Mar 312006
 

I attended an interview with Henry Rollins during SXSW which was mainly to promote his new show on IFC, which starts tomorrow tonight. In that interview, Rollins was asked about the status of his music career. He essentially responded that he still likes music, but it doesn’t like him, ie that he’d love to keep playing, but not enough people show up anymore to make it feasible for him to continue. Well, a Rollins blog entry this week indicates that “he’s puttin’ the band back together, man” and it’s not that crappy deal he had going for the last several years. It’s the Chris Haskett, Sim Cain, Melvin Gibbs version. August tour dates are being thrown around. I’m wondering if there’ll be an album or if it’s a one shot deal. Will I be disappointed? Probably. MTV picked this up as well.
BTW, here’s Rollins’ blog entry from the day he was in Austin which I missed when I wrote my recap. He mentions Waterloo Records, but not Maudie’s.

And speaking of Rollins, Wired pointed me to a rare video of The Monks performing in Germany. I was introduced to The Monks in the early 90’s when Rollins’s short-lived reissue label, Infinite Zero, put out Black Monk Time.

 Posted by on March 31, 2006 at 4:00 pm

Good Cop, Bad Cop

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Mar 312006
 

All the national press last week about the TABC crackdown in bars is following the inevitable progression. Of course, the bars, restaurants and tourism boards went running to the Lege as they saw dollars exiting Texas for more permissive pastures. We can’t have any irresponsible drinking in bars unless it affects the tourism dollars and tax base, so I guess it’s ok again. There’s a hearing between TABC and The House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee on April 17th about the issue. The question now is what the TABC will decide to do next with that extra funding and people that it got last summer, but now probably can’t use cracking down on people in bars. I’m sure they’ll find some other parade to rain on.

I didn’t link it last time, but Kelso had a mildly amusing take on the whole thing.

 Posted by on March 31, 2006 at 11:24 am
Mar 312006
 

The Devil and Daniel Johnston, a documentary featuring one of Austin’s most well-known underground (do those go together?) eccentric artists, Daniel Johnston, hits limited release today. Of course, if it’s limited, it’s not playing here yet. I’m sure Dobie or Alamo will get it at some point later this spring or summer.

I mentioned the film last year when it appeared as part of SXSW. Some are comparing the film to Crumb, one of my all-time favorite documentaries. Kenneth Turan reviewed it this morning on NPR and was underwhelmed. He faulted the film’s length and its tendency to overdo its reverence for Johnston. I do like Johnston’s stuff, but I have to agree with Turan that it’s hard to justify the level of praise that’s heaped on him. MTV, predictably, takes the Kurt Cobain angle on the story.

One could argue that Johnston’s sort of the embodiment of Austin, a little weird and unstable, lots of creativity, well-regarded, but not completely mainstream. Of course, all of that could describe Roky Erickson as well. Are they both a product of a screwed up Texas mental health system? Is it just that Austin is the only place in this state where people like Roky and Daniel feel comfortable? I don’t hear about artists like this from Phoenix.

 Posted by on March 31, 2006 at 10:45 am

Lone Star Rod & Kustom Round-Up

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Mar 312006
 

Rounduptop.gifYou’ll want to avoid South Congress between Town Lake and Oltorf this weekend unless you’re attending the Lone Star Rod & Kustom Round-Up. Steve Wertheimer’s Contintental Club will be ground zero. Trophy’s has got a good looking show tonight with Grady and Honky for $10 as part of the festivities. I’d point you to their site, but it appears to be offline. The Google cached version has my band as the last night listed back in November. I swear we didn’t have anything to do with it.

Speaking of my band, I’ll shamelessly plug our in-store performance at End of an Ear tomorrow at 6pm in celebration of the release of our new CD on Mortville Records. If anything, it’s not on South Congress, but I’ll probably head over that way afterwards to check out the Bloody Tears and Red Light Burlesque at Continental Club. We played a part in the festivities at FlyRite Choppers last year.

 Posted by on March 31, 2006 at 10:25 am

StoryCorps Follow-up

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Mar 312006
 

Following on my StoryCorps post, KUT reported this morning that the first half of the slots for the Austin booth filled up in nine minutes yesterday, which is apparently the fastest any of the booths has been booked. I was a dumbass and forgot to do it. If you forgot too, another set of slots will open up on April 7th at 10am. You’d better be fast though.

 Posted by on March 31, 2006 at 10:12 am