Hands Up Houston

No. 004 — 03/18/00: Lucky Motors / VI Foot Sloth / Larry Yes at The Mausoleum (411 Westheimer)

Lucky Motors was a short-lived indie rock band in the vein of Sloan, Guided by Voices, or XTC. The band was fronted by Ben Murphy (who had previously—and subsequently—played in other great Houston bands: Pop Deflation, We’ve Got Airplanes, Port Vale, Panic in Detroit, Bright Men of Learning, and Brand New Hearts), with bass duties handled by Melissa Lonchambon (of Panic in Detroit, Sharks and Sailors, Omotai and, for a time, a member of Hands Up), and anchored by the beat of Jeff Senske (who would later join Ben in Brand New Hearts and Bright Men of Learning).

This show was likely already booked by Lance by the time we kicked this all off, as it doubled as the record release show for Lucky Motors’ only known output on wax to date. (Though there are plenty of people who would welcome, at the very least, a digital discography—especially since the 7” remains entirely absent from YouTube. You can, however, grab the single for a steal on Discogs as of this writing.) The record was released by the Houston- (now NYC-) based label OJET, and the evening’s support reflected a kind of reciprocal exchange, as OJET band Port Vale had previously shared bills in Portland with VI Foot Sloth and Larry Yes.

Unfortunately, we were unable to locate the flyer for this show, so if you have it, we would be ever so grateful to recover it and officially kick off our inevitable Lost Flyers Found series…

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Lucky Motors was Melissa Lonchambon, Ben Murphy, and Jeff Senske

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VI Foot Sloth was The Jed, Amanda Mason Wiles, Heather Peyton, and Cherry Sprout

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Larry Yes is a musician from Portland, Oregon

Do you have memories, photos, or videos from this show? Corrections to the band lineups? We hope to compile this history in a to-be-determined format. Reach us at [email protected]

No. 001 — 03/10/00: Port Vale / Modulator / Freedom Sold at The Oven (403 Westheimer)

The summer of ’99 found Bucky and Russell spending a lot of idle time working out ideas for a scene report zine called Hands Up! Who Wants to Die? (from The Birthday Party’s “Sonny’s Burning”). But there were so few bands coming through to interview, and even among the ones that did, some got a raw deal—like the time Rainer Maria almost didn’t get paid for a barely promoted show. They traveled to Austin for the good shows. The Houston scene had changed: more kids were showing up, but nothing really seemed to hold it together, and they were getting tired of it.

Gradually, the idea of the zine shifted toward booking shows. Interviews felt less important than getting bands to consider Houston a viable tour option. Jason was around—making zines, playing in bands—and had been bugging Bucky about doing shows again. He’d done them in Georgia and had booked at least one here early on: Casualties, Lower Class Brats, with Short Hate Temper and P**s Poor jumping on the bill. This was also around the time they were coordinating record/zine fairs, a precursor to what would later become the Punk Rock Garage Sales.

Ryan and Lance were recruited soon after, since they were already booking shows, along with Anthony. At first, it was the core six. Meetings—hammering out ideas and a loose framework—were held at dorms, apartments, the future HUH House (aka Lamar House), and the courtyard at St. Thomas. Lance wisely suggested dropping “Who Wants to Die?” and including the city. They applied the concept to a show Lance was already planning for March 2000.

• Port Vale was Lance Scott Walker, Ben Murphy, Bret Shirley, Dan Smith, John Adams

• Modulator was Julie Omran, Thomas Lively, Steven Burnett, Jennifer Mergele, Randy Zamora

• Freedom Sold was Kwame Anderson, Arthur Salazar

• Flyer by Lance Scott Walker

Do you have memories, photos, or videos from this show? Each post is part of an effort to collect the oral history of the few years we worked on this project. We hope to compile this history in a to-be-determined format. Reach us at [email protected]