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Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Voting opens for the Austin Music Awards, ceremony changes dates
It’s that time of year again: voting opens today for the Austin Music Awards, the annual celebration of all things local music hosted by our friendly competitors at the Austin Chronicle. In 2009, Bob Schneider and Lonelyland nabbed band of the year honors, while Alejandro Escovedo walked away with musician of the year, and the Black and White Years scored best song with “Power to Change.” 2009’s been an eventful and impressive year for Austin music, so it will be interesting to see who the community rallies behind for 2010.
You have a couple of options for voting in the Austin Music Poll: either pick up a print copy of the Chronicle and mail your ballot in, or vote online here. Beware, would-be ballot stuffers: violators will be dealt with on a “case-by-case basis,” which may or may not involve a personal rebuke from Austin Music Awards director Margaret Moser.
At least one major change is on the docket for 2010 — the Austin Music Awards ceremony, generally held on the opening Wednesday night of the South by Southwest Music Festival, will instead be held on the night of Saturday, March 20, the final night of SXSW.
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The Sour Notes kick off tour with NYE show
Austin’s own the Sour Notes — four indie rockers with a Death Cab for Cutie-esque appreciation for earnest pop — will celebrate the release of third album “It’s Not Gonna Be Pretty” with an early New Year’s Eve show at the Ghost Room at 7 p.m. Thursday. The Weird Weeds, No Mas Bodas and Mermaid Blonde will open. The cover is $5.
The show also will kick off the band’s 2010 tour, a nine-date jaunt that will take them from beloved New York hipster hangout the Cake Shop to the equally glamorous environs of Carrboro, N.C.
The Sour Notes’ second release, this year’s “Received in Bitterness,” landed an honorable mention on our list of the top Austin albums of 2009. The band shows considerable growth on the catchy, heartfelt “It’s Not Gonna Be Pretty,” which you can listen to in its entirety on their MySpace. They’ll return to Austin for a Jan. 28 show at the Mohawk.
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Bastrop jazz musician receives $50,000 grant
Bastrop composer and jazz trumpeter Hannibal Lokumbe received an unrestricted $50,000 grant from the United States Artists, a grant-making artist-advocacy organization that awards 50 such grants every year. The organization launched in September 2005 with $22 million in seed funding.
Lokumbe traveled to Santa Monica, Calif., for the Dec. 14 awards ceremony. Lokumbe is a Grammy-nominated jazz musician whose career spans more than 40 years and includes recordings for Pharoah Sanders, Gil Evans, Otis Redding and T-Bone Burnett, as well as several compositions that have debuted at Carnegie Hall and elsewhere (read Statesman writer Patrick Beach’s story on Lokumbe here). Lokumbe relocated to Austin from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“The grant is unrestricted, so you can use it for whatever you wish,” Lokumbe told sister paper the Bastrop Advertiser. “This money will allow me to help a lot of people, especially in New Orleans. It will also help me to work on some new music and pay some bills.”
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Legendary Australian guitarist Rowland Howard dies
Rowland Howard, the Melbourne, Australia guitarist who rose to prominence as a member of the Nick Cave-fronted post-punk band the Birthday Party, died today from complications resulting from liver cancer, confirms the Herald Sun. He was 50 years old.
Howard was awaiting a liver transplant and had canceled several recent shows due to his illness. His last gig was at Melbourne club the Prince of Wales. He released a solo album, “Pop Crimes,” in October.
Howard was instrumental in defining the the Birthday Party’s abrasive sound and confrontational live shows, and wrote their signature hit “Shivers.” He went on to play in a series of bands, released two solo albums and also collaborated with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
