After eight years, Houston band Ancient Cat Society is back at it with their upcoming release Lonely Times. “It’s crazy, time goes so fast,” says the primary songwriter for the band Sergio Trevino. “I feel like we were so young when we released that last record, so young and spry.”
Lonely Times will be out for streaming on Friday, November 21 and a short Texas tour with Moon Panda. They will celebrate their album release at Dan Electro’s on Saturday, November 22 and are planning an in store performance at Cactus Music for early next month. The album, out on Splice Records, will be available on CD and vinyl.
“It’s like we haven’t skipped a beat,” says vocalist Haley Lynch, also known as Dollie Barnes. “It’s really nice, we can all come together and we all love each other very much. Even though a lot of time has passed, we pick back up where we last left off.”
Ancient Cat Society has always been a conglomeration of hometown talent with Trevino and his bandmates all playing double duty in other bands and solo projects. The band is made up of the vocals of Barnes, Austin Sepulvado on guitar, Tom Lynch on keyboard, Marshall Graves on bass and Tank Lisenbe on drums.
“There’s a part time energy to Ancient Cat Society if that makes sense but it’s special in that way too where it’s kind of like a family that doesn’t see each other every day and when we do it’s always special and nice.”
Lonely Times is a glorious reflection of that kinship, camaraderie and talent the group houses despite their time constraints. Trevino’s songwriting hits new poetic heights while each band member adds their own flare to the tracks.
“Compositionally I’m very much at the mercy of the players,” explains Trevino. “Haley and I will focus on the singing and harmonies and I’ll write the structure of the song and just stay in my lane as much as I can because I know that all those guys are better at it than I am.”
The band’s name appropriately holds the word “society” as they always partner with Houston talent forming their own extended network of musical guests including Will Van Horn and Kelly Doyle all the way to producing with longtime collaborators Steve Christensen and Adam Thein.
“It’s just surrounding yourself with people that you trust their taste because you do not want to have to change somebody or their ideas too much. You want them to express themselves and at the same time you want that to be reflective of you and what you’re typing to create so it’s really just creating that community and band together,” says Trevino.
As lead songwriter, Trevino has a gift for writing beautifully sullen songs which Barnes later takes on with her own deeply emotional and candied voice. Trevino jokes he wishes he could write an electronic dance banger, but it’s just not his style.
“I’m a happy person and pretty positive but I get all the negativity out of me usually when I’m by myself with a guitar. That’s how I deal with things and then I can go back to being a positive and mentally healthy person.”
Lonely Times will be available for streaming on Friday, November 21. Ancient Cat Society will perform with Moon Panda on Saturday, November 22 at Dan Electro’s, 1031 E. 24, tickets $23-29. For more information visit Danelectros.com
Although Houston guitar virtuoso Kelly Doyle has three EPs available online, this week he will celebrate his first release on vinyl as he combined two EPs In the Weeds and Stranger Danger into one full album.
Doyle will perform with his band and Louisiana based pedal steel player Dave Easley on Friday, October 17 at Shoeshine Charley’s Big Top Lounge.
For this release, Doyle partnered with Sig’s Lagoon Records, a new project by Tomas Escalante, owner of Sig’s Lagoon and subsidiary of Pravda Records in Chicago. Fans can purchase the LP at Sig’s Lagoon in the Mid Main neighborhood just a block from the venue. Purchase of an album serves as entrance to the show.
“They were both recorded in the same way,” says Doyle of the EPs. “I used the same tape machine and process so they sound like one record when you play them together.”
Like his other projects, Doyle counted on his good friend, recording engineer Houstonian Steve Christensen. He often starts his songs at home, as exercises in melodies. He then combines his guitar work with self-made dynamic drum and keyboard samples.
Doyle takes his tracks to Christensen’s studio where the two work to peel back layers and simplify the sounds. “I always kinda naturally gravitated towards that just over arranging and then saying fuck it, I’m gonna mute half of this stuff because sometimes you have to explore to figure out what’s good,” he says explaining that part of the process is letting go of cherished sections of songs.
His final steps for completion include running the tracks through Christensen’s old tape machine in the studio to get the completed cuts. “He literally has to shake it to keep it working,” says Doyle of Christensen’s vintage tape machine. “I have a feeling that was the last session with that tape machine before it gets fixed.”
“Stranger Danger after the first song is very dark and spooky to me,” describes Doyle. ”I feel like this is the darker spookier side of the last record but to me they’re kind of both the same record, he sys comparing In The Weeds and Stranger Danger. The whole thing is very low fi and grainy.”
“I think lately I’ve just gravitated towards a spookier element. I think it might just be my head space at this point but it also could be just from watching a lot of David Lynch movies or something.”
Doyle, along with Escalante, was previously in instrumental band Clouseaux and counts these songs as a major influence in his songwriting for In the Weeds / Stranger Danger.
“In the past couple of years I’ve been thinking more about some of those melodies. Jay Brooks the bass player for Clouseaux, it was his baby and he just wrote the weirdest, off kilter melodies.” Though the band is not currently active, they recently had their song “Paraiso” featured on the Netflix show Wednesday.
Doyle’s influences are also rooted in the great jazz guitar player Django Reinhardt and guitar genius Danny Gatton. Though he admits he doesn’t play their songs often anymore, their influences are always present. Doyle describes how a huge part of learning is attempting to emulate others or in his case, trying to mimic the pedal steel guitar on an electric guitar.
“There’s a lot of weird counter point pointing, bending one string one direction and another string another. Some of those things I just like those sounds so I’ll try to develop them so I’ll just practice it but I have no idea if I’ll ever use it or if it’s a useful thing.”
‘For Doyle, this release is not only a good reflection of his signature style and his past experiences but the whole project reflects a Houston-based effort starting with himself and his band all the way up to pressing at 610 Record Manufacturing and releasing with Sig’s Lagoon Records with photos by local photographer Daniel Jackson and layout by artist Calos Pozo..
“It’s all the things I’ve gone through all smushed together. It’s very strange. I try to just follow what I’m interested in instead of trying to emulate specific things but emulating things, that’s how you develop your voice.”
Kelly Doyle will celebrate the release of In The Woods/Stranger Danger at 6:30 on Friday, October 17 at Shoeshine Charley’s Big Top Lounge, 3714 Main, $10 or purchase of vinyl for admission. In The Woods/Stranger Danger is available at Sig’s Lagoon.
Rosie Flores has been punk rock since before punk rock was even a thing. Born in San Antonio and raised in California, Flores has been making music since she was just a little girl with her daddy recording her on the kitchen table.
Flores, who started playing as a teenager in 1966, had no other females like her to look up to as rock and roll and electric guitar playing in general was a male dominated world. As she began playing, she saw herself as the first of her kind in music.
“As a teenager, I’ll tell you what, it was really empowering because it made me feel really unique and I felt like I was breaking new ground.”
Flores will bring her tasty guitar sounds to Houston performing as a duo with Chris Sensat, one of her “Talismen” on Friday, October 11 at The Continental Club.
“I’m a great guitar player and he’s a great drummer so we know how to fill it in and get the tones happening and then we have all these harmonies so there’s a lot of sound coming out of us for just two people,” describes Flores likening the duo the The White Stripes at times.
Austin-based Flores and her band The Talismen are currently wrapping up recording their first album as a group since forming in 2020. Flores invited Sensat to her lockdown livestream and quickly realized the two had a gift for harmonizing as evidenced in their track, “So Sad” which would even make The Everly Brothers smile.
On her 2012 album, Working Girl’s Guitar, Flores sings about being “little but loud” and that description continues to encapsulate the tiny force of nature with a history that should make her, and the whole state of Texas, proud.
“To get chosen they want to know that you’re helping your community and reaching out to other people and I think in my case, they honored me in part because of me getting Wanda Jackson and Janice Martin back out and helping females learn to play the guitar. I think that they appreciated that I’ve influenced a lot of females to play music.”
Flores did do the almost impossible getting the “female Elvis” Janice Martin back into the studio to record The Blanco Sessions shortly before her death. Flores used her own drive, passion and Kickstarter to finally release the album in 2012.
“There are so many better female guitar players than me now and I never really made it huge as a female guitar player but I’ve made my own way and played guitar in my own band in my own music and that’s just kind of the way it’s gone. To finally be getting the recognition that I’ve gotten it’s just so meaningful to me, my fans and family because everybody knows how long I’ve been working at this and struggling, and it’s been a bit of a struggle.”
“To finally be getting the recognition that I’ve gotten it’s just so meaningful to me, my fans and family because everybody knows how long I’ve been working at this and struggling, and it’s been a bit of a struggle.”
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Flores grew up in San Diego with a family who loved and appreciated music. She recalls her mother singing beautifully during chores and her father’s passion for singing despite his “interesting” voice and lack of musical timing.
Her parents would play Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Ella Fitzgerald and all the great singers of that time and Flores recalls them filling the house with those glorious sounds coming from the black and white TV and the radio, no doubt a big influence on her resounding voice.
“That’s all the music they fell in love to. That was their music and I think that they were still so in love with music that they were trying to teach their kids how to appreciate it all the way up until the end,” says Flores remembering enjoying jazz and Billie Holiday with her father, a shared pastime that continued up into the wee hours of the night as he was passing.
It was her father who not only recorded her after dinners with his two-track recorder, one song of which can be heard at the end of her fantastic 2014 album, Rockabilly Filly where a very recognizable Flores can be heard in her little baby voice crooning the words to “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter,” but he also financed her first all-girl band Penelope’s Children.
“He signed on a loan for five grand in those days which would be worth twenty grand now,” says Flores recalling how her dad would playfully tease the girls to keep on practicing and performing so he could pay the $80 a month bill on the gear.
The girls were happy and anxious to play, finding gigs around town at recreational halls and the officer gentlemen’s club on the Marine base where they would play their songs during happy hour.
Their gigs led them to play a strip joint where management slowly encouraged them to go topless and when Penelope’s Children said no thanks, they were let go. “It was little naked go-go dancers all around us and we just played rock and roll and the sailors loved us,” says Flores with a laugh.
The girls would drive their little “Volkswagen hippie van” to play gigs all the way to Flores native San Antonio where a little nightclub hired them and an 18-year-old Flores was showing up in newspaper ads.
“I’ve got so many archival photographs so it’s interesting to look back because when I look back I think to myself, oh it doesn’t seem that long but then when I look at all the pictures, all the contracts, all the newspapers and all the awards I go wait a minute, I’ve done a lot.”
Later this month Flores will travel to Nashville to perform and speak as part of the exhibit. “That’s the handle they gave us ‘cowpunk’ because we were cowgirls and we played punk. We had a cowgirl style but we were kind of trashy too,” describes Flores.
She recalls her first impression of the punk rock scene, scary looking guys with safety pins in their ears and mohawks thinking to herself, “I wonder if they’re going to beat me up?” but as she’d get to the back door of the bars and clubs and ask for a light for her smoke, she began to see them differently.
“They’re sweet as pie and they are sweet and smart like John Doe and Exene. Smart and sweet people, okay cool I can live here. I can live in this world,” she remembers realizing with a smile in her voice.
It was her time on the road with The Screaming Sirens which began a project that she is hoping to wrap up now, a book of road stories and photographs of strange candy she collected from truck stops all over the United States.
“I’m not talking about Jr. Mints,” she says describing her awesome sounding collection of novelty items. It all started with a candy that was shaped like a washing machine with little treats inside shaped like dirty laundry. The girls got a kick out of it and then decided to search for the candy dryer so they could have the matching set.
From there, Flores began finding edible items that replicated real life like candy cigarettes, chocolate hair dryers and rollers and rock and roll peanut brittle microphones, which were unfortunately so tasty they did not survive to make her now well-preserved collection.
Her goal is to wrap up the book and be able to share her four decades of stories from the roads and stages of the country. “If I can do that, I’m going to feel like I’ve accomplished something really huge,” says Flores of her book. “I’ve been working on it for so many years and I’ve got a lot more stories to tell now.”
Rosie Flores will perform with Chris Sensat on Friday, October 11 at The Continental Club, 3700 Main, 7 p.m, $18-28.
Ribs have a long history of symbolizing the genesis of creation serving as an symbol for two people completing one another. For Kevin Russell, his band Shinyribs has been the jumping off point for many new avenues of creation for an artist who has never shied away from changing things up.
“It started with just me in the beginning,” says Russel who prior to Shinyribs was mostly known for his work with The Gourds. “It just grew into this monstrosity which is a dream band to me. It’s amazing and it’s a lot,” he says of his eight piece band who always provide an amazing and high energy show.
Shinyribs as a project was born right here in Houston with Russel performing solo at Under The Volcano, a cozy room that pretty quickly had trouble keeping up with the demand. Russell and his project grew into a full blown band that has had a steady stream of changes to the lineup ultimately adding to the genres they are able to capture.
“Doug Sahm was like that, Dylan, Niel Young, some of my heroes, they’re not afraid to change it up. I just get bored doing the same thing over and over,” says Russell recalling his disappointment ages ago when Boston released their followup album Don’t Look Back only to sound much like their self-titled debut.
“I just get bored doing the same thing over and over.”
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Russell is always staying busy with his writing. Exploring his Substack one can keep up with his many musing in poetry, prose and new songs. He recently collaborated with author Katie Terrell Ramos to release a children’s book based on his song “Who Built The Moon.”
Though the band has seen some changes in lineup, Russell is always backed by his old friend and The Gourds drummer Keith Langford. Throughout the years he added backup singers known these days as “The Shiny Soul Siblings” and the Tijuana Trainwreck Horn section. Currently, Russell has Eric Baker on keyboard and Mason Hankamer on bass.
“It just opened up all possibilities of music that I had been wanting to do and songs I had laying around that I knew would work,” he says of adding the dynamic horns to the lineup.
When asked which comes first, the sonic shifts or band members changes, much like seeking the ribs to complete oneself, Russell follows the lead of his band members.
“It is driven by the personnel, that’s the way I operate. It’s based on the people that appear in my life and they end up in my band. As people left and I got new people, I definitely lean on the people that are in the band, I try to take their skills and let them shine.”
On Transit Damage, Russell and his band took their sound down a notch but somehow without compromising the musical integrity or energy they’ve become known for. For a bandleader who often needs no microphone and can sustain the chorus of many songs while leading congo lines, Transit Damage shows Russell’s impressive vocal range and dedication to grooving even when he’s attacking it in a more subtle way.
For Transit Damage Russell teamed up with the legendary Steve Berlin as producer. Russell describes how Berlin was into doing something “different” for the band and as to be expected, Russell was all in.
In what Russell describes as a “full circle” moment, the band recorded at The Finishing School, a studio owned and operated by Band of Heathens member Gordy Quist. Quist purchased the studio after original owner George Reiff passed away and it was where Shinyribs had recorded their first three albums.
Russell describes feeling a sense of magic when he sang into the studio’s microphones, previously owned by Queen. “They sounded amazing. I would just sit there in my headphones talking into them so I could hear them and it was like butter.”
For someone whose voice naturally fills any space with a sonic boom, Russell took inspiration from some isolated Al Green vocals he heard where it really stuck with him how quietly the legend was singing. Russell decided to tone it down and let the microphones do the work.
“I would put my hands in my pockets and shrug my shoulders as if I don’t care if this is a good vocal or not. I had that attitude and I think it really made it better. I wasn’t trying too hard like I have in the past. Maybe I learned something,” laughs Russell.
“Little Drops Of Summer” and the sweet closer to the album “Kind” show all the range, warmth and depth of Russell’s voice and let the listener focus on the details of his wonderfully crafted lyrics.
Then there’s the bluesier “Alphabeta” showcasing how the band works together to create a groove that, though pushing into a different genre, is always their own sound. “I think now the blues world is aware of me,” says Russell. “Now I’m a blues man apparently,” he laughs.
When asked about how the band plans their shows to keep the audience on their feet even during the slower songs, Russell says Hankamer has been key to creating a setlist with fast transitions and allowing the songs to flow one to another seamlessly as they play new and old songs from their catalog.
“That’s kind of the fun part of it is finding commonality between the old stuff and the new stuff. I think the fans dig that, I’ve never done a poll about it but that’s what I like to hear when I go see shows,” says Russell citing a recent Pretenders show that did just that for him as an audience member.
“Our shows are just as creative and involved as our recordings for us,” says Russell. “They live on their own, the records are the records and then the show is the show. To me they are two different things.”
Shinyribs has always been a great example of the many musical influences of the Gulf Coast from past and present as Russell has always leaned into surprising his audience with his ability to not only take over the stage, but blend more genres than you can shake a stick at and taking radio hit covers like “All About That Bass” or TLC’s hit “Waterfalls” and turning them into his own.
“I think Houston influenced me in that way for sure,” says Russell of his love for making musical gumbo on stage and his wide range of influences. “I think Houston is a big part of the diversity of Texas music and it’s always been that way.”
Shinyribs will perform with Gus Clark and The Least Of His Problems on Saturday, August 31 at The Heights Theater, 339 W 19th. Doors at 7 p.m, tickets $24.
Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz, known as Fantastic Negrito, has a personal story so fascinating that it serves as a well of inspiration. He doesn’t have to use fiction to find a story, but only needs to turn to himself.
“I happen to be very interesting. When you’ve got an interesting story, tell it,” he says bluntly. Fantastic Negrito will perform in Houston at The Heights Theater on Friday, August 30 with Houston blues man The Mighty Orq opening the show.
Fantastic Negrito is coming to Texas fresh off a recent tour with Primus and excited to be in front of audiences again encouraging everyone to come out saying about his shows, “It’s like church without the religion.”
There is a kind of magic to Fantastic Negrito’s openness that not only draws people in but also encourages others to look for the story within themselves and their environment.
His latest project, which has taken on three different incarnations at this point, began with his 2022 album White Jesus Black Problems, released on his own Storefront Records. The album, and accompanying film tells the true story of his seventh generation grandparents’ incredible love story.
The sound of White Jesus Black Problems takes from the very beginning of blues blending early African beats with more modern, distorted sounds creating a blues like no other while maintaining the raw energy of the genre.
The album went on to allow Fantastic Negrito to win his third Grammy award for Best Contemporary Blues Album and he went even further recording the songs from the album in stripped down, acoustic versions on Grandfather Courage.
His white Scottish grandmother, an indentured servant, was able to somehow sustain her common law marriage with her husband, Grandfather courage, despite him being an enslaved African American.
“When I discovered that story in my family archives and this forbidden union that they had in the 1700s on a tobacco plantation in Virginia, I felt compelled and inspired to tell their story through music, film and then the acoustic version because I just felt inspired.”
The strong story and subject matter not only speaks to the bravery and strength of love, but also the complicated history of this country and all of the nuances between race, history and equality.
“The main thing the message I got from my seventh generation grandparents is stop complaining because you’re not going through shit compared to what we went through and we should all be grateful for everything. People have had far greater obstacles and these obstacles must become our fuel these, obstacles must become our inspiration.”
“People have had far greater obstacles and these obstacles must become our fuel these, obstacles must become our inspiration.”
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These are words he clearly lives by as the many obstacles in his colorful life constantly serve to inspire not only his music, but his audience. Born the eighth of fifteen kids to his strict Somali Muslim father in Massachusetts, a young Dphrepaulezz took to street life when the family relocated to Oakland where he still resides.
Selling dope and running amuck, he became aware of Prince and the concept of being a self taught musician, an idea that led him to begin sneaking into music classes at Berkeley pretending to be enrolled there so he could learn a thing or two.
“I had a conversation with Quincy Jones and he told me the same thing,” he explains. “He broke into this place messing around and he saw this piano and I thought, man I can relate to that. Music saves us.”
His first album The X Factor was put out on a major label, Interscope Records, under the name Xavier. After a serious car crash which left him in a three week coma and released from his contract with the label, Dphrepaulezz stepped away from music.
In 2014 he returned, reborn as Fantastic Negrito. “When I came up with Fantastic Negrito I wasn’t talking about myself, I was really talking about the legacy of where I came from and people that contributed so much to this world musically. People that came off the slave ships and that legacy of music, rock, folk, soul, jazz, rhythm and blues, hip hop that’s what’s fantastic. I wasn’t talking about myself.”
On his current project, Fantastic Negrito is again turning inward for inspiration and looking at the story of his father. The album titled Son Of A Broken Man is set to be released later this year with his single, “Undefeated Eyes” featuring Sting already out and setting the pace for the tenderness and vulnerability expected of the album.
“My father was born in 1905. When I was born he was 63 and my mother was 30 so he’s been gone but it’s great to just come to terms with all this stuff and turn the bullshit into good shit that’s what I always believe.”
Fantastic Negrito will perform with The Mighty Orq on Friday, August 30 at The Heights Theater, 339 W 19th. Doors at 7 p.m, tickets $24-44.
It’s been 40 years since cowpunk heroes the Hickoids played their first promoted show in band leader Jeff Smith’s hometown in San Antonio sharing the stage with none other than Black Flag and The Meat Puppets.
“I was actually the promoter and I don’t remember a hell of a lot about it,” laughs Smith adding, “It seemed to go over pretty well.”
To celebrate the milestone, the Hickoids have been on tour making a stop at Under The Volcano on Wednesday, May 29 with special guest Sister Rayban, the side project of The Guillotines frontman Bill DeGidio.
For the Houston show, the band will perform their 1987 debut album We’re In It For The Corn in its entirety along with other fan favorites from their large catalog of songs.
“Our original concept was to match up hardcore punk with hardcore country. Blag Flag meets Gary Stewart.” explains Smith who founded the band with guitarist John Thomas Jackson, better known as Jukebox, who passed away in 2013.
“I was the kid in the band on the first album,” says Smith, who is the only surviving original member as Davy Jones also passed away in 2015 after a battle with cancer.
Jones actually named the band after Jukebox and Smith were at his apartment scoring some pot and Jones saw a cowboy hat donning hobo going through the garbage referring to him as a “Hickoid son of a bitch” and the name stuck immediately.
“All those guys were about ten years older than me but I’m happy to be alive and still be able to get out and play with an excellent bunch of guys. It’s been a very consistent line up for the past ten years since Davy Jones became ill so we carry the tradition forward plus.”
The line up has remained very consistent and the band has preserved their punk rock edge and ability to melt genres and faces with Harvey McLaughlin on keyboards, Tom Trusnovic on bass, guitarist Cody Richardson and Lance Farley on drums. We’re In It For The Corn plays fast and hard and really shows the aggressive boom the band used to break onto the scene four decades ago. Recorded by now famed producer and engineer Stuart Sullivan, and his first recording project, Smith admits their debut album stands out from the rest.
“I think that going through the mixing process we all got kind of ran over by Jukebox and it could have been a better balance to the mix but I will say, we didn’t sound like anybody else out there.”
To this day it would be hard to find a band who does what the Hickoids do. Corn joke filled rock stars who command the stage and take no prisoners as Smith paces, slowly losing layers of clothing and building the tension between the band and the audience with humor and aggression creating a mix of fear, arousal and curiosity.
“Thank you, that is the desired outcome. I consider that a great complement,” says Smith of the description. “We’re primarily a live band really and I want everybody who comes and sees us to leave feeling like they saw something special. For me, it’s important to carry on the tradition with the guys I played with who are not alive anymore and to keep it relevant in the moment for myself but those guys are never far from my thoughts when it comes to the band because it’s a continuum.”
“We’re primarily a live band really and I want everybody who comes and sees us to leave feeling like they saw something special.”
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A lot can happen in 40 years, and a lot did happen with the Hickoids. The band, staples in the Austin cowpunk scene, toured and recorded heavily throughout the ‘80s stepping slightly away from the harder sound of their debut album to funnier, cheeky songs incorporating the many sounds of Texas from country to conjunto.
“I wouldn’t say that we’ve ever had one sound and that’s probably been to our detriment. I think that the first album I would describe it as experimental hardcore meets country but there’s elements of psychedelia and glam in there and also a helping of goofiness and we kind of continued that theme.”
The Hickoids disbanded in the early ‘90s and when Smith and Jones got back together in 2006, their wild partying ways of the past were no longer but they decided to try again, this time with sobriety, a new concept to Smith at that time.
“It was difficult because we were both sober, I was newly sober and he had been sober about fifteen years at that time. We wanted to do what we had done before but do it better and be more consistent because we were not reliable and we were not being all we could be so to that end, I think we surpassed version one in some ways.”
Smith has been working on a release to honor his departed comrade with The Davy Jones Bootlegs, a three disc vinyl collection of Jones work with the Hickoids and other bands and an accompanying book on his life.
Smith admits he has taken his time with the project due to wanting to do Jones justice as well as his split commitment with his San Antonio Corn Pound including his Saustex Records, Jett Bass Studios, named after his brother and Krayolas member, Flagship Records, rehearsal spaces and more.
Smith is also expecting to release the next Hickoids album More Ballads For Sleazy Riders soon and fans can expect some upcoming singles and tracks to be featured at the live shows.
Houston has historically been an important city for the band in their long career and Smith recalls playing here many, many times throughout the years. It was only natural for the band to include a special performance of their debut album, something they’ve only done in Smith’s hometown of San Antonio.
“Houston has always been an important anchor to us coming in and we appreciated our friends there that still support us and we try to always bring it for them,” says Smith who also shouts out the love and support they’ve gotten from Pete Mitchell, owner of Under The Volcano.
When asked if he ever imagined that day he was buying a bag with Jukebox that the Hickoids in all their untamed splendor would last this long he quickly says, “Absolutely not.”
“When I was 15, I never thought what it would be like to be 20 and when I was 20, I never thought what it would be like to be 25. I’m just happy to be here and to have survived the folly and nonchalance of my youth.”
The Hickoids will perform with Sister Rayban on Wednesday, May 29 at Under The Volcano, 2349 Bissonnet, doors at 7, $15.
After thirteen years, it’s hard for people to differentiate Low Cut Connie founder and frontman Adam Weiner from his stage persona.
“What can I say? The lights go on, the crowd shows up and there’s a switch that gets flipped and I’m off to the races because otherwise I’m a very shy person,” admits Weiner.
Low Cut Connie will return to Houston on Sunday, April 21 for what is sure to be an unforgettable night of music and “full rock and roll assault” at The Heights Theater with opener Fantastic Cat.
“I can’t wait to be back in Houston,” says Weiner. “It’s been too long. It’s going to be a great show, we’ve got to get the spirit going so be there.” Though Weiner can’t put a finger on the exact year he last performed here, he vividly remembers getting on stage with Houston blues legend the late, Little Joe Washington.
After hearing him soundcheck on his piano at The Continental Club, management asked him if he knew the R&B and blues classic, “Just A Little Bit” and offered him the chance to play with the wild bluesman.
“It was fantastic,” says Weiner enthusiastically. Just like that night, it’s Weiner’s vivacity on the piano and ability to connect with others that makes people take notice. Low Cut Connie has racked up quite a list of famous fans from Barack Obama to Elton John.
“It’s not that common because it’s a crazy thing,” says Weiner when asked about being a rare piano driven rock and roll band in the modern era. “ You gotta carry a 400 pound piano all over the place. It doesn’t work at all, in fact I’ve had many people just quit the band because they couldn’t take it anymore.”
Throughout the years the band has had its fair share of changes in the lineup with Weiner remaining as the only original member. All of the changes have only contributed to the band’s evolution where they never lost their rock and roll edge but only added to the depth of their range.
“I’m always rolling and changing and the fans have rolled with me. I see it as just an expansion. When the band started we were just four guys and now the band is two women, four guys; black, white, gay, straight. It’s such a beautiful mix of energy and that’s been a nice evolution.”
Weiner’s piano constantly serves as an additional band member and he not only lugs it around, but gives them names and breathes into them a life of their own on and off stage giving them a real, heartfelt and intentional pounding meant to bring joy and tether the music to the audience.
“Somebody said to me years ago it’s like a penance that you carry this thing but I feel that I’ve got my piano who I’m really bonded to. We go all over North America together and see some amazing things and put on some amazing shows so I do feel a bond with the instrument and when you get attached to an instrument, you keep it up and you don’t want to let it go. It doesn’t feel as good when you play a different one.”
Likening it to Willie Nelson’s Trigger or BB King’s Lucille, Weiner has his current and forth love with him now, Nelly. Though Nelly may be his forth piano since starting the band and his lineup of members has changed throughout the years, one main element has remained unchanged in Low Cut Connie and Weiner’s approach to songwriting and performing.
“I think at the core we are a rock and roll band and I always have that one foot in the gutter, that kind of sleazy rock and roll that’s got boogie to it, that you can dance to, that moves you. That will never change. That’s always got to be there.”
“I think at the core we are a rock and roll band and I always have that one foot in the gutter, that kind of sleazy rock and roll that’s got boogie to it, that you can dance to, that moves you. That will never change. That’s always got to be there.”
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Change it did not on the bands ninth album and latest release, Art Dealers, a cohesive collection of songs all celebrating the band’s never changing high energy and love for vintage, seedy New York City and the days gone by of Lou Reed, art galleries and the underbelly and marginalized communities that made the city what it was.
“I moved to New York City when I was 18 years old and it was still kind of a sleazy place at that time,” says Weiner who later moved back to his hometown of Philadelphia which he calls “even sleazier.” “In the early days of the band people would call us ‘sleazy’ in a derogatory way but I felt like people didn’t understand what we were doing in that this is really like a soul band in a way. The music is very soulful and when you say the word sleazy I think what people really mean is that it feels alive. It’s red blooded, it’s sexy in a good way and so I wanted to reclaim that with this album and show people sleazy is fun and sleazy is some degree that we are missing in rock and roll these days.”
Art Dealers is a perfect addition to the band’s repertoire of real, authentic rock and roll that sadly is not that common in commercial media these days taking the listener back to a youthful rage and joy that only that genre can produce.
The album came about during COVID when Weiner and his band mates were all separated by the shut down. He missed his “day job” of touring around the country and though he found a way to connect to others through his Tough Cookies online performances, he needed more.
Low Cut Connie created their own COVID bubble and set out to record an album that really captured that human grit and connection that makes their live shows unforgettable and really stand out.
“So the album just took on that character of what our live shows are. That sort of dynamic of being live in front of an audience and the kind of up and down of it and we made Art Dealers very quickly and then when we started going on tour the energy with the audience had multiplied since before the pandemic. People were always laughing and screaming and taking their clothes off before we came back but when we came back, people were crying too. That was new.”
Along with the album, the band recorded a live film of the same name where they captured the on-stage magic with a performance in New York City. The film will be playing in theaters this summer and available for streaming in the fall.
“My pedigree in performance is you give 110 percent and you’re there to make the audience feel good. It has nothing to do with me and how I feel, it’s how you feel and when I look at my heroes Tina Turner, Prince, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Elvis these are performers that had the ability to turn people on, make them feel elevated and leave the show feeling much better than when they showed up.”
Low Cut Connie will perform with Fantastic Cat at The Heights Theater on Sunday, April 21, 339 W 19th. Doors at 7 p.m, tickets $20-320.
Maynard James Keenan says not to be fashionably late to his birthday celebration.
“Make such that people know to show up as the show starts because there is no opener. You’re probably not getting the band you expect at the start,” he says. “Be on time.”
This birthday celebration is going to be different from a lot of concerts you’ve attended. Dubbed SESSANTA, the tour features three rock powerhouses — Primus, Puscifer, and A Perfect Circle — on stage at the same time. Rather than one band performing a full set, then another band playing a full set and so on, the bands will be taking turns performing their hits on stage and guesting with each other. Keenan wanted something new for this tour, something he had tried before 10 years ago for his 50th birthday.
“It was fun rolling one drum set in as the other drum set is rolling off,” he says of his Cinquanta show that included A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, and Failure. “It was just fun to do it. It was just a different approach and more communal.”
When we talked to Keenan, he was getting ready for rehearsals for the tour. There were some things that needed to be sorted out.
“We get together and start organizing the flow of the show, sharing songs,’ he says.. “It’s going to be a logical nightmare but we’ll figure it out.’
For Keenan, it’s another busy year. In addition to SESSANTA, his vineyard is going strong and he’s got dates with Tool later in the year. And at 60, he’s learned a lot about being on the road and how that impacts the body.
“It’s just a matter of maintenance. Being away from home and your bed and your family takes a physical and emotional toll,” he says. Dealing with the toll? He’s got ideas. “It’s pacing. Don’t go out for 12 weeks straight. Go 5 and a half. Don’t be doing the songs you shouldn’t be doing; that just puts a strain on the other songs.”
And Keenan admitted even now that he gets nervous when it comes to show time.
“It’s always nerve wracking because the instrument I play is my body,” he says. “What kind of sleep the night before? Whether if I drank enough water? Was the bus bouncy? You don’t know if you can hit those crucial notes. It’s a living, breathing mechanization.”
Birthdays are celebrations, but for music fans, there’s always a question about how long our favorite acts will be out on the road. For some, people look to retirement and a job well done. Others are road dogs, always looking forward to the new tour. He may not have any plays for 2034 yet, but Keenan knows that he’ll be doing.
“The idea of retiring doesn’t compute for me so I’ll be making music and making wine until I can’t.”
SESSANTA, including Primus, Puscifer, and A Perfect Circle, will perform at 8 p.m. April 13 at The Woodlands Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins Drive, The Woodlands. $39.50-$269.00.
