Meatloaf has moved to Austin. Jazz notable Esperanza Spaulding supposedly lives here, too. Ditto Greg Rolle of Santana, Greg Ginn of Black Flag and John Doe. Glad to have ‘em, but these folks are not to be referred to as “Austin musicians.” It takes more than a ZIP code that starts with 787 to truly […]
It was the longest, scariest night of my life, the time my son Jack came home from the hospital after being born. His mother and I had several people over to share in our joy, but when the baby started crying, then didn’t stop, our friends wisely said goodnight and left us with our cluelessness. […]
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 […]
By Michael Corcoran Louis Black of the Austin Chronicle likes to think he discovered novice me working in a t-shirt shop and that the Chron made me what I am today. What follows are over 4,000 words that prove the first part wrong. But he’s completely right that my column for the Austin Chronicle from […]
Buoyed by Crumb’s accolades for Honolulu Babylon, Rollo Invited me to come back to Hawaii and stay with him to made another Babylon. Winter to Albany, New York or Oahu? I didn’t have enough money to fly all the way back, so I bought a one-way Greyhound bus ticket from New York City to San […]
Donna was from Mount Vernon, New York, near the city. I stayed with my aunts and uncles in Suffolk County on Long Island. Our plan was to save up enough money to get an apartment together in Manhattan. This was 1979. There was no Brooklyn or Queens. Rents in Manhattan were outrageous, even then, […]
My Sunbums glory year was over by 1976. There were a couple bad years after that. I wrote for a cheezy tourist rag called “Hotlines Hawaii” and had my first real fling with the art director Pam Baxter, who had lots of cool stories about living with photographer Bob Gruen. (Another namedrop: Pam started seeing […]
Being a new student senior year is awkward enough, but my last year of high school was wholly unremarkable because 1) Thanks to hardcore schooling in Idaho, I had to go only half day to meet my grad requirements and 2) There was a teacher’s strike that closed schools for about two months. So while my […]
By Michael Corcoran Justice has prevailed. John “Johnny Wadd” Holmes has AIDS! Finally, the guy whose member looked like the whole damn club has paid his debt to a society of guys whose sexual satisfaction came mainly from tossing off in sweaty stag closets while Big John eyed Miss Utah runners-up and went about filling […]
