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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Eastside living: Cafe-side crate digging on a lazy Saturday
After a long stretch of life-consuming home improvement woes, a sense of order and domestic bliss has recently been restored to my humble little Eastside home. A few weeks back my husband unpacked his turntables and set them up in our living room. Ever since, we’ve been on the hunt for new vinyl. Consequently, we were terribly pleased when Breakaway Records opened up shop a few blocks down the road earlier this month.
Operated by Gabe Vaughn and Mike Hooker, two former employees of Friends of Sound, Breakaway Records is nestled in a small, unassuming corner of the stucco-coated 5th Street plaza that contains Cafe Mundi. Mundi, with its bohemian atmosphere, idyllic gardens and tasty brunch offerings has long been a favorite hideaway of Austinites in the know.
“We weren’t really planning to take out a lease until August,” Hooker told me, on a recent lazy afternoon visit to the store. He and his partner were focused on online sales, doing steady business through their eBay store, but when the cafe-side space became available they felt they had to move. Cafe Mundi has been very supportive of their new neighbor’s efforts, Hooker reports.
The space itself is small, but it houses a quality collection of vinyl. Vintage country, girl groups, garage and punk are all of special interest to the owners, but their primary goal, Hooker explained, is to move the junk quickly and maintain good selections on the shelves. While some of the store’s titles are high-end collectors’ items ranging $20 and up, there are also a fair amount of bargain records and plenty of hidden gems waiting to be unearthed if you’re willing to be patient and spend some time digging. The store has a two-turntable listening station to preview records.
The total damage from our shopping expedition was $38.50, which included nine full-length albums (mostly old soul and funk stuff), one 45” Prince single and a $3 adapter to play said 45”. Not too shabby, all things considered.
Breakaway Records is located at 1704 E. 5th St. It’s down by the railroad tracks off an easy-to-miss turn on 5th Street between Comal and Chicon.
Check out photos from a lazy Saturday of brunch and crate digging on East 5th Street.
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Review: Rilo Kiley at Stubb’s
Four songs into Rilo Kiley’s fluid and wide-ranging Monday date-night show at Stubb’s, lead singer Jenny Lewis set the record straight. “This next song is just a break-up song,” she said. “That’s all it is.”
That was enough to tip people off that the song would be “Breakin’ Up” from last year’s “Under the Blacklight,” a superb art-imitates-life album recounting the courtship and — you guessed it — break-up of Lewis and guitarist Blake Sennett. Not that friends-with-benefits relationships are uncommon in bands, but not since Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” album has a collection of songs so thoroughly explored the dynamics of said relationships with such candid endearment and melodic resonance.
Perhaps because it was the versatile six-piece (at times eight-piece) band’s spring-tour finale and therefore the temporary beginning of the end of the public life, Lewis took special exception to the closing refrain, “Ooh, it feels good to be free,” by jumping up and down like she was on a pogo stick and swiveling her head from side to side so that her long red locks could dance. Afterward, someone reached up from the pit and rewarded her with a bouquet of sunflowers.
The result of people acting like tabloid junkies about Lewis’s and Sennett’s relationship led Lewis to qualify many of the songs before playing them, even if they were from the band’s previous three, non-concept albums, of which there were many interspersed in between blocks of “Blacklight” songs.
Lewis prefaced “Capturing Moods” by saying, “This next song is an old song,” a declaration that elicited thunderous cheers even though the crowd hadn’t a clue what was about to be played. “It’s not a sad song,” she continued, “but it’s an old song.”
Another oldie, “With Arms Outstretched,” further testified to the devoutness of the crowd, sparking as it did a massive a cappella singalong and unified arm-waving. This relationship Lewis and Sennett have forged with their diehard fans, while on the road, seemingly has anchored them as they continue to figure out their own relationship going forward, and whether life will soon imitate art.
As shown by their theatrics on “Silver Lining” — during which Sennett took a break from his fierce guitar work to throw a bunch of silver confetti at Lewis while she played keys and sang, “I never felt so wicked/As when I willed our love to die” — what hasn’t killed them has only made them stronger.
(Photos by V.M. Black FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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“Chicano Soul” comes to Threadgill’s June 29
Larry Lange & His Lonely Knights will host several of the 1960s Chicano soul legends that have inspired them at a special show at Threadgill’s South location. Among the guests are Rudy Tee from Rudy and the Reno Bops, Charlie Alvarado from Charlie & the Jives, Dimas Garza of the Royal Jesters, the Sequins, and Sonny Ace.
Interest in the vintage singers has been stoked by a new book called “Chicano Soul” by Ruben Molina.
Lange and his wife Susie are also organizing a benefit for accordion great Steve “Esteban” Jordan, who is undergoing treatment for cancer. Click here to see the greatest Tex Mex accordion player take on some old Johnny Mercer. Little Joe Hernandez has said he’ll perform at the benefit and there are other big names lining up. The Aug. 10 date is tentative.
