Freaky 'Friday'
Now that
The OC is DOA, NBC's
Friday Night Lights is easily the most musically astute high school drama, not least because the Central Texas-filmed program thinks locally.
Jon Dee Graham,
Billy Joe Shaver,
Jerry Jeff Walker, and
James McMurtry have all been heard, and the
Gourds had a brief cameo in October's homecoming episode. Jan. 3 installment "Nevermind" featured songs from
Spoon and
Scratch Acid, plus one scene filmed at
Cheapo Discs and two at the
Broken Spoke, including a hilarious performance by one character's Christian death metal band
Crucifictorious. "Of course they used a rock & roll band," chuckles Spoke owner
James White. "They didn't have no cowboy boots in that band, for sure." White says producers checked out
Dale Watson for a future episode last weekend and that actor
Taylor Kitsch, who plays bad-boy running back
Tim Riggins, came back to play shuffleboard.
Explosions in the Sky, who scored
FNL's 2004 theatrical predecessor, have had songs in multiple episodes, while several local musicians have found work behind the camera. "They really do a lot of blowing and going," says
Crow bassist
Paul Crow, who alongside girlfriend and
Blatherskyte drummer
Bek Sabbath does occasional grip work. "They'll do five, 10 locations in one day." NBC has not announced if the low-rated show, now airing 7pm Wednesdays, will be back next season.
March Violets
TCB feels like the kid in the back seat asking, "Are we there yet?" every five minutes, but
SXSW Music Creative Director
Brent Grulke swears they'll release this year's band list as soon as senior staff returns from
MIDEM's industry networking bonanza in Cannes, France, next week. New names pop up on the blogosphere almost daily, so here's a few – unconfirmed, mind you – to chew on:
Blonde Redhead,
Erase Errata,
Mando Diao,
Kings of Leon, and a
Butthole Surfers rooftop reunion. Happy? (Unfortunately,
Arcade Fire, whose
Neon Bible is out March 6, will be in Europe, promise.) Grulke estimates 2007's total number of performers at 1,300, 400 of which are from overseas, again record numbers for the 21-year-old conference. They'll be spread among a whopping 68 venues, adding one familiar name and subtracting two: South First outpost
Jovita's is in, but the
Austin Music Hall is out as it undergoes its $5 million, 18-month renovation. Its shows, including March 14's
Austin Music Awards, have been moved to Ballroom A at the
Austin Convention Center. Finally, the
Back Room, which closed for good Jan. 6, won't reopen for SXSW. Although the Riverside club had been the nexus of SXSW hip-hop for years, "Enough other places are doing hip-hop now that we don't really have a problem finding rooms," Grulke says.
The Beautiful Ones
Here now the continuing saga of
Prince and
Grupo Fantasma, as witnessed in part by Emo's booker
Graham Williams. His Royal Badness was most pleased with the Austin cumbia troupe's last-minute Thanksgiving show at his
3121 club inside the
Rio Hotel and offered them a weekly residency through its March 1 closing date. Last week, Williams and wife
Audrie were watching Grupo when he noticed a diminutive figure clad in yellow and black a few feet behind their table. Seconds later, Prince was onstage peeling off a guitar solo with the band, the first time the parties had ever interacted face-to-face. "It was short and sweet," says Williams. "The Artist was off the stage and gone, like a purple ninja." Act two came Monday night when Grupo was the house band for Prince's
Golden Globe Awards afterparty at the
Beverly Wilshire hotel. Once again, Mr. LoveSexy, Best Original Song-winner for
Happy Feet's "The Song of the Heart," joined the band onstage, as did
Mary J. Blige,
will.i.am, and
Marc Anthony. Anthony's wife,
Jennifer Lopez;
Leonardo DiCaprio;
Diddy;
Chris Rock; and
Bruce Willis, among others, worked it out on the dance floor, and
Cuba Gooding Jr. was so impressed that bystanders heard Grupo's latest CD,
Comes Alive, blasting from his car as it drove away.
Sad Sad City Limits: Ghostland at ACL 2006
Photo By Gary Miller
Ghost Dancing
Out of nowhere,
Ghostland Observatory's fusion of earthy rock magnetism and rigid electronic beats landed a local haymaker, and in 2005 the duo of
Aaron Behrens and
Thomas Turner went from opening
Gallery Lombardi parties to sold-out
Emo's outdoor shows almost overnight. Last year, the scale grew larger still:
Lollapalooza and a now-legendary
ACL Fest set available on
iTunes through GO's
www.trashymoped.com Web site. Friday night, Ghostland raises the stakes again with the sold-out "Ghostland at the Opera" fete at UT's
Hogg Auditorium, co-starring pals the
Black Angels – who, like Ghostland, are beloved at Seattle/Internet station
www.kexp.org –
Car Stereo (Wars), and
Team Fabrication. "There's a lot riding on this show," says Turner, the producer/DJ/drummer half of Ghostland. "This is the first time we've gotten to do a full-blown production. Everything about it is different than what we've done before." Everything, perhaps, but the contagious energy fueled by Behrens' manic onstage contortions, which he likens to a good, hard run. "I'm exhausted, but I feel so damn good," Behrens says. "The endorphins have kicked in. It's a workout."
Photo By John Anderson
Bullet the Blue Sky
• Prolific Austin producer and musician
Ron Flynt (
20/20,
Big Blue Hearts) fell off a ladder while hanging drywall at the new location of his
Jumping Dog studio in September, shattering his elbow and upper arm bone. Although he has regained enough use of his arm to play guitar again, he may need further surgery, and his friends have organized an "Our Man Flynt" benefit 8pm Wednesday at the
Continental Club; performers include
Peter Case,
Dwight Twilley,
Scrappy Jud Newcomb,
Penny Jo Pullus,
Jon Dee Graham,
Fire Marshals of Bethlehem, and many more. Donations accepted and complete lineup available at
www.ourmanflynt.com.
• Popular East Austin restaurant and nightclub the Shack, located at 1167 Webberville and known as the "House of R&B," burned down around 5:30am Jan. 9. Austin Fire Department investigators estimated the damage at $150,000 but have not released an official cause. One theory was an electrical fire similar to the one that claimed Midtown Live in February 2005.
• Oops: The volunteer call times in last week's SXSW item were incorrect. Returnees should report to the Hilton Downtown's main ballroom at 12:30pm Sunday; first-timers at 3:30pm.
Pubcrawler last St. Patrick's Day; Wes Pascoe is at right
Wes Pascoe 1948-2007
Charles Wesley Pascoe, a guitarist, mandolinist, and singer with several Austin and New York folk and bluegrass bands, passed away from liver cancer Jan. 8. He was 58. The New Jersey native came to Austin in 1980 from Greenwich Village, where he performed solo and with the groups
CSS and
Watershed, who became known for acoustic versions of rock hits like "As Tears Go By." In Texas, he formed the traditional bluegrass band
Cedarfever and played several years with wife
Leslie, who died in 1989, as the duo
Les and Wes. Pascoe also started a business building and selling mountain dulcimers and won the
Texas State Dulcimer Championships in Glen Rose three years in a row. In the Nineties, he played with traditional Irish band
Hair of the Dog, rockish B.D. Riley's mainstay
Pubcrawler, and acoustic Western swingers the
Lost Pine Ramblers. "He was honest and dependable, a big man with a big heart," says friend and bandmate
Sean Orr.
