Austin Sound

Over the weekend, the University of Texas announced that it will be shutting down the Cactus Cafe, which, if nothing else, showed just how many songwriters are on Twitter. Set to shutter the foundational venue in August, UT will reportedly save about $122,000 by depleting our music scene (along with discontinuing their Informal Classes). This is coupled with a proposal from UT President Powers to raise tuition by almost another 4%. Pay more, get less. It’s a winning combination. We wouldn’t be surprised if UT throws all those signed show posters up for auction - it could help pay a couple more bucks to Mack Brown or something. Naturally, to combat Powers’ move, there is a Facebook campaign and Twitter account - it’s like the Iranian Revolution all over again! In all seriousness though, Powers will be holding a town hall “Tower Talk” tomorrow, February 2 so you can go and scream at him (that’s how town halls work these days, right?). It’s from 4-6 p.m. in the Avaya Auditorium, room 2.302, in the ACES Building. Powers’ invitation says “I look forward to seeing you,” but we bet he really isn’t looking forward to this at all.

APD is still trying to untangle exactly what happened last night on Red River as two men apparently opened fire outside of Spiro’s. According to Fox News, at around 2:15am “the two men walked up to the crowd with guns and began firing, keeping their guns low to the ground, consequently most of the injuries sustained were to people’s legs and one woman was shot in the stomach.” Fox also quotes the owners of Spiros as saying that a rap group missed their set earlier in the night and were as to leave when they arrived, ” but later returned at the time of the shooting. Whether that means it was the group that shot up the joint, we’re not sure, but police reportedly have the names of both suspects.

Hey, did you hear about this huge Thunder of the Gods Festival that was supposed to happen out in Dripping Springs last weekend? Yeah, neither did we, which is probably a good indication as to why the Fest was a complete bomb and was canceled at the last minute. The Fest had a huge lineup, with over a hundred bands on tap over the four days and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult headlining. Metal bands from all over the world were booked, and many showed up at Austin-Bergstrom Airport only to find that the entire thing had been axed without any notice whatsoever!

This week the reports have been all over about Freddie’s Place on South First having to finally shut down their outdoor music after receiving a warning from the Austin Police Department for noise violation. The battle between Freddie’s patio music and the surrounding neighborhood has been ground zero in the noise ordinance debate the past few years, and Freddie’s has been careful to maintain a strict policy of no outside music after 9:00pm and that the decibel level doesn’t exceed the traditional level of enforcement for live outdoor music at 85 db. So what went wrong?

Photo by Richard Card
Something of a scandal has been developing the past two days between new local electronic act Vega (aka Alan Palomo, formerly of Denton band Ghosthustler) and Crystal Castles.
After a successful show together at La Zona Rosa this past Monday (pics via Ultra8201), controversy broke up a scheduled show last night at the [...]

Jake Mitchell, the drummer for Austin’s Boxing Lesson, was sentenced a couple of weeks ago to 60 months in federal prison on marijuana charges. What makes Mitchell’s case particularly unsettling is that he was charged under the Patriot Act and has been branded a Narco-Terrorist. The band went public with the details today as Mitchell prepares to begin his sentence early next month, hoping to raise awareness of his case for the pending appeal and help support him and his family as they have lost everything. And the details only get more distressing.

1/8/08
This past weekend, community radio station KOOP, the daytime half of 91.7 FM, was struck by fire, which officials have now determined was intentionally set. The fire is the third to strike the radio station, which was burned out of its downtown headquarters in 2006 by two blazes and moved into a new space on Airport Boulevard this past year.

According to the Statesman, the fire has caused an estimated $3,000 in damage to the building and equipment, but thankfully no one was hurt.

3/21/07
Readers of the Austinist just can’t seem to get enough SXSW bashing. If you checked out the local sounding board recently, then you’ve likely seen the hubbub over the shut-down of many large unofficial SXSW parties the past week. Biggest among the closures by the AFD were the Vice and IHEARTCOMIX parties, but other events throughout the city were stopped as well.

Readers are having a field day speculating over SXSW having the parties shut down, despite the reason being that the sponsors had failed to apply for a permit needed as of last fall that requires any organized gathering of 49 or more people to have an official stamp. The permit was apparently passed originally to deal with out of control frat parties, but, in an apparent execution of non-discrimination, have been applied to hipster parties as well.

2/20/07
We hate to post these news items, but it seems we’ve been doing it a lot lately. The Black and White Years, a recent Sound Off artist of the week, are unfortunately the latest victims of gear theft in Austin. Their home was broken into and over $10,000 in equiptment stolen. Here’s the list of items to be on the lookout for:

Paul Reed Smith CE24 Red
serial: 723444

Apple Powrbook G4 “17 laptop-silver
serial: v73445z3p22

Warwick 5 string bass w/ wood finish

Gibson SG: brown w/ wood finish

Roland Juno-G Synth

If you spot any of this gear around town or have any tips, you can contact the group through their Myspace or Landon Thompson at 806-441-7675.

photo by Anna Oakley

1/9/07
In what seems to be becoming a far too common occurrence in Austin, yet another band had their trailer and gear stolen. This time thieves managed to knock off Del Castillo last week in South Austin. Austin police recovered the trailer, but most of the equipment had already been unloaded. If anyone knows anything that might help, you can contact the band at info@delcastillomusic.com or the APD directly.

Here’s the official press release with some of the gear stolen:

Del Castillo’s trailer was stolen from their recording facility in South Austin sometime during the early morning hours of January 4. The custom-built trailer contained several thousand dollars worth of gear and equipment vital to the band’s live performances, and the theft was reported immediately to the Austin Police Department.