Sam’s Town Point in Austin launched SXSTP … get it??? … 3-4 years ago as an alternative to SXSW. And while that is certainly true, Sam’s is an alternative to pretty much everything, including reality. I’ve written about Sam’s before (both here and here) and trust me, the legends probably understate STP’s many charms.
Wally Grossman bills his establishment as”the friendliest little bar in Texas,” but that’s not entirely accurate. Really, it’s the friendliest little bar in a gateway portal between south Austin and a parallel universe featuring bounty hunters and space wizards. Don’t believe me? The picture below was taken at last year’s SXSTP.
Photo: John “Ducktaper” Smith
Thursday’s slate of bands introduces a geographical bipolarity that’s also become a SXSTP tradition. All of the bands playing on Thursday night are either from Austin or somewhere in the Deep South. Basically, it’s Southeast x Southwest x STP. This makes sense considering that the bill was put together by Alabama native, but current San Marcos resident, Joey Thompson of The Archibalds.
It’s worth noting that Joey put together this bill under the stern visage of Ramsay Midwood, taskmaster to the stars. If you’re wandering around Austin during SXSW and see a man who appears to be both homeless and a transvestite, it’s probably Leslie. However, if he’s wearing an eyepatch and carrying what appears to be a musket, that’s definitely Ramsay.
A brief description of each band follows, but first the unofficial Sam’s Town Point theme song as played by Ramsay Midwood (lead vocals/guitar), Joey Thompson (bass), and Randy Weeks (guitar/backup vocals).
I like my women just a little on the trashy side
When they wear their clothes too tight and their hair is dyed
Too much lipstick, too much rouge
Gets me excited, leaves me feeling confused
And I like my women just a little on the trashy side.
–Chris Wall, “Trashy Side”
SXSTP THURSDAY LINEUP
3:00 Tex Smith
Austin, TX
I’m not familiar with Tex’s music, but according to Facebook we have three groups in common: The Archibalds, Doug Sahm, and Roger Miller. That works for me.
4:00 Leatherbag – Senseless Irony
Austin, TX
Longtime friend of the Lounge, Randy Reynolds (aka Leatherbag), brings Chuck Prophet snarl and New York Dolls choruses to this track from 2010’s Hey Day album [buy]. Not to be selfish, but I’d like to request more of this sound, please.
Brother Machine: Seth Gibbs (upper L) and Joey Thompson (lower R)
5:00 Brother Machine – War Is Beautiful (From A Norwegian Meadow)
Austin, TX
Brother Machine is Seth Gibbs’ side project to The Archibalds (see below). In the ‘Balds he plays bass, but for BM he plays around a dozen instruments, so don’t be surprised if you get trombone riffs at STP. “War Is Beautiful” is almost like a skiffle tune and features lead Archibald, Joey Thompson, on harmony vocals. Check out Brother Machine’s badass album, No Home In This World (Bandcamp, $5+)
6:00 Bohannons – Crown Vic Blues
Chattanooga, TN
I don’t know what’s more impressive, the fact that the group seems to have written their own “Take Me To The Speedway” (Dexateens anthem) or that Steve Albini recorded their Days Of Echo EP [buy], the recent release that concludes with “Crown Vic.” I love this song, with its coiled tension, angry build, and stinging guitar. Here’s hoping the Brohannons use this as a sonic template in the future.
Read Nick Nichols’ TiAM feature on The Bohannons
Duquette Johnson (2nd from RT) & The Gum Creek Killers
7:00 Duquette Johnson & The Gum Creek Killers – Finish The Fight [Demo]
Birmingham, AL
Duquette is the architect of the GC Killers, but the star of this demo is Janet Simpson, who taps into that sultry Chrissie Hynde thing … or maybe Lucinda Williams, except Janet can actually sing. HAY-OOOO!!! Live ammo here, folks. When I saw Gum Creek at Wigginstock, I remember thinking they kinda had a Basement Tapes/New Morning vibe, albeit with a male/female dynamic.
8:00 Archibalds – Sorry For Your Loss
Austin-San Marcos, TX
Walking across the battlefield
Through the land that never healed
In my veins was that Old South pollution
The sons and daughters of the wrong revolution
They got suckered in by some sugary myth of a lost time
Now it’s bumper to bumper and they’re waving their flag over the baptized
This is how Joey described “Sorry For Your Loss” in an email a couple of years ago:
“‘Sorry For Your Loss’ is the title of a ‘sculpture’ piece, a Confederate battle flag Kleenex box cover, by my good friend Justin Crosby, known in the art world as Jerstin Crosby. We both have big Alabama/Southern chips on our shoulders. You know, we can critique it til’ the cows come home, but no dang outsiders better touch it. The song grew out of my love for this funny and poignant piece of art and personal mixed feelings about the South I was clumsily trying to express.”
Lee Bains III (center, white T-shirt, Gibson SG) & The Glory Fires
9:00 Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires – Righteous, Ragged Songs
Birmingham, AL
Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires are classically southern rock with a punk rock twist, which shouldn’t be surprising since Bains is the latest 3rd guitarist in The Dexateens. Big guitars, big drums, passionate vocals, a funky, swinging pocket (the secret key to most southern music worth a damn), and a pileup of riffs and swagger. Frankly, I’ll be shocked if Bains doesn’t win the STP crowd over. You don’t get to be named one of Birmingham’s most beautiful people and not know a thing or two about audience control.
10:00 Vulture Whale – Teedy
Birmingham, AL
At this point, some of you may be saying to yourself that you already saw Vulture Whale and Glossary on Tuesday and what about your badge or wristband? So, what about it? Did you come all the way to Austin just to eat one taco??? Think about it. Do I have to mention the alternate universe part again?
11:00 Glossary – Little Caney
Murfreesboro, TN
I’m not even remotely objective when I say this is some of the greatest songwriting I’ve ever heard. While it’s obviously a rock song, Joey Kneiser’s subject matter is far closer in spirit to country music, it being literally rooted in southern soil. As we saw earlier with The Archibalds, the wedding of identity and place is a distinctively southern characteristic.
Songwriters write about Los Angeles invariably to disparage it. However, southern songwriters writing about the south generally have more complicated emotions. Whatever the critique, there’s an abiding sense of loyalty to not just family, but geography as well. Make no mistake, “Little Caney” is as southern as sweet tea (“corn in our bread”), but I like that it doesn’t openly advertise that fact. It takes a little work for the images to sink in and that’s its genius.
The image of Caney crying in the graveyard while being comforted by his/her daddy is pantheonic. Dad is comforting Caney not by denying death, but by embracing it as part of life. “We all got to die someday.” If anything, death represents the continuity of familial tradition, a reunion without the “hurt that living brings.” So much soul, indeed. Wherever you are, pour out a little for your dead homiez.
Glossary, The Better Angels Of Our Nature, 2007
Hold my hand and walk the ground softly
We don’t want to wake the dead
Just want a little corn in our bread and settle down
Come on Little Caney you know the sun is sinking now
And we got to make it on out to where your branches lay
Marked by stones and covered by wildflowers
Is family you’ve never known
Rotten old clothes lying in boxes of bones
I wish you could’ve been there when they all had souls
So much soul
Don’t get lost in the tall, tall grass
That’s grown as high as you
I can see the graveyard peeking through the trees
And the scattered monuments of your kin
Reunited in the dirt
Only absent the hurt that living brings
Marked by stones and covered by wildflowers
Is family you’ve never known
Rotten old clothes lying in boxes of bones
I wish you could’ve been there when they all had souls
So much soul
Joey Kneiser (Glossary)
Looky here Little Caney, honey, don’t you cry
‘Cause you know we all going to die someday
And the hand of another you’ll be holding tight
When you walk out to the site where I lay
Marked by stones and covered by wildflowers
Is family you’ve never known
Rotten old clothes lying in boxes of bones
I wish you could’ve been there when they all had souls
So much soul
Where did it go?
Great writing, as always…you use the words that rest in my brains but never come from my mouth or fingers…wish you could have been there with us, Pants.