Last week, we received a bit of good news for all street-level pharmaceutical suppliers in the greater Austin area, and maybe a few around here. Seems that after five years and one completed and abandoned album, Mr. Peppermint's son, Gibby Haynes, and his band, the Butthole Surfers, will finally have a new disc in stores. Titled Weird Revolution, the album follows up--more than a little belatedly--1996's surprise success Electriclarryland, the album that spawned "Pepper," a song that, at the time, was as inescapable as roof-decks in Deep Ellum. It's not the group's fault that Weird Revolution has taken so long to make its way from studios to stereos. The band had a new album ready way back in 1998, but Capitol Records decided not to release the disc (After the Astronaut) even after sending out advance tapes of the album and commissioning artwork for the cover. (In completely unrelated news, check out our latest eBay auction; we're seller sceneheard74.) The Buttholes bought back the master tapes of After the Astronaut in 1999, signed to a new label and went back into the studio, recording five songs with producer Rob Cavallo (known for his work with Green Day, among others) and the rest with guitarist Paul Leary at the helm. But they didn't completely abandon After the Astronaut: Songs from the album show up on the new disc, including the former title track Weird Revolution's title song--which is a Malcolm X speech read by Haynes--probably won't end up on the copies that show up in stores in late August, since the song has yet to be cleared by Malcolm X's estate, and smart money says it won't be. Remember: We're eBay seller sceneheard74. Don't forget that...
While most labels would be fairly ecstatic that an album by one of its new bands immediately entered the charts in its first week of release, Wind-Up Entertainment was apparently disappointed with the initial sales of Drowning Pool's debut for the label, Sinner. Sure, the band sold 18,750 copies of Sinner (according to the figures we received from SoundScan), and sure, the disc ranked No. 11 among albums making their first appearance on the Top 200 Album Sales chart, and No. 81 overall. (And No. 1 in your hearts. OK, maybe not.) But from what we've heard, that wasn't quite good enough for Wind-Up. The label was expecting sales of at least 30,000, since the first single from Sinner, "Bodies," is in heavy rotation at various radio stations across the country. And, uh, also because most metal fans are bigger sheep (albeit ba-ba-black sheep) than all those tweens with A.J. and/or A.C. posters in their lockers, quick to get behind any band that looks and sounds like Drowning Pool. Really, you can't blame Wind-Up for being a little disappointed, given that situation. But they shouldn't worry too much; everything will be fine now that Ozzfest 2001--featuring Drowning Pool, as well as Marilyn Manson and Slipknot--is off and running. (The tour hits Smirnoff Music Centre on July 5.) If it can make stars out of every other marginal band in this country, it can probably do the same for Drowning Pool. Count on it...
The Nourallah Brothers will be performing in Amsterdam on June 29 and 30--a live recording for VPRO Radio--but it won't really be the Nourallah Brothers. Yes, the band will be playing the songs from the group's self-titled debut from last year, but only one of the brothers, Salim, will be in attendance. "Faris can't go because he has completely withdrawn from any sort of public performance," Salim says of his brother. "Refer to Andy Partridge for details." Making the all-expenses-paid trip to Amsterdam with Salim instead will be guitarists Paul Averitt and Steve Duncan, members of the other band he's in, The Happiness Factor. With that in mind, we wouldn't be terribly surprised if a few Happiness Factor tunes made their way into the set. But then again, earlier this morning, we were instructed by a homeless man to holler when we saw the devil, before explaining further that the white man is, in fact, the devil. So nothing is really surprising at the moment...
Based on our previous experiences with Roanoke, one of those tiny towns in the gray area between Dallas and Fort Worth that no one really goes to unless their grandparents live there, we wouldn't necessarily expect the city to be the host of something called Massive Music & Arts Festival. But since it's the festival's second year in existence, we're sure everyone else has already gotten past that fact. Scheduled to happen on July 7 at the Hawkwood Fairgrounds, Massive Festival will feature "diverse styles of music on seven stages," or so says the posters littering many of your finer telephone poles in Deep Ellum. Providers of the diverse styles include former Mad Flava DJ Baby G, Sub Oslo, DJ Nature, Skwod X, Tee Bee, AB, Garth, Quirk, Mark Allen, DJ Mea, John Howard, Spoonfed Tribe and, more than likely, lots more. The shindig will run from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m., but don't try to find more information at www.massivefestival.com; the site does not exist, despite what the fest's posters might have you believe. Call the 24-hour information line, (817) 355-4808, if you need a little help. Or just close your eyes and concentrate, and we'll call you with the answer to your question.
