Zoe Thomson

She’s only eight-years-old but it looks like she’s been playing guitar twice that long. Zoe Thomson is about to give Nicki Minaj singers Sophia Grace and Rosie a run for their money in the precocious youth department. She’s already in a rock band called The Mini Band and has an endorsement deal with our good friends at Daisy Rock Guitars, where she’s the featured artist on their web site this month.

(BTW, even if you’re older than eight, you can WIN a Daisy Rock and lots of other great prizes in our Discoveries 2012 Playlist Competition. Deadline is June 1st.)

Donna Summer

TMZ reports that ’70s disco diva Donna Summer has died of cancer in Florida. She was 63. Summer was the winner of five GRAMMY awards and best known for woman-empowering hits like “She Works Hard for the Money,” “Bad Girls,” “Last Dance,” and “Hot Stuff,” as well as her steamy-for-the-time “Love To Love You, Baby.”

She had been working on a new album at the time of her death.

Nancy Coplin

Nancy Coplin is one of the Austin music community’s most valuable assets and unsung heroines. She was honored last year for her role in helping to establish Austin’s best-known slogan: The Live Music Capital of the World. In her day job as the Music Coordinator for Austin Bergstrom International Airport she books 15 shows a week – which officially makes her the city’s musical gatekeeper. 

 Nancy is former chair of the Austin Music Commission, a founder of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and the co-founder of Women in Music Professional Society, also known as WIMPS, an informal monthly networking lunch for Austin women in all sectors of music. Although some women refuse to attend due to the wimpy acronym, WIMPS was nevertheless named #15 in the Austin Business Journal’s list of best local networking groups.

Nancy is usually out several nights a week to hear friends play, raise money to help musicians in need or champion causes near and dear to her heart. 

Born in Saginaw, Michigan but raised in Dallas, Nancy has a reputation as a musician’s best friend and a no-nonsense straight shooter – literally: She owns two pistols, a shotgun and likes to shoot skeet.

We asked her to give us the break-down on some of her musical passions.

How did you get started in the music business?

When I moved to Austin from New Orleans, I joined the Austin Songwriters Group. I started volunteering in the music biz and became a charter member of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce. We did two events in the late ‘80s that were tributes to Austin women in music. I applied for the first ever Austin Music Commission, was selected by the City Council and appointed. I was elected Chair and served for four years. We did the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial and the Live Music Capital of the World slogan, among other things.

What is your job at ABIA and what does it entail?

I have been the Music Coordinator at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport since 1999. We currently have five live music venues with 15 shows a week, but I suspect we will have at least 20 by the end of the year and more and more as the airport grows. I run the entire live music set up and even ran sound until about six months ago, when I finally got some help. I program the intercom with all Austin music. I also secure sponsorship money to pay the bands and make sure the checks are cut, musicians arrive on time and more.

I had to learn how to run a sound board. We had a guy who loaned us his sound system until we purchased our own 16-channel board. He gave me some lessons, but mostly it was trial and error – I did some of both, try and error.

What do you look for in artists who want to play at the airport?

Our building, which is owned by the City of Austin, is a family friendly space, so we have to be mindful of lyrics. If the lyrics are too adult-oriented, the musicians either have to change their set list or not play. They must sound pleasing to the travelers. It is pretty much subjective on my part, as I have been doing this for 13 years and have a feel for what travelers like.

How many submissions do you get on average?

It varies. I get a lot of submissions by email and lots of phone calls. It can range from five to twenty-five per week. Sometimes it is more and sometimes it is less. When I go on vacation, it is hard to come back when I have 200-300 emails.

What advice do you have for artists who would like to play at the airport?

Include your phone number, whether you contact me by phone or email. Submit all that I would need to consider you, if you are new. This would be where you play in town and a sample of your music.

You also book the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar. What is the criteria you use for booking that?

The Armadillo Christmas Bazaar is a whole different animal. We book high-level performers like Marcia Ball, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Ruthie Foster. I work on it all year, strategizing with the producers in January right after the show is over in December. It is a puzzle. Certain acts do better on certain days. Over the years we have added more and more daytime shows where we feature emerging acts and those artists are selected by myself and several of the producers.

How did WIMPS get started?

[Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau Music Marketing Director] Rose Reyes and I had a lunch date five years ago. We thought, wow, we should do this more often and include other women in the biz just to catch up. So we set up our first lunch in August of 2007 and the rest is history. We have connected so many women and they have truly benefited from our little monthly lunch. When we started it, we did not want to have to do a lot of work, so there are no membership dues and no organizational stuff.

You are also a tireless fundraiser. Can you talk about your commitment to good deeds through music?

There have been many times when I could not afford to donate to a good cause, but I certainly could use my skills, such as stage management, to help at a fundraiser. I was raised to give back. My parents were always volunteering with different organization that helped people. They also donated to a lot of charities. I believe we should always give back for the good things we receive. I have been a huge supporter of HAAM [Health Alliance for Austin Musicians] since its inception. This is the best thing that has been done for Austin musicians in the 25 years. I also like to give a little bit to some of the Kickstarter projects from time to time. A little bit goes a long way and we should all help where and however we can.

You also sell posters. How did that get started?

Many years ago, I started a business with Linda Wier, Rusty Wier’s ex wife (one of them) and we called it Your Texas Marketplace. We tried to sell music merch from local artists, even Willie Nelson. It did not work, but then I met Bruce Willenzik, who owned a huge collection of original concert posters from the Armadillo World Headquarters. We started selling his posters and doing music memorabilia shows. Unfortunately, Linda passed away some years ago, but I continued  the business and changed the name to YOTEX. I did shows and had a booth at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar for more than 20 years. I don’t do shows any more, but sell them by appointment from my home. My favorite customer, Fern Santini, purchased a bunch to hang at the Four Seasons Condo project and they were definitely crowd pleasers.

Nancy Coplin will be moderating a panel at MEOW Day called Mind Your Own Business: Survival Tips for the DIY Musician. 

Ann and Nancy Wilson

Strange Euphoria, Heart’s first career-spanning box set, will be released on June 5th through Epic Records and Legacy Recordings – marking sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson’s 35th year as a band.

The box set will be an anthology of hits, rarities, demos, live performances and more and includes three CDs and one DVD.

Strange Euphoria is personally curated by the Wilsons and includes their song-by-song annotations, anecdotes and commentaries.

“In all the years we have been making music we have seen trends come and go,” Ann Wilson said. “We have always felt that to try and chase the latest ‘it’ sound is pointless, and we have tried to remain true to ourselves as songwriters and musicians.”

Although induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame has thus far eluded them, the band has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Northwest Chapter of NARAS (The GRAMMY Organization), an ASCAP Award for Songwriting Excellence in 2009 and the Women of Valor Award from ROCKRGRL Magazine in 2000.

Heart - Strange Euphoria - track listing

CD 1

1. Through Eyes And Glass (by Ann Wilson & The Daybreaks)
2. Magic Man (demo)*
3. How Deep It Goes (demo)*
4. Crazy On You (demo)*
5. Dreamboat Annie (Fantasy Child) + Dreamboat Annie Reprise (edit)*
6. Love Alive
7. Sylvan Song
8. Dream Of The Archer
9. White Lightning And Wine (live at the Aquarius)*
10. Barracuda (live from BBC Radio Concert)*
11. Little Queen
12. Kick It Out
13. Here Song (demo)*
14. Heartless (demo)*
15. Dog & Butterfly (acoustic demo)*
16. Straight On
17. Nada One

CD 2

1. Bebe le Strange
2. Silver Wheels II
3. Even It Up
4. Sweet Darlin’
5. City’s Burning
6. Angels
7. Love Mistake
8. Lucky Day (demo)*
9. Never (live, with John Paul Jones)*
10. These Dreams
11. Nobody Home
12. Alone
13. Wait For An Answer
14. Unconditional Love (demo)*
15. High Romance (demo)*
16. Under The Sky (demo)*
17. Desire Walks On (“Beach demo” version)*

CD 3

1. Kiss (by The Lovemongers)
2. Sand (live) (by The Lovemongers)
3. Everything (live) (by Nancy Wilson)
4. She Still Believes (live)*
5. Any Woman’s Blues (demo) (with the Seattle Blues Revue Horns)*
6. Strange Euphoria
7. Boppy’s Back (demo)*
8. Friend Meets Friend (live)  (by The Lovemongers)*
9. Love Or Madness (live)
10. Skin To Skin
11. Fallen Ones
12. Enough
13. Lost Angel (live)
14. Little Problems, Little Lies (by Ann Wilson)
15. Queen City
16. Hey You
17. Avalon (Reprise)

* previously unreleased

DVD
KWSU “The Second Ending – featuring Heart” program
circa February-March 1976

1. Pre Show
2. Heartless
3. White Lightning & Wine
4. Dreamboat Annie
5. Silver Wheels
6. Crazy On You
7. Sing Child
8. Soul Of The Sea
9. Devil Delight
10. Magic Man

Demi Lovato and Britney Spears

After months of speculation, rumor and casting overhauls, Britney Spears and Demi Lovato have been tapped to replace sacked “X Factor” judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger on Fox’s one-season-old singing competition.

Unlike “American Idol,” but similar to “The Voice,” the judges on “X Factor” mentor, compete against each other and decide who is eliminated each week. Rounding out the judge’s table are “X Factor” creator Simon Cowell and LA Reid, who both return from last season.

Scherzinger received 1.5 million and Abdul got 2.5 million to appear on “X Factor’s” inaugural season, but Britney is said to be taking home 15 million to appear, although that figure has not been confirmed.

Host Steve Jones was let go after the finale, but no replacement has yet been announced for him.

Lori Barbero

Lori Barbero is known as the drummer and co-founder of the iconic all-female ‘90s band, Babes in Toyland – one of the greatest all-female rock bands of all time.

Barbero formed the Minneapolis trio with lead singer/guitarist Kat Bjelland in 1987. Even though Barbero was not a drummer at the time she met Bjelland, Kat convinced her to start a band with her. The rest, as they say, is music history.

Babes played together for 14 years (Courtney Love and Jennifer Finch were members briefly). They put out a single for Sub Pop‘s singles club, released three albums, and traveled the world before disbanding in 2001.

Barbero relocated to Austin in 2008 and, while she isn’t actively seeking a music career or reliving her glory days, she’s still got her hand in music, working each year for SXSW.

We asked her to give us the scoop on what she’s up to now, her experience as a musician in the ’90s grunge scene and her thoughts on the state of women in rock.

What you do for SXSW?

I’m an assistant production manager. Every year there’s more and more on my plate. This year the festival started on Tuesday as opposed to Wednesday so instead of six stages I was the assistant production manager for eight stages and 236 bands.

How many venues is that? 

Six venues. Two of them have two stages, inside and out.

How does it feel to be on the other side of the stage? 

I’m used to it from touring and taking care of business back then. I’m really familiar with advancing dates, talking about backline and making sure everyone has what they need. I DJ’ed for 10, 12 years up in Minneapolis so I know what the DJs need also.

Didn’t you also manage other bands for a while?

I had a record label and I did do a little bit of management.

So you handled management for Babes?

Yeah. I was the one who made sure everything was taken care of. We had a manager a couple of times but through our  career, it was mostly me.

Your band was such an integral part of the whole grunge and alternative scene. Women had a lot of presence and power at that particular moment.

They had a lot of attention but I don’t think it was really any power. Music’s always been and is still a male dominated world. I always said we had to work ten times harder to prove ourselves and get the same treatment as male bands. It was really hard to get your foot in the door and we had to work really, really, really hard – I think a lot harder than a lot of male musicians. We rehearsed a minimum of five times a week for many years and we toured a lot. We were afraid that if we slid back a little bit the slack would make us drift away. So we were really driven.

Were there other women in Minneapolis that you looked to for camaraderie?

I admired Chrissie Dunlap who worked at First Avenue. Chrissie and Maggie also booked the Uptown Bar. Those clubs booked 98 percent male bands.  The Uptown Bar was the first place in Minneapolis that Nirvana ever played and First Avenue used to bring in music from all over the world. These women were familiar with music but still operating in a man’s world. Unless you’re a sex kitten you still don’t get a page within the first 100 pages of any music magazine. You may get something in the back if you pay for an ad.

Later on down the road we played with Seven Year Bitch and then The Gits, but Mia [Zapata] was the only female in that band, bless her soul.

Babes in Toyland

I had a lot of friends in music and we weren’t competing with anyone. It depends on what kind of personality you have, too. We were just having fun banging away at our instruments and enjoying life.

So was there one particular moment that catapulted you into the spotlight? 

When we got back from Europe with Sonic Youth in ’90. We had played a lot before that but we never got paid. After we came back from that tour we were really popular. People adored us and our crowd was a lot bigger. We got more respect.

Sonic Youth was a bit of a lightning rod, weren’t they? Everyone they toured with got popular. 

They are still one of my favorite bands. They brought everyone that they believed in on tour with them. I encouraged that with us too. We brought a lot of friends on tour with us. We were kind of the festival gals. We didn’t headline, but we were on a lot of festivals.

Seeing women play music at that time was so empowering.

I know. It is. I still love it.

Babes was such an important band and so few bands reach the level you did. It was a big band for the time and there still aren’t a lot of women in rock getting recognition as rock musicians. Do you ever think about that?

I guess it was just part of my life. I really embrace it. Even my roommates say, “You didn’t tell me you were in Babes in Toyland!” I don’t tell anyone. It’s a huge, huge part of my life. I’m not embarrassed about it and I don’t regret it whatsoever. It’s the greatest thing and I’m so grateful. I guess it’s because when I hear people go on [about their bands] I just roll my eyes. I’m not one of those people who wear their own band t-shirts. Some things are really sacred and very personal.

Wasn’t there a controversial book written about you guys?

I never read it. I guess I never really cared. I never even listen to our records. I guess I could listen in the privacy of my own home but I never have. I’ve never read the book. That’s just how I am.

I do think it’s important, though, for women’s stories to be told for the sake of other women. 

Maybe it’s because my dad told me I was never going to do anything in my life. At the end of the day he was really proud of me but when I got accepted to Parsons School of Design in New York he said, “Why would you ever even go there? You don’t have anything.” So that might be why I’ve never been able to accept compliments. If I’m with someone that I’ve known for a long time and we talk about a memory, then I laugh. It could be a woman thing, too. I have no idea.

Interesting because you’ve really accomplished something so inspiring.

I used to answer all of our mail at our PO box. A girl in Wisconsin wrote us a letter saying she hated her parents and wanted to kill herself. She was probably 18 or 19. I wrote her back and told her not to kill herself. I told her to just get a guitar. It doesn’t make a difference if it costs $20. She wrote back to me about a year later and said, “I don’t know if you remember me but I taught myself how to play guitar because you told me to. Thank you. If it wasn’t for your letter back to me I don’t know if I’d be alive.” I remember just weeping. If everything I did was just for that one person it makes me feel so much better. I’m not doing it to satisfy other people. I’m doing it because I enjoy it and it makes me happy. I loved traveling. I loved playing music with the people I played music with and I just loved the whole experience.

Lori Barbero is the keynote speaker at MEOW Day on May 26th. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Click the link for details. 

Yoko Ono

For 25 years, Yoko Ono has been making powerful, provocative music. One listen to her 1970 debut, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono, which kicks off with a frenetic electric guitar (courtesy of John Lennon) before Ono’s trademark warbling bursts from the speakers will tell you why she’s been hailed as a visionary as well as perennially misunderstood. But in 1992, when Rykodisc issued the six-CD Ono box set (and the accompanying compilation, Walking On Thin Ice), music critics and music fans found to their surprise there was much to enjoy, from singer/songwriter folkiness to avant-garde noise to yes, good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll. Now, a decade after her last album, 1985′s Starpeace, comes Rising, one of Ono’s strongest albums. Ono talked about making Rising, with her son, Sean, and his band, IMA, her appearance on Mad About You, and more:

What were your feelings about making a record after so much time? I’d wondered if you would ever make a record again.

That was a question to me, too! A question mark, because I don’t plan things so much, as you know, and I don’t worry. If it comes, it comes, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. It wasn’t really a problem. Somehow I got inspired and so I did it.

How do you feel about re-entering music scene?

Well, I never think of “re-entering.” I really feel that I’m always there! It’s just that people, for a decade, have not heard any albums coming out from me.

The songs are pretty dark. Usually you’re more optimistic.

“Talking to the Universe,” “Ask the Dragon,” they’re fun tracks I think. There’s some black humor there, but as tracks I think they’re more upbeat than anything. Even “I’m Dying!” Just that one line suggests darkness, but I think the track is very happening, very upbeat.

How did you choose your backing band?

Well, I didn’t choose. Sean came to me and said, “Let me do it with you,” and I’m thinking “a teenage band?” “Well, mummy’s thinking of getting good, professional session musicians.” He said, “No, no, no, don’t do that! They don’t understand your music. I understand your music the best. I’m the one who understands it!”

I have a very good relationship with him as mother and son, and I didn’t want to ruin that with arguing [about music]. He’s ready to get out there [with his band], and I didn’t want to ruin his debut, but he insisted. I’m very glad he did because I think he was right. He and his group, IMA, really had a sense of my stuff. So when I’d say, “This one is like ‘What Did I Do,’ that feeling,” they immediately remembered that song, they remember all the licks. If I did it with professional session musicians, they would have said, “What? What? What is ‘What Did I Do’?” Then I’d have to wrack my brains and think of a Beatles track or something to explain it to them! So that’s what was good about [working with IMA] really. It was an eye-opener to me that such a situation could exist.

Do you think you’ll go on tour?

I think so. I’m not sure yet. Right now, it’s almost like just after having a baby. My release date was two weeks before the storm of The Beatles Anthology. So I felt like I only had two weeks to push [my album] out. And then the idea is that when the storm subsides, I’m going to start thinking about pushing it again.

What are your thoughts on how the “women in rock” subject has developed?

I love it! It’s so beautiful. I listen to groups like L7. The concept of a “woman rocker” in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s is very different, and L7′s great, I think.

Was there any connection between “Wargasm” [a track from L7's Bricks Are Heavy, which features a sampled Ono warble] and your song “Warzone?”

No, not really. I didn’t think of it that way. People pointed out about that later, and I thought oh, that’s interesting. The inspiration was Porno for Pyros. They had a track that was very powerful. I forget the name. And I thought wow, I just want to make something like this! And that was “Warzone.”

How did your guest appearance on Mad About You come about?

They asked me! Already I was primed by watching that one show they did of visiting Yoko; I’m not a sitcom watcher, but they said, “Watch it, watch it, because your white room is going to be in there!” [the all-white room in Ono's New York apartment] So I watched it, and I thought it was very nice and light and pleasant. So the next time they asked me, I thought, why don’t I do it? I thought it was going to be a cinch; walk in, there’s a TelePrompter, and just read it and smile and shake hands and get out. You know, a cameo role. And surprise, surprise, the actors and actresses don’t have a TelePrompter, they remember all the lines. It’s like doing a play, so I was saying, oh, what did I get into? I got scared. There’s not one script writer, it’s written by several people, and the script keeps changing until the very end. Two hours before the show, I heard somebody say, “Another change,” and I said, “Please not another change! I just remembered this much!” But it was very interesting. I’m always interested in getting into a new world, a new world meaning new for me. So it’s been an incredible adventure.

I think your participation showed that you have a sense of humor.

It’s very strange. I think the combination of being a woman and being an Oriental really makes people think that I couldn’t possibly have any sense of humor. If I just crack a joke, I tend to be deadpan, so usually people take it seriously and they think of me as a wacko or something, so I try not to crack jokes so much. Also, there’s an image of me as “The Widow,” so I think most people are not ready to hear me crack a joke. But in private, John and I used to make each other laugh and I kind of miss that.

It seems that even when you’re promoting your own stuff, you have to address Beatles issues as well.

Yes, you’re right. Whenever I do something there will always be a question about the Beatles or about John.

It’s like working on two careers.

That’s true and I do it with pleasure. I feel very good about doing John’s stuff.

Do you feel it makes it harder for you to get attention for your own work?

No, I think I’m a hopeless optimist! I’m not that bothered about it because I feel that I always have my own voice, and it’s different from others. If somebody wants to hear it, they will. It’s okay by me that I have to do John’s stuff. It’s separate from my stuff. I don’t have to compete with John to get a space because my space is different space, and that’s fine. His is probably a bigger space, and that’s fine too. I never thought that I had to be big.

Interview by Gillian G. Gaar

Cherri Bomb

All teen rock band, Cherri Bomb, is just three days away from the release of their major label debut album, This is the End of Control on Hollywood Records.

Managed by former Hole drummer Samantha Maloney, the group took their name from a book of the same name, written by Carrie Borzillo, which also happens to feature some of Maloney’s writing contributions.

“Cherri Bomb opened for my band Chelsea Girls in February of 2009,” says Maloney. “They blew me away. They played exceptionally well, sang three and four part harmonies, and left myself and the crowd speechless. I knew these girls were destined for greatness.”

The Los Angeles-based group was started by guitarist, lead vocalist Julia Pierce in 2008. Rounding out the group are sisters Nia Lovelis on drums, Rena Lovelis on bass and Miranda Miller on keyboards and guitars.

Cherri Bomb released Stark, a five-song EP, last fall and, in addition to Chelsea Girls, the band has also shared the stage with Smashing Pumpkins and Foo Fighters. Oh yeah, and the players are all between the ages of 13 and 16.

Here they are covering the Foo Fighters’ song, “Pretender.”

Loretta Lynn and Zooey Deschanel

Loretta Lynn announced from the Ryman Theater stage at a Grand Ol’ Opry show in Nashville last night that actress/singer Zooey Deschanel will play her in the Broadway stage version of Coal Miner’s Daughter.”  The 1980 film about the life of Loretta Lynn starred Sissy Spacek, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of the beloved country music icon.

Spacek just released a memoir of her own entitled My Extraordinary Ordinary Life.

Check out the clip from the film below and weigh in on the comments section below. Do you think Zooey will make a good Loretta?

Elaine Bradley

Drummer Elaine Bradley set off an Internet firestorm yesterday after announcing she is six months pregnant but planning to continue touring and performing with her band, Neon Trees, a while longer.

Bradley broke the baby news in the midst of an interview with Boston radio station Mix 104.1. “It’s not a private — well it is private — but it’s not like, it used to be a secret,” Bradley said on the air. “It used to be one of those things where it was very hush-hush and now it’s not anymore so it’s weird to get used to it.”

The band’s new album, The Picture Show, was released in April and tour dates are booked throughout the summer.

“I am going to drum basically up to a little past seven months,” Bradley continued. “It’s going to get intense, I’m sure.”

The Provo, Utah-based band has yet to announce Bradley’s replacement.