As in past years, Houston scene legends de Schmog are returning for a one-off Rudyard’s show during the holiday. Our bass player, Johnathan Sage was/is the only bass player de Schmog ever had. And, as I’ve said before, de Schmog was easily my favorite local band when I was in high school. So this show is pretty special whenever it happens.

This year, though, it’s even better because BMOL are finally getting to play. The last few years, I’ve always been out of town when this show goes down. For once, I’m staying put, so the Bright Men are opening up for de Schmog and Jug O’ Lightning Saturday, December 30. Diane, the chanteuse who shared vocal duties with Killian Sweeney, is not coming down this year. But, Brandon, the original guitarist IS playing. And Mari Pool, from Sad Like Crazy is going to sing the nice girl-y parts. Should be amazing.

Over at the Nonalignment Pact group blog, Killian writes about the wisdom of having a reunion show at all, deciding that the reasons for not reuniting aren’t very persuasive compared with the fun of getting together once a year and playing music. I tend to agree. Reunions do not have to suck, and de Schmog’s annual reunion shows are reportedly awesome. And this year, BMOL is playing, so we’re hoping you can make it out. Here’s the lineup.

• BMOL 10:30
• de Schmog 11:30
• Jug O’ Lightning 12:30

Finally, take a peek at this poster Killian made for the show. Click on it to see it blowed up real big.

David Cobb, over at Houston Calling has assembled his year-end list of the best local releases in Houston Music. We’re very pleased to say that we’re number four! You may remember Cobb’s very favorable review of our record earlier this year. Thankfully, we had enough staying power to make the year-end list.

Thanks, Dave!

Apparently so. Our guitar player, Chris, has been playing around with his girlfriend’s video camera and some editing software. He wants to make a video.

Okay. I can do that.

My idea? A parody of those YouTube lip sync videos.

It’s probably a good idea if we use someone else’s good idea.

For a lot of bands, Myspace has been a miracle, allowing them to easily promote their music and shows to wide audience. But Myspace has some serious flaws. For one thing, Myspace locks you in to their site. People have to visit your actual MySpace page to see the music and schedule information you’ve got there. And if you want to put a schedule on another site, blog, or message board you have to enter it separately. That’s a lot of work.

Now, ReverbNation.com solves this problem in a big way. ReverbNation allows you to enter your show information in one place. One time. Then, they provide you the Flash code for a “widget”, which you can use to put your schedule in a bunch of different places: websites, message boards, blogs. And because ReverbNation uses Flash, not Javascript, you can even put the show list widget on your Myspace page. For an example, take a look at our Myspace page and our Web site.

It gets better. Entering shows is easier than Myspace, because Reverbnation automatically fills in address information and phone numbers for venues. All you have to do is enter the name. For touring bands, ReverbNation will even include an interactive map in your widget. A red line will trace your path all over the country. Clicking on a tour stop will give you information for that city.

If you want an easy way to manage your mailing list, the FanReach widget will allow your fans to enter their e-mail addresses directly into your Myspace page or Web site. Then, you can manage your mail list and messages within ReverbNation. They’ll even keep a list of past messages.

Finally, ReverbNation lets you upload as many songs and pictures as you need. You have complete control. You can drag and drop to change the order of songs, and you can decide whether to allow downloading or streaming.

Clicking on Local Shows allows you to see all the bands playing at venues in your area. And speaking of venues, ReverbNation allows clubs and bars to have their own pages, complete with the ability to manage their own schedules and mailing lists. Even if a club hasn’t set up its page, ReverbNation assigns them an unofficial one. As bands enter their show information the shows appear in the schedule for that venue. Here’s an example for Rudyards. Name, address, and phone number are already there.

The site isn’t perfect. For example, their music player needs some work. You have to launch a new window to hear songs, and the whole thing looks kind of low-tech compared with the Flash widgets prevalent throughout the rest of the site. Also, some features are still being developed. Widgets that syndicate photos, press clips, and blogs aren’t quite ready but they’re coming.

I think this site is pretty amazing, and even with Myspace and MP3.com relaunching, this is the best way for bands to manage their information and put it on the Web. It doesn’t get easier or better than ReverbNation.

*****

Update:

Here’s a recent review of ReverbNation from Wired.

We got a new review in, this time in Americana UK, a British music mag focused on alt.country sounds. They were quite lukewarm, but overall I’m encouraged. Really, it’s a pretty spot-on review. All I have to do is write better songs. And learn how to sing. Then I can finally do justice to Chris’s “consistently excellent” guitar playing.

For real, I think I said the same thing once I heard the finished record the first few times. Chris’s guitar playing just makes it.