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Monday, March 2, 2009
SXSW: Meet the band - Beautiful Nubia
Have you been to SXSW before?
No!
What do you hope to accomplish?
We are hoping to catch the eye of a crazy, adventurous booking agent or promoter who’ll be interested in booking a subsequent tour of the US for the band.
Last song downloaded?
A song by Zimbabwean legend Thomas Mapfumo called “Chentemgure”
What’s your favorite piece of clothing?
Local Yoruba fabric called adire and ofi, and my jeans!
If you’ve been to Austin before, what’s your favorite memory? Least favorite memory of Austin?
I have been to Austin before, twice, for the Austin International Poetry Festival. My favourite memory was doing an acoustic set at the Ruta Maya. My least favourite memory was the hassles at the airport on the way back. There was a reggae festival on in Austin at the same time and I was taken for a rastafarian with my dreadlocks. I was hassled to produce my stash of pot, which I did not have.
It’s late, you’re hungry and time is short: what’s your go-to fast food franchise and what do you order?
I’m not a fan of fast anything but if I’m really in a tight spot I’ll dash into any corner store and get some chocolate.
What’s the best thing you learned in school?
How to be a good listener, hard work and perseverance, not always expecting everyone to see things your way.
Does your band have a pre-show ritual? Any superstitions?
Yes, we eat some food! That can be the difference between a good show and one in which the boys just stand around on stage like passengers in a moving bus.
What’s your favorite restaurant back home?
My own mother’s kitchen…
What was the concert or album that made you want to play music yourself?
Nothing specific. I have always wanted to play music from a young age. I always felt this was my destiny and seeing all those expressive album jackets of the 60s and 70s just served to strengthen that resolve.
A celebrity crush you’re willing to reveal?
Cameron Diaz. I was disappointed when she went off with that Timberlake fellow, that should have been me!
Which web sites do you check every day?
beautifulnubia.com, for the new guestbook entries.
What should SXSW audiences know about your music?
This is not your run-of-the-mill African band. We bring something different to the party - good vibes, some old-age wisdom, some wildness, lots of drumming and jumping, and a lot of politics!
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SXSW: Meet the band - Alash Ensemble of Tuva
Peter Hasselbach
Austin Music Source: Have you been to SXSW before?
Alash: We’ve never been to SXSW, but we’ve been to Austin twice before and we love the town. We like TX in general, but Austin is great.
What do you hope to accomplish?
We’d like to get our music out to more ears, a wider audience than just a world audience, educate people about where we come from - The Republic of Tuva, and hopefully find an agent. We’ve been doing everything from our little log cabin in Tuva, which can some times make putting together international tours hard.
What music can you not leave town without?
We like Bela Fleck, Hazmat Modine, Johnny Cash, our Tuvan friends Huun-Huur-Tu and Chirgilchin, and a few other lesser known Tuvan musicians.
Last song downloaded?
We don’t download out here, not yet any way.
Do you have a favorite hangover cure?
Hair of the dog.
What’s your favorite piece of clothing?
I’d have to ask each member of the band that. Probably our Tuvan boots.
What’s your favorite memory of Austin?
Austin seems to always have good weather. The university is amazing, and just walking on the streets at night it is full of life and music.
It’s late, you’re hungry and time is short: what’s your go-to fast food franchise and what do you order?
The band likes plain quarter pounders from McDonald’s, though recently there has been a swing toward BK. So far Mexican food has not gained much acceptance, as our food in Tuva tends to not be so Spicy.
What’s your favorite restaurant back home?
We don’t do restaurants out here. We like to flip a sheep on its back, cut a hole under its xyphoid process, reach in, sever the dorsal aorta, skin it, butcher it, clean out the intestines and stomach (our ladies do that), fill em with blood, and make blood sausage. Meat and fat are the order of the day here in Tuva.
What was the concert or album that made you want to play music yourself?
There was a group called Ertinelig Tuva that used to tour here when we were kids, and they were some of the first people of that generation to really re-popularize our traditional music. Also, our families have lots of singers in them so we grew up singing the traditional songs of our people.
What TV shows are you recording back home while you’re in Austin?
We don’t have Tivo in Tuva.
You’re ordering pizza for the band: what’s on it? And where do you call?
Pepperoni, from anywhere local that’s not a chain - we like to try local stuff (beer, pizza etc.)
Which web sites do you check every day?
We’re lucky to get on the internet.
What should SXSW audiences know about your music?
Tuva is an amazing and unique place with amazing and unique music. It is music that is very ancient, coming from a time possibly before human language, but at the same time it is very modern, as we are the current young generation of bearers of this tradition. We’ve found that our experiments with groups like the Flecktones have worked rather well, and that Tuvan music has room for growth and change within the greater global music world.
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Robert Plant’s son makes U.S. debut at SXSW
London-based rock band Sons of Albion, only 18 months old, will make its stateside debut at SXSW, with an official showcase Saturday March 21 at Latitude (AKA the British Embassy).
The band’s frontman is Logan Plant, 30, the youngest son of Maureen and Robert Plant. Nuno Miguel, Gones, & Francisco De Sousa round out the band. The Sons are finishing up their debut LP, with the single available March 30.
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Review: The Pretenders at Stubb’s
The Pretenders’ concerts remain her own best argument for the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle. In her case, 57 is indeed the new 30: she looked smashing in cutaway tails with a pale pink vest, black tie, and jeans, meshing nicely with Stubb’s black-box stage and bonnet-like white overhead shell. For 95 minutes on a delightfully crisp Sunday night Hynde played hard and sang gorgeously, aided by original Pretenders drummer Martin Chambers and newer members James Walbourne on guitar, Eric Heywood on pedal steel and Nick Wilkinson on bass.
If Hynde and the boys weren’t enjoying themselves, they put on a world-class acting job. “It is a blast to be back in Austin,” the singer told the frothing crowd of young ‘uns and graying rock-war veterans. “Fantastic city! Good-looking guys with long hair, what more do you need?”
Don’t confuse the Pretenders with a nostalgia act. Even if “Break Up the Concrete” - the first studio album in six years - doesn’t measure up to the glory days when the late James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon trod the stage and established the punky-yet-accessible template, the band, now basically Chrissie and whatever other musicians she plays with at any point, never really went away. It may have been a visit from some dear old friends, but heck if it didn’t feel anything but current as a Twitter post.
The newer material tended to drag down the proceedings (save for the kicking opener, “Boots of Chinese Plastic”), but then Hynde would hang on a note in “Stop Your Sobbing” for eight bars, the band would cruise to a ska groove in “Cuban Slide,” and the likes of “Chain Gang,” “Brass in Pocket,” “Precious” and “Tattooed Love Boys” transported the crowd back to sweaty early ‘80s club nights, either in memory or just imagination. They honky-tonked their way through the intro to “Thumbelina,” then sped it up to a startling double-time climax. Just when you thought Americana would dominate, the assertive guitars and heavily miked drums would bring things back to basics. (“We promised you country, but we give you punk,” Hynde said before ripping into “Up the Neck.”) As usual, she acknowledged Honeyman-Scott and Farndon in her intro to “Kid,” saying, “Just wanted to let you know we’re on our way, so put the kettle on.”
Time the avenger, indeed. Some fall by the wayside, some rise again, some just keep plugging away for close to forever. If Chrissie Hynde defies the decades and keeps things vital, so can we all, for an hour and a half at any rate. And the veggie tamales weren’t half bad.
(Chrissie Hynde plays Sunday at Stubb’s. Photo by Jay Janner/AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF)
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Second Leonard Cohen show added!
The April 2 show sold out in 41 minutes, so the Long Center has added a Leonard Cohen show April 1. Tickets will go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. at www.thelongcenter.org, by calling (512) 474-5664 or at the Long Center box office.
