The people in the cars crawling up and down Manchaca Road at just past 6 p.m. on a recent Tuesday had no idea that just 30 yards away, Old Austin was jamming with New Austin inside a packed music venue. To evening commuters, Crockett Center is just a dingy row of storefronts between Ben White […]
The building at 1320 S. Lamar Blvd. had been the site of several clubs previously, but when Joe Ables and Craig Hillis opened the Saxon Pub in June 1990, 20 years ago this month, they created something altogether different than the earlier barfly incarnations such as the Boss’ Office, the Living Room and Madison’s. They […]
April 5,2002 by Michael Corcoran Tuesday night J.J. Cale rocked a sold-out Texas Union Ballroom to its rafters — and you could still hear your foot tapping on the hardwood floors. The 63-year-old Oklahoma native created a beautiful tension by playing groove-oriented songs such as “Louisiana Night” and “Anyway the Wind Blows” in an impossibly […]
We all fit into one cab. The driver charged us $20 for the six-mile drive from Nuevo Laredo to the legal brothel hood, Boystown, which was slightly less than we had spent on three hotel rooms for the night. They used to have horse racing in Nuevo Laredo, just across the border into Mexico and […]
By Michael Corcoran The live music venues. That’s the key component to the whole thing. Musicians need audiences and whatever money they can get. But running a live music club in Austin doesn’t make financial sense. Everybody wants to be on the guest list and hosting bands is expensive, with the extra equipment and personnel […]
Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert was recently fined $75,000 for using the ghetto slang term “no homo,” which is what hip-hop fans say when words come out of their mouths that make them sound gay, like “LeBron stretched me out.” It’s the “That’s what she said” for guys who secretly want to give Michael Jordan […]
The sailors and soldiers called it “Shit Street.” During Vietnam and a few years after, Hotel Street in Honolulu’s Chinatown was the Broadway of the skankiest red light district in the country. Haven’t been to them all, but can still say that with authority. There were live sex shows, transvestite revues, gypsy fortuneswindlers and whorehouses […]
In March 2003, as American troops were poised to invade Iraq, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks decided to make a statement against President Bush that delighted the audience in England. But when the news was picked up in the States, the Chicks’ skyrocket to the top hit a wall. Suddenly, they lost a huge […]
From December 1984, when I filled in for Margaret Moser while she was on her honeymoon with my former roommate Rollo Banks, until June 1988 I wrote a music gossip column for the Austin Chronicle called “Don’t You Start Me Talking.” I got some crystal meth to help pen the first one and it worked […]
Her voice sounds like Stevie Nicks the morning after a screaming fight with Lindsay Buckingham in Rio, but Susanna Choffel’s honeyed husk warmed a chilly evening for an hour and 40 minutes Thursday at KGSR’s “Unplugged At the Grove.” Total mystery why the Austin High product now living in Manhattan isn’t a bigger star. Besides […]
