Getting at the soul of this city requires not just description but evocation. There are so many threads including geography, physical reality, history, and culture, but also spirituality and politics. When they are interwoven – sometimes meticulously, sometimes recklessly – into a vast richly-colored tapestry, it offers a multi-dimensional invocation of Austin where the past, the present, and the future are one.
You don’t have to believe in magic for it to happen.
I
MUSIC
There are parts of Austin’s story that can only be told by detailing music events, which, though local, often resonate far beyond this community.
Some examples: When prohibition ended, Kenneth Threadgill opened a small gas station and beer joint on North Lamar. This modest setting a couple of decades later is where Janis Joplin finally began to really get comfortable performing; as a Wednesday night regular, Joplin started to really work the way to her style.
When Ermant “Jr.” Franklin helped form the Mighty Clouds Of Joy in the fifties, the goal was not to change gospel, but they did.
Jimmie Vaughan moved to Austin in 1969. His brother Stevie came a few years later. Half a decade after he got here, Jimmie formed The Fabulous Thunderbirds with Kim Wilson. Less than a year later Clifford opened Antone’s. Not that long after Stevie Ray Vaughan’s band became a trio called Double Trouble. And the blues in America were never the same.
One event that significantly impacted the local music scene didn’t even happen in Austin but instead 75 miles to the south. The Sex Pistols played Randy’s Rodeo in San Antonio on January 8, 1978. It was music and theater, it was lousy and brilliant – somehow both more than just music but also less. In a way the band, though clearly contemptuous of its audience, offered a liberating challenge – you can do this! So many clearly heard this call and did.
II
PUNK
The Sex Pistols didn’t survive their tour but seeds were sown. Only a few weeks after the show, in early February The Violators – Jesse Sublett (The Skunks), Carla Olsen (The Textones), Kathy Valentine (The GoGos), and Marilyn Dean – played Raul’s, a Tejano bar on Guadalupe. “Call it punk, call it new wave; whatever it’s called,” Margaret Moser wrote in The Austin Sun, “it’s made its way to Austin’s music scene … The Violators are not only loud, but are predominantly female and young.”
The Skunks were already there, soon followed by The Next, another seminal Austin punk band.
But it was the Huns’ debut show in September 1978 that broke things wide open when it was busted by the police. The ridiculous incident – which in ways was the perfect extended performance piece for the show – led to an explosion of punk and new wave bands: The Big Boys, Butthole Surfers, The Dicks, Scratch Acid, Poison 13, Meat Joy, The Offenders, The Standing Waves, Terminal Mind, Joe “King” Carrasco and the Crowns, and many more.
III
FILM
Since the early 1960s there were short films being made by ambitious young Texas filmmakers, a number of whom went on to notable careers. Tobe Hooper made The Heisters (1964) and Down Friday Street (1966) before directing Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and Poltergeist (1982). A Hell of a Note (1977) director Eagle Pennell helmed The Whole Shooting Match (1978), which inspired Sundance, and Last Night at the Alamo (1983). David Schmoeller’s short The Spider Will Kill You (1976) led to features including Seduction and Puppet Master. Kevin Reynolds expanded his short Proof (1980) into the feature Fandango, and becoming tight with Kevin Costner got him directing jobs including Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and Waterworld. All of these talents were focused on film, with the Radio, Television and Film (RTF) department at the University of Texas home for most of them.
In the wake of the Sex Pistols, Raul’s became the center of a wild creative community. Almost everyone was in, or worked with, a band. But there was a flood of other activities – posters and t-shirts being produced, theater and performance pieces staged, fanzines published.
This scene wasn’t just film and wasn’t just music. Instead from 1979 to 1981, punk and film came together in a truly unique way. Raul’s folks wrote, directed, worked on and/or acted in some of the best films to come out of the RTF department as well as the scene in general.
Re-Cords and Huns drummer Tom Huckabee directed the Death of Jim Morrison, starring music writer Jeff Whittington as Morrison with a cast that included fellow Hun Phil Tolstead and The Norvells’ Sally Norvell.
Radio Fre [sic] Europe’s Brian Hansen directed and did the soundtrack for Speed of Light starring Norvell. The cast included the Huns’ Dan Transmission, the Re-Cords’ Bert Crews and Nick Modern, a Sluggo editor. Lin Keller, lead vocalist for the Re-Cords, was script supervisor on Speed of Light, and sings the film’s closing song, “Birthday Song,” written by the Re-Cords.
David Boone produced the Super 8 epic Invasion of the Aluminum People. Ed Lowry, Missy Boswell, and I produced Fair Sisters.
And then there was Mask of Sarnath.
IV
HORROR, MASK
Neil Ruttenberg was involved in every aspect of the Austin punk/film/music scene. As the Rev. Neil X he had a radio show on KUT-FM. He played in and wrote songs for Radio Fre Europe and F Systems. He worked at Inner Sanctum, the hip record store and daytime social center for the scene. Being a film graduate student, he naturally decided to make a movie. He asked if I would produce it, which of course I did. Neil had no interest in making a serious or arty film student film. Instead, he was going for a pedal to the metal genre effort: a classic horror film.
Neil wrote and directed Mask of Sarnath, I produced, fellow film student Nina Nichols starred, and the cast included Standing Waves’ Larry Seaman and the Huns’ Dan Transmission. My future partner in The Austin Chronicle and SXSW, Nick Barbaro, did the credits.
Student productions are shot over many weeks, so communication with talent and crew is often difficult. Since we were all hanging out at Raul’s, at least checking in every evening, we had no problem conveying location and call times to everyone.
Once production actually began, gathering folks proved to be easier than actually starting shooting. So one of my jobs was pushing production along. Neil was doing all the creative work; as producer, I bought cold cuts, made spaghetti for everyone, listened to complaints, worked on scheduling, and tracked down the occasional latecomer.
UT’s film equipment, not just old but brutalized by generations of inexperienced students, broke almost as often as it worked. This didn’t help the pace of the production, but the cast loved it because it meant lots of breaks. As crappy as the equipment was, we did get the best of what was available as I was friends with the Production Area Supervisor. On a regular basis we would duck out of the building to smoke pot.
One day, during a long shoot I realized Neil was not at his best, beginning to fade before we were done shooting. Usually he was consistently focused and enthusiastic. It turned out he had gone on a date the night before which ended well for him, but not for the production. So I told him he was no longer allowed to have sex the evening before a shoot. On those nights I’d hang out at Neil’s house with his roommate listening to jazz, blues, and obscure New Orleans cuts – on guard against Neil’s desires.
Neil knew exactly what he wanted. Cast and crew worked hard to get it. We were all proud of the finished film. Not only was it a finalist in the student Academy Awards, but it earned a cult reputation in certain circles.
V
JONATHAN DEMME
There is power and mystery in Austin, Texas. As graduate film students, we were fans of director Jonathan Demme, whose films at that point included Caged Heat, Crazy Mama, Citizens Band, and Melvin and Howard. He would go on to direct Stop Making Sense, Something Wild, and Silence of the Lambs.
We wrote him a letter and, much to our surprise, he got in touch. It turned out Demme was not just familiar with, but fascinated by, the music coming out of Austin. A friend had made him a mix tape called LBJ and Beyond, featuring the work of Terminal Mind, the Huns, the Skunks, F-Systems, Radio Fre Europe, Standing Waves, the Gator Family, the Explosives, and D-Day.
Soon he came to visit because he was working on a script with Austin writer and legend Bud Shrake. At first he was disappointed because “what had attracted me in the first place (the native music) had practically vanished with the demise of Raul’s.” Still, we took him to hear a lot of music while also eating significant amounts of barbecue. His last night here I asked if he wanted to see some local films.
Later he commented, “But then the thing about Austin that turned my head around – the native films – was totally unexpected. The really startling thing, though, given the chance to view several top-notch Austin-made films in the course of my brief trip there, was the exciting discovery of the epic fusion between Austin film and Austin music. For as it turns out, the majority of these short movies were made by the very same music people whose work had lured me down there in the first place.”
He went on, “Maybe more than any place else, the potential creative cross-fertilization of new music and new cinema has found a breeding ground in Austin.”
Not just an enthusiast, Demme was a creative force who leaned towards action. In October 1981, “Jonathan Demme presents: Made in Texas, New Films From Austin” was the season opening program at the Collective for Living Cinema in New York. There were not just excellent reviews but a lot of interest from the film community.
VI
DEMME AND MASK
Demme wrote, “Neil Ruttenberg, writer/director of Mask of Sarnath, a truly creepy, frightening horror film, was a member of Radio Fre Europe (“Alien Day”) and F-Systems (“People”). Larry Seaman (of Standing Waves) is in Mask, with Dan Transmission (of the Huns) being murdered in one scene to the strains of the Huns’ “Busy Kids.”
Later he noted “…NONE OF WHICH IS TO SAY that members of the Austin combine are above bringing in creative elements from outside sources. When Ruttenberg was preparing Mask of Sarnath he wrote to England’s Throbbing Gristle to find out if they would be interested in scoring the film when it was completed. Gristle wrote back requesting a copy of the script and enough money to cover studio costs in London. Ruttenberg did as requested and received back shortly thereafter tapes that contained Throbbing Gristle’s spooky, imaginative music that now underscores Mask’s gruesome narrative.”
VII
THE PRESENT IS THE PAST IS THE PRESENT
Often the future is just the past catching up.
A HORROR FEST AND PUNK SHOW; A CELEBRATION OF FILM AND MUSIC
4pm SUN., NOV 9, HOTEL VEGAS
The original MASK OF SARNATH
HER DOG SATAN (1991) Dir. by Scott Conn
MASK OF SARNATH – THE NIGHTMARE CUT Dir. by Neil Ruttenberg & Zane Ruttenberg
With ORIGINAL UNHEARD SCORE BY THROBBING GRISTLE!
With Music by:
F-SYSTEMS (REUNION)
LARRY SEAMAN
Read Richard Whittaker’s interview with Neil Ruttenberg, “New Version of Seminal Austin Horror Brings a Lost Throbbing Gristle Soundtrack to Light.”