Austin Daze had a chance to steal away Rene Coman from The Iguanas to answer some questions about life after Katrina and their new album.

Interview by Rosie Gomez.

AUSTIN DAZE: Was it good to be back in Austin for SXSW?

RENE COMAN: It was great to get back and see all our Austin friends. People there have always been so nice to us. Nice to see some hills.

AD: Anything you’re particularly looking forward to?

RC: I’m looking forward to eating some good Mexican food and hearing some new music.

AD: You guys have a really unique sound mixing Latin, Rock, and R&B.  What inspires this mix in your music?

RC: I think we just have a sense about what works for us. We started out in one place, and we added to it bit by bit, feeling it out as we went. The central thread is the collective personality of the group.

AD: Judging by the message board on your web site it seems like you all have a really personal relationship with your fans.  Can you feel the love?

RC: We feel it. And it feels good.

AD: Your latest album “If You Should Ever Fall on Hard Times” has a lot to do with the effect Hurricane Katrina had on your hometown and families.  Is this album closer to your heart than previous albums?

RC: You love all your children, just in different ways. This new music is an excellent addition to the Iguanas canon.

AD: Have you all recovered from the storm?

RC: I think we’ve recovered about as much as we are going to any time soon. The easier parts have been done. The rest may take a while.

AD: What’s next for the Iguanas?

RC: If anything, the last few years have proven that you never know what’s around the next corner. One thing I know is we’ll be playing music. Keep an ear out for us.

The Waybacks are Hungry.

AUSTIN DAZE: What do you guys think about being at Old Settlers?

Warren Hood: We’ve been here many times before and we like it because we like having the Waybacks in Austin and letting all our friends and family here see what we’re off doing all the time. We’ve got a lot of friends that think the Waybacks don’t exist-that we made them up.

James Nash: We like to come to Austin because obviously it’s a beautiful festival and a lot of great people here but we mostly come to Austin for the food. 8 days of queso.

Joe : There is good Mexican food in California but it is totally different. Read the rest of this entry »

She is the female James Brown of soul and responsible for leading the soul/funk/R&B revival. She’s been doing her thing for 13 years and the rest of the world is finally taking notice. With a voiceto be reckoned with, Sharon Jones can no longer be ignored.

AUSTIN DAZE: When did you know that this was what you wanted to be doing?

SHARON JONES: I didn’t think that I was going to be doing this until the 80s and 90s. All my life I would get inspired by gospel and just singing but the main thing, when I knew that the funk and soul was it, was when I met Gabe almost 13 years ago. I went in to do background on an album and once I finished I was like, “That’s good music these guys are playing.” Then the first time we went to London I opened up for Maceo Parker and that’s when I knew, I knew that this was it. Because I had a title–people were calling me the female James Brown and I had never heard them call any other woman the female James Brown. I never heard them call anyone the Queen of Funk. I know Aretha is the Queen of Soul. So I thought, this is something here; I better stick with this. Read the rest of this entry »

For Jason Hann and Michael Travis, there is life afer String Cheese and it’s called EOTO,a 100% improvised live Breakbeat/ House/ Drum n Bass/ Trip Hop project. Jason Hann explains.

AUSTIN DAZE: What does a trip to Austin mean to you all and where do you like to hang when you are here?

JASON HANN Wow, well Austin is just an amazing city to always get back to. Especially being in the middle of Texas– it’s pretty refreshing. We used to go through there with String Cheese all the time. What are the name of the Springs?

AD: Barton Springs.

JH: Oh yeah. Love that. That’s unbelievable. There isn’t a better place for live music..

AD: How do you all feel about the state of the jam band scene? What about your place in that scene now that you are no longer with String Cheese Incident?

JH: It’s hard to make a judgement other than that there are a lot of bands out there these days which is great. It also seems like there is definitely an influx of Electronica into festivals. So there is an evolution happening in that sense. One thing we definitely noticed is that it doesn’t seem like kids are touring as much because there is going to be something coming through their town or they have a lot of three day weekend festivals where people would rather settle in for a three day and see an amazing amount of bands than following a particular band to a ton of cities. In that sense, it is sort of changing. Not for better or for worse, just different. There is still a lot of really good players and bands out there. I think it’s pretty healthy. Read the rest of this entry »

Big Chief Kevin Goodman, Chief Council Alfred Doucette, and Big Chief Iron Horse
Big Chief Kevin Goodman lost everything in Katrina and fled to Austin. Received by the community with open arms, he decided to stay here and we are fortunate enough to experience the rich tradition of the Mardi Gras Indians.

AUSTIN DAZE: What does it mean to be a “Big Chief” and how to do you become one?

BIG CHIEF KEVIN GOODMAN: Being a Big Chief is inherited. I inherited the Indian tradition from my dad who was the original Big Chief and founder of the Flaming Arrows. When I was a kid, Mardi Gras Day was one of the days that we all looked forward to and we would get to put on these beautiful costumes. We would go out and have fun. It’s generations of Flaming Arrows: my dad’s grandkids, my kids, my brother’s and sister’s kids—they become part of the tradition too. The tradition has spread from generation to generation. Flaming Arrows is a family tribe. There are generations of history of Flaming Arrows. My dad is the one that started it and raised me and was my constant Chief and made my costumes and showed me the way. Read the rest of this entry »

We talked with Joel Laviolette of Rattletree about his latest musical project, a Zimbabwean style marimba band based out of Austin, Texas.

AUSTIN DAZE: Tell me where the idea came from to bring African Music to Austin.

JOEL L: I’ve played Zimbabwean music for about 15 years now. I discovered this music when I was going to jazz guitar school in Denton—I was a jazz guitar major. Then I discovered Thomas Mapfumo and the Zimbabwean stuff and I started to learn that and the mbira—which is the traditional Zimbabwean instrument. I met a guy in New Mexico who played the mbira and I dropped out of school and moved to New Mexico and joined a band there, Jaka. We played for several years together and toured and all that kind of stuff—this was in Santa Fe. This whole time I had been traveling around the country studying the imbira (for about 8 years) from whoever I could. I finally tapped that well of mbira players in America and realized I needed to go to Zimbabwe. I was also doing field and studio recordings of different types of Zimbabwean music and I came back to New Mexico and started a non profit record company called Mhumhi Records. I have the twelve recordings that I made in Zimbabwe and the money that I made from those recordings go back to musicians in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. When the music scene in Albuquerque dried up I came to Austin one day to visit a friend and instantly, that weekend, found a job, found a capoeira group that I could play with and met a woman. It was all just, “Austin is the place to be.” So I packed up and moved to Austin and because I moved here the music came. It wasn’t a plan other than that’s just what I do. Read the rest of this entry »

AUSTIN DAZE: How did this project come about and when did it become a reality you guys knew you would stick to?

BETO MARTINEZ: Before we had Grupo Fantasma we were The Blimp and it was like a funk rock project. When we started doing Fantasma more full time it was pretty much straight Latin. Brownout kind of came about from us wanting to go back and do the straight funk stuff. So it was like, 2003, that Adrian (Quesada) approached us and said, “Hey man we should put a funk band back together.” And that’s where we started. It was just a natural thing. We did it not with the intention of making it a hard core project or anything. We started with a bunch of covers of old funk stuff that we wanted to do and played a couple of gigs which were nothing special–7 people. Our first big was opening for De La Sol. We kept doing it but just every once in awhile—it was really a side project of Fantasma. I don’t think there was ever a question of “Do we want to do this?” because that is what we always did. It was a return to funk; it was a natural outlet. With Fantasma, it’s a bigger band and the music definitely has to be more structured and with Brownout it was kind of our stretching out thing. As soon as we put it together people just started bringing in music. Read the rest of this entry »

AUSTIN DAZE: How is the New Orleans music scene doing? Do you think it will go back to what it was pre-Katrina?

PHILIP FRAZIER: Actually, the New Orleans music scene is much stronger now because all the musicians who never traveled outside New Orleans got a chance to see more of the world and more people are dying for New Orleans music. Katrina was a sad occasion but it kind of made it stronger. It will never go back to what it used to be, but back in New Orleans we are fighting to keep it strong. Katrina made us and our people of New Orleans stronger.

AD: How is the city doing? Is there a better feeling from the folks that stayed on?

PF: We’re not giving up. I mean, I know everybody says a lot about the negative stuff that is going on in the city, but there is also a lot of positive going on. You see, the Rebirth Brass Band, we are just as strong as ever and back performing. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band-a lot of bands-are back performing. A lot of people are back. What is missing?-we want a lot of the youth to come back. We’ve got a problem with some of the youth that are back now because they are not behaving. But other than that, it’s going to get better before it gets worse. Read the rest of this entry »

THESE GUYS ROCK. THEIR CAUSES AND SOCIAL INVOLVEMENTS ARE REALLY COOL. NOT ONLY THAT, BUT THEY CAN MAKE YOU SHAKE. THIS BAND IS HUGE. JUST ABOUT EVERY TYPE OF INSTRUMENT IS REPRESENTED IN SOME FORM. MY FAVORITE PART OF THEIR PERFORMANCE IS TWO FOLD: I LIKE HOW THEY TRADE INSTRUMENTS BETWEEN MEMBERS AND I DIG HOW THEY EXIT THROUGH THE CROWD, WHILE STILL PLAYING. THAT IS WHAT LANDED A FEW OF THEM IN AUSTIN JAIL DURING LAST YEAR’S SXSW. THAT SITUATION CAUSED NO ILL FEELINGS FROM THEM TOWARDS AUSTIN. IN FACT, THEY RECIEVED ALOT OF SUPPORT DUE TO THE INCIDENT. THEY WILL ALWAZE STOP THROUGH TOWN WHEN THEY CAN.
YOU CAN CATCH THEM AT THE PARAMOUNT AS PART OF THE AUSTIN WINTER NIGHTS SHOWCASE ON JANUARY 29TH, 2005 .
WE SHARED THESE WORDS WITH TWO MEMBERS OF THE BAND AT STUBBS BEFORE THEY PLAYED. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:a=72157594267830938,id=241711489,j=r,s=s,l=p]AD: WHAT IS THE BEST THING ABOUT CREATING MUSIC IN AUSTIN?

CAF: Being inspired by other musicians in Austin. There is a greater possiblility of meeting others on the same path as you, and there is usually something happening, like a show, that you can connect at.

AD: YOU WERE ONCE UNIFIED FEEL THEORY NOW IT IS COLLECT ALL 5 WHAT IS THE STORY? ARE YOU GUYS IN THE WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM?

CAF: Yes, so…we could tell you but they would have to kill us. But really, there were so many bands hopping on the physics bandwagon that we had to blaze a new trail elsewhere. We got together and…it’s only a name, like…shoe, or, hoodie. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:a=72157594267830938,id=241710970,j=r,s=s,l=p]Austin’s Grupo Fantasma creates Movimiento Popular
By Sean Claes
By fusing Latin music principals with funk and jazz Grupo Fantasma has carved a niche for themselves in Austin’s music scene. Their amazingly high-energy live shows and danceable tunes make for a time that no person should deny themselves. Before playing selections from their self-titled debut and recent follow-up release Movimiento Popular (translated means “popular movement”) at the October 7, 2004 First Thursdaze at the Ruta Maya, a few of the members had a chance to sit down and chat. Read the rest of this entry »

I could not believe my eyes when I first saw SLR at the Old Settler’s Bluegrass festival. I think I said “what the hell” repeatedly with a tone of disbelief mixed with interest. Damn. They are good. Split Lip Rayfield owned a three night stretch on South Congress recently. These guys have an original sound, to say the least. They are difficult to class. I’d say they are somewhere around- acoustic/ bluegrass/punk with an attitude- a loud and fast attitude. Imagine Johnny Rotten or Metallica sitting in with Bill Monroe. Read the rest of this entry »