PLUS: Austin Chronic & 4/20 Merch • Summer Camps

Cover Story

Success for the Wranglers, Finally

As we entered the stadium and walked toward the field, all that could be heard was cheers of enjoyment and the fans good-natured heckling of opposing players. While walking down the stairs inside the Frank Erwin Center, I noticed people sporting Wranglers’ jerseys and kids playing with souvenirs handed out during the first quarter. The…

by Christopher Bond

Aztex Announce U-23 Roster, and More

The Austin Aztex will announce their 2008 roster today, in a media event at SoccerZone North in Cedar Park. We got a sneak peek, and recognized a few names that local fans may be familiar with: veteran local goalkeeper Miguel Gallardo; St. Stephen’s grad A.J. Godbolt, who had a brief stint with Major league Soccer’s…

by Nick Barbaro

Austin, We Have a Problem

OK, I am not really sure where to start here. My prediction of Texas taking two of three games against Oklahoma State was a little off. Alright, I admit I had no idea what I was talking about because the Horns were swept by the Cowboys this past weekend. I guess the best summation of…

by Christopher Bond

A.J. Could Follow D.J. Into the NBA

Not to be outdone by D.J. Augustin, junior guard A.J. Abrams officially declared for June’s NBA Draft an hour and a half after his younger counterpart. Unlike Augustin, Abrams left the door more than cracked for a senior season with the Longhorns. “Playing in the NBA has always been a dream of mine since I…

by Ricky Treon

Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay Screening Tonight!

For those lucky people that received passes we are holding a Special Advance Screening of Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay tonight at 7:30. It is sure to be filled with a bong’s share of dick jokes and chronic innuendo with subtex that is smarter than you would expect. I re-watched Harold & Kumar…

by Logan Youree

True Norwegian Black Metal

“WeareKeepofKalessinfromNorway,” exhaled the croaking accent. You could spot them beforehand in the stage wings as their long instrumental intro decibeled symphonic: lanky, blond, raccoon black eyes. Out front of Stubb’s streaming early birds, 6:45pm, the Trondheim quartet’s light coating of ghostly pancake make-up glowed in the slowly setting sun, making its first appearance of the…

by Raoul Hernandez

Pot Decrim Measure Hits Congress

U.S. Reps Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Texas’ own Liberpublican Ron Paul, R-Surfside, joined forces last week to file legislation aimed at taming the federal law enforcement war on pot. On April 18, Frank introduced H.R. 5843, the first pot decriminalization measure introduced in Congress in 24 years, which would remove from federal law the possibility…

by Jordan Smith

Toros Outlast Skyforce, Advance to D-League Finals

It had been a long season. After spending time in Albuquerque and now Austin, Darvin Ham decided that he’d had enough. Enough of the Sioux Falls Skyforce and their bid to upset the No. 2 seed Austin Toros in the D-League semifinals, that is. Ham scored 22 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter to…

by Matt Moore

The Films of Benh Zeitlin and Friends: A Benefit

The Films of Benh Zeitlin and Friends: A Benefit Benh Zietlin, whose short film “Glory at Sea” received the Wholpin Award at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, was seriously injured in a car accident enroute to the film’s world premiere at the fest. Zietlin was in surgery while his film screened; the medical bills (for…

by Chronicle Staff

Place 3 Candidates

Profiling the Place 3 candidates in the second of a three-part series. Includes interviews with Jennifer Kim and Randi Shade.

by Wells Dunbar

Earth Day (4/19) & Austin Reggae Fest (4/20)!

It’s gonna be a busy one for the Chrontourage. Tonight (Friday) we will make an appearance out at the Scoot Inn for “Murder Ballads Night”. If you’ve got a penchant for romance with a dark side I highly recommend it. On Saturday April 19th you will find us out at the Austin Earth Day Festival…

by Logan Youree

‘Quantum Hoops’ at Alamo Lake Creek

With no athletic scholarships to offer and extremely stringent academic requirements for admittance, there really isn’t much room for recruiting when it comes to fielding a basketball team at egghead central, aka the California Institute of Technology. If you are the coach of the Caltech Beavers (nature’s engineers), your team consists of those who show…

by Mark Fagan

Record Store Day Redux

With all the hullabaloo surrounding Record Store Day on Saturday, OTR overlooked a few of the more interesting events taking place. Out of the Past Collectibles (5341 Burnet) is participating in the crawl, wherein receipts from one of the participating record stores, dated April 19, will result in discounts there. Phantom Planet and the Hush…

by Austin Powell

Master of Reality

Lester Bangs’ critical brilliance thrashed for its all too doomed life with the post-Gonzo understanding that sometimes only unraveled psyches can express that which is essentially unexplainable. Mountain Goats herder John Darnielle took this to black heart in his treatise on Sabbath’s Master of Reality. Literally. Over 50 titles now crowd the bookshelf of Continuum’s…

by Raoul Hernandez

Texas Platters

Diasporic Mass Appeal Though the band’s name refers to a displacement of people from their original homeland, Diasporic’s first album plays as refugee camp to all wayward genres. The spectrum sways from vintage Roots nod “Organix” to the Living Colour heat warming “Somethin’ in Tha Pot.” Riffing on genocide in Darfur (“Karbombs in Kabul”) and…

by Chase Hoffberger

Election News

Complaint Filed Against Meeker At press time, the Chronicle learned that former political consultant and lobbyist Mike Blizzard – who says he’s a supporter of City Council Place 1 incumbent Lee Leffingwell but not affiliated with his re-election campaign – has filed a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission against Leffingwell’s challenger Jason Meeker and…

by Lee Nichols

Election News

Upcoming Candidate Forums The procession of City Council candidate forums continues. This week: • The Ethics Review Commission (moderated by League of Women Voters): Thursday, April 17, 6-9pm (live broadcast on cable Channel 6); City Hall Council Chambers, 301 W. Second. • Travis Co. Libertarian Party: Saturday, April 19, 4pm; Ventana del Sol, 1834 E.…

by Chronicle Staff

Election News

Will Candidates Fight the Good Fight? Austin Interfaith, the local branch of the Industrial Areas Foundation, will again hold an “accountability session” wherein it asks candidates for Austin City Council and for the Austin Community College and Austin Independent School District boards to commit to its agenda of fighting poverty and building up the middle…

by Lee Nichols

Arts Review

High spirits, drive, and lively interplay make this musical comedy a peppy peach of a show, a real swell treat

by Robert Faires

Arts Review

The debut of UT’s Musical Theatre Pilot Project is a visual treat, well performed, and with plenty of fun moments

by Avimaan Syam

Street Kings

This new crime drama starring Keanu Reeves is directed by the screenwriter of Training Day and based on a story by crackerjack crime novelist James Ellroy.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Arts Review

Cone’s portraits of women, rendered as planes of color and shadow, are revelations of composition and rendering

by W. A. Brenner

Off the Record

Hayes Carll searches for Ooga Kabooga Juice, Alejandro Escovedo finds a friend in Houston, and introducing the lineup for the 2008 Austin City Limits Music Festival

by Austin Powell

Prom Night

A remake of the Eighties horror film in name only, Prom Night is a nearly bloodless slasher film with few surprises.

by Marc Savlov

Texas Platters

Vallejo Thicker Than Water (VMG/Quadra) Not even Guitarlos himself cooks up platters this Santana anymore. Produced by Austin’s Vallejo Bros. – A.J., Omar, and Alejandro, whose triple-threat writing credit is stamped on 12 of the album’s 13 tracks (one being a Carlos Santana/Gregg Rolie original) – Thicker Than Water boils down to Vallejo’s crowning achievement…

by Raoul Hernandez

Texas Platters

It’s boys’ town Austin here in the deEP end. We tipped you to Murdocks last fall (“Caught ‘Em in Autumn,” Nov. 9, 2007), and with a refitted lineup, the local trio’s latest EP, Roar! (Surprise Truck), is an impressive response of raw riffage. Opener “Playhouse Down” rides anthemic la-la-las and hooky guitar, and it must…

by Audra Schroeder

Texas Platters

George Strait Troubadour (MCA) Already holding the most chart-topping country albums and singles, King George furthers his reign on Troubadour, the Central Texan’s distinctive drawl and twanging tenor remaining one of mainstream radio’s consistent high points. Strait’s 37th album sways comfortably familiar, the waltzing “It Was Me” playing almost as a postscript to his classic…

by Doug Freeman

Texas Platters

The Band of Heathens (BOH) Stones fans who loved the Band but prefer the Gourds to the Black Crowes will be very happy with The Band of Heathens. That’s a compliment to the upstart Momo’s scene, where the exuberant BoH launched as a side project from Messrs. Ed Jurdi, Gordy Quist, Colin Brooks, Seth Whitney,…

by Margaret Moser

Oops!

In last week’s issue, the Arts feature “That Was Then; This Is Now” incorrectly identified the museum that hosts the “New American Talent” exhibition. That exhibition is hosted by Arthouse, not the Austin Museum of Art. The Chronicle regrets the error.

by Chronicle Staff

Zombie Strippers

The filmmakers score an A+ for the title of this tongue-in-cheek horror film that stars porn star Jenna Jameson and horror fixture Robert Englund, even though its best special effects come courtesy of breast implants.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Texas Platters

Thank You Friends: An Almost There Records Salute to Big Star (Almost There) Given our town’s penchant for loud guitars jangling toward beer-light transcendence, it’s a wonder no one thought to do a Big Star tribute until 2008. Thank You Friends remedies this with 13 solid to stellar paeans to the Memphis-bred power-pop pioneers. The…

by Greg Beets

Young@Heart

Even though this documentary about a choral group of lovable octogenarians whose perform songs by Sonic Youth and the Talking Heads sounds gimmicky, it is really about something to which we can all relate: our own mortality.

by Steve Davis

Texas Platters

The Krayons Hind Sight Is 20/20 (TFC) Emerging from the south side of Corpus Christi in 1987, the Krayons plied gravelly, Dischord-influenced hardcore for eight years before hanging it up in 1995. Released in conjunction with their recent Room 710 reunion gig, Hind Sight compiles the Krayons’ vinyl and cassette output on CD for the…

by Greg Beets

@ Newsdesk

The Common Touch Leaving Crawford There’s nothing like watching a candidate trying the “I’m just like you, the common voting hoi polloi” schtick when pandering for votes. Ever since Sen. Barack Obama’s “bitter” comment, Sens. Hillary “I Loves Me a Crown Royal” Clinton and John “I Heart Bush’s Tax Breaks for Billionaires” McCain have been…

by Richard Whittaker

Texas Platters

What Made Milwaukee Famous What Doesn’t Kill Us (Barsuk) Who doesn’t want What Made Milwaukee Famous to make it big? Like Death Cab big? Sadly, What Doesn’t Kill Us, the Austin quintet’s follow-up to 2004’s twice-released Trying to Never Catch Up, isn’t the album to get them there. A four-year break doesn’t exactly foster momentum.…

by Melanie Haupt

Dark Matter

A Chinese student studying theoretical cosmology in the U.S. also has a lot of dark matter occupying his head, and not even the assistance of faculty wife Meryl Streep can prevent it from taking over.

by Josh Rosenblatt

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