Dear Blog, we are recording an album.

SHIRTS

We have shirts for sale online at SEX & DEATH. Buy one.

FLOOR SHOW.

AMREP NEW BLOOD SHOWCASE.

"Hammerhead reunion, and record release art show. The new 4 song 12" is limited to 100 copies with handmade/linocut art sleeves by HAZE XXL. Hammerhead are doing there set inside the gallery at 7pm.

After the art show there's a FREE showcase of new school AmRep bands/friends.
LINE UP for 9PM show:
Vaz (NY)
Easy Action (MI)
Black Congress (TX)
White Drugs (TX)
The Book Of Right On (MN"

success is measured in cold hard steel.

we've finally made it.

space toilets and super hard ons.

if there's one thing EVERY member of this band can agree on, i'm willing to bet it's that tony hall, NASA engineer extraordinaire and purported space toilet technician, builds some of our favorite effects pedals. classy, understated clones of some of the most sought after and widely used effects ever that are not only unbelievably affordable, but also have their own feel and sound to them. tony's built me a few pedals, as well as acted as my electrical engineering tutor/guru countless times. here's his new blog. get ahold of him and let him know what weirdo dream pedal you've always wanted but could never afford or find. he can probably make it happen.

turn. turn. turn.

while it's true that i'm unapologetically critical of both screw and the main ouevre of the houston and dirty south rap scenes i can still admit and appreciate progress when i see it. the name "dj screw" meant little more to me than the tapes dejected and seemingly transitory kids tried to sell me at the houston greyhound station in the late 90's. that is until i actually gave in and bought one. well to be more precise, when i REALLY gave in and listened to said tape, which probably occurred months after the initial purchase (disclaimer: i'm pretty sure i only listened to the tape to see if i should tape over it for some no doubt sappy and contrived effort to get laid. aaaah the mixtape). after that initial listen i was confused. i had been hearing the praise and sheer awe people were spouting after being introduced to screw, but none of it really hit home for me. i enjoyed it as a mere novelty. something to listen to not when i was high, but more an ironic reason to get high. like houston's own version of a Zaireeka party. it meant nothing to me musically, yet i kept hearing about screw and the houston rap scene. friends from the east coast were all stunned and almost offended when they found out that i didn't embrace my hometown's biggest musical and dare i say cultural export. then it hit me. that's EXACTLY what this was. a culture. not music, but a god damned culture in and of itself. not to say there's no musicality or creative skill to remixing or screwing songs. but that the product itself is far less important than the societal effect the action of making the product carries. most anyone can make their own screwtape, most anyone can put a 45 rpm record on 33 and hear the antithesis of the chipmunk effect. but that's where it ends. screw is a reason to get high. screw gets you high. screw makes you uncomfortable. screw makes you think that maybe you don't get it. screw wants you to turn all of yourself off and just be the blank wall it's (ever so lowly) yelling at. and that is exactly what makes me sort of love screw. i wish i could make music that, skillfully or not, makes people feel like the best response is to, out of sheer terror and confusion, not respond at all. others have done this before. lots of others have done this before, and many do it now. but nothing has caused such intense sensations of confused and anxious malaise with so little effort. to say that screw hasn't had a noticeable influence on both music and culture is not only short sighted, but outright ignorant. here's a short article from frieze that expands on that better than i ever could. i think it's even penned (typed?) by a real writer.

enjoy.

happy holidays from black congress.

                                                         scenes from parisian life.

DEFEATED / SLUMS OF HEAVEN 7"

You may now purchase our new 7" from Death Exclamation. You can also just listen to it here.

DEATH!011:
  BLACK CONGRESS
  DEFEATED b/w SLUMS OF HEAVEN
  7"
  2010
  AVAILABLE


    FIRST PRESS (OCTOBER 2010):
    ? TEST PRESSINGS
    250 COPIES MADE (BLACK VINYL)

   Impossible to describe through cheap comparisons to other bands, BLACK CONGRESS' 2nd EP is nothing if not noise fighting reverb fighting feedback. Underneath this wall of sound is an actual competent band playing
some of the harshest music that Houston has seen in a while. Just don't tell Roy they sound like the Jesus Lizard and everything will be OK. 

all hail the new proletarian struggle

a seattle area teen made off with some true delicacies in what may be the best scam of the year.

pin-pointilist politics

eric fischer's maps of u.s. cities visualize race segregation, with different colored dots representing various races in a dense urban area. most of these come off as beautifully rendered abstractions, with only a few even vaguely resembling the topographical and civil boundaries we've come to recognize in our own cities. plus, they're all just kind vaguely reminiscent of mark flood's lace paintings of the last ten years.

FITZGERALD'S SHOW.

Thursday, September 23rd at Fitzgerald's.

The Drums / Young Friends / Black Congress / Weird Party / Leg Sweeper / Cosmic Sound

8pm, 5 bucks.

the wolfbat under glass

while it may be old news by now, i just want to remind everyone of dennis mcnett's installations in the display windows of barney's new york. these could entice me to buy a $300 tie.

FUN FUN FUN FEST 2010.

We will be playing this year's FUN FUN FUN FEST in Austin, TX. It is November 6th and 7th at Waterloo Park. For more info visit funfunfunfest.com. We were interviewed by Houston Press about our involvement. You can read that here. Black Congress = serious business.

September 4th

Our next show is September 4th at Walter's on Washington. This will also be our record release show for the 'Defeated/Slums of Heaven' 7". Also playing are Side Arms, Omotai and The Formations.

this dog is more punk than you.

as much as i loathe gutter punks that sit on the sidewalk busking for change so that their "dog can eat...", i fucking love this. cry foul all you want, but at least the guardian (there are no owners in anarchism, remember?) of Kanellos the Greek protest dog stands by his/her/their convictions.

keep fighting the good fight dog. one day the revolution will come and you'll have all the vegan table scraps you want.

catholicism: keeping laughter in the hearts of the world at any cost

that piece of fabric that has all those faintly anthropomorphic stains on it just got official.

at least according to an ex nazi with some funny robes.

the ever forth coming vinyl debut of black congress is no longer forth coming, but now stagnating in an all too self aware existence.

buy one at sound exchange or cactus records.

or here.