Flanfire

Spring is finally here, and music is rolling off the presses. So many recordings, so little time. And yet -- the good news is that much of what Austin's finest are putting forward is well worth at least a few listens.

Jets Under Fire at Eggs for Education!

[Let's face it -- you can only listen to about 8 to 12 hours of music a day, 60 to 80 hours a week, at the max! At least half of that has to be live, so the time left for recorded music dwindles to just a few records a day. Yet Austin alone has enough quality musicians to keep a guy busy year round and never get close to hearing everything he might enjoy! And that's fanatics like me!]

But I digress. Well, I don't. My pal Brent Allen put out a very good country record a few months back, "There's a Lot of Folks Like Me" (well, not that many with HIS voice!). He's got Dale Watson partnering with him on "Hair of the Dog," he's got a Freddy Powers song written just for this recording - "On the Road to My Heart"; he's got a Phillip Gibbs song, "The Whiskey Won't Help" (and Phil oughta know??); plus "Best Friend I Never Had" by Rick Cates and Brent's great producer Stephen Doster (that name alone suggests this music is worth listening to). Among the "slouches" (sic) playing Brent's (and the other) songs are Casper Rawls, Redd Voelkart, and Doster on guitars; David Carroll on bass; Dave Sanger on drums; Jason Roberts on fiddle, mandolin, and mandola; the great Marty Muse (yes, he played with Gram and Emmy Lou) on pedal steel; John Michael Whitby on piano; and Doster, Watson, and the beautiful Elizabeth McQueen on harmony vocals.

Now Brent has paid his dues with the Austin Songwriters' Group -- helped a lot of fellow musicians get venues and a fair hearing. Plus he's a great guy! Stephen Doster worked with Brent intimately throughout this year-long recording project -- and the love shines through. This is pure country -- not alt country or nuevo country -- which fully explains why Brent is a favorite out at Hill's Cafe (where he will be again this Thursday). I really like "Day Job," which reminds me of a conversation I had just last night with Jeremy Harrell -- about it interfering with his night job. There's the Ray Benson-esque ""If I Could Just Get Back (into the swing of things again)," one of two (plus the title track) co-written by Doster. The bottom line -- if you like Asleep at the Wheel, you just might like Brent's music, too. Of course I am going to be unfair and say my favorite song on the record is the Freddy Powers tune -- but Brent's own "Hopelessly in Love" (autobiographical sketch??) is pretty darn good too! But this is a record that belongs with a dance floor -- at places like the Broken Spoke and Midnight Rodeo.

Then there's "Schizophonic," from the Renaissance Man John Pointer. I've had this one for a while, too -- and if all you ever hear is "The Holy Trinity of Rhythm" (here in Parts 1 and 2), you will be glad you spent your time tracking this recording down. I am thinking what a great way to start kids off at school EVERY morning -- with about 15 minutes of Pointer beatboxing and all of them joining him in their own special ways -- with the promise that if they focus the rest of the day in school, they get to do it again before they go home. Grades would SOAR! But John is much more than beatbox (and his old Schrodinger's Cat daze) -- yes, he's a cellist, but he is also a budding lead guitarist (secrets to be unveiled soon maybe), a vocalist and actor who BECAME the Judas of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Zach Scott, and a man in demand on both coasts for BIG projects (most of which he opted out of for now). Did I forget entrepreneur and music marketer -- and great pal to have (and yes he does like to talk with not at people). Take "One by One," which is cut 2 here -- shows what a good singer and songwriter John is (with Johnny Goudie here). Players here include Pat Mastelotto, Stefano Intelisano, Will Landin, Mike Rosch, and Greg Seale -- with extra help from John Stinson on "Silver." There are messages in some of these songs that reflect John's own journey -- so travel along the way with him for a while, huh?

Then there's Kissinger -- Chopper and his bandmates go "Underwater" courtesy of the Austin Music Foundation and its Incubator Program. I caught up with the band upstairs at Emo's at a media screening ... and just as I had pronounced the new recording as "garage pop," I found numerous copies of "Garage" magazine at the venue. Hmmmmm. It is lots of fun to attend a Kissinger show -- not as clean-cut musically as, for example, Sheboygan but nowhere near as "dirty" as vintage Seattle grunge. And yet -- listen to the words: "Dig deep, rock and roll ain't cheap. It takes a lot of loaves of bread to feed this machine. I get so depressed tgrying to keep it real. I got so many bills to pay, so many bad ways to feel...."

Songs about women -- Henrietta, who's just "washed another worthless man away," putting on her headphones to drown out the emptiness, yet "soundly optimistic about her chances" in the next town; Catalina, to whom our muse has "held to every promise since I met you"; Catherine, the "dry cleaner's daughter in the bathroom drinking water" [at her own birthday party] "'cause the drugs she took were stronger than she thought"; Josephine, the siren for whom our hero is willing to be lashed to the mast and MAYBE the one with whom he swims "Underwater". Plus that "fishnet stalker" who's "the last one wading through the streetlight" when the party's over. But then our guy finds himself "fifteen thousand miles away from home" fighting in a war he hardly understands, the same guy who had observed that, "Wartime is a dangerous place for putting pennies in your pillows while the neighbors escape," even though he pledges to "sacrifice, dedicate my life to winning now." But winning in a war half a world away, or in the war inside his own mind -- fighting for sanity in a crazy world?

Or how about Fluoxetine? Wish they would play some gigs, because ANY excuse to hear Landis Armstrong and his amazing Stratocaster is a good excuse. And that's just ONE reason to love this band, which is built around the songs and vocals of Ryan Morris and has Dr. Ron Haas on drums and percussion and (on the record) Seth Gibbs on bass [but Amy Hawthorne in the photo on the jacket]. Music for the Prozac generation -- or at least to challenge couch potatoes to get up close and personal with real LIVE stuff -- with sweat and smells and raw energy instead of thumbnail blisters from video gameplaying. The theme of this recording is that "the media's preoccupation with fallen-angel teenyboppers assures that most people won;t know about the real issues of the day" -- so stay alert and present -- the life you save may be your own! Or, "will we always view those who seek meaning in life as egocentric lunatics?"

Did I mention Landis Armstrong on guitar? Yeah! Morris is a clever songwriter, yet one wonders if even he can provoke this medicated generation into real life. At least he's trying. "Two Weeks & Holidays" -- kinda the same message as from Joanna Barbera's song, "Beautiful Life." [Hurry back from California, Joanna!] Ryan has a running commentary on each of the songs on the CD (and a few more) on the band's website -- but bottom line, "Rainwater" (which chronicles conflicts), "Northwestern Squall Line" (great guitar solo), and "Best Western Religion" (yeah, the motel chain -- but it's all about other people's puppet strings on your life, reminding me of Aimee Bobruk's "Puppets at Play") -- are great listening (and pondering). But my favorite has to be "Reclaim Your Voices," which suggests it's time to quit letting politicians steal us blind while ignoring the weightier matters facing society. Be on alert for live shows!

Finally, I get to one of the coolest CD covers in a while -- the castles that identify the theme of Jets Under Fire's "Kingdoms." Yeah, these guys are confrontational but on another plane from that of Fluoxetine -- "Kingdoms rise, kingdoms fall," after all. Jason Poe came down from Springfield, Missouri, a couple of years ago with his band, "The Professional Americans" (Jets meanwhile had begun as a solo project that turned into much more after the PA's broke up). This is good music -- and by the way the band plays May 9th at Stubbs on a bill with Sounds Under Radio and Ars Supernova. [And, yes, I am not quite sure who is still in the band.]

Poe says of himself that the past two years have been the hardest in his young life -- and that these songs reflect the joys and struggles of life that led him to conclude that, "we're a broken people, and we feel it. There is no quick fix, just this hammering process called life." Song 1 is "Broken Parts," in which Poe asks, "If love is the key, tell me why don't we set the whole world free?" Song 2, "Where Do We Go from Here?," asks "where do we go when we're broken? Where do we go to feel awake?" "All the Sad Songs" reminds me of Seth Woods and the Sad Accordians -- "Why do we sit on these bad solutions? Why do we think we are wise?" After all it is the sad songs that remind us of the good times, and the good times make us sad through the hard times. "Just Like the Cold" is so singable, an anthemic song to sway arm in arm along to -- maybe this is why Jets sometimes gets misidentified as Brit pop! [but more like Craig Marshall].

"My body is tired, my mind is not the same, been broken (there's that word again!) for days." That's the opening lines of "The Writing on the Wall," a song about fading out and fear of failure. I could write more about the other songs, but just get to a show and see for yourself.

Meanwhile, I have to put in a word for Blastbeat and the upcoming Regional Blastbeat Finals, to be held on May 31st (afternoon) at Emo's Lounge. Blastbeat is an Irish import -- the idea is to work through schools, afterschool clubs, or whatever to teach high schoolers how to form their own music management company and put on concerts -- and to give back to the needy. Here in Austin this year four schools have had Blastbeat companies -- Akins High (winning band was The El Guapos), Austin CAN Academy (winning band was "Next"), LBJ High's LASA, the arts and sciences academy (winning band was The Diving Captain), and Anderson High (and THEIR battle of the bands will be on May 10th -- details to come). Meanwhile, another gaggle of teen bands will perform on May 3rd at The Mohawk on behalf of Uganda's "Invisible Children," and on May 5th yet another group of bands will be blaring away at Stubbs (Cinco de Mayo in the afternoon) as part of St. Andrew's High's spring fling (everyone welcome, I think).

Lots more great music on the horizon -- but enough for now.

Flanfire -- Bringing LIFE to Austin music.