BY SANFORD NOWLIN
F
ederal lawmakers have thrown a lifeline to the nation’s small and mid-sized live music venues, many teetering on the brink of closure due to the pandemic. The Save Our Stages Act, introduced by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, would offer $10 billion in Small Business Administration grants to help venues to pay their bills during the shutdown. Clubs, theaters and bars would be able to access funds equal to 45% of their 2019 operating costs or $12 million, whichever is lesser, and use the money to cover rent, salaries and other expenses. Corporate chains would be ineligible for the funds. “This is the difference between extinction and survival for this industry,” said Blayne Tucker, a San Antonio club owner involved in lobbying for the bill. “This is what we’ve been working for.”
music
Bill Lobbied for by San Antonio Club Owners Would Offer $10B to Support Troubled Music Venues
Sanford Nowlin
A companion bill is likely to follow in the U.S. House in the next few days, said Tucker, who’s involved in venues including Floore’s Country Store, 502 Bar, The Mix and Limelight. “The culture around Texas dance halls and live music has shaped generations, and this legislation would give them the resources to reopen their doors and continue educating and inspiring Texans beyond the coronavirus pandemic,” Cornyn said in a statement. A separate small-business relief proposal known as the Restart Act would also help venues weather the prolonged closure, Tucker said. He’s hopeful both can pass before the August 4 recess. Highlighting the urgency are recent sales and closures of high-profile venues and a University of Houston study that estimates nearly two-thirds of Austin’s live-music spots would
be shuttered by October 31 without financial help. The fight for a relief package kicked off this spring with the formation of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), which peppered members of congress with more than a million emails, building bipartisan support. In a survey, 90% of NIVA’s members warned that they’d be forced to close if the shutdown lasted more than six months. Tucker said he’s cautiously optimistic about the progress he’s seen in Washington once club owners, promoters and music fans banded together to communicate the urgent need for relief. “It’s progress,” he said. “Until it becomes a law, it’s just a great idea, but I’m going to keep after it.”
Von Economo’s Debut Delivers BiteSized Morsels of Hook-Laden Art Rock S an Antonio musician Von Economo had planned a June 20 performance to unveil her eponymous debut album — a gig that would have marked her first live show as a solo artist and provided the big reveal for an identity she’s so far kept hidden. Needless to say, the pandemic cancelled the performance. Even so, Von Economo seems to be fine with having more time to maintain her anonymity. During a recent phone call with the Current, she kept personal details sparse — namely, that she’s a visual artist when not recording and that the new album marks a return to music after performing in Midwestern bands years ago. “At this point, with the pandemic in full effect, that makes me strictly a recording artist,” she said. “But who says you can’t just be a recording artist?” It may be a while before we can experience Von Economo live, but her newly released 12-song album, produced by Buttercup and Demitasse guitarist Joe Reyes, makes a welcome addition to the city’s art rock landscape — and warrants the multiple listens it may take
to unravel. At times, Von Economo’s clear — and delightfully detached — vocal delivery and strummed 12-string guitar evoke early Bowie, as do the stately nature of the songs’ hooks. But instrumental embellishments such as the slightly out-of-tune piano chords opening “Moondust” and the lazy wash of slide guitar work on “Violet” give the compositions a shifting, ethereal quality all their own. “What if we were wrong about everything?” she sings, opening the album’s first single, “I, Organism,” before pledging — as said life form — “not to believe, not to deceive.” Nods to science pop up several more times in the lyrics, as do broad ruminations about human nature. It should come as little surprise then that the singer took her name from a type of neuron that appears in the brains of humans, great apes and elephants. The choice suggests an interest not just in biology, but in what makes us human. While the album’s heady subject matter and experimental trappings could be read as warning signs for self-indulgence, not so. The songs’
Von Economo
conventional structures and memorable choruses make for an accessible experience, as do their brevity. The longest clocks in at just 3:40 and several end shy of the two-minute mark. Taken as a complete work, Von Economo’s debut shows the kind of creativity and songcraft that can snowball into a cult following — regardless of when the artist is finally able to step onstage. The album is available via voneconomo. bandcamp.com as a digital download or a cassette-shaped USB drive. A vinyl version is in the works through Buttercup’s Bedlamb Records imprint. — Sanford Nowlin
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