Porcupine Tree x2

PT is presently one of my favorite rock bands. When the tour to support The Incident was announced, I was a little disappointed that I would have to fly to see them (again). I originally bought the tickets for the Philadelphia show, back in April. Things looked like they were working out well for me, since I could also visit my family, and catch a Ravens game during the same trip. I had also arranged to meet up with some friends from Austin, who were flying to see them in Philly, as well.

Several months later, a Baltimore show was added on Friday night, making my (and my friend's) schedule a bit more complicated. As a result, I ended up having to drive from Leonardtown to Baltimore, catch the PT show, drive to Philly the next day for the second show, then get up at 4:30 AM to drive back to Baltimore to tailgate, on Sunday morning. Needless to say, it was exhausting, but I made it. Fortunately, next weekend will be nice and relaxing with just the ACL Festival (LOL ;)

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Rams Head Live - Baltimore, MD - Friday 9/25

In hindsight, this may have been the show of the year for me. It was the better venue and performance of the two shows. The only slight minus was the lack of seating. It's a GA venue, with one web site listing the capacity at about 1600 people. If it wasn't a sell-out, it was close, because the club was packed.

The openers, Kings X, played for approximately an hour, followed by 2 sets of an hour each, by PT. For this tour, the first hour set consisted of a complete performance of the Incident, with the 2nd set consisting of a rotation of some older material.

The band had posted a No pictures or recoding request at the venue, and I complied with their request, for both shows. I was able to secure a position, right behind the sound board for this show, which made for an excellent listening experience.

Afterwards some members of PT were out and about. In particular, John Wesley, Colin Edwin, and Richard Barbieri. I'm not much of an autograph collector, but I did get to chat with Colin for a second. I noticed Richard Barbieri high tailed it quickly out of there, and that unlike Houston in 2007, Steven Wilson was nowhere to be found. I asked Colin to talk the band into playing Texas more, and in particular Austin. It sounds like their agent is deliberately restricting them to large metros, because of concerns about the US economy.

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Electric Factory - Philadelphia, PA - Saturday 9/26

This venue was also GA, and a bit bigger, holding approximately 2000 to 2500 people. The sound was good, but not exceptional. In general, there's a certain vibe that comes with attending a Philly/South Jersey show that detracts from the experience. True to form, a fight did break out during the show. I called it about 2 minutes before it happened, to my friends. It's kind of sad that this wasn't a surprise.

There were quite a few faces in the crowd that I recognized from the previous night, and this show was the first indication for me, that PT is becoming very popular. The set list was essentially the same, with some differences in the second set, as had been noted on the PT boards. One surprise however, was Normal from the EP, Nil Recurring.

I did talk to several people who mentioned that on previous tours, PT had played the Keswick when they came to Philly (where I saw King Crimson and which has seating). I also noticed, that there were a significant number of females in the audience, which is noteworthy for any band that might even tangentially have the label Prog associated with it. Perhaps this shouldn't be surprising since although they are labeled, Neo-Prog, they seem to be able to attract fans from the Prog, Metal, and Pop worlds in a way I've never seen before.

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Opening Act - Kings X

My friends, Ron and Alissa, have raved about this band for a while. They are actually from Houston, and after seeing them twice, I am now sorry I didn't go see them at the Red Eyed Fly in Austin. The lead singer/bass player, Brother Doug, is awesome. The guy is one of those classic rock scream/singers like Robert Plant or Ian Gillian, but takes it to a new level.

I will go see these guys, next time the return to Austin.

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Good News

Steven Wilson mentioned a Spring Tour! Here's hoping for a stop in TX.

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Update

PT has a blog and pictures from the Electric Factory show

Living Colour at Emos

Living Colour is back! For about 2.5 hours, I saw this incredible band rise like a Phoenix, from the ashes, outside at Emos. To be honest, Emos seemed almost like an inappropriate venue due to its size. However, in hindsight, it was just fine.

The band covered material from Vivid, Times Up, Stain, and the latest effort, The Chair in the Doorway. Realizing that I don't have a copy of Collideascope, I'm not sure if they played any material from the album. (I just remedied that problem via the Amazon music store).

A highlight of the night was the band's cover of Crosstown Traffic to commemorate Jimi Hendrix. Ironically, this show occurred on the 39th anniversary of his death, 9/18/1970. The other highlight for me was getting to talk to Vernon after the show, and talk about our mutual friends, all associated with the late, great, Arthur Rhames.

In closing, let me say this was a great show, and I hope to see them again. Hopefully, next year!!!

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Ravens vs. the Chiefs - week 1

Something strange is happening here. The Ravens had 501 yards of Offense, winning 38 - 24, with 5 TDs and 1 Field Goal. Joe Flacco had 300 yds passing, and the 3 headed monster in the backfield, Rice, McGahee, and McClain are really going to be something.

So this is what it's like to have an Offense?

Added bonus from yesterday, I finally found a Sports Bar in Austin where fellow Baltimorons congregate, The Tavern on 12th and Lamar. There's probably 30 of us.

Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, and Edgar Meyer at the Bass Concert Hall

An eclectic, but interesting show. Bela Fleck, was accompanied by Tabla Master, Zakir Hussain, and Acoustic Bassist, Edgar Meyer. I've seen Bela 3 times within the past two years at ACL and SxSW, with the Sparrow Quartet and the Flecktones. It is also the second time that I have seen Zakir, who is incredible. This is the first time that I have ever seen Edgar play.

The show last night, consisted of two sets of approximately 1 hour, with a short intermission, and a single song encore. The acoustics were fantastic, with this trio being almost tailor made for the Bass Hall.

All I can say about this show is that it was a fascinating fusion of Indian Classical, Bluegrass, and American Jazz, by 3 masters. Plenty of room was left for improvisation by each musician. Any further attempts at a description would fall into the Dancing about Architecture category.

This trio did record a CD, The Melody of Rhythm which I highly recommend.

Declan MacManis and Sugercanes at Bass Concert Hall

Before continuing, I should mention that I have been a huge Elvis Costello fan, since my highschool days. However, I must admit that I had not been following his post-punk career until SxSW a few years back. He was a keynote speaker that year, and I saw him perform that week with the renamed version of the Attractions, the Imposters, at La Zona Rosa. I started digging into the vault, after that show.

Tuesday night, I had the pleasure of seeing Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes play for approximately 3 hours, at the Bass Concert Hall. This time around, he has genre jumped into playing a sort of American/Bluegrass variant. The new album and material was produced by T-Bone Burnett, so I was looking forward to seeing the show.

Upon arriving, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in the 2nd row. There's no need to say anything about the sight lines, or the acoustics, since both were exceptional. The Bass Hall appeared to be close to full capacity for this show.

For the new album and this tour, Elvis was accompanied by an acoustic string band consisting of the following people:

• Jeff Taylor – accordian
• Mike Compton – mandolin
• Dennis Crouch – double bass
• Jerry Douglas – dobro
• Stuart Duncan – banjo, fiddle
• Jim Lauderdale - harmony vocals

I was somewhat disappointed to discover that T-Bone himself, was not present, even though he plays on the album. Regardless, this band was awesome, and I'm happy to report that there was no tinnitus from this event.

Over the past few weeks, I had already given his new album several listens, and believe he covered most of the material during the show. Elvis also performed new versions of some of his older songs, including:

• (Angels Wanna Wear My) red shoes
• Mystery Dance
• Blame it on Cain
• Alison
• (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding?
• Everyday I write the book

After playing, for approximately 2 straight hours, Elvis and the band were called back out for 2 encores which ended up lasting almost an additional. During this time, they were also joined on stage by Patty Griffin. What a treat, and fantastic way to cap off a great evening of music.

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Tom and Bert for the 3rd and Final Time

After the house concert last Wednesday, I was invited by Suzanne Oleson's mother to the last house concert in Austin, on Mt. Bonnell. An excellent evening of music once again.

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Bert once again had pictures on his blog, as well. I'm glad he posted them, because the last picture I took with Tom, Bert and Suzanne with my iPhone, was too blurry to use. I can't wait to hear Tom and Bert's new CD to be recorded at the end of this tour, and am anxiously awaiting the return of CGT next spring.

My Daily Morning Lifestream Experiment

Starting on July 31, 2008, I began taking a picture off of my balcony, of the Walnut Park area. To do this, I used the iPhone application, Airme. I have archived this as a stream on Flickr.

As of today, the count is up to 374, so I have more than a year's worth of photos. Looking at the stream, it appears there was an initial period of flux, after which I settled in on framing a consistent shot every morning.

I'm not sure how long I will continue this task, but I am surprised I have been able to keep it up this long. I think I will try to buy one of more of those 802.11g based webcams, since I think some other interesting things could be done with that.

Tom Griesgraber and Bert Lams - Episode 2

Tonight I was able to see Tom and Bert play at a friend's house concert. Once again, the experience was fantastic. There is something special about seeing music in this context.

The show was further augmented by Suzanne Oleson, a local musician now attending Berklee School of Music, who sings and plays guitar and mandolin. Suzanne joined Tom and Bert for 2 encore numbers, including the Marsh.

Another fantastic evening of music, with some very special moments:

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Encore with Tom, Suzanne and Bert

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Update

Once again, the show at Ted's house made Bert's blog. You can see a much better picture (with a flash) of Tom, Suzanne, and Bert.

Extract Premier

I recently bought my SxSW 2010 badge and was entered into a contest for tickets to the World Premier of Mike Judge's new film, Extract. As luck would have it, I received an email last week that I had won a pair free tickets. (Of course, free ignores the price of the badge, but who's counting?)

The Premier was actually a benefit for the Austin Film Society, and Mike Judge and lead man, Jason Bateman were available afterwards for Q&A. It was held at the Paramount, and even though I was in Row R in the balcony, the screen was still visible.

I found it enjoyable, and would rate it as good, but not a classic like Mike's film, Office Space. I would still recommend it to people because it's certainly much better than the recent Terminator Movie or Harry Potter.

Other things of note were that I thought that I recognized that the exterior of the fictional company, Reynolds Extract, looked remarkably similar to Adams Extract on Rt. 35 south of Austin. Sure enough, one of the after show questions confirmed this. Many of the external scenes were filmed in and around Austin (Hutto), but all of the interior shots were done in LA.

Since I found the movie worthwhile, I won't post any plot spoilers. I will mention that my friend and I found the plot twist at the end with the neighbor, sick and twisted, but hilarious. I won't say any more than that.

Tom Griesgraber and Bert Lams - Episode 1

Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing California Guitar Trio member, Bert Lams, with Chapman Stick player Tom Griesgraber, alfresco in the FEFC Courtyard. This was the very first show of their mini-tour which will include playing multiple shows here in Austin for the next week, before moving on to a other Southwestern states. At the conclusion of this tour, Bert and Tom will be going into the studio.

When I arrived at 6:30, the duo was performing a sound-check, and the acoustics of the courtyard sounded fantastic. There was room for approximately 50 people, making for a very intimate setting. I knew I was in for a treat, and I was not disappointed.

I estimate that the show ran 90 minutes or so, maybe 2 hours. The show consisted of material contributed by both Tom and Bert, including one of my favorite CGT songs, the Marsh. (I've now seen 3 version of this song with CGT, the UT Percussion Lab, and this duo, all were excellent). Both artists performed solo pieces, along with several new, yet untitled pieces. The highlights for me were Victor's Chase, Tom's tribute to his grandmother entitled, Rebecca, and a rendition of Chopin's Revolutionary Etude, with Bert and Tom playing the right and left hand parts.

After the show, both Bert and Tom were available for a Meet and Greet. I purchased two CDs, and was able to chat with both artists. Tom and I talked at length about the Woodstock area, because both of us had lived in or around there in our past. I am anxious to see them play again later this week, and am considering catching them at the Cactus Cafe, next Monday, as well.

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Update from show 1

I noticed today that Bert had some pictures from the FEFC on his blog.

RIP: Les Paul

Truly sad news today. Les Paul was one of the great ones, without him we arguably would not have the Electric Guitar or tape overdubbing. I haven't been this bummed out, since Bob Moog passed away.

Ronnie Biggs released

It all started this past spring, when I started refreshing my vinyl collection with digital copies. First it was Elvis Costello, the Clash, the Pistols ... About 2 months ago, I bought a fresh copy of The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle.

You see, in the late 70's, I was a punker. Naturally, I loved the Sex Pistols. One of the more outrageous stunts they pulled is on the Swindle album. It features Ronnie Biggs, as vocalist on two tracks.

Ronnie (for those that don't know) was a participant in the Great Train Robbery of 1963, escaped to Brazil, and evaded extradition back to Britain for 31 years. While I don't condone his actions which were clearly criminal, you had to laugh at this stunt.

Ronnie eventually returned to Britain voluntarily in 2001, for medical reasons and was promptly arrested, and incarcerated. What a surprise to see this headline today.

Can you guess what I'm about to go listen to?

RIP: Michael Jackson

Being 2 years younger than Michael, I have seen every stage of his career. I'm posting because I want to relay one story which I think reveals how far the U.S. has come since 1982, the year Thriller was released.

At that time, I was in a Senior in college, and living in Hoboken, NJ, which is right across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Radio in NYC was representative of most of the nation. Basically, Rock and Urban music were not to be mixed. It was almost like you had to choose a side.

The two big Rock stations in NYC at that time, were WNEW and WPLJ. When Thriller was released, there was a bit of a conundrum. Beat It was rocketing up the charts and these stations would play it, but did not want to acknowledge that it was daring to cross the line. Of course, no one would ever question why Jimi Hendrix was acceptable, nor ask the even more vexing question about where the Rock genre came from.

In a handful of ridiculous cases, they would just focus on the fact that Beat It featured Eddie Van Halen on guitar, while sometimes neglecting to mention that it was Michael Jackson singing. Incidents like these stand out in your mind because they are so blatant. I think (and hope) we're past that.

In closing, let me say that after seeing Quincy Jones at SxSW this year, and Michael's death, I had to get a digital copy of Thriller, since I'm unable to play my vinyl copy.

RIP: Joseph John Pazik Jr.

First you may be wondering who Joe is, I usually only write about musicians. Joe was my 2nd cousin. By a strange set of circumstances, I have no maternal cousins, but close to a hundred 2nd cousins. My relatives on this side of my family are all descended from Lithuanian immigrants. It's a big extended family and we are all very close.

My cousin was a retired Naval Aviator. He had served as a Navigator in an F4 crew, off of the U.S.S. Midway. A real live Top Gun graduate. His passing stings, since he was all too young, at 58 years of age. Since he was 10 years my senior, I always looked up to him as I was growing up.

During the past two years, Joe and I had been collaborating on tracing the family genealogy, and to the surprise of many in our family, making good progress. From here on out, like Maverick, I'll have to go on without the Goose. I do hope to be at Arlington National Cemetery when he is interred in late September.

Geneaology Note
For those not genealogically inclined, 2nd cousins share a set of common great grandparents. In this case, our mothers are cousins and our grandmothers were sisters.

How did I miss this? RIP: Uriel Jones

I'll use the excuse that it was during SxSW. None the less, Uriel Jones passed away on March 24th of this year. I'm not 100% certain, but I think he was the last remaining Funk Brother.

If you've never seen Standing in the Shadows of Motown, it's a must!

Sonny Rollins at the Bass Concert Hall

When I noticed this show, I had to get a ticket. Sonny Rollins is a living Jazz legend. He was there when BeBop was born, and played with Miles, Monk, Max, and Trane (just to name a few). Now at 78 years of age, he is the last man standing... and still going strong.

The show tonight started promptly at 7PM, and as I entered, I was surprised to see a much denser crowd than the Five Peace Band. My seats were no where near as good as for that show either. I was almost in the last row, and my attempts to capture a picture at that distance were futile.

The band for tonight's show totalled six members:

1. Sonny Rollins - Tenor Sax
2. Clifton Anderson - Trombone
3. Bobby Broom - Guitar
4. Bob Cranshaw - Electric Bass
5. Victor Y. See Yuen - Congas and African Percussion
6. Kobie Watkins - Drums

The first number was an ostinato groove, with Sonny soloing all over the place. For the first 5 or 6 choruses, however, his sound was very low. This was remedied by a microphone replacement mid-song, during the Trombone solo. Sonny was greeted with thunderous applause, when the new microphone made his playing more audible.

I estimate the show lasted approximately 1 hr and 45 minutes, with a single encore. About 8 tunes in all, and two of which were ballads. Unlike Dizzy, Sonny still has the stamina to belt it out. I was particularly impressed with several long sustains, and his ability to draw upon every book of the Jazz Tenor canon.

From the band, the standouts for me were the 2 percussionists, and the Trombone player. I only wish that they had let the Trombonist solo more. I also enjoyed the several occasions, where he and Sonny played in unison.

At the end of the evening, Sonny went to the Mic and mentioned that it was the first time he had played in Austin, since playing Armadillo WHQ. Last but not least, he sang during part of the encore, a straight ahead Blues number.

Do I really need to convince you to try and see him? (I hope not).

Stanley Clarke at the One World Theater

After Art City Austin, I attended the later (and latter) of 2 shows featuring Stanley Clarke, at the One World Theater. This was the second time in less than a year for me seeing Stanley play, having seen him before with Return to Forever.

For this show, Stanley was accompanied by 3 younger musicians (younger meaning under the age of 35), pianist, Ruslan Sirota, violinist, Zach Brock, and drummer, Ronald Bruner, Jr. The band was really accomplished and I was very impressed with both Brock's and Bruner's playing, the latter sounding at times, very reminiscent of Tony Williams.

I estimate they played about 6 tunes, for about 90 minutes, with Stanley playing Acoustic Bass throughout the show. For the encore, they did School Days with Clarke finally switching to Electric Bass. Other than the encore, the numbers were mainly arrangements of RTF tunes, and one song that Stanely wrote as a tribute to John Coltrane.

A very enjoyable show, which put the cap on a very hectic weekend.

Art City Austin 2009

Once again, I volunteered to help my friends at AMF, man their booth at Art City Austin. This time around, I was only able to work on Sunday, since the schedule conflicted with CloudCamp.

It was a pleasant, although overcast day, never actually raining. I was able to see several Austin Artists including Nakia and his Southern Cousins, David Garza, the Hudsons, and Brent Allen. I like this event because it gets to the core of Austin, and puts it on display. The setting, downtown along 1st Street, next to Town Lake, gives it a certain vibe, as well.

For the past 2 years, one thing that has astounded me, is the way the way they temporarily erect large sculptures on the 1st Street Bridge for the weekend. Last year it was a temporary hedge, this year it was a large metal barracuda. (Just for reference, I estimate that this statue is about 10 ft. tall at the apex, and about 25 ft. long:

Of course, you can see the white dashed lines for a car lane, to get the relative sense of scale. Here's to many more years of attending this event.

Cloudcamp

I attended my fifth barcamp Saturday. It was held to discuss the specific topic of Cloud Computing, and was thus called, CloudCamp. The venue was the same as the previous startup camp I blogged about (the UT ACTLab), with many of the same people. There were several local Cloud/Cluster/Virtual computing friends here in town however, who although on the attendee list, did not actually show.

Unlike previous barcamps, the topics were chosen through an unpanel process, where volunteers proposed topics, supplemented by suggestions from the audience. All attendees voted on the best topics, and then they were rearranged to fill all the available time slots in three rooms. It was an interesting experiment, I think that too much time was consumed in this stage, however.

Most of the information I obtained was valuable in some way, and I did get meet and network with one of the founders of Rackspace/Moosa. (In this economy, you can't have too big of a network!)

Twi-night Double Header

I decided to catch two different shows tonight.

Infinite Partials

Infinite Partials was first up in the evening. I have known the Cellist, Andrew Davis, through a mutual friend and we had corresponded via email and phone, about various aspects of mastering a CD. Seeing an ad for their gig on Facebook, I decided to go check this band out in person, after failing on 3 prior attempts (for various reasons).

The Partials do a mix of originals and covers, in what I guess you would call an Americana style. The venue was great, the acoustics good, and helping the band sound great. Added pluses were an early start, and a family friendly venue. The patrons were really enjoying the band, with some dancing occurring. I enjoyed the music enough I felt compelled to buy their CD.

I have made a mental note to see this band again:

Ab Baars Trio with Ken Vandermark

I finished the night catching the second set of a Free Jazz show at the Victory Grill, featuring the Ab Baars (a Sax/Clarinet player) Trio from Amsterdam , and Ken Vandermark (a Tenor Saxophonist). I was already familiar with Ken's work from Powerhouse sound, and his solo efforts. I am a Jazz player, fan and like free Jazz. I have seen quite a few unusual improvisation shows in my past, the type where you have to be careful who you invite. This show was relatively tame in comparison.

This was also my first trip to the Victory Grill, and I must say that it is a great venue. It looks like it could get hot in the summer. It's nice to know that the Elephant Room isn't the only venue in town for Jazz.

The good parts of this show for me were the interplay between Ken and Ab. They did interesting things with their instruments, pulling out a lot of tricks. Over-blowing, playing harmonics, trading phrases, all coupled with some mutant counterpoint every once and while. I enjoyed the show in general, but I found the rhythm section to be a little mechanical for my tastes. I suspect I would have enjoyed them with a bit more swing (which probably really means that I would have preferred a different rhythm section).

Five Peace Band at Bass Concert Hall

Last night, I had the pleasure to see Five Peace Band, at the newly refurbished Bass Concert Hall. Having been to one of the last concerts there before the remodeling commenced, I was anxious to see what had changed. It seems that other than the acoustic treatments on the wall, and some painting, the changes were was not as dramatic as I had expected.

No matter, lets talk about the important stuff, the music. It seems that shortly after the Return to Forever tour concluded, Chick Corea started working with former bandmate from the Miles Davis Bitches Brew era, John McLaughlin. The original studio and touring line-up of Five Peace consisted of Chick and John, along with saxophonist Kenny Garrett, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta. Vinnie had to move on to the Jeff Beck tour (which does not appear to be traveling through Texas, damn it), and was replaced by the equally competent and spectacular, Brian Blades.

The band played for 3 hours, in 2 sets, with a 15-20 minute intermission. The acoustics, as always, were spectacular in this hall which used to host the Austin Symphony. My seat was in the 10th row from stage, with Chick almost directly in front of me.

The improvisational playing was spectacular. For me, the stars of the show were Chick, Brian Blades, and Christian McBride. Kenny looked like he might have been a little under the weather (but still played magnificently), and McLaughlin was his normal rock steady self. My friend commented that you really understand what a true MF'er Chick is on the keys, when you sit that close. I wholeheartedly agreed.

The crowd was older, and there were lots of gray ponytails again. None the less, most were attentive and seemed fully engaged in the show. I was surprised however, at the number of empty seats, given the standing room only crowds for RTF, last year.

A set list is available here. Although supposedly verboten, I managed to sneak a picture with the iPhone at the end of the show

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If you have the chance to see this show, do it! Next up this month, Stanley Clarke.

SxSWm - Saturday

The last day, and man are my dogs barking.

Panels

The Hold Steady Interview and Doug Sahm's Mendocino

I attempted to sit through a bit of both of these panels. I guess I was paneled out.

Neil Young Archives

Apparently Neil Young had been in town for 48 hours, but no secret shows. His manager however, was present to talk about the release of Vol 1 of Neil's Archives (a 10 Blu-ray set).

This is an extremely interesting project. Apparently, Neil and his manager have archives and recordings all the back to Neil's first band, the Squires. In fact, he says that they have recordings of almost every single show or concert for 40 years.

The release of the first volume will also be accompanied by a new documentary by Jonathan Demme. There was a screening at the Paramount for Badge holders, but it seems to me that it would have better to start it during the film festival. The time was inopportune and conflicted with several music shows.

The entire archive is expected to be 4 or 5 volumes in total, and will be probably take 25-30 years to be released. What they showed at the talk was incredible. I'm hoping that it is released on Netflix, because although I want to watch it, I'm not sure I would want to spend the money on the first 10 of what will be approximately 50 discs. I think it's fantastic that they had enough foresight to archive the material.

Shows

Afternoon at the HiLo

My buddies Ed Martinez and Dave Johnson (AMA winners for their band, More Cowbell) had their respective fusion bands Proteus and Ugly Elephant at the HiLo again this year. It was a fun time, the windows were open, and the music was great.

Echo and the Bunnymen at the DirecTV Bat Bar

This was the first time I had ever seen this band. There were some initial problem with the sound, with a low bass rumble. They eventually squared those away. They also managed to fit Lips like Sugar into the set before they finished.

Sparks the Rescue at the Cedar Door

After finishing dinner, I caught one song by this band. It was post-punk, power pop with the singer using a affected British accent. Seemed ok, I probably would have stayed for several songs if I had gotten there earlier.

Marc Winston and the Reflections at Prague

I had no idea where Prague was, until I arrived and saw that it was another converted Dance Club. No matter, the band was good. They were from LA, and had late 80's pop sound, reminiscent of Tommy Tutone or Greg Kihn. I enjoyed the set and stayed for its entirety.

Kudos to the band for driving from Los Angeles.

Zaki Ibriham at Buffalo Billiards

Stopped for one song, saw there was no band. Sorry, next.

Theoretical Girl at Latitude 30

For the past few years, Latitude 30 has been painted and set up as the UK Music hub during SxSW. What intrigues me is that I'm not sure what the building is used for otherwise. I will have to solve this mystery soon. (Perhaps it's like the old Coppertank Brewpub which was also open this past week).

I caught two songs from this British act which consisted of two females and a mercenary backing band. Interesting pop, not my cup of tea however.

The Tap Room

Golden Hornet Project

I showed up mainly to see Graham's band. If nothing else, he should get an award for cramming 5 of the 7 people in the Project, up on the tiny stage. The instrumentation included, a spinet piano, violin, cello, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and xylophone.

The start was a little late, but the music was very powerful, and interesting. Typical of one of Graham's shows. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm kicking myself for not catching Golden Hornet earlier. Will have to soon.

The Elysian Quartet

This band is a string quartet from NYC that does totally improvised music. Unfortunately, the environment made this performance challenging, with loud dance music leaking through the walls from the club next door. It was not as noticeable when Golden Hornet Project was on the stage, but a string quartet was unable to compete.

My other complaint, I find this type of improvisation (from Classically Trained musicians) much less interesting than what you would hear from a seasoned Jazz player. Perhaps I just need to hear it Swing, I cut out of there before the set was finished.

Jimmy Webb

I returned to Prague to hear the last couple songs of Songwriting Legend, Jimmy Webb's set. There were several friends of mine that parked there all night long. What I heard sounded great.

The 18th Floor at the Hilton Garden Inn

I had met my friend Rick earlier in the evening, in line for the Echo and the Bunnymen taping. We originally started talking at an Adrian Belew show about 2 years ago. Since then, we have run into each other a lot. In talking at the Prague we both mentioned the 18th floor. As it turns out, we were both there for the infamous Andy Pratt show during SxSW 2007.

I had also mentioned liking Sarah Borges, and being frustrated at not being able to catch her with her band or the Doug Sahm tribute at Antones with Dave Alvin and others. He mentioned that perhaps I would like this band the Bridges, that he had seen at the Belmont for a day party. They were playing the 18th floor to close out the night. So we trekked down there to finish there.

John Fairhurst

was on the stage when we arrived. He is a solo Dobro player from England. Very accomplished, but since he had no vocals, it became tiring after about 3 minutes. I would like see what this guy could do as a member of a band.

The Bridges

This band is a group of 4 young women (ages 18-24), along with a drummer. It's a family affair with 4 of the band members being siblings, and last woman, a cousin. They apparently have been working with Matthew Sweet.

The band is pop oriented, and the strength their vocals. They were simply amazing singers, and often employ 4 part harmonies. I got a sense that the level of talent displayed, combined with their ages will result in them going very far.

SxSWm - Friday

Panels

Little Steven Keynote Speech

The morning began with a keynote speech by Steve Van Zandt (aka. Sylvio Dante, Little Steven, or Miami Steve). This E-Street Band icon was there to discuss his take on the state of the music industry.

The high points of his talk:

• Artists no longer work on the craft of performing. Expect to skip steps, which should include putting in time to play out live. Rough quote, it takes about 10000 hours of focused work, to achieve greatness.
• Spoke about the need to make music that people can dance to.
• Runs an Indie record label with bands from all over the globe. Seems to have a high regard for Norway, as an incubator of talent.
• Talked at length about the Underground Garage program he does on XM and Sirius. He promoted and pushed multiple bands, and in hindsight many warranted further listening.

Lots of sage advice, from someone with the music entrepreneurial spirit deep inside his core. He of course was dressed in his very distinctive garb. Later that day I saw him walking down the sidewalk outside of Latitude 30 still dressed that way, trying to be inconspicuous. This was fairly comical to be honest, I just wish I had gotten a picture.

Songs in Strange Places with Tiny Desk Concerts and Project Song

An interesting panel about several projects being conducted by NPR. I didn't stay for the whole session, but it included a segment with Nellie McKay.

Shows

Manhatten Love Suicides at the Sesac day stage

This was a very good Indie band from Britain. I heard them as I was eating and stayed for the entire set. They seemed to draw some attention from many of the passers by. Will have to investigate further.

Austrialian Music Party

I heard several bands, but the most interesting was Temper Trap, who drew on guitar ostinatos like Edge from U2, combined with a millennial vocal sound. It seemed to go well with good weather, and a couple of bottles of Dark Wattle Ale.

Juliette Lewis and the New Romantiques at the DirecTV Bat Bar

All I can say about this is that I'm tired of screen actors wanting to do music. This show was about as compelling and interesting as Dog Star.

The Proclaimers at the DirecTV Lone Star Lounge

This was another highlight of the show. The brothers basically did this show by themselves, since their band did not want to make the trip. No matter, they were awesome even without the band.

Although they sing with a thick brogue, their voices are powerful and their lyrics moving. There is a certain weird charisma that these guy have that draws the audience in. Like the Kin, they had everyone eating out of the palm of their hands. They finished with their hit, I'm Gonna Be, which was a delight.

I felt compelled to buy one of their albums after seeing this show.

Honey Ryder at the Thristy Nickel

This band was listed as TBA on Red Gorilla schedule, most likely because they had SxSW showcases, as well. They were a British band with a female lead vocalist and equally talented woman on backup vocals.

I'm not sure if everything they sang was their own music, but they were very talented. If time constraints were not a factor, I may have attempted to see their showcase.

I Am David Sparkle at the Karma Lounge

Karma Lounge is dance club that is temporarily converted into a live music venue for SxSW. My friends Ron, Alissa and I went to check out this band from Singapore.

Unfortunately, they had a late start because of power problems. I'm not sure who was at fault, but Alissa (a former SxSW staff member) said that they used to have people specifically assigned to handle this. I felt really heartbroken to discover that this band had flown 30 hours to get to Austin, and that this was there only showcase. Kudos for the effort.

This band was a power trio having a nu-metal/prog sound, and no vocals. I found the music interesting and actually would have stayed longer to hear more, if possible.

Igudesman and Joo at St. David's Church

I always try to go and see at least one show at this venue, given the exceptional acoustics of the room. I chose this show at random, and fate came through for me.

Igudesman and Joo are a classical violinist and pianist who have a comedic act in the tradition of Victor Borge. Let me first say they are phenomenal musicians. On top of that, however, they are extremely funny.

My best advice is to direct you to their website or one of the Youtube videos, so you can see for yourself.

Monahans at the Tap Room

I erroneously thought that the Golden Hornet Project was playing in this slot. It turned out being a local Austin band. I happened across my friend Thad, before proceeding elsewhere.

Austin Music Hall

Tricky

I ended up at the Austin Music Hall early in order to see Devo. As a result, I had to sit through Tricky. Honestly, I don't get this guy's popularity. His band was fairly tight, playing slow grooves. I'm not sure what his talent is however, certainly not much of a singer or performer. Yawn.

Devo

This was another highlight of the night. Even though a huge crowd was attempting to see Metallica on the other end of town, at Stubbs, the Austin Music Hall was still packed as well. For me personally, 27 or 28 years had transpired since last seeing them on the New Traditionalists tour on Halloween night, in 1981 or 1982, at Radio City Music Hall. I was one of those weird punkers in high school that went to go see them immediately after they were on SNL in 1979, and was always a big fan of this very innovative band.

The 5 Spuds from Akron came out and played for over an hour covering 2 new songs and a selection of their hits including Jocko Homo, Mongoloid, Gut Feeling, Freedom of Choice, Whip It, Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA, Secret Agent man, etc... Even though they are all old men now, it was amazing how much the crowd was into the show.

They are expected to tour this year, I may have to make a point to go.

PS. Boogie Boy did make an appearance for one song, Beautiful World.

SxSWm - Thursday

Thursday was a busy day early, I'm feeling a little fatigue since this is already day 6, only 2 more to go.

Panels

There's Still Lots of Money in Songwriting and Music Publishing - Jeff and Todd Brabec

This is the fourth time I've seen the Brabec twins speak, third time at SxSW, and once as an Austin Music Foundation Small Group Session. I have always been impressed with depth of the material they present, and how approachable both gentlemen are. I was able to speak for a few minutes with Jeff afterwards, and it appears that another AMF session is in the works. I always learn something new at their talks.

Placing Your Music in Film

This was a repeat of a similar session from last year's SxSW. The panel was mainly Music Supervisors, but also included someone from Subpop records, who manages licensing of their catalog. It was very interesting to hear about this process from the Label's or Publisher's perspective.

Quincy Jones Keynote

This was a marathon and went over at least 40 minutes. I found this write up via Twitter. It does a great job recapping the talk.

Devo Interview

This was one of the highlights of the show for me, all 5 members of the band were present for an in-depth interview. They talked about all of the highlights of their career starting with the Akron, OH days, Kent State, and moving to LA.

Some interesting comments were made about their rivalry with the Talking Heads, along with some choice comments about David Byrne. They also told a story about their label trying to convince them to have John Lydon (aka. Johnny Rotten) join the band, giving some fascinating insight into the Music Biz at that time. Also interesting was their discussion of their cover of Working In A Coal Mine, how it was dropped from their album by their label, yet still went top 40 via the Heavy Metal soundtrack.

Shows

Abalone Dots on the Sesac Day Stage

While grabbing a bite to eat, I caught this incredible act, 4 women from Sweden playing upright bass, guitar/mandolin, violin, cello. They also did incredible 4 part vocal harmonies. Outstanding, I will probably look for their CD and buy it.

Von Bondie on the DirecTV soundstage

I caught the last 3 songs of this act from Detroit. Well done, but fairly mainstream stuff.

Peter Murphy at the Elysium

I accompanied friends Ron and Alissa to see the original Goth rocker, Peter Murphy. Pretty much as expected, Peter seems to be good humored and self-deprecating enough to not come off like an asshole. The band was very good, they were obviously all old pros.

18th Floor

I make it point to go to this venue every year because of the consistent quality of the acts I've seen here.

Andy White

I caught the last song of the set of this very talented Irish act. My only complaint is that I wished I had not dallied along the way, so that I could have heard more

The Kin

Another highlight of the festival. They are a pair of brothers (?) from Australia, who had a mercenary rhythm section composed of a bass player and drummer from the Austin bands, Wideawake and Vast.

To me, these guys sound reminiscent of Tonic and you could tell that they had the little something extra. They had the crowd in the palms of their hands before coming out and doing one number standing on two chairs, in the middle of the crowd. I think these guys will be stars some day. Kudos to them for handing out download cards of their music.

Stars Go Dim

I caught the first 4 songs of this talented band from Tulsa, OK. I felt sorry for these guys because they had to follow the Kin.

Somi at Elephant Room

After an extra long setup, Somi managed to do one song. Things quickly derailed by PA/sound problems. After waiting 20 minutes, I left.

Leni Stern at the Copa

This was the last act I saw of the night. Leni is a NY based guitarist, who is married to Mike Stern, another famed guitarist. She was part of a 4 piece band, with her self, an Upright Bassist, Drums, and Bazuki player (who also had Tablas and other percussive nick-knacks)

The music was sort of new age mishmash of Persian/Middle Eastern sounds with a light Jazz twist. In general though, I find her playing a bit understated.

Needing sleep, I headed home a little early.

SxSWm - Wednesday

I managed a fairly early start to the first day of the music segment of SxSW. Of course, the most interesting panels are always the first couple of days.

Panels

Annoying Things that Bands Do

This was an entertaining panel of Club Owners and Bookers giving their collective horror stories. Nothing surprising here really, and I noticed that the group was predominantly people from the Chicago area. I wish there had been a few Texans on this panel, although I guess there were some universal aspects to what was being said on this panel.

Artist as Entrepreneur

A fantastic panel involving one artist, Rachael Sage (who I had seen at SxSW several years ago), along with Panos Panay (CEO Sonic Bids), Jeff Price (CEO Tunecore), and Derek Sivers (of CD Baby Fame). Jeff and Derek are fountains of information, and seem to really care about their fellow artists. Like Martin's panel later, repeated attendance may be required to catch the gems presented.

Loudness Wars with Bob Ludwig

A very interesting session with legendary Mastering Engineer, Bob Ludwig. This talk worked on several levels, and was very engaging because he spent considerable time A-B'ing mixes off of his laptop. The whole talk got of to a good start when he chose Frank Zappa's, Dumb All Over, the first listening.

This session was also fun because I ran into old friend, Scott Hull. I recorded a 4 song demo project over in Scott's parent's garage in Poughkeepsie, NY in 1985. He's now one of the giants in the NYC Mastering scene. Scott informed me that he had bought Masterdisk this past year.

Martin Atkins

This was essentially a repeat of Martin's talk from last year. Regardless, repetition is needed to fully absorb the jewels that Martin leaves on the table. He is truly a champion for the DIY crowd.

Shows

Copa

I started out the night at the Copa on Congress. I had never been in this club prior to tonight. It apparently is a Latin, Salsa Dansing club having a fairly large dance floor and a stage big enough to hold an 8 or 9 piece band.

El Tule

A very good local Latin dance band. The dance floor was packed, I'm sure Little Steven would have approved, given what he said during his talk.

Invincible Czars

The Czars were the main reason I went to this venue. Helping to support my good friend, Josh Robbins, from AMF. Their set was good, but the sound suffered because their Keyboard player is out of commission for a while.

Contra Coup

A local Dub band. I listened to the first 3 songs, but was not really that engaged with their material, so I ventured onwards.

Monster Big Band at the Elephant Room

I walked up the street to Austin's main Jazz Club, the Elephant Room. There was a local big band with about 14 members. I was impressed that they managed to fit into such a small space. I enjoyed to a degree, however, my preference has always been for my improvisational, small Jazz combos over Big Bands. There is however, a certain sonic strength to Big Bands that you have to like.

Del Castillo at Antones

I stopped in here to hopefully hear some of the new material from Del Castillo's new album to be released, next month. I believe that I heard two new cuts. As always, they killed. I noticed several people with out of town badges, who appeared to be impressed.

La Zona Rosa

I trekked down to LZR just to see what was going on. Was very disappointed to see button pusher/DJ called Deadmau5. Given the size of some of the temporary venues in town during SxSW, why would you sacrifice a good large stage?

The Tap Room

This was the first time I had ever been in this venue either. There was band named Wild Moccasins from Houston. I listened to one song and wondered how the hell they got accepted for a showcase.

SxSWi & SxSWf - Tuesday

Yesterday was the SxSWi close out. I attended three panels (that I can recall), one was about current attacks on Fair Use and was very well done, the second was about NUI interfaces which was also somewhat intriguing, and last but not least, I attended one of the Platinum Track sessions out of curiosity. I don't see what was supposed to be so special about the Platinum Track session, it hardly seemed worth segregating this talk from the others.

The most interesting thing of the day was the film panel with Richard Linklater and Todd Haynes. The conversation turned to the previous night's screening of Superstar. It was a great session because both directors answered a wide array of questions, from a very engaged audience. Great panel.

I finished the night with two films, You Won't Miss Me and the Austrailian film, Horsemen. I must say that the former was too artsy for my tastes. Some interesting usage of multiple cameras and media formats, but the story itself didn't appeal to me. Horsemen was a bit more engaging, sort of a Walking Talk meets Dead Alive vibe. Basically the story of a father who goes on a rampage after his daughter dies as a result of being involved with the porn industry.

The long days start tomorrow.

SxSWi & SxSWf - Monday

I got up a little later than usual today, and was unable to park in my usual spot, the Parking Garage. The weather has finally broken, and it was absolutely beautiful, warm and sunny.

In the morning I bounced between two talks about managing employees in startups, and protecting domain names. The first was somewhat interesting, but for the second talk, all I can say is god save us all from lawyers, please. This panel members (all lawyers) and some of the other Esquires in the audience came to the great conclusion that there is a problem with ICANN because they turn a profit, and that all of interests would be best served by having the government regulate this function.

After a nice leisurely lunch on the roof of the Iron Cactus, I spent the afternoon at two talks:

• A film panel focused on the topic of 3D, with Robert Rodriguez and Henry Selick, the stop action animator of Nightmare before Christmas fame. This session was fantastic and went by way too fast. They both presented short clips of their work in this domain, and answered a large volume of questions. It was great to be able to see into the minds of these two fantastic artists and see what makes them tick. Having the audience so engaged, made the session enjoyable on several levels.
  
• Bruce Sterling's keynote speech finished the day. I think he portrayed the general state of things, with some good commentary on today's Internet, Social Media, etc. I would say that although he tried to assume the mantel of an objective journalist or observer, his political agenda did leak out on several occasions. I'll just say that this, Bruce is lot more enamored and impressed by Politicians and Policy Wonks, than I am.

For the evening, I went to two film screenings:

• Luckey - at the Convention Center theater. First let me say, this facility was surprisingly good. It is by far, the largest screen of the festival and great sound. The film itself was fantastic and very moving. If only most reality TV could aspire to this level.

  The film is a documentary about the life of sculptor, Tom Luckey, who became a quadriplegic from a fall. The deadly irony of this, is the fall was the result of one of his own architectural decisions.

  The film covers his present day business, building elaborate climbing tree sculptures that you would find in a Children's Museum. The documentary details the interactions with various family members as they prepare one of these climbing trees, for the Boston Children's Museum.

• The second film I saw last night, was listed as TBA on the Alamo Ritz list. This intrigued me enough to want to go see it. While in line, I recognized that the person next to me in line was originally from Baltimore (my home town), and we had a fun conversation while waiting.

  Entry to the screening was delayed. All we were told is that the film was 30 years old, historically significant and that projector setup was taking longer than expected. We finally entered the theater, I was surprised to see Richard Linklater introduced as the MC. He then explained that we were about to see Todd Haynes' banned film Superstar, the Karen Carpenter story, and that Todd might be available after the screening for Q&A. Richard also spoke about seeing this film back then, and the impact it had upon him.

  The entire film is done with barbie dolls, interspersed with segues of real people at various points. I found it extremely creative, and found it interesting to hear about why the film had been banned. I was really happy I made this decision to just wing it.

Looking forward to another great day of weather and the close out of SxSWi.

SxSWi and SxSWf - Sunday

Sunday was a great day, but one contributor to that was the turn in the weather. It finally resembled an Austin spring. It was almost a crime to spend part of the day inside.

Of note for SxSWi, I attended talks on Version Control, and the status of CSS3. Having used svn every day for the past 4 or 5 years coupled, with bzr, then git for the past 18 months, I felt like I could have given as good of a talk on the subject, as any of the panel members. Of course, there were several corporate types still pushing their proprietary wares. My only question, why? You put any of these up against git, and I believe that git will win every time (now that the documentation problem is being addressed).

The CSS3 talk was more interesting with the lead Mozilla developer, a member of the IE8 team, and the CTO of Opera there for the discussion (no Safari representation, however, boo Apple). As much as it pains be to say, kudos to Microsoft for finishing a fully CSS 2.1 compliant version of IE8.

The highlight of the day however, was hearing lifelong Kubrick friend and producer, Jan Harlan, talk about Stanley. It was a real treat to hear Jan in person, since I loved the documentary he prepared that is included the Kubrick Box Set, from Warner Brothers. The room was filled with people (like me), who were all passionate fans of SK's work. The highlights for me was hearing about two projects that Stanley was never able to complete, Napolean, and the Aryan Papers, a Holocaust movie that was scrapped because of concurrency with Shindler's List. Jan did say however, that a new book will be published with Stanley's notes, storyboards, etc. from his extensive pre-production process for these two movies, and AI. He also mentioned that a 2nd (and cheaper) edition of the Taschen Kubrick book was going to press.

I finished the night with 2 films, Humpday, and a Sneek Peak presentation of Sasha Baron Cohen's new movie, Bruno. Humpday was shown at the Alamo Ritz, and although I miss their original downtown location, I must say I am growing to like this location. I also really enjoy the whole process with having a Q&A with the director, after the screening. Talking to some film people in line from LA, I also discovered that the Alamo concept is still unique to Austin. It's a shame, I think it would take off anywhere.

For Bruno, all I can say is that Sasha seems more and more like Andy Kaufman every day. If you thought Borat was over the top, then all I can say is that he has pushed the envelope even further. I laughed pretty hard at the footage they showed. The only thing I didn't like was the heavy handed security. There were actually hired security for this screening, to ensure that no screeners appeared on the Internet. Cell phone confiscations were threatened.

SxSWi, SxSWf and Barcamp Austin IV - Saturday

Although I'm taking in the whole SxSW experience this year (Interactive, Film and Music), I punted day one because of work commitments, and crappy weather Friday. I opted for a more manageable 9 straight days, rather than 10 (LOL). Today, I popped my Interactive and Film cherry.

Having never been to the Interactive portion of SxSW before, I was working with a clean slate of expectations. It did seem however, as though the Barcamp or unconference model has started to diffuse over into the conference world. Given the subject matter and people at SxSWi this was not too surprising.

I attended a number of sessions about startups and bootstrapping, and several specifically focused on Ruby on Rails. These were not new subject areas for me, I was more interested in seeing their mainstream adoption. Mid afternoon, I also managed to sneak out, and walk down the street a block to the Barcamp Austin IV location, at the old Paradox nightclub. I must say, although the location was great (relative to SxSW), the actual venue did not work for me. In fact, this is the first Barcamp I would call a Fail.

For the remainder of the day I hit several of the outside parties, saw Doc Searls interviewed, and straiffed the Dorkbot event, which included a guy that had built a large modular analog synthesizer (from modified PAIA kits and synthesizers.com). I ended the night with a pair of films, including Daryl Wein's and Zoe Lister-Jones', Breaking Upward. An absolutely fantastic movie in the narrative feature realm.

Now, off to prepare breakfast, and head downtown for my day 2.

California Guitar Trio at the One World Theater

CGT is one of those groups that I will never grow tired of, particularly at a venue like the One World. Last night, I attended the late show. It marked the first time that I had sat in the balcony, where the acoustics turned out being absolutely awesome. Of course, I was right next to the sound-man.

Some elements of this show were exactly like the last show I had seen in August, 2007. Once again, they sold CDs of the soundboard mix, and were available for a meet and greet after the show.

This show featured a new set list, and they did not perform Bohemian Rhapsody or Freebird. Paul did indicate after the show, that they were ready to play Rhapsody if requested. The most interesting part of the night ended up being the special guests, 3 music students from the University of Texas Percussion Lab.

Apparently, CGT posted the arrangement scores for some of their music on their website. Three music majors from UT, learned the pieces as a Vibraphone Trio, and posted videos of a recital on You Tube. Paul said that the band was amazed when the students contacted them.

CGT decided to rehearse with the group upon arriving here in Austin, and have the 3 percussionists join them on stage. The double trios played the Marsh, and Melrose Avenue during the encore. Both numbers were very well done, and moving. Touche guys!

The highlights for me, were the Shadow Walk during Apache and the meet and greet after the show. During the show they talked a bit about their history. It seems that my path had crossed theirs 20 years, leading to this story:

Sometime last year, I stumbled across a video of Robert Fripp's League of Crafty Guitarists on You Tube. It was from the 1989 - 1990 timeframe. Watching it I noticed that all 3 members of CGT and Trey Gunn were in the League at that time.

I had the good fortune to see LoCG at the Chance, in Poughkeepsie, NY around 1989 or so. The particular show featured one unusual incident. A King Crimson fan (better described as a stalker) was circulating in front of the stage singing songs from Starless and Bible Black while the LoCG was playing. Robert Fripp reached his breaking point, stopped the show and had him removed.

I asked Bert Lam if he was in the LoCG during that timeframe, and he said possibly. Once I described this incident Paul and Bert both started laughing and confirmed that they were all there that night. It was very fun sharing this 20 year old memory with the band. Although the incident was annoying, it made the show memorable for both the audience and the performers.

RIP: Billy Powell

Billy Powell passed away yesterday. Even though I grew up in the 70's, I wasn't a huge Lynyrd Skynyrd fan. I spent most of my teen years first being into Prog, then getting into Punk. There is no denying however, that Skynyrd's tragic history and music, are both archetypal. They created and defined a whole genre of music.

As I grew older, I started listening to and playing a lot more Rockabilly, Blues and Roots Music. From this, I gained a new found respect for Billy Powell. There is something mythical about Billy's story too, both in how he stepped up from roadie to musician, and his being the only survivor of the Plane Crash. If the story wasn't true, it would be hard to believe. You'd almost expect Josef Campbell to be telling you his tale.

It was sad to hear of his passing. I know that I will be reminded of him when I go see the California Guitar Trio next month, if they play the Freebird encore.

Bill Bruford Retires

I'm bummed. One of my favorite drummers ever, Bill Bruford, has announced that he's hanging up the cleats, and will no longer be performing live. Of course, one immediately wonders what is behind this decision. Hopefully, his health is well.

I will look back with fondness at the shows I've seen with Billy B. They include Yes/Union, King Crimson, Earthworks, with David Torn, and with Patrick Moraz. If I have one regret, it's being too young to have seen him in Yes the first time around, with the 1974 KC lineup, with his Solo Project (Holdsworth, Berlin and Stewart) and with UK.

Bruford is one of a small group of artists that I can honestly say that I listen to at least once a day.

RIP: Patrick McGoohan

If I didn't listen to Gardner Goldsmith's podcast, I would have never heard the news that Patrick McGoohan (aka. Number 6) has passed away. Major bummer.

Kind of disappointing, since there was some talk of a remake of The Prisoner, a few years back. Now more than ever, I think McGoohan's message needs to be heard.

This show taught me to question all uses of the word we.

Ravens wrap up

I have mixed feelings about this season. On one hand, I feel they exceeded all expectations. With 16 players, including 3 defensive starters, on IR, a Rookie QB and Head Coach, the thought of playing the AFC Championship game seemed almost absurd. Losing the game however, was bitter sweat. Windows into the big game are hard to come by, and nothing is guaranteed next year.

Fate unforunately, conspired against the team. Hurricane Ike forced the team to take their bye in week 2, rather than originally scheduled, week 10. As a result, Sunday's game was the 18th straight week that they had played. I knew in my heart that they didn't have anything left in the tank (running on fumes, as they say).

Well, it's 8 months until Camp and Flacco is clearly a Franchise QB! I guess I'm rooting for the Cardinals in two weeks ;)

RIP: Freddy Hubbard

It seems strange that we have lost another Jazz great during the Holiday season, for the second year in a row.

I'm cuing up Africa Brass, and Maiden Voyage right after I finish posting.

RIP: Mitch Mitchell

Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell died in his sleep last night. If ever there were a drummer defining the late 60's, it's him.

Recently, I was just contemplating ripping some of my vinyl collection, so that I'd have things like a recording of Keith Emerson and Mitch playing Miles Davis' Freedom Jazz Dance. Won't be able to do that today, in the meantime, I'll have to move a Jimi Hendrix play-list into the rotation on my iPhone.

It's week 10 and my Ravens are 6-3

Wow, I've been silent up to this point not wanting to jinx anything. My Ravens seem to have an offense. You have to love what John Harbaugh is doing with this team, and I can't say enough good things about Cam Cameron. Joe Flacco seems to be the first real QB on the roster, since Vinny Testaverde. I'm enjoying watching balanced football games, with nice long clock killing drives.

The only bad thing this week, having to root for the Slurs and Clots because they're playing the Appalachians. It makes me feel dirty, but the playoffs are not an outlandish possibility now.

Allan Holdsworth at the Continental Club, Austin

Thanks to a heads-up from my friends, Ron and Alissa, I found out about this show Thursday night featuring Allan Holdsworth, Chad Wackerman and Jimmy Johnson. I was very excited to see this show, because I haven't seen Allan live in almost 20 years.

I arrived at 7:30PM to a 3 quarters filled Continental Club, and many musicians in the audience. The band started promptly at 8PM, with Allan humorously complaining about not having time to go back to the hotel and shower, and admitting to some nervousness, after getting a rousing ovation as the band took the stage.

I estimate that the band played 90 minutes. Here is a partial setlist, I wish I could remember the remainder of the set.

• The Fifth
• Fred
• Water on the Brain
• ...
• Red Alert (to close the show).

During the show Allan mentioned that he wished he could be out in the audience, enjoying the music and an ale. Afterwards, the entire band was available to meet and greet the audience at the merchandise table. I let Allan know how much I enjoyed hearing him play the material from Believe It, Jimmy Johnson immediately piped up and informed me that he enjoys hearing it too!

My only regret is that fellow Lifetime band-mate, Alan Pasqua was not on this tour, because last year's DVD from Yoshi's doing much of this same material is even more outstanding (hard as that may be to believe).

Henry Rollins Spoken Word Redux

It was hard to imagine that over a year had passed since I had last seen Rollins, time seems to fly by these days. Once again, Henry was performing a spoken word show at La Zona Rosa. (BTW, going to La Zona Rosa made me realize how little this venue is used now. I wish I knew why this was the case). The show was better attended this year, which was surprising given it was on a Sunday night.

Henry started the show announcing that it was a celebration of the end of the Bush Administration. I understand the sentiment, however since abandoning my Libertarian party membership and adopting the Voluntaryist moniker, I can honestly say that I don't share his optimism about the coming change. In fact I dread it, since I have no faith in the political process or any politician. I was impressed that he didn't dwell too long on partisan politics, and went fairly quickly, into personal anecdotes.

The rest of the show covered familiar ground. How boring he finds his own life now that he is in his 40's, his workaholic tendencies, traveling to verboten places (this year it was Islamabad, Pakistan), and getting tickets to the Van Halen reunion from David Lee Roth. He was also introspective about his childhood and his relationships with his mother (good) and his father (bad).

I enjoyed myself for the duration, which was probably just shy of 2 hours, and will probably go see him again next year, when he returns to Austin agin.

ACL 2008 Day 3

ACL for the third and final time this year. Man, I'm tired and my feet hurt.

Abigal Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet featuring Bela Fleck

I knew what to expect having already seen this act at SxSW. Hard to believe, but the exceptional got even better.

Getting to the stage about 45 minutes early really worked out well. I was 3 rows back, with an excellent view.

The Octopus Project

Honestly, I'm not a fan of blip and bloop music, but this band can be entertaining. They started the set joined by the Austin High School marching band.

I found their music tiring to listen to after the 3 or 4 songs. I think they work better in a smaller venue. They did provide the first Theremin sighting of the day.

Mike Farris featuring the Roseland River Revue

This band was a hidden gem at the WaMu pavilion. Straight forward, well executed Soul and R&B by a band from Nashville, backed up with an Austin horn section (made up of the Elephant Room crew).

Joe Bonamassa

Wow, can Joe play guitar. I will most likely have to catch him on tour one of these days. Joe was the official guitar hero of ACL, and everyone had gotten the memo (it was impossible to get near this stage).

Interestingly enough, the Theremin made another appearance during this show.

Okkervil River

I don't normally listen to this type of Indie rock, but I had to catch this show because I know one of the band members.

Early Exit

I decided to call it night early, maily because of exhaustion, a Ravens' MNF game tomorrow, and my not being a Foo Fighters fan. Reading other write-ups, it sounds like I should have tried to catch Band of Horses.

ACL 2008 Day 2

My friend Dan and I arrived relatively early again. Weather was nice (a bit on the warm side), but it was crowded. Still plenty of dust and ragweed to go around too!

The Black & White Years

I had met two of the people in this band at an AMF Mixer about 2 years ago. They are basically an early 80's new-wave band. Shades of Oingo Boingo, and the Cars.

Fleet Foxes

This was really laid back acoustic act with incredible 4 part harmonies. They seemed like festival first timers, since they took quite a bit of time between songs. I was impressed with the fact the lead singer was out talking to the crowd afterward.

The Fratellis

I witnessed this band from the AMD stage, since my friend and I decided to go for good positioning for Sharon Jones. What I heard was great, reminiscent of Cheap Trick, with a slightly more British edge. Wish the schedule hadn't conspired against me.

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

I had a heads-up about this band from Andrew Dubber on one of his blogs about a year ago. They also played at Antones, but I missed the show. The band lived up to the hype,

This is an unbelievably good Motown style band. No words can do this band justice, they are great. Sharon owned the crowd.

Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears

I had to go see these guys, if only to see this bearded fellow playing keys.

Les Freres Guisse

An incredible West African group from Senegal. I wish I had been able to catch the whole show, rather than the last 3 songs.

The Nachito Herrera All Stars

Nachito's bio says he is Piano virtuoso, after seeing him play I agree. There was one big problem, he needs to learn how to play with his band, rather than over top or plowing through them.

John Fogerty

Solid set of CCR and Fogerty solo material. I was pleasantly surprised to see drummer extraordinaire, Kenny Aronoff. The whole crowd (filled with gray ponytails) was singing along, always a good sign.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

Homerun number two of the night. Well worth the extra 45 minute wait in order to get a good position near the front of the stage.

This show was like an encyclopedia of different types of American "roots" music. In addition to the two stars, we had T-bone Burnett on guitar. The set included an amazing rendition of Black Dog and the Battle of Evermore. Hearing it alfresco on a clear Austin night, priceless.

ACL 2008 Day 1

Long day, great weather, some dust, and pollen or ragweed ;( My friend Dan, and I arrived early, parked near Antones and touch the shuttle.

Asleep at the Wheel

How else would you kick off an ACL Festival? This year, Ray had a younger girl (who couldn't have been more than 15 years old) on stage as the 2nd fiddle player. She's a great player now, I can only imagine where she'll be in 10 years.

Other highlights of the show included a great rendition of Hot Rod Lincoln.

What Made Milwaukee Famous

An Austin band that I had never seen before. Good, but not my cup of tea.

Jakob Dylan and the Gold Mountain Rebels

Jakob appeared on the same stage that his father had last year. I have seen him several times with the Wallflowers, and can honestly say, I liked that band better.

The first two songs of this set were played very tentatively. If I had to hazard a guess, it seemed like there was a problem with the on-stage monitors. This was quickly remedied, and they finished with the type of Singer/Songwriter set that you would expect.

The Freddy Jones Band

I caught these guys in the WaMu (wonder who the new sponsor will be next year?) pavilion. These guys were a really tight and experienced band, playing "Adult oriented" Pop/Rock. Enjoyable, but the genre is not something that would compel me to buy an album.

Patty Griffin

Patty was one of the recommended act, and was fantastic. She lives in Austin, but apparently tours quite a bit. Fantastic band, including a old friend, Mike Longoria, on drums. I'm not usually one to listen to much Americana, but I have made a mental note to catch her, the next time she plays here in Austin.

David Byrne

Holy crap, David hit it out of the park with this show. Easily the best show of the day, and could quite possibly be the best show of the Festival when it's all over.

At the beginning of the set their were 8 people on stage, David on lead guitar, keys, bass, drums, percussion and 3 backup singers, all dressed in white. They were joined on stage by 3 dancers (also in white), around the third song. The entire set was a well choreographed show, integrating music and dance throughout. As an observer, I could not help but think of Stop Making Sense.

I can't say enough good things about the Rhythm Section in this band. They were fucking awesome; the best I'd seen in a long while. Everyone in the crowd was visibly dancing or boppin' along to the backbeat. The show also consisted of a well rounded selection of Byrne's solo material and a healthy serving of reworked Talking Heads songs.

Two thumbs up for this one! I also just realized, that all of the Talking Heads albums in my collection are on vinyl. Time to refresh the collection with digital.

Evening Wrap Up

Antibalas

I caught about half of the set, from this NYC based funk band. Probably would have listened to more of their set, but they were on the way across Zilker.

Alejandro Escavedo

Supposedly Alejandro's first ACL. I listened to two numbers before proceeding back towards the AMD stage. I've seen him enough at SxSW to not feel like I was missing anything.

The Swell Season

I probably should have listened to the previews of this band. I caught two numbers from this act, and wished I had seen the whole set.

Mars Volta

I've tried to get into this band on the recommendation of other Prog fans, particularly King Crimson fans. I don't hear any similarity, and have never found them that interesting. Hearing them live, changed nothing. I'm just not in to them.

Manu Chao

Sounded fine and had a good band. Another case where I can't understand what all the fuss is about though. Seems to play a hodgepodge of World Music, but always seems to end up on the Reggae/Ska end of the genre spectrum

I have the Wristband

I picked up my ACL Wristband tonight, and took the opportunity to take a picture of the gate, with my phone.

Looking forward to a great weekend of music.

RIP: Richard Wright

Pink Floyd founder and Keyboardist, Richard Wright, passed away today in London, at age 65. I'll be listening to some Floyd tonight it seems.

Austin Jazz Fest Night 3

This was night two for me. I arrived there at 9PM and saw the following acts:

• Soul Kitchen - a Hip-hop fusion act. All competent musicians, I just wasn't into their music.
• The Landfall Quartet - the first real Jazz act, although they were apparently missing the 4th member (a guitarist). Great Wayne Shorter type of feel to the set. Everyone in this ensemble played well.
• Azul - a Salsa fusion band led an old friend from the Mid-Hudson Valley, Peter Mazzetti. Pete's bands have always been tight and played interesting stuff. It's too bad Azul is not able to play more often here in Austin.
• Burly - another quartet (?) with a member missing, playing as a trio. They played a blues influenced rock set reminiscent of Jeff Beck.

All in all, I had a good time, but I am wondering about the "state" of Jazz in Austin. I would have preferred a little more traditional trio or quartet music with Acoustic Instruments. I also have to wonder why this was held at the Dirty Dawg, as opposed to the Elephant Room.

Austin Jazz Fest Night 2

First, let me say I was lazy and didn't make it downtown Friday night. I saw the following acts perform last night:

• Bruce James Soultet - mainly a funk band. Bruce sounds at times like Dr. John, and at others like Chris Rea, great keys player.
• Brady Muckleroy - a bassist from Buda, who intermixes solo electric bass playing, with an ensemble. I had seen him perform before in San Marcos as a solo act.
• A band I believe was named Micky Ficky, but was listed as the Fair. Regardless of their name, I found the rhythm section to be a bit under rehearsed to be honest, and ended up leaving after their fourth song.

I enjoyed the first 2 bands and felt both were very tight. However, my biggest gripe about the Jazz Fest so far, not much of what I call "Jazz" was going on at all.

I did however meet Austrian Guitarist and now Austin inhabitant, Ulrich Ellison. He had played earlier and was engaging to talk to. I bought his CD based upon our conversation of our favorite musicians, and enjoyed it greatly on the drive home. It was fusion in the Jeff Beck and John McLaughlin vein.

First Ravens Post of 2008

Honestly, I'm nervous about the Ravens this season. I'm particularly nervous about our secondary and D line because of injuries;( So far, they haven't looked very good in either of the preseason games that I have watched. That said, this year is probably a gimme' for Harbaugh.

I be there a week from Sunday rooting for them against the Bungles. Hopefully, it will end better than last year's opener at Cincy. At least this one is at home.

King Crimson at the Keswick Theater

I just landed in Austin about 3 hours ago and am still digesting the show I saw last night. After well over a decade, I was finally able to see King Crimson again, at the Keswick Theater. The 6th in a 9 show tour celebrating 40 years of music. By Fripp's accounting, this is eighth lineup. We'll ignore the transitional lineups and the virtual seventh lineup.

I first became aware of the band when I was 14 years old. After discovering ELP, it was only short time later that I discovered Greg Lake's first band. Of course, a similar path following Bill Bruford's career after Yes, landed in the same place, on Robert Fripp's door stoop. As a result, I can say that I have been a fan of King Crimson for 33 years now.

My trek began Sunday, and I am thankful that despite weather problems, I was still able to arrive in Glenside (a minor inconvenience getting to the hotel at 3AM rather than 7PM). I was grateful that I had decided to fly in the day before the show, correctly foreseeing scenarios that would end up with me missing the show.

Besides finding write-ups at the obvious place, the set list can be found over at Zogworld and Tony Levin has already posted pictures from the show

The highlights of the show for me were hearing two songs from Larks Tongue in Aspic, and significant amount of material from the Discipline and Double Trio eras. Strangely, a review of Tuesday show mentioned that they did not play Sleepless, which I felt they did exceptionally well.

The lowlights for me were some problems with the sound (obvious clipping in the PA when Tony Levin's stick or the Kick Drums hit a strong note) and an interpretive dance troupe of 3, situated about 6 rows in front of me. Later joined by another spastic performance in the middle section.

Quite surprisingly, Robert Fripp seemed quite jovial despite hiding behind his rack. It was quite unusual to see him standing at stage right with a beaming smile, applauding the other members, at the end of the show and the two encores.

All I can say is that I hope they continue touring. I regret not going to the Tuesday show and hearing about the Nashville warm-up gigs, too late.

In one week

I will be sitting in the Keswick Theater watching the 40th anniversary celebration of the Beast, King Crimson.

I'm psyched! Early reviews of the 2 shows at the Belcourt in Nashville are already in. The sound clips of the rehearsal sessions are just whetting my voracious appetite for seeing the masters at work.

Startup Camp

I attended another Barcamp event, Startup Camp. This one was held at the Texas Union Building at UT. Well attended and very interesting.

Steve Hazel of bit-torrent fame, gave a very interesting talk on codepad and his application engine. Also much discussion of Co-ops, as a business structure. Much to ponder.

RIP: George Carlin

I saw this rolling by on Twitter this morning. Bummer!

Perceiving a Pattern

On two separate occasions this week, I observed buzz surfacing about things that I had experienced for the first time about a quarter ago. I am beginning to wonder whether there is something significant to this 3 month time period.

Bar Camp Austin III

I participated in this on a lark, while SxSWi was going on in force and really enjoyed the experience.

Birds of Feather (BOF) sessions have always been popular at Technical Conferences, and I've always felt that these were typically the most (and sometimes the only) valuable parts. Running an entire conference as a set of BOFs seemed to be a next logical step.

Then last year, I heard the Java Posse describe their Roundup, during their Podcast. It was the first time that I heard the words Open Space and Unconference. I was a little surprised then to see Seth Godin propose the idea a few days ago. He is usually one of the earliest adopters and has appeared as a TED speaker (which is at least in the right neighborhood). Needless to say, I think Open Space will begin to make inroads everywhere.

Branded or Artist Specific TV Stations

In an equally odd and coincidental fashion, I started seeing tweets and blurbs on Bob Lefsetz's site talking about Live from Daryl's House. This show was heavily marketed at SxSW Music this year, and I agree that it is amazing. I've been watching it regularly since first hearing about it. I am somewhat amused by the fact that I would have never considered my self a big Daryl Hall fan in the past.

The timing of this seems to indicate a pattern. BTW, check out the recent episode with Nick Lowe and Daryl!

Conclusion

I think the confluence of people and ideas here in Austin during SxSW, is a major catalyst. I don't believe that it's the breeding ground, but it is certainly a place where you can first observe the early adopters using new things in the wild. Of course, there's a jaded part of me that has tended to scoff at the value of SxSW, because some parts of it seem so commercialized (and political). The impact of the event seems obvious now.

This has led me to the conclusion that I should continue to keep my eye on certain new things in the Tech Industry. Right now, I am fascinated with the Ruby community and what is being done with cloud computing, github, and heroku. I'm sure they will be very prominent at Bar Camp Austin IV.

A Thursday Night at Emos

I received an email from Graham Reynolds early last week, about his Golden Arm Trio show at Emos, on thursday night. Since I happened to be attending the Live Music Task Force meeting at City Hall, I decided to stay downtown and catch some music. After grabbing some food at Best Wurst, I headed over to Emos, for the first show I've seen there in probably 7 or 8 years. I arrived at around 10:15 and the first band was already playing:

Mr. Lewis and the Funeral Five ...

were already on stage. The Tom Waits influence was obvious. They were all good musicians, but this type of music just doesn't work for me for longer than about a set.

Golden Arm Trio

This is about 4th time I've seen Graham play this year, and this time he was using essentially the same lineup that he did at SxSW, and included an AMF friend, Wayne Myers on trombone. For this smaller show, Graham brought along his own console piano. He also opted not to play drums, and had a very exceptional drummer instead. Great job, Graham is quite demonic sometimes when he plays. The crowd was surprisingly into them, and expressed their enjoyment freely.

Firewater

Firewater finished up the night. I had missed them at SxSW, and it was obvious that this show was a result of their trip here in March, and they had a minor buzz. Their base sound is an offshoot of Ska and Dub with an injection of some other world music. I enjoyed the show, as did everyone present. The band played superbly.

Two individuals stood out in the band in addition to leader Tod A, Reut Regev on Trombone and Flugelhorn, and Dhol percussionist, Johnny Kalsi.

I had originally planned on cutting out early during their set, but decided to stay until closing time after I had heard them play. I'll be keeping an eye for them in the future.

Airto Moreira at the One World

I attended a Master Class given by famed Brazilian drummer and percussionist, Airto Moreira, last Sunday (6/8/2008) at the One World Theater. Airto is famous because he played with Miles Davis on Bitches Brew, and was involved in the seminal beginnings of both Weather Report and Return to Forever. It's too bad that Chick Corea couldn't have had him sit on some dates with that tour.

The Master Class was free and afforded all present an opportunity to peak inside the mind of the artist. It consisted mainly of him talking, with a little bit of singing and playing intermixed. It was a little bit different than the other Master Class I had attended there with Terry Bozzio and Pat Mastelotto, which consisted entirely of a performance and very little talking

I was unfortunately unable to attend the show later that night, but my friend Fito did. He enjoyed the show but mentioned that Flora Purim was not present (even though advertised) and they did not have guitarist.

RIP: Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley passed away today. What can you say? He's an icon and a member of the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Just think about the number of songs that use the Bo Diddley beat. Too many to count, it's part of Rock n' Roll's ancestral DNA.

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