Local Album of the Month
LOCAL ALBUM OF THE MONTH: JULY
Den mother - "Fortune favors the bold" (2018) : Houston, tx
Disclaimer: I actually know their long-haired, smart-ass lead singer Anthony from high school. And yeah I know, "Dude, stop talking about high-school, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH." Whatever man, you should know these fuckers jam.
Me & Colt randomly found ourselves at 'The Secret Group' off of Polk Street sometime last year, and little did I know, Den Mother had a set. I tried to hide the fact that I already knew all their lyrics, but it really didn't matter much. They smashed 2 songs, and then all the fucking audio equipment jumped off a cliff. Their guitarist, Winton, tried to salvage the show, but it was too late. He ended up in a 1-Man moshpit, headbanging on a silent guitar. Meanwhile, Colt's "Cobain Syndrome" started flaring up, so he started puking his guts outside the venue.
10 out if 10 experience, would definitely mother my den again.
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I'll never know enough about rock sub-genres to put these dudes in a box, but if I had to guess, Math Rock but... cooler? Idk man, one dude's doing some of that complicated tapping shit, while moving through some crazy ass chord structures, and on top of that, there's a bunch of gnarly tempo changes and shit. And the drummer was the lead singer. So yeah, they're dope. Check em' out.
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Links: https://music.apple.com/us/album/fortune-favors-the-bold-ep/1369475011
LOCAL ALBUM OF THE MONTH: AUGUST
WARSTORIES - "CONSCIOUS HEALING" (2020) : SAN ANTONIO, TX
Years ago, somewhere on the outskirts of San Antonio, me & Colt were wasting our lives away in some shitty JCPenney's. Little did I know, about 15 yards away on the other side of the failed abortion's shoe department, there was... James Blue.
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James is one of the guitarist from a SA band known as WARSTORIES, and my ass spent all my XP points on 'strength' instead of 'awareness', so it took some time to find this fucker and his friends. But our time would soon come.
A little while after all that shit, our homie G told us to pull out to this event they were throwing called "Free Week". And even though we had moved back to Houston by then, Colt's had been on my ass about seeing this dude "80'sBlonde" perform live, so I knew we had to push back to SA. I'm so fucking glad we did.
Now we did our fair share of shows at the Paper Tiger, but nothing like this. These young dudes had that bitch packed out, and every person in that thang' was having fun. Moshpits, sing-alongs, motherfuckers on a surfboard riding through the crowd, they had it all. But this is about Warstories, so allow me to focus a bit.
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My older sister is a big-time Nirvana geek, so I have a special place in my heart for that bleeding-grungy sound, and its part of the reason why I love music so much. And as far as knew, that sound was dead long before I was born, but... Warstories gave me that feeling that I thought I'd never have, with a twist and a new sound.
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So shout-out to the dope-ass gnarly motherfuckin' lead singer Jordan (y'all gotta see his back tat), the big live-ass gauged motherfucker on bass ripping through shit, and the hidden monster killing shit on the drums. Y'all inspired me to get off my ass, and start believing in shit again. So thank you.
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Now I never met James or any of the other guys from Warstories, but if I did, I assume that shit would have changed my life. If I would've just seen that fucking Red Mustang Fender A LITTLE SOONER, I swear to whatever god you believe in, my head would've been so far up their ass, I'd be using their ribs for braces.
Anyways, they go fucking hard. Go listen... bitches.
P.S. Shoutout to Jose aka Boog. Bro's live too.
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Standout Tracks: Constructive Deconstruction, Complicated
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Links: https://music.apple.com/us/album/conscious-healing/1481304288
https://warstoriestx.com/
https://www.instagram.com/warstories210/
LOCAL ALBUM OF THE MONTH: SEPTEMBER
FADE 'EM ALL - "FADE 'EM ALL" (2018) : HOUSTON, TX
Now its time to get down to the nitty-gritty. I've been trying to resist putting this album down, because it's too... easy. Not in a bad way though, its mainly because most people that are even slightly aware of Houston's underground music scene have heard of Fade 'Em All. And they also know that... THEY ARE THE SHIT.
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As most good music-related things start, Colt put me on to this dude "Rusk" back in 2018. He had this Kendrick-esque track called "Um.. I Just Might", and that shit banged, so I've been on board since. (And if you haven't figured it out, Rusk is the lead singer of all this shit)
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It's a traditional 4 piece group, vocals, guitar, bass, & drums. They kinda have a rotating guitarist role, people switch out every now and then during to touring issues or something, but the riff still get shredded regardless. The Drummer can push the shit out the tempo & he can lay back and add that swing to it. The Bassist (Cam?) bottom line is the truth, so really the shit just works.
Their recorded music plays a lot with modern modulation and sampling, which is pretty sparse in punk, and more in line with hip-hop. So they end up with this unique rap/punk fusion, that seem so current, creative, & sincere, that it feels like fucking real and not just a bunch of sewn together clichés.
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I've seen them perform live at least 3 or 4 times already, and they bring the shits every time. Especially from where I stand, I know how hard that is, so I have to respect the fuck out of it. Rumor has it, behind the scenes they're getting the push from names like: The Internet, Matt Martians, Omar Apollo, JPEG, and god knows who else. Its obvious that they've got a shit ton of momentum, and they deserve every bit of it & more.
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I know I say this all the time, but good music really is some inspiring shit. I couldn't see an evolution of punk, and somehow Fade 'Em showed me what's possible with this album. It really is some special shit, and I hope they blow the doors off of this motherfucker. Soon.
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Standout Tracks: Punk Tempo, Fade 'Em
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Links: https://music.apple.com/us/album/fade-em-all/1440471772
LOCAL ALBUM OF THE MONTH: OCTOBER
SOCIAL STATIC - "CALLOUS" (2019) : HOUSTON, TX
First of all, shout to the homie Brian (FrontierHTX) for putting us on to these dudes. He invited us to a show off of McKee Street, and it just so happens that they had a set that night. 15 minutes of hardcore fucking ripping, and we've been watching them since. The drummer even got us to buy a fucking cassette that we cant play. Still worth it.
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Standout Track: Not My Name
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Links:
https://album.link/i/1491055897
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LOCAL ALBUM OF THE MONTH: NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
DUMB PUPS - "Demo EP" (2020) : HOUSTON, TX
I've been following this band for a lil' minute, and they're pretty sick. They sound like an evolved version of one my favorite sub-genres (Midwest emo), with some of that gazer-grunginess. They don't have a lot of music out, but they just dropped an EP a couple days ago. I wish I had more to write, but right now I'm a lazy fuck. So at the end of the day, they're from our side of the pond, so you should go check em' out.
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Standout Tracks: Shade
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Links:
https://album.link/us/i/1488717323
https://www.instagram.com/dumbpupstx/
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LOCAL ALBUM OF THE MONTH: JANUARY
VICE VINCENT - "INACTIVE" (2020): HOUSTON, TX
Link: https://album.link/us/i/1544614267
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LOCAL SONG OF THE MONTH: MARCH
RICK GLACIERS - "ordinary people" (2021): HOUSTON, TX
Link: https://song.link/us/i/1553533978
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