Lisa Mednick has found touring as keyboardist for
Juliana
Hatfield to be less than a whirlwind adventure. Oh, sure, they did
MTV's
120 Minutes, the
Conan O'Brien show, and
David
Letterman
and all, but the latest I hear is that after only five live gigs,
Hatfield has
called a halt to her planned European tour, claiming that she's just
plain
exhausted. Ergo, the band is currently holed up in apartments in Boston
courtesy of Hatfield's record company, awaiting further instructions.
Mednick,
who apparently has a bit more spunk than Hatfield, has arranged some
solo gigs
and made some radio show appearances promoting her own album.
Bad Breaks and the Blues
Things are touch and go right now among several members of the old
Austin
blues community. The recent benefit for ailing BBQ king
Stubbs
brought
in a very helpful $3,000, though unfortunately Stubbs himself was not,
as had
been hoped, able to attend. Legendary pianist
Grey Ghost has
been in
Seton Hospital getting some general care, but I've heard a report that
he broke
his hip while
in the hospital. Meanwhile,
Erbie Bowser
has been
very ill and has just gotten
out of the hospital. His doctor,
who has
had him on an oxygen tank, is none too fond of the idea of him being in
nightclubs in the first place, so when I tell you that this Friday's
6-8 happy
hour show with Erbie is a no-smoking show, I mean it very seriously. By
the
way, that date also marks his 77th birthday.
Terri Lord's Back!
Well, actually, she's back in bed recovering from back surgery. The
Sincola drummer and repeat Austin Music Awards winner was in the
hospital getting a lumbar laminectomy, which she describes as an
operation
where the doctor "cuts through the muscle in your back and makes steak
fingers
with it." Actually, the doc cuts away the part of a spinal disc that's
pressing
against a nerve. Lord says that this is "hopefully the end" of a long
history
of back trouble, and that in three weeks to a month she should be able
to get
back behind her drum kit. If not, I suppose she could always join the
Juliana
Hatfield band.
Friction at Tower Records
As interactive technology continues to grow in leaps and bounds, it's
finding
its way everywhere. Tower Records now has a new setup called "Friction"
in
their store that enables the user to hear music, check out bios, and
even watch
videos from new bands. Among the labels involved in the display are
locals like
Watermelon and Antone's, and a special Austin edition of the program is
planned
for later this year. The Friction people brag about how fast their
system works
(they had bands' SXSW stuff on it by the morning after their
showcases), and
are setting up trial home use for people with PCs. Mind you, there's
some dumb
parts: Click on one of several bad stand-up comedians and he appears in
a big
empty theatre telling lame jokes without the benefit of an audience. It
kinda
gives you the same feeling as watching one of those
Death Scenes
films.
Mixed Notes
The
Wannabes will be heading off on a short tour here pretty
soon.
They've also been at work on their next DejaDisc album, with
John
Croslin
producing again. Hopefully, the new album will appear before the
end of the
year, especially considering that their last,
Mod Flower Cake,
was
assembled at a shall we say
Eric Johnson pace...
Black
Pearl, who
now have a permanent drummer in
Cecilio Ruiz III, are at work on
a new
album, with hopes of a midsummer release. No title on that one yet...
Breedlove, who opened for one of those secret
Ian Moore
shows
last Sunday at the
Billy White club, er, I mean
Steamboat,
contains White's brother
Jason as well as Vaughan spawn
(Jimmie's son)
Tyrone Fullerton. (I wasn't there, but no doubt
Andy Langer
was,
so ask him how it went.) Speaking of Moore, last week's secret name,
"ICBM,"
standing for Ian,
Chris,
Bukka, and
Mike, but
announced as
"Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile" (and thought up by Steamboat's
Danny
Crooks), was the best one I've heard so far. I think they should run
with it...
Velvet Hammer took first place in Houston's Most Original Song
Contest
(that's their words, not mine - "most original" sounds like a bit of a
backhanded compliment to me) last week. After nearly a year of
semi-finals and
120 bands, six bands competed at Millennium on the 17th. Velvet Hammer
won
$1,000, a 20-channel Tascam board, and 36 hours of studio time. The
winning
song was "Kansas," which will be included on the upcoming Velvet Hammer
CD, due
out in June...
Bruce Hughes of the
Ugly Americans says
that in
the course of seeking a "non-exclusive" clause in his contract with
Giant
Records, he sent a copy of his
Teratoma CD to the label. Giant's
reaction to the disc, he says, was that it was "so non-commercially
viable and
strange that they didn't give a fuck
what I did with it." That's
one way
to get what you want, Bruce. Teratoma will be playing, along with
Gretchen
Phillips, Meg Hentges, and
Hamell on Trial this Friday at
the
Electric Lounge... The
Adults are releasing a single soon on
local Fume
label, with an accompanying video for the song "Powerbag"...
Sarah
Elizabeth
Campbell, who as I previously announced has been nominated for a
NAIRD
award, has been asked to perform at the awards ceremony a week from
this
Saturday in San Francisco. That's not a guarantee that she's won or
anything,
but it's not a bad sign, either. If you've been looking for a copy of
Campbell's out-of-print Kaleidoscope Records debut album,
A Little
Tenderness, DejaDisc has picked up the rights, and will be
rereleasing that
disc soon... Dem changes:
Dah-Veed's new bassist is
John
Thomasson, ex of
Little Sister. Former Dah-Veed bassman
Clay
Pendergrass has headed north and joined
Jackopierce... Don't
think
I've mentioned the free downtown concerts on Tuesdays at noon at Sixth
and
Colorado, have I? The next one features the
Austin Klezmorim and
the
series continues through June... The
Austin Lounge Lizards have
their
15th anniversary show this Saturday at the Texas Union Ballroom.
Usually, the
annual Lizards reunion show encompasses two performances, but this
year, they
graduated upstairs because there were just too many former members of
the band
to fit in the Cactus. Oh, wait, I'm sorry. It was because of high
ticket
demand... Sixth Street tends to become a verbal war zone when
discussions start
regarding festivals, but since it occurs before most nightclubs open,
the Old
Pecan Street Festival will probably not stir up too much furor (as
opposed to
the SoCo festival, which didn't stir up too much attendance; one member
of a
band who played SoCo says that "next year I'd rather play Eeyore's").
The
Festival runs from 11am-8pm this Saturday and Sunday with a zillion
craft
booths and five live music stages; there's no admission charge...
Special guest
of the
Dave Matthews Band last week was
Patrice Pike, who
got up
and sang a song with the band at the Backyard... Picky, picky!
Existential
Vacuum Records say that they are not, as reported here last week,
releasing a
CD of
Huns material. Instead, they are releasing an album
(vinyl) of
said material. That should be in about two weeks, they add... Speaking
of
corrections and such, a few things have remained a bit foggy in
coverage of the
slew of impending Jimmie Vaughan shows. Let's clarify: Tonight (May 4),
Vaughan
and his
Tilt-a-Whirl band are playing the Austin Music Hall with
Eric
Johnson's
Alien Love Child opening. Tickets are still available
for this
guitar-lover's wet dream. On May 11 at the Austin City Limits
soundstage, a
tribute to
Stevie Ray Vaughan is being filmed, featuring
Vaughan,
Double Trouble, and guests
Eric Clapton,
B.B.
King,
Buddy Guy,
Bonnie Raitt,
Robert Cray,
Dr.
John, and
Art Neville. This may or may not be an
ACL or PBS show;
it could
also end up on cable or network. No tickets are available; don't even
think
about it. On Friday, May 12, Jimmie Vaughan & Friends at the Austin
Music
Hall will feature Clapton, Guy, Cray, and possibly Dr. John. Definitely
not
appearing are B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, and Art Neville. A
combination of
Double Trouble and the Tilt-a-Whirls will provide rhythm back-up for
the show,
whose proceeds will benefit Capitol Area Food Bank, a favorite charity
of SRV.
Sold out. Forget it. One more thing, the ticket snafu reported last
week
happened because the promoter and band management were attempting to
keep
tickets
away from scalpers. Just file it in the "Best Laid
Plans"
folder. Oh, and we hear there's another JLV show at Antone's on the
9th... This
just in:
bo bud greene have signed to Backyard Records, a
division of
Scotti Brothers (remember
John Cafferty and the Brown Beaver Band
aka Eddie and the Cruisers)? Look for the bo debut on
August
27...
