Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2008 > May
May 2008
Shearwater makes EW’s Must List, rocks the Parish
Shearwater has made Entertainment Weekly’s Must List.
The band, augmented with strings and horns, played two strong sets in front of a two-thirds (three-quarters?) full house at the Parish.
The first 40 minutes was devoted to a stem-to-stern recital of the new “Rook” album. Jonathan Meiburg’s voice was at its most Scott Walkerish, to the point that one wag was overheard to remark, “I keep thinking someone’s about to use meat as a percussion instrument.” But what happened to the background vocals on “Rooks?” I love those “woah-oah-OH/woah-oah-ohs”
The second set was given over to some of Shearwater’s earlier, somewhat noisier, somewhat more “rock” material.
Man, Thor Harris is a great drummer. And the songs that involved both electric and stand-up basses had a richness and depth of sound that is worth further exploration. (Hint, hint.)
As usual at the Parish, the sound was flawless. What a fantastic room.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Return to Forever at the Paramount Theatre
Stay tuned here for our review of Thursday night’s Return to Forever show. Meanwhile, some photos by American-Statesman photographer Kelly West. More here.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: In The Clubs, Music, Reviews
Weekend Picks
Friday: Grupo Fantasma CD release party at The Mohawk. The cumbia funk masters who have grown to national fame opening for Prince celebrate the release of their new CD, ‘Sonidos Gold,’ with the home crowd. Expect a full-on dance party outside at The Mohawk. — M.O.
Friday: Dirty Wormz at Antone’s. These hip-hop veterans mix beats with a metal edge. — M.O.
Friday: The Black Angels CD release party at Emo’s. The psychedelic rock stylings of the throwback Angels should have folks in a sweaty tizzy outside at Emo’s with songs from their new album, “Directions to See a Ghost.” (Read Michael Hoinski’s recent profile of the Angels here.) — M.O.
Saturday: Centro-Matic at The Parish. The band’s newest release, “Dual Hawk,” is a split double-album. Centro-matic takes one disc; their chiller alter ego South San Gabriel takes the other. That’s a lot of Centro/Gabriel singer-songwriter Will Johnston. — Joe Gross
Saturday: Pachanga Latino Music Festival at Waterloo Park. It’s the first (let’s hope annual) Pachanga Fest, with Latin music’s best regional and local bands, including Grupo Fantasma, Nortec Collective Presents Bostich & Fussible, Vallejo, Maneja Beto, Pistolera and Charanga Cakewalk. — J.G.
Sunday: The Dresden Dolls at Stubb’s. Take a trip in time back to lovely old East Germany courtesy of the quirky ‘punk cabaret’ duo from Boston. — M.O.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Outdoor shows at the Mohawk, other Transmission venues to end by 11 p.m. weekdays, midnight weekends; elderly fans like myself rejoice
Oh, man. Long have I waited for this day.
Starting June 1, outdoor shows at Club DeVille and Mohawk will start at 8 or 9 p.m. and finish by 11 p.m. on weekdays (Sunday to Wednesday) and midnight on weekends (Thursday to Saturday).
Indoor shows at Mohawk will likely stay on the typical everything starts at 10 p.m. and ends at 2 a.m. schedule.
“Technically, on Red River past Seventh, from about Elysium down, outdoor shows have always had to end at this time,” Transmission talent buyer Graham Williams said Thursday. (Stubb’s, for example, has always followed this policy.)
“With the Ready Ice building across the street, it never seemed like a big deal (to go later),” Williams said. “But with people starting to move into the apartments across the street in the fall, now seems a good time to start moving to earlier times.”
Earlier show times have long been debated in the Austin music scene.
Will Johnson is the leader of the Denton-based Centro-matic. He hates playing late shows. “The older I get, the less I really like playing those late shows,” he says. “I’ve always thought that 10:30 or 11 is optimum start time. As a show-goer I feel exactly the same way. The real late night do start to take a toll.”
An aging rock fanbase with day jobs and kids have quietly longed for it (at the expense of seeming lame), while bartenders have long objected to it, noting that if shows end by midnight and fans leave, that’s two hours of drinking time that goes un-tipped for.
“Frankly, I don’t think bartenders should be setting those sorts of policies,” Williams says, “but honestly, we’re gaining a few hours on the other end. If our shows are starting at 8 and everyone else’s are starting at 10, not only do we not lose those customers, but the competition between us and other clubs decreases.”
Williams also says they may start booking local bands to play indoors from midnight to 2 a.m. on nights that feature outdoor shows.
Some think the shift in last call to 2 a.m. in 1974 permanently changed the way live music worked in Austin.
“I didn’t live here then,” Texas Music Office director Casey Monahan says. “But from the long-timers I’ve spoken with, the change in time from midnight to 2 a.m. really altered how people enjoyed music in Austin. It changed the club clientele because people who had to wake up early for work couldn’t stay up late, leaving the clubs filled with either students or people who didn’t have regular 8-to-5 jobs.”
Drinking ages in Texas have also wobbled over the years.
In 1973, the drinking age dropped from 21 to 18, just in time for the cosmic cowboy explosion. In 1981, it moved from 18 to 19. In 1986, it moved back to 21.
“Those two changes (the midnight to 2 switch and the 21-drinking age) are highly underrated in affecting the health of the Austin live music industry,” Monahan said.
Monahan also thinks the changes might have made the music scene a little less collegial. “If club-goers wanted to stay up, they went to go play at people’s houses,” he says. “It wasn’t so centered around venues.”
Williams says the change has been popular with national booking agents. “They’re ecstatic,” he says. “For my entire life of booking, agents have been pushing us to do shows earlier, but Austin is so stuck in the idea that it has to be a late town.”
Dead Oceans Records owner Phil Waldorf, who also spent time booking Emo’s with Williams, agrees with this assessment. Most booking agents subscribe to the idea that the earlier a headliner goes on, the more people will be at the show.
“Booking agents always complained about late start times in Austin,” Waldorf said. “We always had to sell them on the fact that it’s a late town. Austin might be the latest market in the country.”
In New York, for example, shows of the type the Mohawk books are typically over by midnight. The house turns over and a D.J. plays for those who want to drink until 4 a.m. at the latest.
Williams acknowledges the transition period may be tough: “There are going to be shows in the beginning that people show up late for. The first show under the new policy is the Bellrays (who play Monday, June 2) and I know people are going to show up late for that one. But the show starts at 8 and the Bellrays go on at 10.” (An opening act will play between 8 and 10 p.m.)
Williams says the policy will also apply to Bourbon Rocks, the Sixth Street bar Transmission is currently renovating and turning into a 1,000 capacity outdoor venue, which is the same size as Emo’s big room and La Zona Rosa. Transmission also books shows at Red 7 and occasionally at Lambert’s.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: In The Clubs, Music
Candye Kane needs our help!
Back in the ’70s, African American comedian Franklin Ajaye had a joke about the power of a growling stomach. “Hunger will make a black man eat at Sambo’s at three in the morning,” he said of the 24-hour restaurant which soon after wised up and changed it’s name to Sam’s.
To paraphrase, Candye Kane is such a great blues singer she’d make a music critic go to Dick’s Last Resort in Dallas in the ’90s. Although Candye’s from San Diego, she sure made Big D feel like Austin whenever I caught her act up there.
Sadly, Ms. Kane has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and recently went through some ambitious, and expensive surgery. There’s a benefit for her tonight at Antone’s starring the Fabulous T-Birds with Kim Wilson, Billy Joe Shaver, Rosie Flores, Paula Nelson and many more. There’s no better cause. I’d be there even if the headliner was an Amish reggae band called Babylon by Buggy. Hang in there, Lady Blues. We love you.
Show starts at 7 p.m. Suggested donation is $12.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Catching up with the Riverboat Gamblers
“We were out there for close to two years straight, and the last eight months were so rough we kind of asked ourselves, ‘Is it OK to still do this and be this band?’ ” recalls the lead singer of Austin punks the Riverboat Gamblers.
“We lost our bass player (Pat Lillard), who was a big part of the band; we had some equipment stolen from our van; our van broke down… all these things pile up kind of like steam building with no release valve, and it was almost too much.”
As weary as he sounds recounting the trying times, Wiebe is almost buoyant talking about the current state of the Gamblers, playing its first Austin show in more than six months Saturday at Red 7.
There’s an energy as he looks forward to getting back on stage after several months of writing songs (“Don’t want to let those live muscles atrophy,”) and anticipates a trip to California in the coming months to record the followup to 2006’s acclaimed “To The Confusion of Our Enemies.”
“We did this kind of mini tour in February and March - got away from Austin during South by Southwest because it’s overwhelming; that’s the type of stuff that wore us down - and when we got home from that, the writing just started going great right away,” Wiebe says.
“It’s more collaborative than it’s ever been before and I think I’m starting to open up a little more lyrically and to doing some new things musically. The rest of the band has always been in favor of taking some different approaches and maybe slowing down a little. I was always the one who dragged my feet on that, but now I’ll say they were right and I was wrong.”
It’s too early to tell if any of the more contemplative tracks will make it onto the new album, but Wiebe attributes some of his development to seeing the positive results of tourmates Against Me!, who balanced last year’s “New Wave” with both anthemic fist-pumpers and quieter, hook-filled ballads.
“They had some really powerful stuff that was slow and dirge-y and I’m opening up more to that side of things. There’s an energy we’re always going to try to have, there are lots of different ways to get to it, and that’s one of the things we’re trying to figure out. Some people do it completely with ProTools, while for some all they need is two tracks to do it live.”
Some of those songs will almost certainly get an Austin debut on Saturday, along with earlier favorites to break up the polite confusion crowds often express at new material. It’s a prospect Wiebe is perceptibly excited over, even if it’s the unofficial start to the recording/touring/promotion cycle that almost ground his gears down a year ago. But with a new drummer (Eric Green) and bass player (Rob Marchant) on board, he’s ready if realistic about what’s ahead.
“So much of it, the booking agents and management and all these other things are so not what any of us got into playing music for, but there it was,” he says. “But that’s all resolved now and we’ve moved on. We’re ready to build up entirely new issues for ourselves.”
(Austin punk band the Riverboat Gamblers perform at SXSW 2007. Photo by Jay Janner/AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF)
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment Categories: In The Clubs, Music
CD review: Usher’s ‘Here I Stand’
Usher
‘Here I Stand’
(Jive)
It’s hard to believe Usher’s “Confessions” was released only four years ago. No album since has matched its chart dominance — four No. 1 hits (“Yeah,” “Burn,” “Confessions II” and “My Boo”) that spent more than half of 2004 atop Billboard. At the time, its commercial success (9 million records sold) was merely remarkable; in today’s climate, it’s unfathomable.
With the emergence of the digital download and the fracturing of the pop culture scene, the days of the mega album may be gone forever. Since 2004, album sales have plummeted. 2007’s top-seller (Josh Groban’s “Noel”) barely sold 3 million copies. Over the last year, artists used to going platinum their opening weekend (Mariah Carey, 50 Cent) have found themselves struggling to reach that mark at all. Many of the industry’s top stars, like Eminem and Shania Twain, have simply stopped releasing new music all together.
So how do you top an album the rest of the industry couldn’t? The question looms over Usher’s latest, “Here I Stand,” which was released Tuesday. Every pop artist dreams of musical success, but few chased fame as single-mindedly as Usher. Since signing a record deal as a teenager in the early ’90s, he methodically worked himself toward stardom. The musical experimentation of his contemporaries (Justin Timberlake, Andre 3000) never interested him; Usher always stayed safely within the confines of modern R&B.
Indeed, if you could construct the ideal R&B singer, he’d look very much like Usher — more seasoned then younger singers like Chris Brown, more versatile than current hit-makers like Akon and T-Pain, all the while maintaining an image acceptable to both corporate America and the club. You’d have to go all the way back to the original King of Pop to find a comparable artist, no surprise considering how heavily Usher borrows from the “Thriller”-era Michael Jackson.
And while he’s had his brushes with the tabloids, Usher’s been careful to avoid the seedier aspects of superstardom that took down his predecessor. “Here I Stand” emphasizes this wholesomeness. Newly married to his longtime stylist, he’s the father of a newborn. Where “Confessions” revolved around him cheating on the woman he loves, “Here I Stand” is full of earnestly delivered lines about love and commitment: “I was a hustler and a player girl before I met you / But how you made a difference, look what I’ve been missing / You got my life together, and I thank you forever.”
The difference is great art is inspired more by pain than joy. Usher’s imperfections on “Confessions” made him more relatable and gave songs like “Burn” an edge. Aside from the stand-out Young Jeezy assisted lead single (“Love in the Club”) and an R. Kelly-like plunge into lyrical absurdity (“Trading Places”), “Here I Stand” is full of generic R&B standards. They’re well sung, but they’re songs a choir-boy type like “American Idol’s” David Archuleta would be comfortable with. It’s music for the elevator, not the bedroom.
For most of his career, Usher’s been fortunate to be matched with equally talented producers (Diddy, Jermaine Dupri and LA Reid). He’s not similarly challenged through much of “Here I Stand’s” bloated track-list. The few big-name collaborations that do appear (will.i.am, Jay-Z, Beyonce & Lil’ Wayne) seem more for name value than musical chemistry.
Usher’s never been afraid to follow a trend (Lil’ Jon’s “Yeah”), and it may be no coincidence that “Here I Stand” feels so much like “American Idol,” a show that appeals to the blandest elements of pop culture and is one of Hollywood’s last reliable blockbusters. The younger crowd who danced to “Yeah” and sung along to “Burn”? They don’t buy CDs anymore.
Recommended: “Love in This Club”, “Moving Mountains”
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Music, Reviews
Review: The Kills at the Parish
London’s The Kills managed to pull off a rock-solid set to a sold-out audience Saturday night at the Parish Room despite performing in what felt like oppressive 110-degree summer-sun heat. (Something seemed to be up with the air conditioning in the Parish.)
The Kills — American singer/guitarist Alison “VV” Mosshart and British guitarist/vocalist Jamie “Hotel” Hince — endured and overcame, inspiring the audience to dance, drink and push the sweat pooling on the floor to the back of their minds.
The Kills are well known for powerfully focused live shows that are often short on between-song banter and long on raw, lo-fi, bluesy post-punk rock played along to prerecorded drum machine tracks. Their dual male and female vocal harmonies provided a sexual synergy that expanded the subtext and connotation of songs such as “Last Days of Magic” as they sang in unison: “We’re two parties / Two parties ending / I’ll be the man with the broom / If you’ll be the dust of the room / And there’s only so much you can hide / Before I corner you / Last day of magic / Where were you? / My little tornado / My little hurricane.”
While most audience members appeared focused on vocalist Mosshart, with her Siouxsie Sioux-meets-PJ Harvey vocal coo and her decidedly strange stage presence — she paced the entirety of the stage like a caged feline between songs — I was drawn to the blustery cool of guitarist and vocalist Hince.
By the second song, he had already done a one-legged MC5-esque shuffle dance across the floor while rocking lead and rhythm guitar. Despite Hince’s impeccably good taste and carefully constructed restraint, songs such as “Kissy Kissy” subtly revealed that the guy is a deeply powerful guitar player.
The band rocked out on the strongest tracks from their recent release, “Midnight Boom”; “Cheap and Cheerful,” “URA Fever” and “Last Days of Magic” were audience favorites. Hince’s vocals were so silky when he took his turn fronting “Kissy Kissy,” his rock ‘n’ roll charisma so strong, he was more captivating than front woman Mosshart and her less subtle histrionics.
Lazy music journalists have often compared the Kills to the White Stripes. Saturday evening’s performance proved the two bands really have nothing in common other than their gender makeup. The Kills owe more of their musical debt to lo-fi duo Royal Trux than the Stripes. Look for the Kills popularity to rise as more rock fans discover this 21st century Timbuk 3, and just what a monster guitar player Hince has become.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Music, Reviews
Waterloo Top 10 for the week ending May 24
Death Cab for Cutie, “Narrow Stairs” (Atlantic)
Band of Heathens, “Band of Heathens” (BOH)
Black Keys, “Attack and Release” (Nonesuch)
The Black Angels, ” Directions To See A Ghost” (Light in the Attic)
Duffy, “Rockferry” (Mercury)
Portishead, “Third” (Mercury)
Vampire Weekend, “s/t” (XL)
James McMurtry, “Just Us Kids” (Lightning Rod)
Old 97s, “Blame it on Gravity” (New West)
Cory Morrow, “Vagrants and Kings” (Sustain)
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Ely on Prairie Home
Joe Ely and accordionist Joel Guzman will join Garrison Keillor on “A Prairie Home Companion” this Saturday at 5 p.m.. The duo will perform songs from “Live at the Cactus,” which features stripped down and spiced up versions of Ely chesnuts. The program airs on KUT (FM 90.5).
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Musicmania Top 10 for the week ending May 25
Bun-B ‘II Trill’ (Rap-a-Lot)
Rick Ross ‘Trilla’ (Def Jam)
Big Moe ‘Unfinished Business’ (Koch)
Scarface ‘Best Of Scarface’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Trina ‘Still Da Baddest’ (SlipNSlide)
Keith Sweat ‘Just Me’ (Rhino)
Frayser Boy ‘Da Key’ (Hyponotize Minds)
Lyfe Jennings ‘Lyfe Change’ (Columbia)
Mariah Carey ‘E=MC’ (Island)
K-Rino ‘Volume 3 Triple Darkness’ (Black Book)
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
The Roller’s debut album out nationally June 17
Austin doom-metal titans the Roller, who have been abusing our delicate eardrums since 2005, will release their self-titled full-length June 17 on Monofonus Press.
The album is the second installment of the IF Series, a collection of multimedia box sets. “Captioning for the Blind,” a story by author Rebecca Bengal will be included with the album.
The book is illustrated by painter Virginia Yount, who also painted the album cover.
The CD’s opening track, “Zugunruhe,” is based on Bengal’s story.
The CD release party is June 13 at the Compound. Oooh, scary!
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Review: Foxboro Hot Tubs at Emo’s
In professional wrestling circles there’s a dramatic device called kayfabe — the suspension of disbelief needed for fans to invest emotionally in the feuds of heroes and villains.
It’s a quaint idea in the Internet age when the real scoop on everything is readily available all the time but somehow it survives, often with a wink and a nudge to the audience from the “sport’s” performers.
Which brings us to the Foxboro Hot Tubs, who, depending on your theatrical whims, are either the new, hot underground retro-garage rockers of the moment or punk rock vets Green Day having a little pseudonymous fun with fans who’ve waited almost four years for a new record.
The two realities stood uncomfortably side by side as the Hot Tubs/Green Day visited Emo’s Thursday night as part of a tour in support of the just released “Stop Drop and Roll!!!”
Starting off with the Hives-ish title track, the band — Green Day singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool, joined by three other musicians — got the cheering crowd of around 300 moving quickly.
A lot’s been made of the Hot Tubs’ ’60s revival sound on record, but in a live setting minus all echoes and production effects the hook-filled, upbeat songs like “Mother Mary” and “Ruby Room” sounded just like any of Green Day’s other material. The only exception to this was the haunting “Dark Side of Night,” complete with flute solos, that was a total departure in style.
In the midst of it all was a guitar-less Armstrong and company relishing the intimacy of a club their full-time band big farewell to more than a decade ago. The close environment let Armstrong crowd surf while singing and introduce his friend One-Eyed Jack — a taxidermied alligator head on a pole — before launching into the staccato rocker “Alligator.”
Back to kayfabe for a moment. As much fun as the crowd was having all night the unspoken question in the room was whether the Hot Tubs would shed their pretend skin and play at least a few Green Day hits, a thrilling prospect in a room that small. It wasn’t meant to be, however, as the 75-minute set stuck to pretty much all of the Hot Tubs record, a few covers including one by Green Day’s last guise Network, and a selection of beefy rockers that sound like they could be destined for the next Green Day album.
Spread throughout, of course, was Armstrong grinning and reminding “Hi, we’re the Foxboro Hot Tubs!” almost to the point of annoyance, going so far as to introduce Dirnt as “Senor Miguelito Gomez.”
Cute guys. I think from now on I’m going to go around town introducing myself to people as Hulk Hogan.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment Categories: Music, Reviews
Weekend Picks
Friday: Greg Ginn and the Texas Corrugators at Emo’s Lounge. Newly minted Texan Greg Ginn, the man whose frantic, jagged guitar gave the world Black Flag, gets his twang on. Seriously. With Jambang and Attic Ted. -Joe Gross
Friday: Clinic at Emo’s. If you’re not current on your indie rock vaccinations, then you should probably consult the Liverpool-based four-piece Clinic for a stout shot of hypnotic rhythms and melodies. - Shannon McGarvey
Friday: Grimy Styles at The Parish. This Austin band takes the idea of ‘dub music’ to be not a genre but a theory. Sure there’s reggae, but there’s also funk, jazz, tangos, waltzes, and as some would have it, polkas. That last one seems a bit of a stretch, but theories are made to be tested. - Joe Gross
Friday-Saturday: Zell Miller’s Hip-Hop Theatre Explosion at The Vortex. Zell Miller II returns with his multi-platformed theatrical event that uses performances from rappers, musicians, spoken word poets and dancers in an attempt to elevate the hip-hop genre from its all-too-often submersion in misogyny and ‘wack’ content. - Matthew Odam
Saturday: The Kills at The Parish. Alison Mosshart and British guitarist Jamie Hince deliver oddball, bluesy synth-rock full of cranky drum machines and bad mojo. - J.J.
Saturday: Black and White Years at Emo’s Lounge. Indie rockers who made a big splash in France at the MIDEM conference return home to play for the local crowd. - M.O.
Sunday: Third World at Flamingo Cantina. Still going strong after more than three decades and multiple lineup changes. - M.O.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Music
The line at Emo’s has formed
Here’s a look at the line around 1 p.m. for tonight’s show by Foxboro Hot Tubs, the band concurrently known as Green Day. Karinna Davis, 21, of San Antonio, naps while waiting with about 100 other fans Thursday. Davis arrived at Emo’s at 2 a.m. Thursday, and was third in line.
(Photo by Jay Janner/AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment Categories: Music, Reviews
Bun B plays 28 minutes at Emo’s, opening act gets tased by APD
So what did we learn at the Bun B show at Emo’s on Wednesday night?
It is possible to get a good solid crowd for a Wednesday night show with a $25 door and a week’s notice.
I would like to hear more from Dred Skott.
A 28-minute set from Bun? Really? That’s almost a dollar a minute. Give the people 45 minutes, at least.
Sadly, Bun’s short set wasn’t the most disturbing part. After Robert “Lowkey” Hein from opening act SouthBound had an altercation with Emo’s bouncers, I witnessed him getting tased by a couple of Austin police officers.
Read chats about the incident from locals here.
Sgt. Richard Stresing with APD’s public information office confirmed that Hein was arrested at 1:09 a.m. Thursday on charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest outside Emo’s and that a Taser was used. Click here to view A-List photos from the show.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment
All-local music fest coming to Waterloo Park
“The Power To Change” by Black & White Years
Tickets to the “Born On the Fifth of July Festival,” which is also known as Exit Fest after the Exit Music Group organizers, are on sale now for $20 at www.frontgatetickets.com. Black & White Years, whose debut LP was produced by Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads, lead a diverse lineup that includes Ricardo Sanchez, Patrice Pike, Cruiserweight, Zeale 32, South Austin Jug Band, Suzanna Choffel, Gary Clark Jr., Sounds Under Radio and many more.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment
What’s up with C-Rod
Alejandro Escovedo’s regular violin player Susan Voelz will be out on tour with Poi Dog Pondering (including a stop at Antone’s June 6), so he needed a replacement for six dates opening for the Dave Matthews Band. Luckily, Carrie Rodriguez, who just wrapped up her second solo LP “She Ain’t Me” with producer Malcolm Burn, had some free time in June.
After the Escovedo tour-ette, the Austin-raised Rodriguez will perform at her first “Austin City Limits” taping July 8.
The new album, which comes out Aug. 5 on EMI/ Blue Note, is a clean break from longtime collaborator Chip Taylor, who wrote most of the songs on Carrie’s debut “Seven Angels on a Bicycle.” Co-writers on “She Ain’t Me” include Gary Louris (Jayhawks), Jim Boquist (Son Volt), Mary Gauthier and Dan Wilson (Semisonic).
2002 photo of Carrie Rodriguez (right) and her mother Katy Nail (left). Father David Rodriguez looks on from framed photo.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment
Foxboro Hot Tubs at Emo’s Thursday
Foxboro Hot Tubs is the name Green Day is calling itself on the new album “Stop Drop and Roll.” The album comes out today.
It’s essentially Green Day sounding a lot like a ’60s garage/Beat band (Kinks, Sonics, etc.) Or Weezer.
Anyway, the band is playing the inside stage at Emo’s. Yes, you read that right. Inside. Which means a capacity of about 300.
Tickets only available at door, $20 a pop, limit two per purchase.
Good luck with this, Emo’s.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment
Review: Chaos in Tejas ‘08
At the time of his death last year, Austin musician and punk lifer Lance Hahn had been working for about nine years on “Let the Tribe Increase,” a book on the early days of the anarchist punk movement in England, the title taken from an “anarcho” album by the British punk band the Mob.
It was hard not to think of this notion (and frankly, of Lance and his devotion to punk’s highest ideals) while at Chaos in Tejas, the wildly successful three-day hardcore punk fest that took place May 15 to 17, mostly at Emo’s.
All three nights were sold out - from Roky Erickson ’s shockingly strong set Thursday night to Minneapolis punk goofs Dillinger Four Friday to a blazing set from a reunited Los Crudos, hundreds of punks - mostly clad in dark denim and leather, band patches, and metal studs - came from all over the world to mil about, shake their fists and buy records. This was absolutely a tribal gathering.
(Of course, the uniformity of look and worldview also prompted one jaded punk in her late 30s to note, “This is not that much different than following the Grateful Dead.” We will not be revealing her name for fear that some dude wearing an Icons of Filth T-shirt and bullet belt will kill her for that.)
Some highlights:
ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons popping by to play two songs with Roky Erickson Thursday night and managing to play the electric jug parts on “You’re Gonna Miss Me.”
Los Crudos, of course. The Latino punk icons donated the proceeds from their appearance to a youth charity in San Antonio and pummeled with their Spanish-language brutality. Then they played an unannounced gig Sunday night at the Parlor, along with Crude and Fy Fan. Yeah, I know. I wasn’t there either. I’m weeping about it right now.
Speaking of, Crude blended the compositional complexity of (let’s face it) Rush with the thrash n’ burn of Japanese punk, played their first ever U.S. shows at the fest. Stellar, especially the fest show proper. (The Wednesday pre-fest gig at Beerland was interrupted by brutal weather and power blinks.)
The British act Leatherface has kicked around since 1988 and look like it. Their Friday night show was a little loose (read: probably drunk) but their Saturday matinee at Beerland ripped. Their tight cruise though fist-pumping, anthemic midtempo punk reminded everyone that yes, they were one of the best bands of the 1990s.
One of these days I’ll see Tragedy play a genuinely lousy show, but this wasn’t one of them. The Portland, Oregon quartet have become 21st century punk legends for a reason - massive guitars that blend punk brutality with arena rock melodrama, end-times politics and hacked off-sounding vocals that owe as much to metal’s bellow as punk’s scream. Perfect!
Other highlights:
The dentist drill guitar sound from No (Expletive)
Invasion’s absurdly reverbed vocals
The mach-speed Iron Lung/Hated Surge collaboration.
Brain Handle’s surprisingly sharp take on traditional American hardcore (it should have had all the drama of a Civil War reenactment, but energy and hooks won out).
Buying too many records.
Can’t wait for next year. Has anyone seen my copy of the Brain Handle LP?
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment
Review: Radiohead in Houston
HOUSTON — The only sound more deafening than the thunderous guitars at Radiohead’s sold-out show Saturday at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion was the roar of the 16,500 fans collectively screaming and applauding after every song. Executing a note-perfect 24-song cycle, the Oxford, England, art rockers used two hours to easily confirm their position as one of the top contemporary rock bands in the world.
Radiohead — Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar piano), Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, multi-instrumentalist), Ed O’Brien (guitar, backing vocals), Colin Greenwood (bass guitar, keyboards) and Phil Selway (drums, percussion) — played a mix of songs covering their entire discography. The set included tracks from their superior sophomore album “The Bends,” through their experimental electronica albums “Kid A” and “Hail To The Thief,” up to their now-infamous “pay-what-you-will” recent release “In Rainbows,” all played with immaculate sonic clarity.
Radiohead have managed to escape some of the usual band pitfalls (drugs, groupies, general hedonism), while using their longevity (all original five members began playing together in high school in 1986) to rise to the top of the rock ‘n’ roll heap over the past 20 years, selling more than 23 million albums in the process. Radiohead has more than 200 songs to pull from at any given moment, excluding cover songs, making them a band with real depth.
Yorke and band stretched their arms and legs with knowing smiles before kicking off the set with “15 Step,” the first of numerous deep cuts from “In Rainbows.” The song showcases the template for the band’s return to their peak creative powers: Yorke’s pithy scattershot lyrics confronting 21st-century alienation amid technology, jazz modes, futurist and hip-hop breakbeats, a dual-guitar attack and a rhythm section that balances creativity with beats that move butts.
Saturday’s concert proved that the band members are so tight and sonically powerful, they may even be underrated. During “Morning Bell,” bassist Colin Greenwood’s smooth low-end tone heightened the song’s dynamics and locked in perfectly with Selway’s creative backbeats. Meanwhile Johnny Greenwood illuminated minds like a impressionist painter as he washed the audience in sumptuous guitar tone with his clever use of delay pedals, cry-baby wah and white-noise distortion. (My chest cavity and the bottom of my pants were shaking from the bass frequency’s super-slow electron push.)
When Yorke strapped on his vintage Gibson SG for “Bodysnatchers” - the rocking first single from “In Rainbows” - the band locked the audience into their patented three-guitar attack; from there they were unstoppable. Tempos rushing, hearts accelerating, minds expanding from Yorke’s heady lyrics, Radiohead’s bliss-inducing rock shows feel like a coup against a music scene establishment that all too often appears to embrace bland mediocrity over cutting-edge creativity.
Audience favorites included “There There” (which closed out the first set beautifully), “Climbing Up The Walls,” “Planet Telex” and the show closer, “Idioteque.”
Radiohead hasn’t entirely mastered the super-sized amphitheater/arena rock experience. Even though their T-shirts were sweatshop-free and partially made from recycled plastic bottles, the $40 price tag felt inflated, as did the cost of the $25 water bottles (also made from recycled goods) that were for sale at the merch booth. Green products and a green-minded band helping save a planet in peril are totally on point, yet Radiohead might consider using a less expensive manufacturer to get costs down for the masses.
And although parts of the light show were as good as any, it’s obvious the five gentlemen in Radiohead haven’t actually watched a concert from a general admission lawn area in a long, long time. They didn’t bring any jumbotrons to flank the stage, nor did they use the enormous video screens the venue already had in place. The overall concert experience for audience members in the first 100 rows was exponentially different from the experience of the thousands of people at the back of the lawn area. Either the band should consider multiple shows in a smaller venue (unlikely) or just add some over-sized monitors to their roadshow to help the general admission lawn folks see and enjoy the show a little more.
The band did use smaller video screens at the back of the stage that projected real-time video of the concert, but they were too tiny for most people in the lawn area to see.
Beyond the typical territorial trappings of arena rock, Radiohead - and their thousands of fans - appeared to have an awful lot of fun while enjoying some of the most sonically creative and emotionally pure music around.
Radiohead set list
15 Step
Bodysnatchers
Lucky
Morning Bell
Nude
Pyramid Song
Weird Fishes/Apeggi
The Gloaming
National Anthem
Faust Arp
Videotape
Optimistic
Where I End and You Begin
Reckoner
Everything in Its Right Place
All I Need
There There
Encore 1
Jigsaw Falling Into Place
House of Cards
Climbing Up The Walls
Planet Telex
Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Encore 2
You And Whose Army?
Idioteque
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment
Waterloo top 10 for the week ending May 17
Old 97s, “Blame it on Gravity” (New West)
Death Cab for Cutie, “Narrow Stairs” (Atlantic)
James McMurtry, “Just Us Kids” (Lightning Rod)
The Black Angels, ” Directions To See A Ghost” (Light in the Attic)
Portishead, “Third” (Mercury)
Duffy, “Rockferry” (Mercury)
Black Keys, “Attack and Release” (Nonesuch)
Vampire Weekend, “s/t” (XL)
Raconteurs, “Consolers of the Lonely” (Warner Bros.)
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, “Raising Sand” (Rounder)
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Musicmania top 10 for the week ending May 18
Big Moe, ‘Unfinished Business’ (Koch)
Keith Sweat, ‘Just Me’ (Rhino)
Rick Ross, ‘Trilla’ (Def Jam)
Lyfe Jennings, ‘Lyfe Change’ (Columbia)
Mariah Carey, ‘E=MC2’ (Island)
Devin, ‘Best of Devin’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Scarface, ‘Best of Scarface’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Trina, ‘Still Da Baddest’ (SlipNSlide)
8Ball & MJG, ‘Best Of 8Ball & MJG’ (Koch)
Big Geminii, ‘History In The Making’ (Upstairs)
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
This week’s late night music guests
Monday
Josh Groban- Leno
Sara Bareilles - Letterman
Gavin DeGaw- Kimmel
Devotcha- Conan
Tuesday
Jason Mraz- Leno
Leona Lewis- Letterman
Pussycat Dolls- Kimmel
Mates of State- Conan
Wednesday
Al Green- Leno
Jimmy Buffett- Letterman
Josh Groban- Kimmel
Atmosphere- Conan
k.d. lang- Ferguson
Thursday
Tristan Prettyman, American Idol finalists- Leno
The Republic Tigers- Letterman
Death Cab for Cutie- Kimmel
Friday
Colbie Caillat- Leno
Neil Diamond- Kimmel
Ryan Bingham- Conan
Duffy- Ferguson
(Jeanie Schroder of Devotchka performs at Antone’s earlier this year during SXSW. Photo by Jay Janner/AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Ticket alert: Lyle Lovett tickets on sale Saturday
Lyle Lovett will play at 8 p.m. Aug. 12 at the new Long Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are on sale Saturday.
Not music, but also on sale Saturday are tickets for Kathy Griffin’s July 25 show at the Long Center.
Details here on both Long Center shows.
And, if you missed it, tickets for these shows went on sale today:
My Morning Jacket, Aug. 24 at Stubb’s
Melissa Etheridge, Aug. 13 at the Paramount Theatre
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Bruce Springsteen coming to Erwin Center?
The Springsteen fan club/mailing list Backstreets has mentioned Oct. 5 as a tentative Erwin Center date for the Boss.
We await comment from the Erwin Center.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Catching up with Tina Marsh
No one in the ensemble is more aware of this incredible bond than Marsh, who was recently diagnosed with cancer again after surviving a bout with the disease in 1994. Marsh’s wide circle of friends, including current and former CO2 members, poets, dancers, organizers and fans, have gathered to help her with the cost of her treatment with a benefit concert this Sunday at the Austin Museum of Art’s Laguna Gloria location.
Marsh is understandably overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.
“I think this is unique to the culture of Austin,” she says. “It’s a close community of artists who rally to each other when some one is in need.”
In fact, so many artists have signed on for Sunday night’s performance, Marsh is concerned about everyone having enough time to express themselves. The bill, which includes performances by Graham Reynolds, Suzi Stern, Beto y Los Fairlanes, Oliver Rajamani, the Blue Lapis Light Dance Company and many others, features a special appearance by jazz titan Jason Marsalis. With so many prolific performers gathered together there is sure to be a cross-pollination of free expression, something Marsh is looking forward to.
CO2 was formed in 1980 to expand the boundaries of modern jazz by shrugging off the nightclub scene and courting a different audience by performances at venues like AMOA’s Laguna Gloria, a location for which Marsh feels a special affinity.
“There is a quality of attention there that you don’t get in a club where people are talking and drinking,” Marsh says. “It’s one of my favorite spots.”
Marsh admits that avant-garde jazz, even in an eclectic city like Austin, can be a tough sell at times. Still, she takes satisfaction in a career that has survived Austin’s many musical incarnations. The Texas Hall of Fame vocalist knows that the commercial side of the music industry may be more lucrative, but it certainly doesn’t develop the type of support network that she has around her.
“The benefit was organized my friends who have come together out of sincere concern for me,” Marsh says. “I’m extremely lucky.”
Sunday’s performance at the AMOA Laguna Gloria location runs from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Organizers are asking for a $25 donation to the Tina Marsh Health Fund and there will be a beer and wine cash bar with desserts. For reservations e-mail Adam Conway at adamconway@gmail.com.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Music
Billy Gibbons joins Roky at Chaos in Tejas.
ZZ Top guitar genius Billy Gibbons wandered on stage for the last two pre-encore songs of Roky Erickson and the Explosives’ set at Emo’s outdoors Thursday night as part of Chaos in Tejas.
Perhaps needless to say, the crowd - old folks, crusty punks and everyone in between - went bazonkers.
Gibbons and his tiny white guitar contributed hard-swinging licks to “Two-Headed Dog” and a “You’re Gonna Miss Me.” Even the most devoutly underground types were pretty impressed. (But let’s not kid ourselves - God bless him, but if Esquire columnist and 101X DJ Andy Langer appears on stage off to the side to watch, as he did when Gibbons walked out, any notion of “punk” or “underground” immediately ceases).
Amazing that Roky’s voice is still as strong as it is, but man alive, he can still belt it out. He also plays through a small amp, which means a gnarly rhythm guitar sound that doesn’t produce excess stage volume and overwhelm the PA. The sound was surprisingly good for Emo’s outdoors’ let’s-call-it-problematic sound.
A few Chaos in Tejas thoughts before the Monday roundup:
I think I’m the only person who really likes No (Expletive)’s dentist drill guitar sound.
Am I the only one who thinks World Burns to Death guitarist Zac Tew looks a little like a crusty ounk version of Ryan from the Office? No? Just me then, huh?
Under Pressure - still Canadian, still excellent
Hard Skin puts a dirty word on their T-shirts that is a far more common swear word in the U.K. than in the U.S. Here, you really, really can’t wear that word on a shirt without getting seriously angry looks from women. You know the word. Yeah, that one.
Pink Reason did a bang-up job with a local backing band and a mere three rehearsals.
I dreamed about crusty-punks last night. It was completely terrifying.
Yet, I’m looking forward to night two.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment
CD reviews: T Bone Burnett, Nine Inch Nails
T Bone Burnett
‘Tooth of Crime’
(Nonesuch)
Though reportedly adapted from spare parts — some of its tunes were written for a production of an old Sam Shepard play, others grew years later out of the play’s discards — T Bone Burnett’s “Tooth of Crime” hangs together as a standalone work. Granted, it’s a work not everyone will relish: Grim and caustic, it introduces its worldview with a song announcing, “This is a story which is based on a true story which is based on a lie.”
The Texas-raised star producer (who has helped craft classics for everyone from Elvis Costello to the Coen brothers) knows what he wants when it comes to his own infrequent albums: strutting beats with a limp, echo-drenched guitar (often from gifted sideman Marc Ribot) and the occasional weirdo gesture you’d expect of an artist who subtitles one of his songs “Make the Metal Scream.”
How dark are the songs here? Put it this way: When Burnett wants to do a tune co-written by Roy Orbison, who’s known more for melancholy than menace, it’s a cheerful little ditty called “Kill Zone.” (You might swear you hear Michael Penn on that track as well, but according to the credits only his onetime collaborator Jon Brion is present.)
The album’s emotional range isn’t wholly apocalyptic; it offers a bit of comically surreal gallows humor here, a sincere recrimination or two there — the latter, perhaps not coincidentally, sung by Burnett’s ex-wife Sam Phillips. However dark things get, though, the record’s sound is richly layered enough to keep you digging through for shards of optimism.
Recommended: “Kill Zone,” “The Slowdown,” “Anything I Say Can And Will Be Used Against You” — John DeFore
Nine Inch Nails
‘The Slip’
(Self-released)
It’s been 14 years since Trent Reznor whispersang, “I hurt myself today to see if I still feel” on the album “The Downward Spiral.” It doesn’t sound like the intervening time has given him much improvement of the senses. “I don’t feel anything at all!” Reznor cries on “1,000,000,” a track on “The Slip,” the new Nine Inch Nails downloadable album that debuted this month at the low-low cost of absolutely free.
Reznor has of late embraced new-media ways to get his music out: He incorporated an alternate reality game in last year’s NIN album “Year Zero,” then put out a free preview of “Ghosts I-IV,” an instrumental album, in March (the whole 36-track shebang sold online for $5).
It’s not really clear if Reznor is just clearing the vaults like Prince or if the prospect of outdoing Radiohead in online price experimentation has recharged his musical batteries.
But, like Radiohead’s “In Rainbows,” “The Slip” feels like a summation of Nine Inch Nails’ whole catalog. It seems not like an experiment or a slipshod playlist of cheap-as-free B-sides. Instead, it’s a recalibration of Nine Inch Nails’ ideas, textures and grooves. There is, of course, quick-tempoed thrashing and wailing about nothingness, degenerating electronic bleats that eat at the edges of songs like a hard drive virus, the obligatory goth-creepy piano ballad and the disco-metal dance party song for demons. (Hey, weren’t they playing something like that during the ridiculous groove orgy in “The Matrix: Reloaded?” It sure sounds like it.)
It sounds exactly what you would have expected a Nine Inch Nails album to sound like before all the recent digital pricing experimentation. There’s a seven-minute wordless mind grind called “Corona Radiata” that could have been recorded inside Reznor’s central air and heating vents. But there’s also “Demon Seed,” a propulsive tantrum that ends the short 44-minute album defiantly.
There’s not much to grow on here, but only someone who hates Nine Inch Nails could argue with the price. Download it to your iPod and you’ll even get album art for each of the 10 songs as well as lyrics.
It’s appropriate that “The Slip” is being used as ammo in the war between freed-up recording artists and the record labels. The album is certainly dark and hopeless enough to sound like it could be describing the industry.
“I need my role in this very clearly defined. I need your discipline / I need your help,” Reznor sings on “Discipline.” What he really needs right now, though, is your downloading.
Recommended: “Head Down,” “Lights in the Sky,” “Discipline” — Omar L. Gallaga
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Reviews
Escovedo to open Matthews gigs
Alejandro Escovedo will advance his new album “Real Animal” as the opening act for the Dave Matthews Band on five shows in June. Al-E, who now shares management with Bruce Springsteen, will also log a couple of national TV appearances, June 20 on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and on June 24, the day the album will be released, Escovedo and band will appear on NBC’s “The Today Show.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Weekend Picks: Angsty nostalgia, mock proms and plenty of thrash
Friday: Tribute to the Cure at Elysium. So to which era of the band will these locals pay tribute? Will Rescue Mission go with short hair New Wave or ‘Just Like Heaven’? Will Seaholm Electric go with ‘The Top’ (essentially a Robert Smith solo album) or alt-rock radio hits from the ’90s? Will Christian Hicks play the dancey ‘The Walk’ or the jazzy ‘Lovecats’? - Joe Gross
Friday: L’Austin Space II at Emo’s Lounge. The whole evening, presented by the same folks who bring you the ATX Beat Battles, is billed as a sort of downtempo, visual, rap extravaganza. The acts that piqued my interest are the openers. Rap duo Blacklisted Individuals helmed by slam poet DaShade Moonbeam and his rhyme partner Snyp throw down groove-heavy hip-hop with serious lyrical content. They’re followed on the bill by the lovely Miss Yadira Brown who has an ethereal vocal quality that slips easily from spoken word over hip-hop grooves into atmospheric shoegazer rock. Visitors, L.A.X. and DJ Tako also perform. —Deborah Sengupta Stith
Friday: KOOP Pop Prom at Club DeVille. Why should insecure high school students have all the fun? Break out the ridiculous pink dresses and the tuxedo shirts and head down to Club DeVille where KOOP radio hosts a grownup prom complete with punch, streamers, cheesy posed pictures and all the other standard fare. BASIC, the Always Already and the Bubbles will all perform. —D.S.S.
Friday-Saturday: Chaos in Tejas Fest. Now in its fifth year, this grassroots event showcases a wide sampling of punk and hardcore music. At various venues.
Friday-Saturday: Texas Rockabilly Revival at Stubb’s BBQ. The Friday set, the ‘Legends of ’80s Rockabilly and Psychobilly Night,’ features the Rockats, the Guana Batz, the Legendary Shack Shakers and more. Saturday features performances from the Rev. Horton Heat, Unknown Hinson, Lee Rocker and Lonesome Spurs. 6 p.m. Tickets through TexasRockabilly.com. $30 per night, $50 for both. — J.G.
Saturday: Swoll at the Beauty Bar. DJ Mel hosts another installment of his booty-centric Beauty Bar bash. This time, guest turntablists include DJ Klever (The Killer) out of Atlanta and Cosmo Baker, co-host of NYC popular hip-hop monthly “The Rub” will be in the house. —D.S.S.
Sunday: Austin Blues Society Annual Fundraiser.They’re so lonesome for your dollars, they have the blues. (Sorry. Had to be done.) With scene veterans such as Angela Strehli, Derek O’Brien and Marcia Ball, and scene up-and-comers such as Carolyn Wonderland and W.C. Clark. 7 p.m. $10 advance, $15 at the door. — J.G.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Pachanga Fest two-for-one promo deal
Earlier this week, Joe Gross chatted with Latino rocker Alex Vallejo about, among other things, Pachanga Fest, the new Latino Music Fest that will go down in Waterloo Park May 31st. The festival will feature over 20 bands on three stages including Grupo Fantasma, Maneja Beto, Charanga Cakewalk and headliners Bostich + Fussible from Nortec Collective. From now until Saturday, the show’s promoters are offering a two-for-one deal on tickets, which means you can scoop two tickets for the standard ticket price of $18. Festival admission is free for children 12 and younger accompanied by a ticket-bearing adult.
Tickets are available online at pachangafest.com or frontgate.com as well as all Frontgate Tickets locations. For more information, call (512) 389-0315.
A portion of ticket sales goes to ALMA (Austin Latino Music Association).
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment
El Orbits leader elected to Marfa post
Padre’s construction, narrated by Beebe
The inexhaustible David Beebe will be sworn in Tuesday for his two year term on the Marfa City Council. Tuesday also marks the debut of Beebe’s weekly radio show at 11 p.m. on Marfa Public Radio, which can be streamed here. Meanwhile, he and his investors are hammering away on “Padre’s,” a new, Continental Club-styled live music venue expected to open in the West Texas artists’ retreat around November.
Beebe celebrated his narrow council win Saturday by playing bass for Jon Langford, the ex-Mekon who had an art show in the town where “Giant” was filmed.
Beebe, who channels Doug Sahm with El Orbits and the Conrads, also announces the Houston roller derby bouts.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Wilco at Stubb’s: Monday night report
I didn’t attend Monday night’s Wilco show with notebook in hand, so this post is not going to be as extensive as Matthew Odam’s review of Sunday’s show, but I wanted to share my thoughts to give people who didn’t get a chance to go a sense of what it was like. The setlist was fairly similar to the night before, a fillet of selections off several different albums, with “California Stars” and a few other tunes thrown in for good measure. Highlights for me were selections off “A Ghost is Born” — Jeff Tweedy just seems born to sing those climactic moments in songs like “Theologians” and “Hummingbird.” It’s also hard to argue with “Ashes of American Flags” and “War on War” off “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” an album that serves as a soundtrack to my life at the time it was released.
Much as in Odam’s review of the flow of Sunday’s set, the energy inside Stubb’s waned a bit during the slower songs, but as I was stuck in the back of the audience with a few groups who were either talking very loudly or singing at the top of their lungs for the entire show, I suspect it had more to do with wannabe Tweedys and poor sound levels than the band. Other than the karaoke, the show was a great experience from beginning to end. This lineup is full of incredible musicians who play very well as a group. Glenn Kotche wows me with his command of the drums, and guitarist Nels Cline complements the music, to quote Odam, with “dramatic flair” without coming across as overpowering.
With the same long set followed by two mini encore sets as Sunday, the band seemed to gain momentum as it moved along. Tweedy was in a very chatty mood, at one point rambling about staying in the same hotel as Karl Rove, who was presumably in town for Jenna Bush’s wedding. Sing-along rockers such as “Kingpin” clearly kept the audience at its most attentive, and even selections like “Walken” and “Hate it Here” off “Sky Blue Sky,” which isn’t my favorite, were really entertaining.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment
Bun B at Emo’s May 21!
For those who missed his ill set at South By Southwest, Bun B is playing Emo’s May 21.
He will be joined by DJ Rapid Ric, Pimpin Pen, and more. (Hopefully, not all on stage at once.)
Tickets are $25 and go on sale Wednesday 10 a.m. from here
Bun’s new album, “II Trill” is due in stores May 20.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Musicmania top 10 for the week ending May 11
Big Moe, ‘Unfinished Business’ (Koch)
Scarface, ‘Best Of Scarface’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Trina, ‘Still Da Baddest’ (SlipNSlide)
Rick Ross, ‘Trilla’ (Def Jam)
Keyshia Cole, ‘Just Like You’ (Geffen)
Mariah Carey, ‘E=MC2’ (Island)
Webbie, ‘Volume 2-Savage Life’ (Asylum)
Lyfe Jennings, ‘Lyfe Change’ (Columbia)
Leona Lewis, ‘Spirit’ (J Records)
Snoop Dogg, ‘Ego Trippin’ (Geffen)
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Ozzfest now destination festival in Dallas
I’m pretty generous when it comes to judging quality of festival line-ups, but this looks pretty weak.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Review: Wilco at Stubb’s
Deborah Cannon AMERICAN-STATESMAN
As the sun sets on Sundays, folks are often lulled into a peacfeul rest on the comfort of their couch, winding down from the weekend and preparing for the long week ahead. Early in the Wilco set at Stubb’s Sunday night, it seemed lead singer Jeff Tweedy would have been more happy on said piece of leisure furniture than on stage, the band sputtering to find its rhythm and a unified energy in the first quarter of the set. Considering the band has played roughly two dozen shows in Austin over the past 13 years, maybe Tweedy just felt so at home that he was not compelled to rush things.
Dressed in a green blazer, and backed by his five bandmates who were dressed in various shades of blue and black, Tweedy began the set with the haunting beauty of ‘Sunken Treasure,’ his tender voice buttressed by the whispering slide guitar of Nels Cline and the percsussive rumblings of drummer Glenn Kotche.
Following the dark romanticism of ‘Sunken Treasure,’ the band eased into ‘You Are My Face,’ from its most recent album. The song shifted from lush harmonies to guitar-driven rock, carried by the sharp, edgy guitar lines from Cline and onto the tasteful churchlike organ phrasings of Mikael Jorgensen, before returning back to the soft melodies and crooning of Tweedy, the song a perfect example of the soft to raucous and back-to-soft transitions for which the band is legend.
Unwilling to build on the momentum of the second tune, the band chose to return to the feel established by the opening tune with the subdued and poetic ‘Remember the Mountain Bed’ from the band’s joint with Billy Bragg, ‘Mermaid Avenue Vol. 2.’ Although Tweedy treated fans to the tune at his solo show in Austin in 2006, it was the first time the full band had played the song for an Austin audience. Following the relatively obscure ‘Mountain Bed’ with ‘Company in My Back,’ in which Cline had a chance to provide the show with some much-needed energy, Tweedy finally addressed the audience, wishing the crowd a happy Mother’s Day (the ‘best day of the year,’ according to the songsmith). The first song offering opportunity for a group sing-along, ‘Handshake Drugs,’ gave me the impression the band was about ready to turn the page on its languid start, the crowd, with help from Cline’s dramatic flair on guitar, seemingly trying to will energy into the set.
After brushing off ‘Pick Up The Change,’ the first time they’ve played the song in Austin since 2001, the band began to engage the crowd with a little more animated playing on the bouncy and sweeping ‘Hummingbird.’ But, as they had for the first third of the set, the band refused to ride the momentum of the previous song, instead playing a gentle version of ‘On and On and On.’
With the following ‘Pot Kettle Black’ and ‘Shot in the Arm,’ the band finally seemed to find its stride, exciting the crowd with some more familiar tunes, with Tweedy coming to life with more banter and mussing his hair to humorous effect. By the time they trotted out crowd favorite ‘Jesus, Etc.,’ the night finally seemed to have taken form after an organic, if disconnected start. Near the close of the set, the band took the opportunity to reintroduce fans to some old songs that had not seen the light of an Austin day in ages. The band used a five-night run of shows in Chicago in February, in which they played every song from their extensive catalogue, to dust off some of the cobwebs from early recordings. That bit of nostalgia led to the reappearance Sunday of two songs that last surfaced in Austin when high-rise condos were as foreign here as French-style cooking, ‘It’s Just That Simple’ and ‘That’s Not the Issue,’ two Wilco classics the band had not performed in Austin since 1995 and 1997, respectively. For many fans, I’m sure it was a first for them to even see bass player John Stirratt sing lead, with Tweedy on bass, on the Stirratt-penned ‘It’s Just that Simple.’
The band closed the set with a rollicking version of ‘Walken,’ a jam that worked the crowd into fevered dance mode before closing the set with fan sing-along-favorite ‘I’m the Man Who Loves You.’ After popping off stage for the briefest of intermissions, the band reappareared for its first encore, a coda of sorts that began with patient and heartfelt renditions of ‘Misunderstood,’ ‘Poor Places,’ and ‘Reservations’ before making the dissonant leap to rocker ‘Spiders (Kidsmoke),’ a song that’s wild guitar, driving bass, tasty perscussive fills and dramatic changes epitomize Wilco at its highest rock form.
After a night that moved, clumsily at times, from soft ballads to uptempo rock songs, the band’s second encore kept the foot on the gas, pleasing the crowd with ‘I Hate it Here,’ ‘Heavy Metal Drummer,’ ‘Casino Queen’ (which may or may not have been a nod to the dude yelling for the song from behind the soundboard the entire night), the rare ‘Hoodoo Voodoo’ and finally ‘Outtasite (Outta Mind).’
Sometimes patience is a virtue, and such was certainly the case at Stubb’s Sunday night. Whether Tweedy and Co. were disinterested or simply taking time to find the night’s pulse early in the show, by the end of the night, Wilco’s legion of faithful fans were rewarded, as the show organically grew to reflect all that is great about the band — raw, honest lyrics, flawless musicianship and a lead singer who knows how, when he wants to, give the crowd exactly what it wants. And, just as the crowd obviously appreciated the 135-minute set that was packed full of songs from all eight of the band’s studio albums, Tweedy was equally appreciative. While he admitted the band usually lied and told every city that they were the best, before the night ended, Tweedy confessed, ‘You really are the best, Austin.’ Whether his tongue was planted in his cheek or not is not certain. And, that is the beauty of Wilco’s enigmatic frontman, sometimes you just don’t know quite what he’s getting at. But, as with any old friend, you’re happy to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Setlist
- 1. Sunken Treasure
- 2. You Are My Face
- 3. Remember The Mountain Bed
- 4. Company In My Back
- 5. Handshake Drugs
- 6. Pick Up The Change
- 7. Hummingbird
- 8. On And On And On
- 9. Pot Kettle Black
- 10. A Shot In The Arm
- 11. Summer Teeth
- 12. Jesus, Etc.
- 13. Impossible Germany
- 14. It’s Just That Simple
- 15. That’s Not The Issue
- 16. Walken
- 17. I’m The Man Who Loves You
Encore 1:
- 18. Misunderstood
- 19. Poor Places
- 20. Reservations
- 21. Spiders (Kidsmoke)
Encore 2:
- 22. Hate It Here
- 23. Heavy Metal Drummer
- 24. Casino Queen
- 25. Hoodoo Voodoo
- 26. Outtasite (Outta Mind)
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Reviews
Scene report: KISS FM’s Big Summer Show
Four and a half hours is a really, really long time to stand in one spot.
But, when that spot’s at the Austin Music Hall, where five of the hottest names in today’s music happen to be performing, the time just flies by.
That was the case Sunday night, when 96.7 KISS FM brought together Ferras, Cherish, Simple Plan, Maroon 5 and Flo Rida for Bobby Bones’ Big Summer Bash.
The crowd — predictably — featured an abundance of high-schoolers. Some brought their parents; others managed to escape mom and dad’s watchful eye for the evening. You could, however, spot some 20- and 30-somethings … if you looked hard enough.
First up was Ferras, a talented singer whose career got a big boost earlier this year when “American Idol’s” producers selected his “Hollywood’s Not America” as this season’s exit song. His debut album, “Aliens & Rainbows,” hit stores April 1.
His early songs were plagued somewhat by the Music Hall’s now infamous sound problems — prompting Ferras to at one point ask for “More vocals on my audio, please” — but the not-quite-sure-of-himself singer still managed to endear himself to the crowd by putting on a solid acoustic performance.
“My record label won’t give me my band,” he explained at one point, “so this is kinda stripped back.”
Cherish, an Atlanta-based R&B group featuring four sisters, followed with several catchy tunes that should have easily been recognizable to KISS listeners.
But sound was again an issue here. In fact, it seemed to steadily get worse. “Amnesia,” for instance, was the only recognizable word during the group’s performance of “Amnesia.”
Easier to hear was the oddly placed machine-gun sound effect that was played over and over again for reasons that aren’t entirely clear.
A new CD — the foursome’s second — drops this Tuesday.
Simple Plan was next, upping the room’s energy level by exponential proportions.
Frontman Pierre Bouvier repeatedly professed his love for all things Austin and masterfully interacted with the 2,000-plus fans in between songs, whipping them into a frenzy.
The set included many of Simple Plan’s most-loved singles, including “Perfect World,” “Welcome to My Life” and “Your Love Is a Lie.”
All five members of the Canadian group were clearly having a blast, hopping around the stage, tossing guitar picks, drumsticks and bottled water into the crowd, and even laughing off one overzealous Maroon 5 fan who gave them the finger when they didn’t leave the stage fast enough.
Speaking of Maroon 5, they were — after a set change that seemed to last an eternity — the fourth act of the night.
The wait was worth it though.
Lead singer Adam Levine had the gals — and a few guys — swooning as he performed some of the group’s best-known songs. Judging by all the clapping, hoots and waving arms, folks liked what they heard.
“You guys are making me smile,” Levine said after one particularly deafening round of applause.
If you don’t already have “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long,” the group’s latest CD, you’re missing out. There’s not a single bad track on it. A nice treat for fans who had waited five long years since Maroon 5’s debut album.
Nearly four hours later, Flo Rida wrapped — or is it rapped? — things up.
Rapper Tramar Dillard, who hails — perhaps not surprisingly — from the Sunshine State, treated the anxious masses to what they wanted: chart-toppers such as “Elevator” and an extended glimpse at his buff physique.
In one of the night’s more obnoxious moments, Flo Rida and company shook up a couple bottles of beer and sprayed the crowd. That was followed several more times with dousings of water. So, parents, if your kids came home smelling like Bud Light, that doesn’t necessarily mean they were boozing it up. Just a little FYI …
He finally delivered “Low” — the song everyone seemed to be waiting for — just before 10 p.m., yanking 10 or so girls onto the stage for a few moments in the spotlight. After that, the masses quickly headed for the doors, exhausted, slightly deaf and perhaps a little buzzed … but oh-so-pleased.
Click here to view photos of fans arriving for the show.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Reviews
Did SXSW take name from book?
After reading our report about SXSW Inc. suing a new restaurant to be called South By South First for trademark infringement, we heard from noted Austin author Don Graham. Under the heading “Who stole what from whom?” Graham emailed:
“I was interested in your story about SXSW’s indignation regarding the originality of their name, In 1986 UT Press published a book of mine titled ‘South by Southwest.’ It had a striking cover and was much on view around town. A woman in the original Whole Foods saw me carrying a copy and said that’s a great title. Next thing I know I hear about this new arts festival, etc. I think they got the idea from the title of my book, which, incidentally, I thought of myself.” - Don Graham
The book “South By Southwest” came out the year before the first SXSW.
SXSW founders Roland Swenson and Louis Black have said that South by Southwest is a play on the Alfred Hitchcock movie “North by Northwest.”
It should be noted that the success of SXSW has less to do with the original name than using the “X” for “by,” which Swenson and poster artist Nels “Jagmo” Jacobson came up with.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment
Review: Amy LaVere at the Mohawk
An early evening rain come and gone affected Amy LaVere in more ways than one Saturday night at the Mohawk.
“I love Austin,” the Memphis native said after opening her set with “Overcome,” a waltz about leaving it all behind from her dreamy sophomore album “Anchors & Anvils,” “but my bass doesn’t like this humidity — and neither does my hair.”
The bass in question was the upright with the bass (as in fishing) sticker on it that towered over her petite frame. According to her promo poster on the club’s walls, she can triple-slap it like “Willie Dixon on steroids,” a guarantee supplied by her producer, Jim Dickinson, who’s worked with Aretha, Dylan, and the Stones.
LaVere may have gotten her chops from slapping guys around, if songs like “Killing Him,” with its “killing him didn’t make the love go away” line, were any indication. Then again, her voice, a more sedate version of Dolly Parton’s, was too sweet and her demeanor too coy to make you believe she’s capable of such foul play.
She was rounded out by drummer Paul Taylor, who wrote the cleverly phrased song “Pointless Drinking,” which she dedicated to headliner Langhorne Slim, and guitarist Steve Selvidge, whose liberal soloing on “That Beat” and “People Get Mad,” among others, compensated for the absence of gypsy violin, mandolin, Wurlitzer, and the other instruments that lend an exotic air to the CD version of her jazz-inflected country.
LaVere has proven herself more than just a one-trick pony with acting roles in “Black Snake Moan” and the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line.” It seems the only thing keeping her from triple-threat status is an appearance on “Dancing with the Stars.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Jonathan Meiburg leaves Okkervil River for Shearwater
Austin indie rock fans have long been aware that while Okkervil River and Shearwater share a Will Sheff and Jonathan Meiburg, Okkervil is more Sheff’s band, Shearwater is more Meiburg’s.
Now that distinction will be even easier to make as Jonathan Meiburg announced that he is leaving Okkervil River to focus exclusively on Shearwater. Meiburg says the split is “completely amicable,” and has to do with Shearwater’s increased profile. (The band’s new album, “Rook,” is it’s first of all-new material for Matador Records.)
Here’s an MP3 from “Rook.”
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment
New Pinetop CD on the way
Back in the 1970s when I was a young man, I was crazy for the Chicago blues. There was a local band called the Honolulu Doggs that knew how to play the real stuff and so, while the rest of Waikiki was doing cocaine and “The Hustle,” I was down at the Dragon Lady (currently Wave Waikiki) six nights a week listening to the Doggs do the Willie Dixon songbook, plus Little Walter, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. They were Hawaii’s version of the Storm, so I don’t want to hear about how I missed the One Knite.
Heaven arrived in 1976 or ‘77, when Muddy Waters played every night for a week at the Kool Jazz Fest at the Waikiki Shell. My boss, a concert promoter, lost his okole on the fest, which drew half houses every night, but I loved seeing such legends as Earl “Fatha” Hines, Ray Brown, Milt Hinton, Dizzy Gillespie and especially the Muddy Waters Band.
As if that wasn’t enough euphoria for a 20-year-old man, Muddy’s band showed up at the Dragon Lady, a Korean dry hustle joint by day, every night and jammed until 4 a.m. Drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, harp player Jerry Portnoy and guitarist Bob Margolin were always there, and bassist Calvin Jones and guitarist Guitar Jr. showed up a couple of times. But piano man Pinetop Perkins was always the first one to show up. The Doggs usually didn’t have a piano, just a B-3 organ, but they got a Fender Rhodes the second night because when Pinetop sat down he didn’t get up and the organ player was left out. The thing I got from Muddy’s band, who would later be billed the Legendary Blues Band was that they lived to play the blues. They were just incredible, night after night.
Although it’s a little rougher, a little looser, the new “Pinetop Perkins and Friends” album, featuring such guitar greats as B.B. King, Eric Clapton and Jimmie Vaughan reminds me of those magical nights at the Dragon Lady. Pinetop, who lives in Austin, will be 95 years old on July 7, but he can still play that boogie woogie blues. That he’s had an amazing life in music comes out loud, but not always clear, on an album that sounds like a jam amongst friends. Expect another Grammy nomination for this national treasure.
“Pinetop Perkins and Friends” comes out June 3 on the Telarc label, though if you’re on Sixth Street before then. I’d bet you can coax Pine, who’s usually at Nuno’s, to sell you an advance copy.
How cool is it for Austin that a living blues legend is out there on the street almost every night of the week?
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment
This week’s late night music guests
Monday
Clay Aiken- Leno
N.E.R.D. - Letterman
Ludo- Kimmel
Tuesday
Switchfoot- Leno
Death Cab for Cutie- Letterman
Jaymay- Craig Ferguson
Wednesday
Kate Nash- Leno
Kid Rock- Letterman
Duffy- Conan
Ashlee Simpson- Kimmel
Thursday
Dwight Yoakam- Leno
Joe Jackson- Kimmel
Black Keys- Conan
Friday
Kathleen Edwards- Leno
MGMT- Conan
Dierks Bentley- Kimmel
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment
Anhalt Mayfest next Sunday
Steve Dean talks about the Texas dancehall tradition. By Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon AAS
Last year, when I wrote this article about classic Texas dancehalls, the timing wasn’t great. The yearly Oktoberfest celebrations had already taken place and it was still months from Mayfest season. But we kept the radar up and are happy to announce that Anhalt Hall, perhaps the oldest operational hall in Texas, is having its big Mayfest shindig May 18. Anhalt is known for having the best dancefloor around and this celebration, which starts at noon, is great for family fun.
Here’s a map to get you there. It’s a bit of a drive, but it’ll take you way back in time.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Former Austinite, Ladyfest producer Brea Grant moves to “Heroes”
So those of you who watch “Friday Night Lights” (and there aren’t nearly enough of you) might remember the small, blond gal with the dreadlocks named Jean Binnel who had a little crush on Landry.
Her character wormed her way into the hearts of record geeks everywhere by declaring that she divided her record collection into “metal and non-metal.” Many of us were pretty bummed when Landry dumped her to get back with Tyra. We shook our heads, mumbling, “Landry, Tyra’s a dime a dozen. It’s going to be a good long time before you find another Jean.”
The actress who played lil’ Jean is Brea Grant. She is a UT graduate and will show up on the new season of “Heroes.”
We interviewed Brea way back in 2003 when she was the 21-year-old co-organizer of Ladyfest Austin. Check out the story here.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Review: DAM at Scoot Inn
Thirty years after hip-hop began in the streets of New York, it has become the soundtrack for youthful discontent worldwide. As one of the members of DAM, a rap group from the Palestinian city of Lod, declared: “We wrote these songs for the ghettos all over the world: the ghettos in Asia, in Europe, in Palestine and the U.S.” DAM, one of the biggest names in Arabic rap, made their first appearance in Texas at Scoot Inn on Thursday. Fresh off an intercontinental flight, they gave a brief but energetic performance to an enthusiastic crowd of around 100.
DAM is made up of three Palestinian rappers — Tamer Nafer, his younger brother Suhell and their childhood friend Mahmoud Jreri. Their music is a multicultural mix — Arabic lyrics with rapid-fire American-inspired flows over sample-heavy Middle-Eastern sounding beats. Think Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin” in Arabic. Since being founded in 1999, they’ve been on the forefront of a growing Palestinian rap scene.
The crowd was a mix of Arabic speakers familiar with the group and merely curious non-Arabic speakers. And despite rapping in Arabic, DAM did a good job of involving the English-speaking section. Tamer talked to the audience in English between songs as well as free-styling over more familiar beats like Busta Rhymes “Touch It.” Hip-hop became a bridge between different cultures, and by the end of the show, the whole crowd was chanting for them to do an encore.
They saved their biggest and most controversial song for the finale: “Meen Irhabi” (Who’s The Terrorist). It’s music with a message - DAM’s hope is that sympathy for the Palestinian cause will follow appreciation for their music. Social criticism has always inspired great music, and when DAM talked about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the anger was palpable.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
My Morning Jacket coming to Austin!
My Morning Jacket, whose fans are up there with those of the Boston Red Sox and Star Wars, are coming to Stubb’s Aug. 24. Tickets for the Austin date go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, May 16.
Check out the full run of dates here
See My Morning Jacket on this week’s “Saturday Night Live,” with host Shia LaBeouf. The show airs at 10:30 p.m. on NBC.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
CD reviews: Old 97’s, Murry Hammond, Tungsten Coil
Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Old 97’s
‘Blame it on Gravity’
(New West)
Launching “Blame it on Gravity” like a steam train, Rhett Miller lassoes the Armageddon of young love and swiftly streaks it across a smoldering Arizona backdrop. Time flies like an arrow. “He came from Phoenix in a borrowed VW bug,” Miller coos against a sharp detonation of drums and guitars. “Just to prove that he was on her like she was a drug, hallucinogenic with no hangover at all.” Breathe deep: “The Fool” is a blissful ride.
Better yet, the majority of this album — a vibrant shock of punchy songwriting that both salutes the Old 97’s’ alt-country roots and broadens its more recent pop leanings — measures up. Most notably, adventurous arias like “Dance With Me” and “Early Morning” soar with sparks of risk and rejuvenation. Meanwhile, a familiar balance of earthiness (“No Baby I,” “I Will Remain”) and radio-friendly hooks (“This Beautiful Thing,” “Ride”) provides a sturdy foundation.
“I still feel like (songs are) useful,” Miller explains in a YouTube preview of the band’s seventh studio effort and first since 2004’s “Drag It Up.” “That’s a word that comes up in my mind a lot in the recording session for this record: Useful. I want these songs to be useful. I want people to connect to them.” No doubt fans will celebrate the steady highway burn of “My Two Feet” and the runaway closer “The One.”
Now, a couple valleys — the woefully bland “She Loves the Sunset” and “Color of a Lonely Heart is Blue,” in particular — offset those peaks. But the magnificent hymnal “Here’s to the Halcyon” immediately redresses negligible missteps. “Pluck me from this driftwood, lord, and I’ll be a better man,” Miller sings on the album’s clear standout. “Raise me from the deep sea in the palm of your great hand.” Hallelujah, indeed.
(“Blame it on Gravity” is out Tuesday.)
Recommended: “Here’s to the Halcyon,” “My Two Feet,” “The One” — Brian T. Atkinson
Murry Hammond
‘I Don’t Know Where I’m Going, But I’m On My Way’
(self-released)
Murry Hammond shoots straight to the heart of the matter: train songs. In fact, if the thunderous roll of a locomotive defines the new Old 97’s album, this solo effort — a timeless landscape of dream catchers and lost highways — celebrates the vessel’s very purpose. “Before the old girl could get itchin’,” the band’s bassist and songwriter gently chants on “Riding the Rods.” “I’d die for the breakers again. So, I’ll see you down the road up yonder, where the Lord calls all good men.”
Naturally, Hammond’s journey toward that end unearths more questions than answers. Along the way, he crosses paths with workday poets who find fortune in freedom — the most adventurous inhabit “Next Time Take the Train” and the short sketches “Between the Switches” and “Life is Like a Mountain Railroad” — and the pleasures of a future unknown. At the same time, Hammond’s own long-ago yearning is precisely what binds this terrific collection with an organic front-to-back fluidity.
Honest reflection provides the most inspired moments. “I’m gonna sail on across a wide river, where my Lord has gone on before,” Hammond sings and yodels over the ethereal resonance of “I Believe, I Believe.” “Where a long look behind turns to family there gathered to meet and to part no more.” Unfussy production turns the sonic canvas into an echo chamber as limitless as Montana’s blue sky.
Perfect panorama for Hammond’s ornery reading of “Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down.” The spooky opening recitation — “In you, oh Lord, I have taken refuge,” Hammond’s whisper threatens, “let me never be put to shame” — alone could frighten faith into the devil himself. Meanwhile, the chugging instrumental “Grainer,” the album’s surprise highlight, swells with the heady gratification of a lost soul’s first steps toward redemption, its breathless coda a watershed sigh.
Recommended: “Lost at Sea,” “Grainer,” “Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down” — Brian T. Atkinson
Tungsten Coil
‘Alpha Omega’
(self-released)
It being 2008 and all, the time is probably right for a full-scale industrial-dance rock revival. It’s been about 20 years since Ministry showed us their “Stigmata,” since Depeche Mode played “Music for the Masses,” since Nine Inch Nails beeped and thumped and screamed its way to Top 40 radio. Austin’s own Tungsten Coil would clearly like to be part of that revival — they even cover Depeche Mode’s we’re-a-rock-band-now thumper “I Feel You” on this album. The quintet has the sound down — giant drums, menacing synths, samples of violent movies. But song titles such as “Prey To Me” and “Clockwork Orange” samples were clichés back in Ministry’s day. Singer Eric Oberto sounds more demanding than passionate, his vocals moving between (that band again!) Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan seducto-sleaze and wide-screen modern rock. Surely this EP is just a first step, more alpha than omega. Right?
Recommended: Seeing them live, where the body-rock makes more sense. The band plays at 10 p.m. Saturday at Emo’s Lounge. 603 Red River St. 477-3667. — Joe Gross
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Reviews
Weekend Picks: Oddball hip-hop, feel-good folk and grooves that move
Friday: Brett Dennen, Mason Jennings, Missy Higgins at La Zona Rosa. An evening of feel-good acoustic music. Dennen plays a wistful folk that swings harder than you might think. Jennings was born in Hawaii and hails from Minneapolis — a bit like Jack Johnson. Higgins is a brassy Australian. 7:30 p.m. $18 advance, $20 day of show. — Joe Gross
Friday: PPT, Zeale 32 Phranchize at Flamingo. American Weirdos from Dallas PPT perform tracks from their crazy inventive new album ‘Denglish’ (Dallas music with a British accent). Zeale 32 and Phranchize, Austin rappers with a flair for indie fusion, will also perform. $5 over 21, $10 under. More on PPT’s ‘Denglish.’ —-Deborah Sengupta Stith
Friday: DJ Melee at the Beauty Bar. Here’s how it works: Each DJ is given 5 minutes of record-store pillaging to pull 30 albums. The records are thrown into a lock box until the night of competition, when the DJs showcase their skills in rotating 10-minute sets. Round one of this turntable rumble packed the house at the Mohawk last month. For round two, DJs Starsign, Abomination and Ian Orth will square off at the Beauty Bar. —D.S.S.
Friday: Stax, Wax and Live Trax at the Victory Grill. Join T-Bird and the Breaks, RubyRico Productions and KOOP Radio’s “Excavation Nation” for a celebration of Memphis soul at Austin’s historic Victory Grill. Expect dancing, trivia and lots of good old-fashioned deep soul grooves. Portions of proceeds benefit KOOP Radio and the programs of the Stax Music Academy. $10 advance, $12 at the door. —D.S.S.
Saturday: Langhorne Slim at the Mohawk. Speaking of folk, this 27-year-old folk rocker has ended up on the otherwise fairly metal label Kemado. It’s soulful stuff; he’s the one in the fedora. With Nic Armstrong and Amy Levere. 10 p.m. $8. — J.G.
Saturday: Devin the Dude and the Coughee Brothaz at Ruta Maya. Houston’s dirty-minded, heavily blunted hip-hop crooner performs with a live band at Ruta Maya. Bavu Blakes, D Madness, Nick D, Kriminals and a mess of others will be in the house. $15. —D.S.S.
Saturday: Mike Dillon’s GoGo Jungle, Hairy Apes BMX, Kanko at Flamingo Cantina. A killer lineup of hard-driving groove mongers on a mission to make you move. —D.S.S.
Saturday: The Knux with DJ Mel at the Beauty Bar. Brothers Krispy Kream and Rah Al Millio, who perform together as the Knux deliver quick-witted “garage hop.” Though their MySpace page claims they’re “mars born,” the duo actually originated in New Orleans, but relocated to Cali following Katrina. Party-rocker DJ Mel rounds out the set. —D.S.S.
Sunday: Pennywise at Emo’s. I think I speak for people who remember the ’90s punk underground when I say, ‘Pennywise is still around?’ The outfit is releasing ‘Reason to Believe’ through MySpace Records. 6:30 p.m. $15. — J.G.
Sunday: Give Love Give Life Benefit at La Zona Rosa. This Mother’s Day show promotes ovarian cancer research. Native American recording artist John Trudell co-created the show and will appear, with his band, with two of Willie Nelson’s daughters, singer-songwriters Paula Nelson and Amy Nelson, and a granddaughter, Martha Fowler. 3 p.m. $25. Mothers get in free. - J.G.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
SXSW sues new restaurant/bar
Here’s a YouTube video we’d like to see: Louis Black and Roland Swenson just finding out that a new restaurant/ live music venue named “South By South First” was coming soon to the corner of South First Street and Stassney Lane.
First-time restauranteur Gary Miller was hit with a lawsuit from SXSW Inc. this week charging that the name South By South First infringes on the South by Southwest trademark. The steak and seafood restaurant with a big stage was set to open next week in the former location of Gino’s Italian Grill. Miller has two weeks to respond to the suit, filed by the firm of Fulbright & Jaworski, which could hold up the opening.
“They’re trying to bully us,” said Miller, who claims his joint’s name was based on geography. “We’re south of Ben White and by South First,” he said.
Swenson bristles at the bullying charge. “Our name is our primary asset, and we have defended our trademarks many times over many years,” Swenson said. “The only way to truly own a trademark is to defend it… We don’t want to sue anybody, but we had no choice.”
Miller’s partner Mike Mikeska, a drummer for Johnny Dee and the Rocket 88s, said he doesn’t understand why there’d be any confusion. “We’re a restaurant, not a music festival,” he said. Miller estimates that he and his partners have invested about $5,000 in the name through signage and menus.
SXSW director Swenson said his company first contacted the restaurant owners in January, three months before the South by South First signs went up.
“If (fighting the lawsuit) gets expensive we’ll have to give in,” Miller said. If it does come to finding a new name, they’d be wise to stay away from “South Austin City Limits” or “Sea-3 Presents.”
Permalink | Comments (30) | Post your comment
ACL grid update: New release date is June 3
The release of daily grids for the daily Austin City Limits music schedule has been pushed from May 13 to June 3, according to Austin-based C3 Presents. Stay tuned …
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: ACL Festival
In the clubs with Jets Under Fire
Jason Poe, leader of the Austin band Jets Under Fire, is a Christian, but he doesn’t believe in Christian music.
“I really hate the term ‘Christian music,’ ” Poe says. “The word Christian is a noun, not a adjective. I don’t think music has a soul that can be saved. We play music. I am a Christian. That’s it.”
Even if you didn’t know he was a Christian, one had to admire his and his band’s willingness to remain cool and good-natured at their April 17 performance at Progress Coffee, one of the most technically disastrous sets I’ve ever seen.
Nothing seemed to work. The band — Poe, drummer Corbin Petersen and bassist Todd Meador — would play for a minute and the sound would cut out. They’d play, then the sound would cut out. (Let’s hope this will not be the case when the band plays Friday inside at Stubb’s.)
Poe laughs when talking about it. “As far as we could tell, the bass on the keyboard seemed to be overpowering the little speaker and overpowering the little system. We would turn the keyboard up, and it would crash everything.”
But then, it seems a weird little miracle that Poe is playing rock ‘n’ roll at all. He grew up in Springfield, Mo., the son of devout Christians. “Nothing but Christian music for a while there. Then my dad brought home an old Boston CD, which I clung to,” he says. By his senior year in high school, he had started to write songs and play in bands.
Jets Under Fire started as a side project, an offshoot of his main act, the Professional Americans. He knocked out two brief CD-EPs of piano-based rock under the Jets name before the Americans relocated to Austin in 2005.
“(The Professional Americans) kinda maxed out what we could do in Missouri,” Poe says. “We had a friend who came down and started a church plant two years before, so we decided to move here and help them out.” The church, the Southwest Family Fellowship, thrived and meets at the Barton Creek Square AMC theater.
But Professional Americans did not, and was gone within a year, leaving Poe free to concentrate full time on Jets Under Fire and its American brand of British-sounding rock. (Poe doesn’t really deny the influence of such large-emotion rockers as the Verve, Radiohead or Travis.) The band released its debut full-length, “Kingdoms,” in March.
Poe says the title refers to the impermanence of life, one of the most basic human questions. “We build whatever you want, but in the end, you’re going to die,” he says,
“Kingdoms rise and fall.”
Jets Under Fire, however, would still like to find a guitar player to round out their sound live.
In the clubs: Jets Under Fire plays with Ars Supernova and Sounds Under Radio at 9 p.m. Friday indoors at Stubb’s, 801 Red River St. $8 in advance, $10 at the door. stubbsaustin.com
(Photos by Tammy Perez FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: In The Clubs
Review: Guy Clark, Joe Ely, John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett at the Paramount
The era of the Great American Songbook, that unifying canon of popular music that everyone could sing along with, is almost certainly over. They aren’t minting any more Cole Porters or Johnny Mercers. Yet, even in the fracturing genres that make up modern pop music, there are artisans whose body of work forms a sort of Unified Field Theory within that particular niche.
Thus fans of singer-songwriters and Americana music need not have seen all four of the artists onstage at the Paramount Theatre on Monday to be familiar with their songs. Though Guy Clark, Joe Ely, John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett each had fierce partisans in the sold-out house, the audience cheered in unison as each trotted out familiar and not-so-familiar selections from their individual songbooks. You’d have thought Mercer and Porter were in the house, along with Jerome Kern and maybe Irving Berlin, to boot.
This tour — amazingly playing Austin for just the first time — is the latest iteration of a songwriters’ guitar pull that the four men have been conducting for the past decade or so. Inevitably, tried and true bits of shtick have accrued to the performance: Clark lit up a cigarette at just the right moment in one of Lovett’s expository interludes, and Hiatt’s tale of a youthful bout of delinquency had the polished sheen of repeated delivery.
In a similar vein, each of the performers slipped into a familiar persona — Clark the craggy patriarch, Ely the boyish, footloose rocker, Hiatt the wisecracking character actor and Lovett the droll, bemused grad student.
But the music each of the men has been responsible for is largely timeless and bereft of artifice. Beginning with Clark’s “L.A. Freeway,” the four rotated turns in the spotlight. Hiatt lit up the room with his percussive, colorful guitar work on “Tennessee Plates,” and was by turn droll and yearning on “Thunderbird” and “Have A Little Faith In Me.” Ely essayed one of his best-known songs, “All Just To Get to You,” and one of his least, “If I Could Teach My Chihuahua to Sing.” Clark’s mastery of minimal nuance was on display in “Out In the Parking Lot” and “Stuff That Works.” Lovett’s wry, elliptical songcraft (“South Texas Girl,” “My Baby Don’t Tolerate”) shone with particular luster away from the orchestrations of his Large Band.
Each man sang his own compositions except for a couple of Woody Guthrie encores and the next-to-last number, Lovett’s cover of Clark’s first song, “Step Inside This House.” Which sparked an interesting notion…on some future leg of this ongoing collaboration, wouldn’t it be interesting to hear the performers essaying one another’s songs? Just a thought…
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment
Late night musical guests this week
Monday
Jimmy Eat World - “Late Show with David Letterman”
Rascal Flatts - “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”
Thrice - “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”
Michael Starr - “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson”
Tuesday
Steve Winwood - “Late Show with David Letterman”
KT Tunstall - “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”
Galactic - “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”
Lyfe Jennings - “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Jason Aldean - “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson”
Wednesday
Dirk Arthur - “Late Show with David Letterman”
P.O.D. - “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”
The Duke Spirit - “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”
Lil Mama - “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Mike Doughty - “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson”
Thursday
Panic at the Disco - “Late Show with David Letterman”
Trace Adkins - “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”
Gavin DeGraw - “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Friday
Carly Simon - “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”
Tokio Hotel - “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”
Ludo - “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
PPT’s ‘Denglish’: Dallas soul, English style
PPT came onto my radar back in 2006 when I caught the Dallas power trio at a showcase at Antone’s. Their unique brand of hip-hop-soul-funk fusion was unlike anything I’d heard before. Their performance style, full of high-energy falsetto harmonies and goofy charm, was ridiculously infectious. I instantly became a fan.
The group, consisting of three independently established established artists, Pikahsso Allen Poe, Picnic and Tahiti, was signed to Idol Records which released their well-received debut platter “Tres Monos in Love” shortly thereafter. Nearly two years later, on the heels of a SXSW performance they dropped their sophomore offering “Denglish,” a concept CD featuring Dallas music delivered in an English accent. With a wicked sense of humor, lush production full of rich instrumentation and an endless abundance of tight harmonies, it’s one of the most oddly adventurous urban releases to come out of Texas, or, for that matter, anywhere in years.
We caught up with Pikahsso through the e-mail to chat about hip-hop and humor, undersung Dallas funk and “Denglish” muffins.
Music Source: What’s the story behind “Denglish”? How did you come up with the idea to do a British themed-Dallas music album?
Pikahsso: Well, basically it went like this: At the end of 2006, Picnic made a beat that put us in the mind of Pet Shop Boys and groups of that nature. Now when we heard it we just started getting in the mind frame of “wow this is some British type sound” so we just kind of started playing around with the accents and being silly. Then after Picnic’s house burnt down, we were sitting around at a studio still vibing on the idea, and I said, “Hey we can call it ‘Denglish’ to let people know it’s like life in Dallas from a black British/English perspective.” We wanted it to be the welcoming mat to our city of Dallas Texas.
The Denglish thing goes deeper than the put-on accents. Sonically, I hear everything from new wave to psychedelic Beatles sounds on this album. Were you fans of English music already or did you put in study time while writing this album?
Yes, we are fans of the Beatles. If you look at the cover you can see what we visually tried to pull off from an African American hip-hop perspective. We listen to the Rolling Stones, Parliament, Cameo, A Tribe Called Quest, Earth Wind And Fire, David Ruffin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Green Day, Bobbi Humphrey, N Dambi, John Coltrane, Cab Calloway, Sun Ra, The Pharcyde, Big Daddy Kane, Thomas Dolby, Moby, Centro Matic, Bavu Blakes, UGK, Manhatan Transfer, Weezer, Black Moon, and many more. It’s more than just three black guys rapping and singing in British accents. We want to circumnavigate the world around our city and give [our listeners] a crash course on Dallas and to let people know we are no joke on the mic when it comes to spitting them molten lava flows. But [the album is] not made for people who take it way too seriously. It’s an album that’s made to have fun, stimulate the mind, make your speakers knock and bring the world together in harmony. And to let people know that Dallas does have creativity of all sorts.
With anything in life you have to study the craft and the greats that came before you to be a better artist.
Have you heard any feedback from actual British friends or fans? Do you have plans to tour in England?
I’ve had several [friends] I know that bought it. They seemed to like it, but you can never tell. I will say this, we sell pretty well overseas and on iTunes a lot of downloads are starting to come from over that way. So hopefully that’s a good sign of BIG things to come.
One of my favorite tracks on this album is “Higher,” which is one of the least “Denglish” of the bunch. Were there times when the concept and the accents started to feel constrictive?
“Higher” is the Aeonz joint on the album. The Aeonz is like a musical hip-hop collective of dope organic artists out of the south and Texas. PPT, Strange Fruit Project, Verbal Seed, Deloach, Thesis, E’ence, Browlion, Pumah, Bavu Blakes, Chucky Sly, Money Mone — we’re like the Texas version of the Native Tongues — from Dallas to Fort Worth to Austin to Waco. The music we create is so beautiful.
Doing the ‘Denglish’ record was a challenge for me with some of the harmonies. To be honest doing the British accents was probably harder for me than Picnic or Tahiti. I’m not gonna front. At times it felt odd, but me, being the kind of person I am, I love a challenge. I hate anything that comes easy or that anyone can think of, so the finished project was a beautiful canvas. It takes time to make a masterpiece. I think everyone who gets the CD needs to take a close listen and think that these are three guys from the South who had the balls to try something way different and not go with the norms of this cookie cutter, stagnated music industry.
Speaking of Dallas music in general, why is the Dallas hip-hop sound so different from the Houston sound?
Dallas music is different from Houston, I think, because it hasn’t been heard. We are like the forgotten city, the ones the industry has looked over, so people who stumble upon this Dallas funk get blown away. But Dallas is a city of innovators like Erykah Badu, The DOC, N Dambi, Six 2, Tum Tum, Big Tuck, Tevin Campbell and The Polyphonic Spree. Even Vanilla Ice came from the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex. They made a major impact on the national music scene but nobody knew. So we kinda got it in our souls naturally to be different down here. The world just don’t know it yet.
Let’s talk about the movie. Another nod to the Beatles, it would seem. Where did the idea for that come from and what kind of a budget did it take?
Tahiti came up with the idea of the “Denglish” movie which, by the way, comes on a DVD when you get the CD. He got his inspiration from the “Hard Days Night” Beatles movie. It’s a film short, basically adding that extra icing on the cake to let people know these dudes don’t take themselves too seriously and they are really getting into the characters. They have a sense of humor, which I feel is really missing from today’s hip-hop songs and albums. We basically put it all together on shoe string budget. Picnic had the cameras, some of the shots were done by Daniel Nanasi, and Tahiti did the directing and editing.
The production on this album is really impressive. Did you do most of it in house?
The bulk of the production was done by Picnic who teamed up with Glen Reynolds of Chomsky on the Guitar. Corey Watson played Guitar on the CD. Aisha played the flute on “To Me Mums.” S1 of Strange Fruit Project did the “Higher” track. Richmond Punch played the violin on “Save It For Another Day” and “Masterbook Theater.” But Picnic laid most of the foundation and found the perfect selection of musicians to help bring the “Denglish” monster to life and Glen Reynolds the guy who’s also featured on American Weirdo was like the co-pilot. This album would not be what it is musically if not for Picnic and the supporting cast so please let the world know they names.
When will your Austin fans get a chance to check out Denglish live?
Well I’m going be doing some stuff with Bavu Blakes at the ACL festival coming up in September. I’m on the hook on his Smiley Faces song off the Extra Plair EP. We plan to do some shows with Matt Sonzala of Austinsurreal.com, and we got some in-store performances coming up at Waterloo. The best bet is to log on to the myspace page at myspace.com/ppt3 or myspace.com/pik for more information.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment
White, Shue night at the Longbranch
Guitarist Jack White and actress Elisabeth Shue (“Leaving Las Vegas”) showed up together Friday night at the Longbranch Inn on E. 11th Street following the Raconteurs set at Stubb’s. Well, maybe “together” is too strong a word. Both are married to others- White to model Karen Elson.
Shue was with husband Dave Guggenheim, the director (“An Inconvenient Truth,” “Deadwood”) currently making a documentary about White and other guitarists. A Longbranch employee said the White group chilled for about an hour and a half.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Tom Waits to break Texas vow
Tom Waits announced Monday his “Glitter & Doom” tour will come to El Paso June 20, Houston June 22 and Dallas June 23.
After his friend Don Hyde was badly beaten by La Zona Rosa bouncers during SXSW in 1999, Waits reportedly announced that he’d never play Texas again.
Here are all the confirmed dates:
6/17 Phoenix, AZ - Orpheum
6/18 Phoenix, AZ - Orpheum
6/20 El Paso, TX - Plaza Theatre
6/22 Houston, TX - Jones Hall
6/23 Dallas, TX - Palladium
6-25 Tulsa, OK - Brady Theatre
6/26 St. Louis, MO - Fox Theatre
6/28 Columbus, OH - Ohio Theatre
6/29 Knoxville, TN - Civic Theatre
7/01 Jacksonville, FL - Moran Theatre
7/2 Mobile, AL - Saenger Theatre
7/3 Birmingham, AL - Alabama Theatre
7/5 Atlanta, GA - Fox Theatre
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment
Update: ACL Fest grid, single-day tickets coming June 3
Still debating whether or not to shell out $170 for a 3-day pass for ACL Fest 2008? If you’re on the fence about the overall lineup, the full festival schedule will be released May 13 June 3, which is the same day that single-day tickets will go on sale. Of course, there’s a chance 3-day passes will be sold out at that point.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: ACL Festival
Los Lonely Boys’ album ‘Forgiven’ out July 1
Los Lonely Boys’ third album ‘Forgiven’ hits the street July 1.
Produced by drummer-to-the-stars Steve Jordan (Keith Richards, John Mayer), the trio’s new effort was was recorded in somewhat unorthodox fashion at East Side Stages in Austin, with the band mimicking its live set-up on a sound stage.
The boys perform an exclusive acoustic set 10:30 p.m. May 24 at Saxon Pub at a Music for Literacy benefit with 100 percent of ticket sales going to the charity. Tickets were sold through Los Lonely Boys’ fan club and are sold out.
The band plays Blues on the Green on July 9.
Here’s the track listing:
“Heart Won’t Tell a Lie”
“Forgiven”
“Staying With Me”
“Loving You Always”
“I’m a Man”
“Make it Better”
“Love Don’t Care About Me”
“Cruel”
“You Can’t See the Light”
“Superman”
“Another Broken Heart”
“The Way I Feel”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Review: The Raconteurs at Stubb’s
They love vibing off Led Zeppelin’s blues-rock stomp, garagey guitar noise and arena-ready songs because they can play to the cheap seats without falling into too much cliché. The arrangements on their new album, “Consolers of the Lonely,” feels too slick and fussy by half (not to mention that it’s mastered way too loudly). But their show at Stubb’s, which stripped back the songs to their chunky essence, was a wonderful argument for the band recording its next album live in the studio. The Raconteurs have an actual working mojo. (It doesn’t hurt that cameras were filming a documentary — posterity is always a good reason to play one’s best.)
And it is a band. Here, Brendan Benson plays the curly haired frontman while letting professional oddball Jack White be the guitarist with mystique (who happens to sing a whole mess of the songs). The White Stripes’ devotion to primitivism, which began to abate around “Seven Nation Army,” has always been a partial mask for just how good a player White is - he brings a fire to solos that could sound dull in the hands of people who treat the blues too reverently.
In front of a thrilled, might-as-well-have been-sold-out crowd, the band, augmented with a keyboard/fiddle player, tore into the new album’s title track and “You Don’t Understand Me,”. On the latter, White reminded the crowd that a hard-strummed acoustic buried in the mix forces the band to swing that much harder.
The fiddle-driven“Old Enough” and “Top Yourself” roared with a fire absent from the band’s studio efforts, while a new blues let White cut loose. “These Stones Will Shout” and “Steady, As She Goes” were crowd faves, while “Carolina Drama,” a ballad in many chapters, perhaps benefited the most from the absence of production butter.
Pulling off a rock smart and swaggering in equal measure is not easy. Wish I had gone both nights.
(Jack White performs with the Raconteurs Friday night at Stubb’s. Photo by Tammy Perez/For AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment
Live shots: The Raconteurs, M.I.A.
Tammy Perez FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Our ‘Live from Austin 2008’ photo gallery continues to grow with new pics from the Raconteurs sold out Stubb’s show on Friday night and M.I.A.’s sold out La Zona gig last Thursday.
- Photos: Live from Austin 2008
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment
Major Latino Music Month gigs for May 3
Austin Latino rock titans Del Castillo and Esquivel fan Charanga Cakewalk play Antones at 8 p.m.
Acoustic guitarist Buzz Guerra plays the Waterloo Ice House (9600 Escarpment Blvd.301-1007) at 11 a.m.
Grupo Fantasmanand other Latino acts play the Old Pecan Street Festival
Nash Hernandez Orchestra play Donn’s Depot at 9 p.m.
Check out the Austin Latino Music Association calendar for the full lineups.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Review: Kenny Chesney, LeAnn Rimes, Curtis Grimes at the Erwin Center
All the stories cropping up recently about how Willie Nelson bucked Nashville for Austin lead you to believe there’s a rift between the two country-music factories. Not so. At least not Thursday night for Nashville chart-topper Kenny Chesney’s high-octane show at the Frank Erwin Center. Of course, it helped that the fevered, camera-crazy audience was primed by two opening acts from Texas.
First up was Austin’s Curtis Grimes, a crooner with a rowdy streak who was the local winner of the Next Big Star competition, which awards small-time acts 15 minutes on the front end of each stop on Chesney’s Poets & Pirates tour. Next up was LeAnn Rimes, the songbird who calls Texas home even though she was born in Mississippi.
In much the same way you couldn’t wipe the smile off Grimes’ face, what with his family stage right and his buddies in the pit, there was no denying the glow of many a male in the crowd when Rimes, in a form-fitting short-skirt dress that left little to the imagination, appeared out of nowhere among the floor-seats patrons and allowed them to grasp at her at will while she belted out “Nothin’ Better to Do.” She peppered cuts from her latest album, “Family,” with oldies but goodies like “How Do I Live” and a cover of Cheap Trick’s “I Want You To Want Me,” which was made all the more rousing by Rimes’ offer of a drink backstage after the show to one lucky person who texted “RIMES” to 66937.
Rimes might have Chesney to thank for her promotional coup. The stage set-up for the man who is so attached to cowboy hats you’d think he has a Kojak dome underneath was bathed in corporate advertising. Brand names radiated prominently atop amps comprising a mini Wall of Sound. The tour’s beer sponsor’s logo was interwoven into the spectacular multimedia presentation on the colossal monitor. Shoot, Chesney even displayed the steel-toe boots comped him by a local retailer after a recent foot injury threatened to cancel the show (he didn’t need ‘em, though, because, as one of the emcees said, he had him some “goooood pills”).
When Chesney and his 11-piece band weren’t high-fiving and hugging each other, they were galloping through back-catalog keepers like “Live Those Songs” and “Beer in Mexico” and numbers from his latest album, “Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates,” like “Wild Ride,” with its wicked Peter Frampton guitar effect, and “Shiftwork,” the steeldrum-infused singalong with the clever “Working 7 to 3, 3 to 11, 11 to 7” refrain.
Whatever trace of country was inherent in Chesney’s music was eclipsed by a full-throttle, stadium-rock vibe. But that sort of crossover is likely the reason for his mass appeal. Plus, the pearly whites he flashed for all the swooning Texas betties didn’t hurt.
(Kenny Chesney performs Thursday night at the Frank Erwin Center. Photo by Kelly West/AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF)
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment
In praise of myTunes
Not only is Rev. Louis Overstreet the subject of the greatest music video ever made, he’s in my iTunes fave 25.
One big way in which life has gotten better: the “My Top 25 Most Played” function on iTunes. Why couldn’t this have been around years ago when I’d come home from a night of partying, yet still wanted the musical merriment to carry on? Do you how many hours of my life I’ve wasted trying to find that perfect Elvis Costello song at three in the morning?
That’s what you do when you’ve had a few. You don’t play new, unfamiliar music; you play “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd over and over and over. I do wish iTunes would do away with the counter that tells you exactly the number of times played. It makes me ask myself what kind of grown man needs to hear “Over the Rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole 31 times?
But I’m proud of “My Top 25 Most Played.” The song I’ve played the most in the year or so since I realized that iTunes doesn’t bite is “Wrapped Up and Tangled Up In Jesus” by Rev. Charlie Jackson of Memphis. The Rev’s “God’s Got It,” another solo electric blues-gospel stomper, is also in my top 10.
Number two on my list is “Unless It’s Kicks” by Okkervil River, a new kind of glamrocker with that great guitar riff. I’ve also been obsessed lately with Jerry Lee Lewis’ 1964 live version of “What I’d Say,” which somehow tops the Ray Charles original and should overtake Bruddah Iz on my list by tomorrow night. “Okie Dokie Stomp” by Gatemouth Brown is currently #5, followed by “Gold Soundz” from Pavement, “Falta tu Amor” by Steve Jordan, “I Summon You” by Spoon, “Who Knew” from my girl Pink and “Postal Blowfish” by Guided By Voices. I didn’t realize how cool I am until iTunes gave me my own private Billboard chart.
Online dating is a big thing these days, now that everyone’s at their computer every night and not learning to two-step at Midnight Rodeo. The best way to see if someone’s compatable is to check out their “My Top 25 Most Played” list. It’s so simple, yet can be an effective gauge. Anyone’s who’s got “Fernando” by ABBA or “To Sir With Love”in their top 5 is my kind of gal. But if 7 of her top 10 most played are tracks from Bob Schneider’s “Lonelyland,” well, we’ve just saved ourselves a lot of time.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Latino Music Month in Austin!
Latino music is an indelible part Austin’s musical fabric. Which is why back in 2005, the Austin City Council declared the month of May to be “Latino Music Month” in our fair city.
The first Latino Music Month took place in 2006.
May is once again packed with Latino music events (check out a full lineup here).
Here are a few highlights:
A Cinco De Mayo show at Antone’s Saturday night featuring Del Castillo and Charanga Cakewalk.
The Austin Conjunto Music Festival Monday at Fiesta Gardens featuring Johnny Delgado, Los Texas Wranglers and more.
The Latina Music Showcase a.k.a. Las Chicas del Barrio at Jovita’s with Girl in a Coma, Eva Ybarra y su Conjunto, Texana Dames and more.
“Viva Jose Alfredo Jimenez” show May 16 at Antonio’s Restaurant with El Trio Romantico, Trio Los Castros and the Crockett High School Mariachi.
And then there’s the Pachanga Festival May 31 at Waterloo Park. Twenty bands on three stages including Bostich & Fussible, Grupo Fantasma, Vallejo, Charanga Cakewalk, Maneja Beto and more.
But there are shows going on literally every day all over the city. Check out www.austinlatinomusic.com for details and check out Austin Music Source every day for that night’s Latino Music shows.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Weekend Picks: Indie rock, indie rap and roots reggae
Friday: Tapes N Tapes at Antone’s. The band name screams blog-rock, as does its sound. Standard guitar indie rock done over by gauzy Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann. The bigger deal is the return of local band White Denim, which opens. 8 p.m. $12 advance, $14 day of show. - Joe Gross
Friday: Inner Visions at Flamingo Cantina. Old school roots reggae from the island of St. John’s, a stronghold of calypso. 8 p.m. $10. - J.G.
Friday: Maneja Beto CD Release at the Mohawk. Kick off Latino Music Month in Austin by celebrating with our city’s finest purveyors of “indie en espanol” as they drop a new (weirdly) untitled EP. Corto Maltese and Mice and Rifles open, DJ Manolo Black will work the decks. $7-$9 —Deborah Sengupta Stith
Friday: John Waite at the Cactus Cafe.Waite is on his third career at this point. Some fans remember him from the Babys, others from the short-lived super-group Bad English. Many, many more remember his solo hit ‘Missing You.’ These days, he’s a songwriter, albeit one who plays cruise ships, with a MySpace page. $27.50 advance, $30 at the door. - J.G.
Friday-Saturday: The Raconteurs, Birds of Avalon at Stubb’s. Weirdly, seeing as how White Stripes head dude Jack White is the member of this Beatles-y garage rock band that everyone knows, tickets are still available for Friday night’s show. 7 p.m. $35. - J.G.
Friday-Saturday: Atmosphere at Emo’s. Let the haters hate. Let them call him ‘indie-rap’ and whatnot. Slug, the MC from Atmosphere, is one of the best live MCs working. As a wise man once said, ‘MC means move the crowd.’ He does. With Abstract Rude and DJ Rare Groove. 9 p.m. both nights. $15. - J.G.
Saturday: Ring the Alarm at the Parish. Austin’s long-running dancehall party settles in at its new home. DJs Jah Mighty, Baby G and Jr. Vibes work the decks. Expect reggae, soca and assorted sweaty grooves. $7 —D.S.S.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey - married?
That’s what Latina.com is reporting. The scant details include that the island ceremony was “impulsive.”
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment
Austin band Nelo sells nearly 2,000 copies of its debut album in the first week of sales
Nelo’s self-titled debut studio album moved 1,881 units including digital downloads, Billboard magazine reported Wednesday.
This put the band at no. 21 on both Billboard’s New Artist Album and Heat Seeker charts and no. 65 on its Indie Album Chart.
576 of those units were sold at Waterloo.
Check out the band’s American-Statesman rooftop performance here.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Review: Man Man and Yeasayer at Emo’s
After a week of high-profile performances during South by Southwest, Brooklyn-based Yeasayer returned to open for Philadelphia’s Man Man, who likewise showed what they were made of during the March festival. Yeasayer has clearly benefited from time on the road, as their set was tighter and packed with more psychedelic light show theatrics than the last time they were in town. The Pitchfork Media review of their debut album, “All Hour Cymbals,” refers to the band as “Byrne disciples,” which isn’t necessarily fair — the band holds its own without coming across as too derivative of the influences. It is undeniable, however, that lead vocalist Chris Keating does convulse on stage with moves reminiscent of the pointy-shouldered indie deity.
Man Man did their best to follow Yeasayer’s flashing lights and giant eyeball videos. As they took the stage, with streaks of white paint marking their faces, I couldn’t help but compare lead man (man) Honus Honus, with his early ’70s Stones-style mullet and thick mustache, to Harry Shearer’s bassist from Spinal Tap. While some might regard a five-piece band that equips each member with their own percussion set as indulgent, the crowd, which packed in as close to the stage as possible, clearly did not. Fans hung on every note of every song, with some feeling the need to crowd surf and even climb up on the rafters. The band romped through a set of their unique gypsy/klezmer/punk/rock, with highlights including “Top Drawer” off their recent release “Rabbit Habits.”
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment
Review: Kanye West’s Glow in the Dark Tour at Austin’s Erwin Center
Back in 2006, the big question that seemed to haunt urban music lovers was ‘Is hip-hop — a multimillion dollar industry far removed from its humble street origins — dead?’ Two years later, Kanye West’s Glow in the Dark Tour, which descended Wednesday night on Austin’s Frank Erwin Center, offered an answer: Hip-hop’s not going anywhere, but check out how it’s evolving. The show brought with it a stunning display of lights, spectacle and wildly imaginative sounds, and the thread that tied together the four diverse acts on the bill was that each group employed its own form of urban music fusion.
The night kicked off with West’s protege Lupe Fiasco, one of the smartest young wordsmiths in the game right now. While much of the intricacy of Fiasco’s rhyme style suffered in the echo chamber that is the Erwin Center, he found his shine on numbers featuring vocalist Matthew Santos, notably the breathtaking “Superstar” — a perfect marriage of indie rap and indie rock.
Fiasco was followed N.E.R.D., a rap thrash outfit fronted by prolific and respected producer Pharrell Williams. N.E.R.D.’s high-octane performance offered pure skate punk energy delivered with a hip-hop attitude. On a stage flanked by dueling drum kits, amidst a chorus of heavy guitar riffs Pharrell forced the audience to their feet: “We require you, demand you to take off your clothes and sweat and lose your mind for the money you paid for this concert,” he cried before launching into “Spaz” a song that coaxes the audience to do all of the above.
The glow in the dark section of the tour really kicked off with Rihanna. She and her dancers were clad in black with pink and green neon accents that actually did glow. Rihanna’s sound fuses mainstream R&B and hints of edgy dancehall with modern electro pop. And while, no, she can’t sing like Mariah or Beyonce (and really, she ought not try), her tightly choreographed stage show offers the kind of spectacle you’d expect from one of the top divas in the industry.
The real highlight of the show, naturally, was Kanye West. A roar of anticipation went through the crowd as the house went black in preparation for Kanye’s arrival. When the lights went back up they revealed an elaborate set of cascading gray hills and craters with panoramic celestial projections on an Imax-esque screen at the rear of the stage. We were introduced to West as an interplanetary traveler, his spaceship stranded on an unknown planet. West used this premise to weave three albums worth of hits into a one man hip-hopera about his struggle to find his way back home.
Accompanied by a dim orchestra pit full of musicians and prompted at times by the disembodied female voice of his ship (represented visually by a separate “control panel” projection screen) and the occasional, buxom alien lifeform, West committed to his dramatic situation. His songs became vehicles to steer his character through his plight. A failed takeoff attempt led him into “All Falls Down.” When his computerized ship reminded him this wasn’t his first crash it sent him into “Through The Wire.” Colored globes hovering above his landscape provided a segue to “Flashy Lights.”
The most poignant point in the show was when West’s character became hopeless calling first on Jesus with “Jesus Walks” then his recently deceased mother in a heart-wrenching, raw rendition of “Hey Mama” which included the aching intro, “Last night I saw you dreams, now I can’t wait to go to sleep.” By the time West made it off his fictional planet, harnessing his personal star power with the song “Stronger,” the mood in the arena was downright triumphant.
Yes there were some clunky moments, but conceptually it was the most innovative hip-hop performance I’ve seen. By a long shot. While some naysayers get bogged down in the past and what hip-hop has lost, Kanye West has his focus squarely on the future and where the form might go. And he’s forging boldly forward.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment
Local music news
Kevin Jack, a senior at the University of Texas, has won the hip-hop category in the John Lennon songwriting contest for his track “Dreaming of Darfur.” You can hear it here.
Houston native Jack will now compete with winners in 11 other categories for the Maxell Song of the Year, which offers $20,000 in first place money. Go here to find out more about the rapper, who uses a lot of old soul in his backing tracks.
KGSR has announced the lineup for this summer’s “Blues on the Green” free concerts at Zilker Park.
6/11 - Asleep At The Wheel
6/25 - Marcia Ball
7/9 - Los Lonely Boys (w/Shawn Sahm & The Tex Mex Experience)
7/23 - Carolyn Wonderland
8/6 - Sonny Landreth
8/20 - Doyle Bramhall/Gary Clark Jr.
