TCB
Music news
By Christopher Gray, Fri., July 7, 2006
IV ON THE FLOOR
Touring with the Pretenders would be an ideal opportunity for a young band to pick up some pointers, and that's exactly what Austin's IV Thieves did on their post-SXSW jaunt with the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers. If only they knew what it was. "The last night, Chrissie Hynde was giving us some great advice," says bassist Shane Lawlor. "But I was completely battered, so I can't remember any of it." Actually, singer Nic Armstrong did retain at least one tidbit. "They said, 'Make sure you stay in the Top 10,'" he laughs. (They'll have another chance to pump the Pretenders for wisdom when they hook up for more dates next month.) After some downtime, they're ready to start road-testing songs from September's New West album If We Can't Escape My Pretty, which they recorded in January at the Bubble. Lawlor says Escape, the follow-up to 2004's The Greatest White Liar, is a collage of "21st-century dreams and nightmares and visions and stories," filtered through three songwriting perpectives: his, Armstrong's, and guitarist Glynn Wedgewood's. First single "You Can't Love What You Don't Understand," got its first airplay on Santa Monica public-radio station KCRW last week, and the Thieves are headed to California's Salton Sea to shoot a video this weekend, a change of scenery that should help ease the sting of their native England's heartbreaking World Cup quarterfinal loss to Portugal. One thing's for sure: After nearly going crazy from the long interval between Liar and Escape, they've already got songs for their third album in the bag. "We're not going to wait that long again," swears Lawlor.
MILWAUKEE'S BEST
Seattle indie Barsuk has a decent track record: It put out the first albums of Rilo Kiley and Death Cab for Cutie, two bands that have done all right for themselves. The label's latest catch is Austin's What Made Milwaukee Famous, who came aboard at SXSW. "It's a family-type business," says bassist John Farmer. Barsuk will re-release the local tunesmiths' debut, Trying to Never Catch Up, Aug. 22,, and their next album ... eventually. "We have a lot of new material, but we haven't made any plans to record it yet," says Farmer. The Barsuk edition includes four new songs not available on the 2004 edition; Farmer recommends iTunes for fans who already own the album. However, they have been toiling at Spoon drummer Jim Eno's "gorgeous, pristine, beautiful" new studio at an undisclosed Austin location. "I don't know if he would want me saying where it's at," hedges Farmer. "There's a lot of expensive recording equipment there." Before embarking on a summer odyssey that includes two weeks with the French Kicks and stops at Lollapalooza and San Diego's Street Scene, WMMF plays Emo's inside-outside local indie prom Saturday with Sound Team, the Black, Zykos, and the Glass Family. "We will be playing some of the new songs," Farmer promises.
'FLIP' SIDE
Life after punk rock is a challenge for anyone. Some people fill the void with drugs and alcohol, others start families, and still others remodel houses and wind up on television. That's the case for Neil Curran and Graham Mills, who, in addition to continuing their musical careers in the Score, have been fixing up a North Austin house for TLC's Flip That House. "We've gutted the interior," says Curran, who started contracting as a way to pick up easy work between tours with his and Mills' former band the Dead End Cruisers. Though the TLC cameras focus on glamorous tasks like laying in new tile and building a deck, Curran and Mills' renovations go well beyond that. "New kitchen, two new bathrooms, new AC in the attic, made a dining room out of the fourth bedroom, moved some doors around," lists Curran. "Not too much in the bedrooms, though." The episode, which airs next month, features the Score on the soundtrack; Curran says the producers were eager to play up the rock & roll angle. "They like colorful characters," he says. "I suppose I'm colorful, literally, with my whole arms tattooed."
DRIVE TIME
Thanks to a giant Japanese car company, one of Austin's most promising new bands can finally release their first album. Post-punkers the Lemurs finished recording a few months ago but ran out of money before they could get it pressed. Then Toyota stepped in by licensing the quintet's "My Definition" for an online promotion for its new Yaris line (www.toyota.com/yaris; click on the "digital city guide"). "They were looking for bands, so we submitted our stuff, and they accepted it," says singer Mitch Billeaud. "It's really helped us." To stay on the safe side, the band will adhere to the tradition of the self-titled first album. "We're on the EP/LP boundary," Billeaud says. "It always looks a little egotistical to give an EP a title." Billeaud says he thinks the eight-song album will be ready in September, but while they've been waiting for Toyota's check to clear, the Lemurs have also been trying to locate a new drummer. Original drummer Danny Reisch has been filling in, but Billeaud says the band will fill the seat permanently after tonight's (Thursday) midnight show at the Whisky Bar. "We're in the middle of auditions right now," Billeaud says. "We've narrowed it down to a couple."
THINGS HAVE CHANGED
Jim Wilson, who had a hand in just about every record in town at Yes Mastering, has relocated to a state-of-the-art studio in Boulder, Colo., but hasn't slowed down: Recent projects include new discs by Joe Ely, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Gravity Research (formerly God Drives a Galaxy), and the Asylum Street Spankers' "sort-of-children's record." Reach him at jim@airshowmastering.com.
Bob Dylan still won't come play Austin, but he doesn't mind taking half the city on the road with him. For his annual summer tour of minor-league ballparks, the host of XM Radio's Theme Time Radio Hour has enlisted former Austinite Junior Brown, Jimmie Vaughan with Lou Ann Barton, and fiddling sensation Elana James. Naturally, the closest Dylan's summer sojurn comes to these parts is Aug. 15 at Applebee's Park in Lexington, Ky., which happens to be home to one of the Astros' class-A affiliates.
The little acorns from which a great band grew, Spoon's 1996 LP Telephono and 1997 EP Soft Effects, long out of print and nearly impossible to find, will be reissued by Merge July 25; preorders are available at SpoonTheBand.com. Besides headlining this month's Pitchfork festival and a West Coast minitour with Death Cab for Cutie, the band has been intermittently convening in Austin to begin work on a follow-up to last year's Gimme Fiction.
If you've ever wondered what sort of bodily injury is possible to inflict upon oneself while behind the presumably safe facade of a DJ booth, Sunday night is your chance to find out. The Riverboat Gamblers, warming up for their July 17 Emo's show and an opening stint on the X/Rollins Band tour that hits Stubb's Aug. 30, spin a few of their favorites starting 10pm at the Beauty Bar.
Mark Rubin relays that ailing Austin legend Don Walser is still amenable to receiving visitors, especially ones who will sing for him. "I'm actually quite thankful for the opportunity to have him here still to talk to," Rubin says. Contact Walser at donwalser@donwalser.com.