Rumors are on the fly about the potential fate of Antone's Records' hard rock
subsidiary DMZ, and even of sister label dos. Following on the heels of a
series of "personnel changes," as owner
Harry Friedman puts it, there's
a buzz going around regarding the closing or possible sale of the Antone's
subsidiaries. Friedman vehemently denies any such thing, saying "Oh, no, Lord,
no. There's no truth to the rumors," beyond some talk about distribution deals
and recently expressed interest from a label regarding DMZ act
Billy
White. Friedman says he has no intention in selling off White either, and
says also that he and his partner have just purchased land at Sixth and
Guadalupe, with plans to build a "complete entertainment center" there. Hmmm. I
wish
I had the kind of money rolling in to embark on such a project...
Unstable Labels
Don't think that Antone's is the only label with things a-goin' on. The
ongoing shake-up at Warner Bros. has so far been kind to Austin-friendly WB VP
Bill Bentley, who has been promoted to Vice President/Director of Media
Relations
at Warners' Reprise label. Looks like it's time for me to ask
for free stuff yet again, as well as the correct pronunciation of "Reprise."
Former
Pariah vocalist
Dave Derrick has gone "biz" on us now,
taking a post as the new regional promotions guy for the Scotti Brothers label
(their
Truck Stop Love will be playing Emo's tonight, Thursday 20).
Capricorn Records has announced that Paula Donner, formerly of Austin's
Sector 2 Records, has relocated to Nashville and taken a position as Capricorn
publicist. Continuing the shuffle, Sharon Calcote has switched from
DejaDisc to Sector 2, and Deja (new releases July 25: Michael Elwood and
Beth Galiger - Rolling Valentine and the Live at Raul's reissue) is looking for
a replacement.
Unclean Records' Roger Morgan is talking with a couple of European
labels about releasing Unclean's Dumptruck album in Germany and the
Sons of Hercules' latest (expect a new one this fall) in England and
France. As is wise in the world of international commerce, Morgan says he is
proceeding with caution.
Farewell to "Briz"
Jimmie Vaughan is no stranger to tragedy, which struck again this
weekend, when it was learned that one of Vaughan's back-up singers,
Reginald
"Briz" Brisbon died suddenly on Saturday in New York. According to
Vaughan's manager
Marc Proct, the 38-year-old singer was out in the New
York heat all day ("dancin' and having fun - you know how Briz was"), and upon returning home, complained about a shortness
of breath before passing out. Paramedics were called onto the scene, but
Brisbon could not be revived. Proct is still waiting for a confirmed cause of
death. Brisbon was to have come to Austin in a couple of weeks to begin
rehearsals for the
B.B. King Blues tour, which Vaughan is set to embark
on at the beginning of August with the likes of King and
Etta James, and
which should roll through Austin in September. Proct's office also confirms
that
Soulhat, in Louisiana to record their second Epic album, broke up
during the sessions.
One-Eyed Jacks
Despite the fact that he's still being paid, and you can still hear him
sometimes on the air,
Robbie Jacks, the
Robin Quivers to
Gibby
Haynes'
Howard Stern, is indeed no longer working at 101X. How's
that work? Well, his contract says that he gets a few more weeks' pay, and he's
been showing up on Gibby's evening show to make it clear he has no animosity
towards his former partner. Despite early talk that homophobia on the part of
the station's program director played a role in his dismissal, Jacks says that
the PD has since called him and made it clear that he might well be rehired,
and that if so, he "would not be censored in any way" as far as his sexual
preference. Jacks (who laughs for incredibly long periods during normal
conversation, in case you thought his character on the radio was a put-on)
makes no secret of his bitterness about being removed from the radio broadcast
and from an upcoming
Jo Carol Pierce album. He shouldn't have any
worries when it comes to keeping busy, though, as opportunities continue to
drop into his lap. Jacks currently has his sights set on the great one-eyed
monster (no, not
that one! I'm talking about
television!). Almost
immediately following his dismissal from the radio, he was called upon by
Roseanne to write a pilot show starring their mutual friends
Sandra
Bernhard and
Deborah Harry. And no, this isn't the American version
of
Absolutely Fabulous that you've been reading about, it's a proposed
series for HBO that's as yet untitled (Jacks says he
doesn't want it to
end up called
Sandra!). Jacks has been chatting up another pal,
Exene
Cervenka, for further inspiration, and you may see her in the show, along
with music from Jacks and from
Kay Turner's
Girls in the Nose, as
well. No, this won't be a musical, as such. Jacks loosely refers to the work in
progress as a "
Larry Sanders type of thing."
Twigs in the Garden
Lon Friend, Vice President of A&R at Arista Records, finally got a
chance to see a proper performance by the
Twigs a couple of weeks ago.
Good thing, too, as during SXSW Friend took a liking to the young Austin band
after seeing their unofficial acoustic showcase in a little burger hut on Sixth
Street. As you may recall reading in this column at the time, Friend brought
Led Zep alum
John Paul Jones in to see the band. They also
received the attention of
Susan Silver, wife of
Chris Cornell and
manager of his band
Soundgarden, who has since been giving the band
advice. With the recent Arista showcase finally came a demo deal with the
label, and the band will be recording said demo next month. The Twigs are
hoping to hear positive results from the session around October. Meanwhile, if
you want to hear the band for yourself, you can check them out at Aqua Fest on
the 29th. (This reminds me, the fest starts next Thursday (7/27) with
Radney
Foster,
Asleep at the Wheel,
Jerry Giddens,
Wayne
Toups,
Toby Anderson,
Greenstreet,
and the
Kraze).
Moore Movies
Ian Moore's off mixing his version of "Magic Bus" with co-producer
Dave McNair for the soundtrack of the upcoming
National Lampoon's
Senior Trip, featuring
Tommy Chong. The film will also include bits
from Moore's songs "Barline 99," "Stain," and "Train Tracks"; the
Who
cover will feature in scenes of Chong as a bus driver named "Red." Whether
a soundtrack album will be released depends on the movie's success, but if
Chong didn't write and
Amy Heckerling doesn't direct, I give it a
chance. Moore's version of the
Muddy Waters tune "Champagne and Reefer"
will appear on the label's upcoming
Hempilation album, starring the
Black Crowes,
Blues Traveller, and other noted stoners.
Mixed Notes
Shanachie Records have confirmed an interest in the dulcet tones of
Kris McKay, but these's no done deal yet between the two. McKay says
that "things look really good," but that nothing has been inked yet. Her "Too
Many Guitars" night, by the way, continues as a monthly event at different
clubs. This month's is the 27th at the Electric Lounge...
Bret Domrose,
former bandmate to
Alejandro Escovedo in his old punk band the
Nuns, has started a new band featuring
Speed freak
Keanu
Reeves, according to a story in the
Dallas Morning News. If you're
thinking that Dallas has found its own answer to
P, keep in mind that
Reeves' role in the group, called
Dogstar (Hmmm, didn't Reeves star as
the dog boy in
Freaked?) is not to show off his famous face, but to shut
up and play the bass... It's two birthdays in one this Sunday at 2pm, when the
Victory Grill celebrates its 50th anniversary and proprietor
Johnny
Holmes celebrates his 78th b-day. The Eastside establishment has in its
long existence been home to performances by
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Tina
Turner, B.B. King
, and
James Brown... Now here's an idea too
long in coming! The Swap and Bop flea market extravaganza is this Sunday from
11am-6pm. What's that? It's a combination of your two favorite things: live
music and tacky clothing/knickknacks. That's in the parking lot of the Waterloo
Brewing Company, and playing are
Wayne "The Train" Hancock, Happy Days+2,
Marti Brom & Her Jet-Tone Boys, Phantom Creeps, and the
Inhalants (in that order)... Expect to see
Stretford guitarist
Dan Carney sitting in with the
Hormones for a while, as the
'mones have lost
their guitarist
Arman Mabry to the
Fuck Emos,
where he'll play bass and Mike Belyea will switch to guitar. The Fuck Emos'
guitarist has meanwhile gone, well, wherever it is that former Fuck Emos go...
Jimmie Dale Gilmore got a nice four-page spread in the
New York Times
Magazine not long ago. The piece covered his emergence from follower of a
teenage Maharishi to a world-class songsinger... For those of you who've been
wondering why I didn't pick your Web site to mention in that feature I wrote
last week on bands and the Internet,
Casey Monahan at the Texas Music
Office just sent me a 10-page fax, single spaced, of nothing but Texas music
related Web sites. Maybe I'll run some here in the old column in the coming
weeks... Couple o' swell in-store performances this week.
Monte Warden
plays Waterloo Records this Friday at 5pm, and
Don Walser performs at
MusicMania on Saturday at 3pm... I didn't mean to make it look like I was
calling
Jordan Silber of the White Rabbit a liar last week, but I got a
number of calls countering his claim about
Crash Worship being involved
in trouble outside the club a few weeks ago. Silber is sticking to his guns,
saying that he knows damn well what the Crash Worshippers look like, and he's
sure he saw some of them. Tell you what, everybody, let's just drop the whole
thing. n
