Dancing About Architecture

As always, rumors are swirling about
K-NACK, and as always they concern the popular Georgetown "alternative" radio station being sold. This time, it seems some folks got ahold of the news that owner
Richard Rees and his partners sold their other "alternative" station in Salt Lake City, KENZ, and assumed the local couldn't be far behind. Yes and no, says Rees. "People are looking at [K-NACK], and nothing is set in stone, but, yeah, I've told the staff that they can look at other jobs." Rees cites the era of corporate consolidation as having made "independent, mom-and-pop" businesses an endangered species, and fully agrees with the assessment that 1996 was the year the bottom dropped out of the "alternative" market. "Definitely," he says. "It was a tough year for everyone." Major labels, indie labels, clubs, radio stations, seems no one's getting off the hook this year. As for K-NACK, Rees says he's in no hurry to get out of the market, but if a good offer popped up tomorrow, he'd take it. "Oh yeah, from a business standpoint, yeah."

KGSR, meanwhile, will be celebrating this weekend, with its anniversary party at the Austin City Limits soundstage, featuring
81/2 Souvenirs, Suzanne Vega, and Lyle Lovett, plus a couple of special guests -- all of which you can hear at the 107.1 FM frequency as the station is simulcasting the show. Hint on the special guests: One of 'em is also playing the station's other shindig that same night, the "Home for the Holidays" benefit at La Zona Rosa, featuring Shawn Colvin, Sara Hickman, Kris McKay, Kelly Willis, and Jack Ingram. And since we've apparently become Hits, let's mention the KVRX festivities for their Cooking By Strobelight -- Local Live Vol. 1 CD, which includes the Golden Arm Trio's in-store
at Duval Discs today (Thursday) at 7pm, Drums & Tuba, Moist Fist, and Brown Hornet at Stubb's tonight, and Silver Scooter's in-store at Sound Exchange
Friday at 7pm.

Brown & Trodden Down

Brown Hornet just can't get a break. The eight-piece band has had their rehearsal space broken into several times over the years, but the real blow came a few weeks ago in Chicago. The band hadn't even gotten to play the first of several gigs on a short tour when their U-Haul was stripped clean, and all their horns, amps, drums, guitars, and even cords absconded with. Amazingly, after making the decision to proceed onward rather than retreat, calls ahead to the clubs they were scheduled to play found them with full sets of equipment to borrow, and the gigs went on after all. The band is still without instruments of their own, though, and the first of several benefits will be on Monday at the Continental Club with the Jubilettes, 81/2 Souvenirs, Jazz Pharaohs, and the Asylum Street Spankers. You can also show up and donate that old trumpet you haven't played since you got out of high school band.

At Whit's End

Susan Antone reports that Chris Whitley was fine and dandy when he left her place last Friday, but our man in the field says that the lamb turned into a lion sometime during Alejandro Escovedo's set at Stubb's later that night. A bout of loud hootin' & hollerin' seemed to sate Whitley at first, but after a few more shots, Al's encore found Chris whispering in the singer's ear and tugging on his shirt mid-song. The club's management reports that when the show was over, Whitley finally had to be escorted from the bar after he attempted to perfect a new act involving patio furniture, a balcony, and his throwing arm. He went without a struggle.

Nothing Butt Trouble

Mike Judge's little buddies Beavis and Butt-head are causing fresh trouble before their new feature film even hits the silver screen! This time the offended party is Tom Weinberg, the author of the Engelbert Humperdinck-sung closer of the Beavis and Butt-head Do America soundtrack. It seems he didn't much appreciate a sound effect that was added to the end of the song, wherein a shot rings out and a dead bird falls to the ground. Only the first pressings of the disc include the sounds and, in fact, the one here at the Chron has them deleted. Man, when you offend the sensibilities of a man who wrote a song called "Lesbian Seagull," you know you've gone too far!

Mixed Notes

Maceo Parker continues to thrill audiences at Antone's through the weekend, not necessarily including the young lady found sitting in the kitchen during the first of the saxman's jam-packed shows who asked, "When does she go on?" No specific news on any special guests scheduled to appear with Parker, but Saturday's opening act Shag (who will be headlining Sunday as well) have been known to bring Bootsy Collins on stage with some regularity...

Emo's has changed their cover policy again, this time to offer free admission on Fridays and Saturdays to those arriving before 10pm. Eric "Emo" Hartman cites the reason for the change as being that he's getting tired of having no one show up for the opening bands. And no, don't think you can just stick your head in and head for Casino's, then come back later for free. Early birds get a special stamp that's no good for ins and outs...

First Sam Hurt, now this! Poster artist Nels Jacobson aka Jagmo, best known to these eyes for his "Free Nelson Mandela" poster blitz of years past, has joined the law firm of King and Ballow. The firm has offices in San Diego and Nashville. Hmm, maybe Jag can get Steve Wilkison a job in the mailroom...

Though it's said that Liberty Lunch's Mark Pratz has enough tickets left from past cancelled Soulhat gigs to paper his walls, apparently their big reunion shows (December 20-21) are going on as planned. More pressing on Pratz's mind is that he no longer needs to worry about the city stepping in to knock down the Lunch in their quest to further develop in that area -- now Bruce Todd has announced that he's actively seeking private investors to do the dirty work for him. "The alarms are back on," says Pratz...

Johnny Cash cancelled last night's Erwin Center show not because of my crack about June, but because he had the flu. He also cancelled his Dallas gig and a Jay Leno appearance for the same reason. American Records says that Cash "has to be well for the Kennedy Center honors this weekend," and that he hopes to reschedule before leaving for a European tour in April. And to anyone bitching about the Man in Black not being able to shake off a little bug, remember: The man needs to take good care of his health. After all, he's only a year or two younger than the late Tiny Tim...

Another bit of news from American is that Lucinda Williams is finally done with her new album and is now mixing it...

This Friday's episode of Unsolved Mysteries features the mysterious death of Texas rock legend Bobby Fuller. It's a re-run, but they say that the re-broadcast will feature newly discovered information (I bet Bob Crane did it!)...

Local song placement in TV series continues, with Lisa Tingle's "Pipe Dream" from her In the Water album getting play on Melrose Place in January. Stevie Ray Vaughan's "The House Is Rockin'" was used on a recent Baywatch, but I'm not sure if I've already mentioned that, since that song gets played on everything...

The Ugly Americans' Bruce Hughes reports hearing one of the band's songs in the trailer for an upcoming Richard Gere film. Actually, that's one of the trailers -- the other one features Bruce Springsteen...

Shawn Colvin's "Someone Like You" appears on the soundtrack to the film One Fine Day...

Each week there's a new tribute album in this column! This week, besides the fact that we just got an advance of the new Prince tribute featuring all your favorite locals, take note that Kelly Willis has a cut on the new Big Star trib, performing "When My Baby's Beside Me." Also on the disc is Juliana Hatfield doing "Don't Lie To Me" (likely featuring her current band of Austinites), and Matthew Sweet, who is now required by law to appear on all compilation albums...

What's that noise in the streets? It could be the return of former Hickoids drummer Wade Driver and his brother John, who are moving back to town. Lately, they've been making a name for themselves around San Francisco by strapping amps around their necks and performing as "plugged" street musicians. In fact, the debut (in S.F.) of their CD led to what may have been the first "progressive in-store" in music history...

Here's the list of sessionsters on Kacy Crowley's upcoming album: Craig Ross, Rafael Guyol, Brian Beattie, George Reiff, and Jon Dee Graham. The Dave McNair-produced disc is due in January...

I hear Junior Brown's publicist is trying to reschedule the country star's interview session with Tim Stegall, which broke down when Brown got the mistaken idea that Stegall didn't know the difference between him and the Mavericks. As a peace offering, the Brown camp has also sent Stegall the entire Mavericks catalog...

Hamell on Trial is expected to stay busy during his visit here. Besides his own Electric Lounge show on Friday, he and some Spankers will be Wammo's backing band at the latter's CD release there on Saturday. And you just know he'll be dragged over to the Hole in the Wall for a Hoot Night appearance or something...

Eric Geyer has an in-store at ABCD's this Saturday at 1pm for his new Make It Hum...

The Austin Music Network will be shooting live video of "artists we thought should be on the channel but we don't have footage of" on Monday and Tuesday at Stubb's, says AMN's Tim Hamblin. Hamblin adds that the Network hopes to continue to do "somewhat regular" shows like this to fill AMN's video library...

Sincola are among those with recipes in the Austin & Hill Country Celebration Cookbook -- along with the likes of Troy Aikman, Joe Ely, and Ann Richards -- and they'll be at the book signing this Sunday at the Copper Tank from 6-9pm. Rest assured that the Yeast Fest this Friday at Liberty Lunch, with Sincola, the Wannabes (Wannababes?), Jaws of Life, Olive, and Handful has nothing to do with baking. Sez Terri Lord, "It's about women, it's about beer." -- Contributors: Christopher Gray, Raoul Hernandez, Andy Langer, Margaret Moser