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Our friends and fellow Village Voice worker bees at the Seattle Weekly have a busy weekend in front of them, walking themselves silly covering Bumbershoot, the Emerald City’s annual music/arts Labor Day weekend smorgasbord. Headliners this year include New Mexicans made good the Shins, emo thespians Panic! at the Disco, soul smoothie John Legend, hairy neo-boogie princes Kings of Leon, drone demons Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, those crazy Wu-Tang Clan kids and, um, Fergie. Representing the Lone Star State are Roky Erickson & the Explosives, the Gourds, Mother Truckers, Austin’s Rude Mechanicals theater troupe and two guys who once lived in Houston but moved away a long time ago: Steve Earle and Devendra Banhart.

They also have a bunch of comedy and a spelling bee if you’re not so much into music. The Weekly folks will be there for the whole shootin’ match, and you can follow it all here. (Surprise: they’re blogging!) We at the Press sympathize, because our sore feet – i.e. the Austin City Limits Music Festival – are a scant two weeks away, except it’s going to be about 30 degrees hotter in Zilker Park than Bumbershoot’s 74-acre Seattle Center spread.

Fun Fact No. 1: Elvis’ 1963 film It Happened at the World’s Fair (where a young Kurt Russell kicks Elvis in the shins) was filmed at Seattle Center, which just so happened to be the site of the 1962 fair.

Fun Fact No. 2: Did you know ‘bumbershoot’ is a little-used term (at least in these parts) for ‘umbrella’? Figures. – Chris Gray

What’s with all the umbrellas? It’s like being in the middle of Times Square during a downpour; everywhere I turn, someone is trying to sell me one.

First Marié Digby made a dent in the music world with a softer version of Rihanna’s megahit, then Mandy Moore – who plays the Verizon tomorrow – decided to give it her own folk-pop spin, and most recently Scott Simons carried “Umbrella” to the creepier side with an acoustic piano rendition. Even children avoiding the rain can get a hold of the particularly disturbing Kidz Bop Kids edition. It sounds like something out of Gerard McMann’s “Cry Little Sister,” but not in a good way.

Confession: I don’t really like the Beatles.

Exception: Ringo Starr.

Why, you ask? With three other brilliant Beatles, why Ringo? Why, indeed. The answer is complicated, and does not lie in the songs of Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo.

In the history of the earth, only four people have claimed the distinction of “the best-selling music act of all time,” as Wikipedia succinctly explains. Four humans have sold over an estimated 1 billion records and are #1 on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Make no mistake—that’s not the 100 greatest musicians of, say, the past 100 years. No, it’s the 100 greatest artists of all time.

That’s right. The Beatles are the best artists who have existed since the Big Bang.

At this point, after years of blistering irony and sarcastic hipster gushing, are Def Leppard, Styx and Foreigner really all that different from each other? Seriously, guys, wake up and smell the sweat-stained spandex. Most of these bands are sporting less than half their original members, plus they want us to hear “some new stuff.” That always sucks. This joke isn’t funny anymore.

The fact that these masters of mom-core are going out on the road with each other is a cry for help. People defend Def Leppard by claiming they were the true visionaries of British heavy metal, fusing pop sensibilities with the dark tones of arena metal. But how much more can you wring out of “Pour Some Sugar on Me”? No sober person has ever enjoyed this song. And if you did, chances are you are either the bachelorette party’s designated driver or currently watching a 19-year-old nursing student straddle a mirror at Rick’s.

In this country of ours, we have a thing called justice. We have a God-given right of freedom. This was what our forefathers fought for. And I will be damned if one of His own most beautiful creations sits in jail, being denied these inalienable rights. Languishing like a common street thief. Away from his life of luxury and the pursuit of fabulousness.

El DeBarge, the artist behind such ‘80s dance-floor burners like "Rhythm of the Night" and “Love Always,” is currently sitting in the L.A. County Jail, awaiting an appearance before a judge for various drug and vandalism charges. His mug shot brings a tear to my eye, with his stoic pose, even while facing a corrupt system.

Bo Diddley had a heart attack this past weekend, adding to his already long list of recent ailments. He’s in an intensive care unit at the moment, after having a stent installed in his heart. The 78-year-old rock icon, who destroyed audiences with his trademark rectangular guitar, suffered a stroke in May. Diddley has his own practically patented sound, the “hambone,” which everyone thereafter diligently took and ran with. In fact, some say he created rap, heavy metal and modern distortion and reverb effects.

Mr. Elias Otha Bates McDaniel, hang tough, buddy. But if ya gotta go, please send us down a bootleg of what’s going on up there. This vid’s for you.

Randy Weeks
The Mucky Duck
August 28, 2007

Better than: Having a wrecker tow your new black Jaguar out of high water, like I saw on the way to the show.

Download: Summertime rocker “Transistor Radio,” from Weeks’s latest album Sugarfinger.

Torrential floods kept the crowd small Tuesday at Mucky Duck as new Austin resident Randy Weeks ran through a string of glorious obscurities, hits he’s sold to artists like Lucinda Williams and several interestingly warped covers. With Houston vets Jack Saunders on bass and Eric Danheim on lead guitar, Weeks led off with two of his smart but difficult folk-rockers, “The Last Time” and the sly “Last DWI” before finding the deep rocking groove of “Motor City.”

This Just In: University of Minnesota astronomers have detected Houston commercial radio…

‘Cause I can’t come up with any better way to describe it than “an expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness.” – John Nova Lomax

The Derailers
Under the Influence of Buck

Austin’s Derailers have never kept their love for the late Buck Owens a secret; in fact, the man himself dug their “Beatles-meets-Bakersfield” sound so much he asked them to be house band at his 70th birthday party. Thus the idea of a tribute record may seem obvious, but the end result suffers from the departure of former co-frontman Tony Villanueva, who found Jesus and left the band in 2003. Fellow singer/guitarist Brian Hofeldt admirably took up the reins, and last year’s surprisingly solid Soldiers of Love reflected his poppier POV. Unfortunately, Buck cries out for Villanueva’s deep, twangy, very Owensian voice. The Derailers’ take on most tracks (“Together Again,” “Sam’s Place,” “Down on the Corner of Love”) are simply adequate, and the “Johnny B. Goode” cover of “Johnny B. Goode” is completely unnecessary. However, the peppy “Foolin’ Around,” heartfelt and sincere “Big in Vegas” and buoyant “Who’s Gonna Mow Your Grass”stand out, Chris Schlotzhauer’s pedal steel licks are sweet throughout and the disc might well introduce Owens’ music to people who only knew him from Hee Haw’s cornfield. Nonetheless, the album screams “WWTD (What Would Tony Do?)” to longtime fans. Well-intentioned as it may be, it’s a mere curio in the Derailers’ discography. – Bob Ruggiero

So now we all really have something to be sad about: just like their forthcoming album, the Cure’s fall U.S. tour – scheduled to stop at Toyota Center October 16 – has been postponed until April and May 2008. If you happen to be headed to the Bay Area, they’re still headlining San Francisco’s Download Festival October 6.

“The schedule as it stands only gives us a couple of weeks to finish our new double album before we hit the road again, and we know this just isn’t enough time to complete the project to our total satisfaction,” the band said on its Web site this morning.

Great news for everyone who couldn’t wait for all those new songs. Click through for something to tide you over for the in between days until next spring.

And now we present Everybody’s Talkin’, a new feature in which we hip you to what the nation is saying about Houston's own.

First up, U.G.K.'s Underground Kingz...

XXL’s Brendan Frederick bestowed the record four stars out of five. The album “reaffirms the UGK ideals for a new generation. The album mainly sidesteps the “everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” pitfall of most rap double albums by adhering to Pimp C’s core production sound – “steeped in bluesy wah-wah guitars, soul melodies and chunky bass.” There’s that, and “the heart of the UGK appeal,” which “lies in the richness of [Bun B and Pimp C’s] chemistry.” Bun is the “thoughtful idealist,” while Pimp assumes to role of the “loud-mouthed realist,” as exemplified by “How Long Can It Last.”

The hip-hop site HNNLive is reporting that Scarface will be coming out of solo-artist retirement next year with an album called Undisputed on Def Jam, the same label that released The Fix, his last proper solo record. The record is rumored to be brimming with superstar guests, on both the rhymes and beats.

Tom Breihan, chief music blogger at our sister paper the Village Voice, is drooling at the prospect.

Disclaimer: As Breihan rightly points out, anything reported on a hip-hop site should be taken with an entire mine of salt. – John Nova Lomax

DJ Witnes & Squincy Jones
Do Ya Homework

Do Ya Homework recently landed this pair of local mixmen some positive press in URB magazine’s June issue, which said this online-only “mixtape” – posted on Witnes and Squincy’s blogs and MySpace pages, among other places – makes for some “good head-scratchers and noggin-nodding.” Homework splices together several definitive hip-hop cuts from 1987 and ‘88, and acts as both nostalgic revisiting of those years’ culture and style and pop quiz for self-proclaimed heads. Intentionally omitting a track listing, the duo tests listeners’ recall by changing songs every 30 seconds or so – just enough time to separate the real heads from the funk-fakers. “Current generations are clueless and don’t seem really motivated to learn about the groups that made hip-hop what it is today,” says Witnes. Take heed, all ye pupils of hip-hop, class is in session; as Witnes says, “They don’t make hip-hop like that no more.” Teach! – Valerie Alberto

It’s become a mythological moment on the rock timeline: the early ‘70s, when the Rolling Stones gathered in a luxurious French chateau to record Exile on Main Street.

Heroin was floating around, as were assorted decadent and dangerous hangers-on, as were Gram Parsons, William Burroughs and John Lennon. The worldwide media went nuts covering Mick Jagger’s wedding to Bianca.

The Stones raggedly and occasionally made their way into the basement to record tracks for what became the most ragged but right record in rock history, a muddy mix of raw energy and loose jamming.

It’s understandable how a book about the time might be disjointed and factually vague, seeing how high everyone was. What’s not understandable is how such a book could be as boring as Robert Greenfield’s Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones.

Plump, Monk Swing Trio, Steven Reed, And What Army?, Not Left Alone, Groove Merchants

August 25, 2007
Last Concert Café

Better Than: Your best hippie stereotype.

Download: Anything from here.

Two words: hula hoops. Amidst a lineup of local blues, funk and jam bands at the Last Concert Café, there was also a multi-ring circus of hula-hoopers displaying a wide range of skill. More on that later.

But first, an introduction to Laylastock. One year ago, a charming young woman named Layla Alfadel-Reed was tragically killed in a car accident, and to celebrate what would have been her 33rd birthday, friends Jennifer Vickers and Jennifer Vacca organized Saturday night’s concert, a scholarship at the University of St. Thomas and the ongoing New Year’s resolution type effort One for One Thousand. Laylastock became the concert’s umbrella title, both homage to and celebration of her life.

Kicking off the evening was the 1940s-inspired Monk Swing Trio. Widower Steven Reed followed with covers of his late wife’s favorite songs. And What Army?, featuring guest lead singer Meghan House, contributed an impressive (albeit slightly out of sync) “Me and Bobby McGee.”

Not Left Alone, a threesome of self-proclaimed “good ol’ church boys” came third with styles ranging from heavy-bass funk to up-tempo reggae. The guitarist and drummer then switched roles and became the Groove Merchants, aptly named in light of their ‘70s “wocka-wocka” guitar sound. Don’t act like you don’t know what that means.

And then…