TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: My Last Words on SXSW 2016

Austin, Texas. Once again, the crowds were too big, the traffic was too crazy, and the hype is getting way too obnoxious. Yet here I was again back in Austin for another South by Southwest music festival. And here I was again enjoying some of my favorite bands and having a great time — despite the crowds, the traffic, the unrelenting hype.

I was there without actual festival credentials. (I don’t need no steenking badges!) So I didn’t go to very many “official” festival showcases. But, as veteran attendees know, there are more than enough unofficial shows to make up for that.

Here are some of the better ones I saw.

Thee Oh Sees

* Thee Oh Sees at Hotel Vegas. This is the third time I’ve seen John Dwyer and his merry band. But neither of the first two shows I saw was half as fierce, aggressive, or intense as the one I saw this year. They started off on full-blast warp speed and rarely eased up for the hour-plus they played. The latest version of Thee Oh Sees has two drummers, a bass player and, of course, leader John Dwyer on guitar, vocals, and occasional keyboards. The crowd was well-past fired up, immediately forming a frenzied mosh pit, which inspired a seemingly endless stream of stage divers/crowd surfers. It was as if the early’90s never ended. And yes, that can be off-putting to us older fans who don’t want to lose our dentures to some idiot slam dancer. Dwyer’s crazed otherworldly musical vision — the distorted falsetto vocals, the crazy sci-fi guitar bleeps and bloops — cuts to the bone.

Hickoids

* The Hickoids at The White Horse. This long-running Texas cow-punk goofball group has become one of my chief must-see bands every time I go to Austin. Having a Santa Fe crony, guitarist Tom Trusnovic, in the group helps, but I was already a casual Hickhead even before he joined several years ago. I was a little apprehensive about seeing the group this time because it would be the first Hickoids performance I would have seen since the death of original member, guitar slinger and cosmic cowboy Davy Jones. Earlier that evening, before The White Horse show, Jones was honored at the Austin Music Awards. Two years after The Hickoids were inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame, Jones was inducted as a “solo” artist. Head Hickoid honcho, Jeff Smith, was there to accept that award. He held it up onstage at The White Horse before the band started playing. Then the surviving Hickoids proceeded to live up to Jones’ memory, bashing through some of their greatest hits including “Git Back on the Truck,” “Cool Arrow,” “Working Man’s Friend” and the fabulously filthy “Stop It! You’re Killing Me.” By the end, we were all screaming for more. Davy would have been proud.

And the next night, I caught Trusnovic playing at The 04 Lounge with the latest version of his garage/punk group Monkeyshines, which he started years ago in Santa Fe. Monkeyshines still has that wild joyful noise.

Jean Cook and Jon Langford of The Waco Brothers

* The Waco Brothers at the Yard Dog Gallery. The Wacos’ performance at the annual Bloodshot
Records party has been a SXSW highlight for 20 years now. You always know it will be a fun show. But this year, Jon Langford, Dean Schlabowske, Tracey Dear, and the others seemed supercharged. The old songs — “See Willie Fly By,” “Plenty Tuff and Union Made,” “Do You Think about Me” — sounded more vital than that they have in years, and their new tunes from their recently released Going Down in History were all punches that landed.

* Timmy Thomas at Saxon Pub. Thomas is a Miami-based soul singer who had a hit in 1973 called “Why Can’t We Live Together.” That was his biggest success, though Thomas kept recording for another decade or so, routinely hitting the R & B charts. He basically dropped out of sight for a few decades. But then last year Drake sampled a little bit of “Why Can’t We Live Together” and that seemed to give Thomas a late-career second wind. Playing with a band complete with a couple of sax players, Thomas, whose vocals remind me a little bit of Swamp Dog, performed a funky set including old hits and material from an upcoming comeback record.

* Eve & The Exiles at The Continental Club. Eve Monsees, a local Austin favorite, is one amazing guitarist. She’s a longtime friend and former schoolmate of bluesman Gary Clark Jr.’s and a co-owner of Antone’s Record Shop. She’s been playing since she was a kid, and the fact that she loves it is obvious in every note she plays. The first time I saw her was a couple of years ago when she was performing with The Bluebonnets, ex-Go-Go Kathy Valentine’s group. On Wednesday she was fronting her own band, The Exiles, at a Continental Club event called Garage Fest Day Party. It’s a simple guitar/guitar/bass/drums quartet with Eve handling nearly all the vocals. Together they make a tasty bluesy, garagey, early Stonesy stew.

* The Woggles at Garage Fest Day Party. This veteran garage band from Georgia specializes in
unrelenting, raw-rocking, soul-informed good-time sounds. They’ve been around since the early ’90s. They definitely look their age, and they seem a little uncomfortable in their little matching red-and-black uniforms. But all this only adds to their crazy charm. They’ve got more energy than a hundred horny teenagers, and singer Mighty Manfred takes the role of a hyped up master of ceremonies of a party that might just last forever. Manfred announced that “Karate Monkey,” a Chubby Checker song The Woggles cover, is the best dance song in the world. I was skeptical at first. And then, The Woggles removed all doubt.

* Night Beats at The Mohawk. This Seattle-based psychedelic trio, which has roots in Texas, was playing all over Austin during South by Southwest, but I didn’t catch the group until late Saturday afternoon, near the end of the festival. They looked exhausted, but they managed to play an energetic set. Like many of the first-wave acid-rock groups, Night Beats fuse spacey guitar with hopped-up soul riffs. While their instrumentals hint at mind-expanding excursions, unlike your typical “jam bands,” they tend to keep their songs nice and short. The group has a new album, Who Sold My Generation, which I just ordered. Stay tuned.

Video Bonus

Here are Thee Oh Sees, same place I saw them but I think a couple of nights later.



This is from the Timmy Thomas set I saw at The Saxon


Here's "Karate Monkey" by The Woggles at the Continental Club last year



I wasn't at this show, Saturday night. But allegedly this performance got Jon Langford, playing with one of his bands, Bad Luck Jonathan, kicked out of The Saxon Pub. He's quite a lovely dancer.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Happy Birthday Son House

Monday was the birthday of Edward James House, Jr. of Lyon, Mississippi, better known as "Son House." He was born March 21, 1902.

House was a contemporary of of Charlie Patton, and an inspiration to Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters.

He outlived them all. House's was an archetypal hard-drinking bluesman's life, a fondness for whiskey, a stint in prison for murder. And some great, emotional songs poured out of his soul.

At the age of 25 House left behind his career as a preacher to become a blues singer. Although he's generally venerated as a founding father of the Delta blues, three times in his life House saw his career as a singer fizzle as he'd fade into obscurity for years or decades at a time.

House recorded several tunes in Wisconsin for the Paramount label in 1930.

Then he seemingly dropped out of the music biz. He didn't record again until the early 1940s. That was with Alan Lomax, wwho recorded recorded a set of songs by House for the Library of Congress.

Then House was quiet for more than 20 years. Then in 1964, he was "discovered" by record collectors (one of whom being Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson who later would help form Canned Heat) during the great folk scare.

And all of a sudden House was playing festivals, coffee houses, and college campuses and started recording again, including a live album with Alan Wilson called John The Revelator The 1970 London Session. 

The folk scene of the '60s was long dead, but Son House kept living. He kept performing until the mid '70s. Poor health forced him to retire. He was pretty much invisible until his death in Detroit in 1988.

This is embarrassing, but I just assumed he'd died sometime in the late '60s and early '70s. It's heartbreaking to think of Son House off on the sidelines, old, sick and forgotten.

But today let's celebrate the wild, sometimes even frightening music Son House left behind.

Here is a live performance of his signature tune "Death Letter Blues."



This one is aptly titled "Scary Delta Blues."



Here's an aging Son House with a young Buddy Guy



This is a color clip of a song called "Grinnin' in Your Face."

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Heat Up A Radio Dinner

8-Track Tape version of Radio Dinner

Back in 1972, The National Lampoon basically was the coolest magazine around. And when two of their best writers, Tony Hendra and Michael O'Donoghue set out to do a record album, it was a sure bet it would be profanity-laced, politically incorrect, downright brutal, insulting to decent people everywhere ... and funny as Hell.

My favorite tracks on the album were the parodies of the music stars of the day. Here's Hendra as John Lennon with lyrics based on Lennon's 1971 Rolling Stone interview:

I've already posted this classic "commercial" by Bob Dylan (actually Christopher Guest) in a previous Wacky Wednesday. But hat the heck, here it is again:



I met Joan Baez in a Canyon Road bar once a few decades ago, but I didn't think to ask her what she thought of this Radio Dinner song, "Pull the Tregroes" (sung by Diana Reed). And some inspired YouTuber made this fancy video to go with it.



Finally, here's one for the New Agers. Remember, you are a fluke of the Universe. You have no right to be here ...

SXSW: Blog Malfunctions

The Austin Banjo Club

AUSTIN _ Here's the good news: I've been having a great time going out to see bands and spending a lot of time with my kids and grandkids, who live in this town.
Here's the bad news: I've gotten way behind on my blogging about t he festivities surrounding SXSW. My old cronies like Chuck and Alec will scoff at this notion, as they'll remember me in years past staying up to 5 a.m. At the old Excel Inn to blog this silly stuff. I guess I'm just getting feeble in my old age.

Also, during the few scraps of time that I've had to spend on this mess has been frustrating because my iPad blog program (Blogsy) isn't cooperating with placing and arranging photos like I want them.
At one point tonight I nearly started screaming at my screen in the Study Room of Strange Brew coffee house, which would have been extremely rude. (I've never been 86ed from a coffee joint before.

Tomorrow looks like a fun and busy day. Hopefully I'll finally catch The Night Beats Saturday at noon at Whole Foods on South Lamar. And there is more after that. So I'm going to do a blog moratorium for the rest of the trip.

And you can follow me on Twitter and on Instagram

The Wackos of Waco

SXSW Day 2

The Hickoids: America's Sweethearts

AUSTIN, TEXAS _ Hands down my musical highlight Wednesday was The midnight set of The Hickoids over at The White Horse, a nothin' fancy but welcoming joint off East 6th Street that in recent years has become one of my favorite Austin venues in recent years. And, of course, The Hickoids have become one of my chief must-see bands every time I come to Austin. Having a Santa Fe crony, guitarist Tom Trusnovic in the group helps, but I already was a casual Hickhead even before Tommy joined several years ago.

But I was a little apprehensive about seeing them last night because this would be the first show I'd see them since last year's death of original member, guitar slinger, no-shit cosmic cowboy, "The True Heart of Austin Rock 'n' Roll" and Prince of the Plaid Davy Jones.

Publicist extraordinaire Heather West and Hickoid Jeff Smith with Davy's award

Last time I saw Davy, or The Hickoids, was during the 2014 SXSW. I saw them play twice (once in San Marcos and once at the White Horse) and I watched them get formally inducted in the Austin Music Hall of Fame at the Austin Music Awards show. He was in great spirits that week and played like the maniac he was.

Last night before the White Horse show, Davy was honored again at the Austin Music Awards. He got inducted posthumously into the Hall of Fame, this time as a "solo" artist. Head Hickoids Honcho Jeff Smith was there to accept that award. He held it up on stage at the beginning of the band's set to great applause. And then the surviving Hickoids proceeded to live up to his memory.

Smith, Trusnovic, bassist Rice Moorehead and drummer Lance Farley -- along with new guitarist Cody Richardson (who also plays with The Beaumonts) bashed through some of my favorite Hickoid hits including "Git Back on The Truck," "Cool Arrow," "Working Man's Friend" and the fabulously filthy "Stop It, You're Killing Me," which put to shame anything in the Blowfly tribute set, which was on immediately before.

My son, who lives in Austin, went with me to the show, so it was heartwarming to see it through the eyes of a newcomer to the warped world of The Hickoids. (He'd seen the band once before, when they opened for Roky Erikson on New Year's Eve. But I'm so bitter and resentful for missing that show, I don't like to talk about it.)

Actually that Blowfly tribute was pretty disappointing. The main problem was it just went on way too long. I loved Blowfly, who died earlier this year, but a little of him goes a long way ...) But that set was sandwiched between two fantastic sets, The Hickoids and The Beaumonts.

I walked into the White Horse just as The Beaumonts were starting one of my favorite tunes, "Money for Drugs."

Unfortunately, we got there too late to see Churchwood and Stevie Tombstone. In my golden years I guess I'm starting to lose my schedule management abilities for SXSW ...