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Monday, September 21, 2009
Flatlanders make Opry debut
The Flatlanders - Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock — debuted at the Grand Ole Opry Friday. Gilmore noted that The Opry was his father’s favorite show. “I almost cried when it struck me that I was playing there,” he said, according to publicist Lance Cowan. “So I just had to start singing.”
The group hung backstage with some old friends, including John Anderson, Vince Gill, John Conlee, Suzy Boggus and, of course, Little Jimmy Dickens.
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WOXY.com + Broken Social Scene + Seaholm Power Plant = ACL afterparty
The folks at WOXY.com, the formerly Ohio-based internet radio station now sharing digs with ME-TV, will host Canadian indie rockers Broken Social Scene at the Seaholm Power Plant 10 p.m. Oct. 2. It is co-sponsored by Rare Magazine.
Three hundred people will be let into the plant for the show, which recalls Big Black’s final performance at the Georgetown Steamplant in Seattle. (Something tells me this one will be less noisy.)
Details on tickets, which will likely involve ticket giveaways and an RSVP list, according to a representative from WOXY, will be released later in the week.
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Psych Freakout honors Sky Saxon
Golden Dawn, the Strange Attractors, Shapes Have Fangs and more are playing Bleu French Laundry’s Psych Freakout Sunday at the Mohawk.Seattle’s DJ Scorpio “serves as technicolour bookends with his latest psych rock acquisitions,” according to BFL’s press release. The show’s being dedicated to psych pioneer Sky Saxon of the Seeds, who passed away in June.
Portion of proceeds will go to Sabrina Saxon, Sky Saxon’s widow.
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CD review: Geoff Muldaur and the Texas Sheiks
Geoff Muldaur and the Texas Sheiks
‘Texas Sheiks’
(Tradition and Moderne)
Grade: A
Apart from being a virtuosic and engaging survey of roots/oldtime/string band music featuring an assortment of musical heavyweights from the Austin and Woodstock acoustic music scenes, this album marks the next-to-last recordings of Austin guitarist Stephen Bruton.
Bruton died in May after a long, brave battle with cancer, mourned and celebrated by his fans, friends and musical peers. But before that untimely passing, a compadre named Roger Kasle put together a pair of recording sessions here in town. The idea was to give Bruton some respite from the pain and indignities of aggressive cancer treatment.
As therapy, the inspiration was ironclad: Bruton never seemed quite fully formed unless he was holding a guitar or a mandolin. And it works as music: Under the stewardship of acoustic music maestro Geoff Muldaur and co-producer Bruce Hughes (Bruton’s partner-in-crime in the Resentments), the Texas Sheiks offer a heartfelt survey of 1920s- and ’30s-era string band music, blues, jazz, swing and pop.
Borrowing from the songbooks of Robert Johnson, W.C. Handy, Big Bill Broonzy, Skip James, Bob Wills and lesser-known luminaries such as the Mississippi Sheiks and Buddy Woods and the Wampus Cats, the Texas Sheiks breathe fresh life into old-time music that lives at the crossroads of race, culture, era and spirit, in the heart of what author Greil Marcus called “the old, weird America.”
Besides Bruton (who plays but does not sing on the album), Hughes and Muldaur, the cast is rounded out by steel player Cindy Cashdollar, fiddler Suzy Thompson and boogie-woogie keyboardist Johnny Nicholas, along with a guest turn by jug band patriarch Jim Kweskin.
Nicholas turns in an eerie, doom-fraught falsetto vocal on “Hard Time Killin’ Floor.” By contrast, the jumping, all-hands-on-deck jam session spirit of “Don’t Sell It (Don’t Give It Away)” hints at how much fun the sessions must have been. The hallucinogenic, light-hearted imagery of “Under the Chicken Tree” and “Blues In the Bottle,” the loping, bluesy cover of “Fan It” and the sunny country string band groove of “Sweet To Mama” all breathe life into material that might seem otherwise consigned to sheet music and antique Victrolas.
At the end of the day, a warm and loving cover of W.C. Handy’s “Yellow Dog Blues” provides the sort of bittersweet send-off we associate with New Orleans jazz funerals.
As for Stephen Bruton, let Robert Johnson (in the voice of Johnny Nicholas) in “Travelin’ Riverside Blues” have the last word. Johnson wrote of a woman, “She got a mortgage on my body/And a lien on my soul … ” That was precisely the passionate relationship between Bruton and his muse, a relationship the Texas Sheiks do their best to honor.
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ACL Fest Sound and Jury contest names 5 finalists
The bands competing for a slot on the festival bill in ACL’s virtual band battle hosted by Dell Lounge have been whittled down to five finalists. The home team makes a strong showing with Austinites represented in four of the five acts. The bands are:
- Andrew Tinker — Denton, TX
- The Bright Light Social Hour — Austin, TX
- The Bubbles — Austin, TX
- Mobley — Austin, TX
- OK Sweetheart (Erin Austin) — New York, San Francisco, Austin
The finalists will face off in a live showdown at Antone’s on Wednesday, September 30 at 8 p.m. The winner will play ACL Fest at 11:45 a.m. on Friday, October 2.
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Hey, Mr. DJ, massive vinyl sale at MusicMania.
All vinyl albums now $1 and seven-inch singles now 25 cents.
The store is located at 3909 N I-35, a.k.a. the mall with the Fiesta Market.
Since this is a town that loves records so much, consider this a public service announcement.
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Austin City Limits preview: Locals L.A.X. deliver an early show of electropop
Ricardo B. Brazziell AMERICAN-STATESMAN
A cursory glance at Andrew Collins, all flowing locks, bristly mustache and prominently displayed chest piece tattoo, would offer little indication that he fronts one of Austin’s most winning dance acts. The grungy appearance would sooner suggest Collins, 25, spends his nights screaming in a metal band — which he has, with hardcore outfit At All Cost, which plays its final two shows in December.
But it’s L.A.X., which singer and keyboardist Collins formed as a side project in 2005 alongside vocalist Erin Jantzen, 26, that occupies his musical energies these days. The house, R&B and pop-blending group, born as a duo and grown into a sextet, started captivating Austin in a series of house parties but graduates to the big leagues with the 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival, which will be their first proper festival performance.
“I think the band right now is actually in a really good place to start playing festivals. There’s more members than there used to be, there’s a lot more going on. Sometimes the stages are a little bit too small at the clubs we play right now,” Collins says. “It’s going to be really awesome to get out on something big and have a really good sound.”
Collins, long an aficionado of pop music and electronica — he today cites Daft Punk as a major influence — started L.A.X. to indulge all the inspirations he wasn’t incorporating into At All Cost. He sought out Jantzen, who had sung background vocals for the metal band and whose musical experience was largely limited to family karaoke sessions. They played a succession of house parties and small shows whenever both were in Austin, with little but a drum machine between them.
“I had never been in a band or even thought about being in a band so for me it was fun. He’d be gone a lot of the time, and when he came back we’d play a crazy party and get drunk and have fun and make people want to dance,” Jantzen says. “Truthfully, Andrew and I were I think less motivated with less people. But now that we’ve got everybody playing together, it’s just completely taken over.”
The duo started with a quickly recorded four-song demo in 2005, which was followed by the 10-track ‘L’ EP in 2007 (two planned follow-ups will, of course, by titled ‘A’ and ‘X’). The band added another four members — singer and writer Yadira Brown, drummer Jon Oswald, guitarist Rory Phillips and bassist Chris D’Annunzio. The completed lineup played unofficial parties during the South By Southwest Music Festival.
And while L.A.X. — with Jantzen’s and Brown’s smoothly seductive vocals, a driving pop sensibility and levels of auto-tune that could compete with ‘808s & Heartbreak’-era Kanye West — might seem like a curious development from a metal fan, Collins says it’s simply a reflection of the hook-filled music he’s always loved.
“I listen to more pop and electronic music than I ever did with metal. A good melody and a hook is just something I love. Like, in a Mariah Carey song, there’s always a hook that just sticks with you. And that’s something I try to put into every song,” Collins says. “I think of something in my head, and if I can remember it at the end of the day that means it’s a winner.”
L.A.X. plays from 11:20 a.m. to noon Sun. Oct. 4 on the Austin Ventures stage.
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Daughtry to play the Theatre at the Erwin Center Dec. 13
Former “American Idol” finalist Chris Daughtry and his band, Daughtry, will be stopping at the Erwin Center on Dec. 13 in support of their chart-topping new release, “Leave This Town.” Tickets go on sale this Saturday, Sept. 26 at 10 a.m.
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Live Review: Motorhead at Stubb’s
The cartoonist Evan Dorkin once drew a strip based on the following premise: “What if Ramones’ songs were on ‘Name That Tune’?” It highlighted, of course, the incredible difficulty of naming that tune when all the songs sound alike: “I can name that tune in 64 notes,” “I can do it in 56!” “Name that tune!” (“Shoot…”) There’s something similar at work with Motorhead, who invented a formula with their inception in 1975, perfected in 1980 (“Ace of Spades”) and have barely looked to the right or the left. Galloping drums, usually playing the same beat song to song? Check. Nastily distorted guitar that owes exactly the same amounts to punk, metal, psychedelia and early rock ‘n’ roll? Check. Lemmy? Check.
Lemmy Kilmister is, of course, Motorhead’s leader, bassist, songwriter, singer and sole constant. At 63, he really is, no kidding, a living, breathing rock legend, the sort of guy who can get away with skin-tight jeans, black and white, shin-covering motorcycle boots and black cowboy hat at 63. (See also his autobiography “White Line Fever”for the full story.)
What’s fascinating is that, at 63, Lemmy and Motorhead seem far more popular now than they were when Lemmy was, say, 50. As one long-time Austin musician noted at the band’s packed Sunday show at Stubb’s, “I remember not too long ago when Motorhead would play (the defunct club) the Backroom and not sell it out. Why are they so popular now?”
It’s a good question. It’s not like their 21st century CDs sell that well or they had a breakout single. (They’re largely interchangeable, with one or two stellar variations on the formula per album. but 2004’s “Inferno” is particularly strong.)
But a massive percentage of Western music from all era is available via the Internet for free if you look hard enough, whether it’s on blogs or peer-to-peer services.
But 15 years ago, there was plenty of loud and/or semi-heavy indie rock around (Fugazi, Karp, Unwound, Nirvana, etc.). Now there isn’t (Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, Grand Archives, etc. ). More non-metal looking folks are at metal shows than every before.
Also, Motorhead are a fantastic rock band.
The drum chair was filled in by former Cult/Guns ‘n’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum, who performed pretty much perfectly. As with most Motorhead shows, classic tracks ruled the day (“Stay Clean,” “Ace of Spades,” “Killed By Death”) with a few new ones here and there (“Rock Out”) that didn’t sound all that different from the old stuff.
The only real deviations from the loud-fast-rules forumla were two songs (“I Got Mine” and the title track) from the controversial 1983 album “Another Perfect Day,” which featured ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson, whose more melodic style proved a weird fit with Motorhead’ s rolling-tank sound. They have aged really well.
There was also the acoustic tune “Whorehouse Blues,” in which Lemmy reminded everyone that he’s just like every other British rocker of his generation: He’d rather be a bluesman.
Dallas-native the Rev. Horton Heat opened; his juiced-up punkabilly was, in spots, not too far from Motorhead’s thunder, veering between punk-speed guitar flameouts (the 1990 breakout “Psychobilly Freakout!” and more (high speed) country-ish tunes with a nerd-novelty bent (“Please Don’t Take the Baby to the Liquor Store,” “Ain’t No Saguaro in Texas.”)
Nashville P (no, we can’t print their name on the blog) opened the show with a Southern-rock take on the Motorhead sound ‘n’ fury. Yes, Lemmy invented a formula and stuck to it. But man, is it a good one.
