The Village Voice’s Houston Press had a takedown of the Capital City, which The Village Voice’s Dallas Observer also used as a cover story this past week. That always confuses the locals, especially when they’re angry. But it’s worth noting that, much like The Fort Worth Weekly, the extremely powerful Austin Chronicle (you know, the people that run this little event) is not part of The Village Voice network.
So it’s somewhat unsurprising that the article is very Houston-centric and even a little Dallas-centric, and I wish the corporation all the luck in the world in eventually opening their very own Austin paper someday. I have long thought that Austin’s meticulously edited Chronicle is in dire need of more “Top Ten Hot Breakfast Taco Waitresses in Local Bands With Cool Tattoos” articles. Unfortunately if you check out the Austin Chronicle’s music blog, you’ll only find many thoroughly well-written and gimmick-free pieces, the most recent of which focus on Chaos In Tejas, a fest that would probably go completely unnoticed by much of the local press if it happened in Dallas. After all, it was comprised of many of the bands they ignore the rest of the year.
Also included in the Lomax piece is a really interesting interview with Jeff Liles and mentions of The Kessler, which is a classy venue and I’m looking forward to FrontRow’s film series at the spot, which starts tonight.
But I find the overall argument a little strange, where I’m supposed to somehow believe that all of Austin’s success is actually a failure and that Houston and Dallas have preferable music scenes because, well, they’re more manageable, the shows are less well-attended, and their respective music scenes are “older.” Then the article states that Austin’s music scene didn’t start until the 60′s, which completely ignores the fact that Austin’s Victory Grill was a blues club in the 40′s, but okay. In fact, T.D. Bell started his residency there in the late 1940′s. But I suppose only whichever music scene that eventually made Retro Psych Indie Rock possible is what counts here.
When people speak of Oak Cliff or even Denton and say things such as “this is the way Austin used to be,” is it because these places actually capture the spirit of Austin’s past? Or would it be more accurate to say “Of course this is how Austin used to be, since, you know it has up to a 25-year plus head start on everything cool that happens in the rest of the state whether it be quality music venues or bike lanes?”
Then a bunch of Austin’s national acts are listed off as being irrelevant somehow, presumably because they don’t contribute to the city’s identifiable blues rock, roots rock, or outlaw country. They are also acts that maybe were more relevant about four years ago or more, and the local “conversation” on the article is laughable in its complete lack of depth or knowledge regarding Austin’s current music scene. Oh, and oddly enough, some of the city’s better bands perform and most unique events occur at the aforementioned Victory Grill.
So, let’s see if I have this correctly: Popular festivals and bands and music venues and thriving economies are bad because they lead to inconveniences or making the aging locals feel their identity is being threatened. Places that struggle to fill venues are good, because they are staying true to some laid-back, good old days nostalgia and they make everyone feel like they live in a small town again. Who cares if that comes at the expense of the musicians that would perhaps like an audience in front of them or the venues that struggle to keep the electric bill paid.
As far as some of the venues eventually shutting down, such as the The Armadillo, I would love to be able to visit the place even in museum-form or have a chance to see Liberty Lunch again. But if New York can’t even keep CBGB’s around, is it any surprise?
Don’t get me wrong, I have my own issues with the place. The bewilderingly enduring controversy over the Texas Relays weekend in particular was a heartbreaking sore point with me and my love of the city. But Dallas and Houston aren’t fooling anyone if they are actually trying to behave as if they wouldn’t trade in some of their newfound “charm,” just for a chance to have a single music festival anywhere near as world-famous as one of Austin’s many. I have sat in thousands of hours of traffic just for the chance to see an under-attended show in DFW. Yet when I make the treacherous drive down 35 and into Austin’s comparable traffic, it’s only to see the same artist play a packed venue. You can throw all the “less-is-better-and-cooler” philosophy you want at me, but you will never convince me that’s somehow a good thing. I would love to see Dallas pack a venue like they do down there, especially for artists that are considered “obscure.” Call them ahistorical hipsters (yeah, but their money’s green, isn’t it?) all you want, but it’s indisputable that the city’s residents young and old alike, know their history.
If Austin is going to be summed up by bad traffic, blues cover bands, The Continental Club, and Trail of Dead (What year is this?!), then yes, I suppose it’s completely lame and Dallas and Houston are the true Texas music meccas and everyone is just clueless. How can some of these writers claim that there are so many bad acts in town when they probably couldn’t even name ten or fifteen good ones?
But last time I was in Austin, I was reminded of Salvage Vanguard Theater, Wurhaus and Switched On, tons of record stores, and one pleasant evening where a gentleman who caters for Willie Nelson surprised my friends and I with a special plate of rabbit nachos. Some cities are smoke-and-mirrors metropolises where the cartoonish version they have been bought and sold or marketed themselves as never becomes reality. And some things deserve the popularity and success they have garnered. If you don’t know which one Austin is, you either only visit during SXSW and don’t know enough about the town, or you listen to people that know even less.
Most of the comments on The Observer‘s piece about gentrification (Ha!), much like the original piece, are in support of the sentiment. However, one comment jumped out at me:
As someone who grew up in Dallas, moved to Austin 11 years ago (don’t regret it for a second), and frequently visit Dallas friends and family – you come across as uninformed outsiders. Let me rephrase – blog-informed outsiders. You’re spitting out the same stuff everyone else is, but that does not make it true. Coming here for SXSW does not an Austin music expert make.
I’ve been to these “DIY” venues you speak of in Dallas, and they come nowhere close to what we have here. I grew up in the Dallas music scene and have followed it since leaving and it can’t even compare to Austin.
Point in case? You say, “There are tons of venues in all three of our pivotal music cities (Dallas, Denton, Fort Worth)…” Why do you need three cities?
We’re doing just fine down here without a music scene even really existing in neighboring cities. You might have scattered venues in a giant metroplex, but I can walk to at least a dozen shows on any given night…
The story and time-line led me to believe that this was Shelley Hiam, a North Texas native and talented photographer that I knew from when she was an enthusiastic young concert-goer. I sent her a text and sure enough it was her. Hiam helped me out with advice and work when I spent some time living in Austin, but unlike Hiam I moved back. It comes as no surprise that someone with such a balanced knowledge of both Dallas and Austin would share this opinion and it was comforting to see someone that actually knows what she is talking about making a point.
Finally, the Austin Chronicle responded this week, with an expectedly cool response by the intimidatingly thorough Louis Black, that summed it all up very neatly:
Lomax didn’t mention that another advantage of Houston is that there you could find a 6,000-to-7,000-word piece attacking Austin. You would never find a piece at that length attacking another Texas city in the Austin press. There’s just too much other stuff to do here.
Point taken.
Image via wikicommons.
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16 comments
I’ve been going to Austin since 1979. No matter when I have been there, someone will tell me how much better it was ten year prior. It is insane to think that the early patrons of small business expect to be able to have the same access year after year as the businesses and neighborhoods grow and change. Most of these small businesses started on credit cards, worked their asses off for years, survived long enough to eek out a living, and then maybe made a little money. For this they are now being penalized by people who call themselves “progressives”. It’s disgusting.
My two-word response: East Austin. Last time I came through town, I saw a bunch of great DIY and small-fry shows full of “whoa-where-the-hell-did-that-come-from” bands. Leave it to John Lomax to hoist himself up high by way of his oversized sense of entitlement; after all, his grandfather did the same thing by taking credit for the entire ****ing blues genre.
Wait – is he a Lomax like THAT Lomax? I had no idea
Have you ever read the Fort Worth Weekly?….it’s god-awful!! I always thought it was owned by the Village Voice too, guess I was was wrong. Now it makes sense why the paper reads like it’s written by eighth graders.
Attendance is one thing that Austin has always had over DdFW when discussing the music scenes. Not just the amount of people in attendance but the quality of the crowds as well. I hate seeing shows in Dallas, especially anywhere near Elm, due to low attendance and MORONIC people who stumble into shows just to stumble in somewhere. Case in point would be the Gruff Rhys show at Dada a couple weeks ago. The show was on a Friday night and the place was criminally under attended for someone with as much history on the indie circuit that Gruff has. Of course there were a few there for the show but the 10% of drunk people wandering in off the street who have now idea who the artist is or what is going on other than it is another place to throw back shots of Rumplemint. Denton shows might have low attendance sometimes but at least the crowds are there to see the performance which works out well for everyone, except sometimes the bar. Never had a bad experience at the Granada though.
PLUS some mother ****er cop gave me a parking ticket at 11:58 on a meter on Elm while attending the Gruff show.
Whoa, finally, a man who speaks some sense up there.
Thanks, Christopher, not only for recognizing bull**** & calling your fellow (Village Voice-amplified) citizen ON that bull**** … but for reminding us that there are, after all, people in Dallas who can recognize & call bull**** in the first place.
I know there’s much other goodness in Dallas ~ hello, Cafe Brazil ~ hello, funkier skyline ~ hello, much other goodness … I mean, I can ASSUME there’s such goodness … but it’s hard to see that when one’s eyes are squinting against a cheap, shallow, and unsubstantiated barrage of disparagement from two neighboring cities at once.
And you know what, in all seriousness?
Austin’s NOT as cool as it once was.
But, back then? It wasn’t as cool as it is NOW.
There’s MORE, here, now … and it’s DIFFERENT.
It’s not necessarily BETTER according to EVERY comparative framework;
but it’s all MUCH better, definitively, than wallowing in geezerly nostalgia.
Huzzah!
As with North Texas State university which Denton has Austin has University of Texas. both has a large population of young people that still like music well enough to brave the parking and people to party no matter who is playing. But if you take both away would the music industry still be there? Austin is a big college town and with out that college it would be a completely different. Probably much more conservative then most cities in Texas. So you really cant compare Dallas and Houston to Austin. They are home grown not imported with the seasonal students.
Really great writing here! Thanks for this piece Christopher. Austin is my home, and I’m quite fond of it. I also knew Austin from at least 20 or so years ago, and it was pretty cool then, too. Lots of change, but still great people. Loved your article!
Trail of dead is Plano, yall. only good thing to come from that godforsaken concrete slab ‘sides Early Lines
This piece needed more Plano luv.
Trail of Dead (what year is it?) – is still making amazing records and if you had any clue you would know this. “Tao of the Dead” just came out and it’s another great studio album from one of the best bands to come out of that scene. Why the hate?
Texasoil, I have to disagree. While I definitely do see less students downtown during the summer, I do not see show attendance affected. The majority of students go downtown to drink on Sixth Street – not see shows (unfortunately). Also, SXSW happens during spring break, when most of those students are gone. I’m not saying that some college students do not regularly attend shows, but it’s just not a significant enough number to take out our music industry were they to leave. In fact, I don’t hesitate to say that a lot of bands struggle to reach that demographic.
Also, yes, Early Lines.
Great points, great conversation. You can read Louis Black’s full response in The Austin Chronicle (of which, yes, I’m the managing editor, but try to forgive my hype – it’s a sincere kind of hype): http://www.austinchronicle.com/columns/2011-06-17/page-two-dont-move-here/. Feel free to discuss it there, too, of course.
This WAS a really good piece until you just couldn’t hold back anymore and resorted to childish ranting.
What it all means is that Texas is a GREAT state with some very different cities and cultures. One isn’t necessarily better than the other, just different, with varied textures and styles, music, food, mindsets, architecture, politics and art.
I live in California now, but I am a proud Texan. The rivalry between the cities is just stupid.
Thanks angrygirl for setting it straight about the Trail of the Dead — like them or not, it’s quality music! But then, I’m nearly 39 years old, so what the hell do I know.
“I have long thought that Austin’s meticulously edited Chronicle is in dire need of more “Top Ten Hot Breakfast Taco Waitresses in Local Bands With Cool Tattoos” articles,” says the guy writing for the magazine running the 10 Most Beautiful Women In Dallas contest.