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"Weekend Shows"

“Guitars is this nutters supergroup made up of members of the Monocles, Lenny Briscoe, and Alarma - a recipe for awesomeness!”

-Ramon “LP4” Medina of Free Press Houston
- Free Press Houston


"Westheimer Block Party Write-up"

“Um .. if nothing else, this band is just cooler than everyone else. Period. Featuring J.D. and Stacey from Lenny Briscoe, Pope Jon PPP and Snakey from the Monocles and April 5k from Alarma! They're way cooler than you and the sooner you accept it, the sooner we can all move on with our lives. Also, they were gracious enough to play the inaugural Marshall Law House show so they will always have a special place in my heart.”

Niki7 of Houston’s Something Fierce - Houston Press Rocks Off Blog


"The Band, Not the Instrument"

Guitars treads somewhere between early Sonic Youth and Sleater-Kinney. A strong female singer (occasionally accompanied by distorted male vocals) is backed by guitars that are plucked, distorted and/or droned out. It’s all carried along by a steady bass line and simple drums that will have listeners rockin’ back and forth instead of rockin’ out. (And we mean that in a good way.) The local, three-guy-two-gal fivesome consists of members from Alarma!, The Monocles and Lenny Briscoe. This incarnation, however, isn’t akin to any of these, so fans should be ready to hear a different sound when Guitars tunes up between fellow rockers Lazy Horse and The Born Liars. 9 p.m. Rudyard’s, 2010 Waugh Drive. For information, call 713-521-0521 or visit www.rudyards.com. $6.
-Dusti Rhodes - Houston Press


"Thanksgiving Insanity"

"Then there is also the Monocles, Lenny Briscoe, Alarma super-group Guitars whose new EP is like every great Indie rock trope you love condensed into three songs."

Ramon "LP4" Medina, Free Press Houston - Free Press Houston


"Music With Jameson & Lone Star"

"Guitars followed with the lads dressed as Pilgrims, the ladies dressed as Indians, and JD dressed as the most frightening Turkey ever. (Stacey was quite proud of her seamstress skills on the Indian outfits). The music is a nice mish-mash of influences and the nice thing is that while the costumes were funny and cute they never overwhelmed the performance or the music - they added but they were never a distraction. It was energetic and fun stuff all around."

Ramon "LP4" Medina, Free Press Houston - Free Press Houston


""//Tense// The Guitars, Fertile Crescent, The Wilderness, and San Serac at the Mink""

"...Guitars, a cluster-fuck of genre-fusion, performed second. This band’s tentacles spread way beyond the typical rock n’ roll mold that some may try to fit them in." - indiehouston.org


""White Night White Night" Record Review"

I've always thought of The Velvet Underground as a band that was less about songs and more about a general feeling, a kind of sleepy-yet-restless nervousness that's raw and wide-open and pretty much uniquely urban. To this kid from partly-rural central Texas, the VU was like the sound of Noo Yawk, the dirty, unpretty side of Manhattan that's been plastered and painted over (for the most part) in the ensuing decades. Some of the songs I liked and some just gave me a damn headache, but it didn't matter in the end, because what I got out of it was that feeling, like I was standing out there on the street corner with 'em, looking around nervously and smoking and wondering when The City would step out and eat me alive.
After listening to Guitars' White Night White Night, I'm thinking maybe they get that feeling from those old VU albums, too. I'll admit, the album's title makes it hard to escape the White Light/White Heat comparison, but it's in the band's sound, as well. The guitars are sharp-edged but half-aware, drifting around lazily in a cloud of knives that occasionally brush the skin, while April5k's bass and J.D.'s drums rumble and bubble beneath and primary singer Pope Jon PPPP talk/sings in a near-monotone over the top. The effect is so laidback as to be nearly narcotic, even on faster, more energetic, guitar-heavy tracks like "I'd Never Lie," which has some seriously "Satisfaction"-ish guitars.
I don't mean to say, by the by, that Guitars are some VU tribute, because they go far, far beyond those boundaries in terms of music; like I said, I'm thinking more just the general feel, here. Music-wise, they're a lot more mellow and rural than Lou Reed and company could ever manage, taking the mid-fi urban grime and making it less grimy and more, well, dusty and lonesome.
Looking towards more contemporary folks, I see some close kinship to fellow retro-'60s/'70s ramblers The Duchess and the Duke, although those two fuse far more Byrdsian jangle into their sound than the Guitars crew. Still, though, there's a similar bitter/tired darkness going on in both bands, and a very similar warm-yet-bleak feel.
"It's Probably Inevitable," for its part, channels the ghost of some long-gone girl-group from the wrong side of the tracks (vocals courtesy, I believe, of keyboardist/guitarist Stacey, although I can't be sure) for a head-nodding, damaged yet beautiful meander that's halfway between The Cowboy Junkies and the Vandelles, with guitars that start out twangy and echoey and morph into a psych-blues raveup by the song's end. "Not This Time" is similarly sleepy and melancholy, with downbeat vocals from Pope Jon PPPP that make you want to find a cool, dark place and open your wrists.
The high point for me comes with "The Black Mass," probably the fiercest/fastest thing the band does on White Night; it's helped along by the urgent "Watch out, watch out!" backing vocals and the twisting, corkscrewing guitar riff that brings to mind the Fatal Flying Guilloteens.
Weirdly, the one track on here that I'd heard prior to the full-length, "Waiting For A Good Time," is significantly improved from the version I'd heard (can't remember where, unfortunately). It's the odd man out here, starting with an odd little speech and some party chatter, then riding a coolly Sonic Youth-ish groove and see-saw guitar riff, with April5k serving in Kim Gordon's stead. It's pretty appropriate, really, that this comes at the very end of the album -- if it'd been dropped somewhere in the middle, it would've totally derailed the overall mood.
Which, again, seems to me to be pretty much the point of the album as a whole. Give it a little time; I wasn't sure what to make of White Night at first, so it just eyed me from the corner for a while 'til I could really get a grasp on it. Once I did, though, I was sold. - spacecityrock.com


"Album Review"

When I started this blog some months ago I did it with lots of expectations, well, all the expectations you can put on something like this, but after a while and thinking about all the amount of music blogs there are on line, there is not really a lot of new things to offer, and not many possibilities that somebody is going to care about actually reading yours and not some of the popular ones that have direct contact with bands and offer exclusive news and stuff. But when you stop thinking about it and you actually have feedback you feel really happy and realise that maybe somebody on the other side of the planet actually found about it on line. And this is how my story with Guitars started. Last weekend, April contacted me and told me about her band Guitars, that have just self-released their first LP White Night White Night, limited to 100 copies only so hurry up to get it as it probably must be on the way to be sold out. They are five people from Houston with a love for classic bands like The Velvet Underground or Television and garage rock bands like The Cynics, who they opened live for, or Thee Oh Sees. Their record is a demonstration that pop-rock language is far to be exhausted as they can get really good tunes doing simple songs with a classic band formation and sound fresh and new. I particularly enjoy the opening track I Can't Wait and Waiting For a Good Time, which beginning looks like a tribute to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, but recomend to listen to the whole album.
They are playing some dates in Houston, New York and Washington so check out their myspace to know when and where: http://www.myspace.com/guitarszzzzz - http://sevennoises.blogspot.com/


"Album Blurb"

This hard-working Houston indie band has traded in their lo-fi charm for a more polished sound, and it serves them well. The catchiness of the album's standout track, the plucky "Waiting For A Good Time", is straight up gummy-guitar garage goodness.--Shea Serrano - Modern Luxury : Houston


Discography

-White Night White Night-LP-Limited run of 100

-Recordings EP-Limited run of 60 (2008)

-Demo (2008)

Photos

Bio

Are we going out tonight? Let's put on the new Guitars record while we do our makeup.

Guitars formed in Houston, Texas in the summer heat of 2008. Ever the boutique minded, they recorded a limited to 60 cdr with hand screened art by that winter, and then released the self-recorded debut full-length LP "White Night White Night" in March of 2009, which was met with critical acclaim.

"They are people with a love for classic bands like The Velvet Underground or Television and garage rock bands like The Cynics, who they opened live for, or Thee Oh Sees. Their record is a demonstration that pop-rock language is far to be exhausted as they can get really good tunes doing simple songs with a classic band formation and sound fresh and new. I particularly enjoy the opening track I Can't Wait and Waiting For a Good Time, which beginning looks like a tribute to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, but recommend a listen to the whole album."-sevennoises.blogspot.com

Guitars self booked and toured the east coast in April of 2009, leaving their mark in Washington D.C., Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Chicago. They recently did a fly-out to play a July 4th festival they were offered from their first tour, and they made certain to play twice more in Brooklyn while in the region.

They plan on relocating at the end of 2009 to be closer to the northeast and to focus on more touring and recording.