Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2010 > July
July 2010
Alpha Rev show permit problems?
Update: Tomorrow night’s show has been moved to Republic Live, 301 W. 5th St. The lineup will remain the same, and all tickets will be honored. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Update II: Weirdos owner Jesse Fortney says that the fire department revoked the venue’s load permit because of bike ramp on the property that violates city code. Fortney received an exemption for the ramp in May, which he claims was revoked yesterday without warning. The venue opened in January.
That’s the word from the band’s Twitter account. The first dispatch, which came around 11 a.m. Friday, said that the city was trying to shut down the band’s Saturday night show at Weirdos: “Permit?!? Really? Will know if we’re moving it soon.. Stay tuned…” The second update was more specific, pointing to a dispute over the stage: “They’re saying the new stage is not approved… Weirdos said that it was approved and is filing an injunction against city… Shady stuff”
A representative from Weirdo’s declined to comment on the situation, and calls to the city and the band were not immediately returned. The performance at North Austin bar Weirdos was to be the band’s first since March, with a bill that also included Sounds Under Radio, The Mercers, One Step Program and Joseph King.
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Escovedo to play ‘Tonight Show’ Aug. 13
The Alejandro Escovedo push for new LP “Street Songs of Love” keeps rolling on with another TV appearance, this time with Jay Leno. But Austin fans can catch him live and intimate at the Continental Club this Tuesday.
According to Dianne Scott’s “Continental Confidential” online newsletter, Escovedo will pop in at the Continental Gallery on Thursday for Jon Dee Graham’s art opening. The former True Believers will play music in conjunction with Graham’s “The Bear Had An Unquiet Mind.” Graham has long done the artwork for his album covers.
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Lady A goes Weird Al
The dudes with the nine o’clock shadows in Lady Antebellum have started a new Wednesday webisode called “Lady Hazing” in which they parody country hits of the day.
Here’s a “tribute” to “Love Like Crazy” by Lee Brice called “Biscuits and Gravy.”
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It’s Soul vs. Sock, for a good cause
All that time, Vaughn has stood at the nexus of Austin’s two finest — and competing — soul-spinning DJ outfits and watched as barbs have been thrown and challenges issued. But Friday, the long-standing rivalry comes to a head with the two groups facing off in an old-fashioned DJ battle at the Mohawk, as the Soul Happening and Second Sunday Sock Hop DJs host a benefit for the Greater New Orleans Foundation and the Gulf Restoration Network.
“Because both groups have a knack for unearthing the rarest and most dance-worthy vinyl ever cut, and because both can steer huge masses into self-induced, sweat-drenched exhaustion, they naturally hate each other’s guts,” reads the event’s Facebook announcement. “… Monstrous egos have repeatedly clashed, even almost to the point of blatant violence.”
OK, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration, Vaughn explains, but the inevitable showdown has been a long time brewing.
“Some trash definitely gets talked, but we’re all just kind of milking it. We’re all buddies,” says Vaughn. “But we have talked for a long time about doing a battle. It’s been on the back burner for two years or so, because we wanted to wait to do it at a time when it could be bigger than anything either of the groups had done. So when the benefit angle came up, this seemed like the chance to pool our resources and make it huge.”
Rick Daddy, host of the KOOP radio show Excavation Nation, will be master of ceremonies at the event, which will include multiple rounds with different requirements. Audience participation ultimately will select the victor — and not through the unscientific method of which side can cheer the loudest. Vaughn instead plans to lay down tape on the floor of the Mohawk and have audiences quite literally choose a side.
Of course, because Vaughn will be the sole participant who will spin for both sides, he’s the only DJ guaranteed a victory regardless of which competitor wins. “That’s true, but it also means I have a guaranteed losing slot, too,” Vaughn says with a laugh. “I’ll be doing both winning and losing. Which seems pretty appropriate.”
Soul Happening vs. Second Sunday Sock Hop
Where: Mohawk, 912 Red River St.
When: Doors at 9 p.m. Friday
Cost: $10 for 21 and older, $15 otherwise
Information: www.mohawkaustin.com
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Maneja Beto’s new CD for all to laud
Thao Nguyen FOR AMERICAN-STATESMANSaturday, local Maneja Beto fans will get dibs on the band’s third CD, “Escante Calling.”
The new album will be released on iTunes to a wider audience at a later, not yet determined date, but audience members at the Mohawk can buy “Escante Calling” on the spot.
“It will be the only place to buy for awhile,” says Alex Chavez, the band’s lead vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player.
The CD release party also will serve as Chavez’s send-off party. He recently received a fellowship to teach at the Institute of Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
He leaves Austin on Monday .
Those who fear this move means a split can rest easy.
“We’re definitely not breaking up,” Chavez says. “Obviously, this means a lot less live shows, but we’ll still write music and record together.”
The band that started out as a jam project almost eight years ago has become a successful staple of Austin’s Latino rock scene.
Patrick Estrada, (drums), still remembers being approached by Bobby Garza (percussion, keys, vocals) about joining the band back in 2002. The band’s members, he said, had no idea how to describe the project, or the music they were playing.
“No one understands us, no one understands what we do,” Chavez says with a laugh. But as with many jokes, truth lies within, and band members know it.
Garza recalls a review that gave him a glimpse of how misunderstood the band was to some people.
“I remember this write up that said ‘They’re in Spanish, so they’re not for everyone.’ And I thought, ‘Well, why not?” Garza says. “On my way over here, I was listening to some Portuguese music. I don’t know what they were saying, but the music spoke to me in some other way.”
Chavez says audiences get it. “Listeners in the U.S. would be OK with that, he says, “because that music was from Brazil or Portugal, and they’d shell out $25 and go watch that at Stubb’s.”
Maneja Beto are a group of American-born Latinos who choose to sing in Spanish. The music they write has a heavy influence in traditional Mexican song, sometimes cumbia, sometimes son , and sometimes something new altogether. They also inject their own influences - covering most if not all of the indie/alternative rock spectrum.
Most nights, when you walk into a Maneja Beto show, you’ll be taken to a place you’ve never been before - and you’ll find that you like it. Or, if you’re already a fan, you’ll walk into a place that is so familiar, you want to kick off your shoes. In either scenario, you feel a desire to dance. And if neither of those things are experienced, you’re as Chavez describes: “We’ve always been consistently inconsistent in terms of what we do. It’s an arc of different things we do and some people just don’t get it. Some people enjoy it, some people don’t.”
The band members say they hope this new record will change that.
“Of everything we’ve done, this is the most satisfying in a lot ways, at least for me,” Chavez says. “There’s something about it that is palatable, that can really reach a particular kind of people.”
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Mother Truckers get Sirius support
Little Steven Van Zandt loves Mother Truckers. The rockin’ Austin quartet’s “Summer of Love,” from the new CD “Van Tour,” has been chosen as one of the “Coolest Songs in the World” on Van Zandt’s “Underground Garage ” show on Sirius satellite radio.
Four other songs off the the album were also selected to be played on Sirius.
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Pinetop wins blues award, plays foundation event
Austin’s piano-playing living monument to the blues, 97-year-old Pinetop Perkins has been named Most Outstanding Musician (Piano) in the just-announced 2010 Living Blues magazine readers’ poll awards.
Pinetop’s Clarksdale, Miss.-based foundation, which offers an annual Youth Workshop Series, to help kids learn how to better play the blues, was recently awarded a grant by the Mississippi Arts Council. This year’s workshop, to be held Aug. 3-4, will feature pianists Eden Brent and Ann Rabson. Additional funding comes from Morgan Freeman’s Rock River Foundation, founded by Morgan Freeman, in the form of scholarships for Mississippi youth participants.
Perkins will cap the event Aug. 5 at the Ground Zero Blues Club, along with his former Muddy Waters bandmate Bob Margolin.
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Weekend picks: Flatlanders reunion, catchy country and a Continental classic
FRIDAY
The Flatlanders at the Paramount Theatre. The 1998 reunion of brightly burning Lubbock lights Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock is one of the best reunion stories in a music scene that’s full of them. Defying all odds, everything the Flatlanders have put out since reteaming not only matches but exceeds the band’s early ‘70s heyday — with last year’s ‘Hills and Valleys’ standing as yet another instant country classic. With the Greencards. 8 p.m. $33.50-$84.50. 713 Congress Ave. www.austintheatre.org. — Patrick Caldwell
Also recommended:
- Foot Patrol at the Beauty Bar
- the Soldier Thread and Quiet Company at the Parish
- Built by Snow and Focus Group at the United States Art Authority
- the White Hotel, the Distance Runner and Candi and the Strangers at the Ghost Room
- English Teeth and the Hi-Tones at the Continental Club
- Elliott Smith tribute night at Dominican Joe’s
- Darden Smith at the Cactus Cafe
- Reckless Kelly at Antone’s
- Telegraph Canyon and Monahans at Club De Ville
SATURDAY
Randy Rogers Band at Nutty Brown Cafe. James Taylor in a Luckenbach T-shirt, Rogers has a welcoming voice, unaffected by the urge to go fake country, and he writes catchy songs. But ‘One More Goodbye’ could be the most un-romantic love song of all time. The new goodbye song, ‘Too Late for Goodbye’ from the upcoming Aug. 24 release ‘Burning the Day,’ is a lot better. Bruce Robison opens. $15. 12225 U.S. 290 W. www.nuttybrowncafe.com. — Michael Corcoran
Also recommended:
- Betty Soo, Belleville Outfit at Threadgill’s South
- Bowling For Soup at the Parish
- Terri Hendrix at the Cactus
- Pong at the Continental
- YellowFever at Emo’s
SUNDAY
Heybale at the Continental Club.In 2000, fed up with playing to empty rooms in Nashville with his lovable country-western band Heybale, ace country percussion cat Tom Lewis moved to Austin. Guitarist Redd Volkaert, the man who logged time with Merle Haggard and Dale Watson, made the trek, too, and before long the duo roped in longtime Johnny Cash piano man Earl Poole Ball … and the rest is Continental Club history. Heybale’s been packing the dance floors on Sunday nights at the Continental for 10 years as of this show. Bring your gift of tin and your dance shoes and show some respect for one of Austin’s most dependable and swinging residencies. 10 p.m. $8. 1315 S. Congress Ave. www.continentalclub.com. — P.C.
Also recommended:
- Dinosaur Feathers at Beerland
- Teen Heat at Red 7
- Junior Brown and Tanya Rae at the Continental Club
- Robert Francis at Emo’s
- Hard Proof Afrobeat at the Ghost Room
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Latest Fun Fun Fun bands
The next round of Fun Fun Fun acts have been announced and the newest additions are:
DJ RJD2
Veteran punk weirdos the Dwarves
Thunderous hard rockers High on Fire
and Brooklyn’s finest, the Hold Steady
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Local EP review: The Steps ‘Flight Path’
The new EP reflects this mainstream ambition, as the garage-rock grit of the band’s past releases is gone. Where rough riffs once wailed over frantic rhythms, more subdued songs now exist. Some aspects of the EP, like the wavering guitar effects on the title track or singer William Thompson’s gravelly cries on “Out Tonight,” recall the Kings of Leon shift from Southern to arena rock - the songs sound bigger and polished, with a moodier sensibility. With any luck, the Steps’ “Flight Path” will take them places.
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Griff praises KUT’s Cactus transition
In working with KUT’s transition team, which officially takes over management of the Cactus Cafe after Butch Hancock’s Aug. 10- 14 “No Two Alike” stand, longtime Cactus manager Griff Luneburg says “I think KUT really understands what the Cactus is all about.” Luneburg says he’s been working closely with KUT’s Hawk Mendenhall and plans to assist in booking the club until December. At least.
When asked if he’s applied for the job to manage the Cactus through KUT, Luneburg was somewhat evasive. “All I have to say is that I hope to always be associated with the Cactus in some fashion.” He’s currently got a couple February dates on hold (including Rodney Crowell), but says all the dates he books are “contingent on KUT approval.” Sounds like the two sides could be working towards an ongoing booking consultant situation.
Luneburg says he’s heard that more than 110 people have applied for his job, which is listed at a salary of $46,000 a year. “I have people calling the club and saying ‘I hear you’ve got a job opening’ and I tell them, ‘yeah, my job,’” says Luneburg, who’s been booking the Cactus since 1983.
“It’s hard to hire good taste,” he says, adding that the Cactus booker should not only know who Ralph Stanley is, but also know of great obscure artists like Malcolm Holcombe.
Asked if he’d take the job, even if it was a pay cut to what he’s currently making, Luneburg said, “it’s a pay raise, actually. And I could really use the money.”
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Woven Bones signs to Hardly Art
It’s been a big year for Austin sludge rock trio Woven Bones — they got props from Matador Records on “Casual Victim Pile” and released their first proper full-length on HoZac Records. To that list of accomplishments you can add getting signed to Hardly Art, the Seattle sister label to the famous Sub Pop. Like Sub Pop, Hardly Art — which takes its name from a lyric from the Thermals song “No Culture Icons” — is partially owned by Warner Music Group. They’re not the first band to make the jump from HoZac to Hardly Art; Seattle folk rock outfit the Dutchess and the Duke also started out on HoZac.
The band’s first release with Hardly Art will be a 7-inch on August 10, with a full album planned to follow in 2011. You can hear A-side “I’ve Gotta Get” at Hardly Art’s Woven Bones page.
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Steve Earle to produce Ana Egge
Sometime Austinite Ana Egge has announced that Steve Earle will produce her seventh solo album at Levon Helm Studio in Woodstock, NY. In a press release, Egge said Earle “produced my favorite records by my friends Ron Sexsmith and Lucinda Williams, so it just seemed right.”
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Watch Amy Cook’s new video for “Hotel Lights”
“Hotel Lights” is one of the highlights off the Austin singer-songwriter’s radiant new album “Let the Light In,” an intimate, lived-in ballad that drips with emotion and memory. Now it has an equally evocative video, directed by Daniel Gibbs and shot at the Hotel San Jose, Hotel Saint Cecilia and Pearl Brewery — and featuring a couple of lovely shots of South Congress at dusk.
Watch the video below, and catch Cook live tonight at the Cactus Cafe. She’s playing a free show; Graham Weber opens. Doors are at 8:30 p.m.
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Ray Wylie Hubbard on his unlikely friendship with Ringo Starr
When Ringo Starr stepped on stage at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall to blaze through a celebratory version of “With a Little Help From My Friends” on July 7 — during an all-star celebration of Starr’s 70th birthday — eagle-eyed Austin music fans may have spotted an unlikely face in the crowd. Next to Billy Squier and Peter Asher stood Austin cosmic country icon Ray Wylie Hubbard, who’s forged an unlikely friendship with Starr ever since October of 2006, when the perpetually sunglasses-sporting former Beatle took a shine to Hubbard’s “Snake Farm.”
The association began after regular Starr video director Brent Carpenter caught Hubbard live in Los Angeles and burned a copy of “Snake Farm” for Starr to listen to.
“Ringo apparently really liked it — I still haven’t quite figured out why or for what reason — and mentioned it on his website,” recalls Hubbard. “He mentioned a Beatles reissue, a Jerry Lee Lewis record, the new Bob Dylan, and me. So that was really kind of fun.”
Starr mentioned Hubbard in a video update (“We’re not contributing to the album’s charts, because [Brent Carpenter] copied it for me,” joked Starr in the video) and the two eventually met in-person. Starr’s publicist passed Hubbard’s “A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C)” to Jimmy Fallon, which led to Hubbard’s May performance on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.” And Starr invited Hubbard to perform at the same 70th birthday celebration that featured a surprise appearance from Paul McCartney.
“The really weird thing about it is you’re sitting there talking to him and he’s so nice and gracious but somewhere over in your mind you’re saying ‘This is an (expletive) Beatle,’” says Hubbard. “And when when Ringo came out and joined Paul, (Hubbard’s wife) Judy started screaming like it was ‘The Ed Sullivan Show.’ Some moments are just more powerful than others, and that was one of them.”
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Levon, LaMontagne hit Bass Nov. 12
The Bass Concert Hall has confirmed that the Levon Helm Band and singer Ray LaMontagne will play a double bill on Friday, November 12. Tickets go on sale this Friday at noon at the Bass Concert Hall ticket office, most H-E-B stores and online at TexasPerformingArts.org.
When Helm and his band played Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2008, he he was recovering from surgery and didn’t sing. On the current tour, however, Helm has handled most of the vocals. And, as always, his drumming is exquisite.
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Texas Music Museum benefit at the Victory
Clay Shorkey and his volunteer staff at the offices crammed with boxes of memorabilia that they call the Texas Music Museum have done an amazing job of preservation over the past 20-plus years. To boost its shoestring budget a tad, the TMM is hosting a benefit at the Victory Grill on Sunday at 6 p.m.
The lineup includes sets from blues titans Miss Lavelle White, and W.C. Clark, plus up-and-comers the Peterson Brothers Band and Mike Milligan and the Altar Boys. Also, Austin-based writer Bill Minutaglio will be on hand to sign copies of his new book “In Search of the Blues.”
Tickets are $10 in advance at www.TexasMusicMuseum.org or $15 at the door.
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The Gorillaz bring the cool shoe shine to the Frank Erwin Center
Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s high-concept multimedia musical project the Gorillaz announced details for a full world tour this morning, and the trek includes a stop in Austin — October 22 at the Frank Erwin Center.
The “virtual band” is touring behind third album “Plastic Beach,” which was released in March. Having scuttled plans for a world tour featuring extremely expensive 3D technology a few years ago, the current live Gorillaz setup includes a large video screen with the band’s animated counterparts, and the band’s actual members on stage. The lineup will include vocalist, keyboard player and guitarist Albarn, as well as one-half of the Clash — both Mick Jones and Paul Simonon are currently playing with the band. Tickets go on sale Friday, August 13.
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Live Review: Robert Plant and the Band of Joy at Stubb’s
Robert Plant took all sorts of detours on his way from dancing like Legolas to looking like Gandalf.
There was that unfortunate haircut during Live Aid, that time he looked like a burrito on the cover of Musician magazine and naming a record “Now and Zen.”
But he seems to have hit a sweet spot these past few years. “Raising Sand,” his collaboration with Alison Krauss, was a weird miracle of rootsy swagger and classy rock lilt; the tour that followed produced some of his strongest, heaviest music in a very long time.
For his next trick, he revived the Band of Joy (which was the name of his pre-Led Zeppelin band with John Bonham), enlisted the help of Patty Griffin and “Raising Sand” tourmate Buddy Miller, cut a record that’s due in the fall and hit the road, stopping at a sold-out Stubb’s Monday night.
With Miller, Griffin and Nashville pros such as guitarist Darrell Scott, drummer Marco Giovino and bassist Byron House, Plant grooved through an often surprising set of covers, older solo material given a fresh coat of class and a few Zeppelin nuggets.
An swinging, almost psychedelic-folk take on Los Lobos’ “Angel Dance” followed opener “Down to the Sea” The Richard and Linda Thompson lament “House of Cards” and made beautiful use of Griffin’s vocals, which were occasionally a little lost elsewhere (she seemed to vanish on “Please Read the Letter”). Yes, he broke out “Tall Cool One” and “In the Mood.”
As for the Zeppelin, country-honk filled in for stomp on “Misty Mountain Hop,” “Over the Hills and Far Away” and especially “Houses of the Holy,” while the excellent “Gallows Pole” and “Tangerine” - both from the folkier “Led Zeppelin III” - flourished.
Miller was the set’s not-so-secret weapon, leading the band and contributing solos both razored and tuneful; his thrum of feedback powered the night’s most unexpected cover: indie rockers Low’s “Monkey.”
A glorious cover of Townes Van Zant’s “Harms Swift Way” all but upstaged Zep classics “Thank You” and “Rock and Roll” in the encore. The man really knows how to make folk songs into electric castles - it’s easy to see him making music like this for the rest of his life
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Music Monday Pick: Jason Frey of Hard Proof Afrobeat
Welcome to Music Monday Picks, where once a week we talk to an Austin musician and find out what’s been burning up their CD player, turntable or iPod lately. Looking for a good musical recommendation? Take some advice from someone in the local music trenches who knows their stuff. Recommendations can be local, national or international, new or old. They only need to fit two criteria: 1) the musician in question needs to have just discovered them, and 2) it has to be fantastic.
This week: We talk with Jason Frey, tenor saxophone jockey for Hard Proof Afrobeat, the supremely funky nine-piece that keeps Austin bumping with its cocktail of retro-soul style and Femi and Fela Kuti-derived African grooves. You might recognize Frey and the rest of the Hard Proof Afrobeat horn section from their work with local soul man Black Joe Lewis — they took over as the official horns of the Honeybears last year. Hard Proof Afrobeat headlines at the Ghost Room Saturday night, July 31, at midnight. Focus Group and DJ Businessmen open.
Jason Frey recommends: “Na Teef Know De Road of Teef,” a 1973 album from Ghana musician Pax Nicholas, who played conga drums and sang background vocals in Fela Kuti’s renowned Africa 70 band. The album was re-released in September 2009 by Daptone Records.
Jason Frey says: “Pax Nicholas played in Fela Kuti’s Africa 70 band for seven or eight years, and when he recorded this album with a bunch of the other guys from the band they kept it secret from Fela because they knew he wouldn’t like that the guys in his band were doing another project. So after he heard the record he got it shelved and it wasn’t really properly released or anything. Eventually this collector got a hold of a copy and brought it to the attention of Daptone. It’s just a gold-mine of a record. It’s really heavy Afrobeat from the early stages of its development. It’s only 30 minutes or so, but it’s just fantastic. Kind of a rare little gem that I stumbled into. I searched the expression to find out what the title means, and it basically means ‘A thief knows a thief when he sees one.’ It’s kind of funny being that they were all sneaky about getting away from Fela. Pax has been up in Germany doing his thing for the last 30 years in relative obscurity, but the Daptones thing has gotten his music out to a much wider audience.”
Listen to Pax Nicholas’ “Atta Onukpa” below.
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CD review: Tom Jones `Praise & Blame’
Tom Jones
‘Praise & Blame’
(Mercury Nashville)
Grade: B+
“Praise & Blame” sees celebrated crooner Tom Jones ditch glitz, glamour and the trademark sexuality that saw him the recipient of countless thrown panties in his Vegas heyday in favor of fire and brimstone, grit and growls. 2008’s “24 Hours” showcased Jones at his vintage best, all elaborate arrangements and blustering blue-eyed soul, but “Praise & Blame” swings the pendulum in the other direction, with a mix of gospel, blues and traditional covers, recorded live with an impressive range of players including Booker T. Jones and Gillian Welch. In other words, it’s Tom Jones’ equivalent to Johnny Cash’s “American Recordings” - lean at 38 minutes, constantly emotive and impeccably crafty in its selection of covers, each tailor-made for Jones’ still-explosive belt.
It begins quietly, with a subtle, understated take on Bob Dylan’s “What Good Am I,” which finds Jones in an uncharacteristically raspy, throaty fashion - a more down-to-earth approach that suits the song. But “Praise & Blame” doesn’t truly start to bounce until Jesse Mae Hemphill’s “Lord Help the Poor and Needy,” one of those straight-from-the-soul traditional songs that Jones fields with aplomb, sounding conspicuously like a tried-and-true southerner for a man born just outside of Cardiff, Wales. The rest of the album switches it up skillfully between scorchers like a storming take on John Lee Hooker’s blues classic “Burning Hell” and quieter outings, including an affecting rendition of Billy Joe Shaver’s “If I Give My Soul.”
And Jones is wise to steer clear of obvious choices - no “Amazing Grace” here, thankfully. Even his choice to close out on “Run On” - featured very prominently, under its other title “God’s Gonna Cut You Down,” on Cash’s “American V: A Hundred Highways” - succeeds by turning away from the grim stomps of Cash’s version in favor of an up-tempo rendering that swaggers confidently.
Also out this week: Avenged Sevenfold, ‘Nightmare’; the Robert Cray Band, ‘Cookin’ in Memphis’; Cut Chemist, ‘Sound of the Police’; Dru Hill, ‘InDRUpendence Day’; Fat Joe, ‘The Dark Side’; Mark Olson, ‘Many Colored Kite’; Sky Sailing, ‘An Airplane Carried Me to Bed’
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North vs. South Fest coming to Hole
Here’s the tentative lineup for the annual North vs. South Fest- pitting bands from Kansas and Minnesota against Texas’ finest- at the Hole In the Wall, which has named stages after Doug Sahm and Blaze Foley for the event.
Check it out! Doctors Mob reunion Aug. 14.
SAHM STAGE, Thursday, August 12th, 2010:
Hickoids (TX) 1 am -2 am; Leatherbag (TX) 11:40pm - 12:20 am; Mr. Marco and His v7’s (MO) 10:20-11:00; Polite Society (TX) 9:00 - 9:40; Moonlight Towers (TX) 7:40 - 8:20; The Service Industry (TX) 6:20 - 7:00 Salesman
FOLEY STAGE Thursday, August 12th, 2010
Deano and the Purvs (IL & TX) 12:20 am - 1:00 am; Platte River Rain (NE) 11:00 - 11:40; Why not Satellite (TX) 9:40 - 10:20; the Scriveners (KS) 8:20 - 9:00; the New Vintage (MN) 7:00 - 7:40; Corinna Corinna (TX) 5:40 - 6:20;
LAR LAR STAGE Thursday, August 12th, 2010
Faster Horses (MO) 9:30 - 10:15; Militant Babies (TX) 8:45 - 9:15; Salesman (TX) 8:00 - 8:30; TBD (TX) 7:15 - 7:45; TBD (TX) 6:30 - 7:00
SAHM STAGE, Friday, August 13th, 2010:
Season to Risk (MO) 1:00 am - 2:00 am; Bastard Saint (MN) 11:40 - 12:20; New Franklin Panthers (KS) 10:20 - 11:00 pm; Keep Aways (MN) 9:00 - 9:40; Brannock Device (MO) 7:40 - 8:20; Fiero (MN) 6:20 - 7:00
Foley Stage, Friday, August 13th, 2010:
Dorito (TX) 12:20 - 1:00 am; Manheat (MN) 11:00 - 11:40; Billy Joe Winghead (OK)9:40 - 10:20; Snowbyrd (TX) 8:20 - 9:00; Magnet School (TX) 7:00 - 7:40; The Tinys (TX) 5:40 - 6:20
LAR LAR STAGE, Friday, August 13th, 2010:
Til We’re Blue or Destroy (TX) 9:30 - 10:00; Daylight Titans (TX) 8:45 - 9:15; Perilous Tide (TX) 8:00 - 8:30; Excited States (TX) 7:15 - 7:45; Rusticators (TX) 6:30 - 7:00; Melissa Bryan (TX) 5:45 - 6:15
SAHM STAGE Saturday, August 14th, 2010:
Bremen Riot (MN & TX) 1:00 am - 2:00 am; Pedaljets (MO) 11:40 - 12:40; Kruddler (MN) 10:20 - 11:00 pm; Grant Hart (MN) 9:00 - 9:40; Hot Dog Skeletons (MO) 7:40 - 8:20; Red Flags (MN) 6:20 - 7:00; Dragna (TX) 5:00 - 5:40
FOLEY STAGE Saturday, August 14th, 2010:
Dung Beatles (Colonpool, UK) 12:40 am - 1:00 am; Wannabes (TX) 11:00 - 11:40pm; Doctor’s Mob (TX) 9:40 - 10:20; Right or Happy (TX) 8:20 - 9:00; Youngmond Grand (TX) 7:00 - 7:40; Miss America (MO) 5:40 - 6:20; Al Grande Band (MN) 4:20 - 5:00
LAR LAR STAGE Saturday, August 14th, 2010:
Cher UK (MO & TX) 9:30 -10:00; Stickpony (TX) 8:45 - 9:15; Sissy Spaceship (KS) 8:00 - 8:30; F for Fake (TX) 7:15 - 7:45; Bryce Clifford (TX via Canada) 6:30 - 7:00; Rice Moorehead (TX) 5:45 - 6:15; Martin Devaney (MN) 5:00 - 5:30; Scott Easterday (MO) 4:30 - 5:00
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Waterloo Records top 25 for the week ending July 24
It took a gaggle of Texas legends to do it, but the Black Keys’ “Brothers” has finally been knocked off the top of the Waterloo Records sales chart.
The Akron, Ohio blues rock duo’s sixth album has dominated the chart since its May 18 release, but lost the top spot this week to Asleep at the Wheel’s newest, “It’s a Good Day,” featuring swing legend Leon Rausch. The band played a spirited in-store last week that no doubt boosted sales; it’ll be interesting to see how it performs next week.
In other Texas sales, Alejandro Escovedo, Jimmie Vaughan, the Court Yard Hounds, Shinyribs (Kevin Russell of the Gourds) and the Mother Truckers stick around in the top 25 — as does “Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is!” the debut album from Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, which has clung to the top 50 ever since its release in March 2009.
The only top 25 debut aside from Asleep at the Wheel” last week was Sheryl Crow’s “100 Miles From Memphis.” Quiet week for new releases.
1. Asleep At The Wheel — 96 (Texas artist; played in-store)
2. Black Keys — 86
3. Alejandro Escovedo — 69 (Texas artist)
4. Jimmie Vaughan — 48 (Texas artist)
5. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers — 42
6. M.I.A. — 38
7. Broken Bells — 34
8. Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse — 28
9. Big Boi — 27
10. Court Yard Hounds — 26 (Texas artist)
11. Mumford & Sons — 24
12. Band of Horses — 23
13. The National — 22
14. Sheryl Crow — 21
15. The Roots — 21
16. Shinyribs — 20 (Texas artist)
17. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros — 20
18. Black Joe Lewis — 19 (Texas artist)
19. Jack Johnson — 17
20. Ratatat — 16
21. Mother Truckers — 16 (Texas artist)
22. Sleigh Bells — 16
23. Jonathan Tyler — 15 (Texas artist; played in-store)
24. Gotan Project — 15
25. Various artists: Shel Silverstein Tribute — 14
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Shaver taking time off
If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself,” Billy Joe Shaver, 71, said in a press release to announce that he’s canceling his August dates to heal from surgery for two tears in his bicep ligament.
Last month Shaver spent a night in the hospital after doctors placed a stent in an artery supplying blood to the heart.
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R.L. burns inside Old Gray Mule
That Adelaide, Australia and Austin have been sister cities since 1983 has absolutely nothing to do with the debut release of Austin blues stompers Old Gray Mule on Adelaide’s Stobie Sounds label. But “Sound Like Somethin’ Fell Off The House,” which features ten instrumental boogie blues numbers by guitarist Charley (“C.R.”) Humphrey and drummer Joe Falco, sounds at home on South Australia’s community-based, pure roots label. The duo’s front porch party sound, stripped down to just muscle and bone, could be called “lowdown under blues.”
“We saw that (Stobie) was trying to put together a Big Joe Williams tribute record, so we sent our album and they got back with us right away,” says Humphrey, who hooked up with Chicago native Falco, who moved to Austin in 2006, via Craiglist. Old Gray Mule is C.R.’s first band where he played his own songs, but he couldn’t find a kindred spirit until he jammed with Falco. “We started playing together in November, made the record on Feb. 28 and had Stobie interested by the end of March,” says Humphrey. “So, yeah, I think you can say things have moved pretty fast.”
The duo’s first-ever paying gig was at April’s Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, Miss., just down the highway from where the Mule’s main inspiration, R.L. Burnside, and his close friend Junior Kimbrough resuscitated the blues on the Fat Possum label in the ‘90s. Read C.R.’s rich account of that fest here.
Humphrey’s introduction to Burnside’s fearless boogie was as a third grader, but he didn’t realize it until he was a young man. During Black History Month, his teacher at Westbury Christian School in Houston played a documentary called “The Land Where the Blues Began,” which featured a young Burnside in the first ten minutes. Humphrey was riveted. “I didn’t know who that singer was until he started putting out records again, about 15 years ago,” says Humphrey, 37, who lives in Lockhart. “It hit me- that was R.L. Burnside!”
Old Gray Mule’s debut was recorded in two hours and 50 minutes in the beautifully restored Edythe Bates Chapel in Round Top. That Festival Hill venue is most often the site of classical music, not this duo’s foot-stompin,’ tent revival sound, but OGM had an in with the manager because Falco, who works for a local stone outfitter, helped build the catacombs under the chapel.
Although they’ve been together only nine months, Old Gray Mule is a band with an interesting story, right down to C.R.’s guitar rig. He plays a five string guitar (tuned to open F) through two amps- a 1973 Fender Twin Reverb and a 1964 Gibson Falcon that he found out on the curb during heavy trash day in Lockhart. C.R. says the Falcon looked like it had been sitting in a ditch for 30 years, but the folks at Austin Amplifier got the old amp up and humming again.
C.R. and Falco will be lugging their gear- as well as boxes of their impressive debut LP- to two shows this week that mark the 80th birthday of Junior Kimbrough, who passed away in 1998. Along with Junior’s oldest son David Kimbrough Jr. and one-man band C.W. Ayon, OGM will play Roadhouse Rags on Friday and T.C.’s Lounge on Saturday. The T.C.’s gig will also feature Black Squeeze, a Black Keys tribute band. Get there early Saturday for any chance of getting inside, as that old juke joint at 1413 Webberville Road is gonna rock like never before.
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Now I Wanna Be Your Boss: Springsteen jams with Escovedo
Bruce Springsteen gave the crowd at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J. a thrill Friday nighr when he hopped onstage during Alejandro Escovedo’s set and did three songs- “Always a Friend,” “Faith” and “Beast of Burden”- with the Wimberley-based rocker and his band.
It would’ve been a bigger surprise if Springsteen didn’t sit in, however. The Pony is the club that launched Springsteen’s career in the early ’70s, plus he’s managed by the same team that manages Escovedo. The pair perfomed “Always a Friend” in Houston in 2008 and Springsteen guests on “Faith” on Escovedo’s newest album “Street Songs of Love.”
It’s been a big week for Escovedo, who appeared on “The Late Show With David Letterman” Wednesday.
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Local CD review: Superlitebike ‘Away We Go’
“Away We Go,” the debut full-length album from Austin rockers Superlitebike, opens on a rambling note with “That’s a Lot of Adhesive,” a sprawling, spacey number that begins with a thumping drum and is accented with jazzy tempo changes and stoner lyrics such as “it’s time to let go and just be.” It continues on in a similar manner on “Raise the Colors,” where a funky groove gives way to a tight, spooky conclusion. Lead singer/guitarist Patrick Husband displays a vocal versatility to match the band’s mercurial nature, belting out Thom York-ish wails at one moment only to switch gears to a choppier, almost punk style the next. Highlights include “Home,” where the rest of the band joins Husband in a playful stutter that recalls the Talking Heads.
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Local CD review: Trumpeter Swan ‘Listen for the Clues’
Trumpeter Swan
‘Listen for the Clues’
Drew Patrizi penned the single best song Austin quartet What Made Milwaukee Famous ever played — the snappy melodic pop nugget “Selling Yourself Short,” the highlight off buoyant debut album “Trying Never to Catch Up.” So it’s no surprise that this solo debut from Patrizi — now migrated to Brooklyn, like all the cool kids — chugs along with impressive energy and variety. Opener “Loose Lips,” with its fetching dose of brass and hummable refrain, sounds like a continuation of What Made Milwaukee Famous at their most affecting. That holds just as true for the record’s other rock-derived outings, including the powerpop barrage of “Won’t Come Back” and “Fools Parade.”
But Patrizi’s also in full-on sonic experimentation mode on “Listen for the Clues,” making time for cascading synths on “Acolyte” and “Greenbelt,” slipping into piano balladry on closer “Forest Fire” and toying with heavy reverb on the spaced-out “Silent Film.” And he pulls it off thanks to an impressive array of local luminaries — from engineers Erik Wofford and Danny Reisch to players from Voxtrot, the Lemurs and the Polyphonic Spree. At 53 minutes, “Listen for the Clues” wanders just a bit too much, but the worst you can accuse Patrizi of is over-ambition — and even then, only barely.
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Willie defends Shirley Sherrod
In a column posted in Huffingtonville Willie Nelson calls right wing editing victim Shirley Sherrod “a strong, knowledgeable advocate for all struggling farm families.”
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Fun Fun Fun Fest announces another round of performers
We wouldn’t call them “leaks,” but the Fun Fun Fun Fest has announced another round of performers for November’s Waterloo Park-smashing shindig: straight-edge hardcore legends Snapcase, art rockers and indie It band the Dirty Projectors, french electropop trio Yelle, seminal Detroit garage rockers the Gories and Chicago’s own emo pioneers Cap’n Jazz. They join Suicidal Tendencies, Slick Rick and Best Coast on this year’s lineup.
After last week’s Bill Murray-tinged lineup announcement, today’s news comes in the form of a retooled intro to classic 80’s action schlock TV series “Airwolf.” The full lineup and tickets will both be available in August; here’s hoping that the Fun Fun Fun Fest Twitter account’s ongoing obsession with “Airwolf” will carry over into the festival itself. Ernest Borgnine, now 93 years old, is still alive and kicking and making occasional appearances — hint hint, Transmission Entertainment.
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Weekend music picks: July 22-25
Thursday Summer Slaughter Tour at Emo’s. Christmas comes in July for metal fans, as 15 brutal thrashers commandeer both stages at Emo’s for an all-night-and-most-of-the-day explosion of carnage that offers plenty of bang for your buck. Acts range from Polish metal standbys Decapitated to Massachusetts’ the Red Chord to `technical death metal’ - that’s what happens when death metal strangles prog rock with its own riffs - masters the Faceless. Get your (devil) horns up. 3 p.m. $20. 603 Red River St. www.emosaustin.com. - Patrick Caldwell
Also recommended:
- Coma In Algiers at Beerland
- Raw Nerves at the Broken Neck
- The Frontier Brothers at the Hole in the Wall
- Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights at Antone’s
- Mike and the Moonpies at the Continental Club
- James McMurtry at the Shady Grove
- Blue October at the Paramount
- Jesse Dayton at the Broken Spoke
- Phosphorescent at the ND at 501 Studios
Friday Quiet Company at Threadgill’s South. This Austin quartet’s terrific new EP ‘Songs For Staying In’ is full of big, open-armed pop songs that will get you out. Former Eisley bassist Taylor Muse writes songs that frolic midway between `Pet Sounds’ and the Cowsills, while the band keeps a contempo ‘Juno’ lilt on the sound. Really irresistible stuff. $10. 10 p.m. 301 W. Riverside Drive. www.threadgills.com. - Michael Corcoran
Also recommended:
- The New Pornographers at Stubb’s
- Gobi and Richard Gear at Scoot Inn
- Bad Sports at Beerland
- Martyrhead (Motorhead tribute) at the Hole In the Wall
- Junior Brown at the Cactus Cafe
Saturday Will Taylor and Strings Attached at the Central Presbyterian Church. An unusual tribute within a tribute, as Austin’s masters of string reinterpretation of popular music tackle a full set of classic Willie Nelson songs - in the style of Western Swing titan Bob Wills. Karen Mal, Mark Utter and Steve Carter are guest vocalists. If you want the opportunity to hear some of Nelson’s best without staying up past midnight or baking in the sun all day, here’s your chance. 8 p.m. $10-$35. 200 E. Eighth St. www.stringsattached.org. - P.C.
Also recommended:
- Night Fever Vol. 3 at the Scoot Inn
- Birthday celebration for Laurie Gallardo with Stereo Is A Lie, the Midgetmen and others at the Mohawk
- Soulhat at Antone’s
- Lydia at Emo’s
- Kalu James at Momo’s
- Royal Forest at the Parish
- Opposite Day at the Hole in the Wall
Sunday The Coathangers at Mohawk. The opposite of Rihanna and Ke$ha, who are playing down the road in San Antonio this night, is this band of creatively violent femmes from Atlanta. The ideas are Weenish and the visuals squeamish. With Rayon Beach, Slang Chickens and Soft Healer. 9:30 p.m. 912 Red River St. www.mohawkaustin.com. - M.C.
Also recommended:
- Girling at the Hole in the Wall
- Heybale at the Continental
- Ralph White at Threadgill’s North
- Mike Flanigan at the Continental Gallery
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Passes for Butch Hancock’s “No Two Alike” on sale Thursday
In a rare exemption to the Cactus Cafe’s usual “pay at the door” rule, a limited number of five-night passes for Butch Hancock’s “No Two Alike” will go on sale tomorrow, July 22, at 10 a.m. at Texas Box Office outlets — online at www.texasboxoffice.com and at the Frank Erwin Center and participating H-E-Bs.
“No Two Alike” will feature Hancock and a series of special guests from August 10 to August 14, as the Lubbock-born country and folk mainstay plays five consecutive nights without repeating a song. The performances will both celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hancock’s original “No Two Alike” and close out the Cactus Cafe under its original management before KUT takes over booking the venue in late August.
The passes will cost $70; individual nights are $15 through August 12 and $20 on August 13 and August 14.
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Phosphorescent: On the road again, humbly
Over the phone from his Brooklyn studio, Phosphorescent frontman Matthew Houck speaks softly as he discusses his upcoming American tour. “I’m stoked to get out there again,” he says. “We’ve been on the road a lot, but I feel like we haven’t been in the states all that much.”
Given some of the comments Houck has made in other interviews, his laid-back tone is a bit of a surprise. In 2007, he told New York blog Gothamist that his well-received new release, “Pride,” was the best record released that year and “probably of the last 10 years.”
Back then, Phosphorescent was more or less Houck’s solo project; the album was recorded with the help of musicians from other bands, including indie darlings the Dirty Projectors. Although Houck’s boasting might not have fairly reflected his personality, one thing is certain - musically, he has evolved. Since the release of “Pride,” Phosphorescent has put out two excellent albums, last year’s homage to the Red Headed Stranger, “To Willie,” and “Here’s to Taking It Easy,” which was released earlier this year. In both cases, Houck left behind some of the more experimental elements of his sound for a more straightforward, country approach.
Another thing that has changed is that Phosphorescent has become more of a proper band, with a regular lineup of musicians having come together around Houck, including Scott Stapleton (piano), Jeffrey Bailey (bass), Christopher Marine (drums), Jesse Anderson Ainslie (guitar) and Ricky Ray Jackson (pedal steel). Having a band is something that has changed the way he thinks about his music.
“I’ve come across some of the best musicians alive, and it’s been a pleasure to play with them,” he says. “(The band) influenced the writing because I knew what kind of album I was going to make and knowing they were going to be playing on it influenced how the songs were written.”
Houck’s experience recording “To Willie,” a collection of Willie Nelson covers inspired by Nelson’s 1975 tribute to Lefty Frizzell, “To Lefty From Willie,” also influenced the new album. One track off “Here’s to Taking It Easy,” the midtempo country number “Heaven, Sittin’ Down,” is a direct homage to Nelson’s music (Willie is a fan of Phosphorescent, too - after the release of “To Willie,” he called Houck and arranged a meeting to tell him how much he liked the album in person).
That is not to say the new music falls exclusively into the country genre; there is a muted melancholy about the production that gives it a distinctively ’70s rock feel. Houck says that Ron Wood’s first solo release, “I’ve Got My Own Album to Do,” and Bob Dylan’s 1978 album “Street Legal” were among the albums he looked to for inspiration.
“The way those records sound, there’s a kind of magic,” he says. “It’s kind of hard to put into words, but the sounds they were getting are somehow more than what they are, more than just guitar and drums and bass.”
Though Houck says he’s excited to tour on the new material (a tour that almost didn’t happen, as Phosphorescent’s van and gear were stolen July 8 in New York after the tour’s first show, only to be recovered by the police a couple of days later), he already has his sights set on another album.
“I would love to record as soon as possible,” he says. “It’s always a struggle being on the road but I’m looking forward to getting back in the studio.”
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Cut Chemist postpones Mohawk show
Bad news for fans of the former Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli member and DJ Cut Chemist — he’s postponed his Friday, July 23 show at the Mohawk “for personal reasons beyond his control.” The show should be rescheduled for the fall, according to an e-mail from Transmission Entertainment’s Graham Williams. Tickets will be auto-refunded by Front Gate.
In lieu of Cut Chemist, the Mohawk has booked an impressive lineup of locals on the inside stage including TV Torso, the Gary and Brazos’ Martin Crane.
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Amy Adams as Janis Joplin?
It’s at least a possibility that the Academy Award nominee and “Junebug,” “Enchanted” and “Julie and Julia” star will portray the singer/songwriter icon and recent inductee to the Austin Music Memorial Janis Joplin, reports Entertainment Weekly’s Nicole Sperling. The actress’ representatives confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that Adams was signed on to star in a biopic directed by Fernando Meirelles, of “City of God” and “The Constant Gardener” fame, tentatively titled “Get It While You Can.”
Adams is yet another name in a long line to express interest in the part — and “Get It While You Can” is also vying for production with other potential Joplin projects, including “Piece Of My Heart” and “The Gospel According to Janis.” Other actresses connected to the role of Joplin include singer Pink, Zooey Deschanel and, before her death, Brittany Murphy. Bette Midler picked up an Academy Award for Best Actress In A Leading Role for her performance in “The Rose,’ a 1979 movie loosely based on Joplin.
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Local CD review: DJ Car Stereo (Wars) ‘Explains It All’
‘Explains It All’
Chris Rose, known better as DJ Car Stereo (Wars), blankets the art of sophomore album “Explain It All” — to say nothing of the Clarissa-dropping title — with references to early ‘90s Nickelodeon, and appropriately so. The mashup maven crafts music for the ADD generation, assembling a 35-minute Frankenstein’s monster of an album composed entirely of samples from decades of pop music, where track breaks are arbitrary and raps from “Who Is Mike Jones?” rest comfortably alongside the iconic guitar riff from the Toadies’ “Tyler” and the foot stomps from Queen’s “We Will Rock You.”
You can’t judge music like that by any conventional rubric. But by slice-and-dice standards “Explain It All” is a runaway success, evidencing that Rose might have finally eclipsed his contemporary — and genre pioneer — Girl Talk. “Explains It All” loads its 10 tracks with an astonishing density of samples, keeping its flow cohesive even as it wanders down unexpected back roads, like throwing Mya’s sexualized vocals against keyboards from Vampire Weekend. Its utility as a party record — put it on and watch your kegger catch fire, undergraduates of Austin — can’t be overstated. But just as importantly, it acts as a passionate love letter to popular music likely to trigger at least a few dozen nostalgic remembrances.
“Explains It All” can be downloaded for free at www.artifactworkshop.com.
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C3 Presents gets a head start on December shows
December may loom almost six months away, but C3 Presents is working ahead with two high-profile shows already scheduled for the final month of 2010.
Multilingual indie rock trio Blonde Redhead will headline a show at La Zona Rosa on December 1. They’ll be touring behind the Sept. 14 release of eighth studio album “Penny Sparkle,” the follow-up to 2007’s expansive, enthralling “23.” Tickets for that show are on sale Friday at 10 a.m.
And if you really feel like planning ahead, alternative rock quintet Cake have the honor of ringing in the new year on December 31. That band is still planning to release an album before the year’s out — currently untitled, it’d be their first since 2004’s “Pressure Chief.” The White Ghost Shivers and Agent Ribbons will open that show; tickets are also on sale on Friday at 10 a.m.
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Jimmie Vaughan gets an iPhone app
Joining Willie Nelson in the ranks of old-school Texas music legends with their own new-school iPhone application is venerable local blues man and icon of guitar cool Jimmie Vaughan, who is the latest recipient of his own application in the TouchChords series, a guitar instruction program.
TouchChords displays finger positions, chord names and tabs in accompaniment with a backing track; think of it loosely as a version of Guitar Hero that requires use of an actual guitar. The Jimmie Vaughan installment features all 11 songs off his latest, “Plays Blues, Ballads and Favorites.” It’s a free download from the app store, but beware: the free version only offers samples of each song; individual whole tracks cost $1.99.
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Live review: Silversun Pickups at Stubb’s
Here’s what I want:
I want to see Brian Aubert exhausted and on his back, coaxing ungodly but beautiful fuzz from his guitar for several minutes before jumping back upright and going Riverdance on an array of effects pedals roughly the size of a tractor trailer.
I want to have Nikki Monninger pulverize my gall bladder out of existence with bass rumbles that summon whales onto land and cause them to beach themselves.
I want to hear Silversun Pickups take a straightforward pop song - let’s say Big Star’s “Watch The Sunrise” since we’re all in that mood with Andy Hummel’s passing - and turn it inside out over the course of 10 or so feedback-drenched minutes.
I want Joe Lester to get his Bernie Worrell on, and have a chance to shine behind the keys instead of playing the able and competent second melodic banana.
Most of all, I want them to dig for minutes at a time into the bright and dark corners of the cavernous-but-claustrophobic rock songs they’ve crafted over two promising albums.
They could do all of that, no problem. Over and over again on Monday night at Stubb’s the Silverlake, CA quartet gave the sold-out crowd glimpses and peaks at the tremendous potential the members have between them.
Trouble is, to unlock those possibilities you’re gonna have to give them about two hours and change to truly stretch out, not the 75 or so minutes they were afforded Monday (after perfectly worthy-to-great opening sets by Henry Clay People and Against Me!) thanks to the regrettable noise curfew that cuts off music at Stubb’s at 10:30 p.m. on weeknights.
Give them credit, though. The four made do and fit 13 hooky as hell buzzbombs into the time they were given, packing in an extra solo here and there but pretty much sticking to the script and getting lots of love from the roaring crowd in return, especially after modern rock radio hits such as “Royal We” or the first set closing combo of “Panic Switch” and “Lazy Eye.”
After a brief break (since the clock was ticking) Aubert led the band back out and thanked the crowd before lamenting that they’d play all night but the curfew was hanging over the venue like a hammer.
With that, it was onto stretched-out versions of “Substitution” and “Common Reactor” - dressed up with strobing lights and Aubert’s atmospheric and distorted vocals - that made clear exactly how much we were missing out on.
What was there was great. What was missing could’ve been a revelation.
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Former Big Star bassist Andy Hummel dies at Fort Worth home
The news that tragically rocked the music world last night began with a Tweet from current Big Star bassist Ken Stringfellow: “Another sad loss for Big Star fans as Andy Hummel passes away after long illness.”
The original bassist for and founding member of the legendary power pop trio Big Star, Hummel died yesterday at the age of 59 following a two-year-long battle with cancer, according to reports from multiple sources, including Hummel’s hometown paper, the Memphis, Tenn. Commercial Appeal. Services are scheduled for Wednesday.
Hummel formed the band in 1971 with Alex Chilton, Chris Bell and Jody Stephens, but left before they released sophomore record “Radio City.” He moved to Texas to work for Lockheed Martin, and though he never returned to the band full-time he was a regular guest at Big Star events and appreciations. Hummel appeared on-stage during the South by Southwest Music Festival to play an impromptu tribute to Chilton, who passed away just before the festival, where Big Star was slotted to play a reunion show.
Hummel’s death leaves Stephens as the only surviving founding member of Big Star; Bell died in a car accident in 1978, at the age of 27.
Via Pitchfork, check out this excellent extensive interview with Hummel from 2001.
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Kids Band Week at ABIA
Get a taste of them here, catch them live tonight when them open Blue Tuesday at Antone’s.
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Kat Edmonson opens tour for Lyle Lovett
Austin’s gift to the jazz world, Kat Edmonson, will spend the rest of the summer touring with Lyle Lovett and His Large Band. The West Coast portion kicks off tonight in Santa Rosa, Calif.
Edmonson shocked her local fans a few months ago by moving to New York City on a few days notice when a cheap apartment became available. In an email, Kat says she’s been digging Manhattan, where she’s been busy rehearsing her new band. They’ll go into the studio after the Lovett tour’s over in August.
Edmonson will take a night off from the tour on Aug. 3, when she headlines the Jazz Standard in New York. That’s the jazz kitten’s 27th birthday.
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Music Monday Pick: Geoff Earle of Freshmillions
Welcome to Music Monday Picks, where once a week we talk to an Austin musician and find out what’s been burning up their CD player, turntable or iPod lately. Looking for a good musical recommendation? Take some advice from someone in the local music trenches who knows their stuff. Recommendations can be local, national or international, new or old. They only need to fit two criteria: 1) the musician in question needs to have just discovered them, and 2) it has to be fantastic.
This week: We grab a recommendation from Geoff Earle, one-third of electronica funk trio Freshmillions, one of the most recent additions to Austin’s imminently healthy dance scene. Freshmillions pile live rock instrumentation on samples ranging from the Spinners to the iconic theme music from 8-bit NES classic “Castlevania.” The band opens for like-minded dance duo Auto Body at the ND at 501 Studios Saturday, July 24. Doors open at 9 p.m. and the show is $12.
Geoff Earle recommends: The four-song demo debut EP from Austin noise rock duo Zorch, downloadable from that band’s website, and especially opening song “Zut Alore!”
Geoff Earle says: “That is such an epic jam. It’s so awesome. Since we’re kind of electronic we get people telling us a lot ‘Oh yeah, this band is kind of electronic and kind of awesome and you should play with them.’ And when people say that we usually check that band out. But that particular band, the first time hearing them was like ‘Oh, we have to play with this band more than anybody else.’ It’s two dudes, one with a really ridiculous circle of keyboards and one with a drum set. The 8-bit thing is something I was into for a long time, but I believe there are bands who do it because it’s just a popular, trendy style. I usually get (expletive) for this but one of my prime examples of that is Crystal Castles. I honestly don’t think that band is very good at all but they happened to be in on the 8-bit thing. I felt like there were a lot of bands that were doing that but weren’t very good, but hearing Zorch’s synthesizers along a live drummer who was really good at drumming, it was like ‘Woah somebody with some chops.’ Plus at the end of ‘Zut Alore!’ there’s lyrics about reptilian conspiracy theories. I kind of have a fetish about conspiracy theories — about the more outlandish ones and how hilarious they are. I was into that at the time and then right at the end they start singing about reptilian aliens and I was like ‘Awesome. These are obviously dudes I should be hanging with.’”
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Show preview: Henry Clay People at Stubb’s
(It might be too late to get a ticket - the show is sold out - but it’s not too late for our preview ….)
The Henry Clay People’s new “Somewhere on the Golden Coast” brightens syrupy grooves (“Two Lives at the End of the Night”) with freight-train rock (“Working Part-Time”). Common denominator: The godfather of grunge echoes throughout.
“Neil Young’s my be-all, end-all,” singer-guitarist Joey Siara says. “As far as dudes that I respect and whose career I respect, he’s pretty much the guy for me.” The Southern California-based outfit supports Silversun Pickups at Stubb’s tonight.
American-Statesman: What’s the story behind ‘Working Part-Time’?
Joey Siara: That’s actually probably the oldest song on that record. I wrote it about a road trip that I took after college. It was my first credit (card) experience in the post-college world, and I went massively into debt. I had quite the adventure, but found myself in the hole. So, I started working three part-time jobs: at a museum as a teacher, as a chess tutor at elementary schools and in the evening I did SAT tutoring.
Were you guys playing at the same time?
Our band started playing a lot of shows in L.A. Any given day, there were four places I needed to be, and it was balancing all this crazy stuff. When you’re working that many jobs, you can’t call in sick to all of them all the time. My morning job would be the one I tried to sneak out of. (That song) came out of a very real situation.
Most of your songs seem to.
Yeah, there was a point when I was writing Henry Clay songs about different things, but then I realized that I want to hear something that’s sincere. Write what you know.
Storytelling seems to be central to your music.
It’s funny. I’ve never really thought of myself much of a lyric writer, but most of the people who do get into the band — all 12 of them — they like the lyrics.
You consider the music to be more essential?
Yeah, I thought the appeal was big, sloppy rock chords. It’s bizarre that people consider the lyrics (to be) central. They’re usually an afterthought.
How do your songs typically come together?
Lyrics are the last thing we write before we go into the studio. So many times, I’ve written lyrics the morning before we record a song. I marble-mouth them up until that point, in rehearsals and even sometimes at shows. I’ve always been a chronic procrastinator (laughs).
That can be expensive in the studio.
It can be disastrous. I wouldn’t recommend doing it that way (laughs).
You’ve said you vetoed pedal steel on this album. Why?
Well, we had it on three or four songs, I think, on our last record. The pedal steel adds a really sweet, nice texture, but it’s a softer-sounding instrument. The texture I wanted on this record was distorted, overdriven guitars.
You have a prime slot at this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival (4:40 p.m. on Sunday). What do you remember about playing at ACL last year?
We had a really early slot. Last year, we played Lollapalooza, and it started raining about 10 minutes before we hit the stage. Then, it started raining 10 minutes before we played at ACL. I think we bring the rain. Our van got stuck in the mud (at ACL) last year, so we left it overnight. Hopefully, this year it’s not the same (laughs).
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Gulf Coast benefit shrimp boil Friday at Hotel San Jose
Food and music go together on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, so it’s fitting that Papa Mali and the Lost Bayou Ramblers have joined with Perla’s and Lambert’s restaurants to host a benefit for the Gulf Restoration Network.
The party with a cause is from 6- 10 p.m. Friday in the parking lot of the Hotel San Jose. Shrimp plates are $10 each, plus there will be donations accepted.
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First post-KUT Cactus Cafe shows announced
KUT announced the first round of shows for the Cactus Cafe’s post-original management incarnation on Thursday, during the second of five meetings with students, UT faculty, musicians and other members of the community intended to gather input on the legendary listening room. But those expecting much indication as to whether the Cactus Cafe will change direction will have to wait — KUT spokesperson Erin Geisler confirmed that the initial round of shows were booked by longtime manager Griff Luneburg.
Jimmy LaFave will return the venue from its traditional end-of-summer hiatus on Aug. 27, followed by Vanessa Lively on Sept. 8, Chris Knight on Sept. 17, the Czech Republic bluegrass band Druha Trava on Sept. 22, an accordion festival on Sept. 23, the Austin Lounge Lizards on Oct. 9, the Asylum Street Spankers on Oct. 16 and Zoe Lewis on Nov. 3.
KUT will take over management of the Cactus Cafe after August 14, the last day under the Cactus’ original management. Applications for the position of Cactus Cafe manager remain open for now. Geisler said that KUT has received more than 100 applications so far, with interviews planned to begin this week.
Though KUT is not making public the list of attendees for the invite-only Cactus Cafe conversations, Student Friends of the Cactus Cafe has posted the list of attendees for both sessions on its Facebook page. Attendees of last week’s session include KUT general manager and director Stewart Vanderwilt and associate general manager and director of broadcast and content Hawk Mendenhall, Friends of the Cactus Cafe’s Reid Nelson and Wiley Koepp, writer Spike Gillespie, Student Events Center president and Sour Notes drummer Taylor Steinberg, Randy “Leatherbag” Reynolds and Mohawk owner and Transmission Entertainment co-owner James Moody. Steinberg was the only student in attendance at the most recent meeting, but the first session, held July 8, included graduate student Sam Scarpino, former Student Events Center president Andrew Nash, student government vice president Muneezeh Kabir and Student Friends of the Cactus Cafe co-founder and student government representative Matt Portillo.
“We’ve certainly made progress toward a ‘full save’ of the Cactus Cafe (and perhaps also toward some administration accountability, too). Personally, I’ve been saying the Cactus is 80% saved. Although this entire process has sucked (which is a sentiment shared by my friend Andrew Nash on the Union Board), I’m happy that all the Union staff (less Griff Luneburg…sort of) are keeping their jobs behind the bar and I’m happy that KUT’s resources are now at the Cactus’ disposal,” wrote Portillo, who attended the first Cactus Cafe meeting but was not invited to the second, in an e-mail. “However, the Cactus is not a performance space so much as it is a true community of musicians and music lovers, so the transition will be key. The Cactus doesn’t need to change…it just needs to be added to.”
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CD review: Sheryl Crow `100 Miles From Memphis’
Sheryl Crow
`100 Miles From Memphis’
(A&M)
Grade: C+
If the title didn’t tip you off, then the eruption of horns and the pervasive background vocalists on opening track “Our Love Is Fading” ought to do it: “100 Miles From Memphis” is Sheryl Crow’s soul record. From the unlikely cover of Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Sign Your Name” - with a nod to contemporary R&B in the form of a Justin Timberlake guest appearance - to the album’s bonus cover of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” “100 Miles to Memphis” packs in all the flourishes you’d expect from an old-school soul record.
Aside from a pair of late-album ballads - the dull “Stop” and the reasonably animated Citizen Cope cover “Sideways” - it’s Crow in maximum Mavis Staples mode. She belts it out over saxophones, strings, gospel voices, blasting trumpets - including, on “Peaceful Feeling” from longtime Austin player Ephraim Owens - and an awful lot of B3 organ.
That’s a logical development for Crow, who’s worked with Tina Turner, served as a backing vocalist for Michael Jackson and grew up in Missouri, within spitting distance of the center of southern soul. And she’s enlisted the right players on “100 Miles From Memphis,” including cowriters and producers Justin Stanley and Doyle Bramhall II, who also go to bat as guitarists, percussionists and vocalists. Even Keith Richards pops by to jam on “Eye to Eye.”
But while “100 Miles From Memphis” is always cleanly produced and ably performed, it lacks the sparkle and energy of a quality soul record, always feeling too cautious and sanitized by half. The nearly constant female backing vocals sound like they were excerpted from Eric Clapton at the lowest point of his 1990s adult-contemporary doldrums. And all the rock-solid instrumentation and production in the world can’t make Crow into the kind of throaty crooner the material requires - a shortfall never more pronounced than on her cover of “I Want You Back,” one of the finest pop songs ever written and consequently a difficult number to bring anything new to. Crow’s sugar-sweet voice aspires to reach the howl of soul’s greatest female singers but never quite gets there.
Sheryl Crow performs at the Backyard on Aug. 28.
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CD review: Asleep at the Wheel and Leon Rausch ‘It’s A Good Day’
Asleep at the Wheel and Leon Rausch
`It’s A Good Day’
(Bismeaux)
Grade: B+
It’s startling to reflect on the fact that Austin’s Asleep at the Wheel, the modern standard-bearers of the native branch of country music known as Western swing, has been a going concern longer than the form’s most famous innovators, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.
But nonetheless, it’s true. The Wheel, a shifting cast of characters under the long shadow cast by towering frontman Ray Benson, began as a group of Berkeley hippies who moved to Austin in 1974 where they discovered some surviving members of the Playboys, most notably fiddlers Jesse Ashlock and Johnny Gimble, still holding forth in local honky-tonks like the Broken Spoke.
Since then, the two bands have been joined at the hip, spiritually and musically. The Wheel and the Playboys shared an episode during the first season of “Austin City Limits” and many other stages before and since. The Wheel recorded two tribute albums of Bob Wills music, and Benson co-wrote and starred in a play, “A Ride With Bob.” As time and circumstance whittled the cast of Texas Playboys down, the Wheel assumed the role of keepers of the flame of Western swing. Nobody does it better (though Merle Haggard and George Strait come close).
So it’s not only natural, it’s probably inevitable that the band should team up with one of the Playboys’ last and greatest vocalists, Leon Rausch. Similar in spirit to last year’s Willie and the Wheel, the latest effort sees the band putting its guest in a familiar setting and letting him rip.
Rausch joined the Texas Playboys in 1958, relatively late in the day for the band whose heyday was in the 1930s and ’40s. But songs like “It’s A Good Day,” “Basin Street Blues” and “Sugar Moon” are encoded in his DNA, which lends this product a natural, effortless feel.
Rausch drops his voice to a playful, Satchmo-like growl for “Alright, Okay, You Win” and duets playfully with Benson and Wheel vocalist Elizabeth McQueen on other tunes. Willie Nelson makes a cameo with Rausch on “Truck Driver Blues,” and the latter sounds like a natural member of the band on the Wheel’s reinvented classic, “Get Your Kicks (On Route 66).” Rausch also offers up an elastic, heartfelt blues vocal on Wills’ “Cotton Patch Blues.” Only the slightly mechanical rendition of Cindy Walker’s sentimental “Sugar Moon” gives the track a forced, contrived feeling.
Otherwise, this is an upbeat, tip-of-the-Stetson salute from one era of innovators to the next. But the effort begs the question: Now that Ray Benson and Asleep At the Wheel are the de facto elder statesmen of Western swing, where are the hot young next-generation musicians looking up to them?
Asleep at the Wheel and Leon Rausch are scheduled to play at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Waterloo Records, 600 N. Lamar Blvd. Free.
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Cool gig alert: David Kimbrough at Roadhouse Rags 7/30
The backyard stage of Kelli Archer’s Roadhouse Rags will transform into a North Mississippi juke joint Friday July 30 when Junior’s oldest son David Kimbrough Jr. heads a triple bill that includes front porch instrumental duo Old Gray Mule and the C. W. Ayon one-man boogie blues band from New Mexico.
David’s pop David “Junior” Kimbrough, who was key in the Fat Possum blues revival of years ago, would’ve turned 80 years old on July 28, so this is a tribute show as well. Hypnotic bluesman Junior Kimbrough died in 1998.
The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Cover is $10. It’s BYOB.
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Live review: Ghostland Observatory at Whitewater Amphitheater
With its rumbling screech n’ beat sound, Ghostland Observatory isn’t the most musically gifted band in town. But they’re the most savvy by a mile and a half. Not to mention that they’ve built a live show that had many in the crowd of nearly 5,000 at the Whitewater Amphitheater Friday night experiencing a complete double rainbow they could dance to.
With tonight’s show sold out well in advance, Aaron Behrens and Thomas Turner sold about $300,000 in tickets for what’s becoming one of Central Texas’ biggest yearly events. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s the most money ever grossed at a two or three-night stand by an Austin band not part of a festival. More than Stevie, more than Willie, more than Pat Green and all the guys from Lubbock combined.
GLO’s genius is in making rock fans realize that they like techno and vise versa, with a smoke and laser extravaganza that even Kenny G fans can appreciate. Gauzy lighting that made Behrens look like a dancing ghost, plus a new song (“Listen” it could be called) that was like beat poetry set to the Jimmy Castor Bunch, point to the GLO sound becoming more textured with its next recordings. Less like a mallet to the brain’s funk receptors. Meanwhile, the duo’s Wizard of Oz/ Dorothy makeup is being washed away in reds, blues and greens, both sonically and visually.
But the rest of Friday was classic GLO, who make the best music to walk to the port-o-potties to. Their sound (cribbed from Eno’s “King’s Lead Hat”) struts on such numbers as “Piano Man” and “Dance To Vibrate,” so folks weren’t just moving confidently in front of the stage, they were pimpin’ as they waited for food (Big ups, Wahoo’s Fish Taco’s) or trekked to the facilities.
Whitewater Amphitheatre, which has the Guadalupe River rushing less than 20 yards from the back of the stage, is a fairly undiscovered gem to those not into Texa-homa country rock bands such as Cross Canadian Ragweed and the Randy Rogers Band. It was strange to hear Jason Boland and Roger Creager cranking out of all the tube-rental places nearby while walking to the Ghostland scene. But the pristine venue- in an absolutely stunning setting- is perfect for the duo because there are no neighbors (though GLO’s gigantic bass will test that) and there’s plenty of room and picnic tables to get away from the crazed dancers and heavy marijuana smoke for a few minutes to recharge in the freah air.
Though Ghostland was the only band to play, they programmed the night perfectly, with stripped down ambient blips and blinkles for the first 90 minutes after the gates opened, then bringing out a deejay for an hour long mini-rave that got the party started in boisterous fashion.
The four-year-old Whitewater Amphitheater, built from a former campsite with a stage, is becoming the Red Rocks of Texas. Expect other non-country bands to take GLO’s lead. Playing Labor Day weekend are Foreigner, Blue October and Clay Walker. And playing next year, and every year they’re together: Ghostland Observatory!. A new summer tradition.
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Live Review: Shearwater at the Austin City Limits Studio
When the audience clapped at the mention Shearwater’s most recent album, “The Golden Archipelago,” on Friday night, frontman Jonathan Meiburg joked that it was the warmest response it had received since its release. While the unassuming rocker might have been being a bit hard on himself, there was a kernel of truth in what he said. Unlike other Austin music that’s been successful on a national level, Shearwater’s music, often characterized by dark, brooding moments that give way to controlled chaos, isn’t the most accessible. Dig through the band’s several albums and you are not going to find anything resembling “The Underdog,” but that’s not what the band is about.
What they are about, and what they demonstrated during their set Friday at the Austin City Limits studios, the latest in the “KUT Live” series, is having a precise handle on the mood of their music. Meiburg’s voice is a dominant instrument, complemented by a skilled group of players, including drummer/percussionist Thor Harris. From the start of the set, which began with “The Snow Leopard,” the two were in constant conversation; Meiburg, on the piano, started softly, Harris answered with a quiet force, instantly changing the tenor of the song. The night continued in a similar vein, with each member adding layers of tension as they explored music that spanned several of the band’s albums.
Also setting Meiburg and company apart Friday was their versatility. As skilled as they are at coming together as a tense, noisy orchestra, they are just as capable of creating surreal, dreamlike moments. During the haunting “Castaways,” from the “Golden Archipelago,” Meiburg’s vocal acrobatics created an illusion of multiple singers; at several points Harris abandoned the drum set in favor of percussion vibraphone (often with bassist Kimberley Burke joining in), clarinet and what looked like a homemade hammer dulcimer. Another highlight of the set was “White Waves,” an older song which allowed the band to show off their bluesier side, a bit of a departure, but one just strange enough that it fit right in.
Setlist:
The Snow Leopard
Black Eyes
Landscape at Speed
Castaways
Meridian
White Waves
God Made Me
Corridors
Hidden Lakes
Leviathan, Bound
Failed Queen
Rooks
Century Eyes
I Was a Cloud
7475
Uniforms
Hail, Mary (encore)
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Golden Boy holds court at Beerland
You might not guess it from seeing one of his inspirationally flailing performances with the Golden Boys or as a solo act under his own name, but John Wesley “Wes” Coleman works hard and takes his craft seriously.
His new album, “Bad Girl Goes to Jail,” should be out in a few months on the well-respected Goner Records label. Its follow-up, “The Last Donkey Show,” recorded with onetime Texan and garage rock star Greg Ashley, is in the can as well. No word yet on where that will end up.
Coleman’s last solo album, “Steal My Mind,” was released in November.
His band the Golden Boys has released four albums since 2005, including two last year. Coleman’s also working on a novel, “Jim Now,” the chronicles of Jim Morrison had he not died.
The Lizard King would be “writing jingles for commercials,” Coleman says by phone. We’d meet in person, but he’s on his shift at Salvation Pizza. “What I would love to do is publish this book and do a tour where I do a reading during the day and play a show at night.”
Coleman isn’t fond of downtime. He’s playing (or, in the case of Monday night, July 19, hosting) six nights of shows at Beerland. “A Week of Wes,” according to Beerland booker Max “Max Dropout” Meehan, with a variety of acts playing the shows with Coleman and his band.
“I just love playing as much as I can,” Coleman says. “It’s like going on tour and only playing at one spot.”
It sounds absurd. “When he came to me with the idea, he was kinda wasted,” Meehan says. “He said, `I wanna play every night for a week,’ and I don’t think he thought I would go for it. I liked the idea. It seemed so stupid it might work.”
Meehan says it also helped that Coleman’s music works in a number of contexts. The Golden Boys moved from equal parts noise and melodies reminiscent of the Band’s more rocking moments to something a little more straightforward and rootsy.
“The first time I saw Wes was a pretty early Golden Boys show, when (original drummer) James (Arthur) was still in the band,” Meehan says. “Wes was all over the place and James seemed really mad at him. At one point, he fell over while playing and his head landed inside the hole in the front of James’s kick drum. James started to kick it really hard, like, trying to hurt Wes. All I could think was, ‘This is horrible and amazing at the same time.’ “
We’ve all calmed down a bit since then, but Coleman has become something of a renaissance man of the rock idiom. Acoustic psychedelia, roots rock, blown-out noise, pop songs — Coleman can do it all.
Most of the time the backing band will include former Strange Boys drummer Matt Hammer, Bad Sports multi-instrumentalist Orville Neeley, Golden Boys organist Nathan Arbeitman and Jeremy Steen from the Fleshlights on bass. But at this rate, anyone could be up there.
Monday, July 19, Coleman hosts Beerland’s usual karaoke night, but Tuesday, July 20’s gig is one of the garage-y sets, headlined by primitive rock maniac the Reverend Beat-Man with sets from John Schooley and others. (It’s an early show, with bands starting at 9 p.m.)
On Wednesday, July 21, Arthur’s new band James Arthur’s Manhunt — think the Golden Boys if they had stayed the course on the noise thing — plays a set on a bill that includes Coleman’s crew and organ-driven soul-rock act A Few Nice Things.
Thursday, July 22, is noisier stuff, with Coma in Algiers, Followed by Statis and the newest iteration of Attack Formation, simply called the Formation. Friday, July 23, is punkier garage with Fleshlights, Bass Drum of Death and the Bad Sports.
Coleman opens the Friday show, followed by Fleshlights, a Missouri act called Bass Drum of Death and Texas garage stars Bad Sports. Look for Comanche Club, Light Me Up and more on Saturday, July 24.
Coleman says patrons who come on multiple nights will hear something new each time. “I have about 40 songs I can draw from, and I might make a few up on the spot,” he says.
Few people have heard material from “The Last Donkey Show.” “We had a horn section and lots of honky-tonk boogie piano,” Coleman says.
“I wish I could have figured out a hip-hop bill for Wes to be on,” Meehan says. “I’m sure he would have been great on that also.”
James Brosher photo / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
The week of Wes
Wes Coleman of the Golden Boys performs at Beerland, 711 Red River St., every night from Monday, July 19, to July 24. Covers for each night are between $5 and $7. www.beerlandtexas.com.
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First Fun Fun Fun Fest line-up leak!
Bill Murray would like you to know that Suicidal Tendencies, Best Coast and (drum roll) the Ruler, Slick Rick are playing Fun Fun Fun either Nov. 6 or 7.
Now, were they all playing “The Adventures of Slick Rick” on one stage, that would be something else. As it is, we got separate sets going for us. Which is nice.
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‘Supernova’ Zayra back with dance hit
Remember Zayra Alvarez, who was a contestant on “Rockstar: Supernova” the year that Patrice Pike finished in the top eight? Here she is doing a cover of Blue October’s “Razorblade.”
An Austin resident for a few years, Zayra has just entered the Billboard Hot Dance Tracks chart with “V.I.P.,” which improved from no. 32 to no. 28 this week. The song is the lead single from Zayra’s LP “Baby Likes To Bang,” due out September 14. The Dallas native will make her Austin debut at the Austin Fashion Awards at The Long Center for the Performing Arts on August 21.
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Weekend music picks: July 15-18
Thursday Jesse Dayton at the Broken Spoke. His time on the road with Rob Zombie has seemed to light a hellfire under J.D., whose back-to-roots residency at the landmark honky-tonk is one of the coolest scenes in town. Dayton’s from the Port Arthur/Beaumont area, and his musical golden triangle is country/soul/rock - heavy on the country. Two-step lessons are at 8 p.m. and Jesse goes on at 9:20 p.m. 3201 S. Lamar Blvd. www.brokenspokeaustintx.com. - Michael Corcoran
Also recommended:
- Twang Twang Shock-a-Boom at the Continental
- Tense at Beerland
- Shake Russell at Saxon Pub
- Paul Klemperer at Elephant Room
- Ian McLagan at Lucky Lounge (6 p.m.)
- Nosaj Thing at Aces
Friday White Denim and the Golden Boys at Antone’s. Few notions get more play in rock critic circles than the idea of ‘unclassifiable’ music, but White Denim is the real McCoy when it comes to genre-straddling. ‘Garage rock’ was a useful descriptor for about three weeks in 2007, but whether on debut LP ‘Exposion’ or last year’s ‘Fits,’ the Austin rock trio has dabbled in free jazz, punk rock, psychedelia and wistful country-rock, without ever defying its fundamental White Denim-ness. Red River stalwarts the Golden Boys make for an ideal opener as Antone’s 35th anniversary marches on. With My Education. 9 p.m. $10. 213 W. Fifth St. www.antones.net. - Patrick Caldwell
Also recommended:
- Pixel Pop with the Happen-Ins and Candi and the Strangers at the Mohawk
- Steps at the Parish
- Bros Peabodys and Speak at the Beauty Bar
- Great Nostalgic and Zorch at the Hole in the Wall
- Miranda Dodson at Lamberts
- Ghostland Observatory at Whitewater on the Horseshoe in New Braunfels (night one of two)
- Eliza Gilkyson at the Cactus Cafe
- Miss Lavelle White at the Saxon Pub
Saturday Delta Spirit at Emo’s. This San Diego-based band is a perfect mix of old and new - like strong coffee the night after a wild party. On the new ‘Bushwick Blues,’ I hear the Feelies, swear to Dr. Dog. Selfishly, let’s hope they never get too big because they’ve got such a cool van tour vibe onstage. Welcome home, singer Matt Vasquez, who grew up in Austin and still has family here. With David Vandervelde. $14. 11 p.m. 601 Red River St. www.emosaustin.com. - M.C.
Also recommended:
- Octopus Project at the Mohawk
- Terror at Red 7
- Fleshtones at Continental Club
- SuperLiteBike at Scoot Inn
- Sister 7 at Antone’s
- Lil’ Cap’n Travis, Chili Cold Blood at the Hole
- Derailers at Broken Spoke
Sunday Futurebirds at Emo’s. Hailing from the Deep South - Athens, Georgia, to be precise - the lo-fi Futurebirds take the cornfed sounds of classic country and mix them with the lo-fi hipster ethos of Wavves or the Vivian Girls for a sunny, reverb-heavy concoction that also finds room for equal parts jangle-rock and folk music. Last year’s debut was a six-song delight, and their forthcoming debut full-length, ‘Hampton’s Lullaby,’ is perfect for dreamy, sun-drenched summer afternoons. With Sad Accordions and A Giant Dog. 9 p.m. $10. 603 Red River St. www.emosaustin.com. - P.C.
Also recommended:
- Junior Brown and Tanya Rae at the Continental Club
- Jon Dee Graham at the Continental Club Gallery
- Guy Forsyth at Antone’s
- Pack of Wolves at the Mohawk
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The Band of Heathens break their silence on the Gulf Coast oil disaster
Austin’s masters of toe-tapping country rock the Band of Heathens are on the road all summer, still touring behind last year’s “One Foot in the Ether.” They took off a two-day session to record three new songs — and released one, “Free Again” online today.
The relaxed, rambling charmer takes aim at the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, lead-laced Chinese toys and general American apathy, and contains the immortal line “How can you drill to the bottom of the ocean and still call the fishies your friend?” How indeed?
You can download the song at the embedded link below.
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Contractor sues Direct Events over Backyard work
Part of the sold-out crowd at Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July picnic earlier this month at the Backyard. Photo by Larry Kolvoord/AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Claiming to be owed $344,801 for work at the new Backyard concert venue in Bee Cave, Maldonado Construction & Associates LLC has filed suit against Backyard owner Tim O’Connor and his companies Direct Events and Planet Earth Music. According to the petition, Maldonado fulfilled its contractual obligations — constructing detention ponds and roads and installing utilities — but “despite repeated demands, defendants have refused to pay the amounts reflected in invoices by plaintiffs.”
Last month, Sixth River Architects sued O’Connor and Direct Events claiming it was owed more than $100,000 for design work at the Backyard, as well as the Austin Music Hall, which O’Connor also owns.
According to invoices attached to the suit, O’Connor paid bills from January through March, but hasn’t paid Maldonado Construction, owned by David H. Maldonado, since March 24. Maldonado is asking for $344,801, plus interest and attorney fees. The company, based in Bertram, 45 miles northwest of Austin, has hired Bob Tyler as its lawyer. Tyler sent O’Connor a letter July 2 detailing his intention to sue on behalf of Maldonado, as well as file mechanic’s liens on the property. The letter said the $344,801 sum includes $275,000 that Maldonado owes its subcontractors.
Calls for comment to Direct Events were referred to spokesperson Kylee O’Neill, who was in meetings Thursday and not available. E-mails to O’Neill and O’Connor’s partner Doug Moyes, who is also named in the suit, were unanswered as of Thursday afternoon.
The Backyard opened on April 24 with a concert by ZZ Top. Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic drew a sellout crowd of 7,500. Bob Dylan is up next at the venue Aug. 4.
UPDATE: Bertram’s location corrected.
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Reunited Guided By Voices to play new Transmission Entertainment venue
When local music booking and promotion agency Transmission Entertainment wasn’t able to use Waterloo Park for its annual outdoor concert series Mess With Texas during this year’s South by Southwest Music Festival, it turned instead to an empty lot on East Sixth Street.
The space, located at 1001 E. Sixth St. across the street from the Shangri-La at the corner of Sixth and San Marcos streets, proved an ideal launching pad for two days of music. After that experience, Transmission Entertainment has partnered with the land’s owner to program occasional events at the location, which they’ve dubbed the East Side Drive-In. The new space gives Transmission a solid foothold on the East Side to throw larger shows than those easily accommodated by the Mohawk or Red 7. Transmission will break in the venue September 30, with the first show of a full U.S. reunion tour from lo-fi pop legends Guided By Voices. The outfit previously announced plans to reunite in its classic 90s lineup to play Matador Records’ 21st anniversary party in Las Vegas. Tickets for the show go on sale tomorrow at noon; Times New Viking will open the show.
November 3, meanwhile, will see a pre-Fun Fun Fun Fest show featuring baroque pop outfit Of Montreal and critically acclaimed experimental soul woman Janelle Monae. Tickets for that show are on sale now.
“We look forward to hosting select larger shows on the East Side, and plan on calling it the Drive-In, for bikes and boots as opposed to cars. After Mess With Texas, we realized that it was a great space for creative events and its proximity to the commercial corridor and Interstate 35 made it ideal,” wrote Transmission Entertainment principal and Mohawk owner James Moody in an e-mail. “As the neighborhood grows with new ideas (Shangri-La, trailer food, Liberty, Justine’s, East Side Show Room, Cheer Up Charlie’s, Good Knight), we wanted to be able to periodically introduce different music and events to compliment that change.”
The East Side Drive-In won’t serve as a full-time music venue, Moody said, also boasting events ranging from film to fashion to food.
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Bill Callahan’s “Letters To Emma Bowlcut” out July 20
For more than two decades — first as Smog and then under his own name — Bill Callahan has turned his sharp, literate writing sensibility toward music. He began with a series of experimental, lo-fi recordings that gradually evolved into a powerful brand of dark folk music, but from difficult debut “Sewn to the Sky” all the way through to last year’s striking “Sometimes I Wish I Were An Eagle,” Callahan has produced richly emotional, evocative songs.
Callahan expands his ouvre with the release of his first novelette, “Letters to Emma Bowlcut,” on Tuesday, July 20. The book will be published by Callahan’s usual record label, the Chicago-based Drag City. An epistolary story — a piece of prose fiction told through collected documents — it collects 62 letters from an unnamed protagonist to a woman he sees at a party. Austin resident Callahan says the book was an on-again-off-again project that started eight years ago.
“I kept forgetting that it existed and whenever I remembered that I had it to work on, I would just do it, kind of whenever I felt like it, I guess,” says Callahan. “And I went back and edited it a lot. It became like a totally different novel every year or so and I kept thinking I’d finished, but I never had. I was really glad that I didn’t submit it as finished a long time ago.”
Callahan’s tendency to constantly revisit and rework his writing was, he says, one way to promote honesty in the text.
“Editing is just the process of making something not feel like a lie. And sometimes when you’re creating something like that you lie to yourself a lot and say ‘Oh, that’s fine,’ but there’s a tiny little voice in the back of your head saying ‘No it’s not fine,’” says Callahan. “You can go through a lot of edits and just ignore that, but I think the idea is that by the final edit is you’ve bared yourself completely.”
Despite the years of oft-challenging writing and editing required to produce the 79-page “Letters to Emma Bowlcut,” Callahan says he intends to continue working with prose when his musical pursuits allow him the time.
“I totally want to do more. There’s something about writing prose that’s really satisfying,” says Callahan. “I think songs are a bit more open to interpretation, but with prose, when you write a paragraph that you like, it’s just this satisfying feeling that songwriting doesn’t quite have. It makes me feel really good.”
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Local CD review: Wendy Colonna ‘We Are One’
But “We Are One” isn’t entirely routine. From the slow-burning homesick blues of “Louisiana” to the gypsy jazz of “The One That You’ve Been Waiting For,” Colonna masterfully blends a colorful variety of genres while staying true to her Cajun roots. Still, the most refreshing part of the album might be the wise, uplifting lyricism sprinkled throughout. “Rain to river/Sweat and steam of your body/Ocean to rain and then back again/We are one,” the singer proclaims on the title track.
Colonna is scheduled to play a July 20 gig at the Continental Club.
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Local CD review: Quiet Company ‘Songs For Staying In’
Quiet Company is scheduled to play July 23 at Threadgill’s south.
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The Vaselines mount full-scale U.S. offensive, including Austin
Hat tip to the Onion AV Club Austin for bringing to our attention this most excellent hump day surprise: the U.S. reunion tour from cult Scottish indie pop darlings the Vaselines, kicking off October 2 in Washington D.C., is scheduled to stop at Emo’s on Saturday, October 16.
The Vaselines — composed primarily of duo Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee — released two EPs and one full-length, “Dum-Dum,” between 1987 and 1990. They never found much popularity outside of Scotland and might have faded into relative obscurity were it not for the timely intervention of Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, who covered the duo’s “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam,” “Molly’s Lips” and “Son of a Gun.” Their lo-fi pop with an edge would go on to influence countless acts in the next two decades, notably including fellow Scots Belle and Sebastian.
The Vaselines are set to release their sophomore album, “Sex With an X” September 14 on Sub Pop, which also reissued the band’s complete original recordings last year. You can download the lead single from “Sex With an X,” the nostalgia-busting “I Hate the 80s,” below.
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Bob Schneider to tape episode of Austin City Limits
The mercurial Austin singer/songwriter, local icon and man of a thousand bands Bob Schneider will tape his second episode of Austin City Limits on August 24, the show’s official blog announced today.
The performance will mark Schneider’s second appearance on the program — he also played the legendary stage in 2001, tying in with the release of all-time Waterloo Records bestseller “Lonelyland.”
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Sharon Jones shimmies back to Austin
Retro-soul groover Sharon Jones and her Dap-Kings brought the house down at Stubb’s and later at the Austin Music Hall during South by Southwest, performing behind superlative fourth album “I Learned the Hard Way,” which debuted at 15 on the Billboard charts — an impressive showing that we’re going to go ahead and attribute partially to the “Colbert Bump.”
The eruptive live performer returns to Austin September 24, for a show at La Zona Rosa. Tickets go on sale Friday.
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Billy Joe Shaver recovering after minor heart surgery
After canceling his three scheduled July shows due to chest pain — including an appearance at Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic last week and an upcoming appearance in Luckenbach — Billy Joe Shaver is recovering from minor heart surgery, including a stent procedure yesterday.
Shaver, 71, famously suffered a heart attack on stage in 2001 at the Gruene Hall while playing a New Year’s Eve show. He is expected to make a full recovery and will resume performing in August, said manager Greg Henry.
“He’s scheduled for a bunch of shows in August, and we’ll take stock but we don’t intend to cancel anything at this point,” said Henry. “He even thought he could do his show in Luckenbach on the 17, but we decided it was better to have him rest for a while.”
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ACL drops 2010 schedule grids
Schedules: Friday | Saturday | Sunday
The Austin City Limits Music Festival released the schedule grids for the three-day Zilker Park-commandeering festival this morning. Barring further stealth cancellations or additions — and there are unforeseeable last-minute changes every year — ticketbuyers for the sold-out shindig are now free to plan their weekend down to the minute, as festivalgoers are wont to do. (It’s Oct. 8-10.)
This year’s grids bring a few surprises — including Monsters of Folk receiving a rare non-headlining two-hour set on the Austin Ventures stage from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday night, and local soul outfit T-Bird and the Breaks getting prime billing Sunday night from 6:40 p.m. to 7:20 p.m. (pitting the first half of their set against Flaming Lips and the Band of Horses and the second half against the National, Norah Jones and Richard Thompson). Phish and the Eagles will both play two-hour closing sets on Friday and Sunday night, respectively — returning ACL headliners Muse, meanwhile, nab just an hour and a half Saturday night. Notably, Austin City Limits’ Dell-sponsored Sound and the Jury contest — a battle of the bands that in previous years has produced such Austin-phenomenons-to-be as the Steps and the Bright Light Social Hour — is gone this year, replaced by spots for winners of a Sonicbids contest on Sunday morning and Saturday afternoon.
As always, the release of the schedule grids also heralds a few conflicts — although none of them are, mercifully, on the order of 2007’s infamous Arcade Fire versus White Stripes conundrum. That said, some of the more contentious spots include the Black Keys versus Broken Bells Friday afternoon (battle of the Danger Mouse projects!), Silversun Pickups versus the Local Natives and the Temper Trap versus the XX on Saturday afternoon, and the Band of Horses versus the Flaming Lips Sunday night.
What’s your take on this year’s schedule? Pop into the comments and sound off.
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Phosphorescent van found
This email came across the transom Tuesday morning from Austin-based record label Dead Oceans:
“this is insane! the police have recovered the van and all of our gear is in there and appears to be un-damaged
speechless right now, more soon, love phos
note from label/management: we will of course return everyone’s generous donations. thanks so much for your love and support!”
Phosphorescent’s van was stolen in Brooklyn last week while on a U.S. tour that’s scheduled to stop at the ND at 501 Studios in Austin July 22.
This is the very definition of lucky. Or the very definition of “some kids stole the van and realized they had no idea how to move musical gear.” One or the other, probably.
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Music Monday Pick: William Glosup of the Bubbles
Welcome to Music Monday Picks, where once a week we talk to an Austin musician and find out what’s been burning up their CD player, turntable or iPod lately. Looking for a good musical recommendation? Take some advice from someone in the local music trenches who knows their stuff. Recommendations can be local, national or international, new or old. They only need to fit two criteria: 1) the musician in question needs to have just discovered them, and 2) it has to be fantastic.
This week: After a Fourth of July week off, we return with a recommendation from William Glosup, singer and guitarist for bouncy garage pop quartet the Bubbles. The Bubbles play Pixel Pop, an original event at the Mohawk combining fashion, art and additional performances from Candi and the Strangers and the Happen-Ins, on Friday, July 16. Doors open at 9:30 p.m,; admission is $5, $7 for minors. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians.
The Bubbles | “Pretend” | @ Trailer Space March 11, 2010 from The Bubbles on Vimeo.
William Glosup recommends: “Tomorrow Is Alright,” the debut album from San Francisco’s Sonny and the Sunsets, purveyors of West Coast pop that combines 1950s doo wop harmonies with modern humor. Front man Sonny Smith’s “100 Records” art exhibition — a sprawling project which included 100 album covers created by 90 artists with songs written by Smith for all 100 records — recently swung through the Okay Mountain gallery.
William Glosup says: “A couple of weeks ago I was hanging out with this pretty classy friend of mine who is always on the up-and-up, and he showed me this band called Sonny and the Sunsets. They’re pretty new in terms of only just recently getting out of their own scene in San Francisco. They just came out with this record ‘Tomorrow Is Alright,’ and I can’t stop listening to it. It’s super-addictive ’60s-kind-of pop. It sounds really old and it’s really hooky. It’s really quality. It’s kind of like a throwback band, but it really holds its own. Listening to it, I get the same feeling that I got when I heard the Strokes for the first time — I tried to associate it with some older music and pin it down to what it was ripping off, but I couldn’t, because it was fresher than that.”
Check out the video for Sonny and the Sunsets’ “Death Cream” below.
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Austin flavor at Latin Alternative Music Conference
NEW YORK — The Latin Alternative Music Conference takes place in New York City, but its connection to the Texas capital is undeniable. Not only do half the bands wax poetic about the Austin audiences and talk longingly of margaritas on South Congress, but the city was well-represented among conference-goers last week, both on stage and behind the scenes. Among those handing out CDs in the crowd Friday was a representative of the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau, which has produced a compilation album of Austin Latin alternative acts, ranging from Maneja Beto and Charanga Cakewalk to Amplified Heat and Vallejo. And one of Austin’s own, Ocote Soul Sounds, garnered a coveted spot on Saturday’s closing showcase at Central Park.
Austin’s Rich Garza, who organizes the ever-growing Pachanga Festival, was also on hand, scoping out new talent. “It’s good for Austin, us getting out here and representing,” Garza said. “The fact that an Austin band is playing is super exciting.” Garza noted that Ocote Soul Sounds is one of just a handful of U.S.-based bands to crack the lineup; the rest hail from Latin America or Spain.
For Garza, who also is on staff with the conference, the gathering is an excellent way to take in lots of new music from distant lands at one time. “To be able to see everything happening in one place, for lack of a better word, is convenient for a guy like me,” he said. “For Pachanga, it’s served a role in meeting artists and reconnecting with those who’ve played the festival before.”
So who landed on Garza’s radar during the conference this year? Oakland-based Los Rakas, a Panamanian group blending hip-hop, reggae and dancehall, impressed at their Thursday night show. “(They) were absolutely amazing,” Garza said. “They were like the Roots or something.” Garza also was excited about Chico Mann, who fuses Afro Cuban and funk and came highly recommended by Ocote Soul Sounds’ Adrian Quesada. And he thoroughly enjoyed Mexico’s glam rock wildmen Moderatto, which closed Thursday night’s set at the Bowery Ballroom.
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Great new Twang Twang video
Twang Twang Shock-a-Boom could be the poster kids for anti-aging. Twenty years after they packed the West Mall and they still get carded. Check out the video above, from the trio’s recent NYC debut at Joe’s Pub. The band plays the Continental Club Thursday- drummer Chris Searles’ 39th birthday.
To get you even more in the mood, here’s a rare version of “Fishticks” from 1989.
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Santana proposes to his drummer after hot solo
Four songs into his Friday night concert near Chicago, Carlos Santana turned around and asked his drummer, Cindy Blackman, to marry him. The jazz skinsmith had just played an extended drum showcase on “Corazon Espinado.” Must’ve been some solo! She accepted.
“Being in love is a gift from the universe, and the spirit and vibrations that come with it are infinitely powerful,” Santana said in a press release afterwards. “I look forward to expressing that incredible energy through my music, and in helping to tip the balance toward more love in the world with what Cindy and I share.”
Blackman has played with the likes of Cassandra Wilson, Pharaoh Saunders and Bill Laswell.
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The Sword unveil new song “Tres Brujas”
“Warp Riders,” the third full-length album from the Austin alternative metal quartet — playing the Austin City Limits Music Festival in October — drops August 24, and to drum up interest in the “space opera meets post-apocalyptic western” concept album the band has released the first single from the record, “Tres Brujas.”
Translating to “Three Witches,” the track boasts a more mass market-friendly hard rock style than the Sword’s previous work — evoking the straightforward guitar-driven charm of Queens of the Stone Age. But while the sound may be a bit of a departure, the lyrics are still vintage Sword — front man JD Cronise is, after all, singing about confronting witches while under the influence of drugs.
Photo by Brian Tamborello.
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Local CD review: LZ Love ‘Mysterious’
LZ Love
`Mysterious’
“I was abused and misused just for being different/I thought something was wrong with me/I was blind but now I see,” sings Austin R&B treasure LZ Love on “This Is My Life,” the opening track off “Mysterious.” It’s vintage Love in the sound - funky, body-moving, soul-stirring rhythm and blues that recalls the dance music that made Love so popular in Europe in the 1980s and ’90s. But the lyrics, from the intro all the way to synth-laden closer “New Life” (“I’m learning to move beyond my shadows … I’m ready for a new life”) weave the long and winding tale of Love’s travails as a transgender singer, amply detailed in an Austin Chronicle cover story for last month’s Pride Weekend. That confessional angle - though oblique and rarely obvious -could bog down a lesser artist, but Love’s learned her lessons from her long involvement with gospel music. Even when confronting difficult issues of sexuality and personal challenge, she strives to keep it as sassy and optimistic as possible, from the disco grooves of “Chica Boom” to her deeply uplifting rendition of Stephen Bruton’s “Spirit World.”
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Local CD review: Jim Halfpenny ‘Truth Trust and Other Ghosts’
Jim Halfpenny
‘Truth Trust and Other Ghosts’
Jim Halfpenny has been an Austinite for only a small fraction of his life, but you’d never guess it from his music. Sure, his songs are full of sun-washed guitars that nod to his former career as a film composer in Los Angeles. But beneath this bright sheen is an earthy, country-tinged roots rock sound that’s right at home in the Hill Country.
Halfpenny’s second album, “Truth Trust and Other Ghosts,” stays true to the elements that made his debut a solid effort. The music marries mainstream ’90s alternative with Americana to produce tightly crafted songs that sit somewhere between the Wallflowers and Tom Petty.
But the album really punches when Halfpenny drives the music home with stark, relatable images. “Strokes of genius and poetry and gloom/I stored them all in paper balls in the corner of the room,” he sings on “Aims and Wishes.”
You can catch Halfpenny at the Nutty Brown Cafe on Wednesday nights, where he hosts the open mike.
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Local CD review: Paula Held ‘Drive’
Paula Held
‘Drive’
Austin-based singer-songwriter Paula Held gave herself permission to follow her muse, the velvet-blue night sky and its cast of heavenly components, when her son transitioned into adulthood and left her with some well-deserved time alone to finally put a pen to her thoughts. The result is sophomore release “Drive,” a crafty concoction of heartfelt folk and vintage jazz that has earned the chanteuse both critical acclaim and stage-time in notable songwriter hubs like Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe. Produced by veteran Stephen Doster (Nancy Griffith/Lyle Lovett) at Austin’s E.A.R. Studios, Drive’s tracks provide the perfect soundtrack for summer with campfire storytelling (“Tumbleweed Heart”), time-honored ragtime (“You’re My Falling Star”) and lighthearted, organic fare that seamlessly melds the fun, surfer-blues vibe of Jack Johnson with the classic American composition of Cole Porter (“Shoop Ta Sho”). “Drive’s” lyrical intimacy and blithe instrumentation take listeners on the scenic route to a warmly familiar destination.
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Local CD review: Hollywood Gossip ‘Dear as Diamonds’
Hollywood Gossip
‘Dear as Diamonds’
The members of Hollywood Gossip couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate name for themselves. They met while working as paparazzi at the Austin Film Festival, and “Dear as Diamonds,” their debut full-length, has an undeniable cinematic quality. It’s sleek, chic, flashy and jaunty - the perfect soundtrack to a montage of scenes from a pool party on a downtown rooftop at midnight. Although this might seem like something you’ve heard before, you probably won’t be able to recall what that something is. With each song, the band blends and pays tribute to its influences without explicitly betraying them. The verses of “Narcissus in a Window” bounce through rhythms that would fit a single off the first Strokes album before diving into a driving pop-punk chorus. Elsewhere, “Simon Says” bubbles with quirky, new-wave synth lines and male/female vocal interplay in the vein of the Rentals.
For the most part, “Dear as Diamonds” shines with a cheery, playful gleam. But like any good movie, songs like “All That I Want” and “Out of My Depth” intersperse optimism with lovelorn sincerity and a cynicism that will appeal to even the most jaded Austin hipster.
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Local CD review: Eric Chapelle ‘Across the Water’
Eric Chapelle
‘Across the Water’
Paris - France, not Texas - born composer and pianist Eric Chapelle conceived much of “Across the Water” while attending a residency program in Norton Island, Maine, and perhaps its greatest accomplishment is how effortlessly it evokes the seaside beauty of the East Coast. Piano compositions like “Norton Island” - recorded Bon Iver-style in a log cabin - exude tranquility and quiet longing. “Across the Water” is at its best when it’s also at its sparest - say, the closing solo piano numbers “Tide Pool” and “Wild Iris,” or when Julia Cory joins in on cello on opener “Every Wish” and “Soft Landing.” Its more new age-influenced diversions are less successful - the structureless soundscape of “Rainmaker” never quite jells, nor does the playful-yet-momentum-free “Straight Ahead.” Although “Across the Water” succeeds in building an atmosphere, at an hour’s worth of instrumental compositions that occasionally feel formless and plodding, a leaner approach might have conjured up a more impacting album.
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CD review: Big Boi ‘Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty’
Big Boi
‘Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty’
(Def Jam)
Grade: B
Big Boi has been known as the other guy from Outkast for most of his career. Even a #1 single (“The Way You Move”) couldn’t get him out of Andre 3000’s considerable shadow, not with “Hey Ya” on the same double album. His new solo album “Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty” was stuck in label purgatory for four years, an ignominious fate for someone whose sold more than 25 million records worldwide.
But his relative anonymity has never been due to a lack of talent. His pinpoint breath control allows him to flow over almost any type of beat, something he takes full advantage of on “Sir Lucious Leftfoot.” He is as comfortable rapping over the laid-back soul sample of “Shine Blockas” (“the penmanship is so legit / I came equipped like an prophylactic”) as he is spewing syllables in rapid-fire fashion (“they got flour for tortillas and lettuce for enchiladas”) on club songs like “Shutterbug.”
There is an almost infinite variety of musical influences on the album, befitting the experimental style Outkast is known for. A top-notch production team, headlined by longtime collaborators Organized Noise, adds many musical touches, from electronic synthesizers to funk guitars, trumpets and orchestras, not often seen on a Southern rap album.
Like many rappers used to being in a group, Big Boi seems uncomfortable performing by himself. He recruited a bloated guest-list in place of Andre 3000, who was barred from appearing because of label politics. Of the album’s 15 songs, 12 have guest appearances.
The sheer number of guests and musical styles prevents Big Boi from putting his stamp on the album. On tracks like “Be Still,” a jazz-influenced ballad with Janelle Monae where he has only one verse, he feels like a guest on his own song. While Big Boi has the skills to be a star in his own right, “Sir Lucious Leftfoot” shows he might be more comfortable in the background.
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CD review: M.I.A. /\/\ /\ Y /'
M.I.A.
’/\/\ /\ Y /\ ‘
(N.E.E.T./XL/Interscope)
Grade: B
Much ink - some literal, substantially more digital - has been spilled on the subject of British-Sri Lankan rapper Maya Arulpragasam since the release of 2007’s star-making “Kala.” Most of it has centered on her unlikely bio as the daughter of an absentee Tamil Tigers father, or her fashion, or her show-stopping, full-on pregnant performance at the 2009 Grammy Awards, or her politics, or her recent tiff with Lynn Hirschberg, author of a damning profile in the New York Times Magazine.
All of which is hideously misguided; the millions who hungrily consumed “Paper Planes” and made the song a staple in dance halls and discos and clubs and high school parties worldwide likely couldn’t have cared less about the track’s lyrical content. Strip away M.I.A.’s 21st-century multicultural window dressing and you’re left with - at her best - a cunning artist who slices and dices reggae and hip-hop and electronica and dub for a globetrotting tour of young urban sounds. So the big question for M.I.A.’s quasi-self-titled ‘/\/\ /\ Y /\ ’ (pronounced “Maya,” one assumes) is: Does it bang?
The answer: sometimes. M.I.A. seems to be aging in reverse, growing substantially less mellow and more abrasive as the years tick by. There’s nothing on “/\/\ /\ Y /\ ” with the easygoing charm of “Sunshowers,” off debut album “Arular,” nor any dance number quite as giddy as “Jimmy,” a fiendishly addictive pop highlight off “Kala.” “Steppin’ Up” sets the tone, laying her echoing vocals over an aggressive industrial barrage of chainsaws and power wrenches. “Teqkilla” is six minutes of drugs and drone. “Born Free” has a building, epic post-rock energy but rates low on the accessibility meter and might confuse those whose first exposure to M.I.A. was a trailer for “Pineapple Express.”
Pair that with M.I.A.’s often-cynical lyrics (“They told me this was a free country,” she says of the United States on “Lovalot.” “And now it feels like a chicken factory.”) and the unceasing examination of life in the digital world and you have an album that could feel less like a good time and more like a guilt trip.
But “/\/\ /\ Y /\ ” isn’t entirely given over to cacophonous slogs. “XXXO” is an electronica-soaked dance number, while “It Takes a Muscle” reaches surprisingly sentimental, reggae-influenced heights. “Meds and Feds” co-opts a sample from Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells and emerges as a scorching rocker, and the wistful “Space” is likely to be the closest thing to a ballad M.I.A. ever records. Between its more accessible numbers and the order that eventually emerges from the sharp and prodding edges of its more adventurous tracks, “/\/\ /\ Y /\ ” is ultimately a not-entirely-successful but still ambitious and intriguing effort from one of today’s most fragmented personalities.
Also out this week: Tracy Bonham, “Masts of Manhatta”; Crowded House, “Intriguer”; Dangermouse and Sparklehorse, “Dangermouse and Sparklehorse Present `Dark Night of the Soul’” ; HELLYEAH, “Stampede”; KoRn, “KoRn III: Remember Who You Are”; School of Seven Bells, “Disconnect From Desire”; Paul Wall, “Heart of a Champion”
Update: This entry was changed to use slashes and back slashes for the CD title, which do make more sense (but are a pain to type), as one commenter points out.
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25 years ago this month: MTV’s ‘Cutting Edge’ does Austin
Daniel Johnston at Liberty Lunch July 1985
Does anybody have a copy of the hourlong “MTV’s Cutting Edge” program devoted to Austin? It features Zeitgeist, Glass Eye, Doctors Mob, True Believers, Poison 13, Joe “King” Carrasco, Dino Lee and many more, including a local band nobody had heard of before called Timbuk 3. (Daniel wasn’t supposed to be part of the show, but he naively charmed his way onto the stage at Liberty Lunch. It’s funny to see him play to the camera when he starts.)
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Show preview: the Sessions at One World Theatre
“The smell of this theater is slowly becoming like Christmas to me,” says Lauren Bucherie, 25, stepping into the intimate theater hidden away at the back of the Hideout Coffeehouse on Congress Avenue. “It’s just one of those warm feelings.”
Bucherie’s ties with the Hideout are young but extensive — along with CJ Vinson, 28, a fellow graduate of Austin media production school MediaTech, she’s used the space since April 2009 for the Sessions, a showcase for local singer/songwriters. With five performers per show — each given equal time and billed in no particular order — the Sessions have regularly taken over the Hideout and made it into one of Austin’s best listening rooms. Intimate sets range from soul man Dan Dyer to folk songstresses Dana Falconberry and Erin Ivey to acoustic pop maestro Matt the Electrician.
Saturday night, Bucherie and Vinson expand the Sessions for the first time to a larger Austin venue, commandeering the One World Theatre for a show with the Americana-influenced Cowboy and Indian, dance outfit L.A.X. and New Wave pop connoisseurs the Black and White Years.
“We wanted to experiment with a bigger theater and see what we could do,” Vinson says. “We always try to set a bar and exceed it, and that’s what this is about. Bigger theater, bigger bands, more people.”
Vinson and Bucherie met through MediaTech but conceived the Sessions after wandering into the theater in the Hideout during an open-mike night. They began booking shows in the room with the idea of crafting a unique listening experience to match the venues they’d enjoyed in other cities.
“CJ had lived in L.A. and New York and I was from Vegas, and all those places have certain venues that are notorious as great listening rooms and songwriting rooms,” says Bucherie. “We basically wanted to make a space in Austin that was like (famous Hollywood music venue) the Hotel Café.”
The Sessions also features painters creating works of art on stage — a clear indicator of Bucherie and Vinson’s adventurousness, which also expands to taking some of their musicians on tour and booking a lineup at the One World Theatre that defies the pair’s usually acoustic-oriented modus operandi.
“We just wanted to make people say, ‘This is totally different from what you usually do. What the heck is going on with you guys?’ ” says Vinson. “It’s a summer dance party. Last summer we threw a bunch of shows that were nice and quiet, and we loved it, and we’re still going to do that, but for this? We were like, ‘You know what? It’s summertime, we have a big theater, let’s dance!’ ”
(The Sessions with the Black and White Years, L.A.X. and Cowboy and Indian. Doors at 8 p.m. Saturday night at the One World Theatre, 7701 Bee Cave Road. $30.)
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Fowler hits Billboard charts with ‘Pound Sign (#?*!)’
Local country hellraiser Kevin Fowler has entered the Billboard country songs charts at #37 with “Pound Sign (#?*!),” a song about how you can’t say how you really feel on country radio after you wake up from a bender.
The tune is Fowler’s highest-charting yet and the way it’s moving up, it could hit the top ten before too long. The new album with be out in the fall on the Disney Music Group’s Lyric Street Records, which no longer has an office in Nashville, but remains a Disney imprint.
The timing of the single bodes well for Fowler Fest, July 24 at Nutty Brown Cafe, featuring such support acts as Aaron Watson, Kyle Park and Curtis Grimes. Tix are already on sale.
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Phosphorescent’s van, gear, etc. stolen
Apparently sometime after the band kicked off a U.S. tour — scheduled to stop July 22 at the ND at 501 Studios in Austin — their tour van was stolen in Brooklyn.
Their label, the Austin-based Dead Oceans, has the details on what happened Thursday night and how fans can donate to replace gear (the van was insured) — and keep the tour going.
Dead Oceans co-owner and label manager Phil Waldorf said Friday that the tour is not canceled, but a few dates will have to be canceled or postponed while the band figures out what to do next.
“The Toronto show is canceled and the Buffalo date maybe, but we are trying to avoid it,” Waldorf said. “The Austin show is 100 percent still on.”
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Highlights from the Latin Alternative Music Conference in NYC
The Pinker Tones perform an acoustic set in New York during the conference.
Some highlights, in no particular order, from Day 2 of the Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York City:
Locos por Juana, the Miami-based Colombian/funk/reggae outfit, played a tight, two-song acoustic set at the Le Poisson Rouge nightclub in Greenwich Village. Both songs, off an upcoming EP, were crazily infectious and had the crowd dancing in their seats. At the same acoustic showcase, the Spanish band The Pinker Tones played songs from their latest excellent album “Modular,” translating their brand of electronic music deftly into a rollicking pared down version. And Colombian singer Sol Okarina wowed the crowd with her lovely voice and masterful playing of the small Latin American guitar called the Cuatro.
Later in the night, at the Bowery Ballroom, a pair of female MCs — Colombian by way of London Isa GT and Argentinian rapper Malena — tore up the stage. Isa GT, who is also a DJ to be reckoned with, rhymed over heavy, staccato beats with a vibe that was vaguely reminiscent of M.I.A. She provided one of the most energetic sets so far, dancing with feverish abandon; her song “Leyenda” is still ringing in my ears. The elegantly dressed Malena flipped the script with a relentless rhyme flow that was at least as fast as early Bone Thugs-N-Harmony or Tongue Twista. And Austin favorite Mexican Institute of Sound, who headlined the 2009 Pachanga Festival, proved once again that frontman Camilo Lara puts on one of the best live shows in the business. The record label executive turned beatmaker had the crowd in a frenzy with his techno-fused cumbias, receiving an assist from keyboardist Money Mark of Beastie Boys fame.
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Willie’s Picnic set to be broadcast on Sirius XM
If you missed Willie Nelson’s Fifth of July set at the Backyard- and many hungry folks with tickets did - it will be rebroadcast Saturday from 7 - 9 p.m. on Sirius channel 64 and XM channel 13. The two-hour special will be repeated on those channels Sunday from noon - 2 p.m.
As to the question of where was Willie, who usually makes several guest appearances during the day of his marathon Picnic, a close associate says he’d just gotten back from a tour of Europe the day before and was probably saving up his strength for his headlining set.
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Live from the Latin Alternative Music Conference: Moderatto!
Xavi Moderatto (left) and Roy Aviles Ochoa of Mexican glam rock band Moderatto. Photo by Jeremy Schwartz/Statesman staff
NEW YORK - It’s hard to miss Moderatto as they stroll through the hallways of the Latin Alternative Music Conference. With their outlandish makeup and freshly done hair, they stand in sharp contrast to the jeans and T-shirt-clad hipsters at the music festival. What also stands apart, even as it shows the wild diversity of Latin alternative, is their music: straight up glam rock that has somehow erupted from the bowels of the late 1980s and come crashing into modern Mexico City.
The band began as a fun side project, a tongue-in-cheek homage that has since acquired a life of its own in the band’s native land. Rabid fans in face paint have made the band one of Mexico’s biggest selling rock acts. The group is hoping that success will translate across the border as well and says video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band have stoked interest in glam rock’s boozy heyday.
“For two hours you can forget about your problems and live this rock ‘n’ roll fantasy,” guitarist Roy Aviles Ochoa said of the band’s much-praised live shows. “Everyone wants to celebrate rock ‘n’ roll, especially in this nostalgic way.”
Equally important for the band is the performance of rock ‘n’ roll. “From day one we’ve been using explosions,” bassist Xavi Moderatto said. “Now we have guitars that shoot out flames.” The band is headed to Texas after its LAMC stint and will play Brownsville on Friday night. “We think of every show as our last show,” Xavi said.
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Reports from the Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York
Ana Tijoux performs Wednesday night at the opening concert for the Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York’s Central Park. Photo by Jeremy Schwartz.
This is the first of several updates from the conference. Stay tuned for more interviews with bands and reviews of showcases.
NEW YORK CITY — It’s probably no coincidence that the 11th annual Latin Alternative Music Conference started as this city was gripped by an epic, “Do The Right Thing”-style heatwave. With temperatures hitting triple digits (for some reason 100 degrees in New York City feels twice as oppressive as the same temperature in Austin), the LAMC kicked off Wednesday evening with an outdoor show at Central Park’s Summerstage that left conference-goers and New Yorkers alike a sweating, delirious, satisfied mess.
The opening night featured what will likely go down as a legendary show by the brilliant border collective Nortec (Bostich and Fussible), which absolutely brought the house down and whetted our appetite for their appearance at this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival. Clutching iPads and accompanied by an accordion and trumpet player, the duo’s hour-long set of norteño-infused electronica left the crowd begging for more.
LAMC has become ever hotter as the years pass and is the globe’s pre-eminent gathering for Latin alternative music, a catch-all that encompasses styles ranging from electronic cumbia to indie folk to psychedelic funk. It’s kind of a mini-SXSW, with daytime panels, nighttime showcases and after-hours dance parties. This year’s lineup features much buzz from Spain, with groups like the La Bien Querida, Los Punsetes and the Pinker Tones getting lots of festival love. Latin hip-hop is also well represented with Chile’s Ana Tijoux (fresh off a successful SXSW stint), Monterrey DJ Toy Selectah (who cut his teeth producing beats for the seminal rap group Control Machete), Panama-by-way of Oakland rappers Los Rakas and Yotuel of the legendary Cuban rap group Orishas. Austin is also represented with the presence of Ocote Soul Sounds, who play later in the festival.
Wednesday night’s Central Park show began with Tijoux’s spare, pulsating style of rap. The France-born rapper has stripped hip-hop down to its essence, a great relief in this all-too-blingy world, and nods to hip-hop’s NYC roots in her hit “1977.” Accompanied by Rod Starz of the New York group Rebel Diaz (Tijoux and Rebel Diaz were last seen in Austin playing a packed show at Monkeywrench Books during SXSW), Tijoux stalked the stage with authority.
Next up was Barcelona’s El Guincho, who charmed the crowd with his unique stylings. Clad in Larry Bird short shorts, El Guincho pounded a drum machine with his right hand as his left manipulated a sampler and keyboard. Flanked by a guitarist and bassist, Guincho’s unusual sound had hips shaking in unusual ways with infectious, trippy music that teetered between the sublime and the kooky.
But as the sun set on Central Park, Tijuana’s Nortec Collective stole the show. After wheeling out a mainframe straight out of a NASA control room, Bostich and Fussible rocked the crowd with a pair of iPads as images of a gritty and kind-of-romantic Tijuana flashed on the screen behind them. Do not miss these guys if you can help it.
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Weekend music picks: July 7-11
Today
Ola Podrida, Dana Falconberry and Bosque Brown at the Mohawk (inside). A night of gently subversive lo-fi, with David Wingo’s gauzy alter ego following a couple of female singer-songwriters of the same self-expressive bent (interview with Ola Podrida, Page 9). Falconberry’s latest LP, ‘Halletts,’ is simply mesmerizing, while Denton’s Bosque Brown, who signs her checks Mara Lee Miller, gets the stark and vulnerable mood started. $7 10 p.m. 912 Red River St. www.mohawkaustin.com.
- Michael Corcoran
Also recommended:
Frank Smith at the Hole in the Wall,
Ian McLagan at Lucky Lounge,
Kinch, Fulton Read at Emo’s,
Ricky Stein and the .44 at the Continental.
Friday
Steel Train at Emo’s. From Springsteen to Gaslight Anthem to Titus Andronicus - they must put something in the water in New Jersey that fosters simultaneously thoughtful and shout-along anthemic rock. To that crowd add quintet Steel Train, whose self-titled third full-length jumps and inspires - and has seen release alongside a companion disc featuring covers of the album’s songs by an all-female roster of ringers that includes Tegan and Sara, Angel Deradoorian of the Dirty Projectors and lead singer Jack Antonoff’s high-school flame Scarlett Johansson. With Matt Embree, Young the Giant and Wiretree. 8 p.m. $12. 603 Red River St. www.emosaustin.com.
- Patrick Caldwell
Also recommended:
Wakey! Wakey! at the Mohawk,
Arc Angels at Antone’s,
Eli Young Band at Carlos `N Charlie’s,
M.O.T.O. at Beerland,
The Derailers at the Continental Club,
Dan Dyer and the Bruce James Soultet at Momo’s,
Kalu James and Malford Milligan at the Saxon Pub.
Saturday
Lightning Bolt at the Mohawk (outside). The world’s biggest little rock band from the smallest of the United States, this two-piece is famous for playing in the middle of the crowd and not on the stage. Check out Brian Gibson’s rig if you get close: He puts a banjo string on a bass guitar and plays leads and rhythms simultaneously. Trust me, these guys are amazing. Also on the bill is Houston’s touted Indian Jewelry. 9 p.m. $8. 912 Red River St. www.mohawkaustin.com
- M.C.
Also recommended:
Jon Blondell Quintet (CD release party) at Threadgill’s South,
Wannabes at Carousel Lounge,
Shapes Have Fangs at Beerland,
Bob Log III at Emo’s,
Arc Angels at Antone’s,
Black and White Years, L.A.X at One World Theater,
W.C. Clark at the Saxon Pub,
Bottle Service at Iron Gate Lounge.
Sunday
Marcia Ball’s Pianorama at Antone’s. Antone’s 35th anniversary rolls on with she of the velvet voice and the piano chops to die for, but master of ceremonies Ball isn’t going it alone - for this show, she’s roped in four of Antone’s best longtime players in Double Trouble’s Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon, as well as Derek O’Brien and Denny Freeman. Expect a ready supply of blues grooves that, paradoxically, will doubtless leave you feeling quite good about life. 8 p.m. $12. 213 W. Fifth St. www.antones.net.
- P.C.
Also recommended:
Heybale! at the Continental Club,
Jon Dee Graham at the Continental Club Gallery,
Warren Hood and the Hoodlums at Momo’s.
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David Yow gets solo art show in L.A.
Austin native David Yow, is not only the frenetic front man for the Jesus Lizard (and Scratch Acid before that), but he’s also been working as a visual artist. His first one-man exhibition of paintings and collages, “SOLO,” is running Aug. 14 to Sept. 11 at DIY Gallery in Echo Park, Calif.
In addition to the original artwork, DIY is selling signed prints of Yow’s poster for an August 2010 Queens of the Stone Age / Eagles of Death Metal fundraising concert for bassist Brian O’Connor, who was recently diagnosed with cancer. All proceeds from poster sales will go directly to O’Connor’s medical fund.
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Afternoon distraction: videos from Sunset and Household Names
It’s one of those relatively quiet, red-hot afternoons that so define Austin in the summer, making it an ideal time to round up some videos from local artists. So throw on your headphones, pull down your blinds and beat the heat with the following morsels:
We’ll start with the newest video from Bill Baird’s Sunset, an appropriately trippy, psychedelic Praveen Ayyagari-directed hallucination set to the band’s cavernous, echoing “Loveshines II.” You’ll see plenty of Baird himself, but considerably more screen time is given over to what certainly appears to be footage from old educational films or after-school specials; there’s a lot of those delightful scan lines that so perfectly evoke 80s and 90s VHS visuals. The band’s currently on tour and has a new record in the pipeline.
SUNSET - LOVESHINES II from autobus on Vimeo.
Next up is Big Star-styled local pop rock quartet the Household Names, who have thrown up three live, single-take videos adopting the popular La Blogtheque aesthetic. Check out the video for “Firefly” below and surf over to YouTube for videos for “Driving to L.A.” and “Live Without.”
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KUT kicks off Cactus Cafe meetings Thursday
With the end of the original Cactus Cafe now looming — Aug. 14 is scheduled to be the final day under current (and original) management — KUT will kick off five sessions of discussions over the venerable listening room’s future Thursday (July 8), KUT spokesperson Erin Geisler said.
The meetings will run into August and focus on five different topics, one for each session: student, campus and community involvement; artist and audience experience; the Cactus’ musical legacy; financial sustainability; and opportunities to expand Cactus Cafe content to broadcast and other outlets. The conversations are invite-only and closed to the public and media, with different audiences being invited each week — including musicians, students, patrons, and members of both Friends of the Cactus Cafe and Student Friends of the Cactus Cafe. KUT will release results of the feedback after the final session in August.
Wiley Koepp, who sits on the board of directors for the Friends of the Cactus Cafe and was one of the nonprofit organization’s founders (and starter of the campaign’s popular Facebook page) confirmed that he would be attending. As reported last month by the Daily Texan, Friends of the Cactus Cafe is holding onto pledged donations by its members — totaling $32,000 for the next year and $98,000 for the next five years — until further details are released about KUT’s plans for the Cactus Cafe. In the meantime, the organization has held off on further announcements until the Cactus’ future becomes clearer.
“After the KUT announcement there was just a lot of confusion — did we win? Did we lose? Is the Cactus saved? Is it doomed? So we still haven’t really sent anything out to our mailing list because we haven’t really gotten a bead on what’s going on,” Koepp said. “We contacted the pledges to get a bead on their feelings, and generally, people were like ‘It seems like there’s a lot still unknown and it depends what the Cactus becomes as to whether or not we’d actually follow through on our pledge.’ So we’re waiting through the summer and seeing what happens.”
The job opening for Cactus Cafe manager remains open, and advertisements have run both in the Statesman and in the Austin Chronicle for the position. Geisler said KUT has received more than 80 applications so far. Longtime Cactus employees Chris Lueck and Susan Svedeman will stay on after Aug. 14 — as could original Cactus Cafe manager Griff Luneburg, conceivably, though only time and KUT will tell on that front.
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Austin gives it up for the ‘bone
For the first time in its four decades of existence, the International Trombone Festival is taking place in Austin this weekend. About 2,000 afficianados of Glenn Miller’s instrument will slide into town this week.
Most of the festivities, including student instruction and the exhibition area, are at the University of Texas music building. But Friday the action is at the Elephant Room, where Austin’s gift to the ‘bone, Jon Blondell, celebrates the release of his first album “Live at the Elephant Room.” Such trombone masters as Harry Watters (ex- Dukes of Dixieland) and Andre Hayward from Wynton Marsalis’ band, are expected to be in attendance and, perhaps, will jam.
Opening the show at 9:30 p.m. are Jazzbonez, a collection of U.T. all-stars. Blondell, a native of Iowa who moved to San Antonio as a young man to study for the priesthood, comes on around 10:30 p.m.
Those who have room for more of the sliding brass instrument should go to Threadgill’s Saturday night for “Bone-Nanza,” which again features the Jon Blondell Quintet (with Jeff Helmer on piano) and a cast of special guests nicknamed “The Bone Collection.”
Cover charges are $5 at the Elephant Room and $10 at Threadgill’s South.
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Aquapalooza: no boat, no problem (unless you don’t want to spend boatloads)
Do you want to see Brad Paisley on Lake Travis this Saturday at the Aquapalooza signature event, but you don’t own a boat? You and your friends could rent a 20-foot open bow boat for $1,450 for the day. Or take the whole office and rent at pontoon boat that holds 50 people for $2,500.
This is what happens when you put on a concert featuring one of Nashville’s hottest acts, with no access from land. Craigslist is full of boaters out to make a few bucks from landlubbers. Some will let you join their party for $75- $95 a person. Or if you have a boat, but keep it elsewhere, you can rent a slip on Lake Travis for $150- $200 for the weekend.
Organizers at Lake Travis Sail and Ski Center, in conjunction with Sea Ray, are expecting 5,000 boats and 30,000 fans to the concert, which runs from noon to 7:30 p.m. Randy Barber and Annette Gass hope to be two of those in the water in front of the stage, but so far they’re stuck on dry land. “I sold my boat a few years ago, but I’ve been to these kind of concerts on the lake before and they’re a lot of fun,” says Barber, who has a home-based business in North Austin. The couple went on Craigslist and offered $50 plus they’d pay for gas, food and refreshments (including an unopened bottle of top shelf tequila), but they’ve obviously got to up the offer. They’ve had no takers after a week. “We’ve had some people offer to rent us their boats, but they want too much money, like $800 a day,” says Barber.
Go here for more info on Aquapalooza’s signature event. And let us know if you’ve got any room for Randy and Annette: they’ve got the booze covered.
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ACL Festival is sold out
For those of you who prefer words over pictures, the image above — taken from the ACL website — indicates that the Austin City Limits Festival has sold out of single-day tickets, although there do appear to be VIP and travel packages available.
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CD review: Jimmie Vaughan `Plays Blues, Ballads and Favorites’
Jimmie Vaughan
‘Plays Blues, Ballads and Favorites’
(Shout Factory)
Grade: B
Jimmie Vaughan walked away with the Grammy for best traditional blues recording for 2001’s ‘Do You Get The Blues?’ and rightfully so. Its laconic, slow-burning grooves made a strong case for Vaughan as the proper modern descendant of the genre’s three kings - Albert, Freddie and B.B. - with Vaughan’s dry vocals and retro-cool aesthetic seasoning of 11 deeply satisfying cuts of prime blues beef.
Following up such a career best - a perfect synthesis of Vaughan’s own charms and the influences of six-string pioneers like Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown and Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson - would prove challenging for anybody, even one of Austin’s most-respected blues statesmen.
Which might explain why ‘Plays Blues, Ballads and Favorites’ feels less like a proper follow-up and more like an awfully fun digression. After 2007’s collaborative album with Omar Kent Dykes, ‘On the Jimmy Reed Highway,’ Vaughan again returns to the tribute well, this time with 12 diverse covers from died-too-young R&B favorite Johnny Ace to Willie Nelson and one original instrumental.
The results are loose and casually charming, but the album rarely hits the notes of studied intensity that define Vaughan at his best.
Vaughan’s guitar saddles up with a pristine juke-joint take on Billy Emerson’s ‘The Pleasure’s All Mine’ before he joins with the smoky, still-seductive voice of Lou Ann Barton on Jimmy Reed’s ‘Come Love,’ the first of many duets. Barton’s voice doesn’t cut quite as deep as it did on her similar guest appearances on ‘Do You Get The Blues?’ She shines, though, when cut loose on lead vocals, ripping into ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and ‘Send Me Some Lovin’ with obvious relish. And the album’s array of guest stars bring their best, from blistering tenor solos from Greg Picollo to the invaluable trumpet of Continental Club mainstay Ephraim Owens. Vaughan’s choice of material rarely pushes his skills to their limit, but he performs nobly on straightforward cuts like Roy Milton’s ‘RM Blues.’ Even when ‘Plays Blues, Ballads and Favorites’ sounds like it could have used more money, more polish or more time in the studio, it rarely sounds like it needed more love.
Also out this week:
Big Boi, ‘Sir Luscious Leftfoot & 133’; Son of Chico Dusty’; Enrique Iglesias, ‘Euphoria’; Ed Kowalczyk (lead singer of Live), ‘Alive’; Bret Michaels, ‘Custom Built’; Kylie Minogue, ‘Aphrodite’
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Shortages and delays in the evening at Nelson’s picnic
By the time Willie Nelson finally stepped on stage to perform at Sunday’s Fourth of July Picnic, it was no longer the Fourth of July.
The headlining star and main attraction for the picnic took to the stage to perform “This Land Is Your Land,” with Micah Nelson’s band the Reflectacles at 12:05 a.m., July 5, kicking off a lengthy set that ran past 1 a.m. By that point, the once-packed grounds at the new Backyard had thinned considerably.
Though crowded and plagued by parking problems earlier in the day and evening, the picnic largely ran smoothly until the arrival of night. After 8 p.m. some vendors ran out of food, conditions in the bathrooms devolved and lines for the small shuttles to return concertgoers to the Hill Country Galleria stretched through the parking lot. Parking difficulties also arose from Bee Cave police refusing to let concertgoers walk from the Hill Country Galleria to the Backyard (there are no sidewalks in the mile between the outdoor mall and the venue). Those problems, exacerbated by Nelson’s absence despite repeated announcements from emcees that he would play soon, all contributed to frustrated picnic attendees. Our own picnic expert Dave Thomas called it “the first time I’ve left the picnic angry at Willie.”
“That was my sixth or seventh picnic. And after not seeing Willie all day and finally we gave up at 11:30, I guess,” picnic attendee Carl Burns said Monday by phone. “Normally he opens up and plays with different people throughout the day, but that didn’t happen. It was kind of disappointing to spend that much money and not get to see Willie. It didn’t seem like they were ready for that many people, and they should have been because they’ve been advertising it for months.”
Update 2:20 p.m. July 6: Tim O’Connor, CEO of Direct Events, which operates the Backyard, said Tuesday he was aware of the show’s problems and was aiming to rectify them, attributing difficulties with parking and food to the combination of a sold-out crowd and the still-gestating Backyard.
“These were all new vendors to concerts, and certainly to a festival. We apologize for any shortness of food … And again on the shuttles it was our first attempt at doing that. We’ve already had initial conversations with the Galleria and we’re going to sit down and make a better plan and not have that issue in the future,” O’Connor said. “This was obviously our first run at a big sold-out show at the Backyard, and it was one that ran all day. We think we’re getting better at it and we hope we get real good at it before long. … We just ask for everybody’s patience.”
Some other comments we’ve received via e-mail:
“My boyfriend bought us tickets because I wanted to see (Willie Nelson) so badly in concert,” wrote Joyce Benavidez. “By midnight I was tired, hungry, needed the bathroom sooo bad, and sickened by all the people passing out around me. Then the host said he was next but he wasn’t! Why did they lie and say you were next? I was sooo disappointed I wanted to cry. … Still a fan but will never go to another Fourth of July picnic.”
“We were excited to see Willie — went at around 3 p.m. to pace ourselves in the heat and stayed until midnight, no sign of Willie,” wrote Chauncy Maddox. “Lots of lengthy set changes resulting in lulls in music, food ran out everywhere. Waited in line for two hours for a brat and got brat with no bun. All in all very disappointing.”
“So, overall this was the worst concert experience of my life. I have been to more than 200 concerts, large and small, all over the United States, over the past 20 years. The music, which is the most important thing, was great. Every other aspect of this show was disappointing,” wrote A. Smith. “The Backyard needs to sell fewer tickets and provide more parking if they want this new location to be successful. The Bee Cave Police need to get the bees out of their panties. Although it is unsafe for people to be walking in the road, the police had no right to tell us that we could not walk down the side of the road in the grass, especially on the day we as Americans celebrate our freedom. The Backyard should consider some measures to control foot traffic inside the venue, and provide adequate and sanitary restroom facilities. The food and alcohol vendors need to plan accordingly for the size of the crowd in attendance. I will closely watch future reviews of shows at the Backyard to see if these issues have been addressed before I consider attending another show there again.”
If you were there, sound off in the comments and let us know if you had a positive or negative picnic experience.
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Day off discovery: Stonehoney
The name’s an impediment until you listen to the music on the band’s debut album “The Cedar Creek Sessions,” which comes out Tuesday. Stonehoney (which is NOT a side project of Stoney Larue and Honeybrowne) could already be the best country rock band in town. Like the Band of Heathens, Stonehoney combines four accomplished singer-songwriters (Shawn Davis, Nick Randolph, Phil Hurley, David Phenicie) who met an an onstage guitar pull and decided to join together. There’s a lot of talent in play here which is why there’s no frontman.
Cedar Creek and Music Road Records co-owner Fred Remmert says there were only a couple of minor overdubs, but the record was otherwise recorded live, with ex- Uncle Tupelo drummer Ken Coomer returning to Cedar Creek for the first time since he skinned on “Anodyne.”
C’mon man. You telling me the singing and playing were happening at the same time and that no little blips were fixed later? My ears aren’t tomato cans; this record sounds layered.
“The Cedar Creek Sessions” comes off like six months in Nashville, with all those great harmonies and Phil Hurley’s lead guitar smoking with the confidence that overdub protection provides. Listen to the way “I Don’t Wanna Go Home” seamlessly binds power pop and country and it’s impossible that they didn’t use any studio tricks.
Two guys from Boston, one from D.C. and one from Cali, signed to Jimmy LaFave’s label, formed in Los Angeles, but couldn’t get to Texas fast enough. “Two Years Down” sums up being lost in L.A., while the melody can see a way out. “Feel Like Home” sounds like the late, great Beat Farmers if they were from Texas. Welcome to Austin, boys, now wait your turn. (“Hey, no cutting!”)
There are four chances this month to see if Stonehoney could possibly make a live album in the studio that sounds so full. There’s an instore at Waterloo Records July 21, followed by a show at Gruene Hall the next night and Luckenbach July 24. Then, Stonehoney plays Roadhouse Rags July 25.
Listen to songs from “The Cedar Creek Sessions” here. The sound is close to mainstream country, especially with the sturdy harmonies, but there’s a bit more Boston rock club vibe than you’ll usually hear on KASE..
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Epic to reissue SRV’s ‘Weather’ with 11 studio outtakes, live tracks
August 27 will mark the 20th anniversary of the death of blues giant Stevie Ray Vaughan and to mark that occasion Epic Records is releasing a double disc “Legacy Edition” of SRV’s first gold record “Couldn’t Stand the Weather.”
The new set includes studio outtakes from “Weather“‘s sessions in New York City, which started just six months after the release of “Texas Flood,” the album which started the ’80s electric blues revival in 1983.
The reissue, which hits stores July 27, will also include a bonus disc of Vaughan and Double Trouble live at the Spectrum in Montreal in 1984.
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Sunny Sweeney debuts on Billboard country charts
The former Queen of the Poodle Dog Lounge may have a hit on her hands. Former Austinite Sunny Sweeney has hit No. 58 on the Billboard country chart after just one week with “From a Table Away.”
Listen to the song here.
There’s not a confirmed release date yet for the album, which is coming out on Republic Nashville. The modern honky tonker, originally from the East Texas town of Longview, moved to Nashville last year.
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Lilith Fair in Austin canceled
Well, that didn’t last long. Although Lilith Fair had announced that Austin would be one of the many cities the re-vamped all-ladies tour would be hitting this summer following an 11-year hiatus, plans have changed. Today, the fest canceled 10 dates, including the August 14 show in Austin.
From LilthFair.com:
“We are in the midst of one of the most challenging summer concert seasons with many tours being cancelled outright,” says Lilith co-founder Terry McBride. “Everyone involved with the tour would like to apologize to the fans and artists scheduled to play in these markets, and express appreciation for all the support for the festival’s return. Lilith remains the only tour of its kind, and we are confident that fans will be amazed by what each date has to offer.” In light of these cancellations, some artists who were set to appear later in the tour may be performing in other cities. Please check LilithFair.com for the most up to date information for each city.
As we reported last week, the festival had previously announced Auditorium Shores as the venue for the Austin concert, but Lilith Fair never acquired a permit for Auditorium Shores — on August 14 or any other date.
Entertainment Weekly reports that “the shows that are going on — tonight is the tour’s third night, in Vancouver — are suffering from embarrassingly low attendance, and being moved to venues half the size of the original stops.”
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Antone, Joplin, Threadgill, Van Zandt and Vaughan among inductees to Austin Music Memorial
The Austin Music Memorial, which honors individuals who have made substantial contributions to the development of the Austin music community, will induct 10 more local music pioneers on July 11 — and this year, it’s a group heavy with household names and well-known Texas icons.
Antone’s founder Clifford Antone, rock ‘n roll trailblazer Janis Joplin, legendary singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt, restaurateur and Threadgill’s founder Kenneth Threadgill and beloved blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan are among the more famous Austin music personalities to be recognized by the memorial this year. Other inductees are jazz trumpeter Martin Banks, blues pianist Erbie Bowser, radio host Liliado “Lalo” Campos, multi-instrumentalist Luis “Louie” Guerrero and Victory Grill founder Johnny Holmes.
The Austin Music Memorial was established by the City of Austin Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services Office in 2007 and includes personalized plaques on the city terrace of the Long Center for the Performing Arts, overlooking Lady Bird Lake. The induction ceremony will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. July 11 at the Long Center; following the ceremony the plaques will tour Antone’s, Threadgill’s and El Sol Y La Luna for one week before being installed in their permanent homes.
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Fun Fun Fun Fest tickets on sale Sunday
With Austin’s increasingly trademark big outdoor music festivals more or less on hold during the toasty summer months, most eyes are on the October return of the Austin City Limits Music Festival for fulfillment of everyone’s deep-seated “sit in a field and watch a bunch of bands play” desires.
But Transmission Entertainment’s annual Fun Fun Fun Fest — the Pitchfork Music Festival to Austin City Limits’ Lollapalooza, though frankly Fun X3 looks more … well, fun than Pitchfork — is quietly simmering in the background, doubtless ready to leak a few cult favorite performers any day now. The first and cheapest round of tickets for the Waterloo Park shindig go on sale Saturday/Sunday at midnight; to purchase tickets you’ll have to register for the festival’s website.
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Hancock to close Cactus with “No Two Alike”
Butch Hancock will close out “the Original Cactus Cafe” by playing five nights, Aug 10-14, without repeating a single song. The run will include several special guests and a new part three of Hancock’s epic “Split & Slide” saga.
It’s not yet known when the Cactus will reopen under KUT, but there’s customarily a week or two break at the end of August, before the students come back.
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Weekend music picks: July 1-5
Today
Pinetop Perkins and friends at Antone’s. In Austin, July is blues month. Help the blues piano icon celebrate his 97th birthday, while also fêting 35 years of Antone’s. Perkins (who’ll be touring in Spain on his actual birthday Wednesday) will be joined by Bill Carter and the Blame and other luminaries. And come early for the Peterson Brothers from Bastrop, who are 86 and 84 years younger than the headliner. 9 p.m. 213 W. Fifth St. www.antones.net.
- Michael Corcoran
Also recommended:
Man Made Fire at Flamingo Cantina,
Gun Outfit at Beerland,
Led Zeppelin 2 at La Zona Rosa,
Gary Clark Jr. at Lamberts,
Andrew Jackson Jihad at Emo’s,
Shannon McNally and Deadman at the Continental.
Friday
… And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Girl In A Coma at the Beauty Bar. Design and screen printing outlet Pure Grease launches - appropriately - in style with a barrage of great Central Texas acts, from Trail of Dead’s stirring art rock to Girl In A Coma’s take-no-prisoners guitar caterwaul. With a lineup like that, Pure Grease should have no trouble packing the venue from patio to hair dryers. With Eagle Claw, Lights Go Out, Markov, White Rhino, Not in the Face and Melogrand. 7 p.m. $10. 617 E. Seventh St. www.myspace.com/beautybaraustin.
- Patrick Caldwell
Also recommended:
Whitman and Built by Snow at Mohawk,
Tortilla Factory at the Flamingo Cantina,
Everclear, MoTel Aviv and the Pons at the Marchesa Hall and Theatre,
Storyville at Antone’s.
Saturday
Jamey Johnson at Whitewater Amphitheater. This bearded singer from Alabama is the hottest new artist in country music, with such tunes as 2008 country song of the year In Color' andMacon,’ from upcoming CD `The Guitar Song,’ making Southern rock safe for mainstream country, while staying true to such influences as Lynyrd Skynyrd and Marshall Tucker Band. This Canyon Lake triple bill is headlined by Robert Earl Keen, with Bruce Robison in support, so expect the crowd to reach the capacity of 5,600. Go to www.whitewaterrocks.com for advance tix ($19.40). 7 p.m. 11860 FM 306.
- M.C.
Also recommended:
Thieves at Red 7,
Make Austin Weirder Fest at Lovejoy’s,
Scorpion Child’s Third of July Picnic at the Mohawk,
Storyville at Antone’s, Bus Stop Stallions at Momo’s,
Jungle Rockers, Royal Butchers at the Continental,
Gary Nicholson at the Saxon Pub.
Sunday
T-Bird and the Breaks, the Bright Light Social Hour and ‘Til We’re Blue or Destroy at Seaholm Power Plant. The big show goes down at the Backyard, as Willie’s picnic returns to Austin, but those looking for a cheaper date - and a heckuva lot less hassle parking - can mosey over to the Seaholm’s art deco digs, where up-and-coming soul stirrers T-Bird and the Breaks headline a roaring benefit for Anthropos Arts. 4 p.m. Free. 214 West Ave. anthroposarts.wordpress.com.
- P.C.
Also recommended:
Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel, Billy Joe Shaver, Kris Kristofferson and more at the Backyard,
Junior Brown and Tanya Rae at the Continental Club,
Bob Schneider and Quiet Company at the Nutty Brown Cafe.
Monday
Dan Dyer at the Continental Club Gallery. It’s a slow night for live music, so go for a safe bet. Dyer’s slinky soul satisfies. Free. 10:30 p.m. 1315 S. Congress Ave. www.continentalclub.com.
- M.C.
Also recommended:
Two Hoots and a Holler at the Continental Club,
Charles Thibodeaux at Evangeline Cafe,
Republic of Texas Big Band at the Highball.
