Dancing About Architecture
The Weak in Rock
By Ken Lieck, Fri., July 23, 1999
Tornado Watch
Is a lineup change in the cards for the Texas Tornados? Such has been rumored before, and currently it looks like Freddy Fender will soon be wastin' his days and nights elsewhere. A source close to the band says that he's indeed heard that Fender will be leaving the group "except forsome special appearances, which probably meansnone." The Chronicle had heard reports that Lee Roy Parnell would be the new Tornado, but the source says that at last count it was Little Joe of La Familia fame who was being courted by the supergroup. (Hopefully that won't jinx Little Joe; the band had been looking at having Johnny Rodriguez join -- right before he was arrested for murder). Tornado member Sir Doug Sahm doesn't deny that change is in the wind, but declines to discuss the matter further, warning "Don't believe any rumors you hear until they're substantiated -- it could be Louis Black [joining the band] for all you know." Sahm is currently concentrating on the band's just-released live album (which comes out, coincidentally enough, at the same time as Lyle Lovett's Live in Texas and Kris Kristofferson's Austin Sessions) and promotional appearances on television, including a Crook and Chase taping this week and Austin City Limits in August. The ACL staff confirms an August 10 date on that, as well as Wilco on August 16 and the Mavericks on August 27 (notto be confused with Sahm's Texas Mavericks, of course).The tardy arrival of new cameras and other equipment has led to a slightly late start for the ACL season, but more confirmations are expected to trickle in soon; the ACL staff is firming up a date for Jonathan Richman during his visit to Austin in mid-September, and things are looking good on the Tom Waits front as well.
Bus-ted!
You can find just about anything on the Internet these days -- and I mean anything! Our resident eBay Net auction junkie was doing a little surfing this week and found Willie Nelson's tour bus, of all things, up for sale. Yep, that's right, a 1983 tour bus that Nelson apparently toured in before christening his current "Honeysuckle Rose" is up for sale by a couple of toy collectors who say they ran across the thing while looking for a used car at a police "seized vehicles" auction in New York (!) Quoth their eBay listing: "This is a diesel 10 Eagle all steel bus. Murals are painted on the back and sides, one of a gun-toting Willie on horseback. If you are a fan of Willie's what better tribute or collectible than his own bus. Complete with living room, kitchenette, 2 bathrooms, 3 TVs, VCRs and stereo. It is a beautiful bus that would be perfect for Farm Aid, museum, or just as a wonderful means of travelling in style." Museum, eh? Has the Texas Music Museum heard about this? For that matter, has Titty Bingo heard about this? The current owners say that Nelson himself knows about the auction, as they found out when they got a call saying the band was going to be in New York and they were invited to the show (Is that Willie cool or what!?!) They add that they never got to speak personally to the man himself, but were told that he "hopes whoever gets it has as much fun as I did in it." The auction ended without the minimum "reserve" amount of $400,000 being met, so the bus is still on the market. If you're looking for a tasteful gift for your favorite red-headed stranger, call 516-868-3017 and ask for Rob or Debbie (and make sure and mention Dancing About Architecture so I get my cut!)
The Roky Road to Hollywood
There's still a long row to hoe before the Roky Erickson story makes it to a theatre near you, but Mike Alvarez, who's got a script and isn't afraid to use it, says things are looking up as far as actually getting cameras rolling on the project after four years of work. Currently he has a basically finished script for the film, which opens with the formation of Roky's pre-Thirteenth Floor Elevators band the Spades, and ends with his acquittal on drug charges. The big holdup for now is, as you can probably guess, money. Alvarez says that he has spent enough time in "development hell" at this point to know pretty much how things are going to work between now and the time the film actually gets made, and says that several studios, from Rhino to Universal, have shown interest in making the film once he has financial backing lined up. "We'll produce the movie, we love the script," Alvarez quotes as the typical response he gets from studios, "but you still have to come up with the money." Among those he's approached is Austin-based zillionaire Michael Dell, who Alvarez says ultimately said that movies were "not the kind of stuff we get involved in." (Hey, Michael, wanna buy a bus?) While the project currently carries a $3.5 million price tag, Alvarez says he only needs enough of that to net a bankable star to play the young Erickson -- he's interested in and got the interest of Jared Leto (Prefontaine, the upcoming Fight Club) -- to get things rolling. Until then, a separate documentary on Erickson looks to be in the early stages of production locally, while Robbie Jacks tells me another Austin music-related film project, about punk heroes the Dicks, is also set to get underway soon to tie in with an upcoming tribute album to that famous cop-hatin' band.
Broken Toys and Dangerous Teeth
Jason McMaster tells me that the Dangerous Toys new live album mentioned here previously has had some delays but is finally in production and expected out in a couple of months, adding that current rumors of Godzilla Motor Company's demise are false. Meanwhile, his new project Broken Teeth has got a new album heading for stores via Perris Records. The band is a Seventies -era AC/DC soundalike (Think the Bon Bons with original material), and on their album cover they're seen as five brothers with the last name Yung -- that's a takeoff on Angus and Malcolm Young of AC/DC for you non-rockers out there -- though the instruments were actually all played by McMaster, Paul Lydell, and Bruce Rivers. The band is currently looking for a real "Willie and Joey Yung" so they can begin playing live, at which point McMaster says every gig the band plays will be a CD release party, since he sees that to be the current trend. "If Jake Andrews has one more CD release party ...!" McMaster grunts. "He must have a whole catalog out by now!"
Mixed Notes
Dah-Veed Garza,aka "the man so confident in his current relationship he tore up Salma Hayak's home phone number," has been hosting Juliana Hatfield at his home studio of late, a feat which could tempt a lesser man awayfrom monogamy in itself. Hatfield finished up herrecording here last week, giving Dah and company the chance to head out East to play a party for Vogue magazine; don't be surprised if you see snippets from that performance end up on the E! channel...
Pushmonkey have planned a helluva weekend for themselves, with a California Ozzfest performance set for Saturday and an appearance at Woodstock '99 scheduled for Sunday across the country in New York. The band will hop the red-eye express as soon as they leave the stage (missing Black Sabbath's final performance) in order to make it to Woodstock on time...
Those who showed up at the Continental Club last Wednesday hoping to get lit and enjoy the music of Stephen Bruton, Jon Dee Graham, and Billie Joe Shaver got the first half of their wish, anyway. A last-minute Shaver video shoot starting at noon that day ran till nigh on midnight, and Continental patrons found themselves in a blindingly bright club withno air conditioning that night. Well, at least some of the holdouts may get to see themselves on CMT...
Fastball's grown-up ballad "Out of My Head" is holding with a bullet at #11 on Billboard's Adult Top 40 this week, which means it's almost certain to make the top 10 next time, since there are a number of old hangers-on above it waiting to drop. On the big one, the Hot 100, they hold steady at #54, no mean feat considering the song hasn't been (and apparently won't be) commercially released as a single...
Look for two new compilation albums out in the near future from Antone's Records, Young Guns and Cliff's Picks. The former features youthful folks like Jesse Dayton, George Devore, C.C. Adcock, Guy Forsyth, Jud Newcomb, and Jonas Wilson performing blues classics, while the latter is a collection of Clifford Antone's personal favorite tracks from the Antone's archives, by the usual suspects including Lazy Lester, Sue Foley, Doyle Bramhall, Miss Lavelle White,etc.). On the other end of the compilation spectrum look for 23, a collection from Kokizz-y-que Records featuring loads of local acts from And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and Excess Lettuceto Ritalin Kids and Sixteen Deluxe, out now...
That reminds me, I mentioned before that the Butthole Surfers' version of "Hot Town (Summer in the City)" was coming out on a compilation album, now here'sthe name of it: MOM3 is the new comp out from Surfdog Records, and along with the Lovin Spoonful classic, the Butts also provide a remix to Jane's Addiction's "Ocean Size"...
-- Contributors: Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman, Napoleon Bona Parts One and Two
