Although few local musicians will probably want to take this report card home to their folks, the raw sales data for Austin’s Music Class of ’97 releases is once again something of a reality check. Mostly, the numbers speak for themselves, but remember, these SoundScan figures – the same numbers that drive the Billboard charts – don’t include many of the small mom `n’ pop record stores that have proven so instrumental in turning customers on to Texas music. And by the way, if it makes you feel better, Radish, Dallas’ best 1997 prospect and the band the New Yorker picked to save rock & roll – sold just over 12,000 copies of their debut with considerably more pomp and circumstance than any of the artists below. – A.L.
BUICK MACKANE, The Pawn Shop Years (Rykodisc): 3,500
CHOREBOY, Good Clean Fun My Ass (Triple X) 385
KACY CROWLEY, Anchorless (Atlantic): 5,400
DERAILERS, Reverb Deluxe (Watermelon/Sire): 5,900
CHRIS DUARTE, Tailspin Headwhack (Silvertone): 21,000
WAYNE HANCOCK, That’s What Daddy Wants (ARK 21): 10,339
ROBERT EARL KEEN, Picnic (Arista Austin): 54,434
PAT MACDONALD, …Sleeps With His Guitar (ARK 21): 1,100
ABRA MOORE, Strangest Places (Arista Austin): 61,000
SISTER 7, This The Trip (Arista Austin) 6,316
SOAK, Soak (Interscope): 9,200
SPOON, The Soft Effects EP (Matador): 2,374
VALLEJO, Vallejo (TVT): 15,000
STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN, Live at Carnegie Hall (Epic): 226,000
This article appears in January 23 • 1998 and January 23 • 1998 (Cover).