A Curious Mix of People: The Underground Scene of 90s Austin by Gregg Beets and Richard Whymark (review)

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• A Curious Mix of People: The Underground Scene of 90s Austinby Gregg Beets and Richard Whymark
• Stephen K. Davis

A Curious Mix of People: The Underground Scene of 90s Austin. By Gregg Beets and Richard Whymark. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2023. Pp. 350. Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.)

In August 1991, Austin officially proclaimed itself the ”Live Music Capital of the World.” But what kind of music most characterized the city’s live sceneffi Certainly, many people associated Austin with the kind of alt-country, bluesy, singer-songwriter fare featured on Austin City Limitsand covered in the music pages of the Austin Chronicle. Figures like Willie Nelson, Marcia Ball, and Robert Earl Keen come to mind in this context. A Curious Mix of Peopletakes a different tack, vividly documenting the punk and underground scene that thrived in Austin during the 1990s. Authors Greg Beets and Richard Whymark were participants as a vocalist and filmmaker respectively, and their insider status facilitated interviews with more than a hundred musicians, club owners, DJs, and journalists, which serve as the heart of this study. The resulting book captures Austin in a crucial decade during which it was transforming from a college town with a laidback vibe into the high-tech metropolis it is today.

Half of the book’s chapters are about legendary clubs that provided performance space. The Blue Flamingo opened in 1992 on a seedy corner of Red River and 7 ^thStreet. Run by a large African-American trans woman named Miss Laura, it featured drag races (not the kind with cars), male strippers, and free admission for patrons in their underwear. The Motards embodied its “reckless, anarchic spirit” (p. 105), playing according to their leader in a punk style that was “hard and fast and cheap” (p. 115). The club’s lack of a stage meant no separation between musicians and audience, a clientele that Miss Laura herself described and celebrated as “a curious mix of people.”

Another essential venue was the Hole in the Wall, which had been operating on the Drag (Guadalupe Street) since 1974. A former waitress, Debbie Rombach, began to book indie bands like the Hickoids and Pork in the 90s. Musicians appreciated the cool vibe with the University of Texas across the street and the drummer visible through the glass to sidewalk passersby. Liberty Lunch on Second Street had been the site of a popular restaurant during World [End Page 480]War II. As a club, it hosted local bands on the way up and booked touring groups like Green Day that had not yet hit their popular peak. The club was on city-owned property and, by 1999, the rise in real estate values compelled municipal administrators to sell the land and close the club despite its historic and cultural value. Liberty Lunch went out with a “Gloria-thon” that July as local bands played Van Morrison’s garage rock classic for twenty-four hours without interuption!

Beets and Whymark cover other important institutions in the 1990s underground scene. Chapters are devoted to alternative radio and to punk programming on public access TV. An important development came on New Year’s Day 1990, when Butthole Surfers drummer King Coffey resolved to start a label to record local bands. The resulting Trance Syndicate Records became the most important Texas rock label since Houston’s International Artists in the 1960s. Coffey helped the legendary Roky Erickson—leader of Austin’s proto-punk 13 ^thFloor Elevators in the late 1960s record a comeback album in 1995 and put out other key releases as well.

You could have purchased those at Sound Exchange, located at 2100 Guadalupe Street. This funky store featured a hip staff, frequent in-store punk performances, a Wall of Singles that displayed local vinyl, a window full of gig announcements, and an iconic mural of a “demonic frog” (interpreted as such by adjacent churchgoers) painted by singer Daniel Johnston. Concert flyers were glued on light poles up and down the Drag, at least until a local ordinance outlawed them and imposed a $500 fine for violations. So much for official encouragement in the live music capital of the...