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Monday, January 4, 2010
Casual Victim Pile release show announced
If the blistering barrage of up-and-coming rock and roll that is Free Week isn’t enough to sate your appetite for catching awesome local bands on the cheap, WOXY, Matador Records and the Austinist have just the ticket for you.
Matador Records’ compilation of Austin acts “Casual Victim Pile” — an anagram of “Live Music Capital” that might actually sum up the local scene more adequately than the grand pronouncement it parodies — drops on vinyl and CD later this month. They’ll be celebrating its release with three nights featuring many of the comp’s performers at Beerland, which has quietly — okay, more like very loudly — become the epicenter of the garage and punk rock scene so lovingly captured by the exciting project.
The celebration goes down Feb. 4-6, with a five dollar cover for each night. Performers include Follow That Bird!, Dikes Of Holland, Kingdom Of Suicide Lovers, Distant Seconds, The Persimmons, Woven Bones, The Young, Wild America, Flesh Lights, Elvis, The No No No Hopes, Harlem, Golden Boys, Bad Sports, Love Collector, Stuffies and Lost Controls — everybody on the comp save for Tre Orsi, who will be out of town, and the Teeners, who sadly have broken up.
Check out the tentative line-up below the jump.
Thursday Feb. 4
Follow That Bird!
Dikes Of Holland
Kingdom Of Suicide Lovers
Distant Seconds
The Persimmons
Friday Feb. 5
Woven Bones
The Young
Wild America
Flesh Lights
Elvis
The No No No Hopes
Saturday Feb. 6
Harlem
Golden Boys
Bad Sports
Love Collector
Stuffies
Lost Controls
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More notes on Free Week
— The winner for oddest set on Saturday was easily Musclz, a single guy who stood on stage and let’s-call-it vocalized to electronic, vaguely Germanic/Miami techno beats. Several gals dressed in cardboard robot costumes danced not unlike robots in front of the stage. There weren’t that many people there for his set and I can’t be the only one who greeted him with a large “huh.” Check out his music.
— Nobody embodied the spirit of Free Week more than Alison Goodman, drummer for garage-punk acts Cruddy and Serious Tracers. She played a set with Cruddy at Red 7, then literally walked out the door and hoofed it to Emo’s, where she got on stage and played a set with Serious Tracers, who were already set up. (Not sure which drum kit she was borrowing.) Both sets were a blast, and it made me want to see a daisy chain band show, where each band has to contain at least one member of another band. Everyone would be very tired by the end of the night.
— Dikes of Holland, who played inside Red 7, need two well-recorded songs and the attention of an influential blog before they are bigger than proverbial curly fries. Which is to say if they lived in New York, they would probably be famous already. (Note to Dikes: Do not move to New York.)
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Free Week: cold air and hangovers
David Weaver FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
- A-List photos: Free Week 2010, night 2
With New Year’s Eve and its accompanying hangover behind them, Austin’s budget-conscious scenesters rallied on Saturday night, as crowds, venues and lineups all filled out. Music fans weighed cost savings and bitter chill and decided claiming the former was worth toughing through the latter as Riverboat Gamblers spinoff Ghost Knife — so new they don’t even yet have a MySpace — packed the inside room at Emo’s.
Just as impressive was an earlier set from Big Black-meets-Sonic Youth post-punk rockers Manikin, with guitarist Alfonso Rabago’s echo-loaded vocals jumpstarting a crowd already high on the gregarious garage of Serious Tracers. Outside, the spirited sludge rock of Woven Bones rang out over a sizable crowd. Even more popped in to catch certifiable buzz act and recent Matador Records signees Harlem — three guys who never fail to look giddy even at the most unfriendly hours and temperatures of the night.
Further down Red River, Stubb’s and Beerland joined the fray, with the former boasting an electric set from Black Bone Child and the latter hosting endlessly dependable rockabilly circus the Flametrick Subs. At the Mohawk, a substantial crowd crammed into the inside room to catch In Dudero, the Nirvana tribute act with members of the Sword and Those Peabodys — proof positive that, for all of Free Week’s great original acts, sometimes you just want to chug a beer and hear “Rape Me.”
Whether it was the biting cold or just the natural fallout of a hectic holiday weekend, crowds thinned out Sunday night. But those daring enough to stick around were clearly in it to win it — take, for instance, the swirling crowds at Emo’s inside during country rockers Crooks. It’s not often you see copious two-stepping on the floor of Emo’s, but the country western dance was an appropriate indulgence for a band with such a fetching honky tonk sound that you can practically hear the pedal steel — even though there isn’t one. It was something of a country-influenced night at the inside room of Emo’s, with a charming set from Frank Smith (note: the band doesn’t actually contain anyone named Frank Smith) and even a few tunes on the more acoustic, old-fashioned tip from What Made Milwaukee Famous front man Michael Kingcaid, who played a stripped-down show of solo material.
Outside, indie pop maestros Quiet Company put on their Sunday best for an appropriately joyous set containing a furious cover of the Pixies’ “Monkey Gone To Heaven.” Front man Taylor Muse praised the crowd’s persistence — “Some of us musicians have to get up at 6 a.m. for work, too” — and rewarded their loyalty with a closing rendition of the band’s crescendo-laden “On Modern Men” that pulled friends and acquaintances on-stage for a soaring sing-along. The perpetually underrated Corto Maltese fared just as well, toggling between Rush-esque guitar heroics and intellectual rock in the Radiohead style. Proggy electropoppers Many Birthdays — who, to go by their apparent youth, haven’t celebrated all that many birthdays — played the first of what will be a couple of Free Week shows with aplomb. Over at the Beauty Bar, One Hundred Flowers provided quiet, acoustic experimental pop perfectly suited for a more buttoned-down evening of relaxation and cocktails. Even on a quiet Sunday evening distinguished by its harsh chill, Red River looked surprisingly popping — and you were guaranteed to overhear substantially more conversations about Pitchfork than you would on most Sunday nights. Truly, the party has begun. Three nights down, seven to go.
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Asleep at the Wheel has big plans for 40th
Ray Benson’ Asleep at the Wheel will be celebrating its 40th anniversary with a three night stand at the Long Center Sept. 17- 19. Benson says he’s still working out the program, but that one night will be a staging of “A Ride With Bob,” the Bob Wills musical bio he co-wrote with screenwriter Anne Rapp.
“A Ride With Bob” comes to Kerrville Jan. 15- 17 at the Cailoux Theater. Call 830-895-9393 for more info.
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Review: Chuck Prophet at the Continental Club
Chuck Prophet likes to wax sarcastic in between songs. His first wisecrack during a monster Saturday set at the Continental Club — the second of back-to-back nights — was a riff on virtual reality.
“Go home tonight and check your Friendster page,” Prophet said. (Don’t you mean Facebook?) “How many friends do you need? How many people would actually pick you up at the airport? Now, get rid of the rest.”
Then the San Francisco slacker and his four-piece band, including wife Steffie Finch on keyboards and backing vocals, laid into a cover of Alejandro Escovedo’s “Always A Friend,” which Prophet co-wrote, along with the majority of Escovedo’s triumphant “Real Animal” album.
Prophet is perhaps better known for his collaborations with other musicians, including Austin’s Kelly Willis, than he is for the nine solo albums he’s put out. But “Soap and Water,” from 2007, yielded an appearance on David Letterman, and this year’s “Let Freedom Ring,” a 25th anniversary update of the American Dream proffered by Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.,” has garnered critical acclaim.
Prophet played heavy doses of both albums Saturday, in a dynamite display of workmanlike rock. Prophet stabbed his trusty Fender Squier like a hoodlum in a knifefight, as he grunted and winced through his character-driven songs, vacillating between a traditional mic and one that made his voice sound like it was amplified through a blowhorn.
“Steve, who I guess is head of security here,” Prophet said, presumably referring to Continental owner Steve Wertheimer, “says there’s been a lot of bootlegging lately. I’d only ask, because this is how we make our living,” Prophet continued, feigning seriousness, “that you film this one. Because no one likes new songs.”
That disclaimer about identity theft was followed by “Hot Talk,” a song about a shady impersonator, with Dire Straits undertones. Meanwhile, “Doubter Out of Jesus (All Over You),” about a treacherous vamp, conveyed double-meaning when Finch repeatedly sang the outro at Prophet, “You could make a doubter out of Jesus.”
But for my money I’ll take the opener, “Sonny Liston’s Blues,” wherein Prophet echoed the words of the boxer in the lead up to his memorable bout with Muhammad Ali. Prophet sang them as if to dupe you into thinking he wasn’t the smart aleck he seemed: “I’m a man of few words, baby/ I think by now you’ve heard ‘em all.”
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