Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2012 > February > 13
Monday, February 13, 2012
The Mohawk gets a new deck
The Mohawk isn’t about to go the way of Emo’s. The club at 912 Red River St. is approaching the completion of a new deck overlooking its outside stage that will expand its capacity somewhere in the range of 150-200 people (the city will make the final determination), according to owner James Moody. Though most of the structure will go in over the next week or so, some of the supports are already in place. Moody says he hopes it will be finished in time for the annual beard and moustache competition on Feb. 25.
“The idea is to bring more sight lines to the shows,” Moody says. A new soundboard and bar will go underneath the added level. “It’s actually going to feel like an inside bar,” Moody says.
Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Terry Lickona talks about Grammy tribute to Whitney Houston
(Jennifer Hudson performs a tribute to Whitney Houston at the Grammy Awards. ASSOCIATED PRESS)Early Saturday, a member of the Recording Academy staff approached “Austin City Limits” producer Terry Lickona, who was in Los Angeles to co-produce Sunday night’s Grammy awards, with some sad news. Whitney Houston had died.
The announcement hadn’t been made public yet, and it shocked the Grammy staff and musicians working on the annual award show. “There was a few minutes of shock, with the news coming at a time when everybody was just riding high,” Lickona said. “We had rehearsed Paul McCartney’s finale just moments before. Adele had just rehearsed as well.”
As Coldplay, Rihanna and the Foo Fighters continued to rehearse during what was already a tight schedule, the staff went to work planning a tribute to Houston. With a number of artists wanting to take part, Lickona’s co-producer Ken Ehlirch put a call out to Jennifer Hudson. Rickey Minor, who works as the musical director for both the Grammys and “The Tonight Show,” worked with Hudson late into the night Saturday on a rendition of “I Will Always Love You.” Because of the other rehearsals, they weren’t able to work through it on stage until just before the ceremony Sunday.
“Jennifer struggled to get through that rehearsal,” Lickona said. “It was so emotional she had to do a couple different takes.”
The addition of Hudson’s tribute wasn’t the only change made on short notice. An entirely new opening script was written for LL Cool J, who hosted the ceremony. The rapper and actor wrote the prayer dedicated to Houston he recited at the opening of the show, Lickona said. As for the different mentions of Houston by performers and presenters throughout the night, Lickona said that everyone involved was allowed to say what they felt was appropriate. “We knew that almost everybody would make some reference. We left it up to them to say what they needed to say. Some people had more to say than others, and each spoke in their own way,” Lickona said.
Bonniebear? Aside from the tribute to Houston, one of the other more talked about parts of the Grammy show Sunday was Bon Iver’s win in the best new artist category. Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon had previously made news by turning down an invite from the Grammys to perform a duet because he wouldn’t be able to play his own music. His acceptance speech Sunday was a mix of gratitude, commentary and a bit of humor as he referred to the win as a “sweet hook-up.”
“What you saw was Justin,” said Phil Waldorf, who lives in Austin and is a partner in the Dead Oceans record label with the people who run Jagjaguar, the label that released Bon Iver’s album. “He’s an incredibly honest guy, I think he’s genuinely humbled and surprised by all of the attention. It’s the rare case of the nice guy wins.”
With the Arcade Fire’s best album win last year, Bon Iver’s Grammy marks the second year in a row an independent artist caught some by surprise. “I have to think it’s more of a result of social media, with people being able to communicate about this stuff in high speed,” Waldorf said.
Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Review: Andrea Bocelli at the Frank Erwin Center
(Kelly West AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
Bocelli in Austin. Andrea Bocelli romanced a love-struck crowd Friday at the Frank Erwin Center, giving couples everything but the long-stem roses in his pre-Valentine’s Day concert.
Talk about timing. How did Austin get so lucky to land the famous Italian tenor, who lost his sight at age 12, on one of the biggest date nights of the year?
Bocelli, making his Austin debut, wasted no time with chitchat. He jumped into his “Love Italian Style” show with a string of soaring arias, as clips from opera performances played on a big screen behind him.
It was exactly what the audience, some of whom had pulled out the furs for the special occasion, had paid to hear.
They swayed and gazed happily at the stage, especially when Bocelli dove into “La donna e’ mobile” from Verdi’s Rigoletto and “Brindisi” from his La Traviata.
Couples cuddled; fans swooned. More than a few wiped tears from their eyes. Music really can make you cry.
Just watching Bocelli, who had congenital glaucoma as a child then went completely blind after an accident playing soccer, is fascinating. He stood perfectly still as he sang, smiling serenely as if he knew he had a hand in winning over a heart or two that night.
Eugene Kohn conducted the 71-piece orchestra and a choir of about 60. Soprano Eglise Gutiérrez and special guest Heather Headley sang also, taking over for a solo or two and sharing the stage with Bocelli for duets.
Bocelli has said that music is love, and that came across in his song choice, which included numbers from Romeo and Juliet, Handel’s “Halleluja Chorus” from The Messiah, “Ave Maria,” and a few pop songs, too.
If the audience wanted songs they knew by heart, they got them with Bocelli’s rich rendition of “Amazing Grace,” (which added a whole new meaning to the line “was blind and now can see”) and a version of “New York, New York” sung as photos of Bocelli in the City That Never Sleeps scrolled in the background. He even played the flute for one song.
He was best, though, when singing solo, in his native Italian. It wasn’t until the end of the concert that Bocelli finally said a few words, thanking Kohn and his fellow performers before dedicating one final song — “I Can’t Help Falling in Love” — to all the people in love.
Based on the audience’s response, that was most of the crowd.
There’s just one problem for anybody who surprised their date with tickets to the show. How are they going to top that next Valentine’s Day?
(Conductor Eugene Kohn, left, and Andrea Bocelli take a bow during Bocelli’s concert at the Frank Erwin Center on Friday, February 10, 2012. Kelly West AMERICAN-STATESMAN)Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Look out, noise is back in town.
When I was a young man, a late teen, by which I mean when I was alive in the first half of the 1990s, late high school and college, I associated Austin with, as a wise man once put it, “vicious noise that makes my head spin.” (Look it up.)
Thanks to the Butthole Surfers, Trance Syndicate Records and Ed Hall showing up in “Slacker,” I thought the River City streets were full of busted amps, mutated guitar pedals and altered states. It helped that there was some club called Emo’s that seemed to feature such distorted glory every night.
But I didn’t move to Texas until 1999, and didn’t get to Austin until 2001. That stuff was long gone by then.
So it was downright spiritual to see Same Sack at Beerland Friday night. (I would like them to change their name to Same Sac, but that is up to them now, isn’t it?)
A trio of Craig Clouse (late of Todd and Crown Roast, currently of [Expletive] and Shine) on bass and vocals, Matt Turner (Rubble) on bass and King Coffey (Butthole Surfers) on big, shiny new drums.
Two basses, one drum kit, no mercy; pure mid-tempo sludge, Clouse howling into the mic over ovoid riffs, one bass’s urk-thud slightly higher-end than the other. Noise-rock the likes of which I thought I would never hear in front of my face and from these fellows in particular.
Needless to say, I was ecstatic.
The whole bill was outstanding. Cruddy and Marriage were rock solid and Nazi Gold, whose new album is due in April on Super Secret Records, were stunning; their buzzy, chunky sound has opened up since replacing the drum machine with former Shearwater/current Swans drummer Thor Harris.
And Spray Paint, a No Wavey project from some folks in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth and Dikes of Holland, similarly ruled. Their now sold-out single on S-S Records is quite a debut slab of whiz and bang.
I cannot think of a bill I enjoyed more, start to finish, in a long time. Can’t think of a time in the past ten years I have been more excited about the Austin scene.
Add to this the excellent Thurston Moore show at St. David’s on Saturday night and it was a weekend of glorious thunder, feedback and confusion of the highest order. I am still flying off the buzz. Well done, everyone.
Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Music
SXSW wristbands on sale until noon today
If you were planning on buying a wristband for SXSW, you have about an hour. The festival just announced that wristbands for the festival are almost sold out and will be available until noon through wristband.sxsw.com. To purchase, you need an Austin-area billing address. If you want to purchase one for someone else, you must provide that person’s name. Wristbands are $175.
Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: SXSW 2012
More bands confirmed for Chaos in Tejas
Check it out; includes reunion from 90s Ohio punk-not-hardcore-but-lots-of-beer geniuses Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Texas black metal titans Absu and sissy bounce powerhouse Big Freedia (Chaos producer Timmy Hefner’s 540 Records released her excellent “Azz Everywhere” 12” single.)
Absu
Big Freedia
Ceremony
the Creamers
Dangerous Boys Club
GG King
Kindest Lines
King Dude
Main Attrakionz
Pop. 1280
Shoppers
Teenage Cool Kids
Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments
Thousand Foot Whale Claw
Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Chaos in Tejas
Tonight’s picks: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra
Also playing:
- Valentine’s Eve with Forever Changes, Quin Galavis, Jess Williamson at Antones
Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
SXSW Band of the Day: Blitz the Ambassador
From: Brooklyn, NY
Online: blitz.mvmt.com/
In 50 words or fewer: Whether soaring over triumphant swells of brass or working the pocket of a deep-funk groove the Ghanaian-born, self-proclaimed “lyrical anthropologist” packs insane amounts of real-talk in every 4-bar cadence. His story rhymes unfold as transcontinental journeys that resound with universal humanity.
Could share a bill with: The Roots, Rakim, Common, Talib Kweli
Beyond beats and rhymes: For his most recent release, ‘Native Sun,’ Blitz traveled back to his Ghanaian homeland to create a 20-minute short film by the same name. The lead track “Something to Believe” off his 2010 joint ‘StereoLive’ is also accompanied by a stunning eight-minute short.
Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: SXSW 2012
