Most Popular
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Cleaning Up Foreclosed Homes After the Mortgage Crisis
Junk haulers expand their business in the wake of evictees leaving behind houses in terrible condition
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Doctors vs. Parents: Who Decides Right to Life?
Following surgery, Sabrina Martin's condition went south. And then, her family says, Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital set about arranging for her demise.
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Do You Have Multiple Personality Disorder?
Years after Sybil, the debate continues
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So Much for No Child Left Behind
School test scores rise as more low-scoring students drop out.
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Doña Rosita’s Jalapeno Kitchen and “Perspectivas: A Window into Their World”
A one-woman show and an art exhibit share the spotlight as part of the 2008 Texas Sor Juana Festival
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Sitting Down with La Porte's Buxton (13)
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Doctors vs. Parents: Who Decides Right to Life? (10)
Following surgery, Sabrina Martin's condition went south. And then, her family says, Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital set about arranging for her demise.
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Do You Have Multiple Personality Disorder? (7)
Years after Sybil, the debate continues
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So Much for No Child Left Behind (5)
School test scores rise as more low-scoring students drop out.
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Larry McMurtry and Willie Nelson in Houston (5)
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Should Bruce Springsteen Be Forgiven?
Arguments for reconsidering the missteps on the Boss's otherwise impeccable track record
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Sgt. Pepper at Discovery Green
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The Houston International Festival Is Upon Us
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Last Concert Café
Hippie wolves haunt and howl at the former whorehouse
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Larry McMurtry and Willie Nelson in Houston
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This Just In: Griffin Stolen from Bishop’s Palace in Galveston
12:59PM 05/07/08 -
Reverberations: Born Liars and The Heys
10:25AM 05/07/08 -
Astros-Nationals: One Game Over Five Hundred
12:07PM 05/07/08 -
Get Lit: Hamburger America: A State-By-State Guide to 100 Great Burger Joints, by George Motz
10:05AM 05/06/08
What we are writing about
- Altar Boyz
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- Ornament as Art:...
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Recent Articles By Chris Parker
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Marah
Angels of Destruction!
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Scare Tactics
Have You Checked the Children?
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Play Our Dating Game
Fat Joe, Young Jeezy and Lil' Wayne
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LCD Soundsystem
Sound of Silver
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Drive-By Truckers, with the Black Crowes
Sunday, July 2, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins Drive, The Woodlands, 281-363-3300
National Features
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Broward-Palm Beach New Times
Last Step to Redemption
Drug counselor Richard Entrekin swam a little too easily in a sea of sharks.
By Amy Guthrie -
Village Voice
The Cro-Mag Diaries
Remembering the brutal life and times of John "Bloodclot" Joseph, New York hardcore icon.
By Rob Harvilla -
Seattle Weekly
Being Gary Busey
Everybody thinks Jeff Swanson is somebody famous. And he does nothing to dissuade them of the notion.
By Aimee Curl -
SF Weekly
Party Crashers
If you think Ralph Nader won't screw the Democrats again, you're not paying attention.
By John Geluardi
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Pennywise
Details:
Subject(s): Pennywise and Strung Out, Authority Zero, Warehouse Live
Change gets the hype, but most things stay the same. Two decades ago, Hermosa Beach [California] H.S. grads Pennywise represented something new, drawing on a still underground skate punk sound and its blend of chunky thrash guitar, shout-along anthems and machine-gun tempos. Poised to capitalize on the early-'90s punk success of Bad Religion and the Offspring, they proved unable to follow up their indie breakthrough, 1995's About Time.
While they're still a powerful live presence, recent albums hold more appeal for their consistency than their inventiveness. It's hard to fault them, though; Pennywise is to Bad Religion what Aerosmith is to the Stones. So while their new, free MySpace album, Reason to Believe, offers catchy punk with a few wrinkles (the power pop-tinged "We'll Never Know"), there's a workmanlike banality to it.
SoCal neighbors Strung Out have been at it almost as long as Pennywise, plying a more metal-inflected skate-punk sound migrating, on the past few albums, toward greater tunefulness. While neither act scores high on originality, it's hardly worse than the ubiquity of 12-bar blues, and as music reverts from recording back to a performance art, such concerns seem less important to livewire acts like these.
