Music

2006 Houston Press Music Awards Supplement

Continued from page 1

Divine Rhythm, United Motion is the full name of this acronymic H-town institution, and they dish out "a unique musical gumbo of continental African and African Diasporic rhythms melded with smooth vocals, colorful staging, pop hooks and melodious sounds and a healthy dose of jazz, funk, R&B and Latin influences." Got all that? Good. But if you want it in shorthand, try this: "original material and cover tunes ranging from Bob Marley to Motown."

THE BREWERY TAP

4 p.m.

Name: Whorehound

Nominated in: Best Metal

Web site: www.myspace.com/whorehound

Personnel: Jon Black (guitar, vocals), Trevi Biles (bass), Cory Jackson (drums)

They've been together for only a year-plus, so they haven't released a CD yet, but it shouldn't be long before they manage to push something out. That is, if they can take time away from their quest to "achieve the rank of deities in the hallowed halls of the Dark Lord." Hey, that's how metalheads talk. With an aversion for Van Hagar, and a liking for Morphine (we think they mean the band, and not the highly addictive, evil and dangerous drug), they count Slayer and Herb Albert as their main influences (don't laugh -- Herb was cool back in the day). The trio hangs mostly at Rudyard's and Walter's on Washington these days. They used to haunt the Summit, but they've recently noticed that a different crowd has been hanging out there. (Okay, maybe they didn't mean the band.)

5 p.m.

Name: Vibe Committee

Nominated in: Best Funk

Web site: www.vibecommittee.com

Personnel: Erin Crowe (vocals), Josh Matranga (bass), Jennifer O'Bryant (flute), Mike Whitebread (guitar, vocals), Lantz Stevens (drums, vocals)

This five-piece band calls their sound "original rock, jazz and blues built on a foundation of funk [and] soul." There's also some Latin, reggae and rockabilly thrown in. Mike Whitebread and Josh Matranga, who were both attending the University of St. Thomas a few years ago, started the group. Jennifer O'Bryant, another UST alum, joined up during an early recording session. Lantz Stevens and Erin Crowe got added along the way. Sharing a commitment to "overcome the segregation of sound," the Vibe Committee has accomplished quite a bit in the six years they've been together. They've released two CDs (Vibe Committee in 2004 and Flavor this year), performed with big-time acts like Earth, Wind & Fire, Chicago and the Grateful Dead's Vince Welnick, and donated both time and money to the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. That's a lot for a group that still has to juggle day jobs.

6 p.m.

Name: A Pink Cloud

Nominated in: Best Experimental/Avant-Garde

Web site: www.myspace.com/apinkcloud

Personnel: Domokos and host of others

You think you like it weird? Find out just how weird you are with this project of Rusted Shut's Domokos. Here's how fellow freaks Rotten Piece, probably the second-weirdest band on this bill, put it: "A Pink Cloud is death music for the living (and also, I suppose, life music for the dead). Sometimes they don't suck. You should go see them and buy them drinks. They have more entertainment value than squirting lighter fluid into a raging barbecue pit...or possibly having your party broken up by vampires who shit blood in the punch bowl."

7 p.m.

Name: Lisa Novak

Nominated in: Best Pop; Best Female Vocalist

(Lisa Novak)

Web site: www.lisanovak.com

Personnel: Lisa Novak

Lisa Novak is currently shopping her "cool melodies, straightforward [alternative] country/pop," trying to get on the radio or picked up as a songwriter by a major recording artist. And she's in the studio now, working on a new release that will be out later this year. But while Novak gets along well with her audience and most of her fellow singer-songwriters, she admits that she sometimes gets dissed. "I feel sometimes like I am apologizing for holding a day job, that somehow, some folks make it seem like I am less of a musician for it. It doesn't mean that I am any less passionate about my music, or that I work any less on it. I just have a lot of interest and feel I need to try them all."

8 p.m.

Name: The Mighty Orq

Nominated in: Best Blues/Zydeco; Best Roots Rock/Rockabilly

Web site: www.myspace.com/themightyorq

Personnel: The Mighty Orq (vocals, guitars), Matt Johnson (drums), Westside Johnny (keyboards, vocals)

After cutting his teeth in Tony Vega's bluesy rock band, Orq has continued to evolve into a melodic, blues-steeped Southern rocker in the Arc Angels mode, or, as they put it, "brilliantly combining elements of Gulf Coast blues, R&B, rock and pop with gospel undertones that are as unique as they are powerful." This is shaping up to be the Year of the Orq -- he's got an upcoming album that is said to be a career-definer, and he's got steady gigs both here and in Austin lined up through the end of the year.

9 p.m.

Name: Fatal Flying Guilloteens

Nominated in: Best Punk

Web site: www.fatalflyingguilloteens.com

Personnel: Roy Guilloteen (rumble, boom), Shawn Guilloteen (yelps, buzz), John Guilloteen (scrapes, explosions), Brian Guilloteen (twang, roar), Mike Guilloteen (howls, crashes)

Controlled chaos is a bit of a clichéd concept but it definitely applies to the Guilloteens. Always seemingly on the brink of a great unraveling, the band is nevertheless tightly wound around guitarist (and former Press Nightfly correspondent) Brian McManus's taut guitar riffs and the thundering rhythm section of Roy Mata and one of the band's two alternating drummers. Another Houston act on a national label (in this case, Frenchkiss Records), the Guilloteens put on shows that are even more ferocious than their recordings. Expect costumes and perhaps even honest-to-God mayhem. Arrests are not unheard of.

GRASSHOPPER

4 p.m.

Name: Plump

Nominated in: Best Funk

Web site: www.plumpsounds.com

Personnel: Doug Payne (drums), Al Bear (guitar), Jason Jackson (saxophone), Josh Matranga (bass), James Yarbrough (vocals, percussion)

This Heights-based band has already produced two studio albums of their "foot-stomping, knee-slapping, head-bobbing, finger-lickin', slap-your-mama-in-the-face funk." That finger-lickin' part might be a little off-base, but then again, this is a band that says what they want most in life is to be Super Bowl MVP. Somebody might want to explain to them that the Super Bowl MVP is one guy who can play football really, really well, and Plump is a bunch of guys who play funk. Admittedly, they play funk really, really well, but that won't help them any when a 300-pound linebacker with no neck and a serious case of 'roid rage is charging at them.

5 p.m.

Name: Kemo for Emo

Nominated in: Best Punk

Web site: www.myspace.com/kemoforemo

Personnel: Larry Sanders (vocals, guitar), Brian Gibbs (bass guitar, backing vocals), Jake (lead guitar), Mix Master Matt Martinez (drums)

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