Photo by Marco Torres

According to the mother of his 17-month-old son, Houston rapper Preemo is coming around and talking after suffering an abdominal gunshot wound sometime overnight Monday.

Robin Aaron, Preemo's girlfriend, told Rocks Off Monday that the rapper is stable and had undergone surgery for a bullet wound from about 6 to 7:30 this morning. She was with him at the Texas Trauma Institute at Memorial Herrmann, she said.

About 4 p.m., Aaron said that Preemo was talking and "we're getting the story," adding that he had been in and out of consciousness for several hours.

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Epic Records

Note: Rocks Off was unavailable to send a photographer to Saturday's show.

Sara Bareilles
House of Blues
June 29, 2013

When I first arrived at House of Blues for Sara Bareilles, I wasn't sure how to process the fact that the show was sold out.

For one, it was the same night as Houston Pride, and by the looks of it, half of the city was down in Montrose to watch the parade. But it's also for the fact that, though House of Blues isn't the largest venue in Houston, it's certainly large enough to garner the respect it deserves.

It's certainly seen its fair share of talent over the years, including acts like Ke$ha, Ben Kweller and this week will host a reunion show for The Geto Boys. It's got "big-name act" written all over it, yet there's something very humbling about it.

In many ways, it was the perfect place for Sara Bareilles to visit Houston in a one-off show for Mix 96.5's Hullabaloo event.

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Photos by Jim Bricker

Cyndi Lauper, Hunter Valentine
House of Blues
June 28, 2013

Seeing Cyndi Lauper live in concert on Pride Weekend is like seeing a unicorn in its natural habitat. It's colorful and surreal and makes everyone feel extremely special. Celebrating the 30-year anniversary of her debut album She's So Unusual, Lauper played to a sold-out audience Friday night at House of Blues.

Her magic did not disappoint her fans.

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Photos by Alyssa Dupree

The Manichean
Alley Theatre
June 28, 2013

The Manichean doesn't do half-assed. From their albums to their performance, everything is a piece to the part of a puzzle, as seen Friday night, when the Houston band performed their latest album, Lovers, at The Alley Theatre.
 
Though it was their second performance of Lovers in the Alley's intimate space (the last one was in July 2012), the room was nearly full.
 
With the lights dimmed and white noise whispering through the speakers, the band -- Justice Tirapelli-Jamail, Sean Spiller, Dylan Tirapelli-Jamail and Ash BigCash -- walked onto the floor amid cheers, with an additional four-piece backing orchestra.

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Photos by Angelica Leicht

Big Time Rush, Victoria Justice
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
June 28, 2013

If you think you heard a strange, high-pitched noise being emitted from the Cynthia Woods Pavilion this past Friday night, there's no need to get your hearing checked. It was only the sound of a zillion teen girls screeching for their Nickelodeon music idols, the boys from Big Time Rush.

The TV boy band also brought along a fellow member of the Nickelodeon music pack, Ms. Victoria Justice. Although I was not an active contributor in the fangirl screaming, I too was in attendance to check out the Big Time Rush madness, and man, was it somethin'.

I nearly got trampled to death at one point, as a gaggle of giggling girls ran toward Logan -- one of the four members of Big Time Rush -- as he searched the crowd for a lucky girl to serenade. This job is hazardous to your health sometimes, in ways you'd never imagine.

Given that I'm still nursing my battle scars from the boy-band madness, I'm going to review the show with the help of some tweets from the ones who can tell you best about those Nick boys -- their fans. Here goes. You might wanna cover your ears. Even their tweets scream.

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Photos by Groovehouse (except as indicated)

Scale the Summit

Intronaut, Scale the Summit, Mouth of the Architect, Omotai, Oceans of Slumber
Fitzgerald's
June 28, 2013

For Houston's hard-rock and metal fans, there was no better place to be on Friday night than Fitzgerald's. Downstairs, the old club hosted rowdy hellraisers Valient Thorr and Gypsyhawk, whose heavy thump bled through the well-worn floorboards of the upstairs room during the evening's quieter moments.

Those moments were few and far between thanks to the punishing prog power of Intronaut and Scale the Summit, who headlined a stacked bill of guitar crunchers that included locals Omotai and Oceans of Slumber as well as Dayton, Ohio's Mouth of the Architect. Taken in sum, there was enough heavy distortion inside Fitz to rattle the venue's windows out of their jambs, had there been any.

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Alan Ball was known for his masterful use of music in Six Feet Under. He's lost none of his touch when it comes to his current HBO series, True Blood -- which happens to be set in the Louisiana swamps, not terribly far from Houston.

Even when a show is having a great season, as True Blood is, you get episodes that aren't bad but really don't offer anything other than moving the basic plot along and some necessary explanations. They're the oil change of episodes; necessary but not really memorable. "You're No Good" is definitely in that category.

Eric has kidnapped the daughter of the governor of Louisiana. Plan 1 is to kill her just to be a spiteful bastard, but when she turns out to be full of information about the vampire concentration camps he spares her and decides to use her as a hostage. It's pretty fun for exposing the plans of her father, but Amelia Rose Blaire doesn't really have a lot to work with playing the "Daddy's Girl Drawn to the Bad Boy" thing with all the subtlety of a freshman boob grab. Yes, we get it, you're hot for Alexander Skarsgård. This is not a shocking revelation.

On another front, Bill is still really into the idea that he is the vampire messiah. This leads him to believe that he is now immune to the sun, which gives us the always-hilarious image of a vampire setting himself on fire. I try not to be petty, but there's just something lovely about all that power being used by idiots.

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There are times when snarky blogs about the state of the music industry seem wildly out of touch. This would be one of those times.

Another special session convenes today in Austin, with the Texas Legislature's agenda scheduled to address Senate Bill 5, which would virtually eliminate access to abortion facilities across the state. Updates on the state of Amanda Bynes' rap album and what Kanye named his baby can take a back seat for now.

Given that SB 5, if passed, will have a massive impact on the rights of women in this state, it seems far more appropriate to note the supporters of the movement to stop it. In honor of last week's filibuster superwoman, District 10 Texas Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Ft. Worth), and the push for the preservation of women's rights in general, here are dozens of musicians, DJs, music-industry insiders and other artists -- some from far beyond Texas -- who #standwithwendy.

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Photo by Barry Sigman

John Egan
The Big Easy, July 1

Earlier this year, John Egan competed at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, where the Houston kinda-acoustic bluesman advanced to the semifinal round of 28 -- so by that reckoning, Egan is one of the Top 30 solo acts of his kind in the world.

"Perhaps I was too edgy for the finals?" Egan quipped on Facebook. "All in all it was a great trip and a lot of fun." He won't be too edgy for his Monday-night Big Easy residency, which has already allowed him to whip up a new batch of songs to go along with the ones on last year's excellent Phantoms. CHRIS GRAY

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photos by Marco Torres

Mac Miller
Warehouse Live
June 27, 2013

I must admit, the first time I saw Mac Miller live at SXSW two years ago, I was unimpressed. That performance at The Fader Fort was average at best, with lackluster energy, little to no interaction with the crowd, and practically no real substance in his lyrics. I left there thinking "What's the big deal about this kid?"

Because of that show, I never bothered to research him further until I received this assignment. So I revved up my Spotify app, typed in his name, and saved a couple of his albums as playlists. After listening to Blue Slide Park for about two days straight, I really began to dig the dude's music.

Anyone can have a bad show once in a while. Maybe I was just unfortunate to catch his one bad show back in Austin. Judging from the sheer size of the crowd that packed into Warehouse Live on Thursday night, Mac's got to mean something to somebody. I mean, the kids were jammed in from the stage up front to the restrooms in the back!

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