Music

2006 Houston Press Music Awards Supplement

Continued from page 2

Larry Sanders and Brian Gibbs stared Kemo for Emo in 2003. The pair worked on their "catchy, rhythmic and energetic tunes" for a year by playing local venues like Fitzgerald's and Numbers. The next year, they added drummer Matthew Martinez. The new mix of members led to a refined repertoire and a tour of the southern United States. In 2005, they went into the studios and recorded their debut CD, I'd Rather Have a Broken Neck, releasing it in July that year. They signed a deal with indie label Montrose Records and are putting out a new CD this summer.

6 p.m.

Name: Gritboys

Nominated in: Best Underground Rap/Hip-Hop

Web site: www.myspace.com/gritboys

Personnel: Pretty Todd, Poppy, Scooby, Unique

The G is for ghetto, the R is for reality, the I is for in, and the T is for Texas, just like Jimmie Rodgers said way back when. Southside natives who met at Worthing High, Pretty Todd, Poppy, Scooby and Unique craft tales that aren't quite gangsta but sure ain't soft. While they say that they're "not on some radio shit," they definitely "have the ability to come up with catchy hooks." "We represent the dudes that be at the house," Scooby explains, "that's scrapin' up some change to get a cigar. Going in the penny jar to get a cigar. People that gotta wake up and cut the yard."

7 p.m.

Name: Free Radicals

Nominated in: Best Jazz

Web site: www.freerads.com

Personnel: Theo Bijarro, Pete Sullivan, Jason Jackson, Nick Cooper, Chris

Howard, Steve Balthaswer and others

It's unclear if the Free Radicals' music can actually "stop the war, stop the wall [and] stop the WTO," but they're trying. Their "funk, jazz, ska, reggae, dub" music has a definite Afro-Cuban base. And even if so far ska hasn't done much about the wall along the U.S./Mexico border that political conservatives are promoting, the Free Radicals are giving it a shot. Band member Jason Jackson played "The Star Spangled Banner" for 30 minutes during a recent immigration march. That's as close as the group has come to their dream gig of playing "on a float alongside people pouring into the streets in protest." Coltrane, Mingus and Dizzy, the main influences on the Free Radicals, each of them pretty radical themselves, would be proud.

8 p.m.

Name: Satin Hooks

Nominated in: Best Experimental

Web site: www.myspace.com/satinhooks

Personnel: Kerry Melonson (vocals, guitar, electronics, keys, turntable), Lucas Gorham (bass, vocals, percussion, drum machines, electronics), David Gomez (drums, percussion)

The Second Ward's Satin Hooks have already put out a few releases of their "dance-rock party drum and bass crickly-crackly-harmonizing fun" music. A crickly-crackly-harmonizing-fun music that they hope to hear in video games and Japanese beer commercials. "We are aiming for an international audience. We are not just a local band," they say. If along the way, they could open for Prince, David Bowie or Tom Waits, that would be fine with them. While they're still in town, they don't mind stirring the Houston music muck pot a little: "Hey, all you bands out there that suck! Give us your gear if you're not gonna use it right!"

9 p.m.

Name: Spain Colored Orange

Nominated in: Best Indie Rock; Album of the Year (Hopelessly Incapable of Standing the Way); Best Drummer (Steve Torres); Best Keyboardist (Gilbert Alfaro); Local Musician of the Year

Web site: www.myspace.com/spaincolouredorange

Personnel: Gilbert Alfaro (vocals, piano), Eric Jackson (trumpet, keys), Randy Platt (guitars, Orange feedback), Steve Torres (the beat), Steven Burnett (bass, mouth harp)

Ask Gilbert Alfaro for a list of his influences, and he'll give you a straight answer: "Beatles, ELO, Tom Waits, Pink Floyd, Chicago (era '69 to '77), and the Band." Ask him what his band sounds like, and he won't. "We sound like the Muppets raping Brian McManus in the key of C." (To us, they sound like ELO with a trumpet-led Madrid-bullfight vibe.) In any case, they are one of the most nationally prominent local bands, with their disc Hopelessly Incapable of Standing in the Way drawing raves from coast to coast.

HOOTERS' MARKET SQUARE STAGE

(all ages)

4 p.m.

Name: Bojones

Nominated in: Best Drummer (Louis Messina)

Web site: www.myspace.com/bojones

Personnel: Louis Messina (drums), Christopher Messina (guitars), Nick Greer (lead vocals)

"Beautiful mystery" is Bojones's catchphrase, and here are a few clues to help solve it. Their claim of playing "progressive blues rock" seems designed to throw you off the trail; their new song "Fire in the Sun" sounds like Radiohead with Chopin on keyboards. Fun fact: This is yet another of the coterie of sibling bands playing the showcase. Christopher and Louis Messina are twins (and sons of concert promoting legend Louis Messina Sr.).

5 p.m.

Name: Los Skarnales

Nominated in: Best Rock en Español; Best Bassist (Nick Gaitan); Best Male

Vocalist (Felipe Galvan)

Web site: www.losskarnales.com

Personnel: Felipe Galvan (vocals), Nick Gaitan (bass fiddle), Roberto Rodriguez (accordion), Ryan Scroggins (organ), Patrick Wheeler (drums, percussion), Kenny Dickman (guitar)

Los Skarnales describe their music as sounding "like Tin Tan, Lalo Guerrero, Tom Cat, Jerry Mouse and Had a Meeting With Pachucos and Rude Boys that ended in a recording session. Oh, yeah, with a case or two of beer." But while they're eloquent about how they sound, they go suddenly mealy-mouth when asked what they want to do with their music: "to keep traveling, making our music and letting that music expand into more opportunities for the band as a whole and the members individually." Huh? Then, when they're asked what other Houston band they're most excited about these days, they nut up again, saying, "Not one [in] particular local but more the collective that is coexisting making the Houston scene grow." What the hell? Since when did the baddest 'chucos in town sound like the bullshit people put on job applications? Luckily, the group's music still has some balls. These guys are righteous. Tough, smart, with enough attitude and talent to land a good label deal. But they've got to get another speech writer.

6 p.m.

Name: Tody Castillo

Nominated in: Best Pop

Web site: www.todycastillo.com, www.myspace.com/todycastillo

Personnel: Tody Castillo (guitar), Paul "Falcon" Valdez (drums), Steven Brown (bass, vocals)

While he's written plenty that are just as good, Tody Castillo wishes he'd written "every song" by Ron Sexsmith, Elliott Smith, Elvis Costello and especially Tom Petty, whose Damn the Torpedoes would be in heavy rotation on that proverbial desert island. The Corpus native and current Montrose denizen calls this stuff and his own music "pretty rock-n-roll," and enough local fans agreed with both halves of that description last year to take his debut full-length to the No. 1 slot at Cactus Music & Video for its last year of existence. Castillo digs the Continental Club and Rudyard's, like-minded musical locals Arthur Yoria and Mando Saenz and dreams of opening up for "Tom Petty at the Woodlands or anywhere." Dislikes include "almost every song being played on today's popular radio" and the feeble showing by this year's "U.S. men's World Cup soccer team."

7 p.m.

Name: Million Year Dance

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