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That's one current. Here's another. Though the band is not overtly religious, Treviño is heavily into mountain gospel. "My wife [Amanda] and I are writing some stripped-down folk-gospel tunes," says Treviño. "Kinda Gillian Welch, John the ­Revelator-type stuff."

And here is a third. Treviño is also a big fan of fellow neo-roots music enthusiasts Sideshow Tramps. (Formerly known as Medicine Show.) "I love them," he says. (Like them, the band sports the occasional odd touch of quasi-Russian, Gypsyesque sounds.) "Their live show was a huge inspiration for me. I would go see them at Helios two or three years ago at that Monday night thing. They would go until crazy-late and they would have these huge sets, people would dance the whole time, and I was like, 'Wow, I wish I could do that. I wish I had that power of suggestion. Or talent.' I'm really excited that we are playing one band away from them at our show at Westheimer Block Party."

Now, people do dance at Buxton shows, especially to the hoedown song "Westward." "Mostly they do it sarcastically," says Willis. "Kind of this exaggerated hillbilly stuff."

"Yeah, that's what pisses me off," says Treviño. "They are not seriously ­dancing."

That they can and do make fun of themselves is one of the most heartening things about Buxton. This is not a band to rest on its laurels, nor one to rush shoddy music onto the Internet or disc. Jorge Luis Borges had a pithy path to becoming a great writer: "Read a lot. Write a lot. Never rush into print." The same goes for music. Many bands would do well to do as it seems Buxton does — to listen more, practice more and not rush their recordings out into the open.

"The CD we did before this one [the EP "Red Follows Red"] is bad," Treviño says. "I always tried to explain to these guys that I wasn't proud of that album. They would tell me it was good, that it could have been better but it was still good. Nope."

Willis adds that the band takes the opposite approach to most young bands today. Instead of throwing a bunch of demos up on MySpace, they take their own sweet time. "We spent a year working on A Family Light, and we are really proud of it."

As well they should be. This might just be the best thing to come from La Porte since the Battle of San Jacinto.

Write Your Comment show comments (13)

  1. damn, this article is piss.

    Comment by brett Taylor — April 9, 2008 @ 04:38PM

  2. I hate vague, strongly worded criticisms. What is so "piss" about it, Brett?

    Comment by John Lomax — April 10, 2008 @ 06:35AM

  3. 1. well, Buxton was faced with no indignity by either me or by the end of tonight. it was completely understood as what should happen. chris lived with me during that time and continued to for a while afterwards. i continued to play drums for them until i recommended justin.

    2. there is nothing barn-burning or violent femmes-esque about "Mothers." it is the most gentle and adult contemporary sounding song on the record.

    3. "Blood on the Streets" does not open with a steel guitar. there is nothing of the sort in the song.

    4. Sergio Trevino's name was written as "Justin Trevino" one time.

    5. Quote from the article...
    '"Blood on the Streets": "There's too many mothers that name their daughters after towns and names of streets, there's too many fathers that name their sons after heroes on TV" and "There's too many whispers and too many secrets in the town of Cypress Creek."'
    (These are lyrics from "Mothers". Not "Blood on the Streets")

    don't get me wrong. the article is well written, both grammatically and creatively. but most of the actual information is just completely wrong and untrue.
    and the section about the tour with by the end of tonight makes everything sound so much worse and dramatic than it ever was. both in their eyes and mine. when jason said "god must hate us," or something along those lines, he was most likely referring to the tour coming to an end in delaware because of a van breaking down. this caused a long, disappointing ride home, as you can imagine.
    that's why i said the article is piss

    Comment by Brett Taylor — April 10, 2008 @ 01:43PM

  4. 1. That stuff was presented jokingly. Apparently you didn't get it.

    2. Dude, if you can't hear the similarity between "Mothers" and "Country Death Song" you're either deaf or willfully obtuse. I'm gonna go with "B."

    3. Then what is that keening, stringed instrument at the beginning of the song? It might not be a steel, but it is deliberately played to sound like one. So yeah, I might be wrong, but to say "there is nothing on the sort on the song" is more willful obtuseness.

    4. Shit. My bad. I kept doing that last week. There is another singer in Texas by the name of Justin Trevino and there is also a Justin in Buxton. I'll totally cede that you are right and I am wrong there.

    Comment by John Lomax — April 10, 2008 @ 02:06PM

  5. why would it presented jokingly. no one knows the real story so why would they choose not to take that as fact.
    and i truly think you have the songs titled incorrectly.
    blood on the streets is organ and mandolin and guitar and drums. it begins with an organ alone.
    maybe the only problem is that the names of your songs are all mixed up. because i can definitely see violent femmes in some of the songs, but NONE in "mothers." it might not be your fault, but im pretty sure that's the case

    Comment by Brett Taylor — April 10, 2008 @ 03:02PM

  6. Nope, "Mothers" is the one I am thinking of.

    Have you ever heard "Country Death Song"?

    You are starting to remind me of the guy who thought I was crazy to compare Arcade Fire's "Funeral" to early New Order.

    Comment by John Lomax — April 11, 2008 @ 12:05PM

  7. Have you ever even heard "Country Death Song"? "Mothers" sounds a lot like it.

    You are starting to remind me of the guy who thought I was nut for saying that Arcade Fire's Funeral reminded me of New Order. He'd never heard Power, Corruption and Lies and so thought I was an idiot.

    Comment by John Lomax — April 11, 2008 @ 01:16PM

  8. This article is solid and it interests me in Buxton more than I EVER would be. I'm already checking out the music.

    But man...the dialog on the comments section is the best part.

    Comment by Jonathan — April 16, 2008 @ 06:23AM

  9. How hard is it to edit something before you print it? Check your facts, and make sure all of your references are correct. Really, it can't be so difficult as to warrant mis-naming this poor Trevino kid TWICE in two weeks.

    And honestly is this how we're writing English these days:

    "is neither as bluesy as that record nor not quite as groundbreaking"

    nor not...? Really...?

    Everytime I think about it, it baffles me you have the job you do.

    Comment by pissed off — April 16, 2008 @ 01:06PM

  10. I'll tell you what baffles me -- why you feel the need to bash me anonymously. Let me guess, you are in a band and you are holding out hope that I'll be your useful idiot some day.

    Look, in journalism we have these things called deadlines. I had all of two hours to work with in writing that story.

    Mistakes happen. I feel terrible about the Sergio/Justin thing.

    But as for the nor/not thing....It is what we call a "typo" in this trade. They happen. Get a grip.

    Comment by John Lomax — April 18, 2008 @ 02:09PM

  11. go to this: http://www.myspace.com/buxtonband
    listen to "Blood on the Streets"
    and just tell me that you had the songs mixed up. NO steel guitar.

    Comment by Brett Taylor — April 19, 2008 @ 11:09AM

  12. Lomax, do you really think you have enough sway over the opinions of the music listeners in this town as to believe that you could ever be "useful" to me or anyone in a band? You don't. No one cares, please move. Incidentally, I am not in a band.

    Comment by pissed off — April 20, 2008 @ 11:50AM

  13. Brett: You are right. The CD Database has it wrong. I listened to the album on iTunes and my iPod and whoever entered the data labeled "Blood on the Streets" and probably more than a few of the other songs wrong.

    Pissed Off: Still wallowing in cowardly anonymity I see...

    Comment by John Lomax — April 26, 2008 @ 07:27AM

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