Last month, in a note about her dying sister Traci, Conni Hancock discouraged the obvious, saying instead, “She’s here - now - breathing the springtime air.” Our lovely Traci Lamar Hancock took her last breath of spring air on Saturday, May 11, 2012. Read More | Comment »

Having heard about her high school program Attendance Records, I’ve been anxious to talk with Jenna Carrens. This semester, she worked with a class at Anderson High on all aspects of producing and releasing an album. From lyric writing exercises to screen printing lessons, these students' efforts culminate May 17 with an CD release at Mohawk. Read More | Comment »

East Cameron Folkcore packs a powerful punch. Thursday night, it packed the White Horse despite the rain. The evening was a CD release party for The Sun Also Rises and a tour send-off for a 10-day trek that takes the group across the Gulf Coast and through the Southeast. Read More | Comment »

Tomorrow, the Austin Police Department, Central Texas Harley Davidson, and the Central Texas 100 Club are teaming up to host a free benefit concert for the family of fallen Officer Jaime De Luna-Padron, who was killed on Good Friday in the line of duty. Read More | Comment »

Have I seen Bobby Jealousy? With these three clips, oui. Took me a bit to catch Sabrina Ellis' other act, A Giant Dog. Now to track down BJ's new CD. Read More | Comment »

Five years ago, when immigration rhetoric reached fever pitch, Houston rapper Chingo Bling stoked debate via They Can’t Deport Us All, his major label bow and the boldest move in a career that began with selling mixtapes out of his car. Pachanga Fest reveler Friday, May 11, he's no less guerrilla today. Read More | Comment »

Tommy Gabel of Against Me! is taking a courageous step in this Friday's issue of Rolling Stone by revealing plans to make the transition into life as a woman. In college, my first photo documentary was on a woman who had made the transition. Read More | Comment »

Last night’s performance by Nick Lowe at La Zona Rosa was his first appearance in Austin with a band in almost 20 years. Nevertheless, it was the opening and closing tunes – when he graced the stage solo – that stand out most. Read More | Comment »

With Mother’s Day this Sunday, there’s sure to be plenty of Sunday brunches and flowers galore. Why not celebrate early? Friday, May 11, Austin’s first lady of jazz Pam Hart joins the McCallum Fine Arts Academy Orchestra in honor of mothers, grandmothers, and all the other women that make our lives special on a daily basis. Read More | Comment »

Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley marrying and then setting off on an eight-month voyage up the East Coast resulted in 2011 pop gem Cape Dory. No seafaring was involved in new sophomore CD Young and Old, but some tough love helped the couple on dry land. Moore, who leads the trio at the Parish Tuesday, spoke with us en route from San Diego to Phoenix. Read More | Comment »

What can we say that hasn't already been said over the past four days? The untimely passing – really, really untimely; he was only one year older than we are – of Beastie Boy and Oscilloscope Laboratories founder Adam Yauch is a body blow not only for fans of the Beasties' hyperliterate hip hop, but also to indie filmmakers everywhere. Read More | Comment »

My dad's not a big hip-hop guy. He grew up around London, wandered towards Southern California, married a girl from the Midwest just over a year after meeting her, and spent the majority of the early Nineties dealing with three kids under the age of four. Read More | Comment »

Two weeks since I last wrote. Last week I took a break from writing about the music business to actually immerse myself in it, working production for Nocturnal Fest. I worked with Tessa Hunt, a local promoter/booker I mentioned in my previous blog about Alice Bag. Read More | Comment »

Live performance footage often abstracts location in these YouTube times, so keep in mind while watching TGMC's three clips here that Politics' sharp, tight, Nineties-reminiscent indie rock emanates locally. That includes the Joy Division/Interpol guitar toll on “In Your Place.” See the band at Pachanga Fest in Fiesta Gardens next Saturday, May 12. Read More | Comment »

Early in the Austin City Limits taping last night, Punch Brothers frontman Chris Thile mentioned an episode of the landmark PBS program from 1990 featuring Strength in Numbers, a supergroup once composed of Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Mark O’Connor, Edgar Meyer, and Jerry Douglas. Read More | Comment »

Now in their 10th year, the Greencards have stopped noting that they won Best New Band at the Austin Music Awards in 2003. I write that with great interest on several counts, not the least of which is their Threadgill’s show this coming Saturday, May 5. Read More | Comment »

Two Polish metal bands prompted me to Poland last October. On Sunday, at the White Rabbit in San Antonio, Behemoth headlines the Decibel Magazine Tour with Swedish blood bathers Watain. Two days later – Tuesday, May 1, at Emo's East – Decapitated opens for extreme Swedes Meshuggah and also Baroness. What's Polish for “heaven”? Read More | Comment »

Wow, shades of Honky Chateau-era Elton John and Harry Chapin in a young, contemporary singer-songwriter. The Good Music Club turns up another local prize in Nano Whitman. And don't miss the visualists next taping, Monday at the ND, with another quartet of upcoming Austinites: Lonesome Heroes, the Dalles, Frank Smith the band, and the Sour Notes. Read More | Comment »

Invasion of the New Grrl Order was choreographed by Allison Orr of Forklift Danceworks and Girls Rock Austin founder Emily Marks. Read More | Comment »

Bill Doss of Olivia Tremor Control speaks with unguarded warmth, answering questions in long, detailed pathways. He of the reunited Austin Psych Fest Saturday headliners is far more forthright than the experimental crowd's traditional aloofness. Here's some of what didn't make the Music Listings in today's Chronicle. Read More | Comment »