Paul Sessums loved the sound of loud electric guitars. When he’d stand on the Sixth Street sidewalk and rail about this and that, using a parking meter as his pulpit, everything was all right in his universe as long as the guitars were ringing through the doors of his Black Cat Lounge. He’d hire any […]
“Onstage, they were brothers, liberated from humdrum, hopeless lives, beating the odds with a baseball bat.”
9/11/2002 It had been touted as the first great work of art based on the Sept. 11 tragedy, but the Bruce Springsteen fans who filled the Mercury nightclub in July to get an early listen to The Rising would’ve been there if their Boss had just made a concept album about the London subway system […]
When U2 began its “Elevation” tour in March, the Irish Supergroup joked that it was reapplying for the job as the best band in the world. “Beautiful Day,” from the band’s most recent album, “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” had just swept the song and record of the year categories at the Gram- mys, […]
by Michael Corcoran AAS As much as I try to come off as a party animal, fueled by that saying about that which doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger, I’m really more a creature of habit. When I go out to see bands, I follow a certain circuit — Hole in the Wall, Continental, […]
October 2009 In April 1994, Kevin Connor was fired from KGSR-FM for unspecified reasons and was moping at home, taking occasional “keep your head up” calls from friends. “My identity was so wrapped up in my job that when that was taken away from me, I was completely distraught,” recalls Connor, who’s now head of […]
AAS 2010 Aaron Behrens and Thomas Turner , who make up the Austin dance rock duo Ghostland Observatory, are as different as a live wire and a solid state circuit, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. The gregarious, pigtail-wearing Behrens, 28, is a natural entertainer who’s been performing in public since he lip-synced and danced […]
By Michael Corcoran If you lived in Austin in the ‘80s, you know Debbie Pastor. Hot Amazon blonde on roller skates at Club Foot. Resident of the future stars flophouse on San Gabriel, where the Replacements, members of Faith No More and other acts crashed and R.E.M. came to party. The “House of Many Women” […]
April 16, 2009 by Michael Corcoran The two producers had been hunkered down in a Nashville studio all weekend, tweaking an album that mixes bluegrass virtuosity with airy country pop vocals. “Let’s call it a day,” producer Gary Paczosa said one Sunday evening. “We’ll pick it up tomorrow.” But producing partner Sarah Jarosz, whose debut […]
Jimmy Buffett’s new $370 million Margarita Resort opens next month in NYC’s Times Square, but the “Margaritaville” legacy began in Austin at a six-bedroom Northwest Hills duplex you could’ve bought for $290,000 twenty years ago. It was on the deck that Buffett started writing his signature song after having his first (followed in quick succession […]
