Austin, Texas: What is your best musical export?

Willie Nelson

(obvious names: SRV, Spoon)

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver

bavu blakes

First person to name Ghostland Observatory gets a truckload of fail dumped on their doorstep.

-- Display Name, Wednesday, April 16, 2008 11:50 PM

srsly

Roky Erickson I'd have thought?

i DO NOT LIKE THAT TOWER.

Beyond that

Scratch acid
Big Boys
Dicks
Honky (modern band - post 90s)
13th floor elos

I'm stuck in 82

were the Offenders from Austin?

xplosions
this will destroy you
Austin??

adding, I haven't been embarrassed to admit to liking any music in a long, long time, but I'm embarrassed to admit I like Ghostland Observatory *ducks*

yeah roky & 13th a good bet, i might also toss out Daniel Johnston? The Sword are qual if you're into their thing as are Explosions.

tbh for all our shit-talking about being a great live music town its (in my experience) mostly crap bar blues bands and crap alt country like matt the electrician.

but i guess that's true of any town lots of crap and a handful of good

When I was in college I thought Austin was a good music town mainly for Waterloo Records...

To me Waterloo always feels more like a Tower with snob clerks. Am I missing something?

No, you're not.

Aren't The Butthole Surfer's from Austin? Or did they move there from another part of Texas?

And Daniel Johnston isn't really from there. He's from West Virginia or something, he just moved there.

That being said, I have always been treated well by their staff. A lot of them are hipster clowns, but their behavior has always been reasonable.

The prices and the vinyl selection are the main reason I don't shop there.
It isn't bad for cd's, but I just can't bring myself to spend more than 9 bucks on a cd. I have to want something pretty bad *and* not be able to get it on vinyl to buy a CD. The last thing I bought was The Endless Not by Throbbing Gristle. To their credit, Waterloo was the only place in town that had a copy.

Are the Red Krayola from there? I need to look these up.

Aren't The Butthole Surfer's from Austin? Or did they move there from another part of Texas?

I really like Dale Watson.

To me Waterloo always feels more like a Tower with snob clerks. Am I missing something?

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, April 17, 2008 12:25 AM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

No, exactly. But at 18, 19, pre-internet, that's what I thought it was supposed to be like!

Dale Watson is a good call

See I am a fan of End of an Ear which has snob selection + chill clerks. xp

i love end of an ear...genuinely nice staff too...(ie, they compliment my purchases)

lol i am wearing my End of an Ear shirt in the most recent wdyll

Dale Watson seems pretty cheesy, but maybe I haven't heard the right songs.

my personal choice is either the Kiss Offs or Black Lipstick

Stars of the Lid!

also Explosions in the Sky.

Matthew Dear isn't from Austin is he?

yes indeed!

Then throw him in there too!

I saw Ghostland Observatory more than a year ago and absolutely fucking hated them, to the point that I was actively in-your-face to my friends who claimed they had some merit. Some of the worst wannabe rockstar posing I've ever seen.

I guess I would have to go with 13th Floor Elevators, just a hair above Big Boys. Then probably the Surfers. Then Willie. If my life had been different Willie would probably be first but I was a punk kid and the Elevators are probably my favorite 60's band of them all.

docked half a grade for overuse of "probably"

Can I get a list to choose from?

Off the top of my head, I'd go with Stars of the Lid.

Dale Watson seems pretty cheesy, but maybe I haven't heard the right songs.

I don't know what his albums sound like, but I used to go see him and The Lone Stars at Ginny's Little Longhorn all the time. He and his band we extremely tight and sounded great. They had a strong mix of covers and original material. I don't know what his profile is like outside of Austin, I have no idea how he presents himself to the rest of the world. I do know he sounds real good after a couple beers in a small bar on a Sunday afternoon.

Were American Analog Set any good?

Can I get a list to choose from?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Texas#Austin

and obv a ton of rap as well. Plus Red Krayola, Rick Reed, Poison 13, Kamikaze Refrigerators, etc.

oops Red Krayola = Houston. Sorry.

Was Really Red from Austin?

Butthole Surfers are from San Antonio.
Willie was born in Ft. Worth and made a name for himself in Tennessee.
thus, Roky is Austin's greatest musical export.

Really Red = Houston also

The correct answer is ...

The 13th Floor Elevators.

If there is any band that can claim to have invented psychedelic rock, it is these guys. They were making psych rock a good bit before The Beatles and Floyd and The Pretty Things and Love and The Seeds and the all of the other 60s folks. Certainly, there were a number of antecedents, but with The Elevators, you had all of the psych elements coming together in a band that embraced the term "psychedelic rock" as they practiced creating it as well.

In my eyes, this is Austin's #1 contribution to the world of modern music. And, there were a number of pretty decent garage/psych bands that also helped to establish a scene for this kinda stuff (and of course, as is always the case, many of those bands probably haven't gotten their due respect for their contributions.) That scene centered around a club called The Vulcan Gas Company. By all accounts, The Vulcan was a crazy-as-fuck scene, so much so that local newspapers refused to print the club's ads and this, thankfully, led to a proliferation of awesome posters that would be spread around town to advertise shows (the birth of psychedelic poster art? maybe ... not sure about that one). The Vulcan only lasted a few years (until the cops shut it down) but it became legendary nonetheless.

After the scene at The Vulcan in the 60s, I would say that the early 80s punk scene was pretty cool and important. This scene centered around a club called Raul's (which is now the Showdown Saloon on the drag).

The Big Boys are probably the most known Austin band from the Raul's scene (IMO easily one of the greatest punk bands ever). But there were lots of other bands like The Huns, The Skunks, and The Dicks that helped to establish a pretty badass punk scene for a mid-size college town in the middle of godforsaken Texas.

In the late 80s and into the 90s, Austin had a pretty good output of interesting indie and punk stuff. The Butthole Surfers. The Trance Syndicate label. Daniel Johnston, of course. And lots of bands that time has (mostly) forgotten.

Unfortunately, most of the stuff I mention above is kind of like a shadow history of the Austin music scene (although the 13th Floor Elevators have certainly become legends in their own right).

But ... when most folks think of Austin, they think of the blues-rock scene that centered around the club Antones and acts like The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughn (and fellow guitar god Eric Johnson).

The "cosmic cowboy" scene in the 70s also garners a good deal of nostalgic respect. The Armadillo World Headquarters was the center of that scene and the key players were folks like Willie Nelson, Michael Martin Murphy, Jerry Jeff Walker, Alvin Crow, Gary P. Nunn ... and a bunch of others. IT was all about "outlaw" country being made by hippie types (as opposed to uptight Nashville suits). Some good music came out of those guys but it didn't produce anything as cool as The Big Boys or The Elevators in my eyes.

Austin City Limits, the show and the festival, certainly traces its roots back to both the Armadillo World Headquarters and the Antones scene.

Thus, the branding of "Austin music" begins ...

To my crap list ^^^^^I forgot to add the Gourds, ....Trail Of The Dead,and erm J Church.Can't believe I missed Stars of The Lid

After Chicago, Austin has been my fave US City to visit.

Listen, I'm a Olde English tourist. I'm allowed to like EMOs and Waterloo Records.

charles whitman & the sharpshooters

I rank Prima Donnas up there with 13FE and Buttholes and Daniel Johnston.

Some of the PDs were in fucking awesome post-hardcore groups like 100 Watt Clock, Tune in Tokyo and Car Bomb.

It shames me that I am the first to mention Glass Eye on this thread.

Also, Frank Kozik deserves a mention here.

I would've mentioned Glass Eye if you hadn't.

I was obsessed with the so-called New Sincerity movement of the mid-80s. Still love Zeitgeist's/The Reivers' Translate Slowly.

The Reivers' reunion shows were pretty dang good considering no gigs since '91. Really good, actually. Hear they're going to do some more. I sort of helped get Zeitgeist their record deal with dB back in the day. And Glass Eye..what a great group.

Stars of the Lid, Butthole Surfers, Willie Nelson, all worthy winners. But there'll always be a little space in my heart for The Primadonnas too

Does Austin get to claim Alejandro Escovedo?

It was a lot better than The Devil and Daniel Johnston. That film only succeeded in turning DJ into a cartoon character. It relied on a lot of creative madman stereotypes. It seemed like high budget infomerical.

-- Display Name, Thursday, April 17, 2008 8:18 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

I thought it did a good job of deflating the creative madman stuff. If anything Louis Black (who's the main proponent of the creative madman shit in the flick) comes off looking like a clueless dbag!

crap alt country like matt the electrician

srsly, that guy is everywhere! and he sucks!

I thought it did a good job of deflating the creative madman stuff. If anything Louis Black (who's the main proponent of the creative madman shit in the flick) comes off looking like a clueless dbag!

It is funny that you should bring up Louis Black; I was going to say something similar but decided to hold my tongue.

The problem I had was that it was that the documentary was filled with people with their own agendas trying to tell the biggest tale about DJ's wacky schitzo hijinks. This was extremely different from 25 seconds of Billy Gibbons from giving brass tack reasons for why RE should be rated as a musician.

There was no gloss or sales pitch in You're Going To Miss Me. Roky never had a chance. This is why he never had a chance. This is exactly what he does every afternoon. We aren't going to concentrate on the 2 times a year we drag out the freak for a concert and photo ops.

(that being said, Roky was not functioning at a high enough level to actually perform when the footage was being shot...)

I would also love a documentary about his time in Pennsylvania with his brother. I wonder what changed in his life.

My mom went to Sunday School with Roky Erickson.

That explains everything.

Stars of the Lid!

also Explosions in the Sky.

Matthew Dear isn't from Austin is he?

-- mehlt, Thursday, 17 April 2008 01:42 (Yesterday) Link

yes indeed!

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 17 April 2008 01:45 (Yesterday) Link

Then throw him in there too!

-- mehlt, Thursday, 17 April 2008 01:45 (Yesterday) Link

not too be too nit-picky, but Matt Dear is from outside (south of) San Antonio.

fair enough

It is a real shame that Austin lost that genius.

But dude, we've got Voxtrot. all hope is not lost.

Yeah, but they _only_ do shitty rock music. If they had some rich kid's dad buy their way into dance music then we would be back to where we were a few hours ago.

I was was feeling pretty good about the ATX until Ken rained on our parade.

We will never be as good as Ann Arbor until we have a Matthew Dear of our very own!

No one's mentioned Robert Earl Keen, Asleep at the Wheel or Bob Schneider yet.

i kinda hate bob schneider.

a+ on keen & asleep @ the wheel tho

Can't Austin claim Townes Van Zandt pretty fairly...?

yeah, bob schneider is kinda the go-to artist for me when it comes to making fun of Austin Music and its fans.

But that guy has managed to sell 10,000+ CDs of his "Lonelyland" album through Waterloo Records alone. I suppose he's mastered the Jimmy-Buffet-style art of just being a regular dude.

eh Voxtrot is serviceable if medicore. Feel bad talkin shit about em cause I went to high school with most of them. They're not intolerable.

octopus project

No, Austin's claim to Townes is pretty shaky, though they make it all the time. He was first and foremost a wanderer, but Houston and Nashville have more of a claim on him.

Hey, the Clash's album cover for "London Calling" was photographed at the Armadillo HQ. Let's take credit for them, too!

The "Rock The Casbah" video was also filmed, at least in part, in Austin.
The old City Coliseum (now long gone) can be seen behind the band in a bunch of shots.

Revenant Records was making a good "export" name for Austin for a little while there.

Sir Douglas Quintet!!

(not counting Willie, of course)

Doug (and Augie) are originally from San Antone, so we'll continue to claim 'em.

and this Primadonnas talk is sheer hooey. regardless, if you wanna list Austin's killer bands in the mid-90s, surely that list would read: Gut, Glorium, Big Horny Hustler, Brownie Points, Brick, Multitude of the Slothful, American Psycho Band, Knife in the Water...

any of you 80's people remember Moto-X? What a great band.

Austin's claim to Townes is pretty shaky, though they make it all the time.

Austin's claim to anything is pretty shaky, imo. There's no such thing as a native, nary a single style of music was "born" there, its claims to the contrary range between technically untrue to ludicrous, and hoo boy do Austinites get defensive when you point this out. Austin's not any kind of Music Capital, not an oasis of liberalism, it's just a fucking college town. With a HUGE chip on its shoulder.

The Dicks is a good answer, though. :)

this fuckin guy

I mean lol "Live Music Capitol of the World" aka marketing gimmick for the city, sure, but how exactly do you quantify whether or not a city is an "oasis of liberalism"?

he's right. marfa is texas's oasis of liberalism. but mostly because it's literally an oasis.

Do they still have all those "Support Live Music In Austin" bumper stickers in Austin, HOOS? A friend of mine one time said "That's like saying 'Support the Blob' in the movie The Blob!"

he's right. marfa is texas's oasis of liberalism. but mostly because it's literally an oasis.

HA! I think you mean fashionable oasis.

I saw several of the sticker over the hitch when I was on a weekend trip a few weeks back.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/211/503995829_d2cf6f8305.jpg?v=0

Liberals (nee yuppie scum) don't actually live in Marfa. They just fly there on the weekends to piss off the locals.

yeah lots of keep austin weird (aka support local business), not so much support live music

see, the joke is that marfa is actually in a desert and... nevermind.

You shoulda mentioned the aliens.

is roswell the dead alien capital of the world?

see, the joke is that marfa is actually in a desert and... nevermind. FULL OF MINIMALISM

-- f. hazel, Friday, April 25, 2008 1:11 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

overflowing with minimalism!

your brane got one oxymoran!

my brain was broken trying to wrap the concept of "a town with a huge chip on its shoulder" around austin.

how exactly do you quantify whether or not a city is an "oasis of liberalism"?

well for one, Austin (or Travis county, whatever) was the only place in Texas to vote *IN FAVOR* of Proposition 2, which was pro-equal marriage rights! boy i was proud to be an Austinite that day:

https://webspace.utexas.edu/sdb55/texasvotes.jpg

*sigh*

or rather, Proposition 2 was to ban gay marriage, and Austin voted against it. I had it backwards.

The cool thing about that map is how the counties get less and less square as they become proximate to the "Against" spot.

stephen that is a hilariously awesome graphic

depressing in regards to what it represents, obv, but funny in the remarkably clear way that it illustrates your point

yeah, that was pretty notm, kenan

Love this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG9Qa3twFc0