Dancing About Architecture

Miles Zuniga makes the whole world sing. (Photo By Kimberlee Hewitt)

By Ed Hamell

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Miles to Go Before We Sleep

Everything seemed to sort of run together this week (plus my usual editor was out of town), so forgive me if the column has a stream-of-consciousness bent to it this week. In fact, read on and see if you don't think that everyone and everything that happens in this town isn't a bit more obviously connected than you believed possible. It was somewhere in between nostalgic, depressing, and baffling last Thursday for those who found themselves inside the former Electric Lounge, which has now taken on the look of, well, the Electric Lounge minus the sign. The occasion was Miles Zuniga of Fastball's birthday (his realtor sister Diane Zuniga's company owns the building), and drinks and a karaoke machine were the entertainment. Thus did local musicians, such as Kacy Crowley, Chepo Pena, Carrie Clark, Bob Schneider, and Zuniga's Fast friend Tony Scalzo, forsake their original tunes in favor of belting out horrid renditions of Broadway favorites, moldy oldies, and Travolta/Newton-John duets. Superego maven Paul Minor started things off with a driven version of Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)," and former Davíd Garza bandmember Jacob Schulze was totally chuffed to discover that the Scalzo-penned Fastball hit "The Way" was listed among the available karaoke choices, only to find that, mysteriously, someone had misplaced that particular disc -- though Miles proved himself to be unfazed by the fact that it's his partner's songs that have been chosen as the band's singles and demonstrated his good humor by changing the lyrics of a Barry Manilow hit to announce "I write the songs/the ones that Tony doesn't sing!" (Chin up, Miles, Barry didn't write that one, either -- Brian Johnston of the Beach Boys took home that publishing check.) Schulze, by the way, says that Garza's entire band has been dismissed, though his claims are countered by Garza's manager Steve Ochs, who says that Dah-veed is merely taking a break to get married and no decision has been made as to who will play on the next Atlantic album, although his new stopgap indie disc Kingdom Come and Go is due out October 10. Also tying the knot within a week of Garza's wedding ("And we both bought new cars, too!") is 101X morning deejay and programming director Sara Trexler, who will be leaving the station and the state for Pittsburgh by year's end, where husband-to-be Phil Vavra has a new job. (Coming soon to 101X: "Mornings with Jenn Garrison and Andy Langer"?) Trexler, who has been with the station since it went on the air in mid-'95, has no immediate job plans though she expects to return to radio in some capacity. Back to the Electric Lounge, you're probably wondering why that building has yet to see any action toward housing a new business, to which Diane Zuniga admits flatly, "It's all my fault. There's so much going on in the area, I'm paralyzed as to what to do with it." Zuniga and co. have been facing the dilemma of whether to sell, or keep and rent, the building, which has been vacant since the comptroller's office and other unpaid entities contrived to make the club's owners decide to call it quits. Zuniga says that one decision, at least, has finally been reached; "I think we've decided to keep it," she says, and though the building is zoned in a way that just about anything could go there, she says she would prefer to see a restaurant or club there. One person you won't be seeing there is Electric Lounge co-founder Mark Shuman, who says he's tried to visit the site a few times and been too bummed out to get out of his car. Shuman's staying busy, though, having established a residence away from home in the Big Apple and taken on a new job managing longtime friend and former Lounge regular Hamell on Trial, whose new concept album Choochtown is expected out in a month or so (see illustration below) and who will play the Cactus Cafe next Thursday (see "Music Listings"). Video professional Shuman denies rumors that he'll also be directing an Alanis Morrisette video while in New York, though it wouldn't be too surprising if he ended up having dealings with Britt Daniel of Spoon, who along with Hamell played the final night of the Lounge and is also living in New York, reportedly till at least November. He's playing a number of band and solo gigs up in the Northeast and reports, without the need to pound his fists on the floor, that Spoon's new "concept single" will be out November 1 on Saddle Creek Records. Both Spoon and Hamell are currently enjoying post-major-label status, but they can be thankful that they never had to go through all the hell Roky Erickson has from record labels and other industry types taking advantage of him. Happily, it was announced this week that Erickson will be receiving a sizable royalty check after the courts ruled in his favor in a case begun in 1993 against original Elevators label International Artists Records. Erickson is also due the return of his Thirteenth Floor Elevators master tapes and publishing rights, but since IA sold those to Charly Records (in the middle of the negotiations!), who in turn licensed them to Collectables, Erickson attorney Rick Triplett says that a subsequent case against Charly is scheduled to proceed in November. Meanwhile, King Coffey, whose Trance label issued Erickson's most recent albums, made the cover of this week's Billboard along with his fellow Butthole Surfers in an article detailing the band's own, hopefully concluded, label problems. Somehow the Buttholes never won a Grammy, but the Texas NARAS chapter doesn't want that to stop you from attending the all-day "Grammy in the Streets" music-biz seminar Saturday at Antone's (whose old Guadalupe location hosted Erickson's most recent local appearance). Sixth Street clubowner Casino el Camino, he of the eponymous bar, will definitely be spending some time with the best band to come out of San Antonio since the Surfers, the Sons of Hercules, since -- believe it or not -- he's taking over as their new bassist! Not only that, but he's come aboard in time to be in on the Sons' plum gig opening for the Damned at the Back Room on October 9 (which makes me wonder who'll be opening the Dickies' Austin stop in November). The Back Room's head honcho, Mark Olivarez, says that the Damned is not the only cool show coming to the Back Room by a long shot either -- There's the ball-busting team of Motörhead and Nashville Pussy on October 1 and an upcoming complete Bad Brains reunion. Olivarez explains that the band, during a "religious hiatus," decided that their name had negative connotations and they will be billed as the Soul Brains, performing both new and classic material and leaving this writer wondering if their new formula for success is 1é3 hardcore, 1é3 reggae, and 1é3 contemporary Christian. Besides the fact that there are increasingly fewer clubs to choose from in town, Olivarez credits the club's current popularity to the notion that "the whole musical trend this year swung back in our direction; and when you think of heavy music, you think of the Back Room." Olivarez has a number of people thinking on the club's behalf, having hired a former Atomic Café booker to handle the punk and industrial end of things while he polishes the metal, and has yet a third, very "hands-on" booker dealing with local acts. Perhaps, though, more of the club's energy should be focused toward the stage itself -- at least when Dash Rip Rock are on it. Dash member Bill Davis managed to nearly bad brain himself at their BR gig Sept. 3 when his antic clowning and jumping resulted in his banging his head open on the drum riser. "It hurt me more than it hurt him," says Olivarez, who witnessed the accident, "until the next morning, at least!" Davis ran offstage to have his wound bandaged while the band continued playing, then returned to complete the set, having apparently lucked out and avoided suffering a concussion. Not so lucky was Texacala Jones and her T.J. Hookers bassist Sam Kelly, whose car collided with a tree over the weekend, landing him comatose in the Intensive Care Unit for a time. He's since regained consciousness and is recovering from a concussion, a number of broken bones, and other serious injuries -- none of which, says a friend, kept him from almost clocking an EMS worker at the scene of the wreck. (Some people just don't like hospitals, you know.) Kelly is expected to return to his family home out of state to convalesce after he is released from the hospital. Meanwhile, the T.J. Hookers managed to keep from missing a Monday gig at the Hole in the Wall by bringing in pinch-hitter Amberjack Rice on the four-string. A similarly dedicated R.L. Burnside, who had committed to play his gig at La Zona Rosa this week despite the close proximity of the performance to his scheduled heart bypass operation, has, sadly, at press time apparently thought better of the situation and canceled. Best of luck to R.L. and his ticker on their retirement from the rigors of the itinerant lifestyle, which felled Louisiana zydeco stomper Beau Jocque last weekend at age 45. And guess what else fell through? Besides Queens of the Stone Age, that is, whose label yanked tour support (even though they slayed opening for Ween last month) and thus won't be making their Oct. 7 La Zona Rosa date. If you said "That deal about Steamboat temporarily moving into the Spot," you're correct -- after first saying that his move-in was going to be delayed from September 3 to the beginning of October, Danny Crooks says he won't be sailing his boat onto Lavaca at all. In fact, he says, when he went to look at the Spot recently, renovations were already under way for another business to open in the building. What that business is remains a mystery, as the Spot's owners were unreachable at press time, but the final weeks of shows at the current Steamboat have been announced, with the usual gang of suspects (Pushmonkey, Scabs, PigGie Hat) joined by some old-timers (Extreme Heat, Van Wilks, Rusty Wier) and others. See club listings for the complete set of farewell shows. Crooks says things are still on for the Steamboat's permanent move to the Lakehills Theatre building in December, only without the Austin Rehearsal Complex as a partner. And speaking of combining live music and the cinema, don't forget that the Alamo Drafthouse has another pair of showings of 1925's The Lost World tonight (Thursday) at 7 and 9:45 ($12), with live accompaniment by Golden Arm Trio and Brown Whörnet, and later on Cinematexas Film Festival hosts a three-night series of improvised music September 24-26, with Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore plus Jim O'Rourke on 9/24 at the Sri Atmananda Ceremony Hall (4100 Red River), Canada's CCMC at the Central Presbyterian Church (200 E. Eighth) on the 25th, and Chicago horn player Ken Vandermark on the 26th back at the Ceremony Hall (though I must warn you the Moore/O'Rourke show will probably be sold-out by the time you read this). If your taste in film runs more along the lines of the Cinema West's fare, well, that probably won't have anything to do with whether or not you enjoy the Cinema West Social Club's act as house band for the Woodstock Hoot Night benefiting the SIMS foundation on Oct. 4 at the Continental Club, with Keri Leigh, Quatropaw, Lee Ann Atherton, Ken Schaffer, Courtney Audain & Fuze, and many others scheduled. Previous to that, there's the all-Canadian Hoot at the Hole in the Wall on the 24th (they're still looking for bands to fill the night with Canuck tunes) and the Kinks Hoot that concludes the Hole's Free for All Week festivities this Sunday with Glamourpuss, Dumptruck, Seed, Do It Now Foundation and many others. Free for All boss Paul Minor tells me he'll be booking the new Texas Music Saloon by Katz's, on the former site of the Stone House Brewery where his Superego first began to evolve. The Grand Opening for that venue, which is connected to the magazine of the same name, is set for the end of this month, with details to come later. Oh, and Minor also assures me he will reprise -- this time with a full band -- "Play That Funky Music" at tonight's gig, which doubles as his and Andrew Duplantis' birthday party -- and that wraps up this week of events rather tidily, don't you think?

-- Contributors: Christopher Gray, Raoul Hernandez, Andy Langer, Margaret Moser