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Thursday, July 16, 2009
Live Review: Roky Erickson at Antone’s
There are some extraordinary moments in the 13th Floor Elevators song “Reverberation” that come at the end of each verse. Roky Erickson’s voice, controlled, just starts to open up, just a little. The effect is something like: “You only know/ you have to go but still you can’t get out. You try and try,/ you die and die/ You’re stopped by yOUR OWN DOUBT!” This is repeated on the other two verses, with rising tension.
But it never resolves into a scream, never unleashes the mental stress the singer is under. One gets the impression that if it did resolve, if Roky really opened his throat up, he would break the microphone or smash the club to rubble.
It’s an amazing vocal trick, full of panic and fear and defiance and adventure. And he can still totally pull it off.
Which he did Wednesday night at Antone’s.
After strong sets from the Golden Boys (sporting a big band complete with harmonica, mandolin and Ralph White on violin) and the Riverboat Gamblers (singer Mike Weibe’s penchant for leaping around the stage continues unabated), Roky and his band took the stage.
It was Roky’s birthday party, complete with a cake and a guy in the corner of Antone’s making pancakes. Roky is now 62 years old. And he opened with “Reverberation,” dropping the jaws of even the most hardened Roky fanatics in the crowd. This was not expected. And it was most welcome.
With Kyle Ellison (Meat Puppets, Pariah) on lead guitar, spotless drummer Kyle Schneider (Ian Moore) and bassist Matt Harris (Oranger, the Posies), there was something stripped down and muscular about the songs, which ranged from vintage proto-punk (“Two-Headed Dog,” “Creature with the Atom Brain”) to Roky staples (“Starry Eyes,” “You’re Gonna Miss Me”), epic blues (“The Beast,” the only song on which Roky played lead, his tiny amp washing the spiky notes in fuzz) and a well-received rarity (“And Now We Fly”).
It’s been said before but it bears repeating: There is no comeback story in rock ‘n’ roll like Roky’s. Period.
Ten years ago, as one musician who had worked with Roky said, “We thought we would be making him comfortable, getting him what he wanted and needed, waiting for him to die.” Now, he seems delicate, but as far from death as anyone else in the room.
And hearing “Reverberation,” one flashed on that scene in “Ghost World” where Enid tells blues collector Seymour that she’s been listening to Skip James’ “Devil Got My Woman” again and again.
“Do you have any other records like that?” she asks.
“There are no other records like that,” he says.
Happy birthday, man.
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Review: Tortoise at Mohawk
Wednesday evening, Chicago’s post-rock, grand experimenters in sound Tortoise owned the Mohawk’s outdoor stage. Mixing rock, jazz, electronica and the kitchen sink, the band played highlights from their recent release Beacons of Ancestorship as well as fan favorites from their more than decade-long career during what would prove to be a warm up for their homecoming appearance at this weekend’s Pitchfork Music Festival.
Musicians and music nerds filled the near capacity audience as the band’s instrumental, genre-melding sounds washed down Red River street from the Mohawk (props to the Mohawk on the quality of their PA as the sound walked the tightrope of being massive, punchy and tight).
I won’t even begin to attempt to provide a setlist as Tortoise’s dulcet songs undulated and careened into one another, although die-hard fans appeared to know where several songs stopped and where others began. The band - Dan Bitney (bass, guitar, percussion, vibes), John Herndon (drums, vibes, keyboards), Doug McCombs (bass), Jeff Parker (guitar, bass) and John McEntire (drums, keyboards) - are phenomenal musicians, long on originality and inventive playing. They all switched instruments, sometimes mid-song, with the sound becoming most explosive when dual drummers were locked in a rhythm, or dual bassists intertwined serpentine melodies.
A couple of tracks recalled the dense arrangements of Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti western soundtracks. But just when you thought you had the origins of the groove figured out, the band unexpectedly dropped into a 5/4 time signature or played with such polyrhythm that they made 4/4 feel like an odd time signature.
As strong as Tortoise’s set was, the song cycle they played felt as if they were pulling the reigns a little too tightly. The band’s extended jams could have been further elevated with a little more Ornette Coleman and a little less John Coltrane, more Parliament-Funkadelic, less James Brown, more musical freakouts, less conservative restraint.
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Hello from Larry Monroe
Who knew that Larry Monroe came up with David Letterman? We received this post today from Larry Monroe, who’s at the center of controversy at KUT:
“Hello Folks, Larry Monroe here.
First off, thank you for all the support you have given my radio programs during my 28 years at KUT. This job has been the most interesting and rewarding of my career, which began when I was a 13 year old kid in Hartford City, Indiana. Floyd Huffman built a ten watt radio station up in the rafters of our high school gymnasium so he could broadcast basketball games to moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas who couldn’t go to them. And he taught about eight or ten of us how to be sportscasters and disc jockeys. I was one of his students, and I got my third class broadcasting license when I was 13. I have been playing records on the radio ever since. Incidentally, WHCI-FM was one of the very few high school radio stations in the 1950s. Thank you, Floyd, for starting me on my life-long career path.
After that I studied Radio, TV, English and Literature at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Dr. William Tomlinson and Dr. Robert Guinn, and later Dr. Darrell Wible, were my professors, and I value very highly the broadcasting education they provided me. David Letterman and I shared several Radio & TV classes. Dave and I studied television on the old Yankee Stadium black & white TV equipment. When Yankee Stadium converted to color TV Dr. Tomlinson bought their old master control switcher and two of their cameras and started the Ball State TV department with them. I had music programs on the student radio station, WBST-FM, and I also worked at my home town radio station, WWHC-FM. On that station I did play-by-play for basketball and football games and did weekend music programs. I also found a summer and weekend job at WTRE-FM in Greensburg, Indiana when I was a junior. After I graduated in 1967 David Letterman got that job. When I spoke with Dave several years later he told me that the WTRE-FM job had gotten passed on to other Ball State broadcasting students in the years to follow. I was on the radio in Ann Arbor and Detroit from 1969 until 1977, and I moved to Austin in 1977. One of my main goals was to put Austin music on the radio.
Since March of 1981 I have been on KUT. In those 28 years I have had the opportunity to present to the KUT listening audience many artists that I have admired for many years as well as younger artists that I came across in my research in the barrooms, night clubs and venues in Austin. The first “live concert” show I hosted on KUT was on October 8, 1981 and the guest was Lucinda Williams accompanied by Walter Hyatt and Champ Hood. About ten years later I hosted an Easter Sunday Liveset featuring Willie Nelson and his whole band, including his sister Bobbie on the Studio 1-A Steinway Grand Piano, the legendary Johnny Gimble on fiddle and Kimmie Rhodes and Ray Benson on vocals. Willie and the band played gospel songs live on the radio on Easter. The show started at 8 PM and at about 20 after 9 Willie asked me, “How long is this show?” I said, “It usually ends at 9, but you can play as long as you want to.” (I was the host of the program that followed Liveset, Texas Radio, so we weren’t encroaching on anybody else’s time…and…it was Willie Nelson.) So, he played another 20 minutes or so before wrapping it up. Carolyn Phillips referred to this program in an earlier post on this page.
Which brings me to the posts on this page. Thank you for the kind words you have posted about my programs. Those comments mean the world to me. I have always tried to do my best work for you. Back in college I learned that radio is the most intimate medium, a very personal medium. You may have many, many listeners, but they are not all in the same big room. Often it is just you and me. Or you and your sweetheart and me. At most, a small group. In my early days at KUT I would imagine that Barbara Jordan was listening and I would try to make the programs as good as I could in case she were actually listening. (Personal note: Go see the Barbara Jordan Statue on the UT campus at 24th and Whitis. It is magnificent.)
Chip Taylor’s post caught my eye, and I would like to share my memory of the day that I met the guy who wrote “Wild Thing.” First off, the time frame Chip remembers is a little off. In those days Phil Music ran from 8 PM until midnight. My recollection is that Chip called me at the station at around 9 PM or so.
“KUT.” “Hi, this is Chip Taylor.” “The Chip Taylor who wrote ‘Wild Thing?’” “Yes. My guitar player, John Platania, and I are driving into Austin from Louisiana. We’ve been listening to your program since we picked up the signal a half hour or so ago, and you are playing great music. Can we come be on your show?” “Sure, come on in.”
I had just gotten Chip’s new album and I knew the backstory. Chip had left music for many years and had been a high stakes gambler. When his mother had gotten ill he would visit her and play his guitar and sing to her. That led him back into music and songwriting and now he had a new album and was on the road with Van Morrison’s long-time great guitar player, John Platania. A half hour or so later Chip and John showed up at the station and we did an impromptu radio show together. That is my recollection of the day I met Chip Taylor. I suppose if you average our two stories together the truth lies somewhere in between.
Again, thank you for the support and the kind words.
Larry Monroe 7/16/9
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WOXY moving to Austin
Internet radio station WOXY is moving to Austin.
The Ohio station started in 1983 on the FM band, went off the air in 2004, and then reinvented itself as Web station dedicated to underground/independent/alternative music. Bands such as Wolf Parade, Sonic Youth and Spoon are featured, while Jack White’s new outfit the Dead Weather recently contributed two DJ sets.
“The artists and music scene brought us to Austin,” WOXY general manager Bryan Jay Miller said Thursday. “We do live sessions that we archive online and that whole series is based on whatever artists might be touring through the area. Everyone comes to Austin.”
Miller says no Austin sessions have been set up yet: “We still have to see who is coming through town.”
All three formerly Cincinnati-based WOXY DJs - program director Mike Taylor, music director Matt Shiv and DJ Joe Long - are making the move to River City.
“The plan is to be broadcasting from the new studio on Sept. 8, the day after Labor Day,” Shiv said.
WOXY’s new studios will be in the Austin Theater at 2130 South Congress Ave., currently the home of ME-TV. The two companies will share office space, video equipment and the stage. For example, WOXY will use ME-TV equipment to videotape and archive live performances.
“We’re gonna be in there with them, I’m not sure if you would call it subletting or not,” Miller said. “We’ll have our own offices and our broadcast studio, but there will be common space that we both use.”
While the 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern Monday-Friday shows are live, overnight and weekend hours are preprogrammed. Many of the shows are taped elsewhere and sent in to the station.
“Are we going to change that to 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Central Time? We don’t know yet, actually,” Miller said.
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Live review: The Dirty Projectors at Red 7
On a balmy July night under the mercifully super-charged ceiling fans of Red 7, Dirty Projectors front man Dave Longsreth shared a secret with his Austin audience.
“It’s good to see everyone here,” said Longsreth, looking lanky and cheery. “I think this is our first outdoor show that’s actually gone right. There’s no rain and no thunderstorms.”
Those that caught their much-acclaimed set at Bonnaroo last month might disagree with that assertion, but the buzzworthy Brooklyn sextet did deliver a special evening for the hordes of sweaty music fans that packed the outside stage at last night’s sold-out show. The band is riding high on a wave of almost universal adoration in the wake of this year’s “Bitte Orca” (including high praise from this very paper) and took the opportunity of that momentum to deliver an energetic, tightly coiled set that should put to rest any lingering doubts about their ability to deliver live.
After an explosively animated opening from Austin’s the Laughing, the show kicked off with a 30-minute instrumental jam joining Longsreth, Dirty Projectors bassist Nat Baldwin and drummer Brian McComber with legendary Black Flag front man, SST Records founder and noted Taylor, Texas, resident Greg Ginn. As the improvised quartet’s mildly self-indulgent set drew on, slowly but inexorably the crowd’s mood transitioned from one of excitement (“This is so cool and unique!”) to inattention. The dull roar of conversation grew deafening and legions of scenesters unsuited to meandering old-school rock jams turned to their iPhones.
Fortunately, after a 15-minute break, Longsreth and pint-sized singer/keyboardist Angel Deradoorian took the stage for the first song of the Projectors’ set, a beautifully lilting rendition of folk-pop delight “Two Doves.” Replete with strings on album, the stage rendition is necessarily stripped-down, but Deradoorian’s pretty vocals carry the live performance. The result sounds simpler but no less effective, and it set a precedent for an evening of rich, full renditions of technically challenging songs.
The entire band came on stage to thunderous applause for “Cannibal Resources,” the striking first track off “Bitte Orca.” Longsreth’s whisper-thin vocals were joined by the three-part harmonies of Deradoorian, Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle, a sort of cute indie rock girl trinity that’s rapidly infiltrating the hearts of lovelorn hipsters everywhere. The vocal interplay between the three emerged as the night’s unquestionable highlight — at times joined in harmony and at times entering into a pitched battle of unstable warbles, as on a striking performance of “Remade Horizon.”
Ginn rejoined the band for “Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie,” one of three pre-“Bitte Orca” songs to show up in the set — and appropriately so, as it’s a cut off concept album “Rise Above,” Longsreth’s attempt at re-interpreting Black Flag’s “Damaged” entirely from memory. And Coffman nearly stole the evening with single “Stillness is the Move,” an almost Mariah Carey-esque nugget of R&B perfection, that climaxed with shirtless drummer McComber disappearing into a hard-hitting blur of skin and drumsticks. Encore songs “Fluorescent Half-Dome” and “Knotty Pine,” penned for the band by the Talking Heads’ David Byrne for charity compilation “Dark Was The Night,” brought the show to a satisfying close.
The Dirty Projectors have something of an inconsistent live reputation, perhaps befitting a constantly rotating band that’s logged 18 members in seven years of existence. But now that Longsreth seems to have settled for a more stable cast of characters, the Projectors have emerged from the relative ghetto of art rock as a surprisingly accessible, genre-crossing act. And that cozy lineup has also resulted in genuine on-stage chemistry and comfort, making for a show that — if not absolutely transcendent — at least lived up the lofty expectations set by one of the year’s best albums.
Setlist
Two Doves
Cannibal Resource
Remade Horizon
Ascending Melody
No Intention
Fucked For Life
Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie
Rise Above
Stillness Is The Move
Useful Chamber
Temecula Sunrise
Encore
Fluorescent Half-Dome
Knotty Pine
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Weekend picks: Funny storytelling, poignant songs and tooth-breaking rock
FRIDAY
Hayes Carll, Troy Campbell and Graham Wilkinson at Antone’s. The wily Hayes Carll is the draw at this Antone’s anniversary show, but come early to catch Graham Wilkinson and the Underground Township. Wilkinson has a new solo record, which he’ll probably play songs from. Campbell’s set will be a virtual Loose Diamonds reunion, with Scrappy Jud on guitar. $15. — Michael Corcoran
Also recommended
- Brave Combo & Fabulous Polkasonics at Gruene Hall
- Rise Against, Rancid at Stubb’s
- Tony Campise at the Elephant Room
- Owen Temple, Belleville Outfit at Momo’s
- Willis Alan Ramsey at Threadgill’s
- Dale Watson at the Continental Club
- Brewtality Inc. 10-Year Anniversary show at Room 710
- Loxsly at Scoot Inn
SATURDAY
Broken Teeth at Red Eyed Fly. Nobody channels Bon Scott like Jason McMaster. Only the words have been changed. With Heaven Below, featuring Patrick Kennison of Union Underground. — M.C.
Also recommended
- Black & White Years at Stubb’s (inside)
- Kevin Welch, Jimmy LaFave, Gretchen Peters at the Cactus Cafe
- Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash at the Continental Club
- Metalfest at Red 7
SUNDAY
Jon Dee Graham and Miles Zuniga at the Continental Club Gallery. These Jon Dee duet shows are as much about funny storytelling as poignant songs, so this one should be especially good. Miles Zuniga of Fastball has a sharp wit, does funny impressions and then there’s that over-the-top laugh. 8:30 p.m. $17/$20. — M.C.
Also recommended
- Foreign Born at the Mohawk
- Loose Leaves (CD release) at Club DeVille
- Matt Powell Trio, James Hyland at Momo’s
- Celtic music jam at Fiddler’s Green
