Let's. Rock. This. Town.

As the summer winds down (oh hells yes Target has school supplies up already), the Houston music scene is throwing out some serious game. This heat ain’t just in the air, it’s on the streets.  This weekend is full of it, and I still feel like half the city thinks that the Free Press’s upcoming Summerfest is an April Fool’s day joke.

Jump in and get wet.

For a look at the first half of the week, check out this week’s Houstonist H-town Rock.

Wednesday, July 22

:: Jason McElweenie Poster Show ::

Hella talented graphic artist, son of America’s Hat, and even better friend, Jason McElweenie, shows off his collection of stellar concert poster designs at Coffee Groundz this Wednesday. Deneyterrio will have posters on sale and exclusive framed prints.  I’ll prob cut you if you miss it. Don’t make me do that.

Coffee Groundz, 7-10pm
2503 Bagby in Midtown
www.coffeegroundz.net
facebook invite

Friday, July 23

:: Andrew Karnavas @ Block 7, 8pm ::

The long awaited premier Houston’s newest concept in Wine Bars, Block 7, is finally here. They open to the public tonight, with free champagne. Stop by starting at 4pm.  I had a chance to preview the place, food, and of course, the wine, this weekend. Fantastic. Advice: Try the gulf shrimp. You’ll thank me. Shawn Pander performed, and Andrew will be performing an acoustic set this Friday. Wonder if I can get him to follow in Shawn’s footsteps and cover Ray Lamontagne.

:: Tontons Pre-release Listening Party @ Little Big’s, 7pm ::

Saturday

:: The Tontons Official CD Release Party @ Caroline Collective 6-10pm ::

Dare I say the music event of the summer?  Last year’s Houston Press Awards winner of Best New Artist continues to impress crowds, this time with their long-awaited full length Self-titled release. Scheduled performances by Giant Princess, Fat Tony, and Houston legend Little Joe Washington. You’ll def want to check out some of the things they’ve got up their sleeves for this show. Food from Little Big’s thanks to @wholefish + hometown brews from Saint Arnold + Tequila aplenty from Riazul + door prizes from Cactus Music. What more could you ask for? (I already checked, Justin Timberlake is booked.)

facebook invite

:: Andrew Karnavas + Daniel de Luna w/ Back Door Slam @ Warehouse Live 8pm ::

facebook invite

Sunday

:: Houston Press Music Awards Showcase ::

With Summerfest right around the corner, our peeps over at the HP are doing a good job of warming us up. Check out the full line up of shows for Sunday. My day will look something like this:

6pm Runway Sun @ Flying Saucer
7pm Mitch Jacobs Band @ Martell’s
8pm The Tontons @ Martell’s
9pm Buxton @ Isis

Plus, there’s still time to vote! Click here for a ballot

See you in the throws.

love + music.

Tags: andrew karnavas, houston, local music, love + music, music, the tontons

Secret Saturday Festival + The Tontons

If you are headed to the Heights for White Linen Nights this Saturday, stop in the nearby Shady’s Tavern for some local music favorites at the two day “not so secret” saturday show.

All of these bands have played over the last year at Shady’s now infamous Saturday Secret Shows.

The tontons, the mathletes, hearts of animals, and (you )genius all on the bill.

Speaking of The Tontons, here are a few of my pics from last Sunday’s Houston Press Music Awards Showcase. The awards show is tomorrow night (wednesday), I’ll have some pics and updates from that on Thursday. They are up for best new band, best album, and best female vocalist.

Tags: bars, music, the tontons

The Last Seven Days

I’m used to my weeks being crazy, but this one took the cake. I can’t believe all that has transpired in the last 168 or so hours. Here are a few highlights from una semana loca.

Monday

When your week starts out with an up til 3am Monday night, you know you are in trouble. I had a long day at work, and was looking forward to a night at home. That was until Mark told me about The Tontons last minute show at Notsuoh. Having just seen them on Saturday at Lebowski Bash, I was jonesing to see them again.

So I met Mark for a drink before the show, and he even let me play photog for the night. Hopefully I got some good shots of the band. These guys are incredible. Seriously, if you have the chance to see them live, do it. They’ve been nominated for best new band in the 2008 Houston Press Music Awards.

So after the show, Amber and I stuck around for awhile and hung out with Asli, Tom, and Adam. The old Clark’s, now Notsuoh, has a pretty wicked room upstairs filled with old costumes, records, an old double turntable and music relics from Clark’s and Dean’s. So we hung out up there for a bit until someone yelled, “who are all these people up here?!” We took that as our cue to leave. That was 3am. It was Monday. Dude.

Tuesday

Tuesday, visibly exhausted at work, I was again, looking forward to a quiet night at home. However, I was actually delighted when Laura Mayes and Carrie Pacini called to set up a dinner meeting to discuss a new project. So we headed to Cova in the Village for some wine, cheese, and chatter. We had a great conversation and some excellently selected champagne by the very Italian Carrie.

When we were paying the bill, the waitress looked at me and said, “did you go to St. Rose elementary school?” She was a classmate of mine, a fellow girl scout, from 4th grade. Small world. Reminding me of the time I was in NYC and a girl, Susan, stopped me and Kasey on the street because she recognized Kasey from college, but as we began talking, realized we were in the same girl scout troop. in 4th grade. Crazy.

After dinner I headed over to meet Mark and The Tontons to discuss some styling for their upcoming show on Friday at Warehouse, and a photo shoot that Mark had set up with Jessica Grieves on Saturday morning. Adam ordered a fruity drink. We laughed.

Wednesday

I left work a little early on Wednesday to meet up with The Tontons to do some thrift store shopping in the Heights. We were trying to find them some outfits for their Friday show, and the Saturday morning photo shoot. We first met at Retropolis, where while we had a lot of fun digging, we didn’t really find outfits to put together; unless you count this rhinestone cowboy get up that Justin discovered.

We headed across the street to the new Buffalo Exchange in the Heights and started searching for “glittery” tops to pay off the 3-D glasses theme they were planning for the show. We nixed that idea as soon as Adam almost bought a sequined v-neck cardigan. Not exactly what we were going for. We decided on a uniform look, much like they wore to Lebowski Bash, and headed to Sand Dollar to look for black vests and cowboy boots.

Michelle met us as Sand Dollar to help out Asli with her outfit. Miggy also ripped up the boys old black ties and made new skinny ones for the show. They turned out fab!

After shopping we headed to Onion Creek for a quick bite before the guys headed to practice. Michelle and I headed over to Beaver’s for another successful Green Drinks. Hung out with Ned, Jeff Kaplan, BIll Erickson, Sarah Jones, and of course the uber talented Bobby Heugel. Check out this great article in the Chron on Bobby and his flair for the perfect cocktail. And check out Bobby’s amazing cocktail website, Drink Dogma. This kid is sickly talented.

Thursday

Thursday I made the very tough decision to cancel my scheduled Boulder trip for that weekend. Being that the last month had been so crazy, and so go go go, I was feeling anxious about being away and already feeling the stresses of another weekend of craziness. Also, I was thinking about attending BlogHer in July in San Fran, and I knew I couldn’t make both trips. So I decided to cancel Boulder, and catch up with Gwen and all the ladies in San Fran in a few weeks.

After work Thursday I headed to Big Woodrow’s to celebrate Keisha’s last day at Aker. She’s been there forever it seems! And we are all excited about her new gig at Chevron! Got to hang with MRock, Shek, and my GA, Brian. It was like back in the Ellayess days!

After Woodrow’s I headed to So Vino to celebrate Emily’s bday. I hadn’t been to So Vino yet and was pleasantly surprised. All these new wine bars opening up, it’s hard to tell them apart. So Wino was small, and intimate, and the food we had was great. The waiters were all well informed about the wine selections. I visited with Becky and Seth, and Annie who i hadn’t seen in months and months, and one of Emily’s friends, Paul, who I’m pretty sure I bonded with over Justin Timberlake. JT brings out the best in everybody.

Friday

A quick after work nap was just what I needed to get the energy for the big show at Warehouse with The Tontons, The Riff Tiffs and Fat Tony. Michelle came by, we shared a glass of wine (ok mom, girlfriend jokes!) and we were off to Warehouse to get the Tontons dressed for the show.

Met up with Erin and Groovehouse who were both shooting the show. We arrived just as Lisa’s Sons went on. Not sure how to describe them without being negative. Hmmm, it was high energy.

The Tontons were up next, and the place was filling up. Mark helped hand out 3-D glasses to the crowd for a wicked 60’s affect. I grabbed the glasses and placed them in front of my iPhone camera. I was surprised the effect worked!

Eric’s shots from the show here.

The highlight of the show was when 4 members of the Houston Symphony joined the Tontons on stage for “Syrup.” I think someone caught this on video, and if so, I can’t wait to see it.

We stuck around for the Riff Tiffs, who were also excellent, and ran into Christian from Studemont Project, and Hodge and Cornbreadd from TFT, who we watched Fat Tony with from backstage. A great night for local music indeed.

Saturday

Reeling from a killer hangover from Friday, I missed The Tontons photo shoot with Jessica on Saturday morning. But judging from the amazing pics she took, they didn’t need me there. Check out “the morning after” shoot here.

image: Jessica Grieves, Ecor Rogue Photography

After finally pulling myself out of bed, I headed over to Chris and I’s Vinyl Creative meeting spot, Rudyard’s, for a quick VC meeting of concepting new ad campaign and discussing new clients. Oh, and of course black bean nachos.

I left Rudz and headed to Volcano to help prep for the big Houstonist Crawfish Boil. JB bought 500lb of the crawdaddies and we were peeling, cutting, washing, and boxing for a few hours before the crowd arrived at 6pm. And boy did they arrive. We had a HUGE crowd, almost 200 that came out to Volcano to get some dirty fingers and faces. Some great pics of the boil here.

Luckily, the last party of the night was close. Just down the street at Armadillo Palace, my cousin Adriane’s husband Matt was throwing her a surprise 30th Bday party. Adriane and I were raised together, practically as sisters. It was so fun getting to see her and old friends and family. Always a delight hanging with Rachel and Nate, and the adorable Carly, Thomas’ GF, who solidifed her status when she snapped a pic of dance teacher’s indiscretion.

Lauren Levicki was also having her bday party there the same night, so the entire Houston young socialite crowd was in attendance.

Sunday

Well, it’s Sunday now. And I’m headed out the door to my old roommate Dave’s house for some brunch and soccer watching. Also, looking forward to a meeting about a new project tonight with Joe Litzinger of Baby Crow Productions. More deets on that later! Very excited about it.

Here’s to hoping this next week is a little more calm, with more sleep involved.

Tags: armadillo palace, bars, beer, crawfish, family, friends, houston, houstonist, music, notsuoh, photos, recap, shopping, the tontons, volcano, warehouse live

Q: Whatcha doing Friday night?

THIS FRIDAY! The Tontons LIVE!, originally uploaded by Mark C. Austin

It’s that easy. See, i can answer all of life’s hard questions.

If you missed these guys at the Lebowski Bash last weekend, don’t miss this great show again this week.

Listen to them here. You won’t be disappointed.

Friday, June 27th
Warehouse Live
Doors at 8pm

Tags: houston, music, the tontons, warehouse live