At 11am on a Monday, at the corner of Guadalupe and Dean Keeton, it s quiet.
UT classes remain predominantly virtual, so a lot fewer students mill about. There s still enough, however, to stop and gawk when a white van emblazoned
Austin Music Awards Winner Wagon pulls up honking.
A bow-tied
Kevin Curtin then hops out with a wireless mic to deliver the award for Best Radio Personality to
Laurie Gallardo. I was like, Those people are [coming] to kill me! laughed the deejay afterward about the windshield tassels and spare tire strapped on top of Curtin s former Houston PD van.
Bandcamp
In October, Austin s brooding balladeer Bill Callahan teamed with equally enigmatic auteur Bonnie Prince Billy to release a surprise cover of Cat Stevens Blackness of the Night, with arrangements by Drag City labelmate Azita Youssefi. The singles have continued weekly since, each a new cover and collaboration, ranging from pop busters (Steely Dan s Deacon Blues with Bill MacKay; Billie Eilish s Wish You Were Gay with Sean O Hagan) to more obscure (Johnnie Frierson s Miracles filtered through Ty Segall; Lowell George s I ve Been the One with Meg Baird). Amid Lou Reed s Rooftop Garden and Hank Williams Jr. s OD d in Denver, the duo also rolls out a deep Jerry Jeff Walker fascination with takes on Little Bird, Letter Sung to Friends, I Love You, and Night Rider s Lament. The arrangements spiral eclectic and provocative, hung across the balancing act of Callahan s low, methodical intonations and Oldham s creaking high lonesome. –
Hotel Free TV, Thursday 28, 8pm
Clubs are closed, but dance magic transcends YouTube. Austin pop princess p1nkstar and performance artist Y2K team with cinematographer Hannah Varnell for a live music video experience celebrating the trans and queer artists who ground Texas nightlife. Lorelei K, Belladonna, and Quentin Arispe star, while Katherine Vaughn, Charlie AB, TC Superstar s LB Flett, and more make special appearances in a 16-clip feature shot in 24 hours. Although free to stream, a GoFundMe linked through Hotel Vegas livestream site hopes to raise $5,000 to cover the concert/art installation/community builder s custom-built sets and lights installations, and pay the LGBTQIA stars, producers, crew, dancers, choreographers, and stylists underrepresented in the industry even without a global pandemic. –
Bandcamp
Alongside Austin s Dicks and Big Boys, Houston s Really Red proved as integral to early-Eighties American punk
culture as Black Flag or Dead Kennedys. Lasting 1978-85, the aggregation of singer/frontman Ronnie U-Ron Bondage Bond, drummer Bob Weber, guitarist Kelly Younger, and bassist John Paul Williams rarely followed regulation punk templates. Old enough to recall Texas psychedelia on ramalama like Crowd Control, their trace elements of art-damaged funk and blues seeped into – from 1981 onward – the band s ballistic thrashing à la Bad Brains on tracks such as I Was
a Teenage Fuckup.
Meanwhile, Bond s lyrics engage race, sexuality, police brutality, and resistance to authoritarianism.
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