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Home , Chicano rock, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Gimme Fiction, Girls Can Tell, Got Nuffin, Jim Eno

VOLUME 29★ NUMBER 21 JANUARY 22, 2010

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Matador Records’ Gerard Cosloy Causes a ‘Casual Victim Pile’-Up on Red River

BY AUSTIN POWELL P.48

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SEE austinchronicle.com FOR BREAKING NEWS, DAILY LISTINGS, EARLE IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, GUV RACE IN THE MARGINS, ‘CAPRICA’ RISING, HANGIN’ WITH GRANNY P, DERBY DANCING, AND MORE ROUND AND ROUND ((((( PERFECT ((((GREAT(((GOOD((MEDIOCRE(COASTER texas platters

SUNSET Recording Industry Association of America decidedly Houstonian Lion Heart and col- Gold Dissolves to has, in no particular order, launched multiple laborations with candy painter Cory Mo – has Gray (Autobus) lawsuits against the record-downloading pub- rarely strayed from the 78723 style. On the The Glowing City lic, watched its sales figures plummet from an self-produced Plant the Seed, AO incorporates (2008) lifted Sunset all-time high in the 1980s, and become the a heavy dose of instrumental soul samples into a new sphere, victim of counterlawsuits and boycotts by an (“Reach Out,” “Hold Your Ground,” “Eye of the moving the project enraged, cash-strapped, and increasingly P2P- Beholder”) with his Chamillionaire-style flow, from Bill Baird’s happy consumer populace. Tough tamales, mixing blunted ballads including “Playin in the intriguingly manic guys. In the interim, ad hoc mash-uppers Girl Clouds” with the one-man playground hustle but often solipsistic Talk, Car Stereo (Wars), and their MacBooking of “Tell Me How You Like It” (“All those that Beck-isms to a vision that encompasses more legions have effectively neutered the bloated follow show time like Apollo”). ATX dark horse of the full . Accordingly, Gold Dissolves to and corporatized behemoths of yore, leveling KaiZen’s laid-back stylings set the bar on the Gray offers a realization of behind the funkability field and ushering in a new era slumming “On That Corner,” but Optics has Baird while still surfacing the former Sound of groove. Jester’s newest is an impeccably done plenty to Plant the Seed on solid soil. SPOON Team bassist’s unique subtleties and psych- mixed 40 minutes of hi-pro flow that, true to ((( – Chase Hoffberger Transference (Merge) pop elusiveness, the limited-edition vinyl form, ranges far and wide, kicking off with the Onetime local underdogs Spoon were flirting with Harry Nilsson’s Pandemonium Violent Femmes before a seamless transition YELLOWFEVER recently calculated by Metacritic to be the Shadow Show in spirit if not always sound. into the Who’s “Eminence Front,” Zeppelin’s (Wild World) most critically acclaimed band of the last Shifting between ethereal daydreams (opener “Good Times, Bad Times,” and the Cure’s Following a series decade on the strength of four indisput- “Sunshine Hair,” “Gold Dissolves to Gray”) “Lullaby.” From there on out it’s a relatively of self-released EPs ably great – (2001), and gleeful genre spins ( bounce of chill peripatetic sojourn that mix-matches with a full-length (2002), “Garden of Eden,” string-band roll of “Hill everyone from Yacht (“Psychic City”) to Lord debut on the Vivian (2005), (2007) – each Country Smog”), Sunset remains an ever- Finesse (“Return of the Funky Man”) before Girls’ label isn’t a one reacting to and building upon what evolving and suavely unpredictable outfit. finally spinning down via Beck (“High 5”), bad place to land. came before it. Following the breakout “Rivers of Babylon” juxtaposes with a Backstreet Boys (“I Want It That Way”), and Austin trio YellowFever definitely has the commercial and chart success of its contemplative vocal hum, and “Green Truck” ’s “Purple Rain” guitar skronk. same reference points and aesthetics as the pristine predecessor, Transference takes wheezes wildly synthetic, but Baird remains at ((( – Marc Savlov Brooklyn gals, like those delightful minor- a slight retreat as Spoon’s first self-pro- his best on such tunes as “Our Dreams Did key harmonies tempered with more shape duced . While even the band’s most Weave a Shade,” melding his calm wistful- ARSON and structure, less amorphous reverb. If marketable material has been spiked with ness into an easy and infectious pop flow. OPTICS YellowFever’s songs were furniture, they’d acute studio experimentation – the back- ((( – Doug Freeman Plant the Seed be IKEA: efficient, easy to put together, and ground chatter and double-tracked vocals (Word Power) don’t take up a lot of space. Older songs in “Don’t You Evah” for example – left to DJ JESTER THE Raised in West “Ratcatcher,” “Psychedelic,” and “Donald,” their own devices, those details dominate FILIPINO FIST Lake but born in although essentially just a spare /gui- the band’s seventh album, style consis- The Inside Story Pittsburgh, Pa., tar riff and drums, still manage to get stuck in tently disguising a lack of structure and In the seven years and currently your head, and newer songs “Joe Brown” and self-sustaining songs, which separates since San Antonian- operating out “Culver City” spend a little more time on pop the LP from its most obvious comparison turned-Austinite of , composition. In the end, you feel sated – it’s point, 1998’s A Series of Sneaks. “Is Love mixmaster Jester Arson Optics (né Aaron Krueger) fell in with a solid, metronomic collection – but it’d be Forever?” bears a classic Spoon stamp, released debut disc locals Mirage and the Melodicscience crew nice to hear YellowFever amp it up a bit. ’s percussive bounce locked with River Walk Riots, the at age 16 and – with the exception of 2008’s ((( – Audra Schroeder taut, staccato guitar and frontman ’s robotic echo-chamber vocals, but never builds beyond that. Likewise, opener “Before Destruction” gets lost in a demo s.a., esse stage, the peripheral sonic details unable to bring the bigger picture into focus. Five- minute “The Mystery Zone” could pass for HICKOIDS The Hairy Chafin’ EP (Saustex) an extended DFA remix, slowly developing behind a spacious, swaggering bassline TEXAS MUSIC EXTRAVAGANZA and space-needle guitar break – ghosts The Sound lingering in its keyboard accents – but the effect gets negated by a truncated LARRY LANGE & ending. There are notable exceptions: the HIS LONELY KNIGHTS San Antonio Serenade (My Tee Fine) shimmering disconnect of the downtrod- den “Who Makes Your Money,” the glori- Just when you thought the Hickoids were putting their tattered You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down”) and the songs that taught them ous build of “I Saw the Light,” boots up and relaxin’ following the reissue of Waltz a Crossdress (“Volver, Volver” à la Flaco). The DVD dances with visual flair, and and the surprisingly delicate piano lullaby Texas, they uncork the five-song Hairy Chafin’ EP. It’s irresistible the soundtrack preserves it. Larry Lange & His Lonely Knights are “Goodnight Laura.” “Written in Reverse” from the Lone Star State’s finest purveyor of hard corn- an Austin outfit expanding their Highway 90 and para- should be earmarked for a future hits com- punk, lifting the Velvet Underground’s ubiquitous banana cover dise-by-the-dashboard-light belly-rubbers south to Bexar County. San pilation, shattering-glass piano and guitar for art. Peel it slowly, and pop goes the ear. “Cool Arrow” is core Antonio Serenade gets on disc the sound Lange and his compadres capturing Daniel at his most jaded and axis Jeff Smith/Davy Jones’ tip of the shredded straw hat to Augie have created in reviving classic soul S.A.-style, favorites cool, effortlessly shifting from his cock- Meyers, pure San Antonio . Meyers is prominently known no farther than the shadow of the Alamo itself (Doc & Sal’s sure falsetto and cryptic beat poetry to a featured in the Texas Music Extravaganza, filmed last year at Leon “Laughing to Keep From Crying,” Spider & the Playboys’ “Tell Me full-throttle scream, while the 30-gallon Springs Dancehall in San Antonio with a dazzling cast of perform- Darling”), plus contemporary offerings (Oscar Martinez’s “Whatsa tank and midnight streak of “,” ers playing tribute to the music he and Doug Sahm made. It’s an Matter Con You,” Jerry Butler’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”). The the lone holdover from last year’s EP of impressive lineup, starring Shawn Sahm, Flaco Jimenez, Raul Malo, Knights’ secret weapon is Joanna Ramirez, whose rendering of the same name – recorded at Brooklyn’s Vato Valley Boys, BCH with Byron Berline, the Krayolas, and Adam “Poquita Fe” makes it a weeper of the first order. Whatever’s gotten Rare Book Room – still burns with white Aguilar. The extravaganza redefines contemporary Tex-Mex not into the water of San Antonio, keep it there. heat. Transference is a good album, just only through Sahm’s and Meyer’s music (“She’s About a Mover,” (Hickoids) (((N not in league with what’s become par. “Dinero”) but by the musicians they influenced (Raul Malo’s “All (Texas Music Extravaganza; Larry Lange) ((( – Margaret Moser ((( – Austin Powell

52 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E JANUARY 22, 2010 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m