I got a little behind this week with my photo and video posting. Went to several shows after I shot my interview with Paul Minor (see below). We went to Coldtowne Theater to see some improv, then Flipnotics to see Jackie Bristow. On Tuesday, I went to neighborhood wine bar Vino Vino to see Miles Zuniga play, Thursday night went to the Grounded in Music benefit with Patty Griffin and Nakia, Friday stopped at Botticelli's to see Brent Adair and topped this off on Saturday at Ruta Maya with The Service Industry, Future Clouds and Radar and Right or Happy (formerly the Reivers). Busy week, what with school starting and all...
This is the first in my potentially unlimited part series in which I help you get to know the talented and creative musicians in the Austin community. My first guest is Austin music mainstay, the legendary Paul Minor. Paul stopped by to talk about his early days in Austin and what it's like to perform and work in music today. He provides some recommendations for his favorite local acts and advice for new bands. He had so many interesting things to say that the interview is in 2 two parts (YouTube 10-minute limit). Paul was one of the first people I met when I first moved to Austin in 1999, and was instrumental in introducing me to the music scene.
In Part I, Paul talks about moving to Austin in 1980, his first band and the importance of a community of musicians.
In Part II, Paul talks about his favorite local artists, his most recent projects and advice for new bands
Paul performs "Here I Am"
UPDATE: Paul played a second song, "Lettin' Off Steam," while he was here, so I just got around to editing it. Enjoy
I'd like to thank Paul for dropping by to be my first guest. I hope to continue doing this, getting better in the process. If you know of someone that you'd like to see me interview, drop me a line at clroyal@gmail.com or just leave a comment below (please don't recommend people like Bono or Madonna. That'd be great, but let's get real ;-)).
Thanks for watching. Go out and support live music!
Got to see Electric Touch once again, this time at Emo's. These guys just continue to rock it out with the pop lyrics and amazing stage presence. After them, it was The Boxing Lesson, a trippy, space-rock band, also from Austin.
So, I ran a Word Cloud on Wordle with the RSS feed from this blog. Here's the visualization of my topics. Apparently, I LOVE a lot of NEW things and have a lot of VIDEOS. I also seem to like The Steps and Sheboygan, among others.
I have to admit, I didn't take much advantage of the Free Week in Austin music. My loss, because it sounds like there were some amazing shows. I just didn't make it out. I did get to Antone's on Wed to see The Steps and then headed over to Trophy's to catch Sheboygan. They're two of my favorite groups in town, and I wanted to show my support. Will try to get out to some new things soon.
I shot video at most of the shows I went to in 2008, so I thought I'd make a compilation of some highlights. There are three things that I realized by looking at the videos:
I have gotten pretty good at finagling decent positioning at most shows
Bald guys tend to stand in front of me
I LOVE living in Austin. I am so inspired by the talented and creative people that I have seen over the past year, and I am honored that many of them are my friends.
The video is 16 minutes, so if you've got a little time to kill, I'd love it if you'd take a look. Features Wilco, Son Volt, Old 97's, Ben Folds, Fastball, Spoon, Okkervil River, Kanye West, Nick Lowe, Jon Dee Graham, Paul Minor, Mario Matteoli, Andrew Duplantis, Lil Capn Travis, Vampire Weekend, Swell Season, M. Ward, Foo Fighters, Brent Adair, Neal Mehta, Phil Dutra, Carrie Rodriguez, Summer Wardrobe, the Steps, the Mother Truckers, Future Clouds and Radar, Hayes Carll... and more!
Have a Happy New Year!
BTW, the new Texas Music magazine is on sale now with writers' picks for top TX CDs of the year. Here are my picks, all of whom are represented in the video:
Old 97's - Blame It On Gravity Brent Adair - Ostrich Hayes Carrl - Trouble in Mind Okkervil River - The Stand Ins The Steps - The Steps
First show of 2009, went out to see Lil Capn Travis and Pink Nasty at Continental Club. Big crowd, both bands sounded great. I'm very pleased with my new Canon G10 camera, both in terms of photo and video. I got a few tips over the holiday about improving low light, stage-lit photography. The manual controls really help. And, video looks good, although it's not HD. The camera also allows to adjust the audio gain, so I can get decent sound at high decibels. The upcoming week has The Steps and Nelo at Antone's on Tuesday, and Sheboygan at Trophy's and Craig Marshall at Scoot Inn on Wed.
Perhaps you have stumbled upon this ole blog. New content can be found at the new site onthatnote.com. Please visit to find out more about the shows I see in and around Austin,
