Houston’s music scene is in its fledgling state, which, contrary to popular opinion, isn’t a bad place to be.
Sure, it would be nice if our city’s musical landscape stretched further than the likes of 94.5 The Buzz — which only plays local music on Sunday nights — and was more akin to Austin’s, but it’s not. Still, there are a lot of good bands out there in Houston; they’re just figuring out how to market themselves.
Houston is, from what we can tell, seen by youngsters as a bit of a boring town; a workaholic’s dream, where there’s plenty of work to do and little fun to be had. But that’s just not true, especially if you’re into music.
The Last Place You Look, Fat Tony, VerseCity, Deep Ella and, of course, Chamillionaire, Paul Wall and Bun B are just a few of many local musicians that show a lot of promise (and happen to put on fantastic live performances). The latter three happen to also be former and current UH students.
On Wednesday, a few local music writers met to discuss their “work” over drinks. In attendance were writers for Free Press Houston, 29-95, the Houston Chronicle, Space City Rock, Houston Calling, the Houston Press, Houstonist.com and Houston Music Examiner.
And all the journalists said the same thing: give us more.
Many local artists spend their time practicing (which is, of course, necessary) but focus so much on playing music that they overlook an essential relationship with the press. We feel the same way.
In the age of the Internet, it’s easy to get your music up on MySpace, Music1up, Facebook and the like, but until someone else starts writing about your music and puts your name out there, you’ll most likely continue to play smaller gigs.
The Daily Cougar has a Life & Arts section and, since we try to keep most of our coverage pertinent to our neighborhood (which, by the way, is all of Houston), we suggest that any UH students who are in bands contact us immediately.
We want to help you make Houston easier on the ears.
