Spotlight: Graham Parker

SPOTLIGHTS

• Spotlight: Boris

  Japenese metal trio Boris lurch into drone

  BY AUSTIN POWELL

• Spotlight: The Strange Boys

  Soon to be Austin garage quartet the Strange Boys and their American Bandstand

  BY DARCIE STEVENS

• Spotlight: Graham Parker

  Graham Parker, still squeezing out the sparks

  BY MICHAEL BERTIN

• Spotlight: Saints

  The Saints, not stranded in punk nostalgia

  BY MICHAEL BERTIN

• Spotlight: Girl Talk

  Girl Talk's fantasy mash-ups

  BY AUSTIN POWELL

• Spotlight: Trae

  Trae's not too 'Restless' to be real

  BY ROBERT GABRIEL

Come to South by Southwest, play to a room packed silly with A&R types, Rock. Get assaulted with business cards after the show, be knee deep in hookers and blow within six months. Live the dream, right? That's the point of SXSW.

"I see no benefit in it at all," counters Graham Parker. "For me a gig is a gig is a gig. That's all it is for somebody of my standing who has been around this long."

Well, maybe it's a little different for Parker. 1979's Squeezing Out Sparks is the three-hundred-something most important album ever, according to Rolling Stone. It's also older than, oh, half of this year's SXSW participants. Since then he's done some 15 albums of varying critical and commercial appeal, leading up to this year's Don't Tell Columbus on Bloodshot Records.

"I've had all those breaks," says the Englishman. "So I have no idea what's around the corner. This record, I think, anybody who is honest who hears it who knows about rock & roll will say it's the best thing they've heard this year. But very few are going to say that because perception is more powerful than reality.

"Somebody who's been around as long as me can't possibly make a record that's going to be better than anything else they hear this year. And nobody can make a masterpiece when they are over 30 in rock music. It's impossible. But it's as good as anything I've done.

"I don't want to come across as, 'Graham Parker is a crotchety old man,'" he swears. "I just tell the truth."