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August 2008
Standing in for Okkervil
To build anticipation for “The Stand Ins,” Okkervil River’s sequel to the 2007 LP “The Stage Names,” Will Sheff and the gang have opened this YouTube channel of covers of the new album by such acts as A.C. Newman of New Pornographers, Jack Ladder, Bird of Youth and Bon Iver. It’s a cool concept, featuring Okkervil’s friends and faves they’ve met out on the road.
One of the best clips is when Newman and Sheff duet on “Lost Coastlines,” the album’s standout track (though it’s a little long in the la-las), with Sheff singing Jonathan (Shearwater) Meiburg’s part.
“The Stand Ins” hits stores Sept. 9. I need to listen to the record a few more times before I review it, but my early impression is that it’s not as good as “The Stage Names,” which was recorded by Brian Beattie during the same sessions. To me, it sounds more like leftovers than a second helping, but Spin liked “The Stand Ins” to the tune of four stars.
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SAJB makes Parish debut
Stubb’s, Emo’s and the Continental are better known, Antone’s is more iconic and Momo’s is the new clubhouse, but the Parish is the local rock scene’s best listening room. Being booked there is a step up for roots acts who’ve been hammering away on the circuit for years.
The South Austin Jug Band makes its debut at the Parish Friday Sept. 12, signifying that, despite the fiddles, they’re not really a country band. This has been a breakout year for the Juggers, who are finally getting some airplay on KGSR, which somehow passed on “Ghost” a few years ago.
The band plays ACL Fest Sunday Sept. 28.
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Review: Alejandro Escovedo, Ian McLagan, (the Reivers?) at Antone’s
Thursday’s benefit for the Austin Child Guidance Center was an all-star event with bite-sized sets. With most of the Antone’s floor devoted to silent auctions, VIP sponsor tables, and — what? — folding chairs, the music was the main event but had stiff competition. (Happily for the bands, the first round of auctioneering saw a stack of signed Ian McLagan records outperform, on a bid-versus-retail-price basis, a 50” plasma TV and a bike presented by a beauty queen.)
After quick sets from the Reivers — hinting at a new album and, if John Croslin was to be believed, another new name — and Ian McLagan — whose drummer Don Harvey organized the event — came one whose briefness made sense, coming as it did between somewhat more demanding gigs: playing the Democratic National Convention and opening for Bruce Springsteen.
Alejandro Escovedo may have needed some rest recently, but he was anything but exhausted here, ripping through a set heavy on rockers from his latest record. Slowing down only for “Sister Lost Soul” and to repeatedly thank the Child Guidance Center for the work they do, he began with “Always a Friend” and was soon worked up enough to have to ditch his black-and-blue iridescent suit jacket. Leading a four-piece, strings-free band, he worked the crowd up with “Chelsea Hotel ‘78” and “Real as an Animal” before zipping off the stage and disappearing — heading home, one guesses, to carefully pack his red leather shoes for a Saturday show in Milwaukee with the Boss.
Click here to view photos from the show.
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Obama’s song: Brooks & Dunn?
At the end of his epic “I Have a Dream (To Cut Taxes for the Middle Class)” speech Thursday night in Denver, Barack Obama and family (which includes Joe Biden’s teeth for the next few months) bathed in the Demo-delirium as an annoying mainstream country song blared over the loudspeakers. It was “Only In America” by Brooks & Dunn, Nashville’s Loggins & Oates. The last time that song was played at a political convention, it was for the Republicans in 2004, and Brooks & Dunn performed it live.
Wonder if Sen. John McCain will retaliate by playing “Signed, Sealed Delivered” by Stevie Wonder after his acceptance speech next week?
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Can there be a worse name than the Reivers?
Zeitgeist was so perfect. Then Austin’s best ’80s indie pop band had to change their name- to the Reivers. The newly reformed band announced Thursday at Antone’s sold-out Child Guidance Center benefit that they are now called Right Or Happy - as in when you’re in a fight with your signif-o, do you want to be right or happy? (Isn’t that a Blue Collar Comedy routine?)
Our number one Right Or Happy fan Jay says John, Kim, Toth and Garrett played “four new amazing songs.” They’re back!
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Weekend Picks: Power pop, candy, cigarettes and bats
Friday: East Side Blues at the Victory Grill. Long before East Eleventh Street was a stomping ground for hipsters and condo-dwellers, the Victory Grill, a storied juke joint, was home base for pioneers of Austin’s jazz and blues scene. DiverseArts celebrates that history with a screening of the film “Austin, Texas: East Side Blues” a 30-minute documentary chronicling the local greats of the post-war scene. Film screens at 8 p.m., a panel discussion will follow. $5-$10 suggested donation. —Deborah Sengupta Stith
Friday: Prince Klassen CD release at the Beauty Bar. Klassen, who’s been known to drop everything from danceable indie-pop to rugged gangsta rap in a set, celebrates the release of a new CD. Bodies will be rocked. —-D.S.S.
Friday and Saturday: Wild Weekend power pop festival at the Mohawk and Beerland. For fans of bouncy, hooky, high-speed guitar rock and the people who put up with them. Friday night, check out Paul Collins’ Beat, Pointed Sticks, Nikki Corvette and more at the Mohawk. (Grand Champeen, Power Chords, Prima Donna and more play at Beerland on Friday during the day.) The Boys, playing their first and only U.S. show in more than 25 years, perform Saturday night at the Mohawk with 20/20, Boss Martians and more. Poor People, Luxury Sweets and more play a day show at Beerland. Mohawk shows are 9 p.m. and $25. The Beerland shows are 21 and older and free. Check out www.myspace.com/wildweekendaustin for more info. — Joe Gross
Saturday: KVRX Back to School Blowout at Emo’s. A benefit for University of Texas student station KVRX with Ringo Deathstarr, T-Bird and the Breaks, Death is Not a Joyride and more. 10 p.m. $7. — J.G.
Saturday: Candy & Cigarettes No. 2 Zine Release Party at Club DeVille. One of Austin’s best and weirdest new ‘zines celebrates its second issue. With Learning Secrets, a Faulty Chromosome and more. 9 p.m. $4, $6. — J.G.
Saturday-Sunday: Batfest on the First Street Bridge between West Cesar Chavez Street and Riverside Drive. Crafts, food, kids’ activities, more than 30 bands including Edgar Winter, the BoDeans, Carolyn Wonderland, Flobots and more. Plus bat watching. 2 p.m. to midnight Saturday, 2 to 10 p.m. Sunday. $5 at the door; 10 and younger are free. — J.G.
Sunday: Jeremy Enigk at Stubb’s. On the cusp of 34, the former frontman of the insanely influential emo band Sunny Day Real Estate has developed a solid solo career. Perhaps the fanbase is not as devout as SDRE’s, but what is? With Amy Cook. 9 p.m. $13. — J.G.
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Latin music live chat with Paul Saucido today at 2 p.m.
Join us Thursday at 2 p.m. for a live chat about Latin music in Austin and beyond with guest host Paul Saucido. Until recently, Paul served as Latin Music Director of ME Television where he hosted the groundbreaking show “Sonido Boombox.” Paul also hosts the annual Rock ‘n’ Roll Dia celebration which brings to the stage a broad mix of local and national Latino artists. You can catch Paul on the Internet at rockyrollradio.com where he hosts a weekly Webcast featuring excellent local, national and international Spanish-language music mixed with entertaining chat. New shows air every Monday and Friday and old shows are archived for your listening pleasure.
(Pictured: Paul Saucido at the 2007 Rock ‘n’ Roll Dia. Photo by David Weaver FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Big day for Boland
Not many artists undergo surgery the day their new record is released, but both proceedures were deemed complete successes.
Jason Boland and The Stragglers new album “Comal County Blue,” which was released Tuesday, shot to #1 on the i-Tunes country sales chart. The singer-songwriter, meanwhile, went under the knife to remove a polyp from his vocal chords.
Boland’s expected to be back on the road soon, promoting the record that’s received the best reviews of his career. He’s currently in Oklahoma with his family, recovering from the surgery.
Go here for updates.
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Review: Jon Dee Graham first night back at Continental
A phoenix rose from its ashes Wednesday night at the Continental Club. It was Jon Dee Graham’s first gig since a near-fatal car crash a month prior laid him up at Brackenridge with three broken ribs, a concussion, and internal bleeding. In a pre-show interview, Graham was feeling no pain. That’s because, he said, he was on OxyContin. He relayed how smoking saved his life, telling of the cigarette he snuck while in the hospital and how the severe vomiting it triggered alerted doctors that he needed his spleen removed … stat. He also talked about the antibiotics required to subside perilous fevers, the 45 stitches running along his torso, and how the realignment of his body makes it susceptible to high altitudes. “Another lifelong dream crushed,” he said. “I can’t climb Mt. Everest.”
Ascending the stage was feat enough. And when he did, applause erupted from the mid-week regulars who’ve been coming to see him at the Continental for nearly 10 years now. (Absent was Graham’s fellow True Believer Alejandro Escovedo, who returns to the fold tonight at Antone’s after a similarly uncontrollable hiatus.) Knowing full well his first song back would carry added meaning, Graham chose “Something Wonderful,” an allusion to his second lease on life. He walked stage left to his longtime guitarist Mike Hardwick, smiled, and then did the same to bassist Andrew Duplantis, stage right, all the while slinging his guitar with added muster, as if to convince himself he really was where he thought he was.
The seven songs he played — spelled at one point by fellow Skunk Jesse Sublett, among others — included an unrehearsed, crash-inspired rocker seemingly titled “Busted up Inside,” wherein he sang, “It’s not as bad as it looks/Ok, it’s pretty bad.” But for a performer like Graham, songs are only part of the reason people pack places. His monologues alone are worth the price of admission. On this night, folks were treated to gems about $19 Advil at Brack and the rumor that he was found wandering down South Congress in his pajamas at 3 a.m. But the evening achieved the full-on earnestness of someone who has peeked at the other side when Graham said, “Man, you have no idea how good it feels to be back up here.”
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Metallica’s favorite Austin band
Fresh from dates with Ozzfest and opening for Metallica in Europe, Austin heavies the Sword are set to embark on a headlining tour that takes them to Stubb’s Oct. 4.
The band is promoting its second album, the humility-free “Gods of the Earth.” The band plans to hook up again with Metallica by the end of the year for another tour.
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Iron and Wine at ‘Austin City Limits’
Iron and Wine’s music rewards sitting down, which makes it perfect for an “Austin City Limits” taping. Even when band leader, sole constant and Dripping Springs resident Sam Beam’s earliest acoustic reveries are given full-band rearrangements, the songs remain chilled out even as they gain steam.
Looking in a sweater and jacket like a hippieish political science professor, with his sister Sara on backing vocals and a crack band that could move from loping chug reminiscent of ’70s German “Krautrock” to jam band choogle reminiscent of, well, Phish, Beam moved around his career with ease Wednesday night.
He and Sara opened with a crisp, acoustic “Each Coming Night,” an early song that moved like spun gold in the crowded studio. Augmented at various points with pedal steel, electric guitars, precussion, bass, keys and all of the above, the set built in intensity.
Fan-favorite “Woman King” was a juggernaut, heaps of small sounds rubbing against a dramatic groove like gravel flying off a truck on a dirt road. “King” rolled into “Wolves” for the set’s jammiest phase; all that was missing was a hacky sack and some guy juggling Devil’s sticks.
“Upward Over the Mountain,” lo-fi and heart-rendingly spare in its original form was given an almost jaunty makeover that shouldn’t have worked nearly as well as it did. Beam returned to his acoustic duo for “Trapeze Swinger” his most Dylanish ramble. A three song encore was an unexpected bonus, but everyone was already charmed into submission.
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Alpha Rev signs with Hollywood
Alpha Rev at ME-TV (warning: Bobby Bones thinks he’s Letterman)
Austin modern rockers Alpha Rev, headed by Casey McPherson (ex-Endochine), have signed a recording contract with Disney-owned Hollywood Records, the former home of Fastball. The band was signed based on recordings produced by Dwight Baker and a showcase at CMJ in 2007.
What took so long? McPherson says the deal was held up for a year by investors in the band, who sued McPherson and Hollywood for “tortuous interference.” McPherson says he’s settled with those backers, “who pretty much got the entire advance from Hollywood.”
The Alpha Rev album is slated for spring release.
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Dylan for Danny
Tuesday’s memorial service for Danny Roy Young, the man with the magic smile who died of a heart attack last week at age 67, opened with a recording of Bob Dylan’s “When the Deal Goes Down.” Danny had told someone that the last line best describes his life and philosophy.
Here is a video of the tune starring Scarlett Johansson.
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Escovedo plays DNC today
Alejandro Escovedo’s first appearance in a month will be today at the Democratic National Convention, playing a solo acoustic set as opening House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland).
On an unrelated note, Bruce Springsteen (D- New Jersey) is playing the convention Thursday.
Escovedo returns to Austin Thursday to headline a benefit for the Child Guidance Center at Antone’s. The Reivers and Ian McLagan are also on the bill at Antone’s
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CD review: The Game ‘L.A.X.’
Game
“L.A.X.”
(Geffen)
The Game’s debut “The Documentary” could have been a 50 Cent album. He was its biggest star - the co-executive producer featured on the first three singles. Game name-dropped G Unit incessantly, while bragging about a past (Compton gang-banger, five bullet holes) suspiciously 50-like.
His second album “Doctor’s Advocate” revolved around Dr. Dre, who had chosen 50 over him after a feud between the two Dre proteges. It was a conflicted album, both defiant (full of Dre-sounding beats that screamed “I don’t need you”) and plaintive (with lyrics that begged for forgiveness).
So who exactly is he without 50 and Dre? That’s the question he faces on his third album “L.A.X.”
Even without his mentors, the record doesn’t lack in star-power. The endless guest-list (Nas, Lil’ Wayne, Ne-Yo, Ludacris, Ice Cube and Common, just to name a few) leaves room for only three solo tracks. An equally impressive group of producers keep the G-Unit meets West Coast sound of his first two albums.
Game isn’t overshadowed, thanks to his commanding and self-assured baritone straight out of gangsta rap central casting. But for someone from Compton, the birthplace of gangsta rap, his ghetto tales are so unimaginative they could be a parody: “Come to my hood / Look at my block / That’s my project building / Yea, that’s where I got shot.”
He’s interested not in gangsta rap but gangsta rappers; he’s more fan than rapper. He incorporates other musicians into every subject imaginable - from civil rights to sex. They’re signposts in both time (“Everybody’s first bootleg was Boyz ‘n the Hood”) and place (“I’m from a block close to where Biggie was crucified”).
On “Never Can Say Goodbye”, the album’s most ambitious track, he raps as Biggie, Tupac and Eazy-E on the eve of their deaths. It’s expert mimicry, but if he wants to join the ranks of his idols, he’ll have to find a voice of his own.
Recommended: “My Life,” “Game’s Pain”
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Review: MMJ at ACL
Like a cross between… nothing. J. James and co. warm up for ACL
Although often considered interchangeable terms, there’s a big difference between inspiration and influence. My Morning Jacket is a band that sounds influenced by no one and yet the songs of Jim James are inspired by the smell of rain, a good meal, Prince, “Nebraska” and how it feels better to sleep on bed sheets that have come off the clothesline instead of out of the dryer. They’re pure, organic, truly original and a little boring, but that’s OK because they’re also inspired by the fact that it takes more muscles to yawn than it does to hoot.
I had never seen My Morning Jacket live until last night at their “Austin City Limits” taping and had only listened to one of their albums, the new “Evil Urges,” a couple of times. The band of mountain men from Kentucky had slinked onto the national scene after my run as music critic evolved into a more general feature writing role. Having ditched my old faves Wilco after they started sounding more influenced by Radiohead than inspired by a warm day in winter, I wasn’t really looking to be challenged by another Midwestern band with a new way to (not) rock.
But my dear friend V is a major MMJ fan (so much that the initials could stand for My Michael Jordan), so I tagged along to that windowless world at Guadalupe and 26th. While ACL tapings generally lack the energy of a concert- any way to darken the faces of audience members?- they are a good way to study a band, as if under glass. My analysis turned up a couple of major points in the band’s appeal. First, James is an exceptionally intuitive singer who can turn it off and on like a faucet. His songs sound like he was raised in a bunker miles from anywhere, out of radio’s range, but with the instinctive knowledge that Motown and the Grand Ole Opry existed. Second, the band stays out of his way and he rewards them with the occasional instrumental freakout (actually the weakest part of their m.o.). Also, there’s no way to overstate just how vital the drummer is to the band’s genre-jumping abilities. No other caveman could lay down such a perfect disco beat.
You’ll note the lack of song titles in this “review.” Just look at the track listing on “Evil Urges.” That’s the set list, scrambled up. According to V, the band also played a couple of never-recorded songs and ended with a couple of fan faves from the LP’s “Z” and “It Still Moves.”
My Morning Jacket is a band that people follow, though not as blindly (or deaf-ly) as Deadheads. They remind me, more philosophically than musically, of another band from Louisville, NRBQ. My favorite adage about NRBQ, those musicians’ musicians from the ‘70s and ‘80s, is that when they’d travel by car they’d never play the radio. Instead, someone would name a song- “Chestnut Mare” by the Byrds, for instance - and the four members would think about that record in silence for about as long as it lasted. Then someone would name another song.
So much happens in the head before it ever makes it to the hands. What I got out of last night’s taping is that My Morning Jacket makes music of the mind, that playground of inspiration.
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Review: Nas at Emo’s (first set)
“I’m out for Presidents to represent me,” the 20 year old rapped.
The response is incredulous: “Say what?’
He repeats the comment; the response is more emphatic: “Say WHAT?”
“I’m out for dead Presidents to represent me,” the rapper corrects himself.
He means, of course, money. After all, the idea of a living President representing an African-American kid from Queens is so far out of the realm of possibility in 1994, when Nas recorded the lines on “The World is Yours,” a song from his legendary debut album “Illmatic,” that the notion doesn’t even seem like a punchline but an iron-clad fact.
The prospect of an actual living president to represent him seems to have invigorated the now-34-year old , who delivered an energetic, inspired, hits-filled set Sunday night, the first of two at a packed Emo’s. (Of course, the fact that his newest album — known as “N,” “Nas” or a common racial epithet — has yielded some of his strongest commercial and critical success in years can’t hurt his mood.)
Following a set from perpetual journeyman Talib Kweli, Nas bounded through present hits and past glories, wearing an Obama T-shirt and shouting out the man on “Black President.” After he and DJ Green Lantern banged out a few newer tracks such as the anti-NewsCorp “Sly Fox,” Nas took it old school, running through bulletproof “Illmatic” era songs such as “New York State of Mind,” the aforementioned “World is Yours,” “One Love” and “Represent.” (“Some of you was 10 years old when that came out!” he laughed.) He skipped now-mostly-forgotten rapper AZ’s immortal opening verse on “Life’s a Bitch;” this was a shame, as dozens of 30-somethings in the crowd could spit it from memory — it was that kind of crowd.
His ‘97 hit single “If I Ruled The World” turned into a (no kidding) moving sing-along (peace to Lauryn Hill, wherever she is). He was careful about cherry picking his career. His salacious semi-comback “Oochie Wally” got just a little lip service, while the crowd went bonkers for “Made You Look” and it’s transcendently funky old-school clatter.
If Obama wins, it would make an entire generation, the folks who rapped along with every word, the folks who had their lives changed by hip-hop and its inherently revolutionary worldview, more than a little verklempt to see Nas spit rhymes at the inauguration. That would be a pretty good sign that the world is ours. — Joe Gross
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Review: My Morning Jacket at Stubb’s
It was obvious the Olympics were over, what with the sea of sweaty bodies at full swell for the crazy-early start time of My Morning Jacket’s sold-out Sunday show at Stubb’s. Still, the Olympic spirit was in the air, as MMJ made like Usain Bolt and gave back to the people who helped elevate them to idol status. That explains the Capital Area Food Bank on-hand to solicit goods, a gesture afforded them in return for Austin’s embrace of the prog-rock five-piece via multiple SXSW and ACL appearances.
Come 8 p.m., frontman Jim James had already worked himself into a lather, wearing a Dracula cape and doing his best Lenny Kravitz impersonation on the electro-soul title track from the band’s random but pleasing new album, “Evil Urges.” James reckoned Austin the place “where all life started and all life will end,” in one of few asides during a two-hour, workmanlike set.
Dudes in the crowd lip-synched along to the gleeful “What A Wonderful Man,” from the breakthrough album “Z.” Dates gave each other a knowing look during the back-to-back run of pedal-steel, singer-songwriter fare that was “Golden,” from “It Still Moves,” and “Librarian,” from the new one. And private dancers came out of hiding during the roughly 15-minute jam that started with the brooding “Dondante,” segued into the clubby “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2,” and then reverted back to “Dondante,” before James’s Theremin work erupted a ballistic climax of strobe lights, hair-flying head-bangs, and handclaps.
The first song of the encore was “Wordless Chorus,” wherein James sang, “We are … the innovators/They are … the imitators.” By then the point had already been driven home. But the on-deck number was “Highly Suspicious,” a goofy, heavy-metal romp that’s apparently polarized diehards, so MMJ must have felt it needed reiterating.
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This week in music
Tuesday: Pompeii, Gazelles, Wine and Revolution at the Mohawk
Tuesday: Lady Pterodactyls, Strange Powers and Univac at the Scoot Inn
Wednesday: Oxford Collapse, Love As Laughter at the Mohawk (outside stage)
Wednesday: Benko CD release at the Mohawk (inside stage)
Wednesday: Meg & Dia, Jonezetta, Danger Radio at Emo’s
Wednesday: Hot Club of Cowtown CD Release at the Continental Club
Wednesday: The Devil Makes Three at Stubb’s
Wednesday-Thursday: Eek-a Mouse at Flamingo Cantina
Thursday: Hot Club of Cowtown at Waterloo Records
Thursday: Ultraviolet Sound, Electric Valentine at the Beauty Bar
Thursday: Alejandro Escovedo, The Reiver at Antone’s
Thursday: Electric Touch CD release at Stubb’s
Thursday: GBH at Emo’s
Thursday: Gipsy Kings at the Backyard
Coming this weekend
Friday: Prince Klassen CD release at the Beauty Bar
Friday and Saturday: Wild Weekend Power Pop Festivavl at the Mohawk and Beerland
Saturday: KVRX
Back to School Blowout at Emo’s
Saturday: Black and White Years, Loxly at Stubb’s
Saturday: Eliot Lipp, Sub ID at the Parish
Saturday: Dragstravaganza with a DJ set from Lady Miss Kier of Dee-Lite at the Cockpit
Sunday: Ben Harper at 11th Street and Congress Avenue (part of the Human Race 10K celebration
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Why My Morning Jacket loves Austin
Austin has always had a love affair with My Morning Jacket. Whether playing South by Southwest (National Public Radio streamed its March showcase live), the Austin City Limits Music Festival or gigs like tonight’s long sold-out show at Stubb’s, the band knows how to bond with its audience.
MMJ’s Austin stop is part of its jam-packed tour behind its latest (and somewhat controversial among die-hard fans) album, “Evil Urges.” We caught up with bassist Tom Blankenship (aka Two-Tone Tommy) on the road via e-mail with questions from the staff and readers of the Austin Music Source blog.
Austin American-Statesman: How’s the tour going so far? Tom Blankenship:We started the run with two hometown shows, in Nashville (Tenn.) and Louisville (Ky.), which both turned out pretty epic — a coincidental fireworks display mid-set from a neighboring football game, meeting Louisville’s “mayor for life” Jerry Abramson, partying at a friend’s funeral home post-show — it’s been a bit of amazing so far.
How do you guys pick the songs you’ll cover during a show? Sometimes it’s a song that we all collectively love and have dreamed about covering. Most of the time though it’s one of us joking, “Wouldn’t it be funny if we played (blank)?” Come to think of it, that’s where most of our best ideas come from — ya know, “Wouldn’t it be funny if … “
Modern Southern bands often have a literary bent. Any favorite authors? Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Chabon, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card.
What are you reading/watching/listening to on tour? I’m slowly making my way through Chris Claremont’s 16-year-run on “Uncanny X-Men,” something I’ve been hoping to do since I was 14. I heart Kitty Pryde. What’s your favorite thing/place in Austin? Curra’s veggie chorizo breakfast tacos, Austin Books & Comics, Mother’s Cafe & Garden, Taj Palace, Toy Joy, Thundercloud’s Nada Chicken, Bass Emporium, Hyde Park, Waterloo Records, Satay, Genuine Joe coffee and Amy’s ice cream. There’s a great deal to like about Austin. Anything you want to say to your fans in Austin? Several years ago when we took a week off of work to go on our first tour in an old Dodge van, Austin was the first city to really go out of its way to make us feel welcome. Within hours of arriving in town we had floors to crash on and good folks to show us around. That kind of hospitality and friendliness you don’t find in just any city, and it’s why, along with the insanely energetic crowds, it’s still one of our favorite places to play.
What was the process like in creating the song ‘Highly Suspicious’? It seems to have divided some of the band’s longtime fans, to the point that some are saying they like everything else on ‘Evil Urges.’ Was there any debate about including it? To me it’s just a fun, grooving, goofy song, so it’s difficult to understand how fiercely opinionated folks have been about it. It was a blast to rehearse and record that guy, and it never really changed much from Jim’s (Jim James) demo. That boy can write a song that’s equal parts awesome and hilarious.
We hear you guys are pro-Muppet (so are we!). Who’s your favorite or who do you most closely relate to? I think most people would say Janice, the guitar player for Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, but growing up it was always Fozzie (for his ‘51 Studebaker in “The Muppet Movie” and all-around lovableness) and Rowlf (for being the coolest, most laid-back of the bunch).
When do you go back in the studio — or do you even want to think about that right now? We’ve got tour dates booked through February but no plans beyond that right now.
Everyone gets burned out from time to time — how do you recharge? Hanging out at home with my awesome wife and our two furry kiddos, sleep, laser tag, nights with old friends, sleep, a couple days ignoring e-mails, a big plate of avocado rolls and more sleep.
My Morning Jacket Where: Stubb’s Bar-B-Que, 801 Red River St. When: Doors open at 7 p.m. Sunday, August 24. Tickets: Technically sold out Food drive: The band has teamed with the Austin Center for Peace and Justice and the Capital Area Food Bank to collect nonperishable food items from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. outside the club (so if you don’t have a ticket, you can still drive by and donate). The food bank needs healthy, nonperishable food, especially canned meats and vegetables, pasta, beans, rice, healthy cereal, peanut butter and baby food and formula.
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Fun Fun Fun Fest tickets for sale
We told you Wednesday about the lineup for this year’s Fun Fun Fun Fest, featuring The National, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Shearwater, a Dead Milkmen reunion and more. Then Thursday we had a live chat with Transmission Entertainment’s Graham Williams to discuss the fest. Today we’re here to tell you that tickets for the fest are now on sale.
A two-day pass will be $59.99, available through FrontgateTickets.com. Children under 10 get in free and discounts will be made available to all students.
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ME Television announces layoffs
The Statesman’s Patrick George is reporting that ME Television laid off a large number of its employees today, according to its president and CEO.
From the post:
“The network had to restructure to minimum staff,” said Connie Wodlinger, ME TV’s president and CEO. “A skeleton staff will keep the station on-air.” Watlinger had to put her interview with the Statesman on hold before she could say how many were let go. The network had been making staff cuts in recent weeks, she said.
Kevin Connor, vice president of music programming for ME-TV, was on vacation in Rocky Mountain National Park when he got the news.
“We are going to be down to the most skeleton of skeleton crews,” Connor said. “With a very, very small stafff we can continue to play videos and all the great live performances that as long as we can do that we’re not done. I’m still working to keep the station running.”
Connor, a minor investor in ME-TV, declined to say if he was getting paid for his coming efforts. “As far as all the money stuff, I have to defer to Connie on that” he said. “My personal finances are personal. But (continuing to work at ME-TV) something that I can do. With the help of one or two of my colleagues, we can and try to work our way out of this.”
“I’ll tell you this,” he continued. “I’m really proud of the work we’ve done. I’m really proud of the shows that we’ve shot. We’ve done I-don’t-know-how-many hours of great performances. We’ve done damn good work and it’s too bad that the money may be preventing us to continue that work.”
Connor said the channel would continue to be on the air. “People are going to turn on the TV, turn on ME-TV and it’s still going to be on for as long as we can. Call me an optimist and an idiot, but I think we can find somebody to help set this ship right. There’s nothing wrong with the pie, the stuff we’re cooking quality stuff, we just have to keep the doors open.”
His voice became emotional when talking about his time with ME-TV (Then again, he was also at 9,000 ft. and walking down a mountain.)
“We’ve been working on this for a long time,” Connor said. “It’s been a struggle. When you look back at the body of work, the interviews, the live performances, you know our crew did a great job. We made good TV we may get chance to do it again.”
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Jon Dee Graham returns to action
Just a month after being involved in a serious car accident, Jon Dee Graham returns to his Continental Club residency on Wednesday. “He may be sitting instead of pacing (but don’t count on it),” reports Dianne Scott of the Continental. ” And when you ask him how he feels and he answers “Never better!” he may mean it.”
Graham is not yet at full strength, but the sight of so many familiar faces should be great therapy, indeed.
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Weekend Picks: Hip-hop heavyweights, an electro playground and MMJ
Friday: The Melvins at Emo’s. If you like big, sludgy chords that occasionally gallop into something that sounds like ZZ Top, you’ll want to be seeing the Melvins. With, as per usual, the killer duo (sometimes trio) Big Business. 10 p.m. $10. — Joe Gross
Friday: Intronaut at Red 7. If you like your metal really complicated with a lot of fast playing, check out these Los Angelenos. With the equally complicated Behold the Arctopus, epic metal band Mouth of the Architect and more. 9 p.m. Tickets at the door. — J.G.
Friday: Bun B at the Parish. The surviving half of legendary Houston rap group UGK has been soldiering on admirably following the sudden death of his partner Pimp C last year. He appears on this tour with the nine-piece funk/soul/afrobeat band Orgone. And it’s a Scion show which means it’s absolutely free (but expect to show up early and wait in line). RSVP here. —Deborah Sengupta Stith
Saturday: Migas at the Beauty Bar. A few months ago, I saw Migas — which features two-thirds of Austin psychedelic power trio Tia Carrera — put in one of the best sets of noise rock I’d ever seen. I’ve not missed one of their infrequent shows since. With Oh! Beast. Midnight. — J.G.
Saturday: KAZI’s SummerFest at the Monarch Events Center. The station’s summertime celebration is also their largest annual fundraiser. The day-long event is basically a live recreation of the community radio station’s unique programming with talk show hosts conducting educational seminars and over 40 diverse musical acts on two stages representing what station manager Steve Savage refers to as “the sounds of blackness, all music that started from a black form.” 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. $11. More on KAZI. —-D.S.S.
Saturday: Playground 2008 at the Light Bar. A night of techno, jungle, drum ‘n’ bass and more. Audio Angel headlines with drum and bass DJ Decibel and Austinites such as DJ Exceed, Rob Knowledge, Jaysoul and Adam Warped and many more. 9 p.m. $5 before 10 p.m., $10 after. Light Bar. — J.G.
Sunday: My Morning Jacket at Stubb’s. With ‘Evil Urges,’ MMJ seems to be announcing they are no longer playing the bearded indie rockers who stare at their shoes. Instead, they futz around with soft rock (‘I’m Amazed’) and answer the musical question, ‘What if Prince was on the Muppet Show back in ‘79?’ (‘Highly Suspicious’). This show is (technically) sold out. — J.G.
Sunday: Nas at Emo’s. His newest album was left untitled after the original title, a racial epithet, was discarded. Still, folks are calling it his best (read: sharpest, most political and most biting) in years. With Talib Kweli, Jay Electronica and DJ Green Lantern. These cats are playing two shows, one at 6 p.m., one at 9 p.m. $30. — J.G.
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Live Chat With Graham Williams at 2 p.m. TODAY
Transmission Entertainment co-founder Graham Williams is the guest for our weekly music chat at 2 p.m. today.
Join us to ask about all things Fun Fun Fun and Transmission-related, including the new record deal with White Denim, their rebooting of Bourbon Rocks and more.
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Danny Young 1941- 2008
Someone called Danny Young “the Mayor of South Austin” and it stuck like an arrow because Young’s warm, gregarious personality and passion for Texas music lit up the whole 78704 Zip Code. The big-hearted neighborhood activist was the friendliest guy you could ever meet… and he met everyone who ever walked into his Texicalli Grille.
Danny Roy Young, who also played rub board with Cornell Hurd, Ponty Bone and the Texana Dames, died of a heart attack Wednesday. He was 67. He had been at his parttime job as a driver for Enterprise Rent-a-Car when he was found incapacitated in a car in the parking lot Wednesday afternoon. Co-workers called for EMS and he was rushed to South Austin Hospital, where he went into cardiac arrest, said sister Dawne Young. The time of death was 4:42 p.m.
“What a guy!” Susan Antone wrote in an email. “He was a class act always and a great friend. He’ll be sorely missed.”
A native of Kingsville, where his parents ran a root beer stand turned pizza parlor, Young and his wife Lu moved to Austin in 1975 and opened the first location of Texicalli Grille (the signature Texicalli sandwich was named after Gene Autry’s “Mexicalli Rose”) on South Lamar Boulevard. He became the unofficial mayor of South Austin in the mid-1980s, when the city planned to widen South Lamar and put in a continuous median, to make it more of a thoroughfare. Fearing an expansion would change the soul of the neighborhood, Young organized other affected business owners, who gathered petitions, took their concerns to City Hall, and eventually got the expansion project dropped.
“It used to be, ‘All them Bubbas live over there with toilets in their front yards.’ And there’s still some of that,” Young said of South Austin in a 2002 American-Statesman profile. “But it’s the most beautiful, supportive community. It doesn’t matter if you have long or short hair, Skoal in your back pocket or a joint in your shirt pocket; here people really care about people.”
Nobody spread the love like Danny Young, who tooled around town in Big Lu-Lu, a 1954 Chevy station wagon, waving at friends and playing a mix of music ranging from conjunto to blues to zydeco to western swing.
Young retired in 2006 at age 65 and sold the Texicalli, which brought funky charm to an old Taco Bell on East Oltorf Street in 1989. The restaurant, known for its Texan twist on the Philly cheesesteak, closed in July 2007 because of rising rents.
“He missed the cameraderie of the Texicalli, but he liked being retired, not having that daily responsibility of running a restaurant” said music journalist John Morthland, who often took roadtrips with Young to Arlington and Houston to watch major league baseball games. “Sometimes we’d get back at 3 a.m. after a game and Danny would have to be at work at 6 a.m.”
He took the job at Enterprise, assistant manager Daryl Lentz said, because “he was a customer first, who liked everybody here, and he said he had too much free time. He was so full of life, he didn’t want to sit at home.”
A storyteller and rabble rouser, Young loved to hold court at a big, round table at the poster-covered Texicalli, a fat-chewing, sociopolitical haven where musicians, artists and neighborhood eccentrics used to gather to complain about government and “progress.”
“In South Austin, we do things the way we want, and we hope you like it,” Young told former Statesman columnist Don McLeese in 1996. “But if you don’t, we’ll do it anyway.”
On Wednesday, a mighty whiff of the Old Austin spirit disappeared. There will never be another Danny Young; you can be sure of that. On stage he kept the rhythm on a metal washboard he played wearing leather gloves with Mercury dimes glued to the fingertips. But it was the pulse of Danny Young’s personality, his love of life and music and conversation, that helped give the ‘04 its beat.
Young is survived by his mother Margo, wife Lu, son Scott and daughter Holli, plus three granddaughters, three sisters and a brother. Funeral services will be on Tuesday, 3PM at the First United Methodist Church at 12th & Lavaca. A reception will follow at Antone’s.
- From the archives: The Young spirit of Old Austin
- Sign the guest book.
- Photos
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None None None Fest?
What IS happening with the Big State Festival, C3’s country music foray, which debuted in October 2007 at College Station? Big State’s MySpace page says the 2008 event will be in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, but there are still no dates or acts confirmed.
Charlie Walker of C3 has not returned phone calls and a rep from Pizza Hut Park in Frisco said Wednesday that although there have been talks about Big State coming to the home of the FC Dallas soccer team, “there is nothing to announce yet.” If C3 doesn’t release details within the next couple weeks, the event could be dead. Not Vineland dead, but at least on hold until next year. Destination festivals usually need at least two months advance time for promotion.
After a couple hours sleuthing on the Internet, looking at country acts’ routing, I’d guess that the dates targeted are October 18 & 19. And Brad Paisley is a good bet to headline on the 19th. Paisley has shows in Houston and Selma on the 17th and 18th, but no date in the Dallas area, which is unusual as Dallas is the #1 market for country music in America.
But none of this is for certain until we hear from C3. Give us a call, Charlie. Any Charlie.
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Dave Matthews Band sax player LeRoi Moore dies
He died from complications suffered from an all-terrain vehicle accident in June.
Prior to their worldwide fame, DMB was a ubiquitous presence in Charlottesville, Va., between about 1992 and 1996, playing for several years once a week at Trax in downtown Charlottesville.
In the four years I went to school at the University of Virginia, I saw that band move from weekly local shows to becoming bigger, as Homer Simpson put it, than curly fries.
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Fun Fun Fun Fest 2008 lineup
- Interactive: Rate the Fun Fun Fun Fest 2008 bands
Stage 1
- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Web site
- The National Web site
- Atmosphere Web site
- Minus the Bear Web site
- St. Vincent Web site
- And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead Web site
- Deerhoof Web site
- Rival Schools Web site
- Islands Web site
- The Annuals Web site
- Bishop Allen Web site
- Centromatic Web site
- Sleepercar Web site
- Frightened Rabbit Web site
- Spinto Band Web site
- Parts and Labor Web site
- Colourmusic Web site
- Experimental Dental School Web site
- 27 Web site
- Til We’re Blue or Destroy Web site
Stage 2
- Shearwater Web site
- Tim Fite Web site
- Magnetic Morning Web site
- Kevin Seconds Web site
- The Cynics Web site
- Ugly Beats Web site
- Walter Schreifels Web site
- Pepi Ginsberg Web site
- The Revival Tour with Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Tom Gabel (Against Me!), Ben Nichols (Lucero), Tim Barry (Avail) Web site
- Tim and Eric Awesome Show Web site
- Coldtowne Comedy Hour Web site
- Altercation Punk Rock Comedy Hour Web site
- Matt Bearden Web site
- Chris Fairbanks Web site
Stage 3
- Bad Brains Web site
- ALL Web site
- Dead Milkmen (reunion, only show) Web site
- Flipper Web site
- The Adolescents Web site
- Integrity Web site
- Bouncing Souls Web site
- Swingin Utters Web site
- Swingin Utters Web site
- Killdozer Web site
- Cromags Web site
- Scared of Chaka Web site
- Young Widows Web site
- Leftover Crack Web site
- Trash Talk Web site
- World Burns To Death Web site
- Krum Bums Web site
- Mammoth Grinder Web site
- Cute Lepers Web site
- Bitter End Web site
- High Tension Wires Web site
- Born To Lose Web site
Stage 4
- Clipse Web site
- Z-Trip Web site
- Dan Deacon Web site
- Grupo Fantasma Web site
- Kool Keith/Dr. Octogon Web site
- Dengue Fever Web site
- Brownout! Web site
- Franki Chan Web site
- Toxic Avenger Web site
- Hawnay Troof Web site
- Starlynx/BigFace Web site
- Richard Henry Web site
- Richard Henry Web site
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White Denim releases debut LP through Transmission Entertainment; Graham Williams joins us for Thursday chat
Austin band White Denim’s debut album “Explosion” appears Nov. 3, apparently on something called Transmission Entertainment.
Transmission co-founder Graham Williams says that the album will be digital-only first, to be followed by LP and CD. This will be the Austin company’s first foray into the record business. Transmission Entertainment is a production company that books the Mohawk, Club DeVille and produces Fun Fun Fun Fest.
In other Graham Williams news, he will be joining us for our 2 p.m. Thursday music chat this week to answer your questions about Fun Fun Fun (the line-up will be out this week), White Denim, Bourbon Rocks (the under-construction live music on Sixth Street) and more. (From left to right: Steve Terebecki, James Petralli, and Josh Block of Austin band White Denim. Photo by Tammy Perez/For American-Statesman)
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Antone’s Record Shop celebrates 21 years
Still at its original location at 2928 Guadalupe St., Antone’s Record Shop celebrates 21 years in business this month. A storewide sale will be held to commemorate the anniversary from Thursday through Sunday with all items 20 percent off.
Mike Buck, Eve Monsees and Sonny James play at 4 p.m. Friday at the store, while John Wesley “Wes” Coleman holds a CD release party 4 p.m. Saturday.
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Austin band parts company with Epic
Alternative band Sounds Under Radio has left Epic Records before the release of debut LP “Cinematica,” which now will come out on the Austin band’s own label Oct. 14. The split was apparently not amicable, as the band issued a statement blaming “company politics… and a stubborn business model that didn’t change as promised” for the brevity of their tenure as major label artists.
Sounds Under Radio were signed to Epic last fall after they landed a song on the “Spiderman 3” soundtrack. The Will Hoffman-produced “Cinematica” was originally slated for Feb. 2008 release.
Representatives from Epic were unreachable Monday evening. We’ll have more on this story after we talk to the label and the band.
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Cheetah Girls will kick off tour at Erwin Center
This just popped into our inbox: The Cheetah Girls — Adrienne Bailon, Sabrina Bryan and Kiely Williams — will launch their national tour Oct. 8 in Austin. Tickets will be $35 and $45 (plus service charges) and will go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday (Aug. 23) at all Texas Box Office Outlets.
From the release:
The members of the pop/R&B trio—Adrienne Bailon, Sabrina Bryan and Kiely Williams- are going on tour to promote their new movie The Cheetah Girls One World and its accompanying soundtrack. The movie premieres this Friday, August 22 on the Disney Channel and the soundtrack is scheduled to be released Tuesday. The Cheetah Girls One World, filmed in Mumbai and Udaipur, India, continues the story of best friends, and hopeful recording artists, Chanel, Aqua and Dorinda, as they embark on their biggest adventure yet by traveling to India to star in a Bollywood movie. …
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Mother Truckers do XXX soundtrack
The hard-touring Mother Truckers are currently on a one-week break in Austin before getting back on the road for a series of shows that includes a party at the legendary Roxy Theater in Hollywood Sept. 3. The Roxy show is a release party for “Rollerdollz,” a hardcore adult feature that uses the Truckers’ music. The Adam & Eve-produced video’s backdrop is the roller derby revival that started in Austin. The Truckers were discovered by the movie’s producer at SXSW.
The cast of porno stars, including Bree Olson and Kayden Kross, came to the Continental Club in May to do the video for M.T.’s “Dynamite” and “Let’s All Go To Bed.” Skaters from the Hot Rod Honeys are also in the videos.
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Donate food at My Morning Jacket show
My Morning Jacket is playing a sold-out show Sunday at Stubb’s. The band has teamed with the Austin Center for Peace and Justice and the Capital Area Food Bank to collect non-perishable food items from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. outside the club at 801 Red River St. (so if you don’t have a ticket, you can still drive by and donate).
Here’s how it came about:
- The band contacted the Center for Peace and Justice and said they wanted to make a donation.
- Center officials were thrilled, of course. Board member and publicist Sylvia Benini heard a report on KUT that very day about needs at the food bank. She wrote a letter to MMJ’s management, thanking them for the donation and telling them about other needs in the community.
- Within 24 hours, Benini heard back: The band wanted to donate to the center and set up a food drive at the show.
From the food bank web site:
What should I donate?
* Healthy non-perishable food
* Items with intact, un-opened, consumer or commercial packaging
* Items with non-breakable packaging (no glass please)
* Food within the expiration date on the packaging
What are the most-requested items?
* Canned meats like tuna, stew and chili (pop-tops preferred)
* Canned vegetables
* Pasta & pasta sauce
* Beans
* Rice
* Healthy cereals
* Peanut butter
* Baby food & baby formula
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Westwood student makes guitar contest finals
Congrats to 16-year-old Ryan Voldstad on his fourth place finish at the 2008 Guitar Foundation of America’s International Youth Solo Competition, which was held Aug. 10 in San Francisco. Voldstad was entered in the age 15-18 division.
A student of Slobodan Vujisic, who uses the Childbloom Guitar method, which was developed in Georgetown in 1980, Voldstad played “Fantasie on themes of La Traviata” by Heitor Villa-Lobos and “Tango en Skye” by R. Dyens.
Westwood High student Voldstad plays with the Austin Bella Corda guitar ensemble.
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This week in music
Monday: Music Monday at the Alamo. The 1970 flick ‘Performance’features Mick Jagger as Mick Jagger (essentially) sequestered in a druggy, sexy townhouse with a couple lusty ladies and later a gangster. A fair amount of bang for the 2 bucks you’ll drop on a ticket.
Tuesday: James Jackson Toth at the Mohawk. This Tennessee-based singer-songwriter spins heavy literary tales infused with a melancholy atmospheric drone and an occasional plaintive steel guitar.
Wednesday: The Cool Kids at Emo’s. A Midwestern rap duo with a throwback rhyme style, The Cool Kids built their name (and a whole lot of buzz) releasing tracks on their MySpace page. After turning down multiple offers to record they finally dropped their debut EP “The Bake Sale” in May of this year. They packed the house at SXSW earlier this year and their two Texas shows are sandwiched between dates on the “Rock the Bells” tour, the premiere road show for hip-hop royalty. $12
Wednesday: El Vez at the Continental Club. More than an impersonator, the self-proclaimed Mexican Elvis is a flamboyant interpretive performer in the Elvesque tradition. Yes there will be nods to the King (“You Ain’t Nothing But a Chihuahua”) but there will also be heartfelt original numbers, often with outright political messages, delivered in Spanish (“En El Barrio”). And, of course, there will be fabulous costumes and dancing girls, the scantily clad backing ensemble otherwise known as The Elvettes. $15
Wednesday: Xiu Xiu at the Mohawk. Bay Area indie rockers and blogger faves play outside at the Mohawk with Carla Bozulich. $10
Thursday: Prince: 50th Birthday Sing-Along at the Alamo. Continuing a series highlighting childhood icons who, in theory. should be past their paisley-clad, platform shoe-rocking, glittery prime, the Alamo salutes his Purple Majesty the Prince of pop.
Thursday: Homer Hiccolm & the Rocketboys at Antone’s. The pride of Abilene, this 6-piece caught all of our attention last year when they won a spot on the ACL Fest roster through Dell Lounge’s “Sound and the Jury” contest. $10
Coming this weekend:
Friday: Radio La Chusma at Flamingo
Friday: The Melvins at Emo’s
Friday: Bun B at the Parish
Saturday: Cowboy Mouth at Antone’s
Saturday: The Mighty Diamonds at Flamingo
Sunday: Nas, Talib Kweli at Emo’s
Sunday: My Morning Jacket at Stubb’s
(Pictured: El Vez, courtesy of myspace.com/myelvez)
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Weezer coming Oct. 20
Tickets to see Weezer with opening acts Angels & Airwaves and Tokyo Police Club at the Frank Erwin Center Oct. 20 go on sale next Friday August 22 at 10 a.m. The concert will take place in the smaller “theatre” configuration. Prices are $38.50, $45, and $52.50. They will be available at all Texas Box Office Outlets (includes select H-E-B stores in Austin, Bastrop, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Kyle, Leander, Pflugerville, Round Rock, San Marcos and Temple.)
- Also, although the lineup of Fun Fun Fun Fest, taking place Nov. 8 & 9 at Waterloo Park, has yet to be officially released, Pollstar has Bad Brains playing. With the previously announced Dead Milkmen, it’s no wonder this fest is named after a 1980s punk song (by Big Boys). Crossing fingers about Meatmen reunion.
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Ask My Morning Jacket a question
My Morning Jacket plays Stubb’s on Aug. 24 and they’re going to answer questions via e-mail before the show. Post your questions in the comments - we’re sending them a select number by Monday.
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Weekend Picks: Blues heroes, underground hip-hop and rockin’ fashionistas
Friday: Eyedea and Abilities at the Beauty Bar.Part of the same Minneapolis hip-hop scene that birthed fan-favorite Atmosphere, E&A looked like they were no more for awhile there, but they’re back with a new album of complicated rhymes due later this year. With Prince Klassen. 9 p.m. $10. — Joe Gross
Friday: The Platforms video premiere at the Alamo Ritz. Austin’s self-proclaimed garage fashionistas, a quartet of sharply dressed, guitar totin’ r’n’r chicas, debut the new video for their song “Hot Little Ride” a rockin’ little ditty about fast cars and faster lovin’. The Dirty Hearts will also perform. —-Deborah Sengupta Stith
Friday: Black Joe Lewis at The Parish. Lewis and his Honeybears blend gritty garage rock, dirty blues and horn-fed soul. Word has it they are about to sign with a label that can bring them to the masses. With Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights. Doors at 8 p.m. $10 advance, $12 door. The Parish. — J.G.
Saturday: Shazam! at the Whisky Bar. Austin/NYC promotion company Keep It Local presents a new monthly party which promises to feature “some of the most serious national and local party rockers.” The kick-off event includes Brooklyn’s DJ Eleven, of The Rub and local turntablist NickNack of Crowd Control Records along with Killeen’s finest Crew 54. $7 —-D.S.S.
Saturday: KVRX Cupcake Social at the Carousel Lounge. With electro-pop from Lady Pterodactyl, jazzy hip-hop from Rae Davis and more. The first 100 guests get a free cupcake from Polkadots Cupcake Factory. 8 p.m. $5 cover goes to KVRX’s Station Survival Fund. ($5, 21 and older). — J.G.
Saturday: Big Blues Revue at Antone’s. All the big names: Pinetop Perkins, Willie ‘Big Eye’ Smith, Lou Ann Barton (left), Ronnie James and more. 8 p.m. $12 general, $30 V.I.P. — J.G.
Sunday: A Place to Bury Strangers at Emo’s. It’s been a great year for folks who love shoegazer rock, the massively loud guitar thunder caked in distortion and feedback that was so popular in the early 1990s. This trio of New Yorkers is pure shoegaze revival, big Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine fans who believe transcendence comes with volume. Bring earplugs. With the Boxing Lesson and Ume. 10 p.m. $8. — J.G.
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Celebrate historic Fayetteville Sept. 6
The quaint old Czech town of Fayetteville, about an hour and fifteen minutes east of Austin, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places, so the town is celebrating with a dance at the 98-year-old SPJST Hall #1 Saturday Sept. 6. Mark that date for an unforgettable dance with Texas history. The joke is that “SPJST” stands for “some people just sit there,” but not on this day.
Ceremonies will begin at 10:00 a.m. on the town square gazebo, followed by the Gil Baca Polka Band, the Winedale Singers and more. Fayetteville-raised country star Todd Frisch and his band Stampede will play in the SPJST Hall at 8 pm. It’s all ages, of course. Cover is $10.
If you want to make it a weekend and stay overnight, here are some lodging options, many within blocks of the SPJST hall.
The show is being put on by the Texas Dancehall Preservation Inc., which is doing so much to keep the dancehall traditions alive.
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Live Chat With Brothers and Sisters at 2 p.m. TODAY
Statesman pop music critic Joe Gross welcomes Will Courtney and Ricky Ray Jackson of the Austin band Brothers and Sisters to the weekly live chat about music (Austin music, Texas music and more) at 2p.m. TODAY!
Get your Brothers and Sisters questions ready!
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Review: Lyle Lovett at the Long Center
The last time Lyle Lovett played the Long Center, in March, it was as one element in a grand-opening gala that included Willie Nelson and Asleep At the Wheel. The last time he played Austin, in May, it was as part of a songwriters’ circle that included John Hiatt, Joe Ely and Guy Clark.
Tuesday night, however, Lovett was back in town in the incarnation that fans know best: the wry, deadpan ringleader of the aptly named Large Band.
It’s possible to argue that the 15-piece aggregation (augmented on this night by a nine-piece gospel choir from San Antonio) offers the only forum large enough to encompass Lovett’s eclectic takes on folk, bluegrass, gospel, big band ensemble work, R&B, jazz and country. But it’s equally possible to make the observation that Lovett set out to create the musical sandbox of his dreams, and invited all the neighborhood kids to come play.
Over and over on Tuesday, Lovett stepped out of the spotlight, figuratively speaking, and became just another fan as one or another of his musicians strutted his stuff. The Large Band cast was augmented on this night by mandolin maestro Sam Bush (sitting in on the second of eight dates) and longtime sideman vocalist Arnold McCuller, fresh off James Taylor’s summer tour.
This year’s edition of the Large Band was typically top-heavy with talented veterans, boasting as it did A-list session drummer Russ Kunkel, the float-and-sting guitars of Ray Herndon and Austin’s Mitch Watkins, fiddler Gene Elders (usually on the road with George Strait) and guitarist/vocalist Keith Sewell. Cellist John Hagen, a perennial crowd favorite, stole the show with his Charlie Watts-style poker-face asides, which managed to out-laconic even his boss.
After an instrumental fanfare, “Opening Credits,” Lovett meandered on stage and set out on a roundabout, two-and-a-half hour tour of his 20-year catalog. Members of the band ebbed and flowed on and off the stage, depending on whether Lovett wanted the full gospel fanfare for “Church” and “I Will Rise Up/Ain’t No More Cane,” the small bluegrass ensemble that delivered “Keep It In Your Pantry,” the jazz combo that rendered “(I Could Have Been Your) Best Friend” in muted colors, or the grinding R&B outfit that romped through “My Baby Don’t Tolerate.”
It’s a funny thing; Lovett’s songs are finely wrought, small-scale cameos of human caprice, but he presents them on the biggest, Frederic Remington-size canvas he can get his hands on. It’s an ongoing contradiction, and one that neither he nor his audience seemingly have any interest in reconciling. In the meantime everyone, band and audience alike, went home happy.
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Live Chat With Brothers and Sisters at 2 p.m. Thursday!
Statesman pop music critic Joe Gross welcomes Will Courtney and Ricky Ray Jackson of the Austin band Brothers and Sisters to the weekly live chat about music (Austin music, Texas music and more) at 2p.m. Thursday.
Get your Brothers and Sisters questions ready!
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ACL aftershows!
The Austin City Limits Music Festival is Sept. 26-28 at Zilker Park. And, as always, plenty of the acts will play after-shows (or in the cases of Manu Chao and David Byrne, before-shows). Here’s the list (tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday through C3 Presents at Frontgate Tickets):
Stubb’s BBQ (801 Red River St.):
Sept. 25
Manu Chao
Doors 7p.m., show 8 p.m.
$35
Sept. 26
Gnarls Barkley and CSS
Doors 8 p.m., show 9 p.m.
$27 adv/ $30 dos
Sept. 27
Mike Farris gospel brunch
Doors at 11 a.m., Brunch at 11:30 a.m.
Call 512-480-8341 to make reservations and purchase tickets.
$30, $40
Sept. 27 (outdoors)
Butthole Surfers w/ The Kills
Doors 7 p.m., Show 8 p.m.
$30 adv/ $33 dos
Sept. 27 (indoors)
Mugison
Doors 11:30pm, show midnight
$15
Sept. 28
The Black Keys w/ The Black Angels & Jessica Lea Mayfield
Doors at 7 p.m., Show at 7:30 p.m.
$25 adv/ $25 dos
La Zona Rosa (612 West Fourth St.)
Sept. 26
G. Love & Special Sauce
Doors at 10 p.m., Show at 11 p.m.
$25 adv/ $27 dos
Sept. 28
Conor Oberst, Jenny Lewis and M. Ward
Doors at 9 p.m., Show at 10 p.m.
$30
The Parish (214 E. Sixth St.)
Sept. 26
Jamie Lidell w/ Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears
Doors at 10 p.m., show at 11 p.m.
$20
The Paramount Theatre (713 Congress Ave.)
Sept. 25
David Byrne - Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno
Doors at 7:30 p.m., Show 8:30 p.m.
$50, $55
Sept. 27
The Swell Season w/ Bill Callahan
Doors at 7:30 p.m., Show at 8:30 p.m.
$35, $42.50
Emo’s (603 Red River St.)
Sept. 26 (outdoors)
Drive By Truckers w/ Shooter Jennings
Doors at 10 p.m., Show at 10:30 p.m.
$20 adv/ $22 dos
Sept. 26 (indoors)
Heartless Bastards w/ Dead Confederate & Wax Fang
Doors at 10 p.m., Show at 10:30 p.m.
$15 adv/ $17 dos
Sept. 26, 27 (Emos Lounge)
Car Stereo Wars
Doors at 10 p.m., show 11 p.m.
$8 adv/ $10 dos
Sept. 27 (outdoors)
Okkervil River w/ Man Man & Crooked Fingers
Doors at 10 p.m., show 10:30 p.m.
$15 adv/ $17 dos
Sept. 27 (indoors)
Jose Gonzalez w/ Neva Dinova & McCarthy Trenching
Doors at 10 p.m., show 10:30 p.m.
$18 adv/ $20 dos
Antone’s (213 West 5th St.)
Sept. 27
Jakob Dylan and The Gold Mountain Rebels w/ Back Door Slam
Doors at 10 p.m., Show at 10:30 p.m.
$23 adv, $25 dos
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In the Clubs with Dead Earth Politics
- Photos: In the Clubs 2008
Metal hacks itself into subgenres with a verve and enthusiasm little seen in other musics. There’s thrash metal, black metal, death metal, grind, metalcore, groove metal, blackened thrash, death/black and, yes, Viking folk metal (wouldn’t that be “volk” met … look, never mind). Sometimes there’s crossover, sometimes there isn’t.
But Austin’s Dead Earth Politics is one of those rare contemporary metal bands that sound as if they could fit on any metal bill quite smoothly. The Black Sabbath-y mumble of stoner metal? Sign them up. That dream gig with Iron Maiden? No problem. The hideously precision-tooled runs of death metal? Singer Ven Scott can go “Cookie Monster” just fine. But Will Little’s bass lines betray interests outside of headbanging, and Scott’s singing veers more toward the melodic (there is Meat Loaf in this man’s past, I just know it). Dead Earth Politics is good for all seasons. Their EP “Mark the Resistance” embodies all of this nicely, by which I mean concisely; no meandering here.
And as frosting on the cake, drummer Mason Evans has the single greatest MySpace handle of all time: Hold My Beer and Watch This. Genius.
In the clubs: Dead Earth Politics play with Azoth, Angerkill and Dead Pool at 9 p.m. Saturday at Emo’s.
(Photo by Tammy Perez FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Review: The Faint at La Zona Rosa
Omaha, Neb.’s best punk rock/synthesizer-based dance band the Faint blasted through La Zona Rosa on Monday for a rock ‘n’ dance party that was all voluminous, captivating tone and sweaty, unbridled sexual id, complete with electric guitars and synthesizers cranked up to 11.
Paralleling music’s ever-changing business model, the Faint are boldly releasing “Fasciinatiion” - their first album in four years - on their own label, blank.wav, leaving indie titan and former flavor-of-the-month Saddle Creek Records behind with no love lost according to the band.
The Faint have always been a group that transformed good albums into a phenomenal live performances and Monday’s show was no different. The Faint - Todd Fink (vocals), Joel Petersen (bass, guitar), Clark Baechle (drums), Jacob Thiele (synthesizers) and Dapose (guitar, bass) - bludgeoned ears over the course of an hour and 15 minutes (12 hours later, my tinnitus-weary ears are still ringing and I was standing in the far back).
Austin audiences have long had a love affair with the Faint and their penchant for combining sugary pop choruses with heart-accelerating anthems, dating back to the band’s first tours nearly a decade ago. Their musical blueprint was crafted with some of the same new wave/no wave influences (Gary Newman, Daft Punk) as hometown heroes Ghostland Observatory; both bands uplift the collective consciousness of the audience by using a great light show and bombastic beats to create a soundtrack that mimics the acceleration of your racing heart as you approach that blindingly gorgeous hottie in the disco (or indie rock club).
“That’s the first time it felt like (an audience) knew that song,” Thiele candidly remarked as the audience roared with screams and applause after the ridiculously poppy would be/should be hit “Machine in the Ghost.” The song’s tempo is slow compared to the majority of the Faint’s music, but the space in the groove is a welcome respite as frontman Fink jests during the catchy chorus: “What was there before the bang / How did nothing come to end at once / Let’s ask the atheists, the astronauts, the mystics of the Amazon, the police, the cults, the Wiccans, the Pope, the crystal ball, the fear of god, the tarot cards, the dowsing rod, theologians, alchemists, black magicians, physicists.”
And then there is their tone: The Faint are gearheads and their astute knowledge of vintage equipment and instruments lends their music a sonic gravitas that is unlike the majority of dance music coming out of the indie rock dance they helped rebirth.
“Fasciinatiion” album opener “Get Seduced” was on point. A couple of highlights from their 2004 album “Wet From Birth” included “Desperate Guys” and “I Disappear”; both received deafening squeals from the band’s old school fans as they sang along to Fink’s every modal shift.
By the time the band ended their set with fan-favorite “Worked Up So Sexual,” La Zona Rosa had transformed into some sort of 21st century discotheque for a hedonistic futurist generation.
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On the zine front….
Longtime Austin zinester/noise artist Josh Ronson has a new issue of Mad Monk Pink at Punk up here. Look for interviews with interviews with Jim O’Rourke and Michael Northam, never-before-seen photos of jazz giants such as Charles Mingus, Anthony Braxton and more, a survey on the question of the nature of avant-garde music today, reviews of noise music and more.
The newish zine Candy and Cigarettes hosts its second all-ages release party at 9 p.m. Aug. 30 at Club de Ville (900 Red River St. 457-0900). Free copies of the zine’s second issue will be given out to all attendees.
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A few upcoming shows…..
Fastball plays KGSR’s Live at the Lake Summer Concert Series Sunday. The free show starts at 6 p.m. at Lakeway Resort and Spa (101 Lakeway Dr. (800) 525-3929).
Remember that legendary New York M.C. Nas is playing two shows Aug. 24 at Emo’s (603 Red River St. 477-3667). One is at 6 p.m. one at 9 p.m. Guests include Talib Kweli, Jay Electronica and DJ Green Lantern. Tickets are $30.
Shearwater is coming back to Austin, playing the Mohawk (912 Red River St. 482-8404) Sept. 4. Show at 9 p.m.
Academy Award-winning Memphis hip-hop crew Three 6 Mafia plays Stubb’s (801 Red River St. 480-8341) Sept. 14. Doors at 7 p.m. Tickets are $19.
KGSR brings acoustic singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne to the Paramount Theater (713 Congress Ave. 472-5470) Oct. 25. Doors at 7 p.m. Tickets are $32 and $35.
Pollstar lists the Cheetah Girls as playing the Frank Erwin Center (1701 Red River St. 471-7744) Oct. 8 and the Roots with Gym Class Heroes playing the Backyard (13101 W. Texas 71. 263-4146) Oct. 12. No word yet on tickets for those.
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Meet the new Hole owner
Ten years ago, if you were asked to name the essential live music venues in Austin, you’d have to include the Hole In the Wall, the bar on the Drag which was home base for such acts as Pocket Fishermen, Buick MacKane, Wannabes, Spoon, Fastball, the Horsies and many more.
New owner Will Tanner, who bought the bar from Austin’s Pizza in February, hopes for a return to glory and he’s going about it the right way. “This,” he says, motioning towards the elevated triangle near the front window, “this is the Hole In the Wall.” He’s going to eventually bring back the bands in the window, five nights a week, with the larger middle room stage in use on weekends.
Credit Austin’s Pizza for respecting the Hole tradition, for leaving its dive character intact when others might’ve painted over the bathroom graffiti and put paneling over the gritty walls. JD Torian and company kept the Hole alive and made it more attractive to UT students by adding a beer garden. But apparently the overhead was too high and the Hole took too much attention from Austin’s Pizza’s thriving pie delivery business. Real estate broker Torian bought Austin’s Pizza and the Hole In the Wall from James Cashiola in late 2005.
Tanner says Torian sold him the business for less money than he was offered by others because Tanner vowed to keep it as the Hole In the Wall.
Some history on Tanner, a 37-year old father of two: After working for the railroad as an engineer for eight years, the Cal State- Long Beach grad quit and opened Moontime Pizza in El Paso, where his parents lived. Like the Hole, it served food, but live music was the big draw and such acts as Eek-a-Mouse, Plain White T’s and El P. homeboys Sparta played the 200-capacity room enroute from Tucson to San Antonio. Noise complaints from an upstairs restaurant shut down the live music and Tanner opened another bar, the Black Market, which is still packing them in, with Tanner’s partner overseeing the day to day ops.
With family in the area, Tanner, his wife and two toddlers moved to Austin in early 2006. As a kid growing up in San Antonio, he had been coming here on weekends since the mid-‘90s, where the Black Cat was a favorite haunt, and he’d wanted to live in Austin ever since.
“Running a club has got to be a labor of love and fortunately I absolutely love it,” says Tanner, who sees the Hole as an incubator for up-and-coming bands such as Lonesome Heroes, Clyde & Clem’s Whiskey Business, the Spooly Show (featuring Ramsay Midwood) and Thursday night’s B-3 funk band Time Out.
If you haven’t been to the Hole since the classic incarnation closed on June 30, 2002, you should drop in again. It’s bigger, with three separate bars, and it’s got more of a Posse East feel on the patio, but if Will Tanner has its way, it’ll be once again lumped in with Emo’s, the Continental and Antone’s as a premier Austin live music venue.
(New Hole in the Wall owner Will Tanner/photo by Michael Corcoran)
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Rolling Stone magazine changing format
The celebrated music magazine will be smaller, glossier.
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ACL Fest: Meet the Bands - The Band of Heathens
As this summer of blistering heat drags along with no end in sight, the September sweatfest that is ACL Fest creeps ever closer. Once again, we’ve sent out an email questionaire to artists playing the festival to help you get to know them a little better.
Artist:The Band of Heathens
Hometown: Austin
MySpace: myspace.com/thebandofheathens
Music Source: How do you plan to cope with Austin summer heat? Will it cramp your onstage style?
Ed Jurdi, Heathen: We’ve already cramped our onstage style with the finest out of style clothing and accessories available so we’ve rendered the heat issue null and void. Although, we’ve issued a band edict to no longer wear flip-flops on stage, but I think we’ve already had several cases of mutiny on the bunion.
What other bands are you looking forward to seeing at the festival?
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, The Raconteurs, Iron and Wine, Beck, Patty Griffin, Robert Earl Keen, Gillian Welch, M Ward, Dan Dyer, Drive By Truckers, Galactic and too many others to list.
What’s the last CD you paid full price for?
Al Green- “Lay it Down” (On iTunes) Jerrry Garcia- “Garcia” (At Waterloo, an actual CD)
What’s the one thing you can’t live without on your tour bus/van?
Little bags of goodies. They have lots of Airborne and Emergen-C in them.
When you think of Texas music, who or what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
Willie Nelson, Buddy Holly, T-Bone Walker.
Do you have a celebrity crush you’re willing to reveal?
Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. Princess Grace of Monaco was pretty spectacular even when she was just plain old Grace Kelly
What’s the one song you’ve always wanted to cover but never have?
The Entire Medley on side two of “Abbey Road,” starting with “Sun King” and ending with “The End.” That’s really just one great (expletive) song.
What’s the one thing everyone should do before leaving Austin?
Go see Heybale at The Continental (on the last Sunday of the month if possible) it will blow your mind. Everytime.
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ACL Fest: Meet the Bands - Mike Farris
Artist: Mike Farris
Hometown: Nashville, TN
MySpace: myspace.com/mikefarrismusic
Music Source: How do you plan to cope with Austin summer heat? Will it cramp your onstage style?
Mike Farris: The hotter the better! Actually, it’ll be nice weather for us Nashvillians. We are having unbearable humidity right now.
What other bands are you looking forward to seeing at the festival?
Beck, Allison and Robert, Raconteurs, Black Keys, Drive By Truckers, Spiritualized, Rodney Crowell, Foo Fighters
What’s the last CD you paid full price for?
Lee Dorsey “Freedom For The Funk”
What’s the one thing you can’t live without on your tour bus/van?
My “Nacho Libre” action figure
When you think of Texas music, who or what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
Well, Stevie Ray, Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon first, because I was fortunate enough to work with Tommy and Chris for a while and we continue to be friends and I always look forward to seeing them when I’m around. The music kiosk in the airport. I was blown away by that the first time I saw it, because it’s huge and they sell Texas artists EXCLUSIVELY! Not many other states could bolster so many great records. Texas and New Orleans are the last hold outs for real, true regional music in America, but because of the state of radio and music in general, I feel like all that’s about to change. Also, you guys have one of THE best radio stations in America in KGSR. What makes it so special is that the music they play fits the feel of Texas. It’s what I want to hear when I’m in town.
Do you have a celebrity crush you’re willing to reveal?
Jimmy Vaughan’s hair. Does that count?
What’s the one song you’ve always wanted to cover but never have?
“You’re The Best That Ever Happened To Me” by Gladys and the Pips
What’s the one thing everyone should do before leaving Austin?
Stay
(Photo courtesy of myspace.com/mikefarrismusic.)
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Review: Nellie McKay at Stubb’s
Most every time Nellie McKay took a deep breath behind her keyboard inside Stubb’s the other night nonstop verbiage of the satirical kind erupted from her mouth.
Skewer this and skewer that, McKay knows that sometimes girls just wanna have fun with our oh-so-heavy times.
F the feminists who “have a tumor on their funny bone.” Get a pound dog ‘cause “I was a pageant gone bad, then there was you on time and waggin’ your tail.” Or go get married to “be simple and honest and dimpled.”
Not that McKay (pronounced McEYE) has all the answers. She told the less-than-full crowd Thursday night she can’t even make up her mind between Obama (too smooth) and McCain (too old) and maybe Nader is the guy “of thee I swing.”
This young New Yorker who insisted on a double album for her debut on Columbia was pretty sure of herself on the release that brought her to South by Southwest in 2004. And when the label rejected a followup double, McKay got her many songs out the independent way. Now she’s relaxing, realistic enough to tour solo behind a nine-song CD, “Obligatory Villagers.”
She was all smiles at Stubbs in a fringed red dress, with long blonde curls bouncing as she pulled out a ukulele and bantered with upfront fans about bats (why no Bat Woman and Cat Man?) and barbecue (thanks for not eating it in front of this vegetarian). While the mix of old and new songs mostly showed off her lyrical bite, McKay’s voice is a solid instrument — part sweetness and part spitfire. She even made pretty with the ’60s classic “A World Without Love,” then bowed out with “Zombie,” a Down South swamp funk tune.
McKay, whose rapport with the audience revealed her standup comedian start, deserved a bigger house. Here’s hoping she returns with the jazz orchestra she records with because her clever, caustic stylings are a nice break from Austin’s guitar and sincerity fixation.
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Musicmania Top 10 for the week ending Aug. 10
ABN, ‘It Is What It Is’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Trae, ‘Street Of The South Pt. 2’ (Oarfin)
Nas, ‘Nas’ (Def Jam)
Plies, ‘Definition Of Real’ (SlipNSlide)
LLoyd, ‘Lessons In Love’ (The Inc)
Lil Wayne, ‘Tha Carter III’ (Cash Money)
Lucky Luciano, ‘Ahead Of My Time’ (Dope House)
Trae, ‘Against Everything’ (Oarfin)
Bun-B, ‘II Trill’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Trina, ‘Still Da Baddest’ (SlipNSlide)
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Live review: Steve Jordan tribute
Steve “Esteban” Jordan and his three sons (two named Steve) were scheduled to play only 20 minutes at the tribute concert in the accordion wizard’s honor Sunday at the H&H Ballroom. After all, the 69-year-old Jordan had been undergoing chemotherapy for liver cancer and has been in frail health in recent months.
It was supposed to be a day of proclaimations, like the one from State Senator Gonzalo Barrientos, signed by Gov. Rick Perry, that acknowleged Jordan’s incredible contributions to Texas music. It was Latinopalooza, with such greats as Little Joe Hernandez, Ernie Garibay, Rudy T Gonzales, Dimas Garza, Max Baca and the Texmaniacs and many more showing that Spanish music in Texas is not just Tejano and conjunto, but Chicano soul and blues and doowop and a touch of country. Nobody expected Jordan’s Rio Jordan to make more than a token appearance.
But “El Parche” played 45 minutes and would’ve gone on longer if the house lights hadn’t gone up almost two hours after the advertised 8 p.m. ending time. With the remaining crowd of about 200 (attendance peaked at about 450) pushed all the way in front of the stage, cheering every jazzy accordion tangent and the four-part harmony of “El Jardinero,” Jordan was unmistakably re-energized. He seemed to get stronger as the set wore on, even joining in on a spirited percussion jam on “Volver Volver.”
But the real kick came early in the set when Little Joe Hernandez came out to duet with Jordan, who’d been complaining about monitor problems for the first two songs. Putting the testy Jordan at ease with his comical asides, Little Joe harmonized on “El Gaucho,” then kissed the man of honor and left the stage. But Jordan got him bounding back up by spontaneously launching into “Las Nubes,” one of Hernandez’ biggest hits.
Jordan has played better; none of his solos were of the head-slapping type. His voice lost its pierce, except on a couple of yelps. But the set was without the padding one usually finds at a Jordan show. No “Spinning Wheel,” in other words. No “My Toot- Toot.” Jordan was feeding off pride- his own and that of the beaming audience that couldn’t possibly have wished to be anywhere else.
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Waterloo Records top 10 for the week ending Aug. 10
Conor Oberst, ‘s/t (Merge)
Beck, ‘Modern Guilt (Universal)
Alejandro Escovedo, “Real Animal” (Back Porch)
Grupo Fantasma, “Sonidos Gold” (High Wire Music)
Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis, ‘Two Men WIth the Blues,’ (Blue Note)
Fleet Foxes, “Fleet Foxes” (Sub Pop)
My Morning Jacket. “Evil Urges” (ATO)
Coldplay, “Viva La Vida” (EMI)
The Faint, ‘Fasciinatiion’ (blank.wav)
Carrie Rodriguez, ‘She’s Not Me’ (Back Porch)
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This week in the clubs
Monday: The Faint, Jaguar Love at La Zona Rosa. The Faint drops 80s inspired dance rock from Omaha, Nebraska while L.A.’s Jaguar Love brings together a frenetic mash of former members of Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves. $28-$30
Monday: Faint Afterparty at the Beauty Bar. Want to get your New Wave groove on without shelling out $30? Depressed Buttons (featuring members of The Faint) will drop a DJ set down at the official Faint afterparty at the Beauty Bar. $3
Tuesday: Lyle Lovett at the Long Center. One of Austin’s favorite musical bards, proud Texan Lovett, takes the stage at Austin’s newest high end concert hall supporting his 2007 release, ‘It’s Not Big It’s Large.’ $38.50-$75
Tuesday: 17th Annual Buck Owens Birthday Bash at the Continental Club. A whole host of Austin’s top honky tonkers gather to celebrate the legacy of Bakerfield’s favorite son. This event benefits Travis County’s Center for Child Protection. $15
Tuesday: Smoking Popes at the Mohawk. This pop-punk sibling outfit from Chicago had a good run in the 90s before crooning lead singer Josh Caterer became immersed in Christianity and parted ways with the band. A couple years back the band decided to give it another go, bringing back all three of the Caterer brothers with a new touring drummer. Koufax and Masonic open. $10
Wednesday: Toots and the Maytals at Antone’s. One of reggae music’s originators, Toots and the Maytals have been actively been spreading their gospel harmonnies and irie riddims around the globe for four decades. Expect a packed house of eclectic reggae enthusiasts young and old at this Antone’s gig. $20
Wednesday: Yndi Halda at the Mohawk. This UK band weaves cinematic instrumentals with the atmospheric sensibility of modern classical musicians. With My Education, The Non at the Mohawk.
Thursday: Madonna 50th Birthday Sing-Along at the Mohawk. Somewhat embarrassing recent dry-humping of Justin Timberlake aside, her Madge-esty, the original “Material Girl” has managed to remain a relevant force on the internaimusic scene for a good two and a half decades. So why not celebrate in song as she crosses the half-century mark? Lace gloves and jelly bracelets highly encouraged. Photos: Madonna through the years
Also playing this week
Wednesday: Melissa Etheridge at the Paramount
Thursday: Danny Malone, Dana Falconberry, Pink Nasty
Thursday: La Snacks, Hollywood Gossip at Emo’s
(Pictured: The Faint, photo by Deborah Cannon AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Weekend Picks: Ghostly pop, space rock and a dancehall shakedown
Friday: Nebula at Red 7. The title of this lumbering-yet-deft space rock outfit’s new E.P. is ‘Heavy Pysch.’ Nothing quite like truth in advertising. With the excellent noise rockers Totimoshi and more. 9 p.m. $10. — Joe Gross
Friday: Seether at Stubb’s. This South African post-grunge outfit has never shied away from its roots: The band has been known to cover a whole mess of Nirvana songs live. Who knew these kinds of bands were still around? With Red and Safetysuit. 7 p.m. $25. Stubb’s. — J.G.
Friday: Jamaican Independence Day celebration with Stone Love at the Parish. I highly recommend all dancehall fans log on to the MySpace page of Stone Love Soundsystem and attempt to sit still through the excellent “Junior Gong Dub” which expertly mashes Rick Ross and Chamillionaire into a Marley family master mix. It’s virtually impossible. This should be one massive, sweaty, groovin’ shakedown. $15. —-Deborah Sengupta Stith
Friday: Scarface at Spiro’s. The last time I caught a solo set from Geto Boy Scarface he didn’t take the stage til 1:45 a.m., so prepare for a late night. Also prepare to hear classic odes to “Homies and Thugs,” “Mary Jane,” “Money and Power” and much more. $15. —-D.S.S.
Friday: Afrofreque at the Red Fez. Austin hip-hop veteran Tiger Liu and his soulful backing band play an early(ish) set at the Red Fez. Start your Friday night right. 9:30 p.m. —-D.S.S.
Saturday: River City High Festival at the Scoot Inn. An all-day affair of trippy rock and beats. With Tia Carrera, the Strange Attractors, Ripe, Skiesfalling, the Tunnels, All in the Golden Afternoon and more. 2 p.m. $8. — J.G.
Saturday: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti at The Mohawk. Ariel Pink, aka Beverly Hills native Ariel Rosenberg, churns out recordings like the rest of us sweat, strange, ghostly songs that sound piped in from the afterlife. 8 p.m. $8. — J.G.
Saturday: Souled Out 2008 at the Victory Grill. Hip-hop extravaganza at one of Austin’s best venues. With Houstonians Lower Life Form and DJ Remix and DJ Ish, Austinites Phranchyze and Crew 54 from, you guessed it, Killeen. 9:30 p.m. $5. — J.G.
Sunday: Camp X-Ray at Sound on Sound.In what is surely a sign of the End Times, this punk outfit finally put out an 7-inch E.P. Not too shabby, either. This is their record release party. With the No No No Hopes and Glasses. Free. 5:30 p.m. — J.G.
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Live chat With Statesman pop critic Joe Gross at 2 p.m. TODAY
Check out our weekly live chat about music (Austin music, Texas music and otherwise) at 2p.m. Thursday.
Kickoff topics include the amazing Hold Steady show, recent albums of all types (what are you people listening to?), Lollapalooza wrap-up (Who went? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?) and guests you would like to hear from on this chat .
Per usual, these topics are mere jumping off points.
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Escovedo, Reivers to play Antone’s Aug. 28
After a month of emergency rest, which forced the cancelation of several dates, including tonight’s David Letterman show, Alejandro Escovedo returns to the stage Aug. 28 to play a benefit for the Austin Child Guidance Center at Antone’s. His tour then continues Aug. 30 in Milwaukee, according to his recently updated My Space page.
“He’s been going so hard since the record came out (June 24), doing so many back-to-back shows and tons of interviews, that he just hit a wall,” says Escovedo friend Jo Rae DiMenno, who’s handling publicity for the Antone’s event. Escovedo was hospitalized due to extreme fatigue July 25 and, on the advice of doctors, sent back to Wimberley to rest.
Also on the bill Aug. 28 are the Reivers, who had a triumphant reunion in February, and Ian McLagan and the Bump Band. Tickets are $25 and available at www.frontgatetickets.com.
The Austin Child Guidance Center provides mental health services to kids and their families, 80 percent of whom live below the federal poverty level and would not be able to afford the help otherwise. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Escovedo and Don Harvey, the McLagan drummer who organized the event, are longtime supporters of ACGC and have been named honorary chairmen.
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Live review: The Hold Steady
- Photos: Our Live from Austin gallery now includes The Hold Steady
- The A-List: The Hold Steady at the Parish
Sometimes conventional wisdom gets to be that way because it’s true, so here we go: The Hold Steady really is the best band in America right now. Not bar band. Band, period, the end.
If you were at the Parish Wednesday, you know this, too, because you saw the right band at the right time at the right place. Pushing its unsurprisingly excellent new record, “Stay Positive” while digging deep into past efforts, the band roared through its well-practiced set like pros, but it felt inspired rather than workmanlike. It’s cheap and reductive to say it’s a Midwestern thing, but it’s true: Singer-songwriter-guitarist-bard of the Twin Cities Craig Finn understands that magic comes from discipline and labor, which is why the sweatiest preachers have the fullest collection plates.
It also helps not a little that they totally, totally rock. Much is made of Finn’s novelistically precise and fetishistically self-referential songwriting; his characters tend to have an uneasy relationship with Catholicism and take great comfort around pills, booze and other ways to make bad decisions. But the sonic wallop of lead guitarist Tad Kubler (he’s graduated to Gibsons lately) and drummer Bobby Drake gird Finn’s narratives, every bit as critical as Finn’s tortured teens and shout-along choruses. Throw in Franz Nicolay’s keyboards and you have a band that sounds exactly like Bruce and the E Streeters if they’d grown up one time zone to the west. (Boy, is it getting hard to say something original about these guys.)
Of course, the Parish has some of the best sound in town, and from the Cheap Trick-T-bones-Husker Du opener, “Constructive Summer,” the floor was bouncing from the houseful of fans jumping around. “Sequestered in Memphis” — a swaggering rock version of Robert Earl Keen’s “The Road Goes on Forever” and one of the best dude’s-in-a-lot-of-trouble songs ever — simply killed. Kubler got to whip out his doubleneck SG, made famous by Jimmy Page, for “One for the Cutters” — which sounds a little too “Satantic Majesty’s Request” for my taste on the record — and even that one went over as well as fried chicken after church.
Yes, the religion thing. Finn uses it to tap the power of mythology, ritual and repetition, which is why he refers to the Mississippi River more than any writer since Mark Twain. He knows his music lore, too, and that youth is made expressly to be misspent and that rock ‘n’ roll can make you levitate. Wednesday’s show was a look at a great band at the height of its powers. It doesn’t get any better than that, it really doesn’t. Here’s a toast to St. Joe Strummer.
(Photo by Bret Gerbe FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Dixie Chick divorce
Emily Robison and her husband, Charlie Robison, have split.
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Austin’s Jammin’ 105.9 up for sale
Following a Clear Channel buyout by private equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, the radio juggernaut is being forced to sell 55 stations in 37 markets to comply with FCC ownership guidelines. Among the stations up for grabs is Austin’s KFMK, Jammin’ 105.9. Will anyone lament the mediocre “hitz” station’s potential demise?
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Live Chat With Statesman pop critic Joe Gross at 2 p.m. Thursday
Check out our weekly live chat about music (Austin music, Texas music and otherwise) at 2p.m. Thursday.
Kickoff topics include the Hold Steady show, recent albums of all types (what are you people listening to?), Lollapalooza wrap-up (Who went? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?), guests you would like to hear from on this chat and the fact that I found an LP copy of Alex Chilton’s “Bach’s Bottom.”
OK, we don’t need to discuss that last one.
Per usual, these topics are mere jumping off points.
Chats take place every Thursday at 2 p.m.
Join in!
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Review: Freedy Johnston at the Saxon Pub
In the first of two Austin gigs this week (the next will be a full-band electric show Thursday at Momo’s), New Yorker Freedy Johnston addressed the Saxon Pub on Tuesday with an acoustic guitar in his hands and (so he said) a little too much Dramamine in his bloodstream. Looking sort of nervous, the singer opened with a couple of tempo-hopping numbers — including a likeably dicey “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?,” from a new all-covers disc he sold at the show — and some jokes that didn’t quite connect.
Things picked up soon, with “Evie’s Tears” and songs both new and old (“Sparky, the Heroic Dog,” which Johnston claimed was the first song he ever wrote), but the short set’s highlight was “Pretend It’s Summer,” whose melancholic atmosphere quashed both jokes from the stage and chatter from the crowd.
Claiming he couldn’t perform a number of the crowd’s requests because he hadn’t brought a tenor guitar, the songwriter did squeeze in a few favorites from his breakthrough records “Can You Fly” and “This Perfect World”: Particularly lovely was “The Mortician’s Daughter,” which was followed by the well chosen Matthew Sweet cover “I’ve Been Waiting.” Austin fans may have wondered why such a worthy artist was squeezed between acts in an 8 p.m. slot that afforded just an hour of stage time, but at least they wouldn’t have to wait long before catching him again on a local stage.
(Photo by Bret Gerbe FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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SXSW Music 2009 is now accepting showcase applications
Looking to play SXSW next year? The SXSW Music Festival, which will take place from March 18-22, 2009, is now accepting showcase applications. The application deadlines are October 24, 2008 for international artists and November 7, 2008 for American artists. Applications submitted before the early deadline of September 26, 2008 will be subject to a $25 fee. After that the fee jumps to $35.
Visit sxsw.com/music for more details.
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Review: Bill Frisell at the Continental Club
Sure, it was odd to see the Continental Club’s storied dance floor populated with chairs instead of hoofers. But the “granddaddy of all music venues” prides itself on roots, country, rock, blues, and jazz.
American icon Bill Frisell, therefore, was an ideal Saturday evening showcase, half of his two-night stint. A famed fretboarder, Frisell often presents jazzed versions of classics, pop songs, and standards.
Who else does Gershwin, Thelonious Monk, Carter Family, and Madonna?
Supporting his fresh, double platter “History, Mystery” (Nonesuch), the bespectacled Grammy-winner was joined by drummer Kenny Wolleson, violist Eyvind Kang and trombonist/keyboardist Steve Moore. After a warm introduction by Continental impresario Steve Wertheimer, the quartet launched into composed group improvisation.
Frisell’s vocal mic was lonely: there was no banter, including song titles, between the dozen or so, mostly mid-tempoed, instrumentals. Instead, the 57-year-old strummer and his gifted company let the music do the talking. Tunes ranged from abstract to pastoral, playful to cerebral, atmospheric to angular. Halfway through the 100 minutes, what sounded like the new “Probability Cloud” became a study in the joie de vivre of syncopated melody, with the capacity crowd showing in-kind appreciation.
Frisell is adept at reworking songs, sometimes more than once. Malian Boubacar Traore’s “Baba Drame” first appeared on Frisell’s lovely 2003 “The Intercontinentals,” is reprised on “History, Mystery,” yet manifested most powerfully on stage. Waves of overlapping and dovetailed rhythmic harmony generated goose flesh, without pyrotechnics or histrionics.
Overall, Frisell and friends’ multi-hued jazz trip incorporated bebop, a ballad drizzled with tupelo honey, splashy funk, and shuffle blues. The foursome hopped between stylistic decades like a musical time machine on the fritz. The penultimate encore only reinforced that notion, a lively “Lovesick Blues,” a 1922 show tune made famous by Hank Williams in 1948. Bill Frisell: tearing sheets from, and adding to, the Great American Songbook.
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“Norah Jones: Live From Austin, TX” DVD out Sept. 2, LP out today
“Norah Jones: Live From Austin, TX” is the latest DVD in New West Records’ Austin City Limits television series.
It’s also the first release from the series available as a Limited Edition 180 gram vinyl LP
Here’s the track list:
Come Away With Me
Those Sweet Words
The Sun Doesn’t Like You
Not My Friend
Thinking About You
Be My Somebody
Rosie’s Lullaby
Sunrise
Sinkin’ Soon (with J. Walter Hawkes)
Not Too Late
My Dear Country
Little Room
Broken
Long Way Home
Creepin’ In (with M. Ward)
Hands On The Wheel (with M. Ward)
Blue Bayou (with M. Ward)
Don’t Know Why
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Byrne to play Paramount before ACL
David Byrne will play the Paramount Theatre on Thursday, Sept. 25, the day before his set at ACL Fest. The show has not been officially announced and is not shown on the Paramount website, but Billboard revealed the date when listing the upcoming North American tour. ACL promoters C3 Presents usually hold off announcing the club and theater shows until they’ve just about sold out their sweatfest, hoping, in this case, diehard Talking Heads fans will spring for $80 single day tickets before they realize they could see their man in an air conditioned theater for less.
Byrne’s new collaboration with Brian Eno, “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today,” will be released Aug. 18.
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Ex-Troobs on the mend: update
Jon Dee Graham was discharged from the hospital over the weekend, his manager Heinz Geissler confirmed. “He’ll be laid out for quite awhile,” said Geissler, who did not want to speculate on how soon Graham, banged up in a one-car accident on I-35 July 25, will be back onstage.
Meanwhile, fellow ex-True Believer Alejandro Escovedo has canceled more dates, including an appearance on the Letterman show Thursday, as he continues to rest after being diagnosed with “acute exhaustion” on July 26. Escovedo also scratched an Aug. 10 date in Salt Lake City, but an Aug. 9 show at the Central Park Summerstage in New York City is still on the schedule. That set, part of the “Unexpected Mexico” package, is billed as a “with strings” show, which would be less physically taxing than the usual rock set.
After that, Escovedo has no scheduled dates until Aug. 22 in Houston.
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Iggy and the Stooges’ stuff stolen in Montreal!
So, yeah, this can happen to anyone. Even the band that produced “Funhouse,” quite possibly the greatest rock-qua-rock album ever made.
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This week’s late night musical guests
Apparently, Alejandro Escovedo hasn’t recovered sufficiently from the “acute exhaustion” that caused him to cancel shows beginning July 26. The rocker won’t be playing the David Letterman Show on Thursday, as scheduled. He’s been replaced by country singer Phil Vassar according to the Letterman Show website. No word yet on a rescheduled Escovedo date, as the focus is on Escovedo getting “the proper rest as to not further complicate the symptoms,” said a statement from his label.
Monday
Fleet Foxes- Letterman
Jonas Brothers- Leno
Does It Offend You, Yeah?- Kimmel
Jakob Dylan- Ferguson
Tuesday
Spiritualized- Letterman
Toby Keith- Leno
Tyga- Kimmel
N.E.R.D.- Conan
Wednesday
Randy Newman- Letterman
Conor Oberst- Leno
Rev Theory- Kimmel
B-52’s- Conan
Thursday
Phil Vassar- Letterman
Solomon Burke- Leno
From First to Last- Kimmel
Conor Oberst- Ferguson
Al Green- Conan
Friday
Chris Cornell, Scarlett Johansson- Leno
Airbourne- Kimmel
Toby Keith- Ferguson
Mason Jennings- Conan
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Live shots: Snoop Dogg at the Backyard
Our ‘Live from Austin 2008’ gallery now includes photos from Snoop Dogg’s sold out Saturday night performance at The Backyard.
- Photos: Live from Austin 2008
(Photo by Bret Gerbe FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Photos: Lollapalooza 2008
- Photos: Lollapalooza 2008
(Pictured: Thom Yorke of Radiohead. Photo by ASSOCIATED PRESS.)
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Review: Despise You at Emo’s
Cult-level punk bands seem to have an increasingly vague definition of breaking up; who can blame them? If you reach a certain age where touring in a van and sleeping on floors is no longer the lifestyle choice you wish to make but you still want to keep making a statement, there’s nothing to stop you from taking off years at a time. More cult-level bands should try it.
But Despise You, who blew the doors off Emo’s inside room Saturday night, are a strange case from the beginning. The Los Angeles area act embodied the second wave of grinding, rapid-fire, utterly nihilistic hardcore punk called “fastcore” or “power violence.” (Usually incomprehensible) lyrics tended to focus on (what else?) man’s inhumanity to man, rhythms were either at light-speed or sludgy. Despise You did all of this really well.
But it was also a side project band for folks in other cult-level hardcore bands. Its members also self-consciously rejected potential popularity. Despise You never played live in its first incarnation, pseudonyms were used on records, a whole fictional mythology was built from scratch (fictional jail time! fictional gang affiliations!).
Of course they became legendary.
So now they’re back, just for the heck of it — older, recording new music and playing shows. This four-date Texas tour was organized buy Austin punk promoter Timmy Hefner. Brilliantly named locals Naw Dude opened, followed by Kill the Client, a Dallas grind band who thrashed and ground (grinded?) with appropriate gusto. Their recent appearance on Relapse Record’s “This Comp Kills Fascists” anthology could point to bigger things in the near future. Houston’s Pretty Little Flower followed, their orthodox grindcore pounding crowds to dust for nine years (fantastically detailed T-shirts, too).
But it was Despise You everyone came to see - it really was one of those “I can’t believe I’m actually seeing these guys” moments. His white T-shirt offsetting the almost universally black-on-black of pretty much everyone else in the room, bellower Chris Elder looked every inch the hardcore elder (sorry) statesman. He was joined on a few songs by a fellow screamer named Cynthia, which lent a sharp dynamic to the juggernaut thunder. The only way the show could have gotten better is if they had covered “I Got You, Babe.” Really, really fast.
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Musicmania Top 10 for the week ending Aug. 3
ABN ‘It Is What It Is’ (Rap-A-lot)
Lil Wayne ‘Tha Carter III’ (Cash Money)
Plies ‘Definition Of Real’ (SlipNSlide)
Trae ‘Streets Of The South Pt.2’ (Oarfin)
Sir Charles Jones ‘My Story’ (Mardi Gras)
Bun-B ‘II Trill’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Nas ‘Nas’ (Def Jam)
David Banner ‘Greatest Story Ever Told’ (SRC)
Three 6 Mafia ‘Last 2 Walk’ (Columbia)
Marvin Sapp ‘Thirsty’ (Verity)
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Fun Fun Fun lineup to be announced Aug. 14
Transmission Entertainment principle Graham Williams said Sunday the Fun Fun Fun fest line-up will be revealed Aug. 14, not Aug. 7 as previously thought.
“Just want to make sure I have a few more bands confirmed, so I don’t have to follow up with some good names,” Williams said. “I want to get it all out and once and move on.”
One Fun Fun Fun headliner the Dead Milkmen, playing their first show in four years, has already been confirmed. The festival, highlighting indie rock, punk and, well, the sorts of bands you might see at the Mohawk, Club DeVille and Red 7, takes place Nov. 8 and 9 at Waterloo Park.
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Big State Festival II coming to DFW?
The folks of C3 Presents have their hands full up in Chicago, where Lollapalooza rages for a final day, but it’s curious that they’ve yet to announce details for the Big State Festival, which debuted in College Station last October. The country music fest, headlined by Tim McGraw, Lyle Lovett and Willie Nelson, was a moderate success. But with October only two months away, you have to wonder if BSFII is gonna happen.
But according to Big State’s My Space page, the 2008 version is headed for the Dallas suburb of Frisco. But still no lineup and still no dates.
Frisco is home to the Superdrome bike racing track, which looks like the likely venue. Apparently C3 has some connections in the cycling world. Another possibility is the 20,000-capacity Pizza Hut Park, where the Dallas pro soccer team plays.
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This week in the clubs
With a trio of cool roadshows crossing through town on Wednesday, there’s no reason to wait for the weekend to get your groove on.
Monday: ABBA Sing-along at the Alamo Ritz. Why should Meryl Streep have all the fun? Get your “Dancing Queen” on at the Drafthouse downtown. Monday”s sing-along is a benefit for Softball Austin. $15
Tuesday: Earlimart at the Mohawk. L.A. indie-rockers Earlimart play a free in-store at Waterloo Records at 5 p.m., then headline an outdoor show at the Mohawk later in the evening. Earlimart is joined by locals Zookeeper and Silent Sunset at the Mohawk. It’s an early show, doors at 7 p.m. $8
Wednesday: Steed Lord at the Beauty Bar. Electric blue leggings and unfortunate neon animal prints aside, this Eurocrunk outfit from Iceland goes hard. Ice-blonde vocalist Kali is small in stature, but delivers a Grace Jones-like ferocity. With influences ranging from Dipset to Kraftwerk and beyond, the group throws down an electrified mix of driving dance music designed to make you move. Prepare to sweat.
Wednesday: Thao with the Get Down Stay Down at Emo’s. The breezy, folksy indie-pop of this San Francisco-based ensemble is the realization of Thao Nguyen’s musical fantasies, conjured through girlhood Lillith Fair dreams while working at her family’s laundromat and sharpened while she studied Sociology and Women’s Studies in college. With Horse Feathers. $10
Wednesday: The Hold Steady, The Loved Ones at the Parish. Pop critic Joe Gross wrote glowing review of this band of feel-good rockers’ new album “Stay Positive” last month. They’re also known for their killer live shows. Online tickets are sold out.
Also playing this week:
Wednesday: Blind Melon, Sounds Under Radio at Antone’s
Wednesday: Blues on the Green featuring Sonny Landreth
Thursday: 90s Alternative sing-along at the Alamo Downtown
Thursday: Brooke Fraser, William Fitzsimmons at the Parish
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Lollapalooza sells out 2 nights, gets rowdy for Rage
According to the Chicago Sun Times, the C3-promoted Lollapalooza festival sold out Chicago’s Grant Park for the first time on Friday and Saturday. Promoters reported 75,000 people in attendance each day. Fans piled into the park on Friday night to catch headliner Radiohead. On Saturday the headline spot was shared by Wilco and Rage Against the Machine. Despite rumors, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama did not make an appearance during Wilco’s set, which apparently went off peacefully.
On the other side of the park fans of Rage Against the Machine reportedly got quite rowdy, prompting singer Zack de la Rocha to urge the violent mass in the front of the stage to calm down a few songs into the band’s set. Later, a crowd “that festival security personnel and witnesses estimated as ranging between 500 and 2,000” stormed a guarded access gate to gain entry to the fest. The rush of gatecrashers was not stopped until Chicago mounted police showed up.
Chicago Sun Times: Raging during the Rage set: Here’s what happened
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Carll’s Corner: Riverside and Barton Springs
If Threadgill’s south location holds 600, there seemed to be 750 on hand to hear bearded singer-songwriter Hayes Carll Saturday night. The lines for beer were 20-30 people deep for most of the 90-minute set, as Carll’s rowdy and witty beach rat songs such as “I Got a Gig” make beer a sacrament.
Carll’s rockin’ new band gives the songs more of a Stonesy feel than before, but there’s no mistaking that this Austinite (via Houston) is a Texas songwriter, whose lyrics run wind sprints between Townes Van Zandt and Ray Wylie Hubbard. He did a solo acoustic segment at the midpoint that was as soul-stilling as the full band stuff was soul-stirring.
Highlight of the crowded night was “She Left Me For Jesus,” the most hilariously sacrilegious honky tonk song ever written (by Carll and Brian Keane). From the lauded new LP “Trouble In Mind,” it’s about a couple whose relationship becomes severely tested when the woman finds religion and the guy thinks Jesus is” the other man.”
SPOILER ALERT:
The lyrics go: “She left me for Jesus and that just ain’t fair/ She said he was perfect, how can I compare?/ She said I should find him and I’ll know peace at last/ but if I ever find Jesus, I’m kicking his a**”
You have to love a songwriter who’ll risk an eternity in hell for our amusement.
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As good as the Dixie Chicks?
A rough look at Teal and Josh and co., but a fair representation of the live set
Maybe it’s because of the name, but I’ve been listening to the Mother Truckers new LP “Let’s All Go To Bed” all wrong. This record is terrific and I raved about it a couple months ago, but I had them in my mind more along the likes of Southern Culture On the Skids. A great bar band. But today I listened to the record as if it came to me as stamped “The Dixie Chicks” and I heard the potential. Try it at home and you’ll hear that, although Truckers singer Teal Collins isn’t quite as spectacular as Natalie Maines, “Let’s All Go To Bed” is as good as any Chicks LP after “Wide Open Spaces.” Alright, after “Fly.”
“Can’t Sleep In Tucson” should be on KGSR four times a day (light rotation there) and why isn’t KVET all over “Quiet Night?” Then there are “I’m Comin’ Over” and “Dynamite” and “I’ll Meet You There” and “Soul’s Journey Home,” all better than what Maines and company could come up with today. Click here to listen to samples.
Forget the half-year Top Ten that ran in XL at the end of June. Sorry Alejandro, the best Austin album of the year so far is “Let’s All Go To Bed.” My iTunes counter tells me so.
The Truckers seem happy with life in Austin, but here’s what they should do if they want to move up where they belong. 1) Change the name of the band to Teal Collins. 2) Court Nashville. That’s all. This band with the naughty pun name is ready for prime time.
Mother Truckers are currently out on the road and won’t be back in town until October 4, when they play the Continental Club.
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Emmylou Harris show canceled at Stubb’s
Emmylou Harris has canceled her Wednesday show at Stubb’s. Harris had a death in the family.
As everyone at C3 is at Lollapalooza, no word yet on refunds or a make-up date.
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UPDATE: Jon Dee Graham still on the mend
According to family friend/Skunks bandmate Jesse Sublette: “He’s still mending. Yesterday’s assessment of ‘maybe tomorrow’ (to get out of the hospital, meaning Aug. 1) has been rescinded as overly optimistic. He still really needs rest and mending.”
So to recap: Jon Dee is still on the mend in the hospital.
But he’s still with us and that’s pretty impressive. Tough guy, that Jon Dee.
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Howard Stern review: I don’t like Fridays
Howard Stern and his talented, hardworking, self-sacrificing crew are making history at SIRIUS satellite radio, and not just because the merger of SIRIUS with XM was just approved by the FCC. When Stern signed his reputed $100 million a year deal with the fledgling SIRIUS four years ago, the number of subscribers at the second fiddle to XM’s lead violin was 300,000. In two and a half years on the air, Stern has pushed that number to 8 million and rising. The merger will make that number more than 18 million. Stern will soon reach as many listeners as when he was syndicated all over the country on terrestrial radio. The Howard Stern Show is so good that millions of people are paying $13.95 a month to listen to a show they once got for free. I’m one of them. It’s the best money besides Internet service I spend all month.
But the kind of history I’m talking about has nothing to do with number of subscribers. Howard Stern, Robin Quivers, Fred Norris, Artie Lang, Gary Dell’ Abate and all the sidekicks willing to have their personal lives goofed on, sometimes in fascinating 45 minutes chunks, do groundbreaking radio every weekday.
Every day, that is, but Friday. After the first few months at satellite, Stern and crew started taking Fridays off, filling the airtime with repeats, as if we the fans can just take the day off, too. This is like a drug dealer taking a three-day weekend; you don’t make us addicted to something and then take it away just because you want to get out to the Hamptons a day before everyone else.
The Stern show has tried several ways to fill-in on Friday. There was “Master Tape Theater,” which played ancient Stern show segments that only proved how much better the host and his show have become. The old skits are so unfunny that you have to wonder if the people who co-wrote them are currently writing for “Saturday Night Live.”
Right now, Fridays are filled with “best of the week” segments which, although an improvement on “Master Tape Theater” are kinda lame because every true Stern fan has already heard every bit- twice (the four-hour daily shows loop all day).
A Friday fix
Here’s what I think the Stern show should do to fill the “casual Friday” void: replay the best, most indepth Howard interviews from the past twenty years or so. Stern proved his interview prowess this past week when he made such dullards as Hulk Hogan and Luther Campbell interesting. (Not so lucky on Pam Anderson.) This is the only show where you actually wish the Donald Trump interview went on longer. A few things make Howard a top questioneer, the Charlie Rose of locker room radio. First, he’s got the curiosity of a yenta. He genuinely wants to know the answers to his questions. He’s also got Quivers at his back, to cheerily chime in on uneasy questions. See, when a big star or prominent businessman does an interview, it usually comes with ground rules, either specified or just understood out of courtesy. But when you do the Stern show you know he’s going to ask you anything he wants, and what he wants is the dirt. You don’t hear many guests tell Stern “let’s not go there” because when you sign up there’s an unwritten clause that Howard will eventually “go there,” but not until he plugs your book, movie or nightclub appearance.
It’s really quite masterful, this connection with guests, and easily more entertaining than hearing the same phony phonecalls over and over.
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Surfers NYC gig ends in mayhem
Various sources, including this one and this one are reporting that the last show of a 14-date reunion tour by the Butthole Surfers ended in chaos Tuesday night when singer Gibby Haynes got in a fight with the soundman at Webster Hall.
The Billboard article said Haynes, after being flipped off by the soundman (a return flip-off) darted over to the booth and conked the soundman on the head with a bottle. He was then escorted off the stage by security while guitarist Paul Leary “filled in” on “The Shah Sleeps In Lee Harvey’s Grave.” There was no encore and fans pelted the stage with debris.
UPDATE an alert reader found this message board post on the fracas, presumably from Paul Leary:
“The first thing I’d like to point out is that all these references to the “sound man” are actually references to the Webster Hall house stage monitor engineer, not our actual sound man. Our sound man Kevin has done an outstanding job. During sound check, there was a major problem with feedback in one (or both) of Gibby’s vocal microphones. Kevin had to come on stage after sound check and used an equalizer to correct the problem. After the show, he observed that his corrections had been bypassed for the show. If it feeds back on stage, there is no way to turn up vocals in the room. The monitor engineer did nothing to fix the feedback, his most important function for the job he was being paid to do.
This should have been a better show. Gibby was totally on top of his game. His wife was in the audience, and tons of friends. It must have been heartbreaking to have that guy s* on his performance and do nothing to fix it. Near the end of the set, during Gary Floyd, I looked over and see Gibby yelling at the guy, who responds by turning all stage monitors off completely. Gibby did not hit or bottle the guy. I heard the stage manager from across the hall thought that he had, and ordered him removed. We had another song or two to play before “Shah”, so we just went straight into that. Our set ends there anyway. I think the house lights didn’t come on, and the audience really stuck around for more. The kids SOR kids were evacuated. I went to the Beauty Bar and felt nothing but love.”
So, I guess my hunch about the staging was off mark. The bottle thing threw me off, as Gibby has been known to use movie prop bottles in fake fights before.
