[NSR] The Judy's at SXSW

It's been over ten years since I enjoyed SXSW, back in the day before the suits tookover, I think it cost me only $50 for an armband that gave me access to all shows. I could be off on the number, but it was cheap.

Anyway, if you are heading to SXSW this year, may I recommend the return of the classic late 70s early 80s Houston group, The Judy's

http://www.austinchronicle.com:80/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid%3A591648

The Judy's are reuniting for the 2007-08 Austin Music Awards, Wednesday, March 12, at the Austin Music Hall. "I don't know if we look at it as a reunion," clarifies bassist/keyboardist Jeff Walton. "It's more so just something we're doing." For those too young to remember, the Pearland-based trio was a pivotal part of Austin's original punk scene, forging its own genre between minimal New Wave and post-punk Dadaism. "That's where it all started for me," recalls frontman David Bean. "I was in a high school summer program [in Austin] in 1979, put on by the National Science Foundation, and I snuck into Raul's. That was the first time I realized I could play in clubs and be part of a scene." Outside of a private benefit in 2004, the last time the Judy's performed was at the Raul's reunion, one decade prior at Liberty Lunch. The band recently recorded a new song together, a commissioned theme for Japanese animé series Sgt. Frog, while Wasted Talent Records reissued expanded editions of the trio's first two albums, Washarama ('81) and Moo ('85). "The songs weren't meant to last through the ages," Bean says. "People don't know what snow on the TV is anymore. The information is being lost through the generations." Tickets for the Austin Music Awards are $15 advance, $20 at theatre and go on sale Tuesday, Feb. 19. Warren Hood, meanwhile, joins David Ball of Uncle Walt's Band, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and the Belleville Outfit for South Carolina by Birth, Texas by Choice: The Songs of Walter Hyatt, adding to an already stacked lineup that includes Rokkervil, a collaboration between Okkervil River and Roky Erickson, and a showcase by Honeydripper Gary Clark Jr.