The Kids Are Alright
The Kids Are Alright 1979, PG, 101 min. Directed by Jeff Stein. The Who in concert and interview.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s Champagne Breakfast
Breakfast at Tiffany’s Champagne Breakfast 1961, NR, 115 min. Directed by Blake Edwards, Starring Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam. Just what it sounds like: a classic movie about an all-night party girl and champagne brunch. For the menu and reservations see www.drafthouse.com.
The Deuce: (Nearly) 100 Years of Times Square
The Deuce: (Nearly) 100 Years of Times Square Directed by Various. A program of hirstoric and archival short films about New York’s former sleaze capital has been curated by Jake Perlin of the BAM Cinematek.
Kikoku
Kikoku 2003, NR, 100 min. Directed by Takashi Miike, Starring Mickey Curtis, Kenichi Endo, Renji Ishibashi. The story of a small yakuza gang that tries to protect their relationships by destroying the larger society.
Metal Machinemusik
Metal Machinemusik 2005, NR. Another Alamo music compilation film – this time on Kraut Rock: German progressive art rock of the Seventies.
Kidnapped Coed
Kidnapped Coed 1976, R, 76 min. Directed by Frederick R. Friedel, Starring Jack Canon, Leslie Rivers. A kidnapper falls in love with his victim.
The Last Zapatistas: Forgotten Heroes
The Last Zapatistas: Forgotten Heroes 2002, NR, 70 min. Directed by Francesco Taboada Tabone. This documentary records the testimony of the surviving soldiers who fought with Gen. Emiliano Zapata in the 1910 Mexican Revolution.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 1975, R, 133 min. Directed by Milos Forman, Starring Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher. Oscar-sweeping film classic set inside a mental institution is derived from the Ken Kesey novel.
Iron Jawed Angels
Iron Jawed Angels 2004, NR, 125 min. Directed by Katja von Garnier, Starring Hilary Swank, Margo Martindale, Anjelica Huston, Frances O’Connor, Lois Smith, Vera Farmiga. HBO film about the American suffragettes who chained themselves to the White House gate in order to publicize their cause.
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Last Temptation of Christ 1988, R, 164 min. D: Martin Scorsese; with Willem Dafoe. This Christ story is based on Nikos Kazantzakis’ book, which emphasizes the human side of Jesus, a man with self-doubt regarding his mission from God. Peter Gabriel provides the music score.
The Last Waltz
The Last Waltz 1978, PG, 117 min. Directed by Martin Scorsese. A filmed document of the final performance of The Band.
Spotlight: Phoenix
Phoenix may well be the most misunderstood band in France. The Parisian quartet, composed of singer Thomas Mars, guitarists Laurent Brancowitz and Christian Mazzalai, and bassist Deck d’Arcy, seems to suffer from a perpetual identity crisis in their native land. “Putting out a record is kind of a nightmare,” says Mars. “People don’t know if…
SXSW Film Reviews
Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday PartyD: Robert Brinkmann Documentary Feature Spotlight You know this actor even though you can’t place his name. He’s one of the hardest working men in show business, with more than 100 appearances in movies, not to mention his frequent stage and voice-over work. He’s a Dallas native who even in high school,…
Spotlight: The American Analog Set
As Mark Smith’s brushes scratch the snare, Sean Ripple’s vibes ring out, and Lee Gillespie’s subtle low-end hums, American Analog Set slowly pulls the twilight out of the day. The Austin-based quintet, with keyboardist Craig McCaffery in Chicago and honey-sweet vocalist and guitarist Andrew Kenny in NYC, is an addictive aura of drowsy soundscapes. Labelless…
Live Shots
The CrimeaExodus, Friday, March 18 Friday’s short-but-sweet set by the Crimea embraced that old showbiz adage about leaving ’em wanting more. The London-based quintet was on and off in just 30 minutes, but it was an action-packed half-hour. Vocalist/guitarist Davey MacManus is an emotive whirlwind onstage, brandishing his guitar like an assault weapon, but his…
Spotlight: Daniel Johnston
In Jeff Feuerzeig’s new documentary, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Johnston’s sister Margy says Daniel is definitely going to heaven because he’s already been to hell. You may not believe in hell, but it becomes a lot harder to doubt its existence after watching the songwriter’s epic struggle with bipolar disorder unfold. While most people…
After a Fashion
Our Style Avatar and yours, SMM is the man about town this week. See where he’s been seen and with whom!
Live Shots
Latin RockMambo Kings, Friday, March 18 What makes music Latin music? Is it the players, rhythms, lyrics, or scales? Hailing from the Mexican heartland of San Miguel de Allende, Pilaseca christened the eve in a funk rock bath, with the danceable drop Spanglish of “Sex & Love” nicely representing the quartet’s ability to work the…
Spotlight: Ronnie Montrose
Ronnie Montrose was 24 when he got a call from a secretary in the offices of promoter Bill Graham, for whom he’d been doing carpentry work in his native San Francisco. Van Morrison was in town looking for a guitarist. He found one in Montrose (“I think I got me a cowboy”), who helped cut…
TCB
“I want you all to drink so you can fuck each other.” – Josh Homme, Queens of the Stone Age, approximately 1:35am Friday morningEastside Suicide Depending on the spin, Austin’s Eastside is either underdeveloped, crime-ridden, and backward, or laid-back, affordable, and progressive. Obviously, either situation makes it the ideal sector of town to host an…
Live Shots
The SwordVelvet Spade Patio, Friday, March 18 Like an army marching into battle – a bit scared, a bit humbled – the Sword of Doom, a nom de plume for the Sword’s first of two official SXSW showcases, waded through the underlying fog of the Music Festival. Various visions of gloom, medieval knights, and underdogs…
Spotlight: MF Doom
Acknowledging hip-hop as more than mere party jams and street stories, MF Doom conceptualizes comic book crescendos of rap. Loosely adopting the persona of Marvel’s classic villain Victor Von Doom, the deadpan narrator adorns himself in a metal mask as a means to slice through even the most complex of dualities. “There is no positive…
Ballroom Dancing
Brian Wilson/Smile Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 18 “My wife, Melinda, told me midway through 2003 that the world was ready for Smile.” That was how Brian Wilson explained his decision to finish the most famous unreleased album in rock history after 36 years. Wilson is normally a man of few words who isn’t altogether…
Live Shots
Ian HunterAuditorium Shores, Friday, March 18 Before Ian Hunter took the stage there was an interesting contrast in the range of Mott the Hoople and Buick McKane T-shirts in the crowd. Especially since Alejandro Escovedo had just warmed everyone up with a show of near hurricane force. The Austin musician has long championed Hunter’s music,…
SXSW Film Reviews
BE HERE TO LOVE ME: A FILM ABOUT TOWNES VAN ZANDTD: Margaret Brown Documentary Feature 24 Beats per Second A now semifamous writer once told me he didn’t rely on his subject’s words; he was the writer. Margaret Brown knows Townes Van Zandt is the writer and lets him speak in this heartfelt documentary. Her…
Ballroom Dancing
Satellite Radio – Triumph of the NicheAustin Convention Center, Friday, March 18 The music industry’s enthusiasm for satellite radio was palpable at this discussion of the still relatively new form of broadcast media. Austin scribe emeritus Joe Nick Patoski led the panel with an impressive amount of knowledge of both kinds of radio, satellite and…
Live Shots
Bloc PartyStubb’s, Friday, March 18 “If you’ve been holding back this week watching bands, now’s the time to let go,” said bassist Gordon Moakes after he and his Bloc Party bandmates played their first song. The Cure-ish wailing of dreadlocked guitarist/vocalist Kele Okereke indeed approached therapeutic. Bloc Party entered Friday’s show at Stubb’s as one…
SXSW Film Reviews
CAVITED: Ian Gamazon and Neill Dela Llana; with Gamazon, Dominique Gonzalez Narrative Feature Competition Screenwriter Larry Cohen may have recently cornered the stuck-on-the-phone-under-the-thumb-of-a-maniac market (Phone Booth, Cellular), but Cavite ingeniously tweaks the genre by transposing the action to the Philippines and by introducing a religious/political element. Screenwriter and co-director Gamazon stars as Adam, a Filipino…
Ballroom Dancing
Artists Give AdviceAustin Convention Center, Friday, March 18 For those of us who’ve gazed up at posters of rock stars in times of uncertainty, pleading for advice, Friday’s panel was like group therapy. The panel was moderated by Jenny Toomey (founder of the Future of Music Coalition) and featured the ubiquitous Robyn Hitchcock, folk singer…
Live Shots
New Model ArmyElysium, Friday, March 18 Incendiary. En-thralling. Perfect in every imaginable way. It’s exactly 25 years on, and the Bradford lads led by frontman Justin Sullivan are, amazingly, better than ever. None of their UK punk contemporaries from the Class of ’80 have weathered the years as well as this lockstep Army, and surely…
SXSW Film Reviews
DERAILROADEDD: Josh Rubin Documentary Feature 24 Beats per Second Josh Rubin’s fascinating documentary dissects the life of Larry “Wild Man” Fischer, juggling the question: lunatic or musical genius? Fischer grew up in the mid-Fifties and went undiagnosed as a manic-depressive schizophrenic. After attacking his mother with a knife, he served a couple of stints in…
Ballroom Dancing
SXSW INTERVIEW: Mavis StaplesAustin Convention Center, Friday, March 18 “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” “I’ll Take You There,” “Why (Am I Treated So Bad),” and “Respect Yourself” are a few of the reasons why the Staple Singers are Rock & Roll Hall of Fame members and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipients. As Mavis Staples’ new…
SXSW Film Reviews
The Dreams of SparrowsD: Hayder Mousa Daffar Documentary Feature Spotlight The Dreams of Sparrows wings into consciousness as an urgent document from everyday Iraq. Filmmaker Daffar, a lifelong resident of Baghdad, shows us the Iraq he knows: the residents and the shopkeepers, the artists and the children, the refugees and the mentally damaged. With a…
Day Party Crawl
Levi’s/Fader & VICE/XL/Comedy Central PAR-TAYsVictory Grill, Friday, March 18 The trudging wheels of the M.I.A.-Diplo express checked into the historic Victory Grill Friday afternoon for a joint party thrown by Vice, XL Records, and Comedy Central’s Adult Swim program. Adding visual displays to a stage show that brought down the house at Elysium Thursday night,…
SXSW Film Reviews
Dust to GloryD: Dana Brown; with Jimmy Vasser, Robbie Gordon, Parnelli Jones, Mario Andretti,Chad McQueen Documentary Feature Spotlight Having spent the first 29 years of my life carefully avoiding the dangers of adrenaline addiction (or adrenaline, for that matter), I was skeptical about reviewing a documentary about people who routinely, voluntarily, and incomprehensibly taunt death.…
Day Party Crawl
Filter Party, Insound Party, etc.Everywhere, Friday, March 18 This is how you do it: Roll out of bed at 11am and chase after seven bands, not a single one like the last. At the crack of noon, not too many rockers are raring to go, but those who were made the trek to Cedar Street…
SXSW Film Reviews
Emmanuel’s GiftD: Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern Documentary Feature Spotlight One out of every 10 Ghanaians is disabled. They are thought to be cursed and are forced to live life as beggars and second-class citizens. Abandoned at birth by his father because of his disability, Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah was taught by his mother not to…
Day Party Crawl
Amos LeeStarbucks (24th & Nueces), Friday, March 18 Taking a breather from opening for Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard, Philly singer-songwriter Amos Lee found himself beneath a tent in the parking lot of a campus-area Starbucks. Not unlike his Blue Note labelmate Norah Jones – with whom he toured internationally last year and who, coincidently,…
SXSW Film Reviews
A LIFE WITHOUT PAIND: Melody Gilbert Documentary Feature Competition Most parents strive to protect their kids from pain, but the ones highlighted in this heartbreaking documentary long for the shriek of an errant ouchie, the whine elicited from a stubbed toe. Their children, interestingly all female, are born unable to feel pain. Gabby, a headstrong…
Live Shots
CursedThe Back Room, Friday, March 18 Sometimes being probed by a metal detector is just the thing to start off your night. No crevice left unexplored. Pockets emptied. Nether regions caressed. It almost prepared the black-clad crowd for the speed metal of Canadian quintet Cursed, which did not go undetected. “I want to thank the…
Girls Can Tell
Tumblin’ Tumbleweeds This morning, after getting off to a very late start, we breakfasted at Magnolia Cafe and experienced a short wait for a table, though not so short that some smarty-pants little kid in homemade overalls didn’t correct me for putting my shoe on the bench. Nevertheless, my hopes remained high for the upcoming…
SXSW Film Reviews
Light From the EastD: Amy Grappell Documentary Feature Lone Star States When a New York acting troupe went to Kiev in August of 1991, they expected to “participate in the first American/Ukrainian cultural exchange theatre project in history.” But they didn’t expect to witness a coup. Two weeks after their arrival, the military took control…
Live Shots
Red SparowesEmo’s Annex, Friday, March 18 Lately, the best way for indie bands to make a buck is through film or television. Hence, Red Sparowes, a new underground instrumental metal supergroup, might quickly pull off a feat usually reserved for their more radio-friendly brethren – actually turning a profit. If their regional debut at Emo’s…
My SXSW
It’s now getting toward sundown on Friday, and I’m looking out from the ninth floor of the Radisson over the bridge toward the Hyatt. Groovers dotted here and there on the bridge cast ant-sized shadows. My wife, Michele, and I are looking for some food by sitting down and staring into space, discussing Led Zeppelin…
SXSW Film Reviews
MUTUAL APPRECIATIOND: Andrew Bujalski; with Bujalski, Justin Rice, Rachel Clift, Seung-Min Lee Narrative Feature Competition The appreciation is indeed mutual. This low-fi character comedy, shot with grainy black-and-white in dingy little spaces – basements and TAs’ offices and crashed-in apartments – is right at home in the land of Linklater. Bujalski’s warmly naturalistic second feature…
The Insider
Saturday, March 19Who: Larry Miller, Or Music’s CEO. In less than three years, Miller’s label has broken Los Lonely Boys, signed John Cale, and released Por Vida, the star-studded Alejandro Escovedo tribute. Austin Chronicle: Or already has a reputation for an unusual commitment to development. Is that what makes you different? Larry Miller: I hope…
SXSW Film Reviews
REEL PARADISED: Steve James Documentary Feature Spotlight It began as a gag on IFC’s Split Screen: indie maven John Pierson lugging cans of film to the remotest movie theater in the world – the 180 Meridian, located on the island of Taveuni, Fiji. Then Pierson bought the ramshackle theatre and relocated his family to Taveuni,…
Spotlight: Menomena
It takes a sense of humor to name your band after a Muppets song, but Portland, Ore., trio Menomena mirrors Jim Henson’s creativity. On debut I Am the Fun Blame Monster (FilmGuerrero), the band reinvents indie rock. A childhood throwback in name and hardback – the album’s title is an anagram for “The first Menomena…
SXSW Film Reviews
STAGEDOORD: Alexandra Shiva Documentary Feature Competition Stagedoor follows the lives of several children during the summer of 2003 at Stagedoor Manor, a rigorous musical theatre camp in the Catskills. The initial scene – wherein a counselor makes campers repeat “toward” like a mantra until the rogue Long Islander singing “towards” is reconditioned – sets the…
Thursday Picks
Picks for March 17All showcase times subject to changeTHE GOURDS8pm, Town Lake @ Auditorium Shores Austin’s beloved bad-boy roots-rock quintet produced one of their best albums last year, Blood of the Ram, featuring the rustic genius of Kevin Russell’s “Lower 48.” It’s not what the Gourds record that makes their shows so joyous and communal,…
SXSW Records
Lou BarlowEmoh (Merge) Any kid who fell in love with early Nineties guitar pop might reference Lou Barlow or Sebadoh as their first crush. Barlow’s quirky brand of dork rock – whether it was with Dinosaur Jr. or Sentridoh – made being a sensitive young male OK, before the dreaded “e” word slithered into our…
SXSW Records
The Golden Republic(Astralwerks) If you don’t like the weather in Texas, just wait five minutes. For a band from Kansas City, Mo., the Golden Republic sure acts a lot like Texas weather. The fourpiece’s eponymous debut might be the most diverse album of the last five minutes. A teaser of an opener, “The Turning of…
Arts Review
Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Varekai’ begins with Icarus tumbling from heaven but then leaps skyward again with acts that convey the thrill of flight
SXSW Records
Jeff Hanson (Kill Rock Stars) It’s been years since Elliott Smith graced KRS. Now, a similarly haunting songwriter wrenches hearts the way only Smith could. Jeff Hanson hails from Minnesota and sounds like it: a lonely stroll across a snow-covered park at sunrise, the sound of a creaking merry-go-round in the distance. On Hanson’s eponymous…
Point Austin: The Usual Suspects
On trying my best to be scandalized by the Comptroller’s report on the CTRMA
Out There
AT THE PANELSDVD FUTURESMonday, March 14 Welcome to the next battle in the Format Wars. With the looming emergence of high-definition television (get ready; it’s a freight train heading for your living room), it’s time to play the format shuffle. CDs? Gone. DVD? Yesterday’s news, tomorrow’s eight-track. The future is HD, so the next step…
Spotlight: Mary Lou Lord
Chances are, you’ve seen Mary Lou Lord standing on some corner of Sixth Street during that late-night stumble in or out of the downtown entertainment district. It’s been difficult to miss her, after all; she’s been staging her own SXSW showcases for 10 years now. “I began busking at SXSW when I was on tour…
SXSW Film Reviews
SOUTHERN BELLESD: Paul S. Myers and Brennan Shroff; with Anna Faris, Laura Breckenridge, Justin Chambers, Fred Weller, Judah Friedlander Narrative Feature Competition The trailer in lot 314 holds more than just a couple of homophonous girls who drink margaritas in the daytime and babysit a flatulent fat kid whose mother told him his daddy’s name…
Best Cover Band
RUNNERS-UP: The Spazmatics, Sauce, Blind Date, Newsboyz, Big Balls, Detroit Steel, The Atlantics, Dysfunction Junction, Blue Mist
Best Rock
RUNNERS-UP: Los Lonely Boys, Eric Johnson, Grady, Vallejo, Cruiserweight, Bob Schneider, Spoon, Michelle Mayfield, The Knaak Attack
Best Concert By a Touring Artist
RUNNERS-UP: Blue October at Stubb’s; Wilco, Austin City Limits; Pixies at Stubb’s; Brian Wilson at the Backyard; Beastie Boys at the Frank Erwin Center; Velvet Revolver at the Austin Music Hall; Ozomatli at La Zona Rosa; The Darkness at Stubb’s; The Hives at La Zona Rosa
Thursday Sleepers
All showcase times subject to changeSleepers for March 17AUSTIN THEREMONIC ORCHESTRA8pm, Hideout Debuting at the Alamo Drafthouse after heartwarming cold war music doc Theremin, these half-dozen local practitioners of “Good Vibrations” may have grown in ranks. Towered over by New Wave-era axeman Steve Marsh, ATO’s initial 20 minutes were dizzying. – Raoul HernandezFILM SCHOOL8pm, Buffalo…
SXSW Records
Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny IrionExploration (New West) Although they’ve released albums separately and have been touring together like mad for the past couple of years, Exploration is the first album as a duo from Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion. Guthrie, granddaughter of Woody and daughter to Arlo, and South Carolina-based Irion verify the…
SXSW Records
MewithoutYouCatch for Us the Foxes (Tooth & Nail) Let’s get this out of the way: MewithoutYou is a Christian rock band. Let us repeat together: To each their own. Regardless of your spirtuality, the Philly fivepiece’s sophomore album is fervent, subtle, alive. In fact, if Christian torch-bearing imprint Tooth & Nail weren’t specified on the…
Arts Review
‘At Home With Dick’ is approximately an hour and a half of songs and memories from the funny, very talented songwriter Dick Price
SXSW Records
The Ditty Bops(Warner Bros.) Combining a magical attic’s worth of dusty musical idioms, iridescent golden harmonies, and a quirk-laden lyrical worldview, the Ditty Bops provide a refreshing antidote to the misbegotten, soul-grinding notion of thinking you know what happens next. Against the backdrop of this alternate reality, it’s entirely appropriate the L.A. duo wound up…
Public Ed Bill Escapes the House – Barely
Dems – and a few Republicans – try to hold back the privatization wave
SXSW Film 05 Awards
The Best of the Fest
Spotlight: Nona Hendryx
If the question is “Where’s Nona Hendryx been?” the answer is “Busy.” With more lives than an alley cat, Hendryx’s chameleonlike career is one of astonishing twists and turns. Hendryx is an “ex-Bluebelle, ex-Labelle, and now music composer for stage and film,” but that succinct assessment leaves gaps in the NYC-based performer’s career. Hendryx began…
Spotlight: Blowfly
George Clinton wanted to paint the White House black, but under a Blowfly administration, it would be a deep, ribald blue. “Vote for me and you’ll all get laid,” promises “Blowfly for President,” from his new album Fahrenheit 69. That’s nothing compared to his plan to win the war on terror. “I know how to…
SXSW Film Reviews
THUNDERSTUCKD: Darren Ashton; with Stephen Curry, Damon Gameau, Sam Worthington, Ryan Johnson, Callun Mulvey Narrative Feature Discoveries From Down Under Imagine you live in a world where Bon Scott is God. You would live in Australia, obviously. You’d also be barreling through the desert in a van with your old bandmates to fulfill a pact…
Best Video
RUNNERS-UP: Los Lonely Boys Texican Style: Live From Austin DVD; Del Castillo Live DVD; Dave’s Not Here It Walks, It Talks, It Pisses on Yer Carpet DVD; Grupo Fantasma, “Utility Rock” Video; What Made Milwaukee Famous, “Selling Yourself Short” Video; Cruiserweight, “Yellow Lights” Video; The Real Heroes, “Elise, Elise” Video; The Real Heroes, “Elise, Elise”…
Best DJ
RUNNERS-UP: DJ Veg, Matson Belle, DJ Chicken George, Lila’s Medicine, Govinda, DJ Crash, DJ Generic, Trey Lopez, Baby G
Best Roots Rock
RUNNERS-UP: Reckless Kelly, 5 Mile, The Gourds, The Gene Pool, George Devore, San Saba County, Elizabeth McQueen & the Firebrands, Jon Dee Graham, James McMurtry
Best Concert Poster
RUNNERS-UP: Future Ex-Boyfriends at Flamingo Cantina by Craig Bradley, The Midgetmen at Flamingo Cantina by Justin Petro, Blue October at La Zona Rosa by Billy Perkins, The Arcade Fire at Emo’s by Rob Jones, Ian McLagan & the Bump Band at Lucky Lounge by Ian McLagan, Uranium Savages at Jovita’s by Kerry Awn, Cornell Hurd…
Friday Picks
Picks for March 18All showcase times subject to changeIAN HUNTER/ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO6pm, Auditorium Shores Were it not for the fact that Alejandro Escovedo looks good and sounds like a hurricane – all-star tribute Por Vida worked! – you’d have thought he’d died and gone to heaven. After all, how many times have you heard Se–or Velvet…
SXSW Records
Nora O’Connor ‘Til the Dawn (Bloodshot) Country music is the progeny of traditional Scotch-Irish music, imported by immigrants and grown in America’s rich bluegrass soil. It’s fitting, then, that Nora O’Connor, a Chicagoan born to Irish parents, would offer up a collection of honky-tonk, country, and folk pop songs on her second solo album. Growing…
SXSW Records
Dead MeadowFeathers (Matador) Dead Meadow is emblematic of the clever ways in which many outfits in recent years have taken Black Sabbath’s sound and dissected, reassembled, and built upon it like new, hellishly magnificent wings of a crumbling, ancient castle. Similar to Bardo Pond and Comets on Fire, Meadow adds a bit of sweetness to…
Arts Review
Art Outside Art Outside is a temporary art show in the woods. Yes: the woods. As presented by the Enchanted Forest and Make Austin Weird, it features “more than 100 artists and performers of all shapes and sizes placing and performing their work along the pathways of the 2.5 acres of forest.” Naming some names:…
Sixth Street Blues
Downtown stakeholders raise questions about policing … the police
Lege Roundup
• Nothing strikes dread in the heart of a Texas lawmaker the way passing a tax bill does, but House members did just that Monday. Republicans have promised a significant property tax cut for Texans, and that relief will come at its own price, both policywise and politically. House Bill 3 rolls a third off…
SXSW Interactive 05 Web Awards
Sunday, March 13
Spotlight: Rezillos
Together just two years in their initial incarnation, the Rezillos’ hook-happy elixir of punk, pop, glam, golden oldies, and sci-fi has burrowed its way toward legendary status on the strength of songs like “Top of the Pops” and “(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures.” The Edinburgh group’s sole studio LP, 1978’s Can’t Stand the Rezillos, remains…
SXSW Film Reviews
Animated ShortsD: various Sure, the last time you saw “animation” might have been as the opening act for Carrot Top at the Chuckle Bucket, but this collection of animated shorts has – gasp – a social message. Nearly every short in this hourlong feature critiques humanity’s willingness to destroy itself, whether through violence, pollution, guns,…
SXSW Film Reviews
WaterborneD: Ben Rekhi; with Christopher Masterson, Jake Muxworthy, Ajay Naidu, Magiena Tovah, Shabana Azmi, Jon Gries Narrative Feature Competition Even Los Angeles doesn’t deserve the threat of bioterrorism. Their air supply’s gone to smog already. In Waterborne, writer-director Rekhi uses jump-cut DV to envision what the panic from America’s next and even more insidious threat…
Hostage
Bruce Willis is called back to active crime-fighting duty in this new thriller.
Best Experimental
RUNNERS-UP: Opposite Day, Ohn, Eric Johnson, Govinda, Pong, Hedda Layne, The Octopus Project, Attack Formation, Gorch Fock
Best World Music
RUNNERS-UP: Pieces of East, Grupo Fantasma, Ghandaia, Atash, Del Castillo, Cluan, Sarah Dinan Band, Sambaxé, Teye & Viva el Flamenco
Best Cover Art
RUNNERS-UP: Nooner, Nooner, Chris Telles; EP2, Mingo Fishtrap, Roger Blevins Jr.; Super Psychotic Queen, Mina Mauldin, Mina Mauldin; Movimiento Popular, Grupo Fantasma, Noel Waggener; Ones & Zeroes, Dynah; Story of a SpaceMonkey, Pail, Rachel Titsworth; Devil Girl, Velvet Brick; Dome, Groovin Ground, Evan Bozarth; The Troy Dillinger Dirty & Hairy Film Festival, Troy Dillinger, Troy…
Friday Sleepers
Sleepers for March 18All showcase times subject to changeTHE ADDICTIONS8pm, Hard Rock Cafe It’s not every day one of the better folk-rock bands in town recasts itself as GN’R-loving badasses. Quatropaw abandoned their acoustic guitars for a volatile mixture of Sunset Strip sleaze; last year’s eponymous debut has been making waves on regional radio. –…
SXSW Records
The FramesBurn the Maps (Anti-) Today’s pre-eminent boutique label, home to Solomon Burke, Marianne Faithfull, Tom Waits, Neko Case, and Nick Cave, Anti- scores another big coup with the Frames’ eighth record. Formed in 1991 in Dublin, Ireland, the Frames have long crafted great music, but due to label headaches haven’t been built up any…
SXSW Records
DarediabloTwenty Paces (Southern) A decade and more ago, instrumental guitar discs collapsed under the weight of shredding, not storytelling. Even in jazz, chops trump character development. No such pitfalls for New York organ trio Darediablo, who went to film school. Opening on the title track of their fifth release, the Terry Gilliam-like CD cover comes…
Page Two
Talented songwriter and performer Mandy Mercier lends her voice to our ongoing conversation about artistic recognition and creative success
Tasers and the APD
Police leadership says stun guns protect officers and prevent injuries, but critics charge they are dangerous and overused
The Hightower Report
Bush makes a mess of the Food and Drug Administration; and preaches to Russia about the merits of hypocracy – err, democracy
Film News
The Legislature’s $20 million in proposed incentives to lure more film projects to Texas is emphasizing jobs and aiming to boost rural areas as well as larger cities like Austin; plus, Wes Anderson’s next movie
Spotlight: Gorch Fock
If Atlanta’s Mastodon personify the mythical sea beast of their 2004 album Leviathan, Austin’s Gorch Fock represent the ragtag Pequod crew hot on its tail. Trombone-blasting frontman Joey Ficklin often performs in full midshipman regalia, and their tempestuous, heaving songs are dotted with nautical images. The original Gorch Fock, see, was an ill-fated sailor and…
SXSW Film Reviews
AUTOMATICD: Jonathan Walls; with Travis Schuldt, Jay Thames, Jamie Anne Brown, Jennifer Ferguson, Brandy Howard, Sean O’Bryan Narrative Feature Lone Star States Remember thirtysomething? Me, neither. But I remember Melrose Place! Imagine a whole season, no commercials! Six white people who never really work, but have really nice homes – well, except for the chronic-masturbator,…
Travellers & Magicians
Travellers & Magicians feels a bit like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales as retold by Siddhartha, as this Himalayan beauty gently delivers a very accurate anti-materialistic Buddhist morality lesson.
Best Folk
RUNNERS-UP: Brobdingnagian Bards, John Pointer, Patty Griffin, White Ghost Shivers, Eliza Gilkyson, Matt the Electrician, Slaid Cleaves, Michael Fracasso, Hayes Carll
Best Acoustic Guitar
RUNNERS-UP: Monte Montgomery, John Pointer, Henry Garza, Rick del Castillo, Tucker Livingston, Bob Schneider, Teye, Scrappy Jud Newcomb, Rich Brotherton
Best Instrument/Equipment Store
RUNNERS-UP: South Austin Music, Heart of Texas Music, Musicmakers, Strait Music Co., Rock & Roll Rentals, Tommy’s Drum Shop, Austin Vintage Guitars, Bass Emporium, Guitar Resurrection
Saturday Picks
Picks for March 19All showcase times subject to changeCALVIN OWENS BLUES ORCHESTRA4pm, Town Lake Stage @ Auditorium Shores Calvin Owens has had quite a prolific career. The Houston trumpeter was a session musician at Duke/Peacock, has toured extensively with B.B. King as musician and arranger, and has long led his own orchestra, heard on his…
SXSW Records
Munley & the Lee Lewis Harlots (Alternative Tentacles/Smooch) Jay Munly of Slim Cessna’s Auto Club conspires with the Lee Lewis Harlots and takes us on a harrowing tour through the darkest crevices of the human soul. Munly devours his poetically transgressive subject matter with the unhinged drama of a Nick Cave or Gordon Gano, while…
SXSW Records
Mahjongg Raydoncong (Cold Crush) Beginning with the fuzzy warm, Stereolab plush no-wave jumble funk of “BBG-9298,” Mahjongg scatters nitrous-addled allusions of Jah Wobble producing an ESG loft party gone wacky. The chorus to “Vaxination” pairs sexually ambiguous Human League interplay with dissonant side-effects grating about the wavy Pavement. As the hard drum break, Devo bass,…
Letter at 3AM
Donating money to causes is fine and necessary, but it doesn’t get you off the hook; active human energy is what generates change. Bite off a chunk of trouble for yourself. There is no hope or solution without you.
And They’re Off!
City Council races pick up steam at candidate forums
Out There
Reviews and reports from SXSW Film and Interactive 05
DVD Watch
A Douglas Sirk tour de force, ‘Written on the Wind’ explores the director’s typical fascination with interfamilial relationships in a hold-on-to-your-cocktail- hat production oozing with Technicolor angst
Live Shots
The GratesVelvet Spade Patio, Thursday, March 17 Hearing music that puts a mirror up to your very soul is all well and good, but sometimes you just want to hear something silly that makes you smile. The Grates definitely hail from the latter school of thought. With just guitar, drums, and an ebulliently spry singer,…
SXSW Film Reviews
THE BOYS OF BARAKAD: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady Documentary Feature Competition Perhaps the most powerful and important documentary I have ever seen. With The Boys of Baraka directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady record a coming-of-age tale that touches on every fathomable emotion level. Over the course of three years, the two women followed 20…
Born Into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids
Even though Born Into Brothels – winner of the 2004 Oscar for Best Documentary – is a devastating portrait of impoverished Calcutta children who are born into the sex trades, the film is also an inspiring document about human possibilities.
Best Hip Hop
RUNNERS-UP: Overlord, John Pointer & Carlos Sosa’s Boombox, Mingo Fishtrap, Bavu Blakes, Tee Double, KJV, Unified Tribe, Afrofreque, Primm
Best Bass Guitar
RUNNERS-UP: Jojo Garza, Bruce Hughes, Mark Andes, Jeff Pinkus, Billy Dee, Omar Vallejo, Erin Jaimes, Lonnie Trevino Jr., Big Ben Richardson
Best Live Music Venue
RUNNERS-UP: The Continental Club, Momos Club, Emo’s, Antone’s, Flipnotics, The Parish, The Backyard, Saxon Pub, Lucky Lounge
TCB
Welcome to Deadwood: Sorting SXSW’s cocksuckers from the hoopleheads
Saturday Sleepers
Sleepers for March 19All showcase times subject to changeEPHRAIM OWENS8pm, Elephant Room One of Austin’s young jazz lions for going on a decade, Ephraim Owens has played with the city’s best jazz and hip-hop acts and isn’t afraid to bring his trumpet to rock shows and jump onstage. – Raoul HernandezWALTER DANIELS & WADE DRIVER8pm,…
SXSW Records
Th’ Legendary Shack*ShakersBelieve (Yep Roc) Tempting as it may be in today’s regressive socio-political climate, you can’t write off the South without writing off 90% of America’s musical heritage. Assuming the veneer of tent revivalists, Nashville’s Legendary Shack*Shakers ram that point home with evangelical zeal, peddling a stirring gumbo of blues, country, gospel, rockabilly, and…
SXSW Records
The Chris Vestre GroupJazz Camp What makes this maiden release by Austin guitarist Chris Vestre so appealing is the unique configuration of his local quartet. Guitar/vibes combos are rare, especially on the front line. Often subordinated in the rhythm sections of horn-driven ensembles, here the two instruments’ comingling is refreshing. Vestre possesses a warm, round…
After a Fashion
Okay, SXSW has officially begun and your Style Avatar is deep in it. Watch where you step.
Strayhorn Takes Toll on the CTRMA
Comptroller delivers scathing audit of road agency
Out There
THE EDUKATORSD: Hans Weingartner; with Daniel Brühl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg, Burghardt Klaußner Narrative Feature Spotlight While Berlin sleeps, Jan (Brühl) and Peter (Erceg) stick it to the man – by breaking into the mansions of capitalist swine and repositioning their furniture and bric-a-brac. By day they spout anarchist bromides (“Fucking petty bourgeois values!” one…
TV Eye
Anyone needing evidence on why the network sitcom is failing should turn on their sets next week
Live Shots
Dirty on PurposeCo-op Bar, Thursday, March 17 Maybe they’re called Dirty on Purpose because they really know how to climax: steady, patiently. It’s like they thought about it, and now they’re determined to bring it there in a slow, polite tease that recalls a born-from-frustration Mogwai-Bedhead lovechild. DOP began with calm helicopter drumming and burgeoned…
SXSW Film Reviews
COMEDIA SHORTSD: various Film festivals are often a very serious business, filled with serious people discussing serious films about serious issues. While there’s nothing wrong with that, sometimes we all need a break from pensiveness. Enter Comedia Shorts, a collection of international shorts from the film arm of the Montreal Comedy Festival, which touts itself…
Steamboy
Japanese anime director Katsuhiro Ôtomo, best known for Akira, here delivers a dazzlingly straightforward rush that thrusts its protagonist into astonishing action set-piece after set-piece.
Best Industrial/Goth
RUNNERS-UP: Chant, Tungsten Coil, Pail, Lust Murder Box, Hollow, Spitting Angels, Distempered, The Octopus Project, Darling Sinister
Best Drums/Percussion
RUNNERS-UP: Ringo Garza, Chris Layton, Mike Zeoli, Brannen Temple, Alex Vallejo, Yogi Maxwell, Matt Fletcher, David Fore, Ethan Herr
Best Local Music TV Show
RUNNERS-UP: Local Live, KVR-TV; AMN Archives, AMN; CapZeyeZ Live!, ACTV Channel 10; All Access Live, KNVA; Prime Time Tejano, AMN; AustiNights, KNVA; Fox News in the Morning, KTBC; Hi-Fi High School, AMN; Hank Sinatra, AMN
SXSW Records
Kathy McCarty Another Day in the Sun (Rexy Rex) Another Day in the Sun is a significant event. It marks the return of Austin’s beloved Kathy McCarty. She achieved that status through Eighties local heroes Glass Eye and her two solo albums, 1994’s Dead Dog’s Eyeball, an inspired tribute to the songs of Daniel Johnston,…
SXSW Records
DovesSome Cities (Capitol) With their previous releases, Manchester’s Doves never sounded as though they were from UK’s famously overcast industrial outcropping/musical paradise. Arriving too late for both the baggy mad days of Madchester raves and the cool Britannian Britpop, their sound – pounding backbeats swathed in glittering, soulful melodies that swelled and crested like the…
SXSW Records
StarsSet Yourself on Fire (Arts&Crafts International) “When there’s nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire.” So goes the opening line of Stars’ third album. Whether it’s a testament to the Montreal quintet’s native winters or an example of the passion conveyed on this album is hard to say. File it next…
About AIDS
About AIDS Heard the notion that a “top” – the insertive partner in anal intercourse – is not at particularly high risk for HIV infection? That’s part truth, part myth. Turns out, lots of HIV still may be present in rectal secretions despite the bottom’s viral load being low or even “undetectable.” Standard viral load…
Up From the Slime – Commissioners Push for Water Quality Rules
Interim county development rules leave everyone dissatisfied
Out There
THE GRACE LEE PROJECTD: Grace Lee Documentary Feature Spotlight Growing up in Columbia, Mo., as “the only Asian girl for miles,” filmmaker Grace Lee felt “proud to be an original” – then she moved away and found not only that her name was uncommonly common but that the associations it carried – “nice,” “studious,” “soft-spoken”…
Day Party Crawl
TwangfestJovita’s, Thursday, March 17 The best-attended party of the day had to be this showcase sponsored by two groups from St. Louis – Twangfest, the alt.country music festival held every June, and noncommercial radio station KDHX. South First Mexican eatery Jovita’s was surely as crowded as it’s ever been – so crowded in fact that…
Live Shots
22-20sStubb’s, Thursday, March 17 UK’s newest hopefuls the 22-20s are onto something, but it may be too soon to tell exactly what that is. Halfway to the Hives and pivoting tightly around electrifying Southern blues, the baby-faced fourpiece delivered high-energy, solid-body Fender rock from a tense and anxious hip. Churning through a four-chord powerhouse off…
SXSW Film Reviews
The Comedians of ComedyD: Michael Blieden Documentary Feature Competition Nerd alert. David Cross has “hair in his ass crack.” Patton Oswalt has “womanly man boobs.” Most good comedians are bound to be geeky and a little “off.” These are but a few of the revelations Oswalt makes about comedy in Blieden’s (Melvin Goes to Dinner)…
Gunner Palace
Uday Hussein’s former pleasure palace is now home to an American artillery regiment, whose members we get to know from their poolside antics to their far more sobering responsibilities of patrolling Baghdad.
Best Jam
RUNNERS-UP: John Pointer & Carlos Sosa’s Boombox, Pong, Mingo Fishtrap, Tia Carrera, Groovin Ground, Jabarvy, Mikado, Aaron Hamre Band, Eric Johnson
Best Electric Guitar
RUNNERS-UP: Eddie Willis, Henry Garza, Redd Volkaert, John Pointer, Scrappy Jud Newcomb, Gary Clark Jr., Monte Montgomery, Slim Richey, Gordie Johnson
Best Music Writer
RUNNERS-UP: Margaret Moser, Andy Langer, Robert Gabriel, Jim Caligiuri, Michael Corcoran, Darcie Stevens, Raoul Hernandez, Greg Beets, David Lynch
TCB
One-liners Friday spottings included actress, filmmaker, and Toto inspiration Rosanna Arquette at the Convention Center and former 120 Minutes host Matt Pinfield walking up Red River… Recording Academy president Neil Portnow presented Robert Plant with Led Zeppelin’s lifetime achievement award before Plant’s keynote interview, an award Texas Chapter executive director Wendy Morgan said was “heavy…
SXSW Records
Milton MapesThe Blacklight Trap (Undertow) Milton Mapes’ songs are a little like archaeological excavations: elemental enough to have existed for centuries until these five bearded local bards came along to uncover them. Third album The Blacklight Trap is heavy with portent, haunted by a mythic America of vast landscapes and endless promise that lingers like…
SXSW Records
The MoanersDark Snack (Yep Roc) Guitar playing has its conventions: certain ways to hold the neck. Certain ways to bend the strings. Certain places to put your fingers. Melissa Swingle puts her fingers wherever the hell she wants, bending the neck to breakin’; strings beg to become unstrung after what she doles out. The Mississippi…
SXSW Records
Red SparowesAt the Soundless Dawn (Neurot) Sixty-three minutes of guitarscapes may seem eternal, but there’s noise, and then there’s noise. L.A. quintet Red Sparowes makes beautiful noise, fluctuating from waves of jet-engine sonics to unsettling bleeps of melody and then back to an atmosphere-shattering melee. As heavy as this not-so-soundless dawn is, it never pummels…
To Your Health
What are the pros and cons of using macadamia oil?
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Out There
THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGSD: Asia Argento; with Argento, Jimmy Bennett, Dylan Sprouse, Cole Sprouse, Peter Fonda, Winona Ryder, Jeremy Sisto Narrative Feature Spotlight Fair warning: Argento’s unflinching adaptation of 24-year-old author J.T. Leroy’s horrifically troubled life pulls few punches and has caused more than a few audience members to hit the exits…
Ballroom Dancing
Ringtones as an Income StreamAustin Convention Center, Thursday, March 17 The real question here is what’s next. For the past 22 years, the music industry has relied on that familiar little silver disc. No technology lasts that long, but the progression from album to cassette to CD is followed by a question mark. With ever-popular…
Live Shots
Austin Theremonic OrchestraThe Hideout, Thursday, March 17 Russian physicist Leon Theremin (1896-1993) created the first electronic noisemaker in 1918, the haunting instrument bearing his name. Most wouldn’t recognize a theremin if it bit them on the earlobe, but its sound, eerie and floating, is instantly recognizable, mostly from sci-fi/horror flicks and the Beach Boys’ “Good…
SXSW Film Reviews
The Fearless FreaksD: Bradley Beesley Documentary Feature 24 Beats per Second Taking a page from the earnest art-rock of the band it documents, The Fearless Freaks sheds a black light on the psychedelic life and times of the Flaming Lips. Regular Lips collaborator Bradley Beesley pulls few punches and manages to get behind the music…
Best Jazz
RUNNERS-UP: Monster Big Band, Paris49, Torch, Sarah Sharp, John Pinter & Carlos Sosa’s Boombox, Eric Johnson, Blue Mist, Los Jazz Vatos, Slim Richey’s Dream Band
Best Female Vocals
RUNNERS-UP: Toni Price, Stella Maxwell, Patrice Pike, Carolyn Wonderland, Patricia Vonne, Lisa Tingle, Shelley King, Eliza Gilkyson, Kelly Willis
Best New Club
RUNNERS-UP: The Foundation, Alice’s Restaurant, Rain, Copa, The Jackalope, Light Bar, The Side Bar, Ringers Sports Lounge, Church of the Friendly Ghost
Ate Days a Week
Satan Ate My Taco: Mexican /Latin-American El Sol Y La Luna1224 S. Congress, 444-7770 Sunday-Tuesday, 7am-3pm; Wednesday-Saturday, 7am-10pm If Austin is trying to keep it weird, El Sol y la Luna is doing its best to keep it real. Authentic and deeply satisfying Interior Latin dishes dot the menu, its location adjacent to the Austin…
SXSW Records
Jimmy LafaveBlue Nightfall (Red House) For most musicians, a new label means reinvention, reinvigoration, big or small. Following six releases on Denver indie Bohemia Beat (once home to locals Michael Fracasso and Abra Moore), Austin’s Jimmy LaFave steps up and into Minnesota’s roomy songwriter label, Red House (home to Eliza Gilkyson). He’s brought with him…
SXSW Records
CoachwhipsPeanut Butter and Jelly Live at the Ginger Minge (Narnack) The Coachwhips’ third release wins soundtrack of the year for anticlimactic sex. Perhaps there’s a hidden subtext to this latest mess melted onto its musical landscape by these California wing nuts. John Dwyer, ex-Pink & Brown, ululates about his corpus and lame parties with enough…
SXSW Records
LCD Soundsystem(EMI) James Murphy, the wizard behind LCD Soundsystem, spent years in punk bands like Pony and Speedking. He’s one-half of the sought-after production team DFA, which is responsible for the Rapture’s ginormous hit “House of Jealous Lovers.” Instead of going the desperate route and getting 27 “guests” to appear on his debut, Murphy pulls…
The Common Law
Do I have to take the Breathalyzer?
Labor and AISD Butt Heads Again
‘Prevailing wage’ creates a sticking point
Out There
THE LAST MOGULD: Barry Avrich Documentary Feature Spotlight The Last Mogul charts the rise of the late Lew Wasserman, the MCA and Universal Pictures head who started out selling candy in a burlesque house at age 12 and went on to become “the most powerful man in Hollywood.” Peppered as it is with connections to…
After a Fashion
It’s SXSW all over, especially all over that other acronymically correct paradise, Austin’s SoCo, our hallowed South Congress Avenue, south of the river. See what our Style Avatar has been up to and what he recommends.
Live Shots
Low Frequency in StereoThe Drink, Thursday, March 17 Norway has gained a reputation for its death metal exports, and bands like Turbonegro have revealed its glam metal side, but the hipster contingent has always been hiding in the smoky clubs, worshipping the Jesus & Mary Chain and quietly looking cooler than us while doing it.…
SXSW Film Reviews
HooligansD: Lexi Alexander; with Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam, Claire Forlani Narrative Feature Competition This is not a movie about soccer. It’s about football, you yanks. And not just any football, either, but football in England, where football hooligans – once considered lower-class drunks keen on beating up rival fans – have emerged as stylish, highly…
Band of the Year
RUNNERS-UP: Wideawake, Eric Johnson, Bob Schneider, Del Castillo, Grupo Fantasma, Grady, Reckless Kelly, South Austin Jug Band, Spoon
Best Kid
RUNNERS-UP: Palm School Choir, The Flames, The Avoiders, The Wild Things, Loose Cannons, Sarah Jarosz, Newboy, Video Screams, Minority
Best Horns
RUNNERS-UP: Grooveline Horns, Ephraim Owens, Alex Coke, Mingo Fishtrap Horns, Tom Robinson, David Chenu, Omar Vallejo, Brad Houser, John Mills
Best Radio Music Program
RUNNERS-UP: The Next Big Thing, Andy Langer, KROX 101X FM; Local Live, KVRX 91.7FM; Horizontes, Michael Crockett, KUT 90.5FM; Folkways, Larry Monroe, Ed Miller, David Obermann, KUT 90.5FM; Celtic Storm, Donnelle McKaskle, KOOP 91.7FM; Left of the Dial, Jeff McCord, KUT 90.5FM; Blue Monday, Larry Monroe, KUT 90.5FM; Local Licks Live, Loris Lowe, KLBJ 93.7FM;…
Ate Days a Week
Dig This Menu, Please: Fine Dining, Surf and Turf Reed’s Jazz and Supper Club9901 Capital of TX Hwy. #150, 342-7977 Monday-Thursday, 5:30-10pm; Friday-Saturday, 5:30-11pm Designed to evoke the glamour of a modish New York supper club, it’s not surprising that this Gateway night spot is popular with the middle-aged divorced set. Reed’s boasts live jazz,…
SXSW Records
Patricia VonneGuitars & Castanets (Bandolera) With Guitars & Castanets, her second album, Austin’s Patricia Vonne has sidestepped the all-encompassing sophomore slump and is confidently walking a bold line between contemporary Mexican and traditional rock & roll. Call it Texas border rock, though border suggests a line of demarcation Vonne’s songs don’t have; she doesn’t follow…
SXSW Records
Death From Above 1979You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine (Last Gang) Imagine Queens of the Stone Age without the pot. That’s the small picture. The large view of Toronto duo Death From Above 1979 is much simpler: two guys with mustaches, a bass and a drum kit, on 10. DFA79’s full-length debut is electro-metal tracks…
SXSW Records
Aesop Rock Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives (Definitive Jux) Without need for academic accreditation, hip-hop elicits its own intellectual parameters. Therefore the 88-page lyric anthology The Living Human Curiosity Sideshow accompanying Aesop Rock’s latest EP signifies rather than justifies. “As if twitching upon your authored condition’s really that different from administered conditioning glitches,” contends…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Hydrogen-fueled Hummers and coffee beans in animal droppings
Battling the Toxicity of Coal-Burning Power Plants
‘Clear Skies’ gets shot down, and Legislators try to cut the crud in Texas
Out There
LILA SAYSD: Ziad Doueiri; with Vahina Giocante, Mohammed Khouas, Karim Ben Haddou, Lofti Chakri Narrative Feature Spotlight When Chimo (Khouas) meets Lila (Giocante) in his French-Arab slum, she’s quick to show off her pubes, which are blond – such a commodity in the predominantly swarthy neighborhood that even her crazy aunt (Edmonde Franchi) likes to…
Ballroom Dancing
Keynote Conversation: Robert PlantAustin Convention Center, Thursday, March 17 Folks waiting to hear Robert Plant were pleasantly surprised before the Rock God even entered the stuffed Convention Center conference room. Gospel songstress Mavis Staples belted out selected songs, backed by country superpicker Marty Stuart on mandolin and guitar. Then it was Plant’s turn to be…
Live Shots
M.I.A.Elysium, Thursday, March 17 Fresh off of a jet from London, M.I.A. fired mortar rounds of politically charged bass just above the heads of those braving the gauntlet of the Elysium door patrol. “I got the bombs to make you blow, I got the beats to make you bang” became much more than an empty…
SXSW Film Reviews
KISSING ON THE MOUTH D: Joe Swanberg; with Kate Winterich, Joe Swanberg, Kevin Pittman, Kris Williams Narrative Feature Emerging Visions Rarely do we consider, when eyeing nudity on film, the awkwardness, even exploitation, of the unclothed actor. Kissing on the Mouth tackles that issue head-on by making its cast and crew the same in this…
Best New Band
RUNNERS-UP: Alteza, Michelle Mayfield, The Van, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Sounds Under Radio, Jelly Jar, Mina Mauldin, The Gene Pool, The Platforms
Best Latin Contemporary
RUNNERS-UP: Del Castillo, Alteza, Los Lonely Boys, The Brew, Ghandaia, Patricia Vonne, Vallejo, Teye & Viva el Flamenco, Maneja Beto
Best Keyboards
RUNNERS-UP: Earl Poole Ball, Stephen Barber, Eric Johnson, Laura Scarborough, Stefano Intelisano, Chris Cordero, Matt Niemann, Aeron Riordan, George Knaak
Best Radio Personality
RUNNERS-UP: Jody Denberg, KGSR 107.1FM; John Aielli, KUT 90.5FM; Dale Dudley, KLBJ 93.7FM; Charlie Hodge, KLBJ 93.7FM; Kevin Connor, KGSR 107.1FM; Lunch Box, KISS 96.7FM; Larry Monroe, KUT 90.5FM; Trina, KROX 101X FM; Sammy Allred, KVET 98.1FM
Ate Days a Week
Everybody Eats When They Come to My House: American, Pub, Barbecue, Down-Home Artz Rib House2330 S. Lamar, 442-8283 Monday-Saturday, 11am-10pm; Sunday, noon-9pm Though the ramshackle wood-frame building on South Lamar might not look like much from the outside, Artz is the Austin headquarters where lovers of great barbecue and bluegrass converge. On Sunday afternoons, Artz…
SXSW Records
Los Super 7Heard It on the X (Telarc) The latest installment of the Only Supergroup That Doesn’t Suck is a triumph, even if it’s obvious from reading the credits that counting vocalists alone, it’s Los Super 10. The concept: a mixture of musics one might have heard blasted from one of the megawatt Mexican border…
SXSW Records
Gorch FockLying and Manipulating (Australian Cattle God) Named for a sailor poet who drowned two months after joining the German navy, Austin’s Gorch Fock win their sea legs handily on this second release. The seven-person assortment of local noise-rock notables functions as a kind of seafaring vessel, with two drummers in the engine room, layers…
SXSW Records
Of MontrealThe Sunlandic Twins (Polyvinyl) Ah, the chair dance. It’s rarely seen by the innocent spectator; rather, it’s performed in the privacy of one’s home or office (variations of it exist in traffic and/or in the bank of elliptical machines at the gym). It takes a lot to inspire the chair dance, a cosmic conflagration…
Day Trips
Waltzing through the dance halls of Texas
Study Calls Medical Malpractice ‘Crisis’ Into Question
It was all a sham? You don’t say!
Out There
Music ShortsD: Various Put any music (Western swing to punk) in any venue (an industrial building in the Bronx to a jam band’s back porch) and you still end up with music that affects individuals that affect the world. Individuals take center stage in “The Ramones and I” and “Sweet Soul Music,” as the filmmakers…
Ballroom Dancing
Holy Fire: The 13th Floor Elevators’ Quest for EnlightenmentAustin Convention Center, Thursday, March 17 Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators were psychedelic pioneers who got scalped on many levels. If Texas music mavens seem eager to champion their legacy today, perhaps it’s to make amends for the years in which seeking enlightenment made them…
SXSW Film Reviews
KONTROLLD: Nimród Antal; with Sándór Badár, Eszter Balla, Sándor Csányi, Lajos Kovács, Zoltán Mucsi, Zsolt Nagy, Csaba Pindroch Narrative Feature Spotlight In essence, this blockbuster hit from Hungary is a classic mythological tale. We follow ticket inspector Bulscú (Badár, an A-list leading man if there ever was one) through the gritty underworld of the Budapest…
Musician of the Year
RUNNERS-UP: Alejandro Escovedo, Bob Schneider, John Pointer, Scott Leger, Henry Garza, Patty Griffin, Jon Dee Graham, Willie Nelson, Monte Montgomery
Best Latin Traditional
RUNNERS-UP: Alteza, Grupo Fantasma, Sambaxé, The Brew, Los Lonely Boys, Mary Welch y los Curanderos, Maneja Beto, Traci Lamar, Ruben Ramos
Best Male Vocals
RUNNERS-UP: Eric Johnson, Bob Schneider, John Pointer, Jon Dee Graham, Henry Garza, Alex Ruiz, Dale Watson, Malford Milligan, Marc Gunn
Best Radio Program
RUNNERS-UP: The Bobby Bones Show, KISS 96.7FM; Eklektikos with John Aielli, KUT 90.5FM; JB & Sandy in the Morning. MIX 94.7FM; Sam and Bob in the Morning, KVET 98.1FM; In the Morning With Kevin & Kevin, KGSR 107.1FM; The Morning X, KROX 101X FM; Flashback Lunch. KROX 101X FM; All Things Considered, KUT 90.5FM; Folkways,…
Ate Days a Week
Me? I Like Any Kind of Music (and Food) … Central Market4001 N. Lamar, 206-1000 4477 S. Lamar, 899-4300 Cafe Hours: Sunday-Thursday, 7am-9pm; Friday-Saturday, 7am-10pm In a town where you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a musician, Central Market’s cafes are a place where a substantial portion of the patrons do swing something…
SXSW Records
The Tunahelpers I’ll Have What She’s Having (Mimicry) Whether Betty Crocker likes it or not, the TunaHelpers are sullying the good name of boxed dinner-mix once again with their second album of devilish fairy-tale folk-punk. I’ll Have What She’s Having finds Austin’s ‘Helpers making a jump to Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance’s Mimicry label, but…
SXSW Records
Guitar WolfLoverock (Narnack) Guitar WolfRock ‘N’ Roll Etiquette (Narnack) For every band trying to sound like the Ramones, nine out of 10 get it right. You can’t go wrong: Take three chords, a four-four beat, keep it under two minutes, and make sure your jeans are tight. Enter Guitar Wolf, Japan’s version of the Ramones…
SXSW Records
Nic Armstrong & The Thieves The Greatest White Liar (New West) From the first notes of The Greatest White Liar, there’s no doubt Nic Armstrong & the Thieves are British. Replete with UK Sixties rock and pop influence, it’s Liar’s irrepressible Merseybeat coating everything. Armstrong even sounds like John Lennon occasionally. Despite the retro feel…
Soccer Watch
SXSW brings soccer to the big screen with ‘Hooligans’
The Latest Litigation ‘Crisis’
First malpractice, now asbestos – gotta stop those greedy trahl lawyuhs’!
Out There
PROMEDIO ROJOD: Nicolás López; with Ariel Levy, Xenia Tostado, Benajmín Acuña, Nicolás Martínez Narrative Feature Spotlight We could call this suburban teen sex farce “Chilean Pie” – the first jizz joke hits within five minutes – but it bears a closer resemblance to 1982’s The Last American Virgin, right down to the subnormal fat-guy friend…
Ballroom Dancing
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Make this PanelAustin Convention Center, Thursday, March 17 With so much of American music indebted to the integration of black and white culture, critic Dave Marsh’s opening premise that “nobody is off the hook” set the tone for healthy discussions surrounding stereotypes and appropriation. Singer Peggy Scott-Adams illustrated…
SXSW Film Reviews
LA SIERRAD: Scott Dalton, Margarita Martinez Documentary Feature Lone Star States Photojournalists Dalton and Martinez’s stunning documentary embeds us in Medellin, Colombia’s barrio of La Sierra, the battleground of a 40-year paramilitary gang war. Reminiscent of City of God – only real – the young residents profiled in this film speak candidly about their world,…
Album of the Year
RUNNERS-UP: Por Vida: A Tribute to the Songs of Alejandro Escovedo, Various Artists; Impossible Dream, Patty Griffin; Land of Milk and Honey, Eliza Gilkyson; Y.U. So Shady?, Grady; Movimiento Popular, Grupo Fantasma; The Great Battle, Jon Dee Graham; Tucker Livingston, Tucker Livingston; Wishbones, Slaid Cleaves; Blood of the Ram, the Gourds
Best Metal
RUNNERS-UP: Broken Teeth, Dirty Wormz, Lucid Dementia, Pushmonkey, Darling Sinister, The Sword, Human, Distempered, Backlit Revolver
Best Miscellaneous Instrument
RUNNERS-UP: Andrew McKee, recorder; Teye, flamenco guitar; Pops Bayless, ukulele; Danny Roy Young, rubboard; Kym Warner, mandolin; Abhinit Bhatt, tabla; Lynda Millard, flute; Mark Cavage, banjo; Jackson Blacklock, keytar
Best Radio Station
RUNNERS-UP: KUT 90.5FM, KLBJ 93.7FM, KISS 96.7FM, KOOP 91.7FM, KROX 101X FM, MIX 94.7FM, KVRX 91.7FM, KVET 98.1FM, BOB 103.5FM
Ate Days a Week
Sunday, Bloody (Mary) Sunday And, on the seventh day, enjoy music all day long. Whether you prefer a hearty country breakfast in the gospel amen corner or tacos and frosty margaritas to the twang of Texas roots tunes, Austin restaurants have got you covered. Threadgill’s World Headquarters (301 W. Riverside, 472-9304): Located just a stone’s…
SXSW Records
Andrea Echeverri(Nacional) Never mind that Andrea Echeverri clouds hearts in the romance language of her native Bogotá, Colombia. Infinitely more foreign to domestic audiences will be one of the central conceits of Echeverri’s solo debut: becoming a mother made her a better lover, a better partner. No wonder she christened her daughter Milagros (Miracles). Andrea…
SXSW Records
Kasabian(RCA) If Primal Scream hadn’t already staked out the title Sonic Flower Groove for their first LP, Kasabian might’ve called it their own, after nipping the titular flower in its bad, black bud. The Primal’s early, earthy strut is matched here and wrested to the dark side – Jesus and Mary’s Black Rebel Motorcycle Chain,…
Killer Choreography
Ellen Bartel’s blood-spattered new dance ‘Killsport’ mocks our love of the old ultraviolence
Oops!
In last week’s “SOS Takes on Cypress Real Estate Development”[News, March 11], we got the company name wrong. The actual formal name is Cypress Real Estate Advisors. The Chronicle regrets the error.
Beside the Point
Transportation studies, bond committees, and the City Hall cafe
Out There
SOMERSAULTD: Cate Shortland; with Abbie Cornish, Sam Worthington, Lynette Curran, Erik Thomson, Hollie Andrew Narrative Feature Discoveries From Down Under Everyone has already decided what kind of girl Heidi (Cornish) is: Like her mother (Olivia Pigeot), she’s the kind who attaches to men for survival. Heidi leaves home and consorts with a string of losers…
Day Party Crawl
Arthur Magazine PartyChurch of the Friendly Ghost, Thursday, March 17 As the best source of info on all the music that’s loud and weird, Arthur magazine has a responsibility to its readers: to enrage as much as entertain, and to do it in a smart way. To be saviors, so to speak, from shitty mainstream…
Girls Can Tell
Tortillas and Sympathy This morning, after a lot of lollygagging, the better half and I moseyed on down to Las Manitas for what we hoped would be a delicious, leisurely breakfast rife with people-watching. And believe you me, there were plenty of people to be watched. Crammed into a corner table on the patio, we…
SXSW Film Reviews
Our Brand Is CrisisD: Rachel Boynton Documentary Feature Competition The wizard behind the curtain is a bald Southern guy with an almost musical way with words. If the political consulting thing doesn’t pan out, James Carville could always write advertising jingles – in several languages. This documentary by first-time director Boynton proves democracy and capitalism…
Song of the Year
RUNNERS-UP: “Stay,” Wideawake; “Hammer in My Hand,” Grady; “When It Don’t Come Easy,” Patty Griffin; “Not Lonely,” Eliza Gilkyson; “Utility Rock,” Grupo Fantasma; “Texas Blue Moon,” Shelley King; “Top of the Food Chain,” Dirty Wormz; “Come with Me Tonight,” Bob Schneider; “El Cerrito Place,” Charlie Robison
Best None of the Above
RUNNERS-UP: Schrödinger’s Cat, Dreamtrybe, Brobdingnagian Bards, Pieces of East, Hedda Layne, Scorpio Rising, Will Taylor & Strings Attached, Imperial Golden Crown Harmonizers, Pong
Best Songwriter
RUNNERS-UP: Eric Johnson, Bob Schneider, Patty Griffin, John Pointer, Eliza Gilkyson, Shelley King, Slaid Cleaves, Jon Dee Graham, Dale Watson
Best Record Producer
RUNNERS-UP: Sheldon Reynolds for Lucid Dementia, Billy Harvey for Bob Schneider’s I’m Good Now, Charlie Sexton for Jon Dee Graham’s The Great Battle, Lonnie Trevino for Mina Mauldin’s Superpsychoticqueen, Gurf Morlix, Carl Thiel for Robert Rodriguez’ Mexico and Mariachis, Gordie Johnson for Grady’s Y.U.So Shady, Craig Ross for Patty Griffin’s Impossible Dream, Rich Brotherton for…
Food-o-file
SoCo explodes, again; plus, midtown movers and St. Patrick’s Day
SXSW Records
Nedelle From the Lion’s Mouth (Kill Rock Stars) It’s the voice that gets you. While Bay area singer-songwriter Nedelle’s songs are fleeting impressions rather than fully formed statements, her distinctive, disciplined voice pulls you in anyway. Her gift is evoking sweetness without cloying and sadness without bathos. Most of the songs on From the Lion’s…
SXSW Records
The Capitol YearsLet Them Drink (Burn & Shiver) Shai Halperin is a lo-fi kind of guy. In fact, he’s spent the better part of his life in a bedroom with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a four-track. Somewhere along the line he became a Sixties garage rocker, and with his alter ego the Capitol…
Dream Come True
Back home in Texas, Lisa Scheps finally gets her place to play!
Ate Days a Week
How much more food and music can you ask for in this town around this time and after?
Wal-Mart Construction Request Stalled Due to Environmental Concerns
The Environmental Board has shuffled a request for Wal-Mart to the Bull Creek Watershed subcommittee
Out There
AT THE PANELS THE DOCS BOX Saturday, March 12 A wealthy executive complains about his taxes; a documentary filmmaker in flush times frets about getting lost in the crowd. Diana Holtzberg of Films Transit expressed the good news/bad news syndrome: “There are more documentaries on television than every before, more of them are in theatres…
Live Shots
Kathy McCarty/Daniel JohnstonCactus Cafe, Thursday, March 17 The two artists who opened this night at the Cactus Cafe are part of the old, weirder Austin. Much to the delight of the assembled many, they proved why they were loved then and remain that way today. Kathy McCarty claimed she hadn’t been onstage in ages, but…
My SXSW
As I type this, I’m sitting at a picnic table by the lake, and it’s just glorious. After a brief set at the Marriott this afternoon, where I’ll be playing in a conference room for a bunch of Sony BMG people – sure to be a rowdy affair – I fly back to New York.…
SXSW Film Reviews
THE ROOSTD: Ti West; with Tom Noonan, Karl Jacob, Vanessa Horneff, Graham Reznick, West. Narrative Feature ‘Round Midnight “Dos Blokes,” Brian Clark’s one-laugh short film about bulimic zombies, sets the perfect tone for The Roost, a self-deprecating homage to B-movie horror films. The set-up is achingly stereotypical: Halloween night, four friends stranded on a country…
Best Bluegrass
RUNNERS-UP: The Greencards, Grassy Knoll Boys, The Weary Boys, Cooper’s Uncle, The Gourds, The Meat Purveyors, Sarah Jarosz, White Ghost Shivers, Onion Creek Crawdaddies
Best Novelty Band
RUNNERS-UP: John Pointer & Carlos Sosa’s Boombox, Shorty Long, The Jolly Garogers, White Ghost Shivers, Big Mama & the Furballs, Austin Lounge Lizards, Asylum Street Spankers, The Eggmen, Daves Not Here
Best Strings
RUNNERS-UP: Marc Gunn, autoharp; Tosca String Quartet; Warren Hood, violin; Chris Buckley, violin; Omar Lopez, violin; Erik Hokkanen, fiddle; Alvin Crow, fiddle; Danny Levin, mandolin; Eamon McLoughlin, mandolin
Best Record Store
RUNNERS-UP: Cheapo, Sound on Sound, Antone’s Records, Encore Music, Alien Records, Best Buy, Musicmania, Thirty Three Degrees, Piranha Records
Heroes and Villains
Van Dykes Parks: ‘Smile’ and the world smiles with you
SXSW Records
M.I.A.Arular (XL) That precious little village girl gathering water from the stream won’t hesitate for a second in replacing her antiquated wooden pail with an assault rifle. As capitalism attempts to subjugate its remaining tribal outlanders, M.I.A. fires back with the realities of resolute children at war: “Growing up, brewing up, guerilla getting trained, now…
SXSW Records
The EarliesThese Were the Earlies (679 Recordings) God and death are no strangers to art, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be explored with grace, which is exactly what the Earlies do on their epic psych-pop debut These Were the Earlies, quite possibly one of the best new albums … ever. A British collective of…
Za vashe zdorov’ye, Shostakovich!
Fifteen local arts organizations work together to celebrate Shostakovich’s 100th birthday
Ate Days a Week
When the Moon Hits Your Eye …: Italian Frank and Angie’s508 West Ave., 472-3534 Monday-Saturday, 11am-10pm; Sunday, 4-10pm Wednesday night is the night to be at Frank and Angie’s for live music played by Sergey Vashchenko. This self-styled Jimi Hendrix of the balalaika strums an assortment of old-world tunes that make you feel somewhere between…
Why Bush Flip-Flopped on the Issue of Mexican Nationals on Death Row
The Executive Order to review the death penalty cases of Mexican nationals was probably designed to ease upcoming talks
Out There
AT THE PANELS MAKING FUN OF FILMMAKINGSaturday, March 12 Paul Giamatti enters a hotel room, takes out the obligatory Bible and tosses it in the trash can. The scene was cut from critically acclaimed film Sideways, while a shot of the star reading Barely Legal magazine made it in, said Thomas Haden Church. Church garnered…
Live Shots
AberfeldyNuno’s, Thursday, March 17 “So this is the taste of SXSW?” lamented Aberfeldy frontman Riley Briggs, downing a dodgy, bar-gratis Miller Lite. “Hmmm … SXSW tastes like warm piss.” Someone give this man a Shiner Bock before Edinburgh’s finest lovelorn popsters hightail it to the land of Maclays and Belhaven. There’s no better way to…
The Insider
Friday, March 18Who: Shawn Fanning, the man who opened the Pandora’s box of digital music with Napster has resurfaced with SNOCAP, a company legitimizing peer-to-peer file-sharing by offering access to authorized downloads. SNOCAP provides services to Universal Music Group and Sony BMG. Austin Chronicle: For all the progress courts have made in shutting down peer-to-peer…
SXSW Film Reviews
SCRATCH: ALL THE WAY LIVED: Doug Pray Documentary Feature 24 Beats per Second This follow-up to Pray’s 2001 documentary on turntablists – those lunatic DJs who’ve created an art out of the sonic manipulation of the vinyl 12″ – is every bit as entertaining as its predecessor, right down to the enormous “I can’t believe…
Best Blues
RUNNERS-UP: Los Lonely Boys, Eric Johnson, Gary Clark Jr., Grady, Swamp Sauce, W.C. Clark, Carolyn Wonderland, Marcia Ball, Guy Forsyth
Best Pop
RUNNERS-UP: Spoon, Matson Belle, Los Lonely Boys, Cruiserweight, Future Ex-Boyfriend, Bob Schneider, Mina Mauldin, Sarah Sharp, Pivital
Best Acoustic Venue
RUNNERS-UP: Flipnotics, Momos, Saxon Pub, Lucky Lounge, Ruta Maya, Love. on the Lawn, St. David’s Episcopal Church, Artz Rib House, Shady Grove
SXSW Records
Ben LeeAwake Is the New Sleep (New West) Despite the fact that he’s been a working musician since his teens, Ben Lee is still quite young, and in some ways, it shows. The liner notes to this, his sixth full-length, thank the American Taoist Healing Center, are dedicated to an Eastern spiritual leader, and serve…
SXSW Records
THE GO! TEAMThunder, Lightning, Strike (Memphis Industries) Happily steeped in dusty-kneed remix archaeology, the Go! Team connects disparate tendrils of late 20th-century pop culture in a dizzying manner. The key factor delineating them from the vinyl-crate crowd is their proficiency at playing what could’ve just as easily been sampled. As such, the Brighton collective is…
Culture Flash!
The 2005 Texas Medal of Arts Awards have been announced, and the Elisabet Ney Museum snags a Historic Homes grant
Ate Days a Week
Tonight I’m Gonna See My Machez a Mio: Cajun Old Alligator Grill3003 S. Lamar, 444-6117 Sunday-Tuesday, 11am-10pm; Wednesday, 11am-12mid; Thursday-Saturday, 11am-2am The culinary efforts at this South Austin mainstay reflect a definite Louisiana influence, with Cajun and Creole dishes dominating the menu. Weekday lunches of burgers, po’boys, gumbo, and salads give way to happy hour…
SXSW Records
Ed HarcourtStrangers (Astralwerks) Over the years, Ed Harcourt has gone from dreamy-drippy piano songs about love lost to the semisuccessful experimentation of 2003’s From Every Sphere to this, his third effort, which suggests that he’s finally coming into his own, albeit gradually and grudgingly. Strangers opens with a sonic boom in “The Storm Is Coming.”…
Lawmakers Pitch Income Tax, School Finance Reform Plan
Quixotes saddle up their horses
Out There
AT THE PANELS DAN GILLMOR PRESENTS WE THE MEDIA: THE RISE OF GRASSROOTS OPEN SOURCE NEWSSunday, March 13 Although some journalists dismiss bloggers as self-absorbed weirdos who write in their pajamas, award-winning technology journalist Dan Gillmor takes a more progressive view. As reporters, bloggers are changing the new media to the “me” media, among which…
Spotlight: Ian Hunter
How long has it been since Ian Hunter gigged in Austin? “I really don’t know,” puzzles the singer after a hefty pause. “It has to have been with Mott the Hoople.” That would have been some 30 years ago, then, when Mott the Hoople still stalked the rock & roll landscape in high-heeled glam sneakers.…
SXSW Film Reviews
THE SELF-MADE MAND: Susan Stern Documentary Feature Spotlight Bob Stern has an aortal aneurysm, metastatic prostate cancer, and a camcorder. He’s also got a decision to make: whether to proceed with surgery to remove the aneurysm. For his doctors, it’s a low-risk procedure. For 77-year-old Bob, the surgery is the first link in the chain…
Best Country
RUNNERS-UP: Willie Nelson, Heybale!, Kevin Fowler, Cornell Hurd, Asleep at the Wheel, Junior Brown, Shelley King Band, Pat Green, Reckless Kelly
Best Punk
RUNNERS-UP: The Midgetmen, Lucid Dementia, Isola, The Applicators, The Yuppie Pricks, Future Ex-Boyfriends, Opposite Day, The Flametrick Subs, Rubberhed
Best All Ages Venue
RUNNERS-UP: Flipnotics, Stubbs, The Back Room, Antone’s, Ruta Maya, Broken Spoke, Jovita’s, Redrum, The Vibe
After a Fashion
Austin’s friendly neighborhood (not to mention cuddly) Style Avatar, Stephen Moser makes the scene as the scenesters take over Austin! Be sure to catch AAF in each of our SXSW dailies!
Spotlight: Pong
When you’ve been making it on the scene for as long as the guys in Pong have, there’s always the danger of being taken for granted. Formed by veterans of beloved Austin underground institutions Ed Hall, the Pocket FishRmen, and ST 37, Pong was well aware of the need for continuous upward regeneration to avoid…
SXSW Film Reviews
Texas ShortsD: various In a matter of 90 minutes, the Texas Shorts program offers a well-rounded glimpse into the life and times of a modern Austinite. SXSW imports, a viewing would serve you well in acclimating yourself to our world-view. Starting with the inbred social scene of Kent Zambrana’s “Love Math,” in which our protagonist…
2004-05 Austin Music Awards
Austin has run a marathon in the last 23 years. From the Drag to Sixth Street. From hippies to hipsters. From Slackerville to the Live Music Capital of the World. Despite our 21st-century evolutions and our technological reputation, one thing will forever remain as the foundation of our little community. Set in the concrete along…
Spotlight: LCD Soundsystem
James Murphy’s been making music for 20 years, and with the release of LCD Soundsystem’s self-titled LP, he’s created a one-man beat show. And yet, he’s retained a wicked sense of humor 20 years can certainly drain you of. Take “Losing My Edge,” Murphy’s anthem: “I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the…
Luv Doc Recommends: Hunter Darby Presents SXSW Showcase
SXSW runs until Sunday. Seriously. No shit. So if you get rat-assed retarded at the Vanilla Ice showcase on Saturday night thinking that the turd is in the SXSW swimming pool, think again. This soiree’s just getting started. Wird to ya mutha. Not only are there several hundred awesome after-parties you’re not invited to (you…
Day Party Crawl
GuitarTownMother Egan’s, Wednesday, March 16 “Guitartown” is the name of an online discussion group that was originally formed as a way for residents of North Carolina interested in alt.country and other types of roots music to connect. The past few years the group, led by current Austin resident and former Tar Heel Deb Williams, has…
TCB
“I feel like the floor of a taxicab” – Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), GhostbustersA Healthy Plan In an idea whose time has long since come, Seton Health Care Network, St. David’s Hospital, and the SIMS Foundation held a joint press conference Tuesday morning to announce the creation of the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians,…
Day Party Crawl
KVRX Day PartyCream Vintage, Wednesday, March 16 Here’s one statement you wouldn’t expect to hear from a band playing SXSW: “Does anyone have fingerless gloves? We’ll trade you for a record.” The parking lot behind Cream Vintage on Guadalupe was a chilly venue for Wednesday’s day party sponsored by UT student radio station KVRX. Fortunately,…
Day Party Crawl
Indierect Selections Exodus, Wednesday, March 16 There’s something surreal about having a shit-ton of feedback assault your ears at 1pm. The local collective known as Indierect delivered this attack with one thing in mind: “We’re just trying to get local Austin bands together with national bands,” says showcase organizer Daniel Perlaky, who has a half-dozen…
SXSW Film Reviews
THE AGGRESSIVESD: Daniel Peddle; with Marquise, Rjai, Kisha, Octavia, Flo Documentary Feature Special Screenings There’s passing and then there’s passing. In the underbelly of NYC’s über-butch black dyke scene, passing means survival. “Scene” is inaccurate, really, because here, passing is so part of daily life that labels like “butch” and “dyke” or even “tranny” or…
Ballroom Dancing
SXSW Interview: Jacob SlichterAustin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 16 Drummer for Minneapolis trio Semisonic, Jacob Slichter knows a thing or two about rock stardom. Best known for 1998 radio breakthrough “Closing Time,” Semisonic was a flash in the late-Nineties alternative pan. As relived in Slichter’s tell-all book, So You Wanna be a Rock & Roll…
SXSW Film Reviews
COWBOY DEL AMORD: Michèle Ohayon Documentary Feature Competition No one can tame Eros, but it can be corralled, coaxed, and cultivated. That’s what Ivan Thompson, the Cowboy Cupid, believes. With a West Texas twang, gringo Spanish, and a wry sense of humor, this unconventional matchmaker sets up U.S. men with Mexican women, disillusioned with their…
Ballroom Dancing
SXSW Interview: Elvis CostelloAustin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 16 Given his broad catalog, outspokenness, and vast music business experience, an interview with Elvis Costello should be both entertaining and insightful, and MTV exec and author Bill Flanagan seemed like a suitable interlocutor. For the most part things went according to plan, with the former Declan…
Live Shots
Benevento/Russo DuoBlender Bar @ the Ritz, Wednesday, March 16 The Brooklyn-based duo of organist Marco Benevento and drummer Joe Russo has probably been compared to Medeski, Martin & Wood more times than Mick Jagger’s cashed in his paternity insurance. Yet the comparison – a compliment – is apt, as the two groups both fashion instrumental,…
SXSW Film Reviews
DEADROOMD: Yen Tan, James M. Johnston, Nick Prendergast, David Lowery; with Rebecca Bustamente, Paul Taylor, Bill Sebastian, Lydia Miller, Grant James, Kelly Grandjean, Harry Goaz Narrative Feature Lone Star States Deadroom is an ominous title, and from this film’s initial scene, you might assume you’re in for a thriller. The reality is quite the opposite.…
Ballroom Dancing
Crash Course No. 4 – AttorneysAustin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 16 Austin-based attorney Cindi Lazzari draws from more than 20 years of experience representing local artists such as Eric Johnson, Spoon, Davíd Garza, and Kelly Willis. Beginning with the first basic questions that any band should ask itself upon making the move into the business…
SXSW Film Reviews
HIGH SCHOOL RECORDD: Ben Wolfinsohn; with Jenna Thornhill, Dean Spunt, Bobby Sandoval, Jennifer Clavin, Becky Stark, Mike Watt Narrative Feature Spotlight South by Southwest has been a hotbed of documentaries. Teetering on the edge of the mix is this sweet mockumentary of painful, funny high school days. The film’s conceit is that two arty students,…
Ballroom Dancing
Indie Labels Come A-Courtin’Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 16 “If you have a van, you’re light years ahead of everyone else,” said Jeff Price, president of SpinArt Records, an indie label featuring acts like the Pixies and Apples in Stereo. Wednesday afternoon was spent covering the basics of the independent record biz – advising both…
Live Shots
A FramesEmo’s, Wednesday, March 16 As the title of their Sub Pop debut admits, the A Frames are heavy. And dark. And creepy. Black Forest is yet more evidence that robots are stealthily replacing humans, or so singer-guitarist Erin Sullivan would have the masses believe. On Forest, his monotone vox clash with his own dynamic,…
SXSW Film Reviews
Highway CourtesansD: Mystelle Brabbée; with Guddi Chauhan Documentary Feature Emerging Visions The prostitutes of Mystelle Brabbée’s Highway Courtesans hold the audience enchanted with their strong characters and beautiful souls in the face of unfortunate circumstances. Duty to family dictates that the Bachara women of Central India either get married, get an education (rare), or go…
Girls Can Tell
Bright-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed There he was, at the crack of dawn (which, in this biz, is somewhere shy of noon), all smiling and cherubic and waiting for a kick to the calf from an overcaffeinated journalist. One good whack to Ben Dickey’s unsuspecting leg got his attention, and almost got me smacked. It’s kind of…
Live Shots
This Microwave WorldChuggin’ Monkey, Wednesday, March 16 This Microwave World is a fivepiece from Austin, often accused of being New Wave and having great haircuts. Nestled caddy corner at Chuggin’ Monkey’s ground floor, the group of guitar, bass, two synths, and drums consistently exploded into each song with a wall of neat noise. And they…
SXSW Film Reviews
MANA: BEYOND BELIEFD: Peter Friedman, Roger Manley Documentary Feature Spotlight There is no other film like Mana: Beyond Belief at SXSW 05. While this likely elicits a “must see” response, it’s not for everyone. This unconventional documentary will vex viewers demanding a clear narrative drive that explains all and leaves nothing to interpretation. However, the…
My SXSW
This is gonna ramble a bit, and like the great monologist and beat prophet Lord Buckley once said, “Here’s a little wig bubble for ya.” Spring is here and the egg is about to hatch. Is Austin the new Berlin? And I mean the old Berlin when the wall was still up. Back in those…
Live Shots
Evil NineElysium, Wednesday, March 16 British breakbeat jugglers Tom Beaufoy and Pat Pardy of Evil Nine instilled a party atmosphere upon Elysium that harkened back to the Hip Hop City events that once invigorated the dark Red River venue. Manning turntables and a laptop, the Brighton duo layered rolling drum cadences with booming basslines and…
SXSW Film Reviews
OCCUPATION: DREAMLANDD: Garrett Scott and Ian Olds Documentary Feature Emerging Visions This surprisingly candid profile of an eight-man squad from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division is a little raw in spots, but what can you expect? Directors Scott and Olds are being shot at with semi-automatic weapons and RPGs. The film follows the soldiers on…
The Insider
Thursday, March 17WHO: Host of KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, Nic Harcourt is widely regarded as one of America’s most influential deejays. Austin Chronicle: Is radio as bad as we think? Nic Harcourt: Yeah. There’s a couple of things shaking it up a little. And obviously, the most important for me is noncommercial radio. You have…
Live Shots
Susan CowsillCedar Street, Wednesday, March 16 The last time most folks caught Susan Cowsill onstage was with the late and seriously lamented Continental Drifters, a band she fronted with her ex-husband Peter Holsapple along with ex-Bangle Vicki Peterson. With this performance, she crowned herself “a debutante at 45.” Cowsill recently put out her first solo…
SXSW Film Reviews
REEL SHORTS 1D: Various With the exception of “Genius Loci” and “Dream Lover Fondue” – a couple of nightmarish experimental films – this first set of Reel Shorts is an eclectic joy to watch. Both “Mary” and “Keep Right” execute their one joke superbly, the latter employing the subtle comic talents of Ewen Bremner (Trainspotting)…
Spotlight: 22-20s
At what point does a blues-influenced band start or stop being a “blues band”? That’s the existential question plaguing the 22-20s’ Martin Trimble, leader of one of the UK’s most talked about, but perhaps mislabeled, new exports. “There’s early Stones or Yardbirds bluesy-ness in there somewhere,” says the 21-year-old singer and guitarist, “but it’s not…
SXSW Film Reviews
REEL SHORTS 2D: Various A shame “Heavy Mental” ended up in this collection of Reel Shorts, for it is by far the shortest and lowest budgeted. Not to say that Greg Gilpatrick’s short isn’t entertaining (how can convincing telekinesis effects not be?), yet it stands out – perhaps purposefully – compared to the superb longer…
Spotlight: Kaiser Chiefs
It’s easy to forgive Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson the name-drop. Few of us have traded one-liners with Paul McCartney recently. “He walks up to me and says, ‘I like what you’re doing. You have a great little band there.’ I was shocked,” recounts Wilson of the backstage meeting at last month’s NME Awards. “Then…
SXSW Film Reviews
REEKER D: David Payne; with Eric Mabius, Scott Whyte, Tina Illman, Derek Richardson, Devon Gummersall, Arielle Kebbel Narrative Feature ‘Round Midnight You’ve never seen (or smelled, for that matter) anything like Payne’s note-perfect, middle-of-nowhere nightmare, a good thing considering most of us would like to get a decent night’s sleep once in a while. Five…
Spotlight: Martha Wainwright
Many of us grew up in the irritatingly long shadow of an older sibling who was continually at the center of some spectacular achievement to live up to. Imagine, then, how hopeless it must have been to grow up in the shadow of not only a gifted sibling, but celebrated parents as well. Welcome to…
SXSW Film Reviews
Straight LineD: Sean Ackerman; with Ackerman, Shannon Shultz, Monika Franzen, Sam Baker, Chuck Sperry, Joaquin Lizano Narrative Feature Emerging Visions In his first feature film, writer/director Sean Ackerman wears his influences flush on his sleeve. Part Ingmar Bergman philosophical melodrama, part home-movie travelogue, and part Terrence Malick nature rumination, Straight Line maps the quiet emotional…
Spotlight: M.I.A.
Facing practical blackballs in the U.S., Jamaican dancehall kings Beenie Man and Buju Banton must suspect that flimsy citations of incendiary speech and marijuana possession stem from much broader suppressions. Sri Lankan exile Maya Arulpragasam recognizes such cultural embargo as a result of anti-terrorism hysteria. “When you fight terrorism it’s hard to tell terrorists apart…
SXSW Film Reviews
TELL THEM WHO YOU ARED: Mark Wexler Documentary Feature Spotlight Mark Wexler is a commercially successful photojournalist whose credits include a television special about Air Force One. His father, Haskell, on the other hand, is a certified Hollywood hero: star on the boulevard and Academy Awards for his landmark cinematography (including Who’s Afraid of Virginia…
