It all started with a mysterious fax, sent to the Chronicle and
addressed to no one in particular: “Witness the feel-good transplant miracle of
the decade! Party at Chicago House! Details to follow…” Well, follow there
have, albeit slowly. Peg Miller, owner of the former/future theatre/acoustic
music haven, confirms that the grand opening of a new, improved Chicago House
on the
22-24th of this month, with plans for eight to 10 headliners each of
those nights. “Next Thursday you can tell them where,” she insists, as
the final papers have not been signed for the new location and she fears the
chance, however slim, that someone could read about the deal and think, “Hey,
I’d like to make an offer on that place.” Given a few facts, such as Miller’s
aversion to having street festivals keep people from getting into the House and
her claim that she would not reopen unless she found a place where she could
have a 300+ seating room for roadshows and a smaller one for local acts, the
Chron has managed to rule out a few places such as French Smith’s front
lawn and those little places where they sell Hawaiian ice. For now, we’re as in
the dark as you are about the location — and Miller assures everyone will be stunned. “The bottom line is,” she taunts, “I’m not in the Sixth Street
area. Nanny, nanny, nyah nyah!”
Bad Living Pays Off
Look (at last) for a new Bad Livers album to come out in mid-February of next
year on the folk Sugar Hill label, as the deal that’s been in the works since
SXSW finally gets all its details hammered out, according to Liver Danny
Barnes. As of last Tuesday, Barnes said he couldn’t imagine the three-year,
three-album deal going sour, “barring us waking up at four in the morning and
realizing something’s terribly wrong.”
On the band’s part, there shouldn’t have to be a lot of work done to complete
the terms of the contract; the first album, titled Hogs on the Highway,
has been in the can for a good while and merely awaits mixing, as does enough
additional material to just about fill the remainder of the three albums. On
the other hand, of course, once the discs start rolling off the press, it’ll be
time for the hard-touring band (who just came back from three weeks on the
road), to, as Barnes puts it, “hit the trail” in support of them. Or should
that be “hit the highway”?
Tornado In a Tin Cup
Wanna get Don Johnson and Kevin Costner and their offspring dancing around on
a rooftop? Just put the Texas Tornados on there with them. Reprise Records’
Bill Bentley says that the band had a rip-roaring time and got the crowd on
their feet — at least after a “professional dancer” (in other words, the
musical equivalent of a “claquer”) enticed them into it. The cops then came and
shut down the Tornados, who were performing on a roof across from the Hollywood
premeire of Tin Cup, the new film that prominently features their song
“Little Bit is Better Than Nada.” No truth to the rumors that the cops were
called by Zilker residents who claimed they could hear the gig in their homes.
(See this issue’s “Naked City” for big news in the city’s “sound wars,”
by the way).
Bentley adds that Ernie Durawa and Barry “Frosty” Smith, two of the Tornados’
many drummers, took a beating inPeople magazine for being too
“heavy-handed” on the new album — despite the fact that neither of them played
on the songs in question. Durawa took a day calling around to find the writer
who made the accusation and got him to admit that he was completely in error,
but the magazine made it clear that no public apology would be made. The
Tornados, meanwhile, are not apologizing for their appropriation of the “Don’t
Mess With Texas” slogan, which they’ve altered somewhat for their own use. And
why should they? After all, they made a commercial for the famous 10-year-old
ad campaign. No word on whether they’ll be playing the upcoming anniversary
shindig for the campaign. In fact, there’s not a whole lot of information being
made available yet about the fete in general, but that there will
be one, and the advance chatter makes it sound like it’s gonna be big.
Antones and Tales
Now this sounded like a real down-home affair: a beer, barbecue, and
back-porch music celebration last Thursday off Lake Austin Drive to celebrate
the union between Discovery and Antone’s Records. Miss Lavelle White, Sue
Foley, Guy Forsyth, Candye Kane, and such would play out in the yard and
everybody would have a good laid-back time. Woo-ee! When they said “off Lake
Austin,” I was picturing a wooden shack behind the Deep Eddy Cabaret; instead,
the shack was a veritable mansion in (shudder!) Westlake Hills and the “porch”
was a poolside P.A. system.
Amazingly (oops — wrong record company…) everything did turn out to be as
down-home as promised. The musicians put on nice, unpretentiously short sets
(mainly since most of ’em had paying gigs to get to) and had a great
deal of fun (Kane turned over several songs to her preteen, would-be crooner
son, Tommy). In the end, the organizers decided to completely blow off their
“big announcement” (which everyone knew was just official confirmation of the
deal that the party was for, so it was obvious) in favor of more music and
camaraderie. I give special bonus points for the fact that the owners of the
huge house with God’s own view of Austin were, according to Discovery’s Cary
Baker, out of town and unaware that they were “hosting” the shindig.
On the business end of things, Antone’s Records day-to-day activities have
changed little from the deal with Discovery (who, as you recall, are in turn
involved with Warner Bros). There are no plans afoot for the small staff to
grow beyond a half-dozen people (though they did seem able to answer my
questions last time I called, which is in itself a change for the better.) Any
increase in the number of employees, says Antone’s head Harry Friedman, will
likely be on the Discovery staff if anywhere. (Rumors were out that Friedman
and Baker were going to quit their respective labels and start a new one on
their own, but they realized that the name Harry-Cary Records sounded too much
like a self-fulfilling prophecy) Out now under the Antone’s/Discovery banner
are is Forsyth’s reissued Needlegun, Foley’s A Walk in the Sun, and the Antone’s 20th Anniversary compilation. Upcoming around September
10 are new ones from Steve James and Teddy Morgan, with Kane, Boozoo Chavis,
Snooky Pryor, and Miss Lavelle following.
All this potential income is good news for Antone’s the club, which, the
Chronicle has learned, is listed as being up for sale by the company
that owns the building (the club has operated on a month-to-month lease for
years). I’ve heard the asking price is awful high, though, so the problem is
probably not as immediate as it might seem.
Mixed Notes
Since moving to Lafayette, D’Jalma Garnier has been playing with Creole
musicians Fil�, and is soon to see the band’s new record, La Vie
Marron, released on Green Linnet’s Americana label, Red Bud. Garnier left
three years ago to play with fiddler Canray Fontenot and began gigging with
Fil� full-time after the Creole legend’s passing… The news of the Grey
Ghost’s death was unfortunately not exaggerated, but it certainly was widely
noted. I’ve heard tell of reports of his demise being read all the way from
People to the L.A. Times… Fastball will be playing the
prestigious “Puke-fest” at the upcoming CMJ music festival in New York,
and Miles Zuniga is no stranger to the event, which he attended as an audience
member last year (checking out Supergrass). Zuniga says that the event “did
live up to its name,” largely due to the “copious amounts of shitty beer”
available gratis to the crowd… The Ugly Americans have been blazing on
AAA radio, and industry mags like Billboard and Hits have been
taking notice. Billboard‘s been talkin’ Texan a lot lately, with
Storyville, Slobberbone, and a fleet of others getting writeups recently. By
the way, I just saw the Uglys mentioned in the same sentence as the Handsome
Family. Now, there are two names that would look good on a double bill… That
same Billboard sees the Butthole Surfers taking their most significant
chart leap yet, with Electriclarryland taking a jump from 37 to 31. The
“Pepper” single has yet to hit the hot 100 chart, and I’ll tell you why:
Because there still isn’t a commercially available single. Butthole
management says this was to ensure that everyone gets to sample the “other
goodies” on the album. Pretty shrewd, if you ask me. Oops! Almost forgot:
Surfers are on David Letterman tonight (Thursday). Conventional wisdom says
Letterman will make a couple of lame jokes about their name, they’ll pretend to
do “Pepper” while Paul Shaffer and co. actually play the tune, and then Dave
won’t bother to talk to them… Looking at the new Entertainment Weekly
(the one that writes up Dale Watson, too), the SRV tribute gets a B+. To
quote them: “Most tributes sound uninspired. Not this one.”… Speaking of
tribute albums, the one I mentioned last week with all the Badfinger covers
will not be featuring Cheap Trick after all. Details on why are still
cloudy… I hear that former Gingbreadmen drummer Jason Kidd was another person
who was up for the Smashing Pumpkins’ skinbeater job, but he’s got a bum
shoulder and had to turn down the job for health reasons. Actually, I’d say
that in general, not being the drummer for Smashing Pumpkins is good for
your health… Loose Diamonds have a CD release for their Fresco Fiasco at the Cactus Cafe tonight. The album is named after a mix of vodka, tabasco
sauce and grapefruit soda. No, wait, that would be a Fresca Fiasco…
More movie music news comes in every week now, it seems. Listen for Rosie
Flores doing a Butch Hancock song in the new film Heavy, and keep your
ear open for Tom Petty covering Lucinda Williams in the upcoming She’s the
One… Radio ratings came out last week and Howard Stern went off on a tear
about KLBJ-FM and Dudley and Bob, as well as calling the Chronicle‘s
Andy Langer a “loudmouth” for his incorrect predictions beforehand about
Stern’s ratings (and Stern knows a loudmouth when he hears one). The ratings
did show that the KLBJ morning team are feeling the bite from Stern… It’s now
official that Charlie Sexton manager Tim Neece has taken a job running Direct
Events for Austin Music Hall/Backyard owner Tim O’Connor, but I used up all my
jokes when I suggested it was going to happen, so that’s all I have to say
about it now…
Contributors: Marjorie Baumgarten, Christopher Gray, Andy Langer, Margaret
Moser
This article appears in August 9 • 1996 and August 9 • 1996 (Cover).