The pains of being too busy to enjoy the pains of being pure at heart

I've had to put lots of music I wanted to listen to on the back burner this past year because I've been so busy. One band I've had recommended to me a few times is NYC noise pop group The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and recently have gotten around to listening to them. It's a pity it took me so long to discover these guys because they are excellent.

Their self-titled first album is a noisy but dancy release that incorporates a number of shoegaze themes with present day indie pop. In songs like "Teenage in Love" (not to be confused with the Dion and the Belmonts song) the band uses fast, dance-tempo, drumbeats and whimsical lyrics to create angsty but restrained music that is hard not to love. The vocalist sings in a very dramatic, Morrisey/Ride, sort of style which completely appeals to me as a post-punk junkie. The real success of the record is its innocent poppiness and simplicity.

My favorite tracks include A Teenager in Love, Contender, and Hey Paul.

A look at Black Dog Records

Black Dog Records is an inconspicuous little record store on South Shepherd, in the same plaza as Star Pizza. While the store specializes in 60s and 70s records, the stock is eclectic and includes vinyl from a variety of genres. Recently the store was recognized by Google for being the best record store in Houston. I've known the owner, Cliff for over a year now and in that time, he's taught me a lot about music.

Me: Are you the original owner?

Cliff: Yes I am. I started Black Dog Records online, selling at conventions and stuff and that went from 96 to 98. And then I decided I liked it so much that I wanted to open a store and we opened the physical store in 1998.

Me: One thing that really stands out about Black Dog Records is the abundance of hard to find records. How do you find your rarer pieces? Some of them I have a hard time believing that someone just brought them in.

Cliff: Well, one thing we focus on is finding vinyl in the best possible condition. I'm one of those owners where I don't buy just for me but more for the people who will come in here and hopefully support my store. So I try buy everything from something as typical as the Monkees to something so obscure that the hardcore prog collectors would appreciate. I've been very fortunate because in the years I've been here I've had people bring me collections I never thought I'd see and they bring them to me because they know that I'm willing to pay top dollar for them in the shape I want them in.

Me: Even though I can find gems at bigger places like Half Price Books, sometimes I'll bring an album home and realize it's all fucked up and be really pissed off.

Cliff: And rightfully so. No one should sell crappy vinyl. I clean every piece before it comes out to the public and inspect each piece under a halogen light. I don't expect everyone to do it but that's the way that I do it.

Me: The last time I was in here, you told me about that Google award you won. Tell us a little more about that.

Cliff: Google called me and said that we had received their nomination for best record store in Houston which is just an incredible accomplishment for us, we were just tickled pink. They came by and photographed the store and did a really nice job of putting us out there. So I asked them, 'who was runner up?' and the woman from Google, I can't remember her name, said 'oh, we don't do that, we just pick the best of the best'. I didn't know we were best of the best but I'm glad that Google thinks that.

Me: Have you noticed, over the past couple years, any increase in the interest in vinyl?

Cliff: Yes I have. It's really been on the rise and it's continued to go up. Our business is doing so well. I'm just overjoyed. And what I'm finding is that a lot of young people, who have been brainwashed into thinking that CD is the sound of all sounds, are discovering vinyl and realizing that they've been duped. They're coming in and buying a lot of the old classic rock stuff whether it's original or whether it's the 180 gram vinyl. They want the warmness and brightness of the vinyl sound.

Me: What's changed, since you started, about the layout of the store and how and what you buy?

Cliff: Well, I've continued to buy the best possible vinyl in the best possible shape but I've scaled back on trying to compete with people like Walmart and Best Buy. I used to handle new CDs and I learned a hard lesson with that because they purposely keep us out of that market. I'll go to my distributor and I'll be able to get it for two dollars more than I could get it at Best Buy or someone like that.

Me: Now I know we're in Texas and we're doing a little better than the rest of the country but overall, lots of industries are suffering in the current economy. As a small business owner, has the recession affected your sales at all?

Cliff: No, it actually hasn't. In fact, in comparison to last year our sales are up. But you know I've always been in the music industry, I managed record stores back in the 70's and forward, and we've always had bad times from time to time but I find that people will always buy themselves a case of beer, a couple bottles of wine, and a couple new records and invite friends over and instead of going out and having dinner they'll have people and over and just kind of hang out and just talk to each other which is a great concept in this age of texting and computers.

Clockpole tonight at Mango's Cafe

If you're not from Houston just disregard this one but if you are here, musical collective Clockpole will be playing tonight at Mango's Cafe in Montrose with Rapeworm and a few other local acts. The sounds will be loud, intense, and hopefully awesome because Clockpole, for those of you unfamiliar, is a band that never stays the same. Anyone with an instrument is welcome to go on stage and play with the four core musicians. The goal is to get everyone involved in some way.

While I'm not one of the core members, I will be there playing with Clockpole tonight. If you're an adoring fan and want to find me, I'll be playing the guitar pictured above (I like to stroke the ol' ego every once and a while). Here's the facebook link to the event because I'm just going to assume that most of you have Facebooks.

Zefirina Bomba melts faces

I'm going to share some interesting punk music with you courtesy of a reader who contacted me from Brazil. His band is called Zefirina Bomba and was started in the quiet town of Joao Pessoa. Ilsom said that the tranquility of the town inspired the band's sharply contrasting, loud and subversive sound.

The band currently has two albums released and has secured a spot at SXSW in March. You can listen to some of their stuff here. I really, really, like it. It's loud and noisy but thoughtful at the same time. The best part about their sound besides powerful vocals is their delightuly erratic guitar playing. I also have to add that for punk, it's pretty experimental. I'm sure they're a blast live. If all goes well, I'll see them play here in a few months.

The Wall tears it down at Toyota Center

Haven't been on here in a while and I really regret that. I tried to post some stuff last week but school dropped more and more shit into my lap and prevented me from posting.

Last weekend, Roger Waters performed the whole Wall at the Toyota Center here in Houston and it was fantastic. The only thing that would have made it better is if Rick Right was alive and Nick Mason and David Gilmour weren't "back at the hotel", but the show still managed to be better than I ever anticipated. Besides Waters there was at least one other major Floyd veteran on stage, Snowy White. While white was never a band member, he did tour with Pink Floyd on the original wall tour and also contributed some playing for the European version of Animals.

The content of the show was similar to the original wall but was updated for maximum relevance. Waters collected pictures from fans of people killed in combat and maintained the same anti-war message with out any sort of hippie naivety. Waters has always been a critic of anarch0-capitalism and used to be an outright socialist but during the show he also mocked the role of overbearing government. In the song "Mother" he displayed an ominous red and black animation of a security camera while belting out "of course momma's gonna help build the wall".

Just like the original show, the concert revolved around the building of a literal wall on stage and mind-blowing visuals. One of the most amazing special effects took place after the second song "the thin ice" as a large model plane smashed into the wall and exploded into a giant fireball. An extended cut of the "empty spaces" animation was played and it looked amazing on the huge, circular, screen.

The message of the show was more universal this time too. Using visuals, Waters criticized war, interventionism, over-consumption, radical Islam, and material greed, especially during "goodbye blue sky".

Overall Water's voice held up incredibly well and his band did a good job reinterpreting the music. It's too late for Houston but if by some stroke of good luck, he finds the time to come back again, please go see him. You will thank me.

Dead Audio Fest & Local Noise 2010

Houston often gets credit from music critics and the media for its past contributions to the blues with artists like Sam Lightnin' Hopkins or for the pioneering of chopped and screwed beats with DJ screw or providing an incubator for country and folk with famous residents like Townes Van Zandt. However, progress in less mainstream genres like noise rock, outsider music, and experimental efforts is rarely mentioned which is tragic considering the city's rich but underexposed culture of underground music.

Houston's tradition of “out-there” music started, detectably, in 1966 with a group of art students from the University of St. Thomas, headed by Mayo Thompson, who founded the avante-garde outfit The Red Krayola which was avante-garde way before the genre was profitable or accepted. Just to give readers an example of how “out-there” the band has been in the past, Pitchfork music critic Alex Lindhardt reported that early on in their career the band was paid ten dollars by Berkley to stop their performance. They've gone through many phases and are still active today. Readers can even find their music on CD at Cactus.

Ever since then, there has always been an abundance of new underground bands and musicians in Houston; none very commercially successful but all influential in their own rite. In the 70's Houston saw the activity of players like outsider musician Jandek (which is the genre most musicologists put the delightfully weird Daniel Johnston into). In the 80s and 90s Houston was home to the brilliantly cacophonous noise bands like Pain Teens. Building on the past, the 2000s have been an even more prolific time for the city's complex and rapidly evolving experimental scene seeing the advent of bands like Indian Jewelry, Female Demand, Cop Warmth, A Pink Cloud, and many more.

In the spirit of Houston's colorful experimental and noise music heritage, Super Happy Fun Land will be throwing Dead Audio Fest 2010 on Nov. 12. starting at 2:00 p.m and raging till until 11:30. The bill will include bands from all over the world, such as Skönhet from Sweden, and many from Texas. Some acts will be melodic and others will not be, some are loud while others are more quiet yet they all share one thing in common: if you're looking to hear something like Nickleback or other mainstream crapola they will probably scare you far far away.

To get the most out of the show attendees should come with open minds and a pair of good earplugs. Come out and support Houston's and the world's experimental scenes by showing up at Dead Audio Fest 2010. Whether you love experimental music or hate it, Dead Audio Fest should do a pretty good job blowing your mind.

Go here for a full list of bands.

Agora Coffee bites the dust

Agora Coffee off of Westheimer was one of my favorite places to go and drink coffee and write, especially for this blog. It was quiet and hip but not so hip that I felt like I was in an American Apparel ad which sometimes happens at joints off Westheimer populated by all the young dudes, as Bowie would say. They had a great selection of foreign and domestic beers and wines and a well-developed jukebox. However, at 12:30 AM on Halloween morning, a blaze consumed both Agora and the swanky little Antique Warehaus nextdoor.

It's hard to express how upset I am about the fire since I know everyone who wants to appear hip and happening is going to be loudly and publicly lamenting Agora's loss. I'm not trying to be one of the asshats who strives to appear more authentic than everyone else but I really felt a personal connection with that place. Everytime I'd go I'd spend literally hours there and not have a single thing to complain about as I blogged or worked. If you guys have any memories you'd like to share please, post to the comment section on the blog or the facebook page. I'm trying to collect a body of stories I can re-publish as an homage to Agora and all the great times I know people in the Montrose community have had there.