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Cover Story

Life Support

The complicated system that is the Austin-Travis Co. EMS is nationally recognized for saving lives. As Austin continues to grow, can the system save itself?

by Jordan Smith

Food Events

• Pasta Making Class Chef Katie Parker presents a hands-on class with basic pasta dough and a pasta machine, followed by a pasta feast! Register by phone. Sat., Aug. 17, 10am-noon. Faraday’s Kitchen Store, 12918 Shops Parkway #540, 512/266-5666. $45. • Grape Stomp & Harvest Festival The festival offers plenty of family recreation with tours,…

by Virginia B. Wood

Reissues

The Breeders LSXX (4AD) If you’re looking for a crisp, sparkling remaster of the Breeders’ 1993 garage-rock jewel Last Splash, you could skip LSXX and head to any record store bargain bin. The 20th anniversary centerpiece of this three-disc (or seven vinyl LP) set appears exactly as Pixies bassist Kim Deal intended it two decades…

by Abby Johnston

Reissues

Fleetwood Mac Rumours Deluxe Edition (Warner Bros./Rhino) In the parlance of Californication, fucking and punching. Rock & roll’s ultimate breakup album – four of five group members rending a pair of intraband partnerships and the fifth, founding drummer Mick Fleetwood, about to sunder his own marriage by taking up with Stevie Nicks – endures because…

by Raoul Hernandez

Reissues

Townes Van Zandt High, Low and In Between (Omnivore) Townes Van Zandt The Late Great Townes Van Zandt (Omnivore) By some counts, these two albums, released months apart in 1972 and 1973, have now been reissued at least thrice. Capitol Records even combined them onto a single CD in 1996. One reason for the continued…

by Jim Caligiuri

Exhibitionism

Breaking String Theater blows some life into the dusty corpse of Anton Chekhov with this new adaptation of ‘Three Sisters’

by Matthew Irwin

Reissues

Steve Earle The Warner Bros. Years (Warner Bros.) The early Nineties were dark and tumultuous for Steve Earle. His “vacation in the ghetto,” as he’s referred to it, resulted in an arrest for heroin possession in 1993 and a subsequent 45-day stint in drug rehab. The 4-CD/1-DVD Warner Bros. Years contains the three LPs the…

by Jim Caligiuri

Exhibitionism

UpRise! Productions’ revival of this trailblazing drama layers movement onto the script in distracting ways

by Adam Roberts

Reissues

Bobby Whitlock Where There’s a Will There’s a Way: The ABC-Dunhill Recordings (Future Days/Light in the Attic) Bobby Whitlock and Raw Velvet, the solo albums Bobby Whitlock cut in 1972 following his stint as unsung hero of Eric Clapton’s Derek & the Dominos, have long been revered by aficionados as lost classics. Belatedly paired up…

by Scott Schinder

Reissues

Elvis Presley Elvis at Stax: Deluxe Edition (RCA Legacy) Elvis Presley’s late Sixties comeback recordings at Memphis’ American Studios are rightly celebrated as his last batch of consistently great music. Yet the widely accepted narrative of the King rapidly losing his way thereafter is inaccurate, and the best of his admittedly spotty Seventies output demonstrated…

by Scott Schinder

Soccer Watch

UT Longhorn soccer kicks off at 7pm Friday, Aug. 16, hosting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a free exhibition match at Mike A. Myers Stadium (behind Memorial Stadium at Red River & Manor Road). The Horns will be a very young squad, with seven freshmen, 11 sophomores, five juniors, and only two seniors. They should be…

by Nick Barbaro

Reissues

Otis Redding The Complete Stax/Volt Singles Collection (Shout! Factory) Otis Redding Lonely & Blue: The Deepest Soul of Otis Redding (Volt/Concord) Four and a half long decades after his plane-crash death at the age of 26, Otis Redding’s best music remains unmatched, for the intensity and warmth of his singing as well as the craft…

by Scott Schinder

Headlines

› After a marathon session last week, there will be no regular City Council meeting until next week (Aug. 22), although an all-day budget work session Wed­nes­day reviewed departmental requests and set a maximum possible property tax rate. See “Council: Dog Day Afternoons.” › Travis County Commissioners Court voted to approve a preliminary plan for…

by Chronicle Staff

Reissues

Marcos Valle Previsão Do Tempo (Light in the Attic) Marcos Valle Garra (Light in the Attic) Eighteen years before a naked baby swam into pop culture consciousness on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind, a floating Marcos Valle stared blankly through the water on the jacket of 1973 LP Previsão Do Tempo, his unwieldy beard and…

by Thomas Fawcett

Civics 101

Thursday 15 ON-SITE SEWAGE FACILITY ORDIN­ANCE Austin Water is hosting two meetings to discuss proposed rule changes to the Austin City Code for On-Site Sewage Facilities (OSSFs) that set standards and enforcement for facilities that include conventional septic systems as well advanced treatment units. Noon and 6pm. Waller Creek Center, 625 E. 10th. Free. COMPREHENSIVE…

by Chronicle Staff

Reissues

Overhang Party Complete Studio Recordings (Important) In 1991, the year punk broke via Nirvana’s Nevermind, an altogether different movement seized the Japanese underground. As documented by PSF’s Tokyo Flashback series, speed freaks like Ghost, High Rise, and White Heaven ushered in a second wave of heavy psych on the island country. Overhang Party were late…

by Austin Powell

Quote of the Week

“No one’s health care should be determined by their ZIP code.” – U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, encouraging states to expand Medicaid and collaborate on the federal Affordable Care Act.

by Chronicle Staff

From Hearses to Marital Arguments

Before ambulances, there were hearses. Until the late Fifties, says Travis County EMS Medical Director Paul Hinchey, “half of the ambulance agencies in the nation were funeral home companies, so they just painted their hearses white instead of black.” A hearse was the only vehicle long enough to accommodate a person lying down; the funeral…

by Jordan Smith

The Luv Doc: Inappropriate Gifting

Luv Doc, My roommate’s boyfriend bought her a kitten for her birthday and now she is saying she has to keep it because it was a gift. I am not sure if he is just a complete dumbass or whether she really wanted a kitten and is just using this as an excuse to get…

by The Luv Doc

Mr. Smarty Pants Knows

If you enlarged a hydrogen atom so that the nucleus were the size of a grape seed, the electron would be a quarter-mile away, and would still be microscopic. It is illegal to play catch in the streets of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It is also illegal to own more than two adult cats there. According to…

by Mr. Smarty Pants

Kick-Ass 2

Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl are back for more bloody and profane to bust more supervillain heads.

by Marc Savlov

Reissues

Big Boys Where’s My Towel/Industry Standard (Light in the Attic/Burger Records) Big Boys Fun Fun Fun EP (540 Records) Behold the merger of rock & roll and skateboarding culture! Behold an essential link in Austin’s punk rock timeline! Behold the license to “go start your own band” without Xeroxing the Ramones! “Punk funk” was already…

by Tim Stegall

Prince Avalanche

Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch co-star in David Gordon Green’s pleasing backcounty dramady, whose tone is heightened by its setting in burned-out Bastrop, Texas.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Reissues

The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 12A: 1972 (UMG/Motown Select) By January 1972, the Motor City assembly line stretched all the way to Los Angeles, where soul-pop’s Henry Ford – Motown monarch Berry Gordy Jr. – had finally begun his queen Diana Ross’ film career with Lady Sings the Blues. Detroit’s hit-churning record plant never looked…

by Raoul Hernandez

Reissues

The Mountain Goats All Hail West Texas (Merge) Mythos bathes North Carolina songwriter John Darnielle. It’s not him. He’s always maintained his everyman persona. Mountain Goats loyalists, on the other hand, are forever tracking their favorite band in periods and movements. 2002’s All Hail West Texas remains particularly cherished in the catalog, a last relic…

by Luke Winkie

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