When Ramon Medina left NonAlignment Pact, the fantastic hydra-like music blog he helped found, I didn’t have to worry that he’d stop writing about music. He was pretty clear that he would now focus his output on Houston’s own FreePress, where he appears in both the print and online editions. It’s difficult to imagine someone who loves music more than Ramon, or who has more wide ranging taste in music. He is at the punk show. The rock show. The pop show. He is ecstatic at the un-listenable noise show. At a time when I’m finding it harder and harder to stay out late and go to shows, Ramon (who has a day job and a child) is a tireless local music fan boy.

No he doesn’t like everything, but God bless him, he’s a big fan of the Bright Men. Here’s his review of last Friday’s show:

Bright Men of Learning are a perfect example of what I mean by craft; they are not trying to reinvent the wheel because BMOL’s songwriter Marshall Preddy figured out that reinventing the wheel is horribly overrated. They don’t do musical tricks on stage nor do they play around with fancy time signatures, jarring electronics sounds, or anything that approaches overstatement. The band simply plays straight-up rootsy rock. They rely on the basics – sharp songs, a solid voice, and a crack band. It’s a band that whittles away at its craft and presents you with a perfectly carved experience that’s at once recognizable as part of a tradition and yet true to itself. The band delivered exactly that on Friday. The triple guitar attack led by Ben Murphy, whose ear is simply incredible, is always a kick. (I always wonder if Ben writes his own lines or if they are given to him by Marshall but I always forget to ask.) The effect is always a lovely melodic compliment to the vocals that round the songs out quite nicely. The big thing about BMOL is that, as time has gone by, Marshall’s batting average as a writer just gets better and better. You can hear it on the band’s releases and lately it’s particularly noticeable as there are many unreleased songs which leave you after the show looking for a studio version in vain. "What the Devil" and "Western Hearts" being two examples of two songs that simply kill and will have me first in line to grab the new album.

Thanks, Ramon. The feeling is beyond mutual.