Ol' Samuel's Music Emporium, Vol. IV

Come one, come all! It's another week, and that means another batch of fresh blurbs for you. Learn about some more local music, and feel free to leave us your thoughts and suggestions in the comments.

Volume IV

Featherface - Wow, this is definitely not what we expected to hear from one of the members of 10th Gräde Cütie when he announced his other band. Featherface is making some catchy indie rock that we're digging. There's some early/mid-nineties blending with mid-2000s going on here, and it's pretty good. Other sites: Bandcamp, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube.

Weird Party - Whoa. This band just exploded out of the ether with their debut show at The Mink last week. It's some well executed punk, with a sloppy feel but extremely focused. They leapt forth like a juggernaut at the show - as they should have, considering their pedigree of members of Fatal Flying Guiloteens, Welfare Mothers, Muhammid Ali, etc. We were lucky enough to catch one of the demos, and we cannot stop listening to it, despite the fact that it is the same two songs over and over in our car. Other sites: Bandcamp, Facebook, MySpace.

Forests - This band is creating instrumental soundscapes similar to, but not derivative of, the now-famous Austin act Explosions In The Sky. To simply say they are "Houston's version" wouldn't do them justice - there's more of an edge to these tunes, and the general tone is different - think big ambient swells like those featured in The Appleseed Cast. Just trust us when we say it's pretty good.

Josiah Gabriel - There's always an awkward feeling when a friend says, "Hey, you should come to my show" - if it's bad you're never sure what to do or say in return. We were pleasantly surprised to catch our friend Noah, who performs under the name Josiah Gabriel, at The Husk last week, and it was fantastic. His electronic layering of beats, sounds, and samples, complete with occasional vocals, is built very well. The songs up now are old tracks made to back up live tracks, so make sure you see him in person to get a real impression.

InsertNameHere - These four fellas from the east side of town are making throwback pop punk that'll knock you back to 1998. They've got an album coming out this Saturday, and we interviewed them this week - look for it tomorrow. Other sites: MySpace, Purevolume, SoundCloud, Twitter, YouTube.

From the vault

The Energy - Speaking of sloppy-style, well-assembled punk with a prodigious pedigree and a glasses-wearing frontman, allow us to touch on The Energy. We were at their debut show as well, last summer. It's freaking good, and we [again, man we're getting good at this] managed to snag one of their now-extinct demos. Fear not, they'll have a full length coming out soon on Team Science Records. For now, give the tracks on MySpace a listen, and catch them live on Monday the 15th at Mango's, where they'll be opening for Thee Oh Sees.

Photos: Jordan Graber [Weird Party], Forests