You're jammin' me!
Pearl
Jam, that is. And you can bet that no matter how mad you are about the
last minute cancellation of the megastadium "alternative" act's Austin (and only Texas) show,
Abel Theriot was
more upset
when he picked up his daily paper on Monday and read the wire service story
about the no-show. You see, nobody had bothered to pass the news on to him,
even though he's the owner of Southpark Meadows, where the show was to be held.
As of Tuesday, Theriot said he still knew little more than what he read in the
papers. He hadn't been able to get through to Pace concerts, the promoter of
the event, much less the band. By Wednesday things were still foggy, with the
band announcing that some shows (Chicago and Milwaukee) were back on and giving
a general nod toward the possibility of rescheduling others in the fall.
ETM, the national ticket agency handling the Pearl Jam (non) tour, says
they'll have new information on Friday, but at this point Theriot isn't hoping
for the band to miraculously appear. With Southpark Meadows' old light tower
torn down to please the band, the new one unfinished, and thousands of people
already having cancelled the hotel reservations and plane flights they had made
for the weekend (to see a "grunge" band!), if PJ decided to play after all it
would simply make the catastrophe bigger. As far as the financial results of
Pearl Jam's retreat, Theriot says "I imagine we'll take a beating like
everybody else." Southpark Meadows received an unrefundable deposit for the
show but even that "won't cover the damn expenses." Besides the obviously large
undertaking of preparing an area for a concert of this magnitude, there's one
expense you might not have known about: Says Theriot, "Pace was having to build
a tunnel for [PJ front man Eddie Vedder] to go all the way between the
dressing room and the stage." Theriot's not sure whether the purpose was to
keep fans away or because he "didn't want to get his hair messed up."
Of course, Vedder doesn't hold the only tickets to The Star Trip. Current
hitmakers Filter showed their true colors (and little else) at Emo's
Monday night when, after about a half-minute of sound check performance, and a
few more of bitching about the monitors (and their own manager), they left the
club - only to have said manager call back sometime later claiming that group
mastermind Richard Patrick had "strep." Apparently, Eric "Emo"
Hartman had told the band from the beginning that they'd probably be better
off at Liberty Lunch, but they'd hear none of it. Sure enough though, when the
band got to the club and realized that it was just that - a club, with a low
stage, trashy atmosphere, and fewer creature comforts than the group was
accustomed to (remember Patrick has spent the better part of his career with
NIN) - the show soon became a no-show. A shame, too, since along with the
throngs of expectant teens, a passel of Warner Bros. brass (including former
Austinite and current WB V.P. Bill Bentley), who had flown down for the
show, were left to find other diversions. That's some sharp self-promotion,
Filter - or should I say "Hey, guys, nice shot!"
Corn Again!
After literally years of negotiation and record company politics,
Hickoids singer
Jeff Smith says he has finally gotten back all of
that band's master tapes back from Toxic Shock Records, the label that put out
most of the Hickoids vinyl, and not long ago made all that material available
on CD without the band's approval. Now, says Smith, "it's time to cash in on
the popularity of the
Rednex!" He has no intention of repeating what
Toxic Shock did and smash all the material on to one disc, planning instead to
do a nice repackaging job and releasing smaller doses of the material on his
Only Boy label (making your copy of the Toxic Shock comp a
valuable
collectors' item in the process!). Before that appears though, there just
might even be a
new Hickoids album, as Smith and co-conspirator
Davy
Jones are in the talking stages of making some new Hickoids recordings.
Currently in the finishing stages at Only Boy is
T.Tex Edwards'
Up
Against the Floor album, due in August. Maybe.
A Blizzard in Texas? And in August, No Less?
The bat-biting
Black Sabbath begetter
Ozzy Osbourne will be in
town for two weeks in the middle of August, rehearsing at the Austin Music Hall
for his upcoming tour. Expect a lot of traffic from San Antonio during that
time as all the metalheads come to gawk and hope for a glimpse of their god.
There's talk of Osbourne possibly doing a tour kick-off show there as well.
There was no word at press time on whether the AMH's urinals are being
renovated to resemble the Alamo.
High on the Hog
Sarah Brown is on the wing to the recording studio in August to record
new material for Blind Pig Records. Brown signed a three-album deal with the
company, with the first album of original material tentatively slated for
release around the first of the year. This brings Brown's song cycle with Blind
Pig full circle, in a way; among her first appearances on vinyl was a 45rpm
single for the label in the early Seventies as a member of the
Vipers,
which also included
Fabulous Thunderbird-to-be
Fran Christina.
A Swarm of Wannabees
General Foods was the first to raise the wrath of the
Wannabes this
year, when they put a new set of marshmallow characters in their Lucky Charms
called (you guessed it), the "Wanna-be's." As the band puts it, "We're bitter,
we're not young, and we have [a lawyer]." They also say that they've got the
legal copyright on the name, so the next to feel the wrath of the band's
litigation are two similarly-spelled bands, each called the "Wanna-Bees."
Guitarist
Kevin Carney says that the Austin Wannabes are ready to take
action against their near-namesakes from Chicago and Finland, especially now
that the latter have released an album on U.S. label Pravda, home to locals
Javelin Boot among others. For the time being though, the band will be
dealing with the more immediate matters of recording their next album for
DejaDisc, and their upcoming tour, a "tag team" match with
Sincola. That
band will be returning from a tour this weekend and playing a gig with the
'bes, who will head off on their own tour the next day. After that, says
Carney, "We're suing Sincola for being more popular than us."
Twang Twang Shocker!
Well, it's not that big a shocker
yet, but look for one in the future.
Dah-Veed Garza (oh, why didn't I copyright that name when I had a
chance!) is getting "more interest than he's ever had" from record labels who
have heard his newest album. Of course, that's what publicists are supposed to
say, but he's got some facts to back it up. For one thing,
G. Love
producer
Stiff Johnson has expressed major interest in producing an
album for Dah-veed, and Epic Records will get "first pass" on that project if
it gets done. For another, well, it's a little too early to reveal who
else
is interested in the former
Twang Twang Shock-a-Boomer.
Mixed Notes
"I
wish something was happening," says manager
Jeff Tartakov, in
response to the rumors that
Pork will soon be signing to Capitol. For
now, however, the trio, who recently did "something no Austin band has done
before" - divorced themselves from a potentially rotten Elektra deal - remain
without a label. Pork fans will find a nice pic of Edith from the band in the
new
Option to stare at wistfully in the meantime. You may want to keep a
close eye on the careers of those locals who are on any of the many
Warner/Elektra/Asylum associated labels, as a
big shake-up is currently
coming down from owners Time Warner (Hang in there, Bill!)...
Spoon have
joined the list of third-stage acts at Lollapalooza (assuming that it doesn't
go up in flames before the scheduled Austin stop). Spoon remain unsigned to
Matador Records...
Retarted Elf may find that their latest endeavor is a
bit, um,
thinking impaired. The Elves were so eager to lure
Mr.
Groper back to the stage to open their show at Liberty Lunch
Saturday that they offered to buy the Gropers all the chicken they need for
one of their big chicken fests. One side effect of this act of kindness will
naturally be a nasty, greasy mess of a stage waiting for the headliners... Keep
America Beautiful's wacky mascot
Woody Woodpecker will be attending the
Governor's Community Achievement Awards this Friday at 10:45am. One assumes
that security will be tight; just imagine the kind of damage that that rascally
woodpecker could do to the
Bushes...
Thora-Zine music magazine
has not gone under, according to head honcho
Brent Comiskey (he answers
the phone "
Thora-Zine" which is a good sign).
Don't hold your
breath waiting for the next issue though, as things are definitely unstable
behind the scenes at the mag at this time... Look for a
Buick MacKane
cut on the upcoming
Resurrection of the Warlock, a
T. Rex
tribute album coming out from Old School Records in September... Texan
Dan
Rather continues to show off his
Roky Erickson side. Last week he
joined
R.E.M. onstage for a verse of their song "What's the Frequency,
Kenneth?" Despite the number's personal meaning for Rather, he couldn't manage
to remember all the words... Sometime-Austinite
Tonio K.'s debut album
Life in the Foodchain, considered by many to be an offbeat classic, is
finally being released on CD. The 1979 album should appear on disc from the
Gadfly Records label in mid to late August...
Dave Thomson out of Emo's?
Seems so. The former club manager, who was demoted to bartender when Emo
decided to run the club himself, apparently resigned over the weekend...
Doyle Bramhall, Jr.,
was mighty secretive when he was in town
last week, but we do know that he was seen at the ARC doing some songwriting
with
David Grissom. I also know that if he uses the same words in his
songs that he uses with reporters who want to know what he's up to, they won't
get played on the radio...
Is
Joe Newman of the
Rudy Schwartz
Project forming a new band with certain local (and not-so-local)
Subgeniuses? Could be. Meanwhile, check out
Sonic Outlaws, playing at
the Dobie Theatre on Sunday at 9:30pm. That film focuses on cut-and-paste
musical sociologists like
Emergency Broadcast Network, the
Tape
Beatles, and lawsuit magnets
Negativland, who, coincidentally, put
out the most recent Rudy Schwartz CD on their Seeland Records label. See the
film section for more info...
Stephen Bruton has a release party and
performance at Waterloo Records this Friday at 5pm.
Los Straight Jackets
have an instore at ABCD's this Friday at 6pm. If you drive fast you can catch
both... Visual imagery, anyone?
James McMurtry's new album
Where Do
You Hide the Body (due next week) also sees the light of the camera as a
long-form video. Besides its commercial release, the vid may serve as catalyst
for a PBS special in which both James and his father, novelist
Larry
McMurtry, are profiled...
Aztec Pimps (playing at Emo's next Monday)
drummer
Hunt Sales is trying to get some gigs in town for
his dad
Soupy, who recently stole the show as Moses in the movie
And God
Spoke, a
This Is Spinal Tap-styled "mockumentary." He's checking out
comedy clubs and army bases (speaking of
Spinal Tap!), but I think the
elder Sales could win over the Emo's crowd; how about you?... Tonight's
(Thursday) Continental Club tribute to
Esquivel, the father of "space
age bachelor pad music" (forget that
Stereolab junk), includes one of
the last appearances of
Euripides Pants in their current incarnation.
Former
Sin City Disciples/current Pants guitarist
Bret Engle is
movin' back to Kansas City next month. Plans call for more Pants in your
future, but there's no word yet on a replacement... Worthy Causes Dept.: The
show next Monday at the Continental Club, with
Guy Forsyth, 81/2
Souvenirs, and others will be a benefit for
Kristina Mars of the
Asylum Street Spankers, to help pay some hefty hospital bills for her
family...
Confidential to James Gunther: Okay, you won a pair of
Ty Herndon suspenders. But you have to come to the office to pick them
up, and I want to make it clear that I cannot be held responsible for the
actions of any of the staff....
n
