A curious mix of people : the underground scene of '90s Austin

**A twisting path through Austin’s underground music scene in the twentieth century’s last decade, narrated by the people who were there.** It’s 1990 in Austin, Texas. The next decade will be a tipping point in the city's transformation from sleepy college town to major city. Beneath the increasingly slick exterior, though, a group of like-minded contrarians were reimagining an underground music scene. Embracing a do-it-yourself ethos, record labels emerged to release local music, zines cheered and jeered acts beneath the radar of mainstream media outlets, and loads of small clubs opened simply because music-minded people wanted a place to play. This vibrant scene valued expression over erudition, from the razor-sharp songcraft of Spoon to the fuzzed-out poptones of Sixteen Deluxe, and blurred the boundaries between observer and participant. Evolving in tandem with the city’s emergence on the national stage via the film __Slacker__ and the SXSW conference and festivals, Austin’s musical underground became a spiritual crucible for the uneasy balance between commercial success and cultural authenticity, a tension that still resonates today. The first book about Austin underground music in the ’90s, __A Curious Mix of People__ is an oral history that tells the story of this transformative decade through the eyes of the musicians, writers, DJs, club owners, record-store employees, and other key figures who were there. "Ask anyone outside of Austin what they know about the city and chances are the first thing they'll mention is the music. While the Armadillo Era has been well-chronicled, there is no book about Austin music in the 90s. Greg Beets and Richard Whymark were part of the scene at that time, making zines, playing in bands, and DJ-ing at the college radio station, and have put together an oral history of the decade. Beets and Whymark are not trying to cover all of the music made in Austin during the 1990s; they're most interested in the underground/punk community in which they participated. While a few of those bands got big (e.g., Spoon), the music remained mostly local, DIY. It was driven by live shows, though local media (radio, TV, print), record stores, and a few labels were also important to the story. Beets and Whymark devote chapters to those elements, but almost half of the chapters are based around a particular club. Organizing the book around physical spaces is not only appropriate for telling the story of the music, it is nice framing for the larger story of Austin. As the authors note, the city was still a relatively sleepy place in the early 1990s, with vacant blocks downtown and loads of small clubs that opened and closed simply because music-minded people wanted a place to play. By 1999, longtime venues like the Electric Lounge and Liberty Lunch were bulldozed to make way for development and tech companies"-- Provided by publisher

A twisting path through Austin's underground music scenein the twentieth century's last decade, narrated by the people whowere there.

It's 1990 in Austin, Texas. The next decade will be a tippingpoint in the city's metamorphosis from sleepy college town to majorcity. Beneath the increasingly slick exterior, though, a group oflike-minded contrarians were reimagining an underground musicscene. Embracing a do-it-yourself ethos, record labels emerged torelease local music, zines cheered and jeered acts beneath theradar of mainstream media outlets, and upstart clubs provided ahome venue for new bands to build their sound.

This vibrant scene valued expression over erudition, from therazor-sharp songcraft of Spoon to the fuzzed-out poptones ofSixteen Deluxe, and blurred the boundaries between observer andparticipant. Evolving in tandem with the city's emergence on thenational stage via the film Slacker and the SXSWconference and festivals, Austin's musical underground became aspiritual crucible for the uneasy balance between commercialsuccess and cultural authenticity, a tension that still resonatestoday.

The first book about Austin underground music in the '90s, ACurious Mix of People is an oral history that tells the storyof this transformative decade through the eyes of the musicians,writers, DJs, club owners, record-store employees, and other keyfigures who were there.