Prodigious Songcraft Blooms in Sarah Jarosz - The Austin Chronicle

OFF THE REC RDmusic44Deborah Gill (l) andMUSIC NEWS by Austin PowellRandom PlayAfter the Gold Rush: Brothers andSisters leader Will Courtney is pulling upstakes and moving back to California. “Iwish it was more dramatic like some badband breakup or something, but the truth isthat I just got engaged and we sold ourhouse at this make-us-move price,” Courtneyconfides. “All of my old friends are stillthere, so I’m looking forward to getting backand doing a record.”The long-awaited collaboration betweenRoky Erickson and Okkervil River, True LoveCast Out All Evil, is being released throughindie beacon Anti- April 20. An extension ofthe Rokkervil mash-up at the 2008 AustinMusic Awards, the album pulls from morethan 60 previously unreleased field recordings,some of which were recorded during Erickson’stenure at Rusk State Mental Hospital. “Youget a sense of Roky’s personality in listeningto those recordings,” commented producerWill Sheff at the 13th Floor Elevators frontman’sannual SXSW Ice Cream Social lastyear. “Roky sounds awesome.”Sarah Jarosz 48 Texas Platters 70 Music ListingsSinger MayberryHere Comethe Warm JetsThe highly anticipated Sixteen Deluxereunion at the Mohawk in March will nowdouble as a CD release party. BunkhausRecords, helmed by Chronicle Sports guruMark Fagan, is issuing Year One, couplingthe noise pop outfit’s five-song cassettedemo from July 1994 – responsible forfirst attracting the attention of local labelTrance Syndicate – with live recordingsfrom the release show for 1995’sBackfeed Magnet Babe at Liberty Lunch. “It took a full afternoon of goingthrough my cassette tapes to find it,” recalls Fagan, who went to high schoolwith bassist Jeff Copas and co-produced the sessions with former-Ed Halland then-Deluxe drummer Lyman Hardy (another high school friend). “We’reexcited, and we’re at an age where that doesn’t happen as much anymore.”Help induct Sixteen Deluxe into the Austin Music Hall of Fame byvoting in the Chronicle Music Poll, which closes Jan. 29, and check outthe demo version of “Baby Headrush” at austinchronicle.com/thenextepisode.Local pianist and Orange, Texas, nativeMarcia Ball is joining the ranks of JanisJoplin and George Jones in the GulfCoast Music Hall of Fame. The inductionceremony takes place at the Bob BowersCivic Center in Port Arthur Jan. 23.Once a month, the Senior ActivityCenter (2874 Shoal Crest Ave.) transformsinto the Austin Acoustical Cafe, an intimateperformance space for emerging singer-songwriters.BettySoo takes the stage Saturday,Jan. 16, 7pm: www.austinacousticalcafe.com.Coinciding with the Star of Texas TattooArt Revival this weekend at the PalmerEvents Center, Stratocaster master ReddVolkaert is making his Red River debut onFriday, splitting the difference between Honkyand Bob Bleed at the Red Eyed Fly.Starting this week, OTR helps break downthe week in local music news on KUT’s TexasMusic Matters. Tune in Fridays (noon-1pm)and Sundays (6-7pm), or download the resultingpodcast: austinchronicle.com/earache.JOHN ANDERSONFamily ValuesThe Parlor family has extended its matriarchyto include the Monarch, the multieventcenter located in central Austin’s LincolnVillage complex, between I-35 and HighlandMall. DAG Presents’ Deborah Gill and herdaughter Singer Mayberry of the bookingventure Tangled Snark (see “Parlor Game,”Feb. 27, 2009) tested the waters there in2008 with an indie summer music series andsold-out metal plundering from Opeth, Highon Fire, and Baroness that October beforeacquiring the building earlier this month.“It’s a nice change to not have to deal withDowntown,” enthuses Mayberry, whose darkpop outfit Red Leaves recently issued animmaculately packaged new EP, Trouble in theCity of Water. “It’s such a huge building that itcreates so many different possibilities.” Indeed,already on the books is a performance fromThe Dynamo VolitionAustin’s Grooveline Horns are toJason Mraz what Grupo Fantasmaoccasionally is to Prince: backing brasssection and official afterparty houseband. Having previously worked with theScabs, Willie Nelson, and DaveMatthews, the three-man funk outfit –trombonist Reggie Watkins, trumpeterFernando Castillo, and saxophonistCarlos Sosa, the president of the Texaschapter of the Recording Academy –hooked up with the San Diego-based popsinger last year, and plans for an overseastour are in the works. “Jason rapswith us every now and then onstage,”relays local MC Zeale, who sat in for thelast leg of the tour, which includedappearances at the Frank Erwin Center and Antone’s in September. “I was pretty nervous beforewe went, so we did a little beat-box circle with Bushwalla before the show, and that became a bitof nightly tradition.” Aside from his Tuesday residency at Lucky Lounge with Boombox ATX, whichalso features the Grooveline Horns, Zeale’s been making cameos with locals Los Bad Apples andL.A.X, but his main focus currently is finishing his new solo album with European producer MarkoJelic in time for SXSW. “We’re on terrain that hasn’t been touched,” Zeale beams. “It’s an originalhybrid of hip-hop and electronica, very edgy and aggressive, but with a bit of pop touch.”Kill the MoonlightJOHN ANDERSONcomedy duo Le Sexy in the 278-seat theatreSaturday, Jan. 16; a free show from Austinsteampunks MothFight! Friday, Jan. 22; andthe garage sale experiment, Monarch MusicSwap, the next day. An art exhibit fromChrista Palazzolo, Ryan Davis, and DustinMichael Pevey opens in the lobby tonight(Thursday, Jan. 14), with accompaniment fromlocals School Police and Pure Ecstasy.There’s also a weekly Sunday yoga sessionand private events, not to mention the winterclassic Blue Genie Art Bazaar, and somerecent upgrades increased the capacity in theauditorium to 1,200, comparable to the outsidestages of Mohawk and Emo’s. “The biggestchallenge is just getting the word out topeople and outsider promoters,” Mayberrystresses. Rest assured, there will be plenty ofParlor pizza on hand. www.themonarchtexas.com.Zeale (l) and Carlos SosaJudging by the numbers, the music portionof South by Southwest may have hit the proverbialglass ceiling. In 2009, the annual multimediafestival notched a record number ofshowcasing artists – about 1,950 acts from57 different countries – and total visitors, butMusic Festival registrants dropped roughly 10%.According to the report by Greyhill Advisorspresented to City Council on Monday, SXSWboosted the local economy by $99 million, aslight dip from 2008’s $104 million. “Corporatetravel tends to be the first thing trimmed,” saysBen Loftsgaarden of Greyhill Advisors. Afterreceiving more than 10,000 showcase applicationsthis year, one-fourth of which were foreign,SXSW now readies for the March dance. “It’sgoing to be in the same ballpark,” informsSXSW Creative Director Brent Grulke. “Anydecrease in acts would be directly tied to theamount of available venues.” Meanwhile, confirmationscontinue to trickle in – besides the1,000 bands already confirmed at www.sxsw.com. Chicago’s lonely hearts club bandCheap Trick headlines Auditorium ShoresFriday, March 19, and for the third consecutiveyear, NPR Music broadcasts live on openingnight (March 17) from Stubb’s with a billthat includes Spoon, which is taking theStrange Boys on tour soon after. Better still,now that the annual Austin Music Awardshave been moved to Saturday night at theAustin Music Hall, OTR might get to stop infor once. Other notable additions include She& Him, Broken Social Scene, Midlake,the XX, Califone, Fool’s Gold, and JesseDayton’s Captain Clegg. Don’t expect tosee any of those acts at the Bat Bar orLone Star Lounge in the Austin ConventionCenter. Word has it that DirecTV won’t befilming the festivities this year.a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m JANUARY 15, 2010 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E 43