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Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Backstage at the Rod Kennedy 80th birthday tribute
(Pictured: Terri Hendrix, Randy Rogers and Jimmy LaFave.)Terri Hendrix said she was tempted to talk trash onstage at the Paramount Theatre Tuesday night about the University of Texas’ decision to phase out the iconic Cactus Cafe, “but this was Rod’s night, so I kept it all about him,” she said.
Indeed, onstage it was a night of magical music, performed lovingly for Rod Kennedy, the man who created the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1972, but had done so much for the Austin music scene before that. The format was that of two guitar pulls, with such artists as Ruthie Foster, Ray Benson, Robert Earl Keen, Marcia Ball, the Flatlanders, taking turns telling stories and singing songs.
(Pictured: Ruthie Foster, right, accompanied by Cyd Cssone)But backstage, several artists railed on about how outraged they were on hearing that the best listening room in Austin was slated to close in August after a meeting Friday on the Texas Union board that had a majority of student members. “The Cactus isn’t just a bar and a stage,” said Joe Ely, who recorded a live album at the 150-seat club in 2007. “There’s a psychological connection to that place. To think that six people in a back room can decide it’s fate is just crazy.”
Motioning towards the stage, Ely continued, “Everyone who’s playing here tonight has gotten up in the morning and tried to write a song as good as the ones they heard at the Cactus the night before.” He recalled the first time hearing Townes Van Zandt play “Pancho and Lefty” at the Cactus and how that opened him up to the possibilities of saying so much with so few words.
“There’s something going on behind the scenes that we’re not hearing about,” said Jimmy LaFave. That was a sentiment repeated by others.
“It can’t be about the money,” Ely said. “Because we could’ve raised it if anyone had said anything about it. We could’ve raised it in one night with a benefit concert.” UT officials have said that the Cactus Cafe had to be subsidized by about $66,000 last year.
Robert Earl Keen was nostalgic about “the quietest room I’ve ever played in” and recalled the night Van Zandt fell asleep onstage. “The audience just sat there, not making a sound, until Townes woke up.”
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Powers defends decision to close the Cactus Cafe at town hall meeting
(Pictured: Guy Forsyth. Laura Skelding AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
- Photos: UT town hall meeting
Those hoping for a resolution to the ongoing struggle over the Cactus Cafe at Tuesday night’s town hall meeting went home empty-handed, as University of Texas President William Powers Jr. defended the decision by the Texas Union Board, announced last Friday evening, to shutter the longstanding venue in response to cuts to the state-funded portion of UT’s two-year budget. Of the $122,000 saved by cutting the Informal Classes and the Cactus Cafe, executive director of University unions Andy Smith Jr. said that the Cactus’ share was $66,000.
Powers expressed understanding for the board’s decision, noting their desire to both save money and reconfigure the Cactus Cafe into “something more responsive to the needs of students,” and declined to take any decisive action on the issue, leaving those opposed to the closure to engage with the Texas Union Board.
“The Texas Union is an entity that is supported by student funds and they need to have a great say in how this is used,” Powers said at the meeting. “My general sense is to support the structure that made that decision.”
That explanation seemed inadequate to the initially standing-room-only crowd — which dwindled as the meeting wore on, with Powers electing to extend the session to 6:15 p.m., to accommodate the long line of speakers. Of the many speakers choosing to address Powers, most focused on the closure of the Cactus Cafe, including opening speaker Elliott Naishtat, the Texas House of Representatives member representing District 49 — which includes the UT campus.
“I would say we’ve been inundated with calls and e-mails about this. Austin, the state and the University have always enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. Each would be less of what they are without each other,” said Naishtat. “How can we help. What can we do to save these iconic programs?”
Many speakers took a similarly constructive line, suggesting ways to bolster the Cactus Cafe’s finances and offering to raise the money necessary to make the listening room viable.
“We’d like to extend a collective hand to you,” said Reid Nelson, attorney, political consultant and admin for the 15,000-strong “Save the Cactus Cafe (Austin, Texas)” Facebook group. “If this is a matter of money, we can raise the money to save the Cactus Cafe.”
Local musicians turned out in support of the venue, including Guy Forsyth, and several students expressed displeasure at the decision. Graduate student Hayley Gillespie passed out fliers containing the contact information of the University of Texas Board of Regents, as well as the members of the Texas Union Board. Gillespie was one of several students expressing frustration at feeling shut out of the decision-making process that led to the Cactus decision.
“The student body had no idea that the Texas Union Board was meeting or that this would be on the agenda,” said Gillespie. “We had absolutely no warning that this type of decision was even going to take place.”
While expressing sympathy for detractors’ arguments — and acknowledging the Cactus Cafe’s cultural contributions — Powers frequently reiterated his support of the board’s decision and referred to to the Texas Exes’ offer to move the venue as one possible step forward. Powers also regularly expressed a desire to make budgetary cuts in a manner that kept UT focused on its core missions of learning and research.
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Texas Exes miss the point?
The Texas Exes alumni group has apparently met with University of Texas president Bill Powers to offer to move the Cactus Cafe to the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center on the UT campus.
Here’s a link to the story on the Texas Exes Web site.
Many might say this is a bad idea because the worst thing about the Cactus is that it’s on campus and because of that there’s no parking for fans. The best thing about the Cactus is that the room is perfect for intimate, acoustic shows. Plus there’s all that history.
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CD review: “As He Wanders…” by Texas Sapphires
Texas Sapphires
“As He Wanders…” (Ike Records)
Grade: B+
I hate it when younger artists sing songs about the sad current state of country music. Shurman almost ruined a good album by including the whiney, hokey “Country Ain’t Country Anymore.”
The best commentary is to make a pure country album like this sophomore release from Billy Brent Malkus and Rebecca Cannon, known together as the Texas Sapphires. With fiddle, banjo, pedal steel guitar and mandolin on just about every track, this record imagines a time when the most famous Garth is the sidekick on “Wayne’s World.” Even when they rock, as on “Farmer’s Tan,” they can’t shake the hillbilly shawl.
Opening with Arty Hill’s “Nashville Moon,” the Sapphires establish the honky tonk feel right out of the chute. The rest of the tunes are written by Malkus (who shows a great sense of humor on “How Did I Get So Sloppy Drunk When I Was Drinkin’ Neat?”), with the exception of Cannon’s stirring “Teardrops or Rain.” As a balladeer, Cannon (a former punk rocker in Sincola) is not a belter, but has a quality in her voice that makes it seem as if she’s feeling the words. Overdubbing her vocals on “Make Him Make Me,” one of Malkus’ best songs, is a nice touch.
Malkus is more limited vocally, but he can drive a guitar all around. And Cannon’s soft harmonies are always there when needed.
There’s no threat of the Texas Sapphires breaking out on country radio. There’s just a hint of a bar band scent to this record that terrifies programmers. But no one can say- or write a song- about this band being not country.
The Texas Sapphires play a Waterloo instore tomorrow and headline the Continental Club Thursday.
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The Dead Weather return to Austin in April
Alternative rock supergroup the Dead Weather — composed of the Kills’ Alison Mosshart, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age, the Raconteurs’ Jack Lawrence and an otherwise obscure musician by the name of Jack White — will pay a return visit to Austin on April 30, when they rock the outside stage at Stubb’s.
White announced in a telephone interview with Australian radio station Triple J that the band will be releasing a new album, the follow-up to last year’s debut LP “Horehound,” in April.
Tickets, $28, are on sale Friday, Feb. 5.
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SXSW announces 55 more bands for 2010
(Pictured !!! Photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
The South by Southwest Music Festival announced another round of showcasing artists for 2010 via press release this morning, including a healthy collection of mid-level names that might be more familiar to music fans than those released in previous updates.
Highlights include 2009 Austin City Limits performers !!! (pronounced “chick chick chick”), British alternative rockers Band of Skulls, New York indie rock band Cymbals Eat Guitars, Evan Dando, buzzed rock band the Soft Pack (formerly the Muslims), Fun Fun Fun Fest performers and astonishing live act Les Savy Fav and soul revivalists Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.
That said, many names on this list might be familiar to you — SXSW has announced several of them in one-off announcements on the music page, including Spoon, (Expletive) Up and the XX. Others, like She and Him (the collaboration between M. Ward and singer/songwriter/actress Zooey Deschanel) and the Texas Tornados, have been announced independently of SXSW, while others, like Broken Social Scene, have been rumored.
Check out the full list below the jump.
!!! (Brooklyn, NY)
Amaral (Madrid, SPAIN)
Anita Tijoux (Santiago, CHILE)
Apoptygma Berzerk (Oslo, NORWAY)
Athlete (London, ENGLAND)
Bajofondo (Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA)
Balkan Beat Box (Tel Aviv, ISRAEL)
Band of Skulls (London, ENGLAND)
Bear In Heaven (Brooklyn, NY)
Black Milk (Detroit, MI)
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (Los Angeles, CA)
Bomba Estereo (Bogota, Colombia)
Broken Social Scene (Toronto, CANADA)
Chalie Boy (Hearne, TX)
Chamillionaire & Paul Wall (Houston, TX)
Cymbals Eat Guitars (New York, NY)
Deer Tick (Providence, RI)
Evan Dando (New York, NY)
Frightened Rabbit (Selkirk, SCOTLAND)
(Expletive) Up (Toronto, CANADA)
Grant Hart (St. Paul, MN)
Hauschka (Dusseldorf, GERMANY)
Here We Go Magic (Brooklyn, NY)
Hudson Mohawke (Glasgow, SCOTLAND)
Invincible (Detroit, MI)
jj (Gothenburg, SWEDEN)
Killer Mike (Atlanta, GA)
LA Riots (Los Angeles, CA)
Les Savy Fav (Brooklyn, NY)
Maldita Vecindad (Mexico City, MEXICO)
Marina & The Diamonds (London, ENGLAND)
Mayer Hawthorne & The County (Ann Arbor, MI)
Midlake (Denton, TX)
Miike Snow (Stockholm, SWEDEN)
Mr Hudson (London, ENGLAND)
Mundo Livre SA (Recife, BRAZIL)
Murs (Los Angeles, CA)
Natalia Lafourcade (Mexico City, MEXICO)
Pretty Lights (Charlottesville, VA)
Rye Rye (Baltimore, MD)
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings (Brooklyn, NY)
She & Him (Los Angeles, CA)
Shwayze (Malibu, CA)
Spoon (Austin, TX)
Steve Aoki (Los Angeles, CA)
Systema Solar (Taganga, COLOMBIA)
Texas Tornados (San Antonio, TX)
The Drums (Brooklyn, NY)
The Middle East (Townsville, AUSTRALIA)
The Soft Pack (San Diego, CA)
The Very Best (New York, NY)
The xx (London, ENGLAND)
Trae (Houston, TX)
VV Brown (London, ENGLAND)
Wolfgang Gartner (Austin, TX)
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Cactus Cafe manager Griff Luneburg issues statement
Cactus Cafe manager Griff Luneberg has remained mum since plans to close the listening room were announced, but broke that silence this morning with the following statement:
“As a loyal Texas Union Employee for the last 29 years, beginning as a UT student, I am disheartened to hear the recent news to phase out the Cactus Cafe. However, the Cactus staff and I remain committed to keeping the Cafe humming by day, while putting on the shows we have become known for by night, until the last song is sung.
Griff Luneburg
Cactus Cafe Manager”
Luneberg has, for the time being, declined further comment. UT is holding a town hall meeting to discuss budgetary issues at 4 p.m. today. Expect the Cactus Cafe to be a major subject of discussion.
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Cactus supporters turn out for Austin Music Commission meeting
Supporters of the Cactus Cafe turned out at Monday night’s monthly meeting of the Austin Music Commission, which advises the city on music development and kicks off its meetings with an open forum for citizens to discuss Austin music issues. Supporters included “Save the Cactus Cafe” administrator Reid Nelson, official 2010 Texas State Musician and regular Cactus performer Sara Hickman and her 13-year-old daughter Lily, who has also played the famous stage.
“What’s really special about the Cactus is the relationship between the artist and the audience. It helps us to develop that rapport,” said Sara Hickman. “It’s a place to listen, it’s a place to love, and I’ve seen people break down and cry there.”
“If Austin is the Live Music Capital of the World, then why take away the little things that give it that title?” asked Lily Hickman, addressing the commission after her mother. “If you take away the Cactus, you break so many hearts.”
The Cactus Cafe supporters found a sympathetic ear with the music commission’s seven members. Member Marcia Zwilling referred to Cactus Cafe manager Griff Luneberg as “iconic,” while member and live music task force chair Paul Oveisi expressed confidence that saving the renowned listening room was possible.
Attorney and political consultant Reid Nelson — administrator of the now 13,000-strong Facebook group and one of the leaders of the burgeoning movement — compared the Cactus Cafe’s importance to the Austin community to that of Barton Springs. He also expressed a desire to see the numbers behind the University of Texas’ decision broken down further.
Just as impassioned was paint salesman and photojournalist Jeff Newman, who said he doesn’t generally attend music commission meetings but felt the need to speak up in defense of the venue.
“If the Cactus Cafe was a car it would be a one-of-a-kind custom-made classic Cadillac in near-mint condition,” said Newman, reading from a letter he wrote to UT President William Powers Jr. “When a car like that breaks down do you leave it by the side of the road or do you repair it? Any one with a lick of sense repairs it.”
