Tech? No, Music!
It was packed upstairs in the meetin’ room out back of the old Threadgill’s on North Lamar on Tuesday night. It was also swelteringly hot, due to the lights used by the Austin Music Network and the fact that the AC and fans all had to be turned off for the broadcast of the first Austin Music Commission Town Meeting. The discomfort made little difference to the throngs of desperate souls who packed themselves into the room; current and former club ownerss, current and former musicians, current and former Music Commission members, all gathered out of a common frustration with the direction Austin is headed, toward big-city gentrification and away from, well, Austin-type personality. The matters discussed have been bandied about many times among many locals, and much of what was covered you’ve read about here, but the opportunity to really get organized and the added boon of a live broadcast over Time Warner Cable via the AMN was enough to stir up an extra-high degree of oomph among the participants. It wouldn’t be Austin without a couple of long-winded harebrains getting in on the act, but for the most part, the Town Meeting was an unbridled success, content-wise. A handout from Armadillo Christmas Bazaar producer Bruce Willenzik provided a map of the city’s downtown construction projects and offered such constructive (ouch) recommendations as “Avoid the temptation to split up into opposing factions. ‘Us vs. Them’ is the best way to waste our valuable time fighting.” Willenzik addressed the problem of accessing a number of downtown clubs once construction on the CSC project hits full swing, an issue that Music Commission chair Kevin Connor agrees is a key issue at this time. “Overall, I get the idea nobody sees the new high-tech businesses as ‘the bad guy,'” Connor says, “but music and high-tech need to get together. We need to tap into their resources.” The other most pressing issue, he adds, is affordability of both housing for musicians and rent for club owners. Stubb’s owner Charles Attal raised the issue that not only can musicians not afford to pay their rent, it’s gotten to the point where there aren’t enough clubs left in town for bands to develop their talent, adding that things currently don’t look bright for the yet-to-be-built “new” Liberty Lunch, as building costs in this town have risen so high that the project is currently overbudget, with attempts now under way to determine how to cut some costs. Former Music Commission chair Nancy Coplin concurs that “We’ve got to make sure these businesses survive — not just [the ones relating to] music, but film, culture, art. …What brought these high-tech companies here in the first place was the available work force and the quality of life.” As such, several speakers pointed out it’s difficult to believe these people want to destroy Austin’s character, but measures must be taken to work together, or one day we’ll all be looking back on a long-dead and unrevivable Austin. One tongue-in-cheek proposal made during the course of the meeting suggested that things are so bad that the music community needs to show the city how serious we are by shutting down all the clubs for a “night without music,” which met with enthusiastic approval all ’round. (After the meeting, one music commisioner was heard to crack that “it would never work, because whatever we do, the Black Cat will do the opposite.”) Connor told the Chronicle that he was very pleased with the way the evening had gone and hoped to continue broadcasting such meetings. “We’re certainly open to doing it again,” says AMN manager Rick Melchior. “Unfortunately,” he added, peering around the parking lot jam-packed full of reporters and on-the-spot live broadcast vans for every local news show in town — and no doubt straining to think of a way to snag some of their top-of-the-line equipment, “The next time I don’t know if we’ll have this much media support.” Let’s hope that this time, at least, the powers-that-be in the city at least can’t ignore it completely during the evening’s channel-flipping. At least one, Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Goodman, was in attendance, and Coplin assures me that she was “very receptive” to the ideas expressed at the meeting. This is just the starting point, says Connor. The next commission meeting in two weeks will be dedicated to turning some of the night’s ideas into resolutions to offer to the City Council, and even before that, Connor plans to call the mayor about the downtown construction access problem. Due to the nature of the business year, he stresses, “We’ve got to get that rolling now!”
The King and the Court
The weather was great, the bands were hot, and the crowd was well-behaved, “and when it’s your name and your ass on the line, you pray for things like that.” So says Clifford Antone of last weekend’s Antone’s Blues Festival. The Neville Brothers, hoped-for replacements for the ailing John Lee Hooker, were unable to do the festival, though Jimmie Vaughan and company seemed to keep the reasonably large audience happy enough, and the Fest is expected to grow into a two-day event within the next couple of years. Perhaps B.B. King will make an appearance at a future Antone’s Blues Fest — he’s already signed to play a post-Antone B.B. King Blues Weekend September 29 at Auditorium Shores, joined by Susan Tedeschi, Buddy Guy, and Corey Harris. I say post-Antone because it seems Blues Fest partner Charlie Jones may be running that event without Antone in attendance, as Clifford is set, after numerous delays, to face sentencing on various felony charges next Thursday. Antone may not get a chance to hang with King before making his appearance before the judge, but he will get one opportunity to appear before Vaughan; the former Fabulous Thunderbird will be playing a good-luck show for Antone at the club the night before punishment is announced. The day the pronouncement finally does come down, the Sony Music Showcase at Antone’s looks to be a change of pace for the club. Club personnel say they themselves are not too clear on who the 12 acts scheduled to play are, but word is that Sony is looking for “boy bands,” which I assume means the likes of the Meaty Cheesy Boys, N Sync, Backstreet Boys, and my personal fave 2Gether. I don’t know if that means Shrödinger’s Cat will be among the acts, but I certainly hope so, just so we get to witness a brilliant record executive turning to his associate and saying, “Hey, these guys are pretty good! I can’t wait to see them when their tape deck is out of the shop!”
Welcome to Swagwater, TX
In this week’s Radio & Records Magazine, Matchbox Records received the nod for “Promo Item of the Week” thanks to their glow-in-the-dark “Dashboard Mary” statues that were sent out as “swag” to promote Podunk‘s single of the same name being added to radio stations nationwide beginning May 9. I couldn’t say how impressive the knickknacks were, since I didn’t receive one (hmmmph!), but I have to suggest that the Hollowmen should send the magazine one of the nifty metal lunchboxes they rigged up to plug their new CD, Roughs, and their Tuesday night gigs at the Black Cat. Why a lunchbox would include listings of serving size, RDA percentage, and caloric content is beyond me — when I was a kid they didn’t come with food already in ’em! Still, there’s some pretty funny stuff here, like the notice that “By consuming the contents of this package, you agree to let the satin black claws of infinite lethargy shred your very soul and force you to chill the hell out.” Seems amusing enough to net a mention in a few industry rags, at least until some kid gets ahold of one and chokes to death on the CD case.
Mixed Notes
Do It Now Foundation will have a CD release for their latest, Joy Juice, this Friday at the Hole in the Wall, with fellow toque-wearers Orange Mothers (who also have a new CD, Big Blue House, on the way) and Dumptruck joining in the festivities… There’s a couple of new releases out now from the leisurely Emperor Jones label: the Double U‘s Falling Lanterns and Oncer, the first new release in 30 years from Australia’s Pip Proud. Neither of those bands have release parties in town this week, but label mates ST 37‘s show with Iron Lite and the Primordial Underground this Sunday at Club DeVille could almost be one, since ST 37 plays on two songs on Oncer… Oh, and if you can’t get enough of the Lower Class Brats, check out their version of “Belsen Was a Gas” on the new Never Mind the Sex Pistols tribute album… Boy bands obviously aren’t the only thing Sony Records has on its corporate mind. Satan’s Cheerleaders jetted to L.A. this past weekend to perform and pass out undergarments at the E3 aka Electronic Entertainment Expo, where besides performing, they claim to have stirred up interest in their own game concept, the “Satan’s Cheerleaders Rapture Survival Challenge.” Lara Croft, your ass is grass!… Adult Rodeo is calling the next few days their official release party weekend for sophomore Shimmy-Disc effort TeXXXas, appearing tonight (Thursday) at the Continental Club with the Orange Mothers (again?) and at a Friday afternoon in-store at Waterloo Records. After that, the Rodeo folks are heading out for the first leg of their TEXXXAS 2000 summer tour up the east coast and back, following a Continental gig on the 25th. Rumor has it locals Joe West & the Sinners might be joining the Shimmy-Disc roster as well, but so far owner Kramer hasn’t given the Chron a decisive answer… Quickly now, for all those who attended the Negativland show at Stubb’s on Tuesday, let’s say it one more time together: “Fuck Snuggles!”… The Ginger & Sarah Band, who were named a top 20 finalist in Oprah Winfrey‘s Oxygen.com “Roxygen” contest, depart May 25 for Italy to hook up with buddy George Devore, whose Roam will be working on living up to its name. The GSB will play five dates with Devore from Italy to Austria to Switzerland and end their joint trip at the Singer/Songwriter Festival in Frutigen, Switzerland, with Trish Murphy, then stay in Italy to continue their 31é2-month tour, returning home in early September — where a pile of new reading material will no doubt await them courtesy of Winfrey’s book of the month club… Review of Reviewers: If you haven’t noticed, there’s a new bio called Let It Blurt about the former leader of Austin’s Delinquents, the late “world’s greatest rock critic,” Lester Bangs. I’ll refrain from commenting about the content of the volume, since reviewing a book about a music critic would be like pantomiming a haiku about dancing about architecture. On the other hand, I thought the recent movie version of High Fidelity, the story of a professional record collector slash amateur rockcrit, was only okay; it’s kind of hard to be objective since my all-time No.3 breakup was with star John Cusack‘s cousin Julie…
Contributors: Pastor Dick, Leeland Googleburger, President Donny, Crosley Bendix
This article appears in May 19 • 2000.