by rudyards | February 22nd, 2014
The Phlegmatics (Houston, TX)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Phlegmatics/212019764218
Formed in 2003, The Phlegmatics reunited former bandmates Jonathan Marshall and Jonas Velasco (Atomic Opera, Greytown respectively) in what was originally an attempt to create a musical vehicle for Jonathan’s younger brother Ethan. What started out with a few get togethers playing covers of songs from The Cars to The Descendents to acclimate budding Ethan Marshall quickly morphed into full throttle writing which rapidly produced plenty of material for live shows and their cardinal album Alumnus in 2005.
With the release of their first recording, The Phlegmatics were widely regarded as one of the best groups of its type from the Houston area. The band was nominated in both 2005 and 2006 for a Houston Press Music Award, and The Houston Chronicle declared them “Houston’s Ultimate Geek Band” in their 2005 Ultimate Houston section.
In 2007, Jonathan and Ethan’s father, Dave Marshall, a veteran lead guitarist who, with Kemper Crabb, has fronted bands such as ArkAngel and Radio Halo, joined while Ethan moved to the drums. The band then recorded and released their sophomore effort, Billy the Starfighter Pilot vs. The Phlegmatics in 2009.
The following year (2010) saw The Phlegms re-visit Greytown material initially produced from the mid-90s to the early parts of 2000. After spending the better part of both 2010 and 2011 producing,re-imagining, recording and releasing “On Mortgage Knees & Bankrupt Bones”, parts of 2011 and 2012 kept the guys writing and doing pre-production of their 3rd installment “Life is Better with a Soundtrack”. The Phlegms quickly dispatched 10 songs of raucous material in the span of 7 days for their tertiary offering. Having quietly kept the material from curious ears, the guys anxiously seek to personally deliver this new collection of musical din to an unsuspecting audience.
Metacrisis (Pearland, TX)
https://www.facebook.com/metacrisisband
Metacrisis brings a strong blend of grunge, driving rock and standing on the mountain guitar solos to the Houston music scene, anchored by front man Drew DeLaune’s soul baring lyics and growling vocals.
The band started in 2012 when fuzz-obsessed bassist Matt Walton convinced Drew to actually complete and release a handful of the hundreds of partial songs in his home studio recording collection. “As soon as I dug through Drew’s singer/songwriter shell I found this awesome, angry guy filled with some nasty rock”, says Matt, “I asked him how many songs were written for drop tuning and he just blinked and said ‘well…so far, all of them’.”
“Matt’s ability to recall every drum rhythm, chord progression, song structure and melody of every recording in rock/metal over the past 20 years was the final piece needed to bring my songs to life,” Drew explained. Bits and pieces titled like “Cool Riff 28″ soon became crushing breakdowns and blistering leads.
Green Hat was joined by drummer Michael Planer, who offers a powerful Lars Ulrich style feel (Master of Puppets, not St. Anger). “Michael was just a beast,” remembers Drew, “As soon as he put his first touch on a song it just came alive.” The band was completed by guitarist Nick Ostrowicki, who brings a level of rock-god shredding that elevates Green Hat’s music from it’s flanel undertones.
“There’s always room for more guitar, more thick sound, more stuff that isn’t just 4/4 flat rock,” says Nick. “That’s what we’re trying to do — play stuff that people will stop and say ‘Wait, did they just do that? That was awesome!’”
“At the end of the day, we always just try to be our own favorite band” says Michael, “We love the stuff we play, and we bring something that our fans love too.”
Black Queen Speaks (Houston TX)
https://www.blackqueenspeaks.com/
“Black Queen Speaks’ own description of itself is better than any other we could possibly come up: They sound like Jane’s Addiction and Soundgarden got their asses kicked by James Brown.
Their music is an electric fusion of hard rock, blues, and funk, a combination that has made us fairly leery of many, many more inept bands. What Black Queen Speaks bring to the table is, well… not sucking at it. The result is electric and dirty, music that acts as a neon sign spotlighting the kind of sex that was illegal in this city until recently. It’s hate music to make love to, is what we’re trying to say.” – Houston Press, 2011
Triple (Sorry, no verifiable info on-line)
