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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2007 > October
October 2007
Top 5 bands of Fun Fun Fun (depending on who you are)
If you’re an aging (or aged) punk rocker headed for the pit:
- 1. The Murder City Devils (Sunday, Stage Two, 8:40 p.m.)
- 2. Sick of It All (Saturday, Stage Two, 5:50 p.m.)
- 3. Poison Idea (Sunday, Stage Two, 5 p.m.)
- 4. Youth Brigade (Sunday, Stage Two, 4:10 p.m.)
- 5. Madball (Saturday, Stage Two, 4:15 p.m.)
If you like super-sized, proggy rock:
- 1. Neurosis (Saturday, Stage Two, 8:40 p.m.)
- 2. Explosions in the Sky (Saturday, Stage One, 8:40 p.m.)
- 3. Battles (Sunday, Stage One, 7:30 p.m.)
- 4. Evangelicals (Saturday, Stage One, 3:10 p.m.)
- 5. Don Caballero (Sunday, Stage One, 4 p.m.)
If you want to see nothing but up-and-coming Austin acts:
- 1. White Denim (Saturday, Stage One, 3:50 p.m.)
- 2. Brothers and Sisters (Saturday, Stage One, 2 p.m.)
- 3. Iron Age (Saturday, Stage Two, 1:10 p.m.)
- 4. Complete Control (Sunday, Stage Two, 2:05 p.m.)
- 5. Car Stereo (Wars) (Sunday, Stage Three, 5:45 p.m.)
If you want hip-hop and DJs:
- 1. Diplo (Sunday, Stage Three, 8 p.m.)
- 2. Girl Talk (Saturday, Stage Three, 8:40 p.m.)
- 3. Busdriver (Saturday, Stage Three, 7:40 p.m.)
- 4. Cadence Weapon (Saturday, Stage Three, 6:40 p.m.)
- 5. DJ Jester (Saturday, Stage Three, 4:45 p.m.)
If you are an indie rock separatist:
- 1. The New Pornographers (Saturday, Stage One, 7:35 p.m.)
- 2. Of Montreal (Saturday, Stage One, 6:30 p.m.)
- 3. Cat Power and the Dirty Delta Blues (Sunday, Stage One, 8:40 p.m.)
- 4. Ted Leo and Pharmacists (Sunday, Stage One, 6:30 p.m.)
- 5. Emma Pollack (Saturday, Stage One, 2:35 p.m.)
If you want metal, lumbering or thrashing:
- 1. Neurosis (Saturday, Stage Two, 8:40 p.m.)
- 2. The Sword (Saturday, Stage Two, 7:30 p.m.)
- 3. Saviours (Saturday, Stage Two, 2:55 p.m.)
- 4. Witchcraft (Saturday, Stage Two, 3:30 p.m.)
- 5. Battalion of Saints (Saturday, Stage Two, 5 p.m.)
Fun Fun Fun Fest
When: 1 to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; the show will go on rain or shine.
Where:Waterloo Park, 403 E. 15th St.
Information: funfunfunfest.com.
Toni Price’s Hippie Halloween
Embracing the spirit of a “Hippie Halloween,” Toni Price had the Continental Club decorated like a gypsy’s den and came dressed for a party. Swathed in spangles and scarves and funky bracelets — her eyes rimmed with heavy mascara — Price took the stage with a dramatic twirl and addressed her audience as if casting a spell.
“I am Queen of the Gypsies,” she proclaimed. “And you are my subjects.”
Hey, no argument here. Price put on an uproariously fun show Tuesday night — the singer’s second visit to her old “Hippie Hour” haunt since moving to Southern California five months ago. (No, she’s not moving back). Paired with old friend Rich Brotherton on acoustic guitar, Price was in commanding form during a bluesy, torchy, playful two-set show that included beautiful renditions of her old hits, intermittent readings of tarot cards and wry impressions of her new life in California.
Price remarked on stage that she’s fascinated by the California surf culture, particularly the sight of “cute surfer guys” who bob about in the ocean, in a long line, 20 feet apart. “I’ve bought some binoculars,” she told the jammed house, a sparkle in her eye.
Price’s stage essence was confident and rested — and she let it all loose in the second set with soul-pure renditions of “Angel From Montgomery” and “Hey,” as well as the magnificent “Right Where I Belong” from her new “Talk Memphis.” Price brought down the house with a muscular, burn-to-the bone version of “Richest One” — an experience that stirred Brotherton so deeply that he reached out for Price’s left hand and lifted her arm to the sky in triumph at the end of the song.
The Queen of Gypsies let it all out before a costumed audience that included an alluring Cleopatra, the Burger King, a Red Cross nurse and a Norse warrior, a bear cub and a flapper, a wicked witch and a white-winged angel sipping a bock beer. A memorable night, this.
Halloween means it’s time for the Cramps.
Yes, it’s Halloween, time once again for my annual rant about the greatness of the Cramps.
There are pretty much two types of people in the world: Misfits people and Cramps people. Surely, there are those who like both, but really, most folks who are aware of both catalogs tend to lean in one direction or the other.
Had I been exposed to the Misfits first, had an older kid in my high school (God bless you, John Pickett, wherever you are) been playing the Misfits’ “Walk Among Us” and not the Cramps’ compilation “Off the Bone” in our high school art room, I could be a Misfits person today.
But no, I remember standing there after school as the wall of fuzz at the beginning of “Human Fly” just flattened me against the wall. Two guitars, two chords, no bass, BZZZZZZZZZZZ “Well, I’m a human fly/I spell (it) F-L-Y”
There are a couple of songs I remember thinking, “I’ve been waiting my whole life to hear this.” “Sister Ray” by the Velvets. “Loose” and “TV Eye” by the Stooges. “Waiting Room” by Fugazi. And “Human Fly” by the Cramps. Two guitars, no bass, thumping drums, a sound that said rockabilly, 3 a.m. movies, and old comic books all at once. Trash rock as art rock as punk rock, all held together by Lux Interior’s reverbed bellow: Elvis, Bela and Ghoulardhi, all at once.
“I’m a human fly/and I don’t know why/I’ve got 96 tears/and 96 eyes.”
Everything you need to know about the Cramps is in that one line: a fondness for simplicity, an awareness of rock history and an absolute unwillingness to take it remotely seriously. These guys were smart, they loved junk culture, and they made no bones about it.
They were also a bit older than their punk peers, though I didn’t know how old until ‘03, when I found out Lux was two years older than my father, who didn’t have kids until he was well into his 20s. I mean, what was Lux doing in the ’60s? Hanging out in leather pants and listening to Charlie Feathers? Collecting every rockabilly single he could find? Watching the Late Late Late Movie somewhere in Ohio and thinking, “Yeah, I could be that.”
Now that I think about it, probably all three.
Recommended listening:
“Gravest Hits” EP (1979, IRS)
“Songs the Lord Taught Us” LP/CD (1980, IRS)
“Psychedelic Jungle” LP/CD (CD includes “Gravest Hits”) (1981, IRS)
“A Date With Elvis” LP/CD (1986, New Rose)
Pretty much any bootleg from the 1980s.
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GLO on DVD
The New West label is rushing to capitalize on dance rock sensations Ghostland Observatory, releasing a DVD of the duo’s July 10 “Austin City Limits” taping even before the program airs on PBS. “Live From Austin, TX,” the latest installment of the New West series, will be available Nov. 13.
Featuring front man Aaron Behrens and drummer/producer Thomas Turner, Ghostland’s popularity has been destination: stratosphere in recent months, and anyone who saw their astonishing fulfilling ACL Fest performance saw the most show-stealing set of the entire festival.
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Tori Amos show moved from Austin to San Antonio
Tori Amos was scheduled to be one of the first shows at a renovated Austin Music Hall. Instead, her show will be at San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre. A news release from Direct Events explains how to get refunds/new tickets and also says the music hall is on track for an opening celebration at the end of November:
The Tori Amos concert originally scheduled for Nov. 26 at the Austin Music Hall has been moved to The Majestic Theatre in San Antonio.
Due to the current renovations at the Austin Music Hall, Direct Events and Live Nation believe it is in the fans interests to move the concert. This will allow for the new Austin Music Hall to be completed and unveiled at its best when reopening to properly showcase the artists scheduled for the opening time period.
Ticket holders for the original Austin show MUST have their tickets refunded.
For information on refunds for the Austin Music Hall show, please call GetTix at 1-866-443-8849.
Original ticket holders for the Austin show will have an exclusive presale opportunity to access tickets for the new San Antonio show and will be notified this week via e-mail.
The general public on sale for Tori Amos in San Antonio is this Saturday, Nov. 3 at 10 a.m. at all Ticketmaster outlets and charge by phone.
The new Austin Music Hall is still tracking for an opening celebration at the end of November. For more information, photos of progress and concert announcements, please visit www.austinmusichall.com.
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Veejay winners announced
After 200 auditions, ME Television has announced that Miguel Benavides from Del Rio and Austin’s Meriah Garret have won the 2007 Next Veejay competition and have been added to the 24-hour music network’s on-air talent roster. Benavides will host “Weekend Airwaves” beginning this Saturday and Sunday at 4 p.m. Garret has been tapped to host Taste of Texas when it kicks off its next season in January.
For more info on the competition go here.
Show review: Fatlip and Tre at Emo’s
Long removed from their heyday as members of the West-Coast alt-rap group Pharcyde, Fatlip and Tre performed in front of a small crowd of fewer than 50 inside Emo’s on Thursday. The two have been scratching out solo careers ever since Pharcyde, an underground group that achieved crossover success in the mid-’90’s with hits such as “Runnin” and “Passin Me By,” disintegrated. As the small turnout at Emo’s would suggest, neither has been able to top Pharcyde’s success. And while they were clearly nonplussed by the initially drowsy audience, they still managed to put on an excellent show. It was old-school hip-hop at its finest: two emcees and a DJ moving the crowd with just a turntable and some microphones.
They opened with a medley of Pharcyde classics, but the biggest reaction came when they started playing their more recent work, in particular songs from Fatlip’s 2005 solo album “The Loneliest Punk.” The duo shared the stage well, alternating verses as the crowd sung along to underground hits such as “What’s up Fatlip” and “Today’s Your Day.”
And even though Fatlip had the more popular songs, it was Tre, aka Slimkid3, who stole the show. Wearing a wide-brimmed hat low on his head and a faded Polo shirt, his infectious energy made him seem like the bigger star. Alternately hectoring and praising the crowd, he won them over by bringing various girls on stage to dance and rap his verses: “I know that Fatlip carries a pack to cure the nicotine itch / because the only itch I have is for the indoe or ‘cess.”
The show ended with Tre passionately pleading with the audience not bootleg their music, a particularly widespread problem in underground rap, whose computer savvy fan-base has been on the file-sharing forefront. He told them if they don’t support their favorite artists, one day they’re going to wake up and wonder where those artists went.
After all, no matter how well Tre and Fatlip perform, if no one’s there to see it, his prophecy might come true.
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Wired: Vinyl sales strong
Wired notes something we have been mumbling for years: The combination of file-sharing and the decreased profitability of the compact disc has done wonders for the vinyl market.
(Thanks to Idolator for the link.)
Which reminds me, I stopped by the record convention this weekend. I went with a set amount of cash and a list. I figured once I found one thing on the list, I would leave. And that’s what happened. A few CDs, a few pieces of wax and I was out of there (and not wearing a barrel like last time). As for actual long-playing records, I picked up the following:
Icons of Filth — “Onward Christian Soldiers” (Mortarhate): A British peace-crust classic. Absolutely as good as its reputation.
Don King — “One-Two Punch” (Doublevision): Not quieter as great as I was hoping but a nice slice of post-no wave chug nonetheless.
“John Gavanti” (Hyrax): The infamous “no wave opera.” Totally lives up to its reputation as exceptionally difficult listening. In the immortal words of Elmo the Monster, “How can Elmo find out more?” Read here .
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Review: Joanna Newsom at Riverbend Centre
On Saturday night, followers of harpist Joanna Newsom were treated to the artist’s richest Austin performance. The Austin Symphony, performing Van Dyke Park’s arrangements for the 2006 release “Ys,” complemented Newsom’s elegiac lyricism and allowed her music to resonate with all the emotion Newsom conveys in her recordings. Though Newsom performed for more than 700 fans — the largest crowd she has played for in Austin — she maintained all the modesty she exhibited years ago, as a backup musician and opening act for Devendra Banhart.
The Riverbend Centre’s stadium seating guarantees every patron a clear line of vision to performers, and its modern elegance provides a handsome backdrop for any artist. At 8 p.m., Newsom appeared with her honey-colored curls spilling down a gathered gown, giggling to herself. To her sides were members of Newsom’s newly formed band, the Ys Street Band, Ryan Francesconi (guitar, banjo) and Neil Morgan (drums). After a sincere thank you to Peter Bay, the Austin Symphony’s conductor, Newsom quickly began the first half of her performance, dedicated to “Ys.”
Though Newsom can, and has, performed tracks from “Ys” without a symphony, the accompaniment added fullness to her work that brought listeners to tears during “Emily,” and added a driving element that only enhanced the storyline of songs like “Monkey and Bear.”
However, what was most striking was Newsom’s mastery of her childlike vocals that often breached shrillness in earlier performances. While many fans identify Newsom with the faltering pitches that trademark her recordings, the evening’s softly sung lyrics demonstrated how she has matured as a performer. After a brief intermission, Newsom and her band remained to perform old favorites from “Milk-Eyed Mender,” selections from her latest release “Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band,” and even a waltzing, unnamed selection for her upcoming album.
After 2½ hours and a reluctant encore of “Sadie,” Newsom gave a slight wave and a smile and scuttled offstage, leaving the under-30 crowd (half-clad in Halloween costumes) in awe, once more.
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Waterloo Records Top 10 for the week ending Oct. 27
Robert Plant & Alison Kraus, ‘Raising Sand’ (Rounder)
Iron & Wine, ‘The Shepherd’s Dog’ (Sub Pop)
Ween, ‘La Cucaracha’ (Rounder)
Ryan Adams, ‘Follow the Lights’ (Lost Highway)
Neil Young, ‘Chrome Dreams II’ (Reprise)
Bruce Springsteen, ‘Magic’ (Columbia)
Dwight Yoakam, ‘Dwight Sings Buck’ (New West)
Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, ‘It’s Not Big it’s Large’ (Lost Highway)
Band of Horses, ‘Cease to Begin (Sub Pop)
Toni Price, ‘Talk Memphis’ (Texas Music Group)
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Encore Music and Video’s Top 10 for the week ending Oct. 29
Robert Plant/Alison Krauss, ‘Raising Sand’ (Rounder)
Soilwork, ‘Sworn to a Great Divide’ (Nuclear Blast)
Exodus, ‘Atrocity Exhibition, Exhibit A’ (Nuclear Blast)
Hammerfall, ‘Steel Meets Steel: Best of Hammerfall’ (Nuclear Blast)
Iron & Wine, ‘The Shepherd’s Dog’ (Sub Pop)
The Black Dahlia Murder, ‘Nocturnal’ (Metal Blade)
Coheed & Cambria, ‘No World for Tomorrow’ (Columbia)
Sepultura, ‘Best of Sepultura’ (Roadrunner)
Sodom, ‘The Final Sign of Evil’ (Steamhammer)
Serj Tankian, ‘Elect the Dead’ (Reprise)
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Musicmania’s Top 10 for the week ending Oct. 28
Trae ‘Life Goes On’ (Rap-A-Lot)
Keyshia Cole ‘Just Like You’ (Geffen)
Hurricane Chris ‘5150 Rachet’ (J Records)
Gorilla Zoe ‘Welcome To The Zoo (Bad Boy)
Soulja Boy ‘Souljaboytellem.com’ (Interscope)
Plies ‘Real Testament’ (Slip-N-Slide)
Jagged Edge ‘Baby Makin’ Project’ (Island)
UGK ‘Underground Kingz’ (Jive)
Kanye West ‘Graduation’ (Def Jam)
50 Cent ‘Curtis’ (Interscope)
(Musicmania 3909 D North IH 35 #1 451-3361)
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Okkervil River overflow
One of my favorite feature writing techniques for when I know the space in the newspaper is going to be tight is to make a list of all the interesting things I want to try to work into the article. Usually I’m able to shoehorn most of the tidbits, but after I was finished with the Okkervil River profile which runs Tuesday in Life & Arts I saw that I had left out quite a bit. The beauty (and downfall) of online is that space is unlimited, so here are some more things I wanted to tell you about Okkervil Riverboat captain Will Sheff:
Sheff had tried to get the band to change its name after the first few gigs. He just didn’t see much of a future for a band called Okkervil River, plus a lot of people thought they were a country band that couldn’t spell. “They told me I was putting too much thought into it,” Sheff says, adding that he wished he had been more forceful in getting his way. Indeed, if the new record was called “Okkervil River” by a band called the Stage Names it would probably do even better.
Producer Brian Beattie thought the idea to segue “John Allyn Smith Sails” into “Sloop John B” was a terrible idea, according to Sheff. But the band, who receive co-producer credit, convinced Beattie to give it a try. Critics have called the unlikely mash-up a highlight of the record.
Sheff attended Macalester College in Minnesota to take creative writing courses, but turned to songwriting after growing increasingly frustrated about his teachers’ methods.
Much of the material on “The Stage Names” was inspired by the fidgety fandom Sheff has encountered since “Black Sheep Boy” made him a generational beacon. But the situation flipped when he met Lou Reed, one of his all-time idols. “I was literally shaking in my boots,” says Sheff, no doubt aware of Reed’s rep as “so-not-mister-feelgood.” But Sheff said Reed couldn’t have been more personable.
Sheff’s enthusiasm for music, classic and new, makes him come off a little like the Andy Kaufman character where he’s wide-eyed and enthused. “Thriller,” which came out when Sheff was six, was his first favorite record. But the first adventurous band that had an influence was the psych folk pioneer Incredible String Band, also an influence on Led Zeppelin.
Even though he grew up in New England, Sheff has never been much of a Springsteen fan, besides parts of “Nebraska.” He does have one weakness concerning the Boss. “That song ‘The River’ just kills me. It’ll start playing and I’ll tell myself ‘OK, this is just a corny song,’ but then it gets near the end and I have tears in my eyes every time.”
Shearwater is a spinoff band created to give keyboardist Jonathan Meiburg an outlet for his songwriting. Sheff plays guitar in the group. Sometimes Okkervil and Shearwater tour together, which makes the stage changes between sets a cinch.
Sheff really hates the “lit rock” tag, even as such acts as the Decemberists and Sufjan Stevens seem to embrace it.
Here’s a good quote that I had to leave out because it was too long (and he said something similar in that really terrific Pitchfork interview a few weeks ago.) “There’s a sadness to that connection you so desperately want from your idols. What you want out of them isn’t even articulated in yourself. Do you want to be friends with them? Do you want to marry them? Do you want them to give you advice? What you really want is for them to be the music they make, personified.”
One of the songs his parents played for him to fall asleep to when he was an infant was “House At Pooh Corner” by Kenny Loggins. “I just heard that song and it all just came back to me. It was not the words, but the voices, the harmonies and the melody that stirred up the memories.”
The best concert he ever went to was Iggy and the Stooges in Seattle last year. “Here were these old guys and they were owning up to their age, like, ‘Yeah, we’re old guys; now we’re gonna tear this place up.’ It was so powerful. I’ve seen these young stand-ins playing with, say the New York Dolls, and they’re panting just trying to keep up. “
Sheff’s voice has been described in many ways- “caterwauling” and “gut-wrenching” are the two most commonly misused. The word that best describes Sheff’s high and elastic voice is “enthusiastic.” His is not the classic rock star voice (“I’d love to be able to sing like Rod Stewart,” he says), but it’s the voice that belongs to the songs. You can’t separate them.
All Sheff’s stuff is in storage in Austin. “It just doesn’t make sense to pay rent when you’re touring all the time,” he said. After Fun Fun Fun Fest, the band doesn’t get back to Austin until January.
A proud parent pointed out that the article omitted the names of other Okkervillains. They are Patrick Pestorius, Jonathan Meiburg, Travis Nelsen, Scott Brackett and Brian Cassidy.
“The Stage Names” is the best album by an Austin act since “Gimme Fiction” by Spoon.
- SoundCheck360: Okkervil River
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Music roundup: Quick clips - Nas controversy, Houston in Norway, more
- Nas explains the controversial title of his new album [Rolling Stone]
- Nas’ freedom of speech, Def Jam’s pockets threatened by state boycott [Idolator]
- TI’s back home with some heavy thinking to do [Miss Info]
- Houston rap hits Norwegian TV [via HoustonSoReal]
- Jive records drops Kelis [A Hot Mess]
- Care to look like Kanye? [Vibe Confidential]
- Church organizers support for Britney [AP]
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Live review: White Trash Revue
Dino Lee has always loved to keep crowds waiting, so why should his reunion with the White Trash Revue be any different? The horn-heavy band (three trumpets, three saxophones and a trombone) didn’t take the Antone’s stage until 12:40 a.m. Saturday morning, but as soon as the undisputed “King of White Trash” came out with white “Dumb and Dumber” wig and strange sort of cosmic shepherd get-up, the wait disappeared. With the double drummers — Hector Munoz and Mike Navarro — laying down a primal foundation and the horn section giving the funkfest a big liftoff, the band was instantly tight. Though not as outrageous as in his mid-80s heyday, Lee remains a good singer; all those years of crooning Sinatra as Mr. Fabulous have paid off. But more importantly, the folks onstage seemed to be having a blast.
Such 20-year-old songs as “Beer Party,” “Stud Pony” and “Everybody Get Some” struggled to keep from sounding dated and for the most part succeeded. The band got after the groove all night, which made it strange to see so many patrons drift outside by about the 45-minute mark.
At times it seemed a sad affair; the most outrageous and controversial local act of two decades ago didn’t come close to selling out a 500-capacity club for its first reunion. Attendance was no doubt hurt by the competing Austalgia fest, the Sluggo Ball at Emo’s. But those who did turn up — primarily old fans either drinking bottled water or stupid drunk — got a nice dose of the great big nasty funk sound without any whiff of the craziness of vintage White Trash shows. It’s hard to get down when it’s so far past your bedtime.
Tejano music rally scheduled for Sunday
The Austin Tejano Music Coalition, led by former state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, is holding a free Tejano music rally and workshop Sunday at the H&H Ballroom (4402 Brandt Road. 282-1143).
The workshop, which will feature discussions of Tejano music and its place in Texas culture, kicks off at 1:30 p.m. The rally, which includes performances from Alfonso Ramos, Ruben Ramos, Los Tex Maniacs and more, starts at 3 p.m.
Barrientos is hoping to gain support around the coalition’s goal of returning a full-time Tejano radio station to the Austin airwaves.
Austin has been without a full-time Tejano station since KTXZ 1560AM switched formats to “Spanish oldies” in October 2005.
The next open coalition meeting will be at 6:30 p.m Tuesday at Little Mexico Restaurant (2304 S. First St. 462-2188). Check out www.austintejanomusic.com for more information on all things Austin and Tejano.
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Gary Clark Jr. drippin’ for success
I wish director John Sayles (“Lone Star,” “Baby It’s You”) could’ve been at the Victory Grill in June 2001 when Austin High student Gary Clark Jr. practically blew Bobby “Blue” Bland off the stage. Guitarist Clark wasn’t even advertised- he just jammed with the opening act for three or four songs - but women in the audience just flew out of their seats and veteran blueshounds couldn’t believe the soul being produced by those 16-year-old fingers.
Clark Jr.’s time in the national spotlight comes Dec. 28 when he pretty much reprises that night at the Victory in Sayles new film “Honeydripper,” an ode to 1950’s juke joint blues. The kid’s castmates include Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton and Mary Steenburgen.
Clark Jr. also appears Saturday on “Austin City Limits” (PBS 7 p.m.) as part of an all-star tribute to Jimmy Reed.
In a press release, Sayles says “Honeydripper” grew out of his fascination with the genesis of rock ‘n’ roll. “There was no single moment when R&B, blues, gospel, jazz and country all came together to create this thing called rock ‘n’ roll,” he said, “but a big change came with the advent of the electric guitar. Before that, piano ruled. Suddenly a poor boy like Sonny (Gary Clark, Jr.’s character) could travel around with a portable, cheap, high-volume electric guitar and peel the paint off the walls.”
Even walls where the paint done peeled off long ago. After the Victory show, I predicted stardom for Gary Clark Jr. It’s been a long time comin’ but it seems to be on the way.
Weekend Picks: White Trash Revue, Crescent City soul, costume balls and more
Friday: A Halloween Soul Happening at the Victory Grill. DJs Little Danny, Greg Most, Dr. Rhythm and company come together to present another deep soul shakedown. This time, in honor of fright night, they’ll “channel the rhythm of New Orleans for a stone soul seance to wake the dead with a set of strictly Crescent City grooves at midnight.” In addition, would be soulsters are encouraged to don their freakiest costumes for a costume contest to be judged by none other than Austin icon Gerry Van King aka The King of Sixth Street. $5. — Deborah Sengupta
Friday: Dino Lee and the White Trash Revue at Antone’s. By being the most un-Austinlike Austinite, Dino Lee pretty much owned “the little town with the big head” in the ’80s. A shock rocker who always had a top-flight band, Lee’s music was a mix of funk and rock back when the Scabs were still fresh wounds. But the thing that really set Dino and the White Trash Revue apart from all the other acts of the so-called New Sincerity movement (besides his two-foot pompadour) was that he was unashamedly ambitious and pushed the envelope of bad taste so far that it required extra postage. There was nothing like him in Austin. And there was nothing like Heidi Narum jumping onstage in catgirl tights. The White Trash Revue (including a horn section and the Jam & Jelly Girls) will get back together for one more show on Friday. $12-$15. — Michael Corcoran
Friday: Sluggo Ball at Emo’s (outside). In the late 1970s, Nick West and E.A. Srere founded Sluggo! magazine, one of the most influential fanzines of the time, which helped put the nascent Austin punk scene on the radar. Sadly, West is battling advanced prostate cancer and is currently in treatment in Germany. To help offset the enormous expenses for this innovative treatment, a series of benefits are being planned, including this one. Sally Norvell (ex-Gator Family) is coming down from NYC to do her cabaret act, plus Ty Gavin’s band SA Creeper will perform, but perhaps the biggest draw for this costume ball will be Lucid Dementia. $12. — M.C.
Friday: RockIt! Halloween with Afrika Bambaataa. One of hip-hop’s pioneers, DJ and community activist, Afrika Bambaataa founded the Zulu Nation in the late 70s, in an effort to redirect youth energy from the gang violence that plagued the Bronx into something positive. Through community events led by reformed gang members, the Zulu Nation was instrumental in establishing hip-hop as a socially conscious urban culture incorporating elements of breakdancing, DJing, graffiti writing and later MCing. Bambaataa is also credited as being one of the main originators of breakbeat style DJing, and he hosted many legendary NYC parties throughout the ’80s. RockIt! parties, hosted by local funkmeisters DJs Manny and Big Face and featuring the Super Sonic Soul Squad dance team, are always a world of fun. Add the Latin funk machine Brownout! to this bill, and you’ve got a full force throwdown. $13 adv (at DJ Dojo), $15 at the door. — D.S.
Friday and Saturday: Fiery Furnaces at Emo’s (inside). On ‘Widow City,’ the Furnaces remind you that they never really got over the 1970s. Not the riffs, not the AM-rock keyboards, not even the hair (see also Eleanor Friedberger’s flowing-yet-bangsed locks on the cover). $12. — Joe Gross
Saturday: Joanna Newsom with the Austin Symphony Orchestra at Riverbend Centre. Reactions to Newsom’s 2006 album ‘Ys’ were all over the place. Some deemed its massive, folky, proggy sprawl brilliant and classic. Others called it inscrutable and indulgent. Judge for yourself and hear these songs with the full orchestrations with which they were recorded. $35. — J.G.
Saturday: Yarah Bravo, DJ Vadim and Abstract Rude at Emo’s Lounge. The last time I caught Vadim with Yarah Bravo, the pint-sized Brazilian/Chilean/Swedish London-based MC, ol’ girl rocked an oversized ball cap and ridiculous sunglasses and bounced around the stage with the frenetic energy of an punk rock cheerleader. A lot of the delicacy of her rhymestyle, which on recordings is at times closer to spoken word that slides into honey-voiced soul, was lost, but she was adorable. Her positive vibe was a definite crowd-pleaser. A year later, presumably with a good amount of tour mileage under her belt, she’s added a few aggressive electronic tracks added to her repertoire. It will be interesting to see how her mic skills have developed. I’m always happy to see a female MC come into her own. $12. — D.S.
Sunday: Sinead O’Connor at Hogg Auditorium. Let us face and embrace the stereotype, people: At some point, your good Irish friend, the raconteur, the wag, the poem-reciter, is going to start talking about God. Pro, con, both, whatever —- God is going to come up. This gal is no exception. ‘Theology’ is her eighth album, a double at that. The first single is ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’ from ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’ Get ready. $35 to $45. — J.G.
Also playing this weekend:
Friday
- Collective Soul at Stubb’s
- Doobie Brothers at the Backyard
Saturday
- Rock the Casbah at the Parish
- Hanson at La Zona Rosa
- Trail of Dead, Black Joe Lewis at Emo’s
- The Diamond Smugglers Halloween Ball at the Continental
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Musicmania Top 10 for the week ending Oct. 21
UGK ‘Underground Kingz’ (Jive)
Soulja Boy ‘Souljaboytellem.com’ (Interscope)
Plies ‘Real Testament’ (Slip-N-Slide)
Keyshia Cole ‘Just Like You’ (Geffen)
Kanye West ‘Graduation’ (Def Jam)
Rick Ross ‘Rise To Power’ (Sauve II House)
Sir Charles Jones ‘Best Of” (Madri Gras)
J.Holiday ‘Back Of My Lac’ (Capitol)
Gorilla Zoe ‘Welcome To The Zoo (Bad Boy)
Jagged Edge ‘Baby Makin’ Project’ (Island)
(Musicmania 3909 D North IH 35 #1 451-3361)
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In the clubs: Car Stereo (Wars)
- SoundCheck360: Car Stereo Wars
- The A-List: Car Stereo Wars at the Beauty Bar, 8.18.07
Chris Rose, also known as Car Stereo (Wars), almost doesn’t consider himself a DJ. The 23-year-old has been playing records in public for only about two years. It’s only now, with the release of his debut album, “The Bandit,” on his own label, Artifact Workshop, that he feels like he’s finally figured out what Car Stereo (Wars) is.
“It’s evolved a lot,” Rose said. “It started out as this DJ night at Plush. Not all that serious. Then it evolved into learning how to beat match and become a more serious DJ, which evolved into working on a lot of stuff on my computer, learning how to cut up and rearrange stuff. Now I’ve decided to stop DJ-ing entirely in order to concentrate on the mash-ups.”
“Mash-ups” are, of course, the result of combining the recorded versions of two songs in new and (it’s hoped) interesting ways. They were a genuine fad a few years ago. Now they feel like another arrow in a good DJ’s quiver. Rose is good at them.
Live, Rose likens Car Stereo (Wars) to a puzzle, all of the pieces on his laptop. “I have things divided into one- and two-minute sections,” Rose said. “I have a bunch of stuff to pick and choose from. Ultimately, I want to do less of it through the computer and pick up a keyboard and drum machine.” Yes, kids, he does all this with just a laptop and bits of other people’s music. Is this a great country or what?
As DJ Spooky once said, “Give me two records and I’ll give you a universe.” Car Stereo (Wars) is Austin’s one-man Big Bang, building up and breaking down multi-verses with ease. And a laptop. For now.
In the clubs: Car Stereo (Wars) plays Wednesday at Beauty Bar. 617 E. Seventh St. 391-1943.
(Photos by Tammy Perez FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Talking with Ed Davis of Juliette and the Licks
When the gloriously noisy rock band Juliette and the Licks blasted through Stubb’s indoor stage Tuesday night, it was a homecoming of sorts for their drummer, former Austinite Ed Davis.
Davis moved from Austin to Los Angeles less than two years ago. He joined actress Juliette Lewis’ band in 2006.
Lewis became known in 1991, when she lit up the screen as the coy and Daisy Miller-esque Danielle Bowden in her Academy Award-nominated performance for Martin Scorsese’s “Cape Fear.”
Since 2003, Lewis has fronted Juliette and the Licks, a thunderous, 1970s-inspired rock band that is all Marshall stack groove, lusty vitriol and untamed, unrestrained sexual id.
Davis and I were bandmates in Schatzi, and I caught up with him backstage at Stubb’s minutes before Juliette and the Licks obliterated the stage. Davis took a few moments away from his pre-show rituals to speak about why he needs new pages for his passport, how he ended up replacing Dave Grohl and his determination to become a better drummer. (Davis didn’t speak about the end of his rumored romantic relationship with his theatrically inclined bandmate, although the Source confirmed that tidbit from other … sources).
The Source: Are people surprised that Juliette Lewis fronts a rock band since so many people know her from her acting?
Davis: Sometimes. It’s more like that in the States. The band has been touring Europe for the past two years and hasn’t done anything in the States. So now we’re on a seven-week tour. It’s kind of like a new beginning for the band.
Do y’all take breaks for her film work?
Actually she’s been devoting all of her time to the band. It’s hard to fit in a schedule for a movie when you have a whole tour planned out. She’s still open to doing film, but this is her baby right now.
Juliette and the Licks are beginning to blow up in Europe, yet the band is just starting to snowball here through word of mouth and off the strength of your live shows. What are some of your favorite countries and audiences that you’ve visited and rocked?
Brazil, Japan, China, Israel, Turkey, Russia…
Turkey? Russia?
Turkey was crazy. We’ve played there twice. One show was a festival, one was a regular show. There were about 1,000 people the first time we played. It was pretty amazing (for playing somewhere for the first time).
How are the overseas shows different from playing in the United States?
It’s weird. The whole European thing — compared to the States — is way different. It’s (all about) different energies. I think a lot more of the people over there are hungry for music … or just anything, especially if you’re coming from the States. It’s a privilege.
Japan was cool. We played the Fuji Festival with a bunch of cool bands: the Mars Volta, Beastie Boys. I forget where we flew in from, but we had a 13-hour flight getting there. Then we had to make a 5 to 6 hour drive up the mountain. And actually we were in a van with (the Minneapolis pop-punk band) Motion City Soundtrack to get there while driving up the mountain. (Motion City Soundtrack is playing an early show Wednesday at Stubb’s.)
How did you go from playing with the Start to the Licks?
In 2005, after playing with Schatzi, after playing with the Cutaway, I was bouncing around in Dallas, Austin and Los Angeles, flying back and forth, doing research studies to make enough cash so I could hang out. The Start had been touring forever and then things slowed down as they started going through the whole writing process. I ended up painting houses while living out in Long Beach, Calif. I wasn’t really playing that much, and all I really wanted to do was tour and play. Juliette and the Licks needed a drummer and had just recorded a record with Dave Grohl on drums.
My buddy Kimball Walters (formally of the Austin band the Rise) was already playing guitar with Juliette and the Licks and ended up asking me if I wanted to play. I said, “Sure, I’m down.”
So now you are living the dream: getting to travel around the world, rocking the masses with in-your-face rock music. What do you want to do musically in the future that you haven’t done yet?
I’m constantly wanting to be a better player, and I feel like I don’t get to do that (while on tour). When I’m actually playing, I feel like I’m at a level where I’m held back by my knowledge of playing. I feel like I should know more. I have all these thoughts that run through my head concerning what I want to play, but my limbs won’t catch up with my thoughts. I’d like to just lock myself up (in a room) and just play by myself, because it has been so long. For years I’ve been in band situations where it has been like, “You want to play in this band? Here’s 20 songs. Can you learn these in four or five days, and then go on tour forever?”
The whole creative process part of my brain isn’t (as active) anymore, so I want to go back and get that flowing again. I want to just keep playing. I want to become a better player. I want to be able to play all types of music and just nail it.
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Booker T and the MGs to play benefit
Love second chances. If you missed the Stax Soul Revue at SXSW in March (I did), you get a do-over, for a great cause. Booker T and the MGs will headline the annual Help Clifford Help Kids fundraiser, started by Clifford Antone, Nov. 8 at Austin’s Palmer Events Center.
The event will also feature William Bell and Eddie Floyd. Doors to the music open at 8 p.m., and $20 individual tickets are available at www.antones.net, Front Gate Tickets and the door.
Dave Adelson of “E! News” will emcee the event, which raises money for American Youthworks, whose charter high school for Austin’s at-risk youth has been named among the 10 best redesigned high schools in Texas by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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Show review: Fall Out Boy, Cute is What We Aim For, Plain White T’s, Gym Class Heroes
Of course there’s something exhausting about Fall Out Boy. The eyeliner on hey-look-at-me! bass player Pete Wentz, the fact that Wentz plays bass like a guitar (which gives the band no swing whatsoever) and the fact that singer/guitarist Patrick Stump’s importance in the band runs a distant third to Wentz and Wentz’s eyeliner (in that order).
But in an age where genuinely charismatic rock bands are hen’s-teeth rare, well, the great unwashed will take what they can get. Especially if the great unwashed are teenage and twenty-something girls - they seem to find Wentz’s battery-bunny energy (all those spins!) and eyeliner simply irresistible. Those audience screams at the Frank Erwin Center Tuesday night — where Fall Out Boy headlined the Young Wild Things Tour — sure were high-pitched.
In fact, they were not unlike the screams one heard at hair metal concerts two decades ago. That’s what Fall Out Boy is, really; the Motley Crue of their age
Instead of translating the underground thrash of, say, Venom into hooky, good time pop-metal, Fall Out Boy morph the nth generation hardcore punk they grew up with into something modern rock radio can love. (Crue and F.O.B. both have skinny, songwriting bassist/bandleaders and slightly pudgier singers who are clearly insecure that the bassist is also the bandleader. No Tommy Lee to be found in the new kids, however.)
Does this make the “Young Wild Things” tour a “Monsters of Rock” for 2007? Sure, but unlike the older monsters, these guys take inspiration from Maurice Sendak’s Wild Things, from childhood icons made older but no wiser.
Openers Cute is What We Aim For (for the love of Ozzy, that’s a terrible name) and Plain White T’s (you might recall their hit “Hey There Delilah” from any teenager-made mix this summer) were perfect in-genre openers. Their pop punk was vaguely catchy, fairly energetic and largely forgettable, the better to remind you that Fall Out Boy know a thing or three about memorable hooks.
Gym Class Heroes, on the other hand, have more raw potential than any mainstream pop act I’ve seen in years. Seemingly perfectly comfortable with modern rock and hip-hop tropes, the multiracial six-piece band threw down like rockers, spit rhymes like rappers and crooned like skinny, hoodie-clad lovermen. Frontman Travis “Schleprok” McCoy comes off as the tall cut-up as savvy as he is funny. He dedicated “On My Own Time” to the parents in the audience “who hate their jobs,” eliminated the crucial “don’t” from Stewart’s ‘80s hit “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off,” and generally seemed brighter than anyone else on stage. These dudes seem completely prepared for the 21st century. One day they might make a classic.
Fall Out Boy are just here to entertain you, thanks. Fall Out Boy made up for their grimly unoriginal band name (it’s a “Simpsons” reference) with brilliant titles for songs as hard to tell apart as Big Macs. “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down,” “Grand Theft Autumn (Where Is Your Boy),” “Hum Hallelujah,” and “The Patron Saint Of Liars & Fakes” all buzz and howl. Stump’s high voice was made for arena rock, bearing a weirdly strong resemblance to the pipes of one Steve Perry, late of Journey. The Jumbotron screens were reserved for animations of the band as wild things, various magazine covers with the band on ‘em and short, violent cartoons. Never thought I’d think of Motley Crue as grown-ups.
CD review: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
Robert Plant/Alison Krauss
“Raising Sand” (Rounder)
Four stars.
As insane as the pairing might seem to the regular listener, a Robert Plant and Alison Krauss team-up makes a musical sense that becomes more logical the more you listen to the lovely “Raising Sand.”
Both Plant and Krauss bent genres as they saw fit. Plant morphed American blues into stomping, high-octane British rock, while Krauss proved herself as good a fiddle player as anyone in the bluegrass business before selling millions of albums on the strength of great playing, smartly chosen material and pop-savvy production. Plant knows how to temper his vocal instrument to folkier material (see also much of “Led Zeppelin III”) and Krauss can sing pretty much anything decently, if often without heat.
While this is clearly a project record, it’s not really a duet album in the harmonizing-along-with-whomever and-whatever sense (see also most of Emmylou Harris’s career, sadly).
These gauzy, elliptical arrangements of songs such as Gene Clark’s “Polly,” Sam Phillips’ “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us” and the Everly Brothers’ “Gone Gone Gone” aren’t in the tradition of either performer (KGSR has been playing the heck out of the latter song).
In fact, it recalls the knowing covers and late-summer vibe on Yo La Tengo’s 1990 classic “Fakebook.” Call this “Fakebook” for the Starbucks customer.
They are, however, in the tradition of producer T-Bone Burnett, whose fingerprints are all over this puppy. Her’s sort of the roots rock Daniel Lanois these days, the mark of quality for a project that needs a certain sonic cachet — his productions always scream “good taste,” which his albums often err on the side of.
But he does know how to facilitate intimacy — rarely has either performer sounded so naked. Townes Van Zandt’s “Nothin’” — with Marc Ribot’s searing, fuzzy guitar and Plant’s sexy, blues-whisper vocal — sounds like the sort of mezmerizing music Zep itself might be making in ‘07.
“Please Read the Letter,” on the other hand, is the sort of music Zep (or, rather, Page and Plant) made on “Walking to Clarksville.” Krauss and Plant turn it into a plaintive split, grim yet mature. Adults of all ages will love it. All of it.
Explosions in England fest
Dillon, Texas’ favorite epic instrumental rock band, Explosions in the Sky, will be curating the Weekend of 2008 music festival in Minehead, England, May 16-18 and they’ve tapped fellow Texans Iron & Wine plus And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead to co-star, along with Dinosaur Jr., Broken Social Scene and more. Here’s more info about the event.
By the way, Trail of Debt, or rather Dead, have parted ways with Interscope Records.
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Houston rapper Trae at MusicMania
One of Houston’s finest talents the lyrically deft, streetwise rapper Trae will be down at MusicMania in the Fiesta plaza signing autographs and promoting his new CD “Life Is Good” at 6 p.m. tomorrow. You can listen to tracks from the new album (annoyingly, only in snippet form) over at Trae’s MySpace page.
(Photo courtesy of myspace.com/traethatruth.)
Web sites dedicated to Lance Hahn
As Kelly B. noted in our comments section, “There is now a website dedicated to lance that will have information on his memorial, a link for donations, and a place to post messages and submit photos.”
She says it’s still bare bones, but is being worked on.
Both of these addresses will get you there:
The obituary that ran in today’s paper can be found here.
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Review: Oliver Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits at Flamingo Cantina
I’m always impressed by the level of support for world music in Austin. It was a packed room at Flamingo Cantina when African legend Oliver Mtukudzi took the stage on Sunday night. “We are here to take you to Zimbabwe!” the singer declared at the beginning of his set. The crowd was predominantly white, but a strong contingent of African ex-pats flanked the stage waving a Zimbabwean flag. They all roared enthusiastically.
Fronting an eight-piece ensemble, Mtukudzi’s music swayed with cascading arpeggiated patterns passed off between the guitar, marimba and mbira, the traditional Zimbabwean “thumb piano.” Meanwhile polyrhythms created through the interplay of congas, hand percussion and a full drum kit kept an irresistibly danceable groove throughout. Mtukudzi sang primarily in the Zimbabwean Shona language and his plaintive voice rose and fell cracking occasionally with world-weary grit, only to be folded into the complex blanket of multilayered harmony from his backing ensemble.
But it was the expression of sheer joy on 55-year-old Mtukudzi’s face as he lifted his voice in song that made the deepest impression. He playfully engaged his ensemble initiating dance moves that the whole group picked up and at one point moving through a highly entertaining dance skit with his conga player. The group played for a good two hours with a brief intermission in the middle. The moment Mtukudzi stepped off the stage at the end of the night a cry went through the crowd “Tuku! Tuku! Tuku!” forcing the world music hero to return for one last song.
White Trash renewal Friday
By being the most un-Austinlike Austinite, Dino Lee pretty much owned “the little town with the big head” in the ’80s. A shock rocker who always had a top-flight band, Lee’s music was a mix of funk and rock back when the Scabs were still fresh wounds. But the thing that really set Dino and the White Trash Revue apart from all the other acts of the so-called New Sincerity movement (besides his two-foot pompadour) was that he was unashamedly ambitious and pushed the envelope of bad taste so far that it required extra postage. There was nothing like him in Austin. And there was nothing like Heidi Narum jumping onstage in catgirl tights.
So here’s a reunion I’m kicking myself for missing (out-of-town wedding). The White Trash Revue (including a horn section and the Jam & Jelly Girls) will get back together for one more show at Antone’s on Friday. The show is to announce the release of “King of White Trash Anthology, Vol 1” (Polyfab Records), which contains the two albums Dino recorded for French label New Rose. Such tunes as “Beer Party,” “Stud Pony” and “Everybody Get Some (But Don’t Get Any On Ya)” will be on CD for the first time.
Advance tickets are available on Antone’s Web site for $12; $15 at the door.
R.I.P Lance Hahn
Austin-based musician, journalist and punk rock icon Lance Hahn died Sunday after a long illness brought on by complications from kidney disease.
He was 40.
Hahn was best known for the prolific rock band J Church, which since its inception in 1992 produced dozens of singles, EPs, and albums of sharp, melodic songs mixed with punk attitude. As Hahn was quoted in 1995, “A lot of people write trying to keep track of all the records we put out. I can’t even remember.” (The band was only three years old at the time.)
Hahn also played in the punk band Cringer from 1984 to 1991, played guitar for the rock musician Beck in 1994, owned and operated the Honey Bear record label, was a long-time contributor to the international punk rock magazine “Maximum Rock n Roll,” and published the zine “Some Hope and Some Despair.” Many unfamiliar with Hahn’s music knew him as a manager at the Vulcan Video store on South Congress.
At the time of his death, Hahn was near completion on a book about the history of anarchist punk bands, portions of which have been excerpted in “Maximum Rock n Roll.”
Born in Hawaii, Hahn was of the generation for whom punk rock was neither a just a genre nor a passing fashion, but a way of looking at the world. “He claimed to be the first person in Hawaii with a Mohawk,” said his partner Liberty Lidz.
His band Cringer was one of the first thoroughly documented punk bands in Hawaii and - as Hahn put it on the Honey Bear webpage - the first band of his “that anyone really cares about.”
After Hahn, by then a California resident, formed J Church, the band became a staple of the San Francisco punk rock community. The group’s catchy music, do-it-yourself work ethic and Situationist leanings were both a sharp contrast and perfect fit with hundreds of heavier or poppier acts.
Hahn and Lidz moved to Austin in 2000 so she could attend grad school. The Austin version of J Church included Austin punk stalwarts Chris Pfeffer on drums and Ben White on bass. (David DiDonato served as J Church’s second guitarist from 2002 to 2005.) These two line-ups produced three albums, a split LP and additional material.
Hahn was also profoundly well-liked by the American and international punk community. There were benefits held for Hahn around the world after his and Lidz’s apartment burned down in 2002, as chronicled here.
This summer, five independent labels (No Idea, Cat Food Money, Vinehell, Jerk Off and Tic Tac Totally) released “Let’s Do It For Lance!,” a J Church/Cringer tribute CD to help defray Hahn’s mounting medical bills. (He did not have health insurance at the time of his death.)
More information about Hahn and J Church can be found at their webpage and MySpace page.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
He will be missed.
(Photo by Dave Deluxe, COURTESY OF J-CHURCH.COM)
Show review: The Donnas
- The A-List: The Donnas at the Parish
It wasn’t just high-school girls with fishnet stockings and multicolored hair sharing the elbow room Thursday night in the Parish. By the time the lights dimmed and the air raid siren started blaring, even the middle-aged men with shirts neatly tucked into khaki shorts were screaming fanatically for the Donnas.
As the female foursome leapt on stage one-by-one, the eruption from the moderate-sized crowd was replaced by a rock ‘n’ roll sound that was ballsy and sexy and fun. There was no elaborate light show or flamboyant costumes. There was just an empowering, super-charging, sucker-punch-you-in-the-gut kind of girl rawk that blasted from a single guitar with a huge sound and an energetic rhythm section as the band danced wildly and pumped up the crowd to frenzy.
After commanding everyone to let loose, singer Brett Anderson launched into the punchy chorus of “Girl Talk” off the band’s just-released seventh studio album, “Bitchin’.” A blaring guitar solo and some chugging riffs accompanied as Anderson bent down and sang into the front row, and the fans answered back by pumping their fists and singing along.
There were also the older tracks, like “Who Invited You” off the mainstream breakout disc “Spend the Night,” which were full of squealing guitar solos, short and catchy song structures and a good bit of cowbell. Donita Sparks, whom you may remember as co-founder of L7, and the Stellar Moments played a distortion-heavy rock set that felt like Sparks hadn’t quite gotten all the ’90s alternative and L7 out of her system. American Bang (formerly Bang Bang Bang) opened the show with big rock bravado while the guitarists soloed and tossed their manes about with looks of elation and wonder plastered on their faces.
(photo by David Weaver FOR AUSTIN360)
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ME TV goal: $2.6 million this year
Real estate mogul and best-selling author Gary Keller of Keller Williams is a new investor at Music & Entertainment Television, which airs locally on Time Warner Cable channel 15. The former Austin Music Network hopes to raise $2.6 million in the next year to fund expansion to other Texas markets, with East Texas next in their sights. ME Television, which hopes to become profitable by selling its programming to other cable systems, raised $1.6 million last year. Time Warner owns 15 percent of ME.
“We’re currently in negotiations with Sudden Link cable operators (which has 700,000 customers), as well as Grande and Comcast,” ME spokesperson Elaine Garza says. “Exciting things are happening. Stay tuned.”
The 50-year-old Keller, whose investment amount has not been officially released, had rock star dreams as a teen, but rejected the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle for real estate. He collects Gibson ES-335 guitars favored by his idol Eric Clapton.
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Primich death ruled heroin overdose
Toxicology tests by the Travis County Medical Examiner’s office have determined that Austin blues musician Gary Primich died of “acute heroin intoxication” on Sept. 23.
The life of the harmonica wizard, who died at age 49, will be celebrated with a memorial service at Saengerrunde Hall (1607 San Jacinto Blvd.) on Sunday Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. To find out more info, go here.
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360 Weekend Picks: Japanese rock, Middle Eastern groove, hip-hop, rock-a-billy and more
Friday: Boris with Michio Kurihara at Emo’s. For its most recent album, ‘Rainbow,’ the sludgy, heavy Japanese rock band Boris teamed up with noted Japanese guitarist Michio Kurihara, which resulted in the band’s most ‘classic rock’ sounding album. Expect some killer guitar solos. $10. . — Joe Gross
Friday: Alejandro Escovedo at Antone’s. The roots-rock hero, revered as much by fellow musicians as by fans, plays Antone’s Friday night. —Matthew Odam
Friday: Blacklisted Individuals at Flamingo Cantina. Adrian Croom is best known around town for his MPC Beat Battles, but he also hosts regular hip-hop showcases billed as the Alien BBQ. This one includes a performance by Blacklisted Individuals a duo, which includes local slam poet Da Shade Moonbeam. I’ve considered Da Shade one of the tightest word slingers in town for a hot minute now, but the minute I heard the hook on the socially conscious club banger “The Truth Don’t Make You Move” (featured on the group’s MySpace page) the group jumped to the top of my list of ATX hip-hop tour de forces. $5-$7. —Deborah Sengupta
Friday: An Arabian Night at the Red Fez. Syrian native Zein Al-Jundi celebrates the sixth anniversary of this monthly Middle Eastern dance party. Show up early if you want to partake in complimentary appetizers, stake out a seat and rent a sheesha (hookah). As the evening goes on the space will pack to capacity. Belly dance performances at 8, 9 and 10 p.m. Free. —D.S.
Friday: New Disaster at the Red Eyed Fly. New Disaster is in-your-face, sunset strip rock that harkens back to the glory days of Guns-N-Roses and Thin Lizzy. Loud guitars, loud drums and blistering guitar solos make these guys the antithesis of Austin’s indie rock status quo. Cover unspecified. —Brandon Cobb
Saturday: Qui at Emo’s. You might remember Qui singer David Yow from such legendary punk outfits as Scratch Acid and the Jesus Lizard. This trio can’t touch those bands, but Yow’s voice is in fine form. With Oh Beast! $10. — J.G.
Saturday: Ghoulwill Ball at the Hyatt Regency. Costume parties are notoriously lame, but Saturday’s Ghoulwill Ball featuring psycho-billy bad girls Satan’s Cheerleaders and the incomparable Flametrick Subs will defy that stereotype. The theme for the night is ‘Hollywood Horror Over Austin,’ so dress as you favorite dead movie star. $50 (benefitting Goodwill job programs) —B.C.
Sunday: Nellie McKay at the Parish. An oddball lounge singer who broke big after South by Southwest in ‘04, McKay never did quite follow up on the hype of her wonderfully titled double-disc debut, ‘Get Away From Me.’ Yet, she keeps on plugging. $20. — J.G.
Sunday: Oliver Mtukudzi at Flamingo Cantina. One of the giants of Afro-pop, this Zimbabwean artist has carved a place for himself on the international stage with music that delivers a profound message while remaining irresistibly danceable. $12 adv., $14 door. —D.S.
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Review: Loudon Wainwright III at the Cactus Cafe
Loudon Wainwright III isn’t afraid to go anywhere in the lines of a song — forever jabbing at that not-so-solid wall that protects us from our deepest anxieties. The man has never shied from themes of death, or shame, or loneliness, or fear. And as Wainwright grows older, his smart, darkly humorous music just gets better and better.
“A lot of these songs tonight are about death and decay, my new favorite topic,” Wainwright joked on stage Wednesday night, in the first of two shows at the Cactus Café. “It replaces my old favorite topic, (rotten) love relationships.”
Wainwright, 61, has been touring the country in support of “Strange Weirdos,” a critically acclaimed album of vulnerable, nuanced songs written for or inspired by the Judd Apatow film “Knocked Up.” At the Cactus, Wainwright mixed these great new tunes with old ones — performing approximately 40 songs over two shows, without repeating a single tune.
For Show I, Wainwright’s beer was Heineken, his mood feisty, the set list rich with themes of mortality. He started with 2001’s “Donations,” sang about the indignity of hip replacement surgery, touched heartstrings with “Birthday Present I” and “White Winos” and introduced a new tune about the dubious honor of turning 60: “Sixty is the stumble/that comes before the fall.”
Best Moment: Wainwright’s debut of “Cheesy Life,” a tune he’s just written to accompany an “on the road” reality TV show, in development, that’s supposed to star, um, Loudon Wainwright III. “What this world needs now is heightened reality,” Wainwright sang, tongue in cheek. “‘Cause real life is pretty boring — unless it’s on TV.”
For Show II, Wainwright’s beer was a St. Arnold’s, his mood devil-may-care, the set list speckled with “bad boy” tunes. He started with 1987’s “Bill of Goods,” covered Frank Loesser’s “More I Could Not Wish You” (from “Guys and Dolls”), went deep with “The Man Who Couldn’t Cry” and paid homage to Richard Thompson with “Down Where the Drunkard’s Roll” during an extended encore.
Best Moment: Energized by an impassioned call from the audience — “Play ‘The Swimming Song!’” — Wainwright spontaneously launched into a rollicking version of his 1974 classic (about swimming, and much more beneath the surface) had the house clapping and singing along. At the end of the song, the tall, attractive woman who requested it walked to the stage, gave Wainwright a hug and kissed him gently on the cheek in appreciation.
“I guess security isn’t tight up here tonight,” said Wainwright, blushing. This, from a man who isn’t afraid to go anywhere in the lines of a song. …
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Carrie Underwood talks
The former “Idol” and current country sensation is not known for opening up, but she sorta does in this week’s Entertainment Weekly cover story. Her new record, “Carnival Ride,” is out Tuesday. In the story she talks about songwriting, why her music is country (period) and why she doesn’t think people need to know what kind of underwear she’s into. We applaud the decorum.
Read the story here. Included is a link to a short bit about what happened between Underwood and Cowboy quarterback Tony Romo.
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Outdoor live music too loud?
In an article titled “Outdoor live music too loud?” American-Statesman writer Suzannah Gonzales writes:
Some want the “Live Music Capital of the World” to turn the volume down. There is a push afoot to revise the City of Austin’s noise ordinance to address complaints from residents about outdoor music venues that are cropping up outside downtown entertainment districts, such as in the Bouldin Creek neighborhood and along Barton Springs Road.
What do you think? Have you had problems with loud live music in your neighborhood? Should the city lower the decibel limit for residential neighborhoods outside downtown or would this adversely affect Austin’s music scene?
Melvins/Big Business vs. Age/Peligro Social/etc.
Here’s a question: How does Coady Willis do it?
Willis is the drummer for Big Business. He and Big Business partner/bassist/scream Jared Warren also do time as the bassist/second drummer for the Melvins. The two acts have toured together on and off since they teamed up in 2006 (Big Business is still a band in its own right.)
This is not a low-key gig. The Melvins have a history of going through bassists the way you and I go through tissues. King Buzzo and Dale Crover (the lifers in the Melvins) aren’t exactly mellow bosses.
And know that touring together means Willis has to play TWO hard-hitting sets a night, one with B.B., one with the Melvins. Seriously, this guy’s arms should be falling off by now.
But judging from the blistering sets both bands delivered Wednesday night at Emo’s, this collaboration has just strengthened both bands.
Big Business were themselves augmented by guitarist/soundman Toshi Kasai (who, from behind the scenes, did amazing stuff with the band’s sound at this year’s South by Southwest). Crover, the Melvins drummer, even stepped in on guitar here and there.
The set took everypunk of a certain age back a good 10 or 12 years, when Warren howled way in the amazing Washington state band Karp, whose albums on K Records, full of busted amp howl and terrified screaming, blew away an entire generation who were used to albums about flowers and school yard crushes from that label. Good times.
The Melvins took the stage after a short break, presumably so Willis could find his bionic arms. The dual drums and Warren’s hold-his-own bass thud have revitalized the band, now well over two decades old. That said, the set was Melvins-as-usual: ginormous drums, sludgy guitar, Buzzo’s enormous hair. (For a band that’s so into toys and design, how in the name of this dude has there never been a Buzzo bobblehead?)
The problem, of course, is that there was a show just as compelling on Emo’s inside stage.
Japanese crust punk destroyers Age headlined, and while their sickening metal guitars played at hardcore tempos worked better (for me at least) on their excellent seven-inch single than it quite did live, it was a monster bill nonetheless.
Dallas oddballs Tolar reminded everyone how liberating hyperspeed grindcore could sound with a singer who really did sound like someone had just set him on fire. World Burns to Death was solid, if not as apocalyptic as I’ve seen them (not enough eyeliner, frankly). And Peligro Social, hailing from the Bay Area, proved themselves one of the best old school thrash bands in North America. The Spanish lyrics helped. Metal always sounds so great in Spanish.
I await the Melvins Spanish-language crossover bid, don’t you?
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Your A-List: Best Local Record Label
Deep Eddy Records has been kicking around for 10 years, exploring the space where twangs meet — surf instrumentals, spaghetti western soundtracks and Texas Telecasters. its artists include 3 Balls of Fire, who reissued their “Best of the Balls 1988-2000” last year, and the Nematoads (check out their western twang-scapes on “Five Gun West”).
In addition to making waves locally, several of Deep Eddy’s artists have had their music featured in television and movies. According to Deep Eddy’s Web site:
Balls of Fire’s music has appeared in Aaron Spelling’s WB drama “Summerland,” ABC Sports, Fox Sports, OLN Network, TWI Production, NFL Films and the soundtrack for a documentary, “Masters of Texas BBQ,” narrated by Texas legend Joe Ely. The Daylight Titans’ original song “Dangle” was used in the “Kanes and Abel’s” episode of the popular primetime UPN show “Veronica Mars” in 2005. The Nematoads are currently scoring a documentary about Austin comedian Fred Bothwell entitled “Hi, I’m Fred B.” for Austin filmmaker Matt Kordelski. The Austin Transit Authority tune “Bock’s Car” is set to appear in an upcoming documentary about stock car racing in Central Texas.
Check out the label’s official site and its MySpace page for more information.
Others receiving votes: Arc Light (21 percent), Texas Music Group/Antone’s (14 percent), Chicken Ranch (9 percent), New West (5 percent), Peek-a-boo (3 percent), I Eat Records (3 percent), Australian Cattle God (<1 percent), Dead Oceans (<1 percent).
Write-in: Sweatbox.
In The Clubs: Follow That Bird: Girls at their best
(l to r) Rachel Badger, Tiffanie Lanmon, and Lauren Green.
How can you not like a trio of women who named their band after one of the finest entries in the “Sesame Street” canon? You can’t (though I’m partial to “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street” and “Don’t Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art”).
Follow that Bird left the nest (sorry) in 2005, with guitarist Lauren Green and drummer Tiffanie Lanmon exploring how much racket they could generate as a two-piece. Bassist Rachel Badger joined up in early 2006, all the better to explore the nooks and crannies of power-trio rattle and hum.
In much the same way that Sleater-Kinney was the first post-riot grrl band, which took the personal-politics and feminist fury of riot grrl as a cultural given as obvious as the Stones or Zeppelin, Follow that Bird is post-Sleater-Kinney. The guitar flickers and sighs, the drums drive, and nothing ever turns into a cute overload.
In The Clubs: Follow That Bird plays with Vena Cava, Lost Controls and more Sunday at Emo’s, 603 Red River St. 512) 477-3667.
Top to bottom: Rachel Badger, Tiffanie Lanmon, Lauren Green
(All photos by Tammy Perez FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Yearwood to headline rodeo gala
Trisha Yearwood and rising country star Josh Turner will play the Rodeo Austin Gala at Palmer Events Center Feb. 9. The event is the annual lead-in for the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo, which takes place in March at the Travis County Expo Center. Tickets to the gala fundraiser ain’t cheap- starting at $150 for individual tix. Call 919-3000 for more info.
Trisha’s hubby Garth Brooks is in the news after a long layoff. The country superstar must really love living in Oklahoma. The Garthster is playing nine sold-out shows at the Spirit Center in Kansas City, Mo., with the final performance, Nov. 14, to be simulcast to 300 theaters in North America. This is instead of a tour to promote his new album. Will let you know if Austin will be one of the participating cities. $10 tickets go on sale Friday.
Ghostland on Conan last night
After a segment on the guy who announces fire alarms at 30 Rock (the building, not the show), a chat with Jake Gyllenhaal and his extremely carefully trimmed beard and a chat with the faintly stunning Christina Hendricks (“Mad Men,” “Firefly”), Ghostland Observatory took a stab at “Sad Sad City,” an excellent example off their oddball Suicide-soul.
Aaron Behrens looked quite the Texan in jeans, red shirt, Willie Nelson braids and cowboy boots. Of course Thomas Turner was wearing a cape and fiddling with his synths.
The problem was the problem with all bands that play on TV: it’s way, way too quiet. Ghostland’s music needs the beats turned up to 11 and Behrans voice reverbed inside your brain. On TV, they looked and sounded small. And Ghostland should be huge.
Ghostland on Conan tonight
Reminder - Stay up or set your DVRs. Austin’s Ghostland Observatory plays on Conan O’Brien’s show tonight. They’ll perform “Sad Sad City” according to O’Brien’s site.
“Late Night with Conan O’Brien” airs at 11:35 p.m. on NBC, KXAN Channel 36.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: ACL Festival
Bowie-inspired clothes at Target
According to this story from consumerist.com, you will be able to get David Bowie-themed (not designed) items at Target. It all reminds us of our favorite “Flight of the Conchords” episode.
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Whole Lotta Zeppelin online
From the Associated Press:
Led Zeppelin, one of the last major acts to resist digital distribution, are releasing their back catalog online.
Led Zeppelin said their songs, including “Communication Breakdown,” “Whole Lotta Love” and “Stairway to Heaven,” will be available from online music stores Nov. 13. The band is due to release a two-CD retrospective, “Mothership,” the same day.
“We are pleased that the complete Led Zeppelin catalog will now be available digitally,” guitarist Jimmy Page said in a statement Monday. “The addition of the digital option will better enable fans to obtain our music in whichever manner that they prefer.”
The band has signed a separate deal with Verizon Wireless to offer their songs as ringtones and downloads to mobile phones, Verizon said in a statement.
The Beatles are the highest-profile holdouts for digital distribution.
Led Zeppelin, which split up in 1980 after the death of drummer John Bonham, announced last month they were reuniting for a Nov. 26 concert in London. The lineup includes Page, singer Robert Plant and bass player John Paul Jones, along with Bonham’s son Jason, on drums.
More than 1 million fans entered a drawing for a chance to buy one of the 10,000 tickets to the show. The concert is a tribute to Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, who died last year.
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R.I.P. Big Moe
Houston rapper and founding member of the Screwed Up Click has died. He was 33.
Houston So Real has been keeping tabs on Big Moe since his heart attack last week.
Ten things I learned from the first day of the Big State Festival
The smells alone from a barbecue competition increase my belief in a higher power.
Judging from merely watching a race, driving a NASCAR-style car must be absurdly fun and highly addictive.
This just in: As One Mississippi found out, “Corona” by the Minutemen is not quite a country song. And only a handful of people seemed to recognize it as the theme from “Jackass.” What is Johnny Knoxville up to these days, anyway?
Based on sheer volume Lynyrd Skynyrd generated, most of the band’s fans may be deaf. If they weren’t before, they are now.
Lyle Lovett’s hair? Still amazing.
The Louvin Brothers’ “Great Atomic Power” is still a really depressing song, even as sung by 80-year old Charlie Louvin. I’m sure it was downright bleak during the Cold War, but in an age of suitcase nukes, it’s still pretty grim, even if you are planning to “rise and meet your Savior in the air.”
Miranda Lambert rocks. Period. With or without the bass player with the mohawk.
Monte Warden is a pretty funny guy. You have to be funny if you’re scheduled to go on stage at 11:15 a.m. and nobody was in the park until 11:30.
Billy Joe Shaver didn’t shoot anyone and, hello, Leon Russell is still alive. (Note: these two comments have nothing to do with each other; they just seemed like things people wouldn’t necessarily believe.)
I plan on having barbecue for breakfast for the rest of my life. Which will probably be pretty short if I keep having barbecue for breakfast.
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Radiohead cleans up. We think.
British music Web site Gigwise reports Radiohead has sold 1.2 million digital copies of “In Rainbows.” The album went on sale on Tuesday.
This number should likely be taken with a grain of salt.
For one thing, Gigwise cites an anonymous source.
Also, 1.2 million copies is, in contemporary terms, a massive number. That’s more than Kanye West’s “Graduation,” more than 50 Cent’s “Curtis” and, as Salon points out, more than the first week sales of the last three Radiohead studio albums put together.
There’s a nice summary of various “In Rainbows” commentaries here at the Daily Swarm.
But MTV is reporting the backlash has started.
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CD review: What the Boss delivereth, Brendan O’Brien taketh away
Bruce Springsteen
“Magic” (Columbia)
3 stars
Sorry this review is a little tardy. It’s only been in the past few days that my jaw met back up with the rest of my face after throwing on “Magic” and realizing it’s the first Springsteen record since “Tunnel of Love” that doesn’t sound as if it’s either exclusively for the fanatics (see also the ‘90s) or self-conscious comeback bid (see also “The Rising”).
“Magic” is vintage electric pop in the Springsteen sound. Waxing nostalgic, bummed by politics, painfully aware there’s an election coming up, Bruce and the E Streeters fill the album with stacks of guitars, melody-carrying glockenspiels, Catholic references and Max Weinberg’s driving thud. Sound familiar?
“Radio Nowhere” opens with a dive-bombing riff, tasteful backing vocals and a few sketchy lyrical premises. “I just want to hear some rhythm,” the Boss sings; if anything, radio pop is suffering from a lack of melody these days. “I want a million different voices speaking in tongues” — has nobody shown this man YouTube?
Springsteen also might be the only man alive who can get away with the words “boppin’” and “mystery train” in a song from 2007.
“You’ll Be Coming Down” is his standard car-as-girl/girl-as-car song, but “Livin’ in the Future” is for the hard-core, a song so egregiously E Street that it sounds 30 years old. (Of course, for awhile there, everyone was a hard-core E Street fan, which makes talking about him that much more complicated.)
But “Magic” soon turns into a remarkably solid, deeply accessible collection reminding everyone what made Springsteen a sensation in the first place — his ability to combine ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s pop into his own subgenre. The lyrics on “Gypsy Biker” illustrate a veteran’s lament as John Prine might have imagined it, but the sound is all Phil Spector. The wonderful “Girls in their Summer Clothes” is pure Beach Boys pop, while “I’ll Work For Your Love” finds the sweet spot between Rod Stewart and Cheap Trick.
Even the politics feel like vintage Boss: “Magic” is a smart, cynical acoustic riff on politicians as illusionists, “Last to Die” asks “Who will be the last to die for a mistake?” “Long Walk Home” is classic class fatalism, while “Devil’s Arcade” imagines a hellish desert.
All that said, the mind continues to boggle at what Springsteen hears in producer Brendan O’Brien, whose heavy hand knocks this album down a full star. Strings oversweeten potentially powerful moments (“Your Own Worst Enemy”), drums veer from too small to too large (the distant-yet-massive coda to “Devil’s Arcade” nearly derails the song) and vocals are polished in strange, disorienting ways.
Yet, I’m still heading back to the beginning, wondering where this guy has been hiding all these years.
Recommended: “Girls in their Summer Clothes,” “I’ll Work for Your Love”
Yet another Willie record
Willie Nelson keeps pumping out records like K-Fed does little bundles of joy. Sir Willie Hugh and big band singer-turned-pro-golfer Don Cherry have collaborated on “It’s Magic,” a new CD from www.diamondisc.com.
Recorded and mixed in Nashville, the CD features luminaries Boots Randolph, Charlie McCoy and Buzz Cason, among other sessionaires. Tracks include “What a Wonderful World,” “Portrait of My Love” and other standards.
“It’s Magic” CD is currently available here and some retail outlets.
Willie’s next record will be a quite different collaboration. “Me and Sister Bobbie are going to make a record with Jessica Simpson,” Nelson says. “It’s going to be a stripped down record.” Since the interview was over the phone, it was impossible to see if Willie said that with a straight face.
Show review: Adam Franklin at the Mohawk
With an arsenal of Boss guitar effects pedals, a beautifully battered sunburst Fender Jazzmaster, a Vox wah pedal and a vintage Fender combo amplifier bi-amped in stereo with a Gibson Custom Shop amp, singer/guitarist Adam Franklin played an intimate show to a handful of devoted fans Tuesday at the Mohawk. Soon hundreds of guitar players, musicians and guitar tone aficionados will kick themselves, wondering how they missed it.
Easily one of the most talented, yet under-appreciated singer/guitarists in rock, Oxford, England shoegaze pioneer and (former Swervedriver frontman) Adam Franklin blasted out a short set of 3-5 minute super-sonic dream pop songs. Primarily culled from his post-Swervedriver catalog and his recent “Bolts of Melody” release, Franklin’s unique sound resembled the musical equivalent of mashing-up multiple touchstones of the rock ‘n’ roll canon in a blender: the songcraft and hushed vocals of Elliott Smith, jazz chord progressions contextualized in pop songs (inspired by Nick Drake), the reckless yet blissful abandon of the MC5 and the Stooges and the deafening white and pink noise squall of a Cape Canaveral space shuttle lift off.
Franklin’s backing band proved up for the challenge of playing with a musician’s musician who many consider to be the Jimi Hendrix of the late 20th century British shoegazing scene. Guitarist Ley Taylor, bassist Josh Stoddard and drummer Jeff Townsin played with measured tightness, anchoring the rhythm with a less-is-more subtleness that left plenty of room for Franklin to mesmerize with his deconstructionist, “anti-lead” guitar prowess.
As the set progressed, a warm sensation flushed across my brown skin as my ears began to drown in the beautiful guitar tones. White noise whammy wha-wha sounds crashed into hard-panned waves of analog delay and tremolo. I felt like I was in on a secret that the majority of the world had yet to discover; imagine what it would be like to watch underground pop legends Big Star play in a tiny rock club to about 20 people (if you’re not familiar with Big Star, just imagine your favorite band that no one knows about).
The 2003 single “Magnetic Morning” transformed into one of the most transcendentally powerful songs in Frankin’s oeuvre. While the Swervedriver b-side “Director’s Cut of Your Life” sounded more fresh than ever with a smoothed-out revision on the inescapable backbeat.
Franklin introduced a new, original track called “Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head,” featuring a triumphant “blue skies” chorus that tugged at your heartstrings as it contrasted with the song’s minor key and melancholic verse.
The show was ridiculously unattended, but props should go out to Transmission Entertainment for booking the enormous talent before the world has caught on to his innovative music.
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CD review: Four stars for the new Radiohead
Well, here we are. The new Radiohead album, “In Rainbows,” has arrived, ones and zeros hurtling through hi-speed cable modems, ultra-modern delivery for this most modern of classic rock bands. As the little kids sampled on “15 Step” put it, “Yay!”
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Radiohead announced Oct. 1 that this immensely anticipated collection, the follow-up to “Hail to the Thief” that the band had been working on for two years, would be available for download Oct. 10. Fans could register at their site and pay whatever they like for a 160kbps DRM-free MP3 version. A deluxe “In Rainbows” boxset is scheduled for release Dec. 3, with a regular CD version due in early 2008.
Music fans, bloggers and others who report on the music industry went nuts. This was declared the end of major label hegemony, even after the band said it would likely sign with a label for the CD release.
What? The music? Oh, yeah, the music. Well, it might be the most consistent album Radiohead’s ever released, but I’ve never been sure if consistency is something fans want from this band. They want the grand gesture, the large statement. (Of course, the grand gesture here is in the marketing.) The proggy melodicism of the 10-year-old “OK Computer” and the electronic frippery that defined “Kid A,” the more tuneful “Amnesiac,” and the mopier “Hail to the Thief” have become, as Salinger put it, “smoothly amalgamated.” The band is still in love with Krautrock’s rhythmic tropes — check out that fuzz bass on “Bodysnatchers,” a kissing cousin to the throbbing riff from “The National Anthem” and the electronic loops on “15 Step” — but seem more at ease than ever at turning them into songs-qua-songs. It helps that Radiohead has become amazingly good at making electronic music feel like guitar rock and vice versa.
“Nude” features synthy strings that go for corn rather than drama (note: this is not a bad thing; if there’s one band that could use a little less drama, it’s Radiohead). “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” strips everything back for a minimalist guitar-drums flicker that moves like electronica, while “All I Need” is a ballad with break beats that build to a wide-screen finale. “Videotape” is the stately closer, all hums and a stumbling beat and pianos for days. All the bits of the band’s personality have come together in ways that probably surprise even them. After two years of work, Radiohead sounds as if they could do this every day.
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Another Hot List
In honor of Rolling Stone’s “Hot Issue,” here is another hot list, some of it Austin-centric, some not:
Hot band: White Denim
Hot SNL guests: Spoon
Hot friends of the famous: Grupo Fantasma
Hot festival: Fun Fun Fun
Hot best-seller, local: Iron and Wine’s “The Shepherd’s Dog”
Hot best-seller, national: Bruce Springsteen’s “Magic”
Hot overratables: Iron and Wine’s “The Shepherd’s Dog, “Bruce Springsteen’s “Magic”
Hot “Chinese Democracy”: Rapid Ric’s Whut It Dew Family album
Hot they’re-still-a-band?: And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead
Hot wait-they’re-really-still-a-band?: Los Lonely Boys
Hot VJ: Emmy Robbin (ME-TV)
Hot JJ: Castillo (ME-TV)
Hot time-killer: Trying to order the Radiohead album
Hot judgment: The new Radiohead album is…much like other Radiohead albums
Hot sellout: Radiohead’s manager stating that the band will soon sign with a record label
Hot complaint: Velvet-rope, $300 champaign bottle, “our staff doesn’t know the meaning of no” bars.
Hot silver lining: Getting all the people who like velvet-rope, $300 Champagne bottle, “our staff doesn’t know the meaning of no” bars out of the rest of downtown
Hot so-last-year: Seeing “Friday Night Lights” cast members at Jo’s
Hot this-year: Seeing Morgan Fairchild here and there
Hot don’t-say-we-didn’t-warn-you-when-those-condos-went up: Discussions of a new noise ordinance lowering the acceptable dB level from 80 dBs to 65 dBs.
Hot we-no-longer-care-about-this-whole-live-music-capital-thing: Discussions of a new noise ordinance lowering the acceptable dB level from 80 dBs to 65 dBs.
Hot audience participation: Readers adding their own “Hot” nods in the comments section
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Guitar story: SRV’s ‘Lenny’
At the 2004 Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas to benefit Eric Clapton’s substance abuse treatment facility in Antigua, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s beloved “Lenny” guitar, on which he recorded “Riviera Paradise,” was auctioned off by Christie’s for $623,000 to the Guitar Center. That guitar no doubt helped turn around a lot of lives in rehab, something Stevie would’ve really appreciated.
The Guitar Center has produced 185 exact replicas of “Lenny,” right down to the Mickey Mantle autograph on the body (which Vaughan got in 1985 after he played the National Anthem on Astros opening day) and is selling those facsimiles for $17,000 each beginning Dec. 12. Log on to here for more details.
The story behind the guitar, SRV’s fave, besides “# 1,” is a touching one. Back in 1980, Vaughan had admired the 1965 Fender in a pawn shop, but didn’t have the $350 to buy it. Secretly, seven friends pooled $50 each to buy it and present it to SRV on his birthday. That night at home, Vaughan wrote the instrumental “Lenny,” one of his most touching songs, as a gesture of thanks.
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Ghostland on Conan
Austin’s own Ghostland Observatory is playing Conan O’Brien’s show next Tuesday, reports our colleague Matthew Odam.
J Church gig turns into Lance Hahn benefit
As you may know, J Church principle Lance Hahn has no luck. He’s been burned out of his apartment, he had health problems with his heart and his kidneys, the whole nine.
He’s also one of the most well-regarded punk lifers in the American scene, one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet and has no health insurance.
Anyway, J Church’s Oct. 14 gig at Beerland was supposed to be a warm-up for an gig at his label No Idea Records’ festival “The Fest”. Hahn, who has lousy kidneys, had to return to the hospital for two weeks thanks to nasty opportunistic infection that almost killed him. (He coded and everything.)
His hospital stay involved surgery, physical therapy, muscle atrophy, extreme pain and memory loss. He is still in recovery at home.
Seriously. Ask him about it sometime; it’s a pretty awful story.
The show is now a benefit to help Lance with his medical bills. Participating bands include Alright Tonight, O’Pioneers, the Anchor (formerly the Idle Kids) and Capitalist Kids (now with Ben Snakepit on guitar).
The moral? Give ‘til it hurts and count your blessings.
Review: Rilo Kiley at Stubb’s
If there were ever any questions or doubts about Rilo Kiley’s experimental, 1970s-inspired recent release “Under the Blacklight,” the Los Angeles-based, four-piece indie-ethos rock band settled the murmurs among old fans with their Sunday show at Stubb’s — one of the best, most assured performances I’ve seen this year (including South by Southwest and the Austin City Limits Festival).
Rilo Kiley — singer/guitarist/keyboardist Jenny Lewis, singer/guitarist Blake Sennett, bassist Pierre de Reeder and drummer Jason Boesel — performed a wide mix from their four albums that was equal parts sonic perfection and superior songwriting, ultimately anchored by Lewis’ charismatic star power.
Lewis stood center stage, beaming with appreciation of the capacity-filled crowd’s enthusiasm; it appeared as if this were a hometown show for the band. Highlights included the band’s slowed-down cover of “Rise Up With Fists” from Lewis’ solo album and the band’s arpeggio-crescendoing extendo-jam at the end of “Spectacular Views.”
Sennett got a couple of deserved turns in the spotlight with lead vocals on “Ripcord” and “Dreamworld.” Boesel proved to be one of the most solid and inspired drummers playing in rock while bassist de Reeder’s exceptional quality of tone shined during the walking slink of “The Moneymaker” and “Smoke Detector.” Rilo Kiley’s potential for greatness has always cast a long shadow; it’s no surprise that they’ve eclipsed the Saddle Creek Records/Omaha, Neb., music scene that they helped birth.
Sunday evening’s performance was more proof that Lewis’ quadruple-threat talent is so undeniably immense (actor/singer/musician/dancer) that it was really only a matter of time before Rilo Kiley outgrew small rock clubs in favor of larger venues. Now with the Warner Brothers machine behind them and a grass-roots following of highly devoted fans that they’ve been nurturing for years through a steady diet of touring, Rilo Kiley might just grow into those Fleetwood Mac and Loretta Lynn comparisons that they’ve been garnering for some time. Let’s look forward to the day they record their “Rumors” and “Tusk.”
The set list: “It’s A Hit”; “Close Call”; “Portions for Foxes”; “Last Night”; “Breakin’ Up”; “Dreamworld”; “The Moneymaker”; “Wires And Waves”; “Ripcord”; “With Arms Outstretched”; “Silver Lining”; “I Never”; “Give A Little Love”; “A Better Son/Daughter”; “Smoke Detector”; “Rise Up With Fists”; “Spectacular Views.” Encore: “A Man/Me/Then Jim”; “Does He Love You?”
Sluggo! Ball at Emo’s Oct. 26
In the late 1970s, Nick West and E.A. Srere founded Sluggo! magazine, one of the most influential fanzines of the time, which helped put the nascent Austin punk scene on the radar. Sadly, West is battling advanced prostate cancer and is currently in treatment in Germany. To help offset the enormous expenses for this innovative treatment, a series of benefits are being planned, including one at Emo’s on Oct. 26.
Sally Norvell (ex-Gator Family) is coming down from NYC to do her cabaret act, plus Ty Gavin’s band SA Creeper will perform, but perhaps the biggest draw for this costume ball will be Lucid Dementia. Mark your calendars and say a prayer for a crucial cat.
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Explosions resonate on ‘Friday Night Lights’
Confession time: I’m officially the last person in Austin on the “Friday Night Lights” bandwagon (just in time for one of sketchiest, possibly shark-jumpingist plot developments I’ve ever seen on any TV show. I’m not going to spoil it; you know what I’m talking about. That. Yeah, that, with the pipe. And the river. Oy.)
Loved the movie, enjoyed the first few episodes of the show’s first season, but I never kept up with it. Saw it in reruns, now totally hooked.
I’m also really enjoying the way Explosions in the Sky’s music works far better on the show than in the movie.
The movie was a period piece, set in small town Texas in 1989.
Boobie Miles’ Public Enemy jacket made sense. Explosions’ panoramic guitar rock, impossible to imagine without ’90s bands such as Slint and Mogwai, did not. It never felt timeless to me, just too contemporary by half. The music itself was fine, but it didn’t feel of the time and place in the film.
With the TV set in the here and now, Explosions’ music works wonderfully, the perfect prescription for the wide-eyed kids and their dreams of something beyond the Texas horizon, accessible only through football.
The other excellent thing about last Friday’s episode? Coach Taylor’s reaction to picking up his under-age daughter outside the bar played by Trophy’s: “You have got to be kidding me!”
The punch line for Austinites is that, based on the interior shots, Trophy’s has never looked that good.
“Friday Night Lights” airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on NBC.
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Elevators bio sneak-peeked
Although it’s not officially released until December, “Eye Mind,” the exhaustive biography of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, has been available at BookPeople for the past few days. At 11:20 a.m. today, there was only one copy left, but BookPeople has seven more on order.
Nine years in the working by British author Paul Drummond, “Eye Mind” is authoritative, compelling, probably the best book about Texas music ever written (I read 3/4 of it last night in one six-hour stretch). Which makes it all the more disappointing that it’s so full of dumb mistakes, including:
1) The Sex Pistols played a show in Kerrville (it was San Antonio)
2) A song played by KVET DJ Laveda Dirst inspired “You’re Gonna Miss Me.” (It’s “Lavada Durst.”)
3) The Elevators played a show at William Rogers Auditorium in Fort Worth. (“Will Rogers Auditorium.”)
4) J.R. Reed music store was on South Congress. (It was Congress Avenue at Eighth Street.)
5) Travis County was dry in the ’60s. (Beer and wine only.)
Hopefully, there’s time to fix these little mistakes. But if not, look past them and slip inside Drummond’s house of psychedelic rock pioneers. A mix of of oral history and the author’s text, “Eye Mind” is a long, strange, wonderfully detailed trip.
Is Austin ready for the velvet-rope treatment?
Pangaea nightclub, the ultra-upscale lounge set to open in the old Alamo Drafthouse location on Colorado Street this November, aims to usher a new era of glitz and glamor into Austin nightlife. In his article previewing the club, writer Michael Barnes poses the question, “How will Austin respond to the velvet-rope treatment, de rigeur in Los Angeles and New York but confined to just a few local clubs here on the busiest nights?”
With luxury condos and trendy boutiques propagating downtown, has Austin evolved enough to support such an exclusive nightlife scene, or does the velvet-rope experience run counter to the laid back vibe that’s always been central to our city’s identity?
CNN is down with ACL
CNN producers did a piece on ACL’s new season. Check it out the uncut version here.
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Zappa does Zappa at Hogg
In the footsteps of Julian Lennon and Ziggy Marley, Dweezil Zappa will be doing his dad’s stuff, as close to the original as possible (no easy task.) D. Zap and band come to Hogg Memorial Auditorium on Nov. 13. Tickets are on sale at most H-E-B stores, online at www.utpac.org or by phone at 477-6060.
With Bass Concert Hall undergoing renovations for the next year, bookers are getting high on the Hogg. Sinead O’Connor plays there Oct. 28, while M.I.A. goes Hogg wild Nov. 3.
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Iron and Wine debuts in top 25.
“The Shepherd’s Dog,” the third album from Dripping Springs-based act Iron & Wine (a.k.a songwriter Sam Beam and whomever is playing with him this week) sold 31,000 copies last week, according to Nielsen Soundscan, which was enough to secure a debut in the top 25.
You can read last week’s XL cover story about Beam here.
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The Rolling Stones (with a little help from Austin) set a record
For those of you who rocked out with the The Rolling Stones last October in Zilker Park, you were a part of rock history and helped put the venerable musicians in the Guinness Book of World Records. The numbers have come out, and it turns out the Stones’ A Bigger Bang Tour pulled in a whopping $437 million from August 2005 to August 2007.
The Rolling Stones’ latest honor comes hot on the heels of the news from Forbes.com that the Stones earned more money than any performer from June 2006 to June 2007, taking home $88 million. Well played, boys, er, grandads.
Lovett feted as Americana Trailblazer
This year’s Americana Music Association Awards, to be held Nov. 1 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, will honor Lyle Lovett with the inaugural Trailblazer award. Lovett will also perform at the ceremony, then the next day serve as the keynote interviewee for the AMA’s annual conference. Hey, it’s SXSW for grownups!
Austinites set to perform at the awards show include Sunny Sweeney, Joe Ely and Gurf Morlix. As previously announced, Ely will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.
For more information, visit www.americanamusic.org.
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The Cure coming to Austin!
The postponed North American tour by the Cure is back on for 2008 and it includes a stop at the rebuilt Austin Music Hall on June 6, according to the recently released itinerary. Wow, that’s a long time for Cure fans to wait.
The first show announced for the new bigger, better sounding Music Hall is Tori Amos on Nov. 26.
The old building at 208 Nueces St. was demolished in May. The capacity at the new AMH expands from 3,000 to 4,400.
Seth Walker signs with NYC label
Austin’s triple threat Seth Walker, who sings, writes songs and plays knee-knockin’ blues guitar, has signed with Hyena Records in New York, the home of Dale Watson, Dr. John, James Blood Ulmer and other quality artists. The self-titled Hyena debut hits stores Oct. 23. Walker, who regularly plays guitar in Marcia Ball’s band, will play the Continental Club on Oct. 11.
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Sister Bobbie on ‘Tonight’ tomorrow
Bobbie Nelson gets top billing over brother Willie to promote her debut “solo” album “Audiobiography” on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” which airs Wednesday at 10:35 p.m. on NBC KXAN Channel 36. The album is bookended with a pair of new Willie Nelson compositions, which the brother and sister, whose ages add to 150, plan to perform one tonight. In case you missed our recent profile of Sister Bobbie here it is.
Other guests on “The Tonight Show”tomorrow include Tom Selleck and Carlos Mencia.
The Nelson siblings were also supposed to be on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” this morning, but that appearance was pushed back a couple weeks so Bobbie could focus on “The Tonight Show.” Her son Freddy Fletcher said doing two nationally televised talk shows two days in a row was a bit much for his shy Mom, not used to the spotlight. “She’d rather spread them out every two weeks,” he said. An upcoming apprance on “Oprah” is also a possibility down the road.
Strait to Austin for tour opener
Country music giant George Strait will kick off his 2008 arena tour with a stop at Erwin Center Jan. 10. Little Big Town will open.
Strait’s latest No. 1 single, “Wrapped,” his 55th overall, was written by Austin songwriter Bruce Robison.
Check here and Strait’s web site for on-sale and other information as it becomes available.
Radiohead subverts how records are released; jaws plan to meet back up with faces sometime later this week
According to this story in Billboard, not only is Radiohead digitally releasing its next album in the next ten days, it’s going to let fans pay whatever it thinks is fair for it. A deluxe edition with LP, CD, extra songs, a book and a nice box, will be released in December.
All we can say right now is “Wow.”
Seriously. Wow.
