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Michael Hall, from Austin, Texas, has been
making albums
since 1985, when
his band, the
soon-to-be
legendary Wild
Seeds, put out
its first EP,
Life is Grand
(Life in Soul
City).
The group would
release two
albums, play on
early MTV, and
have a minor hit
with the single
“I’m Sorry, I
Can’t Rock You
All Night Long.”
After the Seeds
split up in 1989
(other noted
alumni include
Kris McKay and
Joey Shuffield
from Fastball),
Hall recorded a
series of
critically
lauded solo
albums, from
Love is
Murder
(“A mesmerizing
collection of
story songs that
sucked up all
those tired
Texas music
myths—lost
towns, lost
loves, long
drives, killing
sprees—and
somehow spat
them back out
new again.”--LA
Weekly) to
Adequate
Desire
(which Robert
Christgau gave
an A- in the
Village Voice).
Karen Schoemer,
writing in the
Trouser Press
Record Guide,
summed up Hall’s
career to that
point, saying,
“Hall takes the
rock ‘n roll
ethic of good
times, lonesome
trains and love
gone wrong and
spins it into
lusciously
twisted personal
narratives
inscribed with
poetic
literacy.”
During this time, Hall recorded with just
about everyone
who lived in
Austin or was
just passing
through, from
Walter Salas-Humara,
Rosie Flores,
Vickie Peterson,
Jon Dee Graham,
to members of
Poi Dog
Pondering and
Lyle Lovett’s
Large Band. He
was also a
producer, most
notably on
Across the
Great Divide:
The Songs of Jo
Carol Pierce,
which won Hall
and Troy
Campbell the
Producer-of-the-Year
award at the
1993 Austin
Music Awards.
Around that time
Hall co-founded
the Setters with
Alejandro
Escovedo and
Salas-Humara;
the band toured
Europe and
recorded two
albums. After a
move to
Chicago, Hall returned to
Austin in 1997 and started the
Woodpeckers, a
band that would
release two
albums, though
they were
probably best
known for
hosting the
“Gloriathon” at
Liberty Lunch in
Austin, playing “Gloria” for 24
hours with
dozens of other
local musicians
(Van Morrison
phoned in a lead
vocal from
England).
Rocking for 24 hours is one thing; writing
great songs for
two decades is
another. “There
is no way around
the deadpan
brilliance of
Hall’s
songwriting,”
wrote Robert
Lloyd in the
LA Weekly,
“which describes
with rare,
unforced wit and
a hint of
Texas twang the pleasures and
particularly the
penalties of
Life Among the
Humans.” Hall’s
songs have been
covered by the
Silos, Kris
McKay, the
Vulgar Boatmen,
Mike Ireland,
and others. They
have appeared in
the TV show
Veronica Mars
and the movie
Louis & Clark &
George. Hall
doesn’t just
write songs—he
has been a
journalist for
years and makes
his living as a
staff writer for
Texas Monthly
magazine, where
he has written
award-winning
profiles of
everyone from
Roky Erickson
and Townes Van
Zandt to Lance
Armstrong. He
was also
nominated for a
National
Magazine Award
for a story he
did on the
unfairness of
the death
penalty system
in
Texas.
After so many years of songs and stories,
Hall is
releasing his
eighth solo
album, The
Song He Was
Listening to
When He Died,
produced by
“Scrappy” Jud
Newcomb and
George Reiff.
Hall, Newcomb,
and Reiff--friends
who have known
each other for
two decades--set
out consciously
to make a less-rootsy
album than the
kind Hall has
come to be known
for. They broke
down and then
rebuilt a dozen
songs Hall had
written over the
previous few
years, sometimes
beginning with
old analog drum
machines, other
times with a
Wurlitzer piano
or an acoustic
guitar. Then
they layered
sounds and
rhythms, by
themselves
(Newcomb has
been guitarist
for Loose
Diamonds, Toni
Price, the
Resentments, and
Beaver Nelson;
Reiff has played
bass with Joe
“King” Carrasco,
Charlie Sexton,
and Chris
Robinson) and
with people like
drummer Joey
Shuffield from
the Wild Seeds,
singer Julie
Lowry, and other
local musicians,
who played
vibes, trumpet,
and various
percussion
things. The
result is a
strange pop
record, part
bitter and part
sweet, from the
spare acoustic
beauty of “Out
Where the
Highways Roll”
to the buzzsaw
despair of
“Captain
Captain” and the
bizarre
Vietnamese disco
of “I Had a Girl
in
Dien Bien Phu.”
There’s also
plenty of pure
pop longing, as
only a true rock
‘n roll veteran
can write and
sing, in songs
like “Summer”
and “The Song He
Was Listening to
When He Died.”
The moment of death has never sounded more
alive.
For more information, visit
www.michaelhall.org. |
