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Tuesday, November 3, 2009
‘The Horn’ makes debut on Austin FM radio
After a few stutter steps and perhaps a fake reverse, sports talk in Austin made its debut on FM radio Monday.
Listeners were able to hear local sports talk, including popular morning host Erin Hogan, on the FM dial at 104.9. That station, which has previously featured Spanish language music, has been renamed “The Horn.”
“We’re trying to build on what the Longhorns are doing,” Hogan said.
The local sports talk programming will be simulcast for awhile on its previous station, 1530 AM.
That station will now be devoted to ESPN’s national programming. ESPN Deportes will remain on 1260 AM.
Hogan, who’s also programming director for the new station, said, “FM brings some cache. It sounds better to the ear with the stereo.”
He added that the biggest advantage would be reach, as signal strength at 1530 AM has always been an issue.
Although the move had been touted on air for several days, late last week managers at both 104.9 and 1530 weren’t sure that the deal was going to get done.
On Friday, Steve Wilder, general manager at 1530 ESPN, said, “All I can say is that there’s been a small conflict in the legal agreement to operate our stations together.”
FM 104.9 is one of four Austin radio stations owned by Border Media. This past summer Border Media, in a liquidity crisis, transferred its assets to Border Media Business Trust, with the plan to sell about 30 stations, including those in Austin, to pay off debts to investors. The media broker overseeing the trust is Larry Patrick, whose Patrick Communications is based in Maryland. Patrick could not be reached for comment.
On Friday, there was even talk that it would be ESPN’s national programming moving to the FM station, not the local content. Since January, ESPN has added about 30 FM stations to its national network.
Some of ESPN’s national programming, including Colin Cowherd’s show, will be heard on both Austin stations.
“This is a move for the long term,” Hogan said of the switch. “Everyone is excited.”
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Fun Fun Fun Fest preview: Alan Palomo
Both of Alan Palomo’s bands, Vega and Neon Indian, will perform Saturday during Fun Fun Fun Fest, with about three hours between sets. It’s a tall order for Palomo, 21, who doesn’t have much experience performing with either band, but he’s not overly concerned.
“It’s going to be like one extended set with a break in between,” he says. “I’m more curious than worried. We’re trying to brainstorm a little to make the sets seem as different as possible.”
Though casual listeners might not notice much difference between the groups, both of which rely fairly heavily on electronic effects, there are differences. Vega, which Palomo says is mostly named for the star (and not for Alan Vega of the band Suicide, although he is a fan), is the more danceable of the two, pulling from disco in service of a sound that might appeal to fans of Cut Copy and Passion Pit (he has remixed the Boston band).
Neon Indian, on the other hand, is a more psychedelic affair, which Palomo describes as an “audio documentary,” where fleeting samples of random sounds (car radios, background noise) underscore lyrics that describe moments from his teenage years.
Of the two, Neon Indian is getting more attention at the moment, with a well-reviewed debut full-length, “Psychic Chasms,” out now on Lefse. Palomo also caught a big break during the Austin City Limits Music Festival, when he filled in for Raveonettes after the band was unable to get out of Denmark, although it didn’t quite work out as well as he would have liked. “From what I read, everyone still thought we were the Raveonettes, which kind of sucks, but it was still pretty surreal and amazing to be up there and see such a large audience of people,” he says.
It’s all happened very quickly for the Mexican-born musician (his family moved to Texas when he was 6), who moved to Austin last year after deciding to take time off from film school at the University of North Texas in Denton, where he fronted a third band, Ghosthustler. Though his father, Jorge Palomo, is a musician who enjoyed a stint as a pop star in Mexico during the ’70s, Alan says that he didn’t become interested in making music until high school.
That is not to say that Palomo isn’t influenced by his father; he even sampled him on “Psychic Chasms.” Despite the fact their styles of music don’t have too much in common, the father and son have been able to find some common ground when it comes to the music business. “The more stories I tell him about being on the road the more parallels we seem to find between the experiences he’s had in music and the experiences I’m having in music,” Palomo says.
Vega plays at 3:35 p.m. on the Blue stage. Neon Indian follows three hours later at 6:35 p.m. on the Blue stage.
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Fun Fun Fun Fest preview: Jesus Lizard
It’s this simple: In the 1990s, the Jesus Lizard was one of the best live rock bands on the planet.
They might, in fact, have been the best. They started in 1989 and disbanded in 1999. Until 1997, when original drummer Mac McNeilly quit, they owned the decade. And were simply pretty dang good thereafter.
They reunited this year with their original lineup to play a series of shows, and the band’s Touch and Go studio albums were re-released with improved sound and bonus tracks in October.
Just go to YouTube and check out the evidence of former (and current) glories. There’s singer David Yow, a wee yet terrifying man, launching himself into the crowd or reeling around the stage, drunk and shirtless and screaming.
There’s David Sims, the “Four-String Napoleon” who’s Yow’s old pal from Austin psychedelic punk legend Scratch Acid, grinding away on bass, looking vaguely hacked off.
There’s guitarist Duane Denison, the lanky silver fox, his riffs half-rockabilly shimmer, half-noise rock crunch.
And then there’s McNeilly, the hammer of the gods, one of the hardest-swinging, thunder-slinging-est drummers American punk ever produced.
They were a perfect rock band. And if reports from their reunion shows are to be believed, they are again a perfect band.
Nobody thought this reunion — which continues at Fun Fun Fun Fest this weekend — would ever happen. “A number of people approached us over the years,” Sims says from his New York home. “Mike Patton asked us to do the (All Tomorrow Party) he was curating (in 2008), but by the time he asked us, it wasn’t logistically possible. They said how about next year and we decided to nail it down.”
Sims says the band convened at Denison’s house in Nashville in January to rehearse: “He had the biggest house and an incredibly patient wife and daughter.” While the split in ‘99 wasn’t hostile, it had been a long time since these four guys had been in a room together.
“That first show (at All Tomorrow’s Parties in May) was a very emotional experience,” Sims says, “especially for so many people who had worked with the band over the years. There were a few guys who I won’t name who were backstage crying.” The band jumped to major label Capitol Records in 1996 for the album “Shot,” which caused a certain amount of consternation among the indie faithful. Sims thinks these wounds have healed.
“I’m a little surprised at how much fans are into the ‘Shot’ songs that we play,” Sims says. “There was a lot of backlash about them at the time, but they seem to have been rehabilitated, like an old Soviet premier that used to be airbrushed out of a photo.”
He has little good to say about the indie versus major wars of the 1990s. “It all seemed a little bit arbitrary and contrived to me,” Sims says. “We were very lucky to be on a spectacularly great label (like Touch and Go) but there was no shortage of scumbags running indies back then. When people drew this bright shining line with all of the majors on the dark side, my B.S. detectors went off. It was always a lot more complicated.”
As for future Lizard plans, Sims remains good and vague. “We haven’t really looked beyond this series of shows, but we’re also never say never,” he says. “I’ve been really happy with how the shows have gone, there’s been no down side to it.
“I really, really love playing with those guys and hanging out with them. They are three of my all time favorite people.”
Doesn’t get better than that. Neither does the rock.
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CD review: Molina & Johnson, self-titled
Molina & Johnson
‘Molina & Johnson’
(Secretly Canadian)
B+
Fans of Centro-Matic frontman Will Johnson know that he’s a prolific musician, from the Centro-Matic sister project South San Gabriel to solo material and a seemingly endless string of collaborations and guest spots with the likes of My Morning Jacket’s Jim James (Johnson is currently touring as drummer for James’ Monsters of Folk Project, which plays Stubb’s on Nov. 13). Jason Molina, who first earned a loyal following in the ’90s with his Songs: Ohia project and later with Magnolia Electric Co., shares Johnson’s penchant for working with others (also including James, on a split EP in 2002).
It makes sense, then, that the two would eventually cross paths. Other musicians are on board as well, including Centro-Matic’s Matt Pence and Texas singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe. The result is an extremely sparse, well-crafted affair, but definitely not a point-of-entry for music fans curious about either artist’s work. Opener “Twenty Cycles to the Ground,” which was released as a single, is the most accessible track here, with Johnson taking the lead on vocals atop the mid-tempo shuffle of an acoustic guitar and some restrained percussion.
Molina, whose smooth folk-singer voice stands in stark contrast to Johnson’s rasp, takes the lead on a few of the songs as well, but one of the most charming moments comes when the two trade verses on “Almost Let You In.” The juxtaposition of voices adds a depth that the album could have used more of; along with “Twenty Cycles,” it also highlights the duo’s ability to get to the bottom of a well-rounded song without relying on too many frills.
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88.7 KAZI FM now broadcasting online
Now it’s possible to access KAZI online through their new Live365 station. The interface is a little clunky and it took me three tries to actually get on the stream because it was full (and I’m not a Live365 premium member), but it’s definitely a step forward for “The Voice of Austin.” Welcome to the Web, KAZI.
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Live Review: Kelly Clarkson at Cedar Park Center
I want to hear Kelly Clarkson cut some modern R&B with R. Kelly and Ne-Yo and Christopher “Tricky” Stewart.
I want to hear her make some more giant-sized pop with Swedish superproducer Max Martin (“Since U Been Gone”) and Katy Perry (“I Do Not Hook Up”).
I want to hear her do some blues-punk with the Dirtbombs or Jon Spencer. I want to hear a diva-off with Beth Ditto of the Gossip.
I want to hear her sing over beats by Timbaland, Kanye West and Dr. Dre. I want to hear her make 22nd century electronic music with LCD Soundsystem’s producer James Murphy; maybe she can sing that fake Yaz record Murphy’s always wanted to make. I want to hear her cover country songs by Willie Nelson and Sally Timms and Patty Griffin (Her take on Griffin’s “Up to the Mountain” is devastating). I want to hear her Sinatra album and her album with the Foo Fighters.
In short, I would like to hear her sing every single kind of song she possibly thinks she can sing. She should be knocking out world-beating singles every two months in every genre under the sun with the songwriters of her choosing. Her voice is a force of nature; hearing her uncork it is a pleasure and an honor.
But seeing her in a half full (yet fanatical) Cedar Park Center Monday night was a little depressing and speaks to the strange year she’s had. After her 2007 “I-want-to-write-my-own-stuff album “My December” (which, in spite of her case of the Alanis-es, nevertheless went platinum in a handful of countries), she returned to straight forward radio pop on “All I Ever Wanted,” which has yet to platinum anywhere. Where she goes next seems up for grabs.
Whatever happens, she can still sing, blasting out “I Do Not Hook Up” and “Impossible” and the thermonuclear “Since U Been Gone” with zero stage set and a crack eleven-piece band, including three horns, two back-up singers and a D.J.
Unlike most pop stars of her class, Clarkson really does seem like the gal next door who happened to sell 15 million albums. Her between-song banter never came off as canned (nobody would script talking about music-as-therapy that much; somewhere Clive Davis is fuming.)
Since she can’t do as much on CDs, she works in some nifty live covers, including a killer run at the Black Keys’ “Lies”(!) and an ingenious mash-up of Alanis Morissette’s “That I Would Be Good,” combined with Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody,” (!!) describing the latter as “one of those songs that you wish that you wrote.” She hit that massive, U2-ish chorus on “Use Somebody” and you could practically hear everyone get chills.
Her voice actually might be a bit too powerful for her acoustic version of “Walking After Midnight;” that song needs a pretty casual delivery; Clarkson sounded like she could barely reign her voice in.
I await her doing anything she dang well pleases.
