Local mash-up maestro Chris Rose, better known as Car Stereo (Wars), is packing his things for the Big Apple, where he plans to try his luck as a late night or comedy television writer. “It’s probably not the smartest decision to move to the toughest city in the country during the worst economy of our lifetimes without a job, right as stuff like Lollapalooza is happening,” Rose writes, “but I feel like I’ve been putting it off for over a year so I just need to go.” Car Stereo (Wars) pops the trunk one last time locally at the Beauty Bar tonight, and promises some special Michael Jackson remixes.

Saturday afternoon, the Parish hosts the first of two Girls Rock Camp Austin showcases, featuring bands formed during the camp sessions. If you missed last summer's tear-jerking, ass-kicking showcases, then this is another chance to realize 10-18 year-old girls are already way cooler than you. Saturday sees GRCA-formed bands Randomness, Potential Chaos, Squeeking Piggies, Supernova, Outlet, the Dreadfully Ugly Children, Shmillion, Awkward, Homicidal Toys, Bitter NV, and A Hole in the Ceiling. Doors at 12:30pm, bands start at 2pm. A $5 donation benefits the camp.

Richard Marsh, known as Sky Saxon, passed this morning. The new Austinite had been in critical condition at St. David's with what was thought to be an infection of the internal organs since Monday, just two days after playing with Shapes Have Fangs at Antone's. Saxon was the founder and frontman for 1960s psych pioneers the Seeds. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. Austin Powell spoke at length with with Saxon last week, and there will be more in Off the Record next week.

Jerry Lynn Williams and I first crossed paths in 1985 though I didn’t know it at the time. Rather, the first single and MTV video off Eric Clapton’s Behind the Sun was one of three songs on the new effort bearing his brand. The name meant nothing to me then, but I noted it because that’s who was credited on “Forever Man.” That was the song, too. Slowhand’s classic 461 Ocean Boulevard tones rippled through it on a Caribbean lilt lined with a steel-drum guitar stutter. Cream-y. Unfathomably, “She’s Waiting,” the album’s second single, hit instead. As I sniped in a record review for my college newspaper, “She’s Waiting” sounded like she’s waiting for the disc’s producer to sing the song, and not one note of music back then didn’t feature Phil Collins. Behind the Sun radiated two other Williams compositions, and taken with “Forever Man,” they fueled the platter. Three years later on Crossroads, the second CD box set after Dylan’s Biograph, “Wanna Make Love to You,” an outtake from Sun’s follow-up August, left another forget-me-not. “Running on Faith,” one of five Williams contributions to 1989’s Journeyman, Clapton’s post-Crossroads rebirth, later showed up on the sole Jerry Lynn Williams CD I’ve come across: 2001’s The Peacemaker. That was at Waterloo Records mainstay Martin Coulter’s table at an Austin Records Convention a couple years ago. Last night, halfway through a two-hour main set at the America Airlines Center in Dallas – Williams’ hometown – Clapton launched “Forever Man” like a three-minute time capsule from somewhere deep inside my last quarter-century. When Steve Winwood sang the second verse, a circle closed; it’s the organist who suggested unearthing the song as both Blind Faith veterans attest in the new Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood Live From Madison Square Garden DVD.

Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson were supposed to perform at the Cactus Café last September. Then Hurricane Ike happened, flights were canceled, and they were unable to make it to Texas. Monday evening the Australian couple made up for it with two sets and although I only caught the late show, it was surely worth the wait. Joined for most of the performance by Kasey’s father Bill on a variety of stringed things, they turned the already intimate Cactus into their "lounge room." That’s Australian for living room. For more than 90 minutes, they ran the gamut of Americana, concentrating on the bluegrass feel of last year’s Rattlin’ Bones (Sugar Hill) but also offering sides of their own work and even previewing a couple of children’s tunes from an album that Kasey and Bill are getting ready to release.

Every year at South by Southwest, there is one cancellation that hits hard. In 2008, it was Brazilian rapper Marcelo D2, someone I've always wanted to see because he rarely tours the States. This year it was Jamaican dancehall phenom Terry Lynn. The great thing about Austin, of course, is that many of these artists eventually return. Terry Lynn make her better-late-than-never Austin debut this Friday, playing a free show (with free beer to boot) at the Independent @ 501 Studios. Lynn is a cross between M.I.A., Sister Nancy, and Eazy-E. She spits ghetto realism over techno-infused dancehall, painting a bleak picture of Kingston's concrete jungle that makes Damian Marley's "Welcome to Jamrock" seem like a lullaby. This video for "The System," from her album Kingstonlogic 2.0, is extra real.



Friday's show celebrates new release It Was Written. RSVP required.

"Give me the Guess Who. They got the courage to be drunken buffoons, which makes them poetic.” - Lester Bangs, Almost Famous Even better than Almost Famous, I love Untitled, director Cameron Crowe’s lengthier cut of the movie. I love the film because it hits that sweet period when rock was still young enough to be fun, and captures the moment as neatly as Dazed and Confused did. Except for that godawful scene with Stillwater and entourage singing “Tiny Dancer” on the bus, it was quite believable and the way I remember those days. What I can remember, of course. Crowe did right by critic Lester Bangs in casting Philip Seymour Hoffman to portray him. I knew Lester during his reckless time in Austin, circa 1980, and Hoffman’s portrayal depicted Lester roughly (and fictionally) about five years before that time. The Lester I knew was a person I could argue with about Psychedelic Furs (I love ‘em; he hated ‘em) on the side of the stage while they were playing and still be friends. Like the Almost Famous scene in the radio station when Hoffman’s Lester Bangs rants against Jethro Tull and the Doors in favor of the Guess Who, Lester the person loved to engage in such sparring.

For the past few years, people have been telling me about their amazing experiences at Bonnaroo. I was thoroughly convinced after a security guard at last year's ACL Fest went on and on about how it's the festival he looks forward to most every year. The lineup added fuel to the fire. After a 15-hour overnight drive, I arrived in Manchester, Tenn., in the pouring rain. Within the first 10 minutes, I ran into three friends from Austin. After getting the campsite set up as much as one can in stormy weather, it was time to check out the grounds. The first thing that struck me as different than all the other festivals is the amount of stuff you can do without catching a single act. There was the Silent Disco – a tent where everyone was handed headphones playing the same music and told to jam out in their own way. There was a ferris wheel, peepshow, music trivia in the FuseTV house, and booths galore. I had to save my energy though, because the music went until 4am. Highlights: Extremely friendly staff Clean Port-A-Potties Arepas The air-conditioned comedy tent Watching a press panel (headed by Andy Langer) where Janeane Garofalo and Ani DiFranco got into it over Obama Seeing Nine Inch Nails perform for over three hours in what turned out to be their last U.S. show ever The Yeah Yeah Yeahs Shooting Crystal Castles (dark stage, single strobe light) Watching Public Enemy play "It Takes a Nation of Millions" Standing 10 feet from an extremely energetic Drew Barrymore Sleeping in the tent in pouring rain during Paul Oakenfold's set