earache!

Did I really see people "rave" dancing last night at Silver Apples? Yes. Did Simeon Coxe look like an older Garth from Wayne's World? Yes. Clad in what I hope was a white wig and black-rimmed glasses, Coxe stood alone behind his kit, sampler on one side, oscillator on the other, a screen to his right split to show what both hands were doing.

He's no spring chicken, but for the first stop on his first tour in eight years, Coxe seemed spry, cracking jokes in between songs, even if his hands aren't as dexterous as they once were. "Program," "Whirly-bird," and "Lovefingers" from Silver Apples 1968 self-titled were delivered via programmed beats, albeit slooooowwed down from the originals; Contact's screwed gem "You and I" almost sounded like a techno song. Later in the set, Coxe launched into a children's song about a purple egg. While what he's doing isn't as mind-blowing now as in 1967 (what is these days?), he gets props for continuing to make noise, even in a wig. Read More | Comment »

Down at the Saxon Pub early Saturday evening, a quartet of music veterans known as the Dead Pyrates Society payed homage to old school rock. They’re seasoned rockers, all of them – tough as iron nails and hoisting the black flag in memory of those who’ve passed, including Bucky Ballard, Keith Ferguson, and Uncle John Turner. John Staehely’s presence is enough to give them platinum credentials – he’s played guitar with Bob Dylan, Spirit, Robert Palmer, and JoJo Gunne, which also featured the booming bass of Jimmie Randall, who’s played alongside drummer Mark Hamilton for years. Add a wise-cracking Keith Richards on guitar and what more could you ask for?

Did I say Keith Richards? It’s hard to ignore Keef’s influence when guitarist-vocalist-songwriter Joe Kennedy played him in a Stones cover band for years. If any one of those elements were different, the Pyrates might come off as ponderous. Instead, they roll like a well-lubed rock machine – big, heavy, and solid. As we headed out, the Pyrates were singing a rocket-fueled version of “The Eyes of Texas” that must have made Gabriel set down his horn and wish he played guitar. Read More | Comment »

“I need to shave you,” he nodded, holding up a razor.

No kidding. A thick blanket across my chest and another across the shins left me a little… exposed through the middle. He looked down at me. I looked up at him. A woman in scrubs who seemed to have no purpose in this particular operation looked over his shoulder.

By this point, I really didn’t care anymore. They’d given me a Benadryl downstairs, shot me up with a narcotic here, then given me “something to make you forget.” Can I get a prescription for that last one later?

“Both sides,” added the attendant, lowering the blade.

The femoral artery needs only be tapped on one side of the groin in a cardiac catheterization, but I was no position to argue. And who the hell was this onlooker? You can have my phone number later, lady. Read More | Comment »

The death of tenor sax man Rocky Morales last year devastated San Antonio’s music scene. A founding member of the Westside Horns, Rocky worked alongside Doug Sahm for many years in various bands including Joe & the VIPs, Rudy & the Reno Bops, Randy Garibay, Spot Barnett, and the Texas Tornados.

Morales played with old-school flair, influenced by the Mexican community he grew up in as well as the R&B bands of the Fifties and Sixties. That’s no surprise, since Clifford “Honkytonk” Scott was the one who inspired him to switch from alto to tenor sax. The resulting sound was unique in its soulfulness, exactly the touch Sahm loved to use in his various hybrids of rock, country, and blues.

Tonight at Antone’s is the tribute to Morales featuring the Westside Horns, Ruben Ramos, and Larry Lange & the Lonely Knights. Expect some mighty music as the Horns’ gorgeous reeds and brass meets Ramos’ silky Tejano sound and the Knights’ cuddle-up dance tunes. Doors at 7pm, music at 8pm. Read More | Comment »

Even the name is cute. Composed of multi-instrumentalists Keith Poulson, Sherry LeBlanc, and Katie Birdseed, plus drummer Will Slack, the Hunnies are instant nostalgia for early Nineties boy/girl bands like the the Rondelles. Total pop bliss banged out of beat-up amps.

They met "through a series of bizarre coincidences where we all kept running into each other at unlikely places from 2001 to 2006, such as skating rinks, bus stops, New York City streets, and a Dairy Queen in Fort Stockton," explains Le Blanc.

Those coincidences led to a booking at the Parlor, which led to the slapdash formation of the group with original drummer Eric Loftis of the Booby Traps.

Influences? Let's see: "Impromptu sing-a-longs, spirituals involving hand claps, most songs involving hand claps, Bo Diddley, our dads, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Silver Jews, French girl groups from the Sixties, Minor Threat, Neutral Milk Hotel, punk, blues..."

See what you hear tonight when they open for Peel and Prom Nite at Emo's. Read More | Comment »

Tomorrow night, Club 311 (311 E. Sixth St.) hosts a two-year Hurricane Katrina anniversary show and benefit with a stellar lineup of performers, including East 35, V.I.P., the Culprit, Vice & Mic Trey, Goliath, SoBlaqq, Mike Money, Sincere, Two Brothers, Stacy Russell, Philliez Beatz, and D-Ray, among others.

Gutta Gang, Devin the Dude, Chingo Bling, Gerald G, Bavu Blakes and many more are also scheduled to appear for this very worthy cause. Read More | Comment »

This week, Bill Callahan embarks on a month-plus tour, backed by a full band, which includes Shearwater drummer Thor Harris and violinist Elizabeth Warren. He'll be accompanied by Sun City Girl/improvisational virtuoso Sir Richard Bishop, though no Austin dates are scheduled.

However, Bill will be back in town for his lady Joanna Newsom's just-announced Oct. 27 performance with the Austin Symphony Orchestra at the Riverbend Centre. Tickets for that show go on sale Thursday through Front Gate outlets. Read More | Comment »

UT's student-run, non-profit radio station, KVRX 91.7FM, posted an untitled new recording this week by Jared Van Fleet's Sparrow House. The song was recorded during a recent Local Live session, the weekly Sunday night live program airing 10-11pm. The schedule for upcoming performances is as follows:

Aug. 26: Prom Nite
Sept. 2: Til We're Blue or Destroy
Sept. 9: ALIENS
Sept. 16: The Boxing Lesson
Sept. 23: Clap! Clap!
Sept. 30: Shapes Have Fangs
Oct. 7: The Noise Revival
Oct. 14: Foot Patrol
Oct. 21: Aster
Oct. 28: Meryll
Nov. 4: Southern Drama
Nov. 11: Reverse X Rays
Nov. 18: The Zest of Yore!

Don't forget, this Saturday is KVRX's website launch party and benefit at Mohawk, featuring Maneja Beto, Lomita, Foot Patrol, the Mercers, Fancy Feast, Peter & the Wolf, and Yellow Fever. Read More | Comment »

Those hoping to audition for ME Television’s reality series, The Next VeeJay, have a few more days to prepare than previously reported. The competition, which premieres in October, kicks off Thursday, August 30, at Midnight Rodeo. For more information check out metelevision.com/auditions. Read More | Comment »

It’s hard to see the end when you’re beginning
Time goes by you start to see the light

Sometimes getaway manifests itself as familial responsibility, a ticket home. Thankfully.

I left the Bay Area in 1992 at the age of 27. Never to return. Both my parents fled their birthplaces. Runs in the sangre.

Returning remains singular. The sun, the sea, the sky. Past and present, another lifetime’s ghosts mingling among all tomorrow’s parties. Raiders vs. 49ers. U.C. Berkeley fall load-in, Sunday, 10am. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Be sure to wear flowers in your hair… Read More | Comment »

In case you can't tell from the poster here, there's a "psychedelic" theme for tonight's show at the Mohawk. Furthermore, it also features four of Austin's best new bands. For real. Horse + Donkey headline. Cry Blood Apache have finally hit their stride now that they've ditched the trash can and settled on straight-up Cabaret Voltaire-wired-through-Wire's amps. Kicking things off are the always-solid trio Cavedweller and new local duo Headdress. Read More | Comment »

Celebrities are dying to ask me for advice.

OK, not really. But I’ve been addicted to gossip columns since I was a child, and I still devour them. My pen pal, "14," the fabulously talented artist/celeb commentator of Gallery of the Absurd, keeps my celebrity schadenfreude ever stoked with her wicked artwork. Still, as I endlessly pour over
D-Listed, Go Fug Yourself, and TMZ, I find myself taking mental notes and carrying on mental conversations like:

Britney Spears: Oh, Lord. You can take the girl out of the trailer park but…. P.S. to Criss Angel: If you really want to know what you're getting into, there are pictures of her Brazilianed beaver all over the net. Just remember who got there before you - it's the best birth control in the world.

Angelina Jolie: You are exquisitely lovely and your tattoos SUCK. Please. I beg you. Before you haul your brood in for matching tattoos, find a good tattoo artist, someone old who knows their art. I know a few of the REALLY good ones. Call me, Angie baby. I fixed Lucinda up with hers and can help you take care of yours.

Amy Winehouse: You really need to go to rehab, yes, yes, yes. Darling, you have one of the best voices and styles in ages. I love your Ronnie-Spector-meets-Elvis’-Priscilla look, but you are a MESS. Not a hopeless mess like Brit-Brit, but a fixable mess. So stay in rehab (take a look at pics of Courtney Love the last few years for inspiration or see Judy Garland before she died) and dump your husband Kevin Federline. Oops, I meant Blake Fielder Civil. (P.S. You will be SO sorry you got that golddigger’s name tattooed on your chest.) Read More | Comment »

Amy Annelle, aka the Places, and Ralph White are true kindred spirits, musical nomads whose bodies of work seem to yearn for the same pastoral past. The two are set to venture West, accentuating each other’s work in the best way they know how: Annelle with a 1933 Gibson L-00 guitar and White with an assortment of accordions, banjos, and fiddles.

Most of the dates, listed after the jump, are in support of revered folkie Michael Hurley, who is set to release The Ancestral Swamp on Devendra Banhart's Gnomonsong label. Hurley contributed harmony to Annelle's version of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonely I Could Cry," one of the bonus tracks on the Places’ hauntingly beautiful, Fawns with Fangs: Selections from the Dark Heart of the Thicket. Recorded in various parts of Colorado, New Jersey, Oregon, and Texas, and released in 2005, the album transforms the works of Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan, among others, into enchanted lullabies.

There's no telling where these two will wander off, but both are scheduled to resurface in Austin September 27 at Lovejoys. Read More | Comment »

A sign of the apocalypse? Not according to the tastemakers over at Pitchfork. And what with Daryl Hall's recent cameo on Flight of the Conchords (hey, Oates was on Wonder Showzen first), could a Hall & Oates indie rock renaissance be far behind? My seven-year-old self is squealing inside. Read More | 1 Comment »

Perhaps the best idea since Whirlyball, South First odds and ends boutique the Opera House, located directly behind End of an Ear, presents Teddy & Marge Thursday night. The Attic Ted side-project warps old timey tunes from the Twenties and the Thirties into oddly charming waltzes of accordion, banjo, and cello. The show is coupled with a bike-in movie, Charlie Kaufman's modern classic Adaptation. All things considered, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure might have been a more appropriate choice, but we're not complaining. The event starts at 8pm, and there's a $3 suggested donation. Read More | Comment »

Tonight, R. Kelly awaits you at the Alamo South Lamar, where chapters 13-22 of Trapped in the Closet will be screened at midnight. This next installment promises to be triple chocolate bananas ridonkulous because, in case you haven't heard Double Up yet, Kells still does not give a fuck.

The first 48 seats will go to people who pre-purchase the DVD from Waterloo Video, either in person or through the Alamo website.

Chapters 1-12 screen first at 11:15pm. That's a lot of Trapped in the Closet, so make sure you go to the bathroom ahead of time.

(Sorry, I had to.) Read More | Comment »

Many years ago, I made a trip to Graceland with the Joe Ely Band. It was before Graceland was open to the public so we stood around the graves, chatted up Uncle Vester Presley at the front gates, and wasted money on Elvis hotdogs at the Elvis Presley Eternal Flame souvenir shop across Elvis Presley Boulevard. TCB, baby!

Not long after, I tagged behind the Ely band to a gig in Corpus Christi. We stopped at a convenience store in Mathis, Texas on the way back and a poster caught my eye. “Duke Presley,” it read. A cousin of Elvis’, the poster boasted, along with a few other gassy claims. I stole the poster and when I got back to the Chronicle, shared it with Carolyn Phillips in our sales department. She shared it with Ted Roddy for the first Elvis show and he used that same poster – with a few changes – for his original Graceland Revue shows.

I’ve sat through more than a few of Roddy’s Elvis tributes at the Continental (one of which takes place Saturday). I’ve hoisted many a beer during “Viva Las Vegas” and coughed through the now-defunct Totally Smokin’ shows. I’ve oohed and aahed to Shaun Young’s Blue Moon Boys, swooned to Roddy’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” entrance, and sung loudly to “Suspicious Minds.” I’ve also seen Elvis tribute bands and imitators in places as far away as Hawaii and there’s no question that Ted Roddy is one of the best. His rich baritone is Elvis-like but he doesn’t seek to slavishly ape the King, just pay serious homage. And that’s good enough for me. Read More | Comment »

Sheep-friendly sludge trio the Flood celebrate the release of their ferocious full-length debut, Power to the Sheeple, tomorrow night at Trophy's, a club they were allegedly "banned" from just last month. What you have to do to get banned from Trophy's is beyond me, but the live show is definitely worth catching. It's also a kick-off for their "Dirty South" tour, which will take them from San Antonio all the way to lovely Jackson, Mississippi. Good luck, boys.

Also down South tomorrow night, catch Black Angels guitarist Christian Bland's new project Pig Boat Blues, along with All in the Golden Afternoon and the Tunnels at the Rockin' Tomato, 3003 S. Lamar. Free!

Plus! Baby Robots celebrate the release of their new decade-spanning blur, 10-Year High, at End of an Ear with Horse + Donkey. 6pm. FREE BEER. GOOD RECORDS. Read More | Comment »

Saturday is the new Sabbath. At least that's the day Magilum Records, the label run by artist Bryce Isbell, chose for its freak-folk gathering in Denton this weekend. The New Sabbath Festival takes place at J&J's Pizza, two free stages in front of the Courthouse, and another free stage at Banter coffeehouse. OTR has no idea where any of these places are, and would probably not be in the best state of mind for figuring it out, but the lineup - kindred spirits Peter & the Wolf and Jana Hunter, Brothers & Sisters, Bill Baird, the Black, Denton favorites the Theater Fire and Doug Burr, and Houston's Listen Listen, among others - is certainly worth the trek. Full lineup here. Read More | Comment »

Jana Hunter may have left Texas for the balmy shores of Baltimore, but her heart (and ears) are still here. She recently launched a label, Feow! Records, along with friends/musicians Matthew Brownlie and Arthur Bates, who are in Houston bands Bring Back the Guns and Wicked Poseur, respectively. Upcoming releases include singer-songwriter Deer Tick's War Elephant September 2 and Bring Back the Guns' Dry Futures October 4.

"My main motivation was to get the Deer Tick and Wicked Poseur records out into the public," Hunter says. "Right now, things are a little tricky since I moved. As things progress, we'll see where it goes, but I think Matt at least is in it for the long haul and wants to focus mostly on Houston bands. I'd like to stick to things I'm most excited about, no matter where they make their home, and eventually expand into print and other media. I'm not sure whether or not these interests will keep us on the same page or lead us in different directions."

In the meantime, Hunter gears up for a fall tour with old friend Devendra Banhart, which hits La Zona Rosa October 7. Read More | Comment »