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Monday, September 14, 2009
Harkrider wins Gatti’s jingle contest
Ryan Harkrider, a 24-year-old special education job coach at Westlake High is $10,000 richer after recording “Get-A-Gatti’s Pizza,” the winning jingle for a Gatti’s Pizza contest to update the brain-numbing “459-2222.” Harkrider will use some of the money to finish his debut LP “Days Like This.” He also won Gatti’s Pizza for a year, a music store gift certificate, and an Apple IPod Nano. His jingle will be featured in a congratulations TV spot to air on Time Warner Cable. Listen to it and the other four finalists here.
Austin born singer-songwriter Gina Chavez was voted fan favorite for her jingle “Dinner Time Blues.” She’ll also get free Gatti’s pizza for a year, but little good it’ll do her, as she’s soon off to San Salvador for nine months to teach English at a Catholic school. The Apple MacBook computer and Ipod Nano she also won will serve her better.
The contest attracted 392 different versions.
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Austin City Limits preview: Interview with the Walkmen’s Peter Bauer
All five members of celebrated post-punk band the Walkmen grew up alongside each other in Washington, D.C., but their paths to indie rock stardom were long and tortured. Three members rose to prominence in Jonathan Fire*Eater, a mega-hyped, Dreamworks-signed act that collapsed in 1998, while two served a brief stint in aborted Boston garage rock band the Recoys. Following the dissolution of both bands, the five high school friends united as the Walkmen with a self-titled EP in 2001, just in time to ride the burgeoning New York City rock scene to prominence. 2002’s “Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone” garnered comparisons to the Cure and U2, while 2004’s “Bows + Arrows,” and particularly its propulsive single “The Rat,” landed the band on prime-time soap opera “The O.C.”
But the band careened wildly off the beaten path, first in 2006 with “’Pussy Cats’ Starring the Walkmen,” a track-by-track cover of Harry Nilsson’s 1974 album “Pussy Cats,” and then with 2008’s “You and Me,” a darkly intimate gem that won kudos from Spin, the Guardian, Rolling Stone and others. The Walkmen’s bassist-turned-organist Peter Bauer spoke to us by phone from his Philadelphia home to discuss the group’s latest honor, why they sometimes hate their own albums and which indie band’s got game.
American-Statesman: “The Rat” recently landed at No. 20 on Pitchfork’s list of the 500 best songs of the decade. Was that a surprise for the band?
Bauer: (Record producer and engineer) Chris Zane was with us in the studio and he’s very up on the Internet, so he saw it first and was like “Hey, you guys, you’d better check this out.” It’s great and we thought it was a huge surprise. It’s funny cause you look at that list and we’re kind of the only failures on it. Everybody else is OutKast or Missy Elliott or Radiohead or somebody huge like that. And here’s this bunch of wash-ups at No. 20. It’s nice to have a song live up to standards like that.
It’s been about a year since the release of “You and Me” — what’s the band up to now that the post-album release barrage of publicity and touring has subsided?
We’re recording another record right now and hopefully that’ll be done in a timely fashion as opposed to two years from now. It’s coming along now so we’ll see how it goes. We’re hoping for a release early next year.
“You and Me” was very distinct from every other album you’ve released, with a greater focus on atmosphere and mood and more straightforward lyrics. Has the new record similarly taken on a certain direction?
It definitely doesn’t have a shape yet. We’ve recorded a lot of stuff, a lot of it very quiet, some of it somewhat country-ish. But I don’t know what it will end up sounding like when it’s done. You can do a lot of recording but not really know quite what it is you’re working on until something just clicks. There’s always a moment where things become a little more obvious. Last record, just after we did “I Lost You,” I felt like we finally got a sense of tone and were able to progress naturally from there. And we haven’t quite hit that moment yet for this record. But it’s just a matter of time.
Were you happy with the way “You and Me” ended up?
We really love that record. The whole band likes it a lot. Which was kind of a new thing for us — usually by the time we’re touring behind a record we just absolutely hate the songs. There would be maybe three songs on an album we wouldn’t dread playing. And you come to realize which songs are b-grade by playing them so many times. But this time was different. We set out to make this big record full of hits, and we wanted to make something that had a romantic, grand tone. So it was a surprise what we ended up with, since there’s really not a single on that album, but we still felt like we were successful at making something that we liked and something that wasn’t cheesy or trite. It definitely felt like a big step forward for us. I’m just hoping we can make another one that good.
Is it challenging to sell those slower, moodier songs at big outdoor festivals like Austin City Limits or Outside Lands?
It’s a bit of a problem, yeah. But I think we’re learning our lessons in terms of making them work. Of course, the fans want to hear the slow songs as much as we want to play them … my wife is now shaking her head and looking at me and mouthing “No, they don’t.” Well, we want to hear slow songs, anyway. I can’t stand rock ‘n’ roll music. But you can figure out different ways to do things, at least, ways to make the songs louder. And as long as the passion is there, that energy and intensity is going to come out in the performance.
In April, you chatted about the NBA season with readers of ESPN.com, for their series of online conversations with musicians. The worlds of indie rock and professional sports fandom don’t overlap often. How’d that come about?
Our manager asked me if I ever wanted to do sports radio, kind of out of the blue. And I told him that that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life. But what he was actually eying, and eventually got me, was an Internet chat. But I had a blast doing it. Me and (guitarist) Paul (Maroon) both love basketball and we both play quite a bit. I’d much rather be a sports star than a rock star. It’s definitely strange how it came together, and I’m still not really sure why exactly they wanted me on ESPN. Although sometimes you’ll read it and one of their commentators will talk about Interpol and you’ll just be like “That’s strange.” So obviously it’s something that some of their people are into. But it’s not like they ever talked about the Walkmen. Nobody ever does.
Touring offers a lot of opportunities for impromptu hoops sessions. Can any of the bands you’ve toured with play ball?
I would say that the Built to Spill guys were really good. They would be the ones I would remember. They cleaned our clocks. But other than that I don’t think we’ve ever played with anyone particularly good. The Kings of Leon are supposed to be pretty solid. They’ve talked a lot of trash. But I don’t know if I buy it.
The Walkmen play from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2 on the Xbox 360 stage.
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ACL Buzzmeter: Kings of Leon keep the crown
Yeah Yeah Yeahs? More like “Meh Meh Mehs”. Forgive the obvious joke, but based on response from the scheduling tool over at aclfestival.com, that’s an appropriate way to characterize the seeming indifference for the New York trio’s late addition to this year’s Austin City Limits Festival lineup as a replacement for one-time headliners The Beastie Boys. We thought it best to wait a bit before taking out the measuring stick to see how many attendees were planning on making Karen O. and company a priority and the answer is, obviously “not many” with less than 2,000 schedule adds in the four weeks since they were announced. That figure puts them far outside the top 20 in our rankings and behind such relative “who dat?”s as White Lies (3,022), The Zac Brown Band (2,174) and Reckless Kelly (2,490).
The news isn’t any better for the fellow late arrivals Raphael Saadiq (609), Dirty Projectors (137) or alt-rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures (1084) who at least seem to have some good-size blog buzz around them coming in. Of course, with the fest completely sold out organizers can tale some creative gambles while plugging holes in a lineup whose loses - The Beastie Boys, Lily Allen, Sonic Youth - have piled up like a M.A.S.H. unit.
Worth asking; “Who benefits from all this?” That might seem like a cynical question when you’re talking about circumstances involving cancer (Beastie Boy MCA), a broken wrist (Sonic Youth’s Lee Renaldo) and chronic crazy (Allen), but there are actually some people making out OK in all this roster shuffling. First among them, Kings of Leon’s detractors. Sure, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a step down in star power from the BBoys, but check out any of the YYY’s recent live clips on YouTube and you’ll see engaging, confrontational performances by a band doing its damnedest to be known as more than the proxy Beastie Boys on this summer’s festival circuit. Got a feeling they’ll deliver at 8:30 p.m. Friday and have people talking afterward. Second; curious rock fans willing to put up with sleep deprivation to try to see Them Crooked Vultures (that’s Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones for the uninitiated) pull the ACL trifecta of a festival set, Austin City Limits show taping and an after party at Stubb’s. Given the hype surrounding this supergroup, they could get keys to the city by the time the weekend’s done.
Third-ish, Saadiq and Michael Franti, who get good set times thanks to all the vacancies but have to put up with killer time slot competition. For Saadiq, it’s butting up against feel-good world beat rapper K’Naan (ouch) at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, while for Franti and his Spearhead combo it’s a tug of war against laptop dance king Girl Talk at 7 p.m. on Sunday. Deciding between all those might result in a lot of last-minute coin flips.
So how about some good news before we get out of here? Fair enough.
Kings of Leon’s continuing surge up top (along with their unrelenting spread into the mainstream in recent months) makes setting them as a headliner one of this year’s savvier moves by organizers. And with a totally different and potentially small audience watching Yeah Yeah Yeahs across the way, their crowd should be monstrous.
Finally, pardon the chest thumping but it’s good to see our early forecast of Mos Def picking up momentum come true. The Big Apple rapper breaks into the top 10 with a few weeks left and with a later Saturday time slot against dissimilar artists (Levon Helm, The Zac Brown Band) he’ll have a big sea of heads nodding along with him.
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Interview with Jason Mraz
American-Statesman: How was your first gig in Mexico City (on Sept. 8)?
Jason Mraz: Oh, there were screaming girls and crying girls and a packed house. It went really well. Someone said it looked like a Menudo concert (laughs).
How has `I’m Yours’ evolved over the years?
I wrote it about five years ago on a sunny afternoon in my home in San Diego. It’s about generosity, giving yourself and time to someone else. At first, I likened it to a nursery rhyme that was too light to put it on my second record. I thought I’d just play it live and maybe my fans would catch on. It eventually became our show closer.
You seem to have a very direct relationship with your audience.
Well, most people go to the office and express themselves through a series of rules and assignments. My listeners give me another way to express. I get to work on my writing or poetry or short stories all because of the listeners.
You also connect through your blog.
Yeah, that strengthens my purpose. A lot of times, I feel artists struggle with the value of their work. There’s a struggle between ego and the spiritual opportunity to connect with people. I enjoy the opportunity to create and to relate to other human beings.
That social consciousness comes up in songs like `Live High.’
Certainly during my last album there were quite a few moments when social consciousness crept into my life. It happened mostly because around that time I was settling into being a homeowner for the first time, caring for my own patch of earth. I was taking notice of how much energy I was consuming and how much waste was coming out of my house.
Does being a vegan play into that?
Well, I’d call myself a vegan fishitarian who’s mostly a raw foodist. It’s a totally personal thing. In my case, it’s from touring so much. Everything in my life changed after I tried eating raw food for 30 days the first time - my mind, my physical appearance, my energy. I realized that food really is my fuel. Once I started to commit to whole foods and natural foods, I was like, “This is great!”
Speaking of touring, you have some Austin guys in the band.
Yeah, we have Carlos Sosa, Fernando Castillo and Reggie Watkins from the Grooveline Horns and Bruce Hughes, who came from Bob Schneider’s Scabs.
The Grooveline Horns are playing at Antone’s after your gig. Any chance you’ll show up?
I love appearing at the Grooveline aftershows! They’ve done quite a few around the country after our shows. I hate to make a promise that I’ll be there, but I’ll say that it’s probably one of my favorite things to do. Usually during the Grooveline shows, I’m like, “Man, I wish my shows were like this!”
Photo by Justin Ruhl
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Review: Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain & Edgar Meyer at Bass Concert Hall
No wonder banjo player extraordinaire Bela Fleck has more Grammy category nominations than anyone else. The 11-time winner adroitly plucks from jazz, classical, bluegrass, the ether, etc. Fleck’s formidable collaborative skills are another reason he’s rightly lauded, Sunday night enlisting Indian percussionist Zakir Hussain and bass anchorman Edgar Meyer.
UT’s flagship venue has hosted many exceptional events, but probably never components of a tabla/bass/banjo triple concerto. The group used Austin as the launching pad for its tour supporting their fresh album “Melody of Rhythm” (E1), and the audience was treated to more than two hours of unparalleled musicianship, infectious camaraderie and aural adventurousness. The full hall — the audience was composed of students, Hindustani music mavens, bluegrass freaks, and Austin music stalwarts — perfectly symbolized the music: a mash-up. But unlike the hit-or-miss, digitally-sutured songs of the same name, this mash-up was spot on.
The three-piece began with the album’s opener “Bahar,” a pentatonic pastoral composition evoking North America’s fruited plain, yet penned by Mumbai-born Hussain and based on an Indian raga. Each artist soloed during the performance, showcasing both skills and restraint. Meyer explored the subharmonic and upper registers of the bass, Fleck used a vocal mic to play banjo slide, and Zakir “Thousand Fingers” Hussain proved why he’s the go-to timekeeper for John McLaughlin and Yo-Yo Ma.
Those seeking to classify the 14 songs were left scratching their cabezas, but perhaps Hussain had the best tag for this mash-up. In an online, pre-show chat with the band, Hussain responded to the genre question with: “This would be best described as music.”
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Geoff Muldaur & The Texas Sheiks’ record “Texas Sheiks” (Tradition & Moderne) hits stores Sept. 22.
A crew that fell together after Stephen Bruton was diagnosed with cancer, the Sheiks, a band of his pals, formed around Bruton.
The band included Muldaur, Dobro player Cindy Cashdollar, fiddler Suzy Thompson, guitarist Johnny Nicholas and bassist Bruce Hughes (Poi Dog Pondering, Jason Mraz). They hit the studio twice in 2008, Bruton passed away in May 2009, the music lives on.
Read producer T-Bone Burnett’s liner notes here.
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Upcoming show: Woodsboss at Scoot Inn Sept. 17
If you haven’t already, check out Woodsboss, born of former members of the Weary Boys, this Thursday night at Scoot Inn. It’s hard to stand out in a town so saturated with alt-county bands, but this six-person outfit, led by singer Molly Salvi, somehow gets the job done with a high-energy combination of catchy songs, rootsy fiddle, classic rock guitar and a Rod Stewart cover thrown in for good measure. 10 p.m. 1308 E. Fourth St. 320-0094. www.scoot-inn.com
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So how did the Beatles do at Waterloo Records last week?
Here are the Beatles albums from the Waterloo Top 50.
- Abbey Road
- Revolver
- White Album
- Rubber Soul
- Sgt. Pepper’s…
- Magical Mystery Tour
- Let It Be
- Past Masters
- Help
- For Sale
- A Hard Day’s Night
- With the Beatles
Please Please Me
Check out the full top 50 here.
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A mess of upcoming shows of note
Africa-based indie rockers Blk Jks rock Emo’s Oct. 12. Tickets on sale now.
Goodie Mob reunites! Check out Cee-Lo, Big Gipp, Khujo and T-Mo rock mics at Stubb’s with special guest Scarface Oct. 17. Tickets on sale now.
A Fine Frenzy and Landon Pigg play the Parish Oct. 20. Tickets on sale now thru http://c3presents.frontgatetickets.com
Wolfmother plays Stubb’s Oct. 30. Tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Sept. 18 via http://stubbs.frontgatetickets.com. Are there 2000 Wolfmother fans in Austin?
Widespread Panic plays a two-night Halloween gig Oct. 30 and Oct. 31 at Austin Music Hall. Tickets on sale now via http://austinmusichall.frontgatetickets.com, Front Gate Ticket Outlets, or call 389- 0315 to charge by phone.
Gypsy punk powerhouse Gogol Bordello hits Stubb’s Nov. 1 with Apostle of Hustle Tickets on sale now.
Hip-hop god and all around microphone fiend Rakim hits Emo’s outdoors Nov. 4. Tickets on sale 10 a.m. Sept. 19 via http://www.ticketweb.com
Regina Spektor, who turned in a killer set at ACL fest a few years back, plays Stubb’s Nov. 11. Tickets on sale now thru http://stubbs.frontgatetickets.com
The Swell Season plays the Paramount Theatre Nov. 15. Glenn Hansard, half of the duo, played the Paramount bakc on July 27 with Dripping Springs-based singer-songwriter Sam Beam, a.k.a Iron and Wine. Hansard’s set made a stone-cold believer out of me. I look forward to this show. Tickets on sale now via http://www.protix.com
Gothy holy-cow-they’re-still-around rockers AFI play Stubb’s with Gallows Nov. 22. Tickets on sale now via http://stubbs.frontgatetickets.com.
Outstanding metal act Baroness plays Emo’s Dec. 7 with Austinites Iron Age and Dark Castle. Tickets on sale now.
