Red all over
Changes are afoot, somewhat, at
Red's Scoot Inn. The relatively secluded Eastside venue at 1308 E. Fourth was recently bought by the
Longbranch Inn owners, who take over the lease in January. The stage goes silent after Dec. 14's
Festivus throwdown with the
White Ghost Shivers and
Shanghai 5, but not for long; word is the new owners will continue stocking the Scoot with live music. After Red River hip-hop/dance room
Red 7 was held up at gunpoint this summer, in September the owner turned it over to a group of East Coast transplants who overhauled it into an all-ages, inside/outside DIY venue patterned after clubs back home. "We have to bring in 21-plus crowds once in a while to get the rent paid," says co-manager
Jared Cannon, "but we can also have 10 bands on a Monday that only bring in a 14-to-19-year-old crowd." (
Redrum, meanwhile, hosts a
Dimebag Darrell tribute Friday; hot newcomers
Crash Gallery play the
Red Eyed Fly Saturday; and
Peter & the Wolf mastermind
Red Hunter will spend next month in Los Angeles recording his new album.) In other real estate news,
KOOP radio (91.7FM) completes its comeback from last winter's devastating fires this Saturday, when it signs on from new studios at 3823-B Airport Blvd. at 9am. The station plans an open house in January or February "to say thanks," says station manager
Kim McCarson. And Monday,
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., the parent company of the
W boutique-hotel chain, announced it will open a 250-capacity Austin location at
Block 21, the much-debated parcel of Downtown real estate across from City Hall. The site will also house an expanded
Austin Children's Museum and 2,000-seat theatre/music venue for
Austin City Limits, with ground-breaking and completion dates TBD.
Here Comes the Sun
Sunny Sweeney is in holiday-shopping hell. The rising Austin country singer's need for a new trailer lock has taken her to the consumer-clogged aisles of
Wal-Mart. "I was about to kill people," she says from the relative safety of the parking lot. That's about all Sweeney can complain about lately: Her 2006 debut,
Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame, was picked up by Universal offshoot
Big Machine this month. The label, also home to chart-topping Austinite
Jack Ingram, will re-release it untouched in March. To this day, Sweeney, a 2001
Texas State grad alongside
KVET regular
Randy Rogers, swears she doesn't know how the CD wound up in founder
Scott Borchetta's Nashville office. "It's like a fairy tale," she says. "He got my CD in a blank envelope, and he doesn't know how he got it." The Longview native, whose East Texas twang seasons
Tanya Tucker's "Delta Dawn,"
Waylon Jennings' "Good Hearted Woman," and
Heartbreaker's "Lavender Blue" (a duet with pal
Jim Lauderdale), to name a few, uses the quick wit she honed in local improv troupe
Comedy Sports to banter with regulars at Burnet Road saloon the
Poodle Dog Lounge, where her Sunday-night residency of more than two years ends Dec. 17. Dodging the sometimes overenthusiastic dancers has made Sweeney's reflexes equally keen. "One time this chick was drunk, and she almost knocked my teeth out," she says. "Now I'll just push 'em back. It's a full-contact sport."
Gig 'Em
Late-Eighties acoustic UT fave
Twang Twang Shock-a-Boom reunites for Saturday's
Sustainable Shopper's Ball by the Sunset Valley Farmers Market and a "secret" midnight show Friday at the
Cactus Cafe...
American Graveyard spins yarns from its scruffy self-titled debut Friday at
Room 710... It's North Vs. South revisited Saturday as
Grand Champeen storms 710 and
Beerland serves up a joint
Moonlight Towers/Til We're Blue or Destroy birthday bash... The
TunaHelpers host a "psychedelic showcase" with
Rubber Robot and
Confuzatron at
Emo's Lounge Friday...
AUX releases its fuzz-shrouded debut EP Saturday at the
Hole in the Wall with
Manikin and
Crawling With Kings...
Ray Benson,
Eliza Gilkyson, and
Slaid Cleaves kick off the 2006
Armadillo Christmas Bazaar Saturday at the
Austin Music Hall. See
www.armadillobazaar.com for a full schedule.