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April 2010
No movement on Cactus Cafe at University Unions board meeting
Cactus Cafe supporters who filed into the Board of Directors Room of the Texas Union today hoping for discussion or resolution on the fate of the listening room and bar will have to wait.
With Vice President for Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez absent because of a death in the family, today’s meeting of the University Unions board — the last of this academic year — steered clear of discussion pertinent to the Cactus Cafe, aside from a brief statement from Gonzalez read by Associate Vice President and dean of students Soncia Reagins-Lilly. In the letter, Gonzalez reiterated the two options currently on the table for the future of the Cactus Cafe — a self-operated model or a model in which some programming duties would be handed over to KUT.
“These are two good options. The question is, which option can best deliver on the criteria noted above and at the same time has the best probability for success,” wrote Gonzalez.
Gonzalez is accepting feedback through May 7, with plans to make a final decision “promptly thereafter.” The union board acts in an advisory capacity.
Though the meeting was open to the public, limited space ensured not everyone in line got in, and no time was available during the meeting for public comment. Gonzalez’s full statement is available here.
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Rain or Shine for ‘Squeeze’ party tomorrow
It’s expected to rain tomorrow morning, but “the Big Squeeze” statewide accordion contest is still on for 2 pm- 6 pm on the Lone Star Plaza in front of the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum.
Los Texmaniacs, Joel Guzman and other top names of conjunto music will also perform at the free concert, which kicks off Latino Music Month in Austin. The Bullock Museum’s exhibit “American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music” will also be free tomorrow. Here’s more info.
The winner of the fourth annual ‘Big Squeeze Contest’ will receive a prize package valued at $3,000 and perform live in Houston on June 5 as part of the 21st annual Accordion Kings & Queens Festival. Contestants are Peter Anzaldua, 13, from Brownsville; Gloria Jean Cantu, 17, from San Benito; Keyun Dickson, 18, from Houston; Roger Guerra, 17, from Mission; Ignacio Isai Morales, 14, from Dallas; Ruben Paul Moreno, 20, from Houston; Christina Valdez, 11, from San Benito; and Jesus E. Zamora, 19, from San Antonio.
Fans are encouraged to bring folding chairs. And maybe umbrellas.
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Apple shuts down Lala streaming music service
Lala, the online streaming music service which allows its users to upload and share their own music, listen to one-time streams of songs and purchase mp3s, is shutting down on May 31, according to an announcement on its Website. The move comes only a few months after the service was purchased by Apple, prompting speculation that Apple is preparing to launch some type of online iTunes service, perhaps to compete with the coming U.S. launch of Spotify.
Users with a balance on their Lala account have until the end of May to purchase music, after which Apple will issue refunds in the form of iTunes credit. The loss of Lala is big for the world of music, as some popular music sites use the service to stream new releases.
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CD review: The Tallest Man on Earth ‘The Wild Hunt’
The Tallest Man on Earth
‘The Wild Hunt’
(Dead Oceans)
Grade: A
“There is a crow moon coming in where you keep looking out,” Kristian Matsson, aka The Tallest Man on Earth, sings to begin his latest release, “The Wild Hunt.” With the nasally rasp of his voice, and the folky, literary bent of his lyrics, Matsson has drawn comparisons to the early work of a certain famous American songsmith from Minnesota.
When it comes to both content and style, the similarities are strong. The album is mostly Matsson and his guitar, and the songs generally fall into the realm of folk-infused blues, but there is something about the music that pushes him beyond categorization as a knockoff. The fact that it’s hard to say exactly what that is that distinguishes the music is part of its charm. Perhaps it is the way in which Matsson subtly plays with rhythm—a pause or a quick little staccato run in conversation with his guitar—that helps define his character. He is his own showman, and on tracks like centerpiece “King of Spain,” he sings with an intensity that feels at times as if he’s addressing each of his listeners personally.
He’s also a bit of an impressionist, weaving together abstract lyrics to paint a vivid picture. On “Love is All,” for example, he tells the story of a soured romance, singing “now spikes will keep on falling from the heavens to the floor/the future was our skin and now we don’t dream anymore.” Like Bon Iver, the Tallest Man on Earth doesn’t necessarily need his lyrics to make too much sense, as they are only one part of the equation.
The Tallest Man on Earth plays Sunday at 10 p.m. at Stubb’s BBQ (inside). Tickets $10-$12.
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Ghostland Observatory’s Behrens to lead high school workshop
Aaron Behrens, he of the astonishingly tight jeans and otherworldly howl, will lead students at Anderson High School in a songwriting workshop May 14. The program is part of a regular series of writing workshops presented by Austin Batcave, a nonprofit organization that encourages creative writing and was modeled on 826 Valencia, a San Francisco nonprofit launched by acclaimed writer Dave Eggers.
Behrens isn’t the first Austin musician to join up with Austin Bat Cave — Bill Baird and the Eastern Sea, among others, have presented similar workshops, while Austinist writer William Mills led a music journalism workshop last fall. The songwriting program will be presented to students in the school’s AVID — Advancement Via Individual Determination — program, a college preparatory initiative.
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Pat Green to play ACL Fest
Thanks to alert reader Bernard V. for sending this link that shows that a certain country cherub will return to the festival that he co-headlined in 2002, its first year.
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Sarah Jarosz shines on the ‘Austin City Limits’ studio
Hat tip to colleague Matthew Odam over on his blog the MO, who attended Tuesday night’s taping of the Sarah Jarosz and Steve Martin episode of “Austin City Limits.” Martin’s set was a condensed version of his Sunday night show at the Long Center, but Odam has nothing but good things to say about bluegrass phenomenon Jarosz.
“When she introduced a song that she wrote as a response to Hurricane Katrina - Broussard’s Lament - it took me a second to do the math,” writes Odam. “Katrina was in 2005. Jarosz was 14 at the time. The righteous, passionate lines from this devil-went-down-to-New Orleans tune were not the work of your typical high school student.”
Surf over to the MO for the whole recap. The episode will air in October.
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Weekend picks: Wistful songwriting, Irish treasure and a new venue on display
FRIDAY
Van Morrison at Bass Concert Hall.Well, here’s take two — Morrison got us all excited back when he was scheduled to play Bass in January, but canceled, citing that ever-present source of trouble for musicians, ‘exhaustion.’ That was mere weeks after Morrison weathered rumors of an illegitimate child by tour manager Gigi Lee. Fortunately, the idiosyncratic Irish treasure is feeling more up to things now and will bring his classic catalog to audiences at long last. Anybody want to take bets on the over-under that he’ll play ‘Moondance’? 8 p.m. $85-$350. 2350 Robert Dedman Drive. texasperformingarts.com. — Patrick Caldwell
Also recommended:
- KVRX presents ‘Lights Out!’ at Seaholm Power Plant
- Owen Pallett and the Great Nostalgic at the Mohawk
- Mono and Balmorhea at Emo’s
- Zeale at the Beauty Bar
- the Dead Weather at Stubb’s (technically sold out)
- the Scabs at Antone’s
- Leo Kottke at the Paramount Theatre
SATURDAY
First Look Festival at the New Backyard at Bee Cave. Here’s a great chance to check out Tim O’Connor’s new, bigger baby, with alleged parking galore. Such acts as Carolyn Wonderland, Gary P. Nunn, Walt Wilkins, Dan Dyer, W.C. Clark and on and on, will keep the music going from noon to midnight, but the biggest draw will be the 38-acre venue, still billing itself as ‘three songs from downtown,’ though in today’s traffic those songs are from ‘Hot Buttered Soul.’ Tix are $25, but $10 off by using the promo code ‘twolawnmowers.’ 13472 Bee Cave Parkway. thebackyard.net. — Michael Corcoran
Also recommended:
- Those Darlins at the Continental
- Nashville P at Red Eyed Fly
- Dr. Dog and Deer Tick at Emo’s
- Jimmy LaFave at the Cactus
- Minor Mishap Marching Band at Ruta Maya
- Norah Jones at Stubb’s (sold out)
- Foot Patrol at Antone’s
SUNDAY
Norah Jones at Stubb’s. Even on record, where she’s free to augment her tracks with as many sonic layers as possible, Norah Jones has had difficulty evading that ‘Snorah’ Jones label. So it’s been especially challenging for her to be engaging and energetic. But if any album could help her shake off the cobwebs live, it’s last year’s ‘The Fall,’ a rightfully acclaimed piece of work that finds Jones in fine, genre-bending form. With Sasha Dobson. 6 p.m. $41.50. 801 Red River St. stubbsaustin.com. — Patrick Caldwell
Also recommended:
- The Tallest Man on Earth at Stubb’s
- Junior Brown and Tanya Rae at the Continental Club
- Darren Hoff and the Hard Times at Momo’s
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Bruton’s contested will case settled in mediation
Before he died of cancer in May 2009, Austin musician Stephen Bruton made out a will that named his older brother Sumter Bruton the beneficiary and left only $100 plus community property to his wife of 14 years, Mary Keating Bruton.
Charging that a heavily medicated Bruton was not of sound mind and manipulated by his childhood friend and “Crazy Heart” co-producer T-Bone Burnett, Mary Bruton filed papers contesting the will. A mediation was ordered and after 14 and a half hours on April 10, both sides came to an agreement, said Sumter Bruton. Details are not to be made public until a probate court rules on the settlement. But it seems that a battle in court has been avoided.
Charles Grigson, a temporary attorney for Stephen Bruton’s estate, said he could not comment on the mediation, but that the terms would be part on the public record soon. Check back.
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Church of the Friendly Ghost plan new summer festival (plus a Kickstarter roundup)
Props to both the Austinist and Audra Schroeder at the Austin Chronicle’s Earache for noting that the city’s own experimental arts and music collective Church of the Friendly Ghost are working on a new project — a planned summer festival, dubbed the New Media Art and Sound Summit, for June 17-19.
As you might gleam from the title, organizers plan for the festival to include visual art and performance as well as music, and have issued an open call for submissions until May 14. You can e-mail them here. Daytime programs — including workshops, master classes and art exhibits — will run at the Salvage Vanguard Theater, while nighttime events — featured performances — will take place the United States Art Authority. Proceeds from admissions will be split between the Sims Foundation and the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians.
To fund the festival and keep admission prices low — and pay for administrative costs, artists’ fees and travel expenses — Church of the Friendly Ghost are turning to fan-funding platform Kickstarter, with a goal of raising $15,000 in the next 27 days. In doing so, they’re joining an increasingly large number of creators in Austin’s arts, film and music communities — in fact, this seems as good a time as any to round up Austin musicians with currently running Kickstarter campaigns. Check out a sampling after the jump.
-Positively minded hip-hop soul outfit Picture Perfect Clique is aiming to raise $6500 to fund their album, with a range of incentives going from koozies on the low end to contributing a rhyme on the high end.
-Hook-saturated pop band Household Names are raising $2500 to film two videos to coincide with the release of third album “Stories, No Names.” For the curious, a $500 contribution will land you in one of the videos.
-Chicago transplant Gary Calhoun James and his folk-rock band Folk Saints are raising $3,500 to master and press a new EP.
-Sweeping alternative rock quartet Courrier are aiming to raise $10,000 to fund the production of their first full-length studio album, to be produced Blue October bassist Matt Noveskey.
-Songwriter Bennett Brier is seeking $5,000 to hire musicians and reserve studio space to record the second album featuring his music.
-The filmmakers behind Echotone, a documentary on the Austin music scene featuring the Black Angels, Black Joe Lewis, the White White Lights and Sunset, are raising $5000 to finish post-production.
-Speaking of Sunset, part one: Will Patterson’s solo project — Patterson is also of Sunset and was a late addition to Sound Team before that band broke up — Sleep Good, has become a proper band, and Patterson’s aiming to raise $800 to go towards pressing vinyl and CDs of their latest album.
-Speaking of Sunset, part two: Bill Baird is plotting his project’s most ambitious endeavor yet, with a goal of raising $4000 to release, promote and distribute their upcoming album — which would include a US and European tour (and an exclusive band-made book for backers).
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Former Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder’s Recoil plays Austin May 15
Former Depeche Mode keyboard player — and crucial architect of the band’s sound during their most prolific and popular period, particularly 1990’s thrice-platinum “Violator” — Alan Wilder must think highly of Austin, because it’s one of only two U.S. cities (the other being New York) he’ll play this spring.
Wilder will be performing with Recoil, his longtime trip-hop and electronica project, at Elysium May 15. Recoil’s sonic spaciness and relaxed beats should pair nicely with the vibe at the night club. Secret Oktober has advance tickets for $15; they’ll be $20 at the door.
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Live review: Janiva Magness at Antone’s
Reigning Blues Music Awards entertainer of the year Janiva Magness made her Antone’s debut Tuesday night to a surprisingly thin crowd of about a hundred. But most of those lined up after the 75-minute set to buy an autographed copy of new CD “The Devil is an Angel Too.” The 53-year-old Magness displayed a powerful voice of smoky honesty you just want to take home with you.
The raven-haired singer and her fluid four-piece band played the new album in its entirety- and only the new album, which was strange because the Detroit native has been making records for three decades and this was her first time showcasing at Austin’s Home of the Blues. Maybe a bigger, more boisterous crowd would’ve coaxed a few choice chestnuts.
Keyboardist Jim Alfredson was a standout all night, pressing a big B-3 sound out of his portable Hammond organ on “Save Me,” a slow song which built on his solo, and the New Orleansy “Your Love Made a U-Turn,” easily the night’s most rousing number. Guitarist Zach Zunis really tied together set-closer “End of the Road” with a stinging lead that played off Magness’ over the top vocals.
The singer is not a screamer, however, but really more of a lusty Gladys Knight. She cut loose a few times, as on the blues belter “I Want To Do Everything For You,” but she’s mostly a master of vocal tone.
She makes it look easy, but her story is one of incredible hardships, with both her parents committing suicide before she turned 16. She lived on the streets until she caught an Otis Rush concert in the ’80s and devoted her life to singing the blues. Before encoring with “Weeds Like Us,” Magness gave a little speech about how lucky she felt to have the job she had. With that skimpy crowd, the payday couldn’t have been more than gas and waffle money for her and the band, but you got the feeling she really meant it.
At the end, that’s what sets Magness apart from most singers. Although they sound nothing alike, she’s reminiscent of Bette Midler in that she really needs the love from the audience. She’s addicted to it and demands it in subtle ways.
Next time through she’ll draw 200, then 400 when she comes through the third time. You gotta work Texas and Janiva Magness and her terrific band seem up for the task.
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Texas Music Office’s Casey Monahan throws in his support for the Cactus Cafe
To the choir of voices supporting the Cactus Cafe you can now add Casey Monahan, director of Governor Rick Perry’s Texas Music Office, which acts as a promoter and informational resource for the Texas music industry.
Save the Cactus Cafe has posted a letter of support, addressed to University of Texas at Austin president William Powers Jr., from Monahan, who’s far from a household name but is well-known (and well-respected) in the Texas music community.
“The Cactus’ importance as a proving ground for young artists cannot be questioned,” writes Monahan. “So very many Texas artists built their first real audience at the Cactus. Once an artist gains an audience, they attract not only fans (which increases employment in the music performance sector), but they also employ supporting musicians, artist managers, booking agents, music publishers, record labels, publicists, tour managers, merchandisers, video directors — in short, they build a team that builds careers and the Texas music industry in general.”
The full letter, in its original State of Texas letterhead, is available here. Vice president for student affairs Juan Gonzalez will present recommendations for future management of the Cactus Cafe at the next Texas Union Board meeting, to be held at 3 p.m. Friday, April 30 in the Board of Directors Room of the Texas Union. That meeting is open to the public.
Update: Thanks to our higher education reporter Ralph Haurwitz, whose item in today’s paper — and blog from this morning — point out that Gonzalez will not be appearing at the April 30 meeting to make recommendations after all. Gonzalez, who will not be present at the meeting due to a death in the family, says he wants more time for community input and will accept comments through May 7. Soncia Reagins-Lilly, the senior associate vice president and dean of students, will stand in for him.
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The Go-Go’s call it quits, play last show in Austin
It hurt to say goodbye to Cruiserweight on Saturday. It’ll sting when we have to say “adios” to Voxtrot in June.
But the Go-Go’s? That’s almost too much to bear.
After more than thirty years of spiky, sugary sweet power pop, the Go-Go’s are disbanding after their just-announced Summer 2010 tour, which kicks off July 7 in San Diego with a date for Lilith Fair. That “Happily Ever After” tour will conclude with a July 27 show at the Paramount Theatre. Go-Go since 1980 Kathy Valentine calls Austin home.
Full tour itinerary after the jump.
July 7 — San Diego, CA ; Lilith Fair
July 8 — Phoenix, AZ ; Lilith Fair
July 10 — Tampa, FL ; Tampa Bay Rays
July 11 — Myrtle Beach, SC ; House of Blues
July 14 — Portsmouth, VA ; NTELOS Pavilion
July 15 — Morristown, NJ ; Mayo Center for the Arts
July 16 — New York, NY ; Good Morning America
July 17 — Atlantic City NJ ; House of Blues
July 19 — Vienna, VA ; Wolf Trap
July 20 — New York, NY ; Irving Plaza
July 22 — San Francisco, CA ; Fillmore
July 24 — Los Angeles, CA ; Greek Theatre
July 26 — Dallas, TX ; Granada Theater
July 27 — Austin, TX ; Paramount Theatre
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Ripley’s Austin edition: Langer goes yard!
Perhaps playing Goo Goo Dolls around the clock is a performance enhancer, as Andy Langer of KGSR whacks one over the left field fence at Reckless Kelly’s “celebrity” softball game.
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Preview: Two nights of adventurous jazz at the Victory Grill
So far, 2010 has been unusually good to Austin fans of improvised music, and even aficionados in more jazz-centric cities might envy us Wednesday and Thursday, when Epistrophy Arts brings to the Victory Grill remarkable back-to-back gigs by the Peter Broetzmann/Hamid Drake Duo and Kidd Jordan/Hamid Drake/Ingebrigt Haker Flaten Trio.
Drake, a wildly versatile and imaginative Chicago-based percussionist, is the common element on both nights of this free jazz extravaganza. Acclaimed for his collaborations with William Parker, as well as Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Ken Vandermark and a long list of notables, Drake plays the drum kit, frame drum and tablas with an emotional and cultural richness that always brings out the most soulful side of fearsome New Orleans saxophonist Kidd Jordan. Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, who visited Austin several times with the Thing before relocating here recently, balances raw power and intriguing nuance in a manner sure to heighten the drama.
Drake’s fertile relationship with Broetzmann includes membership in the original lineup of his Chicago Tentet and participation in a wide variety of projects, including the galvanizing Albert Ayler tribute Die Like a Dog and adventurous trios with Parker, Fred Hopkins, and Morrocan guembri player Mahmoud Gania. Drake and Broetzmann last toured as a duo almost a decade ago, and they haven’t played together in many years, so the pent-up demand for their reunion has had them hopscotching around the East Coast and the Midwest for a good chunk of April. We managed to catch up with Broetzmann fleetingly by e-mail and he reported good crowds everywhere.
“After all these years, I have built up an audience and for sure you can say that of Mr. Drake, too. Some faces are very familiar and the good thing is, there are always some new ones. And in general the audience is much younger than in Europe — and we like that.”
Broetzmann wrote that he met Drake some 13 years ago when East German-born piano player Uli Gumpert couldn’t get out of his home country for their scheduled gigs in Chicago.
“I was tired of playing solo in Chicago. … I asked my New York friends if there is a drummer around in Chicago I could like — ja, there was this guy Drake who played at that time with Don Cherry. Should be good enough for me — and he was — and how!
“Nothing has changed, still more than good enough for me and even the six years’ break didn’t change that. I think in these years we both have learned a bit so the music has changed slightly, a wider range but the same intensity. And the (mutual) respect hasn’t gotten lost.”
(Wednesday: Peter Brotzmann / Hamid Drake Duo. Thursday: Kidd Jordan, Hamid Drake, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten Trio; 8 p.m. Victory Grill, 1104. E. 11th St., $16 advance tickets available at End of An Ear, Waterloo Records and Trailer Space Records. $20 door.)
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Interview: Megafaun
Megafaun (not to be confused with Austin band Megafauna) is a three-piece experimental folk group based in Durham, N.C. Last year’s full-length release, “Gather, Form and Fly,” merged bluegrass, folk and jazz to create a sound that distinguishes the group from the myriad other roots rock/Americana acts out there. Their talent, for better or worse, is often overshadowed by their backstory — before forming Megafaun, brothers Brad and Phil Cook and Joe Westerlund were part of DeYarmund Edison along with Justin Vernon, who left the band to form Bon Iver. In advance of Megafaun’s show tonight at Emo’s inside, Phil Cook spoke with us over the phone as the band prepared to play in San Francisco.
American-Statesman: This is your first tour as a headliner — what has that been like so far?
Phil Cook: When you’re an opening band for three years, you pretty much have a 45-minute slot, so you kind of get used to a very specific way to do what you do. No one has expectations when you’re an opening band; you’re more in a position to blow people’s mind like, “Wow, I had no idea, I’ve never heard of this band.” When you’re a headliner, a lot of people just come to see you, and you play for longer. You can relax a little bit, and the pacing is different. This tour has been all about settling in to that, becoming comfortable all over again.
Are you surprised how your audience has grown over the last year?
Yeah (laughing); it’s cool, you know. Totally awesome. We played in Montreal and there were maybe like 18 people at the show, but in Minneapolis there were like 600 people, so we’re still in transition.
What is the story behind your new ‘mini-album’?
We set out to make an EP, but as we started the writing and recording process, which were happening kind of simultaneously, we realized we had 35 minutes of recorded material, but it’s only six tracks. That puts it in a weird category because a lot of my favorite albums have been 35 minutes long, and they’re full-length. It’s a very complete cycle of songs, and we approached it just like we approach our other albums, where we really concentrate on how the tracks flow. From start to finish it’s very much a complete thought.
These days — it doesn’t happen that often — but people will come up to the merch table, look at your CD, turn around, ask how much it is and then count the number of tracks in front of you, literally like they’re making a little division sign in their head and they’ll say “does this equal 99 cents per track?” It’s only happened five or six times, but that didn’t happen five years ago.
Do the constant mentions of Bon Iver when people talk about Megafaun get annoying?
If he wasn’t our best friend, it probably would (be annoying), but the thing is, nobody knew who the (expletive) DeYarmond Edison was. People in Western Wisconsin knew who DeYarmond Edison was and like 100 people in North Carolina knew who we were. Up to that point, we had toured a total of two weeks, and been together playing music for like eight years. The breakup of that band ended up being the best thing for all of us. We’ve toured Europe twice in the last six months — that’s been a goal of mine since I was a little kid. We’re all just doing what we want to do. It’s super cool. Justin deserves every bit of success that he’s gotten. He still one of our favorite songwriters and always will be.
photo: D.L. Anderson
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CD review: Hole, ‘Nobody’s Daughter’
‘Nobody’s Daughter’
(Mercury/Island Def Jam)
Grade: C-
Courtney Love’s spent more than 15 years smack dab in the center of the spotlight, whether engaged in custody battles or grappling with drug addiction or just plain being endearingly nonsensical, as in her recent attempt to reinvent herself as Courtney Michelle. So it’s often difficult to separate the persona from the music. And “Nobody’s Daughter,” Hole’s first record since 1998’s “Celebrity Skin,” is even harder to judge on its own merits, being as it is essentially a Love solo record — founding guitarist Eric Erlandson and longtime bassist Melissa Auf der Maur aren’t onboard, and the band has a new lineup.
None of this is tremendously important. The real question is, does “Nobody’s Daughter” rock? The answer: intermittently. The album kicks off with two slices of plum ’90s alternative rock in the title track and “Skinny Little (Expletive),” blistering and angry numbers that can stand alongside vintage Hole with crushing guitars and Love’s broken-glass wail. “Honey” and “Pacific Coast Highway” slow the tempo down, but enjoyably so — and the latter, with its repeated “miles and miles of regret” refrain offers a nice window into Love’s soul.
But there’s an ill-advised mid-album trip into slower, reflective, acoustic guitar-laden songs that drags on an unconscionably long time, subjecting listeners to some sophomorically angsty lyrics (“Haven’t I done everything you wanted?” Love asks on “Letter to God.” The answer is presumably no.) By the time the hard rocker “Loser Dust” erupts it’s like manna from heaven. Things close out strong with the striking and raw “Never Go Hungry,” leaving “Nobody’s Daughter” an experience that is only occasionally satisfying.
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CD review: Alpha Rev, ‘New Morning’
Alpha Rev
‘New Morning’
(Hollywood)
Grade: C
It might seem peculiar to find Austin rock septet Alpha Rev on Hollywood Records, the Disney-owned home of the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus. Alpha Rev was formed in 2005 by ace Jeff Buckley and Thom Yorke-esque local singer Casey McPherson after the breakup of his much-buzzed Endochine. But Alpha Rev is hardly the strangest presence on the label — that’d almost certainly be Orange County metal band Atreyu — and the band’s not even the most oddball local signee in Hollywood’s history (hello, Butthole Surfers). Being signed to Hollywood worked out pretty well for Fastball in the late ’90s. And there are certain perks to being signed to a major label with as much promotional pull as Hollywood; Alpha Rev as of late has enjoyed plum placement on VH-1 and even an appearance on ABC Family dramedy “Greek.”
But listening to “New Morning,” Alpha Rev’s second full-length studio album and first for Hollywood, it’s hard not to wonder if all that major label power meant any pressure to keep the sound … well, a little dull, truthfully. “New Morning” is a well-produced, technically strong album, with reliably solid guitar lines and excellent contributions on violin and cello from secret weapons Brian Batch and Dave Wiley, respectively, but across 11 tracks of mass market-friendly soaring radio pop, it never breaks out and rocks quite the way you want it to. The opening title track sets the tone, with a strummy acoustic guitar intro, light strings and soaring vocals — vocals that are strong but never quite as quivering and emotive as McPherson is at his best. A similar aesthetic is found on such radio-friendly, adult contemporary-channeling numbers as “Phoenix Burn,” the vaguely Owl City-evoking “Alone With You” and the soft, midtempo closing ballad “Goodbye From the Start.”
There are glimpses aplenty of something more interesting at work here. “When Did I Wake Up” is an uplifting guitar rocker that gives McPherson the chance to show off his Endochine-era soloing chops. McPherson faces his demons on “White Fences” (“And I feel like I’m in hell/As I tried to save myself/I didn’t think I needed help/Was it too late walking through the wasteland?”), which has all the power you’d expect from a man who’s become a passionate advocate for depression awareness and suicide prevention. And “Face Down,” with its handclaps, swaggering guitar line and funky keys, evokes ’70s blue-eyed soul in the vein of Chicago. It’s the most fun “New Morning” has to offer. But nothing has, say, the sinister staccato charm of Alpha Rev’s “Stuck In A Crowd (Prufrock Among The Cannibals)” or the sexy, smoky jazz of “Midnight,” both songs off the self-titled debut EP. And the band has plenty of power live. Alpha Rev’s got the right stuff to make an impression — the band just needs to loosen up a little.
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Floyd Dakil, 1945-2010
The Dallas Observer’s Unfair Park blog is reporting that Floyd Dakil, whose combo recorded one of the greatest garage rock singles of the ’60s with “Dance Franny Dance” died Saturday. Details are still coming in.
The Leroi Brothers are among several acts who’ve made “Dance Franny Dance” a staple of their club sets. The driving beat never fails to excite.
Dallas native Dakil performed at South by Southwest in 2009 as part of the Ponderosa Stomp preview show. Here’s an interview we did with Dakil before that show.
And here’s “Dance Franny Dance.” Rest in peace, Floyd Dakil.
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Live review: Steve Martin at the Long Center
One thing is worth establishing when it comes to Steve Martin’s unlikely side gig as an acclaimed bluegrass musician: he doesn’t need to do any of this.
Martin, of course, has been one of comedy’s most bankable stars for decades and has a net worth estimated at north of $100 million — so unlike most musicians, he has no financial need to tour. For that matter, the opportunity cost of Martin going on tour when he could be bringing home multimillion dollar paydays for films is, one imagines, pretty substantial — a sacrifice alluded to by Martin during his between-song banter (“The next song has elements of sadness and melancholy, kind of like my agent’s face when I told him I wanted to do a banjo tour.”)
So it’s safe to say that when Martin puts out a Grammy-winning album of bluegrass tunes (“The Crow”), or goes on a national tour playing banjo, he does it for one reason only: love.
That was readily apparent Sunday night as Martin, backed by virtuosic North Carolina bluegrass quintet the Steep Canyon Rangers, moved effortlessly and joyously through a mixture of music and comedy — about 70 percent the former and 30 percent the latter. Across a series of both infectious, fun instrumentals (“Words Unspoken”) and equally enjoyable vocal tunes (the bouncing and kid-friendly “Late For School” and the celebratory “Jubilation Day”) Martin showed off his superlative banjo-playing chops. Decades of banjo infatuation have made Martin into a skilled, emotive player who’s a joy to watch and listen to, whether on an instrumental medley of songs done clawhammer-style or a bluegrass classic-to-be like “Daddy Played The Banjo.”
Skilled though Martin may be, though, it was the collective talents of the Steep Canyon Rangers that put the show over the top. Fiddle player Nicky Sanders stood out for his blistering solos, especially on an encore version of “Orange Blossom Special.” The band really got their chance to shine during three Martin-less songs mid-show, including a beautiful a cappella take on standard “I Can’t Sit Down” that received a standing ovation.
The comedy may not have been as intricate and impressive as the music, with between song banter that came across more goodhearted and silly than particularly clever — though Martin retrieving a beer from the upright bass was a highlight, as was the amusingly satirical comedy song “Atheists Don’t Have No Songs.” But the overall tone of the show was a nice mix of low-key humor and impressive musicianship. When the band busted out an encore, bluegrassified version of “King Tut,” one thing became clear: Steve Martin knows what the people want, and he appears quite happy to give it to them.
Set list — and just for giggles, some between-song quotes from Steve Martin — after the jump.
The Quotable Steve Martin
As you’d expect from a legendary funny man and certifiable American treasure, half the joy of last night’s Steve Martin show was the between-song banter. Martin knew the audience would expect a little comedy with their bluegrass, and was happy to oblige with a number of zingers. Below, I’ve excerpted some of the evening’s more enjoyable lines — they aren’t all exact quotes (it’s difficult to keep pace when you’re scribbling in a notebook in the dark) but the essence is there. This banter is probably recycled from city to city, so for those of you planning on attending one of Martin’s future dates on this current tour, you’ve received a spoiler warning.
-Upon first seeing the crowd: “Well, I wish I’d practiced.”
-On how he met the Steep Canyon Rangers: “The real story doesn’t go down very well in Hollywood, so I say we met in rehab.”
-On the audience: “Some of you I’m curiously attracted to. Some of you I’m strongly repelled by.”
-“Thank you all for coming. I know it’s kind of a strange thing to see. The only analogy I can make is if somebody said to you ‘Hey, Jerry Seinfeld is going to play songs he wrote on the bassoon!’”
-“People come to me all the time and say ‘Steve, why a musical career? Why now?’ And I say ‘Hey, you guys are my band!’”
-On keeping his set list on an iPad: “If you have a $500 set list, your show becomes too big to fail.”
-“Last year I took home the Grammy for best bluegrass album. Later on I found out I had won it.”
-“We already know the next album is going to be a big hit, because the week of its release I’m going to die of a Vicodin overdose.”
-“I’m doing two of my favorite things tonight: comedy and charging people for music.”
-“It’s a poor workman who blames his goddamn tools.”
-“I try to write songs based on personal experiences. The next one is called ‘I think my masseuse is too chatty.’”
Set list
Pitkin County Turnaround
Daddy Played The Banjo
The Crow
Late For School
Words Unspoken
Hoedown at Alice’s
Freddie’s Lilt
Turn Up The Bottle And Drink It Down (Steep Canyon Rangers only)
There Ain’t No Easy Street (Steep Canyon Rangers only)
I Can’t Sit Down (Steep Canyon Rangers only)
Atheists Don’t Have No Songs
Clawhammer medley
Hide Behind A Rock
Wally’s On The Run
Go Away, Stop, Turn Around, Come Back
Jubilation Day
Saga Of The Old West
Calico Train
Encore
Orange Blossom Special
King Tut
Second encore
Ignition
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New Backyard opens in Bee Cave
Although there may still be a few cars waiting to exit the rugged parking area, which seemed better suited for a cattle drive, the opening night of the new Backyard was a qualified success Sunday night. About 5,000 fans paid $50 each to see ZZ Top, a craggy-voiced nostalgia act at this point, and the lines for beer never let up.
“For a first night, I’d say it went pretty well,” said Backyard owner Tim O’Connor, whose partner in the 44-acre property less than a half mile from the original Backyard is shampoo king Paul “Mitchell” DeJoria. “We had some parking issues later on, but we’ll get that worked out before the Gipsy Kings” (who perform at the 7,500 capacity ampitheater May 6.) Several cars were turned away after the lot filled at about 8:30 p.m., but O’Connor said that was due to less-than-efficient auto routing. “We’ll have our second entrance (on Hwy 71, just past the Emerald restaurant) open next week, which will help get more cars in faster.”
Although lines of cars waiting to get into the venue were long, they moved fairly smoothly early on, with average waits around 20 minutes. Countless middle fingers were unfurled as cars cut into the lines from outside lanes. It did, at times, seem like chaos.
As for the sound mix, for both opening act Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights and ZZ Top, the bass was way too loud. Since when has DJ Screw played the blues? ZZ’s set was a mess from opening number “Thunderbird,” though they finally got their groove going with “Under Pressure” at about the 45-minute mark. But Tyler and his band were poised to prove they deserved to be the first-ever band at the new ampitheater, until the sound was swallowed up by the unrelenting boom.
Another problem to many were the trees, about 50 yards from the stage, that blocked sightlines. O’Connor said he’s already moved three trees, but he’s got two more to go. Although the shade will be nice on the Fourth of July, you can look at trees all over town for free. For $50, you should be able to watch the performers.
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Scene report # 4 from the new Backyard
Wonder who’s programming the between-band music: lots of glam rock: Bowie, Iggy, T-Rex, etc. And it’s way too LOUD. They’re playing “Chinese Rocks” now by Johnny Thunders and the bass is painful. Maybe it wasn’t Nick Jay’s fault in the opening set. Someone needs to get a grip on the bottom. Wait, that didn’t sound right (just like the p.a.)
The artist village from the old Backyard has been moved to the new one, making for a comfortable hang for the performers. Someone said Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top has been back there all day long. Ribeyes and tuna steaks are on the grill. Just heard someone yell “ten minutes to showtime!” Only fifteen minutes late.
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Scene report # 3 from the new Backyard
Apparently, the traffic situation outside the new Backyard got a bit testy closer to showtime, though waits were generally under half an hour. The frequency of cutting in the car line from outside lanes caused quite a few flipped birds and volatile confrontations, but actual fistfights as far as we know.
Advice to those coming to future shows: approach the entrance from the north, coming down RM 620 from the Lakeway direction. That way you’re not dependent on traffic lights, where most of the cutting was taking place.
Inside, however, the general mood is mellow. But, then, Billy, Dusty and Frank hit the stage in 15 minutes.
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Scene report # 2 from the new Backyard
“This is the first night of the new Backyard and we’re honored to break it in,” singer Jonathan Tyler said just after his Northern Lights band opened with the title track of their new “Pardon Me” album. What soon became painfully apparent, however, was that bassist Nick Jay was honored to break in ear drums. The man with the burly sideburns is a tremendous bassist who gives this band its engine, but Sunday night the bottom was like a runaway 18-wheeler.
Don’t blame the venue, the boom excess was seemingly a torture pact between Jay and the sound man.
That was too bad because otherwise the Dallas band seemed like they had something to prove. Like being worthy to christen such a terrific venue on a perfect April night. “Devil’s Basement” was so tight that it made you forget that it’s basically a tribute to Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks.”
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Scene report # 1 from the new Backyard
Well, that was easier than expected. I left Barton Springs Road at 6:40 p.m. and headed to the new 7,500 capacity Backyard (almost twice the capacity of the old one, which closed in October 2008) to see the “soft” opening show featuring ZZ Top. Arrived at 7 p.m. sharp to find rather imposing lines on RM 620 leading to the entrance, but parking management was together like pleather and I was parked and ready to rock by 7:20 p.m.
The venue’s still not totally finished, with freshly laid sod about to get a test and port-o-potties outside the proper facilities, which lack the necessary plumbing. But this place has got incredible potential, with great views. The food booths are more upscale than usual, with Mandola’s, Torchy’s, Austin’s Pizza and Best Wurst among the vendors.
The huge stage plays to an inclined field, with a huge, flat gravel-covered place in front of the stage for the diehards. The dust is gonna fly tonight!
Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights, a glammy, boogie blues band from Dallas, have first honors. Saw them at Antone’s three days ago and they’re gonna tear it up with this crowd, I think.
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NYT: the National to play ACL Fest
It would be hysterical if, having sold out all three-day passes in just a couple hours, weeks before the lineup is announced, the ACL Fest organizers announced an all-Austin lineup. That would kill the scalping industry in Austin. But it appears ACL is going to be bringing in some outside bands. The New York Times is reporting that the National is playing “the Great Lawn” in October.
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Notes from the Austin underground: 1.6 Band singer Kevin Egan discusses reunion
Kevin Egan has lived in Austin about two years. He plays with the Twenty-Four Thousand Dollars Band, playing what he calls “tongue in cheek” country and Beatlesy pop songs.
In another life, in the early 1990s, he sang for the 1.6. Band, an excellent post-hardcore punk rock outfit from New York full of wiry guitar tension, rolling drums and Egan’s everydude yell. They played many shows, made a couple of records and dissolved in 1993.
Though all four members live in different cities, they are playing shows and writing music again, recording and releasing a four-song seven-inch EP on the local label. The songs are also offered as a free, 320 kbps MP3 download. You can find it here.
Fifteen to 20 years ago, lots of music used to sound a bit like this. Now, virtually no music sounds like this. It’s weirdly refreshing.
More after the jump.
“A friend of mine lived down here and he was looking to convince all of his friends from New York to move down here,” Egan says. “I was stuck on the subway and the train didn’t move for 20 minutes and I thought it was time to give Austin a shot.”
Egan says the band — Egan, drummer Vin Novara, guitarist Mike Yannicelli and bassist Lance Jaeger — remained close friends after they broke up: “The four of us have never not been in contact, we e-mail almost on a daily basis.”
So when a promoter in Lyon, France, offered to pay airfare and lodging if the 1.6. Band would reunite for some shows, the guys talked it over.
“We decided if we were going to do this, we would write some more songs,” Egan said.
“When you do reunion-type stuff, there is that sentimental aspect to it and that’s fine. These are three of my best friends and it is really special to be able to play with them again. But we didn’t want to just do this to go to France.”
Sadly, the French show fell through (“the promoter’s wife was pregnant and he due date was the week of the shows,” Egan said) but the band has already started writing, e-mailing each other audio files.
The band played a few reunion shows in 2009 and 2010 in New York, Washington, D.C., New Jersey and Philadelphia. After played a gig at the famous WFMU radio station, they recorded the four songs at a friend’s studio with the money they made from the shows.
“Since we didn’t have to pay extra to record the songs, we decided to offer them for free,” Egan said. “We never made any money with 1.6 Band, so we decided to keep up the tradition. At least we broke even here.”
The band continues to write and plans on an Austin show later in the year.
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Jars of Clay help launch anti-Malaria initiative at the Capitol
Multiplatinum, Grammy Award-winning, and exceedingly long-lived Christian rock band Jars of Clay will play a free show on the south lawn of the Capitol Sunday afternoon to help the United Methodist Church kick off a $75-million anti-malaria initiative.
The event takes place from 2 to 5 p.m. and is, naturally, family friendly. Austin’s Graham Wilkinson and the Underground Township as well as the Huston-Tillotson College Gospel Choir will also perform.
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‘Secret’ show: Ricardo Lemvo at Flamingo Cantina
This just in: Congo-born Afro-Latin bandleader Ricardo Lemvo is playing Flamingo Cantina tonight. Tickets are only $10 at the door. D-Madness opens. The club is at 515 E. Sixth St.
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The Sour Notes hold down a cheap show at the Parish tomorrow
The Sour Notes are the local rock band that just keep on giving — with three releases (most recent album “It’s Not Gonna Be Pretty,” 7-inch vinyl “Never Mix, Never Worry,” and 2009’s “Received in Bitterness”) in one year and a rock-solid record of great live shows.
Tomorrow night, they’ll play a show at the Parish — their first — with a stacked group of great local bands for the low, low price of $5. The Sour Notes headline at midnight, but the show kicks off at 9 p.m. with buzzworthy, critically acclaimed young indie classical outfit Mother Falcon, followed by the hooky electrorock of the Authors at 10 p.m. and the wistful shoegaze pop of She Sir at 11 p.m. That’s a pretty mean lineup of sterling Austin bands for a mere Abraham Lincoln.
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Austin singer wins second Dove Award
Christian praise singer Randy Phillips picked up a Gospel Music Association Dove Award for inspirational album of the year for “Fearless,” the album he released last year as one-third of Christian group Phillips, Craig and Dean. The group was also nominated for song of the year and worship song of the year, for the album’s lead single “Revelation Song.” The 41st annual GMA Dove Awards were handed out last night, while the ceremony will air on Sunday on the Gospel Music Channel at 7 p.m.
Phillips founded the group 17 years ago and continues to record and tour with them, as well as serving as the pastor of PromiseLand West church in West Lake Hills. Phillips, Craig and Dean won their first Dove Award in 1996, for the song “Shine on Us.” It was their second win and seventh nomination.
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Weekend picks: Shimmering harmonies, psych masters and classic rock
FRIDAY
Day one of the Third annual Austin Psychfest at the Mohawk. The Jesus and Mary Chain are no fun, so curators the Black Angels snagged Denmark’s Raveonettes, who create a trance with their harmonies shimmering in the shards of noise. Also on the bill are L.A.’s mind-blowing girl group Warpaint, of whom The New York Times wrote during SXSW: ‘First they hypnotize; then they get you dancing.’ Indian Jewelry, Ringo Deathstarr and other bands with trippy names will keep the feedback coming. 8 p.m. $18- $20. 912 Red River St. mohawkaustin.com. — Michael Corcoran
Also recommended:
- Local Natives at Antone’s (moved from Emo’s; also at 4 p.m. at Waterloo Records)
- Car Stereo Wars CD release at Beauty Bar
- DJ Tiesto at Austin Music Hall
- the Gary at the Scoot Inn
SATURDAY
Roky Erickson and Okkervil River at the Paramount Theatre. In a nice bit of synchronicity the former 13th Floor Elevators front man and living legend will take to the stage at the Paramount just as the cream of the crop of today’s psychedelic rock bands tear up the Mohawk a scant few blocks away. Sure, you could catch a few dozen of the artists so inspired by Erickson, or you could catch the real deal himself as he plays cuts from his striking, powerful ‘True Love Cast Out All Evil,’ backed by the band that’s running neck-and-neck with Spoon for the title of Austin’s all-time best indie rock band. Erickson’s South by Southwest shows were the stuff of miracles and tall tales, and his Paramount appearance shouldn’t be any different. And you can always swing by Psych Fest afterward, and mix a bit of new with your old. 7 p.m. $30. 713 Congress Ave. austintheatre.org. — Patrick Caldwell
Also recommended:
- Austin Psych Fest 3 at the Mohawk
- Bone Thugs N Harmony at Emo’s
- Cruiserweight farewell show at Emo’s
- Hells Belles at the Continental Club
- Dierks Bentley and the Travelin McCourys with Hayes Carll at the Parish
- Sister 7 at Antone’s
SUNDAY
ZZ Top at the new Backyard.This is one of the best Sundays of music in recent memory, but we give the nod to this show, more for the venue than the band. Will the new Backyard retain the warm feel of the original (pre-mall) or will it be a disaster like Two River Canyon Amphitheater? Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights open, so you’ve got that going for you, which is nice. 8 p.m. $49.50. 13472 Bee Cave Parkway. thebackyard.net. — M.C.
Also recommended:
- Sarah Jarosz at the Cactus Cafe
- Junior Brown at the Continental
- Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Band at the Long Center
- La Tampiquena at Momo’s
- River City Christianettes at Stubb’s Gospel Brunch
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Bentley escapes ‘Up on the Ridge’
Dierks Bentley’s forthcoming “Up on the Ridge” (due June 8) seamlessly unites mirroring musical blueprints.
“I thought it’d be two records - a bluegrass record and a country one - but it all started melding,” the Grammy-nominated singer says. “Electric guitar is missing, but there’s drums and bass and banjo and a National (guitar).”
Bentley and the Travelin’ McCourys, arguably the modern era’s premier bluegrass ensemble, support the lively collection tonight at The Parish.
American-Statesman: You anchor the new album’s title track on a traditional bluegrass theme: escaping to the countryside.
Bentley: On the road, a lot of the time all I’m thinking about during the day is, “Man, I wish I was out in the woods somewhere by a lake and not stuck on the asphalt.” It’s about the need to get away and have fun.
Was your creative process different from recording a straight country album?
Yeah. The process was really different for me. I didn’t work with any of the people that I’ve worked with in the past as far as writing or production goes. Making that break was important creatively. I cut more outside songs on this record. I’m a big Shawn Camp fan, and I knew I wanted to cut a couple of his (“Fallin’ For You,” “Fiddlin’ Around”).
What drew you to the (Kris) Kristofferson song (‘From the Bottle to the Bottom’)?
There are just no gaps at all in that song’s alliteration and pentameter and meter. It’s tight, so well-written. Cutting that song was a great moment and a great memory. When we were in the studio, (Kristofferson) said to me, “Next time I write a song like this, remind me not to put so many (expletive) words in it.” That chorus does take a big breath of air to get through (laughs).
How do you expect this new material to translate at The Parish?
It’ll be a dynamic show. I think my hardcore fans will love the new sound and the casual country fans hopefully will like it. If not, maybe they’ll respect that it’s something different and not the same old, same old.
Was it your decision to tour the album at such intimate venues?
I like playing smaller rooms. I love playing amphitheaters and fairs and all that stuff, but I love variety. We’re gonna do what I got into this business to do: Get on a bus and play some music. I want to get one bus and one band and one crew and play fun, cool places that I don’t get a chance to play anymore.
You and the McCourys are old friends, right?
I was at (banjoist) Rob (McCoury)’s wedding, and I was one of the (groomsmen) at (fiddler) Jason Carter’s wedding. I’ve known those guys since I moved to Nashville in 1994. I feel lucky and honored to play the host, to bring these guys and their music to my audience. They’re some of the greatest musicians in the world.
When did you meet (tour opener and Austin resident) Hayes (Carll)?
I discovered Hayes in Canada when we played some festival. I walked over to the side of the stage and saw this guy playing at 12:30 in the day, and figured he must be a local. It sure looked like an Austin band, though. He launched into (“She Left Me for Jesus”), and I was just dying over in the corner, going, “Oh my gosh, he’s gonna get killed!”
Dierks Bentley and the Travelin’ McCourys with Hayes Carll
When: 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: The Parish, 214-C E. Sixth St.
Tickets: $38.92
Information: 473-8381; theparishaustin.com
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Dayton the low budget Bob Giraldi
Jesse Dayton made this video for L.A. country singer Mike Stinson with a Flip camera and $100.
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CD review: Plants and Animals ‘La La Land’
Plants and Animals
“La La Land”
Secret City
Grade: A-
Montreal-based rock band Plants and Animals showed they were a band to watch with the release of 2008’s “Parc Avenue,” making melodic music that was at once anthemic and minimalist. Despite critical acclaim and attention from music blogs and elsewhere, the band didn’t exactly experience a surge in popularity. On their latest, the group hopes to change that, adding a little more oomph to their sound and demonstrating that they’ve continued to develop as musicians.
They exhibit a sense of humor, too, evidenced by the title of the first track, “Tom Cruz,” a slow-builder driven by a crunchy guitar line that stretches out toward a coda that has become a standard part of the group’s sound. It’s followed by “Swinging Bells,” with a spacey, low-key beginning that experiences something of a jam band climax before quieting down again. The song calls to mind David Bowie, as does “American Idol,” on which the band should be nominated for best use of a saxophone.
The band’s tendency to write diverse songs that wander and transform runs strong throughout the album. After a strong start they lose a bit of steam, though, on the down-tempo “Undone Melody,” which drags through mini-movements before a string section chimes in at the end. Things pick up as the band combines subdued funk guitar and vocal parts to create something of an underwater tropical feel on “Kon Tiki.” The next song, “Game Shows,” begins sounding like a relative of early Radiohead before the arrival of an R&B piano breakdown. “The Mama Papa” strips down ’70s rock, incorporating Tin Lizzy-style guitars riffs without sounding too much like over-the-top classic rock.
On the final section “La La Land,” things start to a little weirder, especially with “Fake It,” which incorporates twisted country rhythms before finding its way to a Who-inspired prog rock conclusion and “Future From the 80’s,” which, with a robot-voice chorus, sounds pretty much like the name implies. On the whole, while the album is not quite as interesting as their last full-length, it is a solid followup.
Plants and Animals plays Emo’s (inside) on June 1.
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Voxtrot announce ‘Goodbye, Cruel World … ’ tour
Sadly, the name of Voxtrot’s ‘Goodbye, Cruel World … ’ tour means precisely what you think it does. After June 25, the indie rock quartet — formerly a quintet, back in the days when Jared Van Fleet played with the group — will be calling it quits after a brief seven-date tour this summer.
The band announced the dissolution with a lengthy, intelligent post from always-thoughtful front man Ramesh Srivastava on their website this morning. Srivastava says he’s moving on from the band to pursue new musical directions.
“The career path of Voxtrot was truly one of long, simmering build, explosion, and almost instantaneous decay. Slowly, I am learning to replace any feelings of regret with positive memories of how amazing the whole thing was, and how it has, in an unexpected way, fortified my character,” writes Srivastava. ” … Being in Voxtrot has been wonderful and amazing, but it is only one chapter in the book…”
“In the end, I’ve come to realize that there really isn’t any cause for disappointment,” Srivastava continues. “The fact is, the songs still exist, and the music of Voxtrot lives on as a sovereign entity which, outside of all criticism, positive or negative, belongs to the guys and me, and to everybody who ever loved it or believed. Taking into account every person I’ve met, every place I have visited, every emotional exchange I have ever had with a listener, there is absolutely no room for regret.”
The entire post is articulate, emotional, intriguing and makes a wholly unexpected but very cool reference to detective TV show “Columbo,” of all things. It’s very much worth your time if you’ve ever cranked “Raised By Wolves” up way loud.
Voxtrot formed in 2003 and released three EPs of striking, emotionally literate indie pop to a wave of blog buzz, praise and hype — hype that tempered off somewhat after the release of their self-titled debut full-length in 2007. That record was positively reviewed in many quarters, but got the (entirely undeserved, in this writer’s opinion) smackdown from the most important bastion of indie criticism, Pitchfork. The hype died down, and releases and gigs came irregularly after that, so Voxtrot’s departure isn’t a huge surprise.
Voxtrot’s final Austin gig goes down June 3 at Emo’s, while they take their final bow at the Bowery Ballroom in New York on June 25. Tickets for the Emo’s date, $12, are on sale now.
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ACL Festival three-day passes sell out
Well, that was fast.
After a speedy pre-sale yesterday, three-day passes for the Austin City Limits Music Festival are already sold out — less than two hours after going on sale to the general public. Frustrations over the purchasing process and ambiguity surrounding the lineup don’t seem to have deterred ticket buyers, who have snapped up all of the three-day passes even with the festival nearly six months away. By contrast, Lollapalooza — which had its full lineup released two weeks ago — still has passes available.
Single day tickets will go on sale May 18, the same day the full lineup is released. Ultra-swank VIP tickets — which include access to the exclusive VIP grove, food, drinks, restrooms and other svelte benefits — are still on sale at a cool $850, and travel packages are also available.
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Watch John Kunz on Fox Business Network
Last week’s been something of a one-two-three punch for the already-strong reputation of Waterloo Records: first, the store featured a whiz-bang lineup of talent for Record Store Day, then Spin named it the second-best record store in the country, and on Monday owner John Kunz spun by Fox Business Network to discuss the vinyl resurgence in his trademark low-key drawl.
You can watch the video, about four minutes, below. Anyone vaguely familiar with the narrative of the vinyl resurgence probably won’t learn anything new, but you can hear anchor Brian Sullivan gush to Kunz about his love for Uncle Tupelo, and that’s not something that happens every day on Fox Business Network.
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ACL Fest passes on sale Weds. at 10 a.m.
Missed this morning’s early bird pre-sale? Still trying to get to ACL Fest? A limited number of 3-day passes will go on sale tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. The price is $185 a pop, $20 more than the early bird rate.
Click here for more information, and to buy tickets.
This year’s ACL Fest lineup is due out on May 18.
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Stella Maxwell on saying goodbye to Cruiserweight
If you’re one of the thousands who helped them nab multiple Austin Music Awards, or picked up one of their three albums, or just caught them live anywhere from Emo’s to a TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls bout, you’ve probably heard the news by now: as of the end of this month, local punk pop stalwarts Cruiserweight will be no more.
The quartet will play their final two shows next week. The band plays a free in-store at Waterloo Records Thursday April 22, at 6 p.m., followed by a performance at Emo’s Saturday, April 24. Doors for that show, which is already sold out, open at 8 p.m., with Dynamite Boy and Manatee reuniting to open alongside local rock band Petals.
So what leads to a cult favorite local band to dissolve after more than 10 years? The departure of bassist of nine years David Hawkins, who’s taking off to attend school in Tempe, Ariz. After struggling to replace drummer Yogi Maxwell in 2008, the members have elected to split up rather than attempt to replace Hawkins.
“It’s hard, after having a solid group together for that long, to replace anyone. It’s just so difficult,” said vocalist Stella Maxwell. “We just kind of came to the conclusion that, rather than find a replacement for Dave, we should take it as a sign and take a step back. Right now it’s really sad but we think it’s for the best.”
For Maxwell — who’s been in the band since she was 19 — the departure of Cruiserweight is some pretty heavy stuff.
“It was kind of a shock to me. We just found out he was leaving in mid-February,” said Maxwell. “I didn’t get a lot of time to let it all sink in before we started having to prepare for the end, but that’s just the way it goes.”
Maxwell’s still on the fence as to whether she’ll be in a new band. In the meantime, she’s working with brother guitarist Urny on a musical for children — Maxwell works as an assistant director for an after-school program — and mourning the loss of the band that’s served as her muse for over a decade.
“We enjoy performing so much, and I’m so comfortable and have been doing it for so long, but I can’t say for sure that I’m going to want to do it again anytime soon. I like to think I’m pretty good at it, and I like it, so I think yeah I’m sure there will be something new someday,” said Maxwell.”But I can’t say for sure when or how. I kind of have to wait for the dust to settle before I get a good read on what I want.”
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Volcano strands Black Joe Lewis in Europe
There’s a headline no one could have ever expected.
The latest local music victim of the ash currently wreaking havoc across Europe is Austin garage soul outfit Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, who were in the midst of a tour through France when the Icelandic volcano erupted and are now unable to fly out of the country, according to a representative with Lost Highway Records.
The band has been forced to cancel two dates at Lafayette, La.’s Festival International de Louisiane, as well as an appearance at the Blue Moon Saloon, but are hoping to fly out in time for their next appearance at the Buc Days Festival in Corpus Christi.
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Larry Monroe: “I’m retiring from KUT”
Broadcaster Larry Monroe hadn’t expected to make an announcement that he was leaving KUT in the next few months, after 29 years at the station. But on Monday, April 12, as he was prepping for his ‘Blue Monday’ program, he came to the realization that he was picking out music for his final KUT fundraiser. And later that’s what he told his audience. The next fundraiser is in October, but all Monroe knows now is that he’d be gone before then.
“It’s going to be hard to let it go,” said Monroe, whose hours at the station were cut down to his signature ‘Blue Monday’ program in July. “But I want to work on my autobiography and also organize my archives.” Monroe has recorded every program he’s ever done, dating back before KUT, and he hopes to find a suitable home to house that collection.
“I’ve been finding some amazing shows,” he said Tuesday. “The Doug Sahm tribute, the show I did the day after Townes (Van Zandt) died. The Blaze Foley show. Just a lot of pretty moving memories.
Monroe also found an interview with Kris Kristofferson he’d done in Detroit in 1971, after one of Kristofferson’s first live shows. “He stormed off the stage because the sound was awful, but I caught up with him and, among other things, he told me about a couple of songwriters from Chicago- John Prine and Steve Goodman - who didn’t even have record deals at the time.”
Another project Monroe, 67, plans to work on is a 3-D photo exhibit with his girlfriend of a year, the noted photog Ave Bonar.
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Muse at ACL?
Our favorite music maniac B.V. has read between the lines (dates, actually) at Pollstar and surmises that Muse is a shoo-in to play the Saturday or Sunday at Austin City Limits Music Fest, where they killed a couple years ago when they took over the headline slot vacated by White Stripes.
Where are all the leaks this year? At this point of 2009, we’d already told you about Pearl Jam, Kings of Leon, Beastie Boys, Dave Matthews Band and Ghostland Observatory. C3 must’ve had a lip-buttoning session early on.
Or maybe the lineup is as lame-ish as Lollapalooza’s this year. (Soundgarden? Green Day? What is this Lollapalooza 1992? Is there still time to book Lush?)
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R.I.P. Guru
Legendary East Coast rapper Keith Elam, a.k.a. Guru, passed away Monday morning following a battle with cancer and a cardiac arrest earlier this year that left him in a coma.
In the nineties, Guru pushed the envelope on the hip-hop/jazz fusion movement with his ‘Jazzmatazz’ album series which wove lyrical rhymes with lush jazzy grooves and featured guest appearances by notable jazz luminaries including Roy Ayers and Branford Marsalis.
Guru was 47 years old.
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Advance ACL tickets sell out quickly
Like the $145 earlybird ACL tickets that sold out shortly after last year’s festival, the less discounted $165 tickets came and went this morning as well. The pre-sale was only open to people that signed up for the festival email list, and even if you did sign up, you weren’t guaranteed the discounted rate. After only a few minutes, the Twitterverse was full people of complaints that site problems had knocked people offline, forcing them to buy tickets at the non-discounted $185 price:
@huntleymt After the site “refreshing” and crashing countless times, I finally got @ACLFest tix at a higher price. So much for #ACL pre-sale. grr.
@lexicalunit I signed on to the ACL ticket system at a few minutes before 10 and I’ve been 1st in line for 16 minutes now. Keeps timing out. #ACL #fail
@jennm311 #ACL PRESALE FAIL
This race for tickets is all happening without any word on the lineup. Tickets go on sale for the general public tomorrow through Front Gate.
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DeRo resigns as Sun-Times music critic
Celebratory shots of tequila may have been downed at C3 Presents headquarters as Jim DeRogatis, a burr in Lollapalooza’s tookus, has stepped down as pop music critic at the Chicago Sun-Times to teach at Columbia College Chicago and blog for WBEZ’s vocalo.org blog.
“Sound Opinions,” DeRo’s weekly rock n’ roll talk show with Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune will continue undisturbed. KUT airs the syndicated program, which has made the hard-working pair the Siskel- Ebert of music criticism, Saturdays at 6 a.m.
A yearly visitor to Austin during SXSW, DeRogatis is as committed a music journalist as there is out there. So expect his new PopNStuff blog to be a daily must-read for music fans.
DeRogatis signed on at the Sun-Times in 1992, replacing Don McLeese, who left that job to take the lead music critic job at the Austin American Statesman. During the two-year gap between McLeese leaving and DeRo arriving, the Sun-Times pop music coverage was led by a really lame freelancer who used to nap on the couch of the Lounge Ax basement office waiting for such opening acts as Uncle Tupelo and Shellac to get off the stage, so he could catch headliners like the Gear Daddies and Goober and the Peas.
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Rosie Flores breaks arm, cancels dates
On the eve of a national tour with her Bloodshot Records labelmate Jon Langford, rockabilly filly Rosie Flores suffered a broken arm in a mishap at home in Austin last week. Some friends have started a ChipIn account, so if you’d like to throw this talented sweetheart a few bucks, please do.
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CD review: Roky Erickson with Okkervil River
Roky Erickson with Okkervil River
‘True Love Cast Out All Evil’
(Anti-)
Grade: A
Roky Erickson bares his soul exactly two minutes and 48 seconds into “True Love Cast Out All Evil.”
“Electricity hammered through my head,” sings Erickson on the second track, “Ain’t Blues Too Sad,” his voice weathered and throaty but in so many ways all too innocent. “ ’Til nothing at all was backwards instead.”
If most bands sang that line, it would be metaphorical. For Erickson, it’s a literal truth, and that makes the line heart stopping in its horror, power and raw, naked emotional resonance. That’s par for the course for “True Love … ,” his first album in more than 10 years, and one of the year’s best records so far, a musical journey with power enough both to inspire and to get you crying, sometimes within the same note.
Will Sheff drew from more than 60 songs across Erickson’s life in producing the album, and the resulting work is a powerful biography of an astonishing career, with 12 tracks of Erickson’s genre-spanning songwriting layered over the impeccable musicianship and production choices of Okkervil River.
Erickson’s miraculous story — from architect of psychedelic rock with the 13th Floor Elevators to Rusk State Hospital patient and eventually to stable elder statesman of local music — is by this point familiar to Austin music fans. So what makes “True Love … ” so striking is not the tale it weaves, but how it weaves it. Sheff chooses to kick the album off with an early lo-fi tape recording from Erickson, capturing the singer at a low ebb, before bit by bit mixing in the sounds of Okkervil River, from keys to harp to a wall of strings.
From that point on, whether Erickson is pleading and praying to authority on “Please Judge” or invoking a beautiful, pastoral vibe on “Forever,” Okkervil River manages to augment the power of Erickson’s voice without ever drowning it out. From the horns of “Be and Bring Me Home” to the slide guitar on the paean to love that is the title track, Erickson’s honest voice anchors a sonically diverse record that somehow manages to distill his windy life story to a concentrated, affecting 45 minutes.
Production flourishes abound, but they never overwhelm Erickson — make no mistake, this is a Roky Erickson album and not another Okkervil River record.
Though it’s impossible to separate Erickson’s story from his music — and, really, why would you? — perhaps the greatest compliment one can give “True Love … ” is that, for all the power of its context, it also just plain grooves when it needs to. “Goodbye Sweet Dreams” is a wistful guitar rocker of the highest caliber, and “John Lawman” is a cacophonous slice of damn-the-Man righteous fury that builds a whole story out of one angrily repeated line. “Bring Back the Past” channels power pop and the best of Texas country rock.
Longtime fans of Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators — and Okkervil River devotees, to some extent — will draw the most from this record. But for all the neophytes just beginning to access Erickson’s extraordinary tale and songwriting talent, you couldn’t ask for a better introduction.
Roky Erickson and Okkervil River play Saturday at the Paramount Theatre. 7 p.m. $30. 713 Congress Ave. www.austintheatre.org.
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CD review: Willie Nelson ‘Country Music’
‘Country Music’
(Rounder)
Grade: B-
In theory, this should be special — the classic Willie Nelson album we haven’t had since “Spirit” in 1996. In the producer’s chair you have T-Bone Burnett, who’s already resurrected mountain music (“O Brother Where Art Thou?”) and Robert Plant (“Raising Sand,” with Alison Krauss) this decade. The pitch here is “Stardust” meets the Grand Ol’ Opry circa 1962. How could it miss?
But “Country Music” sounds more like a playful, bluegrass-scented, jam session than a milestone. The musicians and Willie seem to be having a great time bashing it out, but this is a record without a spiritual core. Even Willie’s so-so albums (the Lost Highway years) generally have some sort of thread of humanity that binds, but “Country Music” sounds like it can’t wait to get to a box in the checkout line at Starbucks. You have to wonder if Burnett charged Rounder extra for this rush job.
There are some terrific moments, such as the coalminer’s dirge “Dark as a Dungeon” and the eerie, album-closing “Nobody’s Fault But Mine.” Plus Doc Watson’s “Freight Train Boogie” rocks as hard as any track without drums can. But mostly this just flutters around overdone covers such as Porter Waggoner’s “Satisfied Mind,” Bill Mack’s “Drinking Champagne” and songs that should have been left alone (“Pistol Packin’ Mama” is downright irritating).
There are going to be some Willie fans who love this record. But they are warned to not load it up on iTunes, where it will be followed by true Willie Nelson classics that show just how far “Country Music” strays from its intention. Hearing “Crazy” after this album will only make the new title sound generic.
Like so many of Burnett’s recent projects, “Country Music” started with T-Bone’s record collection; he sent Nelson 28 songs to consider, and together they whittled it down to 15. Then Burnett called in the A-team — Buddy Miller on guitar, Ronnie McCoury on mandolin, “Raising Sand” bassist Dennis Crouch and many other liner note perpetuals.
The problem is that Willie Nelson’s voice thinks it’s enough to belong to Willie Nelson. In concert, where Nelson (who turns 77 next week) talks his lyrics as much as he sings them these days, he’s earned such a pass. When he sings all over the beat onstage with his exaggerated nasal twang, that’s cool because, c’mon people, that’s Willie Freakin’ Nelson!
But on record, especially a high-profile one like this, “One Take” Willie’s vocal imperfections stick out.
This album took four days to record, but it sounds like it could’ve used another week.
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Free ‘Big Squeeze’ party May 1 at Bullock Museum
Texas Folklife and accordion master Joel Guzman are hosting a statewide squeezebox contest May 1 from 2 pm- 6 pm on the Lone Star Plaza in front of the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum.
Also, the amazing Los Texmaniacs and other top names of conjunto music will perform at the free concert. Fans are encouraged to bring folding chairs.
The winner of the fourth annual ‘Big Squeeze Contest’ will receive a prize package valued at $3,000 and perform live in Houston on June 5 as part of the 21st annual Accordion Kings & Queens Festival. Contestants are Peter Anzaldua, 13, from Brownsville; Gloria Jean Cantu, 17, from San Benito; Keyun Dickson, 18, from Houston; Roger Guerra, 17, from Mission; Ignacio Isai Morales, 14, from Dallas; Ruben Paul Moreno, 20, from Houston; Christina Valdez, 11, from San Benito; and Jesus E. Zamora, 19, from San Antonio.
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Liza Minnelli coming to Long Center
Liza Minnelli and Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons are among the acts announced for the fall season at the Long Center. Liza plays October 10, with a quartet featuring Houston native Billy Stritch.
The Four Seasons, whose rise inspired the hit Broadway musical “Jersey Boys,” will take the stage Oct. 17.
Here’s the full season lineup:
2010
September 3-4 The Intergalactic Nemisis - Live-Action Graphic Novel
September 17 A Ride With Bob - The Bob Wills Musical
September 19 Tommy Tune & The Manhattan Rhythm Kings
October 6-17 Jaston Williams’ Cowboy Noises
October 10 Liza Minnelli
October 16 Straight No Chaser
October 17 Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
October 20 Drumline LIVE!
November 10-14 Celebrity Autobiography
December 1-5 & 15-19 A Kodachrome Christmas
2011
January 6 Tango Buenos Aires
January 25-30 Dixie’s Tupperware Party
January 30 The Mark of Zorro
February 5 The Capital Steps
February 20 Vienna Boys Choir
March 6 Bowfire
June 15-26 ‘Til Death Do Us Part: Late Night Catechism 3
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Scene report: Saturday at Old Settler’s Festival
Musicians and music fans endured a rainy afternoon and evening Saturday at the Old Settler’s Music Festival in Driftwood, but not without significant set delays. Though it looked the rain had passed by about 6 p.m.—there was even a hint of sun—an intense line of thunderstorms rolled through soon after that interrupted sets by Austin-based Band of Heathens and others and delayed headliners Patty Griffin and 7 Walkers, the new collaboration between Papa Mali and former Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann. Though a healthy number of festival-goers toughed out the soggy weather, numbers seemed to dwindle as the night wore on.
It was too bad, as the Old Settler’s Festival, now in its 23rd year, is in many ways a refreshing antidote to other comparatively enormous events such as the Austin City Limits Festival. The festival is intimate, with two main outdoor stages (and one indoor) tucked among trees along the creek at the Salt Lick Pavilion. A small stretch of craft and food venues lined the walkway between the stages. Like ACL, many offer local fare, but Old Settler’s one-ups the fall music gathering by passing on tall boys of Bud Light and Lonestar for locally based Real Ale’s Fireman’s No. 4 and not-so-local Sierra Nevada.
For a small event, however, the lineup was packed with heavy hitters, including Alejandro Escovedo, who headlined Friday; Ruthie Foster, Jimmy LaFave, the Gourds and many others. Patty Griffin made an appearance during Nashville-based Buddy Miller’s 5:30 p.m. set, which concluded with an announcement by festival organizers that there would be delays as the rain moved though.
Music continued, though, with the weather worsening as Band of Heathens took the stage across the way. The Austin based roots rock outfit kicked things off with a fun version of “Ain’t No More Cane,” with various members trading verses during the traditional song, recalling a similar cover of the tune by the Band. After the rain prompted a mid-set race to cover electrical equipment with plastic sheeting and pull cables out of a foot or so of water, organizers cut power to the stage. The Heathens, not letting the delay slow them down, played a few acoustic numbers for diehards that hadn’t left to seek shelter.
After the weather calmed a bit, headliners finally made it to the stage, with Papa Mali-led 7 Walkers playing opposite Patty Griffin. Kreutzmann’s presence at the festival brought out a few seriously dreadlocked Deadheads, who got their dance on in the mud as the band rocked its way through a set of Dead covers as well as original material with lyrics penned by Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. After 45 years, Kreutzmann is still an incredible presence on the drums, transforming what would otherwise be middling blues rock into something truly special. At a festival so steeped in bluegrass and country music, it was kind of strange to see the audience rocking out so hard to soaring versions of Dead standards such as “Love Light” and “Wharf Rat,” but it was also fitting, given Austin’s history of psychedelic rock.
Check out photos of the festival here.
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Rounder Records sold to Concord Music Group
Boston-based Rounder Records, which has been home to such Austin figures as Marcia Ball, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, James Hand, the Leroi Brothers and, most recently, Willie Nelson, has been sold to California’s Concord Music Group, it was announced Friday.
Concord, which was co-founded by TV producer Norman Lear, also owns Fantasy Records, which is putting out the next Alejandro Escovedo.
Launching 40 years ago, Rounder has most its money by releasing albums by Alison Krauss, both with her Union Station band and with Robert Plant on “Raising Sand.”
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Volcanic ash forces Dixie Witch to cancel European tour
The volcanic ash from Iceland is having an affect thousands of miles away in Austin.
Austin band Dixie Witch was scheduled to be in Europe this weekend to play Holland’s annual Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Netherlands. On Friday morning, the band’s management exhausted trying to re-route the group’s flight.
“It’s sad. It’s a bummer,” said Trinidad Leal, the band’s drummer and lead vocalist. “I was packed. We were all set. It was a matter of getting in the car and getting to the airport. You prepare for this. This has been planned for six months. But you never think it’s going to be a volcano. it took a volcano to stop Dixie Witch.”
Dixie Witch, a Texas-flavored Southern rock trio, was going to Europe as part of a two-week, 13-date tour in France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Leal said he was excited for the band’s first-ever performance in Paris.
Now the band likely will get back to Europe next year after recording a new album this fall, he said. The band posted the news about canceling on its Facebook page.
“It’s an act of mother nature,” Leal said. “We decided we’re gonna hold out. There maybe a song about this on the new record.”
- Marques G. Harper
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Ray Benson hosts ‘Texas Music Scene’ on KEYE
Austin’s CBS affiliate KEYE has picked up “Texas Music Scene,” a new half-hour TV show originating from the CBS-owned TXA21 in Dallas. The first show, which airs on KEYE at 11 a.m. on Saturday April 24 and Sunday April 25, features Kevin Fowler, Aaron Watson & Ray Wylie Hubbard. The host is Ray Benson.
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Cactus forum to be held Wednesday
The University of Texas will open the floor to public comments concerning the future of the Cactus Cafe at a forum from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday.
The session will be in the Avaya Auditorium, Room 2.302, of the ACES (Applied Computational Engineering and Sciences) Building, 24th Street and Speedway.
Juan Gonzalez, vice president for student affairs, will host the forum. He will make recommendations on management of the Cactus at the April 30 meeting of the Texas Union’s advisory board.
To read about Thursday’s meeting on campus concerning the Cactus, click here.
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Spin names Waterloo 2nd best indie record store in U.S.A.
On the eve of Record Store Day Saturday, Spin has listed the Top 15 independent record stores in the country. Waterloo is at #2, just behind Amoeba in Hollywood.
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Review: Pat Metheny at the Paramount Theatre
Guitarist Pat Metheny’s concert Wednesday night at the Paramount Theatre was a musical happening of the highest order - a jaw-dropping confluence of jazz, technology and visual art. Think you know Pat Metheny? Think again.
You’ve heard of Jimi Hendrix, the Band of Gypsys? This night was all about Pat Metheny and his Band of Robots.
The sensation was straight out of the 22nd century: Metheny composing, choreographing, conducting and collaborating in the company of an industrial-sized virtual jazz orchestra. A one-man band like you’ve never seen.
Metheny started the night intimately, organically, visiting delicate acoustic landscapes from “Beyond the Missouri Sky” and “Bright Size Life” - even as he was flanked by xylophone/keyboard/calliope-looking musical furniture that sat mysteriously silent.
Then, four songs deep, a curtain rose, revealing a three-story scaffolded tower, six huge boxes on each level, filled with instruments. Drums, snares, traps, bells, cymbals, an exotic array of percussion instruments.
With that, Metheny launched into “Orchestrion,” an expansive, picturesque jazz symphony in five movements, the room filling with sound as his virtual orchestra sprang to life. Metheny’s music has always had a rich sense of panorama, of landscape. He loves exotic sounds, textures. And so it was in “Orchestrion,” with his virtual band (which he also calls Orchestrion) approximating marimba, chime, pipe organ, whistle, piano, all manner of Asian, African and South American percussion.
It was a wonder to look at, too - a hyper-modern musical art installation, with pistons pumping, mallets bouncing on keys, pin-pricks of white light pulsing from the scaffolding each time Metheny activated an instrument in his wall of sound.
Metheny performed for two-and-a-half hours - playing seven, eight different guitars through the evening while taking on the role of bandleader, soloist, programmer, improviser, accompanist all in one. The music often had a sweep, a textural energy, familiar to fans of the Pat Metheny Group, with exhilarating changes in tempo and rhythm and tone.
At one point, Metheny noted to the audience that the sensation for him, in some settings, was like playing guitar in front of a futuristic scroll player piano, one with a refined sense of dynamics. He also confessed the first question people often ask is “Have you lost your mind?”
Metheny’s virtual jazz orchestra can’t do everything. It can’t replicate the spontaneous human dance of listening-and-soloing of bebop, of small combo jazz. With his orchestrion, Metheny improvises, listens to himself, solos in response to his own solos, and so on: It’s a different kind of dance.
Yet Metheny’s music moves. It satisfies, intensely, in a textural, orchestral sense. And it’s infused with the joy of an artist who seems forever young in his passion to try new things, to see new ways, to take new journeys. The man was busting jazz barriers when he played the Armadillo World Headquarters more than 30 years ago - and so it is today.
The Paramount audience clearly loved it, the show punctuated with frequent standing ovations to the very end, when Metheny closed with the 1978 gem “Sueno con Mexico” - the orchestrion technology allowing him to play two guitar lines at the same time.
“Thank you,” Metheny said to the house at one point. “I know it took a leap of faith for you to buy this ticket.” What an exhilarating leap it was.
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Roky Erickson and Will Sheff talk “True Love”
The grandfather of psych-rock and the Okkervil River frontman sat down with PBS to discuss “True Love Cast Out All Evil,” which is out Tuesday on ANTI-. Check out the video here. Rokkervil will play the Paramount on Saturday, April 24 (tickets are available here). Below, Sheff interviews Roky about his career, the new album and taking pity on music journalists:
Roky Erickson and Will Sheff - Austin, TX from Roky Erickson w/ Okkervil River on Vimeo.
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Weekend picks: Driving glam-punk, smokin’ Tejano and otherworldy reptile love
FRIDAY
101X Homegrown Live with the Lemurs and the Frontier Brothers at the Parish. So there’s a practical reason the Frontier Brothers split their time between Austin and Fort Worth, but why worry about that when it’s more fun to speculate? One possible theory: They rock so hard that one city just can’t safely contain them. From the dizzy, driving glam-punk of ‘You Should Start A Band’ to the wistful horn-accentuated pop of ‘Space Punk Starlet,’ the Frontier Brothers are one of the snappiest, most addictive bands you’ll find in Austin or the Metroplex, and they’re celebrating the release of their can’t-miss new EP. Ever-reliable dance rockers the Lemurs headline. With the Bright Light Social Hour. 8 p.m. $8. 214 E. Sixth St. theparishaustin.com. — Patrick Caldwell
Also recommended:
- Easy Star All-Stars at the Austin Reggae Festival
- Carrie Rodriguez at the Cactus Cafe
- The Happen-Ins at Waterloo Records
- Sixth Annual Busby Foundation Crawfish Boil with Charlie and Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis at Stubb’s
- Casiotone for the Painfully Alone at Emo’s
- Brownout and Pong at Antone’s
- Robert Earl Keen at the Nutty Brown Cafe
SATURDAY
High On Fire, Priestess, Black Cobra at Emo’s. Here’s a bill that was tested with great results at the most recent SXSW. Melted metal from the Bay Area, High On Fire, led by singer/ guitarist Matt Pike, isn’t content with pumping out the same old sludge. The trio’s fifth studio LP ‘Snakes for the Divine’ has a Garden of Eden reptile love theme that’s out of this world. 9 p.m. $15. 603 Red River St. emosaustin.com. — Michael Corcoran
Also recommended:
- Maneja Beto at Mohawk
- Acid Mothers Temple at Emo’s (inside)
- Monahans and the Low Lows at the Ghost Room
- Carrie Rodriguez at the Cactus
- Heartless Bastards, Hacienda, Leatherbag at Antone’s
- Igor and Red Elvises at the Continental
- Jonny Burke at Momo’s
- Ugly Beats at Beerland
SUNDAY
Los Texas Wranglers at Mi Casa Cantina. Dig if you will, a picture: it’s Sunday afternoon, you had a late night getting into shenanigans, and you could really use some good food and some good music as the weekend winds down. Fortunately, Mi Casa Cantina has just the ticket, with a free four-hour show by Austin’s best Tejano band — but you don’t have to take my word for it. They walked home with the Austin Music Award for best Latin traditional band just last month, and drummer Julian Fernandez took drummer of the year — a real feat for a town that likes its rock band drummers. 3 p.m. Free. 503 E. Sixth St. www.tamalestore.com. — P.C.
Also recommended:
- Warren Hood and the Hoodlums at Momo’s
- the Bells of Joy gospel brunch at Stubb’s
- the El Paso Heist at Red 7
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‘Phish 3D’ to screen at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar
If you’re not already a fan of beloved jam band Phish, you’re not likely to find your opinion swayed by having Trey Anastasio’s guitar loom at you in three dimensions. But if you count yourself a member of the mercurial foursome’s improvisational, genre-blending style, you’ll be happy to know that the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar will be screening the 3D concert film “Phish 3D” for one week starting April 30.
The concert was filmed at the band’s Festival 8 on the Coachella grounds in Indio, California back in October 2009. The movie will feature portions of the band’s performance of the Rolling Stones’ “Exile On Main Street,” as well as backstage footage and songs from their acoustic set.
Tickets go on sale tomorrow, with more information available at the band’s Web site. Tickets for a special advance screening of the movie in Boston, New York City, Chicago and Denver, among other cities, sold out in less than in hour. Given Phish’s devoted local following, it’ll probably be an in-demand show here, too.
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Old 97s continue to define alt-country
(Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)Of all the genre-defining alt-country bands to blast out of the ’90s — Uncle Tupelo, the Jayhawks, the Drive-By Truckers — Dallas quartet the Old 97s are the ones to beat, probably because in the eternal battle between “alternative” and “country,” they fall squarely on the more rocking side of the dichotomy.
Across seven albums and 17 years — all without a single lineup change, itself a small miracle — the band has reliably stomped and swaggered through songs that burst with hooky riffs, clever, romantic lyricism, thundering percussion and the edgy country croon of Austin-born front man Rhett Miller.
Wednesday, they bring that signature style to Stubb’s, rocking a benefit for the Hill Country Conservancy in honor of Earth Day.
The Old 97s never got their richly deserved mainstream breakthrough — like the contemporaneously formed Spoon, they were unceremoniously kicked to the curb by Elektra a few years back — but they’ve soldiered on with verve and vigor nonetheless. The Old 97s are precisely the sort of career musicians Texas most appreciates — four hard-working gentlemen who tour and record prolifically and have seemingly never stopped paying their dues, even though they’re long past the point where they have much of anything to prove. In other words, they’re lifers, and in rock music everybody loves a lifer.
Most startlingly, though, they’ve managed to stay fresh, with 2008’s seventh full-length studio album, “Blame it On Gravity,” managing to be every bit as addictive a barn-burner as any of their other albums. Miller confirmed on his Twitter that the band has started work on a new album, which means that concertgoers Wednesday — in addition to helping out for a good cause — will likely get the chance to hear some work-in-progress new material.
The Old 97s will be joined by Austin transplant Ben Kweller, an equally hard-working country-influenced performer. Kweller’s the recent recipient of glossy love in the pages of both Austin Monthly and Esquire, proof positive if anyone needed it that his earnest country-pop is finding more of a following all the time.
The Old 97s play Wednesday at Stubb’s BBQ. Doors at 6:30 p.m. $18.
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Dale Dudley interviewed on Howard Stern show
KLBJ-FM’s morning man Dale Dudley, who interviewed Howard Stern’s limo driver Ronnie Mund last week, was interviewed himself by a Stern news reporter today. Dudley quite graciously credited Stern for pioneering the sort of radio Dudley, Bob Fonseca and their producer Angela Davis do every morning on 93.7 FM.
Dudley’s name first came up Monday when Mund, who came to Austin for the opening of Rick’s Cabaret in Round Rock, told Stern “there’s a radio guy down in Austin that sounds just like you.”
The report goes on to talk about how intimidated Dudley was when Stern’s syndicated program came to podunk Austin in the late ’90s. What was left out of the 60 second segment was the fact that “Dudley and Bob” wiped the floor with Stern in the Austin radio ratings.
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Live at the Garten continues tomorrow
Beloved summertime staple Unplugged at the Grove kicks off Thursday with a show featuring Charlie Mars, but if you want to get your free music on one night earlier, Scholz Garten has the hookup.
The ever-reliable restaurant and beer garden, 1607 San Jacinto Blvd., kicked off its own free summertime concert series last week with the Belleville Outfit. The free shows go down every Wednesday night from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Slaid Cleaves performs tonight. 70s cover masters Skyrocket, formerly the K-Tel Hit Machine, perform next week.
Though popular, the Scholz Garten concerts aren’t quite as jam-packed as Unplugged at the Grove, and offer a great chance to catch some excellent local musicians in a low-key environment. Plus, the price is right. Last year featured Brownout, T-Bird and the Breaks, Patrice Pike and Vallejo, among many others.
Check out the full lineup for the next few weeks under the jump. The series runs through August 25.
April 14: Slaid Cleaves
April 21: Skyrocket
April 28: The Derailers
May 5: Eliza Gilkyson
May 12: The Grascals
May 19: Redd Volkaert & Cindy Cashdollar
May 26: Strings Attached
June 2: Dale Watson
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SXSW’s Canadian cousin NXNE announces lineup
Is SXSW getting too crazy for you? If you want to see what it was like 10 years ago, head to Toronto June 14-20 for NXNE, which was co-launched 16 years ago by the Austin gang, but is now entirely managed by their Canadian partners (though SXSW has retained a stake in ownership).
The Stooges, Raveonettes, De La Soul, Mudhoney and more are slated to play. Go here for more details. Like SXSW, NXNE has a film and interactive component.
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Spoon joins Conan for tour opener
Spoon joined the new TBS talk show host last night in Eugene, Oregon. Statesman TV writer Dale Roe has the details here. No word on which, if any, musical acts will join him when he stops in Austin on May 14.
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Brad Paisley to headline Aquapalooza at Lake Travis
The Aquapalooza Web site has announced that country music star Brad Paisley will headline the event on July 10 on Lake Travis. The concert, which plays to thousands of boaters, but no land-lubbers, will be held at mile marker 22 at The Reserve at Lake Travis, near Pace Bend. Here are more details.
The Sail & Ski Center in Lakeway will be co-hosting the event.
Last year’s Aquapalooza signature event, held in Lake Martin, Ala., brought in an estimated 35,000 people. Alan Jackson headlined.
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Lilith Fair comes to Austin August 14
Substantial props as always to the Onion A.V. Club Austin (who have an impressive ear to the ground where Lilith Fair is concerned) for picking up on this at lightning speed — Sarah McLachlan’s traveling showcase for female musical talent has announced dates, with Austin’s part of the festival going down August 14. Word broke that Lilith Fair would be coming to Austin back in January, and this is the first we’ve heard with further details since then.
Details are slim at the moment — no venue has been announced and (more importantly) no lineup has been confirmed. The full Lilith Fair lineup is a doozy, but the exact players will vary from city to city, so Austin could get (or not get) nearly anyone on the list. If you’re not afraid to fly blind, tickets go on sale Saturday, April 17.
Of course, the ever-tantalizing letters “TBA” up on the official site mean plenty of opportunity to engage in the national pastime of Austin: speculation about music festivals. So which of Lilith Fair’s many performers would you like to see rock Austin in August? Pop into the comments and let us know.
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CD review: Matt Pond PA, ‘The Dark Leaves’
Matt Pond PA
‘The Dark Leaves’
(Altitude)
Grade: C
“The Dark Leaves,” bucks the trend of the oft-imitated, sparse folk music of artists such as Bon Iver or Bowerbirds, opting instead for polished production, big vocals and bouncy songs. In doing so, the band instead places itself closer to the world of experimental musician Andrew Bird. Pond, who has been around for more than 10 years, lets his experience shine on the release; the songs are for the most part well-crafted and overflowing with a sense of confidence. On some of the material, like opener “Starting,” he fails to connect emotionally, and the result unfortunately plays like background music on some CW teen drama. He fares better on the sprawling “Remains,” quietly singing lines such as, “I can’t remember which movie taught me pain” in conversation with thumping drums and a droning guitar. The strength of the song doesn’t carry over to the mid-tempo “Brooklyn Fawn,” however, which falls short as it plods along with nothing to distinguish from any other alt-country release. This sense of imbalance more or less sums up the experience of “The Dark Leaves”; for every promising track, something uninteresting comes along and spoils the fun.
Matt Pond PA plays the Mohawk June 21.
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CD review: Freelance Whales, ‘Weathervanes’
Freelance Whales
‘Weathervanes’
(Frenchkiss/Mom and Pop)
Grade: C
The debut album from Freelance Whales functions something like a 45-minute, 13-song time machine, transporting the listener all the way back to the halcyon days of … well, 2005, essentially, before the term “chillwave” existed and when the indie roost was ruled by precious, sensitive, quirky indie pop from the likes of the Boy Least Likely To, the Shins and Sufjan Stevens.
All the hallmarks are there. Heartfelt swells of emotion? Check out the erupting choir over a gently strummed acoustic guitar on “Location.” Painfully earnest lyricism that’s too straightforward by half? Take a listen to these puppies: “I am convinced we could be friends/We have several interests in common/And I am convinced that we have been friends/Were you a Tahitian grain of sand/In a past life?” Banjo? Glockenspiel? Handclaps? Oh, you’d better believe you’ll hear more of them than you know what to do with. There’s even an extended reference to mumblecore movie “Hannah Takes the Stairs,” on the song “Hannah.” You could call that a hipster feedback loop.
Your appreciation for “Weathervanes” will hinge largely on how fondly you look back on that particular brand of pop. Freelance Whales are perfectly good at what the band does — the melodies are catchy and the instrumentation is airtight. It’s precisely the sort of music Natalie Portman’s character in “Garden State” would have regarded as life-changing.
But there’s a serious dearth of anything exciting or different on “Weathervanes,” and from front man Judah Dadone’s strikingly Ben Gibbard-esque opening lilt to the closing tambourine on “The Great Estates,” the album can’t help but feel a little stale.
There’s promise on offer — the band showed substantially more energy and verve during its multiple appearances at the South by Southwest Music Festival, proving this band’s got the chops — but it’s not realized here.
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CD review: Jeff Beck, ‘Emotion & Commotion’
Jeff Beck
‘Emotion & Commotion’
(Rhino)
Grade: C+
Don’t focus on the “Colbert Report”-worthy eagle swooping, guitar in talons, across the cover of Jeff Beck’s latest record — “Emotion & Commotion” might have moments of bombast (the “Miami Vice”-ready “Hammerhead,” written “with Jan Hammer in mind,” for one), but there’s nothing self-consciously parodic about it.
Instead the guitarist spends most of his time here conjuring grandly serene emotions — cushioning himself in an orchestra that his tone can pierce, ever so gently, like the rays of sunlight breaking through clouds behind that axe-wielding eagle.
This is a Beck who’d rather pick out “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (where the melody reverberates and bends like an underwater whalesong) or a bit of Puccini, each note given its due, than compete with his virtuosic peers for Guitar God bragging rights. The result is always pretty, always tasteful, but sometimes (as on a cover of “Lilac Wine,” a song known via Jeff Buckley’s aching 1994 rendition) its beauty is as unchallenging as Aaron Neville singing an advertisement for 100 percent cotton clothing.
Beck growls here and there, most notably when he has guest vocalist Joss Stone egging him on. (Her “I Put a Spell On You” is a noble attempt handicapped by the band’s unwillingness to match the deranged lurch of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s original.)
But on the whole this is an easy-listening outing, where not even the occasional sample of Tuvan throat singing (on “Serene”) can interrupt the soundtracky vibe. Listen for it in a Starbucks near you.
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CD review: Carrie Rodriguez, ‘Love and Circumstance’
‘Love and Circumstance’
(Ninth Street Opus)
Grade: B+
Carrie Rodriguez lays it all out on the very first track of “Love and Circumstance.”
“I need love as big as an ocean/I need a love that can’t be crossed … Do you know where this love can be found?” queries Rodriguez in her inviting, wise-beyond-her-31-years way, backed by the tender harmony vocal of Aoife O’Donovan.
That’s the central question that binds and unifies the third solo studio album from the famously prolific, famously twangy Austinite. Comfortingly, when Rodriguez goes looking for love, she basically does it the same way many of us do: by digging through her records. Thus, “Love and Circumstance”: 12 thoughtfully tackled covers, each examining in its own way the search for, infatuation with or loss of love.
Lest you roll your eyes already, “Love and Circumstance” isn’t a garden-variety covers record. Rodriguez is a thoughtful curator who veers away from the cliché and well-known, tackling a diverse set of material from Buddy and Julie Miller, Lucinda Williams, Richard Thompson, David Rawlings and Gillian Welch and, most touchingly, her father David, on the gently ambling “Eyes on the Prize.” By the time she does get to an obvious standard, on a striking and spare rendition of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” she’s earned it.
They’re slam-dunk covers, too — lived-in and enjoyable, whether on her surprisingly propulsive take on Rawlings’ and Welch’s “I Made a Lover’s Prayer” or her sadder, mellower approach to Sandrine Daniels’ “I’m Not for Love.” She’s aided by a strong backing band and a small-but-powerful group of guests that includes Bill Frisell and Doug Wamble. By the time “Love and Circumstances” winds to a close it feels like Rodriguez’s most personal album yet — no small feat for a record where she didn’t pen a single lyric. Fortunately, it bears her indelible personal stamp all the same.
Carrie Rodriguez plays a two-night stand at the Cactus Cafe at 8:30 p.m. on April 16 and 17. Tickets are $15 at the door.
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CD review: MGMT, ‘Congratulations’
‘Congratulations’
(Columbia)
Grade: B-
When a band gets famous and members feel they can’t “handle it,” they often make one of two kinds of followup records.
One is the “price of fame” album, in which They sing and play and songs about how everything has changed and who can we trust and please pass the drugs so I can numb myself. “In Utero” was a really good one. “De La Soul is Dead” and “The Marshall Mathers LP” are others. Pulp’s “This is Hardcore” is a personal favorite. Bow Wow actually named an album “The Price of Fame,” which gave everyone a good laugh.
The other is the “contract breaker,” an album that goes so consciously against label expectations based on previous work that the record company elects to let the artists go from their contract, which is probably the intention. It is essentially a dare. Those familiar with 1990s indie rock remember that when avant-blues rockers Royal Trux signed to Virgin, the band delivered a straight-forward album in 1995 called “Thank You,” then followed it with “Sweet Sixteen,” a well-neigh unlistenable record with a profoundly befouled toilet on the cover. Genius!
At first, it’s a little hard to tell which “Congratulations” is. “Dead in the water/ is not a paid vacation … it’s hardly sink or swim when all is well, when the tickets sell” goes the title track. Which certainly argues for the former.
MGMT became wildly famous for the song “Kids,” which dates back to theearliest recordings in 2004. An anthemic, dancey tune with a blissful, pastoral vibe, a rerecorded version became a hit in 2008.
It seems to have freaked the band out a bit. There isn’t a “Kids” on “Congratulations.” People who know the band from “Kids” will probably hate this.
Instead, the band made a woozy, often disjointed hunk of obtuse psychedelic musicmaking, stacks of guitars and synths and drums and what sounds like many substances in one big swirl.
Produced by Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom, MGMT’s Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden rounded out their duo with something like a full band to make an album full of references to past psych-rockers (“Brian Eno,” “Song for Dan Traecy”) and weirdos present (“Lady Dada’s Nightmare”). “It’s Working” feels the drugs taking effect, and the title track complains “Damn my luck and damn these friends” while sounding exactly like an acoustic T. Rex song.
Ultimately, this isn’t a contract breaker: Too much thinking went into it; it’s too, of all things, sincere. We’ll see what the kids think.
MGMT plays an already sold-out show June 6 at Stubb’s.
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Live review: Yeasayer at La Zona Rosa
While mash-up artist Girl Talk entertained on the University of Texas campus Saturday night as part of the annual 40 Acres Festival, Brooklyn-based indie pop group Yeasayer created a musical collage of their own in the first of two nights at La Zona Rosa. Combining eighties and early nineties dance music, sprawling layers of synthesizer effects, tribal-sounding drums and percussion and rock, the scene was arguably just as much of a dance party.
The group, fronted by sports-coat clad vocalist Chris Keating, is no stranger to Austin, having made a few stops at Emo’s and elsewhere over the last few years, but with a new album and revamped sound, they seemed to play with a stronger sense of direction this time around. Though they band pushed their sound in a lighter and more pop-oriented direction on their sophomore release, “Odd Blood,” they merged new and old material seamlessly during the set. The jumpy “Odd Blood” tune “Rome,” with its piercing keyboard line, stood finely aside the eastern-sounding “Wait for the Summer,” on which the band belts out the endlessly catchy lines “Wait for the summer/we’ll sleep when we wanna/don’t tell your mother.”
They showed their range on another new song, the ethereal “I Remember,” which incorporates elements of progressive rock. The audience was predictably excited about “2080,” which has become one of their strongest numbers, but the fact that a lot of people seemed to know all of the words to the new songs is an indicator of just how strong of a fan base they’ve built. This was especially true on the big singles “Ambling Alp” and “ONE,” during which many in the crowd showed off their craziest moves. They changed direction a bit for the encore, which began with the psychedelic “Grizelda” and went straight into another crowd pleaser, “Sunrise,” a fitting way to end the night.
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Live review: Girl Talk at Forty Acres Fest
Even before Gregg Gillis queued up the samples, readied the laptops and had his posse shoot toilet paper into the audience, it was already abundantly clear that the operative word to describe his headlining performance at the University of Texas’ Forty Acres Fest Saturday was going to be “insane.”
The annual free and open-to-the-public shindig at the base of the UT tower has hosted some fine performers in recent years, from the Roots to Little Richard, but the crowd for Saturday’s show was on an entirely different level. Clearly UT’s Music and Entertainment Committee found the pleasure center of the collective college brain and stroked it hard, as students and onlookers were packed into the area like sardines. Before a note of music was played, two things were clear for every attendant: you were going to dance, and you were going to get sweaty.
The ever-reliable White Denim made for something of an odd opener for Girl Talk — they’re sloppier and more psychedelic than Gillis even at his most outre — but played an energetic set that at least established a nicely frenetic vibe. But the best setup for Girl Talk was in the songs played over the PA before he started performing — nothing gets a college-age audience primed like some vintage 80s cheese and a little Stevie Wonder, so spirits were high and students were singing along even before Gillis played his first sample.
After a quick introduction — Gillis steered away from banter for most of the night, letting the mashup do the talking — Girl Talk plunged into a selection of cuts drawn primarily from “Night Ripper” and “Feed the Animals,” with a healthy selection of new samples and progressions thrown into the mix to keep things fresh. It’s been almost two years since “Feed the Animals” hit the Internet, so there was plenty of new life in Gillis’ mixes, including prominent samples from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Heads Will Roll” and Phoenix’s “1901.”
Recapping a Girl Talk show is a little tricky — there’s no song breaks and no set list, per se, and running down which samples he employs would be a tedious exercise in listmaking. The ultimate barometer for a Girl Talk show is audience engagement, and by that rubric Saturday’s show was a sweeping success. It wasn’t a show for the faint of heart — if you wanted to stand in the back, cross your arms, and sway mildly, you were out of luck, as crowds jammed into each other, elbows were thrown, and the temperature on the ground was a good twenty degrees higher than in the air. As with any Girl Talk show, attendance essentially required getting very intimate with strangers. But the joyous audience was willing to go with the flow as beach balls bounced, confetti flew and students crowdsurfed. As the set wound down with an extended sample from John Lennon’s “Imagine,” the experience was self-referential, sweaty, diverse, dance-filled and very exhausting.
In other words, perfect for a college show.
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Live shots: Girl Talk at 40 Acres Fest
(Rodolfo Gonzalez AMERICAN-STATESMAN)- Photos: Girl Talk at 40 Acres Fest
- Photos: More 40 Acres Fest photos
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Live review: Elton John at the Erwin Center
(Alberto Martinez AMERICAN-STATESMAN) - Photos: Elton John at the Erwin Center
UPDATE: Elton John’s Saturday night show at the Erwin Center was the highest-grossing concert ever at the venue. Sir Elton sold $1.308 million worth of tickets, surpassing Luciano Pavarotti’s previous record of $1.2 million.
When Elton John and his band, including original members Davey Johnstone on guitar and Nigel Olsson on drums, opened with “Funeral for a Friend/ Love Lies Bleeding,” followed by “Saturday Night’s Allright for Fighting” at the Erwin Center Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 16,000, you had to wonder how they were going to top that. And for two hours they didn’t, though an extended “Rocket Man”- the concert’s centerpiece- came close.
Other highlights included “Levon,” which was turned into a gospel stomp at the end with Sir Elton’s furiously staccato piano runs, the epic “Madman Across the Water,” a quite lovely “Daniel” and “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me,” with the night’s most stirring vocals.
But the show didn’t really lift off until the end of “Burn Down the Mission,” when, following that legendary piano workout, Elton said “come on down” and invited the audience to jam up in front of him. The faces of delirium took the show to a different level.
Nobody is more aware of his audience than Elton John, who’s always sensationally talented, but puts on his best show when the crowd’s totally into it. His goal seems to be to try and get his fans to wake up the next day with faces sore from smiling. After just about every song Saturday night, he sprung from his bench and ranged the stage, mouthing “Come on!” But after playing “Bennie and the Jets,” his cheerleading was unneccessary. The pre-encore set closed with “The Bitch Is Back,” “I’m Still Standing” (the theme song of his AARP years) and the classic inhibition-flushing “Crocodile Rock.”
I’ve seen Elton John several times since 1974, when he was the biggest thing since the Beatles, and he’s never sang and played better than on Saturday night. At age 63, Elton can still hit the high notes on such early career classics as “Tiny Dancer” and “Honky Cat.” And on the brand new “You’re Never Too Old To Love Somebody,” from an upcoming duet record with his hero Leon Russell, Elton shows he’s still got a jazzman’s mind on the 88s.
At one point, Elton addressed a man in the front row who looked to be about 35- the median age of the crowd. The guy had been singing every song at the top of his lungs and raising his arms as if the music would charge him even further. Elton seemed to be playing to the man several times and they locked energies on “Philadelphia Freedom” (my least favorite Elton John song, by the way). “What’s your name?” Elton asked, after saying that he’s seen the man at most of his shows lately. His name is Rich and he told his idol that Saturday night was his 167th E.J. concert. “Well, I love to play for you,” Sir Elton said. “Whenever you’re in the crowd, I know it’s going to be a good show.”
And it was. Thanks, Rich.
Elton John setlist 4/10 Erwin Center
Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)
Levon
Madman Across the Water
Tiny Dancer
Philadelphia Freedom
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Daniel
Rocket Man
I Guess That’s Why They Call it the Blues
Sad Songs (Say So Much)
Take Me to the Pilot
Something About The Way You Look Tonight
Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word
Candle in the Wind
You’re Never Too Old To Love Somebody
Honky Cat
Burn Down The Mission
Bennie and the Jets
The Bitch Is Back
I’m Still Standing
Crocodile Rock
Your Song
Circle Of Life
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Shaver drops out of Austin Outhouse reunion
In what was to be his Austin victory lap after being found not guilty of aggravated assault, Billy Joe Shaver notified Giddy Ups Saturday afternoon that he was having some slight breathing problems and had to bow out of the Austin Outhouse Reunion concert that night. Guess he still hasn’t recovered from that huge sigh of relief on Friday.
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Live Review: Vampire Weekend at Stubb’s
There’s an old Albert Brooks bit that contains the punchline “What a polite animal.”
Vampire Weekend reminds me of that joke. They are very polite animals.
What kind? I’m leaning toward meerkat. Perky, social, smart — sounds like these four New York kids, who sold out Stubb’s weeks before their brisk, 19 song show.
Their music — a blend of semi-Afropop guitar, in-jokey lyrics about the urban-dwelling upper-middle class they know well, and more of ska’s bounce than most bands would admit internalizing so completely — seems perpetually one song away from being Jimmy Buffet for comp lit majors.
But there’s a weird charm about them that keeps them on the safe side of smug. Maybe it’s their self-consciousness. Ezra Koenig — he of the lead vocals, high-set guitar, button-down shirts and hair that demands a political campaign be built around it — made jokes about sing-alongs as a corporate trust building exercise and dedicated a song to students, “especially grad students.” They know their reputation cold.
There’s very little on their sophomore album “Contra” that’s as catchy as anything on their still-startlingly focused debut. Early songs (“A-Punk,” “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”) bounced and rippled with a simple clarity, amped up by Chris Tomson’s wisely enormous-sounding drums.
The songs from “Contra” were more complicated, from the cascading notes on “Bryn” to the almost-heavy blend of clacking drums and dueling guitars on “Giving Up the Gun” to the drum machine-driven ballad “Taxi Cab.” No songs ever drifted or descended into jams — they punched like New Yorker “Talk of the Town” pieces. Everything was over and done with well before 11 — these rock ‘n’ roll animals stayed polite until the end.
Setlist after the jump
1.White Sky
2.Holiday
3.Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
4.I Stand Corrected
5.M79
6.Bryn
7.California English Pt. 1
8.Cousins
9.Taxi Cab
10.Run
11.A-Punk
12.One (Blake’s Got A New Face)
13.Diplomat’s Son
14.Giving Up the Gun
15.Campus
16.Oxford Comma
17.Horchata
18.Mansard Roof
19.Walcott
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Police shut down Guero’s outdoor stage
Rob Lippincott of Guero’s Taco Bar said he’s not being defiant, but “trying to keep my empoyees in jobs” by hosting live music today after being shut down last night for not having a building permit for his outdoor stage. Lippincott said the city approved his site plan correction Wednesday, but that data is not yet in the computer. The amendment allows the stage, but Lippincott probably won’t receive his building permit until next week.
“This is the biggest day of the year on South Congress,” says Lippincott of today’s Lonestar Rod & Kustom Roundup. “It’s bigger than South by Southwest.” Before being cited, he planned a full day of music, starting with Eve Monsees at 2 p.m. Police have told him that they’ll come by at 6 p.m. to make sure he’s in compliance. Meanwhile, Lippincott says members of city staff are trying to work out a stay with the city manager’s office.
Lippincott was first cited several months ago when it was discovered that he built the outdoor beer garden and stage without going through the correct permitting process. He’s been hosting music since then, he says, with the understanding that he was moving forward on getting all the proper permits.
“I think it’s going to come to a head at 6 o’clock,” Lippincott says. “I mean, can I do it or can I not do it.”
Don Pitt from the city’s music manager’s office could not be immediately reached Saturday.
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Shaver ‘tentatively’ scheduled to play Giddy Ups Saturday
The cheers went up Friday night at Giddy Ups when it was announced that Billy Joe Shaver was found not guilty of aggravated assault charges in Waco. Shaver is scheduled to play the club on Manchaca Road, currently hosting the Austin Outhouse Reunion concerts, at midnight Saturday. But Giddy Ups management is calling the gig tentative because, well, Billy Joe just might need a day off after what he’s been through.
Personally, I don’t see Shaver passing up the chance to celebrate with his Austin fans. If the verdict had gone the other way, it might be more iffy.
Read what John Kelso wrote about the Austin Outhouse shows.
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Spike Jonze to shoot Arcade Fire film in Austin
Film blog /Film is reporting (and MTV confirms) that Spike Jonze is secretly casting a short film in Austin as part of a collaboration with Montreal indie rock band Arcade Fire. Jonze, who featured a version of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” in his recent film “Where the Wild Things Are,” is scheduled to be in town next Tuesday for a visit to John Pierson’s Master Class in the Radio Television and Film Dept. at the University of Texas. There is no word on whether the band will be in town as well.
photo: Scott Newton/KLRU
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Sample the sounds of Girl Talk
In the musical landscape of Gregg Gillis, there is no filler, only killer.
Gillis, 28, is a leading light in the world of mashup — the 21st-century art of assembling musical compositions from the scattered bits and pieces of other songs. Imagine, say, the driving lyrics of Outkast layered on top of the drumbeat from Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” as the Hammond B-3 organ from “Gimme Some Lovin’” wails in the background. Or better, yet, don’t — just queue up the first track of Gillis’ acclaimed fourth album, 2008’s “Feed the Animals,” which features all three samples. And that’s just in the first 30 seconds.
You also can see it for yourself Saturday, April 10 as Girl Talk takes to the stage as the headliner of the University of Texas’ 40 Acres Festival. The show kicks off at 7 p.m. with opener White Denim and is free and open to the public. Gillis spoke with us by phone about why his music — once called “a lawsuit waiting to happen” by the New York Times — has thus far evaded legal action, the similarities between mashup and biomedical engineering, and why irony has no place on a Girl Talk album.
American-Statesman: The South by Southwest Music Conference went down here in Austin just a few weeks ago, and as I’m sure you are aware there was a panel titled “Why Hasn’t the Record Industry Sued Girl Talk?”
Yeah, that was funny. I think a lot of people who were down there heard about it in the same 24-hour span, so I got a lot of “LOL” text messages sent to me. My booking agent had a friend who went and said the panel was a little vague but kind of comical.
Did they invite you to be on it? It seems strange to have an entire panel dedicated to one artist and then not have that artist sit on it.
I actually can’t remember. I have been invited to be on specific speaking engagements in the past, a good number of them at universities and for panel discussions on copyright, but I’ve never done any of them. It may have slipped my mind, since we don’t do any of them.
Well, now’s your chance — why hasn’t the record industry sued you?
I think it’s a variety of reasons. I believe what I’m doing should qualify under fair use, because I’m using all the sampled works in a transformative way. I don’t think it impacts any of the artists I sample — it’s not like people avoid buying Yeah Yeah Yeahs records because I used four seconds of “Gold Lion” in a song … I think realistically it’s because I sample so many artists that if they did challenge me, and I won, it’d set a precedent they wouldn’t like.
Have you had threats of legal action? The legal threats from EMI that were brought on Danger Mouse’s “The Grey Album” were pretty substantial.
None at all, actually. I think the only real contact I’ve had with labels has been more or less support. No one’s gone ahead and said “This is great and we love this,” because that’s a bad look, but they know that their albums get exposure through my albums. A couple of labels have come to me about doing work for them or big remixes of their back catalogue, so from my end I haven’t had really any issues at all.
It’s always interested me that you studied biomedical engineering in school, if only because it’s not hard to imagine how the same brain that pursued that field could also see the appeal of mashup. Do you think there’s a common thread in your motivation for getting into both?
Yeah, I definitely see a connection. Especially because I don’t think I was born an engineer by nature. You kind of grow into it a little bit. The time I was studying that was the same time I was developing the Girl Talk project, and just like with engineering, when I started this music I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know how to make a beat, and there’s no set way to go and learn how to play a computer. So I went through a big process of experimenting and fooling around and trying many different ideas and being detail-oriented and I think that’s very similar to what I did in the engineering world. I’d sit in front of a computer and tweak the smallest little variables in ways that would hopefully contribute in a big way to something later on. And that’s how Girl Talk works, too.
On a practical level, it’s pretty easy to see the appeal of slapping together two segments from, say, Dee-Lite and Nirvana — it’s fun. On an artistic level, though, are you looking to get anything out of that juxtaposition?
On a broad level, I want to challenge people with the idea that no music is truly bad. It’s not black or white. Take a step back and respect the intentions of the artists, and realize that everybody is doing very valuable things and that they all kind of work together.
I take it that means ironic appreciation doesn’t play a big role in your approach to your work?
No, not at all. I try to really dismiss all irony when I’m doing my music. I try to have no guilty pleasures in life. I don’t think anything is silly or dumb when it comes to music. You have to evaluate Miley Cyrus on a different level than Sonic Youth, but they’re both pursuing different aims and they’re both doing a really good job at what they’re setting out to do. When I was in high school I wasn’t as open-minded to all forms of music, and when you’re an angsty teenager you have to hate something, so I put my foot down and hated this or that. But the older I got and the more I dove into music the more I saw issues of people blindly not being into something because it wasn’t cool, and when I took a step back it got very silly. Part of the main idea in even starting Girl Talk was to challenge that attitude. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying pop music in all its forms.
I’m interested in hearing what your listening process is like — obviously you ingest a pretty huge amount of music. What kind of listening habits do you have?
There’s two different modes for me: listening for fun and listening for samples. Occasionally I’ll be sitting around and say “Man, I haven’t been working with enough ’70s soul music lately,” so I’ll go out CD shopping or to a used CD store and start grabbing things from the R&B sections. That’s a very different mode of listening. I pop in a CD and skip through songs, which is very different than when I just listen to music, which I tend to do when I’m chilling out and eating dinner. Despite all the piecemeal listening I do, I feel like I have a solid attention span when it comes to listening to things as a whole, I kind of zone out and don’t worry about if there’s a great drum fill in there or whatever.
Do you have a lot of affection for full albums or do you prefer individual songs? I think anyone listening to a Girl Talk record would probably assume you’re a jumpy listener.
This may surprise people, but I still very much believe in the album as a whole process and an art form unto itself. I think you can kind of view my music in a couple of ways. You can view it as a case of extreme attention deficit disorder, but I feel like technically you may have to have a longer attention span. Since I work in whole albums and the song breaks are pretty arbitrary, you’re really supposed to hear 40 or 50 minutes of it in a row, and that can be pretty exhausting for some people.
I’m curious to what extent you regard mashup as an act of personal creation. On the one hand, it’s obviously pretty involved, but on the other you’re working with other peoples’ music, not your own. The drum fills, the guitar solos, the vocals — these things are not yours. Do you still have a sense of ownership over your music?
It kind of works on a case-by-case basis. Some things I feel more ownership of than others. But with my work one of the goals is for it to be transformative and for the bits and pieces of songs to become something else entirely. The samples provide the source material and inspiration, but they become something new. It’s sort of like — I feel like a lot of artists sit down and learn to play the guitar, but they didn’t invent the guitar. They didn’t invent the chords. It’s not necessarily that much different than sitting down with a sample and chopping it up and adding a beat to it. I think a lot of times people view what I do as less real, but for me a goal with the music is to make it something of my own and really take it somewhere new.
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Willie and Billie Joe: from the courthouse to Riverbend
Billy Joe Shaver isn’t gonna let a little thing like a possible prison sentence mess up his itinerary. The songwriting great will team with his old friend Willie Nelson for an April 25 concert at Riverbend Centre.
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Austin owns Americana airplay chart
Five of the 10 most-played albums on national Americana stations last week are from Austin-based artists. Yes, we’re counting “Crazy Heart,” which wouldn’t have been the same without the late Stephen Bruton, who co-produced and co-wrote several of the songs.
- VARIOUS, “Crazy Heart” Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
- CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS, “Genuine Negro Jig”
- JOHN HIATT, “The Open Road”
- PATTY GRIFFIN, “Downtown Church”
- RECKLESS KELLY, “Somewhere In Time”
- RAY WYLIE HUBBARD, “A Enlightenment B Endarkenment Hint There Is No C”
- CARRIE RODRIGUEZ, “Love And Circumstance”
- WILL KIMBROUGH, “Wings”
- JOHNNY CASH, “American VI: Ain’t No Grave”
- RED MOLLY, “James Independent”
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Sister 7 to anchor this year’s Steamboat reunion
If you miss the halcyon days of Danny Crooks’ late, lamented East Sixth club the Steamboat — and the choice radio play its artists enjoyed on 93.7 KLBJ — you’ll enjoy the annual tribute show, taking place this year at Threadgills World Headquarters, 301 W. Riverside Dr., on May 16.
A host of old-school Austin bands will make appearances, with the current lineup including Steamroller, Pushmonkey, Podunk, Dahebegebees, Van Wilks and Extreme Heat. Patrice Pike and Wayne Sutton’s Sister 7, who flirted with radio success in the late 90s and were signed to Arista Records, will headline. The event runs from 2 to 10 p.m. and tickets will be $15 at the door.
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IFC recaps SXSW tomorrow night
If you’re not thoroughly South by Southwested out, want to relive the memories and have cable television, the Independent Film Channel’s got just the ticket for you.
IFC will air a SXSW wrap-up special tomorrow night, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. The 30-minute special includes interviews and performances captured throughout the festival, including several interviews conducted by Hold Steady front man Craig Finn. Performers include She and Him, Broken Social Scene and Neon Indian, among others. The special also includes highlights from the film festival.
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Weekend picks: Indie darlings, Rocket Man and psychedelic pop
FRIDAY Camera Obscura at Emo’s. Scotland’s ray of musical sunshine is led by singer/guitarist Tracyanne Campbell, indie pop’s girl with a butterfly net. Their latest album gave them a modest Euro hit with ‘French Navy.’ With Princeton. 10 p.m. $18. 603 Red River St. www.emosaustin.com. — Michael Corcoran
Also recommended:
- Bob Schneider at Antone’s
- Freeze, Lower Class Brats at Red 7
- Pat Green at Nutty Brown Cafe
- Ani DiFranco at Paramount Theatre
- Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs at Emo’s (inside)
SATURDAY Elton John at the Erwin Center. It’s a smashing night to be a music fan, with a sold-out show from Vampire Weekend and a Yeasayer concert so big it had to be moved and given an extra night. But they can’t give you ‘Tiny Dancer.’ Or ‘Candle in the Wind.’ Or ‘Levon.’ Or … well, this could go on all night. 8 p.m. $47-$127. 1701 Red River St. uterwincenter.com. — P.C.
Also recommended:
- Royal Forest at Emo’s
- Lottery League at Red 7
- Girl Talk and White Denim at UT
- Poi Dog Pondering at Antone’s
SUNDAY Yeasayer at La Zona Rosa. Luke Fasano was probably the best drummer to play ACL Fest in 2008, so when he left Brooklyn’s psychedelic Talking Heads project Yeasayer, it took two drummers to replace him. There’s no dropoff at all in creativity on new record ‘Odd Blood.’ This show is the second of two nights at LZR, with Javelin opening. 9 p.m. $17. 612 W. Fourth St. www.lazonarosa.com. — M.C.
Also recommended:
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Escovedo’s ‘Street Songs of Love’ coming June 29
Bruce Springsteen and Ian Hunter make guest appearances on “Street Songs of Love,” Alejandro Escovedo’s followup to “Real Animal,” which is also produced by Tony Visconti and contains co-writes with Chuck Prophet. The album comes out on Fantasy, a new album for Al, June 29.
Here are a few song descriptions from the label’s release:
“A father aches for his son’s struggle to find life’s meaning in “Down In The Bowery,” perhaps the album’s beating heart on which Ian Hunter contributes full-throated vocals. Bruce Springsteen and Alejandro trade lines around a nasty guitar riff on “Faith,” a tightly woven rocker that bores in and never lets go. The lead track “Anchor” explodes out of the speakers, a statement of purpose about that treacherous thing called ‘love,’ that recalls the best of The Band, Tom Petty and Rolling Stones.”
As if there’s room for more cliches, Escovedo calls the LP “a band record,” with his Sensitive Boys outfit (David Pulkingham, Bobby Daniel and Hector Munoz) playing a bigger part than in “Animal.”
The band will play songs from the album as well as old chestnuts April 16 at the Old Settler’s Music Fest in Driftwood.
Street Songs of Love - Track listing:
1. “Anchor” (Alejandro Escovedo-Chuck Prophet)
2. “Silver Cloud” (Alejandro Escovedo)
3. “This Bed Is Getting Crowded” (Alejandro Escovedo-Chuck Prophet)
4. “Street Songs” (Alejandro Escovedo-Chuck Prophet)
5. “Down In The Bowery” (Alejandro Escovedo-Chuck Prophet)
6. “Tender Heart” (Alejandro Escovedo-Chuck Prophet)
7. “After The Meteor Showers” (Alejandro Escovedo)
8. “Tula” (Alejandro Escovedo- Nick Tremulis)
9. “Undesired” (Alejandro Escovedo-Chuck Prophet)
10. “Fall Apart With You” (Alejandro Escovedo)
11. “Shelling Rain” (Alejandro Escovedo-Kim Christoff)
12. “Faith” (Alejandro Escovedo-Chuck Prophet)
13. “Fort Worth Blue: (Alejandro Escovedo, David Pulkingham)
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Pachanga Fest lineup released
The lineup for the third annual Pachanga Latino Music Festival at Fiesta Gardens was released today, and it offers an impressive array of diverse artists that should have no problem making the fest every bit as snappy and dance-worthy as it was in 2009. Local Latino music stalwarts like Grupo Fantasma, Brownout and David Garza will put in appearances, of course, but you can also expect several more rock-influenced acts, including San Antonio rockers Girl in a Coma, Pinata Protest and Hacienda, as well as Austin’s own Amplified Heat. There’s also a nice smattering of national and international artists, including Bogota, Colombia’s Bomba Estereo, New York’s Pacha Massive and Los Angeles’s Pilar Diaz.
In fact, it’s a lineup so bursting at the seams that Pachanga will expand for the first time to Friday night, kick off at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 21 and running all-day Saturday, May 22.
“There’s just so much music that it was hard to cram it into one day,” said organizer Rich Garza. “The pool of bands was so big, and since it made logistical sense — we’re already there, we’re already set up — it was kind of a no-brainer to expand. And we’re starting small with Friday night, so it’s not like we’re going to lose our shirts or anything.”
Friday night will feature a single stage, while Saturday’s festivities will, as with last year, take place across three stages. Kids festival Nino’s Rock Pachanga will return, featuring performances by David Garza, Alejandro Vallejo and others, crafts and a photo booth by Annie Ray.
Garza pinpointed last year’s successful festival — the first in Fiesta Gardens — as a turning point for the event. The positive reaction to its broad sampling of Latino artists encouraged him and fellow organizer Alex Vallejo to continue to expand Pachanga’s offerings this year, from the Grammy winning Tejano of the Tortilla Factory to Tucson, Arizona’s Y La Orkestra, which Garza described as “kind of like a bizarro Grupo Fantasma.”
“The first year was very alternative centric and left of the dial, by the standards of the Latin world, which is the space Alex and I live in. And what we figured out was that a lot of that stuff was just so out there that we were neglecting a large part of the community,” said Garza. “So we built in the mariachis and the tejano, and that really resonated and opened things up and made the festival more interesting. We wanted to mirror the Latino experience in Texas and the country. About the only thing Latino people have in common is the Catholic church, Spanish surnames and sometimes the language, so we wanted to demonstrate that.”
Tickets are available now for $15 ($20 after April 20) with Friday and Saturday VIP tickets available for $60 ($75 after April 20). A portion of all proceeds will benefit the FuturoFund Austin. Children under 12 are free when accompanied by a ticketed adult. Check out the full lineup after the jump.
The full line-up includes:
Bobby Pulido (Edinburg, Texas)
Grupo Fantasma w/ Larry Harlow (Austin, TX/New York, N.Y.)
Bomba Estereo (Bogota, Colombia)
Pacha Massive (New York, N.Y.)
Tortilla Factory (Austin)
David Garza (Austin)
Vallejo (Austin)
Girl in a Coma (San Antonio)
Hacienda (San Antonio)
Brownout (Austin)
Y La Orkestra (Tucson, Ariz.)
Pilar Diaz (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Bombasta (San Antonio)
Amplified Heat (Austin)
Carla Morrison (Tecate, Mexico)
Los Bandidos (Austin,)
DJ Dus (Corpus Christi)
Pinata Protest (San Antonio)
Mariachi Las Altenas (San Antonio)
Wille Alvarado (San Angelo)
Brian Lopez (Tucson, Ariz.)
Making Movies (Kansas City, Mo.)
Vitera (Austin)
24-7 (Victoria)
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Breakaway Records relocates to North Loop, hosts grand opening bash
Since June 2008 Soul Happening DJ Gabe Vaughn and co-owner Mike Hooker have lovingly curated what might well be Austin’s best vinyl haunt in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nook on West Fifth Street. But starting Friday, Breakaway Records will move to a new location at 211 North Loop, next to Epoch Coffee. The new space is twice as large, a fair bit easier to find and will continue Vaughn’s “all-vinyl, no CDs” philosophy just a stone’s throw from the recently departed and much-loved Sound On Sound.
“As you may know, my dear friends and neighbors at Café Mundi have closed their doors due to rent issues with our landlord,” wrote Vaughn on the store’s Web site. “Out of loyalty to them and the amazing environment that they have created, I have decided to move as well.”
To celebrate, they’ll be hosting a grand opening shindig on Friday. The store will be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and feature a number of prominent locals as DJs, including Jason Chronis of Voxtrot and Eve Monsees. Full lineup below the jump.
3 p.m. - DJ Zimmy45
3:30 p.m. - Shorty Stump (Sock Hop)
4 p.m. - Second Line Social (Sock Hop)
4:30 p.m. - Jason Chronis (Voxtrot)
5 p.m.. - Timurphy (Sock Hop)
5:30 p.m. - Dominic Welhouse
6 p.m. - Mike Buck
6:30 p.m. - Eve Monsees
7 p.m. - Alex LaRotta (I’m Shakin’)
7:30 p.m. - Michael Selman (I’m Shakin’)
8 p.m. - DJ Starsign
8:30 p.m. - Rae Davis (Grown Folks)
9 p.m. - Carla Shiflet
9:30 p.m. - Anna Roch
10 p.m. - Daniel Del Castillo
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Being a dad tempers Jennings’ work
Shooter Jennings recalls local color in every mirror. “I got the skull on my arm at this place on Sixth Street during one SXSW,” the 30-year-old son of outlaw country icon Waylon Jennings says. “The (tattoo artist) was totally drunk and doing Groucho Marx imitations. It was creepy!” Jennings, whose new concept album “Black Ribbons” tempers haunting sociopolitical imagery with exacting wit, performs Thursday at Emo’s.
American-Statesman: Why did you choose to play ‘God Bless Alabama’ on (The Tonight Show with Jay) Leno (on March 30) instead of a heavier song? Jennings: They wanted us to do that one. I didn’t fight too hard, even though I would’ve loved to go with some of the more charged material on the record. My friend Matt Reeser wrote that song as a gift for Alabama (Jennings’ 2-year-old daughter with “Desperate Housewives” actress wife Drea de Matteo) the day she was born. ‘Bama was there with me at Leno and she loves that song. I knew she’d eat it up.
How much has being a father influenced your songwriting? Quite a bit, man. To be honest, having a child has just changed my outlook from here on out. I have this little girl who’s about to go out into this world, and I feel a certain responsibility that whatever (music) I put out there is something that she can learn from and engage in at some point. It’s also changed my chemistry. I don’t go out anymore, and I prefer to be at home.
Has fatherhood altered your idea of success? Yeah, my idea of success at 16 would have been to be on the cover of “Rolling Stone” magazine. Now, it’s to be financially stable and be home as much as I can. By association, the writing is affected, and I’m more conscious of what I’m saying.
What exactly are you saying on ‘Black Ribbons’? Well, it was inspired by what the world’s been going through: the economic decline, and the strange and scary things that were the catalysts. It’s a giant metaphor for love and truth and what I’ve learned from having a family.
It ultimately does seem optimistic. Yeah, I’m glad you hear that. It’s like we put a bunch of black paint on a wall and then painted a rainbow on it. You have to have the black paint on there to ultimately make the rest of it shine. It’s a record about truth more than government. It is optimistic! Somewhere along the line, Stephen King did a part for us (laughs).
Right. Was he your first choice (to play central character Will O’ the Wisp)? I had him in mind the entire time. That fact that he liked it really helped me have a lot of confidence in this project. Stephen was so cool and so generous and such a wonderful dude. To have his mind attached to this project is a triumph for me.
He’s great on the intro to ‘(Expletive) You (I’m Famous).’ That song seems clearly tongue-in-cheek, but do you worry about people interpreting it wrong? “(Expletive) You (I’m Famous)” is a total satire, but I knew there were going to be people who think I was serious and this is some kind of Kid Rock song.
Shooter Jennings
When: 9 p.m. Thursday, April 8
Where: Emo’s, 603 Red River St.
Cost: $18 in advance, $20 at the door
Information: 505-8541
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Billy Joe Shaver trial continues in Waco
Our colleague Steven Kreytak is covering on the Austin Legal blog and Twitter. The latest: Man tells jury about the night Shaver shot him.
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UT outlines Cactus options
University of Texas officials are getting closer to a resolution to the Cactus Cafe flap. Under the headline, “New Cactus Options Considered,” put up on UT’s Cactus Cafe blog Tuesday night, there are the three recommendations from a series of “Cactus conversations” between UT staff (including vice president for student affairs Juan Gonzalez and dean of students Soncia Reagins-Lily), students and Cactus supporters:
Three Options Under Consideration
Conversations with students, faculty and community representatives have resulted in the following three options under consideration:
A contractual relationship, by which the University enters into a contract with an external third party to manage the Cactus Cafe.
A self-operating model by which a University office oversees the Cactus Cafe program, as it is currently managed.
A partnership with KUT Radio in which KUT will share Cactus Cafe programming responsibilities with student organizations. Under this proposal, KUT would book professional performers and manage the Cactus Cafe on agreed upon evenings during the year.
Some thoughts:
Interestingly, none of the options considers phasing out the Cactus in August, which was the original wording of the blockbuster Jan. 29 announcement from the Texas Union board.
Current Cactus manager Griff Luneburg would keep his job only under option #2, but he’d have less autonomy.
In withdrawing from the discussion group, which has met every Thursday for the past four weeks, Save the Cactus co-founder Reid Nelson said he expects No. 1 to be the model pursued.
Read the entire post here and tell us what you think.
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MGMT coming to Stubb’s June 6
To support their upcoming sophomore stretch “Congratulations,” MGMT is going on a tour that takes the Brooklyn space kids to Stubb’s June 6. Tickets ($32) go on sale Friday at www.frontgatetickets.com.
The band will also be musical guests at “Saturday Night Live” on April 24 and “The Late Show with David Letterman” on May 11.
Watch the video for first single “Flash Delirium” here. Warning: the singing neck might creep you out.
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Harlem drop “Gay Human Bones” video and play Waterloo Sunday
If you missed out on the chance to catch Austin’s golden boys (not to be confused with the Golden Boys) Harlem for their CD release show last Thursday, the gods of garage rock have smiled on you — the trio will play a free in-store at Waterloo Records Sunday at 5 p.m. Pabst Blue Ribbon will provide free beer.
The trio’s sophomore album, “Hippies,” doesn’t have a Metacritic page just yet, but Pitchfork, Austin Sound, the Austinist and the Onion A.V. Club — as well as this very paper — all approve. Courtesy of the Matador blog, check out the video for the nonsensical but highly enjoyable “Gay Human Bones” below.
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First new Jimmie Vaughan record in 9 years coming in July
Jimmie Vaughan’s covers album “Blues, Ballads and Favorites,” which includes songs by Little Richard, Jimmy Reed and Willie Nelson is coming out July 6 on Shout! Factory.
The album features the swan song of Hammond B-3 organ master Bill Willis—who played bass on most of those great King Records singles—takes over lead vocals on Willie’s “Funny How Time Slips Away.” Wills passed away late last year.
“Blues, Ballads and Favorites” is Vaughan’s first solo album in nine years.
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Jury selection begins in Billy Joe Shaver trial
The Statesman’s Steven Kreytak is in Waco covering the start. Updates at statesman.com and on Twitter.
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How much booze did your favorite club sell in February?
Austin clubs and restaurants with mixed beverage liquor permits pay 14 percent tax on bar sales to the state, which lists monthly figures on its Web site. By doing some fancy math (multiplying 14 by 7.14 to get to 99.6 percent), we’ve been able to round out the following bar sales totals for February. The March results, which will include SXSW bar sale figures, will not be posted until April 23, so it will be interesting to compare just how much better the clubs do in March than February, which also has three fewer days of business.
Here’s a sampling of live original music venues, mixed in with Sixth Street frat bars, which seem to do much better. (Note: Stubb’s could not be found on the master list, which is lumped alphabetically by city.)
Feb. 2010:
- Coyote Ugly: $123,507
- Midnight Rodeo: $110,405
- Chuggin’ Monkey: $107,706
- Continental Club: $106, 714
- Antone’s: $102, 630
- Hole In the Wall: $85,315
- Lamberts: $83,702
- Lucky Lounge: $81,703
- Saxon Pub: $75, 027
- Elephant Room: $62,582
- The Parish: $59,147
- Broken Spoke: $58,269
- Austin Music Hall: $44,125
- Red 7: $33,572
- Red Eyed Fly: $31,858
- Scoot Inn: $25,568
- Momo’s: $25,454
- Emo’s: $19,742
FYI- The Yellow Rose Gentlemen’s Club did $198, 220 at the bar in February.
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Soundgarden and Lady Gaga hold down Lollapalooza 2010
Let the Wheel of Fortune-esque guessing game draw to a close: the official lineup has been released for Lollapalooza 2010, the other C3 Presents-thrown outdoor festival, held annually in Chicago’s Grant Park. Green Day, Lady Gaga, the Arcade Fire, the Strokes and Phoenix hold things down as the headliners, while — surprising no one who’s been paying any attention — the festival’s biggest name will be the reunited Soundgarden.
Other big-name performers include the National, MGMT, the Walkmen, Mavis Staples, AFI, Metric, Yeasayer, the Black Keys, Devo, Cypress Hill, Erykah Badu, Raphael Saadiq and the New Pornographers. Just as importantly, there’s a pretty strong, if mildly predictable, slate of up-and-comers that includes South by Southwest 2010 artists the XX, Frightened Rabbit, the Soft Pack, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Freelance Whales and Nneka. There’s not a lot of Austin artists on offer, but you will find Spoon, Harlem, DJ Mel and — looking somewhat conspicuous, really — the Band of Heathens.
Of course, while some lucky Austinites will no doubt make the trek to Chicago, the real fun in dissecting the Lollapalooza lineup around these parts comes from wondering just how much of it will transfer over to the Austin City Limits Music Festival in October. Lollapalooza tends to skew a bit more electronic and rock than ACL — which generally tips its hat to its region and namesake television show with a healthy smattering of Americana and country artists — but the two festivals often draw on much of the same talent. Last year, they shared the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Kings of Leon, Dan Auerbach, the Decemberists, Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 and Andrew Bird, among a fair number of others.
All of which is a lengthy way of saying: speculate away. So what do you think? What Lollapalooza artists do you hope make the jump to ACL? Hoping to catch Lady Gaga at Zilker Park in October? Do you want ACL 2010’s lineup to look more like Lollapalooza or more like the impending Coachella? Which reunited 90s group would you rather see anchor ACL — Pavement or Soundgarden? What local bands deserve the honor? Tired of questions? Then sound off in the comments and let us know.
(Updated because ACL Fest is in October, not the month we had on second reference.)
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AquaPalooza moves concert to July 10
The fireworks of July 4 may fade into the night sky over Lake Travis, but AquaPalooza organizers want revelers to keep the party going all week long.
Sail & Ski Center and Sea Ray Boats recently announced that the date of AquaPalooza 2010 Signature Event on Lake Travis has changed to July 10 and are billing July 4-10 as AquaPalooza Week culminating in an on-the-water concert by an unannounced A-list act.
The move was made to accommodate the schedule of a major musical act, which will be announced in the near future, and to generate enthusiasm for a week of activities bookended by the Fourth of July weekend and the Signature Event.
Read more from our news partner, the Lake Travis View.
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CD review: Amy Cook ‘Let the Light In’
‘Let the Light In’
(Roothouse Entertainment)
Grade: B
Don’t pick up Austin singer Amy Cook’s “Let the Light In” expecting to hear much of the sound of high-profile producer Alejandro Escovedo — aside from an eleventh-hour, subtle guest vocal on “Moonrise,” a haunting tune that’s one of the album’s best, Escovedo’s production is largely clean and invisible. Don’t expect her other guests — Patty Griffin for the thoughtful and lovelorn “Hotel Lights” and Ben Kweller co-writing “Let’s Go Down to the River” — to represent the sound of “Let the Light In,” either. Don’t even expect to hear much of the sound of Lucinda Williams — it’s a bit of an overplayed comparison, and Cook’s delivery is never quite as raw or nakedly intense as Williams is even at her most disillusioned.
Instead, Cook’s closest comparison, particularly on hopelessly enchanting rockers like “I Wanna Be Your Marianne,” which has an electric guitar solo to kill for, is Sheryl Crow. All the hallmarks are there — the mastery of a good hook, the easy and identifiable way with lyrics, the girl-next-door voice that rarely calls too much attention to itself but always gets the job done. That’s not intended as a slight — there’s a reason Crow’s sold millions of records, and why in a better world Cook would, too. “Let the Light In” doesn’t have a boring spot on it, and while it rarely breaks out and surprises quite as much as you want it too — except on the quirkily spare and eerie “I Like to Go to the Parties” — it’s a tuneful, fun listen.
— Patrick Caldwell
Amy Cook has an in-store performance at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Waterloo Records, 600 N. Lamar Blvd. 474-2500, www.waterloorecords.com. She has a CD release show for ‘Let the Light In’ at 6 p.m. Thursday at Hotel San José, 1316 S. Congress Ave. More at amycook.com.
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CD review: Usher ‘Raymond vs. Raymond’
Usher
‘Raymond v. Raymond’
(La Face)
Grade: B-
Just as Usher is releasing his sixth album, America has become fascinated with the train-wreck quality of celebrity divorces. It’s fortuitous timing, because there may be no one more qualified to comment on celebrity marital woes than the R&B lothario slowly creeping into his 30s.
The success of his biggest album (2004’s “Confessions”) in part stemmed from the pulled-from-the-headlines quality of some of his biggest songs, which revolved around him cheating on TLC singer Chilli. In the years since, Usher has begun to see the downside of giving the world a bird’s eye view to his personal life.
As in “Confessions,” most of “Raymond v. Raymond” revolves around a failed relationship, this time a short-lived marriage with his hair-dresser. Once again, he has a confessional song over dark pianos about his infidelity (“Foolin’ Around”). And while he still acknowledges his culpability (“I guess it’s just the man in me / blame it on the celebrity / But it’s really just my fears / And it don’t dry your tears”), he is far less self-critical than he was six years ago.
Instead he resigns himself to the inevitability of his actions, throwing his hands up at the very idea of fidelity: “I guess I’m guilty for wanting to be in the club / I guess I’m guilty because girls always want to show me love / I guess I’m guilty for living and having a little fun.”
And maybe in the world before TMZ, the look-the-other-way model of marital relations Usher proposes was feasible. Or as T.I. put it more bluntly on “I’m Guilty,” he has an “alibi” for cheating on his girl: the nice things he buys her. But the celebrity-obsessed tabloid environment makes it nearly impossible for Usher’s new bride to ignore his actions. — Jonathan Tjarks
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CD review: Harlem - ‘Hippies’
‘Hippies’
(Matador)
Grade: B+
Harlem’s approach is easy to sum up: The Austin band’s serious about what it does, but not necessarily how it does it. On sophomore album and Matador Records debut “Hippies,” the famously anything-goes, self-deprecating band makes 16 tracks of sweaty, strummy, infectious spare rock look almost frustratingly effortless. You don’t make an album this fun without working very hard, but Harlem tries its darndest to make it look like its members weren’t trying — the record kicks off with the casually cruel lyricisim of “Someday Soon” and segues quickly into “Friendly Ghost,” a Casper-referencing nugget of pure jangle-pop perfection that’s almost clinical in how carefully it pokes every riff-loving pleasure center in the brain. “Cloud Pleaser” is an appealing song of heartbreak that slows the tempo down a bit, while scorchers like “Number One” and “Faces” shoot past at less than two minutes each, less songs than interludes designed to keep the listening experience fresh.
And when Harlem branches out a bit — as on “Prairie My Heart,” with its country-western amble — they show an impressive range lurking just under their straightforward garage rock song. “Hippies” doesn’t break a whole lot in the way of new ground, and it won’t change your life — but it does improve substantially on debut album “Free Drugs,” and for a band that makes fun its chief goal, it hits the mark.
— Patrick Caldwell
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Sunday lineup released for Austin Psych Fest 3
Thanks to Austin 360 commenter TXn for noting in the comments that the Sunday lineup has been released for Austin Psych Fest 3, the annual celebration of psychedelic rock going down at the Mohawk from April 23 to 25.
Additions to the festival’s already expansive schedule include PJ and the Bear, Silver Apples, the Dutchess and the Duke and the Gaslamp Killer, among others. You can see the full list of Sunday artists after the jump. Tickets are available right now and will run you $18 for a single day or $40 for a three-day pass.
The Gaslamp Killer Silver Apples The Warlocks The Dutchess and the Duke Mondo Drag Voices Voices Sky Parade Pure Ecstasy All in the Golden Afternoon Strangers Family Band Rayon Beach Gull Ghost Songs PJ and the Bear
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LCD Soundsystem to dance rock Stubb’s in June
Here’s a little news to start your work week off right.
James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem announced a series of North American headlining dates this morning, and luckily Austin is on the list, with a sure-to-be-thrilling and sure-to-sell-out danceorama scheduled for Stubb’s June 8. Tickets, $32, go on sale Wednesday. No opener has yet been announced — we can only (probably fruitlessly) hope that Murphy taps Austin LCD Soundsystem tribute band All My Friends for the gig, which would be so meta it could well result in the universe collapsing in on itself.
LCD Soundsystem has a new record, “This Is Happening,” out May 18. Pitchfork has the first single off the album, “Drunk Girls,” which is essentially about exactly what you think it’s about.
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Neil Young coming to Bass June 5
Neil Young’s solo tour, which kicks off May 18, will make a stop at the Bass Concert Hall June 5, Young’s label has announced. Noted folk Bert Jansch will open the show.
UPDATE: Tickets range from $59.50 to $249.50 and will go on sale at noon Friday at the Bass Concert Hall Box Office, most H-E-B stores and all Texas Box Office outlets, including online at www.TexasPerformingArts.org or by calling 477-6060 or 800-982-2386 (BEVO).
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VH1 gets behind the music of Austin band
Today, VH1 launches a new season of their “You Oughta Know” Artist on the Rise series with Austin-based Alpha Rev, whose album on Disney-owned Hollywood Records comes out April 27. The band, led by Casey McPherson (ex-Endochine) will also have its first video “New Morning” (the LP title track) in rotation at the channel.
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Live review: the Happen-Ins at Phoenix Saloon
NEW BRAUNFELS. Everybody in town is talking about the rebirth of the Phoenix Saloon, which was closed by Prohibition in 1918 and reopened in historic downtown N.B. a mere 91 years later in February. The problem was that the folks kept yapping while music was being played Saturday night. With it’s tin ceiling and brick walls, the 250-capacity Phoenix is a very “live” room and conversations carry, which marred the opening set from K. Phillips and the Concho Pearls, Seguin’s answer to “Astral Weeks.” I’d love to hear them again in a place that couldn’t be nicknamed Chatterbahn.
Headliner the Happen-ins- Sean Faires’ followup to Dedringers- fared better with a rockin’ sound that nicks from Keith Richards and Gram Parsons. This CD release show for the self-titled debut had a bunch of females dancing with themselves up front on “Never Said,” which is always the best review. With John Michael Schoepf (from Hayes Carrl’s band) on bass and Ricky Ray Jackson as co-frontman, this is very much a group and not a solo project, and they cast out a fun groove for almost an hour. It’s a bit of a ’60s one-hit-wonder sound, but with an aggressive attitude. Owner Ross Fortune calls the Phoenix a cross between Gruene Hall and the Continental Club, but the CC vibe won out on Easter Eve, as the Happen-Ins had the crunch to conquer.
British music journo Fortune and his Realtor girlfriend Debbie Smith bought the Phoenix building (which includes nine upstairs tenants) for $930,000 in Dec. 2007, but spent a year in finance limbo, then another year of renovations before they took in their first dollar. “We walked headfirst into one of the worst recessions in history,” says Fortune, who grew up in a town halfway between Liverpool and Manchester. A frequent Austin visitor since the early ’90s, he moved to the States in 2004 to write a book about Johnny Cash, but ditched that project when the market became flooded with Man in Black bios.
The irony of a Brit opening a club in a town of Germans is not lost on Fortune, but he said he felt he’d made the right decision in reopening the Phoenix (which took that name after rebounding from an 1890 fire), when he hosted a South by So What festival the Sunday of SXSW. “We had 12 hours of live local music going on two stages and I was constantly impressed,” said Fortune, who added four bands from that thrown-together showcase, including K. Phillips, to his booking base. (Interested bands should contact Fortune at ross@thephoenixsaloon.com.
Next month such Austin powerhouses as Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears and Alejandro Escovedo will try to shut up the Tube Townies.
The 196 W. San Antonio Street location, which housed a Schmidt’s clothing store for several decades, is famous as the spot that German immigrant William Gebhardt devised his method of making chili powder around 1895. True to that, the Phoenix today serves a great bowl of chili. But the kitchen is closed during nighttime performances because it’s next to the stage and would be a distraction. You have to admire such respect for musicians and care for detail, but Fortune and Smith should think of a way to serve food at night. Not just as a revenue stream, but because even in New Braunfels folks know you don’t talk with food in your mouth.
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Live review: Morris Day and the Time
(David Weaver FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)- Photos: 2010 Urban Music Festival
To anybody who dropped $20 — or $50, in the case of VIP tickets — for the Urban Music Festival based largely on the prospect of a lengthy show by headliner Morris Day and the Time, there’s really only one thing to say:
Sorry.
The organizers of the annual festival deserve full credit for putting on an event that ran (for the most part) smoothly and where the vibe was overwhelmingly relaxed and friendly, as families camped out in chairs savoring the music and enjoying the cool evening air. And Prince contemporaries and 80s hitmeisters the Time couldn’t have asked for a finer opening act than R&B crooner Joe — quite possibly the most generic one-word stage name of all time — who got an audience of thousands singing along. To judge by the faces in the crowd, when Joe sang that he wanted to “take you on a sexual journey,” more than a few were willing to go along, meaning that the audience was primed and ready for a rollicking performance by the famously entertaining Day, a consummate showman if there ever were one.
And as the clock struck 9:30 p.m. — the scheduled start time for, er, the Time — they waited. And waited. And waited.
When Day and the ever-svelte Time finally took to the stage an hour late, at 10:30, there was only enough time for them to tear through a four song set — consisting of “Cool,” “Get It Up,” “Wild and Loose” and “The Bird” — before running up against Auditorium Shores’ 11 p.m. deadline. That meant a set originally scheduled to run an hour and 15 minutes was shortened to a paltry 25.
In all fairness, the Time made the most of that 25 minutes. The band overcame an initially tinny sound mix with a blustering, theatrical live performance. Day had a rock-solid rapport with the audience — particularly in the call-and-response refrain of “Cool,” and when bantering with Jerome Benton during the famous “Bring out my mirror, I miss myself!” routine that’s become one of Day’s live trademarks. Live, the Time’s rock-influenced 80s funk jams are infectious, and it was encouraging to see the entire crowd at the Urban Music Fest rise from their chairs to dance to signature single “The Bird.”
But even the best filet mignon is underwhelming when there’s only two ounces of it, and a Morris Day and the Time show without “Jungle Love” seems roughly akin to a Kiss concert without “Rock and Roll All Nite.” The overall verdict? Good show, but the portion size was just too small.
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Urban Music Festival: Early scene report
(Alberto Martinez AMERICAN-STATESMAN) - Photos: 2010 Urban Music Festival
The 2010 Austin Urban Music Festival opened on a beautiful Spring day with ample sunshine and a blissful breeze that helped neutralize the scant shade options available at Auditorium Shores. Now in its fifth year the fest has developed an easy rhythm while carrying out a two-part mission. The evening events boast nationally renowned headline acts, this year Morris Day and the Time and r&b artist Joe. The early part of the day is devoted to family and community.
As such, a slow crowd was beginning to amass around the main stage by mid-afternoon as music fans staked out prime spaces with lawn chairs and blankets and raised umbrellas to block the sun, but the afternoon’s entertainment was centered around the side stage which featured local acts. Les and the Funk Mob warmed things up with vocalist Ter’ell Shaheed breaking down everything from funk classics to a Southern fried rendition of Maxwell’s 2009 r&b hit “Pretty Wings.”
The fact that this year’s event fell on Easter weekend was celebrated by local Christian entertainment outfit Spirit Groove who opened with a blistering Spoken Word call to praise before segueing into uplifting soulful grooves delivered by spirited young people. Meanwhile over on the children’s stage in the Kidciti area of the park a crew of KAZI volunteers clustered around the side of the stage as an adorable posse from the under ten set busted moves in a dance off hosted by Flava Dance. Other children’s activities included face painting, train rides and an Easter egg hunt.
While the vast lawn at Auditorium Shores was far from crowded, a steady stream of fans were already trickling in by 4 p.m. setting up a promising outlook for the evening’s entertainment.
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We have our first ACL Fest confirmation
Settle down, it’s only Blues Traveler. Pollstar has them listed as playing Zilker Park on Friday October 8, the first day of the festival that made a kind of dirt famous last year.
This booking is as big a surprise as one of Jann Wenner’s rock star neighbors getting a rave review in Rolling Stone. Blues Traveler is managed by C3, which books and owns ACL Fest.
The rumor mill’s been kinda quiet so far. Who do you think is likely to play ACL beside these acts?
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Save the Cactus co-founder withdraws from UT discussion group
Austin attorney and political consultant Reid Nelson has taken himself out of a seven-member discussion group that has been meeting every Thursday with University of Texas administrators to evaluate various proposals to keep the Cactus Cafe afloat.
“I can see they’re headed to a third party vendor model,” Nelson said Friday. “It seems to me that a decision in this regard has already been made.” The discussion group includes vice president of student affairs Juan González. The group has met the past four Thursdays at the student affairs center to evaluate three proposals made to the Student Union Board February 26 for a new operating model for the Cactus Cafe. The task force has two more sessions on the schedule before it presents its recommendations for the fate of the Cactus Cafe at the April 30 University Unions board meeting.
Associate Vice President and dean of students Soncia Reagins-Lilly expressed disappointment Friday with Reid’s decision, describing the conversations so far as “collegial and productive,” and noting that the group is still early on in the process of examining all of its options and making recommendations. Reagins-Lilly did acknowledge that the option of hiring a third-party contractor to manage operations in the Cactus Cafe space — whether for booking events or providing food and beverages — was one of three revenue routes being examined, along with a self-operating model (the current system) or a hybrid of the two models also on the table. In a hybrid model, an outside for-profit entity could run cafe and bar operations while a university-affiliated group could mange the programming — the “bifurcated approach” Nelson refers to in his letter. This is despite a rule that mandates that only 10 percent of the Student Union can be given over to outside contractors, a cap already reached with the current businesses operating in the space.
“One of the most recent conversations we had with the participants was having a member of our legal team come and speak to the ten percent rule,” said Reagins-Lilly. “They have advised us that that rule should not deter us from exploring all of our options. At the end of the day I want to insure we’re responding to, real hard realities while still preserving the character of the space and encouraging student involvement.”
Nelson’s full letter of withdrawal to González and dean of students Soncia Reagins-Lilly is after the jump.
Update: The spelling of Juan González’s last name has been corrected.
Dear Juan and Soncia,
I entered these conversations regarding the future of the Cactus Cafe in good faith. However, I made it clear from the beginning that I would approach them one at a time and continue with them so long as progress was being made toward the goals of our organization, Friends of the Cactus Cafe, to preserve the fundamental character of this legendary venue in its current location under professional experienced management.
My understanding of the Student Union Board’s charge to Dr. González is that he was to evaluate the three Cactus Cafe proposals presented to the Board in February and make a recommendation at the April 30th Union Board meeting on how best to move forward. This conversation group was to assist in reviewing those proposals.
Progress to date has been painfully slow. In three meetings we were able to come to agreement on what the goals for the Cactus Cafe were going forward. After yesterday’s meeting, it appears we have not even agreed on those goals.
Of the proposals that are supposed to be under review, at least one contemplates retention of current staff at the Cactus and another proposes building on the current business model to achieve greater involvement of students in Cactus operations. Discussions to date have revealed that, at the very least, half of the members of this group support keeping the Cactus Cafe operationally on the Texas Union books as the simplest and most seamless means of achieving the goals. However, you have made it clear that a model that builds on the operational status quo within the Union and any discussion of retention of current staff are off the table for these conversations.
I have serious reservations with your plans to present three potential models to Union management and have them decide which one is best for moving forward. On one hand, putting that decision, even ostensibly, in the hands of those who wanted to end the Cactus Cafe as we know it, seems ill-advised at best. On the other hand, what also seems apparent to me is that a model has already been decided upon by the administration, one that involves a bifurcated approach of a third party for-profit entity running cafe and bar operations and programming done through some other university entity.
Quite frankly, I’m beginning to feel a little like one of the students on the Union Board who, as is clear from the record, was asked to approve a decision to close the Cactus that had already been made two months before. There are, as you have stated, other discussions going on outside of our group. It was not clear to me until recently that those involved not just opinion-seeking of interested parties, but substantive discussions on moving forward with a particular business model.
When these conversations began, the operative position of the University, as expressed by one of the Union Board members, was that no third party would be taking over the Cactus Cafe space because of current space allocation to other third parties in the Union and the laws governing such allocation. Apart from any discussion about the viability of additional third party vendors coming into the Union, I have serious substantive reservations about what effect such an arrangement would have on the fundamental character of the Cactus Cafe. It will affect both employment opportunities for students and the extent to which daily cafe and bar operation can continue as they currently do. It also seems to me an unnecessarily complicated model that is ripe for conflicts down the road, and that cannot help but have a deleterious effect on the whole Cactus Cafe experience that makes the venue what it is to so many. Moreover, the involvement of a for-profit, third party as part of the business will complicate our group’s involvement, as a non-profit organization, in supporting the venue.
Finally, there are also other issues that I have encountered outside of our discussions that I believe will ultimately negatively taint this process.
For these reasons, regrettably, I cannot in good conscience continue as a part of these conversations. However, I would like to depart from them on a constructive note.
It seems to me that all of the work that is currently going into making third-party participation viable in the Union under current law could just as easily be devoted to revisiting the Union budget in a way that would allow the Cactus to remain operationally on its books. In my experience, change, particularly change in cultural institutions like the Cactus Cafe, is best effected not through a “blunt-cut” approach, but through gradual transition. If the Cactus Cafe mission is to change to include more student involvement in programming and greater learning opportunities for students using the venue as a resource (which I agree it should), that can best be accomplished, it seems to me, by adding those elements to the current model over time.
My suggestion would be that you seriously consider a 12 month trial program of maintaining the status quo at the Cactus Cafe, and adding to the current model the programs that would address the concerns of student participation, access and learning opportunities. I honestly do not see how that would fail to make everyone who has an interest in the future of this venerable room happy. We have moved, in terms of the atmosphere of our discussions in this group, from mostly contentious to largely cordial and friendly. I would have no reservations working with you both to develop a successful model based on such an approach.
Kind regards,
Reid Nelson
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Interview: King Khan
When Arish Khan — better known under the stage name King Khan — was a fetus in his mother’s womb, she’d place a pair of headphones against her stomach and pipe in hours of sitar music. When the sound of those strings drifted to his developing ears, Khan says, it kicked off a love of trippy music that continues to drive him 33 years later, as the front man for nine-member psychedelic soul outfit King Khan and the Shrines.
A full disclaimer is warranted, though: that story may be a lie. That’s the thing about interviewing the notoriously devil-may-care Khan, a fellow known for his oddball answers. Sometimes he busts out a story that’s insane but obviously true — like, say, accidentally throwing up in the mouth of the late rocker Jay Reatard (“Definitely the punkest guy I’ve ever met”) during a make-out session intended to shock the audience. Sometimes he spins a yarn — meeting his wife by answering an ad in Reader’s Digest for an “erotic housecleaner” — that’s clearly intended to be a bit of fun. And then there are stories like his mother playing him sitar music in the womb that are just on the line between convincing and absurd. Khan tells more of those tales than any other kind.
“I used to find interviews really boring, but now I’ve learned to enjoy it. If you want to give boring answers then you can bore yourself,” says Khan. “But if you make it psychedelic then you can have some fun with it.”
That serves nicely as an encapsulation of Khan’s general approach. With the Shrines at his back, Khan blends the fuzzy guitars of psychedelia with the propulsive pep of vintage soul. They’re like Sly and the Family Stone by way of the 13th Floor Elevators, or Little Richard if acid, and not cocaine, had been his 1960s drug of choice. He speaks reverently of Sun Ra, the genre-busting jazz pioneer who claimed to be a visitor from Saturn.
Live, Khan’s just as quirky. He’s famous for his on-stage attire — his most popular ensemble consists of only tight black underwear and a donkey teeth necklace — and a show that plays as much like a circus as a concert.
“I really like spontaneity, and I try to keep the live shows interesting, with strange and funny things happening,” Khan says. “The world needs a band like us to make life seem less dismal and horrible. That’s the one compliment I’m always really happy to get. There’s always somebody after a show who comes up and says, ‘Because of you I had a smile on my face for two months.’ “
Khan was born in Montreal, Canada, where he paid his dues in an array of garage bands before eventually joining up with the Spaceshits. He fell in love with Berlin during a European tour and opted to move there, leading to the dissolution of the group, In Berlin, the ever-busy Khan — he also plays under the name King Khan and the BBQ Show with former band mate Mark Sultan and has side projects with the Black Lips and rapper GZA — met his wife and formed the Shrines, who released their U.S. debut in 2008 on Vice Records.
The seed for the band had been planted years before, when Khan visited the house of New Orleans dance musician Quintron and discovered that the Mardi Gras spirit didn’t have to be confined to Mardi Gras.
“I remember walking into this crazy-looking house and opening the door and people were in feather masks and face paint and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is beautiful,’ ” recalls Khan. “That kind of spirit didn’t only have to live on a celebration day. That was the point of the Shrines — to bring that whole feeling of crazy celebration into places.”
“Crazy celebration” sometimes meant fireworks, food fights and urinating on the audience, but Khan’s live shows have settled down a bit. After all, he’s 33 now, and has two daughters. Khan says when it comes to crazy live shows, he can rely on the audience to meet him halfway.
“We used to use the shock thing as a tool to incite the audience and get their attention. But now people come expecting more of a musical and psychedelic experience rather than expecting to watch something grotesque. So they do most of the heavy lifting these days,” says Khan. “I’m relieved that I don’t have to relieve myself anymore. I think my wife was really tired of seeing my genitalia on the Internet.”
King Khan and the Shrines perform Monday, April 5 at 10 p.m. at Emo’s, 603 Red River. Tickets are $15 in advance; $17 at the door.
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Local Natives April 23 show moved to Antone’s
We are not surprised - the band with tons of buzz coming off South by Southwest was scheduled to plays Emo’s inside on April 23. The show has been moved to the larger Antone’s. From the C3 release: “Your tickets for the performance at Emo’s are good for entry into Antone’s and this is still an all ages performance. Door time for the new show will be 10 p.m. with the music starting at 10:30 p.m.”
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Cool gig alert: Easter at Roadhouse Rags
One of the coolest “secret” venues in town is Roadhouse Rags back patio at 1600 Fortview, just off Ben White near the Target. It’s like old Austin, but it’ll turn young Austin on Easter Sunday with the Fireants, Aftermath, Casino and the Carson Brock Group. Not a legal drinker in the bunch, but so much talent. It’s $5 cover and BYOB. Come early for an Easter Egg Hunt.
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Pat Green ditches Nashville, will record live album in Austin
Pat Green is a labelmate of Kenny Chesney no more. The former Austinite has left BNA (“it was Pat’s decision” says publicist Melanie Wages) and will record a live album Friday April 9 at the Nutty Brown Cafe for his own label. (Sounds like another excuse to put out “Carry On.)
This where it all began, with Green putting out his own albums before signing with Universal Nashville in 2000. Since then, Green’s been on more labels than the words “dry clean only.”
Wages says Green is “excited about getting back to his roots. He just didn’t like the direction his career was going in.”
Tickets to the live recording are $29.50 general admission. Green is also expected to be announced at the Lone Star State Jam headliner at Waterloo Park April 24.
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Concert preview: Urban Music Festival 2010
In their 1980s heyday, the Time was one of the best funk bands on the planet. Led by the charismatic Morris Day, but largely masterminded by his childhood pal Prince, the Time had a string of great bubblefunk singles such as “The Bird” and “Jungle Love” in the 1980s and built a rep as a killer live act. (Day and his hype man Jerome Benton nearly stole “Purple Rain” from Prince.) The band also launched the career of superproducers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who went on to helm a mess of Janet Jackson albums. Morris Day, probably still a great showman, and the Time (we remain unsure of how much of the original lineup is still there) headline the Urban Music Festival Saturday at Auditorium Shores.
For this fifth annual affair, other headliners include After 7, Joe, Grupo Fantasma and host, comedian A.J. Jamal. There will also be tributes to Michael Jackson and Teddy Pendergrass, plus up-and-coming local talent. $20. 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Auditorium Shores, 950 Riverside Drive. urbanmusicfest.com/.
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Texas Tech takes over KUTX 90.1 in San Angelo
The Texas Tech radio raiders? Not quite.
Texas Tech Public Media is taking over operations of KUTX, 90.1 FM in San Angelo from The University of Texas beginning Monday. Texas Tech paid UT $350,000 for equipment reimbursement. The new call letters with be KNCH, shorthand for San Angelo’s Concho Valley..
Meanwhile, KUT will move its simulcast to the Bryan- College Station area, specifically Somerville, in 2011. It’ll be at 88.1 on the dial in Aggieland, which already has an NPR station with KAMU.
“This will strengthen and expand our signal east of Austin,” said Erin Geisler of KUT. Somerville is about 65 miles east of Austin and 25 miles west of Bryan- College Station.
“With Angelo State now part of the Texas Tech system, Texas Tech is committed to San Angelo and plans to connect with residents in a meaningful way,” Derrick Ginter, Tech’s radio system general manager, said in a news release.
KUT has simulcast its Austin broadcast on KUTX since 1996 and will retain the call letters.
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Bob Schneider and Ben Kweller in this month’s Esquire
Hometown icons Bob Schneider and Ben Kweller grace the pages of men’s magazine Esquire this month, alongside three other roots-rock artists — Charlie Mars, Dierks Bentley and Griffin House — as part of a combination fashion photo shoot and songwriting challenge. Each of the featured musicians had to write, perform and record an original song featuring the words “somewhere in Mississippi” — the photo shoot went down in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Schneider’s song will be available for download tomorrow, Friday April 2, and all five songs will be available for free download on Monday, April 5, for 24 hours only. Esquire.com also has behind-the-scenes video and blurbs written by KGSR DJ, News 8 Austin commentator, Esquire columnist and all-around man-about-town Andy Langer.
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Weekend picks: Fiery pop, legendary country and urban music
FRIDAY
Hockey at Emo’s. If James Murphy had started LCD Soundsystem closer to the age of 20 than 30, he’d have likely ended up with something like Portland, Ore., quintet Hockey. Lead singer Benjamin Grubin has all of Murphy’s booty-shaking dance instincts and punk-rock swagger but none of his sweet melancholia, embracing instead the fire and fervor of youth on last year’s excellent ‘Mind Chaos.’ The band’s last high-profile Austin gig found them opening for Phoenix, and that’s a pairing as sensible as chocolate and peanut butter — with their universal grooves and pop instincts, Hockey could soon be every bit as big as the beloved French rock band. With the Constellations and the Postelles. 9 p.m. $10. 603 Red River St. emosaustin.com. — Patrick Caldwell
Also recommended:
- Suzanna Choffel at Lambert’s
- Elvis vs. the Dikes of Holland at Beerland
- the Eastern Sea at the Mohawk
- Los Amigos Invisibles and Ocote Soul Sounds at Antone’s
SATURDAY
Urban Music Fest at Auditorium Shores.Let’s hope the weather is like at the maiden UMF in 2006, when about 7,000 turned out, and not like the next when an ice storm hit. For this fifth annual affair, headliners include Morris Day and the Time, After 7, Joe, Grupo Fantasma and host, comedian A.J. Jamal. There will also be tributes to Michael Jackson and Teddy Pendergrass, plus up-and-coming local talent. $20. 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Auditorium Shores, 950 Riverside Drive. umf2010.griotmedia.com. — Michael Corcoran
Also recommended:
- Eliza Gilkyson at the Cactus Cafe
- Foot Patrol at Scoot Inn
- Gourds and Uncle Lucius at Threadgill’s South
- Scott Biram at the Continental
- Vallejo at Hanover’s
- Telegraph Canyon at the Ghost Room
- G. Love and Special Sauce at Antone’s
SUNDAY
Junior Brown at the Continental Club. Guitar god Junior Brown, with wife Tanya Rae performing by his side, returns for a Sunday residency at the Continental Club, the venue where the legendary country, rock and surf master first built a local following. That gives you several chances throughout the next couple of months to catch Brown — and his famous ‘guit-steel,’ a custom-built hybrid electric and lap steel guitar — on a nice, quiet day for Austin music and see for yourself why he has as loyal group of fans as anyone in a city full of loyal groups of fans. 7 p.m. $15. 1315 S. Congress Ave. continentalclub.com. — P.C.
Also recommended:
- Across Tundras at Red 7
- Second Sunday Sock Hop at the Shangri-La
- Warren Hood and the Hoodlums at Momo’s
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Live Review: Ted Leo & Pharmacists
(Stephen M. Keller AMERICAN-STATESMAN)A lot has been made of Ted Leo’s roots in New Jersey. The New York Times recently placed him in a Jersey continuum involving Bruce Springsteen on one end and Titus Andronicus at the other. Even Leo acknowledged it during his stellar Wednesday night show at Emo’s, dedicating “Even Heroes Have To Die” to openers Screaming Females — not just the best band to come out of New Brunswick possibly ever, but perhaps the most slept-on rock band touring clubs today — noting that the song was about growing up in Jersey.
But I will always think of Leo as a Washington, D.C., talent. After time in New York hardcore bands, Leo formed the neo-mod act Chisel in D.C. in 1990, a band which lasted for most of the decade. Leo’s long-time band the Pharmacists include D.C. punk veteran James Canty (Make-Up, Nation of Ulysses) on guitar and organ as well as one-time Richmond, Virginia bassist Marty Key on bass and Philly-based drummer Chris Wilson. What’s up, Mid-Atlantic punk lifers?
In spite of Leo’s tendency towards long sentences in his complex, specific lyrics, his songs tend towards the fist-pumping. After five albums and five EPs, they’ve accumulated a mess of high-octane scorchers, power poppy songs that owe as much to the Jam as Fugazi.
And live, the band blends the energy (and sound) of the two brilliantly, Canty’s thick SG chordings and vertical pogo-ing blending with Leo’s frantic strumming and occasional full-body leaps. From the terrorist attack in “The Mighty Sparrow” to the body-as-battleground in “Me and Mia” to ahrd-strummed, vaguely Irish “The Sons of Cain,” this was Leo and the band at their most anthemic and energetic. Opener (and Austinite) Sally Crewe joined in for some refrains of “tell the bartender that I’m falling in love” on “Bottled in Cork.” Much like Fugazi’s “Glue Man” or “Reprovisional,” the set’s almost-closer “Stove by a Whale” took a simple, circular riff and turned into a free-fire, anything-goes punk jam, a rush of guitar chug that turned the stage into a temporary autonomous zone. In true punk fashion, that vibe spilled over into the hard-dancing crowd.
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