Full Service Circus

Full Service won’t be on the cover of the Chronicle this week, but you can’t say they haven’t tried. The local quartet continues promoting this weekend’s Full Service Circus, a bonanza of music, sports, and games, for which they’ve already sold 300 tickets to largely out-of-town fans. The second annual event runs Friday through Sunday around town.

Hoag Kepner, singer/drummer for the Austin eclectic rock quartet, has snail mailed us laminated comic strips on a weekly basis beginning last year. His cheery, two-panel illustrations have featured yours truly, Chase Hoffberger, and Music editor Raoul Hernandez. The topics range from the hygiene of their dreadlocked multi-instrumentalist Elliott “Smellman” Larden to the lack of recognition they’ve received from the local music industry.

One postcard suggests that if they move to Iceland and change their name to Penguin Fuck, they’ll have a better chance of getting accepted into South by Southwest.

Mostly they’ve sought to negotiate a feature story with this same publication. I caught some of the Circus last year and, if you like their “living-room acoustic folk” and a “big-stage heavy rock,” I highly recommend attending. Full schedule and tickets here.

Furthermore, I have great respect for locals that take creative avenues for their front-page requests. There was the time that Clyde & Clem’s Whiskey Business put out a song called “Cover of the Chronicle.” Likewise, we commend Hoag for his dedicated work with colored pencils and crayons by ponying up some prime real estate on the Music Listings page in this Thursday’s issue.

We sifted through the epic stack of Full Service comics and selected some favorites to share here: