At the time that we crowned Constellations as our current album of the month we had no news of a release party – but news has now arrived: Balmorhea will celebrate their upcoming release at the Central Presbyterian Church downtown on February 19th, doors at 8 pm. Singer-songwriter Damien Jurado – who happens to be a favorite with the Deli editor – will be there to open. 

The Readers’ Poll segment of our very first annual Emerging Artist of the Year survey is drawing to a close…poll will close on the 15th (Friday). Right now International Waters, Stereo Is a Lie, The Sour Notes (pictured above, & slated to play the Mohawk on the 28th), Missions, and Whitman are enjoying a lot of love from Deli Austin readers. If you haven’t voted yet, here’s your chance, and if you’re among the nominated, good luck! We’ll be crowning a winner shortly…

(Editor: Bit of a break from form here for us to write up a cover band, but when the band has shared bills with Follow That Bird, Persian Wars, The Octopus Project, and Sunset, you know they’re not your average cover band. Ellen Green brings us the story on possibly the best-named band around Austin…) 

At the park with my daughter on a Sunday…my friend Professor Barry Stone of Texas State University and his daughter approached.  He had a really wide grin on his face. 

 

"You ready? I saw an all girl Guns N’ Roses cover band last night!"

That was all I needed to hear, but it gets better. 

 "They’re called Paradise Titty…" 

 

It’s almost to good to be true. Paradise Titty…PARADISE TITTY! Growing up in the 80’s I remember going to see The Cult in 87′ supporting their album, (yes, album), Electric. Some silly band called Guns N’ Roses were opening for them. What a shit name for a band, I thought. Seriously, Guns N’ Roses, how melodramatic. How Poison of them! I wasn’t looking forward to seeing them. How could I know they were going to change rock at the time, for the better?? Watching Axl swerve and move, with that ridiculous voice, he was amazing. They all were….they were punks, too. Axl kicked a guy in the face for screaming "Bring on The Cult!" Temper, temper. As this was all flashing in my mind, I wondered, is Paradise Titty going to recapture the angst, the power, the undeniable force that was GNR?? I recently had the opportunity to meet them at the Highball on Lamar to find out. I spent over 2 hours with the ladies and talked shop and about their love of cowbells. 

 

 

 

The vocals for this particular band is so crucial! How did you find [lead singer] Kitty? 

 

Lori: Wow! The auditions!

Beth: We have some really good audition stories.

Emily: Well, they weren’t all bad! But it’s just when Kitty came in, we were like Oh my Gosh, she just had it. 

Deb: We had some come in that were singers around town and then we had a few that were going to come in but kind of chickened out. I think because they realized we wanted a commitment. Or they could really sing, but when they tried singing along to their cd, they were like, forget it! 

Beth: We had some amazing singers, but weren’t the right style. Just random.  Yeah, we had people come in completely unprepared, didn’t know any of the words…

 

Didn’t know the words to GNR’s songs?? 

 

Emily: It was sort of like American Idol. You know, the nights where it’s all about the messing up. But some were really great! And then we had a girl who brought her band mate in, you know, to see if the "girls" could play. 

Lori: That’s why I want to blow peoples’ faces off! We’re women playing these GNR’s songs. 

Emily: Yea, like everyone is like, oh you play like all of those Slash parts?? And I’m like, yeah!

Beth: She really does!

Emily: I really do!! 

Lori: If people could see Emily playing these Slash parts, it’s like she’s just taking a walk in the park.

Emily: Sometimes people will tell me, you need to look like you’re trying to play the guitar because you don’t make any of the faces!

 

So, tell me about Kitty?

 

Beth: Man, we all knew she was the one!

Lori: That’s for sure, it was like dating. 

Beth: You know, before Kitty, someone would come in and had a little bit of this we liked, but needed more of that. Like dating, when the one walks through the door, it’s like, ok we’re done. 

Lori: And we all felt that way about Kitty. Everyone. And so we were all nervous about it and thinking…is she going to call me back?? What do I do? What do I do? Because when you really like someone, you really give a shit and you think man, I want to make the right move. 

Emily: And we tell her that now and she thinks it’s so funny! Because she was nervous, too.

Beth: Well, we wanted to have a really tight band before we even auditioned a singer. We didn’t want to be loose and then have a professional singer come in and we have this loose band. They’re not going to take it seriously. So we tightened it up before we even auditioned. 

 

What inspires you musically, obviously outside of GNR?

 

Lori: GNR, Whitesnake (giggling), I LOVE 80’s hair music. But I don’t listen to it all of the time. I grew up listening to country music. You know, if there was a girls’ rock camp, my parents would take me to girls’ country camp. I grew up on a farm, I barrel raced. But I mean, I like avant-garde, I was listening to that on the way over here. I love jazz music pretty much everything. I’m really inspired by music, except for rap and some of this no poppy whiney indie stuff. 

Beth: I like the whiney indie music (laughs). I grew up on The Cure! I actually did really like GNR in college, but hadn’t really listened to it again until I started learning the music. I actually dressed up as Axl for Halloween one year. Back in college! But I just got into more underground indie stuff, like I listened to Radiohead. I mean I even got into the folk thing for a minute, but then quickly got out of that. I mean I listen to The Strokes and The White Stripes and stuff like that. But, I grew up on Debbie Gibson because I’m from Connecticut. I grew up on the mall singers. New wave, too. Then Oingo Boingo hit and it was all over. I loved them. 

Deb: I grew up in Detroit, so I was listening to a lot of hard rock. Like hard rock, hard rock. But then my dad was listening to a lot of John Denver and Johnny Cash and so I listened to all of those albums. But I was listening to hard rock until high school and then got into new wave, and punk, not goth, I got into a lot of the hard core bands, but I didn’t have a mohawk or anything. I liked the Dead Kennedys, the Circle Jerks….I was really into X in high school and college. They’re still one of my all time favorite bands. 

 

X is still one of my all time favorite shows. Rocked my face.

 

Beth: That’s what GNR is all about! Rocking your face! We call ourselves Paradise Titty because that’s what it’s all about… GNR. We are so excited to play.

Deb: Ahhh, there she is!

(Kitty, the lead singer, was late because she had been stuck in traffic for an hour and a half, poor dear!)

Emily: Oh, Kitty!! Come here!

Lori: Come closer, sit down.

Emily: We were like, she’s like Axl, she’s not going to show up!

 

Kitty, did you sing growing up?

 

Kitty: There were not a lot of opportunities for me growing up singing wise, so I sang at a lot of oprys doing country music. I love country music. 

 

This is totally not pc, but you don’t look like you would love country music.

 

Kitty: Oh!! You should see pictures! Me in a cowboy hat and long black curly hair. I used to sing every Tuesday night at this place called Billy Bob’s.

 

What are your plans for Paradise Titty?

 

Lori: We need to slap some photos up of the band. I’m ready to put a picture of my cat up on facebook. Although, they wouldn’t let us put Titty in the name. We’re on there under Paradise T. But that’s ok. We haven’t found any evidence of another all girl GNR cover band out there. That market hasn’t been saturated, yet. 

 

So, what is the draw for coming to see you play?

 

Deb: It really is like going to see a GNR show. That’s how I would describe it. And for people who love GNR and their classic songs, you’re going to love us. Great rock songs, it’s a great show. 

Beth: It’s high energy, it’s really a fast, hard show. We have a lot of energy, but more than that, there’s a lot of energy in the crowd. Everybody knows all of the words, and they’re singing and looking at their neighbor going (Beth plays air guitar at this point and hums a lick from a song) Like come on!!! Let’s go!!

Emily: I even had a friend who didn’t really like GNR come to our show and loved every minute of it. Couldn’t get enough. 

Beth: There are a lot of secret GNR fans. 

Deb: It’s a great rock show, period. And everybody seems to have their personal reasons, whether it’s high school memories, or whatever, but they love GNR. Everyone can relate to where they were when these songs came out. 

Kitty: I’m always thinking, I better not fuck these words up! (laughter) Seriously, there are so many words and it’s so fast and I’m running around and out of breath. Then I look out into the crowd and I see everyone singing every single word. I BETTER NOT FUCK THESE WORDS UP!!

Lori: It’s almost like a rap, there are so many words. Like, I was singing bullshit, like "surfing nipples on the side of the street". I am terrible with the words. 

Kitty: It’s "Just an urchin living on the side of the street."

Lori: Oh ok. 

 

I have to say, I don’t care if Kitty messes up the words, people! Paradise Titty will, I guarantee, rock your face off. Check them out this Friday, January 15th, at Stubb’s.

 

–Ellen Green 

 

 

 

S U R V I V E, who do their thing on the Light Lodge label, and who like some space between their letters in order to truly stretch out, will be out at Hailey’s in Denton this Jan. 30th. Their track Holographic Landscapes was described by 20jazzfunkgreats as "a bit like an analogue incarnation of Rustie taking a couple of notes from Eduard Artemiev’s poetic account of a supernova imploding upon itself in a storm of strobe lights which are but morse signals from God’s ship as it sails across the empty black sludge of space" – which is pretty much exactly what we were going to say. 

The News of Spoon ramps up fast & furious as the release of Transference (January 19) approaches: firstly, you are lucky to live in Austin, because they’ll play an instore, or technically, an out-of-store, in the Waterloo parking lot on January 25th at 4 pm (weather permitting), secondly, they’ve announced tour dates (below, including kickoff at Stubb’s), and also tour companions, which will include yet another fast-rising Austin act, The Strange Boys, and lastly, you can stream Transference right now right here. 

P.S. – Also happening in the non-Spoon universe: local original cosmic cowboy Ray Wylie Hubbard drops A: Enlightenment B: Endarkenment (Hint: There is no C) today. 

Spoon Dates…

Wed Mar 17 // Stubb’s // Austin, TX 
Thurs Mar 18 // Republic // New Orleans, LA * tix
Fri Mar 19 // Workplay Soundstage // Birmingham, AL * tix
Sat Mar 20 // Tabernacle // Atlanta, GA * tix
Mon Mar 22 // 9:30 Club // Washington DC * tix
Tues Mar 23 // 9:30 Club // Washington DC * tix
Wed Mar 24 // The National // Richmond, VA * tix
Fri Mar 26 // Radio City Music Hall // New York, NY * tix
Sat Mar 27 // House of Blues // Boston, MA * tix
Mon Mar 29 // Sound Academy // Toronto, ON * tix
Tues Mar 30 // Royal Oak Music Theatre // Royal Oak, MI * tix
Thurs Apr 01 // Aragon Theatre // Chicago, IL & tix
Fri Apr 02 // First Avenue // Minneapolis, MN & tix
Sat Apr 03 // First Avenue // Minneapolis, MN & tix
Mon Apr 05 // Ogden Theatre // Denver, CO & tix
Tues Apr 06 // Ogden Theatre // Denver, CO & tix
Wed Apr 07 // In The Venue // Salt Lake City, UT & tix
Fri Apr 09 // Moore Theatre // Seattle, WA & tix
Sat Apr 10 // Moore Theatre // Seattle, WA & tix
Sun Apr 11 // Orpheum Theatre // Vancouver, BC & tix
Tues Apr 13 // Fox Oakland Theatre // Oakland, CA & tix

* with Deerhunter, The Strange Boys
& with Deerhunter, Micachu & the Shapes 

Under the moniker Cheeto FOol, Jonathan Aseron writes pop songs about girls, dreams, loneliness, and longing. Using an 8-track, guitar, and synthesizer, Jonathan records at home in South Austin. Most of his songs are guitar-based; a combination of acoustic sounds with layered synth and electronic percussion. The musical arrangements are made up of simple melodic riffs that feed off of laid back but emotionally charged vocals. With a distinct pop sensibility and an ear towards song craft, Cheeto FOol’s music feels immediate and warm. His influences include Grandaddy, Magnetic Fields, and the Flaming Lips to name a few.

(this post taken from our DIY Open Blog, check out other Open Blog posts in the Deli Kitchen)

In conjunction with the release of the anagrammatic comp Casual Victim Pile (that’s ‘Live Music Capital’ re-scrambled – someone had fun with a Scrabble set) WOXY, Austinist, and Matador records will be presenting a series of shows at Beerland this Feb. 4th – 6th. Included will be the freshly scrubbed but slightly dizzy band Follow That Bird (pictured above). Also worth knowing: "WOXY is giving away three-night passes between now and February 4: send us an email to woxycontests @ gmail.com and use the subject line Casual Victim Pile. We’ll let you know if you’ve won by Feb. 4." 

Show lineups…

2/4
Follow That Bird!
Dikes Of Holland
Kingdom Of Suicide Lovers
Distant Seconds
The Persimmons

2/5
Woven Bones
The Young
Wild America
Flesh Lights
Elvis
The No No No Hopes

2/6
Harlem
Golden Boys
Bad Sports
Love Collector
Stuffies
Lost Controls

Hard to pick just a handful out of the wild array of Austin bands out there tonight playing for the cuddly price of No Money Whatsoever, but here’s what’s making our feet tap today: Mohawk has a terrific lineup both inside and out, including Brazos, TV Torso, Great Nostalgic (that trio outside – worth braving the chill), Ume, Many Birthdays, and more. Strange Attractors play Red 7, the enigmatic Zookeeper graces the Parish along with Suzanna Choffel and the consistently underestimated Wiretree, Emo’s features what will be one of the last sets by Haunting Oboe Music (pictured above and soon calling it quits) + one of our recent Open Contest winners, The Eastern Sea. And you will soon be able to vote in our mega-mega Year End Poll. That’s quite a Thursday…there is also some sort of sporting contest happening tonight, which, whatever the result, works as a nice lead-in to an evening of free music. Get on out there. 

Hey fellow Austinians,

We apologize for being a little slow lately with all things related to our Best of Nashville 2009 poll for emerging indie artists. Our NYC Readers’ Poll (which we recommend you to check out here) has brought an unexpected amount of traffic to our site, which has caused our server to crash several times yesterday, making us waste a lot of time. Because of this we decided to postpone slightly the beginning of some of the other cities’ readers’ polls, Austin included.

Anyhoo… we just finished collecting the nominations from our knowledgeable and attractive panel of jurors and we are now ready to hit you all with an impressive list of awesome local, emerging and 100% independent artists. If you’d like to learn more about our voting process, please check out the rules here. 

While we are organizing the list of nominees for the readers’ poll, we wanted to announce the winners of our Open Contest. For those unaware, this Contest is the part of our Best of Austin Poll that nominates artists through an open submission system – while the majority of our finalists are freely selected by a jury of local bloggers, promoters and scenemakers. We’d like to thank all the artists who participated in our Open Contest, the ones who submitted directly, and the ones who qualified throughout 2009 by winning our monthly polls. 

Choosing the winners was not an easy decision to make for The Deli writers, which is a testament to our amazing music scene. We are happy to announce that the following artists qualified for the next phase of the poll:

Monahans: 9

Authors: 8

Drew Smith: 7.5

The Eastern Sea: 7.5

Special congratulations to Monahans (in the picture) who were the overall winners of our Open Contest!

The Austin Best of 2009 Readers’ Poll will start soon, keep an eye out for it on the right column under all those logos!

The Deli’s Staff

 

 

The very very Austin phenomenon that is Free Week is in full swing, and the cornucopia of live music to be heard at Agent Zero prices includes – and we’re just talking about Wednesday night here – Scorpion Child at the Mohawk, Midgetmen & The Gary at Red 7, Mobley at Club Deville, Wine & Revolution and Hollywood Gossip at The Parish, Strange Attractors and New Roman TImes at Beauty Bar, and Brothers & Sisters, The Laughing, and Oh No Oh My at Emo’s.

That list is by no means comprehensive. Those are just samples – there’s a handful of up & comers at every Free Week venue. If you spent 2009 thinking about seeing more live music in 2010, spend 2010 seeing more live music, and thinking about spending more time on your couch. Just to mix things up.

 

Though we haven’t been sleeping much lately, we slept on this a bit: here are the Strange Boys’ upcoming, recently announced, 2010 tour dates, kicking off with a show at Emo’s Feb. 19th.

                  Friday Feb 19th Austin @ Emo’s *#                 

                  Sun Feb 21 Marfa TX @ Padre’s *
                  Tues  Feb 23 Phoenix, AZ @ Trunk Space *
                  Wed Feb 24 San Diego, CA  @ Casbah *
                  Thurs Feb 25 Isla Vista, CA @ Biko Garage *
                  Fri Feb 26 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo *
                  Sat Fat 27 San Francisco CA @ Elbo Room *$
                  Sun Feb 28 Reno, Nevada @ Rainshadow Community Charter High School *
                  Tues March 2 Salem, OR @ The Space *%
                  Wed March 3 Olympia, WA @ Northern *%
                  Thurs March 4 Seattle WA @ Comet Tavern *&
                  Fri March 5 Vancouver BC @ Media Club *
                  Sat March 6 Portland OR @ East End *
                  Sun March 7 – Boise, ID @ Visual Arts Collective
                  Mon March 8 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
                  Tue March 9 – Denver, CO @ Hi Dive
                  Wed March 10 –  Boulder, CO @ University of Colorado – Club 156
                  Fri Mar 12 – Lubbock, TX @ Bash Riprock’s

                  * = w/ Chain and the Gang
                  # = w/ Yellow Fever
                  % = w/ The Hive Dwellers
                  & = w/ Lovvers
                  $ = w/ Ty Segall, Nodzzz

 

 

Are we on board? Are we feeling this? Are we ready for the January 26th release of Casual Victim Pile on the uber-hip Matador label, featuring all up & coming Austin artists? And most importantly, are we mentally and spiritually prepared for the accompanying multi-night showcase promised to occur at Beerland? Eh?