Thursday, December 3rd

Bowling for Soup, Riddlin Kids, Smile Smile, Cruiserweight

Get your tween punk-lite gear out, Bowling for Soup will be playing Emo’s tonight at 10 pm.  Tickets are $10 and you can buy them here.

Friday, December 4th

Raul Malo

KGSR and Antone’s present an intimate evening with Raul Malo Benefiting The Christmas Bureau of Austin at Antone’s at 8:30 pm.  Tickets are $25 with a good cause!  Buy them here.

KISS, Buckcherry

Check out KISS with Buckcherry at the Frank Erwin Center tomorrow night at 8:30 pm.  Tickets start at $49.50 and if you’re super-excited, you can even buy a meet and greet experience package complete with Gene Simmons face-licking!  Okay, maybe not that last part.  But if you have spare cash and need a reason to check out KISS, try reading my Entertainment Value Considered blog posting.

Saturday, which includes a beloved Latin rock band and one of Cash daughters playing for FREE, after the jump!!

Saturday, December 5th

Vallejo, Love and War, Ryan Harkrider

Latin rock band Vallejo visits Antone’s on Saturday.  Doors open at 9 pm.  Tickets are only$10 and you can buy them here.

Rosanne Cash

Rosanne’s will play a FREE show at Waterloo Records Saturday at 11am!

KGSR started broadcasting on 93.3 today at 5pm. They will broadcast on 107.1 and 93.3 for ten days, then 107.1 will become a Mexican music station. Noel calls KGSR K-geezer, because it is more mature than it is young and hip these days. I don’t disagree with her really. While it is one of my favorite Austin radio stations, it is also a reason why I listen to my iPod most of all.

I think KGSR is like a smart, funny and handsome guy who doesn’t shower often enough. I get annoyed by them more only because they could be so good.

I love that you can hear Bob Marley, Spoon and Van Morrison all on the same station. But, when they play reggae, why is it always the same three Bob Marley songs and until just recently they only played Spoon at odd hours and do we really need to hear Brown Eyed Girl again? Does it really count as diverse and imaginative if it is a bland version of diversity and imagination?

The DJs are my favorite annoying thing. Here are Mad Libs for a KGSR DJ air break – “I’m sad to share the news that <name you don’t know> passed away last night. Of coarse, he is known for playing bass on the first <band you don’t know> album recorded in <some city> at <a random name> studio in <a year a long time ago>. None of his work is in print, but I have a cassette tape of his first demo and it is really special.  It is sad to loose him.”

While I love and appreciate musicians and their music, as far as living and dying goes, I don’t think they are any more special than anyone else and I don’t really need to know when each one of them passes away.

The root of the problem is the Music Head delima. KGSR is a station for people who love music and the DJs are the people who love music the most, they live and breathe music, it is in their blood. But, anytime someone lives and breathes something, they eventually become, well, how do I say this…. boring. In an everyday life of the non-Music Head, with kids and jobs and neighbors and friends, it really isn’t interesting anymore who played bass on the third track of the first album. The more someone really, really knows music, the less he has in common with people who have other things going on.

Bryan Beck and Andy Langer are Music Heads. God Bless them. They know a lot about music. And with the new Late Show, on from 8-10am during the week, they are trying to connect with the common folk. My favorite is when they try to talk about American Idol. First, they apologize for ten mintues to the Music Head portion of their audience for talking about popular culture. By the time they are done, they should have another apology ready for the folks who like popular culture and are offended by the need for the first apology. Then they try to say something interesting about the show even though it is obvious they didn’t watch it. It feels like watching the adolescent guy flirt with the cute older girl in a coming of age movie. It is awkward and endearing and sometimes painful.

I know what they should do with the Late Show. They should hire a third DJ who is NOT a Music Head. Someone who isn’t really an expert on anything, but who makes funny and interesting conversation. Brian and Andy could teach her about music and she could teach them about American Idol and it would bridge the gap between the Music Heads and the rest of us who have kids and jobs and neighbors and friends, none of whom played bass on the third track of the first album for any band.

If KGSR could clean up its act that way, become a little less Music Head and a little more real, then all that would be left is the smart, funny and handsome parts. That would make it worth turning off the iPod and tuning in to KGSR 93.3.

Pocket Pick

Free

8 p.m.

Shady Grove

1624 Barton Springs Rd
Austin, Tx

You HAVE to get here early for a good seat. Bring a chair for the lawn, just in case. Weather permitted.

Theshadygrove.com

Free

See schedule below

Whole Foods
525 N Lamar
Austin, TX

Free live music all day long at the downtown store. If you feel like being generous, you can also get your shopping done there; 5% of the total sales of both stores today will be donated to the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians. Word is Alejandro Escovedo will be downtown at 9 a.m. also for KGSR’s broadcast.

6:00am – Kevin Welch

7:00am – Ian McLagan

8:00am – Wendy Colonna

9:00am – Terri Hendrix

12:30pm – Patricia Vonne

5:30pm – Seth Walker

6:45pm – Band of Heathens

Wholefoods.com

Pocket Pick

Free

8 p.m.

Shady Grove

1624 Barton Springs Rd
Austin, Tx

You HAVE to get here early for a good seat. Bring a chair for the lawn, just in case. Weather permitted.

Theshadygrove.com

Pocket Pick

Free

8 p.m.

Shady Grove

1624 Barton Springs Rd
Austin, Tx

You HAVE to get here early for a good seat. Bring a chair for the lawn, just in case. We finally have rain, and the show is “weather permitted”, so you may want to call ahead.

Theshadygrove.com

It is Saturday morning.  The sun is shining.  The temperature is climbing.  The fog has lifted.  And I’m sitting downstairs, reading my book and listening to a station that I like over the internet.  KGSR.  It is located in Austin, Texas.

http://www.kgsr.com/Other/stream/

Going to leave for the reunion around 11 this morning.  Should have time to cut the grass and maybe even take the bike for a spin around the block.

Free

7:30 p.m.

Waterloo Park
between 12th, 15th, San Jacinto and Red River

KGSR brings local icon Carolyn Wonderland this week to on of Austin’s best summer traditions. Free parking at the garages on Trinity.

KGSR.com

Blues on the Green is a summer concert series here in Austin put on by 107.1 KGSR, and other vendors including a group I’m a part of called Etsy Austin.  I will be there tomorrow in Waterloo park at the Etsy Austin Booth. I will be selling my greeting cards and some art.  I hope to see you out there!  Carolyn Wonderland will be on stage…and did I mention that it’s free?!  The show starts at 7:30 Wednesday.

What: Etsy Austin Booth at Blues on the Green

When: Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 29th at 7:30 pm

Where: Waterloo Park 403 E. 15th Street

Jumped out of bed at 7 AM.  Had a shower and coffee.  Ready to face the day.  I was outside on the end of the lawn mower by 9 AM.  Cut the back yard.  Then I spent about 45 minutes pulling up Dandilions, before mowing the back forty (the last 15 mintes in the rain).  Got my haircut and then went over to Mark’s Work Warehouse and bought some pants and a shirt for the trip.

Chatted with a couple of friends on MSN Messenger for awhile.  Picked up a few groceries at the Supercentre.  Started packing things up.  Have to pack for two weeks, with a wash at my brothers at the end of the first week.  So at least you know that I’m not planning on wearing the same underwear for 2 full weeks.

Well the skys cleared up and the sun came out and turned into a beautiful afternoon.  Perfect for those planning BBQ’s and other outside activities.

Unfortunately, it only lasted until 5 PM when it got really black with thunder and lightening.  Just as I was settling down outside on the deck with my book  BREATHING LESSONS  by Anne Tyler.  I am quite enjoying this book.  Moving right along.

So I came downstairs to read and ended up sitting here at the computer.  Doing something that helps me to understand my life a little better. 

And, lately, whenever I’m sitting here at the computer, I’m listening to:\

http://www.kgsr.com/

Try this for a playlist:

• REM-(Don’t go back to) Rockville
• Alejandro Escoveda-Always A Friend
• Death Cab for Cutie-Little Brides
• Mavericks-Blue Moon
• Talking Heads-And She Was
• Robert Plant and Alison Krauss-Gone Gone Gone
• Duffy-Mercy
• Van Morrison-Why Must I Always Explain
• Paolo Nutini-Candy
• Wilco-You Never Know
• And something sung by Ruthie Foster

Just a sample of what I’m listening to.

A friend talked me into going to see Jonny Burke at the Saxon Pub last night, and I have to admit I was reluctant. Seems she had first come across him as the singer for the Deadringers, and they had opened for James McMurtry’s band pretty regularly. The Deadringers have gone their separate ways now, but Jonny is still opening up for James now and then. (James played after him last night at the Saxon.)

As it turned out, I was really glad I went. Jonny Burke was terrific. Here’s a video I found of him — just skip to about the 3-minute mark, because the opening dialogue is totally lame:

Jonny Burke’s voice and songwriting style reminds me of Peter Himmelman, though Jonny’s a bit more nasal and twangy (not in a bad way). His guitar playing is particularly solid; he plays methodically and with precision, and he hits the strings pretty hard. The overall sound is nice, and works well with his voice.

Plus, he writes great songs. On this video he mentions doing some studio work — I’ll look forward to that debut album.

P.S. As an added bonus last night, Roger Allen with KGSR was there, broadcasting both Jonny and James live for his show, “Lone Star State of Mind.” Anybody hear it?

Okay, I know I’ve been bad about giving you notice for cool and upcoming shows/events lately and I’m sorry to spring another one on you on such late notice again. This one is really worth checking out, I swear! The Shady Grove in partnership with KGSR is presenting local Austin musicians every Thursday night starting tonight with James McMurtry.

If you’ve never heard of James McMurtry, I can guarantee you’ve probably heard of his dad, Larry McMurtry of Lonesome Dove fame. James has been tooling around the country since the early 90’s playing alt-country, and his latest album, Just Us Kids, has been in heavy rotation on 107.1 since its release. The album is great and a good entry point into his discography, and the title track is great lazy-Saturday-drive-in-the-country kind of song. If you’re from a small town in Texas, you can definitely relate even if you have just left that town. One of his more popular songs is the war protest song “We Can’t Make It Here.” (video above)

Over the following weeks, you can check out Rhett Miller (Old 97’s), Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses, Brave Combo, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Carolyn Wonderland.

In anticipation, please enjoy my favorite Rhett Miller song, “Our Love.”

Unplugged at the Grove, every Thursday starting April 16th at 8pm. Get there early and enjoy the great food that Shady Grove has to offer while you wait!

Between work and the toe issue, I haven’t taken in any SXSW yet. But yesterday morning, I had my first SXSW discovery without even leaving home! Bob Schneider on KGSR’s SXSW broadcast from the Four Seasons performing a spectacular version of “Changing Your Mind.” LOVE it!!! The YouTube version isn’t as stellar, but it’s still a great song. Maybe I’ll have to hobble over to Auditorium Shores to catch him, although he might be up against those other Jayhawks Gary Louris/Mark Olson followed by Alejandro Escovedo at SXSan Jose, which is my Friday plan.

Any other good SXSW tips out there???

This pair of excellent singer/songwriters founded Americana giants the Jayhawks way back in 1985 and this album is the first recorded collaboration between the two since Olson left that band in 1995.  Ready For The Flood is a mostly acoustic album, putting the salt-and-pepper harmony of the two singers front and center.  Songs like “The Rose Society” and “Bicycle” are closest to the trademark Jayhawks sound, but the duo really stretch for some nice ballads, including “Saturday Morning On Sunday Street.”  At times, the songs evoke a Peter, Paul and Mary-Simon & Garfunkel 1960’s folk vibe and the program touches also on a little gospel and bluegrass.  This would be a nice album for a Sunday morning with coffee and the newspaper.

Mark Olson and Gary Louris will appear at SXSW in Austin, on Friday, March 20, at 7 p.m. in the parking lot of Jo’s Coffee Shop.  They will also appear on KGSR radio, Thursday at noon. 

MP3: “Bicycle”

Mark Olson and Gary Louris on MySpace

Alejandro Escovedo is the greatest musician working out of Texas today.  For more than 20 years, he has been a premier songwriter and a crack bandleader.  But his roots go back even farther – he comes from a musical family.  His father was a musician, his brother Coke (died 1986) was a member of Santana and the rest of his brothers are also musicians.  Alejandro was a member of seminal punk rockers the Nuns, who opened for the Sex Pistols’ last show in 1978, and alt-country pioneers Rank and File as well as the True Believers.

As a solo performer Escovedo has earned many kudos: No Depression magazine named him its “Artist of the Decade” in 1998 while last year’s Real Animal was atop many “best of” lists last year and it was Escovedo’s first effort to chart on the Billboard album lists.  He has worked with some of the biggest and most interesting names in music, and he recently took a few minutes to speak to us from his home near Austin.

30 Days Out: You had a pretty good year in 2008 … how do you turn around and top that?

Alejandro Escovedo:  I try not to top it, actually.  Just go ahead and keep playing gigs and enjoy the warm glow of last year and just try to write good songs, you know?

30 Days Out: Do you have something in mind, something you are working on toward your next project?

AE: This is probably the most – what’s the word for it – it’s the most tormented aspect of writing an album, figuring out what you’re going to write about.   The last record (Real Animal) was a great record and I told a story, and I like telling stories, but pretty much I summed up the whole thing on the last record in a way.  For the first songs I have been writing I’ve been going back and thinking about a lot of stuff right now … I have some friends who are going through tough times physicially, some health issues, the songs are kind of gearing toward those kind of memories.  I don’t honestly know where it’s gonna end up, I don’t.  I did with the last record because that’s what we set out to do; By the Hand of the Father was obviously a project that had a context to it that I could obviously relate to, it was a story about my father.  I don’t know if I would tackle something like that again, I would just like to make a collection of songs.  Something may come up that just grabs my attention and takes me in a new direction entirely.  I try to stay open to it, you know? 

30 Days Out: How were the Real Animal album and music received in other parts of the country?  You have a lot of fans in Texas but what about the rest of the country?

AE: Oh,  it was great,  the shows in New York, Boston  … Chicago has always been wonderful, the shows we did in Toronto, Montreal was great.  It was really cool.  The record just really helped a lot, it was well received everywhere.

30 Days Out: You played the “Today” show?

AE: We played the “Today” show, the “Tonight Show,” the Democratic National Convention, we also played … what was the other show we did?  We did three, I can’t remember.

30 Days Out: Did you ever go back and do (David) Letterman?

AE: No, not yet.  We hope to do it this year, though.

30 Days Out:  So I take it that getting with Jon Landau was a good deal for you. (Editors’ note: Last year Alejandro signed with Jon Landau Management, which manages Bruce Springteen, among others.  He has since played with Bruce Springsteen in Houston in April 2008, opened some shows for the Dave Matthews Band and will perform at the Bonnaroo festival this summer.)

AE: (Laughs) It was pretty much a “break down the doors” kind of thing.  I had a previous manager in Texas for quite a while, and I felt that … I don’t know, with the scope of the record and the label and everything I just felt like we weren’t moving forward in the direction I wanted, so we amicably parted ways.  The record company assisted me in finding a manager and I talked to several really good managers but when I was introduced to Barbara Carr and Jan Stabile of Jon Landau Management and then met Jon, it was obvious that it was a great place to go to.  And I just got along very well with them, they were there for the right reasons.

30 Days Out: It’s obviously changed your career a lot, can you expand on how much it’s changed your career? 

In Houston, 2008 (Courtesy of Backstreets magazine)

AE: I mean, I probably would have never played with Bruce Springsteen in front of 18,000 people if that hadn’t happened, right?  And I probably wouldn’t have opened for him in front of 75,000 people in Milwaukee if that hadn’t happened.  I think that probably the Dave Matthews thing was the result of Jon Landau Management, even the TV shows, so you can see when you have someone who’s been in the business as long as Jon and Barbara and Jan, and they’ve got the reputation they have.  They’ve dealt with the kind of acts that sell millions and millions of records , it’s another world entirely.

30 Days Out: Does that change your music a little, when you think you are going to have a much larger audience?

AE: Well, I mean, it obviously didn’t change the way I made Real Animal because the record was done before the management change.  And they don’t want me to do anything but what I do.  This is the thing that’s always kind of confusing for an artist when you get an opportunity like this; the tendency is to think, ‘What does Bruce Springsteen do that I don’t do?’ Somewhere in the back of your head you think that.  I had this kind of dilemma when I started to make the last record with Glyn Johns, the quality of songwriting had to elevate.  He told me and everyone told me, from the record company to Tony Visconti, they just want me to be myself.  The reason I’m here is because of the songs I’ve written previously and the shows I’ve done and the way I’ve conducted my band.  As long as I can keep a sense of what it is I love to do and to feel natural about it and at ease with it, I think I’m okay with it.

30 Days Out: What was it like playing at the Bruce Springsteen show in Houston?

AE: First of all it was unexpected.  I was told I was just going to meet my managers in Houston.  Bruce was playing, we were all going to go out to dinner and we were going to see a Bruce Springsteen show.  My wife and I were late as we always are, and we were driving to Houston, when we suddenly got a text message from Jan saying “Bruce wants to play ‘Always A Friend’ tonight in Houston.  Are you in?”  And I wrote back, yes, I’m definitely in.  But I was very nervous, I had never met Bruce Springsteen or even seen one of his shows.  And so when I got there they had already done sound check, he took me into his dressing room, they had already had the lyrics laid out … he had the chords worked out, so we went through it a couple times just him and I.  Then the E Street Band came in, we went over it a couple times acoustically in the dressing room.  Then my wife and I went out to watch the show.  I was totally blown away by the show, it was my first Springsteen show and it brought back that beautiful feeling I used to get when I’d go to big rock shows in the past.  I hadn’t been to a big arena rock show in a long time.  It was very powerful, I loved the vibe in the room, the way he kind of makes 18,000 people feel like they’re at the Continental Club.

30 Days Out: How do you return the favor?  “Hey Bruce, come and play with me at the Continental Club?”

AE: I would love to do that, and maybe that will happen.

30 Days Out: He’s coming to Austin in April.  You going to do another one?

AE: No, I don’t think so but we certainly thought about booking a show where we invite him out to play with us.  That would be great.

30 Days Out: When you’re working with a big name producer like John Cale or Tony Visconti, what kind of compromises do you have to make?  Or do you make them? (Tony Visconti – who has worked with David Bowie and T. Rex – produced Real Animal; John Cale – of the Velvet Underground and producer of the Stooges and the Modern Lovers – produced Escovedo’s The Boxing Mirror in 2006.)

AE: When I hire a producer to I hire them to produce a record and that’s why they’re there.  I don’t want to dictate what the record should be, to a guy who has the experience of John Cale or Tony Visconti.  I bring them in because I want what they have to offer.  So I pretty much hand it over to them, I write the songs and outside of anything that’s completely ridiculous I let them have their way.  I felt that every record I’ve ever made, from Stephen Bruton to Chris Stamey to having Visconti and John Cale, it’s the trust I have in these people to produce a particular kind of record.  With Cale I knew it would get out there a little bit, I felt it would be little more electronic.  I felt like the band at that time, especially after the hiatus we had because of my illness, needed to be totally shaken out of its den, to come out of hibernation.  I love the record we made with John.  Then the record with Tony was different, it was more of a band effort – it was more organic, he wanted the band in there the whole time.  With John, we spent a lot of time alone making that record.

30 Days Out: Real Animal certainly has a bigger sound.

AE: It does, and Visconti is known for making those great English sounding records.  That’s what I wanted from Tony, because of the subject matter and the story of the record, we wanted it to sound like an older record.

30 Days Out: Why did you go to Lexington, Kentucky, to record Real Animal?

AE: There’s a studio in Lexington that Tony wanted to record in, Sinclair studios. Tony said it is one of the top 5 studios in the world that he loves to work in.  For Chuck Prophet and I – he co-wrote the record- it is a place we went that was outside of Austin.  There’s a club there owned by Bobby Ray, he is also a DJ at the radio station.  He was in love with Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Townes, me, people coming out of Texas.  He would play the music a lot on the radio, when we would show up for gigs in Lexington it was suddenly packed houses.  The audiences loved us and they treated us very well and we had a great time there.  So it was appropriate that we go back to make this record, about this story, in Lexington.

30 Days Out: Writing about the punk era on Real Animal, what did you take from that time?  Do people try to romanticize the past a little?

AE: I think sometimes, obviously.  When I talk about all those great glitter rock days in Hollywood and stuff, I mean it was such a tiny little segment of rock music.  Those bands sold barely a thousand copies of their records, how many records do you think the New York Dolls sold?  Probably nothing.  But when I look back at the punk era, what I loved about that particular phase of rock and roll and that time, it shook up everything and gave people an opportunity to get back into the garage and take it back to the street, let’s say.  That was important.  It made it possible for a lot of people to express things that they probably wouldn’t have in the Bill Graham 1970s era, you know?  I’m talking about in San Francisco with bands like Journey and others, and you had to be a kind of technical player to be out there.  This brought it back to the essence of it.

30 Days Out: Kind of like the Beatles did 10 years or so earlier …

AE: Exactly.  The other thing I got from it was that it kind of dissolved the line between the audience and the performer, took it away from that pompous rock star thing that happened in the 1970s. 

30 Days Out: When Real Animal came out last year, you played an in-store at Waterloo Records in Austin.  And you said you were its No. 1 employee?  What do you remember about working there?   

In-store at Waterloo, 2008

AE: I love Waterloo Records – it kind of saved my life in a way.  It came at a time …  I got that gig after the True Believers had broken up.  It’s funny because John Kunz and his partner in the very beginning, they funded the first True Believers recording.  We go way back, they were old friends, they took me in at a time that I really needed a gig.  I had the Orchestra going at the time and so everything about it is just a great memory … not to mention the education that I got musically from working in such a great record store.  My vinyl collection tripled in size!  I just made some really strong friendships.  I just loved the place, and still do.  The sad part is, when you work in a record store the employees always get first pick, always get the best stuff, so you kind of feel sorry for the customers.

30 Days Out: We also saw you at the Continental Club, and people were talking so loud they almost drowned you out. 

AE: It’s really funny, I don’t understand why these people go.  Personally if I want to talk to someone, I would have a dinner party at home.  But not where music is being played, you know?  I tell you one place that’s just ridiculous is the Continental Club in Houston, people are just so loud.

30 Days Out: We were there!  All the talking kind of pissed you off that night.

AE: I know, I probably said something about it, right? 

30 Days Out: Yeah, but it was great.  It probably made you guys a little more punk toward the end.

AE: We were pretty loud at that point, and they were still kind of overbearing …

30 Days Out: You always have a bunch of shows planned around South by Southwest in Austin … what are you gonna do this year?  (South by Southwest is March 18-22.)

AE: Well, we are going to bring back the Alejandro Escovedo Orchestra (rock band live with strings) this year.  We’re gonna do the Orchestra at Jo’s Coffee Shop, in the parking lot, on Friday.  I’m also going to  play at the Austin Music Awards show this year, David (Pulkingham, the band lead guitarist) and I going to do a duet.  And we always close out on Sunday night with a big show at Austin’s Continental Club.  We’ll play, my brother Mario’s band will play, Chuck Prophet will play a set, the band Grady, Nic Tremulis and the Tall Boys … it’s going to be a good lineup.   I like it, it’s really a great way to present all the great music we get to hear in Texas that maybe people from other parts of the country would otherwise never encounter.

MP3: “Long Gone Dead” by Rank and File (1984)

MP3: “Castanets” (live)

MP3: “Rosalie” (String version)

MP3: “I Wanna Be Your Dog” (live)

MP3: “Velvet Guitar”

Listen to an entire Alejandro Escovedo show at KGSR radio, Austin (go to “Archives”)

Alejandro Escovedo official website

YouTube: Alejandro Escovedo and Bruce Springsteen perform “Always A Friend”

Check out our two exclusive interviews with Trans-Siberian Orchestra vocalist  Tommy Farese, former Billy Joel drummer Liberty DeVitto, Toto lead singer Bobby Kimball, Brian Wilson backup singer and solo artist Taylor Mills and two interviews with “Undercover Angel” Alan O’Day 

One of the better radio stations in the country is Austin’s KGSR-FM, and one of the reasons that they’re so good is that they fully support local music.  By “local” I mean Austin and Texas music – every week KGSR features at least one live, in-studio performance by a local artist and Austin and Texas musicians make up the majority of the station’s playlist.

And like other radio stations across the country, KGSR annually packages their exclusive live performances on a CD (proceeds benefit a musicians’ medical care program).  KGSR always has so much to offer, each year they fill up two discs!  This year’s Broadcasts Vol. 16 is one of the best packages they’ve ever offered.  Featuring performances by the likes of Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, Daniel Lanois, James McMurtry and many others, Broadcasts usually leans toward the mellow and acoustic side of country rock, but it’s a great snapshot of the Austin music scene. 

Some of the performers are not really Austin, but they’re world-class: R.E.M. shows up with “Supernatural Superserious” and Aimee Mann, Ingrid Michaelson, Shelby Lynne and Feist all turn in strong songs to show this was a year for the women.  Alejandro Escovedo also provides a highlight with his “Sister Lost Soul” live from the Continental Club.  This a great party soundtrack, two CDs full of great performances - don’t miss this one!

Listen to samples from Broadcasts Vol. 16

Order Broadcasts Vol. 16 from Waterloo Records

From Fuzzy:

Tune in at 107.1 KGSR “Radio Austin” or listen online at www.kgsr.com at 2:00pm CST to hear Ryan, Brad & Neal from the Cardinals perform live.

Choosing the perfect bowls

You’re invited to the 12th Annual Empty Bowl Project, Sunday, November 23rd, from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the Mexican American Cultural Center.

One of Austin’s favorite, family-friendly events, Empty Bowl Project, has provided local potters, musicians and restaurants the opportunity to help hungry Central Texans for over a decade.

This year’s event is held in a new location and includes local artistry, food, music and fun. The restaurant line-up includes Cissi’s Market, La Madeline, Mandola’s, Guero’s and many more.

Charles Mays with Cafe Josie, and Susan Castle and Big Jye with KGSR serve up the soup

Here’s how it works: choose your favorite locally hand-crafted bowl(s) at $15 each, get your bowl washed and fill it with your pick of delicious soup and bread donated by local chefs.

Proceeds benefit the Food Bank. For more information click here.

See you there!

Poor Alejandro Escovedo. He releases album after album of great music, the critics swoon, he plays some talk shows, and then–no radio play except for a few college stations and KGSR (Austin), and few outside of Austin buy the records. I don’t have the sales and demographic data to prove that, but that’s my impression, and I suspect I’m not far off.

Well, too bad for the rest of America, but not bad for me if I’m being selfish–I still get to see him play small clubs, where he routinely tears it up.

Escovedo is simultaneously a journeyman and that geeky nineteen-year-old kid scouring thrift shops for vinyl–he revels in his roots, which are easy to know by the covers he does live and on record: Ian Hunter and Mott the Hoople, the Rolling Stones, the Velvet Underground, David Bowie, the Stooges.

There are no covers on Real Animal, but those influences suffuse the album. The majestic “Golden Bear” consciously echoes the haunting keyboard of Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes,” and I doubt it’s a coincidence that Tony Visconti, frequent Bowie collaborator and producer of T. Rex’s Electric Warrior, was behind the boards.

But influences do not equal pastiche, and this is Escovedo’s album all the way. It’s a sort-of musical autobiography, covering his time in “Chelsea Hotel ‘78″ and paying tribute to his first band in “Nuns Song.” I’m not going to decipher the whole thing (you can read some about it here), because the album would still be highly enjoyable if you had no idea who Escovedo was, where he’d been, or who he’d played with.

Whenever someone gets around to putting together an Escovedo box set, it’s going to be epic. In the meantime, there is plenty of catalog to explore, and Real Animal is a great spot to start or continue.

Here’s “Sister Lost Soul.” It’s accessible, catchy, and heartfelt. In a just world it would give Escovedo something he’s never had but richly deserves–a hit.

Restaurant week … all the other cities have them, and I earlier this year I wrote about rumors of an Austin Restaurant Week in October. Well, KGSR has apparently beaten Rare magazine to the punch, as the radio station that brings us free live music events Blues on the Green, Unplugged at the Grove, and Live on the Lake is delving into the food world with its Restaurant Week, presented by the Texas Beef Council and benefiting Kids Cafe. It runs August 11-18.

The Restaurant Week menu showcases selected three-course meals for just $25 (excluding beverage, tax and tip). Some of the restaurants offer choices on the courses, some just offer a take-it-or-leave-it menu. The website has an interactive map that will bring up the restaurant’s menu if you click on the red pinpoint.

Participating restaurants:

Austin Land and Cattle

Chez Zee

Ciola’s Italian American Restaurant

Dona Emilios

Imperia

J. Blacks

Jasper’s

Kenichi

Ranch 616

The Belmont

The County Line On The Hill and The County Line On The Lake

The Melting Pot Downtown and Northwest

ReVive at the Wyndham

It has recently come to my attention that KGSR has been using the tagline “sounds like austin” for a few months now, maybe more.  Now, I have ole k-geez as the number one preset on my radio, so I have to say I enjoy the advertising, regardless of the fact that it is unintentional.  I don’t know if this is a new tagline, because I don’t usually listen to their calm DJs or commercials (sorry commercials targeted at aging, but still hip, boomers).  If want to hear talk, I’ll listen to KUT.  So, if you all know when this started feel free to let me know. 

I have been up to this blogging (ugh… no, photo journalism… that word just sounds dirty… blogging… ugh…) for almost a year now.  So, for me it’s a who is biting who.  Not that I actually think radio geezer would actually even know about this blog, but I couldn’t find anything about it online, and don’t want to end up as “that guy” who jacked a popular slogan for his blog.

No, the naming of the blog wasn’t even my idea.  I wanted to call it “Austin Scene” or something like that, but that was taken.  So we came up with names all drunk on night, and its came down to “Sounds of Austin” or “Sounds Like Austin.”  “Sounds Like Austin” won in a 2-1 vote… (wait a second no one reading this even cares).  Anyhow, so yea what’s the deal with all this KGSR “sounds like austin” buisness?

Summer is Austin isn’t complete without Blues on the Green. 107.1 KGSR brings some of the best local artists to Zilker Park for free outdoor concerts. It’s a beautiful, Austin-y thing. This year the lineup is pretty stellar! Concerts go from 7:30-9:30.

Add in some sand volleyball, and I can’t imagine anything better. The normal Wednesday meetup group is still playing, only this time, we’ll be playing to the sweet sounds of Asleep at the Wheel! Asleep at the Wheel (with local celeb Ray Benson) is a little bit country, a little bit swing, and apparently a little bit Blues. If you’re planning to play volleyball, plan on arriving early to beat the crowds–parking is a bit of a bear. The loop is closed from about 4:00pm on, although you can still park under the Mopac bridge or in the lots across the street from the rock outcropping.

Blues on the Green runs every other Wednesday for the rest of the summer:

Tonight – Asleep at the Wheel

6/25 – Marcia Ball

7/9 – Los Lonely Boys (w/ Shawn Sahm & The Tex-Mex Experience)

7/23 – Carolyn Wonderland

8/6 – Sonny Landreth

8/20 – Doyle Bramhall & Gary Clark Jr.

Even if you’re not down for volleyball, bring a blanket and come check out Blues on the Green–it’s worth it!

Once upon a time, radio was the great communicator.  Radio was totally of the moment – in the late 1950s through the earthshaking times between 1967 and 1970 – and it conveyed an immediacy, an urgency, that seismic changes were taking place in the culture.  Television, on the other hand, was more uptight and conservative and born to follow.  Today, radio’s preeminence has been eclipsed by the internet.

Some radio programmers were not content to merely play the latest hits.  They wanted their music live, so they went to the source and plugged right in.  The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) in the 1960s pioneered this practice, inviting top-of-the-pops groups like the Beatles, the Kinks and the Moody Blues to perform in their studios with little or no overdubbing.  The live-to-tape shows were then broadcast as a package later.

Today, some brave radio stations are still following that practice, but they are few and far between.  The great KGSR in Austin, KEXP in Seattle, KCBO in Boulder, Colo., KCRW in Los Angeles and WXPN in Philly all regularly feature live performances.  They’re not the only ones, by any means, but they are all available on the web.  Seek them out and support them.

Let’s flip through a few of our favorite live performances on the radio.  Some notes: Jimi Hendrix, the Moody Blues, the Kinks and the Byrds were BBC favorites and made numerous appearances.  So were Led Zeppelin, who performed Sleepy John Estes’ “The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair” in 1969, the only time they ever did this song live.

Bruce Springsteen had a legendary in-studio show on Houston’s KLOL in 1974, but later that year he did another great show, on WBCN in Boston.  The Stooges in 2007 and Vampire Weekend in 2008 performed from the South by Southwest festival in Austin for KEXP.  And David Gilmour and Carbon/Silicon come to us from the always incredible “World Café” show on WXPN.  Enjoy!

MP3: Lovely To See You by the Moody Blues (BBC) 

MP3: Days by the Kinks (BBC)

MP3: Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix Experience (BBC)

MP3: The Girl I Love Has Long Black Wavy Hair by Led Zeppelin (BBC)

MP3: So You Want To Be A Rock and Roll Star by the Byrds (BBC)

MP3: Rosalita by Bruce Springsteen (WBCN)

MP3: Comfortably Numb by David Gilmour (WXPN’s “World Cafe”)

MP3: Me and Bobby McGee by Kris Kristofferson (KGSR)

MP3: Jimmy Reed Highway by Omar “Kent” Dykes & Jimmie Vaughan (KGSR)

MP3: Trollin’ by the Stooges (KEXP)

MP3: A-Punk by Vampire Weekend (KEXP)

MP3: I Loved You by Carbon/Silicon (WXPN’s “World Café”)

Yahoo has just released a new version of its browser-based MP3 player. Here’s how Mike Arrington described it: this is a very simple solution… it does not require any software on the PC beyond a browser. That’s a good thing.

It’s also very simple to put a playlist in a post: you just link to the MP3 files, include a very simple snippet of javascript, and when someone visits, they see the player. Since it does require javascript, I can’t use it here at WordPress.com, but you can hop over to my self-hosted WordPress blog to see a post using the Yahoo player.

The playlist comprises four of my favorite tracks from the second volume of KGSR’s Broadcasts CDs. KGSR is a radio station in Austin, Texas; it gets some great musicians into its studios, and the proceeds from the CDs go to great causes. The CDs sell out. I’m not sure when volume 2 did so, but I suspect that it was a long time ago, given that it came out in 1994.

The playlist starts with my favorite track from volume 2: Freedy Johnston doing “Bad Reputation” solo acoustic. It was the first version of the song I heard, and it spoiled me for the studio version. Then there’s a track each from Kirsty MacColl, Alejandro Escovedo, and Crowded House.

 *Author’s note:  Click on the song title and artist’s name at the end of this post to listen to this song in its entirety and to visit a Web site dedicated to the band.

One of the great things about the time period I lived in Austin, Texas was the music you could hear on the radio and see live around the town.  This song actually got airplay regularly on the great, yet underrated radio station KGSR.  You will never hear anything close to this on the radio stations in bigger markets like Houston. For this reason, I rarely listen to commercial radio stations anymore.  I also was lucky enough to see this band perform this song as well as many other songs live at the Cactus Cafe in Austin one evening as Charlie’s six piece band crowded onto the tiny stage with their instruments (including drum set and stand up base) and played an incredible set for the enthusiastic crowd.  The intimate setting was about as close as you can get (which is really close) to having a band play for you and your friends in your own living room.

Sunday Clothes captures the strong hold religion and the church can have on you from an early age through adulthood and how they use fear and the empty promise of a better life passed on unchallenged by logic and reason from generation to generation.

- B

Grandma slicked my hair down
I cinched up my belt
I can still remember how that polyester felt

Townsfolk all a tremble
Yeah they knew what lay before
As the preacher takes the pulpit
And the usher shut the door

Came into this crazy world round 1968
Fathered by a crazy kid with nothing on his plate
Daddy got in trouble, yeah Daddy did some time
Visiting day at the penitentiary was where I learned to cry

Yeah we were singing those hymns over and over again
Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday nights
I never understood it all that well back then
But it probably saved my life

-Charlie Sexton, Sunday Clothes