Saturday afternoon the news of the Cactus Café’s closing hit the Internet with the force of a hurricane. I felt lucky, since I planned to attend the Todd Snider show in the Union Ballroom that night and I’ve got a good relationship with Griff Luneburg, the venue manager.
He looked a little more harried than usual when I first saw him, as he scampered around preparing for the night’s show. As we commiserated about the news, he informed me that he was notified of the decision one hour before it was announced on Friday afternoon. Otherwise all he said was, “I’ve got a story to tell and I’ll tell you sometime.”
I’ve tried to reach him a couple of times since then, with no response, so we’re still waiting to hear his story. All I can say at this point is that losing a place like the Cactus would be devastating to the Austin music community. Moving it to another space, as suggested at yesterday’s meeting, wouldn’t save the place unless you can move all the music inside its walls with it. It should be declared a landmark and left alone.
I’ve never witnessed the Trishas before their set in the Ballroom Saturday, where they opened for Great American Taxi and Todd Snider. Their brand of acoustic gospel, country, and blues performed with ethereal four-part harmonies brought to mind a folkier, youthful version of the Dixie Chicks. That they’re attractive young women seems to have some folks in Nashville, where it’s always about looks first, already swooning over them. Appearances aside, this is a band with a golden road ahead of them and the potential to be one of the biggest acts out of Central Texas in a very long time.
Before the Cactus news exploded, I had planned on writing about the Dukes of Stratosphear. As any fan of XTC can tell you, the Dukes were an alter ego of the band that recorded two discs of brilliant psychedelic guitar pop in the mid-1980s. Feeding into the fact that there are few record-collecting completists like XTC completists, they’ve released an ornate box set, The Complete & Utter Dukes, which collects their entire catalog along with enough extras to make it a must-have.
Besides remasters of the 25 O’Clock EP and Psonic Psunspot LP, both with unreleased demos, it contains a jigsaw puzzle, t-shirt, rare 7-inch single, and vinyl copies of both. It’s the music that makes it all attractive though. More than just a rehash of sounds from 1967, echoes of the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Beach Boys, the Hollies, and the Electric Prunes abound. The Dukes made timeless, hook-filled pop that deserves to be heard by anyone who likes their rock with inventive yet familiar touchstones.
This article appears in January 29 • 2010.