Bavu Blakes – The Pleasurecraft

March 31, 2009

When you’re out and about this weekend, you may notice a preponderance of black people. No, Austin is not the new Atlanta. We’re not Houston or Memphis or Detroit or even New Orleans, even though we are working pretty hard on building our own Bourbon Street. Austin may be a cultural Mecca, but it certainly isn’t for black people … at least not for 360 days of the year when the Texas Relays aren’t happening. This weekend they are, however, so if you should mount the stair to Momo’s this Friday expecting to see a twangy alt.country act and instead feel your chest crushed by the heavy bass thud of a house mix, just roll with it. It’s only temporary. Austin will revert back to Hooterville hippie chic next week. Don’t expect the Texas Relays fans to hang around. They don’t share the naiveté of, for instance, South by Southwest attendees. They’re not snowed in to relocating to Austin by the nice weather, friendly people, and great entertainment. They know the nice weather won’t last, that the clubs aren’t always full of famous DJs, and the friendly people get cranky when the asphalt starts to melt. They don’t go back home thinking they’d like to move here. They go home thinking, “Nice place to visit.” Austin is to Texas Relay fans what Sturgis, S.D., is to bikers, and understandably. Austin isn’t exactly the standard bearer for black culture. Our two biggest blues legends are Stevie Ray Vaughan and Clifford Antone. Badasses to be sure but missing one crucial element. This is not to say that Austin is entirely bereft of black culture. We have Bavu Blakes, Mitchie’s Gallery, the Carver Museum & Cultural Center, Huston-Tillotson University, and more than our share of dreadlocks – both East and West of I-35 – but all that is a drop in the bucket compared to places like Atlanta, Houston, or Washington, D.C. For now, Austinites have one weekend a year to dip our big toes into the unfamiliar waters of black culture. Might as well get in and splash around a bit. The easiest way to do that this weekend is to head down to Auditorium Shores on Saturday for the fourth annual Urban Music Festival. This year’s fest has one of the best bills ever, featuring crossover acts Cameo, Boyz II Men, and members of the Sugar Hill Gang. OK, so maybe those names are a little bit “last millennium,” but back in the day, they were all huge. Don’t even try to act like you can’t throw down at least a couple of verses from “Rapper’s Delight.” If you’re looking for something a little fresher, BET on-air talent Toccara Jones from America’s Next Top Model will be on hand as well as LeToya Luckett, a founding member of Destiny’s Child. If you really want to get cutting edge, go early and catch local acts Musik Hertz, Spirit Groove, All U Need, Ha-Style, and Bavu Blakes, who will be working double time at the Urban Music Festival afterparty later that night at Antone’s along with Neckbone and Gary Clark Jr. You might want to pop by the house, shower up, and rethread before going to the afterparty. It will surely be grown and sexy.

THU., APRIL 6, 2006

Austin needs another music festival about as much as Dallas needs another chain restaurant; as much as Houston needs another refinery; as much as San Antonio needs another pro sports arena. We sure don’t need another music festival, but that doesn’t mean we can’t or won’t support one. Austinites are huge chumps for anyone with the wherewithal to rent some park space and erect some stage scaffolding. It doesn’t matter that the headlining act is the musical equivalent of Gary Coleman/Danny Bonaduce/Jamie Farr and the openers sideline in Chapman Motor ads; it’s really more about giving the cultural hoi polloi a few hundred square yards of dusty terra to work their stuff – ideally shirtless or halter-topped, glistening with a bronze patina of sweat, sunblock, and pulverized caliche; clutching the warm, backwash remains of a light beer, and ripping off a deafening two-finger whistle whenever the guitarist goes into one of those masturbatory diddly-diddly riffs. Who says the only talent is on the stage? Still, if you’re one of those rare Austinites who hasn’t experienced the sublime catharsis of music fandom, maybe Austin hasn’t been playing your tune. This weekend the tune will get a little funkier – not just because the Texas Relays will be bringing more than 40,000 African-Americans to Austin from all across the state and nation, but because in conjunction with them, Austin will host its first-ever Urban Music Festival, an outdoor concert at Auditorium Shores featuring Chaka Khan, Ray Parker Jr., Michael Henderson, members of Parliament Funkadelic and the Brothers Johnson, rapper/singer/actor/BET host Ray J, and comedian Joe Torry, as well as local artists like Blue Mist, Bavu Blakes, Les and the Funk Mob, Nook, and All U Need. Rest assured that if the Relays don’t keep you busy, the UMF will.