let's talk about death

If performances from six groundbreaking local bands, a slew of requisite Austin fashionistas, and a drunken half-naked Santa Claus are your type of thing, then chances are you were at the Aasim Holiday Party at Red 7 on Saturday night. The show, which boasted a roster of old-to-new school local acts such as Glorium, …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Those Peabodys, the Black, Diagonals, and Ume, was a belated birthday party for Aasim Syed, a QA Analyst and photographer.  

In recent years, Syed evolved into a bit of a local house party legend by hosting all out rock-fests with intimate performances by Austin “it” bands. “All the bands that played were friends,” Syed says, “like the Black, Brothers and Sisters, Voxtrot, Black Angels, A Tiger Named Lovesick, and others.”

Last year, in an effort to cut down on some carpet cleaning (and presumably remain in good standing with his neighbors), Syed moved the yearly bash to the Beauty Bar for a packed show featuring DJ sets and a performance by Aaron Blount of A Tiger Named Lovesick. When August rolled around earlier this year and his annual birthday fiesta ceased to materialize, the photographer confessed that he “still had the strong desire to throw a full-on bash before the year was over.”

And what better way to celebrate one’s belated birthday and the holiday season, than to organize a veritable festival of Austin music royalty, bring a notorious local act to its original lineup, and commission a virtually defunct South Texas band to play an album they released a decade ago?

Sure, the promise of witnessing Trail of Dead — Conrad Keely, Jason Reece, and Kevin Allen — as a three-piece was draw enough for many of the audience in attendance. But for much of the crowd, the real meat and potatoes of the Holiday Party was the incredibly rare opportunity to see a performance by the mythical San Antonio avant-gardists Glorium. The five-piece, who formed in 1991, seldom perform since relocating to different cities nearly ten years ago.

“Glorium has played shows few and far between,” says vocalist Paul Streckfus, “because initially we all lived in different cities, beginning around 1998. We would play out when we could all get together.” In fact, the group has performed publicly less than ten times since releasing their 1998 album “Close Your Eyes,” which they played in it’s entirety on Saturday.

The album, recorded in Streckfus’ attic and in an East Austin studio, released to mixed reviews and has since been rendered to the bowels of virtual music obscurity. Lucky for the band, Austin music lovers feed on such obscurity and view witnessing a group like Glorium perform tantamount to discovering a unicorn.

Track-for-track, Paul Streckfus wriggled and balanced on the edge of the stage while the rest of Glorium traced the ambient and driving overlapping melodies of “Close Your Eyes.” With the help of tight arrangements from drummer Juan Miguel Ramos, guitarists Linus Streckfus and Ernest Salaz (who is also member to I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness), and bassist Jorge Lara, the band sailed through renditions of crowd shakers such as “Doomsday Kiss” and “Moonbeam King,” making one fact dreadfully clear: after all these years, audiences still love Glorium.

So much so that it’s a wonder why the group hasn’t released an album since that of the 2004 record “Fantasmas.” According to vocalist Streckfus, the band isn’t “recording new material right now,” though he’s quick to add that his new band, Kingdom of Suicide Lovers is recording an album, as is I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness.

Though Glorium may have toiled over old material on Saturday night, Austin’s wonder-band Trail of Dead had plenty new pieces to share. The three-piece, with Keely and Reece rotating singing, drumming and guitar duties, played loads of work off their recently released EP “Festival Thyme,” as well as songs from an untitled upcoming full-length.

Other highlights from the Holiday Party included an early performance by the utterly brilliant pop-country musings of the Black, who released their six-song EP “Donna” in the summer of 2007. The foursome, fronted by the ever-smiling vocalist, guitarist, and pianist David Longoria, filled the back patio of the Red 7 and even prompted a couple of brave souls (okay, maybe just Aasim and a friend) to spastically jerk and hop about during the raucous renditions of songs such as “Eshu Blues” and “Little Hits.”

This town may have its fair share of garage-country acts but nobody does it like the Black. They do country when country was the mere echo of an opening guitar chord, the whoosh and slap of a drum, a lovelorn whine on the microphone, and a slick pearl-snap button-down shirt. The Black has a firm finger to the pulse of Austin and, by the look and sound of the rest of the Aasim Holiday Party, so does Syed.  

Music and turnout aside, the event was a complete success. Beside, one knows that they’ve scored a hit when anyone — let alone a dude in a Santa Claus suit — climbs atop the bar at last call and proceeds to get naked.

It’s Austin, gotta love it!

— Shannon McGarvey (Originally featured on Austin360.com)

Aasim and a half-naked Santa Claus

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This blog is for Austin-specific material only and, since I live in Scotland at the moment, I exclusively update my Glasgow blog.

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...and toss some undergarments on the stage for me, would ya?
I'm really wishing I was in the States for this!

They even sang "Favorite Girl!" The nine-year-old in me is, like, totally dying right now!!!

Although today was a horrible day for weather, my father and I managed to find refuge in one of the most beautiful and interesting museums that Glasgow has to offer: the Kelvingrove. Situated in the West End, in the heart of Kelvingrove Park, and within five minutes walk from the University of Glasgow, the Kelvingrove has a most impressive collection of Scottish and international artifacts and works of art.

Admittedly, I only wish that I could have shared what I saw today with some of my friends back home. Alas, one day... some day soon. Enjoy.

Originally posted on thelookingglasgow.vox.com: Still not feeling completely at home yet, though I did manage to trek to the CostCutter down the road and buy some overpriced groceries. There's an International Student Pub Crawl tonight and I suspect that I might just be the oldest one there. That's another thing. I've only met one other student my age and she also happens to be American. Everyone else is young. Or should I say "younger." I'm sure the next couple of weeks will be filled with strange adjustments and lonely explorations, which is to be expected when one is new in a city. A stranger in a stranger land. I've never felt stranger.

I think I could get used to living in Glasgow. The digs make me feel, well, collegiate again at best but at least I have a an incredible university, a roof, internet access, and a host of international flatmates. The flatmates are indeed a perk though I know we'll take some getting used to each other. In and beyond the flat, everyone is really nice. Scots are sort of intrinsically kind (though I'm not sure how Glasgow's "Murder Capital of Europe" status factors into that equation) and the "internationals," as we're self-described, are a bit desperate for friendship, so I don't think we'll be flaunting much cattiness.

The room, my Scottish cave, is setting up nicely. I have managed to avoid blowing up my electrical devices by way of handy-dandy converters/adapters and thanks to IKEA, as well as my little mementos from home, I'm feeling coldly embraced by personal artifacts. I even took some photos of my meagor accomodations for the interested minds back home. Here's what it looks like thus far:

Here's the view, and a bleak one at that. But, hey, at least I have a great view of a brick wall and a wonderous post-industrial landscape. Trust me, not all of Glasgow looks like this, just most of it.

I'm going to just come out and say it: I love Joe Biden.

His speech at the Democratic Convention last night was not only rousing and passionate, but underscored my already gleaming opinion of the man, save the contrived "more of the same" McCain rhetoric. Still, I agree with most, if not all, of what he had to say and, believe it or not, he actually appeared sincere!

When Obama entered at the end of Biden's speech, the appearance was admittedly awkward. In a somewhat last-minute announcement, he declared that he would deliver tonight's speech at Denver's Mile-High Stadium. This news didn't settle well with me. Admittedly, I've been uneasy since learning of an Obama assassination plot earlier this week. Maybe I'm being paranoid but I don't feel that speaking in an arena such as Mile-High Stadium will provide the most favorable safety conditions for the presidential hopeful or his camp.

What do you think? Is Obama's last-minute decision a smart one? Will he be safe?