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Recent Articles

Recent Articles by Roy Kasten

  • Colin Gilmore

    8 p.m. Wednesday, August 28. Lucas School House, 1220 Allen Avenue

  • Blue Mountain

    8:30 p.m. Saturday, August 23. Lucas School House, 1220 Allen Avenue

  • Curtis Eller

    9 p.m. Thursday, August 14. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue

  • Krist Krueger

    8 p.m. Sunday, August 10. Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, 3301 Lemp Avenue

  • The Ting Tings

    8 p.m. Thursday, July 31. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street

National Features >

  • Houston Press

    The Passion of Victoria Osteen

    A flight attendant's smackdown with the wife of mega-preacher Joel Osteen inspires a whole new set of commandments.

    By Rich Connelly

  • City Pages

    Your Field Guide to the RNC

    Today Denver, tomorrow the Twin Cities.

    By Matt Snyders and Bradley Campbell

  • The Pitch

    Star Power

    A country musician rescues Waylon Jennings' tour bus from the scrap heap.

    By C.J. Janovy

  • Village Voice

    Serrano's Second Movement

    The provocateur who brought you "Piss Christ" pinches off a new concept.

    By Lynn Yaeger

The Brakes

9 p.m. Tuesday, May 13. Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Boulevard, University Cit

By Roy Kasten

Published on May 07, 2008

The dark, sweet piano march that opens the Brakes' Tale of Two Cities, a collection of precisely choreographed live recordings, snakes into trumpet blats and other sadistic pleasures: "Bite my lip and drain this blood into the ground," croons Zach Djanikian. But that's as rough as these kids from Philly get. Their navigation of '70s AOR and guitar jamming may be their way of liberating Wilcoland from experimental pretensions, but it's also as hooky and swift as a schooner captained by Matthew Sweet. They pay no mind to political winds — "I'm not afraid of the state of the union," sings a blissful Djanikian — but that doesn't make them yacht rockers. A course this smooth and straight raises the question of whether they're having any fun at all; when they cut loose with the guitars you know the answer.



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