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June 2008
CD review: Los Lonely Boys - ‘Forgiven’
Alex Jones FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Los Lonely Boys
‘Forgiven’
(Sony)
There’s no question mark after the title of Los Lonely Boys’ third album, “Forgiven,” but it sure couldn’t hurt. The last time we heard from the brothers Garza, bassist JoJo and drummer Ringo were still dogged by assorted drug and assault charges. “Sacred,” the album they were promoting at the time, was rising up the charts, yeah, thanks to the carry-over popularity of the song “Heaven” from their self-titled debut, but it was hard not to feel disgusted by the air of moral decline.
Enter big brother Henry, who pleads their case on the new album’s title track. “Can you take it away, Lord?” he sings, “Help me change my ways of living.” He seems sincere (hey, we’ve all known a little moral decline), and the brothers are in rare form.
Indeed, Los Lonelys’ voices are glued together on harmonies honed under the tutelage of an exacting father. And Henry and JoJo’s lyrics preach virtue without being pedantic: their themes include self-affirmation, introspection and perseverance. The best yet is Henry’s shredding in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan, which is in full effect on “Heart Won’t Tell a Lie;” you can feel the song’s gigantic guitar intro percolating under Ringo’s congas from a mile away, but it still gets you every time.
“Forgiven” was recorded at East Side Stages in Austin, and includes Dr. John on three tracks, among them the funky “You Can’t See the Light.” Instead of a traditional studio environment, Los Lonelys re-created their live setup. That’s an approach that screams, “We just wanna forget everything else and play for the sake of playing.” And that’s exactly what “Forgiven” sounds like — done-good Texas boys playing their smooth “Texican” blend of rock ‘n’ roll, pop and the blues because they don’t know what else to do.
So, are they — forgiven, that is? Well, it’s not really a “yes” or “no” question.
Recommended tracks: “Staying With Me,” “I’m a Man.”
Los Lonely Boys play a free KGSR Blues on the Green show with Shawn Sahm and the Tex Mex Experience July 9 at Zilker Park.
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Live review: Boris at Mohawk
There’s something deeply funny about a smoke machine outdoors, especially when there’s a breeze of any speed at all, which there almost always is in Austin.
Just like the last time they played the Mohawk (Oct. 19, 2007), Boris broke out the smoke machine Saturday night. And also like the last time the Japanese hard rock band played the Mohawk, the smoke enveloped touring guitarist Michio Kurihara now and then before vanishing into the warm night. Ah well.
There were a lot of things that reminded one of the last time they played the Mohawk, in fact. Like then, The set alternated between galloping rockers and longer, dronier pieces. Once again Boris’ merch table was, frankly, slightly obscene, filled with various Japanese versions of CDs and LPs and T-shirts. (One LP box set rang in at $250; you have to wonder who bought it, though God knows Boris fans are collector geeks to the core.)
Unlike the last time, much of the set felt, well, too quiet, which is something one never expects to witness at a show by a b and named for a song by the crushingly heavy rock band Melvins. It dulled the band’s not-inconsiderable power, cutting off the riffs at the proverbial knees.
Openers Torche faired a little better. Their fantastically catchy rock was also influenced by the Melvins’ heft and tone, but this was a heaviness you could hum an hour later. Clearly, someone in the band is a big big fan of early 90s indie rock icons Superchunk and that’s not an influence you hear much these days. Which is too bad.
Click here to view A-List photos from the show.
(Photo by David Weaver FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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And the world’s greatest group is …
Alabama 3 covers Johnny Cash at SXSW in March
Why isn’t Alabama 3, the British techno/gospel/country/blues tribe who gave us the great “Sopranos” theme song “Woke Up This Morning,” the biggest band in the world? That’s the question yowled by “Hits and Exit Wounds,” a retrospective CD that drops July 8 like a sack full of serpents. Hearing, again, such numbers as “Hypo Full of Love (the 12 Step Plan),” the brilliant cover of John Prine’s “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness” and “Ain’t Goin’ To Goa”- all from 1998’s overlooked “Exile On Coldharbour Lane”- as well as newer tracks like “R.E.H.A.B.” and “Up Above My Head”- makes my head spin until it feels like the top will fly off. This music speaks to me with a megaphone. Forced to call themselves A3 in the States because of that godawful country band Alabama, Bama Trey is everything I love about music- the hooks, the groove, the stomp, the darkness, the sway, the rebellion- all rolled into one dopefiend Pentecostal dance band.
No one has ever tied this many different forms of American roots music together and made them sound so new. Part “Wise Blood,” part “My Life In the Bush of Ghosts,” Alabama 3 puts weird and spooky on top of that big rumble of love, which is one reason they’re not huge. That and all the profanity in the name of salvation.
They played SXSW in March, but I didn’t go because I was afraid they wouldn’t measure up to their records. They were billed acoustic and they had a new female singer and I just ended up at something hipper. But then my friend Suzee said it was the best thing she saw at SXSW and I was kicking myself.
Redemption! I just booked a flight to see the full-on band in Chicago at the Cubby Bear on July 4 and the Rothbury festival in Michigan July 5. Yeah, that’s how much.
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Musicmania Top 10 for the week ending June 29
Lil Wayne ‘Carter III’ (Cash Money)
Plies ‘Definition Of Real’ (SlipNSlide)
Trae ‘Streets of tha South 2’ (Oarfin)
Three 6 Mafia ‘Last 2 Walk’ (Columbia)
Bun-B ‘II Trill’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Blood Raw ‘CTE Presents Blood Raw’ (Def Jam)
Lucky Luciano ‘Ahead of my Time’ (Dope House)
Usher ‘Here I Stand’ (LaFace)
Rick Ross ‘Trilla’ (Def Jam)
Marvin Sapp ‘Thirsty’ (Verity)
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Waterloo Top 10 for the week ending June 28
Alejandro Escovedo, “Real Animal” (Back Porch)
Reckless Kelly, “Bulletproof” (Yep Roc)
Coldplay, “Viva La Vida” (EMI)
Sigur Ros, “Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust” (XL)
Grupo Fantasma, “Sonidos Gold” (High Wire Music)
My Morning Jacket. “Evil Urges” (ATO)
Fleet Foxes, “Fleet Foxes” (Sub Pop)
Hayes Carll, “Trouble in Mind” (Lost Highway)
Eliza Gilkyson, “Beautiful World” (Red House)
Vampire Weekend, “s/t” (XL)
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Late night musical guests this week
Denver’s Flobots hit “The Tonight Show” Thursday. They’ll play Austin’s Batfest, which takes over the Ann Richards Bridge August 30 and 31.
Monday
Newton Faulkner- Leno
Al Green- Letterman
Tapes ‘N Tapes- Conan
Chromeo- Kimmel
Tuesday
Ed Harcourt- Leno
Esperanza Spalding- Letterman
They Might Be Giants- Conan
Secondhand Serenade- Kimmel
Duffy- Ferguson
Wednesday
David Cook- Leno
Donna Summer- Letterman
AA Bondy- Conan
Jewel- Kimmel
Thursday
Flobots- Leno
Republic Tigers- Letterman
The Kills- Conan
We the Kings- Kimmel
John Hiatt- Ferguson
Friday
Tristan Perryman- Leno
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Live Review: Oxford Collapse at Mohawk
There’s no denying that Oxford Collapse’s “Please Visit Your National Parks” is a catchy bit of herky jerky post-punk fun, but is it a song so nice they have to play it twice?
Normally no, but you had to give the Brooklyn trio a pass Thursday.
That’s because about 20 minutes into an energetic, churning set at The Mohawk - and halfway through the high point of “National Parks” - the song got an unexpected dance remix (so dubbed by bassist Adam Rizer) when singer/guitarist Michael Pace’s amp went silent.
Temporarily perturbed but affable, the band quickly regrouped thanks to equipment from tourmates Frightened Rabbit and finished off a successful set that combined the hooks and bounce of Vampire Weekend with the drive and angularity of Gang of Four.
Playing a month-long trek in advance of the forthcoming Sub Pop album “Bits,” the band had a loose freshness to them; could be from the joy of doing a small, informal tour, or maybe from the cooling dip Pace said they took in Barton Springs before the show. Either way, a fun bunch worth keeping an eye on.
They were joined by locals Peel (think of a shaggier Lemonheads with guy/girl vocals) and Frightened Rabbit, from Scotland.
The Scots were playing their second show at Mohawk in three days and were clearly comfortable, even though their sound - a more energetic take on The Delgados’ intricate pop, with a touch of The Frames - was a real departure following Oxford Collapse. That said, the crowd of around 300 was firmly in their grasp.
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Weekend Picks: Murder ballads, melancholy soul, a ‘Panty Party’ and more
Friday: Jesse Sublett at the Scoot Inn. His new album is called ‘Murder Ballads and Noir Capers,’ so expect a more mellow Sublett. His first set is acoustic, followed by a set of mutant ‘voodoo-billy’ from the fascinating Izzy Cox, then an electric set from Sublett. 9:30 p.m. - Joe Gross
Friday: Mystic at the Parish Room. With quiet, spoken word-influenced rhymes mixed with melancholy soulful singing, Mystic has maintained a presence on the West Coast hip-hop underground for years. She appears at the Parish with fellow Californians LD & Ariano along with locals Broke Bread and DJ Notion. —-Deborah Sengupta Stith
Friday: Panty Party at the Beauty Bar. Electro-dance specialist Bird Peterson along with fellow DJs Go Go Garcia, Minora Y Majora and X-Man cordially invite you to a Panty Party. Now, we assumed this doesn’t mean you necessarily have to venture downtown in your skivvies in order to attend, but such behavior is certainly not discouraged. Photographer Annie Ray will be on hand to capture the madness. —-D.S.S.
Saturday: Boris at the Mohawk. This killer Japanese hard rock (or is that heavy metal) band left the audience in tatters the last time it played Austin. Some might remember the band from an amazing set during SXSW 2007. It was the Japanese band with the gong and the double-neck. Yes, those guys. With brilliantly catchy heavy rock act Torche and Clouds. A great bill. 9 p.m. $12. Mohawk, 912 Red River St. 482-8404. - J.G.
Saturday: Dance party at the Parish Room. Some of my club-hopping friends venture out on the weekends with the hopes of catching great live music, but some girls just want to dance, and drink, and then dance a little more. If you fall into the latter category, here’s a show for you. DJ Mel throws down the grooves to help get your Saturday night sweat on, and the cover charge is on the house. —-D.S.S.
Saturday: The Sixth Annual Keep Austin Weird 5K and Festival.The music portion of this I-guess-it’s-a-tradition-now kicks off at 3 p.m. with a show from the teen band Super Pal Universe. Stay for sets from Feeding 5000, Army of Freshmen, Black Joe Lewis and the Honey Bears, What Made Milwaukee Famous and Alejandro Escovedo. Al goes on at 8:30 p.m. $10. Auditorium Shores. www.keepaustinweirdfest.com. - J.G.
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Prettyman leads Lady Bird Lake cleanup
“Madly” from the new LP “Hello…x”
California singer songwriter Tristan Prettyman brings the 2nd annual Barefoot Wine Beach Rescue Project to the shores of Lady Bird Lake Saturday July 12. Pitch in to help clean up from 10 a.m. to noon and you’ll be treated to a free concert by the former model/ surfer at Opal Divine’s Penn Field location (3601 S. Congress Ave.) at 7 p.m.
Prettyman returns to Austin in September to play the ACL Fest.
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Video: Alejandro Escovedo
Fantastic videos of this week’s XL coverboy, Alejandro Escovedo, produced by American-Statesman Video Journalist Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon. Above, Escovedo performs live and discusses his new album. Below, Escovedo talks about performing with Bruce Springsteen in Houston.
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A-List video: Reckless Kelly CD release at Antone’s
Our A-lister Archana Ramachandran dropped by Reckless Kelly’s CD release party at Antone’s last night and collected live shots from the scene.
- The A-List: Reckless Kelly at Antone’s
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Vince’s mom added to Waterloo Park show
It was curious to see the name of Felicia Young, listed as “special guest,” on the lineup of the Born On the Fifth of July Fest (unofficially known as EXIT Fest) at Waterloo Park. But it makes sense when you realize that the promoter is Will Matthews, the last great fullback at the University of Texas, who used to open holes for Vince Young and Cedric Benson in 2003 and 2004. Matthews currently heads the Exit Music Group, which is putting on the Austin-centric show.
Among the acts on the bill:
Black & White Years
Alpha Rev
Ricardo Sanchez
South Austin Jug Band
Patrice Pike
Cruiserweight
Boxing Lesson
Gary Clark Jr.
Zeale 32
Suzanna Choffel
Nelo
Sounds Under Radio
Dertybird
It’s always hard to get folks out to a festival heavy with local talent, especially with tix going for $20, but this is a pretty strong bill.
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Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida” is No. 1
Coldplay’s “Vida la Vida” debuts at no. 1 on this week’s sales chart with over 720,000 in sales, according to Neilsen Soundscan.
The sigh of relief from EMI shareholders could be heard from London to Los Angeles.
Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III” dropped to no. 2, moving 285,000 copies, a pretty brutal 70 percent drop from last week’s high of over one million copies sold, but that was to be expected. It’s still one of this year’s smashes, and the first album since 2005 to debut with more than one million copies moved in a week.
Disney’s “Camp Rock” soundtrack comes in at no. 3, the pop-compilation “Now 28” at no. 4, Usher’s “Here I Stand” at no. 5, a repackaged version of Rihanna’s “Good Girl Gone Bad” at no. 6, Disturbed’s aptly-named “Indestructible” at no. 7, Plies’ “Definition of Real” at no. 8, Katy Perry’s “One of the Boys” at no. 9 and the Offspring’s “Rise & Fall, Rage & Grace” at no. 10. Only the Camp Rock sound track sold more than 100,000 copies.
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Found it on YouTube! Conchords SXSW doc
New Zealand’s fourth most popular comedy folk duo made this documentary after a 2006 visit to SXSW. Not as funny as the HBO show, but lotsa Austin sights and folks you might recognize. Stick around ‘til the 7:24 mark for a funny dig at the Broken Spoke crowd.
Here’s also a longer version with Roland Swenson, among others, being interviewed by Bret and Jemaine. Had no idea the brilliantly naive FOTC ever played SXSW, but then have only been aware of them for a couple months.
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Island at Emo’s
Earlier this week, Islands frontman Nick Thorburn told local blog Austinist that the respect paid to journalists (and A&R and marketing people) is way out of proportion to the respect paid to “artists” like himself, and that the artists are the people who work the hardest.
Comments like that leave reviewers with options as polarizing as Islands’ new album, “Arm’s Way,” its glorious pop sheen inching the band away from the vaunted indie realm and closer to the dreaded mainstream.
Option 1: Give Islands negative coverage to get back at Thorburn. (Obviously, we’d never do that.) Option 2: Give Islands positive coverage to show Thorburn his comments don’t mean a thing. (Ditto.) Respectfully, of course, this reviewer opted for somewhere in between for the Montreal band’s Monday show at Emo’s.
It began with the slow and calculated build-up of “Vertigo (If It’s a Crime)” from the new album. Guitars, keys, and drums found their way as the sextet’s odd player out vacillated between maracas, violin, and a giant chain that created a mesmerizing sound effect when jingled. Right when the predominantly under-21 crowd was about to fall asleep from all the noodling on the “gothic symphony in three acts,” Islands transitioned into “The Arm,” a triumphant song about divine intervention.
Complex arrangements and lyrics both personal and fantastical — Thorburn’s epic narratives ranged from beating cancer to tracking sasquatches to the murder of a fisherman by a group of teenagers — were what Islands did best. Where they lacked was in sense of purpose. Thorburn was stiff as a board, complained about playing the awesome hip-hop song “Where There’s a Will There’s a Whalebone” from their debut album, “Return to the Sea,” and — worst of all — wore a white T-shirt with a red blotch over his heart, creating the illusion that it was bleeding. Apparently, Thorburn doesn’t know that respect is a two-way street.
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Trail of Dead launch new label, ready new album
A new album is due in January 2009. It was produced by Mike McCarthy and Chris “Frenchie” Smith.
Billboard reports their last album, “So Divided” (Interscope, 2006) sold 26,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Ouch.
Fans might recall Trail of Dead’s earlier, funnier (and more Unwound-sounding) albums for Trance Syndicate and Merge.
Image of Trail of Dead by Deborah Cannon/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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CD Review: Sigur Ros
Sigur Ros
“Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust ” (XL)
Four stars
Iceland’s most powerful musical export (sorry Bjork), Sigur Ros manages to shift the dynamic pitch and tenor of their new compositions without losing the plot-threads of their preexisting blueprint: ethereal, soul-melting music combined with rock ‘n’ roll instrumentation, classical strings and minimalist arrangements.
Vocalist/guitarist Jon Thor Birgisson and his pitch-perfect falsetto provide a rutter through the tempestuous musicianship of bassist Georg Holm, keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson and drummer Orri Páll Dýrason.
The band shook up its regular recording process by working with producer Flood (U2, P.J. Harvey) in their ReykjavÃk home studio, as well as at Abbey Road and an unnamed studio in Cuba. Other co-collaborators include the London Sinfonietta, the London Oratory Boy’s Choir and the Amiina string quartet.
Opening track “Gobbledigook” is a playful allegro that immediately announces the band’s ventures into lighter waters as opposed to the darkly beautiful and baroque compositions that have helped the band build their enormous word-of-mouth following.
The influence of Sigur Ros’ 2007 acoustic tour dominates the sparse, elegiac “Illgresi.” The arrangement, stripped down to a haunting melody and a lone acoustic guitar, yields a poignant contrast to the rest of the album’s more orchestrated and majestic moments. “Inni mér syngur vitleysingur” morphs into triumphant pomp and stomp at about the three minute and 30 seconds mark, taking a heart-churning turn complete with a chorus of trumpets and assorted brass horns. “Godan Daginn” occupies more familiar Sigur Ros instrumentation and melody; the band creates bold verses that build toward epic choruses layered under Birgisson’s angelic Icelandic vocal. It’s the sound of deferred dreams coming to fruition.
Recommended download: “Godan daginn” and “Inni mér syngur vitleysingur”
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Video: Ocote Soul Sounds
Austin’s downbeat, world groove, fusion act Ocote Soul Sounds opens for DC-based DJ duo Thievery Corporation tonight at a sold out show at Stubb’s BBQ. They also host the official Thievery Corporation afterparty tonight at the Mohawk. We caught up with Martin Perna, Ocote Soul Sounds founder to chat about the band’s sound and origin as well as their relationship with Thievery Corporation.
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Free Willie!
Willie Nelson and Family celebrate the reopening of Carl’s Corner biodiesel truckstop with a free concert July 3. Also on the bill are Merle Haggard and Ray Price. Donations to the Freddy Powers Parkinson Organization (FPPO) are urged, but not required for admission.
Wilie’s Place at Carl’s Corner, as the truckstop has been newly christened, is about 140 miles north of Austin on I-35. The July 3 show runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. with a lot of opening acts.
David Allan Coe and Ray Wylie Hubbard will also play free shows at Carl’s Whiskey River Saloon on July 1 and 2. Willie and Family get the whole thing started with a private benefit concert June 30.
This article in the Waco Tribune gives more info.
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Tom Waits in Houston
Male concertgoers at Houston’s Jones Hall Sunday night sported more non-Stetson headgear than has probably been seen there for decades: Fedoras and trilbies were common; a Mad Hatter number drew no stares.
Tom Waits, the evening’s star, wore a black derby, which he exchanged at a crucial moment late in the show for one covered in mirrored tiles, reflecting shards of spotlight on dazzled fans.
No slouch at stagecraft, he spent most of the evening on a platform covered in dust that exploded whenever he stomped his feet. Hanging behind him was a sculptural array of battered loudspeakers, ranging from an old Victrola soundhorn to the kind of P.A. that delivered announcements on MAS*H.
A little surprisingly, Waits never actually used that display of speakers to make sounds — nor did he sing through the bullhorn at his feet, pound the upturned drum at his side, or wheel a calliope from the wings. He stuck to guitar and piano while supported by a five-piece band that featured an instrumentalist, Vincent Henry, who played not only most of the woodwinds known to man but sometimes — as on a rollicking version of “Way Down in the Hole” — played two saxes at once, Roland Kirk-style.
Taking liberties with familiar tunes and ignoring many fan favorites (there were no “Nighthawks” in this diner, no “Rain Dogs” stalking in from the street), Waits’s set list may have given some ammo to those who feel his growl has grown familiar. But then he’d break out something like “Lie to Me,” in which he hiccupped and wailed astonishingly over the band’s staccato beat, and reminded listeners how often he has surprised those who would pigeonhole his musical style.
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Three great local releases out this week
We profiled these three excellent local albums in the June 12 edition of XL. They hit stores Tuesday morning.
Alejandro Escovedo
‘Real Animal’
(Back Porch/Manhattan/EMI)
He’s never shied from personal albums, but No Depression magazine’s 1990s artist of the decade has never made one this straight-ahead autobiographical. And as such, it’s in the idiom he loves more than any other: straight-ahead, two-guitar, 4/4 rock ‘n’ roll, the kind he made with Rank and File and True Believers and not nearly enough since. In his words, from “Chip ‘n’ Tony”: “All I ever wanted was a four-piece band.” Co-written with Chuck Prophet, “Real Animal” is a grown man’s ode to punk and its discontents, a weirdly successful bid to recapture the sound of kicking out the jams while taking stock of the events that surrounded doing it in the first place. Glam-guru Tony Visconti mans the boards for a sympathetic production job. With its strings, sax and back-up gals, “Sensitive Boys” could be a “Transformer” outtake. (He’s never getting over Lou Reed, is he? Well, most folks don’t.)
“We came to live inside the myth of everything we’d heard,” Escovedo sings on “Chelsea Hotel ‘78.” The date’s important — Escovedo was 27 that year. It’s a cursed age in rock music (Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain are only the most famous of the 27 Club), but Al was just getting warmed up, hurling himself into a life of rock ‘n’ vice he’d only dreamed about.
He’s not adverse to name-dropping either — Neon Leon and “Nancy in her black underwear dead on the bathroom floor” show up in “Chelsea,” Lester Bangs in Austin with the “Vick’s Vapor eyes” shows up in “Chip ‘n’ Tony.” “Real as an Animal” is an ode to Iggy Pop (“Five feet four, trailer park kid”). “Nuns Song” shouts out his old band: “We don’t want your approval /It’s 1978/We know we’re not in tune/We know we’ll never be great.” Nice sentiment, but you can’t help thinking of it as a track from “Al’s Story: The Rock Musical.” Nevertheless, it’s a startlingly alive album from a guy whose life has been written off more than once. Welcome back, rocker.
Recommended: “Always A Friend,” “Sister Lost Soul” and “Nuns Song”
— Joe Gross
Reckless Kelly
‘Bulletproof’
(Yep Roc)
At this point, Reckless Kelly had to make a bold move without losing what they’ve built up over the past 12 years. “Bulletproof” is a statement record: We’re a rock band that writes country songs. And with “American Blood,” the Reckless ones brilliantly stand up for their country, while blasting the Bush administration (“sitting with his feet on the desk, when the boys have got theirs in the sand”). Under a sturdy rock riff tempo, Willy Braun forcefully sings the story of a kid not old enough to drink, yet sent to Iraq to fight. At 23, he’s old enough for booze, but his legs are gone, so he gets drunk and shouts “God bless America, but God (expletive) Uncle Sam!” It’s the most powerful moment in an album full of them.
Musically, R.K. is subtly subversive, although over the long haul of this album (14 tracks) the songs do tend to sound the same. The save man here is guitarist David Abeyta, who sets off the band’s Steve Earle tribute act with stunning guitar fills that sound based more on ’70s arena rock (bet he loves Queen’s Brian May) than on the usual chunk-and-twang such songs receive. When he’s got great material to work with, such as “Love In Her Eyes” and “Ragged As the Road,” Abeyta adds just enough sweetening without getting in the way. When he’s asked to carry a sleepwalker, such as the title track, he rips out an arsenal of swampy riffs that make the tune.
“Bulletproof” is an aggressive album with an anti-war song that outprotests James McMurtry. Even in the most stagnant of subgenres (alt-country), the Kellies strive to remain fresh and when that fails, they have Abeyta to fall back on. It’s a good album, perhaps their best, but it would’ve been better with a bit of the deadwood cut out. Can we somehow pass a city ordinance that limits the number of songs on an album to 12?
Recommended: “American Blood,” “Love In Her Eyes”
— Michael Corcoran
Ian McLagan and the Bump Band
‘Never Say Never’
(Maniac)
Because he’s such a monster keyboardist, best known for backing the likes of Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones, Ian McLagan is a woefully underrated singer and songwriter. While Stewart is printing money by pillaging the Great American Songbook, it’s the man they call “Mac” who’s following through on the Faces legacy with pub rockers such as “I’m Hot, You’re Cool.”
He’s also finding new styles of tenderness with “An Innocent Man,” an acoustic guitar song about being lost and lonely.
The overall theme of “Never Say Never” is using music as part of the grieving process. (The official release date is June 24, although it’s been available online for awhile.) “Nothing that I can write can help you,” he sings on “Where Angels Hide,” his voice almost breaking. It’s a sad and beautiful song, as is album-closing “When the Crying Is Over,” which is practically a gospel song.
Anybody who ever saw Ian and Kim McLagan together, so perfectly prepared to grow old together, knows that when Kim died in a car accident in 2006, a big part of Mac died, too.
But, as evidenced by this record, which has its light moments with parlor tune “Killing Me With Love” and the naughty, smoky “A Little Black Number,” perhaps a new part of McLagan has shown itself. He’s been to a place we all pray that we’ll never have to visit and somehow he’s getting through it. With his music. With his band. With his friends. With his memories and dreams.
McLagan couldn’t have written “An Innocent Man” three years ago. A minuscule concession, to be sure, but in McLagan’s quest to make sense of the senseless, he’ll help others understand along the way.
Recommended: “Never Say Never, “An Innocent Man,” “A Little Black Number”
— Michael Corcoran
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Boy George denied visa
It looks like there’ll be no “Karma Chamelion” singalong at Stubb’s Aug. 21; the Boy George summer U.S. concert tour is off unless the government has a change of heart..
Here’s the statement from B.G.’s management:
“At the moment, Boy George cannot come to the United States of America because he has been refused permission to enter by the USA Administration. This is not in respect of anything he has done in the past but because he is facing a trial in November in London for something that happened in April last year. George’s lawyers in London have absolutely forbidden us to speak about the facts of that case and all I can say is that George is astounded at the decision and is having lawyers here in the States look at it in the hope that someone will change their mind. George has not been convicted of anything in London and there is a presumption in the Western World of innocence until proven guilty… George really would love to come to America and repay his American fans loyalty and that is why we are asking the US Authorities to reconsider their decision”.
After a history of drug busts, Boy George was arrested for allegedly assaulting and falsely imprisoning a man in his home in East London last April.
Promoter Charles Attal could not be reached immediately. A spokesperson for Frontgate Tickets, which still has the Aug. 21 Boy George show on its schedule, says they’ve not yet been notified that the show is cancelled.
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Musicmania Top 10 for the week ending June 22
Lil’ Wayne ‘Carter III’ (Cash Money)
Plies ‘Definition of Real’ (SlipNslide)
Blood Raw ‘CTE Presents Blood Raw’ (Def Jam)
Bun-B ‘II Trill’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Lucky Luciano ‘Ahead Of My Time’ (Dope House)
Usher ‘Here I Stand’ (LaFace)
Rick Ross ‘Trilla’ (SlipNSlide)
Trae ‘Stretts of the South Pt. 2’ (Oarfin)
Pimp C ‘Greatest Hits’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Big Moe ‘Unfinsihed Business’ (Koch)
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SIMS appreciation event Thursday
Outgoing SIMS Foundation president Sandra Bruce will be feted Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the mezzanine at Central Market’s 4001 North Lamar Blvd. location. Bruce has led the musicians assistance program for the past three and a half years. She will begin teaching at the University of Texas in the fall and do consulting work.
Live music will be provided by Chris Gates (ex-Big Boys, ex-Junkyard).
To learn more about or make a contribution to the SIMS Foundation, visit the website.
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Waterloo Top 10 for the week ending June 14
Coldplay, “Viva La Vida” (EMI)
My Morning Jacket. “Evil Urges” (ATO)
Grupo Fantasma, “Sonidos Gold” (High Wire Music)
Wolf Parade, “At Mount Zoomer” (Sub Pop)
Fleet Foxes, “Fleet Foxes” (Sub Pop)
James McMurtry, “Just Us Kids” (Lightning Rod)
Emmylou Harris, “All I Intended To Be” (Nonesuch)
Eliza Gilkyson, “Beautiful World” (Red House)
Silver Jews, “Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea” (Drag City)
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, “Raising Sand” (Rounder)
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Escovedo impresses on Conan, to headline Keep Austin Weird Fest
Alejandro Escovedo does Chelsea Hotel ‘78 at Jazzfest in April
Alejandro Escovedo proved he’s no Ghostland Observatory: he killed on his network TV debut. The great guitarist David Pulkingham started “Chelsea Hotel ‘78” off with that spooky guitar, then drummer Hector Munoz and bassist Josh Gravelin set it up for Big Al, wearing a red suit with a black shirt. If anyone sees Escovedo wearing a color other than red or black in the next couple of months, the National Enquirer might be interested in the pictures. (Ya know, if Kate Hudson is standing next to him.)
Violinist Susan Voelz looked cool in her black bouffant (Amy Winevoelz?) and the jam at the end with cellist Brian Standefer mixing it up with the drums and electric guitars really sealed it.
Besides having to sit through actor Masi Oka’s George Takae impressions, the only thing I didn’t care for was Escovedo’s occasional pantomiming. Let’s not see any more of the pointing to the temple when singing “sense.”
Escovedo’s just been booked on Letterman Aug. 7. And don’t forget to DVR the “Today” show Tuesday, when “Real Animal” comes out.
Escovedo will be back in Austin after the “Today” show, playing Thursday and Friday at the Continental Club. There are no advance tix for those shows, but if you don’t want to stand in line for an hour or two, you can also catch AE and his great band at the “Keep Austin Weird Fest” at Auditorium Shores on Saturday. Buy $10 wristbands here. Escovedo headlines at 8:30 p.m. Also on the impressive bill are What Made Milwaukee Famous, Black Joe Lewis and the Honey Bears, Feeding 5000 and more.
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Alejandro Escovedo on Late Night with Conan O’Brien tonight
Just a reminder, people. Show starts at 11:35 Central.
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Weekend Picks: Primitive rock, aggressive garage and beloved REK
Friday: Times New Viking at Emo’s. This Ohio trio moved to biggish indie Matador Records with their latest album, ‘Rip it Off,’ and somehow got noisier and more primitive. With Austinites When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Ume and amazing Mexican band Los Llamarada. 10 p.m. $8. —-Joe Gross
Friday: Robert Earl Keen at Stubb’s BBQ.There’s a short list of artists genuinely beloved in Austin. Willie Nelson is of course at the top. Keen has to be up there —- people just adore the guy. With Austin’s Band of Heathens. 7 p.m. $30 advance, $33 day of show. —- J.G.
Friday: Move Something 7 at the Whisky Bar. Chicken George returns to Whisky Bar for another installment of his ongoing turntable extravaganza designed with one aim and one aim only, to make you move. Whisky Bar regular DJ Tats will join CG to rock the party on 4 turntables. No cover. —-Deborah Sengupta Stith
Saturday: Red Dons at Emo’s. A wonderfully varied bill here, the kind one wishes would happen more often in Austin. The headliners play aggressive garage rock. With noise-pop oddballs Psychedelic Horse(expletive), spare and driving Portland trio the Estranged, Austin garage rockers the Hex Dispensers, Australians Fabulous Diamonds and Austin hardcore kids Deskonocidos. 8 p.m. —-J.G.
Saturday: An Arabian Night at the Enchanted Forest. The artsy folk of the Enchanted Forest open the wooded compound for an evening of belly dance, fire dance, world groove and more benefiting KOOP Radio. The culinary goddesses of Ararat will be on hand to serve Middle Eastern fusion cuisine. $15 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. (includes Ararat buffet), $10 8:30 p.m. to close. —-D.S.S.
Saturday: Horse + Donkey at the Hole in the Wall. A CD release party for this frantic Austin trio’s newest album, ‘Dreams.’ With Yellow Fever and Basic. 10 p.m. —- J.G.
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Shearwater to open for Coldplay
Austin’s own Shearwater is opening for Coldplay on several dates this July.
Shearwater plays with Mr. Gwenyth Paltrow and his pals July 14 and 15 at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles, Calif., July 18 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. and July 19 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.
As noted on the Matador Records’s blog, Shearwater’s set from last Sunday night in DC was taped by NPR’s “All Songs Considered” and can be heard here.
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Review: Merle Haggard at the Paramount Theatre
At 72, Merle Haggard is at the standing-ovation-just-for-being-alive stage of his career. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. We should all be so lucky. And so talented. And have four Telecasters plucking out some of the best country songs ever written whenever we hit the stage. (Is there any doubt that the Telecaster is the most important instrument in country music history? Fiddle? Dobro? Nah. The Fender Telecaster has tamed more wild men than the Colt .45.)
Wednesday’s show at the Paramount was a sit-down affair, the audience full of folks who looked to be Merle lifers, hardcore country fans and fans of hardcore country. A smattering of hipsters and younger folks peppered the crowd, but most of the folks there were alive when “Okie from Muskogee” was a genuine response to a counter-culture that didn’t really realize just how real Merle was. (Word to Gram Parsons, who wanted Haggard to produce an album — Haggard said no to the rich-kid hippie, which somehow increases Merle’s cool factor by about a thousand.)
After a few brief openers, Merle, wearing high-waisted jeans and a long sleeve purple T-shirt walked out, strapped on his Tele and got down to business. His effortlessly professional eight-piece band was pure honky-tonk, but included keys, pedal steel and saxophone, which lent the songs an urban, R&B-ish feel that reminded just how universal they sound. These songs were about gangsta before hip-hop existed, country noir about lonesome fugitives and drunks whom the bottle has let down. Johnny Cash sang about “Folsom Prison Blues,” but Haggard lived them — no wonder his cover of it sounded so perfect.
His love songs never sound all that sincere if only that he never sounds all that broken up about them. Of course “That’s the Way Love Goes” — only music will never let you down. And his politics have become so baffling over the years that “The Fighting Side of Me” seems more like a tune for the fans than profession of faith.
But he can still sell a hard luck story as well or better than anyone. And when he sings “The wrinkles in my forehead show the miles I’ve put behind me/ They continue to remind how fast I’m growin’ old/ Guess I’ll die with this fever in my soul,” you believe every word.
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Manager’s spouse pens Escovedo cover story
“For the last 16 years, Alejandro Escovedo has been one of America’s two or three greatest popular music artists,” begins a lengthy piece in the June 20 Austin Chronicle, which hits the top of cigarette machines tomorrow. It’s a bold claim made by well-known critic Dave Marsh, who just so happens to be married to Escovedo’s new manager Barbara Carr.
Even for the local publication nicknamed the Austin Agenda, this story seems to have conflict of interest issues.
Now, Marsh made his name writing about his wife’s other client, Bruce Springsteen, so this is nothing new. Although his Escovedo piece is a fairly tiresome 6,000 word bio, Marsh’s integrity is unimpeachable. You can be sure he truly believed every word he wrote about Escovedo.
Still.
Here’s a local artist who just made the record of his career. Isn’t there a capable writer in town who, I don’t know, isn’t married to someone who gets a piece of the action? Maybe next week Eddie Wilson could write about the best home cooking places in town that have tenuous Janis Joplin connections.
TELL US: Besides Wilco, Beck, White Stripes, Spoon, My Morning Jacket, Eminem, Jay-Z, Campbell Brothers, OutKast, Steve Earle, Springsteen, Moby, Strokes, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Patty Griffin and Los Lobos can you think of any acts that could possibly rival Escovedo as America’s greatest popular music artist of the past 16 years?
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Steve “Esteban” Jordan tribute Aug. 10
Steve Jordan jams with Santana and Garcia.
The Mexican American Cultural Center at 600 River Street (near Rainey Street) has been confirmed as the venue for the Aug. 10 tribute/ benefit for the great accordionista Steve Jordan, who is undergoing treatment for liver cancer. Here’s an article on Jordan which originally ran as an XL cover in 2003.
Expect a stellar lineup, but the best set could be the reunion of the Jordan Brothers band from the 1960s. Steve continues to play most Fridays at Salute in San Antonio, as long as he has the strength.
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Lil Wayne ‘The Carter III’ tour coming to Austin
We’re a little late on this one, but in case you don’t listen to the radio, Lil Wayne and Birdman will be hitting the Travis Expo Center on July 10. Tickets will set you back anywhere from $59-$99 (depending on how you roll, playa) and are available through Frontgate Tickets.
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Pinetop turns 95 at Antone’s
Marcia Ball, Gary Clark Jr. and more will help blues legend Pinetop Perkins celebrate his 95th birthday with a show for the ages at Antone’s Monday July 7.
Advance tickets for the 8 p.m. show are $12 and available here. Cost is $15 at the door, and $30 for VIP. For more information or tickets call 320-8424.
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Univision announces nominations for fourth annual “Premios De Texas”
During Wednesday’s broadcast of “Despierta Austin” (Wake Up Austin) Univision 62 announced the nominations for the fourth annual “Premios de Texas” (Texas Awards), Spanish-language television’s regional awards show.
Chosen by fans who vote online through Univision.com (keyword: Premios de Texas), the show will air on Univision stations throughout Texas. The show is scheduled for 7 p.m. Aug. 7 at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. Despierta America host Ana Maria Canseco and radio morning show personality Raul Brindis will co-host.
It will air on Univision stations throughout Texas on Aug. 16th.
Fans can log onto Univsion.com (keyword: Premios de Texas) to vote for their favorite artists through July 20.
Here are the nominations:
Mejor Artista Tejano
Bobby Pulido
Jay Pérez
Jimmy Gonzalez
Rubén Ramos
Mejor Artista Regional Mexicano
Conjunto Primavera
Diana Reyes
El Chapo de Sinaloa
Intocable
Ramón Ayala
Mejor Artista Rock/n Pop en Español
Belanova
Camila
Kanny Garcia
Mana
Mejor Artista Tropical
Aventura
DJ Flex
Juan Luis Guerra
Olga Tañón
Mejor Artista Vocal Femenina
Diana Reyes
Graciela Beltrán
Jenni Rivera
Julieta Venegas
Mejor Artista Vocal Masculino
El Chapo de Sinaloa
Jay Pérez
Joan Sebastian
Pepe Aguilar
Mejor Album Del Año
Camila- “Todo Cambió”
Conjunto Primavera- “Que Ganas de Volver”
DJ Flex- “Te Quiero”
Vicente Fernandez- “Para Siempre”
Wisin y Yandel- “Los Extraterrestres”
Mejor Artista Revelación del año
DJ Flex
El Güero y su banda
Kanny Garcia
Karyme Lozano
Mejor Artista de Austin
Grupo Emoción
Del Castillo
Vallejo
Grupo Fantasma
Mejor Artista Hip-Hop/Urbano
Calle 13
DJ Flex
La Factoria
Wisin Y Yandel
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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.
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Coldplay’s latest is from heart, but U2’s sound looms
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Coldplay
‘Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends’
(Capitol)
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin seems like a nice guy to go on a hike with up Mount Bonnell.
He’d gesture toward the beauty of it all — a glimpse of a beautiful lake here, a really nice tree there. When you got to the top, he’d point out just how gorgeous and transcendent and really-no-kidding sublime the view is, how glorious it feels to be alive, to be in the moment, just to … be.
And then he would sing an ode to the hike. And it might actually go a ways toward capturing the feeling of being on top of a big hill, more or less. At any rate, you’d never doubt that he really feels it.
But all you could think is, “Isn’t this like the last scene in ‘Slacker?’ “
This, then, is the problem with Coldplay. It has been the problem with Coldplay since they started becoming one of the world’s biggest bands, and on “Viva La Vida,” their fifth album, it remains their biggest problem. Not only does their every move smack of effort, it’s often duplicated effort. The highs they’re going for have been scaled by others.
That might explain why, in order to shake things up a bit and perhaps move away from their late-model U2 sound, they produced “Viva La Vida” with Brian Eno … who produced a whole mess of U2 albums.
Ooookaaaaay. Not sure where you’re going with that … actually, that’s not fair. I know exactly where they’re going with this.
Because in many ways, “Viva” is in no way new-model Coldplay. The sweeping arrangements, the art-rock-for-the-masses vibe, that well-meaning, searching sound? Still there.
And they still sound like an amalgamation of their influences — a bit of Radiohead here, some Bunnymen here and a little of U2’s outsized sound — but Martin has almost admitted that’s part of their appeal.
But they brought in Eno to shake things up a little. Not enough to frighten the horses or their legions of fans, but enough so their legions of fans won’t call it anything less than a progression. (Take the almost-breakbeat handclaps on “Yes!” You can practically hear them in the studio saying, “Right, that sounds different enough.”)
Make that lots of U2. Opener “Life in Technicolor” sounds like an old “Joshua Tree” worktape — ambient synth hum, flickering guitar, a distant pulse. The title track has the punching-the-air quality that the past few U2 albums have leaned on.
Martin still sounds as if he’s feeling with every pore, singing as if his, ours and the whole world’s life depends on it. Sure, there are new sounds here and there and far less piano, far fewer ballads that sound more like odes to adolescent torpor. The best moments are the lowest key; “Strawberry Swing” feels like classic Britpop.
But “Cemeteries of London” goes all wide-screen and looks for God, as does “Violet Hill.” That one looks at war and Bibles and fog becoming God, in fact.
Speaking of God, “42” is pure triumphal rock — melodramatic strings, soaring guitar, that whole bit. (I really hope the title is a reference to the old “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” joke about that number being the answer to life, the universe and everything, but nobody has ever accused Martin of being funny. Ever.)
Here, as with most of this pleasantly bombastic album, Eno sounds more like a friendly enabler than a disciplinarian, smiling and nodding as Martin can’t help filling with sound the arenas he sees himself touring over the next year.
“Listen as the crowd would sing/ now the old king is dead, long live the king,” Martin croons - jeez, has anyone told Bono?
Recommended track: “Viva La Vida”
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Musicmania Top 10 for the week ending June 15
Lil Wayne ‘Carter III’ (Cash Money)
Plies ‘Definition Of Real’ (SlipNSlide)
Bun-B ‘II Trill’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Lil’ Keke ‘Chronicles’ (Hustle Town)
Usher ‘Here I Stand’ (LaFace)
Bun-B ‘II Trill Chopped & Screwed’ (Rap-a-lot)
Big Moe ‘Unfinished Business’ (Koch)
Pimp-C ‘Greatest Hits’ (Rap-a-Lot)
Ashanti ‘Declaration’ (Motown)
N.E.R.D. ‘Seeing Sounds’ (Interscope)
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Late night musical guests this week
Don’t miss Alejandro Escovedo on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” on Friday. Here’s a video presentation that tells the story of his “Real Animal” album coming June 24.
Monday
Amos Lee- Leno
Adele- Letterman
Lordz- Conan
Tuesday
Jewel- Leno
Stevie Wonder, Dr. John- Letterman
Chromeo- Kimmel
John Hiatt- Ferguson
Wednesday
Against Me!- Leno
Martha Wainwright- Letterman
Jewel- Kimmel
The Fratellis- Ferguson
Thursday
Duffy- Leno
Keyshia Cole- Letterman
My Morning Jacket- Conan
Lil’ Wayne- Kimmel
Boxmasters (Billy Bob Thornton)= Ferguson
Friday
Bette Midler- Leno
The Baseball Project- Letterman
Alejandro Escovedo- Conan
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Waterloo Top 10 for the week ending June 14
My Morning Jacket. “Evil Urges” (ATO)
Lil’ Wayne, “The Carter III” (Universal)
Fleet Foxes, “Fleet Foxes” (Sub Pop)
Death Cab for Cutie, “Narrow Stairs” (Atlantic)
Shearwater, “Rook” (Matador)
Emmylou Harris, “All I Intended To Be” (Nonesuch)
Mother Truckers, “Let’s All Go to Bed” (Funzalo)
Eliza Gilkyson, “Beautiful World (Red House)
Weezer, “Weezer” (Geffen)
James McMurtry, “Just Us Kids” (Lightning Rod)
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Review: Rancid at La Zona Rosa
Tammy Perez FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
The punks got lucky Friday at La Zona Rosa when an ever-rowdy Rancid energized the crowd with a great big gob of spit-along favorites.
Missing in action because of various side projects (the Transplants, Lars Frederiksen & the Bastards, Social Distortion and solo pursuits), Orange County’s ska-punk hellcats returned to grease the gears of a forthcoming album to succeed 2003’s excellent, but overlooked “Indestructible.”
Opening with the bass-driven “Fall Back Down,” Rancid stormed the stage in front of a flickering black and white video screen that flashed grainy footage of warplanes, guns and other methods of destruction. Locking into a blitzkrieg pace, the band shelled the crowd with “Roots Radicals,” “Journey to the End of East Bay,” “Tenderloin,” “Nihilism” and the rump-bump shimmy of “Old Friend.” The dizzying bass blur of “Maxwell Murder” and the sore-throated slur of “Olympia” followed like bullets.
Dressed in his cleanest dirty laundry, guitarist Lars Frederiksen wore a hacked-off Exploited T-shirt with a haircut to match. Former Operation Ivy band mates Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman arrived in their respective bank-robber ski cap and Soprano-slicked hair. As the string-slashing trio traded ricochet vocals, newcomer Branden Steineckert, formerly of the Used, hammered the spiky beat.
Seizing a rare gasp for breath, Frederiksen twanged a solo version of “The War’s End” before the boil re-ignited with “Dreams Come True,” “Gunshot,” “Radio” and the final ticks of “Time Bomb” and “Ruby Soho” (a pair of hits that clashed with Green Day and Offspring when punk rock elbowed into polite society during the mid-1990s).
Except for a brotherly thanks to local openers Lower Class Brats and Ill Spent Youth, Rancid chose to chill the chitchat and crank the chaos. With no danger of shouting “Hello Cleveland” between a steam-choked set of alleyway anthems (including a whiff of new tunes), Rancid’s raw stab at punk-rock perfection was more than a minor threat.
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Review: Loretta Lynn at Stubb’s
The best Merle Haggard show I’ve ever been to was at Stubb’s seven or eight years ago, when Redd Volkaert was still in the band. My favorite George Jones show? Also on the BBQ joint’s outdoor stage, which is known more for hosting up-and-coming rockers than country legends. Would Loretta Lynn, the queen of country music, make it three in a row Friday night?
Yes!
Although she played the same corny set for the tattooed multitudes who packed Stubb’s as she would’ve in Branson (set opener was a cover of the Bellamy Brothers’ “Let Your Love Flow”), the spunky, 73-year-old honky tonk angel was in fine voice and touched down on such mid-’60s classics as “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind),” “Fist City” and “Your Squaw Is On the Warpath.” Those Lynn compositions are all basically the same song, but it’s a good ‘un.
You paid to get Lo-retty and you got Lo-retty; in a blue sequined gown with her hair piled high, she was still the “Blue Kentucky Girl” from Appalachia whose favorite adjective is dadgum. “Whatever you want to hear, just holler it out,” she said between songs, though you can be fairly certain the set list, including an ironic pairing of “One’s On the Way” and “The Pill,” was carved on a stone tablet. (I could be mistaken because I disliked the record and never played it again, but she didn’t do a single number from the Jack White-produced “Van Lear Rose.”)
Drawing more of her audience from the gay pride rally-ers in town than all the bikers (who combined to make Austin the leather chaps capital of the universe this weekend), Lynn’s show had more padding than a drag show. She bantered humorously, dismissively with bandleader son Ernie (the Frank Sinatra Jr. of the Grand Ol’ Opry), gave two songs in the middle of the set to a granddaughter masquerading as an early round “American Idol” hopeful and brought someone from the wings whose name I didn’t catch to sing “Amazing Grace” (not once, but twice). You also had the requisite gospel segment with the three male backup singers moving front and center. All the while, the downhome queen stayed onstage, for an hour and 20 minutes, knowing that her mere presence was worth the $30- $35 admission.
It ended, of course, with “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the movie-in-a-song for which Lynn had seemingly saved her strength to reclaim with authority. These oldies acts can be hit or miss, and Lynn did flub the lyrics occasionally and you wondered how she’d hold up in the heat. But on Friday night, 2,100 folks buzzed out of Stubb’s having seen and heard a legend in the flesh. She just had to show up, really, but the shy kid from Butcher Holler gave her fans a lot more than a token performance.
Loretta Lynn: what a portrait of class!
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Preview: Rilo Kiley at Stubb’s
Although much of Rilo Kiley’s deserved attention revolves around the band’s charismatic song-siren Jenny Lewis, the band would not be the indie rock juggernaut that it is without the studied and melodic guitar work of co-vocalist and co-founder Blake Sennett.
The Los Angeles indie-ethos rock band returns Monday to Austin for their second show at Stubb’s in just under nine months in support of the 2007 release, “Under the Blacklight.” Rilo Kiley has always been a genre cipher, but with “Under the Blacklight” the band has grown beyond the bubble-gum and country-tinged pop songs of their previous albums by adding new influences, from ’60s girl-group soul (“Smoke Detector”) to ’70s yacht rock (“Dreamworld”) and beyond.
Sennett, groggy and slightly aloof, talked to us Friday from Charleston, S.C., the wear-and-tear of years of touring sounding as if they weighed on him like a rain-soaked coat. Moments of silence and stammering passed before Sennett opened up about what drew him toward a life in music and away from a lucrative and successful career in acting.
“Teenage years are a time when you really fall in love with music,” Sennett says. “I took piano, guitar, drums and coronet lessons when I was a kid. My mom encouraged that in me.
“I was a little bit of an outcast in school, and so I fell in love with going home and listening to Pink Floyd, Cream, Paul Simon and other ‘60s and ‘70s bands (as an escape).”
Although much of Sennett’s childhood was spent in San Diego, where he attended the exclusive La Jolla Country Day School with old friend and future Rilo Kiley bassist Pierre de Reeder, by age 15 he was regularly acting on televisions shows produced in Los Angeles. Sennett was cast in numerous sitcoms and had recurring roles on “Third Rock From the Sun” and “Boy Meets World.”
Meanwhile Lewis also steadily worked as an actor; she was Kirk Cameron’s first kiss on “Growing Pains,” had a memorable turn in the feature film “Camp Beverly Hills” and worked with a young Angelina Jolie in the 1996 underrated teen drama, “Foxfire.”
Sennett says that sometime around 1996, a mutual friend recommended that he and Lewis meet since they were both actors who played music on the side.
“(Jenny and I) hit it off pretty quickly; the music came real easy. We were just goofing around at first…and then a couple of years later we just both quit acting because we liked music so much,” he says.
Not only did Sennett and Lewis like music, but they liked each as well; they were romantically involved in the band’s early days up through their second album, “The Execution of All Things.”
“Around 1998, we started to get serious (about music) and formed the band,” Sennett says. Drummer Jason Boesel and bassist de Reeder coalesced the line-up that has produced their most creatively ambitious work: “The Execution of All Things,” “More Adventurous” and “Under the Blacklight.”
Much of the band’s folksy, polished-pop sound on their first three albums was enhanced by Saddle Creek Records producer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis. But for “Under the Blacklight,” Rilo Kiley sought out hip-hop producer Mike Elizondo and producer/engineer Jason Lader. The band’s new collaborators helped create a slicker, more-polished sound for the band’s major label debut on Warner Brothers.
Sennett is quick to note that Elizondo was not a Svengali who pushed the band in its new direction. “We brought it out of ourselves, to be honest,” he says. “We really wanted to reach out and try something different. We wanted to work with someone that could help us do some stuff we didn’t know how to do and had never done before.
“And we’re huge fans of Elizondo’s work with Dr. Dre. He’s such a huge part of that team.”
Sennett says that the band’s future is incredibly busy. He reports that Lewis has a second solo album in the can that should be released this fall. Likewise, he will continue to work with his side-project, the Elected, as well as a new electronic/dance music band that he recently started called Huachuca.
Sennett doesn’t say whether he loves music more than acting. But in conversation, he says “like” when referring to acting and films and “love” when talking about music.
“In general, acting was kind of a drag just because auditioning was such a bummer,” he says. “It’s just a really humiliating way to exist. I don’t think I would go back to acting (that involved auditions) if I could help it.”
His voice sounds lighther as he reflects on Rilo Kiley’s current success.
“I don’t anticipate going back to acting as such,” he says. “I don’t think I’ll have to do that.”
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Weekend Picks: Compassionate rock, weirdo rap and a country legend
Friday: Loretta Lynn at Stubb’s. ‘Van Lear Rose,’ her 2004 collaboration with Jack White, tried to do for her what Rick Rubin did for Johnny Cash. Didn’t get there, but it was a nice effort. Ah, well, she has to rest on being one of the best country songwriters, singers and personalities of all time. With Sunny Sweeney. $30. 7 p.m. —-Joe Gross
Friday: Comfort the Children benefit at the Belmont. Austin-based nonprofit CTC was founded by local Christians to aid impoverished Kenyans, focusing on the town of Maai Mahiu. Local rockers Alpha Rev, they of the serious Radiohead jones and loyal audience, will perform. $20 donation. 8 p.m. —-Joe Gross
Friday: DJ Melee part 3 at Club DeVille. Part 3 of this turntable throwdown will determine the third DJ to join Starsign and Golden Hornets from Japan at the Melee finals in July. On the decks will be DJs coolhands, BigFace and Orion. This is a free show. —-Deborah Sengupta Stith
Friday -Saturday: Hole in the Wall 34th anniversary shows. Friday night features Pataphysics, Silver Pines and the Cari & Jason Band. Saturday, check out Chris Brecht, Leatherbag and the Archibalds. Both shows are free. —- J.G.
Saturday: Busdriver at the Mohawk. I’ve never fully grasped the weirdo rap style of this L.A. underground cat, but with the ever-expanding reach of nerdcore and other hip-hop abstractions his fan base seems to be steadily growing. With Anti-MC, DJ Aspek, DJ Bomber, Giant Hornets from Japan. $13 —-D.S.S.
Sunday: Extra Golden at Club DeVille. Once, they were just Golden, indie rock dudes with a serious Afropop bent. Now, guitarists Alex Minoff and Ian Eagleson are joined by Kenyan guitarist Opiyo Bilongo and Kenyan drummer Onyango Wuod Omari for Extra Golden, which fuses rock with benga music. Yes, the band has penned a song called ‘Obama,’ written back when the senator from Illinois’ office helped secure travel visas for the musicians.With Rattletree Marimba, Foot Patrol and DJ Manola Black.$10. 8p.m. —- J.G.
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Correction for the Extra Golden show
The incorrect address and phone number was listed for Club DeVille in this week’s XL music blast for the Extra Golden show on June 15.
Club DeVille is located at 900 Red River St. The correct phone number is 457-0900.
The correct blast should read as follows:
Extra Golden - Once, they were just Golden, indie rock dudes with a serious Afropop bent. Now, guitarists Alex Minoff and Ian Eagleson are joined by Kenyan guitarist Opiyo Bilongo and Kenyan drummer Onyango Wuod Omari for Extra Golden, which fuses rock with benga music. Yes, the band has penned a song called ‘Obama,’ written back when the senator from Illinois’ office helped secure travel visas for the musicians. With Rattletree Marimba, Foot Patrol and DJ Manola Black. $10. 8 p.m. Club DeVille. 900 Red River St. 457-0900. - J.G.
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McMurtry, Carll garner top AMA nominations
Alison Krauss & Robert Plant are expected to clean up when the winners are anounced in September, but acerbic Austin singer-songwriters James McMurtry and Hayes Carll received several nominations, including Artist of the Year for McMurtry, in the 2008 Americana Music Association Awards announced Wednesday.
Carll’s “Trouble in Mind” and McMurtry’s “Just Us Kids” will go against Krauss & Plant’s “Raising Sand” and Levon Helm’s “Dirt Farmer” in the album category.
The Song of the Year competition pits McMurtry’s vitriolic “Cheney’s Toy” and Carll’s “She Left Me for Jesus” against “Broken” by Tift Merritt, “Gone Gone Gone” by Krauss & Plant and “Poor Old Dirt Farmer” by Helm.
Artist of the Year nominees include McMurtry, Helm, Steve Earle and Jim Lauderdale.
New Emerging Artist of the Year nominees are Justin Townes Earle, Mike Farris, parttime Austinite Ryan Bingham and the Steeldrivers.
Austin guitarist/ producer Gurf Morlix is nominated in the Best Instrumentalist category along with Buddy Miller, Chris Thile and Sam Bush. Duo/ Group of the Year nominees are Alison Krauss & Robert Plant, Drive By Truckers, Kane Welch Kaplin and the Avett Brothers.
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Top 10 local albums of 2008 (so far)
- 1. ‘Real Animal,’ Alejandro Escovedo.This sounds like the solo record Escovedo has waited his whole life to make — and so much of his life is laid out here, from his first fave nightclub (‘Golden Bear’), his first band (‘Nuns Song’), his first real band Rank and’ File (‘Chip N’ Tony’), his main man Iggy (‘Real As an Animal’) and the last time and place he was invincible (‘Chelsea Hotel ‘78’). Marketing’s a little heavy on the glam resurrection, but Escovedo makes it stick. Good call on the Chuck Prophet collab, too. — Michael Corcoran
- 2. ‘Rook,’ Shearwater. ‘Rook’ starts with croon and some piano chords as Jonathan Meiburg softly laments ‘the death of the waters.’ A wave of sound crashes into the spare melody about halfway through as drums, guitar feedback, trumpets and strings — the album’s whole palette — show up at once. Then it fades away, the wave returning to the dying sea. Not a bad introduction to the most accessible work of Shearwater’s career. — Joe Gross
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3. ‘Sonidos Gold,’ Grupo Fantasma.The title and CD cover seem like a humorous nod to all those vintage ‘Exitos de Oro’ (‘Golden Hits’) salsa compilations, but Grupo Fantasma certainly comes through with the serious goods. There’s not a weak song on the 11-piece Austin band’s first studio album in four years. — Parry Gettlelman
A-List pics from the CD release | SoundCheck360 - 4. ‘Let’s All Go To Bed,’ Mother Truckers. Not only is the sound cleaner, punchier (than on previous LP ‘Broke, Not Broken’), but Teal Collins displays a major-league voice (check out her version of Billy Joe Shaver’s ‘When I Get My Wings’). Led by countrified shredder Josh Zee, drummer Dan Thompson (Zee’s former bandmate in prog metal band Protein) and bassist Danny G, the band goes all out, like three guys on a caper, especially on the wicked leadoff track ‘Dynamite.’ If Southern Culture On the Skids hear ‘Dynamite,’ they might retire. — M.C.
- 5. ‘Dan Dyer,’ Dan Dyer.Produced by David Boyle (ex-Scabs) in a renovated black Pentecostal church, Dyer feels the spirit and comes to genuflect before Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway and Curtis Mayfield. — M.C.
- 6. ‘Trouble in Mind,’ Hayes Carll.A ceaseless thrum of polished portraits and priceless punch lines, ‘Trouble In Mind’ sketches a peerless blueprint of songwriting as unpretentious modern art. — Brian T. Atkinson
- 7. ‘The Graveyard of Utopia,’ World Burns to Death. Eight songs, 25 minutes, absolutely no mercy. Utterly raging hardcore punk, thrashing yet exceptionally well-played, from Austin’s most apocalyptic outfit. A perfect soundtrack to our ever-approaching end times, especially if you wear bullet belts, tight jeans and T-shirts from black metal bands. — J.G.
- 8. ‘Just Us Kids,’ James McMurtry.A strong followup to his breakout ‘Childish Things,’ McMurty plays it safe by not altering the country-crunch sound, but begs for a fatter FBI file with anti-Bush songs (‘Cheney’s Toy’). — J.G.
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9. ‘Strange Invitation,’ South Austin Jug Band. An album of texture and taste, ‘Strange Invitation’ strives to sustain its dark, yet resilient mood from beginning to end, even at the cost of keeping the vocals low in the mix. Meanwhile, Brian Beken and Dennis Ludicker, who trade off on fiddle, mandolin and guitar, will blow you away on their repertoire of breakdowns, reels and gypsy jazz. — M.C.
SoundCheck360 - 10. ‘Directions to See a Ghost,’ the Black Angels.Much like their debut effort, ‘Directions to See a Ghost’ is chock-full of the dense and powerful sounds that pushed the Black Angels into the national spotlight. One listen to any of the album’s tracks reveals that the band is still challenging itself to evolve creatively. — Shannon McGarvey
Did we get it right? Name your own top local albums in the comments below.
Related:
- An Austin CD summer: Four for the playlist
- Austin’s songs of the summer, 2008 edition
- McMurtry, Carll garner top AMA nominations
- More notable CDs: Ocote Soul Sounds and Adrian Quesada | Adam Carroll | Pinetop Perkins | Kimmie Rhodes | Eliza Gilkyson
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Austin’s Songs of the Summer, 2008 edition
- ‘Peace Love & BBQ,’ Marcia Ball
- ‘California Wine,’ Heybale
- ‘Misunderstood,’ Carolyn Wonderland
- ‘Don’t Call On Me,’ Band of Heathens
- ‘Dog of Love,’ Jo Carol Pierce | SoundCheck360
- ‘Love In Her Eyes,’ Reckless Kelly
- ‘Runaway Train’, Eliza Gilkyson
- ‘All Gone To Nothing,’ Nelo
- ‘Car Outside,’ Jimmy LaFave
- ‘Don’t You Evah,’ Spoon
- ‘Thicker Than Water,’ Vallejo | SoundCheck360
- ”m Hot, You’re Cool,’ Ian McLagan & the Bump Band
- ‘Dynamite,’ Mother Truckers
- ‘From the Cradle to the Grave,’ Dale Watson
- ‘It’s a Shame,’ Hayes Carll
- ‘Always a Friend,’ Alejandro Escovedo
- ‘Gimme Some,’ Grupo Fantasma | SoundCheck360
- ‘Falls So Fast,’ South Austin Jug Band | SoundCheck360
Agree with our list? Are we missing something? Name your own songs of the summer in the comments below.
Related:
- Four for the playlist
- Top ten local albums of 2008 (so far) | Photos
- More notable CDs: Ocote Soul Sounds and Adrian Quesada | Adam Carroll | Pinetop Perkins | Kimmie Rhodes | Eliza Gilkyson
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CD review: Ocote Soul Sounds and Adrian Quesada
Ocote Soul Sounds and Adrian Quesada
‘The Alchemist Manifesto’
(ESL Music)
Grupo Fantasma’s Adrian Quesada and Antibalas’ Martin Perna first joined forces on “El Niño y el Sol,” Ocote Soul Sounds’ 2004 full-length debut. Their atmospheric “soundtrack” for an imaginary movie was picked up by ESL Music, Thievery Corporation’s label, for wider release in 2005.
The live incarnation of Ocote Soul at the Austin City Limits Music Festival last year was an ecstatic, sweaty, polyrhythmic dance party, but Quesada and Perna’s second album is more in the cinematic vein of “El Niño.” The polyrhythms of Afrobeat and Latin styles propel the tracks forward, while Quesada’s guitars and keyboards and Perna’s flutes and baritone saxophone seem to hover in the air, setting moods that subtly shade from pensive (“The Grand Elixir”) to trippy (the title track) to ominous (“Gunpowder”) to dark (“One Hundred Years”). Individual tracks might not stand out as much as one of Grupo Fantasma’s or Antibalas’ crowd-pleasers, but the album as a whole creates a fascinating little world, and it will be interesting to hear how the compositions evolve when the project takes full band form again this summer.
(Ocote Soul Sounds opens for Thievery Corporation at Stubb’s on June 24).
Recommended: “Grand Elixir” and “Gunpowder”
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CD review: Adam Carroll
Adam Carroll
‘Old Town Rock and Roll’
(self)
This San Marcos guitar poet sees a song in everything, but he unfortunately doesn’t always hear a melody to go with it. So while Carroll writes wonderful observations about the way people live, especially in nothing towns, his songs plod at times. Telling the stories of “Old Town Rock and Roll,” which take their sweet time unfolding, are more important than sending the listeners away humming.
An exception is “Highway Prayer,” a song beautiful and tender in every way. It’s a song about hitting the road for the chance to tell people where you’ve been; pretty much Carroll’s job description the past 10 years or so.
Unlike the previous four Carroll albums, this one isn’t produced by Lloyd Maines, but rather by guitarist Scott Nolan. There’s a sittin’ ‘round the campfire feel here, with little mistakes and chatter left in. This record sounds unfinished, but there are places out there in the world that can’t get enough of this sort of rustic Texas songbirth. Ireland awaits.
Recommended:“Highway Prayer,” “Hi Fi Love,” “Old Town Rock and Roll”
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CD review: Pinetop Perkins
Pinetop Perkins
‘Pinetop Perkins and Friends’
(Telarc)
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 magical nights in the mid-1970s when Pine would play until 4 a.m. at a club in Waikiki, Hawaii, after his gig with Muddy Waters at the weeklong Kool Jazz Fest. Man just lived to play the piano blues.
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 an impromptu jam among friends. Still, expect another Grammy nomination for this national treasure.
And if you want a real treat, don’t buy “Pinetop Perkins and Friends” in a record store, but from the man himself. The great Pinetop Perkins usually has a table set up at Nuno’s on Sixth Street to sell and sign CDs.
Recommended:“How Long Blues/ Come Back Baby” — Michael Corcoran
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CD review: Kimmie Rhodes
Kimmie Rhodes
‘Walls Fall Down’
(Sunbird)
With a majestically smooth voice and a gift for matching lyrics and melodies that has made her a favorite of such mainstream country acts as Wynonna Judd, Trisha Yearwood and her hero Emmylou Harris. Wimberley’s Kimmie Rhodes is incapable of making a bad album. But as evidenced by the sweetly pessimistic, yet inconsistent “Walls Fall Down,” she also might be incapable of making another modern masterpiece like “West Texas Heaven,” her 1996 mood piece with the power to dim lights.
Her sound casts a long spiritual shadow on new songs such as “Shining Like a Sun” and “All In All,” but one thing the Lubbock native should stay away from are politically-charged odes. When “Your Majesty” questions how a certain dimwit achieved such a position of power (perhaps also the inspiration for her cover of the Beatles’ “Fool On the Hill”) or when she spits out the lyrics of Rodney Crowell’s “Sex & Gasoline,” the spell is broken.
A song like “There’s a Storm Coming,” which seems to be inspired by the Hurricane Katrina tragedy/travesty, without actually referencing it, works better. And LP closer “Last Seven Seconds” dresses bleakness in lovely musicianship.
All in all, a pretty good record, but not a Kimmie classic.
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CD review: Eliza Gilkyson
Eliza Gilkyson
‘Beautiful World’
(Red House)
One happy-go-lucky love song into this CD, I was ready to report that “Beautiful World” is Austin singer-songwriter Eliza Gilkyson’s watershed album —- that is to say, her first truly joyful record of the 21st century, the kind of record our admittedly angst-ridden, socially conscious heroine promises to record for us … someday. Just not right now.
Sure enough, “Beautiful World” is a terrific album: topical, poetic, impassioned, witty and (as always) deeply attuned to matters of Earth and nature. But I wouldn’t file this one under the “Happy” bin. Gilkyson’s new songs are built on the premise that we live in perilous times —- personally, politically, environmentally, nationally, globally —- and that a big change is gonna come. “Beautiful World, ” indeed.
Yet the dominant emotion in most of these songs is hope, the idea that the “light burns brightest in the darkest times.” The very best of these new tunes —- such as “The Great Correction” or the delightful “Unsustainable” —- seems to welcome the day of reckoning, as if to say our planet will be healthier, our conscience will be healthier, our world will be healthier, when we’re forced at last to face the sin of our own neglect.
So file this one under “Hope.” Or maybe: “Revolution.” Recommended:“Wildewood Spring” and “Great Correction” —- Brad Buchholz
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Mother Trucker’s sister slain
The tragic news from San Diego is that Ginger Bass, 51, was stabbed and shot to death in an apparent murder-suicide attempt by her ex-husband, authorities said. Bass is the older sister of Austin-based Mother Truckers singer Teal Collins-Zee. Read more on the story here.
In addition to Collins-Zee, Bass’s survivors include mother Patti Collins, brother Carl Collins and sister Robbie Gregorich of Minnesota.
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Demme’s Escovedo doc on hold
Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme’s plans to film a concert documentary on Alejandro Escovedo at Las Manitas have been pushed back since January 2008 and now the project is on hold, according to Escovedo’s new manager Barbara Carr.
“I think there’s still a question of ‘Where’s the money to make that documentary?’ says Carr, of Jon Landau Management.
Escovedo is currently on tour, playing 18,000-seaters as opening act for the Dave Matthews Band. “The first one went very well,” Carr says of Monday night’s show near Detroit . “Dave came out and introduced Alejandro and his crowd seemed to really like him.”
Escovedo will perform on “The Today Show” the morning of June 24, when his new “Real Animal” album comes out.
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Waterloo Top 10 for the week ending June 7
Mother Truckers, “Let’s All Go to Bed” (Funzalo)
Weezer, “Weezer” (Geffen)
Fleet Foxes, “Fleet Foxes” (Sub Pop)
Shearwater, “Rook” (Matador) TX
Eliza Gilkyson, “Beautiful World (Red House)
Death Cab for Cutie, “Narrow Stairs” (Atlantic)
Vampire Weekend, “s/t” (XL)
James McMurtry, “Just Us Kids” (Lightning Rod)
Aimee Mann, “@#%&*! Smilers” (Superego)
The Black Angels, ” Directions To See A Ghost” (Light in the Attic)
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Musicmania Top 10 for the week ending June 8
Bun-B, ‘II Trill’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Bun-B, ‘II Trill Chopped & Screwed’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Usher, ‘Here I Stand’ (LaFace)
Lil Keke, ‘Chronicles (Hustle Town)
Lil Keke, ‘Chronicles Chopped & Screwed’ (Hustle Town)
Big Moe, ‘Unfinished Business’ (Koch)
Pimp C, ‘Greatest Hits’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Ashanti, ‘Declaration’ (Motown)
Lil Wil, ‘Dolla$ Texas’ (Asylum)
Rick Ross, ‘Trilla’ (Def Jam)
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Afrika Bambaataa show tonight (free!)
Just got a last-minute text from DJ Chicken George that he’s going to be spinning with hip-hop legend Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Manny down at the Red Fez tonight. And it’s a free show!
Get your old school groove on.
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Typo leads to market research
Here’s what can happen when a happy accident gives you information you didn’t have before.
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Johnny Walker Day packs Threadgill’s
Sunday’s Steamboat reunion/ tribute to former KLBJ-FM deejay Johnny Walker, who recently suffered a stroke, was apparently a feel-good fiesta with an unlikely showstealer. Organizer Danny Crooks said one of the scheduled acts had to cancel on just a couple of days notice, so the old Sixth Street funk cover band the Bizness got back together for an assist and turned the party out. “A lot of y’all have never heard of this band,” Crooks said in announcing the Biz, whose Larry Braggs has been the lead singer of Tower of Power for ten years. “But if it wasn’t for them, Steamboat wouldn’t have been the place it became.”
Crooks explained that soon after he started working at Steamboat in the late ’80s, the Bizness came over from Toulouse and brought the dance crowd five nights a week. Crooks wanted to start booking young, original bands, but the Biz brought the money. “They told me that if there was a newer act I wanted to give one of their nights to, that would be cool,” says Crooks, who gave a night to Soulhat and then to Bob Schneider’s Joe Rockhead. The new scene that the Bizness generously allowed to give root to eventually knocked the funk band completely off the bill. But they were back on Sunday and, according to Crooks, had about 700 people dancing in the 95 degree heat.
Vallejo closed the show in fitting fashion, says Crooks, who also singled out Pushmonkey as a highlight.
Steamboat veteran Van Wilks also had a full house for his benefit Sunday at Antone’s, headlined by Eric Johnson. Wilks, undergoing treatment for prostrate cancer, stopped by Threadgill’s to give his support and several of those at the Steamboat reunion ended up at Antone’s.
Even better than hot live music, sometimes, is the feeling of family that comes out of Austin’s musical past.
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CD review: Lil’ Wayne ‘Tha Carter III’
Lil’ Wayne
“Tha Carter III”
(Cash Money)
On “Phone Home,” between calling himself a Martian and comparing himself to E.T., Lil’ Wayne declares “they don’t make ‘em like me no more / matter fact, they never made it like me before.” He’s right. While many rappers freestyle their lyrics and even more abuse drugs, few take it to the extremes Wayne does. Throughout most of “Tha Carter III,” he is rapping without a safety net — even he’s not sure what he’ll say next. He laughs at his own jokes, as if he’s just realizing what he said; occasionally, he loses his train of thought and starts rapping about something else.
On songs like “Got Money,” a vocoder-duet with T-Pain that is destined to be a club smash, his random boasting fits perfectly. Other times, the result is a mess — on “Let the Beat Build” he wastes a great beat with absolutely nonsensical rhymes. Many critics have praised his unique style as post-modern “free association” rapping. Less charitably, he’s babbling what sounds like drug-induced nonsense.
But his recent work on the mix-tape scene blurred the line between these two distinctions — mixing his lyrical insanity with strong and powerful songwriting. It was these songs, along with his numerous feature appearances, that made the buzz for “Tha Carter III” so deafening. It’s been XXL’s most anticipated album since January 2007, and in the meanwhile, several of his mix tapes made it onto critical top 10 lists. He’s had hundreds of songs released in the past few years, and the addition of any number of them would have greatly improved “Tha Carter III.” Instead, by the end of the album, a rapper with a seemingly endless amount of lyrical creativity has a song about sleeping with a female police officer who pulls him over (“Mrs. Officer”).
The production, mostly from A-list producers such as David Banner, Just Blaze, Swizz Beatz and Kanye West, carries the album. On the suitably epic “Mr. Carter,” Jay-Z drops by for a passing of the torch, telling Wayne “that I took so much money from the rap game, now it’s your go.” But even in the digital age, albums are still an artist’s ultimate proving ground. For Wayne to claim the throne, he’ll have to leave the mix-tape game behind and do like Kanye: keep all his best stuff for himself.
Recommended: “Mr. Carter,” “Tie My Hands”
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A cause I care about
And not because they cite me. http://www.turnmeup.org/
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CD Review: My Morning Jacket ‘Evil Urges’
My Morning Jacket
‘Evil Urges’ (ATO)
Consider My Morning Jacket — the very name has become a mark of quality as the Louisville outfit has snuggled into its role as rock band du jour for the “All Things Considered”-and-New Yorker crowd.
Classic guitar rock nerds who ended up indie rock scene-makers, MMJ’s fifth album is a very clear next step move, the aesthetic progression after the 2005 breakthrough “Z.” “Evil Urges,” their fifth album, is their futzing-around-with-other-genres record and as has been widely reported, their favorite new sound is Prince. (And really, who doesn’t want to be Prince?)
MMJ leader Jim James’ voice is still closer to (his obvious idol) Richard Manuel, his music closer to Crazy Horse guitar rock than the purple one’s voice or funk, but he’s able to rock a Princely squeak on the sharp title track, which assumes most evil urges are merely desires we’ve been encouraged not to indulge.
But it’s “Highly Suspicious” that longs to be a “Sign O’ the Times” B-side. James stretches his falsetto as far as it will go in the service of lyrics such as “peanut butter pudding surprise!” The Muppet-grunting on the chorus puts tongue firmly in cheek and even the guitar solo tries for Revolution-style overkill. Impressive, frankly.
In fact, the first four songs are uniformly excellent. In addition to the above, “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream,” with its electronic smears, sounds like a well-meaning Wilco tribute, but works anyway. ‘I’m Amazed” is their modernized Southern-rock at its catchiest.
James’ metier is also rock at its most medium-soft. A tendency towards the dull has been MMJ’s Achilles heel; even the band’s spaciest guitar jams feel faintly restrained. “Sec Walkin” tries to find Nixon-era soul and somehow ends up at the corner of Fogleberg in downtown Atlanta Rhythm Section.
It’s to his credit that James never quite comes off as smug, exactly, but there’s something suspect about his awe-shucks vibe. Acoustic guitar plucking out the melody, He sings about the local nerd-hot “Librarian” (“Take off those glasses and let down your hair for me”) as if he discovered the look himself.
But his many fans will forgive him. In tense and uncertain times, “Evil Urges” makes listeners feel good about themselves. That’s more than enough for most.
Recommended: “I’m Amazed,” “Evil Urges”
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Review: The Cure at Austin Music Hall
Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
- Check out pics from the show in our Live from Austin 2008 gallery
- A-List: The Cure at Austin Music Hall
Robert Smith is old school.
The man’s been in the music business for 30+ years, smearing his lipstick, teasing his hair, fluttering his raccoon eyes and wearing large guitars and black shirts to hide his muffin-top girth longer than many of his newer fans have been alive.
So when fans have paid more than $50 for a general admission ticket in Austin Music Hall, Austin’s least pleasant venue (think bikram yoga studio), he’s going to give them their money’s worth.
Which means a three-hour show.
Yep, three hours that reached all the way back to the band’s 1978 debut “Three Imaginary Boys,” which let the band pack in a mess of new songs without sacrificing any hits. New material (“The Only One,” “the Perfect Boy”) was seamlessly integrated into sing-along alt-classics such as “Pictures of You,” “Fascination Street” and, of course, “Just Like Heaven,” simply one of the most perfect rock songs of the past 30 years.
All of this worked because, this time out, the band stripped back to a four-piece: Smith, guitarist Porl Thompson, bassist Simon Gallup and drummer Jason Cooper. The two former players have wandered in and out of the band since the beginning; the latter is a 13-year vet. No keyboards on stage, which forced Thompson to turn, say, the synth-rush of “Inbetween Days” and “Just Like Heaven” into a sharp lead.
Between them, Thompson and Gallup were present during both the Cure’s early ’80s high Goth phase (“Seventeen Seconds/”Faith”/”Pornography”) and their mid-80s biggest-mopes-in-the-world stretch (“Head on the Door”/”Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me”/”Disintegration”).
This made for a hardcore Cure nerd’s dream set list - lots of surprisingly heavy post-punk guitar thrum, light on the sugary synth-pop. There’s nothing wrong with the latter, but it was thrilling to hear the band’s proggier tendencies pared back to rock-band parameters - songs such as “Lullaby” and “Primary” are shockingly well-constructed.
And it speaks to Smith’s singular blend of tongue-in-cheek showmanship and genuine chops that he can announce a double-encore of really old material with “Come with me for a trip back through time” and not make you wanna blanch. A four-song set from “Seventeen Seconds” and a seven-song set (!!!) from “Boys Don’t Cry” followed.
In spite of brutal claustrophobia and sweltering temperatures, for the 30-somethings in the crowd for whom “Disintegration” was their generation’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” it was (sorry) just like heaven.
Click below for a full set list.
The set list:
open
fascination street
alt.end
torture
the end of the world
lovesong
the big hand
pictures of you
lullaby
catch
the perfect boy
from the edge of the deep green sea
the figurehead
a strange day
sleep when i’m dead
push
doing the unstuck
inbetween days
just like heaven
primary
the only one
signal to noise
the hanging garden
one hundred years
end
Encore:
at night
m
play for today
a forest
Encore 2:
three imaginary boys
fire in cairo
boys don’t cry
jumping someone else’s train
grinding halt
10:15 saturday night
killing an arab
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Review: Poi Dog Pondering
Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Out on the road the past month promoting their new album “7,” Poi Dog Pondering was ready for some home cooking Friday night at Antone’s. Nothing charges up a tired and cranky band like a room full of old friends and fans with their hearts open for music. The near-capacity Antone’s crowd was ready to be levitated and the 12-piece band band was happy to lift. The lovefest kicked off with the slow-building “Pulling Touch,” as the first part of the show featured songs hatched in Austin, including “U-Li-La-Lu” from the first album, which the band hadn’t played in a couple years. With singer Frank Orrall and violinist Susan Voelz leading the charge, about half the crowd was pogoing to that song and “Jack Ass Ginger.”
The middle part of the two hour set was devoted to the more dance-oriented tracks the band got into after moving to Chicago in 1992. The Ten City cover “That’s the Way Love Is,” featuring singer Charlette Wortham, really got things moving on the floor.
The new material came out in the second half of the show, with “Perfect Music” becoming funkified by bassist Ron Hall, who played tremendously all night. The rock numbers “Lemon Drop Kid,” “Candy” and “Super Tarana,” which all sound like the names of racehorses, went over well, as did a couple of guest performers. Former Poi guitarist Adam Sultan sang “Thanksgiving” from the Columbia Records days, while KGSR’s Jody Denberg led a raucous choir on “Ooh La La,” a song he used to sing with Voelz in Seven Samarai. Meanwhile, opening act Abra Moore, a founding Poi member, stayed onstage all night to sing backup.
The ever-beaming Orrall also brought up slam poet Wammo on the exhaustive second encore “Complicated” and the show ended on a warm and goofy note when Poi’s old road manager Hot Rod Man brought it home on “Suspicious Minds.” Just like the old days at the Hole In the Wall.
This laidback night of spiritual rechargement made it clear that Austin is still big in the hearts of this big-hearted monster of a band.
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ACL 2008, according to you
- ACL Fest Hot or not, cast your votes!
- Daily ACL schedules: Friday | Saturday | Sunday
- Full ACL 2008 lineup | More ACL
When the schedule grids for the Austin City Limits Music Festival were released last week, we decided to take the pulse of fans in a fun, if completely unscientific, way. Our version of a “hot or not” poll features 105 of the bands scheduled (or in the case of Duffy, previously scheduled) to play the festival Sept. 26-28 at Zilker Park. In place of “hot or not,” voters can click on “Can’t wait” or “I’ll pass” for each act. (We’ve since removed Duffy, who was around a 40 percent positive rating before she canceled.)
The main thing we learned: People online are a tough crowd. Few acts made it past the 50 percent mark in the “can’t wait” category.
Trends as of press time:
You love:
Beck. 70 percent ‘can’t wait’ to see him.
Next best:
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and the Raconteurs at 60/40 (perhaps showing no grudges against Jack White for last year’s White Stripes cancellation)
Highest rated local band:
South Austin Jug Band at 55 percent ‘can’t wait’
Stuck in the middle:
A bunch of bands are at 50/50, including headliners the Foo Fighters, John Fogerty, David Byrne, Iron & Wine, Erykah Badu, SXSW buzz band Vampire Weekend and Alejandro Escovedo.
Only 25 percent want to see:
CSS, which music writer Joe Gross says is just wrong.
Also just wrong:
A sampling of great acts below 50 percent in the ‘can’t wait’ category — Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings (see a concert review on Page 10), Gogol Bordello, Patty Griffin, Manu Chau (stuck at 30 percent!), M. Ward, White Denim, the Swell Season (they’re Oscar winners!), Antibalas and the Jones Family Singers.
(Photo courtesy of myspace.com/beck)
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Boy George to play Austin
Back from the trash patrol, Boy George is the latest ’80s artist to try his hand at a career/bank account ressurrecting nostalgia tour. And he’s coming to Austin. The show will be at Stubb’s on Aug. 21 and tickets are $28 in advance, $30 at the door. Tickets are on sale now.
Thanks to 360 reader blogger Latest and Gayest for alerting us about the show.
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Duffy cAnCeLs
She’s been called this year’s Amy Winehouse and true to form, retro soul singer Duffy has apparently followed her SXSW whirlwind by canceling a date at the ACL Fest. Taylor’s number one Duffy fan Tom Ordon noticed that although the 23-year-old Welsh singer was on the ACL grid when it was released Tuesday, she was no longer listed a couple days later. An inquiry to promoter C3 Presents was answered with this email response: “Unfortunately due to touring conflicts, she has had to cancel a run of dates that included the ACL play.”
The Fratellis have been added to replace Duffy, which KGSR playfully acknowleged Friday morning by playing the Fratellis live version of “Mercy.”.
Maybe word got to Duffy that Austin in September is a bit like Hades in the springtime, when it sizzles. You may recall the singer remarked that she’d never experienced anything like the heat when she played SXSW in March.
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Weekend Picks: Brooding Brits, turntable antics and unusual rock
Friday: The Ocean at Red 7. This German band plays heavy metal in cloud-form —: plenty of electronics, classical instrumentation and giant songs. With the Destro, Lair of the Minotaur, the Dead See and more. - Joe Gross
Friday: Ladytron at Stubb’s. Brooding British electro-rockers from the Beatles’ hometown headline on the big stage at Stubb’s BBQ. Norwegian electro-popsters Datarock open. $16-$18
Friday: Poi Dog Pondering at Antone’s. One-time Austinites return to play Antone’s in support of their most recent (and arguably strongest) release. $15-$17 More on Poi Dog Pondering.
Friday and Saturday: Cowboy Junkies at the One World Theatre. One-hit wonders in the United States, dedicated lifers in their native Canada, the Junkies have stayed with their three-siblings-and-a-pal lineup and mix of folk, blues and country for more than 20 years. $25 to $65. Sets are at 7 and 9:30 p.m. - J.G.
Saturday: ‘Pieced Together’ opening at Gallery Lombardi. “Pieced Together” is an all-Texas Graffiti art show curated by Galleri Lombardi. The kickoff event includes live painting, chain saw ice sculpture from the Reverend Butter and DJ sets from Orion, Innerlign, Grommit and The Herd. Table Manners Crew hosts the afterparty at Plush with a turntable throw-down on four decks featuring special guests Genghis Won and Scuba Gooding Jr. Art opening runs from 7 to 10 p.m. —Deborah Sengupta Stith
Saturday: Singer at Emo’s. Seriously odd rock from former members of U.S. Maple and 90 Day Men. The songs seem to move almost sideways — with odd stops and starts, crooked singing and rhythms that stagger around. With Honey Claws, the Snake Trap and the F and the C. $7. 9 p.m. - J.G.
Saturday: Afrofreque, JJ Lopez at Lambert’s. Austin’s hip-hop/soul collective Afrofreque is joined by DJ JJ Lopez, host of the ‘Diggin’ Deep Soul Shake-down’ show on San Antonio’s KRTU 91.7 FM. Promoters promise “a thick stew of old-school rhythms and illuminated rhymes.” —D.S.S.
Sunday: Afrika Bambaataa at the Beauty Bar. One of hip-hop’s pioneers breaks it down with a DJ set sure to please hipsters and hip-hop heads alike. —D.S.S.
Sunday: Second Sunday Sock Hop at the Scoot Inn. The Sssh! crew celebrates two years of digging up vintage rock ‘n’ roll, doo-wop, rockabilly from the ’50s through ’70s and powdering the dance floor for smooth sliding moves. —D.S.S.
Sunday: The Cure at the Austin Music Hall. Mopey post-punk icon Robert Smith (who insists on continuing to tease his hair and rock the smeared red lipstick, even though the look has become awfully unfortunate with age) leads the latest incarnation of this alternative music mainstay at the Music Hall. The show is sold out. —D.S.S.
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Review: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings at Stubb’s
Deborah Cannon AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Let us ponder for a moment the oft-overlooked engineering marvel of the classic woman’s high-heeled shoe. A model of material economy, that 2- to 3-inches of pointed wood or plastic can support a human body through day-to-day rigors - walking, trotting, scaling and descending stairs - is itself no small feat.
It’s a fair bet craftsman from Italy and the world over don’t have the mechanics of Sharon Jones’ feet, ankles, legs and hips - and the nightly stress test they provide - in mind when creating for the typical shoe consumer.
But as the dynamic soul singer showed Wednesday night at Stubb’s, she’s anything but typical, in movement as well as voice. Preceded on stage by eight piece soul and R&B band the Dap-Kings, the Augusta, Ga., native was introduced by guitarist Binky Griptite as a woman “so bad, she’s badder than bad!”
The diminutive Jones belied that description, smiling and beaming from the moment she shucked and jived onto the stage in a simple dress and heels, dancing nonstop as she tore into early songs like “How Do You Let a Good Man Down?” and the new “Nobody’s Baby.”
As authentic, skilled and heartfelt as the Dap-Kings’ soul revue routine is, it was clear from Jones’ first earthy, gritty tones that her oversized voice is the main attraction, and the gospel-trained singer knows how to put it to best effect.
Consistently powerful and controlled throughout the night, Jones never once strayed into the raw growling that often lends misguided “authenticity” to similar retro-minded soul acts.
The combo’s skill combined with Jones’ effervescence made it pretty easy to forgive that almost all of the songs in the 90-minute set were about men good and bad, and highs and lows of loving or losing them.
The few times when she strayed from that well-trod path were also somehow emotionally higher. A cover of James Brown’s “It’s A Man’s World” and the gospel song “Answer Me” brought more brooding and joy, respectively, into the proceedings.
And the absolute apex came near the end of the first set, when Jones and the band did a between-song look at the plight of enslaved Africans and overwhelmed Native Americans through song and dance. Words defy Jones’ movements here — though “tribal” probably comes closest — as she vocally and physically channeled her ancestral history for the crowd in a blur of energy that drew rapturous cheers.
That it was the only point in the night when Jones went barefoot says a lot; that when she gets going, even the best shoes can’t contain Sharon Jones.
Our Live from Austin 2008 photo gallery now includes pics from last night’s Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings show at Stubb’s BBQ.
- Photos: Live from Austin 2008
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Waterloo Top 10 for the week ending May 31
Eliza Gilkyson, “Beautiful World (Red House)
Death Cab for Cutie, “Narrow Stairs” (Atlantic)
Vampire Weekend, “s/t” (XL)
Portishead, “Third” (Mercury)
The Black Angels, ” Directions To See A Ghost” (Light in the Attic)
Band of Heathens, “Band of Heathens” (BOH)
John Hiatt, “Same Old Man” (New West)
James McMurtry, “Just Us Kids” (Lightning Rod)
Black Keys, “Attack and Release” (Nonesuch)
Al Green, “Lay It Down” (Blue Note)
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This would solve many of Austin’s bad-band-name problems.
Yes, this is a meme and no, we don’t usually post these, but this is pretty genius.
Debut Album Generator
The first wikipedia article you get is the name of your band
- Go to random quotes: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3.
The last four words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
- Go to flickr’s “explore the last seven days” http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/.
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
Put it all together, that’s your debut album.
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Vallejo, Panic Choir, “Guillermo,” added to Johnny Fest
Don’t forget about the big Steamboat Reunion show at Threadgill’s this Sunday, beginning at 3 p.m. Featuring such reunited acts as Soulhat, Steamroller and Pushmonkey, plus a solo Bob Schneider, the marathon o’ rock is a benefit for former KLBJ-FM DJ Johnny Walker, who is recovering from a stroke.
“Johnny was such a big part of the Austin rock n’ roll scene,” says former Steamboat owner Danny Crooks, who put together the show. “The weekend officially started every Friday at 5 o’clock when Johnny played ‘Bonecrusher’ (by Soulhat) on the radio.” After his nightly show ended, Walker would often turn up at Steamboat and introduce the bands- big and small- from the stage. Ah, the days when the scene was really a scene.
The great guitarist Billy White (ex-Dokken) will bring a whole new bag of guitar tricks to the show. Currently living in Mexico and performing under the name Guillermo, White has been mastering the Spanish flamenco guitar in recent years.
But he’ll revert to his Steamboat days when he joins Vallejo on an all-star jam that will end the show.
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Chris Brown’s Erwin Center date postponed
Already??? Just two days ago I was merrily indulging my inner tween, getting psyched for this show. Now, “due to unforseen circumstances” the July 2 date has been postponed. According to the press release “a rescheduled Austin show date will be announced at a later date.” Boo!!!
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Speaking of Bo Diddley….
This clip of him is just off the chain.
As is this one, but in a very different way.
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Review: Swervedriver at Emo’s
Swervedriver’s reunion tour motored at high speed through Emo’s main room Tuesday with all of its musical pistons and heady, head-spinning guitar effects pedals firing in perfect sync.
Despite nearly a decade away from a music scene now turned on its head by MySpace band profiles and digital downloads, Swervedriver has launched an extensive summer tour and joined the ranks of fellow 1990s shoegaze bands the Verve and My Bloody Valentine, all of whom are cashing in on reunion fever. Fresh off a Coachella Festival appearance, Swervedriver is (unfortunately) not supporting a new album, touring solely on the legacy of their highly influential catalog of tunes, a four-album-strong rock ‘n’ roll juggernaut.
Awash in guitar effects pedals, relationship fodder and automotive acceleration imagery, Swervedriver’s four full-length albums have become a touchstone of the shoegaze/noise-pop genre they helped define. (“Shoegaze” became shorthand for a number of primarily British bands whose members looked down at their shoes during performances as they creatively mashed effects pedals with their feet.)
An Emo’s audience that appeared to number more than 400 souls shouted, cheered and sang along to the subtly poetic verses of the Oxford, England, band that you probably haven’t heard (Radiohead being the one that you have). Swervedriver - guitarist/vocalist Adam Franklin, guitarist Jimmy Hartridge, bassist Steve George and drummer Jez Hindmarsh - dug out nuggets from their Dinosaur Jr. and Stooges-influenced debut album “Raise,” their inventive masterwork “Mezcal Head,” the American-power-pop-meets-British-‘60s-rock “Ejector Seat Reservation” and their exquisitely crafted coda, “99th Dream.”
Playing a beautifully battered vintage Fender Jaguar through a Matchless amplifier, Swervdriver frontman Franklin pulverized eardrums with a punishing volume clearly meant for guitar aficionados and the tinnitus-afflicted lovers of knobs that go to 11. Franklin and guitarist Hartridge’s back and forth melodic interplay was a guitar lesson worth the price of admission. The audience was peppered with many Austin musicians who appeared to study the playing techniques of all four Swervedriver players as if they were attending a master class.
Swervedriver frontman Franklin has one of the best poker faces around, but he clearly enjoyed whipping his diehard fans into a frenzy with the seductive blasts of “Deep Seat” and white-noise wah-pedal and distortion-screech of “Son of Mustang Ford.” Franklin even dropped his vocals on the last verse of the band’s show-stopping coup de grace, “Rave Down,” as he appeared overwhelmed by the audience’s adoration as they sang his poetic lyrics back at him.
Hindmarsh’s drumming was tighter and more bombastic than before the band’s hiatus. Meanwhile, George’s bass E-string (often tuned down to D) blasted the wax right out of the audience’s ears when it rattled and boomed during “99th Dream,” “ Last Train to Satansville” and “Duress.” Hartridge’s rhythm guitar playing and occasional leads created more by playing less, leaving plenty of room for Franklin to paint sonic scapes with his Boss and Electro-Harmonix pedals as well with the clever use of his Vox wah.
And their tone: Voluminous melody and harmony took center stage, fueling pop songs that kaleidescoped in on themselves with a rotation of alternate guitar tunings. The songs were drenched in a fury of sonic colors: distortion, tremolo, reverb, echo, Digitech Whammy, Electro Harmonix fuzz, analog delay and warm, glowing-tube overdriven sheen. All the while Franklin sang poems about car crashes and love gone wrong with the measured detail of a J.G. Ballard novel. Diehard Swervedriver fans appeared to appreciate the thrill of seeing their favorite band in an intimate setting while gnashing their teeth on the irony that in a perfect world, Swervedriver’s popularity might eclipse that of less innovative bands such as Oasis and Blur as well as rival that other highly creative guitar-based rock band from Oxford.
Setlist:
Sunset
Birds
Feel So Real
Never Lose That Feeling
The Other Jesus
Last Train To Satansville
Deep Seat
Sandblasted
Wrong Treats
These Times
Duel
99th Dream
You Find It Everywhere
Juggernaut Rides
Rave Down
Kill the Superheroes
Encore
Son of Mustang Ford
Duress
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Quicksilver Messenger Service playing Bo Diddley’s “Mona”
So the day after the Statesman’s Bo Diddley obit ran, a received a message from a gent named Michael who reminded me that I had left off one of the greatest Bo Diddley covers ever: Quicksilver Messenger Service’s version of “Mona,” immortalized on the band’s killer 1969 album “Happy Trails.”
Michael is absolutely right. I’m a big “Happy Trails” fan and it flat-out slipped my mind (as did QMS’s covers of “Who Do You Love?” on the same album).
Here is the band ripping through “Mona” in 1969. Yes, the guitar sound is rough. Yes, it is glorious.
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Musicmania Top 10 for the week ending June 1
Bun-B ‘II Trill’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Usher ‘Here I Stand’ (LaFace)
Big Moe ‘Unfinished Business’ (Koch)
Al Green ‘Lay It Down’ (Blue Note)
Billy Cook ‘Kiss Tha Cook’ (Bmg1965)
Rick Ross ‘Trilla’ (Def Jam)
Keith Sweat ‘Just Me’ (Rhino)
Scarface ‘Best of Scarface’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Lyfe Jinnings ‘Lyfe Change’ (Columiba)
10 Calvin Richardson ‘When Love Comes’ (Shanachie)
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Usher dominates sales chart
Surprising exactly nobody, Usher’s “Here I Stand” was the best-selling album of the week ending June 1, according to Neilsen Soundscan. Dude sold more than 442,000 albums.
The very distant No. 2 slot went to the soundtrack to the “Sex and the City” movie, moving a mere 65,000 copies. Both albums made their chart debuts.
All of which means it was a pretty lousy week (meaning it was business as usual) for anyone whose name wasn’t Usher.
The rest of the chart is as follows:
3. 3 Doors Down - s/t (63,100)
4. Bun B - “II Trill” (40,200)
5. Leona Lewis - “Spirit” (38,700)
6. Frank Sinatra - “Nothing But the Best” (36,800)
7. Duffy - “Rockferry” (35,900)
8. Mariah Carey - “E=MC2” (35,500)
9. Al Green - ” Lay It Down” (33,700)
10. Death Cab for Cutie - “Narrow Stairs” (33,400)
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Casting call for Mark Burnett show
The upcoming CBS reality show “Jingles,” exec-produced by Mark Burnett Productions is looking for creative teams of 1-3 people to write and perform jingles. Top prize is $100,000.
“A team could be anything from a marketing exec, to a brother/sister team, to a singer/songwriter duo. We are looking for fun, memorable, high-energy performances mixed with a competitive spirit,” it says in the press release.
The open casting call is Wed. (June 4) from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. at Cap City Comedy Club. 8120 Research Blvd. Good luck!
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Late night musical guests this week
Tuesday
Kelli O’ Hara - Letterman
Usher- Leno
Jackie Greene - Conan
Wednesday
Esperanza Spalding- Letterman
N.E.R.D. - Leno
Jewel- Conan
Coldplay- Kimmel
Thursday
Al Green- Letterman
Flobots- Leno
Usher- Kimmel
Friday
Gavin Rossdale- Letterman
Ed Harcourt- Leno
Lightspeed Champiuon- Conan
Ting Tings- Kimmel
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ACL grids are out
ACL Fest released the schedule grids for this year’s festival this morning.
The Mars Volta plays the 8:15 p.m. slot on the AMD stage while Manu Chao headlines in the 8:30 p.m. AT&T stage spot on Friday. On Saturday, Robert Plant and Allison Krauss hold down the 8:15 p.m. AMD stage slot while Beck headlines on the AT&T stage, and the Foo Fighters will close out the fest, headlining on the AT&T stage at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday.
We’ll continue to parse through various schedule conflicts throughout the day, and music critic Joe Gross will be hosting a live chat today at 2 p.m. to discuss the schedule. Tune in to join the conversation.
Daily schedules: Friday | Saturday | Sunday
More ACL
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Chris Brown to play the Erwin Center
Just got word that my boy Chris Breezie (Rihanna’s extravagant not-boyfriend) will be playing the Erwin Center on July 2. I’ve been a big fan ever since the then 17-year-old’s “Gimme That” (a groove that made me blush) burned up the charts back in the summer of 2006.
Tickets are $54.50 and $59.50 and they go on sale Saturday, June 7th at all Texas Box Office outlets. I think I might have to brave the hordes of screaming 13-year-old girls who will surely show for this one to check it out.
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Let’s talk about ACL - join our live chat at 2 p.m. Tuesday
The day-by-day schedule for the Austin City Limits Music Festival will be out Tuesday morning. We’ll give you a few hours to digest and dissect, before our live chat with music writer Joe Gross at 2 p.m.
You can comment on the lineup, the schedule and pretty much all things ACL in our comments section below. Log on at 2 p.m. to join the live discussion.
This year’s festival is Sept. 26-28 at Zilker Park.
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Weekend review: Joe Cocker and Steve Miller at the Backyard
In my book of favorite venues, the Backyard ranks up there for booking interesting acts, good sound and sight lines, and an ability to catch breezes that make most hot nights pleasant despite the surrounding acres of asphalt. On Sunday evening it also poked the recession in the eye with a true bargain.
Joe Cocker and Steve Miller Band gave fans four hours of music that went down as easily as a summertime smoothie. The former opened for the latter but the two played as equals and came close to dividing the time.
Cocker had the bigger band, more powerful voices and got as many standing ovations as the ‘70s hits king with his interpretations of Beatles and soul tunes. Miller brought his guitar, a new singer, special guests and did I mention his hits? “Swingtown, “Abracadabra” and “Serenade” started the countdown amid too much chatter about a new album in the can and the addition of soulster Sonny Charles (Checkmates) to flavor the vocals.
Early on, Miller took an inexplicable swing at his stage front fans. “It looks like Hollywood out there - hair products, movie stars. What happened to Austin? It used to be a funky little town. Hey, go sit down.” OK, check off insults on Miller’s set list. What avoided an otherwise perfunctory run-through of his admittedly gold-deserving oldies were two guitarists who have no trouble keeping Austin cool. Jimmy Vaughan and Eric Johnson flanked Miller mid-set and jammed on “Pretty Thing” (prescient with Bo Diddley’s death the next day), “Stormy Monday,” “Crossroads” and Vaughan’s “Boom Boppa Boom.” These two genuine stylists — one greasy, one atmospheric — made Miller, despite his blues guitar competence, look like a staid TV newscaster holding down the middle chair.
Then it was back to Miller’s 1974-1978 heyday, ably replicating the pop sounds of “Fly Like an Eagle,” “Take the Money and Run” and “Rock ‘N Me” and keeping the audience dancing.
In contrast, Cocker’s opening seemed more of the moment. Out with a strong new album, “Hymn For My Soul,” Cocker took his booming voice and soulful yells ever higher as two backup singers weighed in with sweeter sounds from the side. Although he planted himself center stage, Cocker worked his jerky hands and did standing jumps to the delight of the crowd at the end of nearly every song.
It was a slow, purposeful boil from “You Are So Beautiful” (yes, it was everything we hoped for) and “Come Together” (yes, we need such right now) to “With a Little Help from My Friends” (yes, helped along by a half-dozen anthemic yells from Cocker). Under a black flag flying over the stage at half staff to mark the final season of the amphitheater in the oaks at its current location, old songs got new life from this Brit barn burner. The Backyard is moving out in style.
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Dizzee Rascal digs Austin
British grime king Dizzee Rascal is playing only seven cities on his summer North American tour and Austin is one of them. The Dizz flexes at Emo’s July 21. Other cities on the itinerary inlude Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Toronto and Denver.
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Bo Diddley 1928 - 2008: Who put the rock in rock n’ roll?
Bo Diddley 1928-2008
Not a lot of people can claim to have (well, sort of) invented something that sounded primal, but then, Bo Diddley wasn’t most people. He died June 2 at his home in Archer, Fla. He was 79.
What Diddley popularized but did not quite invent, of course, is the Bo Diddley beat, that “Whumpa-whumpa-whump; A-whump-whump” pulse that animated not just his music (check out the flawless “Bo Diddley Chess Box” for early greatness) but the music of thousands of others.
If rockers went to Chuck Berry if they wanted a riff or went to Little Richard when they wanted some attitude, they went to Bo when they wanted to sound not quite of this Earth. That beat wasn’t as easy to tie directly to the blues as other early rockers. It sounded vaguely tribal, kind of African and just kind of….weird.
It seemed to be several things at once - a mutant version of the “Hambone” beat that dated back to slavery days, a take on a rumba, but stripped down and pounded with force and purpose. A crucial part of the beat, of course, was amazing maraca player Jerome Green, whose shaking added a rhythm to Diddley’s songs that seemed to drive them even harder.
And that beat went everywhere, to Buddy Holly for “Not Fade Away” (and a crateful of covers of that song) to the Strangeloves’ (and the Bow Wow Wow’s) “I Want Candy” to U2’s “Desire,” just to name a few that everyone knows.
And Diddley covers were legion, from the Rolling Stones’ “Mona” and the New York Dolls’ “Pills” to seemingly infinite versions of “Who Do You Love?” (The Doors, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Tom Rush, Santana, Townes Van Zant, etc.) to about a billion takes on the very funny “I’m A Man” (the Yardbirds, the Who, John Lennon, MC5).
And even those who didn’t directly lift it had their lives changed by it. Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker worshiped Diddley, and simplified the Diddley beat in order to put her own unique stamp on the VU records.
But enough about his drums.
It’s impossible to imagine oddly-shaped guitars or guitars covered in fur without Diddley’s signature square axes. And his guitar tone was legendary, a shimmering, reverbed, tremeloed thing that influenced the early Rolling Stones as much as Berry and Muddy Waters. Diddley’s chunk-style playing swung as hard as his beat, with as much force as James Brown’s horn sections, swampy as a delta midnight.
Here’s a nice piece on the Originator from 2005.
They only made one of this guy.
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UT Press to publish No Depression as a semiannual journal
As devout punky-tonk (man, I love typing that) fans know, the alt-country bible No Depression ceased publication as a bimonthly with its May-June issue, “No Depression #75.”
Starting in October, University of Texas Press will publish No Depression as a semiannual journal. The first issue will be numbered #76 in keeping with the magazine’s previous numbering. The journal will be magazine-sized and 144 pages.
North Dakota co-founders and editors Grant Alden and Peter Blackstock will continue to oversee the publication.
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Pachanga review: Maneja Beto
“Indie en Espanol” is what Maneja Beto calls itself on its MySpace page and why not? There are guitars, there are synths, the band owns the means of production — sounds pretty indie to me. And then there are the lyrics in Spanish. Perfect!
Kicking around since ’02, Maneja Beto mixes the harmonies of Mexican folk music with the driving 4/4 of U.S. rock, New Wavey synths with occasional polyrhythms, distortion with dance grooves.
They could have used a little more shade, however. “Can anyone move the trees about 20 feet forward,” keyboardist Bobby Garza joked in the middle of the band’s set. No can do, man; he looked like he was going to boil alive at Waterloo Park, even though it was well after 6 p.m. His synths, however, which can sound a little light on your stereo, took on a powerful, music-of-the-spheres quality reminiscent of Joy Division or New Order.
In fact, most of the set felt squarely in another tradition entirely — Austin psychedelic rock. Nelso Valente’s guitar seemed equally capable of noodly solos as indie lilt, as deft at delivering space music as the rhythmic strum crucial to making the dance elements swing and pulse on songs such as “Apertura” and “Campanera.” It’s thrilling stuff, equally for the head and feet, a goal pysch-rock often misses by a mile.
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Pachanga review: Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich + Fussible
Let’s face it: Grupo Fantasma probably should have headlined the debut Pachanga fest. Not that Nortec Collective’s new project “Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich + Fussible — Tijuana Sound Machine” wasn’t a good get, or at least probably looked like it on paper. The problem can down to the beat.
In contrast to Nortec, Grupo’s grooves were complex, multilayer and vibrantly alive. Even with accordion (man, that player must have been hot in those leather pants), trumpet and clarinet, the electronic beds provided by laptop-fiddling Bostich (Ramon Amezcua) and Fussible (Pepe Mogt) felt far too stiff. These guys gave the crowd seemingly low-key, four-on-the-floor beats with traditional Mexican flourishes on top after everyone had just grooved to a band that sometimes backs up Prince. (The crowd for Nortec was noticeably smaller than the crowd for Grupo.)
An hourlong set usually feels too short for DJs who really know how to work a crowd and build a mood, but these guys insisted on songs rather than a continuous mix; the silences between tracks rang louder than the music. Even the animations seemed a little stiff. Oops. We’ll chalk this one up to first-year jitters.
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End of an Ear top 10 for the week ending May 31
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, “Lie Down in the Light” (Drag City)
Nortec Collective “Tijuana Sound Machine ” (Nacional Records)
The Lines, “Memory Span” (Acute) reissue
No Age, “Nouns” (Sub Pop)
Portishead, “Third” (Island)
Vetiver, “Thing Of The Past” (Gnomonsong)
Last Shadow Puppets, “Age of the Understatement” (Domino)
Microphones, “The Glow Pt 2” 2CD reissue (K Records)
The National, “A Skin, A Night + The Virginia EP” CD/DVD (Beggars)
Deepchord, “Vantage Isle Sessions” (Echospace UK)
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Pachanga review: Girl in a Coma
To see Girl in a Coma on Saturday afternoon at Pachanga was to forget the band’s seemingly outta-nowhere origin (San Antonio school girls to Joan Jett’s Blackheart Records to opening for Morrissey, though it did takes years of wood-shedding) and focus on their increasingly strong songcraft.
It didn’t hurt that their indie rock was such a sharp contrast to the rest of the afternoon that it sounded fresh by default. But to their credit, singer/guitarist Nina and drummer Phanie Diaz (sisters) along with bassist Jenn Alva showed everyone that the band hadn’t completely blow its wad on its 2007 debut “Both Before I Die”; some of those songs were six years old when finally released.
So it was both thrilling and a relief to hear Alva introduce a mess of new songs that seemed tighter and tougher than the ones everyone who has seen them more than once already knows. Nina Diaz’s voice moved from melodrama to emotionally exasperated, while the band’s rhythms seemed almost circular at times. Can’t wait to hear the new album, due in 2009.
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ACL single-day tix on sale Tuesday
The Austin City Limits Music Festival schedule grid, for Sept. 26-28, will be available online Tuesday morning. Single day tickets will go on sale at the same time for $80. Three-day passes are still available for $170, which includes service charges.
There have been additions to the lineup, including Old ’97s, Blues Traveler, Adele, Rodney Crowell, Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet featuring Bela Fleck, Dan Dyer, the Black & White Years, Mugison, and the M’s. C3 Presents is also hosting Les Freres Guisse from Dakar, Senegal. The group is sponsored by a Senegalese non-profit which prepares African youth to become global citizens.
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Pachanga review: Grupo Fantasma
Bands usually need to be judicious about throwing new material into a live set, lest fans grow restive waiting to hear something familiar. But the material from Grupo Fantasma’s forthcoming “Sonidos Gold” is so strong, with such infectious melodies, sizzling arrangements and irresistible grooves, that the crowd Saturday at Pachanga Fest danced and swayed enthusiastically to unreleased songs such as “Rebotar,” “El Sabio Soy Yo” and “Levantame” as though they were old favorites from a greatest-hits anthology. (The album is due out June 17, although copies were available at the show.)
Grupo Fantasma even had the audience singing along with “Gimme Some,” which pretty much channels the zeitgeist in its chorus: “I ain’t got no money — gimme some!” The number achieved the tricky feat of sounding very like vintage Santana without seeming remotely derivative. The 11-piece Austin ensemble has such an organic, eclectic approach that it never sounds retro, even when it’s drawing on heavy influences that include salsa giants the Fania All-Stars (whose legendary pianist and arranger, Larry Harlow, guests on the new record) and Prince, who has become a mentor.
Funk mingles easily with salsa, cumbia and other Latin rhythms in Grupo Fantasma’s music because the arrangements are so full — the band often sounds more like an orchestra — yet so lean. All the members are listening intently to everything that’s going on, and nobody lays down anything extraneous or rote. There were plenty of memorable solos Saturday. Matthew “Sweet Lou” Holmes played some particularly tasty congas on “Naci de La (Rumba y Guaguanco),” Joshua Levy had an especially fine baritone sax turn on “Gimme Some,” and Gilbert Elorreaga launched “Levantame” with his soaring trumpet. But no matter how much attention one player was drawing, nobody was running on autopilot in the background. There are plenty of players with chops, but not many who work together as well as the members of Grupo Fantasma.
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Pachanga review: Boca Abajo
Austin’s Boca Abajo had the same challenge as other bands with midafternoon sets at Pachanga Fest — playing for fans who were plunked down on blankets or chairs in the shade a good, long way from the stage. Even the two women wearing matching Boca Abajo T-shirts were hanging well back. Nevertheless, the group kept its energy level high in an exceptionally solid set of indie rock with dollops of power pop, blues-rock, metal, punk and reggae.
Drummer Roland Ramirez, percussionist Lionel Salinas and bassist Conrad Salinas formed a very tight, dynamic rhythm section, and lead guitarist Joe Ramirez and singer-guitarist Patrick Salinas had a strong rhythmic approach as well. (They’re all family members, but don’t ask us just how they’re related.) Joe Ramirez was both versatile and fluid, thrashing away at his guitar one minute and playing graceful arpeggios with classical elan the next.
Patrick Salinas has a strong, clear, flexible voice that he deployed with a refreshing absence of melodrama. His percussive yet liquid phrasing made Spanish sound like the natural language of rock ‘n’ roll. Lionel Salinas, who was delightfully animated throughout, sang fine harmonies as well.
Boca Abajo’s memorable tunes included the punk-pop-reggae fusion “Reggae n ‘G’ ” and twangy, hyper “Necesito Salvacion.” They’ve only released one album to date, but already have a mature sound.
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Pachanga review: Charanga Cakewalk
A hot, cloudless afternoon wasn’t the best setting for Charanga Cakewalk, who played Saturday at the first Pachanga Latino Musical Festival in Waterloo Park. Not only did the band have to play for an empty expanse of scorched grass, because fans were cowering in the limited shade available under a tree way back behind the soundboard, the group’s sound also has a late-night mystery that got a little washed out in the harsh sunshine.
Charanga Cakewalk started as a recording project by Michael Ramos, a producer and superb musician who has toured and recorded with the likes of the BoDeans, John Mellencamp and Patty Griffin. On the two album he’s released so far as Charanga Cakewalk, Ramos concocts a heady, internationalist brew of cumbia, son, tejano, other Latin/world styles and electronica, although that last element was not much in evidence Saturday. In the studio and with the band, he frequently conjures a film noir atmosphere. That’s not the easiest thing to pull off in the middle of Waterloo Park, but pretty songs, compelling rhythms and interesting arrangements made up for the somewhat unnatural habitat.
Charanga Cakewalk’s drummer, percussionist and bassist kept the rhythms percolating, and Ramos’ accordion — or trumpet, or keyboards, or melodica — had a strong foil in Jacob Owen’s guitar. Owen played some moody slide to underline the sweet, otherworldly melancholy of “Belleza,” and was just as adept at little reggae squiggles or bluesier statements. The group woke the audience out of its torpor with an instrumental polka, and although Ramos isn’t a natural frontman, his laid-back rap on “Dirty Cumbia” was appealing. He said the song was from a forthcoming album. With its murky verse and the contrasting lightness of the chorus, which featured high vocal harmonies, it certainly bodes well for another fascinating release.
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Review: Return to Forever at the Paramount
Halfway into set one, Return To Forever timekeeper Lenny White declared: “We’ve waited 25 years for this!” Representing everyone else, a fan yelled: “So have we!” Precious few bands could look forward to a sold-out world tour after being dormant for so long, let alone an instrumental jazz rock outfit. After rehearsing a few days at in the Paramount Theatre, the quartet — keyboardist, founder and primary composer Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke, guitarist Al Di Meola, and drummer White — christened their reunion tour with two nights at Austin’s grand 1915 hall.
Miles Davis’ 1969 “In A Silent Way” (featuring Fender Rhodes scholar Corea) painted the backdrop as the four mandarins met a vigorous standing ovation. Opener “Hymn of the 7th Galaxy” came out swinging, but follower “Vulcan Worlds” melted any queries concerning chops or relevance. When the “Sorceress” raised her head, aural alchemy reached the boiling point. Some ticketholders were as old as RTF’s hiatus, but most were a tad younger than the Grammy-winners’ average age of 59. Ladies were not as scarce as at a Rush show, but Y chromosomes populated the venue, with fervent out-of-towners making the pilgrimage. Whistles and whoops of appreciation erupted after: Clarke’s electric bass solo referenced John Coltrane’s masterwork “A Love Supreme,” Lenny White — part Roy Haynes, part Dennis Chambers — snapped out another thunderous groove, and when Corea’s keys and Di Meola’s strings traded harmonic sixty-forth notes.
The baroque space funk of “Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant” closed set two, with encores rounding out two and half hours. One could argue that RTF’s break fueled some of the evening’s success — giving fans a chance to yearn, and the rest time to get hip to the vanguard sounds. Or perhaps it was because Return To Forever is one of the few teams who are both cerebral and funky.
Set 1
Hymn of the 7th Galaxy
Vulcan Worlds
(Senor Mouse)
Sorceress
Song to the Pharaoh Kings
Set 2
Guitar Solo Intro
No Mystery
Piano Solo Intro
The Romantic Warrior
Bass Solo
Drum Solo
Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant
Encores
Beyond the Seventh Galaxy
Dayride
Medieval Overture
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Tribute to Damita Jo- Austin’s own
It’ll be a historic weekend in East Austin June 13 and 14, when Women In Jazz present a tribute to Austin’s own Damita Jo DeBlanc. Pamela Hart, Donna Hightower, Ernie Mae Miller and Sondra Johnson will sing songs made famous by Damita Jo, backed by the James Polk Quartet.
State representative Dawnna Dukes, a cousin of Damita Jo, will host the event at George Washington Carver Library (1165 Angelina St.) Tickets are $20 in advance. Go here or call 258-6947 for more info.
So just who was the singer known as Damita Jo? Here’s an article about her written in the Statesman in April 2004.
“Damita Jo’s Austin Roots”
by Michael Corcoran
When native East Austinite Josephine Dukes heard that Janet Jackson’s new album was called “Damita Jo,” her jaw dropped. The only Damita Jo she knew of was her cousin, a dynamic singer who had a couple of pop hits in the early 1960s.
Then Dukes started putting it all together. Damita Jo DeBlanc had told her that Janet Jackson’s mother was a fan who named her daughter Janet Damita Jo Jackson. That info’s right there in the funeral program for DeBlanc, who died in Baltimore on Christmas Day 1998 at age 68, of respiratory illness.
A 4-foot-11-inch spitfire who lit up showrooms and living rooms alike, DeBlanc had hits with “answer songs” to “Save the Last Dance For Me” by the Drifters and to “Stand By Me” by Ben E. King. But she really wanted to be the next Ella Fitzgerald, and Damita Jo, as she was billed, could scat like her idol.
Born in Austin on Aug. 5, 1930, the only child of Creole chef Herbert DeBlanc and schoolteacher Latrelle Plummer DeBlanc, Damita Jo was dancing and singing as soon as she could walk and talk. “She was a natural entertainer, the life of the party,” Josephine Dukes recalls.
She also possessed comedic flair and was a regular on Redd Foxx’s 1977 TV variety show.
Damita Jo’s father, who grew up speaking French in Iberia, La., and never lost the accent, enlisted in the Navy during World War II and was stationed in Santa Barbara, Calif., where Damita Jo attended high school. But she’d often return to Austin, where her grandmother Mathilde DeBlanc had a house at 1010 Olive St.
“I just adored Damita,” says Josephine’s daughter, state Rep. Dawnna Dukes of Austin. “She was the sweetest, warmest person you could ever meet. She’d say ‘Hot dog!’ and slap her thigh and everybody was ‘darlin’ and ‘sweetheart.’ ” Dawnna Dukes has become the DeBlanc family historian in recent years, tracing the Austin clan as direct descendants of Louis Antone Juchereau de St. Denis, a French explorer from Quebec who founded Natchitoches Parish in Louisiana in 1714.
In an entirely coincidental aside to the Janet Jackson/Damita Jo connection, Luther Simond, married to Damita Jo’s aunt, was an assistant principal at Norton High School in Gary, Ind., in 1966 when Janet Jackson was born. “I knew the family well,” Simond says of the musical tribe that put Gary on the map. “Those (Jackson) boys started off singing in the church choir. Then, when they got their act together, I called my stepson (Motown arranger Gil Askey) in Detroit and said, ‘You need to come down here and check these guys out.’ “
Simond says Askey took Diana Ross to see the Jackson 5 and they were soon signed to Motown. “Janet’s parents didn’t know I was related to Damita Jo,” says Simond, whose late wife, Ada DeBlanc Simond, was a noted author and activist.
Damita Jo’s Austin relatives were important to her. She spent a few weeks in Austin in 1983 when her aunt Audrey DeBlanc Shannon was dying of cancer. “I spent almost every day with her,” says Dukes, who was in college at the time. “She was very unassuming, but if I prodded her, she’d tell stories about all the celebrities she had worked with — Duke Ellington, Sammy Davis Jr., Ray Charles, Count Basie, Billie Holiday — people like that.”
Damita Jo’s life had its share of tragedies. Her mother died when she was 19 and she moved back to Austin, ditching dreams of Hollywood stardom to be near relatives and to attend Samuel Huston College. In 1970, her father was shot to death by a man he’d lent money to who didn’t want to repay. Eight months pregnant and living in Baltimore, a grieving Damita Jo was forbidden by doctors to travel to the funeral.
The daughter she gave birth to in 1970 died of sickle cell anemia at age 3. Damita Jo was on the road when she got the news. After that, she rarely toured and doted on her only son, John Jeffrey Wood, whose father, Biddy, married Damita Jo in 1961 and managed her career.
Her first husband was band leader Steve Gibson, whose Red Caps featured Damita Jo as lead vocalist. The couple divorced in 1958 after four years of marriage.
Signed to a solo deal with Mercury, Damita Jo hit the pop charts in late 1960 with “I’ll Save the Last Dance For You.” Six months later she had a No. 12 pop hit with “I’ll Be There,” a response to “Stand By Me.” Ironically, “I’ll Be There” was also the name of a Jackson 5 hit, though the tunes are different.
The pop hits stopped there, as Damita Jo transformed herself into a portrait of elegance, singing jazz standards at swanky bistros and casino nightclubs for the remainder of her career. She recorded several albums for the Mercury and Epic labels.
Mayor Lester Palmer declared May 9, 1967 “Damita Jo Day” when the singer returned to her hometown to perform.
Damita Jo retired from performing in 1984, after an eight-week run with Joey Bishop in Atlantic City.
