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Going home with a Grammy: In the big categories, Texans did phenomenally
well, led by Shawn Colvin who was awarded both Record and Song of the Year for
"Sunny Came Home." Dallas' Erykah Badu took two awards, collecting R&B Album and
Female Vocal of the Year. It was nice to see La Mafia, Roy Hargrove, and God's
Property also bring home the goods. There were a few amusingly alarming moments
to talk about, too. When Colvin and songwriting partner John Leventhal walked to
the stage to accept their Song of the Year award, Wu-Tang Clan's Ol' Dirty
Bastard grabbed the microphone and boasted about his band. Later, he was removed
from the hall. Also, a strange man danced on stage shirtless with the words "Soy
Bomb" painted on his chest while Bob Dylan played. He, too, was removed. And
perhaps most strange and beautiful of all, Aretha Franklin filled in for an ill
Luciano Pavarotti by singing his signature aria Nessun Dorma from
Puccini's Turandot. Now that's talent!
 Swingin' in Cyberspace: Here's a great example of the fusion of popular music and Internet technology: Virtual Voyager, a project of the Houston Chronicle online. Providing reporting crews with digital cameras, audio equipment, and laptops, Virtual Voyager has sent journalists out on assignment around the world and allowed them to report back about their experiences via video and audio on the Web. The newest installment tunes in to Chronicle writers Mark Evangelista and Rick Mitchell, who are on the road with Texas' kings of western swing, Asleep at the Wheel. Provided the technology is current, "visitors to the site can meet band members, view historical videos and clips from the road, tune into audio segments, and laugh along with Asleep at the Wheel's joke of the day." This Voyager thing is a great idea -- I'm already imagining future episodes: "Cocktail Hour with Charles Barkley," and maybe, "Endgame: life on the Chess circuit with IBM's Deep Blue." Tinseltown tunes: Texas music will soon be emanating from as many speakers at movie theaters as from nightclubs. Singing cowboy Don Walser's contributions on Robert Redford's upcoming film The Horse Whisperer has been well-documented; but how many are aware that west Texas native Terry Allen has just finished the soundtrack for the new film Baby Dance for Jodie Foster's Egg Productions? Scheduled for an August airdate on Showtime, the film stars Laura Dern and Stockard Channing. Furthermore, Austin's Bad Livers did the music to Richard Linklater's latest, The Newton Boys, starring Ethan Hawke, Matthew McConaughey, Juliana Margulies, and Skeet Ulrich. That film will have its world premier in mid-March at the SXSW film festival. On the Record: Three Texas bands had significant releases last month -- two currently on Trance Syndicate and one that used to be on the indie label before they signed with a major. Founded by Butthole Surfers drummer King Coffey, there's a certain consonance among the sounds of these Trance bands (not to say that they sound the same -- they don't). Does this herald the coalescence of a scene -- that fabled convergence of sound and iconoclasm that ultimately attracts ravenous corporate labels to a signing-frenzy? Will the explosions that occurred in Athens, Georgia and Seattle, Washington happen in Texas with bands of this type? Or will the hype just peter out with a quiet resignation to normalcy?
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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.
