South By Southwest Report (PART 2- The Drunk Part)

["Chris Owen" <ChrisO@xxxxxxxx>]

-Cave Cat Sammy- Cool young rockabilly dudes sound more like Eddie Cochran than Eddie Cochran ever did!   They played in the dusty backyard of this empty storefront with a gazillion other impossibly wonderful country and rockabilly bands, all of which I didn't write down the names of or remember because it was 2 in the afternoon and I was tanked!  I think one guy's name was DB Harris or something like that...sounded just like early Dwight Yoakum...killer!

-Sadies, Flashing Lights- Both played in the backyard of the Yard Dog and were really cool.  The only thing I had heard of the Sadies was their album with Andre Williams, which wasn't that good.  But live they are really, really great.  Dark brooding weird country music.  Someone called Sally Timms sang with them on some songs and it was beautiful.  I'm immediately going to buy all their records.  Max from the Deadly Snakes says that the brothers in the Sadies are second generation country singers...their dad was in a great country band from Toronto way back when.  Flashing Lights were a GREAT Village Green- era Kinks type band.  I couldn't watch too much of their set however, because the Allen Oldies band were playing, and you can't miss that. 

-Allen Oldies Band- Last year at SXSW, my homie Toby and I were walking down the street and happened upon this insane red headed freckled guy fronting a TIGHT 5 piece band playing on the sidewalk in front of Rue's Antiques.  He is Allen Hill and he is right up there with Russel Quan and Beatle Bob (who was right up front rocking the whole time) in terms of pure devotion to rock n roll.  The Allen Oldies band play for about 4 or 5 hours in a row.  The guys in the band are all members of this bizarre Houston cover band scene...I guess there are about 8-10 guys who, among them, play all different instruments in all these different bands and know upwards of 1000 songs that they perform flawlessly around Houston nightclubs about 4 nights a week (The best of the best formed a band called "Beatle" that is supposed to sound so right on it's creepy).  These guys are NOT KIDDING AROUND about the oldies.  Allen Hill has got to be seen to really understand his deal, but I guess I'd describe it as Donny Most channeling Kevin Meaney doing great songs with canned jokes, props, and a lot of yammering about "THE OLDIES!" Todd from Telstar watched them for about 2 hours, leaving every once in a while but always coming back: "Nothing else can ever compare!" he said.  Maybe one day they'll get a crowd like the Woggles, but they seem perfectly happy playing to drunk hippies, ladies pushing babies in strollers...everyone who walked by.  Indeed, the wail of "Green Tambourine", "She's About A Mover", "96 Tears" and about 100 other songs performed that day kept people dancing for hours.  These guys don't give a shit about touring or making records or being cool.  They just play music, have fun and make people dance.  They make me want to get married so I can hire them to play my wedding.  Please see http://www.allenoldiesband.com/ 
Just got this "email update" from Allen (Little did I know when I signed up for the fan club that he'd be alerting me of shows going on in Houston...a bit far for me):
Calling all oldies fans, Calling ALL OLDIES Fans,
Attention OLDIES FANS:

THE ALLEN OLDIES BAND performs Friday, March 22, 2002
at the Continental Club (3700 Main) on a double bill
with the DROPKICK CHIHUAHUAS' front man, Starvin'
Marvin and his new band, The Sounds of The Swamp.  The
show also features our good friend from Local Charm,
RORY MIGGINS, as Master of Ceremonies.  THE ALLEN
OLDIES BAND starts at 9:30pm.  Cover is $8 to $10.

In honor of this exciting double bill, we are
expanding the ALLEN OLDIES BAND to feature dueling
Farfisas, the cocktail drum kit, more saxophone, more
guitars, more Mikey, electric sitar, and more to
maximize chaos.

Oldies Forever,
Allen

-Woggles, Holly Golightly, Greenhornes, Von Bondies, Quintron- All played the Easy Action showcase.  Woggles still make me dance.  Holly Golightly sang through one of Ted Leo's socks.  New Greenhornes dude was imperceptively different from old Greenhornes dude.  Von Bondies drummer still sings most oddly chosen cover tune in the world...that Rock N Roll Nurse song from the last Compulsive Gamblers album (No, not the Bo Diddley song, it's another song called Rock N Roll Nurse).  Quintron took like 3 hours to set up but it was worth it.  Dave Kaplan got irritably drunk and slappy and generally pathetic.  

-Yeah Yeah Yeahs- The good thing about music is that different people like different things.  I could tell this girl who was singing was having the time of her life up there.  Good for her.  Everyone loves her.  I thought it sounded like Siouxsie and the Banshees, though and I'm not into it.  They made the cover of every paper in town the next day.  I hope they become very famous, but I didn't like it.

Part 3 The "Out of Control Part" is next...
Chris

===> To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe bomp" to majordomo@xnet2.com <===