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Hello folks, it’s been one heck of a week at SXSW 2008. We flew in and the week just flew by and now I am back home again. I did not think it was possible, but this year was even better for us than last year! It was one of the best weeks I have spent in I don’t know how long. It seemed like one Big Magical, Musical Ride! We met so many cool people and did so many cool shows I am still reeling from the effects of all the beer, Mexican and BBQ! I guess the best thing to do is give a day by day, blow by blow account.
Tuesday 11th
Rest and relaxation at the Blakely Mansion out in Bastrop
Shopping at Callahans, always fun, they have a great staff and good deals on your basic cowboy garb. Lunch at the fabulous Azteca, best Mexican in Austin!
SXSW Registration, we got our wrist bands and our SXSW freebie bag. As we rode up the escalator we met our good buddy Jeff from Kingsnake and he gave us the low down on all the unofficial shows. Based on that Juancho wanted to see Rocky Ericson again because Jeff told us that Billy Gibbons was gonna sit in, so we went over to Threadgills to buy tix’s. Then it was back to the Blakely Mansion with a stop at Wallmarts to do the mega shop for the week. The high lite of that was watching the kid at check out try to figure out what Asparagus was and how much it cost! Then it was time to kick back and make a huge BBQ on the outdoor grill with hickory logs and Shinner Bock beer.
Wednesday 12th
It was time to start rockin and a rolling. We did 2 shows the first was at Cheapo Records at One in the afternoon, Jeff the store manager was totally cool and put us right at ease with his keg of supper fine beer. The crowd was great and our good friend Lynn from Canada showed up and took some great videos. We also met Timothy and Naomi who are very cool fans from Austin, we would run into them later all over town. Craig Marshal played after us, and besides setting up the show for us he has a great band featuring our good buddy John Noterthomas, who also runs one of the best sausage carts on 6th street.
We had to blast out of there and hot foot it over to Beerland for our second show. That was some good rocking at 4 in the afternoon! We got there in time to catch our good friends and label mates The Ugly Beats as they cranked out a hot set and then we where on. The show was put on by local promoter Mike Hooker and it was great, Mike did the best 2 minute sound check and I had a blast on stage! It felt like the old days as the band blasted through the set and the crowd was just going nuts! We left the stage 40 minutes later, hot and sweaty with the crowd screaming for more, I was on Cloud 9! We hung out to see The Boss Martians as they tore through their set of great pop rock n roll and then we checked out the Sons of Hercules across the street. By that time I was well toasted and deeply in love with Erica so we all went to Whole Foods for diner. After that we went to meet The Stems who just got in from Down Under, for one last beer and then it was time to head back to The Blakely Mansion and bed!
Thursday 13th
We had an easy day, Octavio and I had to do an Acoustic Show over at The Thunderbird Café set up by Craig Marshall and the very cool local musician Neal Mehta. But first we went downtown to catch Dean Chamberlain’s set at Joe’s Bar & Grill. It was great to see Dean and he sounded good as ever, he had some new songs and his voice was in top form, we left humming "Working on the Coal Mine."
Then it was time to get over to The Thunderbird Café.
It was great to play at about sunset with a bunch of local folks hanging out with their kids. There were some fans from our shows on Wednesday and our good buddy Vic Gerard came down with his family. Vic is a long time local musician who used to play regularly at The Broken Spoke, he now has two boys and from what I hear they both are smoking musicians, the little guy plays bass and his older son is a drummer so be on the look out for them! Our good buddy Eric Brown was there and we all headed over to see Ian McLagan at The Lucky Lounge. Ian was great and Juancho was talking business with him about the upcoming shows he has booked for Ian in Spain, the rest of us had beers and checked out the gorgeous girls walking around in the cool Austin night air!
We retired to The Mansion, rocked out.
Friday 14th
We had a full band show at 5 at Sonny’s Vintage Clothing Store right next to Antones Records on Guadalupe. But first we went downtown to catch The Stems at the Aussie picnic. Man did they rock, my band was blown away by the guitar sound and I think Dom Mariani is just one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. We decided to cash in on the free grub that the Australian Government was providing, I was waiting in line for a sausage when who strolls by but my old pal Kim Fowley, looking dapper as all hell in his 3 piece blue pinstriped suit! We exchanged greetings and I gave him a copy of our new record, "Ribbon of Gold" which he promised he would listen to, (I later found out that he had produced Muck and the Mires and they were very happy with his production.) Then I got the shock of the day, I am looking at the name tag of the guy who is standing right behind me and it says ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM, Holy Shit! I can’t believe it, I’m flashing back to when I was in The Nerves and we used to read about him and his work with The Rolling Stones, I ask him if he is The Andrew Loog Oldham, like there could be two of them, and he very graciously says yes. I tell him I am a big fan of his work and I give him a copy of "Ribbon of Gold" and say that I would love to know what he thinks of it; he gives me his card and says we will be in touch; now how fucking cool is that?
Time to make it over to Sonny’s.
Gregg and Barbara from Get Hip, our US label, have finally made it and a whole ton of cool bands are playing. I got there just in time to have some tequila with Michael, lead singer of The Cynics and just about the nicest rock n roller I know. We caught Muck and the Mires as they ripped through their show dressed in their matching red shirts! Kudos to their drummer, Jessie Best, she rocks!
Alan a long time fan from California showed up, I had not seen him in at least 20 years! He looked great and as it turns out his wife’s sister is married to Clem Burke, small world ain’t it! My good friend Cliff O’Sullivan also showed up which was very nice for me. I met Cliff when we were both starting out, he was a college Rep when my first record came out on Columbia, and he remains to this day one of the nicest guys I know in the business, Cliff is now head of marketing at Universal. The Ugly Beats tore it up again and Jeanine looked hot as can be! Then The Cynics took the stage and Michael showed us all what it means to be a lead singer! He is just fantastic prancing all over the place while Gregg stoically rocks out on his guitar. Then it was our turn, and I think we ended up the evening on the right note. The band is a well oiled machine now and they follow my lead effortlessly so I can just bob and weave with the crowd calling the songs out as we go along. The new songs are going over great and it really seems like we are poised for some big things back in the USA! I was looking cool in my new white shades that Sonny gave me especially for the show! It’s a great store and if you are ever in town stop by, tell Sonny I sent you. After the show we were hanging out with some of the fans, and a couple of kids asked us if we wanted to play a BBQ on Sunday, I said, Hell Yeah! I will get back to that later. We stopped by Jennifer’s store Blue Velvet and the boys picked up some more shirts and then we had a kick ass Thai dinner. Octavio, Pablo and me went to catch our host, Eric Blakely’s show at Boarders books while Juancho went with The Ugly Beats to see X. Eric’s show was great he does a solo thing and he has a wonderful way with the audience, his songs are great story telling and his guitar sound is so rich and beautiful. We all enjoyed it immensely, Alan was there and so was our man Eric ’It’s Awesome’ Brown! After that we all went downtown to see the fabulous Chuck Prophet. MAN did he rock, what a band, what a sound it was the best group I saw the whole week! I was all musiced out after that, we said hello to Chuck and it was time for this puppy to hit the hay. Juancho and Pablo were on a bender so they stayed out with Eric to go see Magic Christians while Octavio and I went back to The Mansion.
Saturday 15th
The Official Showcase! We decided to take it real easy today because we had been really blowing it out. Octavio and I drove in to town early to have breakfast with my good friend Cliff at The Magnolia Café. It was lovely and Cliff kind of filled us in on the state of the nation, musically speaking, over scrambled eggs and hot cakes. Then we had to pick up Juancho. We met him down the street in front of the Continental trying on a really pink, pink shirt which went perfect with his red face and his cowboy hat! We went up the street to Allan’s Boot Shop to see if we could find some cool cowboy shirts. Inside the place was empty except for a very few people, including the very tall Mr. Billy Bragg! I went up to him and introduced myself and he was just the coolest guy and we all started shooting the shit and buying clothes, I told him I hated shopping so he picked out this very cool black cowboy shirt with gold guitars and music notes, "That’s you man, you’ll look sharp in that!" Juancho told him he could book him some shows in Spain and Octavio and Billy compared cowboy shirts, he is one of the coolest guys you could meet and now I think we can call him a buddy of ours! We were feeling pretty good has we cruised back to The Mansion for a pasta lunch and a long nap! Pretty soon it was Showtime at The Soho Lounge. This was it; this was why we flew some 3,000 miles, the place was packed as we hit the stage, Beetle Bob introduced the band and we slammed into one of our hottest 40 minute sets to date! We opened with Let Me Into Your Life and we closed with Rock n Roll Girl, and the crowd just ate it up! When I left Madrid my son Noah said, "Dad, leave ’em with their mouths open." We Did!
Sunday 16th
We found out sometime around midnight on Saturday that the BBQ show was on and we would be playing at 6pm. We got up late, and drove into town with just enough time to catch Cyril and his Magic Christians at the Head Hunters. It was great to see my good friend Cyril after so many years, he looked great and he sounded as good as ever! Clem and Eddie are old buddies too so it was great to catch up with them; the real surprise for me was meeting Paul Kopf, their lead singer. What a cool guy, we had a great time talking rock and just hanging out; he is as they say in the business a real sweetheart!
We blew over to the BBQ for our final SXSW show. I had no idea what was in store for me. The BBQ is an annual event put on by Austin’s Sherry Cardino. The band that had invited us was Beat, Beat, Beat (I know, it’s a cool name) who are out of Atlanta. The place was packed with kids, I was definitely old enough to be their father, and as I sat watching the proceedings I realised for the first time that even though I felt young in my heart I was no longer young, one of those personal revelations that you never know when you are going to have. I thought that these kids were great but that they lived in a different world that I knew nothing about, I was more nervous for this show than any of the other shows we had done at SXSW, I don’t know why I was just real nervous as I watched the other bands play, and they were great, and it made me feel that the future of rock n roll was just fine and dandy, but I felt like I was from the old guard and maybe my job was done and it was time to step aside and let these kids take over. I was shaking like a leaf when we hit the stage, and to top it off Cyril and his band had showed up. I tried to just let my rock n roll sixth sense take over and hope for the best, we blasted into Look But Don’t Touch and the blood started to surge through me, the sound was the best we had, had for all the shows, and this was a little wooden outdoor car park, next to a beautiful pale white wood frame house with green trim. The sound just blew me away I thought to myself this is what it’s all about, this is why I play music, this is what really makes my life worth living, all this went through my head as I had my eyes closed, when I opened my eyes and saw the kids moving and swaying in time to the music I knew that we were all together and that I was not out of touch with them and that even though we were two generations apart we were unified by that great equaliser known as......
ROCK N ROLL……
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