Most Popular
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Barack Obama and Me
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
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Mescaline on the Mexican Border
Texas is the only state in the country where peyote is sold legally. Really.
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A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
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Little Bitty Burger Barn
"It's okay to be little bitty in the big city" is an apt slogan for this new burger joint, where sliders rule
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Ghost Town CFS: Carriage House Cafe
Step back in time — to a spooky old carriage barn with a monster chicken-fried steak
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Barack Obama and Me (253)
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
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A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita (20)
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
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Save Lobo: A Siberian Husky Mix is Sentenced to Die (28)
Why? Because he's big and intimidating and because one family complained about him over and over again
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Are You Hot Enough for Citizen Lounge? (7)
All This Useless Beauty
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HoustonHipHop.com Relaunch Party (5)
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Are You Hot Enough for Citizen Lounge?
All This Useless Beauty
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Tired of the Hype, But That's All There Is
Next month, Houston gets to be a cool kid. But only for a week.
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The improbable redemption of Ashlee Simpson
"La La" Love You
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Rap's Rapidly Vanishing Female MC
The Why Chromosome
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A New Official State Song for Texas?
A case for a new — or different, anyway — state song
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Over the Weekend: Fotos, Dogs and Sausage. And Hannah Montana Too.
08:50AM 03/10/08 -
Last Night: The Slits and Friends at Numbers
05:39PM 03/11/08 -
Spring Training: Pain, Pain and Ball Girls
06:14PM 03/11/08 -
Jameson’s Rarest Vintage Reserve at $250 a Bottle
12:20PM 03/11/08
What we are writing about
- American Gangster
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Recent Articles By Brett Koshkin
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The Rapture
The Rapture performs on Wednesday, May 16, at Warehouse Live, 813 Emanuel, 713-225-5483. Shiney Toy Guns also perform.
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PPT
Tres Monos in Love
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The Jonx
No Turn Jonx Red
National Features
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SF Weekly
The Candidate
Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.
By Matt Smith -
The Pitch
How Not To Be a Rap Star
First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.
By Nadia Pflaum -
Village Voice
Project Runaway
What becomes a gossip columnist most?
By Michael Musto
Melt Banana
Melt Banana performs Sunday, May 27, with XBXRX and The Jonx, at Numbers, 300 Westheimer, 713-526-6551.
By Brett Koshkin
Published: May 24, 2007Four Japanese lunatics escaped from a funny farm and are now touring the United States as a band named Melt Banana. Or at least that's what you might guess the first time you see one of the noise-rock band's ear-splitting shows, where everything is played at breakneck speeds. Melt Banana has been delighting fans — and scaring the crap out of unsuspecting concertgoers — for more than 15 years. The group, fronted by the high-pitched Yasuko Onuki, is touring in support of their latest album, Bambi's Dilemma, on their own A-Zap records.
Maybe the band members are getting older, maybe they just wanted some change from the rapid-fire assault that is the Melt Banana song repertoire, but Bambi's Dilemma actually presents a change in direction for the band. A move toward accessibility, the album features some songs that can be construed as digestible, even reaching almost-pop ground. But fans of the lightning-fast numbers that make up the most of the Melt Banana catalogue shouldn't fret. This venture into structure only holds up for the first half of the album; the second half shows they have no interest in abandoning Ichirou Agata's screeching guitar or layers of effects. The perfect band for fans with attention deficit disorder, Melt Banana promises to give you their all — even if that's sometimes just barking out 30-second, distortion-filled songs.
