DD is my favorite poster, but clearly ignorant on this one. You're invited to visit and I'll show you something cool and cheap all over town. Things you'll never find in the wrinkle-nosed land of the self-absorbed. Of course, you'd have to like finding cool and cheap things that surprise and challenge you on Harwin, or Bellaire, or Fairview, or Travis, or on Irvington, or N. Shepherd, or Washington Ave, or 11th or all over town. The mix of cultures, the drive and the freedom to create in a town with very few restrictions really makes Houston what it is, for better and worse. There's no Orange Show, no Beer Can house, no art car parade in Austin for a reason. Elitist won't allow it. There's something wonderful and fantastic about being able to turn your front yard into a welding shop or duplex into an antique store, or your kitchen into a falaphel shop. The people make the real heart of this city into neighborhoods and districts of culture and centers of commerce by choice and energy and hard work, and they bring the restaurants and shops and appetites and interests that build real urban neighborhoods. Baytown's a bit different.
Now that's definitely an opinion...Say, you like the Dave Matthews Band and U2(My two favorite active bands), you are much better off in Houston. I wouldn't really know about local talent, but you didn't mention that in your post. Personally, I think that the music scene in Houston is endlessly better.
Just to correct a misunderstanding... actually, for the most part, the Houston area...especially the eastern part...was originally built on strawberry fields and rice patties..maybe there was some swampland somewhere around here, but not that i know of.. Can't argue with the smokestacks tho...coming from where I do.. For the record, I wouldn't mind spending some time in Austin...I enjoy visiting there..huess my lungs are used to H-town, the pollution doesn't bother me..
I love the (supposedly) sex-crazed dimsie, for spitting it out, time and again, when tamer posts demure. Elvis, you are indeed a lucky man. And quite a good judge of music, as I understand. Nevertheless, you are wrong, again. Austin music is absolutely flavorless, colorless, and without any nutritional value whatsoever. There's much more interesting work being done right here in good old H-town, but of course you'd never know it. It takes a lot of work to find what's good here. In...that...that place, everyone's climbing over themselves to proclaim the Next Big Thing, and there's helluva alotta crappy roooots wank, too. God save us, that's not exclusive to H-town. Please, God, drop a Bomb on that horrific, blind, crap-smear festival that's "rooots" rock. Jebus, those people make me puke. But, but... I good ole H-town, there's a weath of creativity that comes from the very absence of a "scene", where our different minds make their own way. The "scenester" or "poseurs" of years ago just wank what yestidday said was 'it' fo the guest list. F@*! them. All touring acts suck. You're crowded into a cattle ring, tagged and branded, and allowed to woooo! or loft your lighter occasionally if the stoogie thinks it flattering. Fuc@ y9u, stoogie. Ok, there are some that cross the great divide and make a fake connection that allows one to enjoy the ride of an entirely non-participatory experience. Tony Bennett and Tom Jones Rocked. But that club crap is destined to suck if the drugs aren't mixed just right, and how often does that happen? Oh well. Recor4ded music will always be a preference for me. H-town has fabulous gay discos, btw. You should check it out, even or esp. if youre not gay. Great music and party atmosphere.
I could care less what other people think of Houston. I'm more proud to be a Texan than Houstonian. The Houston music scene is not better than Austin's. But It could be just as good if everyone from Houston did not move to Austin. Plus Austin has Brown Whornet. I would rather live in Houston than Austin. I remember going to some park in Austin a few years back. It was so crowded I felt like I had to take a number just to look at a tree. It really was bizarre. But than again at least they have nice parks. And I don't like the idea of having nothing but "hip" people around wherever I go. It just creeps me out. I do have tons of fun in Austin every time I go, and I wish I went more. But these people who try to make Houston out to be more than it is are just fooling themselves. It's like a travel brochure for Galveston. It makes it look real good, but when you get there, its like "Damn". And like Space Center Houston.... OMG. Do your kids, yourself, and anyone elese a favor. Do not take them there. It is horrible. I drive by it every day on my way to work and just feel sorry for all the people who got suckered in to going there. Could you imagine driving 1,000 miles for that? Saving up your money for months to take your kids to there???? Don't give me wrong though. I love NASA and just wish they had the old NASA tour before it got all wannabe Disney. Houston is what it is. It is like a C+. Houston keeps it "real". Yeah it can be dirty and it can be cheezy, but I think this town has some real SOUL. (Just don't Landry's Downtown take it away).
Austin is the live "mediocre" music capitol of the word. It is so funny how they make a big deal about sxsw when only two bands have been discovered there with one of those being Hansen."doo wop" If you like hip hop or good dance music, Austin is the suckiest place on the planet. There are like four dance clubs in the entire city and one of them is Poly Esthers.
As an inpartial observer that hasn't visited either city, Smeg will compare and contrast the two when he visits in April. For all those Houstonites, i will make sure not to take into account the presence of HeyP in my assessment. Any Austinites heard of the band Spoon??? absolutely love their new album Kill the Moonlight (Dimsie give it a try) hope like hell they are playing at home when i visit???
Endlessly better than Austin??? Sigh. If you like alt.rock, singer/songwriter stuff or blues, hell yes Austin has a better music scene. If you want ANYTHING else, you are far more likely to find it in Houston. Speaking as someone who knows many musicians in both cities and plays with a lot of them, there is absolutely NO comparison when it comes to diversity in music between Austin and Houston. Houston wins on that hands down as well as: Jazz R&B Funk Hip Hop/Rap Country Celtic Latin/Salsa Tejano Symphony I could even make a pretty strong case for folk music given that there are as many heavy hitters of that genre from the Houston area as Austin but it really isn't a consideration because most folk guys don't live in the cities. They mostly live in rural areas. I know tons of musicians who absolutely loathe Austin for its pretentiousness and lack of diversity in music. Try to find a Latin pianist or traditional upright jazz bassist for a gig up there. They have never had an r&b or rap scene while Houston is referred to by many urban artists as the Third Coast. You want great salsa or an unreal jazz trio? Don't bother looking in Austin. In addition, Houston has one of the most well respected classical fine arts communities in America. The symphony and ballet orchestra as well as the Grande Opera are always ranked highly in the US and Da Camera is one of the finest non-profit arts organizations anywhere. They consistently bring tremendous jazz, classical and world music artists to Houston and have been doing so for years. Austin has two things over Houston: 1. A lot of famous musicians LIVE there even if they never PLAY there except when they are coming through town on tour. But, that isn't necessarily an advantage when it comes to getting them to play. Hell, I can get any of those guys to play if I offer them $150. 2. Venue availability. The reason many of the national acts you mentioned go to Dallas and Austin over Houston is because Houston does not have the right sized venues. Verizon Theater is only 1300 seats. The Music Hall is gone and most of the venues downtown are focused on classical or jazz performance (Hobby Center, Jones Hall, Wortham Center). As a result, Houston often gets bypassed because it just doesn't have the right sized places to accommodate many artists. Also, the conglomeration of clubs in one centralized location in Austin is an advantage though it is getting tougher and tougher to find a club on or near 6th Street that features live ORIGINAL music on a regular basis. Many of them have opted for covers or DJ and away from original music to draw in the college crowd. However, with the revitilization of downtown, that looks like it will change. The club scene in downtown Houston is in its infancy but it is becoming stronger and if you know someone who remembers how cool Market Square was in the 70's, you'll understand what downtown can be for music. Thanks to MTV and a few well-placed famous people who live there, Austin has gotten a reputation for being the place to be when it comes to music in Texas. If you fit into one of the categories of music Austin serves, it is. If you want something other than that limited palette, there is NO PLACE better in Texas than Houston. Period. Finally, on record stores, does it really matter? Given the internet availability of pretty much anything and everything, places like Waterloo and Cactus are becoming just places for the cool people to hang out and make fun of the rest of us losers. Besides, the best record store in either city is All Records on West Gray. If Fred can't get it, they don't make it and I don't know of a record shop outside of NYC that has a better selection of great jazz music.
Austin is the stomping ground for my favorite musician, Doyle Bramhall II. So Austin wins my musical heart every time. heh
when it comes to music on this BBS... Nobody does it better... Jeff is da man...and a bassist at that...what more could you want?
Jesus, you guys, OK. Chill. No need to write an impassioned War and Peace length defence of your musician friends. I wasn't actually talking about the *local* music scenes of each respective city, because I don't really care about them at all. (The only local music scene I care about is New Zealand's, for obvious reasons.) I was talking about touring bands. Sorry for the confusing wording of my post - that was bad writing on my part. Perhaps, to be more clear, I should have said: hardly anyone that I give a damn about seeing comes to Houston because the promoters suck, the venues are the wrong size, and everyone in Houston likes crappy roots music and classic rock. However, I would argue that SXSW has a *far* greater variety of acts than just alt.rock and singer-songwriters, and where's that held? Austin. Not Houston. Plus, record stores are *not* just places for 'cool people to hang out'. A little bitter there, Jeff? Great record stores are, as you say, dying and I think Waterloo Records is... well, it's just neat. There's something about physically browsing racks... you'll discover things you would never think of searching for on the internet. I found a Costello import seven inch single on red vinyl. Yay. Pasox2: I've been to gay discos in Houston (the private Halloween parties at Rich's rock!). The music sucks (I hate old-school house) but the spectacle is fantastic! Oh, and I saw Tom Jones in Las Vegas. He is *so* great. I would have thrown my underwear if I'd had any to spare.
so, basically if you're liberal and have lived in Austin, you favor Austin. If you live in Houston and have had a bad experience in Austin, you favor Houson.
Rich's is an absolute must-visit for guests. Club no minors also. Damn, dims, now you've got me thinking about you with no panties at the Tom Jones show. Shame on you. Must Remember Wife Now. O.k.... problem solved. Goodness gracious, what a well-crafted post elipsis.
Dangeous to do, but without reading the whole thread. The weather in Houston does not suck! Have any of you ever actually lived in a place like Wisconsin or much of the North. Cold weather sucks!! Sometimes I think all of the Texans whose only experience with cold weather is a cute little week in Colorado skying should be required to spend a couple of winters up in the North, where it is not only cold 24/7 for six months, but dark and gloomy. Trudge through soot covered snow and freeze your ass off in cold cars in the morning. Stand on cold corners waiting for a bus. Then talk to me about the weather in Houston. Is San Diego and much of the West Coast better whetherwise,?Yes, but much of the country is not. Regarding Austin, I actually moved back to Houston from Austin 15 years ago after 3 months as I missed cheap rent, good pay, the inner loop, ethnic diversity, the lack of traffic in the inner loop Houston in comparison to the congestion in central Austin, (this is changing as inner loop Houston gets denser). That being said, Austin is a great place to visit. I now find myself liking it better as it becomes a bigger, more diverse city and expands beyond the college student or government crowd.
SXSW has become a joke. Just to get into the conference costs like $500 and the only way to actually play the thing is to buy out a club for a night or hope that your manager can. Most of the best spots are taken up by bands already signed on big labels because the record companies can buy out the clubs. And, though it was orignially created as a way to attract record company types to Austin to see and sign indie and un-signed artists, there hasn't been a notable act signed there in almost 10 years. As for variety, again, they don't have Latin, Jazz, Country, Tejano, R&B or hip hop/rap available as part of the show. Occassionally a rapper or alt.country artist will create a buzz, but it is rare. The truth is that the venues want college music or blues because it is what draws the crowds, not jazz or Latin or whatever. There's nothing wrong with that, but it isn't variety. I've played and lived in Austin and I don't have anything against the place, but it does NOT get a wide variety of music and much of that is because it is a college town predominated by white kids. If it weren't for Antone's, it is questionable whether it would even be a big blues city. In reality, there are FAR more blues bands that hang in Dallas and Houston than in Austin. It was just the call of that one really amazing club that got them to Austin in the first place - i.e. SRV. In fact, many of the most killer blues guys are from east Texas, not central. Again, if you want variety, Austin isn't the place and that includes touring acts. Because, to me, variety includes jazz, latin, r&b, hip hop, funk, country and tejano, not just rock, alternative or variations thereof. I would not dispute that Austin has MORE music on the whole. It does both nationally and locally. But it isn't a wide variety of musical genres.
I love Austin. I love the Hill Country, the weather, the music scene (limited as it may be), the smaller town feel. I just feel good there. I live in Houston because my family and job is here. I don't expect to be here forever. That being said, I've eaten all over both cities--and Dallas as well. Dallas and Austin combined don't have better restaurants per capita than Houston does. Even Texas Monthly (based out of Austin and having an obvious love affair with Dallas) agrees. Don't get me wrong, all three cities have some great places, Houston just beats the other two out. Now...Hotels are another matter. Houston sucks for hotels.
You're a bit out of date as far as I'm concerned. The Datsuns and the D4 (both New Zealand bands, actually) played there last year and were both signed by major labels. Each is being touted as the saviour of rock in Q, The Face, and the NME. Of course, the British music press *does* tend to exaggerate a little. And actually, Jeff, I don't really take your opinion about modern rock music as read: you think *The Rising* was the best album released last year, don't you? Let's look at SXSW's list of recent acts and see what kind of 'notable' musicians played there. Probably post-signing to labels, but does that really make a difference to the general calibre of the festival? And let's look at the 'variety' of acts, to address your other point about Austin. Oh look, hiphop and funk: the Blackeyed Peas, Cypress Hill, Jurassic 5 and George Clinton. The Lo Fidelity Allstars, Tom Waits, Rufus Wainwright, Carl Perkins, Elliott Smith, Willie Nelson, Shelby Lynne, Mercury Rev, Beck, R.L. Burnside. Sounds like variety and 'notable' to me! (Elvis is noting that Tom Waits has *never* played Houston!) Next year, Tony Joe White, Idlewild, Camper van Beethoven and Richie Havens are playing, to name a few of the hundreds. I agree, the damn thing costs too much. But it's a great festival and beats anything comparable in Houston. Tejano is the devil's music, Jeff. I'm saying *the bands I want to see - and I want to see a lot of different kinds of bands! - don't come to Houston*. Or if they do, they don't come on the first go round, which is *unacceptable* for a city that size, the fourth largest in the country. That includes dance acts and DJs (did you list them? No. Well, that's important to a large group of us), a *very* large variety of rock and alt.rock, singer-songwriters, *and* classic rock too! Paul McCartney's first leg played Dallas and not Houston! That's bloody ridiculous! Houston is more than twice Dallas' size! No, screw it, scratch my initial opinion. Now that I think about it, I actually take issue with your theory that there's more variety in touring acts in Houston. Let's check Pollstar for the next little while. Oh look, Al Jarreau (soul! jazz! or whatever you call what he does) is playing in San Antonio... but not Houston! Cheap Trick (classic rock if ever I heard it) is playing Austin *twice* *and* Fort Worth... but not Houston! The Yellowjackets (horrible, horrible, but they're jazz fusion stuff as I recall) and Branford Marsalis are playing Austin... but not Houston! If Houston's such a great jazz town for touring acts, why aren't *they* going there? Joan Baez. Austin. Not Houston. Hank Williams Jr. San Antonio. Not Houston. There are *seven pages* of acts playing in Austin (and surrounding cities) and *three* pages for Houston. And there are repeat acts in *both* cities. I would be willing to concede that hip-hop acts play more in Houston (why did I miss Outkast? Why why why?) if I could find *one upcoming appearance in Houston by a notable hip-hop act on Pollstar*! But I can't! Even *I'm* seeing Xzibit next week, in *New Zealand*! If we're going to compare *all* Texas cities to NY or LA, then sure, every city in Texas sucks for touring acts. But Houston sucks the most, with the possible musical exceptions of a) Tejano (which as I've said is the devil's music ) and b) hip-hop (and even that might be debatable). So I think your theory of vast musical variety in touring acts in Houston compared to touring acts in Austin is a bit iffy.
