THE SKYLINE 50: PART FOUR

Part Four of our all-week series of our 50 favorite tracks of 2007

Malgamesh – Graustark
Live Demonstrations Field Recordings
Dismissing this track (or any Graustark composition really) as so much aimless guitar noodling somewhat misses the point (though we were most assuredly guilty of it initially). There is no attempt here to carry on the legacy of any sort of pop music, rock and roll or “Surfing Bird.” Invoking the improvisational slice of 60s music that will most likely never be used as the soundtrack for retirement investment vehicles, this open-road Kodachrome moves things along at a more sustainable pace than most of Demonstrations, bringing to mind all those Exploding Plastic Inevitable soundtracks clogging up your Velvet Underground box-set.


Mamma Come Quick – The Generic Tribe
The Dressmaker, The Drone and the Yellow
The Generic Tribe, whose Dressmaker is so all-over-the-place they could also pick up honors in the Hip Hop and ElectroDance categories were we to have such things, have been putting out albums outside our radar for years. (Yet with a substantial fan base, apparently, as they are the only known local act to have successfully carried out a “Make A Fan Video Challenge” in 07). They are joined by scores of local fellow-minded on their recordings, inversely proportional to their relatively rare shows. Momma has them at their most shrimp-boat-on-the-bay chill, with the very definition of a lackadaisical approach to the nightmares that may or may not actually be confronting them.


Mat of Human Hair – Rustler
Phonetic Whips
We are in favor of instrumental metal. BRING IT. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of metal vocalists fit neatly into one of three categories: the tuff nu-metal closet emo-fan; the shrill enchanter of the glam era, or; the mumbling zombie growler. It is for this reason that we think people who listen to heavy metal records and are inspired by the lyrics to commit heinous acts are idiots on more than one level. YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG, DINGLEBERRY! The best part of metal is the MUSIC, and that’s why bands like Rustler rule our faces cause there’s not some guy trying to freak you out with stories about dead trees. Like all of Whips (WHIPS!), Hair can almost just hold a candle to Rustler’s blistering live shows, but it's sure great to tide you over in the meantime.


Mr Simon – The Tenspeeds
The Tenspeeds
One day at the counter of Sound Exchange, peering as we often do through to glass to be sure a bootleg DVD of Rising Force hadn’t escaped our attention, we noticed a little cardboard box with CDs by two local bands we hadn’t heard of, The Treetops and The Tenspeeds, sitting proudly on display. Always intrigued by locals we’ve never heard of, we picked up a copy of each. And smiled through our commutes for the rest of the week. It turns out, these are both the brain-children of a local kid named Kirke, a talent who later released a Grey Ghost under the name Little Red Lighthouse. In the lowest of lo-fi glory, we’re pretty Passionate about this Youthy Thing.


No Control – The Factory Party
Good Boys Tonight
We’re always heard that musical trends come to Houston somewhere between when Bedford Avenue invents and Madison Avenue expropriates. For a while there, it seems like you couldn’t swing a skinny neck-tie without hitting some sort of break-out band that wasn’t referencing the works of folks like Joy Division, early New Order and Gang of Four. Now, here we are a few years later, there has been an Ian Curtis biopic and a band called She Wants Revenge, and yet Houston appears to have largely survived this trend without much of a local ripple. Which is surprising, as there is a pretty top of the pops local that might find itself swimming near the top of that morass should it ever start hitting practice spaces as hard as needles on copies of Entertainment, mainly the Factory Party. On No Control, they exhibit no shyness in taking a page from their influence’s fakebook, and it pays off as a satisfying reminder of a trend that unfortunately passed the city right by.


On Your Own – Something Fierce
Something Fierce / The Hangouts Split
It’s weird to think that Steven Van Zandt, who is in the E-Street Band and played the role of Silvio on the Sopranos, is pretty much at the top of the Garage Rock taste-making pantheon. Let’s face it, anyone with a syndicated weekly garage radio show heard on 200 stations around the country plus TWO satellite radio channels is doing a lot more for the get out the vote project than anybody with a pristine collection of Trashmen 7”s in their safety deposit box. And yet, in spite of his notable real world credentials, we can’t help but picture him as Silvio, complete with pompadour and double-breasted suit, sitting in the back room of the Bing, nodding his head up and down to this song, and exclaiming “These kids are good. Real good. A Hit is a Hit is a Hit!”


One Picture Frame and One Half a Picture – Tambersauro
The Blue Letter/Tambersauro Split
Probably beating out even the Linus Pauling Quartet LP in the category or “highest per-unit manufacturing cost”, Tambersauro’s split with like-minded Pacific coasters Blue Letter is just about as beautifully packaged as can be imagined. Picture, the single song that is captured in the grooves of the ten inches of white and splattered sherbet vinyl, is an unfolded piece of origami paper on a stranger’s table. It doesn’t unfold for you, its rather a series of creases that you must make sense of on your own. You must wrap it up in your own mind, to make sense of the interplay between the different parts and arcs and lines. It’s a very rewarding exercise.


Palms – Jana Hunter
There’s No Home
We have no idea how an Etch-a-Sketch works. We know all it would take to lift the Copperfeildian cape would be a few keystrokes and BAM, we’d be introduced into an entire subculture dedicated to the art and science of all things magnetic dust. But no. We like the unknown, and that mystery is part and parcel of the medium itself, and therefore important to preserve. We have as much interest in that as learning the science behind what is taking place when paint dries. So too with a good song like this one. We need not know why it has the particular affect it does on us, and we’re not looking to delve deep into the alt.musical.appreciation.stimuli.understanding.bin of our own heart to find the answers. That sort of vulnerability to inspection is the work of the artist. On this track, a hopeful transition between Home and her stripped down debut, Jana backtraces the knobs like a schoolyard pro.


Philthy Collins – By The End of Tonight
Complex Full of Phantoms
Lately, we’ve become more and more convinced that Phil Collins is the new Hall and Oates. This is often an unpopular observation to make in polite company. This isn’t to say that Portable Radio, Rich Girl, Private Eyes or I Can’t Go For That aren’t as sweet of jams as they were last month, but every piece of bubble gum looses its flavor eventually, and once you empty your pack, you might find yourself tempted to try on a new flavor for a change. Something with No Reply, for example. Therefore, it comes as no surprise to us that our favorite off of BTEOT’s latest is named after the resurgent man-puppet of Sam the Eagle. Quite the contrary. We expect to references to the Jacketed one popping up all over soon enough. See you in the Su su sudio.


Radio Song 04 – Bring Back the Guns
Dry Futures
What is the most common cliche of all time ever in the last several years or so? There’s never anything good on the radio. WELL PRAISE THE MAKER THAT IT’S SO. The radio is on in so many situations where you really need to get something done, that it would be a DISASTER if there was always something you wanted to hear on. Ordering a sandwich at Subway – DISASTER, because you’re tuned out and totally grooving to Booker T and the MGs and accidentally say yes to “extra day-old tuna” on your turkey sandwich. DISASTER: You’re at the DMV totally rockin' it to every song on the PA, and then you get to the front of the line and you’ve been so distracted you forgot to fill out your paperwork and then you have to go wait in line again. DISASTER: Radio Song 04 is on in the bathroom at work, and you can’t help but tap your foot and air guitar along and yell “I’M ON THE RADIO! I’M ON THE RADIO!”, but you didn’t realize that you are now in the hallway and never bothered to pull your pants up.