Monthly Archives: August 2009

by admin | August 31, 2009

Buy advance tickets for Todd Wolfson benefit

Advance tickets for the Putting Todd Back Together benefit on Wed. Sept. 9, at Antone’s, can be purchased online. The schedule has also been announced: Leslie Forbes opens with “Amazing Grace.” Jon Dee Graham & Jesse Sublett 7 PM Skyrocket 7:45pm The Trishas 8:30pm Paula Nelson 9:15pm Carolyn Wonderland 10:00pm Ian McLagan 10:45pm Alejandro Escovedo 11:30 Triple Cobra 12:15am Charlie & Will Sexton w Ruby James 1am There will be a live auction during set changes. Naturally, I suggest you get there early to see the set with Jon Dee and me, back up by the fabulous Kory I. Cook on drums.
See my previous post on this show for more details.

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Filed under JESSE'S GIGS, Your basic culture thing

Tagged as grave digger blues, Jesse Sublett, jon dee graham, the skunks, todd wolfson

by admin | August 29, 2009

ART BLOG: Day One

It was my old pal and mentor, Ed Ward, who suggested I start an art blog. I always take Ed’s advice seriously because although he hated my band, The Skunks, when he first arrived in Austin as the new music critic for the Austin American Statesman, he also never hesitated (as far as I know) to pay me a compliment when he did like something of mine. That included my fledgling efforts at becoming the rock n’ roll Raymond Chandler, way back in 1983, when we were young & full of beans, instant messaging meant a telegram, tires were square and a rock band was guitar, bass & drums. I think there were still some dinosaurs roaming around hereabouts, too. Oh yeah, and everyone knew that the “M” in MTV stood for “music,” because they had the revolutionary idea of playing MUSIC VIDEOS on TV! Now they’ve become just another lame spigot for shilling crap to buy and reality shows.
The only topic of my first art blog is this: I am starting one. Here are my first entries. And one other thing, if you’d like to buy any, go to the catalogue, pick something out and contact me at jesse(at)jessesublett(dot)com and be sure to put “art inquiry” in the subject line. This phase of drawing began with my little black books, where I usually scribble my first ideas for songs and writing projects. I ended up taking over a set of colored art pens I bought our son for Christmas when he was in his Pokemon phase. But he never used them much. After using them up, I switched over to Faber Castell, which has very rich color. I love Picasso, Joan Miro, Dali. I like women and watermelons, espresso and single malt scotch whiskey and cats. Jazz, playing upright bass, Mose Allison, Julie London, Billie Holiday, Howlin’ Wolf and of course, Tom Waits. Maybe that comes through. Oh yeah, French crime films and almost anything Italian. And who doesn’t like Tex Mex?

Girl Next Door With Watermelon

I Love Her Watermelon & She's So Sweet

My Man Ain't No Good, After We Make Love He Sleeps All Day

#1 of 3: The Courting, beginning with the tradition gift of a giant carp

#2 of 2: The Argument

3 of 3: Reconciliation

MUSIC: BOHEMIAN BEAT NIGHT AT RUTA MAYA

On Thursday, Sept. 17, we are trying out a new residency gig at Ruta Maya International Headquarters on South Congress. It’s called Bohemian Beat Night and it’s a mixture of words and music both spoken and sung, backed by musicians with a fire in the belly for both. Our inaugural night will star me, Jesse Sublett, Ricardo Acevedo, Bruce Salmon and Harold McMillan and the Word Jazz Lo Stars. Expect the unexpected. The poster, by Ricardo Acevedo, will set the tone, I trust.

by Ricardo Acevdo

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Filed under JESSE'S GIGS, MY ART BLOG

Tagged as allen ginsberg, beat, beat generation, bebop, BLUES, MURDER BALLADS & OTHER COOL RACKET, jack kerouac, jazz, poetry, pulp fiction, spoken word

by admin | August 27, 2009

Todd Wolfson, Public Eye

Normally, you hear the words “bike wreck” and you expect some road rash, occasionally a bit of amnesia from a head wound, but Austin’s mean streets (perpetually under construction, it seems) were the site this summer of a bike spill that nearly ended the career of one of the most dependable and vividly artistic chroniclers of the city’s world-renowned music and arts scene. A leisurely cruise on July 11 turned into a Frankenstein movie for our beloved photographer, Todd V. Wolfson, when his front wheel hit a small black hole in the pavement universe and he was catapulted over the handlebars. His forehead took some of the impact but the worst of it was his elbow, so elaborately smashed that the surgeon declared it to be absolutely one of the worst cases he had ever encountered. The elbow joint was split in half and there were two other compound fractures. We all know how hard-headed Toddy is, so the eleven stitches required should come as something of a shock as well. How many needles were broken during the suturing we were not told.

The Skunks by Todd Wolfson, overjoyed when they heard they had been voted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame after 30 years.

Todd being ministered to by caring public, from left, clockwise, Mickey Mann, Maria Corbalan, Samera Owhadian,Lois Richwine

Toddy suffered internal injuries, too, but let’s get to the point, since they turned out to not be life threatening. His arm was put back together with the help of 16 (that’s right, sixteen) metal pins, and the whole right limb encased in a strange, sci-fi type brace with an adjustable elbow hinge on it, which makes him look like the offspring of a soap opera star and RoboCop. Or Son of Frankenstein, maybe.

Did we mention the staggering medical bills? Enough to gag a maggot, to scare a buzzard off a gut wagon. Then there’s the painful road of rehabilitation and therapy so that he may regain some percentage of the use of his right elbow again.

Yes, even a hack photographer needs two arms to do his magic, and Toddy is no hack. He needs help.

For the past 30 years, Todd V. Wolfson has been one of the keenest eyes of the Austin music scene. The list of Austin artists he has worked with runs the alphabetical gamut from A for Alejandro to Z (Although I can’t think of any Z-bands at the moment). We need him back in action and we need your help.

Therefore, a big party to raise money. Yes, I’m on the bill, playing with my colleague of the past 31 years, Jon Dee Graham. We’ll be doing our murder ballad set. But there are many other great artists. The list of confirmed artists is at the end of this post.

Included here are the photos Todd did for the jacket of my last book (Never the Same Again: A Rock N’ Roll Gothic) and the photo for the induction of The Skunks 2008 to the Austin Music Hall of Fame, also one of a recent visit to bring him some of Lois’ home cooking. I know it helped put me back together many times over the years we’ve been together. When Todd sends me pix of his robo-arm, I will post those here, too. If you are a friend of his on FaceBook, you can find them yourself.

The show will be on Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at Antone’s nightclub in Austin. Go to Putting Todd Back Together to buy tickets online and find more info or even donate money online.

CONFIRMED BAND LIST/NOT IN PERFORMANCE ORDER:

Jon Dee Graham & Jesse Sublett
The Trishas
Skyrocket!
Paula Nelson
Ian McLagan & The Bump Band
Alejandro Escovedo
Carolyn Wonderland
Triple Cobra
Will Sexton & Ruby James
Special Guests

Contact JoRae for more info.

The portrait photo for my last book, Never The Same Again: A Rock n' Roll Gothic.

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Filed under JESSE'S GIGS, Your basic culture thing

Tagged as austin music hall, BLUES, MURDER BALLADS & OTHER COOL RACKET, carolyn wonderland, frankenstein, frankenstein monster, hike and bike trail, ian mclagan, jon dee graham, photographer, photography, punk, robocop, texas parks and wildlife department, todd wolfson

by admin | August 21, 2009

8.19.09: Rock ‘N Roll, Rock Critics, Diddly Bo

Lady Bo, Queen of Rock Guitar

Yes, it’s true that my first novel was titled Rock Critic Murders, but I don’t and never have hated rock critics. Oddly enough, even when it seemed that most of the music press in Austin was expressing their disapproval of my band in the late seventies/early eighties (which would be The Skunks), I didn’t hate any of them. In fact, that was the time I began hanging out with them more often, one reason being that two of the best and brightest in Austin at the time, Ed Ward and Louis Black, were fans of my crime writing, which was then in its early, formative period. Ed Ward is now in France, writing about music, food, art and whatever else strikes his huge imagination. Louis is still at the Austin Chronicle, where he’s the editor but he also pursues other interests, including of course, film and SXSW.
My friend Mike Hoinski recently blogged about the upcoming film, It Might Get Loud, which gets up close to three of the world’s leading guitar heroes, Jack Black of White Stripes (also Raconteurs and The Dead Weather), Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin (as if you didn’t know) and The Edge of U2 (better known as the guy with the hat and all the echo on his guitar standing next to Bono). I’m looking forward to seeing that. One scene in the trailer I caught shows Jack throwing together a primitive guitar, of the type that used to be called the “diddly-bo“, which dates back to Africa and, as you may have guessed, was one of the chief inspirations for the stage name of one Ellas McDaniel, better known as Bo Diddley (and I bet you thought it was about screwing; well, it’s that, too, but…). When you watch this clip, check out the hot guitarist Lady Bo, tuff and sexy and way ahead of her time. Watching this statuesque babe on this clip makes me really wish I’d been there, up front, when this band was at its peak. Mercy! And while sadly, Bo Diddley has passed on, Lady Bo is still alive, kicking and rocking. For a little more info on the diddly bo and other homemade instruments, check this out.
Rock critics never die these days, their blog just stops getting new posts. There were times when the critics hated Zeppelin, too, but the band’s appeal seems to have outlived all of that. The funny thing these days is that no band, no matter how minor or fluffy or silly, seems to ever go away these days. Have you checked myspace.com lately (as if anyone ever does) to see what Flock of Seagulls is up to lately? Go ahead, I dare you, you people who are strong of stomach. Last night, we watched Pat Benatar going through the motions, but only because they happened to be sandwiched between the Donnas and Blondie. Blondie was transcendant. Unfortunately, we missed the Donnas. Oh yeah, The Skunks are still around, too.

BLONDIE: Flashbacks to Raul’s 1978

My wife, Lois Richwine, and Debbie Harry, backstage at the Austin Opera House in 1978. Debbie was sweet & gracious, the guys were very cool.

Blondie put on a superb show at the Austin Music Hall last night. Original members Deborah Harry, Clem Burke and Chris Stein were augmented with new guys on bass, keyboards and lead guitar. Nigel Harrison hasn’t been with them for years; they parted ways with Frankie Infante more recently and keyboardist Jimmy Destri appears on their website but doesn’t tour with the band. They played all the hits and songs like Atomic which were touchstones for people of a certain generation back in the late 70s and early 80s. Deborah Harry looked like a million bucks and her voice was sublime. Clem is still the hardest working drummer in the business and Chris Stein is still the melodic spine of the group’s instrumental sound.
I watched from backstage with my wife, Lois, who actually caught the band on their first European tour, with Talking Heads, in London in ’77 (and also at CBGB’s in 1975, when they were called The Stilettos), and Kathy Valentine, who was Lois’ roommate in 1977-78 when things started getting exciting here. I had begun playing bass with a new band, the Violators, which included Kathy, Carla Olson and Marilyn Dean. By the time of the band’s debut at Raul’s in February 1978, the Sex Pistols had just played San Antonio and I had started a new band with Eddie Munoz and Bill Blackmon called the Skunks. 1978 got off to a rocking start as we started tearing it up at Raul’s and every other club who would take a chance on booking us. Sometimes things got violent, like when the Violators opened for Nitzinger, a hard rock band, at El Conquistador in New Braunfels, and we had to dodge beer bottles for our whole set. Other times were exhilarating for other reasons, like when Elvis Costello jammed with the Skunks at Raul’s, with Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds in the audience. Nick did a double take when he walked in while we were playing his “Heart of the City.”
That same year Blondie came to town to play the Armadillo. I met Deborah Harry and Chris Stein at the rock club Mother Earth where I happened to have a pet skunk with me, which they admired greatly. They were sweet and I gave them a flyer for our gig that night. The band came and jammed with us. We also hung out and drank with them as they regaled us with gossip and inside details of the NYC punk scene.
Others basking in the glow of this veteran of coolness were Dominique Davalos, who plays bass and sings in the Bluebonnets, Kathy’s current band (aside from the Go-Go’s), and Danny Harvey, the suave axe-man for Charlie Terrell & the Murdered Johns plus many other Austin ensembles.
Years have passed and things have changed but Deborah Harry and the gang are still super cool. I always enjoy talking to Clem Burke and admiring his flair for looking good and being more or less a man’s man.
Nostalgia? I don’t know. It was a good time 30 years ago and a great time last night, too.

The Violators 1977

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Filed under BLUES, MURDER BALLADS & OTHER COOL RACKET, MY FAMOUS BAND, THE SKUNKS

Tagged as austin music hall, blondie, BLUES, MURDER BALLADS & OTHER COOL RACKET, clem burke, deborah harry, new wave, punk, raul's

by admin | August 20, 2009

Why do we love crooks so much?

Darwyn Cooke's graphic adaptation of the first Richard Stark novel, The Hunter.

Actually, I don’t know the answer to that question. Maybe it’s because in a crime novel or movie, the criminal gets to do the things we only fantasize about doing. They seem to know our secret heart. When the killer and the white hat hero meet up for a bit of verbal sparring, the hero tells the criminal that he’s a dead-ender, he’s bound to get caught because he’s an enemy of society, he’s ripping off all the honest folks who get up every morning and take a lunchbox to work and they labor all day for peanuts; then when they get hurt on the job and the boss fires them and their insurance won’t cover their medical bills, that person says, Well, I’ll just have to buckle down and put up with it, instead of going out and robbing a liquor store or going postal down at the factory. The killer replies to the white hat hero: That guy is a sucker. He’s a sucker for getting up early in the morning, for starters, and the rest of his day is a waste and a lie. He’s trying to live up to all these fictional standards and bogus rules.
The killer has a point, doesn’t he? But thank goodness we don’t all think that way. Reading about these picaresque characters and vicariously enjoying their exploits, even rooting for them, is a kind of safety valve for society. The Greeks knew that.
All of which is a prelude to my simple critique of Darwyn Cooke’s new graphic novel adaptation of The Hunter, by Richard Stark (actually the pen name of the late Donald Westlake). Check out Darwyn’s blog.
Donald Westlake invented Parker, the super thief, back in the early sixties, and wrote about him off and on (using the pen name Richard Stark)until his death last year. From the very first book on, Parker, as well as the inimical style Westlake used in the series, was the inspiration for scores of writers and filmmakers and, who knows, maybe a criminal or two. There are numerous web sites devoted to the Stark novels, but my favorite is probably The Violent World of Parker, whose administrator had the good taste to include a link to the interview I did with Westlake a few years ago for the Austin Chronicle. The first Stark novel, The Hunter, was adapted for the film Point Blank. Despite the late year for film noir and the fact that it’s in color, Point Blank is one of the greatest noir films, and one of the best thrillers ever made, too. It’s directed by John Boorman and the stellar cast includes Lee Marvin as Parker. Subsequent editions of The Hunter were titled Point Blank. For the graphic adaptation of the book, however, Darwyn Cooke goes back to the original title and does a tremendous job of recreating the amphetamine rush of the noir hero out for revenge. His wife betrayed him and so did his partner; now Parker wants his money and he goes after the top guys in the Mob to get it. There’s a lot of collateral damage, but you don’t feel any sympathy for the people who get in Parker’s way. The artwork is stunning and the narrative is lean and mean. It’s violent poetry, as primal as the jungle. Buy it now. Oh, but wait, I just learned that the first printing has sold out! Well, like the successful thief, you may have to be crafty and patient to get one.

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Filed under HOW TO WRITE, NOIR & TRUE CRIME

Tagged as crime lit, crime novels, darwyn cooke, donald westlake, fiction, film noir, graphic novels, john boorman, lee marvin, pulp fiction, richard stark

by admin | August 8, 2009

This is your brain on the sun

Sally Norvell came over for drinks last night. A singer, filmmaker and actress, Sally is originally from Texas but has been living in New York and California since the 1980s. By 8:30 PM when she arrived, the temperature had dropped to a mere 95 degrees or so, so I greeted her with a kiss on the cheek and, “Welcome to hell.” She said, “You know, I’m not acclimated to this heat.” I said, “Acclimated? there’s no such thing as getting acclimated to 100+ degrees.”
That’s my opinion, anyway. Hey, I grew up here. I’ve lived through 40 or so blast furnace summers in Central Texas (No, I’m not saying I’m only 40; but I lived in LA for a few years and I was on tour for some of the other summers). What kind of person could ever get used to it and say, Hey, it’s no big deal when dashboards melt, when pavement turns into black chili, when even the squirrels are lying on the sidewalk, spread eagle, panting?
My theory is this: Texas heat causes amnesia. Otherwise, this area would be deserted forever. Not even the Comanches and Tonkawa would’ve stuck around. Those natives weren’t stupid. They weren’t here for SXSW or the cheap beer and easy access to Mexican pot, like the hippies who followed. I can see them now, hanging out in August, saying to each other, Hey, if it’s this bad next June, we’re outta here. I got a friend in LA who has access to John Ford and Howard Hawks. We could be in the movies, bro.

On the other hand, maybe they discovered Barton Springs and the laid back Austin lifestyle and just got stuck here. Lazy. Tending to the poetic and artistic. The chief needed a jumpstart on his pony and sent someone for jumper cables and they never came back. Custer stuck around here after the Civil War, when the federal army came to keep an eye on the Confederate reprobates, forerunners of Rick the Moron Perry’s proto-secessionist teabag head pals. Custer liked going down to Bouldin Creek to pick watercress for tea time sandwiches and hanging out with the kids from the deaf school to practice his sign language. I wonder if some of them played some linguistic tricks on him? Maybe that’s one reason he screwed up at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Maybe the heat fried his brain, implanting suicidal thoughts.

Who knows? I’m just guessing, but I couldn’t be far off.

Monthly Archives: August 2009

Buy advance tickets for Todd Wolfson benefit

ART BLOG: Day One

MUSIC: BOHEMIAN BEAT NIGHT AT RUTA MAYA

Todd Wolfson, Public Eye

8.19.09: Rock ‘N Roll, Rock Critics, Diddly Bo

BLONDIE: Flashbacks to Raul’s 1978

Why do we love crooks so much?

This is your brain on the sun

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Monthly Archives: August 2009

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