Cover Story
Full-Gore Press
Mind the viscera: Austin’s horror filmmaking scene is exploding
Look What Blew In
City scores $900,000 after $400,000 loss
In Memoriam: Jennifer Bourianoff
ASO’s longtime Assistant Concertmaster has passed away.
Super Heavy Stones
Assessing the Rolling Stones’ 2011
‘The NFL Beat’: Back To Reality
NFL playoff scenarios
New Years Eve at Emo’s East with The Black Angels
Brittany’s New Years Eve pick.
11 for 11
Looking back at an unexpectedly good year
Momo’s Closing
Renovations shut down Momo’s live music.
The History of an IDEA
Factchecking the AISD trustees’ op-ed claims
Toros Celebrate the Holidays With Wins
Hold league-best record
AFCA Anoints ‘Hugo’
Austin group hands ‘Take Shelter,’ ‘Drive’ multiple awards
National Film Registry Welcomes ‘El Mariachi’
Rodriguez’s debut joins Bambi, Hannibal Lecter, and Forrest Gump
Scroobius Depp Kills People
Brithopper Scroobius Pip takes on Johnny Depp
A Tease of ‘Redemption’
Locally developed interactive comic ready for download
Tuesday Newsgay: Dec. 27
Let’s unwrap some news under the Kwanzaa kinara
Trailers From Hell
Local horror stars start building their buzz
From the Vaults: Rollo Banks’ Dragon Tattoo
Movie talk about “dragon tattoos” gets me thinking about Rollo Banks
‘The NFL Beat’: Championship Edition
Ice down the Champagne
Film Flam
AFF alumni news, year’s best music vids, & Sexy Sax in ATX
Top Chef Texas, Week 8: Crack Kills
Top Chef Texas finally lands in Austin, where dreams come true.
Arts Review
A cocktail of a performance about what it means to send a letter
The Hightower Report
‘Rick the Reformer’s revolving door
Unchartered Waters
City Hall and citizen advocates look toward a new model of representation – is the seventh time the charm?
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Rooney Mara completely nails the role of Lisbeth Salander, and director David Fincher is no slouch either in this perhaps unnecessary remake of the Swedish thriller.
Texas Platters
Blaze Foley Clay Pigeons (Secret Seven) Cherry-picking a dozen songs from the posthumous recordings that have made Blaze Foley legend, Clay Pigeons’ considerable 12-inch charms are among the medium’s local best for 2011 even if vinyl-only Secret Seven Records is out of San Francisco. Foley’s chicory voice, tart and strong but backcountry smooth, works its…
After a Fashion
Cuddle up with Stephen for some holiday cheer
All Over Creation: Hit Where You Live
A recital at a holiday soiree confirms there’s no place like home for art
CRC: Proposed Charter Changes
Charter Revision Committee drafts recommendations to council
War Horse
A stylistic throwback to classic studio movies, Spielberg’s film about war as seen through a horse’s experience of it rarely rises to the occasion.
Texas Platters
Dixie Witch Let It Roll (Small Stone) Nuthin’ Fancy shrugged Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1975, titling its third LP, which opens by emptying all six rounds of “Saturday Night Special.” Metallic Southern rock locals Dixie Witch aren’t packing quite suh a classic on fourth album Let It Roll other than Detroit indie Small Stone (also home…
Restaurant Review
Move over, Jujubes
Forklift Danceworks
Ballet for Bay
Council Candidates a’ Maying
Incumbents and newcomers file for City Council elections
The Artist
It’s a silent, black-and-white film for the 21st century, full of coy delights.
Texas Platters
The Moonhangers You couldn’t catch a Chili Cold Blood show these days if you turned on the lights of every moontower in town, but Doug Strahan and Ethan Shaw still kick up country dirt at the Mean-Eyed Cat nearly every Friday as the Moonhangers. The cosmic cowboys’ third LP arrives straight from the Old West,…
Holiday Dining Guide
If you’ve seen A Christmas Story, you know all about the pleasures of dining at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day. But there are other festive options as well. Hotels and Restaurants The Four Seasons will offer a special holiday buffet from 11am to 8pm in TRIO, and from 11am to 6pm in the ballroom…
Ballet Austin
Big Apple scores big with ‘NAT/D’ 4
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Buzzards and vultures, bras and panties, and more and more
A Dangerous Method
David Cronenberg forgoes his customary viscera for the more unknowable id as Drs. Jung and Freud hash out the origins of our unconscious impulses.
Texas Platters
Shawn Nelson San Juan Street (Fonky Tonk) He’s been bouncing around Austin since at least 2003. Still, no one would have picked Shawn Nelson to make one of this year’s best country albums. San Juan Street finds the local working with some of the most sympathetic players he’s ever had the pleasure of collaborating with…
Down These Mean, Ink-Stained Streets
Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick brings his ‘Nickel History’ to Slugfest Gallery
Collector’s Disease
Now they’re just reproducing vintage record art at a fraction of the size on CD, throwing an entire discography worth of albums into a small box with no bonuses, and calling it a box set. Foul!
One, Two, Tres, Cuatro
Carson Brock’s grandmother is looking out for him, and other tales from the ‘bless their heart’ file
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Gary Oldman is John le Carré’s unflappable spy, George Smiley, in this dandy espionage tale.
Texas Platters
Sleep ∞ Over Forever (Hippos in Tanks) Alongside close local contemporaries Pure X and Neon Indian, Sleep ∞ Over is redefining Texas slowcore for the chillwave generation. While essentially the solo vehicle of Stefanie Franciotti, her debut full-length sounds like a full-band affair, with woozy synths, minimal drums, and breathy vocals. Forever is a mood…
This Old House
Sam Houston and the historic jigsaw puzzle of Boggy Creek Farm
Collector’s Disease
Thin Lizzy At the BBC (Universal) 2011 rolls one last seven for Thin Lizzy. Topping a year of double-disc upgrades for Vagabonds of the Western World (1973), Jailbreak and Johnny the Fox (both 1976), Live and Dangerous (1978), Black Rose (1979), and Chinatown (1980), plus single-disc max-outs of the initial Irish trio’s eponymous debut, its…
Point Austin: Cart Arrives … Horse Expected Soon
School district’s IDEA project bereft of actual ideas
We Bought a Zoo
Matt Damon is a widower with two kids who buys a zoo after his wife bought the farm in Cameron Crowe’s latest movie.
Texas Platters
Wild Child Pillow Talk (Major Nation) Wild Child’s debut LP spills unabashed folk-pop plucked and plied with a willful and necessarily naive lilt. As the LP spools and unravels the threads of youthful love, core duo Kelsey Wilson and Alexander Beggins sow even the lowest moments of romance with an intimate and idealistic flair that,…
Mrs. Santa’s Last-Minute Foodie Stocking Stuffers
What to get for the foodie who noms everything?
Collector’s Disease
Billy Joel The Complete Albums Collection (Columbia) The first six titles of this 15-album catalog in mini-LP sleeves make up Billy Joel’s first act, spanning 1971’s Cold Spring Harbor to 1978 hit 52nd Street. There’s a fistful of genuine radio hits, including “She’s Got a Way,” “Piano Man,” and the genuinely lovely “She’s Always a…
Headlines
� City Council has packed it in for the year, following a marathon meeting last week tackling everything from an incentives deal for auto parts maker US Farathane to the issuance of new taxi permits and a smoking ban in city parks. See “City Hall Hustle.” › Amid cries of “shame, shame, shame” from the…
Texas Platters
The Asteroid Shop (The Council) There’s no doubting where the Asteroid Shop sets its controls, even if the local quintet never quite reaches that final destination on this Erik Wofford-produced debut outing. The soft-focus space-rock of “Destroyer” self-medicates into a stupor fully realized later on “Cold Blue Sea,” while highlight “Planetary” conjures Band of Horses…
Food-o-File
Jettison your DiGiorno: Bola Pizza comes to your freezer
Collector’s Disease
Sam Cooke The RCA Albums Collection (RCA/Legacy) Singing the phone book’s one thing, but packaging said endeavor worse than the Yellow Pages prompts the question: Why bother? Reproduction of vinyl configurations on CD still makes as much sense as failing to include a magnifying loupe for said record miniatures. Of course, that matches an 8-CD…
City Hall Hustle: The Wages of Faith
Perfect and good face off in US Farathane incentives debate
Texas Platters
The Clouds Are Ghosts Harbinger “We embrace the dawning of our future,” sings Jason Morris without irony and in a manner that recalls Damien Rice on “The Welcoming,” the nuclear winter opening to Clouds Are Ghosts’ five-song EP. His utter sincerity is the saving grace of the sextet’s future-perfect trip-rock – New Order meets New…
AISD Approves Its Big IDEA, 6-3
Board ignores overwhelming opposition to charter proposal
Collector’s Disease
The Jimi Hendrix Experience Winterland (Experience Hendrix/Legacy) Given Jimi Hendrix’s improvisational virtuosity, it’s no wonder the late guitarist’s vaults continually belch forth product. Even for casual completists, however, Winterland is likely too much. This expanded version of 1987 Rykodisc showstopper Live at Winterland bulks up into four discs of recordings from San Francisco’s titular venue…
Quote of the Week
“When you say Eastside Memorial is a failure, you’re saying I’m a failure, and I’m not a failure.” – Eastside Memorial graduate Anthony Gilbert, now on a full-ride scholarship at the University of North Texas, to the AISD board of trustees
Texas Platters
The Ghost Wolves In Ya Neck Often pegged as a reverse White Stripes – guitarist Carley Wolf leading drummer Jonathan Konya – the Ghost Wolves’ punk-blues more closely resembles Dax Riggs’ short-lived Deadboy & the Elephantmen: swampy and primitive. Limited to 500 copies, this six-song EP works best when the two are seemingly at each…
Morton Seeks Accountability
‘Revenge is a natural instinct, but it’s not what I’m asking for here’
Collector’s Disease
Phil Spector Presents The Philles Album Collection (Legacy) The bricks in Phil Spector’s legendary Wall of Sound number very few. Spector reigned supreme as producer of the Crystals, the Ronettes, and the Righteous Brothers from 1962 to 1965, with a trademark symphonic swell. This 7-CD box features six Philles in miniature vinyl replicas plus a…
Civics 101
May your blood-giving and tree-recycling be unrelated
Texas Platters
Ghost Knife Kill Shelter, Yes! (End Sounds) Somehow, between scene stalwarts the Riverboat Gamblers and High Tension Wires, punk daredevil Mike Wiebe has found time for another side project. Paired with the J Church rhythm section of bassist Ben Snakepit and drummer Chris Pfeffer, Ghost Knife offers a leaner, looser setting for Wiebe’s hand-grenade hooks…
No Room at Austin’s Animal Inn
Lack of space already dogging new animal center
Collector’s Disease
The Smiths Complete (Rhino) “They go upstairs to Morrissey’s room. There’s an Elvis poster stuck on the wall, a life-size cardboard cut out of James Dean from the 1956 film Giant.” And thus, according to Complete, Johnny Marr starts the Smiths, another English Fab Four spun off of the King, Sun Records, haircuts, and leather…
Day Trips
Daingerfield State Park is a jewel hidden in the Piney Woods of Northeast Texas
Texas Platters
We’ll Go Machete Strong Drunk Hands (Cedar Fever) With Strong Drunk Hands, We’ll Go Machete furiously delivers on the promise of its 2009 EP. The Austin quartet fuses the calculated assault of Chicago noise-rock with the economical intensity of DC post-punk in a manner not seen in Texas perhaps since At the Drive-In. There’s not…
Help Your PALS
One final gift guide reco for the charity-minded
Collector’s Disease
Queen Limited Edition Collector’s Box Set Volume 2 (Hollywood) Queen Limited Edition Collector’s Box Set Volume 3 (Hollywood) Six months ago, Hollywood Records reissued the first five Queen albums, mapping the UK quartet’s trip from traditional jazz-loving prog rockers to stadium-rock powerhouse. Now two boxes complete their 15-album studio career. “We Will Rock You” became…
Soccer Watch
Angela Kelly named new head coach for Texas soccer, and more
Glen Maxey’s Perry Tale
Glen Maxey’s book recounts Perry’s alleged very private life
Collector’s Disease
Leonard Cohen The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (Columbia/Legacy) In January, Leonard Cohen’s scheduled to release Old Ideas, his first new studio album since 2004’s Dear Heather. That perhaps already renders this mini-LP replica set unnecessarily deficient, but 17 albums on an 18-CD collection capture the vaulted magnitude of Cohen’s tower of song. Beginning with his…
‘The Hungry Todd Rungy Show’
Documentary TV series needs your help
A Galaxy Not So Far Away
Austin’s BioWare unleashes Star Wars: The Old Republic
Occupying Bee Cave
Planet K ain’t going away
Collector’s Disease
Ray Charles Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles (Concord) Ray Charles left Atlantic Records for a deal with ABC that was amazingly lucrative for 1959. The deal included ownership of his master recordings after five years, his own imprint, and an unheard of 75% royalty rate. Much of the results of that agreement are present…
Gay Place: Wholly Holy Holey
Mo’ gifts fo ‘mos
DVD Watch
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale Oscilloscope Laboratories, $29.99 (DVD), $39.99 (Blu-ray combo) Chillerama Image Entertainment, $27.97 (DVD), $29.97 (Blu-ray) Jalmari Helander, writer/director of the Finnish gem Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, knows the real Santa Claus was not born of a Coca-Cola sugar high but from a hideous brew of Scandinavian paganism and puritanism. The…
Feds Deny Women’s Health Renewal
Language intended to exclude Planned Parenthood may jeopardize entire program
Collector’s Disease
Miles Davis Quintet Live Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1 (Columbia/Legacy) Trumpeter Miles Davis’ second great quintet, arguably the preeminent small group in jazz history, had been performing together for three years by the time of this fall 1967 European tour. Calling it well-oiled and ahead of the curve would be a monumental understatement.…
Arts Review
Though touching, this homespun production was inconsistent
Texas Mexican Mafia Gets Its ‘Just Deserts’
Sixteen members and associates face 300-plus years in jail
Give ‘Til It Helps, Part 2
Here’s Part 2 of our list, now check it twice and give to do good!
The Adventures of Tintin
Steven Spielberg brings Hergé’s comic books to animated life.
Luv Doc Recommends: Africa Night With Zoumountchi
This year the Lord’s Day is on the Lord’s Day – that being Lord Jr. and Lord Sr., respectively, who just happen to be one and the same. Mazel tov! Regardless of the rationalistic quagmire the birth of the Son of God (or for that matter the Holy Trinity) presents, a day of rest isn’t…
