Bum Parking

As many of you know, parking in downtown Austin is a pain in the ass. However, I was surprised to find out that not everyone is aware of bum parking. Here is a summary.

When you are driving around, refusing to pay exorbitant prices for parking, you may notice some shady yet enterprising fellow frantically waving you into a spot.

He may or may not look like this.

At this point, you need to make a snap judgment on very little information. You need to determine if the spot is actually one of Austin's free parking spots at that particular time of day. If not, prepare to be towed by some aggressive bastard with a truck waiting in the shadows. If it is a free spot, does the bum look like a Good Bum or an Evil Bum?

Good Bums and Evil Bums can be the same person, depending on the amount of money you give them for "helping" you find a spot. Pay a Good Bum the right amount (who knows what that is) and he will watch your car for the evening and fend off all sorts of rabble. Pay a Good Bum too little and he may or may not turn into an Evil Bum. Pay an Evil Bum the right amount and he will leave your car alone. Pay him too little or, holy shit, nothing and he will go to town on your car. It's a fun guessing game.

So that's Bum Parking for the uninitiated. To be clear: I don't advocate one way or the other. The Bum Parking system can be a vast improvement over "Park Here In This Dark-Ass Lot And Leave Your Neatly Folded $7 In The Metal Kiosk Thing - We May Or May Not Tow You Anyway". The parking garages are lit and protected, but also can be expensive and damn annoying to exit at peak times.

Surely, with such a focus on Austin as the Live Music Capital of the World, we can come up with a better way to get into and out of the city to see a show. Until then, strike up a nice conversation with your chosen bum, spot him a few bucks, thank him for his "service", and cross your damn fingers.

Past, Present, Future: Escaped Zoo Animals

Combining laid back Southern California style with a Kinks-esque vocal quality, I present Escaped Zoo Animals. Formed just nine months ago in Riverside CA, they just released their self-titled full length album in January. Check out our interview below; it sounds like they stumbled into becoming and band and are riding that wave.

Favorite Tracks (player at bottom of post):
English 403
Model UN

Members/Instruments:
Travis Coover - vocals, guitar
Chris Menezes - guitar, percussion
John Bennett - keys, guitar, percussion
Andrew Ballenger - bass
Daniel Menezes - drums, percussion

1. Past: What is your musical background? What has led you to this point?

Escaped Zoo Animals is a collection of friends, some of whom have known each other since grade school. Though we had played together in the past, nothing serious had ever come to fruition. In early 2008, I (singer/guitarist Travis Coover) finished grad school, and wished to record a few songs I had written while in school. I approached now guitarist Chris Menezes about laying down these tracks, and thus, the nucleus of Escaped Zoo Animals was formed. Initially functioning as a "project," Chris and I asked Chris' brother Daniel to play drums on the demo. This later expanded, calling upon the talents of keyboardist John Bennett, and bassist Andrew Ballenger.

After finishing the demo, we posted the songs online, not knowing what to expect. The reaction, was the inquiry of many as to when we were going to play live. It was at this moment that we realized we were officially a band. From that point, we played many shows around Riverside California, fine-tuning our live performance. In October, we entered the studio to record what is now our first full-length, self-titled album. The primary influences of the band are Belle & Sebastian, Paul Simon, The Kinks, The Zombies and The Velvet Underground.

2. Present: Where are you at now in your career? What are you currently working on?

At this point, we are coming out of the gates, so to speak. Though only having existed for roughly nine months, we have already released a full length, and are ready to gain as much exposure as possible. Currently, the plan is to play pretty much any, and everywhere.

3. Future: What's coming up for you? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

In the near future, we plan on promoting our new album across the country, and hopefully, the globe. In five years, we'd like to be able to be doing this as a sole priority. Essentially, we'd like this to be our job.

4. Where can people find more of your music?

People can listen to our music on our page at www.myspace.com/escapedzooanimalsmusic . If you like what you hear, you can buy our record on itunes, there's a link to the store on our myspace page.

5. Anything you'd like to plug?

Check out four songs from our record (now on itunes) at www.myspace.com/escapedzooanimalsmusic. Also you can peep a remix of one of our tracks at www.myspace.com/frankielideo.

Trophy's on Friday

Looking forward to this show... I've seen Bankrupt and the Borrowers and Frantic Clam, but never Follow That Bird. I've heard positive things about them; this should be a good one!

Past, Present, Future: metheus Bound

Here's out next interview, with Toronto's metheus Bound. Mix up some punk, funk, blues, and jazz and you'll have some idea of what mB brings to bear. The sound drifts between all those genres but always has a consistent feel. James Everett's smooth voice floats over light guitar riffs and funky but subtle basslines. Definitely worth checking out their latest release, Stirring the Insides. In the meantime, read our interview below!

Members/Instruments:

James Everett – Guitar/Voice

Ryan Boiselle – Guitar

Ben Miller – Bass

Chino DeVilla - Drums

Year Formed: 2006


1. Past: What is your musical background? What has led you to this point?

We were all students of Humber College’s jazz program. Ben, Ryan and myself have known each since day one and were great friends all through school. Though we all really enjoyed playing jazz it was the exposure to other music (world, fusion, funk) that really got us all excited. We came together around the music I write, but it still felt like it belonged to all of us in a sense. Everyone brings a lot to say musically through this band. Chino joined later and when we first played with him it was an instant “YES! Keep him”. He was the perfect last piece to the puzzle.

2. Present: Where are you at now in your career? What are you currently working on?

We’re now in a place where we’ve come together musically, are developing rapidly that way, and now are trying to pull our business sense along with us. Meeting with publicists and talking to other artists. We have some of our music in talks to be synced and are playing gigs trying to promote the album we released a few months ago (“Stirring the Insides” 2008). The big thing for us now that we have that bulk of work out and available is to continue to hit the fans with small packets of quality. We have an EP in the works and some videos we’ve been cooking up for ye ole YouTube.

3. Future: What’s coming up for you? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

In 5 years we will have been touring and releasing more music. The audience for us is harder to build and reach, but they are loyal to the end and will hopefully stay with us for a lifetime. We’re not interested in huge explosive entrances because they usually equate to quick fizzle outs. We’re staying away from the big labels and trying to make a real “fan” base, not an “oh my god, I love that song!” base. Not that a big label is necessarily bad, but if it’s between being nobodies with a choice about what we do and somebodies without, we’re content to be nobodies. This isn’t reflective of a lack of ambition; we just won’t compromise the music. We are ridiculously excited when we hear about fans getting into the music and we are seriously invested in connecting with these people and growing them in numbers.

4. Where can people find more of your music?

Right now the album is on iTunes and CD Baby or you can listen to songs off it on our site (metheusbound.ca), our Myspace (myspace.com/metheusbound), or at Sonicbids (sonicbids.com/metheusbound). All our sites have one or two tracks different from each other, so you can actually hear quite a bit of us. We’re going to be posting new songs up on YouTube very soon so try searching metheus Bound next time you’re on it and you may catch a clip or two!

5. Anything you’d like to plug?

We’re doing a show on February 21st with a great band called Oceanship at Holy Joe’s in Toronto. Otherwise just keep your eyes to the site to see what’s coming up. We sell the album for $10 at shows, so that’s another perk of checking it us out.