Hip Hop at SXSW: From Kool Keith to Kanye South by Southwest has become a Hip Hop Mecca in recent years, with seemingly everyone from the big names to the rising artists coming to Austin every year for the pub and the party. But that wasn’t always the case. “We’d hear the same thing every […]
They say you shouldn’t meet your idols because they just can’t live up to your expectations. But Leslie Uppinghouse, whose 20-year run handling production at SXSW ended in March 2016, became an even bigger fan of Patti Smith after working with the high priestess of punk at SXSW 2000. This was back when the big […]
Money, independence, big noise and dirt: that’s Texas, a land of opportunity within the land of opportunity. It’s where the South ends and the West begins and yet Texas remains independent of those regions.
If I could have only one LP during the current pandemic it would be this one.
It’s somewhere between the time they get their electricity turned on and when they get their Texas driver’s license that newcomers to Austin are exposed to that big Austin tradition: hearing about all the great clubs in town that they’ll never get to go to. It is not unusual, in fact, for our nouveau citizens […]
Before I devoted myself to history, I was prone to hysteria, as a rock critic in love with the notion that opinion can’t be proven incorrect. There was no right or wrong, only interesting or boring.
(From the Austin Chronicle Oct. 2012) by Michael Corcoran He’s gone from “the gospel tent” to the main stage, and it only took a decade. As an 18-year-old recent graduate of Austin High, blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr. played the very first Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2002. Sunday, he’ll perform on a […]
“Ghost notes” is a musical term for sounds barely audible, a wisp lingering around the beat, yet somehow driving the groove. The Texas musicians profiled here, ranging from 1920s gospel performers to the first psychedelic band, are generally not well known, but the impact of their early contributions on popular music is unmistakable. This beautiful Tim Kerr-illustrated collection provides more background on the Texas from which these artists sprang, fully formed.
The best of “Don’t You Start Me Talking”
Remastered CD of 1920’s gospel curiosity from East Texas, with 77 page booklet by Michael Corcoran. (The sole of Washington Phillips is not included.) Grammy-nominated. “Corcoran has few rivals for following a story to its logical conclusion, then refining it into a seamless narrative. Even the means of reporting become part of the stories.” Michael […]
