TCB

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2004 on the Floor

Last year was an especially rough one for the local music scene. Here's one last spin through the headlines before whatever havoc 2005 wreaks.

• The Ozomatli (above) riot at SXSW embarrassed the city of Austin so much it not only dropped all charges against the L.A. Latino rockers, but practically adopted them, hosting two more shows last year and another this month.

• Joe's Generic Bar owner Joe Bates' still-unsolved October murder also sounded the death knell for live blues on Sixth Street.

• Suffocating heat at the ACL Music Festival didn't prevent crowds from smashing attendance records – or organizers from scheduling the 2005 edition for the exact same weekend.

• Local radio welcomed looser classic rock formats at 103.5 and 102.3FM, at the expense of live deejays. Two urban stations in Austin were one too many, and Beat 104.3 became the all-talk "Coyote."

• Punk mainstays Ignorance Park somehow managed to play more local gigs after two members were busted for trafficking marijuana in Missouri than before.

• The ongoing alphabet soup between AMN, AMP, and ACTV exasperated everyone from staffers and council members to viewers, but the embattled music network managed to stay on the air.

• Hole in the Wall and San Marcos' Cheatham Street Warehouse celebrated their 30th anniversaries, with the Cactus Cafe not far behind at 25.

• Alejandro Escovedo beat back his hepatitis C enough to play enthusiastically received sets at the Continental Club during SXSW, the Texas Union Theater in October, and November's Por Vida tribute at the Paramount.

• Thirty Three Degrees and Tower both shuttered, leaving Waterloo, Cheapo, Music Mania, and the new Sound on Sound as the chief non-big-box music stores in town. Downloaders hardly noticed.

• Though amended to the point of being completely ineffectual, the smoking ordinance refused to die, and still won't. If anti-tobacco forces can ban smoking in British pubs, they can certainly find a way to do it here.