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Live Twitter updates from Fun Fun Fun Fest
We’re covering Fun Fun Fun Fest via Twitter this year. Look for your tweets to appear below. Just make sure “FFF” is somewhere in your message.
Fun Fun Fun updates from music writer Patrick Caldwell:
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Live review: AC/DC at the Erwin Center
“Thunderstruck” whimpered where it once roared, the set sagged badly in the middle half hour, the four new songs were plain awful and “You Shook Me All Night Long” sounded warped, like someone left it out in the sun at the last Yellow Rose picnic. Friday night’s concert at the Erwin Center was far from being the best AC/DC show I’ve ever seen.
And yet it succeeded as a tribute to the awesome power of good, hard, rock n’ roll. The capacity audience of over 13,000 (staging took out about six seating sections) made the show; in fact during the “T.N.T” and “Highway To Hell” chant-alongs, it sure felt like seeing the band in metal-crazed San Antonio. When the two-hour set ended with “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You),” with cannons, of course, the band seemed genuinely appreciative of the energy they got back.
AC/DC hadn’t played Austin in 13 years, but much of the set was unchanged since then. Besides the aforementioned cannons, there’s still the drawn out strip tease by guitarist Angus Young during “The Jack.” Singer Brian Johnson once again took a running leap to ring the bell during “Hell’s Bells” and “Let There Be Rock” ended with the most self-indulgent guitar solo of all time.
But AC/DC is a band you don’t want to change. The show was as much a thanks and celebration of all the great music through the years, as it was a high dollar, two-hour show that found a veteran band proving that they can still do what made them beloved. AC/DC is a memory machine, KISS with talent instead of makeup, taking fans back to their discovery of rock. Where were you when you first heard “Whole Lotta Rosie”?
With the three-piece rhythm engine of guitarist Malcolm Young, drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams clustered together in the back, like they were playing the Continental Club, the throb was relentless on “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place To Be” and “Rosie,” probably the band’s two best songs.
But as Angus and Brian, “the new singer,” worked the crowd shamelessly I had to ask myself if I could actually be this bored during a show by the world’s greatest hard rock band, I couldn’t control the yawns that stretched out during “Dog Eat Dog,” which has no place in a career-spanning AC/DC concert.
Much of the set seemed programmed by the concessionaires, whose favorite words were “Here’s another one from the new album.” The new “War Machine” is quite possibly the dullest song ever played at the Erwin Center during a sold out concert.
Part of the reason I couldn’t get fully into the show is because my seat in section 20, row 16, was separated from a 20-foot drop over an exit by a railing that went up to my knee. I get shoved and I’m dead. (Dying during a concert by my alltime favorite band would’ve made for some nice “at least he died happy” talk, but I’m kinda holding out for the 25-year anniversary show of Them Crooked Vultures.) Even though my seated view was unobstructed, sitting down during AC/DC is like standing up during a lap dance.
It would be a shame if it took the death of a fan for the Erwin Center to rectify this blatant safety hazard. How about some webbing below the rail to catch clumsy fans? Then us 20/ 16 folks can rock out like everybody else.
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KGSR ‘Broadcasts’ coming Nov. 27
The 17th volume of KGSR’s “Broadcasts,” featuring Steve Earle and Hayes Carll on the cover, hits stores the day after Thanksgiving. As always, all songs on the two-CD set ($15) are live performances originally broadcast on KGSR
The best-selling series has raised a remarkable $2 million for the SIMS Foundation since it became beneficiary with “Volume 5.” (Last year’s donation was $137,000.)
This year’s CD is dedicated to Stephen Bruton, who has a hidden track on the set.
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Weekend picks: New Age jazz, a folk patriarch and rock perfection
FRIDAY
AC/DC at the Erwin Center. When people say their band sounds like AC/DC, it just isn’t true. Oh, they might think they sound like this crew of Australians’ patented hard rock, but they don’t. Very little sounds quite like AC/DC. The chunky riffs, the drumming’s beyond-basic feel, Brian Johnson’s ancient tomcat screech pretty much embody the idea of deceptive simplicity. Like the Ramones and Motörhead, the band struck upon a perfect song and just kind of kept playing it again and again. And like the Ramones and Motörhead, you can tell an AC/DC song about three seconds into it. This is, of course, where bands fail in their quests to become yet more AC/DC-like: They attempt to add to AC/DC, to combine it with something else. This is a mistake — you cannot improve upon rock perfection. 7:40 p.m. $89.50. Erwin Center. 1701 Red River St. uterwincenter.com. — Joe Gross
Also recommended:
- Eyehategod at Emo’s
- Mojo Nixon and the Toadliquors at the Continental Club
- Gary Newcomb Trio at Lovejoy’s
- Galactic at Stubb’s
SATURDAY
Loudon Wainwright III and Richard Thompson at the Texas Union Ballroom. The Wainwrights — Rufus, Martha, Sloan and Lucy — are probably the closest thing American folk has to the Kennedys, with the talented, prolific and good-humored Loudon as the patriarch. Richard Thompson is a British folk legend whose compositions have been recorded by everyone from R.E.M. to Elvis Costello. Both are touring behind new releases — Wainwright a double-CD tribute to legendary hard-living banjo picker Charlie Poole and Thompson an exhaustive 4-CD retrospective. 8 p.m. $40. 2247 Guadalupe St., utexas.edu/txunion — Patrick Caldwell
Also recommended:
SUNDAY
George Winston at One World Theatre. The capo de tutti capi of New Age-slotted piano players. There was a time when Winston’s music was considered progressive — he first recorded for John Fahey’s Takoma label and his sales practically built Windham Hill Records. Winston also has a long history with Austin — Waterloo Records was an early booster and he once sold out the Paramount. He also plays Friday and Saturday. 7 p.m. $20, $45, $60. One World Theatre. 7701 Bee Cave Road. oneworldtheatre.org — J.G.
Also recommended:
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FFF to be final show for Bankrupt and the Borrowers
Grunge blues outfit Bankrupt and the Borrowers have announced that their 1 p.m. Sunday show at Fun Fun Fun Fest will be the band’s last, according to a release from the their publicist. The show will serve as a tribute to their band mate, multi-instrumentalist Jon Pettis, who died Oct. 9 in a fire sparked by a malfunctioning power strip in his East Austin home.
Donations have helped move the fire’s survivors into a new home, replaced all lost musical instruments and assisted Pettis’ fiancée in getting back on her feet. The band is also working on establishing a Jon Pettis Fund to assist other local musicians in times of crisis, as well as a scholarship in Pettis’ name at his high school, Westford Academy in Westford, Mass. Plans are still under way for a benefit show Dec. 6 at the Hole in the Wall, where the band was planning to play a November residency before Pettis’ death.
Denis O’Donnel from The Bread, Tyler Hautala of the Bridge Farmers and Blake Van Buren of The Van Buren Boys will contribute to the performance.
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Listen to new Spoon: “Mystery Zone”
As reported earlier, Spoon is set to release a new full-length, “Transference,” on Jan. 26. Click here to check out the super catchy “Mystery Zone,” which will appear on the album along with “Got Nuffin.” (Pitchfork)
Update 3:25 p.m.: The song has been removed. You’ll just have to trust us that it was really good.
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Rick Rubin to produce ZZ Top
Guitarist Billy Gibbons recently told a British journalist that Rick Rubin, who helped resurrect Johnny Cash’s career, will produce the band’s next studio album. The members of ZZ Top will spend much of the next year writing material for the guy who stole their beard idea.
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Okkervil River’s Will Sheff contributes to new Norah Jones album
Ryan Adams and Jesse Harris also co-wrote songs with Jones for “The Fall.” NPR’s First Listen is steaming the album in its entirety here.
Sheff and the rest of Okkervil River will also be joining the Levon Helm band for a New York show in January.
“Unless It’s Kicks,” from last Saturday’s Okkervil/M.Ward Austin City Limits episode:
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‘The Horn’ makes debut on Austin FM radio
After a few stutter steps and perhaps a fake reverse, sports talk in Austin made its debut on FM radio Monday.
Listeners were able to hear local sports talk, including popular morning host Erin Hogan, on the FM dial at 104.9. That station, which has previously featured Spanish language music, has been renamed “The Horn.”
“We’re trying to build on what the Longhorns are doing,” Hogan said.
The local sports talk programming will be simulcast for awhile on its previous station, 1530 AM.
That station will now be devoted to ESPN’s national programming. ESPN Deportes will remain on 1260 AM.
Hogan, who’s also programming director for the new station, said, “FM brings some cache. It sounds better to the ear with the stereo.”
He added that the biggest advantage would be reach, as signal strength at 1530 AM has always been an issue.
Although the move had been touted on air for several days, late last week managers at both 104.9 and 1530 weren’t sure that the deal was going to get done.
On Friday, Steve Wilder, general manager at 1530 ESPN, said, “All I can say is that there’s been a small conflict in the legal agreement to operate our stations together.”
FM 104.9 is one of four Austin radio stations owned by Border Media. This past summer Border Media, in a liquidity crisis, transferred its assets to Border Media Business Trust, with the plan to sell about 30 stations, including those in Austin, to pay off debts to investors. The media broker overseeing the trust is Larry Patrick, whose Patrick Communications is based in Maryland. Patrick could not be reached for comment.
On Friday, there was even talk that it would be ESPN’s national programming moving to the FM station, not the local content. Since January, ESPN has added about 30 FM stations to its national network.
Some of ESPN’s national programming, including Colin Cowherd’s show, will be heard on both Austin stations.
“This is a move for the long term,” Hogan said of the switch. “Everyone is excited.”
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Fun Fun Fun Fest preview: Alan Palomo
Both of Alan Palomo’s bands, Vega and Neon Indian, will perform Saturday during Fun Fun Fun Fest, with about three hours between sets. It’s a tall order for Palomo, 21, who doesn’t have much experience performing with either band, but he’s not overly concerned.
“It’s going to be like one extended set with a break in between,” he says. “I’m more curious than worried. We’re trying to brainstorm a little to make the sets seem as different as possible.”
Though casual listeners might not notice much difference between the groups, both of which rely fairly heavily on electronic effects, there are differences. Vega, which Palomo says is mostly named for the star (and not for Alan Vega of the band Suicide, although he is a fan), is the more danceable of the two, pulling from disco in service of a sound that might appeal to fans of Cut Copy and Passion Pit (he has remixed the Boston band).
Neon Indian, on the other hand, is a more psychedelic affair, which Palomo describes as an “audio documentary,” where fleeting samples of random sounds (car radios, background noise) underscore lyrics that describe moments from his teenage years.
Of the two, Neon Indian is getting more attention at the moment, with a well-reviewed debut full-length, “Psychic Chasms,” out now on Lefse. Palomo also caught a big break during the Austin City Limits Music Festival, when he filled in for Raveonettes after the band was unable to get out of Denmark, although it didn’t quite work out as well as he would have liked. “From what I read, everyone still thought we were the Raveonettes, which kind of sucks, but it was still pretty surreal and amazing to be up there and see such a large audience of people,” he says.
It’s all happened very quickly for the Mexican-born musician (his family moved to Texas when he was 6), who moved to Austin last year after deciding to take time off from film school at the University of North Texas in Denton, where he fronted a third band, Ghosthustler. Though his father, Jorge Palomo, is a musician who enjoyed a stint as a pop star in Mexico during the ’70s, Alan says that he didn’t become interested in making music until high school.
That is not to say that Palomo isn’t influenced by his father; he even sampled him on “Psychic Chasms.” Despite the fact their styles of music don’t have too much in common, the father and son have been able to find some common ground when it comes to the music business. “The more stories I tell him about being on the road the more parallels we seem to find between the experiences he’s had in music and the experiences I’m having in music,” Palomo says.
Vega plays at 3:35 p.m. on the Blue stage. Neon Indian follows three hours later at 6:35 p.m. on the Blue stage.
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Fun Fun Fun Fest preview: Jesus Lizard
It’s this simple: In the 1990s, the Jesus Lizard was one of the best live rock bands on the planet.
They might, in fact, have been the best. They started in 1989 and disbanded in 1999. Until 1997, when original drummer Mac McNeilly quit, they owned the decade. And were simply pretty dang good thereafter.
They reunited this year with their original lineup to play a series of shows, and the band’s Touch and Go studio albums were re-released with improved sound and bonus tracks in October.
Just go to YouTube and check out the evidence of former (and current) glories. There’s singer David Yow, a wee yet terrifying man, launching himself into the crowd or reeling around the stage, drunk and shirtless and screaming.
There’s David Sims, the “Four-String Napoleon” who’s Yow’s old pal from Austin psychedelic punk legend Scratch Acid, grinding away on bass, looking vaguely hacked off.
There’s guitarist Duane Denison, the lanky silver fox, his riffs half-rockabilly shimmer, half-noise rock crunch.
And then there’s McNeilly, the hammer of the gods, one of the hardest-swinging, thunder-slinging-est drummers American punk ever produced.
They were a perfect rock band. And if reports from their reunion shows are to be believed, they are again a perfect band.
Nobody thought this reunion — which continues at Fun Fun Fun Fest this weekend — would ever happen. “A number of people approached us over the years,” Sims says from his New York home. “Mike Patton asked us to do the (All Tomorrow Party) he was curating (in 2008), but by the time he asked us, it wasn’t logistically possible. They said how about next year and we decided to nail it down.”
Sims says the band convened at Denison’s house in Nashville in January to rehearse: “He had the biggest house and an incredibly patient wife and daughter.” While the split in ‘99 wasn’t hostile, it had been a long time since these four guys had been in a room together.
“That first show (at All Tomorrow’s Parties in May) was a very emotional experience,” Sims says, “especially for so many people who had worked with the band over the years. There were a few guys who I won’t name who were backstage crying.” The band jumped to major label Capitol Records in 1996 for the album “Shot,” which caused a certain amount of consternation among the indie faithful. Sims thinks these wounds have healed.
“I’m a little surprised at how much fans are into the ‘Shot’ songs that we play,” Sims says. “There was a lot of backlash about them at the time, but they seem to have been rehabilitated, like an old Soviet premier that used to be airbrushed out of a photo.”
He has little good to say about the indie versus major wars of the 1990s. “It all seemed a little bit arbitrary and contrived to me,” Sims says. “We were very lucky to be on a spectacularly great label (like Touch and Go) but there was no shortage of scumbags running indies back then. When people drew this bright shining line with all of the majors on the dark side, my B.S. detectors went off. It was always a lot more complicated.”
As for future Lizard plans, Sims remains good and vague. “We haven’t really looked beyond this series of shows, but we’re also never say never,” he says. “I’ve been really happy with how the shows have gone, there’s been no down side to it.
“I really, really love playing with those guys and hanging out with them. They are three of my all time favorite people.”
Doesn’t get better than that. Neither does the rock.
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CD review: Molina & Johnson, self-titled
Molina & Johnson
‘Molina & Johnson’
(Secretly Canadian)
B+
Fans of Centro-Matic frontman Will Johnson know that he’s a prolific musician, from the Centro-Matic sister project South San Gabriel to solo material and a seemingly endless string of collaborations and guest spots with the likes of My Morning Jacket’s Jim James (Johnson is currently touring as drummer for James’ Monsters of Folk Project, which plays Stubb’s on Nov. 13). Jason Molina, who first earned a loyal following in the ’90s with his Songs: Ohia project and later with Magnolia Electric Co., shares Johnson’s penchant for working with others (also including James, on a split EP in 2002).
It makes sense, then, that the two would eventually cross paths. Other musicians are on board as well, including Centro-Matic’s Matt Pence and Texas singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe. The result is an extremely sparse, well-crafted affair, but definitely not a point-of-entry for music fans curious about either artist’s work. Opener “Twenty Cycles to the Ground,” which was released as a single, is the most accessible track here, with Johnson taking the lead on vocals atop the mid-tempo shuffle of an acoustic guitar and some restrained percussion.
Molina, whose smooth folk-singer voice stands in stark contrast to Johnson’s rasp, takes the lead on a few of the songs as well, but one of the most charming moments comes when the two trade verses on “Almost Let You In.” The juxtaposition of voices adds a depth that the album could have used more of; along with “Twenty Cycles,” it also highlights the duo’s ability to get to the bottom of a well-rounded song without relying on too many frills.
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88.7 KAZI FM now broadcasting online
Now it’s possible to access KAZI online through their new Live365 station. The interface is a little clunky and it took me three tries to actually get on the stream because it was full (and I’m not a Live365 premium member), but it’s definitely a step forward for “The Voice of Austin.” Welcome to the Web, KAZI.
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Live Review: Kelly Clarkson at Cedar Park Center
I want to hear Kelly Clarkson cut some modern R&B with R. Kelly and Ne-Yo and Christopher “Tricky” Stewart.
I want to hear her make some more giant-sized pop with Swedish superproducer Max Martin (“Since U Been Gone”) and Katy Perry (“I Do Not Hook Up”).
I want to hear her do some blues-punk with the Dirtbombs or Jon Spencer. I want to hear a diva-off with Beth Ditto of the Gossip.
I want to hear her sing over beats by Timbaland, Kanye West and Dr. Dre. I want to hear her make 22nd century electronic music with LCD Soundsystem’s producer James Murphy; maybe she can sing that fake Yaz record Murphy’s always wanted to make. I want to hear her cover country songs by Willie Nelson and Sally Timms and Patty Griffin (Her take on Griffin’s “Up to the Mountain” is devastating). I want to hear her Sinatra album and her album with the Foo Fighters.
In short, I would like to hear her sing every single kind of song she possibly thinks she can sing. She should be knocking out world-beating singles every two months in every genre under the sun with the songwriters of her choosing. Her voice is a force of nature; hearing her uncork it is a pleasure and an honor.
But seeing her in a half full (yet fanatical) Cedar Park Center Monday night was a little depressing and speaks to the strange year she’s had. After her 2007 “I-want-to-write-my-own-stuff album “My December” (which, in spite of her case of the Alanis-es, nevertheless went platinum in a handful of countries), she returned to straight forward radio pop on “All I Ever Wanted,” which has yet to platinum anywhere. Where she goes next seems up for grabs.
Whatever happens, she can still sing, blasting out “I Do Not Hook Up” and “Impossible” and the thermonuclear “Since U Been Gone” with zero stage set and a crack eleven-piece band, including three horns, two back-up singers and a D.J.
Unlike most pop stars of her class, Clarkson really does seem like the gal next door who happened to sell 15 million albums. Her between-song banter never came off as canned (nobody would script talking about music-as-therapy that much; somewhere Clive Davis is fuming.)
Since she can’t do as much on CDs, she works in some nifty live covers, including a killer run at the Black Keys’ “Lies”(!) and an ingenious mash-up of Alanis Morissette’s “That I Would Be Good,” combined with Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody,” (!!) describing the latter as “one of those songs that you wish that you wrote.” She hit that massive, U2-ish chorus on “Use Somebody” and you could practically hear everyone get chills.
Her voice actually might be a bit too powerful for her acoustic version of “Walking After Midnight;” that song needs a pretty casual delivery; Clarkson sounded like she could barely reign her voice in.
I await her doing anything she dang well pleases.
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Robin’s rhythm: Shivers remembered by music community
In April 1994, Kevin Connor was fired from KGSR-FM for unspecified reasons and was moping at home, taking occasional “keep your head up” calls from friends. “My identity was so wrapped up in my job that when that was taken away from me, I was completely distraught,” recalls Connor, who’s now head of programming at ME-TV. One day he got a call out of the blue from Robin Shivers, whom he’d met casually when she was chairwoman of KLRU and hosted fundraising galas starring Garth Brooks, George Jones and others.
“She said, ‘You need a place to go every day,’ and said she had a spare office,” Connor says. “That was the best thing anyone could’ve done for me. It got me out of the house and back on my feet.” From his new office in a downtown high-rise, he was soon able to land a job as music marketing manager for the Austin Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. And two years later, he was back on KGSR.
Anecdotes such as that were flying all over town last week after the Austin music scene’s angel died in her sleep Oct. 26 from undetermined causes. The daughter of Fort Worth venture capitalist John Ratliff, Shivers was born into wealth, then married into Texas political royalty in 1978 when she wed the legendary former governor’s son Allan ‘Bud’ Shivers Jr. Among the Shivers’ closest friends were George W. and Laura Bush.
And yet Robin Shivers, who was just 53 and apparently in good health when she passed away, did not carry herself as a woman of privilege. “She’s just the coolest, most soulful and spiritual person I’ve ever known,” said Susan Antone of Antone’s nightclub. “She was a visionary who got things done.”
Shivers’ funeral will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at St. Mary Cathedral (203 E. 10th St.). Her closest musician friends, including Troy Campbell and Scrappy Jud Newcomb of the Shivers-managed Loose Diamonds, will play at the service.
Bringing affordable health care to working musicians was one of Shivers’ passions and Shivers used her connections with the Seton Family of Hospitals, where she and Bud served on the board for almost three decades, to found the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians in 2004. HAAM has provided low-cost health care to 1,600 uninsured musicians. Shivers’ work has saved lives and has provided a model for others to follow. When a group of musicians and club owners in Tucson, Ariz., decided to start a similar musicians assistance program, Shivers met with them and energized the effort. “What a woman,” David Slutes of the Tucson Artists and Musicians Healthcare Alliance, posted on Austin360.com. “She set us on a course that we were able to follow and begin our successful organization.”
Robin was never one to just write a check, Connor says. “She was always thinking ‘how can we make this work?’ She had a business sense to go with her amazing spirit of generosity.”
There are people who don’t play music, but they make it with the way they live their lives. Robin Shivers had a rhythm of righteousness in everything she did. She drew you in like a great song that will forever live in your heart.
“Robin’s passing has left a big hole that we all have to work harder to help fill,” Connor said.
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The story behind … Mindy Smith’s ‘Come to Jesus’
Mindy Smith plays Friday night at the Cactus Cafe (7:30 p.m. 24th and Guadalupe streets on the UT campus, 477-6060). Here, she tells the story behind “Come to Jesus,” from her 2004 debut “One Moment More”:
“It’s about having so many struggles as a writer. It takes (so much) just to get your voice heard. I felt like the uphill battle was getting steeper and farther and farther away from me. I was kind of looking up at the sky going, ‘Really, God, seriously?’ I was frustrated and tired of being poor. I live a little more comfortably now that I have my own place, but it’s still a struggle every day.
” ‘Come to Jesus’ is really just about survival, finding ways to survive in a tough world. I think a lot of people relate to that, and I don’t think it matters what your faith is. It’s more what you’re trying to get to than what you believe, but I believe that we have somebody helping us along the way. Even now, that’s a healing song for me.”
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Fun Fun Fun Fest Preview: the Laughing
Cory Ryan
When the Laughing played its first shows in 2006, the local quartet were noticed as much for their distinctive on-stage aesthetic as for their synth-filled dance rock. They boasted a mascot — a stuffed tiger named Svan — and a glam sensibility with matching face paint and white denim vests. Some found the look amusing and entertaining. Some didn’t. The Austin Chronicle slammed the group’s debut EP, 2007’s buzzed, energetic “Tiger Cry,” as an exercise in gimmickry.
“It was sort of a unique experience to get publicly ridiculed for what was, at the time, a hobby,” says Logan Middleton, singer, guitarist and occasional glockenspiel player. “But every time you put something out there you have to accept the fact that some people are going to hate it. If I really had a problem with that I wouldn’t go out and do anything in public.”
Two and a half years later, the group has shed its visual shtick and released its first full-length album, the groove-filled and mildly psychedelic “Fever.” It’s the result of a full year of recording and studio experimentation, with production assists from Erik Wofford — the acclaimed producer and mixer who’s worked with everyone from Voxtrot to Explosions in the Sky — and Danny Reisch, of the Lemurs.
Of course, shedding the costumes — which the band first adopted as an homage to 1979 cult favorite “The Warriors” — was partially a decision based on “impracticality and laziness,” says Middleton. Getting into and out of wardrobe over the course a half-dozen South By Southwest day parties while chasing a hangover would make any band question its stylistic choices. But it’s also a reflection of the band’s increased level of musical seriousness since spring 2007.
“It’s always been really about the music for us, and as it’s progressed we’ve moved more towards that and stripped down things that were sort of gimmicky,” Middleton says. “I honestly think the novelty wore off for us.”
Although the Laughing remain committed to their original goal of being a fun live band, they’ve diversified their sound, and it shows on “Fever.” The album has all the spazzy hooks the band is known for, but influences ranging from Harry Nilsson to Phil Collins have found their way in as well. Waves of sound and a slightly hallucinatory feel recall the 13th Floor Elevators, while ample instrumentation — flute, clarinet, glockenspiel, saxophone — helps keep things varied.
Holding together the disparate elements on display is the drumming of Grant Van Amburgh, whose rhythmic flourishes are placed front and center.
“I kind of get to do what I want. I think of the drums almost as another guitar part,” says Van Amburgh. “I’m not just playing a beat or holding it down like in some bands.”
The end result is an album that plays to the group’s strengths — an energetic rocker that audiences can dance to that still maintains just a bit of an edge, a slight tinge of weirdness that recalls, in spirit if not visuals, the fun oddness that once characterized their live performance. And if there are any bad reviews in the pipeline, Middleton is mentally prepared.
“Oh, now we’re ready. We’re releasing a record that we have a lot invested in and I’m ready for people to say it’s terrible,” says Middleton. “I don’t think it is, but if it comes down to it I feel better prepared.”
The Laughing will play at 12:35 p.m. Saturday on the Orange Stage.
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Patty Griffin’s new record also out Jan. 26
As previously reported, Spoon will release its new record on that date. And Griffin’s “Downtown Church,” produced by Buddy Miller, is also out that day. Hers is a mix of gospel songs and hymns, as well as two new songs, all recorded at Nashville Downtown Presbyterian Church.
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Monsters of Folk play Kiss
Below, check out the Monsters of Folk in full Kiss makeup during their Halloween show at the Palace Theatre in Louisville, KY. We probably won’t get this when they stop at Stubb’s next Friday:
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Queen Latifah at Antone’s cancelled
It sounded strange, the First Lady of hip-hop at Antone’s, and now it’s apparently not happening.
According to a post on the Antone’s Web site, Queen Latifah’s Persona Tour scheduled for next Thursday has been canceled.
No refund information has been published at this time.
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Tony Campise benefit Nov. 8
Austin sax great Tony Campise, who suffered brain trauma in a fall in Corpus Christi Oct. 15, is making encouraging progress at the Texas Neuro Rehab Center in South Austin, friends have reported on Facebook. He’s been getting so many visitors that the rehab center has mandated only two or three at a time.
The Elephant Room is hosting a benefit for Campise next Sunday, Nov. 8, at 9 p.m. Such friends and proteges as Ephraim Owens, Jeff Hellmer, Elias Haslanger, Jon Blondell, John Fremgen, Beto y los Fairlanes and more will perform.
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My husband and I really enjoyed the show last night and the crowd around us (section 42 row 31) was really into it, which made it more fun. The Spnial Tapesque theatrics and over the top antics of Angus Young were good fun. For big arena rockers, AD/DC
... read the full comment by indigocrush | Comment on Live review: AC/DC at the Erwin Center Read Live review: AC/DC at the Erwin Center
This news takes my breath away. Bud, enough can not be said about Robin’s kind, and graceful character. She has always held a fond and special place in my heart. How lucky I am to have so many smiling memories of her sense of humor, her generosity, and
... read the full comment by Bunny Heinzen | Comment on A great friend of Austin music passes away unexpectedly Read A great friend of Austin music passes away unexpectedly
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