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Daniel Johnston album reissue shares the Texas icon's unheard songs

Daniel Johnston around the time of the initial album's release.

Photo by Lisa Harris

Texans have their fair number of musical exports, but none they're as protective over as Daniel Johnston. This beacon of authenticity enthralled listeners with his emotional straightforwardness, including supporters like Kurt Cobain, Sonic Youth, and Built To Spill, among many others.

Now, a posthumous 2-LP vinyl re-release expands Johnston's 1991 album Artistic Vice with outtakes, rehearsals, and even previously unreleased songs. It comes out October 18, including the song "All Good Children Got To Die," which just premiered October 8 via Spin.

Fans who still feel raw about Johnston's 2019 death — he was living near Houston in Waller and is buried in Katy — will be hit with heightened feelings by this living eulogy. The track, remastered by Johnston's friend Kramer, is as lo-fi as ever, in Johnston's usual style, but with an upbeat blues guitar providing a base. The lyrics start with the cleverly delightful metaphor, "Been gettin' fat on my humble pie/Pretty soon, I'll up and die," and continue on in simple coupled rhymes consoling the listener.

The cheery and nostalgic visualizer by Fly Eye Media features photos of Johnston, drawings of Casper the Ghost (famously, one of the few dead children anyone wants to think about), some of Johnston's own drawings, and close-ups of the Artistic Vice album cover. Another image depicts the cool geodesic dome where the album was recorded.

These visuals are a preview of similar things to come in the collector's edition vinyl — which will be peach and light blue — including a lyric booklet with rare photos and words from Johnston's bandmates in Eye Band. The entire second album will be made up of the archival material mentioned above. This isn't a cobbled-together afterthought, but a collection of works that were intended to make it onto the album in some form or another, and never did.

This album was significant in Johnston's career because it was the first time he fronted a band. But it was about a dozen albums into his career (depending on how you count some releases), and it came several years after Hi, How Are You, still the artist's best-known collection, which he used to hand out around Austin.

The re-released Artistic Vice is put forth by Eternal Yip Eye Records and Thirty Tigers. Johnston's brother, Dick Johnston, leads a team of workers and volunteers, according to a press release, to continue the artist's legacy.

Artistic Vice re-release set.Courtesy of Eternal Yip Eye Records and Thirty Tigers

The tracklists for the two vinyls are as shown below. Pre-orders ($32.98) are available at hihowareyou.com or through other local and online stores stores here.

LP1 Tracklist:
1. My Life Is Starting Over
2. Honey I Sure Miss You
3. I Feel So High
4. A Ghostly Story
5. Tell Me Now
6. Easy Listening
7. I Know Casper
8. The Startling Facts
9. Hoping
10. It's Got to Be Good
11. Happy Soul
12. The Dream Is Over
13. Love of My Life
14. I Killed the Monster
15. Laurie
16. Fate Will Get Done

LP2 Tracklist:
1. All Good Children Got To Die
2. Christian Martyrs
3. Easy Listening
4. I Know Casper
5. Penny Penny
6. You Said You Didn't Really Love Me
7. Piano interlude
8. Happy Soul
9. Got To Be Good
10. It's Over
11. Love of My Life
12. Something Fantastic Rolling Over My Soul
13. Boogie
14. I'll Be Going Home Someday
15. Dead Dogs Eyeball (Variation)
16. Ego Trip

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Oh, Brother

McConaughey and Harrelson comedy series 'Brothers' premieres this fall

Photo courtesy of Apple TV

Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in Brothers on Apple TV.

Imaginary siblings and real life best friends Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are finally about to bring the joke home with a new Apple TV series, Brothers, out globally September 23.

The first two episodes will come out together, and one new episode will be added every Wednesday through November 4, a press release says. There will be eight episodes in total.

In a rumor that gets harder to search for the closer Brothers comes to fruition, McConaughey and Harrelson have leaned into ideas that they might be half-brothers, partially because of their longtime friendship and partially because they have a similar look that gets even stronger in old photos. The topic sprung up when Brothers was in its infancy as a project called Brother from Another Mother, and McConaughey's mom validated it by insinuating that she and Harrelson's father once had a fling.

In Brothers, a heartfelt comedy, McConaughey and Harrelson play fictionalized versions of themselves living out almost the same drama, with much more serious repercussions.

When Harrelson's family needs a place to get away after his daughter's wedding falls through, they travel to Austin to accept the hospitality of a friend, McConaughey. But when McConaughey's mother, Ma Mac (Holland Taylor) accidentally reveals that they might be half-brothers, Harrelson becomes obsessed with learning the truth. Simultaneously, McConaughey considers running for Governor of Texas. (Is this getting too real?)

Other members of the ensemble cast include Natalie Martinez, Brittany Ishibashi, Nolan Almeida, Ella Grace Helton, Noah Carganilla, Highdee Kuan, and Oona Yaffe.

Brothers is produced by Paramount Television Studios, and showrun and executive produced by Lee Eisenberg, best known for producing The Office. McConaughey and Harrelson are also both executive producers alongside Natalie Sandy, David West Read, Trish Hofmann, Bill Bost, Jason Winer, David Finkel and Brett Baer, and Jeremy Plager, the release says. Multiple episodes are directed by Trent O’Donnell, including the pilot.

Austinites were keyed into the production early when locals spotted McConaughey and Harrelson with a film crew on South Congress Avenue. Photographers also caught them in different costumes, this time on South Congress and West Riverside Drive, so it seems like recognizable places around town will be on display multiple times throughout the series.

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