Houston Complains: Austin Has Traffic, Bad Music and Red Eyed Fly is Our Only Venue

Armadillo World Headquarters, 1976, by Steve Hopson

The Statesman brought our attention to a Houston Press story which detailed the ways in which Austin is no longer the cool place it used to be. Once again, it's the age-old story about how the good ole days died with the Armadillo, the music scene is too modern, and the traffic is bad (ironic complaint from a Houstonian about our traffic duly noted). Greg Ellis, a record store manager in San Marcos is quoted as complaining: "Tell me what the cool venue is in Austin right now. There’s not one. There’s nothing like Liberty Lunch or the Beach or anything like that anymore. You’ve got the Red Eyed Fly, which is okay, but it’s a hellhole, really. And then you’ve got…um…Stubb’s I guess is the coolest thing that you’ve got. And that’s controlled by [corporate concert promoters] C3, and there you go. You wanna go see Primus at Stubb’s? Well, that’ll be $45. Lauryn Hill? $63. That’s not Austin.”

The tired argument about our city's worth based on a LSD-induced hallucination from the '70s doesn't seem to go away, does it? Can't we pay homage to our roots while understanding that time doesn't stand still? And if we all love live music and our music community is so damned important, shouldn't we take some time to engage with and appreciate what we've evolved to? Maybe Beerland or Mohawk or Red 7 or Trailer Space isn't for everyone, but it can definitely be argued that what's happening right beneath the surface here in Austin right now is pretty remarkable -- you just have to want to see it. Even if that right-beneath-the-surface stuff isn't for you, it seems obvious that we're in better shape than Ellis, a man who apparently doesn't get out of San Marcos much, lets on. You've never seen an interesting show happen on Red River? Emo's and Parish absolutely never have anything worthwhile? Really? Do they remember that a big part of the reason the Armadillo was such a huge deal is thanks to the touring bands not from Austin stopping by?

John Nova Lomax continued the complain-train, saying, "Today, save for the old-timers, there’s no Austin music that “sounds like Austin” the way the cosmic cowboys, retro-blues folks, and even the Austin punks and new-wavers did. The bands that have created national buzz out of Austin in the last five or ten years — Ghostland Observatory, Spoon, Okkervil River, the Octopus Project — could just as easily be from Portland, Brooklyn, Toronto or San Francisco. Likewise, today’s Austin City Limits could as easily be called Indie City Limits. But that’s a national trend: music everywhere is starting to sound like music anywhere."

Ok, we get it. We not only have to have a very particular kind of attitude, we have to have a very particular kind of sound. A sound that, we gather, sounds something like vintage Roky Erickson and Asleep at the Wheel. That seems fair.

Look, Houston. We don't need to be the coolest. Part of being cool is not noticing that shit. And we're not perfect; we complain all the time about shows being social hour and crappy bands getting recognition just because they have a 'captivating live show' (read: a couple lasers). But honestly, if you're going to slight us by basically reciting every retired person's list of life complaints (traffic, new construction, these kids today) then you might want to be prepared for some exasperated sighs. Especially when the criticism is so clearly out of touch. Our favorite example? The Dallas Observer writer's response when they re-published the story was "The town’s just a magnet for wannabe blog darlings.” Because it's 2003. Pete Mongillo waded through the most hilarious comments for us already, but you can read the rest of the Dallas Observers uh, observations, here.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Paige Maguire in News on June 17, 2011 10:22 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

smotherbrother

Because when I want to know whether or not something is cool, I turn to the Dallas Observer and the Houston Press. Those rags are always on the pulse.

1_A

How many people does it take to change a light bulb in Austin........
100- 1 to change the bulb and 99 to stand around and complain about how bright it used to be!

Susan

Yes. Austin is not cool anymore. Please move out and tell all your friends in Dallas and Houston and Fresno and Raleigh how uncool Austin is. Much, much better to stay in Houston, friends.

David Fitzhugh

For anyone who's ever lived in Houston, or been in the past year, it's hard to take the notion of enjoying other

gapingvoid

Oh wow, I remember The Beach. That place rocked. And Liberty Lunch...

Of course, when I was in Austin at UT (1985-89), I remember all the 60s hippies moaning about how much cooler Austin was in their day. Plus ca change, non?

Yelsewh

Think what you like about the article itself but the "tired argument" that Austin isn't the same keeps coming up because it is true. 10+ years of massive growth and a rise to the national consciousness have changed the city's character. Whether this is good or bad depends on your perspective.

Yelsewh

One more thing: The author is 100% spot on about the rise in the douchebag quotient from ~2006 on.

Tlickona

If Lomax's article wasn't so distorted, so biased, so poorly researched, and so poorly selective with regards to who he chose to quote, I might be willing to cut him some slack for making a few valid observations. Ain't gonna happen. Granted, as the executive producer for Austin City Limits going on 34 years and the guy who books all the talent, I could take umbrage at his "Indie City Limits" quip. How ironic that "indie" (as in "independent") music now has a negative connotation among defenders of the good old days. The truth of the matter is that some of the most unique and original music being created today comes from the indie artists - and that's always been the criteria that defines Austin City Limits. Frankly I was never much of a fan of the Austin scene or music of the 70's, although I lived through it. In retrospect and in comparison to the eclectic and diverse music being created today, the music of that time seems parochial if not trivial. I'm proud that we are still a vehicle and showcase for presenting some of the best that Austin has to offer (a la Patty Griffin, Alejandro, Sarah Jarosz, Spoon, Explosions in the Sky, Black Joe Lewis, et al). Let the naysayers naysay, and I sincerely hope they ARE able to foster unique and original music scenes, careers and lifestyles of their own wherever they may be. Enough already...

Daniel Loyd

This is so laughable. Seriously? Grown men, adults, blathering about "how THAT city sucks, especially compared to how cool OUR city is!". It's juvenile.

I would argue that most people simply live in the city they like; and do not (should not) care what 'other cities' think. Austin's scene is Austin's scene. If you don't like it, you don't have to participate in it. It's full of great people who are making it their OWN scene - today.

And if you think 'everything was better back in the old days', I've got plenty of aging, bitter baby boomers to introduce you to. They'd welcome the company....since they're all dying off.

Lisa Kaselak

Don't feel compelled to defend these sorts of allegations. I'd just as soon other cities thought of Austin as less than cool so they'd stop moving here!

mrtexasfreedom

Paige, I appreciate your valiant effort to defend our community reputation. I'd caution you, though, to save your energy for battles that matter. This preposterously under-researched Houston Press rant is hardly worth the wear-and-tear of keystrokes on your keyboard.

Little-known-fact: If someone from Houston is going to complain about traffic in Austin, they should know that Austin's Assistant Director of Traffic Engineering, Gary Schatz, previously worked as a Managing Engineer within Houston's traffic engineering department. He was selected for the job so he could bring all of Houston's magical traffic enhancements to our city, such as how he recently closed Bruning Avenue at the intersection of 51st and Duval in order to fix the snafu at 51st and Airport. I know that's a vague example, but if you travel through the area, you can't help but wonder if you were suddenly teleported to Houston.

mtf

Tim Thomas

Houston and Dallas have gotten much more livable. And that's fantastic for Houston and Dallas even if that makes Austin less special. But Austin's still pretty fantastically special. Sure Central Austin has become a rich white suburb full of small 'c' conservatives who want to avoid change at all costs, but we still have more vibrant theatre, dance, and music communities than pretty much any other city. We have fantastic parks and our jobs are generally more laid back and have better dress codes.

Kevin

I read the Houston article, and this statement is spot on: 'Austin is mired in an intermediate stage between overgrown town and
true metropolis..."like a good-lookin'
chick who got knocked up and can't get into her britches anymore."
What's more, a great many of the citizens can't seem to see the way
forward.' Even in terms of politics and social/culture climates, Austin isn't nearly as progressive (and different from the rest of Texas) as it would like to believe and have others believe. It's the rebel hippie 'baby' in the big conservative family. It may put up a passive-aggressive fight over the dinner table, but it's clear where its true tradition and values lie. And it's carved a nice little self-satisfied niche for itself in this regard.

karenjeannette

ugh, i meant "are just people," not "and just people."

karenjeannette

a little of what they're talking about is accurate - i mean, i don't really like that a huge chunk of the booking in this town is now centralized in one organization, and it sucks that shows are so much more expensive than they used to be (wages have hardly increased in proportion in this town). if somebody wanted to even-handedly explore some of these ideas, i think that would be great. but the obvious point of writing this piece (and therefore the primary but passive-aggressive message of it) is to take potshots at austin's music scene for the perceived benefit of other texas scenes. and that a. is pretty dumb & childish and b. mostly tends to imply that people in dallas & houston are intimidated by their austin counterparts. which makes them look silly, because as much as i love this town, the people involved in music here and just people and austin does plenty of dumb things all the time just like any other community.

GonzO

Actually, I *kind* of agree with him, and I've only been here for about six years. There's been a lot of closures of establishments that *were* Austin, and if they've been replaced, they've been replaced by something a bit more corporate and modern.

The Indie City Limits thing was dead-on, too.

On the other hand, the whole area by Emo's/Red 7/Mohawk *is* still pretty exciting.