Off the Record
Music News
By Austin Powell, Fri., Aug. 14, 2009
Gathering of the Tribes
"I know I was there, but 40 years later it's getting more and more difficult to remember the details," admits local bassist Stu Cook of Creedence Clearwater Revival's appearance at the Aquarian Exposition known as Woodstock. "It takes a couple of people sitting around together reminiscing to pull together some more of the finer points of the weekend. No one had the performance of their life there, but everyone had one or two great moments." Left out of the original documentary and accompanying soundtrack at the behest of John Fogerty, CCR's transcendence can finally be experienced on the new, expanded edition concert film and Rhino's 6-CD box set, Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm, which includes a blistering cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You" and a previously unreleased version of "Bad Moon Rising." "The real story is the audience, how they made their journey to be there," Cook reminisces. "By the time we got there, the fences were down, it was a free concert, and it had just started raining. Everyone was sort of stuck there and making the most of it. I don't think I could have survived it. ... Now, the Woodstock legend lives."
That much is readily apparent this weekend as the Austin Latino Music Association hosts Santana-rama 2009 at Copper Tank on Saturday, Aug. 15, featuring Vallejo and the Frank Gomez Band. Across town, the Paul Green School of Rock wraps up its summer session at Ruta Maya with tutorials on Hendrix, the Who, and Janis Joplin. When the mud dries on Sunday, Aug. 16, Austin's finest ringers, including Nakia & His Southern Cousins, Suzanna Choffel, and the Superego All-Stars among others, gather the tribes at Threadgill's World Headquarters for a daylong tribute benefiting the SIMS Foundation. The first person to e-mail offtherecord@austinchronicle.com with the correct answer to the following scores a pair of tickets to the show: What color acid did Jerry Garcia and Country Joe McDonald warn against at Woodstock?
Law & Order
Attention local acts: If you haven't already, trademark your name. Following a prolonged dispute between the Austin collective now known as Soul Happening DJs and L.A.'s Waxploitation Records, local DJ and singer Pam Mayo has received a cease-and-desist order from Boosweet Enterprises over her decadelong use of the stage name gfire. "I very innocently contacted them after I did a search on iTunes; I thought that we could peacefully coexist," laments Mayo, who spins at Mohawk on Friday, Aug. 14. "It's a bitter lawsuit. We're going to fight it to the death." Elsewhere in the legal department, La Zona Rosa is at the center of a series of lawsuits filed by the Texas Civil Rights Project, marking the 19-year anniversary of the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act. The suit claims that the club's sales windows are not accessible to wheelchairs and therefore discourage disabled music fans from attending shows there. Direct Events declined to comment.
The Future Will Be Downloaded
There's a new way to shop at Waterloo Records and End of an Ear. Both local shops launched digital storefronts in early May through ThinkIndie.com, an online retailer established by the Coalition of Independent Music Stores, offering top-quality singles ($1.11) and full-album downloads ($9.99). "It's too big of an undertaking for an individual store, when you have to negotiate all of these deals with the digital-rights holders, plus pay for all the back-end management, storage, and delivery system," says Waterloo owner and CIMS board member John Kunz, who hopes to extend the service to all interested independent record shops. While the site is still in beta, ThinkIndie.com recently acquired some major label content through EMI and boasts a number of niche labels, such as Cherry Red and Numero Group, along with free samplers.
Since record stores make most of their money on product mark-up, the intention isn't to drive its traditional customers online but rather to attract patrons who are more digitally oriented and compete with what Kunz calls "the 900-pound gorilla of iTunes." To that end, each online store has the ability to customize its page with staff recommendations and will soon be able to upload its own exclusive content and local picks. As End of an Ear co-owner Dan Plunkett relates, "For people that want to go digital and still support us, this at least gives them an option." There's just one catch. When registering for an account, customers can only select one local store to support, and a portion of every sale will benefit that outlet. Choose wisely.
End of the Century
In Green Day's version of democracy, Billie Joe Armstrong speaks loudly and carries a big stick. At the sold-out AT&T Center in San Antonio last Sunday, the political prankster led his delegation with tireless, wind-up doll vivacity and genuine working-class showmanship on par with the Boss. Over the course of 2½ hours (and two encores), Armstrong transformed from Pentecostal preacher ("East Jesus Nowhere") and costumed police guard ("King for a Day") to karaoke maestro (a tribute medley to Buddy Holly) and, most importantly, dream catcher, playing guitar throughout the arena and bringing fans onstage to shred, sing, and stage-dive. Never have three chords been so successfully translated into a full-blown punk spectacle, proving even more entertaining than the Foxboro Hot Tubs' PBR binge at Emo's last year, as the soccer-riot energy level further sparked 21st Century Breakdown's "Know Your Enemy" and set closer "American Eulogy."
Random Play
• What a tragedy. The nearly century-old South Austin home of Matador Records co-owner Gerard Cosloy and Sally Crewe burned to the ground early Tuesday morning, causing an estimated $500,000 in damages, not to mention the loss of an irreplaceable record collection. The building was safely evacuated, with the unfortunate exception of Crewe's albino ferret. According to Austin Fire Department officials, the cause is still under investigation. Now Sally Crewe & the Sudden Moves, which lost most of its gear and merchandise in the fire, needs a bit of help pulling things together for a Tuesday, Aug. 18, show at Mohawk and subsequent U.S. tour. Contact her at sallycrewe@thesuddenmoves.com.
• Austin City Limits will be officially designated as a historic rock & roll landmark by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum on Oct. 1, coinciding with the premiere of ACL's 35th anniversary season and the dual taping of Mos Def and K'naan. A separate plaque will be delivered to the show's new Downtown digs, scheduled to open in 2011.
