Phases and Stages

One of the best kept instrumental secrets of 2001 has been the Friends of Dean Martinez‘s Wichita Lineman, a steely, full-length follow-up to last year’s scorching A Place in the Sun. Only available through Teutonic indie label empire Glitterhouse Records, Wichita Lineman transforms Jimmy Webb’s melancholy pop standard into the soundtrack centerpiece of some silent-era cinematic landmark. Best friend and Austinite Bill Elm’s ghostly steel-playing haunts the title track and standard No. 2 “Tennessee Waltz” same as he and his combo have inhabited Santo & Johnny’s “Sleepwalk” and Gershwin’s “Summertime” in the past. Both Lineman tracks, along with its “Main Title” and “In the Wire” — the heart of the album — surface on a “Limited Edition” double 45 from Chicago’s Grey Flat Records, owned by Brad Murph of ex-Austinites Palaxy Tracks. Whether Wichita Lineman emerges on this side of the Atlantic next year is still in question, but this handsome gatefold single runs the rails all by its lonesome… Dallas’ Deathray Davies score their own vinyl victory on “Without a Trace” b/w “They Stuck Me in a Box in the Ground pt.3” (Has Anyone Ever Told You?), which taken together may be better than the whole of the sextet’s strong sophomore effort last year, The Return of the Drunk Ventriloquist. Don’t let the Soul Asylum song title throw you, either; the insistent “Trace” recalls a circa-’78 NYC band holding the line between intelli-punk and New Wave. The B-side, meanwhile, playfully dirges through an organ-filled late-Sixties garage. Nice hard sleeve, complete with lyric sheet and groovy art. Ray Davies would be thrilled to death… The Olive Group pops up almost as crisp on “Wait for the Sun,” the local fourpiece delivering their own bracing shot of groovy goodness on this green vinyl split (Dutch White Recordings) with Austin’s hard hammering Those Peabodys, the best high voltage AC/DC this side of Broken Tooth Jason McMaster… On the subject of school boys in disgrace, pre-teen delinquents the Snobs, four local hardcores barely off the bus, are mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore on their School’s Out, Let’s Skate EP (My War). Bunny-stomping through a quartet of tunes on each side, the boys offer tough love on “Die,” wave goodbye to yer sorry ass on “Lemmings,” and kick Christian rock right in the family jewels on “Take Your Side.” The flip, finishing up with the hell-bent-for-pavement “Nothing to Do (But Skate)” and its deliriously fast follow-up, “School’s Out, Let’s Skate,” chainsaws through any and all anger-management manuals… Finally, what the Tortilla Flats‘ Play Doug Sahm lacks in the vocal department on “Floatway” and “I’m Missing You” is more than made up for by the downhome S.A. groove of Sunny Ozuna’s “Just a Moment” and Texas Tornado-found “Juan Mendoza.” With its pastel gray vinyl and Kerry Awn’s smiling “Coach” looking up from the B-side, Play Doug Sahm is no secret, it’s outta the bag.

This article appears in November 30 • 2001.