Didnt the Toadies come out of Austin? Maybe Dallas... They had 4 singles off the first CD and recently came out with a new one. If you havent heard them and like rock check them out, lots of sustain and whammy bar. ------------------ "banging Shaq is a whole different expirience"-Pete Babcock Behold the power of quotation
I thought that band was called Timbuk3 (If we're talking about the future and brightness and shades people). Sometimes, too, there are artists who are from one part of the Texas but become associated with another part. My Hero Lyle Lovett, for example, is from Klein, but he's often thought of as an Austin musician. ------------------ Why not visit MovieForums.com
By the way, did anyone else see in the Houston Business Journal that Destiny's Child Dad Matthew Knowles bought a big parcel of sort-of downtown land (and an historic home) where he's going to put up a music studio, etc. Here's the story in case anyone is interested and didn't see it: Historic downtown site faces new musical Destiny Nancy Sarnoff Houston Business Journal The new owner of a historic downtown property with a colorful past is aiming to give the site an even more colorful future. Mathew Knowles, manager of musical pop trio Destiny's Child, has bought an entire city block of land through his Houston-based firm Music World Entertainment. The purchase coincides with an 18-month record label deal Knowles just landed with Columbia Records. The 62,500-square-foot parcel bounded by Webster, LaBranch, Crawford and Hadley streets includes two small industrial buildings and a three-story ante-bellum estate once occupied by the nephew of the founder of Rice University. Music World Entertainment and Destiny's Child Inc. acquired the property from local legal malpractice attorney Larry Doherty for a price of $2.5 million. Knowles plans to relocate his company's current headquarters in southwest Houston to the 5,000-square-foot historic mansion and construct a multimillion-dollar recording studio and rehearsal facility in one of the smaller structures. Hoping to boost Houston's image as an entertainment hub, Knowles plans to lease office and studio space in the complex to up-and-coming artists in an effort to bring a "creative synergy to Houston." "It's so embarrassing to go to L.A. and New York and hear them snub Houston," Knowles says. "We have so much untapped talent in our city, but there's no synergy for entertainment. My goal is to become a leader in that." Knowles already has proven his ability to command attention in the high-rolling music industry. Over the past few years, his marketing savvy has made Houston-based Destiny's Child -- fronted by his singing and songwriting daughter Beyoncé -- a multimillion-dollar machine. Winners of four Grammy awards with a debut album that went platinum multiple times, the harmonic threesome are sitting on top of the entertainment world. START THE MUSIC Renovations to the historic building will begin immediately, says Knowles, who is hoping the new recording studio will be ready for music production by the early part of next year. When complete, Destiny's Child will record the majority of its studio work in the new facility. The group currently records in production houses in New York, Los Angeles and Houston. Knowles says he hopes the studio will attract other major local and national artists as well. "There's a large amount of revenue derived in Houston from the music industry," Knowles says of the local Tejano, rap and country music contingents. "The industry is a lot larger than a lot of folks think." In fact, Knowles currently is attempting to put together another female pop band and a male R&B group both to be based out of Houston. While his long-term goals include bringing large-scale productions to Houston, Knowles concedes it will take major efforts from the local government and the business community to bring his dreams to fruition. "In order to make Houston an entertainment entity, it's important we have the facilities. And I'm not sure the George R. Brown (Convention Center) is equipped to have the Grammy Awards," he says. But Knowles says his new property is large enough to where the production facilities could be expanded. "Ongoing ventures could include a sound stage, but we have to have a need for that first," he says. Knowles says he's using a team of real estate, business and spiritual advisors, including Sharon Campbell of Re/Max Fine Properties, Arnold Altsuler of Coldwell Banker Commercial Uptown and Rudy Rasmus, Pastor of St. John's Downtown, to assist him in future business endeavors. In addition to Music World Entertainment's relocation, Knowles' wife Tina is planning to move her hair salon Headliners from 2440 Bissonnet to the third building on the site. Tina Knowles, who has run the salon for more than a decade, also designs many of Destiny's Child's costumes, and currently is in talks with clothing label XOXO for a licensing deal. A DATE WITH DESTINY For months Mathew Knowles had been scouting land on which to build his new studio and headquarters. He came close to purchasing a site near the intersection of Highway 59 and Murphy Road close to his home in Sugar Land. But one Sunday while driving to the family's church -- St. John's United Methodist at 2019 Crawford -- he discovered a for-sale sign on the downtown property that was destined to become his. "It was a fair price, and it had a lot of growth potential. We thought the image of being downtown was important as well," Knowles says of the site, technically located in Midtown's boundaries. Attorney Doherty, the seller, had practiced law from the three-story edifice for 25 years. The historic building once belonged to Benjamin B. Rice, nephew of Rice University founder William Marsh Rice. And former Houston mayor Horace Baldwin Rice owned an adjacent home, which was destroyed in a fire in the early 1990s. Once he made the decision to relocate after a quarter-century in downtown, Doherty hired Coldwell Banker Commercial Uptown's Altsuler to market the site. Doherty owned just three-quarters of the block. So to maximize the sale of the property, Altsuler suggested Doherty buy the last remaining piece of the tract. Altsuler helped relocate an electrical firm that owned the last building on the site to free up the rest of the land. Once Doherty controlled the final piece, he was able to fetch $2.5 million for the entire city block. Campbell of Re/Max Fine Properties represented Knowles in the transaction. "The fact that Destiny's Child bought my building ... it raises the question: Who is Destiny's Child? Them or me?" says Doherty. "I'm just gratified that somebody saw the need to preserve the property the same as I." ------------------ Why not visit MovieForums.com
Man I love Houston but the music scene sucks when compared to Austin or Dallas. Austin has 6th street in downtown that has a number of bars that are set up for live bands and not so large crowds. What makes it work is that if you don't like one band you walk next door and their is another band playing. I makes for a festive atmosphere brings all types of people and is conducive to bringing in all different types of bands. Dallas has Deep Ellum which IMO is the best music scene in the state. Its over 3 blocks of all kinds of live music. You can go into a bar and pay a very small fee and get into a lot of the other clubs just by showing your stamp. The atmosphere is very much like Austins sixth street. They have everything from blues to jazz to atlternitive to acid rock. This is the sort of set up that Houston needs. An area of town that just for the nightlife and conducive to live bands. It seems that Houston has some nice places but they seem to be scattered all over the city instead of condensced in a couple of areas. ------------------
Damn right! mrpaige: Thanks for the story. Great stuff! ------------------ How the hell should I know why God would allow the Holocaust. I don't even know how the electric can opener works. - from Hannah and Her Sisters
Toadies are from Fort Worth ------------------ I stole your money and I did your daughter at Texas A&M University
This was an interesting read. It's neat getting into the live Houston music scene two years after this thread was started and seeing how much it hasn't changed.
The Toadies were awesome! They broke up, but like 2 or 3 of them formed a new band(The something with a V brothers). But if you like rock, and live in Houston, check out a band called The Colour Clear. Great Band.
Houston just doesn't have the elements necessary for an artist to thrive. Not that it is the primary essential, but Houston lacks any kind a decent liberal arts school. Houston is a monument to urban sprawl, strip malls, and starbucks...Corporatations and big business do not foster the arts. Perfect example of a small town which is perfect for the support of musicianship, is OMAHA, NEB. Check out www.saddlecreekrecords.com The sad thing is, Austin is slowly crumbling. Just look at the drag. Where is the culture and history now? Slowly swirling down the drain. Well yea, we have a barnes and nobles and a couple of starbucks, oh and don't forget that GAP and Urban Outfitters. AUSTIN is moving up! I can't wait for another chain store! The surrounding environment stimulates
This is a major reason why the Houston "scene" is lacking. No offense firecat, this isn't directed at you. So many people have these rules and bounderies of what to do and what not to do. Music is boundless. There are no rules. Who cares if you cover music? If you cover it adding your own unique style, then thats what music is all about. Why is working for free a bad thing? If the getting paid thing is why Houston is preferred, then it's obvious why Houston's "scene" lacks any balls.
the Rachels are a real popular band here in the spring/woodlands area. and girls love them, so their shows are always fun.
it was timbuk 3-my uncles wife is cousins w/ that chick. i met them at a barbeque...nice folks, and they were wearing shades! tripping daisy was from dallas. the singer went on to for the polyphonic spree, which is an absolute religious experience. seeing them live will make you shed tears of joy. i implore you to come see them or at least download some videos off the net. they will be at the austin city limits fest in september. and yes, i think that out of the 3 cities, dallas has the most going on right now. the deep ellum area is way better than 6th street and even fort worth has some good clubs to play at. there are alot of cool bands comming out of dallas right now. i always liked the houston music scene though. the problem is that there is no centralized area for clubs and the city is so big. as far as being in a band, its easier to book shows in houston than in austin. the scene in austin is so watered down and everyone plays in a band. in houston, there is much more potential to get some noteriety and even make some $$$. in any case, im glad that the axiom reopened. ill be going back there for the first time in about 10 years next month to see brown whornet. (former members of sprawl)
I think that has a lot to do with it actually. Houston has something called 4/20 (I believe) when all the local original bands play at different clubs all day and night long. The idea is to get people out to hear what the "scene" has to offer. Pretty cool idea...except that the clubs are spread out all over town. It would work much better if we had a "drag" full of clubs like many other cities and people could just walk from club to club and check out all the bands. I played in a semi-popular original band here in town a year ago. We played all the normal spots like Rudz, Fitz, Engine Room, Mary Janes etc. We played with a lot of other Houston bands. A lot of nice guys/girls, but average musical ability. I eventually quit because the guys didn't have any goals. They viewed getting a record deal as "selling out". They had (and still have) a romantic dream of being the best "indie" band out there. My point is that I think a lot of other Houston bands share the same veiws. I know all the ones we played with did. They seem to LIKE being "underground". IMO, as long as this idea is prevelant in Houston, no band will make it OUT of Houston. Therefore, the Houston scene will stay like it is. Lukewarm. While playing in this band, I was also a little turned off by the people who came to our shows if you can believe that. They seemed so pretentious and exclusionary to me. Another reason I quit. Maybe I just had a few bad experiences that jaded me but I see this a lot when I go to local shows. Another thing is no radio support. Yeah, I know KPFT plays original music but it's usually on a Friday morning at 2am. We played at a club and 94.5 The Buzz was sponsoring the show. They had DJ's there introducing all the bands etc. Afterwards, we got to talking with them and when the subject of having just ONE show for local music came up, they just shook their heads no. Damn Clear Channel.
i never would have thought that there were so many musicians on clutchcity! i guess b-ball and music do go hand in hand. what if clutchcity had its own label to showcase the members? or we put out a compilation cd? we could compete w/ steve's "iso" label or maloney's "12" label.
Back in the early to mid 90's, Houston was all about coverbands. Thank you Dennis Lang. Actually I don't mind coverbands as long as they are unique and don't just play the stuff you seen on MTV everyday or nu-metal. I play in a coverband but we're a little different. It's an 11-piece band with 3 vocalists (1 male, 2 females), a full horn section, and even a latin percussionist. We play 70's funk like EWF, Commadors, Diana Ross etc. We actually get paid for gigs unlike the last band I played in. BTW, we're playing at Ringside At Sullivans on Westeimer tonight if anyone want's to stop on by....
The best Houston bands are Austin bands with Houston connections. You can see all three of them at the Axiom within the next month: middlefinger (Matt Kelly ex-Sprawl sings) Brown Whornet (very rare show, they only play about once a year now since Tyler moved to SF, CA) Sexy Finger Champs (not confirmed at Axiom yet, but if we can get them it'll be their last show ever before the hottest girl bass player in the history of r&r moves to NY and the band breaks up) Great bands in Houston: JW Americana The Medicine Show Two Star Symphony The John Sparrow Gun Crazy Greg Wood Band Jimmy's Pawn Shop Carolyn Wonderland Sugar Shack Poor Dumb Bastards Not as good as late 80s/early 90s when we had Sprawl, de schmog, Fleshmop, Joint Chiefs, Painteens, The Mike Gunn and a million other great bands, but not terrible. And listen to the local show Tuesday nights on KTRU 91.7 to get a feel for local rock and roll. It's run by Mike Switzer (from Infernal Bridegroom and The Defenestration Unit) and Scott Butt (who books Rudyards Pub), since Justin Crane (Houston music guru) took off for NY.
This is true also. I think part of the reason dallas has such a good scene is because of Denton. Lots of amazing musicians from UNT sew their oats in dallas on the weekends. Edie Brickell and New Bohemians, Ten Hands, Paul Slavens etc.
