Music
The magazine of rock'n'roll on Red River turns 1
By Joe Gross
Austin American-Statesman
January 15, 2004
Wendy WWAD is hard to miss. A skinny, tattooed presence at hard rock shows on Red River, WWAD (which stands for "What Would [KISS guitarist] Ace [Frehley] Do?") stands well over 6 feet tall in platforms and flaming red hair, and her long arms are usually throwing the devil sign. She played keyboards in a punk band for three years and brags that she's never needed a résumé. Wendy WWAD rocks amazingly hard.
A year ago, the 36-year-old scenester and her business partner Brenna Parthemore started a biweekly tabloid newspaper, Rank and Revue, designed to promote the Red River scene in all its rear-kicking glory. The magazine's first anniversary is this weekend, and there's a show at Room 710 to celebrate.
Like so many great rock success stories, this one begins in the bathroom.
"I was flipping through another magazine and saw something I didn't like," Parthemore, 30, says. We're sitting in Lovejoy's, just off Sixth Street, while the magazine's staff is just around the corner at MugShots, holding the weekly editorial meeting. "I made a comment that I should start my own, and some guy said, 'You can't start your own magazine.' I don't know who he is and don't remember what he looks like, but that's when I decided (I would)."
"She approached me in the bathroom at Room 710," WWAD adds, cackling at how that sounds.
"Yeah, I didn't really know Wendy, but I saw her in the bathroom and said, 'I want to start a magazine about Red River and I want you to be my partner,' " Parthemore says.
"Wendy's the music end -- "
"And Brenna's kinda the levelheaded end," WWAD finishes.
Neither of them had much of a writing background, though WWAD does have radio/TV/film and English undergrad degrees from UT. Parthemore is a hairdresser. The two then went door-to-door to club owners with their idea. "Woody at 710 gave us some (seed) money," says WWAD. "So did Emo's, so did Red Eyed Fly, Beerland . . . All the clubs that are focused on in there are the ones that gave us money in the very first place."
That cash paid for the first two issues, which the two wrote and photographed by themselves. A benefit show paid for the third, and then the ads started coming in. These days, the magazine is more or less in the black. They print 5,000 copies and have distribution points around Austin.
It's a fun read. There's WWAD's tour diary, about her times on the road with hard rockers Dixie Witch. There are reviews of Red River bands, and this is often the first place these groups get written up. Interviewees have included Austin luminaries such as Butthole Surfers drummer King Coffey, cable access conspiracy godfather Alex Jones and singer/songwriter Dale Watson. (It should be noted that this is hardly impartial journalism: WWAD owns and operates the 3-year-old Black 13 Booking Agency, which handles Pink Swords and has sold merchandise on the road for Dixie Witch.)
WWAD and Parthemore agree that the issue they're most proud of was the "Handsome Joel" memorial issue, which paid tribute to the beloved Red River scenester Joel Svatek, who was killed by a drunken driver last January. "Handsome Joel was my best friend," WWAD says. WWAD organized benefit shows that raised $10,000 to help Svatek's family with medical bills. She also helped found the Safe Ride Home Program, which is releasing a Handsome Joel Tribute album sporting such national luminaries as Mastodon and Old 97's.
WWAD and Parthemore are a striking pair. They're physical opposites: WWAD bleeds rock 'n' roll while Parthemore seems much more mainstream. "I don't have that much music knowledge," she freely admits. WWAD is the zine's public persona, while Parthemore seems to be doing this partly because some jerk told her she couldn't. The two balance each other perfectly.
When we head over to the staff meeting, something interesting happens. Parthemore's persona stays pretty much the same; she quietly chats with layout types. But WWAD turns almost surreally professional. There are 15 or so writers, photographers, ad people and hangers on at MugShots, and she is clearly in charge of them all, cajoling people into reviewing shows and albums and generally herding cats toward the goal of making Red River a little more famous. Apparently, if you want to get something done on Red River, you call the hardest-rocking women in town.
jgross@statesman.com; 912-5926
