Michael Hall | |
---|---|
Born | North Carolina |
Origin | Austin, Texas |
Genres | Singer-songwriter |
Instrument | Guitar |
Years active | 1985–present |
Labels | Dejadisc, Blue Rose, Record Collect, Safe House |
Michael Hall is an American singer-songwriter and journalist from Austin, Texas. Musically, he is known for his work as the frontman of the Wild Seeds and for his subsequent solo career. He has written articles for multiple publications, including Trouser Press , the Austin American-Statesman , and the Austin Chronicle . Since 1997, he has written for Texas Monthly . [1]
A native of North Carolina, [2] Hall received a degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin in 1979. [1] He subsequently worked at the University of Texas's journalism school and the Austin Chronicle before starting his musical career. [3]
Hall founded the Wild Seeds in 1984. [4] After they broke up in 1989, he embarked on a solo career, starting with his 1990 solo debut, Quarter to Three. The album included performances from Walter Salas-Humara and J. D. Foster (both of the Silos), as well as Rich Brotherton and Rosie Flores. [3] As of 2006, he had released eight total solo albums. [5] In the 1990s, he joined with Salas-Humara and Alejandro Escovedo to form the Setters, which released one album in 1993. [2] In 2000, he formed Michael Hall and the Woodpeckers, a group consisting of him and multiple other well-known Austin musicians. [6]
Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He was a founding member and the leader of the 13th Floor Elevators and a pioneer of the psychedelic rock genre.
Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no wave scene as the singer and guitarist of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks.
Dicks were an American punk rock band from Austin, Texas, formed in 1980 and initially disbanded in 1986. After the first breakup, singer Gary Floyd formed the band Sister Double Happiness, with drummer Lynn Perko, then later fronted a project called Black Kali Ma. In 2004, The Dicks reunited and were active until 2016.
The Silos is an American rock band formed by Walter Salas-Humara and Bob Rupe in New York City, United States in 1985.
Gary Myrick is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist.
Golden Lies is a 2000 album by the Meat Puppets. After the You Love Me EP, in 1999, Golden Lies was the second studio release from the second line-up of the band. Although Derrick Bostrom and Cris Kirkwood do not appear on the album, they were still considered members of the Meat Puppets.
Omar Kent Dykes is an American blues guitarist and singer, living in Austin, Texas.
The Vulgar Boatmen are an American rock band, formed in Gainesville, Florida, United States, in 1982 by a group of students at the University of Florida, including John Eder and Walter Salas-Humara, later of The Silos. In its original configuration the group issued several cassette-only releases, including Women and Boatmen First (1982) and All Bands on Deck (1984). As first Eder and then Salas-Humara departed, the group coalesced around Robert Ray, a film studies professor at the university, who became one of the group's two principal songwriters and vocalists, the other being Indiana musician Dale Lawrence, a former student of Ray's who was a veteran of the early punk band the Gizmos. The band was named as a play on the Russian folk song The Volga Boatmen.
Glass Eye were an influential art rock group based in Austin, Texas, and were primarily active from 1983 to 1993. Popular in Austin, and on the college radio and tour circuit, the band's unusual and unique musical style, blending melodic hooks with dissonance and occasional tendencies for the avant-garde, delighted critics. Considered "one of Austin's most popular and influential bands", their commercial success never matched their critical acclaim. Through self-release, and being signed to Wrestler and Bar/None Records, they released four LPs, two EPs and one single, and when the band regrouped in 2006, they released their previously lost final LP, Every Woman's Fantasy, on their own label, Glass Eye Records.
Nakia Daniel Reynoso, known professionally as Nakia, is an American musician, singer-songwriter and actor living in Austin, Texas. He is a native of Fort Payne, Alabama.
Walter Salas-Humara is the chief songwriter for and a founding member of The Silos, a rock band formed in 1985 in New York City with Bob Rupe. The Silos were voted the Best New American Band in the Rolling Stone Critics Poll of 1987, and have released more than a dozen albums to date. As indicated by its name, which suggests both agrarian populism and impending apocalypse, the band shows influences of post-punk East Village experimentalism as well as the nascent country-rock revivalism that would return at decade's end. As described by Stephen Holden in the New York Times, "The band's austere style inflects the astringent twang of the Velvet Underground with the drone of R.E.M. and adds countryish echoes that recall Gram Parsons."
Carroll DesChamps "Champ" Hood was an American singer and multi-instrumentalist. He was inducted into the Austin Music Memorial in 2011, the Austin Chronicle's Texas Music Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a five-time recipient of the Austin Best String Player Award.
The Setters was a collaborative musical project between rock-n-roll songwriters Walter Salas-Humara of the Silos, Alejandro Escovedo of True Believers, and Michael Hall of the Wild Seeds. The band originated when Hall told a music festival he wanted to play at that he was in a band with Salas-Humara and Escovedo. Hall came up with the band name "The Setters" off the top of his head when the festival organizers asked him what the band's name was. Hall then called up Salas-Humara to ask him to perform with him at the festival, and Salas-Humara agreed. They released a single, self-titled album in 1993 on the German Blue Million Miles record label, and which was released the following year in the United States on Watermelon Records. The album was produced by Gurf Morlix, and featured performances by accordionist Lisa Mednick and bassist Scott Garber. The tracks on the album are all new recordings of songs originally written by Salas-Humara, Escovedo, or Hall. Brian Beatty gave the album 3 stars out of 5, writing, "Though there's no arguing with the quality of the songs here, most of them have appeared on albums much better than this one. Purchase those albums first."
Wild Seeds are a roots-rock band from Austin, Texas formed in 1984. Michael Hall, the band's lead vocalist and guitarist, was inspired to found the band by successful post-punk bands of the time, including the Fleshtones and Dream Syndicate. The band broke up in 1989, but occasionally play together. They have been identified as one of multiple New Sincerity bands active during the 1980s, along with the Dharma Bums, True Believers, and Zeitgeist.
Watermelon Records was a record label based in Austin, Texas.
Dejadisc was a roots music-oriented record label based in Austin, Texas which was active from 1992 to 1997. It was known for the numerous, eclectic singer-songwriters who were signed to it.
Adequate Desire is an album by the American musician Michael Hall, released in 1994. The album title comes from a line in an Emily Dickinson poem. Hall supported the album with a North American tour.
With These Hands is the third album by the American roots rock musician Alejandro Escovedo, released in 1996. It was his only solo album for Rykodisc.
Rockit Fuel Only is an album by the American musician Evan Johns, released in 1991. He is credited with his backing band, the H-Bombs. Johns supported the album with a North American tour.
The Silos is an album by the American band the Silos, released in 1990. A commercial disappointment, it was the band's only album for RCA Records. The Silos peaked at No. 141 on the Billboard 200. The band supported the album with a North American tour that included shows with the Jayhawks.