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

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

Everything old becomes new again sometime. The Big Pink makes mid’80s gothwave sound new and fresh again.
The Big Pink – Thursday @ The Parish, Austin w/A Place To Bury Strangers opening.

Ani DiFranco is so not my thing, but I greatly admire her artistic ethic.
Thursday @ Warehouse Live, Houston; Friday @ Paramount Theater, Austin

The Stafford goes hip-hop in a big way Thursday night with Higher Than Why, Afrofreque and Dem Southern Folkz.

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.
Friday & Saturday @ Continental Club, Austin

I am pretty much of the opinion that ska punk pretty much destroyed true dirtbag punk rock, but there are a few of those bands that I think could blend the styles without sounding forced or cartoonish.  Voodoo Glow Skulls are one of those bands.
Friday @ Wired Live, Houston

I am very quick to understand that if I saw the dudes from Vampire Weekend hanging around at Hastings or Northgate or some place like that I would hate them on sight as uber-pretentious hipsters.  Their music some would argue is very much uber-pretentious uber-hipster music.  I can’t agree.  While I’m no hardcore Afrobeat guy I feel that VW distill the essence of that style and crunch it hard into modern indie pop.  Their second album is even more minimal and electro than the first.  What it all boils down to is that these dudes make Wes Anderson films with pop music.  I hope they survive the hype for a long career.
Saturday @ Stubbs, Austin

The ever eclectic Poi Dog Pondering is back and touring.  It’s like a fun Arcade Fire who were doing the big Americana rock thing when the Fire was still wearing diapers.
Saturday @ Antones, Austin

Elton John. What is there really to say?  He’s a living legend.  One part sensitive piano balladeer, one part half-Liberace camp showman.  All parts entertaining.
Saturday @ Erwin Center, Austin

The Old 97′s infuse a healthy dose of ’70s power pop into their alt-country.  Like Wilco before they discovered Stockhausen.
Saturday @ House of Blues, Houston

The Open Casket”Black and White Fuzz”

The Open Casket | MySpace Music Videos

It’s a big ol’ punk rock fest at Revolution in Bryan Saturday night with Austin punks The Open Casket.  Houston power-pop punks Something Fierce, local classic dirtbag punks The Hangouts and new local punk rockers Kill the State open.

Wow!  Can’t believe it’s been 25 years since Kentuckian Dwight Yoakam crashed the L.A. roots/Slash Records scene with his debut self-released EP.  How far he has come, but really not that far from his ’60s Bakersfield country pop roots.  And he still fills out a tight pair of pants pretty well, I must enviously say.  It’s worth braving the drunk Aggies to catch Dwight in our backyard, especially if his keyboard player wears that Chapelle doing Prince awesomeness.
Saturday @ Chilifest, Snook

I’m not sure you can call ‘em Chicago anymore since the horn section is really all that’s left from their ’70s soulful jazz-pop heyday but they’ll surely play those songs nice and tight and truthfully, that horn section is pretty fucking awesome.  Maybe no EWF or Tower of Power but still a dying breed of musicianship.
Sunday @ Rudder Auditorium, Texas A&M University

Sunday night at The Stafford is full of grindcore and extreme metal, courtesy of Predominant Mortification, Primal, Wellborn Road, IPV, and A Quiet Mind.

I fucking love The Strokes’ first two albums.  Those albums have the perfect combination of punk snottiness, ’90s indie songcraft and incomparable cool.  I have been saddened to no end to see The Strokes wither and result in lesser solo projects.  Albert Hammond’s records are okay, but those songs would’ve been much more awesome with Julian Casablancas on the mic.  Sadly, Julian’s solo turn isn’t much better.  y’all know how I feel about electro and Cars synths but even that can’t get my hard for Julian’s solo stuff.  Maybe it’ll come over better live?  Maybe he’ll sneak in a Strokes song or two to get you over until their new album hits later this year.
Monday @ House of Blues, Houston; Wednesday @ The Independent, Austin

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