Welcome to the Happy Heat Weekly Groove, our digital rag that’ll drop pretty much every Friday. We’re covering Austin culture from the past 50 years — the forgotten long gone places, people and sounds, the savvy veterans who shape our culture now, and the new young bloods who carry on creative traditions.
We’ll share our work, links to what we’re watching and reading, and insights into what’s made Austin “weird”. We look to three signposts:
Community
As Mojo Nixon says “they gathered all the weirdos in Texas and put them in one place.” That place would be Austin, our city, one of the fastest growing places on the planet.
So what happens? What’s lost and what’s found? What do new arrivals need to know? What’s important to our culture? Who are we and where did we come from?
Collaborative
Put simply, we believe in the power of place — the je ne sais quoi that happens when a bunch of curious non conformists find each other and start experimenting. What comes out of this? Well, mescaline for starters (more on that below) but also The Austin Chronicle and SXSW.
The Armadillo World Headquarters. Doug Sahm and the Soap Creek Saloon. Punk rock dives like Raul’s. Fragments clinking away in an always rotating kaleidoscope.
Creative
We’re not just talking about the artistic output — although we certainly cover that — but also the unorthodox ways counterculture pioneers got started. How about the legendary club bankrolled by $50,000 in proceeds from acid?
What about the punk rock hall of famer who trumpeted his band through eye-catching posters, even though the band didn’t yet exist?
If you dig the newsletter, make sure you check out the Happy Heat website and event calendar. We’re making feature films, pocket-docs, and animated shorts.
Watch next spring for our first hardcover collectible guide to the Austin groove. And check out all sorts of merch designed by some of the city’s most creative minds.
Happy Heat’s made by people in Austin about people in Austin, and together we’ll drop in on our city’s various tribes and scenes. We invite you to join us!
KEEPING AUSTIN WEIRD
A truckload of Peyote
In researching our various projects, we come across all sorts of fascinating snippets about places like Underground City Hall, where hippies found fun “pulling the king’s beard”. Underground City Hall led to Oat Willies, and Oat Willies led the legendary Vulcan Gas Company. Legendary photographer and documentarian Bob Simmons and Vulcan co-founder Don Hyde lay out how they got their seed money in an interview with Happy Heat’s Barry Underhill.
Barry’s in the process of giving this origin story the whole Willie treatment with the good folks at Arts+Labor, look for the animation to drop later this fall.
The Lion, the Hippies and the Murder
“If you ever wanted to pinpoint the era in which this town really started to get weird then look no further.” Check out this reddit thread on Austin in the 60s.
KEEPING AUSTIN GAY
The Dicks from Austin
In Happy Heat #2, we introduce you to 80s punk legends The Dicks, and their cross-dressing frontman Gary Floyd. Floyd focused his anger on the religious right, and by extension conservative Texas. In the early 70s, he worked as a janitor at the state’s mental hospital for the criminally insane. At the time, sodomy was illegal and Gary was in the closet. He never forgot what he witnessed.
They were, like, young people whose parents caught them doing some queer stuff or dressing up like a girl, and they had put them in a mental hospital, and there was nothing wrong with them! And they were being tortured. They would put electrodes on these kids, and then they would put girls’ clothes on them, and they would turn the electricity up, and as they took the girls’ clothing off, they would turn the electricity down. And when they didn’t have any more girls’ clothes on, they weren’t being shocked anymore. This is the truth! This really, really was happening!”
Watch for our pocket doc on The Dicks this fall.
PROTEST ART
We’ve partnered with rock star Billie Buck and the folks at Feels So Good to release a poster version of Billie’s riff on reproductive rights. 10% of the proceeds go to Jane’s Due Process.
For a bit more nostalgia,check out Kerry Awn’s “Doug Sahm’s Austin” which we’re also releasing through Feels So Good.
FINDING THE GROOVE
Speaking of Finding the Groove, we’re going to spend some time now and then looking at iconic stretches of Austin, and we’ll begin with the stretch of Burnet Road before it hits 183. Wanna go deeper?
Burnet Road — Tried and True
Top Notch Dazed and Confused
Lala’s Always Christmas
Upper Crust Cookies and Pie
La Mancha Formerly Jorges, Doug Sahm dug it, tipped in joints
Fonda San Miguel Mama’s favorite ‘rita room
Ginny’s Little Longhorn Chicken shit bingo
Burnet Road — New School
Peached Tortilla Called out in the New York Times
Buffalina Half off pizza happy hour
Pinthouse Pizza Where you embrace the Electric Jellyfish
The Ghosts
Poodle Dog Lounge
Happy Heat is an invitation to slow down and find the groove. To ask who we are and what we want life to be in our shared city.