LOM recently conducted a wide-ranging interview with Kevin Russell of the Gourds. The Austin roots-rockers - for lack of a better term - released their 9th studio album, Haymaker! (Yep Roc), today, and play a Cactus Music in-store January 9 and later that night at the Continental Club.
The Gourds will be featured in the January 8 - i.e. tomorrow's - print edition of the Press, but Russell is much too verbose and erudite to be confined to a 1,0000-word f
Andy Goodwin
[Note: Part 1 of this interview is here.]
Lonesome Onry and Mean: You guys have been on several labels, have probably heard all the too-good-to-be-true come-ons, been to the meetings with label radio gurus and all. How do you look at the label system and the way things are done in the business today?
Kevin Russell: The Gourds still operate from the position that radio should be free-form directed by DJs who are well-versed in the history of the music they play, and the label shou
[Note: This is the final installment of Lonesome Onry and Mean's interview with the Gourds' Kevin Russell. Don't miss Part 1 and Part 2.]
John Carrico
Lonesome Onry and Mean: To a lot of critics, "Steeple Full of Swallows" on Heavy Ornamentals was singled out as a new quieter, serious sound for the band, almost like they were saying it didn't sound like a Gourds song. Did that carry over consciously as you put the new album together, or was that just something that happened and went?
Kevin R
Nicholas Tremulis Orchestra with John Cale (third from left)
As usually happens just after New Year's, bands and venues are scrambling to line up Houston gigs during South By Southwest. Under the Volcano (2349 Bissonnet) owner Pete Mitchell has scored an early coup, lining up Chicago powerhouse the Nicholas Tremulis Orchestra for March 19.
According to Mitchell, his phone has been ringing off the wall, but so far he's keeping his powder dry, waiting to hear from several acts he hopes to cherr
The Gourds didn't invent the idea of a ragtag roots-rock band spicing up its set with hip-hop and R&B covers, but thanks to their cover of Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice" (endorsed by the Doggfather himself), everybody probably thinks they did. But Gourds co-frontman Kevin Russell, playing as solo alter ego Shinyribs, managed to outdo even "Gin and Juice" Wednesday night at the Volcano.
Although his excellent hour-plus set included other standouts like "Shreveport" from the Gour
