Train Wreck Interrupts SXSW Festivities
Only casualty was pickup stuck on Third Street Tracks

A Union Pacific train struck an unattended pickup near the former Electric Lounge early Sunday, interrupting South by Southwest performances and temporarily muting festivities.  No one was hurt in the wreck, which occurred after the truck's driver became stuck on the downtown tracks near Bowie St. and Lamar Blvd. around 2 a.m. The unidentified driver ran onto an outdoor stage during a performance by the Heroine Sheiks, grabbed a microphone and appealed to the audience for help, said Ron Prince, an owner of the Gallery Lombardi Lounge, a temporary South by Southwest venue at the former Electric Lounge.

"Apparently, he was trying to go down this dirt road around Third Street, tried to cross the barricades and got stuck," Prince said. About 300 people were at the Lounge listening to Heroine Sheiks and another band performing inside. Although some of the audience tried to help, the whistle of the oncoming train stopped them, Prince said.  Paul Minor, club manager and South by Southwest performer who attended the concert ran down the tracks and tried to flag down the train.

"I ran about halfway toward the lake and stopped before the trestle," Minor said, "But I had to stop, and I guess I waved it down about 150 feet too late."  In a thunderous crash heard blocks away, the train tore into the pickup and dragged it about 200 feet. Crews cut the bed from the truck, hauling the pieces away on separate wreckers. Dozens of vehicles were parked nearby, some dangerously close to the tracks.

"It's a miracle that nobody else was involved in this," Prince said. The locomotive suffered minor external damage but after an inspection continued north to Fort Worth.

The Electric Lounge, an eclectic venue with a reputation for offbeat performers, closed last April after six years.  The Gallery Lombardi Lounge was a last-minute addition to house musical acts during South By Southwest.  Its final performances were Saturday night.

- AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN  3-20-00
 

South by Southwest is like a runaway train. You better get on board or get the hell outta the way...

My so-called heroics were greatly exaggerated, and if I hear one more superego/superhero joke I may have to move to San Marcos.  If the clueless pick-up driver had just agreed to let me call 911 when I first suggested it, the dispatcher might have been able to stop the train earlier, and if I had gotten a longer head start I may have intercepted the train sooner in time for it to stop before the impact.   At least it slowed down enough not to cause greater damage.   I was relieved to find out later that the driver had not been in our club, the back door crew saw him drive up the street before turning onto the tracks.

I am just glad the whole ordeal is over.  It became very clear to everyone involved after the first couple of nights, especially to me and the owners, that it was not going to be the lucrative, low-maintenance event we had hoped for, so we just had to hold on tight and finish the gig.  In spite of our high level of preparedness and organization, and a really cool hired staff, every night there was some sort of unnecessary over-complication provided by people who just couldn't help themselves from making things difficult, like the bands bringing in their own cases of illegal alien beers, or the tweaked-out over-territorial volunteer stage managers creating traffic issues by blocking off streets and walkways, or undertrained security guards forgetting to check IDs.  I actually had a sound crew ask me two hours before the outdoor concert was to start "where's the generator?" when they had been there for a full day and the equipment rental company across the street had just closed.   Then there was the persistent threat of inclement weather and the impatient crowds.  I felt like I was babysitting a throng of unreasonable children all week, asking a million ignorant questions and making irrational demands.

In spite of the headaches, the owner says she still plans to get her own caterer's license and lease it out for some future events in the space, but she is definitely convinced now more than ever that operating a nightly club is too much of a hassle.  I tend to agree.
 

SUPEREGO CALENDAR:

Monday, April 3 - SAXON PUB:  8:30 - Lonelyland 10 - Superego (See Review)
Sunday, April 9 - FREE FOR ALL:  9 - Thrum 10 - Men From Nantucket 11 - Superego 12 - D-Rez
Sunday, April 16 - FREE FOR ALL:  9 - Lefty 10 - Burt Reynolds University 12 - The Jimmies
Wednesday, April 19 - SAXON PUB:  8:45 - Superego BIGJAM.COM internet video broadcast
Sunday, April 23 - FREE FOR ALL:  9 - Leon 10 - Red Dirt Rangers 11- Superego 12 - Fiat Lux
Tuesday, April 25 - Reverb Lounge SA: 10 - Burt Reynolds University 11 - Superego 12 - Loud Family
Sunday, April 30 - FREE FOR ALL:   9 - Litter Meet 10 - Lauren Lipkin 11 - Superego 12 - Infamous Plick
Sunday, May 7 - FREE FOR ALL: 9 - Burned Blue 10 - Julie-Ann Banks 11 - Superego 12 - Speeder (SA)
Sunday, May 14 - FREE FOR ALL: 9 - Boondocks 10 - Arthurs 11 - Superego 12 - Bo Bud Greene
Tuesday, May 16 - ST. EDWARD's UNIV. - Paul's First Day of Grad School
Sunday, May 21 - FREE FOR ALL: 9 - Darin Murphy 10 - Cinema West 11 - Superego 12 - Stingers
Tuesday, May 23 - ARGYLES: "Miss Congeniality" Filming with Sandra Bullock
Thursday, May 25 - BERGSTROM AIRPORT:  4 pm - Superego Unplugged
Friday, May 26 - JUPITER RECORDS: 7 pm - Superego In-store
Sunday, May 28 - FREE FOR ALL: 9 - Loring 10 - My Education 11 - Superego 12 - Dismukes
Sunday, June 4th - FREE FOR ALL: 9 - Hurt a Fly 10 - Kevin Christopher 11 - Superego 12 - Mighty Hebrews
Friday, June 9th - EXPO CENTER:  Republic of Texas Biker Rally - 4:00 - Superego 7:00 - ALTEREGO
Sunday, June 11 - FREE FOR ALL:  9 - Sparkwood 10 - Rebecca Cannon   11 - Superego   12 - Dismukes
Friday, June 16 - WESTGATE CENTRAL MARKET: 7-9 Superego
Sunday, June 18 - FREE FOR ALL: 9 - Jason Blum 10 - Adult Rodeo 11 - Superego 12 - Missing Ingredient
Sunday, June 25 - FREE FOR ALL: 9 - Willis Brownstone 10 - Choking Ahogo 11 - Superego 12 - Playthings
 Monday, July 3rd - CONTINENTAL CLUB - Brian Jones Hoot - 10 pm - Debut of ALTEREGO
Sunday, July 30 - FREE FOR ALL: Bon Voyage Zig

Lick here for new scrapbook clippings from the latest music rags.

Check out the Superego listing on the SXSW webpage,
and the listings for the Argyles (#6 best cover band) and Superego in the Chronicle Musician's Register.
Also, SXSW made a digital film of our showcase Thursday and uploaded it at the SXSW Digital Video Site.
Reviews of Hoot Night Fever on www.auschron.com and www.onthatnote.com.

"How about the huge cheer when SXSW was declared officially over at midnight at the Hole in the Wall Sunday.  The unbelievably packed crowd spent the last hour of the disco hoot dancing in celebration."

-- Golden Graham Reynolds quoted in XL ent.

Attention all casualties of the "Been There, Done That" Decade:

Today Napster  saved this local musician from spending 17 bucks on a CD that I never would have bought but for the fact that I had to learn a cheesy contemporary country ballad to play at a wedding this weekend. Regarding the controversy over this and other file-sharing music software, I believe that the major label recording industry brought this threat to their livelihoods upon themselves way back in the eighties when they first developed the digital music encoding technology that spawned the compact disc.   They made the choice to make the vinyl music format obsolete in favor of the much cheaper-to-manufacture digital medium, and had the nerve to gouge the consumer with the over-inflated production costs of this novel new format, which has since proven to be inferior in many ways, particularly in the values of packaging appeal, resale value, and collectability.   They should have realized that it would only be a matter of time before the private sector had access to the hardware and software necessary to copy and distribute this digital information for themselves.   To paraphrase some other revolutionary public enemies, the roosters have come home to nap...

 I had a girlfriend once who graduated from A & M.  She would go back every other weekend to show school spirit and participate in "yell practice" and "12th man" rituals, and she would call me a "one-percenter" for questioning her motives. I was bothered by this pointless brainwashed behavior, but she reassured me with what I later learned to be the Aggie motto: "From the inside it's hard to explain, and from the outside you wouldn't understand." Now that 12 kids died on the bonfire, it's high time for some explaining. Why would the finest engineering school in the world allow untrained children to risk their lives on such a deadly, unsound structure, a senseless symbol of military-style competition?  The commission findings are in, and the official cause of the Aggie Bonfire collapse:  tradition. They define a "cultural bias" in the institution that led to "tunnel vision" which caused the administration to turn a blind eye to safety hazards and refrain from taking proactive protective measures. Beware of authorities and bureaucracies that are resistant to positive change.  Tradition kills.
 

"Don't You Stop Me Talking..."

Subject:  Bugger's Banquet
Date:  Tue, 02 May 2000 16:04:05 -0500
From:  Paul Minor <superego@io.com>
Organization:    Nickel $ Dime Productions
To:    larry cordle <nosecret@mindspring.com>

Larry,

The musician's town meeting at Threadgill's May 16th falls on the evening of my first class session at St. Edward's Grad School, so I cannot attend.   If you could make sure these questions get raised I would appreciate it, then I will watch the results on Cha. 15.

1.  Why is the musician's union so underachieving and underutilized in such a strong music community?  What is it supposed to provide?  Why are most musicians not members?  Could a new, more active organization of solidarity for musicians be formed and function alongside it?

2.    Could we get some parking permits for musicians to use commercial service zones for short periods when loading in and out on 6th street and the warehouse district?

3.   Would somebody please figure out a way to settle disputes over volume control and the noise ordinance that is not so beauraucratic and wasteful?   Cops should be arresting thugs, not carrying decibel meters.  I think people should just get earplugs or move if the clubs are too noisy.   Some clubs could actually stand to turn it down, but they don't deserve fines, they just need some expert audio consulting to maximize the efficiency of their systems.   The Black Cat keeps getting fined, but what they really need is a graphic EQ and a soundman.

4.  Could we figure out a way to not let any more clubs get torn down for corporate retail development?   Liberty Lunch was a sacred historical landmark that can never be replaced, and if the wrecking ball ever comes after the hole in the wall, they are going to have to bulldoze right over me and my stratocaster.  They will have to build Starbuck's around my corpse.

5.   Where are musician's supposed to live?  All the clubs are downtown, but housing inside the loop has become unaffordable on a musician's salary.  Could the city provide some low income housing specifically earmarked for the entertainment community, maybe even some rehearsal and recording space?  I think the old airport should have a music neighborhood, perhaps with a club, a fitness center, and a Doug Sahm Memorial Softball Field, playground and taco stand.

6.   SIMS is a great institution, but if musicians had decent health care, affordable housing, and free assistance with legal and tax issues, maybe we wouldn't need so much mental health care...

7.   What is the deal with Austin Music Network?  It is an embarrassment. I know they are doing the best they can, but it looks like it's being operated out of a trailer park in east Waco, and sounds like AM radio.  If the city can't fund it properly to do a quality production with decent sound and sets, please just give up on the MTV-style format with on-air hosts, and just show round-the-clock local videos.  Dave Prewitt could run it by himself and it would look better...

8.    The city has paid a tremendous amount of lip service to the live music community in Austin, but has done nothing to preserve this precious resource, instead focusing on more lucrative industries.  I think that every corporate investor that moves to town should be required to submit a proposal for how they would encourage their employee base to support the live music economy, whether it be a bonus package that includes club vouchers, or a committment to hire local bands at their functions on a regular basis, or signing contracts with local clubs to have corporate parties.  I play a lot of party gigs for high-tech firms, and I am astounded that they don't utilize more of the local talent in local settings, instead opting for cover bands in chain restaurants and hotel ballrooms.  Whose job is it to sell local music to corporate investors who have no imagination when it comes to planning events?

Alright Larry, go get 'em...
 
 

Subject: Re: Musicians' Town Hall
Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 23:10:04 -0500
From: "larry cordle" <nosecret@mindspring.com>
To:  <superego@io.com>
 

Paul,
I can field some of those questions for you, because they are things I'm working on.

1) APD will soon issue an SOPD ( standard operating procedure directive ) that will allow musicians to load in and out on 6th Street for at least fifteen minutes without ticketing. I know that doesn't address the issue of parking space, but the argument is that a club patron ( who may or may not be going to a LIVE music club ) has no less right to that space. Anyway, I met with Downtown sector Commander Harold Piatt about that issue, as well as....

2) The noise ordinance is being revisited as well. I am accompanying the civilian technician who utilizes the sound meter this week. I'm going to see how his work is done. I do know that shot bars are now being ticketed as well as live music clubs. There are two clubs fighting their tickets in court and I hope to be there when they do. I feel the same way about it that you do, but after talking to Piatt and his boss Asst. Chief Rick Coy, I think the answer, for now, is for live music clubs to shut their doors and windows. That's an unsatisfactory temporary measure, but it will keep club owners out of jail.

3) In my meeting with Jackie Goodman three weeks ago, She and I agreed that Rick Melchior needs to be responsible to the Music Commission which he has not been. The whole Commission is pissed off about it, and feels Melchior is arrogant. Rick is trying to make money off AMN, and it's not working. The quality is not only poor, but the Threadgill's move is a disaster ( and puts the thing in Eddie Wilson's pocket ), plus the employees are most discouraged. I do not have cable ( by choice ) and don't see it. But I have been out there and know what's going on. The City is the problem. It has created an animal that is half government entity and half profit seeking private venture. It's failing as both.

The Music Commission is a damned good group of people. They're activist and enthusiastic. I'm proud to be among them. If it were up to us, all your suggestions would become law tomorrow. But we are unpaid volunteers with no power, no budget and we're regularly ridiculed as irrelevant to the process. I believe that is about to change. We've, pretty much to a person, decided we're going to get some things done, or they can fire us.

I will also say that we've done some pretty cool things that no one hears about. We've found $60,000 bucks for SIMS in money the City had forgotten it had. We've managed to get the LINKS program funded, which puts recycled band instruments in the hands of underprivileged kids. And I'm proud of the $2000+ dollars I was able to get raised with the Commission's help, for Debra Schmidt.

But there's so much to do and the issues you present encapsulate what we need to work on. I wish to hell you'd get on the Commission, Paul !

LC
 
 
 

Subject: BigJam Newsletter 4/18/00
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 00:51:00 "GMT"
From: "bigjam.com" 
To: "bigjam.com"

Greetings From Casa Big Jam,

Ever since Nasdaq took it in the shorts last week, the dot-commers are running amok in the streets - rending of garments, gnashing of teeth, lamentations of remorse - and it ain't a pretty sight. Would-be IPO millionaires are hurling themselves to gruesome deaths from atop their Range Rovers, and formerly-swashbuckling investors are stuffing spare twenties into coffee cans and stashing them in the back corner of their Sub-Zero freezers. Y2K looks like an ice cream social by comparison.

Here in Beautiful South Austin, however, things are rosy at BigJam.com. The wildflowers are out along the backroads in the Hill Country, the pretty girls and pretty boys have slipped out of their winter duds and into not much, and are frolicking in Barton Springs even as we speak. The margaritas are cold, the sun is hot, and the music is abundant.

A case in point is tomorrow's live webcast of "BigJam Live" from the Saxon Pub. This Wednesday's episode features rockers Kitty Gordon, Paul Minor's free-floating all-star group Superego, and BigJam Records' own Troy Dillinger and the Del Dragons.

Kitty Gordon revolves around a party of two; Nina Singh and Mark Addison, both of whom are alumni from the acclaimed Austin band, the Borrowers. Along with Kyle Schneider and Chris Tondre, they craft a sound which is at once both literate and urgent. A self-generated CD, "Seven," documents the evolution of this intriguing new ensemble.

Paul Minor has been a major fixture in the Austin music scene almost since childhood. But he has come into his own as the impresario of Superego, the house band for the weekly Rock & Roll Free-For-All musical swapmeet jam sessions at the venerable Hole In the Wall club. Since 1994, Superego has held down the musical fort for over 150 gigs and countless spur-of-the-moment collaborations. In addition, the group has three albums to their own credit.

As for Troy Dillinger, the bandleader explains his music thus: "We get a lot of comparisons to the Stones, the Faces, Black Crowes, you get the idea. I try to make music that moves your heart and maybe retains its meaning as time goes by." Of late, the Del Dragons put in time both on the road and in the studio to yield their forthcoming album, "Vivre," on BigJam Records.

Log on at 7:00 p.m. CST on Wednesday to BigJam.com to catch this powerful trio of Austin talent on "BigJam Live."
 

Subject: hoot
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 11:15:37 PST
From: "michael m."
To: superego@io.com

Paul, Just wanted to say that the 70s show at the Hole was great. I wasn't impressed by much at SXSW this year (I actually liked the films more than the music), and yet, the Sunday event was a perfect ending.

thanks -mike
(In case you're wondering, no you don't know me, I was bored at work and was web searching band names and found this email address)
 

Subject: DARiN this week (and last, and next)
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 16:08:39 EST
From: Rafgard@aol.com
To: Rafgard@aol.com

THANKS to all who attended DARiN's sxsw shows last weekend, particularly the hoot night fever show at the hole, which was arguably the closest thing to god I've experienced since viewing michaelangelo's last judgement with the naked eye.
 

Subject: WRAP
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 19:56:16 -0600
From: stage manager
To:   superego@io.com

HOPE YOU HAD A GOOD EXPERIENCE WITH SXSW THIS YEAR..DON'T KNOW WHICH SONGS YOU PLAYED BUT I REALLY DUG THE RANGE OF STYLES AND THE RIPPING GUITARS..THANKS FOR THE CD...SEE YA AT THER CLUB..I LEARNED A LOT AND MET A LOT OF COOL PEOPLE..AND WHO COULD TOP THE FUCKIN PICKUP ON THE TRACKS!! GIVE MY REGARDS TO RON AND DIANA AND HOPE TO SEE YOU GUYS/GALS AROUND TOWN.....

Subject: Harsh Light of Day
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 13:52:25 -0500
From: Paul Minor 
Organization: Nickel $ Dime Productions
To: cindy@onthatnote.com

The world surrounding Central Texas is an apocalyptic battle zone, with stormtroopers snatching helpless babies, political protesters rounded up like rats, and high-school hackers hijacking the economy.

But it's springtime in the hills of West Austin, the semi-pro baseball season has started and we just took a break from a weekend of hardcore housecleaning and landscaping to subject ourselves to an advance copy of the new Fastball album "Harsh Light of Day." Pumping out of the monitor speakers in the same tool-shed studio behind Tony Scalzo's garage where many of the rough demos first emerged last winter, Fastball's third effort crackles with optimistic energy.  Regardless of the shabby state of pop-culture, this album sounds like it will be another chart-busting juggernaut of musical redemption straight from the Texas stratosphere.

Right from the top there are a couple of strong break-out singles that rock like the brashest of the current soul-pop royalty, followed by some orchestrated productions that would make Brian Wilson swing his fat ass straight out of bed and take his straitjacket to the cleaners.  The band's aggressively-mixed classic-rock radio arrangements of such new songs as the swaying anglo-soul of "Goodbye Song," the angry rocker "This is Not My Life," and moody epic "Funny How it Fades Away" all sound like instant FM anthems, with tasteful adornment provided by members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the occasional stray cat or Beatle/Dylan sideman. The jaunty piano pub-rock of "You're an Ocean" has a weightlessly heavy hook, and the simple rhyming metaphors of "Love is Expensive and Free" grace the listener with a richly evocative but uncommonly straightforward exploration of the love and addiction analogy.

The ever-evolving Fastball sound now ranges the landscape from west-coast 80s post-punk to old school beatbox hip-hop and lush latin loops, but this band of suburban American musicians obviously went all-out this time to indulge themselves in creating the worldly album they have always wanted to make. The fickle light of fortune can expose fatal flaws but it can also bring out the sublime.

In the waxing tail of the brightly burning Fastball comet, other celestial satellites orbiting the Texas pop-star solar system include: the long-awaited shimmering debut from Austin space rockers Goudie on cyber-cop Lars Ulrich's Elektra imprint label, the upcoming hyper-indie release from Euro-pop darlings Cotton Mather, and recent retro-glam records from Darin Murphy, Love Supreme, Lil' Cap'n Travis and an entirely fresh and funky scene of discobilly freaks from the Hole in the Wall.  Lyrical locals Beaver Nelson and Michael Hall, whose backing bands both once featured members of Fastball's rhythm section, are also boasting brand new roots-pop offerings produced by South Austin tone guru Scrappy Judd Newcomb.

Pop music is alive and well in the heart of Texas.
 

Subject: Stolen Bass Guitar - Please Fwd.
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 20:54:26 -0500
From: Paul Minor 
Organization: Nickel $ Dime Productions

The Hole in the Wall is offering a reward for the return of a Red 1981 Gibson Victory Bass Guitar last seen in the club's equipment closet Saturday, April 22. This bass has great sentimental value, it was a gift from my uncle, it has become a staple of the Free For All jams, and it is pictured on the back of the latest Superego album. It has a distinctive body shape and oversize Explorer-style headstock. Any reports of its wherabouts are greatly appreciated, no questions asked. It is pictured in the attached photo being played by Subset at the disco hoot night.

Thank you for your help with recovering this missing piece of Austin music history.

Here's some good humor from the inner sleeve of
Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits (and Some That Will Be)
Columbia Records #CGK 37542: