(Written the year before SXSW) For most people who’ve even bothered to consider it, Austin music is Stevie Ray Vaughan, PBS’s Austin City Limits, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Willie Nelson, Joe “King” Carrasco, Jerry Jeff Walker and Joe Ely. But then most people think New York City is only Manhattan. If Thomas Wolfe were an Austinite […]
by Michael Corcoran “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned” – W.B. Yeats, “The Second Coming.” NEW YORK CITY — It’s a long Tuesday, this 21st of April, 1998, which begins for Fastball with a 9 a.m. live acoustic appearance on some stupid radio station on Long Island. In […]
OASIS `BE HERE NOW’ (Epic) **** Even when they were so unknown that they had to feud with Blur to get noticed, Manchester, England, band OASIS — led by a pair of uncouth party yobs named Gallagher — laid claim to the title of the best band on the planet. On their third album, “Be […]
by Michael Corcoran “Free-form radio will not die as long as I’m alive,” Larry Monroe told the Austin Chronicle in 1997. Thirteen years later, he signed off at KUT, which had cut his hours on-air and implemented a partial playlist. “I’m Larry Monroe, and I’ll see you in the future,” the DJ said at the […]
Sorry, Matt Damon, but we’re gonna be running out of time for you in Austin March 10-14. Jimmy Kimmel‘s nationally-televised talk show will be produced in Austin during South by Southwest, a source with ABC confirmed Thursday. The five shows will be taped at the Long Center from March 10-14, to be aired later each […]
TWEETS FROM SXSW 1989 “The registration line was insane. That’s 20 minutes of my life I won’t get back.” “Do you know where Saturday’s day party is?” “Austin learned it’s lesson from the Armadillo. No way are they gonna tear down Liberty Lunch for an office building.” “I’m in such a hurry I’m gonna have […]
Churchwood video for “I Have a Devil In Me” The band Churchwood has one of the greatest Austin music videos of all time. It’s for the bluesy rock song “I Have a Devil In Me” and features a rotund man in a Speedo dancing with joy in an exercise class at a resort. It’s had […]
By Michael Corcoran At first, Rodney Reed said he didn’t know the victim. “It wasn’t me.” But after being presented with DNA evidence that he’d had sex with the 19-year-old woman, he changed his story. It was consensual sex, he finally admitted, but because he’s black and she’s white, he had to keep it on […]
Originally published in 2006. by Michael Corcoran BIG SANDY. Nakia Derrick couldn’t believe what he was seeing on his TV one afternoon a couple of months ago. The lifelong resident of this one-stoplight East Texas town 100 miles east of Dallas was watching ESPN when his faded yellow mobile home appeared on the screen. He […]
Bill Carter: Austin Chronicle Okkervil River: Darkness In the Heart of Town Ramsay’s Midwood Crisis: Austin Chronicle 12/5
