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Monday, April 20, 2009
Spin Magazine ranks Waterloo Records nation’s No. 2 indie record store
Nick Simonite AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Spin Magazine celebrated Record Store Day with a blog tribute to the nation’s fifteen best record stores. Local institution Waterloo Records ranked number two on the list (with a shout out to Joe Gross).
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Heartless, Okkervil to do ‘ACL’ tapings
Austin-based bands Heartless Bastards and Okkervil River will this year ascend to the level of bands big enough to tape episodes of “Austin City Limits.” The 35th season of the KLRU-owned program began taping with Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel in February.
Things will really get crazy at Studio 6A during the ACL Fest, when Pearl Jam, Beastie Boys and Sonic Youth will test the rafters of Studio 6B. And longtime producer Terry Lickona just wrapped up Elvis Costello for the end of August.
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Record Store Day wrap-up
(Joe Gross found an Iron and Wine record he loves while making the rounds on Record Store Day. What were your finds? Tell us in the comments section. Photo of Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam at his home near Dripping Springs from 2007 by Ralph Barrera/AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
It sounds like Record Store Day (RSD) was a smash, at least locally. This was due to a couple of things: A ton of exclusive RSD releases, in-store performances, lots of hype and Austin’s still-decent economy.
End of an Ear reported its best day ever, besting last year’s RSD total at 3 p.m. “We are 270 percent over last year’s RSD,” owner Dan Plunkett said. About 100 or so folks turned out for an outdoor live set by Cajun star Beausoleil, a decent number considering how lousy the weather was in the morning.
“All the other stores across the country I’m hearing from are saying it was double last last year. Everyone was out of the exclusive stuff within a few hours,” Plunkett added. “It was busier for us than any SXSW day, ever.”
I avoided most of the exclusive seven-inch singles, though they went first at a lot of stores, especially those by Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and a couple by Sonic Youth. These were list-pricing at $6 or $7, which I certainly can’t afford.
(I had no interest in flipping them on eBay, where some are going for $20 to $30. The Jesus Lizard singles box set retailed around $40 and is now going for $80 to $120. The Beck/Sonic Youth and Jay Reatard/Sonic Youth singles can be had for about $30 each. And the list goes on.)
Here’s what I did find:
(Expletive) Up - “Year of the Rat”/”First Born” (What’s Your Rupture?, 2009): Yet another killer 12” single from these psychedelic-punk titans. The A-side is an 11-minute epic and easily short-listed in my year end Top 10 songs. Massive distillation of about a million ideas — shoegaze guitar layering, “Father” Damian’s basement-scream vocals, rolling bass thunder. B-side is much the same and about half as long. Outstanding.
Pavement - Live in Germany 1997 (Matador, 2008/09): An RSD exclusive and not one I should have purchased in retrospect. I’ve been an obnoxiously devout fan since scoring a copy of the “Perfect Sound Forever” 10” lo these many years ago (1991, I think?), but this era is not one of my favorites. (That said, the second CD of the reissue of “Brighten the Corners” — perhaps my least loved Pavement album and the era covered by this LP — absolutely kills. Those dudes were Zen masters of the tossed-off B-side.)
Shocking Blue - Venus (Picadilly, 1980): I could have watched an entire evening of the Shocking Blue videos with which Morrissey opened his show. Weird Dutch garage, the sound of Europeans futzing with an American idiom and taking it intriguing places. Vinyl of these guys is hard to find in the States, so I was thrilled to happen upon this comp.
Iron and Wine - Norfolk 6-20-05 CD (Sub Pop, 2009): A document of the band stretching out over some of their strongest material, from the first two albums and EPs. Wonderful, immersive folk rock in front of an audience that adores them. Epic take on “The Trapeeze Swinger”; “Woman Kings” builds like a kid with Lincoln Logs. Excellent.
Scratch Acid - Berserker EP (Touch and Go, 1987): An Austin entry! They never did quite top their extraordinary first EP (and their LP sounds pretty terrible), but this thing smokes, six songs of roiling chaos held back by the reins.
Palace Bros - “Ohio River Boat Song”/”Drinking Woman” single (Drag City, 1993): A pivotal single for me and a mess of other indie-identified kids; not a bad record to become obsessed with at 18/19. In ‘93, everyone was wondering what the guys in Slint, who had released the amazing LP “Spiderland” two years prior, were going to do next. Turned out to be this, backing up some actor named Will Oldham who ran through an Americanized version of the “Loch Tay Boat Song.”
The dry thwack and deliberate pace of the recording offset Oldham’s cracked-actor backwoods delivery. The Slint guys moved on, Oldham became a minor league god still making albums people love. But this one still thrills. Inspirational verse: “And her dance is like the gleam/ of the sunlight on the stream./ And the screeching bluejays seem/ to form her name when screaming.”
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ACL confirms Pearl Jam, then pulls cartoon
(Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam in 2007/Associated Press)
Confirmation by cartoon? We’ll take it. Monday afternoon, the ACL Web site posted a cartoon teaser, under the heading “2009 Lineup” of two pearls in a traffic jam. Other cartoons, hinting at B-52s, John Legend and Sonic Youth were also set to go up. But by Monday evening, the cartoons were scrapped in favor of a message that said to look for the lineup April 28.
Pearl Jam is also scheduled to also do a taping of the fest’s namesake TV show while they’re in town.
But we have to wonder what happened to the cartoon. Did this little bit of fun backfire on C3? Did Pearl Jam object to the blatant “leak”? Did they cancel? Emails have been sent to C3 booker Charles Attal and marketing director Lisa Hickey.
The band’s last appearance in Austin was in 1995 at Southpark Meadows.
Austin Music Source was the first to write that the Seattle rockers were the likely headliner, based on information from a C3 Presents insider. Other names revealed in March were Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon and Ghostland Observatory.
Meanwhile, Beastie Boys and Sonic Youth are both doing a tapings of “Austin City Limits” during the fest, so you can go ahead and put them on the list. Charles Attal of C3 would neither confirm nor deny those acts would be playing at Zilker Park Oct. 2- 4.
(Adrock, left, and Mike D of Beastie Boys in 2007/Associated Press photo)
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ACL Fest wish list (Coachella live shots)
(MIA at Coachella Fest ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Summer music festival season kicked off last weekend with Coachella Festival in Indio, California. While we won’t know who’s playing Austin City Limits Festival until April 28, we can certainly glance at other festival lineups and dream. Use our interactive to let us know which of these Coachella Fest artists you’d like to see at ACL Fest this October.
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Practical solutions to music scene problems: #1 in a series
If the Austin Police Department chooses- or is forced by numerous complaints from neighbors - to enforce the city noise ordinance that limits amplified sound from restaurant patios to 70 decibels, they send someone with a sound measuring meter at the perimeter of the patio.
This is wrong on several levels. First, 70 dB is about how loud a patio full of conversations is. That’s the traffic outside, as countless blog commentors will write, seizing on that 7-0 like 1960s civil rights protestors did signs to move to the back of the bus. Seventy decibels makes APD look oppressive.
Also, you have to wonder how significantly a set will change when the band sees cops at the perimeter holding up a decibel meter. Suddenly, the band that had been hammering through the Ted Nugent “song”book seques into some Sweet Baby James. (Bands that play on restaurant patios almost always play covers.)
Here’s how it should be done. Say the Bicketstaff family is watching “Friday Night Lights,” but it’s getting even harder than usual to understand Matt Sarazen’s muttering because of a big dose of Friday night bass from the restaurant down the block. “This is ridiculous,” says Mr. B, as he picks up the phone to dial 3-1-1. (9-1-1 is used only in serious emergencies, or if- as in a recent case- Burger King keeps messing up your order.) Rather than check out the restaurant, where their presence brings a salute to Mazzy Star, the cops should go to the Bickerstaff abode. They should stand in the living room and judge if the noise is acceptable. Instead of a decibel meter, they should use a tape recorder inside the home for evidence.
On a side note, have you wondered why indie rock bands are almost never cited for being too loud? All those beards onstage and in the audience absorb much of the volume.
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Kerrville lineup announced
The 38th annual Kerrville Folk Festival, to take place May 21- June 7 at Quiet Valley Ranch will feature such crowd faves as Kevin Welch (May 21), Austin Lounge Lizards (May 22), Trout Fishing in America (May 29), Terri Hendrix (May 30), Shake Russell Trio (June 5), Ruthie Foster (June 7) and many more.
For information and tickets go here.
Among the first-timers this year are Louis Black and Roland Swenson’s least favorite band Michael Hearne and SXSW.
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KVET kicks off free music series
Every Wednesday evening at 8 p.m., KVET hosts free live music by country artists at Hill’s Cafe. Roger Creager kicked off the series April 8 with an overflowing crowd. Here’s the next few weeks’ schedule:
APRIL
22 - Two Tons Of Steel with Weldon Henson
29 - Casey Donahew Band with Curtis Grimes
MAY
6 - Stoney Larue & The Arsenals With Bill Rice
13 - Doug Moreland Show with 1100 Springs
20 - Micky & The Motorcars with Stephanie Briggs
29 - Rick Trevino With Jamie Richards
JUNE
3 - Cory Morrow with Modern Day Drifters
10- Chris Knight
17 - Aaron Watson with Granger Smith
24 - Brandon Rhyder with Ryan Beaver
JULY
15 - Radney Foster
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Scene report: Reggae Fest
(Jennifer and Mitch Adair are expecting a baby in the next few months and enjoyed the music and the body paint at this weekend’s Reggae Festival at Auditorium Shores. Photo by V.M. Black/Special to the American-Statesman)
The Austin Reggae Festival benefiting the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas received a little divine intervention from the heavens on Saturday and Sunday as the week-ending thunderstorm clouds dissipated, leaving only clouds of smoke billowing from ornate glass “tobacco” pipes and carefully constructed “blunt” cigars as reggae music chimed through the air.
With the city skyline and Lady Bird Lake posing as a picturesque backdrop, thousands of souls basked in the sun and soaked up the irie, good vibrations music. Despite the $15 entrance fee, the festival appeared recession proof, drawing the same numbers as it did in the previous year according to Kerri Qunell of Capital Area Food Bank of Texas (Qunell says around 20,000).
“People still bring canned food as donations — this is the 16th year — and people are used to doing that. But people are also being really generous with the cash donations,” Qunell said. “The festival just gets more and more popular.”
For one weekend a year, Auditorium Shores resembles Jamaica’s Sunsplash Festival, complete with a family-friendly inflatable romper room, a climbing wall and numerous vendors selling sundry wares. Fest-goers chomped on Henry VIII-sized turkey legs and sipped on beer and other fruity beverages severed in plastic, non-traditional yard glasses.
On Sunday afternoon, Houston’s Los Skarnales combined Latin rhythms and Spanish language with reggae roots, ska and dub music inducing a surreal scene when about 20 people danced with oversized hula hoops that appeared to be lying on the ground for anyone to use. Los Skarnales’ frontman Felipe Galvan rocked steady for nearly an hour, using his overflowing charisma to get the majority of the crowd dancing.
Dancing in front of stage left was soon-to-be mother Jennifer Adair and husband Mitch Adair. Jennifer stood out in the crowd of thousands, her 7-months pregnant belly artfully painted by artist/Fest vendor Joshua Davies with a picture of the Earth and a message for her child: “2009 Welcome to Earth.”
“I’ve done face paint, body paint, back panels and murals, but that was my first pregnant belly,” Davies said as he painted the chubby cheek of a college student. Davies enjoyed his experience at the Reggae Fest last year — and this year — so much that he’ll be moving from Dallas to Austin soon to study art at Austin Community College. “I probably painted 20-25 people yesterday and about the same number today.”
The majority of the vendors appeared to be enjoying brisk business. Davies received a $40 tip for his work on the Adair’s pregnant belly. Likewise people were walking around with 4-foot-tall waterpipes they’d purchased from one vendor that was promoting a half-price sale. Likewise, the funnel cake stand closest to the stage had a line 50 people deep for most of Sunday afternoon.
Daniel Bermea of First Medical Response said that the fest had been free of major incidents outside of heat exhaustion and dehydration. “We treated about 100 people yesterday and about 50 today,” Bermea said. “People just need to remember to drink water … and eat.”
As the planet spun and the sun appeared to sink below the horizon, Austin’s notorious Mexican bats poured out from under the Congress Avenue Bridge in steady waves, undulating to the music while people screamed and hollered them on in encouragement. Many people began to head home with the setting sun while the diehard reggae-heads stayed for Jamaica’s now-legendary Wailing Souls.
“We moved from Florida to San Antonio about a year ago and now we come up (to Austin) every year,” Mitch Adair said. “They had Earth Day festivals in Florida, but nothing exactly like this. This is one of a kind! We wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
“Next year we’ll bring the baby,” Jennifer said, smiling as she caressed the Earth painted on her pregnant belly.
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Review: Old Settler’s Music Fest
(The Lovell Sisters play Sunday at the Old Settler’s Music Festival in Driftwood. From left are Rebecca Lovell on the mandolin and Jessica Lovell on the fiddle. Photo by Laura Skelding AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
On the first day of Old Settler’s Music Festival, rain sprinkles dropped from ominous clouds as the Gibson Brothers, five guys in crisp black suitcoats, started up the music on the open dance hall stage at the campgrounds.
The band from the Adirondacks marveled at the warm weather and sang about wishing wells, towns left behind and the heavens for their first visit to the fest in Driftwood.
On the second day of the festival, following an early morning deluge of rain, a couple hundred soggy but resolute campers made their way to the indoor Salt Lick Pavilion stage. Fest officials wisely had moved acts there from the stage along the creek, keeping the grass from becoming a mud pit.
This could have been Woodstock Junior, but the single muddy pond behind the main stage was left to the young kids as their parents watched.
The evening approached without more rain and the crowd in front of the main stage swelled for the Greencards, who introduced their new CD, “Fascination” (out Tuesday with a Waterloo in-store at 5 p.m.). The former Austinites by way of Australia and England were like a down comforter on a damp, chilly night as Carol Young’s soft voice wrapped around the lawn-chair audience.
The Cards delivered instrumentals as fanciful as fairy lights in the mist and stark reality lines about no money but “baby, I’ll follow you wherever you go.” They closed with Young ably nearing an a capella whisper on Patty Griffin’s “What You Are.”
Inside the Pavilion, Beau Soleil gave its post-Lental Cajun blessing to all who wanted to stay warm and dry. Who can resist this classic band and its dance music from opposing crab claws painted on a squeeze box, the whole thing led by Michael Doucet’s snappy French?
The BoDeans celebrated a remaster of their 25-year-old hit debut “Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams” and last year’s “Still,” also produced by T-Bone Burnett. Another Texas connection with their “Texas Ride Song” had them bouncing and charging the front edge of the main state within minutes of opening. The guitar interplay and ‘70s sounds of Kurt Neumann and Sammy Lamas proved the perfect country/pop accent for this allegedly bluegrass gathering.
On the third day of the festival, sunshine broke through the wet spell in time for the big Saturday lineup. Day visitors joined the campers to fill both outdoor stage areas and the Pavilion song workshops.
It was main stage time for Wimberley fave Sarah Jarosz, who proclaimed: “The rain has ceased. It’s a lovely day and a lovely crowd.” Then the soon-to-be high school grad with the rosy cheeks launched into solid instrumentals and songs such as “Tell Me True” that were not the least bit girlish. This is an artist with a Sugar Hill Records debut coming in June who can do it all, from originals to covers of Dylan and Waits.
Stonehoney, another local band (by just a few weeks after moving from L.A.), showed they also have staying power. With four-part harmonies from under cowboy hats, gimme caps and long hair, this is a country band with a catchy sound and songwriting abilities that might bring some Eagles comparisons.
If anyone needed reminding that all is not sacred at bluegrass fests, comedy hour host Fred Eaglesmith sang through a megaphone with strange poignancy about Shoe Shine - “That’s what they call me but that’s not my name.” He then joked about banjo players and how he likes banjo music “for about 20 minutes.”
On the smaller stage amid a sea of green grass and leafing pecans, a future Old Settler’s staple arrived from the mountains of north Georgia. The Lovell Sisters, three real siblings, displayed enough talent and energy to prove you don’t have to become a rock star or even an American Idol to hone a music career. This fledgling trio with fiddle, mandolin and slide steel guitar put voices and strings to work with new takes on old styles that will be securely at home in dance halls and the bluegrass fests circuit for years to come.
Old Settler’s, lucky in recent outings that duel with spring weather, escaped over four days with just minor inconveniences on the front end of the schedule. By Sunday’s adieu at the campgrounds, it was all blue skies above a cheery Lovell Sisters reprise.
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