Middle

Day 9 - 3/16/96 - Austin, TX.
(Why in the hell did we do this?)

[Editor's Note: Due to some technical difficulties Little Green have been experiencing with their digital camera, no pictures are available for today's update from the front. However, we at Urban Desires have every confidence that the above pictured woman is a reasonable stand-in for the groupie that would no doubt have been featured here if the rock n roll troopers were having better luck with the camera.]

Austin, What a trip. We got there and checked in. No passes for the rest of the band. Everyone was starting to turn against me including the technology. I told everyone they had to get their own passes which went over well. I had a lot to do so I tried to be upbeat. We had been in the van so long that just an actual bed seemed to assuage the tired and huddled masses. Paul was gone to the Omni and Sam also left with friends. The Camera stopped working and uploading was hard to do because we couldn't get a local number to upload to. It was all about the music and I'll talk to you about that anon.

Austin rocks. I saw great bands and got burned by the festival. Jo Rae DiMenno went out of her way to get me passes but no luck. I tried every angle but it was no go. I did get a laminate which got me into all shows and events.
The first night I went to see Hammel On Trial. Just an acoustic and a slide and this guy rocked harder than most five piece rock bands. Definitely check him out. He has been one of Paul's influences since he was a kid in Syracuse. Other bands I checked out were Boys against Girls. Rasputina. The wonderful Wisdom Tooth, with Dave Liles. Chris Whitley was great and a reunion concert by Jason and the Scorchers rocked heavily. We went to see Joe Henry with Page Hamilton from Helmet on guitar. They were excellent and I really appreciated Page's playing in a way I never had before. Page is a friend of Max's and we all went to a bar after to do the rock star hang.
There are so many clubs in Austin and all of them were filled to capacity. Music poured from every crack as you walked down sixth street and you could see any kind of music you wanted.
The conference itself was funny. There were some interesting panels, like Why Does Rock Criticism Suck? After sitting in on this panel I decided the reason is because most rock critics are assholes. The coolest thing I got to do at the conference was talk one on one with Vic Chestnut as part of the conference's Mentor Program. I asked him whether he had ever had a show where people hated him. He told me he did a show not to long ago for a group of older people and after he finished his first song all he heard was the sound of wheezing and sucking air. It's good to know everyone has a bad night. I didn't get much chance to do anything around Austin that wasn't conference related, but it seems like a very livable town. We partied late every night and we were up early the next day. There was quite a bit of butt kissing and hyping going on and the conference was like a feeding frenzy of bands trying to get a leg up. The women were dressed to the teeth and every rock cliche was there to be seen.

started off right away thurs night - hooked up with my "special friend"
lynda b, my runnin mate and gracious host in austin, drank some
jack and hooked up with lance doss and band mate alan and out

first stop the very hot, like africa hot, electric lounge -
saw my rock n roll hero, ed hamell as hamell on trial.
so cool to see someone from home done good. please buy
his record "big as life" on mercury records.

next stop was dan baird & co. at very cool outdoor venue,
i believe it was waterloo brewery.
2 guitars, bass & drums - realloud - my reason for living

great omelette at magnolia cafe friday mornin' and
off to the high times magazine party at emos - thanx harry.
lynda, lance, alan & i start off with draft beer and a
rockin set by the red aunts - kinda kool.
lynda & i bust out to the spin magazine party at the ritz -
thanx malcom. saw a band called toe or tob who i thought
were just the coolest rock band ever. if anybody knows
who these guys are let me know, i'd love to get their record.
caught ed hamell once again at an outdoor stage on the way back
for a nap. sorry to all the folks i stiffed friday night. my
nap lasted til saturday morn.

saturday: drive through the hills, eat at ihop, hold court on the steps of the convention center (no badge for this rock-n-roll scumbag). lance, harry, lynda and i start happy hour at 2:30pm and by 2:30am we have seen:
john wesley harding at the state theater - great songs
wisdom tooth at ruta myer cafe - great drummer, led zepplin meets the flintstones
jason & the scorchers at the hot, like freakin' africa hot, electric lounge - more dumb loud rock, i'm in heaven
i'm tired and need to get back on the road so i can get some rest.
pp

I decided to take the wandering approach to the festival. It was cool to walk the streets, catch a few notes floating through the air, checking out the interesting sounds. Saturday afternoon I took a break from the crowds and got sun-kissed at Barton Springs (finally, a little warmth on this largely arctic adventure!)
Festival highlights: Lucinda Williams, local storyteller Jo Carol Pierce, and last but not least - the vegan oatmeal cookies at Ruta Maya Coffee House!

ran around and scoped out austin some more tonight though i was delirious from the ride - they moved our hotel rooms - should be fine - i don't plan to spend much time in the room ...
many groovy bands to see - the passes didn't happen for little green and so i'm trying to spend money on cover charges judiciously
wisdom tooth show got cut short but it was totally fun for me to hit all of the objects that we found here in town. saw chris whitley right after our show -- and a heavy band from missouri -- shiner
saw more people from nyc than i see regularly in nyc
great breakfast at various places around town - mostly las manitas on first ave. - many more hot peppers for breakfast
hope i'm not repeating myself too much but who can remember what they wrote yesterday?

love to all the groovy people we've met on these travels - pleez don't be offended if you aren't mentioned by name -
really tired still but fun times they are flyin' around

Left Baton Rouge and arrived in Austin at around 9:30, Thursday night. The South By Southwest people were tight with the passes. They gave Levine one laminate pass which gives the pass holder access to all conference events. The wristbands to get into the music venues were not forthcoming and so the Roger and Me section of the tour began.
Dave Levine seemed to feel pretty dissed and tensions were running high. But once we got settled at our hotel room things began to relax a bit. If your'e not familiar with this kind of event, the way it works is: they put on panel discussions on various industry topics, some useful, and others... well, is it entertainment? One, for instance, was a discussion entitled, "Were the Grateful Dead Really Great?". This is during the day. Then at night the clubs in town present the bands which were chosen by the conference officials - a process which left Little Green without a gig in Austin.
I stayed in on Thursday night while some of the others went out. Friday, kelleigh, Levine and I went back to the convention center to see if we could loosen the tight fists of the conference administrators. We were not succesfull. kelleigh checked out some conferences and Levine and I went to a coffee shop called Ruta Maya. At Ruta Maya a trio of cellists called Rasputina were doing a sound check and so I got a chance to hear a smattering of their material. They all seemed like accomplished cellists (good intonation, good tone) and the songs were evocative and dreamy. Levine compared them to Kate Bush and I thought they had qualities in common with Phillip Glass or Laurie Anderson. If your'e a fan of any of those people, I suggest you check Rasputina out.
I'm a big fan of Lucinda Williams so I went to see her at the Austin Music Hall. She's a cool and incredibly sexy frontperson. Her songs are beautifully constructed and the lyrics are the kind I can very much relate too - wise, celebratory and also somewhat melancholy.
I didn't have a map of town on me so when I went looking for Joe Henry's set at the Electric Lounge (from memory) I went in totally the wrong direction and walked down 6th Street, the main music club drag of the town much like Bleeker Street in Greenwich Village. The street was hopping. I got to see the last few bars of Joe Henry who has taken a different direction from his previous albums. His back-up band included guitarist-extraordinair and visionary, Page Hamilton of Helmet who was out of his element but clearly had found a way to bend to Joe Henry's vision without compromising his own. Went to see Wisdom Tooth the next night. Tooth is due to release an album soon on the Knitting Factory label. The show rocked, but the set was cut short by management which I found disappointing.

Been running around rock city so I've been out of the on-line loop for a couple of days. We've spent the last few days looking into a bloated rock aquarium. I actually didn't have much inclination to jump in, but I did get my fair share of party action. Austin is cigar city, and just about all my friends who live there are on the bandwagon. Coffee, ephedrine, and cigars can get you mightily whacked out. Beer of the week: Celis White, courtesy of James Denning. It's a Dutch style brew similar to a lambic. Yum.