Texas Music News
Jordan Mackay contributed to this regular Ranch feature from October, 1997 to August, 1998.
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. . .And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead [self-titled] (Trance Syndicate): This band has developed a reputation around Austin for a capacity for violence: in their music as well as in the occasional and willful destruction of their instruments. Their album backs this up on the sonic end, and depicts a violence of sound that mirrors real-life violence in both its unpredictability and its occasional juxtaposition of quieter scenes of beauty. You can hear Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine in this music, and it maintains the atmospheric yet dissonant Trance tradition. On headphones some of the noise on this album can create headaches, but is that such a bad thing?
Bedhead Transaction de Novo (Trance Syndicate): This Dallas group’s third album similarly upholds its label’s good name, but in a different way altogether from the aforementioned group. Don’t get too energized to see this band live, because they’ve taken minimalism to new minimums. But on the album, I kind of love it. First songs usually attempt to encapsulate the mood, spirit, or sound of an album. Transaction’s first song is meant to blow you away . . .with softness. “Exhume” starts so slowly—guitar and bass building on quiet, methodical, alternating sonorities—that the vocals don’t begin until minute three of the four-minute song. A little bell provides the only percussion. There are some livelier songs on the album, but even those such as “Extramundane” have a moribund, blood-moving-slowly-through-your-arteries feeling that is a pleasant change of pace.
Sixteen Deluxe Emits Showers of Sparks (Warner Records): This Austin band has received tons of good press for this album, and deservedly so. It marks the group’s decisive foray into committed pop music. And as singer Carrie Clark croons in “Let it go—Hey, it’s alright.” There’s still plenty of the band’s trademark guitar noise, but there’s also a more melodic, accessible pop-groove to it. Is it more sophisticated? In a way, yes: this record deftly integrates sonic improvisations with newfound pop sensibilities.
—Jordan Mackay (3/1/98)
Best of the Fests, Michael Fracasso, The Hunger
Best of the Fests: This is music festival season in Texas. Musicians everywhere are taking time out of their recording and touring schedules to gear up for days and days of performances, sounding through both the open air and the dark smoke-filled regions of our state. Of course the South by Southwest music fest gets underway this week. The festival, held in Austin, may be the largest in the country and offers a great opportunity for the interested to discover new bands from Texas and around the world. I noted quite a few groups venturing from Dublin, Tokyo, and London this year, and I’m not talking about the Texas counterparts of these cities. Nevertheless, SXSW really remains a Texas festival, and the people who book the showcases deserve credit for keeping the list heavy with Texas groups. I’m not going to bother listing all the notable bands coming to town in this space, so if you’re curious, check out the schedule yourself at the SXSW homepage.
Other festivals in April are worth marking on your calendar. The Old Settlers Music Festival in Round Rock, April 3 & 4, will feature an acoustic set by Grammy-winner Shawn Colvin as well as Lubbock native Jimmie Dale Gilmore and some of his friends. Out-of-state bluegrass stars Bela Fleck and Jerry Douglas will also come to town. A Tribute to the Golden Era of Country Music with western swing legends Hank Thompson and the Brazos Valley Boys and Dale Watson will take place on April 4 at the Bronco Bowl. And Houston’s International Festival, April 18 - 26, will bring Denton’s polka stars Brave Combo and spirited rockers The Old ’97s (from Dallas) as well as an “international” component including reggae great Burning Spear. Also look out for the Bowie Street Blues Fest in San Antonio featuring W.C. Clark and the Blues Review.
On the record: Michael Fracasso World in a Drop of Water (Bohemia Beat): You believe Michael Fracasso when he belts out the declarative opening lines of the first song, “Hospital:” “Don’t ask me about the ever after/ I’m living in the here and now.” This third album from the Austin singer-songwriter is his cleanest, most seamless offering yet, and though Fracasso sings of living in the moment, the songs have a timeless feel to them. He delivers a throwback quality with Orbison-like singing on the upbeat “Started on the Wrong Foot,” and the folksy “Gold.” His ultra-sincere, clear-throated voice is perfectly matched with his intelligent songwriting and the album features superb guitar playing and instrumentals as supplied by backup musicians, including Charlie Sexton, who also produced the CD. (And he did a fine job, I might add. It’s got a great sound).
The Hunger Cinematic Superthug (Universal): Houston brothers Jeff and Thomas Wilson, both vocalists and keyboard players, began playing with bassist Brian Albritton in 1991 and issued the self-produced single,”Never Again.” Adding guitarist and drummer Max Schuldberg, the band now finds itself at the moment of the release of its fourth album—its first on a nationwide label. The style here is what I’ve heard called “Techno-Rock” and has the distorted power guitar riffing of hard rock mixed with techno drums and synthesizers to give it an edgy, rave-like feel. I may be crazy, but it all sounds kind of eighties to me and the songs—titles like “Hey God,” “Whore,” and “Anarchy”—are offered with an all-too-heartfelt Billy Idolish sneer. The band is metronome tight and as singers, the Wilsons possess these kind of pre-fab rock voices that complete the paradigm. I imagine that there are a great deal of teen rockers out there who will eat this stuff up.
—Jordan Mackay (3/18/98)
Soused by Southwest
Viva La Mafia: Do you know the difference between tejano and mexicano-regional music? Well, neither does the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), those people who produce the grammies. Houston’s La Mafia won the 1998 grammy for best tejano/Mexican-American performance for the album En Tus Manos, the sextet’s second consecutive Grammy. Before the trophy had even cooled off, however, they were hearing complaints from one of the losers, San Jose, California’s Los Tigres Del Norte. Los Tigres, who have been nominated for ten grammies and won only one, cried foul at the voting process on two accounts: that the voting is skewed towards Texas’ Latin population, giving Texas bands an advantage; and that Los Tigres is not a tejano group. “That’s like putting Garth Brooks or Madonna in that category,” says Los Tigres manager Alfoso de Alba. “You do that and they would win every time. There needs to be two categories—tejano and mexicano regional.” He has a point, not only are Los Tigres not tejano, but La Mafia is becoming less and less tejano as they travel the globe picking up new styles. “They have much more a world music sound now,” says La Mafia publicist Abel Salas. I talked to Freddie Martinez, Jr. who helps run Freddie Records in Corpus Christi and who also chairs the Texas chapter of NARAS. He agrees about the need for another category and, in fact, says he’s been diligently working to that end for the last couple of years. But as far as unfair voting practices, he says “no way.” In fact, Los Tigres’ complaints, says Martinez, are “a sign of sour grapes, I think, but also show a lack of understanding of the voting process.” None of this fazes La Mafia, though, who are definitely at the peak of their long career. Not only have they won grammies, played to huge crowds in Texas and elsewhere, but they recently received a deal to do commercials for Jumex, the Mexican juice company (think guava nectar). In and of itself, that may not sound significant, but it’s a big deal for a foreign group to be popular enough in Mexico to land a prime endorsement contract. As for Los Tigres, perhaps NARAS will get the picture by the time next year’s grammies roll around.
Blues club opens its Gates: Friday, April 10, saw the public grand opening of Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown’s Dallas club, One Foot in the Bayou. The Dallas Morning News reports that it “bears more than a passing resemblance to the House of Blues nightclubs. Colorful folk art pieces and corrugated metal cover the walls, and the club glows with light from cathedral-style fixtures and a candle-lined religious shrine.” Brown is one of the most influential and revered of Texas’ blues guitarists and at 73, he played the opening night with impressive spunk.
On the record: The Horse Whisperer (MCA Nashville) .
When I first heard word of the Robert Redford film about a guy who talks to horses I was pretty non-plussed. It’s the same reason I’ve never read All the Pretty Horses—I know it’s a great book, but I just can’t get around all this horse stuff. Reservations aside, I put on the soundtrack yesterday and was unexpectedly carried off to the open prairie—and not by horseback. The album opens with a cheerful Dwight Yoakum cover of the Tex Owens song “Cattle Call.” The guitar-strummed, accordion-accompanied waltz reminds me of the joys of sand-laden winds coming off the acrid plains and eating beans straight out of the can with a cup of stiff black coffee, and Yoakum’s soaring yodels make you feel right welcome by the campfire. Other highlights include the bona fide Flatlanders reunion on “South Wind of Summer.” Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock have been around Texas enough to know something about ranching and horses and it comes through in their music, even if it sounds a little sappy. Gillian Welch does a beautiful turn with an austere tune called “Leaving Train.” And there’s plenty from other Texans Lucinda Williams (“Still I Long for Your Kisses”), Don Walser (“Big Ball’s in Cowtown”—that apostrophe after ball is crucial to a proper understanding of the song), and Steve Earle (the soulful “Me and the Eagle”). I’ll whisper you this: If the movie’s as good as the soundtrack, I might just go see it.
—Jordan Mackay (4/15/98)
My Library
