The Village Voice’s Houston Press had a takedown of the Capital City, which The Village Voice’s Dallas Observer also used as a cover story this past week. That always confuses the locals, especially when they’re angry. But it’s worth noting that, much like The Fort Worth Weekly, the extremely powerful Austin Chronicle (you know, the people that run this little event) is not part of The Village Voice network.
So it’s somewhat unsurprising that the article is very Houston-centric and even a little Dallas-centric, and I wish the corporation all the luck in the world in eventually opening their very own Austin paper someday. I have long thought that Austin’s meticulously edited Chronicle is in dire need of more “Top Ten Hot Breakfast Taco Waitresses in Local Bands With Cool Tattoos” articles. Unfortunately if you check out the Austin Chronicle’s music blog, you’ll only find many thoroughly well-written and gimmick-free pieces, the most recent of which focus on Chaos In Tejas, a fest that would probably go completely unnoticed by much of the local press if it happened in Dallas. After all, it was comprised of many of the bands they ignore the rest of the year.
Also included in the Lomax piece is a really interesting interview with Jeff Liles and mentions of The Kessler, which is a classy venue and I’m looking forward to FrontRow’s film series at the spot, which starts tonight.
But I find the overall argument a little strange, where I’m supposed to somehow believe that all of Austin’s success is actually a failure and that Houston and Dallas have preferable music scenes because, well, they’re more manageable, the shows are less well-attended, and their respective music scenes are “older.” Then the article states that Austin’s music scene didn’t start until the 60’s, which completely ignores the fact that Austin’s Victory Grill was a blues club in the 40’s, but okay. In fact, T.D. Bell started his residency there in the late 1940’s. But I suppose only whichever music scene that eventually made Retro Psych Indie Rock possible is what counts here.
When people speak of Oak Cliff or even Denton and say things such as “this is the way Austin used to be,” is it because these places actually capture the spirit of Austin’s past? Or would it be more accurate to say “Of course this is how Austin used to be, since, you know it has up to a 25-year plus head start on everything cool that happens in the rest of the state whether it be quality music venues or bike lanes?”
Then a bunch of Austin’s national acts are listed off as being irrelevant somehow, presumably because they don’t contribute to the city’s identifiable blues rock, roots rock, or outlaw country. They are also acts that maybe were more relevant about four years ago or more, and the local “conversation” on the article is laughable in its complete lack of depth or knowledge regarding Austin’s current music scene. Oh, and oddly enough, some of the city’s better bands perform and most unique events occur at the aforementioned Victory Grill.
So, let’s see if I have this correctly: Popular festivals and bands and music venues and thriving economies are bad because they lead to inconveniences or making the aging locals feel their identity is being threatened. Places that struggle to fill venues are good, because they are staying true to some laid-back, good old days nostalgia and they make everyone feel like they live in a small town again. Who cares if that comes at the expense of the musicians that would perhaps like an audience in front of them or the venues that struggle to keep the electric bill paid.
As far as some of the venues eventually shutting down, such as the The Armadillo, I would love to be able to visit the place even in museum-form or have a chance to see Liberty Lunch again. But if New York can’t even keep CBGB’s around, is it any surprise?
Don’t get me wrong, I have my own issues with the place. The bewilderingly enduring controversy over the Texas Relays weekend in particular was a heartbreaking sore point with me and my love of the city. But Dallas and Houston aren’t fooling anyone if they are actually trying to behave as if they wouldn’t trade in some of their newfound “charm,” just for a chance to have a single music festival anywhere near as world-famous as one of Austin’s many. I have sat in thousands of hours of traffic just for the chance to see an under-attended show in DFW. Yet when I make the treacherous drive down 35 and into Austin’s comparable traffic, it’s only to see the same artist play a packed venue. You can throw all the “less-is-better-and-cooler” philosophy you want at me, but you will never convince me that’s somehow a good thing. I would love to see Dallas pack a venue like they do down there, especially for artists that are considered “obscure.” Call them ahistorical hipsters (yeah, but their money’s green, isn’t it?) all you want, but it’s indisputable that the city’s residents young and old alike, know their history.
If Austin is going to be summed up by bad traffic, blues cover bands, The Continental Club, and Trail of Dead (What year is this?!), then yes, I suppose it’s completely lame and Dallas and Houston are the true Texas music meccas and everyone is just clueless. How can some of these writers claim that there are so many bad acts in town when they probably couldn’t even name ten or fifteen good ones?
But last time I was in Austin, I was reminded of Salvage Vanguard Theater, Wurhaus and Switched On, tons of record stores, and one pleasant evening where a gentleman who caters for Willie Nelson surprised my friends and I with a special plate of rabbit nachos. Some cities are smoke-and-mirrors metropolises where the cartoonish version they have been bought and sold or marketed themselves as never becomes reality. And some things deserve the popularity and success they have garnered. If you don’t know which one Austin is, you either only visit during SXSW and don’t know enough about the town, or you listen to people that know even less.
Most of the comments on The Observer‘s piece about gentrification (Ha!), much like the original piece, are in support of the sentiment. However, one comment jumped out at me:
As someone who grew up in Dallas, moved to Austin 11 years ago (don’t regret it for a second), and frequently visit Dallas friends and family – you come across as uninformed outsiders. Let me rephrase – blog-informed outsiders. You’re spitting out the same stuff everyone else is, but that does not make it true. Coming here for SXSW does not an Austin music expert make.
I’ve been to these “DIY” venues you speak of in Dallas, and they come nowhere close to what we have here. I grew up in the Dallas music scene and have followed it since leaving and it can’t even compare to Austin.
Point in case? You say, “There are tons of venues in all three of our pivotal music cities (Dallas, Denton, Fort Worth)…” Why do you need three cities?
We’re doing just fine down here without a music scene even really existing in neighboring cities. You might have scattered venues in a giant metroplex, but I can walk to at least a dozen shows on any given night…
The story and time-line led me to believe that this was Shelley Hiam, a North Texas native and talented photographer that I knew from when she was an enthusiastic young concert-goer. I sent her a text and sure enough it was her. Hiam helped me out with advice and work when I spent some time living in Austin, but unlike Hiam I moved back. It comes as no surprise that someone with such a balanced knowledge of both Dallas and Austin would share this opinion and it was comforting to see someone that actually knows what she is talking about making a point.
Finally, the Austin Chronicle responded this week, with an expectedly cool response by the intimidatingly thorough Louis Black, that summed it all up very neatly:
Lomax didn’t mention that another advantage of Houston is that there you could find a 6,000-to-7,000-word piece attacking Austin. You would never find a piece at that length attacking another Texas city in the Austin press. There’s just too much other stuff to do here.
Point taken.
Image via wikicommons.
