KTRU 91.7 FM FALL 2007 A Rookie’s Guide to the Houston Scene By KTRU Staff two most famous groups: ZZ Top and lificacy, however, has been outmatched Spain Colored Orange, Bring Back the Houston is one of the best-kept secrets Destiny’s Child. by his reclusiveness; despite capturing Guns, and the Dimes, and acts like Mo- of American culture. Though Houston In addition to these superstars, Houston the imagination of three generations of tion Turns It On and Sharks and Sailors artists have made fascinating and diverse also nurtures a thriving underground that music geeks, Jandek has given only two push prog rock into new and exciting ter- contributions to popular music, the city has is little-known outside the city. Its history interviews in his entire life, and did not ritory. Local rock labels are popping up at an unjustified reputation as something of a can traced, roughly, to the Texas psyche- give the first of his still-meager handful of a nearly unprecedented rate, providing a cultural wasteland. Part of that reputation delic movement of the late 60s. Houston live performances until 2004 (in Glasgow, desperately needed foundation for local art- is due to comparison to Houston’s close was home to both the movement’s found- Scotland oddly enough), 26 years after the ists. Meanwhile, extreme heavy metal has neighbor Austin, which for decades was ing record label, International Artists, and start of his “career.” been and continues to be one of Houston’s one of the capitals of American counter- one of its most influential and long-lived The unrestrained imagination of artists specialties, with locals like Braced for culture—part of it is due to a virtually bands, the Red Krayola. Wild, irreverent, like Jandek has played an integral part Nails and Infernal Dominion attracting nonexistent local music industry. esoteric, unprofessional, and bracingly in making Houston uniquely welcoming national attention as grindcore veterans Nevertheless, not everything from the confrontational, the band was supposedly toward free jazz and creative improvised Pretty Little Flower and Insect Warfare asphalt prairies of southeast Texas escapes bribed to stop playing in Berkeley. The music, helped by organizations such as continue to defend Houston’s place as the notice of the music world. Along with Red Krayola provided a key foundation Nameless Sound, which brings a strong the power violence capital of the South. Chicago and Memphis, Houston has long for the idiosyncratic and intensely anti- program of avant-garde performers to Finally, Houston’s diverse ethnic makeup been considered one of the true homes commercial aesthetic that has continually Houston each year. Traditional jazz has ensures the presence of a wide variety of of the blues. Legendary blues guitarists pervaded much of Houston’s underground experienced a recent boom as well, with world and folk music, from reggaeton, to Albert Collins and Lightnin’ Hopkins called rock, from the substance-abusing punk the influx of New Orleans musicians in the tejano, to zydeco, to gamelan. Houston home, and the city also played a of Bark Hard and the Party Owls, to the wake of Hurricane Katrina boosting the In the past two decades, Houston has part in the biographies of Leadbelly, Guitar sloppy, gloriously self-indulgent psych of jazz scene considerably. Houston is also grown from a Texas oil town into a booming Shorty and Townes Van Zandt. Dry Nod, Charlambides, and Mike Gunn, home to the International Jazz Festival, the metropolis that is widely considered to be Yet, though authentic Texas blues to the deranged prog of the Slurpees and only internationally-geared traditional jazz one of America’s truly international cities. can still be heard from the likes of Little the snot-nosed garage of the Fatal Flying festival in the country. KTRU has tradition- Today, it is a place of many flavors, many Joe Washington and Grady Gaines in the Guilloteens. ally played a major role in expanding the colors, and many rhythms—all fueled by setup bars of the city’s Third Ward, blues The Red Krayola’s most notable audience for challenging but intensely the unmitigated and uncorrupted joy of has been eclipsed in recent years by hip- aesthetic progeny, however, include the rewarding music. creation for its own sake, and by the ability hop, a descendant of the blues that has Pain Teens, a dark, almost gothic noise The innocence and creativity that mark of art to shape an urban environment that yielded many of present-day Houston’s band fronted by the coldly beautiful Bliss Houston’s underground tradition remain can often be forbidding or restrictive. In the most innovative, expressive and thunder- Blood, and Jandek, a notorious stage name evident in today’s rock community. The spirit of the city, it is this ability—the trans- ously ambitious artists, including Chamil- assumed by an otherwise unassuming local indie rock scene is positively jump- formative power of music—that KTRU DJs lionaire, Paul Wall, DJ Screw, Devin the Houston man. Since 1978, Jandek has ing with smart, fun, professional bands, and listeners explore every day. Dude, and UGK. The old and new faces of self-released more than 50 albums of and recordings are increasingly savvy Ian Wells and Daniel Mee contributed blues-based music are worn by Houston’s weird, vulnerable psych-folk. His pro- and well-made. Notable names include to this article What is the Rice Radio Folio? The Folio is first and foremost a programming and listening guide designed to help you keep up with what’s on air. For your pleasure, our DJs also generate a healthy serving of album reviews, playl- ists, band profiles, concert calendars, interviews and news and information about KTRU and the Houston music scene. The Folio was a more regular feature from the 1980s through the early 1990s, when it educated and entertained readers on a weekly basis. The station’s boost to 50,000 watts and resultant lack of a reliable on-campus signal until the late 1990s, contrib- uted to its (partial) abandonment. This year, The Folio lives again, AP PHOTOS in a longer, if less frequent form. If you are new to KTRU, the folio is a excellent place to begin what will no doubt be a long and fruit- Voxtrot takes the stage with KTRU ful love affair. If you’re already in this relationship, the folio is just Austin-based Voxtrot plays to the masses in the Rice Village, on the KTRU stop of the Free Yr Radio tour. another way to get more of what you love. The Body and Soul of Funk By Ketch Morse your gut with the first chord and ensuing something great. This week I featured izing it for the contemporary scene. Look Funk is a primal enterprise. The soul wail. The sweat on your brow and the Dave Hamilton from Detroit, Minsato le mi to Brooklyn for the incredible Daptone musician and the funk groover are locked longing in your loins are interpretation Daihome from West Africa, and the JB’s, Records. I kissed Sharon Jones in a mo- in the mutual pursuit of carnal and spiritual enough. Can we point back to the grand among others. Charles Wright’s featured ment of frenzied rhythms unbound. Scour pleasure—loathe to be captured in the traditions of the spiritual in this country? “One Lie (Leads to Another)” is not just an the Bay Area for Now Again Records, or printed word. Shouts, wild guitar solos, Surely. Can we thank Black America? We artifact of Watts in the mid-1960s; rather, it cross the Atlantic to find Jazzman. All these psychedelic expressions of lust, and bass should, and I do. Can we go and taste is a rollicking tale of romantic unraveling record labels grip the flesh of history in lines that coax the most timid souls into the gritty streets of Detroit with our own fit only for a party. I am partial to many nu- one hand and bang out new rhythms with headlong syncopated grooves are just a mouths? Indeed. These things have all anced variations of this wonderful music. the other. few components of the intangible yet di- made their contributions. I can tell you Its jazzier side can send you barreling down I invite you to join me each Thursday vine presence of soul. Funk is the pursuit where funk and soul music came from, the highway in a haze of bongos (see Grant on the finest radio station in town. The of every freedom—all at once. We cannot but there is a better question: Where will it Green’s “Sookie Sookie”). Sometimes the party begins at 7 p.m. and jumps feverishly catalogue every urge, all the sin, or the take you? New Orleans, a stranger’s room sexuality is simultaneously subversive until 8 p.m. Your requests, experiences, sum total of vexed love released wildly into on a steamy Houston night, a dark club in and thick (see Otis Redding’s “Open the and desires are welcome. If nothing else, microphones and onto dance floors—nor Brooklyn—these are all places to receive Door”). And sometimes it’s just overt (see I’ll loudly broadcast a redemption for the shall we attempt to. I suggest instead that the communion of soul. Andre Williams’ “Humpin, Bumpin, and evils that plague the condition of the con- you find yourself with a willing lover in Funk is in some regards a history. Thumpin”). temporary (wo)man. So join me; we’ve got your arms and a cold drink in your hand Loosely, it began in the mid 1960s in this But just as there are great men and stuff to do: party, party, and party.