Broadway Bound
Darin Murphy is well-known around Austin for his uncanny renditions of Beatles songs, even posting them on DarinMusic.com as the “Fab Fourgeries.” Now Broadway audiences are about to get a taste. Murphy recently signed on as an understudy for Lennon, the new musical from writer/director Don Scardino that premieres in July at the Great White Way’s Broadhurst Theater. Murphy, who had no previous theatrical experience, wrangled an audition by convincing a friend to tell Scardino about the Fourgeries. The director listened to them and flipped. “We hit it off immediately,” Murphy says. “There was a terrific chemistry, and I had a really strong audition.” In addition to John Lennon’s songs, Scardino also asked Murphy to sing “Boxing Day” from 2001’s Haunted Gardenias CD. When he got called back for a second audition in December, Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono – who also OK’d the use of three previously unreleased songs – was in the audience. “I didn’t actually meet her, but she was right there front and center, looking majestic,” Murphy reports. Concentrating on the years after he met Ono, Lennon celebrates Lennon’s life by shifting between his notable attributes: the clown, the bohemian, the rock star, the househusband, and so forth. “Everyone picks up different aspects of his personality as he’s searching for the real John,” says Murphy, who plays one last local gig at Flipnotics Saturday before rehearsals start in New York Feb. 14. “By the end of the show, he’s finally content with who he is.”
Project Mayhem
Local electro-prog trio the Octopus Project‘s second full-length, One Ten Hundred Thousand Million (Peek-a-Boo), is finally ready for public consumption, with guests galore. “We had a bunch of friends that played trombone and violin come in and help us out on some things,” says OP guitarist Josh Lambert. “I guess we’re experimenting a little bit more with that.” Other friends showed up to help out on guitar, keyboard, flute, and piano for the album, which Lambert figures took about a year and a half to record. “We know a bunch of talented kids,” he smiles. “I don’t know – it only makes us look better.” The Project – Lambert, wife and keyboardist Yvonne, and drummer/beat-maker Toto Miranda – recorded most of the album at home and Sound Team space Big Orange, with pal Eric Wofford doing some mixing at his Cacophony studios. “When we first started recording, we were listening to a lot of Deerhoof,” Lambert says. “We really liked their loud drums and crazy noises and whatnot.” In its Dec. 20 issue, Entertainment Weekly lauded the Project’s own crazy noises, singling out the live “Music Is Happiness” as “ecstatic 23rd century dance rock.” “Aunts and stuff that we never talk to were calling to say they saw it,” says Lambert. “A lot more people read that than I actually thought.”
Amarillo by Morning
Still singing songs about the Heartland and murder on Music Row, moonlit skies, and stars on the water – and name-dropping his old Broken Spoke stomping grounds – George Strait put his faith in Central Texas at a packed-to-the-rafters Frank Erwin Center Friday by numbering eight out of 10 musicians in his backing Ace in the Hole band from San Marcos, San Antonio, and Austin, including fiddler Gene Elders. “Sit back and leave the driving to us,” grinned Sir Tractor Supply. “Milk Cow Blues” was never in better hands.
Docs on the Docket
Eccentric rock geniuses, including several with local ties, dominate the music-film field at this year’s SXSW Film Festival. Tops on the list is The Devil and Daniel Johnston, which just took home Best Director – Documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival for Jeff Feuerzeig. “It’s beautiful,” says SXSW Film Producer Matt Dentler. Margaret Brown‘s Be Here to Love Me, her much-awaited Townes Van Zandt bio, will premiere, as will Bay area filmmaker Kevin McCallister‘s look at Roky Erickson, You’re Gonna Miss Me. The Flaming Lips aren’t quite local, but they might as well be; they’ll be on hand to tout Bradley Beesley‘s look at their life and times, Fearless Freaks. One of the most interesting might be All We Are Saying, actress and filmmaker Rosanna Arquette‘s meandering look at today’s music biz through the eyes of OutKast, Sting, Aerosmith, and Radiohead, to name a few. “This really was the year of the music doc,” Dentler says. “With the exposure given stuff like the Metallica documentary and DiG!, I think people have much more of a taste for this kind of stuff.”
Bullet the Blue Sky
• The Red River ranks swelled by one Jan. 25 when Room 710 owners Woody and Adriana Wiedeman welcomed firstborn Weston Robert into the fold. The proud parents are already preparing young Weston for his dual careers as 710 soundboard relief man and situational lefthander for the Houston Astros.
• Following her Hole in the Wall show Friday, Jane Bond heads to L.A. to record a four-song demo under the auspices of Taj Mahal producer Tony Braunagle; backing her in the studio will be members of Tom Petty‘s and Bonnie Raitt‘s bands. Bond also appears solo at L.A.’s Genghis Cohen Feb. 12 before heading home for a Valentine’s Day gig at Whole Foods North.
• Ruta Maya is having an all-day tsunami benefit Saturday with a garage sale, silent auction, and music from Fastball, Grupo Fantasma, Guy Forsyth, Abra Moore, Tucker Livingston, and more. Music starts at 6pm; tickets are $20.
• Charlie Sexton will take off his producer’s hat to debut material from his first album since 1995’s Under the Wishing Tree at SXSW. The as-yet-untitled record is Sexton’s first as part of a multialbum deal with singer-songwriter label and EMI offshoot Back Porch Records.
• Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Austin’s Milton Mapes join Mindy Smith, Rufus Wainwright, Neko Case, the Old 97’s, Calexico, Joseph Arthur, M. Ward, Luna, and more on Sweetheart: Love Songs. This latest entry in the Hear Music series is available now at area Starbucks.
• Anyone too preoccupied to catch Willie Nelson at his two-night Backyard stand during SXSW, have no fear: He and buddy Bob Dylan continue their minor-league ballpark tour at the Dell Diamond July 3.
• Note to certain light-fingered Snoop Dogg fans at last Thursday’s otherwise excellent Austin Music Hall show: Stealing the bartender’s tip jar doesn’t make you gangsta. It just makes you an idiot. Both of you.
• The fine folks at CrashCam Films, celebrating next month’s DVD release of their 1999 fever dream Rock Opera, are looking for people to be BongMan during SXSW. BongMan’s superpowers include laser-beam eyes, a gargling-bubble sonic attack, and, of course, his “debilitating smokescreen.” E-mail bob@crashcamfilms if interested.
DJ Pandora 1975-2005
Katherine Hastings, better known around Austin as DJ Pandora, passed away Jan. 25 at age 29. Pandora, who DJed at Beerland’s Disco Hospital for several months in 2003 and 2004, was en route to San Francisco when she died from a drug overdose at a friend’s house. Besides being a DJ and musician in New York’s the Witches and SF’s Riverbottom Nightmare, Pandora was a trained circus performer and once caught fire while stilt-walking and fire-breathing at a Porno for Pyros show. She lived several places during her life, including Round Rock, Tokyo, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and the Dallas suburb of Southlake, where her family will hold a memorial today (Thursday). Condolences can also be sent online to allfaithsonline.com/condolences1.html (enter “Pandora” on name line). Pandora’s MySpace.com profile described her as “a storm in the form of a girl,” and few who knew her would argue.This article appears in February 4 • 2005.