Rumors of Pantera figurehead Phil Anselmo's death have been somewhat
exaggerated. Somewhat, but not much. I mean, these days, when you listen to a
record, you expect that someone on it is currently performing their rendition
of the death rattle. Take Jonathan Melvoin as a recent example. The Smashing
Pumpkins touring keyboardist died Monday from an apparent heroin overdose,
forcing the band to postpone 14 tour dates including the band's gig at the
Erwin Center next weekend. Anselmo, on the other hand, was able to prove his
sentience by posting the following on AOL Wednesday: "I, Philip H. Anselmo,
immediately after a very successful show in Dallas injected a lethal dose of
heroin into my arm, and died for 4 to 5 minutes. There was no lights, no
beautiful music, just nothing. And then after 20 minutes (from what I heard
later) my friends slapped me and poured water over my head all basically trying
to revive me. The paramedics finally arrived and all I remember is waking up in
the back of an ambulance." Anselmo doesn't hold back in the remainder of his
missive, concluding that "The lesson learned here is that every nightmare ever
heard about O.D.ing and or heroin is terribly true." The band performed the
next night with no interruption to their tour and Anselmo promises that he will
not be party to any problems in the future.
The Shade of Grey
Unfortunately, a long life can be as fatal as heroin in the long run. As the
Chronicle was going to press Wednesday, Tary Owens called to tell us
that Roosevelt Williams -- better known as Grey Ghost to most of you -- passed
away early in the AM at Heritage Park nursing home where he'd been for the last
year. Ghost, who had a stroke July 3 and remained mostly incapacitated
afterwards, was 92. The Bastrop native, best known for his unorthodox style of
piano playing, will be remembered in grand musical style by T.D. Bell, James
Polk and others next Tuesday at the Huston-Tillotson Chapel at 5pm. Owens adds
that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to:
Second Mile Drug Abuse
Program, PO Box 2598, Austin, TX 78767.
Z.Z. Zecret...
Internet "magazine"
Addicted to Noise reports that Z.Z. Top are
planning to repeat the trick they pulled recently in Houston by playing a tour
of club dates under a false name. Bob Small at Lone Wolf Management says that
calling the tour a fact would be premature, but doesn't argue that the idea is
being discussed as a late summer possibility. He says the band did the Houston
shows "just because they wanted to," and that further "secret" shows (no
markets have been selected yet) would provide the "opportunity to reestablish
the players that they are"... not to mention guarantee a buttload of promotion
for their
Rhythmeen album, due on September 17.
To Panic or Not to Panic?
Is it time to panic? Depends on who you talk to. A letter from Lance Fever
says that Gals Panic have "finally decided to call it quits after four
wonderful years together," and will be performing their last show late in
August, most likely on the 17th at Liberty Lunch. However, I'd called Jeremy
Pollet just before noticing this letter, and he would only allow that the swan
song show (he gives the date as the 24th) would be the last show "with this
lineup." In any case, a new band featuring members of Gals Panic and Miss
Galaxie will be debuting tonight (Thursday) at the Hole in the Wall under the
name PlayDoh Squad, opening for the Hormones and Jesus Christ Superfly. The
Squad will be appearing soon on a split single with the Golden Arm Trio
(featuring Eric the Butcher, another Gals Panic ex) as well.
VH1, MTV0
You may have already seen the VH-1
Route 96 crew zooming around town in
their Convertible Concert Cruiser as part of what they're calling the "ultimate
rock & roll road trip." In fact, you may have seen them before their
scheduled arrival yesterday (Wednesday) since they had to pull a "pit stop"
here last Friday to tape a visit by Lyle Lovett and Shawn Colvin to Collings
guitars. The two fans of the local company's instruments played and spoke for a
segment on the
Route, which airs the week of July 29. Waterloo Records
has also hosted the show already for a Storyville segment this week, while Ian
Moore is scheduled to host a tour of the store for the show this Friday. He'll
be taking them to places like the Green Mesquite and Sixth Street also. Friday,
the
Route heads over to the Stevie Ray Vaughan memorial and Antone's. If
their oft-changing schedule has gone as planned, they'll have already done
their Jimmie Vaughan segment by then.
Meanwhile, local Austin Cablevision has stated that they won't even
think of carrying MTV Networks' new M2 channel (it's like MTV, only with
music videos in place of all the sports, game, and bikini shows) until at least
40 months down the line, when they're able to add new channels. At this point
they'd have to replace a home shopping channel or a religious one (is there a
real difference?) and that just wouldn't be right!
Call in Your B.E.T.s
You may recall a few weeks ago I told you about Austin teens Briana, Lori,
Apryl
, and Kristi, collectively known as B.L.A.K., who were headed out
to Houston to compete in the semi-finals of the Motown First Annual Talent
Search. Well, they won, and this Friday they'll be flying out to Washington,
D.C. and appearing live on B.E.T.'s
Video Soul program, where a call-in
vote will determine which of 18 acts will receive the Grand Prize of a Motown
record contract. There's no limit to the number of times you can vote, and the
band is asking that you "tell your friends, and your friends' friends, and so
on and so on!" And for those of you who can't afford a fleet of 1-900 calls,
they respectfully request that you "Please, by all means...
pray!"
Mixed Notes
Call them the Tim Bucks Two: Charlie Sexton/Alejandro Escovedo manager Tim
Neece and Austin Music Hall/Backyard owner Tim O'Connor are currently "in
negotiations" over whether the former will move to Austin to run the latter's
production company, Direct Events. Coming soon, the most-asked question at the
Music Hall: "Who's opening, Charlie or Al?"... Joe Ely will be heading home to
Lubbock to co-headline Buddy Holly's 60th birthday celebration with the
Crickets on September 7. The accompanying festival, which starts on September
5, will serve as a benefit to permanently house the collection of Holly
memorabilia recently bought by the city of Lubbock... Seen enough of Junior
Brown lately? Well, his face is hard to miss these days. For your scrapbook,
you can find him on the cover of the new
BAM magazine (#488) looking a
tad road-weary, or inside
Musician magazine appearing with ex-Living
Colour boss Vernon Reid, whom Brown interviews... The aforementioned
BAM
also gives a five-star review to the latest from Bedhead, who should be
back from touring about now, four-and-a-half to Slobberbone's
Crow Pot
Pie, and a tongue-in-cheek four stars to the "astounding parody of country
music" that
BAM thought was an album by Spirit called
Willie
Nelson... Ministry apparently had a better time in Amsterdam than they ever
did in Marble Falls, and for good reason. One local who flew out for their show
there last week reports that Al Jourgensen seemed positively delighted and at
home with the large, "hashed-out" crowd. If you don't know what I mean about
Amsterdam, let me put it this way -- when said fan returned home with a sore
throat and told her doctor she'd just been there, the first thing he asked was
"Nothing personal, but did you do any intravenous drugs?"... Next up from
Trance Syndicate: Look for the Cherubs'
Short of Popular on July 30 and
a new one from American Analog Set in August. Oh, and don't run out and get
your tan lotion for "Plywoodstock" just yet. Trance Syndicate's Craig Stewart,
who was helping book the event, says that the event has been postponed 'til
sometime in September. And that's likely the last thing he'll be saying on the
subject, as he has left the project to the Zendik Farm people, who were
actually behind it from the beginning. Stewart's departure comes after the
appearance of an
XL blurb (in the issue with the big Tim O'Connor
fold-out cover) indicating that he, not the Zendiks, was the driving force
behind the event... They stopped sending us the
The Daily Texan here, so
this might have been a joke, but the news in the UT paper last week that the
Ging'breadmen had signed to Capitol Records is also news to the band. They
offer an impressive list of labels to whom they've talked, but Capitol is not
one of them...Michele Solberg's
Liquid CD is out now. The album includes
a "David Lynch-style" version of the Association's "Never My Love"... Brothers
R.T. (ex-Joe Rockhead) and Rick Thayer have a new album out under the name Red
Church Museum. The album is called
101, and in fact the group has just
altered their lineup and changed their name to that number... No word on
rumored personnel changes in the Ugly Americans, but the band is back in town
and their
Stereophonic Spanish Fly CD is out now. They'll be doing the
in-store thing at Waterloo next Thursday at 5pm... Other in-stores include Will
Taylor at Tower this Friday at 4pm and Mariachi Estrella at Waterloo at 5pm,
also this Friday... Also on the racks are new ones from the Loose Diamonds and
Reese (no relation to Reese Whitley). Oh, and the Million Sellers have a new
7-inch out. Four songs on yellow vinyl. Cool... Necrofix's Billdo Sarver will
be joining the touring 16Volt on their tour with the Evil Mothers and Bile.
Expect an Austin gig in late August... The Sony Corporation has announced plans
to use Austin (along with Rochester, NY) as a test market for their recordable
Mini Disc. In fact, we're waiting for the Sony guy to show up at the office
right now, and next week I may have more to tell you about this tiny "future of
digital recording." At this moment, I'm not too clear on why Austin was chosen,
though Sony rep David Sinkle did tell us the Mini Disc will be great for
bootlegging live shows. Except for ones by Sony artists, right, David?... The
nice folks in Starfish have landed a gig that'll keep 'em busy through the end
of August: opening for the Butthole Surfers.
-- Contributors: Christopher Gray, Raoul Hernandez, Andy Langer, Margaret
Moser