Poor Dumb Bastards (Houston, TX)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Poor-Dumb-Bastards/126350582202

PDB was formed in March 1991 by long time hetero life partners and musical collaborators, Mike Porterfield and Byron Dean. The initial interest was to find a means to get into Emo’s for free, later they discovered Emo’s was always free. Drawing on their collective influences and experiences from some of their earlier work, bands like Cretinoid, Plutonium Flatheads and the Byron Weird Group, Mike and Byron set out create a genre all their own, hence “Texas Drunk Rock” was born. Add the non bass playing talents of Steve Scholtes and the competent, metronomic drumming of Chi Chi Macoola, and PDB were able to carve their initials on the bathroom door of the Texas music scene. Through the many years and many lineup changes, but these Ill-minded sewer rockers have stayed true to their founding principals. POWER, PERFORMANCE, PERVERSION

Beaumonts (Lubbock, Tx)
https://www.thebeaumontstx.com/

There’s something about Lubbock. Something other than the oppressive blue sky, the unavoidable cloud of shit-smell that occasionally engulfs the city, the flat, featureless landscape, or the preponderance of teen pregnancy, boredom, alcoholism, and God. There’s music. Yes, indeed there is. The Hub City has spawned music like you wouldn’t believe. Music loved by folks the world over. Even the real “King of Rock and Roll” came from Lubbock, and if you believe that (which you’d be a damn fool not to), then it ain’t too much of a stretch to believe Lubbock is also home to the greatest country band that ever existed. That band is THE BEAUMONTS.

It wasn’t too long ago that four of Lubbock’s most loved veteran musicians decided the state of Texas country music was dismal at best, and horrifying at its worst. Somehow, over the last twenty years, it became acceptable for a group of frat-boys to show up in thrift-store AC/DC shirts, play half-ass Lynyrd Skynyrd tunes about drinking Lone Star and smoking weed, and call that “country.” Well, good friends, THE BEAUMONTS didn’t think that was “all that damn country” and decided to do something about it. What resulted was a juggernaut of essence, the trooest of troo cvntry, something akin to the creation of the universe, but with Telecasters. Behold, good friends, and delight in the majesty of THE BEAUMONTS!

Jealous Creatures (Houston, TX)
https://jealouscreatures.com/

“By the time the elegaic “Little Heaven Big Sky” comes sweeping in, with its slow-stepping, delicate drums and Mojave 3-like feel, it’s like I’m out there on that darkened highway, speeding through the black with the windows down, just me and all those regrets. And I don’t ever want to reach my destination, wherever the hell that might be.” - Jeremy Hart, Space City Rock, 10/07/2011

“K.O. does not actively engage in the local music scene, but he talks like someone who does. That’s where we heard about this week’s Artist of the Week, Jealous Creatures, a punchy little rock quartet with all the verve you’d expect a female-led band to possess. He mentioned them Friday afternoon; by Friday evening we were smitten. ” - Shea Serrano, Houston Press Rocks Off, 8/24/2011

“By the EP’s end, I’ll grudgingly admit it — maybe Hirsch did originally play these songs on her own with just a guitar for gangs of hipster coffeehouse-dwellers. Make no mistake, though: this is how they were meant to be played, right here.” - Jeremy Hart, Space City Rock, 5/26/2011

Jay Satellite (Austin, TX)
https://www.facebook.com/jaysatellite

Jay Satellite is a quartet from Hutto that unabashedly rings out early ‘90s big guitar power pop with catchy melodies and songs you swear you’ve heard before…but there’s a dark undercurrent to the lyrics and guitar chords and a quirkiness that shows their record collections go deep towards post-punk, goth, shoegaze and beyond.

Sky Acre (Austin, TX)
https://www.skyacremusic.com/

Melodic noise, hardcore psych, dirty sweaty handsome rock.

Jeremy Carswell (Spring, TX)
https://jeremycarswell.com/

Hailing from Houston Texas, Jeremy Carswell is the originator of Urban New Wave music, a blend of 80’s new wave with a modern twist. He began writing and recording out of his bedroom in 2012 after he left school and decided that classical music, and the upright bass, weren’t for him and so Jeremy Carswell and the Nymphs was born. With a previous desire to be a classical composer, songwriting came as no struggle and quickly drew attention from many of his peers who then began converging on his project. His original band members’ dedication and love for his music kept them a solid group for 2 years until Jeremy Carswell and the Nymphs came to an end due to copyright issues with the name “nymphs”, which also correlated with band members leaving to pursue their dreams or to attend school.

As hard as these changes may have been on Carswell, they didn’t stop the drive and passion he had to push his music to the next level, and that lead him to releasing his first debut album, “2025”. Jeremy started with his producer, Gerritt Tisdale, in late 2014 and incredibly played every instrument on the album himself, from drums to keyboards. His knowledge of music and music theory is obvious when listening to his songs because of the meticulousness of how he recorded each part and the different depths and layers of each song. Carswell’s raw talent and high energy isn’t clear, though, until you see him live. He breathes a new life into his songs with each performance and never ceases to amaze with his work. Currently on the road to his second album, Jeremy Carswell has come a long way and is ready to take on the world!

Empty Shells (Houston, TX)
https://www.facebook.com/emptyshellsband

Empty Shells is a three piece band from Houston, TX. Formed in 2013 and led by the fiery guitar playing and emotive vocals of mercurial front-man Jonathan Espeche along with the pummeling rhythm section of Michael San Luis (bass) and Austin Hand (drums).

With a sound that encompasses the immediacy and aggressiveness of the early 1990’s alternative movement, lead guitar heroics of the 1970’s, as well the atmospheric sound of shoegaze; they have taken their influences and created a sound that is uniquely their own. Their dense wall of guitar and high energy live shows have garnered them comparisons to bands such as Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure, Nirvana, and My Bloody Valentine.

They have been tapped to open shows locally for national acts such as Clinic, No Joy, Yuck, Antemasque, and are quickly establishing themselves as an up and coming band to watch.

My Twilight Pilot (Houston, TX)
https://www.reverbnation.com/mytwilightpilot

The Inators, (Bryan/College Station, TX)
https://www.facebook.com/The-Inators-569970039766984

The Inators is loud guitar bass drum indie pop. The Inators is Dan, Fred, Johnny, and Kelly. With influences from 6L6, EL34, Tim, and 12AX7, The Inators combine elements of The Only Ones, The Replacements, Gin Blossoms, Cheap Trick, The Knack, a little Husker Du, and a dash of Beatles, to produce rock-n-roll that is a bit power pop and a bit pop punk. As an outcome, The Inator’s songs are sweet, hopeful, bitter, and betrayed.

Rocky Votolato (Seattle, WA)
https://www.rockyvotolato.com/

“…a brilliant creative revitalization” – Billboard.com

“Hospital Handshakes is a bona fide indie-rock masterpiece” – Alternative Press

Seattle’s Rocky Votolato has been relentlessly on tour over the last two decades, as a compelling Singer Songwriter, or with his former cult-punkband Waxwing. Ten years after his critically acclaimed album “Makers” and its evergreen “White Daisy Passing”, Votolato is still connecting with and captivating audiences all over the world, and is releasing a new EP in 2016 called “Sawdust and Shavings”.

A follow up to his latest album “Hospital Handshakes”, produced by Chris Walla (Ex-Death Cab for Cutie), the new effort showcases stripped down, intimate versions of songs from his last full-length, as well as several previously unreleased tracks and a feature by Emily Kokal of Warpaint. A new video for the dark and hauntingly beautiful title-track “Sawdust and Shavings” has been made by the filmmaker and Wim Wenders’ director-assistant Luca Lucchesi.

Chris Staples (Seattle, WA)
https://www.chrisstaplesmusic.com/

There are no casual Chris Staples fans. The man inspires devotion. The turnaround from casual listener to evangelist is nearly instantaneous. Play his music during a road trip with friends and inevitably someone will ask, “Who is this?” And a lifelong fan is born. Such is the unaffected power of these songs, of this voice. Chris Staples fandom is rewarding and lasting (despite his understated approach to promoting his own work, which - as it should be with all artists - seems secondary to the effort he puts into the making of it). We follow where he leads, and our numbers are growing.

A phenomenally dexterous guitarist, Staples has spent much of his career so far as a backing musician for other artists. Over the years he’s played with J. Tillman, later known as Father John Misty, and toured the world as a member of Telekinesis. Never content for long, Staples also travels on his own, never settling, never staid. A seasoned carpenter, he sustains his journeyman lifestyle by working construction jobs wherever he finds himself living. In the spring of 2014, having recently decamped to the Northwest, Chris Staples happened to do some work on the home of Josh Rosenfeld, co-founder and head of Seattle’s renowned Barsuk Records.