TCB

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Good Times

Craig Ross has a new album out, moody glam-pop suite The Greater Good, but don't expect him to promote it. It's finally available at Waterloo Records and Amazon.com, and that's about it. "I just need to get on with my life," says Ross, last heard from on 1996's local cult classic Dead Spy Report (MCA). "Some songs on there, I'm way past 'em. I like it a lot, but it took way too long for me to finish." His European fans have it somewhat easier, as the LP has been available since April on the Wild Abandon label, and has even gotten radio play, which Ross himself confirmed using his shortwave. "Maybe there's more outlets over there for music that's not gonna sell cars," he figures. No matter, because the former member of Stick People and Storyville has had no trouble staying busy: working on another solo album, scoring the Terrence Malick-produced documentary The Unforseen with Patty Griffin, writing songs with former Frente! singer Angie Hart, and for his and Griffin's Church Bus project, and preparing to produce the new Shearwater album. He's also been spending a lot of time improvising at home with friends Clinton Smith and Conrad Bullock, where, he says, "We don't talk about what we're gonna do, we just start playing." The results range from haunting Ennio Morricone-like soundscapes to "stuff that's seven times nastier than anything Sonic Youth was doing." "There's something really pure about it," says Ross. "It keeps reminding me why I do this." Lest all this studio activity paint him as reclusive, Ross insists he's not averse to getting onstage. "I will play live later in the fall," he promises. "I keep forgetting to book a show."

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Spaced Out

It's not quite as monumental as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp snapping up the online networking hotspot for a cool $580 million, but when even the Texas Music Office has a MySpace page, www.myspace.com/18163887, it's officially a big deal. "We're not using it like everyone else," explains TMO Director Casey Monahan. "We don't even have any friends." (Actually, they do: one "Jayne Mansfield" from San Antonio.) Instead, Monahan and his staff have been using MySpace to contact Texas-based bands who use the site so they can add them to the Texas Talent Register, currently 6,800 artists strong, at www.enjoytexasmusic.com. So far their MySpace count is up to 461, 147 of which hail from the Austin area. "I talked to Johnny Goudie over SXSW," says Monahan. "He said out of all the low-cost marketing efforts he's tried, the one that puts the most people in the seats is MySpace." For what he terms a "summer research project," Monahan and a couple of his interns who were interested in PR began exploring MySpace, paying special attention to bands otherwise unable to publicize themselves. "We're constantly looking for bands, especially those that don't get written up in Austin, Houston, Dallas, or San Antonio," Monahan says. They've made some interesting sociological discoveries along the way. "It's interesting how many metal bands are located in these small towns," TMO Publications Coordinator Andrew Leeper says. "Some of their logos are pretty entertaining."

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Armadillo Footprints

Seventies Austin had no shortage of landmark clubs, from the Vulcan Gas Company and Soap Creek Saloon to the One Knite and Raul's, but as far as establishing the city's live-music credentials in the minds of folks near and far, only Antone's really comes close to the Armadillo World Headquarters. Former Armadillo and current Threadgill's owner Eddie Wilson notes his business partner recently sat on a plane next to an IRS employee who remarked, "Austin hasn't been the same since the Armadillo closed." Scores of people feel the same way, a major reason the club retains its prominent place in local mythology; it's directly responsible for those "Keep Austin Weird" bumper stickers and, arguably, the South Austin "78704" lifestyle as a whole. "There's something weird about how many people think fondly of it," admits Wilson, who's now working on two books and a documentary about the club. "It was a turning point in a lot of people's lives, who are now at an age where they get to reminiscing a lot." His own memories have been stirred up lately by events like the KGSR/KXAN all-day fan drive at Threadgill's World Headquarters, which Wilson says "felt more like it used to feel than it used to feel." See www.threadgills.com/calendar.cfm for this month's full slate of 35th-anniversary shows, including Roky Erickson acoustic with brother Sumner Aug. 10 and electric with the Explosives Aug. 18, and the Piano-Rama ElderCare benefit with Marcia Ball, Floyd Domino, Johnny Nicholas, and others Aug. 30, where the Armadillo's old piano – the one at his house, Wilson notes, not hanging in the Threadgill's South location – will be raffled off. "Universally, the memories are almost always wonderful, unless you happened to be in a band that had trouble getting a booking there," says Wilson. "So that would be the Uranium Savages." (All is apparently forgiven: the Savages play TWHQ Aug. 7.) He credits all the warm fuzzies to the Dillo's hard-working staff and plentiful "beautiful hippie chicks," but says at the time, he was less concerned with creating a cultural icon than paying the rent. "A lot of us had more fun at other places because we had to work so hard," Wilson says. "My [Armadillo] memories aren't quite as carefree because I had to clean up the vomit."

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Bullet the Blue Sky

After a two-year tenure as president of the Recording Academy's Texas Chapter, Wendy Morgan tendered her resignation last week. Morgan says she enjoyed increasing both the chapter's overall visibility and networking opportunities between music professionals in various Texas cities, and drawing attention to the Grammy in the Schools and MusiCares programs, but wants to work closer to home and get back to marketing and PR, her original areas of expertise. "After I take a breather!" she adds.

The Pier, the longtime Lake Austin venue that began as a fishing lodge in 1927 and acted as a speakeasy during Prohibition, won't be around much longer, at least not in its current location. Co-owner Larry Spector says when the property was sold back in March, the new owners gave the Pier until the end of September. Spector and his partners are currently scouting potential new locations, and plan to leave the old one with a bang, booking Cross Canadian Ragweed, Big Brother & the Holding Company, and possibly Willie Nelson in the coming weeks.

Dixon Coulburn, who chronicled the goings-on of Austin's early punk scene in his fanzine and then Web site Idle Time, died in a swimming pool accident at his apartment complex last weekend. He was 43. The Idle Time archive, online at ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~edge/idle_time/index.php, features ticket stubs from Raul's and the Armadillo, pictures of the Dicks, Big Boys, and Butthole Surfers (among many others), and a list of every show Coulburn attended between 1977 and 1986. Funeral arrangements are pending.

All local record stores still open, take one step forward. Not so fast there, Alien Records. The DJ-centric shop's demise leaked out last week when the store's landlord offered to sell some of its fixtures to Encore Movies & Music on Burnet Road, who declined.

At his two-night Cactus Cafe stand last week, Alejandro Escovedo announced that John Cale will produce his next album in Los Angeles this fall. Escovedo's last album was 2002's soundtrack to By the Hand of the Father. In the meantime, the local chapter president of the Ian Hunter fan club says that both the Sept. 1 and Sept. 8 dates previously announced for the Los Lobos/True Believers double bill are no longer accurate. The show will happen in September, he promises, but the Wolf pack is still looking at their scheduling.

Apologies to Funeralizer for mistaking them for the Sword as they laid waste (in a good way) to Led Zeppelin II at the Whiskey a few weeks back. See them with These Men Are Liars and Velorum Aug. 20 at the Ritz. As for the Sword, their beastly doom-metal is rumored to have caught the discriminating ears of Philly-based Relapse Records, and maybe more.