Two young, potentially very young, boys with man-size attitudes. Skinny baggy jeans (an amazing conquest of the modern day). One had a Puerto Rican flag draped over the front of his jeans- it was a little too flag-as-penis for me, but the mix of nationalism and machismo definitely worked for him. They bounded on stage yelling “Grito!” and laughed at themselves a little when they saw the tiny audience of parents and little kids (it was still early in the day). They rapped (in Spanish mostly) but with dance-melodic flow – there was most definitely some auto-tune in there, and what sounded to me like video game sounds. My 13-year-old niece could explain it better. They knew how to put on a show, backed by a girl in a net shirt half dancing/half stroking herself, and two somewhat awkward boys fly dancing. One tall slim dark woman with bleached hair danced the entire set with her Puerto Rican flag flying in the style of a high school drill team. It was entertaining and heartening.

The accordion player from Tim Gaitan & the Umbrella Man was in this band and I decided he’s converting me to the accordion one band at a time. The drummer may have also been from that band. Basically, the Houston music scene is incestuous, possibly more than the Austin music scene. They did the ‘beer in heaven’ song they did before, an old spiritual, and even some tejano (if I’m using the word correctly). I particularly liked their song “Bésame.” There were rumors floating that Electric Cheetah hadn’t shown and these guys were filling the spot – Electric Cheetah is not even a band as far as I can tell per google so who knows. They were enjoyable.

Their sound was about as diverse as their collection of instruments: a lapsteel, upright bass, accordion, and drums. And somehow it worked – it was some crazy mix of tejano, gypsy punk, rockabilly, 60s rock… sometimes they sang in Spanish. Nick Gaitan has a great soulful voice. It was all so lively, he had to tell the accordion player to “cool that accordion down.” There was one couple furiously swing dancing by the stage, the girl with a dagger tattooed on her upper arm smiled at me evil-ly, and the rest of the audience were wall-sized Latinos and gorgeous rockabilly Latinas. This show was about when I started thinking Houston isn’t so bad, and is possibly even rawer than Austin with its still burgeoning music scene, and all of the diverse people actually melding their music and making something new, instead of another rehash of the past.

We needed a place to see friends, and ideally music, at noon on a Sunday. The possibilities were not endless. And so we discovered Papi Tino’s and the conjunto band Los Pinkys. All served with a fat dose of Austin hipsterdom – the little jar glasses, receipts in mini beach bags, the aged wood trim, and I still haven’t gotten over the perfect rickety wooden fence. I don’t know anything about conjunto music but the accordion wasn’t as frightening as I thought it might be and we all liked it! Even RightSide did. It was more cheerful and pleasant than oompah-y – maybe a little loud for the size of the place. The guitarist had one of the most beautiful guitars I have ever seen – pale wood with black inlays, and there was suspicion amongst Rockboy and ShellFish that he is a member of other bands around town.

[Texas] this band was all defamed before the show as a pop-country nightmare but they weren\”t all that bad – upright quick-paced snare drum country with loads of Latin influence, particularly mariachi brass – none of us really liked him even so – and he won a Grammy too

tremendous – tremendous musicians and tremendous sound – I don’t know enough about the genre except to say it was salsa-dancing music and the still-hipped people partook – they’re described as a Cuban band that plays a variety of Latin music – crowd so happy it made me wish I’d been born in Cuba

I was silly excited to see this show – I only discovered him in the last year or so but love his work with The Modern Lovers AND his solo career – of course the post-punkness of The Modern Lovers is appealing to me but there is generally something very appealing to me about his voice and his song constructions – so he turned out to be a bit of a wack job with perpetually turned-up eyebrows in a seemingly contrived expression of innocence and goofiness that I suspect masks a deep dislike for humankind and a vicious little ego – but maybe being an odd genius results in such behaviors and feelings – the real surprise to me is that the man is a guitar virtuoso, playing songs riddled with jazz and Latin influences and then handling both the bass and lead progression in a song – he would end each song with a spin of his guitar – in my theoretical version of his life, he was the sort who got bored so easily and quickly that he had to constantly move on to new things or be suffocated, so he was a punk and then went into a prolific career as a singer/songwriter and then moved out of the US and became infused with new sounds and learned to speak French and Spanish – he sang several songs in Spanish and midway through the show got into the habit of re-singing the song he just sang, either a new version of the intro or the entire song in a different language, I found this presumptuous and pretentious and wasn\”t sure if he was trying to insult the crowd or really saw value in resigning the same songs – oh! oh! the most important part for understanding my impressions of this show: $15 was charged for him alone without the standard two opening bands, he started at 9pm, he insisted on no air-conditioning at the show, it is still in the 90s in Austin, therefore eccentric or pretentious – he had something of the Mountain Goats about him but his songs aren\”t as quirky or deep but rather more childlike and silly – this may have been a reflection of his poorly crafted set list for the show, at least insofar as the songs I like by him – lastly and most importantly, I figured out that my affinity for Jonathan Richman is a result of the incongruity of his post-punk voice overlaying infectious little Latin-flavored melodies

so good that I was in continuous state of body prickles and it wasn’t only because of the horror of the previous band, one of the most charming and engaging bands I have seen in a long time, in large part due to the charismatic lead singer – a pug girl with a shock of blonde hair and a puppy dog enthusiasm and energy, she sang in an old-timey cutesy voice – kind of playful but high high quality, she verged on insane – jaw bracing, eyes darting – and I kept waiting to see a dark side but she maintained this tremendous aura of joy and quirkiness before, during and after her set, she also played guitar, the violinist was fantastic – a wispy near-severe former gothic woman in a red satin dress and ripped arms – purportedly one of the best in town, the positive interaction between the lead singer and the upright bass player when leaning in to share the microphone also built the appeal of a band that enjoys each other and enjoys what they’re doing, mostly old-timey swinging jazz and country songs, cute lyrics, one Spanish guitar song, one more modern-sounding song that reminded me of CocoRosie, the girl has it is my point

unimpressive rap/funk outfit at first – first rapper was too Tribe but the second rapper (he walked in late through a side door in his sweat suit and gut) was a little dirtier and much smoother – very interesting concoction of a band: keyboard, two guitarists, drummer, sax, trumpet, trombone and two rappers – though Mr. Rapper was good I think I enjoyed their departure into salsa the most – they did get people dancing in an unreceptive bar

really interesting band, mix of calypso and rock, looked as I imagine The Decemberists do, pack of fresh-faced little boys bounding all over the stage in a jam party, had shakers, keyboard, guitars, drums, must have been 7 guys, Kid on My Shoulder is still their best song, good eggs

the final darling touch on Ana\”s all-Austin downhome wedding, appetizers from Chick\”afil [pronounced Chick Filet and Ana\"s favorite crap fast food restaurant], desert from Amy\”s Ice Cream [Joe\"s employer]

another CD I should have bought years ago as recommended, they are amazing, from indie to mariachi, will have to suffer and be a latecomer

starting to appreciate mariachi but it so dominates the atmosphere, loud and in your face, annoying on a tired Friday night

salsa dancing music, lots of horns, really enjoyed it, fun sensuality, fellow Mendez teacher’s daughter was singer

BeautifulTeacher pick, Mexican, ska! (like old timey with skanking and all), punk!, ballads!, weird fantasy song with mask and a floaty group dance, excellent and energetic, little lead singer had an afro and a pink shirt with a tie on-ahhhh

many members, Spanish festival music, good I’m sure since they play everywhere all the time, put the dance into people

expected them to be more adult contemporary but had a Santana flavor and some wailing guitars-put on a good show, not terribly moved

they called it “conjunto” music, four old men with a Latino-Buffet-like white guy, the Mexican music with the accordians-ayyyee-is it polka or isn’t it?, tolerable

flamboyant lead singer, fastest lead guitarists EVER, spiritual Spanish rock

Despite being assured that Maria Fatal has released albums, I have never stumbled across one in a retail store. Online, I have seen listings as “not available.” They were awesome, so that’s too bad their distribution isn’t widespread.

Maria Fatal was a tight, Spanish-singing rock group, fitting for a Cinco de Mayo celebration. It’s pretty much not possible to find an album of theirs in my neck of the woods, but they have released a few.