Austin Sound

The Lonesome Heroes are a wandering lot, so maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised that it took them about three years to make a video for “Don’t Play to Lose.” We give them a pass on the old tune, though, because the video is pretty great. How can you not love two adorable kids escaping from some hardcore bikers and bouncers?! It’s like Goonies II: Goonies in the City! Or something. Kudos to Daniel Stolzman of Frameless Films for directing the video, and to Rich Russell and Landry McMeans for wherever they dug up their younger counterparts. As for the Heroes themselves, they’ll be back in town after last month’s trek up into the north east for a gig at the Continental Club on Saturday, January 16 with Lil’ Cap’n Travis and Grand Champeen. Check out the video below:

You may or may not have heard of the movie School of Rock, starring the so-called “Jack Black,” scare quotes very much intended for the name is as obviously spurious as Costanza’s legendary porno moniker, “Buck Naked.” In S/O/R, the main character, played by Mr. Black, sketches out what purports to be the entire history of rock and roll on a blackboard, for the edification of schoolchildren. Implausible as it sounds, his history is fair, intelligent, and mostly complete, but there’s at least one noteworthy genre that fails to get its chalky due, and that is the one variously referred to as Cosmic American, Space Country, and Psycountry (for Psychedelic Country) and whose most perfect exemplar is probably David Crosby’s 1971 “If I Could Only Remember My Name.” It’s a niche with strong Austin roots, from the 13th Floor Elevators through the Cosmic Cowboys of the ’70s to current AustinSound.net (or, at least, B.D. Fischer) faves Lomita. Space country (my favored term) relies on the surprising sonic similarity between the slide guitar of traditional country and the various effects and distortions of traditional psychedelia � if that term makes sense, talking now about progenitors like the Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, and Ziggy Stardust all the way through My Bloody Valentine, the various incarnations of Dean Wareham, The Verve, Halley, Explosions in the Sky, etc. etc. That similarity itself reflects a mutual thematic focus on isolation and loneliness, from the outlaw Cosmic Cowboys fighting one-man wars against the Nashville machine to Major Tom drifting into space by himself, sending his best wishes back to his wife.