Scroll down for playlist details, which are complete. All listed gigs are in the Austin area unless stated otherwise.

Artist / "Song" / Album:

Set 1 - Latin, from Big Band to Hip Hop:
01. The Nash Hernandez Orchestra / "El Pincel" / Tenderly
02. D'Va / "Wanna-Be's" / Lonely Beat

Set 2 - '60s garage and psychedelia, re-imagined and genuine:
03. Ugly Beats / "(I Don't Wanna Be the One to) Bring Her Down" / Take a Stand with the Ugly Beats
04. VietNam / "Step on Inside" / VietNam
05. Thirteenth Floor Elevators / "Tried to Hide" / Mind Blowers, Vol. 1

Set 3 - From the mundane surfaces to the soulful depths - DIY alt-pop, space pop, and Cohen's subtle interpreter:
06. Yellow Fever / "Donald" / Yellow Fever
07. Hit Space / "Trash" / (verb)
08. Monster Movie / "Hope I Find the Moon" / All Lost
09. Octopus Project & Black Moth Super Rainbow / "Elq Milq" / The House of Apples and Eyeballs
10. Kosmodrome / "All of My Space Heroes are Dead, Part 3" / All of My Space Heroes are Dead
11. Proem / "Social Piranha" / A Permanent Solution
12. Jgrzinich / "Fluid Itinerancy" (excerpt) / Intimations
13. Jennifer Warnes / "Ballad of the Runaway Horse" / Famous Blue Raincoat: 20th Anniversary Edition

Set 4 - Another songwriting diva interprets an icon:
14. Kim Richey / "Texas Girl at the Funeral of Her Father" / Sail Away: The Songs of Randy Newman
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8/16/2007 PLAYLIST DETAILS:

Set 1 - Latin, from Big Band to Hip Hop:

01. The Nash Hernandez Orchestra / "El Pincel" / Tenderly
[website]
The longest-running big band in Austin is this outfit which has enlivened dance floors since 1949 with styles ranging from big band swing to Latin romantico. Trumpeter Nash Hernandez founded the band after moving to Austin following service in World War II, and after his passing in '94, the band has continued under the baton of his son Ruben, drummer for the band. Originally an all-Hispanic band, the band's membership has become as diverse as its music, serving as a stepping stone for such bandleaders and musicians as Tim Torres, Dave and Abel Gutierrez, Ruben Sanchez, Mike Mordecai, John Mills, Tomas Ramirez, Martin Banks, Mitch Watkins, Larry Williams, and David Chenu. Tenderly, their second modern album, was released in 2001.

02. D'Va / "Wanna-Be's" / Lonely Beat
[bio, CD reviews & samples]
On the other end of the Latin music spectrum in Austin is the bilingual hiphop of a sassy gal from San Angelo, D'Va (pronounced "diva"), who dropped this disc in 2005.

Set 2 - '60s garage and psychedelia, re-imagined and genuine:

03. Ugly Beats / "(I Don't Wanna Be the One to) Bring Her Down" / Take a Stand with the Ugly Beats
[myspace]
I never realized how much I love the garage rock of 1965 until I heard this band, who blast me with nostalgia in their original recreations of the sounds of that era. In June, fast on the heels of this latest CD's May release, they toured Spain for the second time in less than 7 months.
Gigs:
_Tomorrow, August 17, 10 pm, in San Antonio, Texas, at the Limelight
_Saturday, August 18, 10 pm, Beerland
_September 15, 10 pm, The Carousel Lounge
_September 22, 11 pm, Beerland

04. VietNam / "Step on Inside" / VietNam
[website] [myspace, including video and links to limited edition vinyl] [guitar details & best bio I've seen of the band (& a cool video, to boot)] [the big crash and burn in San Francisco] [record label band site, including video links] [Memphis interview] [Daily Texan interview/article]
The core of this now Brooklyn-based (via Philadelphia) band are a couple of musicians from Austin, lead singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist Michael William (Michael Gerner) and lead guitarist Joshua Garrett (Joshua Grubb), whose original incarnation of the band formed in New York in 2000 before they moved back to Austin for a while. This catchy, classic rock album for moderns, their first full-length recording, was released in January. It includes Mike Foss on drums, another friend from Austin who was turned on to the band in their Philly days when he saw them play in New York. Although by no means a carbon copy, I feel the heavy side of 1969 in their music as the spacey, psychedelic guitar transports us through the hanging bead door into a blacklight-bathed inner sanctum, where Dylan, Reed, and Lennon front the bluesy rock of Moby Grape. And what's this, Phil Spector's wall of sound snagged from behind the Righteous Brothers?

05. Thirteenth Floor Elevators / "Tried to Hide" / Mind Blowers, Vol. 1
[myspace] [psychedelic rock in Austin]
[Allan Vorda interviews: Click here for the most amazing and personal account of the Elevators and their scene that I have ever read - compiled from interviews from 1981 through 1992 with members and friends of the band, including Clementine Hall and giants of Austin music, Tary Owens and Powell St. John (YouTube, myspace, website bio, Austin Chronicle feature, Austin American Statesman feature about the Threadgill's folk and country scene of which St. John and his Waller Creek Boys' bandmate, Janis Joplin, were a part).]
Here's the real thing, released to the world in January of 1966 as the B-side to the Elevators' first single and biggest hit, "You're Gonna Miss Me," and found here on a 2001 CD compilation from the British psychedelia and garage label Past & Present, which was apparently transferred from a vinyl copy of the album released on the American label White Rabbit in 1983. The original 1966 release has been described as a non-album B-side, but since the song also appears on the first Elevators album, The Psychedelic Sounds of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, perhaps it's a different version.
There is very little I can add to the legend and literature of this band. You can find tons of material on the web and in bookstores. For neophytes, this band was at the heart and front of the psychedelic rock movement in Austin and San Francisco, and, in fact, was the first act to use 'psychedelic' as a musical description. Singer Roky Erickson still lives here in his hometown of Austin, and has had a major personal and musical resurgence in the past few years.
Genesis of this song - According to the Allan Vorda interviews referenced above, here is how this song came about:
"[interviewer]: The liner notes to "Tried to Hide" state it was written about those people who "for the sake of appearances take on the superficial aspects of the quest." Huh?
[Powell St. John]: As I understand it, it's about those who pretend to be hip, those that try to fake it. Not long after the Elevators formed an incident took place that [Elevators' band leader] Tommy [Hall] said later was one of his inspirations for this song. One afternoon I was approached by a kid named Sally Mann who was around the scene. She is the same Sally Mann who later was featured in Rolling Stone magazine's famous groupie issue. At the time of that publication she was living with the Jefferson Airplane in San Francisco, but she was on the scene in Austin well before that. She knew that I knew Roky and that I knew where he lived. She asked me to take her there on the pretext of giving him something. I didn't ask what it was and so in the interest of helping two deserving young people I took her to Roky's apartment. Roky wasn't in as it happened so I left Sally and went on home. I heard later from a slightly irritated Tommy that he and [his wife] Clementine had come in later bringing Roky home to his place from one of his first acid trips and who should they find in Roky's bed but Goldilocks herself: Sally Mann---bummer. Tommy was irritated because, as he saw it, this was a disruptive incident and it didn't fit the kind of LSD experience he was trying to provide for Roky. And so, according to Tommy, "Tried to Hide" was written with that incident in mind for all the Sally Mann's of the world. I know I left the girl at Roky's apartment; beyond that I don't know how much of the story is true. I was just following The Golden Rule. "
Roky Erickson gigs:
_August 31, in Vitoria, Spain, at the Azkena Festival - Roky Erickson & the Explosives
_September 3, in Seattle, Washington, at the Bumbershoot Festival - Roky Erickson & The Explosives
_September 6, in Portland, Oregon, at Music Fest Northwest - Roky Erickson & _The Explosives
_October 28, in Los Angeles, California, at El Rey Theater
_October 31, in San Francisco, California, at the Great American Music Hall

Set 3 - From the mundane surfaces to the soulful depths - DIY alt-pop, space pop, and Cohen's subtle interpreter:

06. Yellow Fever / "Donald" / Yellow Fever
[myspace] [YouTube1] [YouTube2]
This is the 2006 debut release from Yellow Fever, the minimalist indie pop band formed last year and fronted by the lowkey harmonizers Isabel Martin and Jennifer Moore. It's not surprising that some of their tunes hint at '60s girl groups since Moore, besides harmonizing with Voxtrot, is also a member of retro '60s-styled girl group The Carrots. Martin and drummer Adam Jones are former members of Robots, Please! (which made my best albums list of 2003) and several other groups that followed (a more detailed history of Yellow Fever and its antecedents can be found at Austin Sound).
Yellow Fever released Cats and Rats, its second CD, no later than July.
Gigs:
_Tuesday, August 21, 8 pm, Emo's
_August 25, 10 pm, Mohawk - KVRX benefit
_August 30, 8 pm, Emo's - with Horse + Donkey

07. Hit Space / "Trash" / (verb)
[myspace]
This alt pop/rock band features two former members of Sixteen Deluxe, guitarist/singer Carrie Clark and bassist Jeff Copas. This is from their debut, released in December or January, although several 2007 recordings can be heard at their myspace page.
Gigs:
_August 25, 12:30 am, Hole in the Wall
_September 21, 8 pm, Scoot Inn

08. Monster Movie / "Hope I Find the Moon" / All Lost
[myspace] [website]
This is a London duo whose lush and dreamy pop recordings have been augmented beautifully by the vocals of Austin's Rachel Goldstar ([website], [myspace]) of Experimental Aircraft ([website], [myspace]). All Lost was released in April of last year and is one of at least two albums from the band to feature Goldstar prominently. Rachel has also been a member of Austin bands the Swells, the Black Angels, the Weirding (referenced in this 2003 Austin Chronicle article about the synth band scene), and Bees are Black, and has also recorded and performed as a solo artist. Her latest project is All in the Golden Afternoon ([myspace]).
All in the Golden Afternoon gigs:
_Saturday, August 18, 9 pm, The Rocking Tomato

09. Octopus Project & Black Moth Super Rainbow / "Elq Milq" / The House of Apples and Eyeballs
[Austin Sounds review of CD]; Octopus Project links: [myspace] [website] [YouTube]
The Austin theremin-and-synth band Octopus Project collaborated for a year by internet with Pittsburg's Black Moth Super Rainbow to produce this mash-up released on Halloween last year. Octopus Project's latest CD, Hello, Avalanche, will be released on October 9. There's a lovely tune from the new CD with multiple, harmonizing theremins on their myspace page.
Octopus Project gigs:
The band is playing 75 shows across North America from August 17 through November 16 (when they finally return to Austin for a show at Emo's). They will have copies of their new CD available at their shows before the official CD release date in October, just as soon as they arrive from the plant, according to an August 16 announcement on their blog. Show listings can be found at their myspace page.

10. Kosmodrome / "All of My Space Heroes are Dead, Part 3" / All of My Space Heroes are Dead
[myspace] [website]
This is the experimental electronic duo formed by Peter Telckavich and Justin Sweatt in 2003, two musicians influenced by Russian history and imagery, and the art movements of the fluxists, dadaists, and situationists.
The album reached our music library in April 2006. Here's how Kosmodrome describes it:
"All My Space Heroes Are Dead are the shortest single songs by Kosmodrome. We created them with the idea that maybe we needed some radio tracks. Although we wish that there was some way that a radio could play a whole Kosmodrome song. We do realize that it would be quite hard to do so because of time constraints.
These nine songs represent some edits that were done to the original song whose run time was about twenty six minutes in length."

11. Proem / "Social Piranha" / A Permanent Solution
[artist description & in-depth interview] [album description/reviews]
Proem is Richard Bailey, an electronic artist often placed under the IDM (Intelligent Digital Music) umbrella, although his music has a more melodic element than many in this genre. In fact, this piece is one of two on the CD revolving around an almost classical music piano keyboard sound. This track is from his latest of many releases, available since early this year.

12. Jgrzinich / "Fluid Itinerancy" (excerpt) / Intimations
[website]
Jgrzinich is John Grzinich, an experimental ambient/electronic artist from Austin who has been living in Estonia for several years now. This track is from his first full-length solo album which was released in New Zealand in 2004. It incorporates environmental recordings made in various locations around the world, including Austin while he still lived here.

13. Jennifer Warnes / "Ballad of the Runaway Horse" / Famous Blue Raincoat: 20th Anniversary Edition
[website]
It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years since the original release of Jennifer Warnes' most acclaimed CD, and the one which firmly established her as a leading interpreter of the songs of Leonard Cohen, a territory which Judy Collins had staked out in the '60s. The album was re-issued on August 7, remastered and with 4 additional tunes, 3 of which involve Austin artistry, including this track. I first heard "Ballad of the Runaway Horse" in 1988 on bassist Rob Wasserman's then brand-new Duets CD, and the duet on that track was Wasserman's bass and Warnes' quiet vocals. The version appearing on the Famous Blue Raincoat re-release is a much fuller production arranged by none other than Austin's own Stephen Barber, keyboardist of Austin's legendary 1970s jazz fusion band, the Electromagnets, a bad which featured a very young Eric Johnson on guitar. Hidden among the instrumentalists on "Ballad of the Runaway Horse" is another well-known Austin musician, blues rocker Doyle Bramhall II ([website], [myspace]) on guitar, known for his work with the Arc Angels, his solo career, and guest spots with artists like Eric Clapton, B.B. King, and Roger Waters. Here are some interesting video excerpts of Bramhall playing at the Alamo (with the Arc Angels) and at the Great Wall of China (with Eric Clapton's highly complementary voice-over). Here's a DVD source for the Alamo concert and a listing of other internet material of interest regarding Bramhall.
Two of the other bonus tracks on the new version of Famous Blue Raincoat feature accompaniment from Austin's Mitch Watkins, and on the nine tracks from the original album you'll find several other current or former Austinites as producers, arrangers, or musicians, including Roscoe Beck ( [website], [myspace]), Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Bill Ginn.

Set 4 - Another songwriting diva interprets an icon:

14. Kim Richey / "Texas Girl at the Funeral of Her Father" / Sail Away: The Songs of Randy Newman
[website] [myspace] [October 2002 interview, where she states that she has moved to Austin]
Kim Richey, who became established in Nashville in 1988, has been lumped with the contemporary country crowd, several of whom have scored with her songs, even though her own style is much more inclusive, including pop and Americana. She moved to Austin from Nashville in 2002, but apparently she has returned to Nashville, as more recent information on the internet once again lists Nashville as her current home. On an album paying tribute to the songs of Randy Newman released in May of last year, she sings this mournful, subdued, Newman-penned tune. Her latest album under her own name, Chinese Boxes, became available in stores on July 10th.
Gigs:
_Tonight, August 16, 8 pm, "Unplugged at the Grove" series
_September 6, in Chicago, Illinois, 9 am, at Schuba's
_September 7, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at Cedar Cultural Center
_September 8, in Madison, Wisconsin, at the High Noon Saloon
_more gigs listed on her myspace page