Not-so-fresh off the heels of last year's Wild Mountain Nation, Portland's Blitzen Trapper swings by the Bayou City tonight at Walter's on Washington. Even though they're painfully under the Houston musical consciousness' radar, it'll do you some good to check their set out. Released on Sub Pop Records last year, Wild Mountain Nation proved to be one of the strongest releases of 2007, although somewhat overlooked considering the heavyweights that ended up dominating the ridiculous......

We're noticing a trend in great local bands: the older we get, the younger they get. The Wild Moccasins just happen to be one of those bands. Don't get us wrong. Despite our aging ways, it's refreshing to find a local band that can take the sensibilities of twangy pop/rock that subliminally (or blatantly) encourages the audience to interact . The gang of five take subtle power pop melodies and give it a folk......

It’s hard enough to come up with enough words to entertain the masses of readers who flock to Houstonist as it is, but what do you do when the concert is a secret? J.D. and Stacy Tucker started booking these free secret shows last year, sharing what we can only imagine to be secretive and highly confidential communications with an impressive list of Houston music acts. Aptly naming the weekly daytime shows the Secret Saturday......

Houstonist found this week's crop of Missed Connections sweet & torid but relatively dull until we found the Springer-tastic posts listed below. Looking for ROBIN - m4w - 52 Robin, we dated in 1991/1992 and then lost track of each other. You are from New Orleans, worked at the VA hospital and lived on South Main. I was living in Pasadena and worked at the Transco tower. We met at an Olive Garden because......

Before you get all "wait, I was told there wouldn't be any math", there is some significance to the number above. It's Vince Young's QB Rating, largely the result of a 5/13 touchdown/interception ratio. By way of comparison, Matt Schaub has a decent 87.3 rating, and former Steelers phenom Kordell Stewart finished his career with a 70.7 rating. Perhaps the Madden cover jinx doesn't mean that you blow out your knee or get arrested for......

Is it possible for one of the worst trades in Astros franchise history to get any worse? Well, it did. The Astros announced that Jason Jennings will be out for the remainder of the year with a torn elbow tendon. Jennings finishes the year at 2-9 with a 6.45 ERA in 19 games. For the month of August, he is winless with a 8.06 ERA. Jennings was brought over from the Colorado Rockies to......

The Chicago Cubs (and their inexplicable legion of local fans) arrived Monday at Minute Maid Park on top of the NL Central division, ready to put some distance between themselves and the Brewers in the standings. The Astros had other plans. Led by strong pitching performances by Wandy Rodriguez, Woody Williams, and Roy Oswalt, the Astros swept the series and bumped the Cubs below Milwaukee in the NL Central race. The offense was on for......

When Chris Isaak released his album Heart Shaped World in 1989, the album that features "Wicked Game," it barely made a dent on the charts. A year later, film director David Lynch featured the song in his movie Wild at Heart. That's when Isaak's luck changed. The video is now a classic -- arguably, one of the sexiest videos ever made. It doesn't hurt that they casted model Helena Christensen to teasingly play with......

We know what you're thinking. You've looked at the accompanying photo and have already written off this post as crap. You're wrong. Liquor stores close at 9 PM. You probably haven't given that much thought except for the occassions when you desparately needed another bottle of Hypnotiq, Jaegermeister or some other item only available at a booze shop. We know the feeling. Try hosting a kegger without a functioning tap only to arrive in......

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick......

Good morning, Houston. Have you ever looked at your pet gerbil and thought, "Y'know, Nibbles really looks like an ibex?" If so, you might consider seeing an eye doctor — or entering the Houston Zoo's Naturally Wild photo contest. The zoo and KTRK are looking for photos of pets that look like wild animals; if yours makes the cut, you could win a family membership to the zoo and a gift card from Petco.......

Let's go get some pan-Asian cuisine! Can't get enough of it these days? Obviously you all can't, as this town seems to be spawning another PF Chang's or Pei Wei or Nit Noi or So Very Tall Rockets Player Restaurant every 15 seconds. If you find yourself trapped in Sugar Land looking for some safe and non-intimidating Thai/Vietnamese/Chinese food, though, perhaps you should drop by The Wild Ginger for a slightly fresher take on......

Galveston is hosting the 23rd Mardi Gras of its modern era while New Orleans krewes roll for the second time P.K. (Post Katrina). Dedicated lunatics have been slowly building up their Mardi Gras revelry since the twelfth night after Christmas - the official start of the carnival season. But, the highest concentration of the most celebrated Mardi Gras parades, balls and general debauchery lands this weekend. Attendance for events in both cities is expected to......

I have a huge problem. I’m a big Bears fan (and a huge White Sox fan, but I’ll let that slide for the time being as to not open old wounds), but as this weekend approaches, I realized that I have nobody to watch The Game with. For years, I would be watching The Game with a few dozen other sweatpants-wearing, brat-eating, true Chicagoans — and for the first time in my first month as......

Tonight the River Oaks Theatre will feature Pink Floyd The Wall as this week's midnight movie. This trippy rock opera is one of our favorites (coming in as a close second only to Tommy). Billed as "visually and sonically overwhelming"--as the cover might suggest--the movie documents the isolation and mental breakdown of a troubled rock star. As every Houstonian with a computer knows, the River Oaks Theatre is in danger of being shut down. As......

Back in June, we heard that Six Flags was planning to sell or close several of its properties, including Houston's Splashtown. And sure enough, the company is selling Splashtown and six other parks in a $312 million deal. The parks' new owner, PARC 7F-Operations Corp. of Jacksonville, Fla., will immediately sell them to CNL Income Properties, then will lease them from CNL. Whatever. The good news for all you Splashtown lovers is that the park......

Former TSU President Priscilla Slade's grand jury testimony won't be unsealed so Slade's ex-assistant can search it for inconsistencies, State District Judge Brock Thomas ruled Wednesday — though a grand jury will be able to review the testimony to see if Slade committed perjury. It's not clear just what inconsistencies prosecutors believe might be in the testimony, but prosecutor Donna Goode said last week that "there's enough concern on my part to go through the......

A new report from the Texas State Auditor's office focuses on TSU's endowments, claiming that the university spent at least $285,934 from the principal of some of its endowments, which are supposed to remain untouched. More might have been spent, too, but it was impossible for auditors to find out "because of the university's poor record keeping." The bad record keeping and spent principal on some of the university's 78 endowments, which total $23 million,......

God, we're so sick of Snakes on a Plane that we want to kill anyone and everyone that makes a "something on a something" joke. But then we realized that there was no way we could ever win this fight, and, hell, if you can't beat them, we might as well join them. And with that, you have the theme of this week's Gothamist network post. Austinist makes it easy for us, with Candidate......

Aaaah, August. Melting concrete. Steaming bayous. It’s hot as Houston. But the days are getting shorter and before you know it, the kiddies will be back in school, we’ll be “falling back” and the nuclear temperatures will turn to chilly. Don’t drag your turtlenecks and overcoats out yet, we still have five weeks 'til Labor Day. To help you make the most of the dwindling days, your friendly Houstonist came up with a short......

If you've dried off from the soggy fourth of July, and are ready to venture out again, here's a few ideas this week from your friendly Houstonist buddies.... Friday, July 7 The Talento Bilengue de Houston, a Latino arts and cultural center, continues it's Summer First Film Fridays series, an ongoing showing of independent films by and about Latinos. The current offering is "Harvest of Redemption", based on a true story of a boy in......

First Six Flags shut down AstroWorld, and now it's talking about closing Splashtown, too. It makes us wonder: Why doesn't Six Flags want Houstonians to have fun? The Oklahoma City-based Six Flags announced overnight that it's struggling financially and may be forced to sell or close six of its 30 properties, including the 20-year-old Splashtown. The company cites falling atendance and rising operation costs as reasons for the trouble; Six Flags President and CEO Mark......

Houstonist knows what you're thinking. It involves the word "redneck" and possibly something about glittery cowboy hats, line dancing, and lyrics about dead dogs/trucks/relationships. And, dear reader, you may be right. But if you stop looking there, you're bound to miss some of the most original artists on the market today. Not all the women look like Xtina, and you might not want to talk politics with Toby Keith (he's actually a democrat!), but......

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scene. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. Bostonist sees Boston and Somerville each whip out their art and face off. A plagiarized novel is the......

Been wondering when "Teachers Gone Wild" will come out? Houstonist has an early contender for roles in that video: the head coach and athletics director at Willis High School, who is under investigation for their parts in an inappropriate photo. And "parts" really is the right word here — the picture reportedly shows two men exposing themselves to a third man who seems to be sleeping during a school district chili cookoff. The photo was......

Last week, Houston landed, yet again, on one of those offbeat national polls. This time, we have the coveted number five spot on the Wild, Weird, and Wacky Street Names Contest, sponsored by Mitsubishi. J.D. Montfort submitted the intersection of Clinton Drive and Fidelity Street, located in east Houston near the Ship Channel, and he’ll receive a life-size replica of those signs for his winning submission. If he’s a Republican, we're sure he’ll proudly......

"Grow beards, wear big hats, boots and spurs. Let's put a little touch of the Wild West into this thing." Those are the first quoted words to establish what can only be described as the "flavor" of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. In their honor, tomorrow — Friday, Feb. 24 — is the day that we celebrate Texan pride and spirit. Go Texan Day was established in 1954 and we see no need to......

Houstonist is preparing to lose ourselves in a sea of turkey, cranberry sauce, yams and pumpkin pie. But before we do, here's a look at some of today's non-football TV highlights:The History Channel takes a look at what the first Thanksgiving was really like. Who knew the pilgrims had Wild Turkey? Oh, wait, that wasn't supposed to be capitalized. You'll learn all kinds of things about our forefathers and everyone's favorite food-based holiday, including......