MontroseMonAmour

After a long fall tour, Buxton will be back in Houston at Walter’s this Sunday, October 21st. Buxton is really a gem in the crown of Houston bands making a name for themselves, garnering recognition from Paste Magazine and My Old Kentucky Blog, which calls their music “a nice journey.” I couldn’t agree more; their beautifully simple yet orchestral acoustic melodies take me back to somewhere prettier than here, and will guide me again to Walter’s this Sunday. They will be playing with Michigan-natives Frontier Ruckus, so don’t miss out- this show will be folkin’ great.

At the Continental Club on Friday the 26th, local bands Young Mammals, Wild Moccasins, Wicked Poseur and others will join costumed and disguised to cover the music of iconic artists including The Pixies, Madonna, and The White Stripes. Refer to the playlist above; this may be your only opportunity to party in a decade-ambiguous black hole of pop/ska/grunge/freakfolk. Dress in costume for $5 admission.

Today I finally had the heart to listen to Pop Etc, a band formerly known as The Morning Benders and well known for dazzling, orchestral feats such as the track Excuses. I mean, the album “Big Echo” narrated my adolescence; it played in the background at my first job when I was 15, it was in my headphones during my last road trip with my father, and the music still resonates.  So today I listened to POP ETC, and what did I hear?

“you’ve got the kind of lovin thats got me comin back like a yoyo”

How do these lyrics make me feel, former favorite band? Let me respond with lyrics from your previous album:

“I can’t help thinking I grew up too fast

And I know, I know this [great music] won’t last

A second longer than it has”

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders “Excuses” from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

See videos above for demonstrated stylistic injustice of Morning Bender vs POP ETC. Same people, less respect. And somebody please, weep with me.

Earlier this year, Andrew Bird released Break It Yourself, a distinctly baroque expansion to his earlier glockenspiel-happy folk albums. And on October 30, he is set to release Hands of Glory, a cover driven companion album that features Bird’s take on traditional American folk groups like the Carter Family and the Handsome Family. He even stays true to the traditional Americana style; all of Bird’s instrumentalists play acoustically, gathered around a single microphone in a church or a barn. The dedication to this style is exactly why the new single, “Three White Horses,” is more captivating and gritter than Bird’s previous works. No glockenspiel, but rather the melodic warbling of a saw; you can seriously smell the hay in the background. Check out the single and see Andrew Bird perform live at House of Blues on October 12.