Houston Bottom Of The Curve CD

Live Recording

Recorded between August 2002 & January 2003.

Personnel: Jeff Halland (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Ian Prince (drums).

Audio Mixer: Jeff Halland.

Recording information: CK4, Minneapolis, MN (08/2002-01/2003); Mission Control, Minneapolis, MN (08/2002-01/2003).

Here's a rock & roll hint: if you're going to name your band Houston, it's probably a good thing for your band not to actually be from Houston. (These guys are all set on that score; they're from Minneapolis.) Here's another rock & roll hint: if you're going to have two songs on your album called "Dumb Rock 1" and "Dumb Rock 2," you'd better make it as clear as you possibly can that you're being facetious. These guys manage that quite well, except for on tracks like "It's a Shame" and the big, glorious, faux-dumb "Home for the Holidays," on which they sound like they're double-crossing themselves and aiming for dumb, but missing and hitting cool instead. Now, what really is dumb is singer Jeff Halland's unwillingness to commit to diphthongs, or even extended vowels, and thus his tendency to render words like "you" as "you-uh." But man, "Dumb Rock 1" and "Part One" are both spectacular songs, and "Intro" (which comes four tracks into the program, get it?) is one of the best rock instrumentals of the year. The press kit says that Houston is "massive, a bumble bee on growth hormone buzzing into a megaphone nestled against your eardrum." That's close enough. But I'll bet they can do even better than this. ~ Rick Anderson

Houston: Jeff Halland (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Lane Soderberg (bass); Ian Prince (drums).