Following Doug Freeman’s article “A Market of Multitudes,” which discusses in great detail the new indieconomics of the Long Tail, Off the Record pulled together a few of Austin’s more established music retailers to address the changes that have been brought on by the Digital Age.

Off the Record: What is a record store's role in the new digital economy?
John Kunz, owner of Waterloo Records: A record store's role in the new digital economy is the same as it's been in the brick and mortar economy: To help people find what they're looking for; to help direct people to what they don't yet know that they will be looking for; to be a filter for the best music out there; and to be an exciting bridge between musicians and their fans.

Dan Plunkett, co-owner of End of an Ear: I think there will always be a good-sized customer base that wants to have the actual product – vinyl, CDs, 7-inches. It seems a lot of folks that shop here tend to use the Internet as research, as in ‘I downloaded this track and now I want the album.’

Bernard Vasek, owner of MusicMania: We have to strengthen our strengths. We sell a lot of rap, so we stay on top of that and try to offer things that aren’t available for download.

Charles Lokey, owner of Encore Video: We feel that our knowledge and expertise in a genre such as metal will act as a guide to our passionate fans. We hope to direct them to products that they feel will satisfy their desire.

My birthday was this past weekend and this geezer is feeling a little bit older these days. What’s taking the sting out is the reissued 30th anniversary edition of Nick Lowe’s debut, Jesus of Cool. Hard as it to believe it’s been that long since Lowe’s power-pop classic first hit, it still holds up remarkably well. Originally released in the U.S. as Pure Pop for Now People – the first title offended his record company for some reason – it’s a masterpiece of rival styles from Beatleseque to bubblegum, glam to new wave.

At 21 tracks, the reissue combines the original and U.S. versions of the album – along with a new title, the U.S. version sported a different sequence and track list - and includes all material available on either release. So what you get is the original sequence and seven bonus cuts, including the original, much smoother version of “Cruel To Be Kind."

There are also fresh liner notes from Will Birch (a Lowe contemporary and member of the Records) and discography info that reveals his bandmates from Rockpile - guitarist/vocalist Dave Edmunds, guitarist Billy Bremner, and drummer Terry Williams - played on Jesus of Cool, as did members of Elvis Costello's Attractions, Graham Parker's Rumour, and Ian Dury's Blockheads, making this a true pop masterpiece.

Friday at the Hole in the Wall, Elizabeth McQueen, Eric Hisaw, Mandible, and local Lowe cover band the Lowelies pay Basher tribute, and benefit Anthropos Arts.

“Maceo, blow your horn!”

James Brown hollered that famous refrain nearly 45 years ago and Maceo Parker hasn’t quit blowing since. By now, most music fans know Parker as the funkiest saxophone player who ever puckered, the man with the golden résumé. Parker spent more than 15 years playing with Brown including a stretch in the late 1960s and early 1970s when that outfit was the best around. Period.

He boarded George Clinton's Mothership in 1975 and played with Parliament Funkadelic during the group's creative climax. Throw in seven albums with Prince and 15 on his own and you’ve got a career and discography that reads like the history of funk. Parker’s latest is Roots & Grooves (Heads Up), a live double-disc recorded in Europe with the WDR Big Band. In advance of his Feb. 26 gig at Antone's, Bump & Hustle spoke with Parker from his home in Kinston, North Carolina about the new album and his long musical journey.

Bump & Hustle: You’ve been touring for nearly 45 years. How do you manage that?
Maceo Parker: Well, I was at a crossroads in my life at the very beginning. I was right out of high school and after a year or two of college I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I decided I would enjoy traveling and performing, and I do. As I reflect back on it I think what makes it easy for me is that I decided that I wanted my life to be centered around music. When I know I have a flight that leaves at six o’ clock in the morning, I smile and say, “OK, you decided this a long time ago, so smile again and do what you gotta do to make that plane.”

Quite simply, Liars killed Saturday night. The capacity crowd swelled to anxiety-attack levels after L.A. duo No Age's sonic set, but thank heavens Mohawk upgraded its sound system. When Liars opened for Interpol at Stubb's last fall, the sound was muddy and their tribal incantations seemed to confound a crowd ready to be lulled to sleep by the headliners.

What a difference relocation makes. Lanky frontman Angus Andrew contorted and heaved through the whole set list, which included a handful from last year's self-titled as well as a few noisier, screamier gems. Andrew knows how to rile the crowd by riling himself, and he did it all in a salmon pink suit. Smoked.

There’s no moment in the day right now that isn’t inflated with importance, so that something as benign as playing with the dogs fills me with guilt. Everything takes a back seat to working on the Austin Music Awards, hitting deadlines for South by Southwest, and anything the Texas Film Hall of Fame folks need me to do. That last job is a lot of fun and allowed me to spend an entire day picking scenes from Urban Cowboy and Mike Judge’s work. It also caused me to go around for an entire day with the neck of my shirt pulled over my head, confronting my family with, “I am Cornholio!”

The polling is done and ballots are counted and tallied into top 10s. When that happens, an entirely new level of organization occurs within the show. I write the winners and performing bands on index cards and lay them out in rows. Then I shuffle and move them around while muttering to myself and trying to keep the dogs off the bed. After a while, it feels right and I gather the cards up to enter the show order in a schedule.

“I already bought my house on the beach in Mexico,” said Rodrigo Sanchez shortly before the Austin City Limits Music Festival last year. “I don’t care what other people say now. We play by our rules.”

At the time there was no reason to think twice about Sanchez’s comments. Rodrigo y Gabriela were on the tail end of a draining festival season, celebrating the international acclaim behind the instrumentalist duo's eponymous third album. Then the band axed their ACL appearance citing exhaustion, after previously canceling an excursion to South by Southwest due to visa issues. Third time’s a charm, right? This Saturday Rodrigo y Gabriela hit a sold-out La Zona Rosa. Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards opens. Do yourself a favor and spin Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” before heading to the show. You’ll thank me later.

Let’s rewind for a moment. Sanchez is a flamenco virtuoso. Gabriela Quintero has knuckles of steel, replicating the sound of a full drum kit with a hollow body acoustic guitar. Together they compose Latin instrumental suites that ride the lightning. After meeting in Mexico City in 1989 and trading riffs in the thrash metal band Tierra Acida, the two decided to pack up and try their luck on the streets of Dublin, Ireland.

Baby Dee is an eclectic character. After moving to New York City from her childhood home in Cleveland, she played organ in a church in the South Bronx, played harp in Central Park dressed in a bear costume, and played the role of the bilateral hermaphrodite in Coney Island’s Kamikaze Freak Show, like Josephine Joseph in Tod Browning’s 1932 classic, Freaks. She’s a transgender performer classically trained in piano, harp, and a million other instruments, and her words are just as powerful as her music.

But Baby Dee doesn’t like to talk about gender politics, and she’s asked her publicists to actively shield her from those kinds of questions. I wanted to ask her about her involvement with the LGBT community, but it was censored from my questioning. At first I was irate, for the exclusion alone, but after hours of thought, I realized that her sexuality doesn’t make a lick of difference, and I can understand the bore of answering the same personal questions every day and the frustration of having those decisions overshadow her true love. (NPR ran a fantastic story on her last month.)

She's a model of life and wisdom, and I didn’t need to ask her that question in order to realize it. The songs speak for themselves: the brilliant vaudeville tune “The Dance of Diminishing Possibilities,” the saddened ode "You’ll Find Your Footing,” and the blissful “Fresh out of Candles” off her fifth album, Safe Inside the Day (Drag City).

It's an album full of rejoice and disappointment, and it’s the story of Baby Dee’s life, who has since moved back to her native Cleveland. I spoke with her via e-mail – not ideal, but she was on the road and doesn't have a cell phone – about the new album, the tour, and the process.

Americana pioneer Tom Russell may be most widely known for his songwriting, which includes such classics as “Gallo del Cielo” and “Spanish Burgundy,” but his artistry spans across media. In addition to recording more than 20 albums, Russell has published a detective novel and a book of letters with poet Charles Bukowski, and is currently completing a documentary about his sister-in-law that will serve as the third installment of his "Americana Trilogy."

He's also an avid painter, and when he comes through Austin tomorrow to play the Cactus Café, he'll visit the Yard Dog Gallery on South Congress for the opening exhibition of his latest folk art. Entitled “Aztec Jazz,” the series serves as Russell’s tribute to the Mexican jazz musicians killed in a 1953 bus crash. The portraits cast his subjects in fluid impressionistic strokes, evocative and almost dreamlike in blunted pastels.

For the first time at South by Southwest, rock & roll retailers Rhino will be administering the Rhino Musical Aptitude Test, aka the "search for the ultimate music geek."

It goes down 3pm, Friday, March 14, at the Convention Center in conjunction with the yearly Flatstock poster show and is open to the public, first come, first served. The winner gets 100 essential Rhino CDs and a spot on the mailing list … for life.

Three hundred and five multiple-choice questions, one hour. Are you breaking into a cold sweat just thinking about it?

If so, you can preregister here to get practice questions.

Oh, and Roky Erickson's set to host it.