Pachanga! Latino Music Festival 5-21-11

by Sophie Block at Live Music Capital Radio

Saturday marked the four year anniversary of Pachanga Latino Music Festival. Despite the looming storms (which never came, of course), it was a beautiful day at Fiesta Gardens, full of wonderful music and good food. If you have yet to explore Fiesta Gardens, get to the soonest event you can! The grounds are grassy and peaceful, with a lot of places to sit and enjoy the beautiful calm water.

The first act I saw was Chingo Bling on the Hierbia stage. Chingo Bling has lots of ridiculous videos with ladies in booty shorts serving up tacos and shakin’ it and such. Many of Chingo Bling’s songs are parodies of other songs, including “Still Mexican” to the tune of the Big Tymers’ “Still Fly” or “Taco Shop” to tune of 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop”.  I think if I were a high school boy I would have liked Chingo Bling better. I do give him props, though, for his signature rooster dance. Although he had recorded backup instrumentation playing behind his words, there was a live band playing along with the tracks. The drummer and guitarist tore it up--best part of the whole set.

Next I saw Mariachi Las Alteñas on the main stage. This is an all-female mariachi band. The women looked so beautiful in their matching dresses and had amazing stage presence... not to mention talented musicianship! They played violins, trumpets, vihuela, guitar and guitarron. The crowd went wild for the band. Mariachi is so much fun not only to listen to, but the show is so entertaining and upbeat that you can’t help but smile and dance.

In addition to the main stage and Hierba stage, there was a tent with DJ music and the patio stage. Chico Mann, a electro/freestylist, played the patio stage to a dancing crowd. He sang over hypnotic beats and worked up a sweat over his computer in the sun. Pachanga represented a large, luscious range of Latino music--Chico Mann is so vastly different Mariachi Las Alteñas, but shares a common thread. And supporting all kinds of music and cultures in Austin is what it’s all about.

Los Skarnales brought the energy up bounced around the stage with copious amounts of energy and catchy Spanish and English anthems. This band, dressed to the nines, played unique but oddly familiar Latin/Ska music. They played to a crowd filled with adults and children, but gave a special shout out to kids and their parents, giving them props for coming out and experiencing music and culture from a young age.

Lastly I was delighted to immerse myself if the musical stylings of the Echocentrics on the main stage. The band was formed by Grammy award winner Adrian Quesada, and fronted by two famous Latina singers, Tita Lima and Natalia Clavier. Lima was dressed in gold and spandex, while Clavier looked classic in a sundress. Although their wardrobes were so opposing, their voices sounded wonderful together in front of the complex yet dancey music.

If you missed Pachanga this year, make sure to treat yourself to the experience next year! There are so many great bands to check out and festivals to attend here in Austin... but you must add one more to the list!

Sunset & Black Pistol Fire 5-7-11

By Kimberly Caterino at Live Music Capital Radio

After seeing the film Echotone last week, a music documentary about Austin that features Bill Baird of the band Sunset (among many other artists), the next live band I stumbled upon was.. Sunset.  

At the Pecan Street Festival, Sunset played, well, as the sun set—providing a perfect orange-gray atmosphere for Bill Baird’s gently haunting songwriting.  Sunset had only two members tonight, each with guitar, singing in 2-part harmonies that lured me in.  The essence of Bill’s songs are subtly magnetic, reflective in a both a contemporary and timeless manner.  Especially when singing in the 2-parts, and this is meant in the most honorary way possible: they reminded me of an electric Simon and Garfunkel.  I heard 3 songs before they closed—and one that caught me was “Civil War”, a personal identification with Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).  I said timeless.  (Click here for a solo version.)

Sunset was the crème brulee before the whiskey. The whiskey..

Black Pistol Fire lives up to the name.  From the first crack of drum sticks against the skins, I was stunned.  

They are a duo, which in itself is striking.  No need for more.  I would actually consider any musician trying to intelligently insert a third instrument in that conversation a brave soul, a talented artist, or a fool.  Kevin McKeown (electric guitar/lead vocals) and Eric Owen (drums) have it together tight.  Real tight. 

They’ve been friends since kindergarten, and after playing in a trio in Toronto, Canada, they hauled it as a duo down here to Austin to..   kick our ass.  In anything I read about this band, no one compares them to Led Zeppelin. Never in my life have I heard a kit player precisely and ferociously drive the music John-Bonham style the way Eric Owen does.  (You don’t throw that comparison around.)  It doesn’t come across in the recordings—you have to have your brain fluids shaken in person to understand.  I texted to a music-loving friend after: “Raw southern Led Zep on speed in their 20’s.  Wow.”

The intentional phrasing of McKeown’s guitar reminds of Jack White of The White Stripes, as does the flow of drums/guitar turn-taking.  Throw in some Black Crowes raunchiness, some Black Sabbath urgency, even some slight Smashing Pumpkins dreamy-chord hypnosis..

So who would have guessed that their second song on the main stage would be the cover “I Shot the Sheriff”?  It wrapped the crowd around their finger.  Their version exampled their ability to fluctuate between focused delicacy and downright explosion.  ..Not to mention their ability to rock the reggae.

Each half of the band articulates as clearly as the other, and it raises the question who’s driving, who’s following?  The leader is ever-changing, because of the energy exchange, or simply due to the composition of the piece at hand.  Yet together, they can turn the pace and direction of the music on a dime.

This band is so new, with their first CD released this past winter (called simply Black Pistol Fire), that names of songs are evasive.  I’ll take a guess: two we heard were “Black-Eyed Susan” and the encore “You’re Not the Only One”.  (Click here for a YouTube of this song, played a couple of hours later at a second gig.  Is that electrified bluegrass in the middle?)  

The players of Black Pistol Fire are clearly channeling every note to the point they can’t help but also be good performers.  When not singing, he’s dancing or jumping—and when McKeown turns his back to the audience to play at the shirtless, thrashing Owen, which happens quite a bit, as an audience member you feel not annoyed, but honored to witness such severe symbiosis.  If you are a rock fan: Run, do not walk, to see Black Pistol Fire in person.  These guys are the bomb.

Echotone, A Music Documentary on Austin 4-26-11

by Kimberly Caterino

Echotone is a film that started out as a series of portraits of some of the director’s favorite musicians, but a second thematic story emerged, one that became the essence of the film:  Echotone captures the lives of several local musicians in relation to the recent urban development growth in downtown Austin.  Without giving too much away—the film opens with a black and white snapshot of a wide dirt road and some one-story buildings..   which then fades into an image of the currently-recognizable electric outline of downtown 6^th street (Old Pecan Street) in Austin.  The span of the film does not cover centuries of time as this comparison suggests, but geographically Echotone does focus specifically on Austin’s downtown and the area known as the Red River District. 

Some of the artists featured are Austin’s Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, Dana Falconberry, and Sunset/Bill Baird..   the film takes you through daily slivers of their lives both making a living and making art, as well as chronicling their paths towards success.  The definition of “success” is questioned..  and the artists’ stories are juxtaposed to the perspectives of local residents, venue owners, and urban planners.  Echotone lets all these folks have their say in the daily politics that make a difference in a vibrant music scene: noise ordinances, parking meters, etc.   With a similar, if not same, story emerging across the USA, director Nathan Christ hopes to follow up Echotone with a mini-series that captures the struggle of artistic versus not-exactly-artistic values, of urban development (i.e. usually literally building construction) versus the artist-next-door, happening in several other cities. 

The most important aspect of this film, to me, is that it opens the door to discussion and invites citizens to be more aware and active.  After the screening I viewed, there was a panel of local figures, including Paul Oveisi of the organization Austin Music People, who took questions from the audience. In the past few years of development in the city, Oveisi acknowledged, the creative class was not invited to the planning table.  We can’t undo the past, but Echotone brings awareness to:  What do we do now?  How does Austin grow going forward?

The editing sequence of many speakers, the live music footage, and the panoramic scenes of downtown construction was often enough in itself to evoke applause, tears, or laughter.  The sequence that stayed with me, choked me up a little, was a series of shots of Black Joe Lewis on his daily (unglamorous) day job.  When someone asked Joe why he was being filmed, he gave a forthright answer before the scene immediately cuts to him performing at a venue—one of the funkiest songs Austin has known: “Sugarfoot”.  

What was Joe’s answer?  Why was he being filmed at his delivery job? 

 I’m a musician.