ACL 2010: Great New Widget with Mix of Songs by Festival Artist -- Grooveshark

Look to the right, just below the Blog Archive. I added a new jukebox widget from Grooveshark. Spin a mix of songs from almost every artist playing at the 2010 Austin City Limits Music Festival. From Friday's opener Two Tons of Steel to Sunday's closer The Eagles, From Boston to Austin's got you covered.

Heard of Grooveshark? Check it out. The sound quality seems really good on my system. The widget was a snap to create, too.

90s Music: The New 80s Music (i.e., Pitchfork is making a best-of list) -- Part Two: Underexposed Hip-Hop

The List is Finished but I'm Not

And the winner is ...

I don't want to ruin the fun (yet). The final piece of Pitchfork's Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s list just came out Friday, and some of you might actually want to read through it from 20 to 1 without knowing who's at the very top. I will say that the consensus seems to be that my three rules all held true. Maybe I'll come back and do a full rundown after the list has been out for a few days.

So then, back to the theme of my last post: Jon's Underlistened Tracks of the 90s. The problem with any endeavor like creating that post is that you can only invest so much time doing research and due diligence. As a result, you invariably think of a few other good potential entries just after hitting "publish." Pitchfork's list started on Monday, and I wanted to have my post done while the list was still being uncovered. That gave me until Thursday. Factor in work, sleep, etc., and that doesn't leave much time. Within a day after I published the post, I already had thought of a new batch of songs from the 90s that I could strongly argue were varying combinations of underexposed, underappreciated, and forgotten.

Hip-Hop Music in the 90s: Acceptance and Invention

Feeling the need to put some framework around this series of posts, I decided to make this entry all about hip-hop. Two qualities stand out when I think about hip-hop in the 90s: popularity and innovation. The former can be chalked up to a few factors, the seeds of which were sewn in the final years of the 80s. The scene spread to both coasts and in-between. Young suburbanites started listening. MTV decided it was ready to embrace hip-hop, starting with a one-off special called "Yo! MTV Raps!" that turned into one of the channel's most popular regular video shows. A guy making slick R&B-influenced hip-hop music dropped the "MC" from his name and sold 10 million copies of "U Can't Touch This" as just plain "Hammer."

Innovation also was big in the 90s, and again, the foundation for that was laid at the end of the prior decade. There has been hip-hop labeled as "alternative" from the old school days (the recently deceased Rammellzee for example). It wasn't until the late 80s, though, when the so-called golden age of hip-hop gave way to what was called "new school" at the time, that the boundaries started to get nudged in the directions they would go in later on. Rakim decided to play with complex rhyme schemes and pushed the art of MCing to new heights. In 1986 or so Schoolly D started making something close to gansta rap in Philly. De La Soul and their fellow Native Tongue groups like The Jungle Brothers and A Tribe Called Quest decided that there was more than James Brown beats and started exploring new places for samples, at the same time adding intelligent lyrics to their songs that appealed to the college crowd. Hip-house foreshadowed the influence that dance music would go on to have on hip-hop, particularly after sampling became tougher following successful legal challenges from the sampled artists. There was also commingling with reggae (BDP) and soul (Big Daddy Kane, Heavy D). On the DJing side, the simplistic scratching and mixing of the old-timers ceded to a new wave of innovators like DJ Cash Money, ushering in the golden era of turntablism.

Back to popularity. Maybe something like "U Can't Touch This" provided a clue, but when hip-hop to went mainstream in the 90s, it took a lot of people by surprise. By 1993, even "gangsta rap" (I never liked that moniker, hence the quotation marks this time) was selling big. Dr. Dre dropped "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang," which gave many people their first dose of a new rapper who still went by the full name Snoop Doggy Dog. It sold a million copies and was on BET and MTV nonstop.

Once it became apparent that hip-hop sold, the whole game changed. As a side effect, a number of artists who were bored with the highly-produced, glossy styles of money-making hip-hop took all of the ideas that spawned in the late 80s, went underground, and made some incredible music. While Snoop and Dre ruled the charts and the suburbs, groups like Black Moon and Freestyle Fellowship were making heads bob in the places where rap music started out: the inner-cities.

Throughout the decade, I tried to stay up with what was happening on the fringes of hip-hop, which appealed to my creative side. At first, it was easy. At Tufts, I DJed from 1990-1994 on WMFO and had access to a great deal of music at the station. Plus I was in Boston, "the big city." After that, I moved to Connecticut, and the scene got tougher to follow until decent internet connections arrived later in the decade. Digging back into my memory banks, I came up with a few cuts from the less commercial side of hip-hop in the 90s. Maybe you've heard these songs before, maybe not. The level of obscurity varies quite a bit. I'm betting if you did hear a few of them, you forgot about a few of them or haven't heard them in a while.

Some of these songs may not have official videos. I'll post one of the better unofficial videos I find.

So, in vaguely chronological order, I give you ...

Jon's Underexposed Hip-Hop Tracks of the 1990s

"Kickin' Afrolistics (Clark Kent Superlistic mix)" - The Afros (1990)

Who were The Afros? What were The Afros? Sort of like a cross between Digital Underground and Biz Markie, The Afros looked a bit like novelty acts with the wigs, but they brought it musically. Sonically, this one's a bit more old school than the others on the list, but it was still only 1990.



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"Who Me?" - KMD (1991)

KMD was an outer-ring member of the Native Tongues. They released one good album in 1991, got tied up in a legal tussle with their label, dealt with the tragic loss of one member, then vanished. I picked up Mr. Hood pretty soon after hearing "Who Me?" Loved it and waited for that second album that never came. Much later, when it was revealed that KMD emcee Zev Love X was rising underground legend MF DOOM, it made a lot of sense to those of us who had been around for KMD. That second album did eventually come out in 2001, but KMD forever died with the passing of DJ Subroc (Zev/DOOM's younger brother).

"Who Me?" is worth listening to carefully for its commentary on racism. It also has a cool beat based on a funky strumming guitar riff. And Bert (yeah, that Bert).



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"Sally Got a One Track Mind" - Diamond & The Psychotic Neurotics (1992)

Diamond D (Joseph Kirkland) was an integral part of the soundtrack of my senior yer at Tufts. My cousin turned me on top Diamond & The Psychotic Neurotics, and I brought it back to Boston with me. Rachel, I and our friends listened to that CD from start to finish countless times during our pre-going out routine (typically involving drinks and Sega Genesis). Stunts, Blunts and Hip-Hop holds up pretty well, and although there aren't necessarily any classic tracks, there isn't much filler either. "Sally" probably got the most exposure of the singles released from the album. Put it on in a room full of hip-hop heads today and they'll still nod.



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"I Got Cha Opin (remix)" - Black Moon (1993)

Another one from my Tufts days. Black Moon's first single, "Who Got the Props?" got some play on BET's Rap City. I was immediately blown away by the razor-sharp emcee skills of Buckshot Shorty (he later dropped the "Shorty," much as the aforementioned Snoop dropped the "Doggy"). I got the cassette of the first album when it came out, but the version of "I Got Cha Opin" that I started hearing on radio shows was a slower, slicker version that was absent from the tape. I went out and got one of the very few "cassingles" I ever purchased just to have this remix.



(sorry for the lame video, you can't imbed the official one -- instead, click here)

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"Livin' Proof" - Group Home (1995)

I was tempted to pick "Suspended in Time" because the song lives up to its title. It really sounds like East Coast hip-hop circa 1995. "Livin' Proof" is more of a jam though. Gang Starr's DJ Premier produced the album. You can really tell that Wu-Tang has happened in listening to Premier's production, and with him on the mix, it's no surprise that beats are top shelf.



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"The Fire With Which You Burn" - Company Flow (1997)

If we want to talk about innovation in the 90s, the very beginning of Allmusic.com's review of official debut LP Funcrusher Plus (1997) justifies the inclusion of Company Flow: "Funcrusher Plus, had a galvanizing effect on the underground hip-hop scene. It was one of the artiest, most abstract hip-hop albums ever recorded, paving the way for a new brand of avant-garde experimentalism that blatantly defied commercial considerations." From Funcrusher Plus, "The Fire With Which You Burn" shows that innovation doesn't really need to be complex. Company Flow was one of the reasons Rawkus Records was a go-to label for heads in the late 90s. It is a good example of why the acclaim Funcrusher Plus received was warranted.



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"Time Is Running Out" - Visionaries (1998)

Not all boundary-pushing hip-hop came out of the Northeast in the 90s. Innovation spread west, south, and overseas. The West Coast was a hotbed for invention as well as hits, from Digital Underground, Pharcyde, Del & Hieroglyphics on downward.

Visionaries were part of a very active underground scene in LA in the late 90s. The large, politically aware group tends to focus on the bright side of things, bringing back the positive focus that was a cornerstone of East Coast hip-hop during the golden age (late 80s). Though never big commercially, Visionaries' output has been prolific. Following the Wu-Tang model, the large group's membership has released over a dozen albums as a collective and individually. UndergroundHipHop.com had this to say about the 1998 debut album, Galleries: "The album captures the essence of the Los Angeles scene and how the crew ascended to the top of it. Featuring the production creativity and dexterity of members DJ Rhettmatic and KeyKool along with guest spots from other Cali natives Evidence and J-Rocc this is a no-brainer for hip-hop historians as well as fans of dope rhymes and radiant beats."



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"Super Brooklyn" - Cocoa Brovaz (1999)

Cocoa Brovaz started out as Smif-n-Wessun and later returned to that tag. In 1999, while they were Cocoa Brovaz, emcees Tek and Steele laid down some good rhymes atop a beat based on the music and sounds featured in all-time favorite video game, Super Mario Bros. It sounds silly, but they pull it off. Tek and Steele are tight as they cleverly turn some of the game's plain sound effects into a chorus. This one was never officially released, due to copyright issues. I discovered it by ordering a mixed tape on UndergroundHipHop.com (still going strong after all these years).



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"My Fantasy" - Freestyle Fellowship (1991)
"Planets Ain't Aligned" - Nobody featuring. Freestyle Fellowship (1999)

"Space Cadet Ace reporting from base." Anything with Aceyalone rapping on it seems to bounce. Aceyalone has been delivering great beats and rhymes with a sufficient dose of underground cred for what seems like forever. Starting out with the Fellowship in the early 90s and throughout the rest of the decade and beyond with other projects like Haiku D'Etat, Project Blowed and his solo material, Acey has had a bit of the underground hip-hop midas touch.

If I had to put together a Justice League of 90s Emcees, Aceyalone would probably be on it. These two tracks show the growth he had during the decade. On "My Fantasy," which was included on Freestyle Fellowship's first album To Whom It May Concern..., Acey sounds like he's basically laying down a spaced-out freestyle over a beat that's a little eccentric but still sounds firmly planted in the early 90s. Still, you can hear the emergence of his syncopated and stuttering delivery that would influence a lot of West Coast rappers later that decade (think Bone Thugs-n-Harmony).

Acey stayed strong throughout the decade. By 1999, he was in top form. "Planets Ain't Aligned" was released on a Ubiquity Records compilation that I ordered on-line back when. Produced by DJ Nobody, this one features Acey's Fellowship and Haiku mate Mikah 9, another dude who could make his case for the 90s underground rap Mt. Rushmore.





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Come back soon. I'll be putting together one more post, after that Pitchfork list has had a little more time to simmer.

90s Music: The New 80s Music (i.e., Pitchfork is making a best-of list) -- Part One: Off the Radar

I've read or heard too many times to count about how trends follow a two-decade recycling schedule. In other words, a large percentage of retro-focused hipsters looking for fresh influences to mine can be counted on to look back roughly twenty years. In my lifetime that theory seems to have held to form. As I headed off to college at the end of 1989, some 70s trends were creeping their way back into pop culture: sideburns, flared pants and platform shoes, disco and funk music, etc. People started hosting "70s Parties" left and right. MTV, VH1, E!, and all of the magazines bought right in. And what have we been dealing with for the last ten years? Please raise your hand if you're sick of skinny jeans, popped collars, electro-pop, horror movies and frozen yogurt.

So, here we are. 2010. Twenty years from the beginning of the 1990s. Time to dust off my Stüssy jacket and Doc Martens. Okay, so maybe this post is a little bit late. It's September already. Why now? Our friends at Pitchfork Media, barometers of listening acceptability among the picky (too picky?), are doing the 90s. Fresh off of compiling a Top 50 Videos of the 1990s list, all this week Pitchfork is rolling out a list of the top 200 tracks of the decade. It's Pitchfork, so I'd expect three things. Actually, with the list being three days in, I can provide some examples.

1. Several "guilty pleasure" mainstream hits. Ironically, I just read an article about how there really is no such thing as a "guilty" pleasure. On Pitchfork. Pitchfork might really know everything (see rule 2 below).

- Good Example:

• #194: "Motownphilly" by Boyz II Men. Pitchfork had this to say about the excellent video: "Watching the 'Motownphilly' video today is like receiving a transmission from another planet. In what universe did this make sense? Four preppy dudes singing doo-wop harmonies over Dallas Austin-produced New Jack Swing, shouting out cheesesteaks and South Street, doing the dorkiest "sexy" dance moves ever on the Delaware River waterfront. Michael Bivins of Bell Biv DeVoe (and formerly New Edition) makes a cameo, rapping from a toilet seat while reading a newspaper."

2. A good number of very, very obscure songs. That's to make sure that they demonstrate that you couldn't possibly come anywhere close to matching the collective breadth of music knowledge at Pitchfork.

- Good Example:

• #158: "Your Woman" by White Town. "You wouldn't know it from the retro new-wave pop sound of this hit single, but India-born, UK-based Jyoti Mishra was a twee-pop veteran and ex-Marxist who'd grown up identifying with the anorak underground: Slumberland and Summershine were big labels in his world. When he began recording as White Town in 1990 for the Urbana, Illinois twee label Parasol Records, those recordings were a clear influence on his own brand of jangly indie pop." Say no more.

3. Lots of songs from the iconic "alternative" and "indie" artists of the era. In other words, expect to see Radiohead, Nirvana, etc. But to keep us on our toes, they'll pull out a few unexpected tracks from the biggies and mix up the order from what we'd all expect. I mean, if Pitchfork's list was the same as some other list, people might actually suspect that someone out there might know as much about indie music as Pitchfork!

- Good Example:

• #122: "Christiansands" by Tricky. Review begins: "Perhaps you're surprised to see a cut from Pre-Millennium Tension as Tricky's entrant on this list rather than one from his more-acclaimed debut, Maxinquaye, particularly 'Aftermath.'" Exactly!

The rest will basically be a mix of smaller bands and one-hit wonders that weren't really obscure enough to be in rule 2, plus a few deeper cuts by the groups that fall under rule 3. I hope I don't sound like I'm belittling this list. The writing is reliably smart and well-considered, and Pitchfork will do a very good picking out the cream, albeit across a very predictable spectrum -- ask Pitchfork readers how many hip-hop cuts will be in the top 200 and I'll bet most will give you an answer that isn't too far from the truth.

So what does this have to do with me? I guess the list has me thinking back to that age, and I feel like I should contribute something. Perhaps my own list, although nothing as big as Pitchfork's. For one thing, I'm a good age for that sort of thing. I finished high school in 1989 and did a lot of my musical exploration in the 90s in college, where I joined the radio station staff, started going to see more shows, and shared a lot of ideas with new friends. Also, Rachel and I are in the middle of a string of concerts by some pretty big alt-rock bands that were in their prime back then: Pixies, Pavement (twice, in two different time zones -- don't ask), Guided by Voices, plus we saw My Bloody Valentine not that long ago. But I don't want to harp on the icons here.

Instead, how about some of my own less obvious picks? Not necessarily all obscure, but maybe underappreciated. I can't come up with 200. Not sure I can come up with 10. So, in no particular order, here are a few of Jon's Underlistened Tracks of the 90s.

Out-There Hip-Hop

"2000 BC" - Basehead (1992)

Basehead was basically Michael Ivey, a Howard University student with a creative streak. Ivey, along with some friends, crafted some of the most original, genre-bending hip-hop to come out of a decade of hip-hop boundary-pushing. "2000 B.C.," which debut album Play with Toys launches into after a short intro track, is the perfect introduction into the laid back, bluesy, funky, stoner/lush hip-hop world of Basehead. The title -- the "B.C." stands for brain cells -- should give you a hint. Over little more than a shuffling live small drum kit, soul-jazz bass and soft-strumming guitar with some occasional turntable work, Ivey sounds barely awake enough to sing-rap a commentary about the bad, violent side of life. Basehead put out a second decent album a few years later, then Ivey turned toward religion a bit more on later albums with which I am not familiar.

"Change the Style" - Son of Bazerk (1991)

How do you even describe Son of Bazerk's take on hip-hop? Is it even hip-hop? "Change the Style," a standout track from 1991's Bazerk Bazerk Bazerk, Bomb Squad-produced, is full of abrupt tempo changes and stylistic shifts from funk to dancehall to hard rock. That's just one track. Yet somehow the stew works. Too bad Tony Allen and co. hung it up after one misunderstood album.

Local Treasures

Rachel and I spent the first half of the 90s living in the Boston area, starting out at Tufts University. I tried to soak up a healthy amount of the local scene, from the bands on campus to city and regional acts. Here's one Tufts band that had a little bit of indie success, and a Boston song that was somewhat iconic on local radio during our time there.

"Hey, Hey You Say" - Papas Fritas (1997)

Once in a long while, Tufts artists broke out -- Tracy Chapman and Guster are probably the biggest two. Papas Fritas didn't really break, but they did carve out some measure of critical acclaim during their brief recording career.

First off, the name. It was probably around junior or senior year, maybe 1992, which is when the band formed, when I remember my friend Jeremy Rosenberg mentioning the name of a campus band he liked. "Papas Fritas" he would say with a grin and a very slight Spanish accent (Jeremy and I were in more than one Spanish class together). The name stuck in my head. Papas Fritas -- Spanish for fried taters, and phoenetically "pop has freed us" -- was a sunny minimalist pop trio featuring three Tufts students: Tony Goddess (guitar, vocals), Shivika Asthana (drums, vocals), and Keith Gendel (bass, vocals). They played some small gigs, but mostly just for fun. Still, they were talented enough for a very small label to put out a 7 inch, which then got heard by the right person at a slightly larger label. Minty Fresh Records signed the band, and they stuck it out for four records. They toured several continents, playing with The Flaming Lips, The Cardigans and The Eels, among others. Although the critics were kind, the band never really broke out, and finally went on hiatus in 2000 or so.

I say: "Come back soon."

Here's 60s-inspired "Hey, Hey You Say" from 1997's Helioself.

"Hire a Bird" - Think Tree (1992)

I first heard "Hire a Bird" on Boston's commercial alternative radio station WFNX. They used to have a local show, Boston After Dark, that I would listen to pretty regularly. Electronic music was pretty young at the time. Even Kraftwerk was only 15 years or so earlier. For a couple of guys with a limited budget, Boston's Think Tree managed to come up with something deeply layered, totally original, and even a bit funky with "Hire a Bird" (the last 45 seconds or so always makes me think of Prince). Whatever it was, it was catchy, and FNX started playing it more and more, even on its regular shows. College stations bought in as well, and for a while, it was one of the biggest local songs. I recall doing my radio show one day and running out of music to play with a few minutes left in my slot -- I used to grab a bunch of CDs and vinyl before the show and usually made sure I had too much, if anything. The guy who was coming on after me, who was getting his music stash together himself, thought for a second, then suggested to me, "You could hire a bird." And so I did.

Bonus Trivia: What movie is sampled at the very end of the song?

Hint: From the 70s.

Genres that Faded

Do you remember acid jazz? Trip-hop, ska-punk or rap-metal? Yeah, we do too. I was over in London during the first half of 1992, and acid jazz was still a thing. The Brand New Heavies were the shit. Incognito, Groove Collective, James Taylor Quartet, Galliano, and Mother Earth were some of the other names. I still have a bunch of those acid jazz collections, so if it DOES come back in, I'm the man!

"Get to Grips" - Ronny Jordan (1992)

I hadn't heard of Ronny Jordan until I was in London. He was/is a talented jazz guitarist who came at acid jazz from the jazz-side more than the acid. "Get to Grips" was the first song I heard, and it was the perfect soundtrack to the mellow, hazy, late nights we had that semester "studying" overseas. I looked forward to telling friends back home about the new musical discovery, but when I arrived at college for my senior year, one of the first music-related things my friend Pete told me about was this cool new guitarist named Ronny Jordan.

"B-Line" - Lamb (1999)

Trip-hop is another genre that peaked in the 1990s, albeit a bit later than acid jazz. Most of the bands faded away after brief lives, although some kept on going (Thievery Corporation) and others had later revivals (Portishead). Lamb was a bit more obscure, but somehow I got a hold of a copy of their second album Fear of Fours. Sure, they borrowed a lot from their trip-hop contemporaries, but Lamb still did their own thing. Maybe it doesn't all age well, but I always thought "B-Line" was catchy, in a creepy sort of way.

One That Got Away

"Way Down Now" - World Party (1990)

This is one of those songs that should have been a hit. World Party was former Waterboys member Karl Wallinger's attempt at fronting a more mainstream rock band. He assembled a good group of musicians, wrote some really poppy songs, and played basically what amounted to good, classic rock-n-roll. But, of course, in 1990, that sort of thing qualified as "alternative music." So despite the catchy hooks, tight playing, witty lyrics and the best "woo-woo" since Sympathy for the Devil, "Way Down Now" got spun a few times on 120 Minutes, then disappeared. Poof!

Like this post. I have more ideas, but we'll have to cover those in another installment. I'll check back in after Pitchfork has revealed its entire list.

Stevie Ray: 20 years since the passing of an Austin music icon

If the music died on the day that Buddy and co.'s airplane went down in Iowa, well then another piece of it died on August 27, 1990. Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed when his helicopter crashed just after taking off in Wisconsin. He and several other blues/rock guitar luminaries had just finished playing to a sold-out crowd of 30,000 people. The show ended with Stevie Ray jamming along with the usual suspects: Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, and brother Jimmie Vaughan. It couldn't have been much more than an hour later that the accident happened. And a little piece music -- I'd say it was a nice-sized slice of soulful electric blues -- was gone.

I'm not sure that any well-known musician, maybe (but only maybe) with the exception of Willie Nelson, is as strongly associated with Austin or as iconic here as Stevie Ray Vaughan. Granted he's still living, but I'm not familiar with any statues of Willie downtown. Stevie Ray's memorial on the river is a frequent destination for tourists. I'm glad they put it in the heart of Auditorium Shores park. It seems appropriate that he's out there where lots of great live music, much of it free, happens there -- Rachel and I have been there for the likes of Spoon, M. Ward, Grupo Fantasma, Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Cold War Kids.


SRV statue on Auditorium Shores (see old post)

Jimmie Vaughan may not be too famous around the country, but in Austin, he still regularly packs them in at places like Antone's. The closest he ever really came to the big time was his stint as the lead axe-man for The Fabulous Thunderbirds when they had a short string of minor hits in the late 80s (think "Tough Enough"). Jimmie certainly never gained the name recognition of his little brother. To Stevie Ray, however, Jimmie was a hero. Jimmie was Stevie Ray's inspiration to play the guitar and his first big stylistic influence. I don't know how Jimmie had picked up the blues bug, but he passed it on to lil' bro, and that bug took a liking to its new host. The bug made him hungry, and after devouring a healthy slice of Albert King with sides of Otis Rush and Jimi Hendrix, he set out for Austin in search of more fertile feeding grounds.


Jimmie Vaughan at Antone's Nightclub in Austin
(credit: www.antones-homeoftheblues.com/premierHigh.html)

There were struggles at first, I'm sure. There almost always are. But unlike lots of people far removed from the Mississippi Delta or the south side of Chicago who decide they're "blues musicians," Stevie Ray Vaughan seemed to really HAVE the blues. Don't discount how important that is if you're gonna try to PLAY the blues. Eric Clapton might dazzle rock-fan ears with his displays of fretboard wankery. Still, most of the time I hear Clapton playing, it just doesn't seem like he's pouring that emotion into his music in the way that defines the blues greats from Charley Patton and Son House to B.B. King and Buddy Guy. With the blues player -- for better or worse -- it's like you almost have to be cursed to play the music properly. Legends have even been formed around cursed blues players, like Tommy Johnson or Robert Johnson selling their souls to the devil at the "Crossroads." I don't know that Stevie Ray Vaughan was dealing with some voodoo-type stuff, but he had that something, and it came through in his music.

A little exposure was all Stevie Ray Vaughan needed to gain nationwide recognition. The playing and singing did the rest of the work. Still, before he got that exposure, SRV was an Austin guy. He and Jimmie both received some important early-career mentoring here from Clifford Antone, the late namesake of the aforementioned nightclub. And they gigged and gigged and started that uphill climb. Eventually, Stevie Ray Vaughan made it. Then -- the biggest rock-and-roll cliche of them all -- he died way too young. He was only 35! Maybe Stevie Ray didn't last quite long enough to become a huge star. Over time, I suspect he'll become somewhat forgotten compared to those who left a trail of influence like Hendrix or a big body of work like Clapton. But he's always gonna be remembered here. If a community doesn't love you, you're not gonna get a statue.


Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble performing "Texas Flood"


Doing some amazing Hendrix: "Little Wing" and "Third Stone from the Sun"


Nailing "Pride and Joy" with his hero, Albert King

Fun Fun Fun 2010: This year's odd comeback: The Gories - obscure 80s Detroit garage-punk

Fun Fun Fun - Austin's Best Music Fest?

Not to be outdone by ACL, Transmission Entertainment has put together another ecclectic lineup for this year's "third festival," the Fun Fun Fun Festival. Not as big or glitzy as ACL or SXSW, Fun Fun Fun -- with its small crowds, easy parking, mild weather and great music -- is like a little gift to the locals who complain that it feels like Austin gets overrun during the two biggies. This year, we're gonna be out of town and will miss it for the first time since we moved down here. Bummer! This lineup is loaded.

Click to enlarge.

Lots of hip-hop, electronic music, and rock of many kinds: punk, hard, metal, indie. From lots of different eras, too. And to top it all off, speaking of punk, they scored "Weird Al."

The Gories: Before Jack and Meg ...

The Gories (l to r): Mick Collins, Peggy O'Neill, Dan Kroha

A deep lineup isn't the only thing this year's Fun Fun Fun has in common with last year. If you read my post, I wrote about the interesting and unlikely reunion/comeback of Detroit punk pioneers Death, who was one of the big stories last year. This year also features a reclamation project from Detroit: The Gories. Apparently this Detroit trio was playing swampy blues-infected garage punk while Jack White was still in school. After a brief period of moderate local success in the late 80s and early 90s, the group disbanded, only to reappear unexpectedly in 2009 for a short tour across Europe.

I guess the reception was good? Regardless, The Gories decided to do it again in 2010, this time hitting spots across the States. So, what's the verdict? Are The Gories worth checking out, or are they just a novelty act that lots of hipsters will go flock to see just to put notches on their belts? Well, do you like lo-fi rock with hints of punk, blues and rockabilly, played with garage-band shwerve? If it helps, think The Cramps crossed with The Stooges. After watching the video (one of the few they shot) for "Nitroglycerine" on Youtube, I can easily see why fellow Detroit rocker Jack White has expressed his devotion to them. You might even wonder if drummer Peggy O'Neill served as an inspiration for using Meg to drum, unless you really think it was Meg's drumming skill that was the primary factor. Plus, if Death was any indication, I'd go see The Gories. Sometimes a little time off does wonders.

The Gories: "Nitroglycerine"

ACL 2010

I hate to see a good blog die. Plus we were only one post away from 100. So ... back to it!

ACL is closing in. Only about two more months to go. All tickets are sold out -- both three-day passes and single-day tickets. And the block schedule is up. Assuming we don't wimp out this year and sell our tix, which I suspect Rachel won't let happen, we need to start our planning!

Click below to enlarge.