This thread might anger some guys on the board who actually play in the local music scene, but where the heck are the bands coming from Houston (both historically and now)? The closest we have to a hit is ZZ Top (I'm not questioning their talent, just their from Houstoness, I think they are actually from Bacliff or something like that.) We don't have any indie artists, no classic rock bands, only the rappers, and they'll all be forgotten in 5 years. Where is our influence on culture? The problem might be more of a lack of great American bands, as we've already discussed on here, but I think it's more than that. Are we just a working class city who only has time for cover band sets?
I don't know if you read the article from John Nova Lomax in the latest Houston Press, but if not, go read it and you'll get some insight: http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-07-10/news/houston-has-a-bad-reputation-with-touring-indie-bands/ The fact is that the jazz, hip hop, country and Latin scenes in Houston continue to thrive. The problem is that, from a live music perspective, no one seems to care. The young, white kids do all the talking when it comes to discussing music, particularly of the live variety, and their bread is buttered with rock and indie music. In Houston, there just isn't much of a scene for that and so we assume there is no music in Houston. It's like when people say there is "nothing" to do in Houston because it isn't a tourist destination. You know, in most cities that ARE tourist destinations, the locals don't actually visit the tourist hot spots. Granted, I'd be thrilled if the rock music scene would catch fire and we'd have more music pouring out of the city. But, musicians are lazy, the city doesn't really care about supporting an infrastructure that would allow it, clubs open and close too easily and there is no organizing force to help keep things together. It also doesn't help that the city is so huge. It's a massive combination of issues - the article does a much better job of describing it than I do. Doesn't mean there isn't great music out there. You just have to look for it.
On a related note: http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-07...-bad-reputation-with-touring-indie-bands/full
Where is our band though? I can understand why bands are shying away from here. But where's our Old 97's? Shoot give me a couple of punk bands for goodness sakes. Why have we been unable to put a top notch band together? Lack of venues won't keep a true gem down, someone will discover them. And goodness all you need is one rocking venue to hit it big.
Well . . there is this Chick name Beyonce' and she was a part of this Group call Destiny's Child They were somewhat popular for a minute Rocket River
Yeah I hear you. Not what I'm really talking about though. EDIT: And to clarify why I'm not talking about Destiny's Child, is they were just some talented kids from HSPVA who had agents and such broker deals and bring them along. I want the band that slums it for a year or two making a name for themselves. Not a great example, but this is a good story about this punk band NOFX and how they became a hit (in some circles..) http://www.nofxofficialwebsite.com/history/history.html
It doesn't have to be typical. I'm also looking for the more traditional band, not just singers. I think the problem is in our culture, the suburuban lifestyle has not been conducive to a great culture. In fact, it isolates us more than anything...
...well Scarface is about as close to a legend in hip hop as you can get and he's been out, about 20 years...no one's forgotting him anytime soon (UGK gets honorable mention). You win some you lose some...we have one of the bigger hip hop communities so you can't expect us to excel in every genre.
Jeff (and to a lesser degree, Lomax's article) is right - there are a whole bunch of factors working against the rock scene in Houston. In particular, the fact that there is no central district for live music (ala Red River in Austin, where you have the Red Eyed Fly, Beerland, Stubbs and Emos all within a short walking distance of each other and Sixth Street) really hurts Houston. Many people are willing to walk 4-5 blocks and poke their heads into the clubs to check out the bands, but few people (myself included) are inclined to drive to 5-6 clubs, each several miles apart. So the rock clubs have basically no "walk-in" crowd - it's all regulars and fans of the band. Another thing is that the best music towns are either music industry centers, big college towns or both. Houston is neither of those things - Rice is too small and UH is basically a commuter school. So you don't have the population that typically provides the bulk of rock music support. Unfortunately, many of the clubs don't seem to realize this, and have show schedules that cater to college (rather than young professional) crowds. There is absolutely no reason that a show should go much past 11PM on a weekday night, yet some clubs (especially one named after a famous British author) often don't even start until that time. Finally, the local music press here in Houston is absolutely abysmal. One of the reasons Lomax's article really irked me is because he writes practically nothing about the local rock scene. I've never seen him write a thorough CD/show review or band profile - in fact, he's written more articles about the sad state of the Houston scene than the actual music. I suspect he doesn't actually like rock music - he's more of a roots music guy. The Houston Chronicle is now limited to occasional band profiles, but even their "local music" blog talks more about touring acts than it does about local bands. In any case, this is what I'd suggest to people who want to check out Houston bands. Myspace - Do a search for Houston bands and listen to their music www.handsuphouston.com - This is a now-defunct music promotion collective, but their message board is still active and a good place to learn about bands www.theskyline.net - A good site that discusses local music www.spacecityrock.com - A good site for local music CD reviews Secret Saturday shows (www.myspace.com/secretsaturdayshows)- they have a big festival on august 2 and 3. A good way to check out local music without having to stay out late.
This is a response to the article I posted (a link to) above... There are so many reasons for the Houston "indie" music scene to "suffer," there's really no where to start. One thing that seems pretty glaring to me is there's really only two ways for somebody to go to a show in Houston. One, drive to the venue. Two, take a taxi to the venue. Both of these have their inherent problems. If you drive, you either don't drink/do drugs or you drive drunk/on drugs. If you take a taxi, the price of admission goes up about 1000% over the cover charge. Cities like Chicago, San Francisco, New York and Seattle have intricate public transportation systems that run well after closing time. "Indie" hot-spots like Austin, Charlotte, Asheville, Louisville, etc. are all small enough to avoid the driving/taxi issue (or at least minimize it). When someone says "Houston is a city of 4 million plus people blah, blah, blah..." they're referring to an area that extends from Galveston to Conroe and from damn-near Beaumont to Katy. You can see how distance alone makes a "scene" in a city of that population difficult to gestate. There are many other factors, obviously, that contribute to Houston's lack of "scene." I would also like to make the point that every "scene" has its issues and complainers. Hell, I've lived in Austin since 91 and I've heard every type of gripe imaginable about how poor the Austin music scene is. Seriously. Carry on...
If you're questioning the capabilities of Houston music, do yourself a favor and check out the upcoming Houston Press Music Awards Showcase. Some of the artists, such as the Wild Moccasins (Up for "best new band," and "best indie rock"), Fat Tony (nominee for "best underground hip hop") and Young Mammals (formerly the Dimes, winners of last year's "best new band" and now nominated for "best indie rock") are bands that really give you hope for the future of our scene. I've played countless times at venues all across Houston and I can attest to some of the qualms people have brought up; many venues are in poor condition and deal very poorly with the bands. I've played shows where the show ends around 1 and we have to wait until 3:00-3:30 for the club owner to show up and give us our cut. There are a few venues that are very friendly to local bands such as Walter's on Washington (if you can show them that you can bring in a crowd) and the former Super Happy Funland(still closed, unfortunately and whose situation is looking bleaker every day). I'll be heading out to the Engine Room tomorrow for the Tilly and the Wall show, but mainly to see the opening bands: the aforementioned Wild Moccasins and Elaine Greer (another incredibly talented indie artist from Houston). Do yourself a favor and try to make it out to the Houston Press showcase if you can't make it tomorrow.
This is one of the reasons I moved out of the city. Houston has a very poor indie rock scene. Alot of shows I've been to when I was in Houston have had maybe 5-10 people in attendance and these are artists who have played in front of thousands at music festivals. Many of these artists have record contracts as well. The same band would attract at least 100-200 in a place other than Houston. I hate to say it, but Dallas/Denton far outpaces any scene there is in Houston. They have some amazing artists coming out of that area. A few are Ghostland Observatory, Midlake, The Hourly Radio, Ghosthustler, etc... Dallas even has that new Wall of Sound Festival. I won't even start on Austin as this is one of the indie rock holy sites. Other than Brooklyn, NYC...Austin has hand's down one of the best scenes in the country. I do think many budding artists in Houston actually move to other areas of Texas and start bands elsewhere. Like a few members of Voxtrot, Midlake, Tacks the Boy Disaster, The Hourly Radio all were from Houston originally. Houston has a few artists coming up in this scene like Indian Jewelry and Young Mammals, but they are really just starting out. The city has some pretty decent venues like Super Happy Fun Land, Proletariet (RIP), The Mink, Meridian, Warehouse Live, etc...but the whole thing is people in the city don't support live music. It is really depressing to see 10 people at a show for an established act. Its kind of crazy seeing shows like Tokyo Police Club not even sell out in a room of 300 people. Or 200 people show up for Voxtrot. Or Ratatat barely sells out on the day of the show. The only thing that is nice about this is you can always find tickets to your shows in Houston, whereas in other cities these tickets will sell out in a few hours.
Also www.superunison.com and www.pegstar.net It has a good collection of indie rock shows of more well known touring acts.
It take 20 or 30,000 kids sequestered within a college town to make up a good rock scene. We just don't have that. We are a low density, suburban town with commuter colleges.
