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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2007 > September
September 2007
Hall of fame nominations and oversights
The nominees for 2008 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced today and, woefully, Doug Sahm is still not on the list. Shockingly, neither is Metallica, who basically invented hardcore heavy metal.
Five of these nine will make it into the Hall in March 2008: Afrika Bambaataa, Beastie Boys, Chic, Leonard Cohen, the Dave Clark Five, Madonna, John Mellencamp, Donna Summer and the Ventures. Ballots will soon be sent to over 500 voters, but everyone knows Rolling Stone editor/publisher Jann Wenner’s really the one who decides.
Here’s who should make it: 1) Madonna 2) Leonard Cohen 3) Beastie Boys 4) the Ventures and 5) the Dave Clark Five. “Jack and Diane” should’ve made Mellencamp ineligible, but he won’t get in and neither will Bambaataa (too short a career) or Donna Summer and Chic (this ain’t the disco hall of fame).
Notably un-nominated were Randy Newman and Tom Waits, the two greatest songwriters of the past 25 years (sorry, Conor Oberst fans) and the Stooges, Nick Lowe, Gram Parsons and the Monkees, who are all more important than the former Johnny Cougar.
To be eligible, an act must have released its first single or album at least 25 years prior to the year of nomination, which means Stevie Ray Vaughan is a shoo-in next year.
Punk legend Mikey Offender reported dead
The Bravewords Web site is reporting — and former Offenders drummer Pat Doyle confirms — that the great punk bassist Mikey Donaldson (Offenders, DRI, MDC) died in his sleep Saturday in Barcelona, Spain. He was 46. Cause of death has not been determined. He’s survived by a brother and two sisters, who all live in Killeen.
When I moved to Austin in 1984, I hung with the punk crowd over at Voltaire’s. Back then, a lot of kids were identified by the home town’s they came to Austin to escape. You had the Vidor guys — Tommy Pipes, Buddy Boy and Elbo — the San Antonio guys like Jeff Smith and Paul & Gibby, and you had the Killeen guys, who included Davy Jones, Mikey Donaldson, Richard Hayes and Fat John.
The most authentic hardcore band in town was the Offenders, Austin’s answer to Black Flag, with a scary lead singer, a lightning quick rhythm section and a tall, long-haired guitarist who didn’t look punk until he played all those searing notes.
If you were in the Offenders, your band name became your last name, so everyone knew Donaldson as Mikey Offender. He was the baddest bassist in town. The only time I ever “slam-danced,” which is what moshing was called back then, it was to the Offenders. After one song, I was comepletely covered in sweat, some of it my own. Mikey was a big Motorhead fan, and it showed in his Lemmy-like thrashing.
After the breakup of his great San Francisco band Sister Double Happiness about 10 years ago, Mikey had dropped out of the music business and moved back to Killeen, according to reports. It was no secret that he had a horrendous heroin problem in S.F., so maybe he went home to pad his years a little.
He played the Offenders reunion at Emo’s in 2002 and apparently planned a return to music. In 2004, Mikey rejoined his pre-Offenders band MDC, which originally stood for Millions of Dead Cops, but then was changed to various other things that wouldn’t assure hassles from law enforcement. Donaldson played on the MDC comeback album “Magnus Dominos Corpus” and toured Europe with the hardcore pioneers. On an MDC blog, one of the band members called the 2004 version the band’s tightest ever.
When the tour ended in Aug. 2004, Donaldson stayed behind in Amsterdam, where he joined one of that city’s premiere punk bands, the Nitwitz. Mikey Offender was, no doubt, a star in Europe, and he talked about re-forming the Offenders for an overseas tour.
So many of the punk rockers who were my heroes in 1984 have passed away: Biscuit of the Big Boys, Glenn Taylor of the Dicks, Hayes of the Hickoids. And now Mikey.
“Mikey is universally regarded as one of the most innovative and inimitable masters of the bass guitar,” Doyle wrote in an e-mail. “He played his Rickenbacker like it was a out-sized rhythm guitar. Mikey pioneered an aggressive speed-picking style and liberal employment of bass chords that few have been able to emulate in the past 20 years. He will be sorely missed.”
An Austin memorial is in the works.
Willie wins award
From Michael Barnes’ Out & About blog: You may have already heard, but Austin’s own Willie Nelson will receive the first Bridging Divides Award from the University of Texas at Austin Project on Conflict Resolution during an Oct. 19 ceremony at the Frank Erwin Center. … Read about more celebrities with Austin ties here.
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Roky to tape ACL set
After Roky Erickson’s triumphant return to performing with a three-song set at SXSW 2005, he was asked what he wanted to happen next. The psychedelic rock pioneer answered that he wanted to be on TV again, specifically “Austin City Limits.” Well, that’s about to become a reality. “ACL” producer Terry Lickona has booked an appearance by Erickson for early to mid-November, with the final date to be firmed up when a couple of special guests check their schedules for openings.
“It’ll be the last taping of the season, so it should be special,” said Lickona, who added that Roky sent word through his manager that he’s besides himself about the dream gig.
“I had read in the Statesman that Roky’s goal was to play ‘ACL’ and when I saw him at the Paramount (in July), that show gave me the confidence to book him,” Lickona said. Only problem was that the 33rd season, currently in production, didn’t have any openings. But then Erykah Badu’s album was delayed and she dropped out, making room for the Rok. Lickona said the Erickson program will air in January.
In other big “ACL” news, C3 Presents, which has exec-produced the show for five years (under its old CSE moniker the first four), has decided to not renew its contract after the end of this season (which begins airing Oct. 6 with Norah Jones.) “They’ve decided to concentrate on producing festivals,” Lickona said. C3 just signed a ten-year deal to license the “Austin City Limits” name for the annual festival at Zilker Park in September.
More on Roky Erickson
- Photos: Roky Erickson then and now
- Interactive: The essential Roky Erickson
- Video: Roky at the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden
- Under the influence of Roky Erickson
- The best tribute album ever made
- A psychedelic look back
- The Fall and Rise of Roky Erickson
- Rock 'n' roll comeback
- Roky Erickson's 60th birthday party
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It’s never too early to think ACL 2008
If you’re an e-mail subscriber to the official Austin City Limits Music Festival site, you already know that early-bird tickets went on sale today for 2008’s incarnation. The general public might also be interested to know that next year’s festival dates are Sept. 26-28, according to the Web site.
So, not too early to buy tickets (if you’re one of the lucky ones), but way too early to complain about the lineup.
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More on Gary Primich
The Travis County Medical Examiner’s office has yet to release a cause of death pending toxicology tests, but Gary Primich’s ex-wife Tina Rosenzwieg, who found the body, said a drug overdose is suspected. Primich friend Mark Rubin wrote on his blog yesterday that Primich had been dogsitting for Rosenzwieg over the weekend and she came home Monday morning and found Primich.
Rubin also had a lot of great things to say about Primich the man and Primich the harp master.
And speaking of new music …
Check out our colleague Omar Gallaga’s report on Amazon’s new MP3 service.
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New music: Iron & Wine
Iron & Wine (aka Sam Beam) is out today with “The Shepherd’s Dog” (Sub Pop), which earns four stars out of five from music writer Joe Gross. Here’s his review - look for his interview with Beam in Thursday’s XL:
Legend has it that an early title for the first Stephen Malkmus solo album was “Swedish Reggae.” This would have been too cute by at least half, of course, and the album was ultimately self-titled. But you have to hand it to Iron & Wine, aka Sam Beam, and whoever is playing with Sam Beam — on “Wolves (A Song for the Shepherd’s Dog),” he seems to have stumbled upon music that really, no kidding, sounds like Swedish reggae, equal parts folk-rock and spacey dub.
Oddly, this isn’t too surprising. If you’ve ever seen Iron & Wine live (some might remember their fantastic set at ACL last year), you know that the songs can morph into jams with ease. With each record, Beam has added more and more instruments, more and more electric layers to be expanded on or peeled back live. “Shepherd’s Dog” will make those transitions easier than ever.
But his songwriting remains essentially the same. The rhythms are still circular and lazy, the guitar still detailed and lovely, the lyrics still trying to parse love and sing odes to it at the same time, dipping into bizarre images; it’s Bunuel via the Band. Sonically, “Shepherd’s Dog” is pretty far afield from the mumbled acoustic songs on the amazing debut “The Creek Drank the Cradle.” But the evolution has never felt forced — these are the records Beam wants to be making, from the muffled clanging percussion on “Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car” to the steady hook on the single “Boy with a Coin.” “Resurrection Fern” gets acoustic again; “House by the Sea” reminds you that Beam likes Paul Simon’s “Graceland” as much as the Simon & Garfunkel records that his early work recalled. That is, his next giant leap seems like one small step. - Joe Gross
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Musician Gary Primich dies at 49
Gary Primich 1958-2007
There are generally two types of harmonica players: Ones who have amazing technique, and those who play with intense feeling. Gary Primich was both. The great blues player, whose appearances in Europe brought out harmonica aficionados in droves, died Sunday, ex-wife Tina Rosenzwieg confirmed. An announcement of his death was also posted on his Web site. He was 49. The cause of death has not been released.
“Gary was the sweetest, smartest, hardest-working harp player in the world,” said Rosenzwieg, who met Primich when they were students at the University of Indiana. Although the couple divorced after several years, they remained close.
A native of Gary, Ind., Primich moved to Austin in the mid-’80s after a single visit to Antone’s. He formed the Mannish Boys with former Frank Zappa drummer Jimmy Carl Black but achieved his greatest success as a solo artist. His 1995 album “Mr. Freeze” was named one of the 20 best blues albums of the ’90s by Chicago weekly New City. He recorded eight albums in all for such labels as Antone’s, Black Top, Amazing and Flying Fish.
Although he was based in Austin the past two decades, Primich made most of his money playing overseas, as a solo artist or while touring with bands such as Omar and the Howlers.
“He had established himself all over the world as one of the most technically proficient harmonica players,” said his friend and fellow harp-blower Ted Roddy. “He wrote great instrumentals that leaned toward organ jazz. It was like Jimmy Smith, only on harmonica.”
Funeral services are pending.
Best Spoon Video Ever
Here it is, folks. And no Hunter Darby appearance.
The Constantines: Advertising ‘Brotherhood”
To watch the second season of the Showtime series “Brotherhood,” a tale of two brothers on opposite sides of the law in working-class Rhode Island (yes, it’s based very loosely on Whitey and Ray Bulger), you’d think the show’s theme would be, say, the Dropkick Murphys or something. (You might recall the Murphys’ amazing screamer “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” put to mind-blowingly great use in “the Departed.”) The second season starts Sunday on Showtime.
But no, they go with a minute of the Constantines’ tense, rousing anthem “Draw Us Lines.” The Canadian band has always had two things in its favor -a serious working class vibe (as in they sing about work and its discontents) and an utterly massive sound. Big drums, big vision. And they do fake Springsteen better than the Hold Steady.
Actually, they do fake Springsteen differently. The Constantines’ chords are tougher, the vocals are grittier. Springsteen always sound like he was trying so hard. These fellows sound genuinely hacked off at the world. It’s the sound of the tension and guilt boiling under the surface of everything and everyone in Brotherhood, from the implied violence in Michael Caffee to the knot of guilt and rage that fuels Tommy. It sent me back to the Constantines to see what else I missed. Nice job, folks.
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Interpol: Notes from the no-longer underground
Not too long ago New York’s Interpol were playing small clubs like the 200-capacity Mercury Lounge in the city’s East Village, and Manhattan’s Bowery Ballroom. Last week, however, they performed in front of considerably more people — 15,000 to be precise — at Madison Square Garden. It’s fair to say the last few years have been quite a ride.
The week before the gig, bassist Carlos Dengler (known as Carlos D) said he was trying not to think about it. “I’ll go crazy if I think about it too much,” he said. “My attitude is every show’s a show. What’s to say this show is more important than any other.”
They should have seen this level of success coming. Two years ago Interpol were booked to play two nights at Mexico City’s 7,000 capacity World Trade Center venue, and sold it out. But half an hour into the first concert, the stage started to give way. “Sine waves and ripple effects made the stage bounce and it was frightening,” Dengler said. “After the show our tour manager shut down the operation. So we re-scheduled it in an even larger, venue. And we sold that out too.”
The band is taking a break in New York before resuming their U.S. tour. They play Stubbs on Wednesday (Sept. 26; the show is technically sold out. Details here.) and Dengler said he’s prepared for Austin’s sticky heat.
“We played SXSW years ago — when the group had no label — and I quickly learned you have to develop your own personal ventilation system when you play Austin,” he said “I try to focus on the holes in my fabric.”
Interpol is Dengler, singer/guitarist Paul Banks, guitarist Daniel Kessler, and drummer Sam Fogarino. Rolling Stone magazine described their 2002 debut album “Turn on the Bright Lights,” as “a thing of glacial beauty.” Two years later Britain’s NME magazine said the band’s follow-up, “Antics,” was an album “scored through with a vehement beauty.”
In the early years Interpol drew comparisons with post-punk acts like Joy Division and Kitchens of Distinction, but their sound has evolved over the last few years and today they have more in common with Las Vegas new wavers the Killers.
For a few months in the spring of this year there was speculation that their latest album, “Our Love to Admire,” had been leaked online. But it remained under lock and key until June 21 when it appeared — illegally — on a file-sharing site.
“Downloading certainly isn’t killing the distribution of music,” Dengler said. “It actually negates the need for a record company.”
Perhaps because despite the leak, “Your Love to Admire” still reached No. 4 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart, the band are philosophical.
“It gives power to unsigned bands,” Dengler said. “If Interpol started today we’d think it was a good thing that everyone could download our songs to their mp3 players. It wasn’t that long ago we had to make tapes.”
The “demo tape” seems so archaic now. But for years churning out two or three song samplers to give away to fans at gigs or foist in the hand of some record company lackey was the way it was done.
Dengler said that the digital music revolution has meant there is no pressure for young bands to conform to anyone else’s wishes. “It’s the democratization of music,” he said. But you still get the feeling that if the illegal downloading of his band’s latest album — their first for a major label — had had a demonstrable effect on sales, he might be singing from a different hymn book.
Interpol’s move to a major (Capitol) did change some things. Before, they seemed as much an art project as they did a band. They would release an album’s worth of 7-inch singles, there were limited edition screen-printed posters, gigs at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, and their sponsorship of short film competitions. And let’s not forget the Interpol “spaces” where they would screen the short films, and band collaborators and artists would exhibit their work.
“We still release 7-inch singles,” Dengler said when asked whether the move to major had changed things. “We’re releasing a deluxe edition of the album with special edition packaging. And we still have meticulous design concepts.” But his heart doesn’t sound like it’s in it. “The Interpol spaces are not possible right now,” he said. “Major labels don’t really do things like that.”
Next year Interpol will celebrate its 10th anniversary. Being in a band, albeit a much bigger band, a decade on, still excites Dengler. He’s enthusiastic when he talks about the future and the countries he’d like to tour. “There’s talk of South America,” he said. “We’ve talked about Iceland as well.” Then he starts to sound like the label for which he’s now working: “But there’s very limited time and resources after we’ve played the core markets. You’re exhausted.”
With all this talk of “core markets” it’s easy to forget Interpol is still a great band. The new album is the first they’ve recorded in their home city. A few years ago Interpol didn’t like being lumped in with the “New York scene.” “A New York Scene to me is something that happens before a band blows up and tours the world,” drummer Sam Fogarino said at the time. “We ain’t local any more.”
But there’s a sense that Interpol have come full circle. They are as much a New York band as the Kinks were a London band, the Smiths a Manchester band, or the Beach Boys were Californian. It’s in their swagger, their look, their sound. The album is full of delicious hooks and attitude. And they still look great, too.
“Style is very important,” Dengler said. “Showing up on stage like you’ve just rolled out of bed is not what we’re about. It’s OK for some bands - but that’s their vibe, not ours.”
Maybe it’s just that their “underground” status (that they just about clung on to on Matador even up to their last album), well, suited them.
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Willie postpones rest
After ACL Fest we know all about shows being canceled for reasons of anxiety, exhaustion or being Amy Winehouse, but when have you heard of postponed shows being reinstated because the artist realized he wasn’t that tired after all?
When Willie Nelson sings “I can’t wait to get on the road again,” he’s not joking. Citing exhaustion, the country icon had postponed several dates after Farm Aid on Sept. 9 and planned to spend a month resting up at his home in Maui. After after only a week of recuperation, however, most of the scrubbed dates are back on, starting with Kansas City tonight and going through Iowa and South Dakota before ending up in Las Vegas Sept. 28. “We all thought we’d have a month at home,” says Nelson’s 76-year-old piano playing sister Bobbie Nelson. “But we’re all excited that Willie feels great and the shows are back on.”
Sister Bobbie, who’s been in Willie’s band for 34 years, celebrates the release of her first solo album, “Audiobiography,” on Tuesday. Ten piano instrumentals are bookended by two new Willie originals on the Justice Records release.
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Kanye, 50 and a whole host more breath life into charts
Surprising almost nobody, Kanye West’s “Graduation” (Def Jam) beat the stuffing out of everyone else last week. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album sold 957,000 during its first six days. Billboard magazine notes that the Sept. 11 release date posted the Billboard 200’s largest sales total in more than two years.
50 Cent’s “Curtis” (G-Unit/Interscope) moved 691,000 sold for the No.2 slot. Kenny Chesney’s “Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates” (BNA/Sony BMG Nashville) sold 387,000 copies for No. 3. (Read our reviews of the two records here.)
Billboard also notes that rhe total for West’s “Graduation” is the largest by any album since 50 Cent’s “The Massacre” opened with 1.1 million copies in March 2005. West’s own August 2005 album, “Late Registration,” was the last album to surpass 800,000 copies when it began with 860,000. The top four titles alone account for 2.2 million units, more than all titles combined on last week’s entire Billboard 200. (The “High School Musical 2” soundtrack occupies the No. 4 slot.)
The “Graduation” and “Curtis” combo marks the second time in the Soundscan era that two albums have bowed in the same week with totals surpassing 600,000 copies.
The last time?
September 1991, when Guns N’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion II” led The Billboard 200 with 770,000 copies in the same week that the band’s companion album “Use Your Illusion I” bowed at No. 2 with 685,000. This was a mere six months after Soundscan launched in March 1991.
So it’s been awhile.
Also of note (again, according to Billboard), year-to-date digital track sales through Sept. 16 have surpassed the year end total for 2006.
Smashing Pumpkins to play Austin
Smashing Pumpkins have added a Nov. 2 date at the Backyard to their current tour. Tickets, priced at $56.50 each go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. at www.gettix.net. Billy Corgan and company, who released “Zeitgeist” in July, are touring for the first time in almost seven years.
ACL’s Losers & Winners
Who was the biggest loser at ACL 2007: the White Stripes or Bob Dylan? The Stripes canceled just days before the event, severely disappointing fans who had spent up to $145 (or $80 for a single-day ticket) to see them. But Bob Dylan’s stock dropped because he did show up. Not only was his hoarse vocal performance painfully sad - like watching Ali against Larry Holmes - but his vanity, in not allowing big-screen camera operators to show any closeups, infuriated those who weren’t up close. If you don’t like big screens, don’t headline music festivals with 65,000 fans. Dylan had the whole park to himself and I doubt if he made a single convert. By about the third song, head-scratching young folks were practically running out of Zilker, while hardcore Dylan fans were turned into post-show apologists. I kept thinking of that song “Send In the Clowns,” with its line about “losing my timing this late in my career.” Send in the clowns, throw in the towel or find a great throat surgeon who can work miracles. But don’t embarrass yourself just because touring is more fun than staying home.
And I still think Bob Dylan is the greatest musician of the 20th century.
The winners at ACL were all over the place, from the smallish BMI stage where hit Nashville songwriter Jeffrey Steele proved to be an even better performer to the main stages, where Muse made folks forget the Stripes, if only for an hour and change, and Arcade Fire proved that smart rock can be even more engaging in concert than on record.
I saw only a handful of the 127 acts onstage, but I can’t imagine anyone else hitting it out of the park like Austin’s own Ghostland Observatory. Aaron Behrens, Thomas Turner and their box o’ sound were sensational in every aspect of the word. I had previously only seen them on YouTube and wasn’t particularly impressed, but they really lit it up live. Even at such a young age, the pair know stage dynamics like no other Austin band since Butthole Surfers. To say I was bowled over is an understatement. This duo has the goods to become Austin’s first real major league rock stars.
Tell us: What was the best act you saw at ACL? And, besides Dylan, who was the worst?
ACL taping: Bloc Party
Late Monday evening — only one day after the boys in Bloc Party performed in a Zilker Park heat index that skyrocketed above 110 degrees on the gi-normous AT&T stage during the ACL Music Festival — the South London post-punk band taped a set for the “Austin City Limits” television show’s 33rd season. (Read our review of the band’s festival set here.)
Hundreds of University of Texas students and other Austinites in-the-know were lined up around to block hoping to gain entrance to the show. Unfortunately the studio’s capacity could not admit even half of the Bloc Party fans, a group that appears to be growing with the release of the band’s progressive 2007 sophomore album, “A Weekend In The City.”
“I luuuuvvvv television,” said the band’s firestarter frontman Kele Okereke in his thick British accent after their first take, “Song For Clay.” The air-conditioned environs of the Austin City Limits soundstage made a perfect theater for the up-and-coming indie rock band that had asked for patience the day before during the heat of the afternoon because “we are from a cold, wet island … we’re not used to this (Texas sun).”
And Okereke’s love was reciprocated. Guitarist Russell Lissack, bassist Gordon Moakes, drummer Matt Tong and Okereke killed once they shook off the butterflies in their stomach, which came out as a couple of false starts on songs from their debut “Silent Alarm,” songs that the band has been playing almost every day for the past three years.
“Waiting For The 7.18” emerged as one of their strongest cuts from last year’s “A Weekend in the City”; the song highlighted Bloc Party’s unique ability to make danceable anthems from math-rock, 7/8 time signatures and Tong’s bloody-brilliant syncopated backbeats.
“This Modern Love” and “So Here We Are” transcended the recorded versions and became almost spiritual in their melancholy deconstruction of 21st century love. And by the time the band played their coup de grace, “Like Eating Glass,” the typically reserved studio audience was on its feet dancing to the ever jagged guitar crunch.
“Ever since I saw these guys during South by Southwest at Stubb’s a few years ago, I knew we had to get them in here,” said ACL producer Terry Lickona. “It took a little while, but we finally did it!”
Although the ACL television show wasn’t able to nab the video-shy Bob Dylan, other tapings over the weekend included Crowded House, Arcade Fire, Wilco and Regina Spektor. Lucinda Williams will tape a segment tonight. Good luck getting tickets as the ever-elusive radio station ticket-drop announcement was made last week.
Bloc Party’s set list
ACL taping, Monday, Sept. 17
“Song For Clay (Disappear Here)”
“Positive Tension”
“Hunting For Witches”
“Waiting For The 7.18”
“Banquet”
“This Modern Love”
“The Prayer”
“Uniform”
“So Here We Are”
“Like Eating Glass”
“Sunday”
“Helicopter”
Encore: “She’s Hearing Voices
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Not ACL: Norah Jones at Speakeasy
From the Austin Film Society:
JUST ANNOUNCED: Norah Jones is confirmed to perform at the exclusive after-party at Speakeasy, 412 Congress Ave., on Wednesday, September 19th. $25 tickets available at gettix.net or the Paramount Theatre box office.
(The after-party is for Ethan Hawke’s movie, “The Hottest State,” which premieres Wednesday at the Paramount with writer/director Hawke in attendance. More information at the film society’s Web site.)
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ACL after-show: the Black Angels
With Rodrigo y Gabriela unable to make their scheduled their ACL after show at Antone’s on Saturday night, it fell to Austin’s resident psychedelic rock collective the Black Angels to pick up the slack. Antone’s announced the “secret” line-up Friday afternoon, with the Athens, Ga.-based quintet Blue Flashing Light in the opening slot after a strong showing in the Sound and the Jury contest and recent Dallas transplants the Strange Boys the middle slot.
Singer Alex Maas kicked off the Angels’ acid trip of a set with a guttural scream and blast of his guitar sending the rest of the band spiraling down the sonic rabbit hole. The band’s live set is a faithful representation of the bass-heavy, slow burn found on their debut CD “Passover,” a sound made to be absorbed by the gyrating throng of a stadium-sized crowd. Saturday’s modest, festival-weary crowd was split between the dedicated fans packed in close to the stage and the curious onlookers drawn in from the street by the hypnotic drone of “Better Off Alone” and “Black Grease.”
Despite critical acclaim from extensive touring both in the United States and abroad, the Angels are still something of an oddity in their own back yard. In a town that abides every indie-rock fancy that streams out of the garage, Austin’s hipsters are equally confused and captivated by the band’s Can-meets-Velvet Underground sound.
With the Angels, songs bleed into one another, spacey guitar solos extend already lengthy jams and Maas’ reverb soaked vocals blend with the ubiquitous organ drone creating a wall of sound that would make Phil Spector proud. Underneath it all is Stephanie Bailey’s tribal drumming, a rumble of tom-toms punctuated by the occasional crash cymbal. You can’t quite dance to the Black Angels, but you can’t sit still either.
The band’s set was the perfect counterpoint to a day spent bouncing along to the high-energy festival rock of bands like the Artic Monkeys and Muse. After a long day at ACL, it was refreshing just to turn on, tune in and drop out.
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ACL after-show: Queens of the Stone Age
When hard, unforgiving stoner rockers Queens of the Stone Age walked out on stage Saturday night at La Zona Rosa for their soldout ACL aftershow and hit that first chord, an anvil of sound came out of the speakers, and the venue came alive. Devil horns went up — some with ACL wrist bands, some without — as if everyone knew what was coming.
A wall of distortion and screeching guitars shook skulls as the band sped through riffs from under elaborate chandeliers above each band member that sent a shaft of light down on them like the beam of light just before an alien abduction.
Going strong for 10 years — since singer/guitarist Josh Homme left Kyuss after that band’s breakup — Queens show no signs of slowing. The crowd favorite “Feel Good Hit of the Summer” had everyone chanting to the addictive chorus “nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol” during an exploding marching beat and a searing solo. “My favorite list in the world,” Homme admitted to the crowd.
Before dedicating a song with a particularly thick and numbing bass line to local legend Roky Erickson, Queens jumped into an unrelenting guitar attack on “3’s & 7’s” off their just-released “Era Vulgaris.” Most of the crowd had already committed it to memory.
The beard-friendly Howlin’ Rain went on just before Queens with guitar jamming and keyboard slaps and slides in a slightly psychedelic fuzzy rock way. Dax Riggs (from Acid Bath) and his backing band the Blood Kings opened up with filling, muddy blues/rock vocals packed into every corner of the songs’ soulful, power-chord rock.
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65,000 fans; 65,000 opinions
After almost 36 hours of live music at ACL, the fun has finally come to an end. I walked around Sunday afternoon and evening getting responses from festival goers — highs and lows, best shows and worst, etc. (Note: Most of the interviewing was done before Wilco, The Decemberists, Ghostland Observatory and Bob Dylan took the stage, so those bands are missing from most responses.) This sampling represents a good cross-section of fans from the weekend, but it is just a small group of folks. Use the comments section to tell us what you thought were the highs and lows of the festival.
On a personal note, my favorite shows of the weekend included: Wilco, The National, Del McCoury Band, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Common, LCD Soundsystem and Björk
Matt Gatewood (Austin)
Highlight: Zap Mama
Biggest letdown: Cold War Kids
Chloe Weiss (Austin)
Highlight: Lax security re: bag searches, Zap Mama (“Coolest woman i’ve ever seen, and I picked up some serious dance moves from her and M.I.A.”)
Biggest letdown: Stephen Marley playing same set at fest as he did at night show and Barton Springs being closed
Eden Teagle (NYC)
Highlight: The National
Biggest letdown: The White Stripes canceling — “I think the White Stripes definitely lost some fans this weekend.”
Eric Fuchs (San Antonio)
Highlight: Paolo Nutini
Jake Walker (San Francisco)
Highlight: Robert Earl Keen playing his Christmas song with everyone singing along
Michael Ferguson (Austin)
Highlight: DeVotchKa — “They may be from Colorado, but they play this amazing Eastern European pop and had everyone clapping along. Easily the best I saw all weekend.”
Biggest letdown: “Muse’s pompous political message that was played before their final song. And the fact that I ran into every ex-girlfriend I’ve ever had.”
Navdar Namaky (Austin)
Highlight: “I think half the people at the Common show did not know who they were seeing (due to Rodrigo y Gabriela cancellation), but it was amazing. Arcade Fire was also amazing; it was like what Wagner must have been like in the 1870s.”
Will Cornforth (Austin)
Highlight: Arctic Monkeys
Biggest letdown: Spoon — “They just didn’t pack a punch. There was not enough guitar and too much piano in the mix, and this is coming from a piano player.”
Amanda Watkins (Austin)
Highlight: “James Hunter was excellent.”
Biggest letdown: “They need to hold this thing about a month later. It’s too hot and too big. I’ve been to every one (ACL Festival) and this is the weakest one yet, because of the lineup. They need more unknown bands like the ones KGSR finds.”
Thomas Hunter (Houston)
Biggest letdown: “Too many Longhorn fans.”
Regina Bartholow (Austin)
Highlight: “The fire! I’ve never seen black smoke that high! And Muse rocked, but The Killers were the best!”
Christina Choate (Austin)
Biggest letdown: “We needed skydivers, because they were awesome at Flugtag!”
Don Bartholow (Austin)
Highlight: “I thought LCD Soundstystem was great. I loved the lead singer’s witty banter. They were the band I saw whose CD I’ll now go buy.”
Emily Lesh (Austin)
Highlight: Arcade Fire
Biggest surprise: “The amazingness of the last four songs of Wilco’s set. I happened to be getting food during Preservation Hall Jazz Band and caught some of them … pretty awesome. Other favorites: LCD Soundsystem, The National, Ghostland Observatory
Biggest letdown: White Stripes canceling, Bob Dylan. Annoying new thing: Having to show ID every time you got a beer instead of just showing it once and getting a wristband.
Lisa Genz (Austin)
Biggest letdown: “We were pretty let down by Blue October. They never really got the crowd into it.”
Emil Joseph (Austin)
Highlight: “Paolo Nutini. He sounded just like he does on the album.”
Jamie and Susan Powell (Norman, OK)
Highlight: “Robert Earl Keen, Lucinda Williams. Sunday’s lineup was the best.” This is our third year and it gets better every year.”
Biggest letdown: “But it seems this year is a little more geared to a younger audience. We usually leave by 7 p.m. each day.”
Andrew Taft (Austin)
Highlight: “Not too dusty and not too hot. I’m here to see Bob Dylan”
Biggest letdown: “No jam bands like Widespread Panic or String Cheese Incident.”
Marianna Wilde (Austin)
Highlight: Quens of the Stone Age
Biggest letdown: “Tons of people. Friday was so crowded it was almost not fun. And with White Stripes and the other bands dropping out, I was hoping for a partial refund.”
Jessica Frommert (Austin)
Highlight: Security was easy and hassle-free but still made people feel safe.
Darryn Niebrugge (Austin)
Highlight: “So much easier than in years past.”
Biggest letdown: “Disappointed I missed Cold War Kids and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.”
Amanda Brown (Austin)
Highlight: “They need to go back to having canned beer instead of draft. Draft beer was too easily spilled. I was really impressed with Andrew Bird and had never heard of him.
Biggest letdown: “I wanted to see Wilco, but my friends stuck by their guns, so we are watching My Morning Jacket.”
Jeremy Luce (Austin)
Highlight: “Arcade Fire was highlight for sure. From where we were sitting it was loud as hell. Blonde Redhead was also top 3.”
Biggest letdown: “I almost slit my wrists when the White Stripes canceled, but saw the end of Muse and they were (expletive) good! Bloc Party was like ‘blah.’” The scheduling of My Morning Jacket and Wilco at the same time.
Jessica Boone (Houston)
Highlight: “I thought LCD Soundsystem was great.”
Biggest letdown: “Not near enough trash cans.”
ACL: Bloc Party
South London indie rock/post-punk band Bloc Party — singer/guitarist Kele Okereke, guitarist Russell Lissack, bassist Gordon Moakes and drummer Matt Tong — seem to be in the good graces of the gods of rock ‘n’ roll. Their first ACL show two years ago turned into an evening scene stealer that ended up being the largest audience they’d played to up to that point. This year’s performance was equally graced as the band’s audience swelled to what appeared to be more than 30,000 people as they raced through the most danceable songs from the two critically acclaimed albums, “Silent Alarm” and “A Weekend In The City.”
Bloc Party’s sound mix suffered from the lack of a sound check until their third song, the new wave/no wave “Hunting For Witches.” Like all good bandleaders, Okereke kept on smiling with his bravest face, amping up the audience’s disposition with comic between-song banter until his band’s mix was clear and strong enough to do all the talking.
Okereke and band definitely played to their strengths; they didn’t waste any time with ballads or down tempo draggers. “Song For Clay (Disappear Here)” and “Waiting For The 7.18” proved to be the strongest audience pleasers of all their new songs. And then the diehard fans packed in like sardines near the front of the stage appeared to almost spontaneously combust when the band played their older hits, “This Modern Love,” “Positive Tension” and their tour de force anthem, “Like Eating Glass.”
Since I initially heard their debut album “Silent Alarm,” I’ve been preaching to anyone who will listen that Bloc Party have the potential to be this decade’s best British rock band, as the Clash and the Police were in previous years. And after this year’s ACL set, I have a feeling that there are several thousand other fans testifying about the euphoria-inducing power of Bloc Party’s gifted musical graces.
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ACL: My Morning Jacket
During My Morning Jacket’s 6:30 p.m. Sunday, AT&T stage set, they finally made me a believer in their big-as-thunder brand of Southern rock. For years I’d yawned when friends tried to turn me on to their various albums, but there was something undeniably powerful about their ACL performance.
My Morning Jacket — singer/guitarist Jim James, bassist “Two-Tone” Tommy, drummer Patrick Hallahan, guitarist/pedal steel guitarist/saxophonist/vocalist Carl Broemel and keyboardist Bo Koster — performed in front of an enormous, kitschy painting of a tropical island; their show also came complete with beautiful Polynesian-looking women standing at various points on the stage, holding pineapples toward the sky.
Frontman James (someone please write in and confirm for me that was indeed a bleach blond wig he was wearing) was in amazing form. His vocal performance possessed all the right dynamic variation and moxie. And his backing band of brothers played so tight they made many of the bands at ACL seem restrained and less powerful.
“One Big Holiday” and “Anytime” sounded even larger than they do on the band’s recent double-live album, “Okonokos.” But it was the crestfallen acoustic ballad “Golden” that took me right over the top of the fence and made me a My Morning Jacket disciple. James’ rendition of the song was utterly heartbreaking and poetic without being overwrought.
Don’t be surprised if My Morning Jacket becomes an ACL Festival regular. Their voluminous rock ‘n’ roll was born to played in arenas and festivals.
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ACL: Bob Dylan
“I respect him and all, but he sounds like a dying goat.” — overheard in the crowd at ACL.
Sunday night, 10:15, the Austin City Limits Music Festival over and done with, and all one can think is, “Well, that was unfortunate.”
Where to start?
The “evil old dude” voice, enjoyable (to some of us) in an intimate setting yet totally baffling to the casual fan? The giant screen that never showed close-ups or even panned over to musicians taking solos? The nuanced music, so completely inappropriate to a field of thousands who responded by, well, leaving in droves (As a colleague put it, “Getting up front was like fighting the tide.”)
Things looked and sounded grim from the first song, the awful crowd pleaser “Rainy Day Women No. 12 and 35.”
The mix was muddy, and it was impossible to tell what was going on if you were in the back, thanks to a giant screen that switched between a full band shot and a half-band shot of Dylan’s side. A lack of close-ups was bad enough, but not panning over to the mighty Denny Freeman while he took any of his gorgeous solos was just rude.
It’s this simple: People started leaving two songs in because they couldn’t see the band. That’s not exactly good customer relations from Dylan’s camp.
Even if you’re charitable about his voice, this music just isn’t built for the big finish. “It Ain’t Me Babe,” fun at Stubb’s, sounded flat and pat from a distance. “Spirit on the Water,” moving in a smaller setting, was a snooze at Zilker.
The band was excellent, of course. These guys are rock solid, and Freeman is a wonder.
The gripping “Levee’s Gonna Break” and the nasty groove on “Things Have Changed” injected much-needed energy. “Highway 61” showed a little burn, and the journalist kiss-off “Ballad of a Thin Man” was appropriately sharp.
But too often, they sounded like what they looked like: a quaint dance band, displaced in time. It’s sad when you hear the amazingly mean “Like a Rolling Stone” and wonder whether Dylan knows how completely “Now you don’t look so proud” applies to himself. Hey, man, you wanna come back and do five nights at the Paramount, you have my money. You wanna come back to Stubb’s, I’ll give you a chance. But in a field at ACL? Never again.
(Photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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ACL: The Decemberists
The poetic “The Crane Wife 3” kicked off the Decemberists super-rocking show during the 7:30 p.m. sunset slot on the Dell stage with more vigor than to be expected from band that can be so sedate on record.
The audience grew and grew to the point that even the band’s die-hard fans were shocked that so many people were gathering together to watch the soft-spoken, hyper-literate and erstwhile indie rock band.
Undaunted by the sounds of Ghostland Observatory’s dance party bleeding over the hill, the Decemberists of Portland, Ore., played the majority of their 2006 Capitol Records release, “The Crane Wife” including the would-be-a-hit-in-a-perfect-world, “O Valencia” and a sampling of their older and more accessible songs.
The Decemberists — lead singer/guitarist Colin Meloy, guitarist Chris Funk, keyboardist, multi-instrumentalist Jenny Conlee, bassist Nate Query and drummer Jon Moen — were nothing short of spectacular in the festival environment. Meloy appeared completely at ease with their Dell stage headlining performance. Feet firmly planted on center stage, Meloy displayed poise in his vocal performance and prowess on his guitar. With more perforamances like this one, don’t be surprised if the band transcends the indie rock genre and becomes known as a rock ‘n’ roll band for the masses.
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ACL: Ghostland Observatory
Laser shows are usually overrated, like fireworks displays and Quentin Tarrantino movies, but it was cool to see Ghostland Observatory sink their ACL guarantee into a light show that celebrated the year they’ve had.
Last year’s ACL was a coming out for the Austin techo-rock sensations, Aaron Behrens, a pigtailed Dorothy to his Wizard of Oz, Thomas Turner. Since then they’ve become Austin’s biggest rock stars, so why not blow it all on a big hometown thank you. Even as ACL Fest moves away from local performers in favor of overseas hipsters and bearded songwriters from the northwest, it was great to see an Austin act put on perhaps the greatest show of all.
GLO still needs to make a great record, which may be iffy given that Behrens, although a go-go messiah onstage, possesses a screech that usually requires Jimmy Page-like guitar to