With contemporary art now a staple of the city's culture, a new generation is coming into its own. For the FitzGibbonses, it's a family affair. Sean FitzGibbons, son of Bill, has been converting his father's working studio into a gallery once a month and putting on one-night-only events, focusing on younger artists and inventive curatorial approaches. As First Fridays have gotten more established, the underground art scene of the city has started their own tradition of Second Saturdays, giving lesser-known artists more opportunity to put their work before the public. But for Houston, Sean made an exception. For the first time, LoneStar Studios opened its doors on a Friday and welcomed the gallery-hoppers to come see what Houston had to offer.

Knowing that Gilbert would be curating the best of San Antonio for Blue Star, Sean proposed the idea of having a separate showcase at LoneStar where Gilbert could bring the brightest from his own hometown. The cross-generational aspect of the gesture was not lost on Gilbert, who quickly approached Cody Ledvina and Brian Rod to share the curatorial responsibilities with him. Ledvina and Rod, both of whom also contributed work to the show, spread the invitation to the up-and-coming artists they have displayed at the Joanna gallery, including several that were participants in their own very first show.

Houstonist had the opportunity to sit down with two of the artists who were on display and talk about their work. Maria Guzman, who had just given an artist talk as part of the CAMH's Slide Jam! lecture series the previous night, contributed a performance piece called "When You Run Come Around" featuring two "models" doing a choreographed catwalk to the song "Calabria." Guzman responded to the body-heavy visuals of the original music video by hiding her performers inside large torso-and-limb-concealing costumes. With this performance, she took her long-held interest in working with fabric (cf. her flickr photostream) and highlighted its interaction with movement and audience engagement, combining the tropes of a fashion show with the two-dimensional patterns created by the costuming and choreography. Guzman and others played the part of fashion photographers, snapping rapid-fire pictures of her volunteer-models Sebastian Forray and Asal Shokati as they spun and bobbed along to the music's "whoop, whoop" beat. Lyrics such as "make me wobble, make me whole body bubble" provided the setup for her visual punning. Guzman told Houstonist that it was the word "round," which to her connoted both the sensual and the funny aspects of the body, that she wanted to emphasize in her piece, using the exaggerated shape of the costume to put the visuals of the music video and the spectacle of the fashion-show in a new context.

Sculptor Jonatan Lopez brought his piece "Your Fertile Acre" to the show. The metal sculpture is a new version of a previous plaster-based work that had been made on behest of Planned Parenthood for an exhibit at Project Row Houses. Both versions aim to represent the predicament of women in places where abortion is illegal. The new version consists of pieces of scrap metal welded in the form of a woman's torso, with conspicuous gaps in the belly and breasts, evoking a loss of unity with the reproductive centers of the body. Suspended between two posts strung with barbed wire, the woman's hollow shell remains frozen in failed escape. Lopez's piece was in good company with the exhibit's other socially-minded works, including a painting by El Franco Lee II depicting the flooded streets of post-Katrina New Orleans.

For Houstonians who didn't make the trip, it's not too late to catch another Gilbert-curated exhibit: Bryan Kuntz's "My America" currently up at G Gallery, running until March 29 as part of the 2010 FotoFest Biennial. The Joanna Gallery will also be having a big exhibition/celebration (including a reprisal of Guzman's "When You Run Come Around") on March 13 to christen the opening of their new building, dubbed the Joannex.

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Photo: flickr user mariaguzman

HTR: What was that? Do you mind saying?
Mike: Called The Professionals... it was the first band name we had. But our first real band was Where's Travis? We went to high school together.
Aaron: Where's Travis was the first serious project we ever had, but the first one that really felt right was Pirate Bones.
Jeoaf: You guys remember that show we played together, right? My old band [O Pioneers!!!] played with these guys.
Mike: I knew that in this band I wanted there to be one guitar player, not this section of guitars, and I knew that I wanted it to be someone who was good, who could wail. But also, more than just the music, actually be able to do it on stage, put on a stage show. I was really obsessed with watching the Ziggy Stardust movie, and Mick Ronson... he really gets into it. He acts it out, and you feel him, every guitar move. That's what I thought of Aaron. I actually had somebody come up to me, and say, "Man, he reminds me of Mick Ronson."
HTR: Yeah, watching Aaron is a real treat.
Aaron: I gotta admit, I'm totally inspired by those relationships, you know? Jimmy Page, Brian May, Mick Ronson... they had something special. It was really tangible onstage.
Mike: Wanting Chad to be in the band was like every baseball team has that really good utility player, they can do everything. That's what he was, this magnificent musician that, as a bonus, we also ended up getting a really good mechanic. This guy is constantly tinkering with stuff; he can fix amps; he keeps bringing all these pedals. He started making pedals, and bringing them to practice.
Aaron: I actually now play live with custom pedals that Chad's built.
Chad: You're completely revealing my nerd side.
HTR: That's like the coolest nerd-dom ever.
Mike: Chad's contribution to the band is absolutely priceless. And, as a bass player he plays the exact basslines that I would want. I don't have to tell any of these guys what to do. I know that they're going to write something that's good.
So anyway, the whole time I wanted a piano player. [Cassie] just happened to be at a show we played, and she liked it, and she asked to join the band.
Cassie: Yeah, I just saw them play, and I could hear it in my head, what needed to be there I guess. Drunkenly after the show I walked up to them and asked, "Can I try out? Can I come to y'all's practice?" And it worked out.

HTR: You guys have several sets of demo tracks floating around. I know you tossed some out at the last Block Party, there was a two song/three song joint that you had at the first show... Have you guys gone into the studio, are you recording it yourself? Is there going to be an album? I know that the rock opera exists, so how does it all come about?
Mike: Our recording state right now is just in complete disarray. It's almost like we don't even really have a full album worth of material - I mean we do, but we don't. And then on top of that, it's like "Where do we record it?" We don't have money to record. It sucks, because we're all pretty freakin' poor. There's a lot of bands that either have a lot of money, or they get money from their parents and shit.
Aaron: Or they inspire someone, and that person ends up cutting a record for them. I guess that's kind of what we're shooting for... we're tossing everything out there that we have.
Jeaof: We're hoping for that free ride [laughs]

HTR: Well you guys are certainly good enough for someone to come along and swipe you up and agree to front your album.
Mike: Also, as far as us being poor - everybody's gotta work. You can't miss nights because you're missing vital money towards your rent and things like that. So what happens is we have one night that we practice, and that's pretty much the only one we have that everyone can be free. We end up getting stuck in this rut, where it's "We could spend that whole night recording, or we could practice because we have a show coming up." You weight it out and we need to practice, and we don't ever end up getting the recording done.
Aaron: I think our main priority is putting on a good show. We want to sound good live; we want to look good live, and I think that really takes precedent. Especially because we want to be a band that always has something new to show. We're adding more material to the live set as often as possible.
Mike: There's a huge chunk of songs that are for the rock opera that we don't play.

HTR: I know several of you were involved in the Daniel Johnston play, Life is Happy & Sad. If you had the opportunity to do that, where you could perform it for - like a week at Diverseworks or something...
Jeoaf: Get ready for a scoop here buddy.
Mike: [Excitedly] I wanted to talk about this on the air! I was trying to tell Ian, "hey I want to get into the rock opera." The rock opera is not just music, it's a play, too - with a script and everything.
HTR: Oh?
Mike: The script is still a work in progress. The music is basically all done. Bootown was going to put it on, I'd been working with them. That was supposed to happen in August. But I went to go meet with Jason Nodler, who put on Life is Happy & Sad, just to see if he could get me [the space at] Diverseworks, for free. When I went to go speak with him he asked me how much I wanted him to be involved. I told him "involved as much as you want." So Jason's going to direct it and Catastrophic [Theater] is going to put it on, and now it's been pushed back to 2011 because he's going to take the script and work on it.

[Here we talked about Life... a bit more]

Mike: I told Jason - and it's very true - working on that play completely changed my perspective. It's what turned the rock opera from music into an actual play. During that whole period, doing that play, I was binging on things. I'd be up until 11 in the morning - I built this cave, blocked out all the sunlight in this room, and I'd just be up writing music and just write all this stuff. I was learning so much working with Jason, and it was such a weird period of time. When I came out of it all I was like, "Whoa!" Since then I've just felt so good and refreshed, and I really can visualize what I want to do and I can make it happen.

HTR: How many songs does the rock opera have?
Mike: It's gonna end up having - eight? But I'm thinking I'm gonna add two more. The last song we played before our break, at the very end it kinda stops and it goes "the monster was - me." And then it goes "ba na na na, and then it goes into this big part that's like "ba na dum, da da dum..." That's from the rock opera and what that is is basically the theme.
Aaron: And the way he described that is exactly what it's like writing music with Mike. [Skip to the 23:40 in the interview to really hear what they're talking about.]

HTR: So how many songs did you play from the rock opera tonight?
Mike: Three.
HTR: So you've got a 40 minute set with those three songs, and then you have five other songs.
Mike: And there's more songs that are waiting in the wings, that aren't part of the rock opera.
HTR: I know you said [on KTRU] that you've been writing even more material, at the piano.
Mike: Yeah.
Aaron: I kinda just can't wait to get back from tour so we can get to the new material.
Mike: I want to write a really badass set for Summerfest. I want it to be even more insane.

HTR: You've got one of the best live shows in town right now.
Mike: I want to boost it even more. On some of the new tracks we've done, we've recorded saxophone. I want there to be saxophone on all the songs, but that's kinda hard to do - these guys want to get paid, you know?

HTR: Who's throwing those parts in for you?
Aaron: It's the guys that play with Little Joe [Washington] every Tuesday night at Boondocks.
Mike: There's a new version of Five Dollar Fame that has this crazy saxophone solo at the end.
Jeoaf: It sounds like Bleeding Gums Murphy from the Simpsons.
Mike: I would love to have them play live, but they want to get paid. I'm like, "I don't even get paid, man!"

HTR: Let's turn it more Houston-focused. Is there anybody in town that you're really excited about?
Mike: Well, everybody knows Robert Ellis, and he rules. I really like Chase Hamblin, Ben Wesley.... The Tontons
Aaron: Expecting Weird Party to be really good.

HTR: Do you guys have a favorite moment from the Houston scene?
Aaron: Oh my god, Summerfest One, man. Summerfest was a dream.
Jeoaf: Yeah, that was really cool. Watching Wild Moccasins from the top of the hill, with about four million f*cking people, watching them just own it - it was great. It was like, "Holy shit, this is amazing." It was huge for Houston and huge for them, it was huge for everyone.
Aaron: And to be there, in the moment, having such a great time and then looking up to see the Houston skyline.
Mike: Last Block Party was pretty cool, too. We played on [Ian's] stage, and we rolled up and I was like, "WHOA!" And then I saw [Ian] in the back of the El Camino, running sound. Before we went on - Chad brought these lights - and Ian was like "don't plug those lights in because it might mess the power up." But Chad said "plug 'em in, plug 'em in." And we plugged them in, and halfway through the set, the power goes out.
Jeoaf: Sorry Ian.
Ian: It was an absolute blast.
Aaron: I think that's the size crowd and the size stage where we really hit our stride.

[The recorder dies, so we switch to our trusty phone to finish the job]

HTR: What's one thing you want people to know about Roky Moon & Bolt? The one thing you want people to take from this?
Aaron: First of all, I think that Benjamin Wesley is one of the hardest working musicians in this town.
Mike: I expect my boy Yates to be getting some love soon. He's playing in that country band with Mike T., Rake. Something that people might not know about us, but I hope that they do, is that we're really genuine. I don't want people to think that we take ourselves to seriously, or that we think we're so cool. I never want anyone to think that any of us are cocky. I'm really happy, and I take music seriously - I want to play music. But I'm not an ass.
Aaron: There's certainly no elitist feelings that ever go into what we do.
Mike: I say that because I've heard things like that said before.
Jeoaf: What, that you're cocky? I think you're a nice guy.
Aaron: I always have to apologize for the self-promotion.
Jeoaf: I think that's almost a Houston thing - everybody's really self-conscious and embarrassed about promoting themselves and drawing attention to themselves. It is what it is. I think that if you're playing music, it should be because it's fun and because you love it. But at the same time, if you're kinda okay at it, why let people know about it? [So that] you can not have to empty the trash at the end of the day.
Mike: If you've gotta have a job where at the end of the day you have to take out the trash, it's always the worst.
Jeoaf: I don't think there's anything wrong with making money making music. As long as it's coming from a pure place, then it's alright.
HTR: Cassie, what's one thing you want everyone to know?
Cassie: That it's my birthday!
Chad: I kind of agree with Aaron - in regards to Benjamin Wesley, I think we work pretty hard, too. We fart around in practice, but I think we work pretty hard as a band.
Aaron: We only get like three hours a week to work.

HTR: You guys are really good for three hours a week! Well thanks for talking with us.
Roky Moon & Bolt: Thanks.

Friday, March 5th
Common Grey, She Craves at Bohemeo's
Dawes at Cactus Music [5 pm]
Dawes, Cory Chisel & The Wandering Sons, Jason Boesel at Rudyard's
Houston Lights featuring: The Last Place You Look, Nothing More, From Guts to Glory, Streetcar Scandal, Another Run, Dreaming of June at Warehouse Live
Kevin Smith at House of Blues
Limb, Eat Grapes, CJ Boyd at Mango's
Lizzy D, Twilight Broadcast at Mucky Duck
Matt the Electrician & Southpaw Jones at Anderson Fair
Opie Hendrix at Last Concert Cafe
Overeasy, Zwee at Dan Electro's
The Phantom Rockers, Ghost Story, Dykes On Bykes, Gunsmoke at Fitzgerald's [downstairs]
Ray Prim [CD Release] at Avant Garden
Roky Moon & Bolt [tour kickoff], Grandfather Child, Weird Party [first show], Future Feature at The Mink
Skyrocket! at Continental Club
Tyrone Wells at House of Blues [Bronze Peacock]
The Vehement Burn, Adamantium, Good Job Underground, Adelaine at Fitzgerald's