Austin Sound

Jack Wilson splits his time between the comfy, southern warmth of Austin and the cooler, sopping city that is Seattle. While he’s in Seattle, he’s backed by the Wife Stealers, and elsewhere, it’s pretty much just him. On his latest self-titled, Wilson zig-zags between full-on Americana rock, and solemn, poetic lullabies about places and people of timeless impact. He opens his album with the sound of footfalls on loose gravel — a sound that is immediately evocative of distance and mindful wandering — a more than appropriate prelude to an album that looks to transport the listener to the image of Americana locked away in Wilson’s head.

Yesterday afternoon the Statesman reported that blues pianist, Antone’s fixture, and Austin legend Pinetop Perkins passed away at the age of 97. Perkins reportedly died at home in his sleep due to cardiac arrest. The pianist was a pillar of Austin since moving here with the aid and support of Clifford Antone in 2003, and garnered three Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award. Perkins was an icon of a trifecta of Delta, Chicago and Austin blues, having played with nearly every blues legend of note from Sonny Boy Williamson to Muddy Waters. In a statement posted on the artist’s website, B.B. King called Perkins “one of the last great Mississippi bluesmen,” while Susan Antone notes appropriately, “He was a member of our family, not just the Antone’s family, but the Austin family.” Arrangements are still pending. Watch a video of Pinetop and Clifford Antone playing the Broken Spoke back in 2005 below:

Well how ’bout that? Don’t know about y’all, but yesterday certainly was pretty awesome on our end. What with Jack White and Dave Grohl running around town, there’s bound to be some awesome stuff that pops up, no? Looking over our lists for today, though, seems the best bets are away from the downtown fray, which has become increasingly the case over the past few years. In fact, you could probably do much worse than spending your day bouncing from the East Side between Pitchfork’s show at the East Side Drive-In and Dig for Fire’s lineup at the French Legation Museum. And then for the evening, why not hit up the $5 Night of Rage III on up the road at Baby Blue Studios? That should pretty much have us covered for the the next twelve hours or so through into tomorrow, but we have our favorites listed below for your consideration. What’s been the best you’ve come across so far? Sharon Van Etten and Jessica Lea Mayfield were both stunning and highly recommended, and Country Mice provided some much needed heavy lifting for our first day. Keep up the good work, guys; there’s still lots of music to plow through.

If you survived the pre-partying (and you better have as we’re just getting started!), then you’ll be out there flooding the streets and back alleys today as we officially kick off this little catastrophe we call SXSW. Wednesday Dayshows are generally the best to catch the bands you really want to see if they are playing, as not all the yahoos have yet arrived in town. Below, we’ve thrown down our top choices of shows that are going on, though we recommend also cherrypicking a few of your must sees and knocking them out today if you can. Among our top picks for Wednesday are (of course) the Midgetmen’s annual SXSW Jump Start party, The Austinist’s teaming with the Windish Agency, Forcefield and Terrorbird’s show at Red 7, and Fat Possum, who are taking over Club DeVille. In fact, the venues look pretty much like our typical Red River weekend rounds, with the exception of the local off-the-grid, but sure to please showcase by those kids over at Skanky Possum. C’mon and jump, you know you wanna.

And here we are again, this ol’ rodeo. Some of us have already got almost a week of SXSW under our sleeves, others are just gearing up for the best part, which is obviously music. This year, the official SXSW showcases extended into Tuesday, because they can, but doesn’t really kick off until Wednesday. Needless to say, though, there are some awesome events going to kick off the music side of the fest, and below our are picks to help you kick off the week right. From this point on, expect awesome music, free booze, and hipsters run amuck in our fair city. We’re not gonna bother with the biggest or most ridiculously branded and sponsored shows, or the official badge crap - we’re just looking for a good time and don’t want to stand in stupid lines. Sorry Fader Fort. So today we kick things off with the amazing and sure to get you sweating Ice Cream Man party at Club DeVille, an awesome showcase at Red 7 that will blow your face off, and the 12th incarnation of everybody’s favorite SXSW starter, the Art Disaster Party at Beauty Bar. Check below for lineups and tastes to get you going.

This Wednesday, Austin Powell and I will be hosting the official release party for The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology, being held at Antone’s with all proceeds benefiting HAAM. The lineup spans over three decades of Austin music, with reunions, special guests, and one-time-only collaborations (see below). Yeah, this is gonna be one helluva night.

So what is this book, you say? Well first off, it’s a thing with pages that you can actually hold in your hands and flip through, kind of like an iPad or Kindle except heavier, and only holds a single volume’s worth of content. I know, weird. But it’s also the product of over 3 years of work on the part of Powell and myself, digging through every issue and piece of music writing in the Austin Chronicle archives. Online, the Chronicle currently only extends back to the late Nineties, one of the reasons Powell and I were interested in surfacing some of the amazing history contained in the paper’s pages as it celebrates its 30th anniversary.

We really don’t thrown around words like absurd casually - really only when the situation truly calls for it, or with Charlie Sheen. So when we say that the lineup for the Austin Music People launch party and first annual benefit is absurd, you know it’s good. Here’s the deal: Back when the non-profit was announced in October, we thought this would be the kind of group that could actually get stuff done for music in Austin. But we just figured that was politics and money stuff - you know, boring. We didn’t anticipate that it would putting on amazing events like this. So to help raise money for AMP, there will be a huge show on Thursday March 31, at the new ACL Live at the Moody Theater (naturally) to help drive membership. Tickets are on sale as of 10am this morning for two prices (including a cheap $20 one!): There’s the $20 Community Membership including ticket to the floor and balcony and membership that includes invites to exclusive AMP events, special discounts and giveaways, or the special $250 Professional Membership, which is a ticket to mezzanine seating as well as a pre-show VIP Happy Hour reception with AMP’s Board and professional members. Plus, AMP membership includes regular professional networking gatherings, project opportunities, key updates, invites to AMP events, and special discounts and giveaways. So yeah yeah yeah, all that i is good stuff, but why are you REALLY going? Because of this lineup below: