Monthly Archives: June 2010

by | June 30, 2010

NOIR AT THE BAR: SICK CITY, COOL GROOVES

NOIR AT THE BAR. Continental Club Gallery Tuesday, July 27, 7 to 9 PM. No Cover.

The coolest upstairs bar in the world welcomes three specialists of the noir lit genre: Tony O’Neill (NYC by way of England), Jesse Sublett (Austin) and Harry Hunsicker (Dallas). Crime stories mixed with live music and cocktails. What’s not to like?

O’Neill will read from his new novel, Sick City, which Publishers Weekly likened to “a Robert Altman film scripted by Charles Bukowski & William S. Burroughs.” O’Neill, former musician, heroin addict, & veteran of Dandy Warhols, Marc Almond & others, is brought to you by BookPeople & his friend, Jesse Sublett, who will provide the music for the evening, which is sponsored by BookPeople.

Jesse Sublett, novelist and musician (most recently, “Never the Same Again: A Rock N Roll Gothic”) will read new work and perform some of his noir ballads.

Harry Hunsicker is the author of Crosshairs and The Next Time You Die, which feature a Gulf War veteran protagonist with the suitably noirish name of Lee Oswald. Harry will be reading new work also.

Signed books by the authors will be available. No cover. Come take a walk down the mean streets at the Continental Club Gallery Tuesday, July 27, 7 to 9 PM.

LATER THIS WEEK, I will start posting more noir stuff, starting with my story on Jim Thompson for Texas Monthly on Thompson’s Fort Worth years. A new film of Thompson’s landmark novel, The Killer Inside Me (Talk about sick city!) is being released any second now. Supposed to be a fine adaptation. Stars include Scarlet Johansson, Kate Hudson and Carey Affleck. Don’t let the cute names in front fool you; it’s gonna be DARK, as in noir.

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by | June 20, 2010

HOWLIN WOLF TRIBUTE VIDEO CLIP

Lee Shupp shared this clip of him sitting in with us at my Howlin Wolf 100th Birthday Party, June 10, 2010 at the Continental Club. Lee was a busy bass player in the early 1980s here in Austin at Raul’s & Duke’s, playing with the Next & other bands. Thanks for sharing, Lee. That’s me on upright bass, Jon Dee Graham on the Stratocaster, hot shot Sam Kanoff on the left handed Gibson SG, Michael Ramos on piano, Terri Lord on Drums and Walter Daniels on harp.

See photos by Cindy Light of that night with many other special guests here. Thank you, Cindy.

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by | June 19, 2010

Angst of the Britney Petroleum Disaster

LEAVE BRITNEY/BP ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember the great Britney apologist? ?

Who among us could forget? It was an instant YouTube classic.

Leave it to a Texas politician to top that moment in pop culture history. I dare you to compare the drama, the angst, the pure pop emo of the two hysterical bimbos.

Here’s Joe Barton of Texas as he appeared at the congressional hearing with poor little Tony Hayward. Watch & weep along with Joe.

I mean, the parallels between the two are uncanny. Britney was on dope, driving her kid around with no child restraints, shaving her head, getting fat… saying, WHAT THE HELL, I’M A F****ING POP STAR!
BP said to hell with safety and blow out preventers, cuddled with Uncle Dick Cheney & said, What the hell, what could go wrong? EVERYBODY NEEDS US!
Only a Texas political hack who has taken more than $1,000,000 from the oil industry (oh, wait, is that redundant? I mean, aside from Lloyd Doggett, of course), would have the courage to stand up and shout to the world: “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry… I don’t want to live in a country where an oil company that obliterates the environment to have to pay for its crimes…. LEAVE BP ALONE!!”

Oh and poor little Joe, who is from Waco, born in 1949, looks about 80 years old, doesn’t he? His complexion bears an uncanny resemblance to Spam, don’t you think?

I have written before about Joe Barton and his apparently microscopic IQ, but it’s hard to beat this site, Joebartonwouldliketoapologize.com. Keep refreshing the page. I was amused for at least a half hour.

Here’s another one from Salon titled “Shill, baby, shill.”

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by | June 16, 2010

Art blog #26/ MATA HARI #4

Dark Muse Bird #2

A few new photo images of Mata Hari today, all by Wallery, I think. You will find a blurb of info on Mata Hari, plus some additional images, on this page about propaganda cardsin the Great War.

Actually, more to the point today, I’ve been working with some new pens on my abstract women and also working on birds. For a person who derives a lot of inspiration & whatever from birds, I am terrible at drawing them, but I hope to get better. The images of oiled pelicans and other waterfowl from the Gulf make me ill and I tend to turn the TV off when they start running the small amount of footage that those capitalist dogs BP somehow allowed to slip through to the media. But I digress. Anyhow, birds are on my mind and some of these are crude first attempts to draw pelicans, the others are some kind of dark spirit thing and I won’t digress further on what they mean.

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by | June 12, 2010

MATA HARI #4

FYI, the next Austin appearance of Jon Dee Graham & Jesse Sublett’s Murder Ballad Show is Fri. July 23, at Evangeline Cafe.

Also: Noir At the Bar, featuring author/musicians Tony O’Neill (Sick City, Down & Out on Murder Mile) and Jesse Sublett (Rock Critic Murders, Never the Same Again: A Rock N Roll Gothic) in a unique blend of music and noir at the Continental Club Gallery, Tues July 27. Details here.

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by | June 10, 2010

HOWLIN WOLF 100 YEAR SHOW TONIGHT

REPOST: Thursday, June 10, 2010, Howlin Wolf would be 100 years old.

Help us celebrate & howl at the Continental Club in Austin that night. We’ll be playing all-Wolf, all night long. We have four dynamite ensembles serving as the house band and many great special guests. Here’s the lineup, with a complete list of the performers below.

The one & only Izzy Cox.

just added: Anne McCue

10:15 PM CHURCHWOOD (Joe Doerr, Bill Anderson, BillySteve Korpi, Julien Peterson) + special guests

10:40 Greg Izor & the BOX KICKERS + special guests

11:05 Jon Dee Graham & Jesse Sublett’s MURDER BALLAD SHOW + special guests

11:45 EVE & EXILES + special guests

12:30 BIGFOOT CHESTER + special guests

Jesse Sublett, my terrible self, is happy to present this show featuring these fine musicians:

Anne McCue

Bevis Griffin
Brad Fordham
Bill Anderson
Billy Steve Korpi
Davy Jones
Dominique Davalos
Eve Monsees
Gary Clark, Jr.
Greg Izor & The Box Kickers
Joe Doerr (Churchwood)
Jon Dee Graham
Julian Peterson
Lee Shupp
Michael Ramos
Mike Buck
Sam Kanoff
Sonny James
Terri Lord
Tom Lewis
Walter Daniels (BigFoot Chester)

A good starting place for info on Howlin Wolf can be found here.

See other updates & background on the show here.

For more info on these great ensembles, please check their links: Eve & the Exiles, Churchwood and the Box Kickers. You can read about the Murder Ballad Show on this site on my GIGS page, mostly. I am particularly excited about reviving BigFoot Chester at these tributes for several reasons. I mean, even their name is a tribute to the Mighty Wolf (who was born Chester Arthur Burnett and he wore size 18 shoes), and they were just a great band. See a discography here and a video here. For this show, that band will consist of Walter Daniels (vocal, sax, harp), Davy Jones (guitar), Bill Anderson (guitar), Tom Lewis (drums), Brad Fordham (bass), and myself on six string bass.

Have I mentioned that the fabulous Izzy Cox will be doing a duet with me on “Back Door Man” and also giving you a lethal “Spoonful” of blues? Well, it bears repeating. She’ll be singing with the Murder Ballad Show ensemble. … More details next time!

Howlin Wolf 99th Birthday Tribute Show June 10, 2010, hosted by Jesse Sublett, poster by Ricardo Acevedo

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by | June 9, 2010

YOUR DAILY MATA HARI #2

a k a Mata Hari.

Posted June 8, 2010.

You may have arrived here via the Your Daily Mata Hari page. If so you know that these posts are devoted to images of the Dutch dancer and courtesan named Margaretha Geertruida “Grietje” Zelle MacLeod, better known by her artistic name, Mata Hari. Born August 7 1876, she grew up in a wealthy home (her father owned a hat store and made smart investments) but due to a series of unfortunate events, her family fell apart. More unfortunate events occurred. With few prospects in sight, she answered an ad for a wife and at 18 she wed Dutch Colonial Army officer Rudolf John MacLeod, a loser, a violent, alcoholic jerk. They lived in Java for a time and had two children. Studying native culture was her way of escaping the horrors of her marriage. She concentrated in exotic dancing in particular and came up with the artistic name Mata Hari, Indonesian for “Eye of the dawn.” Back in the Netherlands in 1902, she was able to divorce MacLeod. One child had died mysteriously in Java, the other died in 1906, possibly from syphilis contracted from MacLeod.

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by | June 4, 2010

Art Blog #25 & Wolf Gig update 6.3.10

HOWLIN WOLF BIRTHDAY SHOW UPDATE: The gig is Thursday June 10. That’s the day, 100 years ago, Howlin Wolf was born.

Everything is shaping up beautifully for the show. We’ve got lots of great guests and 4 super solid Austintatious ensembles assembled to pay tribute to the works of this giant of American music, Chester Arthur Burnett, a k a HOWLIN WOLF. Below I have added some information to the show schedule so you can find when your favorite musicians will be appearing. By the way, John Burnett, the NPR reporter, will be playing with us and also reporting from the gig on the legacy of the Howlin Wolf! More info to follow.

10:15 PM CHURCHWOOD (Joe Doerr, Bill Anderson, BillySteve Korpi, Julien Peterson)+ John Burnett

10:40 Greg Izor & the BOX KICKERS + Michael Ramos

11:05 Jon Dee Graham & Jesse Sublett’s MURDER BALLAD SHOW w/ Terri Lord + Izzy Cox, Sam Kanoff, Michael Ramos, Lee Shupp

11:45 EVE & the EXILES Mike Buck, Eve Monsees, w/Jesse Sublett, Michael Ramos, David Murray, Gary C. Clark, Bevis Griffin, Sonny James, Dominique Davalos, Greg Izor

12:30 BIGFOOT CHESTER (Bill Anderson, Walter Daniels, Davy Jones, Jesse Sublett, Brad Fordham, Tom Lewis) + Claude McCann & Michael Ramos

For more information about Howlin Wolf, go to howlinwolf.com. This site is maintained by the authors of the definitive Howlin Wolf biography, “Moanin At Midnight.”

The Blues Search Engine has some cool stuff, too.

You can see some fantastic footage of the Wolf playing, along with several other incredible musicians, including Son House & Skip James, in a film called “Devil Got My Woman.” It was shot in a fake “gin joint” set up during the 1966 Newport Jazz Festival. Clips from the film are all over youtube, but nothing beats watching the whole thing start to finish.

Do you need a big ass message to remind you to come to the show? Go here for your big ass reminder.

Howlin Wolf 100th Birthday Tribute Show June 10, 2010, hosted by Jesse Sublett, poster by Ricardo Acevedo

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