brown, strutting and rocking & rolling.

The Houston Press says: “They look and sound like they came from that side of your Dad’s record collection that he only drags out when your Mom hassles him or his boss is giving him shit. White Rhino is engrained with such a boogie-metal abandon that you wonder how these guys came out of our era. Maybe it’s the bourbon coursing through us, but we hear a faint speed-addled ZZ Top Tres Hombres thing coming through.”

http://myspace.com/whiterhinorocks

Original Glitch…yeah, there’s not a lot online about them.  But I can tell you this.  Original Glitch kicked much ass at LOUD!Fest with their mid ’90s hard-rockin’ Warped Fest punk rock.  It’s been a year or so since Head Panic passed through town, with their nimble ska punk.   

The Stafford, Bryan $5.  Rock on.