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Thursday, June 11, 2009
David Allan Coe has medical emergency, cancels Emo’s gig
Emo’s announced on their Web site and via Twitter Thursday evening that David Allan Coe had a medical emergency and was forced to cancel his Friday show. No other details were forthcoming.
The rest of the bill (Paula Nelson Band, Pimpadelic and Honky) will still play the outside stage. The show is now $10 at the door and two free drink tickets will be given to everyone who bought advance tickets. (But be sure to still tip your bartender even if the drink is free. That’s just polite.)
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McLagan remembers Little Thailand owner Simcoe
Musician Ian McLagan tries to schedule his flights back into town so he’ll arrive during the hours that the Little Thailand restaurant, about seven miles east of the airport, would be open. He didn’t just go there for the great Thai food, but to hang out with jovial owner Dick Simcoe, who had a bar in the back of the restaurant.
“It always felt like you were guests at his home,” McLagan said. “If Dick was in England he’d own the pub that everyone wanted to go to.”
Simcoe passed away Thursday morning from the effects of stomach cancer. His 75th birthday was to be tomorrow.
“I have no regrets,” Simcoe said last week, after doctors told him he didn’t have long to live. “I had a vision and I followed through on it.” The restaurant he owned with wife Surin was the first Thai restaurant in Central Texas, opened in 1981 in a trailer outside the back gate of Bergstrom AFB.
After Bergstrom closed, the Simcoes moved Little Thailand in 1995 to its current location under the Garfield water tank in Del Valle.
“I just love to be around people,” Simcoe said last week of his natural hosting ability. “I feel blessed to have seen the smiles of so many good, good people. That’s what I’ll remember most.”
“He was a remarkable chap,” said McLagan, “with a great family.” McLagan and his late wife Kim were regulars since moving to Manor in 1995. “I wrote a song about coming here with Kim on the drive from my house. The lyrics were all finished by the time I got to Little Thailand.”
That song “Date With An Angel” is on McLagan’s 2004 album “Rise and Shine.”
Besides being a great host, Simcoe was known for his vintage jukebox and his recipe for Thai bloody marys. “I brought a friend there once and Dick made her a bloody mary,” said McLagan. “After she’d had a couple sips I asked her how she liked the drink. Meanwhile, Dick was scribbling something on a piece of paper. She said, ‘It’s the best bloody mary I’ve ever had’ and Dick gave me the piece of paper that said the exact same words. He was such a character.”
Simcoe was surrounded by family in his last few weeks, including daughter Luanne of San Francisco, who had barely left her father’s side in the four months since he had his cancer diagnosis. “He meant the world to me and I will cherish the time I spent with him for the rest of my life,” Luanne Simcoe said.
The funeral will be Saturday at 3 p.m. at Harrell Funeral Home (443-1366) in South Austin. Simcoe is survived by wife Surin, who will keep Little Thailand open with her sister Malee, and eight children.
- From the archive: Near the airport, a Thai pad
- Photos: Little Thailand
- Sign the guestbook
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Weekend picks: Brooklyn indie rock and shoegazey buzz
Ringo Deathstarr
FRIDAY
Recommended
- Yanni at the Erwin Center
- Brothers and Sisters at the Continental Club
- Beautiful Supermachines, Distant Seconds at the Mohawk
- Golden Boys, Tia Carrera at Room 710
SATURDAY
Ringo Deathstarr at Stubb’s. Despite a dicey name and reference points (Jesus and Mary Chain, Spaceman 3) that are practically public domain at this point, this shoegazey act’s buzz continues to build. Their EP is now available on wax via the boutique label Fandeath, which has featured records by the far heavier Clockcleaner and Drunkdriver, giving Ringo Deathstarr a new and slightly more dangerous context. Songs are pretty decent, too. 9 p.m. $8. - J.G.
Also recommended
- Viva Voce at the Mohawk
- Holy Rolling Empire, Car Stereo Wars at the Beauty Bar
- Full Service at Flamingo Cantina
- Devin the Dude at Lamberts
- Gaelic Storm at Threadgill’s World Headquarters
- Lost Bayou Ramblers at Continental Club
- Full Service at Flamingo Cantina
- Charlie Robison at Nutty Brown Cafe & Amphitheatre
SUNDAY
White Rabbits at Emo’s. New York indie rock brimming with verve and gumption. Their new album, ‘It’s Frightening,’ released last month, boasts production from Spoon big man Britt Daniel and Spoon producer Mike McCarthy. Expect a lot of well-meaning head-nodding from the crowd. With the Subjects, the Boxing Lesson. 10 p.m. $10. - J.G.
Also recommended
- Belle Epoque at Emo’s outside
- A Bullet For Pretty Boy, Tonight Is Glory, A Stained Glass Romance, Fire From the Gods, December Skyes at Red 7 (early show, doors at 5 p.m.)
- Wheels on Fire at Beerland
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Riverboat Gamblers, Twilight Singers contribute to ‘Purple Rain’ tribute
For a cover story on the 25th anniversary of Prince’s movie and album “Purple Rain,” SPIN magazine commissioned “Purplish Rain,” a tribute album featuring such artists as Austin act the Riverboat Gamblers, Of Montreal and former Shudder To Think frontman Craig Wedren.
Frankly, the Gamblers being on here is an excuse for me to link to the completely bonkers cover of “When Doves Cry” by the Twilight Singers with former Prince singer/gal-who-doesn’t-know-that’s-not-Lake-Minnetonka Apollonia.
(Man, remember when Shawn Smith was a Twilight Singer? I miss that guy.)
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Q&A with Edwin McCain
Eleven years ago, Edwin McCain’s epic ballad “I’ll Be” topped charts and instantly became a wedding night standard.
However, fortifying its popularity soured the South Carolina native as his career ascended. “Being on the set of Regis and Kathy Lee just made me ill,” McCain says. “I felt like such a sell out. I knew I was doing it for all the wrong reasons.”
The 39-year-old songwriter, whose recent collection “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” salutes his soul influences, appears tonight at One World Theatre.
American-Statesman: This is your first time at One World Theatre, right?
Edwin McCain:Yeah, but we’ve been hearing about it. We play other high-end listening rooms like the Birchmere and Wolf Trap in Virginia, and it sounds exactly like the kind of place we love.
Their idea is to increase cultural awareness through music.
I can’t say enough good things about that. When the focus is about providing an atmosphere for people who enjoy art, it can only benefit experiences across the board.
As a traveling songwriter, how have you seen music bring people together
Well, music’s the one indestructible thing that I know. It survives every situation, and it’s the one thing that everybody agrees on. Music transcends all the barriers. I’ve seen it work in the most inexplicable ways when people are grieving or are in trouble.
To have someone think enough to put together a venue like One World Theatre is proof of what music can be instead of what it ends up being reduced to.
Did you have an influential teacher with a similar mindset?
I had several. The first was a choirmaster named Bob Powell. He writes church hymns. He’s the one that taught me about pitch and then put me out front doing solos in the choirs. He had me doing operettas as a soprano falsetto (laughs). Later, I discovered a whole cadre of art house musicians who are a subculture existing on the content of their work instead of the publicity machine.
How does all this play into your recent covers album?
Well, I grew up in Greenville, S.C., and a friend of mine’s father was a musician. He sort of demanded that we ignore our Cheap Trick and listen to soul music. My favorite band since I was 10 years old is Earth, Wind and Fire. From there I picked up Sam Cooke and Wilson Pickett and Marvin Gaye and Al Green. I didn’t look into Little Milton until later, after I was with Atlantic.
Speaking of which, it’s well known that you’re more comfortable as an indie artist
Yeah, I wasn’t really suited to the major label thing. I absolutely hated the publicity stuff. I made myself feel better about it because I was providing a nice living for a number of employees, but inside I hated every second of it.
Sacrificing that financial backing must be hard, though.
We don’t make money like we used to, but (being independent) is a wonderful, fulfilling challenge that I adore. I love music more because I understand how precious it is to me. I wouldn’t change my experience with the major labels because it gave me appreciation that I probably previously lacked. But I’ve been given a new lease on life, and that’s not something most people get. It’s not lost on me at all.
Edwin McCain performs at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. tonight at One World Theatre. 7701 Bee Cave Road. Advance tickets are $20-$75. 436-0881.
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Ticket giveaway: White Rabbits
myspace.com/whiterabbitsWe’re giving away tickets to see Brooklyn-based indie rockers White Rabbits at Emo’s (inside) on Sunday, June 14. Email us at events@statesman.com before midnight to enter.
You MUST include your full name, email address and daytime phone number in email to win. Winners will be drawn randomly and notified tomorrow.
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CD Review: BettySoo, ‘Heat Sin Water Skin’
BettySoo
“Heat Sin Water Skin”
(self-released)
B+
The first voice you hear on “Never Knew Love,” the first track on “Heat Sin Water Skin,” BettySoo’s third album, is not BettySoo’s clear, sometimes bluesy soprano. Rather, it’s producer Gurf Morlix, making the sort of guttural “uhhhh” you associate with a dude who just woke up with the flu. Then steady swinging drums, distant electric guitar, then BettySoo’s voice, Morlix’s voice here and there as a percussion instrument.
It sounds like a small thing, but Morlix’s voice, and by extension his production, sets up a bit of a dialogue in the music, gives Soo’s music something to push against, something too few singer-songwriters have.
Soo’s voice seems to have two settings: biggish (“Never Knew Love”) and lithe (virtually everything else). “Just Another Lover” teams direct and bitter romantic ache (“Someplace warm where you once fit in/ invisible, expendable as oxygen” with a mournful violin, acoustic guitar and a spare rhythm section. These are exceptionally well-arranged songs, as easily equal in precision to, say, Patty Griffin or Alison Krauss (it doesn’t seem a sucker’s bet to think both were influences).
She even has the guts to cover Hank Williams’ “Lonesome Whistle” to close the album, giving it a smart, clean reading. She may think of her self as “Never The Pretty Girl,” but to take on St. Hank for your finale takes a confidence that speaks volumes
BettySoo appears at 11 a.m. today (June 11) on KUT. She appears at at 9:30 a.m. Friday on KGSR. Her album release show is 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Cactus Cafe.
