Austin360 blogs > What's Good > Archives > 2006 > December
December 2006
Music: Singles, etc.
Long week, lots of deadlines, holiday and otherwise. Blogging should pick up soon.
Late breaking goodness: The Long Blondes - Sometimes To Drive You Home (Rough Trade)
That Bee Gees box set with the first three albums in it.
Jarvis - Jarvis (Rough Trade) (it’s not Pulp, but what is?)
The Grey Daturas - even I’m getting sick of me talking about them, yet I keep listening.
Redisocvering Fugazi’s “The Argument” five years after the fact. Some of Ian’s finest songs, not sure why I didn’t notice it at the time.
- Soundscan yammering later.
Permalink | |
Music, Royalty: Seems to me that you lived your life like a very popular blonde lady with some lousy luck and a difficult mother-in-law.
Here we have final, clinching proof that no matter how rich one is, how good-looking one is, how famous one is, one still really, really wants to be Bill Graham.
Permalink | |
Comics: “Breakfast of the Gods”
This webcomic might be the best parody of “grim ‘n’ gritty” superhero comics I’ve ever seen. Pitch-perfect in tone, skillfully-drafted, it’s just genius.
Permalink | |
Music: Soundscan? In the immortal words of Jay-Z, ‘Oh My God.’
So much for separating the platinum from the bronze.
Remember how I mentioned last week that only a truly massive drop could prevent Jay-Z’s “Kingdom Come” from moving by Christmas?
Well, he might still get there, but ouch! According to Nielsen SoundScan’s Top Current albums list, “Kingdom Come” plummeted a jaw-dropping 79 percent from week one to week two, moving less than 140,000 copies and coming in at No. 6.
It was a light week all around, with rockers Incubus’ sixth studio album debuting at No. 1 with only 169,000 in sales.
The completely invulnerable “Hannah Montana” soundtrack dropped a mere six percent, moved 157,000 copies and has gone platinum. Someone at Disney Music is singing “Thank heaven for little girls.”
American Idol Chris Daughtry’s self-titled album landed at the No. 3 slot with 150,000 moved and dropped 49 percent, pretty typical for a pop act these days. Heck, it’s typical for almost anything. The No. 4 album, the “Now 23” pop compilation, and the No. 5 album, the Beatles “Love,” dropped 47 and 46 percent respectively.
Sarah McLachlan’s “Wintersong” climbed 38 percent and sold 116,000 copies to notch at No. 7. Apparently, someone noticed she has a new album out.
Akon’s “Konvicted,” Josh Groban’s “Awake” and the “Now Christmas 3” comp round out the top 10, with only the seasonal album gaining in sales.
In sub-top-10 news, Virginia hip-hop act the Clipse’s brilliant second album “Hell Hath No Fury” comes in at No. 14 with slightly less than 80,000 sold.
“Rockstar Supernova” dropped 67 percent and has moved a mere 22,000 total. Indie darling Joanna Newsom’s “Ys” has moved over 19,000 copies. Regina Spektor continues to be a small-if-steady seller, moving 7,200 copies — a 27 percent increase over last week — for a total of 96,000. Those sold-out 1,000 person clubs do add up.
Metal critic’s darling Mastodon continue their slow, depressing slide, dropping 20 percent and selling 2,000 for a total of almost 64,000, which is not wonderful for a major label debut.
As one might expect from the above “Now” and McLachlan discs, Christmas titles have also started to sell, with the Vince Guaraldi chestnut “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Bette Midler’s “Cool Yule” and James Taylor’s smirk-sleeved holiday disc all posting strong showings.
Permalink | |
Music: Fun Fun Fun? Yep yep yep.
First things first: Let’s give a warm round of applause to Fun Fun Fun booker Graham Williams’ steel belted nerves for putting on an outdoor festival on Dec. 1. With only five weeks to promote it and a lineup consisting of bands that were, well, available rather than courted over a long period of time, it’s impressive that the underground music festival came off at all, let alone drew nearly 4,000 people on a day that followed one of the coldest and rainiest of the year.
That Thursday turn for the nasty might have kept some folks away, but there’s no question that Austin was ready for a festival like this one — one day, three stages (electronic, indie rock and punk), nearly 30 bands. Perfect (as was Williams’ magnificent stage dive during the set by reformed hardcore vets Negative Approach — even the Russian judge would give him a 9.5.)
The weather was sunny and cool during the afternoon, while early acts such as Austin street punks the Krum Bums and Austin space rockers the Octopus Project played to fans who skipped work and school to hang in Waterloo Park. With the weather more Northern Californian or Midwestern than Texan, the set from groovy/doomy metal dudes Dead Meadow felt like Blue Cheer rocking Marin Country (or was it Grand Funk in Ann Arbor?)
Lucero’s roots rock felt a little thin after D.M.’s sludge, but Austin’s Black Angels keep on improving, lending a surprising melodicism to their fuzzy rock, so reminiscent of ’80s British psychedelic revivers Spacemen Three.
Over in the dance tent, a series of DJs was broken up by a weird and compelling set from Quintron and Miss Pussycat, whose stick combines vintage drum machine pops, organ, film loops of puppets and the enigmatic Miss Pussycat on, well, whatever she feels like. Odd, yet totally danceable. Gender-bending rock oddball Peaches (and her band the Herms) played to perhaps the night’s biggest crowd, but as it was after sundown, they may have been huddling for warmth.
The most fanatical crowd assembled for the Negative Approach reunion, drawing punks from all over Austin (and Texas) for only the band’s second reunion show. Singer John Brannon was in fine form, howling frustrations he articulated over 25 years ago. Still, it was pretty intense and Brannon’s scowl played a sharp contrast to Circle Jerks singer Keith Morris, who just wouldn’t stop chatting in between his band’s thrashy blasts.
Spoon headlined the indie stage and while the new material sounded strong, there was no question folk were headed for the exits. The cool afternoon had turned into a genuinely cold night and about half the crowd looked dressed for it.
But all in all, a fun fun fun first effort. We look forward to getting totally blown away next year.
Permalink | |
Music: The Stooges to play 2007 South by Southwest.
Legendary Detroit rock band the Stooges are slated to play SXSW 2007, sources at South By Southwest Music Conference and Festival confirmed Friday. The beat combo — whose three albums are the rock upon which punk was built — reunited in 2003 with original members Iggy Pop on throat, guitarist Ron Asheton and drummer Scott Asheton. They were joined by bassist Mike Watt, formerly of punk legends the Minutemen and Firehose, who replaced the late Dave Alexander. They have played occasional live gigs to ecstatic reviews and released a DVD of their live set in 2004. The band is working on a new album.
