3090986109_5f9196fb2c Photo from NOTM Myspace Profile

It’s crunch time people!! The Free Press Houston Summer Fest is only TWO, count ‘em -  one and two, weeks away. FPH has been teasing you for weeks with its awesome lineup and now it’s time to school you all on some of the local performers who will no doubt blow the unsuspecting crowd away.

My pick for this week (and every week if I had the choice) is News on the March.  NOTM is probably the one up-and-coming local band that got me excited about local music again.  I think the first time I saw them live was last summer at Walter’s for the EP release show for The Eastern Sea. That whole show was filled with amazing local talent, but NOTM really stuck out to me as a band that would just continue to grow artistically the more they played and produced music. I’m glad to see my instincts were right.

Below is a brief article that ran in FPH about News on the March. Be sure to check out their MYSPACE page to hear some tunes, read more nice stuff about the band and keep track of what’s coming next.

News on the March
“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree…”
One of the greatest things about Houston bands, in this writer’s humble opinion, is that even when a given band seems uncomplicated – they rarely are. The process of making the music they do is the result of countless hours of hard work and dedication spawned from the minds of musicians that are anything but predictable.
News on the March hasn’t been in the scene for very long, but in the short time that they have been writing, performing and producing their music, they have proven themselves to be one those bands that cannot be taken at face value. The music they play – which the band describes as “60′s pop meets western swing with a dash of tin-pan alley” – may seem effortless on stage, but what their audience may not know is how much time and energy goes into making sure their songs sound flawless when you listen.
The production of their soon to be released EP Glory Be! has not been an easy task. Set to release pre-Hurricane Ike, Glory Be! had to be placed on the back burner due to the extensive damage to their home and studio. Drummer Ryan Odom talked about the issues he and his band members had to endure in order to get this gem of a record out to the indie music masses, “It’s been quite the struggle to get this little release out. We had hurricane destroy our studio/home and were lucky enough to save our instruments and recording equipment, but not lucky enough to  make the deadline we gave ourselves.”
And the actual making of the EP in and of itself is a testament to how special News on the March really is. The are musicians before anything else and every twang-filled note is a reflection of how much they just love to make music. “We recorded Glory Be! in our home with a very minimal setup. We had 2 inputs running into a ten year old computer. What was great about doing it this way is that we spent a lot of time getting comfortable in the studio together and really got involved in the production of our songs, which we think really shows in the new songs we’ve recorded since then. Joe [NOTM's guitarist] has since built what he calls Master Bedroom Studios into a very legitimate studio,” explains Odom.
The loveable quintet are avid fans of other local musicians and are always racking their collective craniums to come up with a show or a concept that can propel not only the band but also Houston indie music into a new realm. Anyone who attended the Halloween madness that took place at Walter’s this year can attest to the band’s ingenuity, humor and ability to have a fucking great time.
The universe always has a plan and while the the originally scheduled EP release soiree would have no doubt been epically entertaining, their upcoming show will prove to be one you will kick yourself for missing. They have had a little more time to polish their performance and put that little something extra into the music. Besides, how can you go wrong spending an evening at Rudyard’s watching a band of bearded men (and one lovely, not bearded cellist) belting out original tunes that they worked darn hard to create? (Brigitte B. Zabak, Free Press Houston 12/08 issue)