Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2008 > October > 28
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Living City Benefit Concert
We got dropped a line from some friends about a benefit we felt we should pass along. This Saturday, November 1, local faves The Black and White Years, along with Denton transplants The Zest of Yore, Amy Cook and Corto Maltese will be performing at Club Deville to benefit Project Transitions.
The organization serves people with HIV and AIDS by providing hospice and housing support in caring environment.
The purpose of the event is to bring awareness to “the changing realities of who and how the AIDS epidemic is affecting in its 21st century incarnation.”
In addition to the great live music, the night will include door prizes, with gift certificates from End of An Ear, Whole Foods and Room Service.
The mission of Project Transitions’ Living City Concert [from the release]
Project Transitions’ Development Team introduces a new, distinct event to the city of Austin with Living City. This event will speak to a new demographic of supporters that not only reflect the changing population of Austin’s social and cultural landscape, but also the changing realities of who and how the AIDS epidemic is affecting in its 21st century incarnation. As our agency is devoted to the health and social transitions of the people we serve, our outreach capabilities also readily adapts to these certainties of change.
Living City Benefit Concert
Club Deville
Saturday, November 1
9 p.m.
$10
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Benefit concerts
EW says ACL Fest is No. 1
Entertainment Weekly’s Whitney Pastorek went to six music festivals this summer and has come up with her own “festie” awards. Winning “best fest” is the Austin City Limits Music Festival, a choice Pastorek calls “controversial.”
Check it out here.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
An update on the future of the Backyard, sort of
Here is the exact quote from Lauren O’Rear at Direct Events:
“OK - so all I know now is that the ‘World Famous Backyard Bar’ will remain open with further details to come.”
No word yet on what this means for the proposed new Backyard, though it does indicate that Backyard owner/Direct Events founder Tim O’Connor is exploring the idea of keeping a small part of the original Backyard property under his control, perhaps having local bands in the bar for a cover charge, something he discussed with me earlier this month.
Here is the Oct. 21 XL story on the Backyard.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Ian MacKaye to speak at St. Edward’s University
Ian MacKaye, late of Fugazi, Minor Threat, Embrace, currently of the Evens and Dischord Records, will speak Nov. 14 at Mabee Ballroom in the Robert & Pearle Ragsdale Center at St. Edward’s University.
The event is brought to you by St. Ed’s Center for Ethics and Leadership, Student Life and the Digital MBA program, which, given MacKaye’s legendary commitment to do-it-yourself everything and being one of the most influential figures in the past 30 years of the American underground, seems about right.
This should be a lot of fun.
The event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Advance tickets available in Andre Hall 107 at St. Ed’s. Any remaining tickets will be distributed at the event. For further information, call 464-8871.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment
Review, sort of: Screaming Females, Harlem at Emo’s.
Monday nights are tough. Lots of restaurants, bars and clubs simply take Monday off.
Not Emo’s. Seven nights a week, baby.
Those hows might not be the best attended, but, sometimes, Monday shows blow you away.
As the Horrorpops brought their gothy punkabilly (a.k.a. stuff that sounds a whole lot like the Cramps) to the big room, one of the strongest sets I’m going to see this year went down in the small room.
First up was Harlem, an Austin trio that features sharply contoured, hard-swinging garage pop and an absolutely enormous, marching band style bass drum.
Harlem guitarist Michael Coomers sported a furry hat, a gnarly small amp guitar sound and an infectiously pleasant on-stage demeanor. Drummer Curtis O’Mara, he of the neatly trimmed mustache and aforementioned enormo-drum, and stock-still bassist John Hostetter kept the songs deft and moving, crucial to making this sort of garage goof work. A wonderful band.
But they were kind of blown to pieces by Screaming Females. But then again, almost anyone would be.
Straight out of New Brunswick, the trio is made up of a two-man (as in male) rhythm section (stellar drummer Jarrett Dougherty and melodic-yet-anchor-like bassist King Mike) and one screaming female, singer/guitarist Marissa Paternoster. She feeds back like Neil Young, she shreds like a tiny, female Greg Sage (of Wipers fame) she dresses like Thowing Muse Kristin Hersh in that band’s black-tights-and-skirt years.
Paternoster’s lyrics are buried in moans and the occasional, yes, scream; the songs are drum-head tight, well-structured nuggets of post-punk thunder cut with the occasional guitar-hero solo. Paternoster’s runs are doodly without ever boring or egocentric. Not many people can pull that off in this context. It was thrilling to watch. Most patrons weren’t at the band’s 2007 show at the Parlor and they looked like I did back then: standing still, jaws slightly open, floored at what they were seeing.
They’ve thus far put out two excellent albums and a 7-inch single on their own. Their new split singles are on local Jersey labels.
Had I an indie record label with clout and cash, I would stand outside Screaming Females’ house with a boombox playing “In Your Eyes” until they signed on the dotted line. Those of you in such a position should do the same.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
CD review: Pink’s “Funhouse”
“Funhouse” (LaFace)
It’s the worst song on the radio. It’s the best song on the radio. The inane na-na-na-na-na-na sing-song of “So What” opens the new Pink album, which hits stores today. Then on the chorus, this force of nature in tattoos and platinum blonde hair explodes with so much melodic defiance that “So what, I am a rock star/ I got my rock moves/ And I don’t want you tonight” sounds like the soul’s refrain. With this album, both forceful and delicate, Alecia “Pink” Moore emerges as the biggest American rock star since that skinny guy from Detroit who made an earlier record called “Funhouse.”
First off, Pink’s an exceptional singer, with an extra gear to give a chorus a boost when it seems she’s already aired it out in full. As evidenced by the gorgeous new ballad “I Don’t Believe You,” which looks to be the hit to knock the career into the stratosphere, Pink just seems to feel more than other singers. “Crystal Ball,” guided by a lone acoustic guitar, is another song that skillfully mixes the Philly gal’s strength and vulnerability. Some artists you applaud, but you root for Pink.
“Funhouse” sounds like Pink, who’s still only 29, got married to professional bike-flipper Carey Hart just so she’d have a great divorce record. The Chic-influenced title track likens marriage to a carnival attraction that’s so giddy at first, but turns into a den of twisted clowns. “Once a tickle now a rash,” she sings, before starting a countdown to burn this funhouse down. Without issues, Pink makes albums like “Try This.”
The dysfunctional family of “M!ssundaztood” has given way to struggles with sobriety and emotional betrayal. “I gave you life/ I gave my all/ You weren’t there/ You let me fall” Pink sings in the bridge of “So What” that’s its own song.
Pink’s voice elevates weaker tracks such as “One Foot Wrong,” which nicks Nirvana’s “Lithium” and the formulaic “It’s All Your Fault,” which brings tedium to the whisper-to-a-scream dynamics Pink first unleashed on “M!ssundaztood” in 2001. But those tracks are soon automatically skipped for heavy relistening. The first time you play “Funhouse” it may take an hour or so to get all the way through because eight of the twelve tracks are automatic playovers.
Recorded in Stockholm, Los Angeles and New York City with a host of co-producers, “Funhouse” is a big-sounding record that would be called overproduced if the singer wasn’t Pink. Like her heroes, Bette Midler and Janis Joplin, her honesty always shines through, which is why she gets away with self-conscious material that would sound forced by lesser personalities.
Who wants to hear Carrie Underwood’s break-up record?
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Reviews
