The Damnations TX, Gourds, Slobberbone, Damon Bramblett, Mike Nicolai Stubb's, Friday 19 
The highly touted, long-awaited, oft-delayed, major-label debut from Austin's foremost up-and-coming country-rock collective, known nowadays as the Damnations TX, is here at last. Half Mad Moon it's called, and believe me when I tell you it's well worth the wait. From the bass groove that signals the opening track "Unholy Train" to the resoundingly hopeful and luminescent chorus of the last song, Mike Nicolai's "Catch You Alive," Half Mad Moon is a testament to a band that has, by playing their dues, come into a fully realized sound of its own. This CD release party is bound to be one hell of a party, too, as they will be joined by special guests the Gourds, who have their own CD release coming soon, local country crooner Damon Bramblett, Denton rockers Slobberbone, and Mike Nicolai, who returns from his new home base in Seattle for the show.
Creative Opportunity Orchestra
Hyde Park Theatre, Thursday 18 Released to little fanfare last fall, Tina Marsh & CO2's Worldwide CD was yet another example of the local avant-garde big band's commitment to pushing beyond visible horizons (try "Milky Way Dreaming"). Crowding into the intimate Hyde Park Theatre, one of many local venues in which the 13-piece jazz orchestra should blow out a wall or two, Marsh & Co. follow Walter Thompson and his Sound Paintings, which feature various Austin musicians, actors, dancers, and video. Should be a full evening of well-matched artistic expression and explorations. — Raoul Hernandez
Jimmy LaFave
Cactus Cafe, Friday 19 Jimmy LaFave's newest release for Bohemia Beat, Trail, is a 2-CD collection of live recordings that spans the local singer-songwriter's busy life on the road of the last decade and a half. It's a beautifully raw sampling of many LaFave classics as well as an extensive tribute to his counterparts and influences — especially Bob Dylan, a dozen of whose songs get treatment here. Some of the best tunes on the album were recorded at the Cactus Cafe, which appears to be the best place in the world to reap the full acoustic benefits of LaFave's remarkable voice. Songsmith Slaid Cleaves opens.
 Lee "Scratch" Perry
Flamingo Cantina, Friday 19 Lee "Scratch" Perry is one of the most mystical, mythical figures in the preternatural world of reggae music. Tales of the burning of his Black Ark studios stand alongside his responsibility in teaming up the original Bob Marley and the Wailers lineup in direct relation to the impact his music has had on reggae, dub, and ska — not to mention trip-hop, jungle, and the many hybrids of all of the above. On his latest, Fire in Dub, the rebel rasta songs and long dub grooves of his Dub Fire album get the treatment of producer Mad Professor, and this Friday and Saturday, they appear together at the Flamingo Cantina. Saturday has sold out, but they added a Friday performance, and if yer lucky you could still get a glimpse of the masterminds in action.
 Don Byron
Bates Recital Hall, Saturday 20 Don Byron is arguably the finest clarinetist in jazz today. A true musical chameleon whose every project is a pronounced departure from any previous endeavor, the classically trained Byron has recorded acclaimed albums of klezmer, hip-hop, and avant-garde styles. Perhaps his most accessible and fully realized project of all is the one he is bringing to town, Bug Music. Byron's all-star ensemble, including brilliant pianist Uri Caine, will delight you with the music of early Duke Ellington, John Kirby, and the cartoon zaniness of Raymond Scott. This promises to be a night of toe-tapping merriment and superb musicianship.
— Jay Tracthenberg
Silver Scooter/Kiss Offs
Thirty Three Degrees/Emo's, Saturday 20 In the tidal wave of recent releases, two albums that should not be overlooked are on local indie label Peek-a-Boo: Orleans Parish, Silver Scooter's follow-up to their outstanding 1997 release The Other Palm Springs, and Goodbye Private Life, the debut CD by the Kiss Offs. The smart-sensitive songs of guitarist Scott Garred, pumped up and pushed along by the coolest rhythm section this side of the Feelies, bring Orleans Parish even closer to pure indie-pop perfection. Their in-store is at Thirty Three Degrees, 8pm. The Kiss Offs sing rough, cute, trashy, snotty, brilliant love songs to fuzzed-out guitars at sugar-rush energy levels. They'll be joined by ... Trail of Dead and Fatal Flying Guilloteens at the Emo's show, and also have their own in-store at Thirty Three Degrees on Monday, February 22.
Guided by Voices Hoot
Electric Lounge, Sunday 21 To cover the songs of Robert Pollard, the dizzying enigma behind cult-heroes GBV, is something akin to interpreting a story by Robert Coover. A chunk of music and words of such intense meaning and brevity, laid out as simple and matter-of-factly as are their hat acts of mental contortionism, offers endless possibilities just as it poses obscene limitations: to choose one direction is to deny the others. The array of participants in this Hoot should guarantee a broad base to choose from, though. Britt Daniel of Spoon (Drake Tungsten for this performance), an avowed and confirmed disciple of Pollard's, got his take first-hand from having toured with GBV. The paths chosen by Prescott Curlywolf's Rob Bernard and Fivehead's John Hunt should offer enticing descants of their own, as will as those of the Gourds, halfwatt, and others.
Lavelle White Songbook
The Mercury, Thursday 25 The premier diva of the blues in Austin, a town that takes its blues very seriously, is none other than Miss Lavelle White. This special show at the Mercury, sponsored by Spirit Feel Productions and the Blues Family Tree Project, features Miss Lavelle performing many of her own compositions. Known more for her lively R&B vocals, White, who got her start in Houston and became a legend onstage at Kingston Mines in Chicago, has also had success as a songwriter for folks like Bobby "Blue" Bland and Johnny Copeland. Houston guitar king Clarence Holliman joins Miss Lavelle for this show, with Matthew Robinson & the Texas Blues Band opening.
Mingo Saldivar
Antone's, Thursday 25 
The music of San Antonio accordion legend Mingo Saldivar, also known as "The Dancing Cowboy," has been heard by his legions of fans from the Middle East to the Lone Star State to West Africa. He was nominated for a Grammy in 1993, played Carnegie Hall in 1994, played the Olympics in 1996, and made the Tejano Music Hall of Fame in 1997. Not bad for a conjunto star who got his start as a professional musician in Alaska. When Saldivar takes to the Antone's stage, the phenomenon that is Mingomania will surely teach the international language of conjunto to more than a few willing converts.
Joan Baez, Hank Dogs
Paramount Theater, Tuesday 23  To hear Joan Baez sing the songs of young neo-folkies like Sinéad Lohan or Dar Williams is to realize that a career covering the past four decades has in no way diminished the conviction, the inspiration, or the pure folk beauty of her singing. On 1997's Gone From Danger, Baez turned her voice on the songs of contemporary folk songwriters, including local favorites Betty Elders and Mark Addison of the Borrowers. Last year, she released Baez Sings Dylan, an homage to the inspiration at the other end of her timeline. Whatever Baez sings, to hear her perform is to witness living history. Opening are Hank Dogs, a trio from south London whose Sixties sensibilities are tinged with a dark, ethereal mood, as found on their Rykodisc debut, Bareback. — Christopher Hess
ALSO PLAYING:
Friday: Kim Wilson, Marcia Ball, Antone's Saturday: Eric Taylor, Cactus Cafe Sunday: Agent Orange, Back Room Monday: Route of the Blues, Borders Books Tuesday: Hot Buttered Rhythm, Steamboat Wednesday: Fuel, Local H, Mayfield Four, Liberty Lunch Thursday: Terri Hendrix, La Zona Rosa |
