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SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

How to Die in Oregon 
 Festival Favorites 
 D: Peter D. Richardson 
 The short answer to how people die in Oregon is this: with dignity � dignity and options. As the first state in the U.S. to legalize physician-assisted suicide in 1994, Oregon is the obvious place to study the process by which…

by Marjorie Baumgarten

SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

FUBAR: Balls to the Wall Spotlight Premieres D: Michael Dowse; with David Lawrence, Paul Spence, Tracey Lawrence Terry and Dean live like the world is one big heavy-metal parking lot. In the parlance of Western Canada, they “give’r” or achieve the seemingly impossible through an adherence to the tenets of hard-rock culture that may include…

by James Renovitch

SXSW Film

Happy New Year Narrative Feature Competition D: K. Lorrel Manning; with Michael Cuomo, JD Williams Earnest performances drive this unflinching drama about the war that soldiers bring home. Following several deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Sgt. Cole Lewis (Cuomo) returns Stateside for good after being critically injured. While his obviously debilitating wounds appear to be…

by Belinda Acosta

Day Party Crawl

Fitz & the Tantrums Radio Day Stage, Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 18 Think you’ve had tough gigs? Fitz & the Tantrums took to the stage early afternoon for an audience that was half seated, half sprawled on the floor, and all recovering from St. Patrick’s Day debauchery. Nevertheless, it only took two choruses to…

by Richard Whittaker

Live Shots

Reading Rainbow Antone’s, Friday, March 18 Taking the stage right after the Head & the Heart’s uplifting, full-bodied performance, Philadelphia’s Reading Rainbow faced tall odds before strumming a note. As a packed house became half-packed, the married guitar-and-drum duo unassumingly launched into “We Are Too Young” from their 2009 debut, Mystical Participation. Before the song…

by Greg Beets

My SXSW

Monday I finally fixed the tires on my bike. Living in Central Austin now, I finally have a reason to. Tuesday I rode my bike to the Ghost Room for my first SXSW show. My CD was released in Japan today, and a representative of the label gave me a copy of it. The artwork…

by Sahara Smith

Day Party Crawl

Mexican Institute of Sound Dot Com Day Stage, Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 18 Not content to play to a sparse convention center ballroom of industry folks sitting on their hands, Camilo Lara, charmer and frontman of Mexican Institute of Sound, coaxed everyone to the front of the stage. “Otherwise I feel like I’m at…

by Thomas Fawcett

SXSW Film

Heaven Hell SX Global D: David Calek A portrait of the BDSM community in the Czech Republic, Heaven Hell seeks to demystify the dark erotic arts, showcasing its subjects sexual proclivities – dominating, being dominated, or, rather memorably, dressing like a horse and running an obstacle course – as part of their larger, more mundane…

by Wells Dunbar

Live Shots

The Civil Wars Victorian Room at the Driskill, Friday, March 18 To be clear, Joy Williams and John Paul White aren’t sleeping together, but damn if there won’t be more than a few babies credited to their live shows. The duo opened with “Tip of My Tongue,” Williams caressing the mic stand and swaying to…

by Doug Freeman

Day Party Crawl

Odd Future Scoot Inn, Friday, March 18 By 4pm, the buzz surrounding Odd Future had reached such a frenzy that Scoot Inn’s fence blockade didn’t stand a chance. Seconds after Tyler, the Creator launched the thunderous “Sandwitches,” a line that’d wrapped clear around Fourth Street broke down the doors and bum-rushed damn near everything except…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Film

Medium Cool: 4 (not so) Shorts Shorts Programs D: Various A refuge for shorts north of the 20-minute mark, Medium Cool starts with the Safdie brothers’ “John’s Gone,” a funny, affecting look at a small-time hustler in Brooklyn. Expressively awash in murky blues, it looks like it was filmed on one of John’s dubiously acquired…

by Wells Dunbar

SXSW Film

blacktino Lone Star States D: Aaron Burns; with Austin Marshall, Devyn Ray, Tiger Sheu You will laugh at the same joke three times. It is the sight of a half-Japanese teenager with multiple sclerosis trying to walk. Catching yourself mid-guffaw and realizing that it’s okay is the aim of first-time writer/director Burns, who stitches a…

by Anne Harris

SXSW Film

Wuss Lone Star States D: Clay Liford; with Nate Rubin, Alicia Anthony, Alex Karpovsky, Tony Hale Not every male teacher who takes an interest in a student is a creep. Mitch (Rubin), a single 28-year-old who lands a full-time gig as an English teacher at his old high school, lives with his mom and receives…

by Ashley Moreno

Live Shots

James Hand Saxon Pub, Friday, March 18 In roots music circles, there’s a great deal of talk about authenticity. When it comes to the real deal, then, the conversation should end with James Hand from Tokio, Texas. Also known as “Slim,” he saunters onstage all in white, including his boots and hat, and for the…

by Jim Caligiuri

Live Shots

Texas Battle League Fuze, Friday, March 18 Dredged from the dirty mind of Austin-via-Odessa rap degenerate Dubb Sicks and North Carolina’s Japanese Jesus, Texas Battle League has gone from concrete street cipher to official Festival showcase in just over a year’s time. Most Texas gladiators are talented MCs, but the fact is you could crash…

by Thomas Fawcett

Day Party Crawl

Spin Party Stubb’s, Friday, March 18 Yep, that really was OMD. Or at least a scaled-down version with Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphries. If you were unsure, all you had to do was look around the crowd and see both the average age and the percentage of X chromosomes shoot up appreciably. It was also…

by Michael Bertin

SXSW Film

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey Festival Favorites D: Constance A. Marks; with Elmo, Kevin Clash If you have a kid or were a kid, you know Elmo. The doc Being Elmo introduces audiences to the hand inside the red puppet. Clash was raised in the Baltimore projects worshipping Captain Kangaroo. When Sesame Street premiered in…

by Joe O'Connell

Live Shots

Pustki Malaia, Friday, March 18 Watching Warsaw-based pop-rockers Pustki play to a nearly nonexistent crowd at the vaguely Tiki-esque Malaia felt like attending a lower-tier Polish football match. Those who bothered to show up tended to speak the language and support their visiting team, but the non-Poles in the audience wore contemplative faces, trying to…

by Marc Savlov

SXSW Film

Live at Preservation Hall: A Louisiana Fairytale 24 Beats Per Second D: Danny Clinch It isn’t every world premiere that welcomes its audience with “St. James Infirmary” sprightly delivered by none other than the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and featuring vocalist Jim James of My Morning Jacket on megaphone. That was the Paramount scene Thursday…

by Michael King

SXSW Film

Sound of My Voice Festival Favorites D: Zal Batmanglij; with Brit Marling, Christopher Denham, Nicole Vicius Sound of My Voice is an impressive debut feature, which is directed by Batmanglij and co-written with his star and co-producer Marling. The film creates a palpable vibe of uneasiness and uncertainty and does so with an admirable economy…

by Marjorie Baumgarten

SXSW Film

Reindeer Spotting SX Global D: Joonas Neuvonen If Finnish documentaries are any indication, the Finns are superb ruminators. They spend long winters turning their thoughts inward, examining their lives present and past, and wondering what could have been different if they’d only done this or that. Jani is no different, except this young, likeable man…

by Amy Smith

Live Shots

Erin Ivey & the Finest Kind Flamingo Cantina, Friday, March 18 There was a painful disconnect between the sweet-voiced Erin Ivey of the recently released LP Broken Gold and the affected stage persona on display at the Flamingo Cantina on Friday night. Kicking off her early set with “I Always Leave Part of My Heart…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Film

Incendies Festival Favorites D: Denis Villeneuve; with Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette Imagine your mother dies. Her will states her body be buried naked, face down in an unmarked grave. She instructs you to go to the father you thought was dead in a Middle East homeland which is alien to you. Oh, there’s…

by Joe O'Connell

SXSW Film

Jéz Jerzy (George the Hedgehog) SXFantastic D: Wojtek Wawszczyk, Kuba Tarkowski, Tomek Lesniak; with Borys Szyc, Maria Peszek, Maciej Malenczuk, Sokól, Misiek Koterski The well-meaning slacker Jéz Jerzy (Szyc) passes his hedgehog days chasing skirts, skateboarding, and generally making merry. Unfit for marriage, he and his childhood love, Yola (Peszek), carry on an affair behind…

by Ashley Moreno

Live Shots

Blu/Shad Venue 222, Friday, March 18 Holy crap, Blu. Drink a coffee or something. Have a water. Stop hitting marijuana-related products two or three hours before your set. Whatever happened last night between 9:45 and 10:15 was hardly a show; it was a dribbling, a time warp in which zero hooks were sung, few words…

by Chase Hoffberger

Ballroom Dancing

SXSW Interview: Yoko Ono Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 18 Yoko Ono’s been called many things, but was it Dorothy Parker who said, “I don’t care what they say about me, as long as it isn’t true”? Her son Sean Lennon’s Chimera Music label is what brought her to Austin, and they’ll be reactivating the…

by Audra Schroeder

Live Shots

Japan Nite Elysium, Friday, March 18 When your world comes down, the only thing left to do is dance. Everyone walked into Japan Nite knowing that every performer has seen their home nation crumble. Yet that wasn’t going to slow Zukunasisters, whose jazzy soul revue was enough to get Lalo Schifrin shaking. Like Tina Turner…

by Richard Whittaker

SXSW Film

PressPausePlay Spotlight Premieres D: David Dworsky and Victor Köhler Hand-wringing about the pervasiveness of digital media and how it changes the way our brains work is not the focus of this Swedish documentary. Nor is the death knell of established entertainment-business models by creative upstarts who work outside those models. Instead, the filmmakers sought and…

by Belinda Acosta

Peter Stampfel & the Ether Frolic Mob

One thing’s for sure, Peter Stampfel isn’t your typical 72-year-old. Not only is he active on Facebook, which is where this writer found him, but he’s playing the Festival with a trio of twentysomethings. He describes his band, the Ether Frolic Mob, this way: “[A] collective of about nine people who are never around at…

by Jim Caligiuri

Gay Place

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu! It’s the last SX Fest day and time for GayBi!

by Kate X Messer

SXSW Film

Texas Shorts Shorts Programs D: Various SXSW Film isn’t all about world premieres of Hollywood blockbusters and festival darlings swallowing up awards. Each year, new names, unknowns, up-and-comers, prospects, first-timers, and simple lovers-of-brevity from the great state of Texas get to show the world what can be done with a camera in less than 10…

by Josh Rosenblatt

Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group

Larry Harlow once told me a preposterous tale about being flown to Puerto Rico for a session with the Mars Volta that ultimately became 2005’s Frances the Mute. The legendary Fania Records bandleader and pianist wasn’t told the nature of the recordings – his role within the song or where the piece even began or…

by Austin Powell

Ballroom Dancing

Fun Fun Fun? Thirty Years of Chronicling Austin Music Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 18 Five panelists representing the past, present, and future of Austin’s music journalism (plus a few more in the audience, including the venerable Ed Ward and Bill Bentley) reflected on the past three decades of The Austin Chronicle’s distinctive music coverage.…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Film

Surrogate Valentine Emerging Visions D: Dave Boyle; with Goh Nakamura, Chadd Stoops, Lynn Chen Boy actor meets boy musician, falls in love (with his music), and invites the troubadour to be part of a film project loosely based on the very real world of the touring artist and … a film is born. Cast as…

by Kate X Messer

Ballroom Dancing

Food and Music: One Big Happy Meal Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 18 The relationship between rock music and food has come a long way since Elvis and his fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. While it was no match for Yoko Ono in the room next door, Friday’s decidedly subdued panel left little doubt…

by Greg Beets

Live Shots

Sarah Jaffe Momo’s, Friday, March 18 Sarah Jaffe gone electric? That was the buzz before her SXSW showcase, as if that was some great affront. “I appreciate you letting me play acoustic guitar as a girl among many other girls,” she remarked mid-set, toppling the accusation but picking up bass here and there and adding…

by Audra Schroeder

Ice Cream Man Presents!

Saturday’s Flavor: Papercuts My most-listened-to album last year was Beach House’s Teen Dream. I’m not sure if it was the best album of the year, but I sure loved to listen to it while working on my computer, riding my bike, and driving my ice cream truck around the country. Sneaking in somewhere in my…

by Matt Allen

Ballroom Dancing

Three Drummers Walk Into a Bar … Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 18 With SXSW’s comedy component growing every year, a discussion on the convergence of comedy and music seemed well-timed. The two worlds have been colliding with increasing frequency, not only in popular acts like Lonely Island or Reggie Watts, but also on bills…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Film

Life in a Day Festival Favorites D: Kevin Macdonald; with thousands of people Here’s the first feature-length YouTube work to emerge from Google’s gilded ovipositor. The film is co-produced by Tony and Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald – although maybe “curated and designed” is a better description. YouTube invited everyone in the world…

by W. A. Brenner

Off the Record

South by Southwest turns 25, the Austin Music Awards score a Bubble Puppy coup, and Ted Nugent leaves his hat on

by Austin Powell

SXSW Records

Hot Club Of Cowtown What Makes Bob Holler (Proper American) Isn’t every Hot Club of Cowtown disc a tribute to Bob Wills? In a way, but What Makes Bob Holler also prompts the local trio to these 14 tunes from the King of Western swing’s Tiffany Transcriptions era with extraordinary results. Captured live sans overdubs,…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

Ron Sexsmith Long Player Late Bloomer (Ronboy Rhymes) Ron Sexsmith remains incapable of making a bad album. Unfortunately, he seems equally incapable of achieving a true breakout that will elevate him beyond beloved pop songsmith to wider acclaim. The early millennial tandem of Blue Boy and Cobblestone Runway came close, but the title of the…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

North Mississippi Allstars Keys to the Kingdom (Songs of the South) After the 2009 death of Jim Dickinson, his sons Cody and Luther, who with Chris Chew comprise the North Mississippi Allstars, and some celebrated friends held a wake of sorts in the family’s recording studio, Zebra Ranch. Keys to the Kingdom not only celebrates…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

High Tension Wires Welcome New Machine (Dirtnap) Portland, Ore.’s Dirtanp Records certainly has its eyes upon Texas. These CenTex all-stars – featuring Mike Wiebe of Riverboat Gamblers on vocals, Mark Ryan of Marked Men on guitar, and members of Bad Sports (also just signed to Dirtnap) in the rhythm pit – sound exactly like a…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

96 Minutes Narrative Feature Competition D: Aimee Lagos; with Christian Serratos, Brittany Snow, Evan Ross Undergraduate Lena (Serratos) is having a very bad day. Those don’t seem infrequent in the world of lousy boyfriends, absent parents, daily violence, and classroom angst created by writer/director Lagos in this story of two pairs of young people and…

by Anne Harris

Day Party Crawl

NPR Day Party Parish, Thursday, March 17 When I interviewed Merrill Garbus a few weeks ago, she spoke about image in pop music, and how it’s important to retain ownership as a woman. It was heartening to see three bands in a row that embraced that at NPR’s day show. Garbus confirmed her buzz as…

by Audra Schroeder

Live Shots

Carla Morrison Flamingo Cantina, Thursday, March 17 “I wish I could talk more. I’m just so nervous,” the young singer-songwriter from Tecate, Mexico, admitted midway through her mostly mellow, intoxicating set at Flamingo Cantina. Nervous? You couldn’t tell. There wasn’t one quiver of doubt in her crystalline soprano. Carlos Mauria accompanied her throughout with a…

by Belinda Acosta

My SXSW

7am: The boys all gather by the van to head down to the Four Seasons for a KGSR performance. The sun hasn’t risen, and neither has the drummer, so we wait in the car listening to the radio. I contemplate drafting a “no predawn shows” clause in my rider and then decide against it. When…

by Hayes Carll

SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

Septien Emerging Visions D: Michael Tully, with Robert Longstreet, Onur Tukel, Michael Tully Take The Royal Tenenbaums. Steal their money, education, and clean clothes, and then dump them in rural Tennessee. Meet the Rawlings Brothers. Septien begins when long-lost brother Cornelius (played by director Tully) shambles home after 18 years. After that entrance, Tully has…

by Richard Whittaker

SXSW Records

Nicole Atkins Mondo Amore (Razor & Tie) Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer’s sister in spirit, Nicole Atkins packs a wallop into Mondo Amore, her follow-up to 2007’s more placid Neptune City. The New Jersey-bred singer-guitarist has a church pew voice, which gives opener “Vultures” a sinister edge. Being dropped from her former label, Columbia, and…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Records

Toro Y Moi Underneath the Pine (Carpark) At only 25, Chaz Bundick, otherwise known as Toro Y Moi, has managed to entrance PBR-swilling hipsters with his eclectic electronic pop, not to mention the überkitschy limited-edition Underneath the Pine tote bag and MP3 download card you can buy on Etsy.com. His second full-length is a chillaxed…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

Fitz & the Tantrums Pickin’ Up the Pieces (Dangerbird) Everywhere you turn, there’s another neo-soul band trying to re-create, in some form or fashion, the classic sounds of Motown, Stax, and Philadelphia International artists. One of the best such efforts comes from the City of Angels on this impressive full-length debut, which succeeds in large…

by Jay Trachtenberg

SXSW Records

We Were the States Rasa (Chicken Ranch) Despite floods that left their Nashville recording studio under two feet of water last summer, We Were the States persevered to deliver an imperfect but intriguing follow-up to their auspicious 2008 debut, Believe the Thieves. Standouts on Rasa are songs where the Murfreesboro, Tenn., quintet doubles down on…

by Greg Beets

Buen Provecho!

Taco Xpress 2529 S. Lamar, 444-0261 Monday, 7am-3pm; Tuesday-Friday, 7am-9pm; Saturday, 8am-9pm; Sunday, 9am-2pm www.tacoxpress.com In this day of famous cooks and celebrity chefs, few restaurants are as closely identified with the persona of a noncooking restaurateur as Austin’s Taco Xpress. I mean, seriously, where else but Taco Xpress will you find a gigantic sculpture…

by Virginia B. Wood

SXSW Film

Our Day Will Come Emerging Visions D: Romain Gavras; with Vincent Cassel, Olivier Barthélémy, Justine Lerooy Costa-Gavras’ jittery cinematic deconstructions of international political entities gone haywire are more relevant today than ever before, and Romain Gavras is unmistakably his father’s son. His incendiary long-form video/film for M.I.A.’s “Born Free” was a model of cultural provocation…

by Marc Savlov

SXSW Film

You Instead Spotlight Premieres D: David Mackenzie; with Luke Treadaway, Natalia Tena American electro-pop singer Adam (Treadaway) and grungy riot grrrl Morello (Tena, who plays Tonks in the Harry Potter films) meet cute when, during a parking-lot spat at Scotland’s T in the Park music festival, a mysterious man handcuffs them together for an object…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

Better This World Documentary Feature Competition D: Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega; with Bradley Crowder, David McKay, Brandon Darby, Diana Welch Chronicle readers will know Diana Welch�s 2009 story, �The Informant,� the tale of two young men from Texas � Bradley Crowder and David McKay � convicted on federal charges of possessing…

by Michael King

SXSW Records

Caitlin Cary & Matt Douglas Are the Small Ponds (Last Chance) Caitlin Cary’s at her best when collaborating. The fiddler and vocalist came to prominence as a member of Whiskeytown, the sweet foil to Ryan Adams’ country-punk urges. The Cleveland native’s ensuing work with Tres Chicas and Thad Cockrell brought out her strengths as a…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

Abigail Washburn City of Refuge (Rounder) Other women grab the spotlight in the world of Americana, but no one possesses the courageous vision and songwriting virtuosity of Abigail Washburn. The Nashville-based banjo player’s City of Refuge is another jump forward after her work with the Sparrow Quartet, which featured Béla Fleck and Ben Sollee. This…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

Lucinda Williams Blessed (Lost Highway) Some of the six years between Lucinda Williams’ twin catalog pillars, 1992’s Sweet Old World and 1998’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, could have been spared to pad out the intermission between Blessed and its predecessor, 2008’s Little Honey. In the aftermath of Car Wheels, Williams rambled for a…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

Liz Phair Funstyle (Rocket Science Ventures) Chicago’s pottymouthed girl has come a long way since her Exile in Guyville, and she’s lost acolytes on the road. She may not find them falling into line with this formerly Web-only release and its gleefully helter-skelter barrage of bhangra, blues, and bile toward the music industry. The old…

by Richard Whittaker

Buen Provecho!

Curra’s Grill 614 E. Oltorf, 444-0012 Sunday-Thursday, 7am-10pm; Friday-Saturday, 7am-11pm www.currasgrill.com As much as it’s a beat-up neighborhood dive, Curra’s Grill fairly staggers under the weight of all the critical awards it has received. Consistently listed among the best restaurants in Texas in Texas Monthly, and voted “Best Cup o’ Joe on a Sunday Morning”…

by Kate Thornberry

SXSW Film

A Matter of Taste Documentary Feature Competition D: Sally Rowe; with Paul Liebrandt, Frank Bruni As documentaries go, this one doesn’t bear much in the way of dramatic tension as it follows visionary chef Paul Liebrandt on his search for the right culinary context in which to realize his considerable potential. In fact, situating former…

by Melanie Haupt

Men Without Hats

Men Without Hats, which rocketed to fame via Top 10 U.S./UK hit “The Safety Dance” in 1982, kick off their You Can Dance If You Want Tour at SXSW. In these cyber-spatial times, mere anachronism’s been loosed upon the world and everything’s got currency for someone, so who’s to say what’s new anymore? We spoke…

by W. A. Brenner and Memory Harker

SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

Spotlight Premieres D: Anne Buford You don’t have to love basketball to appreciate this remarkable story of four towering West African boys with big hearts and big dreams of joining the NBA. At the SEEDS Academy (Sports for Education and Economic Development) in Thies, Senegal, the four teens � Assane, Aziz, Byago, and Dethie �…

by Amy Smith

SXSW Records

Ólöf Arnalds Innundir Skinni (One Little Indian) Experiencing Innundir Skinni stripped to an acoustic essence at SXSW 2010 undercuts its studio exponent. The Icelandic folk singer, in possession of a sweetly delicate voice infused with whimsy, took four years to follow up her 2006 debut, Við Og Við, and here seems infinitely aware of her…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

G-Side The One … Cohesive G-Side’s self-proclaimed place as outcasts in the Southern rap world carries some weight. Aside from the Alabama duo’s inherent likeness to that balmy, midsummered ATLiens-era OutKast, G-Side operates on a more conscious tip than much of its modern Southern brethren. As lyricists, Clova and ST 2 Lettaz are both hyperaware…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Records

Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears Scandalous (Lost Highway) The odds against Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears making lightning strike twice were phenomenal. After all, 2009’s hugely popular Lost Highway debut, Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is!, sucker punched anyone in earshot, leaving blues-rock welts and a big, purple R&B bruise. Hurts so good.…

by Margaret Moser

SXSW Records

Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion Bright Examples (Ninth Street Opus) Six years have passed since Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johhny Irion had a proper duo album, so it makes sense that there’s been some changes. Bright Examples doesn’t explode their folk background so much as push it to the side in favor of a…

by Jim Caligiuri

Buen Provecho!

Sustainable Food Center Downtown Farmers’ Market Fourth and Guadalupe Saturdays, 9am-1pm www.sfcfarmersmarket.org Whenever out-of-town guests ask me for recommendations about Mexican breakfasts in Austin, I invariably direct them to the Satur­day morning Downtown Farmers’ Market, which serves up some of the best Mexican breakfast treats in town. Located on Fourth between Guadalupe and San Antonio…

by Rachel Feit

SXSW Film

Detention Spotlight Premieres D: Joseph Kahn; with Josh Hutcherson, Dane Cook, Shanley Caswell, Spencer Locke During one of Detention’s many rapid-fire teen-speak exchanges, the heroine claims she doesn’t “speak fanboy” – but the movie she’s in is fluent in it. This slasher comedy replicates the operatic, overstimulated whirlwind that is contemporary adolescence with both barbed…

by Cindy Widner

Live Shots

Schmillion Cedar Street Courtyard, Thursday, March 17 It’s hard not getting a little teary-eyed seeing Schmillion play a few slots ahead of the Bangles. The local quintet, which formed at Girls Rock Camp Austin a few years ago, is edging out of their teens, and has quickly become a group that can’t just be labeled…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

Upside Down: The Creation Records Story 24 Beats Per Second D: Danny O’Connor Creation Records in the Eighties and Nineties was the place to be. Operating out of a scuzzy office in a dodgy London neighborhood, the label introduced to the world what seems like every great British indie-rock band not from Manchester, including noise-rock…

by Josh Rosenblatt

SXSW Records

James Blake (R&S) Nine months before James Blake’s eponymous release came out, the then-21-year-old British producer dropped “CMYK,” a pulsating banger that repurposed dubstep with a clever sampling of Aaliyah’s “Are You That Somebody?.” Thus was forged a new subgenre of dubstep, with Blake almost saving its predecessor from mainstream blah-dom in the process. His…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Records

The Civil Wars Barton Hollow (Sensibility) Proof that Grey’s Anatomy still retains the relevance to launch musical careers, the Civil Wars display some moments of real promise, though not enough to warrant the crush of attention paid their debut, Barton Hollow. Melding the California trill of Joy Williams with the Alabama tremble of John Paul…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

Carrie Elkin Call It My Garden (Red House) Carrie Elkin revels in being a folkie, and that’s what makes her fourth disc, Call It My Garden, such a bracing listen. Reminiscent of the winsome beauty created by a young Nanci Griffith, the local singer-songwriter creates a space that’s ragged, lively, and warm, with production assistance…

by Jim Caligiuri

Buen Provecho!

La Feria 2010 S. Lamar, 326-8301 Monday-Friday, 11am-10pm; Saturday-Sunday, 9am-10pm; Breakfast, Saturday & Sunday only, 9am-3pm www.laferiaaustin.com La Feria is a Mexican restaurant sprawled out on the southwest corner of Lamar and Hether streets (or Mary Street if you’re coming from the east), with a covered patio on the north side. This patio is the…

by Mick Vann

Event Menu

� Enjoy SXZT – a reception with live music, local spirits, brewed teas, and food from Ararat and Hail Merry at the Zhi Tea Gallery (4607 Bolm Rd., www.zhitea.com). A $3 donation benefits the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians. Thursday, March 17, 4-8pm. � The 10 wineries on the Fredericksburg Wine Road 290 trail invite…

by Virginia B. Wood

Day Party Crawl

Emmylou Harris/Josh Ritter Radio Day Stage, Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 17 Hosted by Rita Houston and broadcast live in New York City, the WFUV showcase saw Emmylou Harris as her typically captivating self as she previewed two tunes from her upcoming album, Hard Bargain. First the songbird performed “The Road,” a song about her…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Film

Last Days Here Documentary Feature Competition D: Don Argott, Demian Fenton Bobby Liebling, the 60-year-old vocalist of a once-promising, now-forgotten heavy metal band called Pentagram, is wasting away in his parents’ basement in suburban Maryland, lost in a decades-long haze of heroin, crack cocaine, wasted potential, and self-loathing. Meanwhile, in the real world, Sean “Pellet”…

by Josh Rosenblatt

SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

Buck Festival Favorites D: Cindy Meehl Buck Brannaman, the focus of this documentary, is the living prototype of the man Robert Redford first revealed to us as the Horse Whisperer. Although he is certainly a legend, this new film shows that Brannaman is a common-sense cowboy and certainly no sort of hypnotist, voodoo practitioner, or…

by Marjorie Baumgarten

SXSW Wednesday Interviews

All showcases subject to change Dikes of Holland 9pm, B.D. Riley’s Trey Reimer sums up the feral appeal of Dikes of Holland in just one word. “It’s pretty much madness,” he says from the band’s South Austin headquarters. “It’s loud and fast and something that you can bang your head to. It’s definitely something that…

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

All Tiny Creatures Harbors (Hometapes) True to Brian Eno’s vision for ambient music, the full-length debut from Wisconsin’s All Tiny Creatures has far-reaching utility. The quartet’s prog-tronic bliss could also add new intrigue to being on hold or watching your local forecast on the Weather Channel. The playful guitar/synthesizer interplay and driving beat of “Holography”…

by Greg Beets

SXSW Records

Wye Oak Civilian (Merge) At a time when every beachcomber with a four-track keeps rewriting the same pop song, Wye Oak offers a distinct and refreshing change of pace. The Baltimore duo, guitarist/vocalist Jenn Wasner and multi-instrumentalist Andy Stack, approaches albums with little thought to whether they can pull it off live, layering at times…

by Austin Powell

SXSW Records

Kurt Vile Smoke Ring for My Halo (Matador) With last year’s Square Shells EP, Kurt Vile raised already high expectations for his follow-up to 2009’s Childish Prodigy, and the lo-fi Philadelphia songwriter’s fourth album continues apace. Vile refuses to sit in a single sonic mold, but Smoke Ring is more striking for its permeating sense…

by Doug Freeman

Buen Provecho!

Juan in a Million 2300 E. Cesar Chavez, 472-3872 Daily, 7am-3pm www.juaninamillion.com East Austin entrepreneur Juan Meza is an old-style restaurant owner and neighborhood leader from the same mold as Rudy “Cisco” Cisneros of Cisco’s Restaurant and Jorge Guerra, co-founder of El Azteca. Meza has expanded his corner eatery over the past 30 years, developing…

by Virginia B. Wood

SXSW Film

Caught Inside Emerging Visions D: Adam Blaiklock; with Ben Oxenbould, Daisy Betts, Sam Lyndon The rules of the sea are almost superstition. So when the captain of the yacht The Hedonist tells his vacationing Australian passengers that his sole law is “Don’t be that dick head,” something fearful will follow its breach. When self-indulgent surfer…

by Richard Whittaker

Live Shots

G-Side Beauty Bar, Thursday, March 17 No amount of hustle or flow could have saved this Alabama duo from a malfunctioning microphone that turned every spat bar of country-fried soul into a nasally flatline doing nothing to help bottoms drop. Not that Yung Clova and ST 2 Lettaz lacked for effort. They were just the…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Records

Amplified Heat On the Hunt (Gonzolandia) Los Lonely Boys Rockpango (Playing in Traffic) Three brothers, two sets: Texas Latinate in triplicate. Amplified Heat’s third LP, On the Hunt, shotguns the culmination of the little ol’ local trio’s decade of dues. Houston natives of Colombian decent, Jim (guitar), Chris (drums), and Gian Ortiz (bass) bleed the…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

Chikita Violenta Tre3s (Arts & Crafts) Don’t let the girlish harmonies airing Tre3s opener “Roni” blow any sunshine under your prom dress. Mexican quartet Chikita Violenta hand claps a tight cell of indie rock scientists, its gang vox consistent with use here of Broken Social Scene knobist David Newfeld, who also produced these muchachos’ 2007…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

Ancient Astronauts Into Bass and Time (ESL Music) Cologne, Germany’s Kabanjak and Dogu – Ancient Astronauts – craft lush soundscapes where galaxy-trotting space aliens beatbox atop Mayan temples. Their futuristic world is brooding, bass-heavy, and under the influence of Deltron 3030. While the production travels spaceways, a collection of guest MCs remains grounded and supremely…

by Thomas Fawcett

SXSW Records

Middle Brother (Partisan) Debuting at last year’s SXSW as MG&V, Middle Brother is basically a mini Monsters of Folk behind Deer Tick’s John McCauley, Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith, and Delta Spirit’s Matthew Vasquez. While all three songwriters shine, the most compelling aspect of these recordings lies in the effectiveness of the shading that each adds to…

by Doug Freeman

Buen Provecho!

Polvos 2004 S. First, 441-5446 Daily, 7am-11pm www.polvosaustin.com Located on the southwest corner of South First and Johanna streets, the spot was first Jalapeño Charlie’s and then Seis Salsas before Polvos got it. A polvo is a dust devil, and also slang for a “quickie.” It has an outdoor patio where the music is usually…

by Mick Vann

Headlines

� If you were wondering about the sudden uptick in traffic in and around Downtown, SXSW kicked off March 11, and rocks along through March 20. � City Council is off on spring break this week, and in the meantime a slew of council candidates (including a former council member and a former assistant city…

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film

The FP SXFantastic D: Jason Trost and Brandon Trost; with Jason Trost, Lee Valmassy, Caitlyn Folley, Art Hsu If Mr. Miyagi locked the Karate Kid in a cellar with a battered VHS copy of Kickboxer for thrills, Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” for style tips, and a catering pack of Pixy Stix for lunch, he’d make…

by Richard Whittaker

SXSW Records

Agalloch Marrow of the Spirit (Profound Lore) Deft arc of progressive folk into black metal, but where the Finnish tar it together with thrash, Portland, Ore., fourpiece Agalloch practices psychedelic post-rock doom. “The Watcher’s Monolith” wraps John Haughm’s dead rasp in a root-canal riff, while the atmospheric “Black Lake Ni∂stång” hits a luminous patch of…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

The Baseball Project Volume 2: High and Inside (Yep Roc) If pitchers and catchers reporting signals spring to you more than a groundhog, if opinions on the designated hitter have severed friendships, or if your record collection includes Terry Cashman, then it’s likely the Baseball Project is your band. The sophomore LP from Steve Wynn,…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

Ringo Deathstarr Colour Trip (Sonic Unyon) Even if the first notes – and, well, most of Colour Trip – sound awfully derivative of British bands from the late 1980s, this Austin trio glitzes it up royally on its full-length bow, especially compared to its 2007 debut EP. Now, singer/guitarist Elliott Frazier is joined by bassist…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Records

Ha Ha Tonka Death of a Decade (Bloodshot) Named after Ha Ha Tonka State Park, located near their Missouri home base, this quartet reflects life in the Ozarks with a modern twist. Its first two discs were energetic and organic, a breed of indie rock with rootsy underpinnings that’s come to public fruition lately with…

by Jim Caligiuri

Buen Provecho!

El Sol y La Luna 600 E. Sixth, 444-7770 Tuesday-Thursday, 10am-10pm; Friday-Saturday, 9am-1am; Sunday, 9am-4pm www.elsolylalunaaustin.com From its humble beginnings on South Con­gress to its fancier new home on Sixth Street, El Sol y La Luna has been a favorite of both locals and visitors alike for the past 15 years. Fans of its fresh…

by Claudia Alarcón

Oops!

Clarification: Last week’s “Point Austin” (“Expiation Day,” March 11) identified Debbie Russell as associated with the ACLU, based on her then-posted online bio as a board member of Better Austin Today. ACLU of Texas Public Education Director Dotty Griffith has since informed us: “Debbie does not speak for the ACLU or the ACLU of Texas.…

by Chronicle Staff

Ballroom Dancing

SXSW Keynote: Bob Geldof Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 17 Like an angry old professor exhorting his young charges to wake up and smell the (in)action, Bob Geldof delivered a passionate discourse on the death of rock & roll Thursday morning. Toggling between memoir and polemic, the Boomtown Rat-turned-humanitarian wondered aloud whether rock music would…

by Greg Beets

Day Party Crawl

Pitchfork Day Party East Side Drive-In, Thursday, March 17 Maybe somebody at Pitchfork could use a pricing lesson in signaling. They charge $100 for a couple of days of this in the summer, and it sells out in 24 hours. They give people a scaled-down version of the same for an afternoon in the spring,…

by Michael Bertin

Ballroom Dancing

Flying the Indie Flag Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 18 With the music business landscape’s rapid changes, the concept of an indie label has also changed. The record labels represented on this panel moderated by Hits Magazine’s Karen Glauber are certainly independent in style and have undoubtedly been successful on their own terms. Yet the…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

Queens of the Stone Age (Ipecac Recordings) Post-Kyuss, Josh Homme took the desert mystics’ pet moniker and jumped Krautrock’s percussion to the guitar, all but looping his oil derrick riffs. “Regular John” anticipates “Feel Good Hit of the Summer” from this 1998 debut’s successor, Rated R, also reissued last year. Drone (“You Would Know”) to…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

Sims Bad Time Zoo (Doomtree) Like P.O.S, who spits as cold as a Minnesota winter on the triumphant “Too Much,” Sims is a perfect brawler for the Doomtree family. He’s brash, flexes a lightning-quick delivery, and rages just enough punk to keep the album dirty. They also share a similar voice: a raspy, cigarette-laden huff…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Records

Esben & the Witch Violet Cries (Matador) Now that the XX has splintered, eyes are on this British trio to take up the mantle of spookiest kids. The group even nabbed the same producer as the XX for its debut, replicating the witchy stretches of epic electro-psych. There’s a little bit of early Siouxsie Sioux…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Records

Bright Eyes The People’s Key (Saddle Creek) Conor Oberst has suggested that Bright Eyes’ seventh album, the first under the moniker since 2007’s Cassadaga, will be the last as his most famous incarnation. It would be a shame to go out on such a disappointing note. Even those willing to follow Oberst’s recent spiritual wanderings…

by Doug Freeman

Buen Provecho!

Sazón 1816 S. Lamar, 326-4395 Monday-Friday, 9:30am-10pm; Saturday, 8am-10pm; Sunday, 9am-7pm www.sazonaustin.com This should be a must on your list of Aus­tin’s best Interior Mexican outposts. Afford­able prices, friendly service, and unique menu items are some of the reasons we love it, and tasty breakfast served all day, every day seals the deal. Aside from…

by Claudia Alarcón

Ballroom Dancing

SXSW Interview: Duran Duran Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 17 Fresh off a barnstorming Wednesday night performance that had passersby dancing in the street outside Stubb’s at 1am, Duran Duran took the stage for a late-afternoon conversation with former MTV VJ John Norris (an ingenious stroke of programming, that). Norris remarked that the evening’s set…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Film

Otis Under Sky Lone Star States D: Anlo Sepulveda; Anis Mojgani, Roberta Colindrez, Tony Jackson, Jacqueline Leal, Ruth Sepulveda With nary a budget and less of a script, director Sepulveda, like his main character, Otis, spins magical realism out of what’s at hand – in this case, an electric, verdant Austin summer and the elegant…

by Kate X Messer

Live Shots

Band of Heathens Antone’s, Thursday, March 17 They may have been the opening act for the Americana Music Association showcase, but the Band of Heathens set the bar pretty high for any act to follow. Concen-trating solely on their just released Top Hat Crown & the Clapmaster’s Son, the local quintet sprawled several genres while…

by Jim Caligiuri

Limitless

As cautionary tales go, this is an entertaining take on finding your muse through chemical means.

by Marc Savlov

SXSW Records

Cough Ritual Abuse (Relapse) Death rattle magna cum laude, Cough pulverizes doom-crawls through black holes of distortion and fundamental frequencies of the down-tuned. Lost planet landscaping (“Crippled Wizard”) and glacial manifest destiny (“Crooked Spine”), with black metal and high priest vox, smash atoms on 12 minutes of “A Year in Suffering.” These Richmond, Va., stone…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

Beans End It All (Anticon) Though he’ll rock a tight staccato flow at the drop of a hat, Beans’ bread and butter comes when the New York abstract rapper abandons all regard for standard rhythmic patterns and unleashes 13 words where seven would usually fit. Such outbursts come with deft frequency on Beans’ Anticon debut,…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Records Sub Pop

J Mascis Several Shades of Why (Sub Pop) Obits Moody, Standard and Poor (Sub Pop) Dum Dum Girls He Gets Me High (Sub Pop) In embracing the ragged, early-1970s acoustic eclecticism of Crosby, Stills, Nash and/or Young, Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis turns a corner few could’ve predicted in 1987. Several Shades of Why is a…

by Greg Beets

Mexican Breakfast 101

Here are some of the most popular items to be found on a Mexican breakfast menu. Each restaurant may have its own version, but these are the basics. Breakfast tacos: Arguably Austin’s most popular option for a quick and cheap breakfast, these are usually flour tortillas filled with a variety of ingredients, most likely scrambled…

by Claudia Alarcón

Ballroom Dancing

Your Financial Advisor Is Duff McKagan Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 17 “Lawyers have made a lot more out of G’N’R than anyone in the band has.” That’s the financial reality of Guns n’ Roses, the band that founding member Duff McKagan called “a multimillion-dollar company with five knucklehead principles.” Even though the original lineup…

by Richard Whittaker

SXSW Film

Cave of Forgotten Dreams Festival Favorites D: Werner Herzog Werner Herzog, the poet laureate of extremity, has returned with another lighthearted romp about the inevitability of obsolescence and the strange beauty of human struggle. Picking up where Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World left off, Cave of Forgotten Dreams takes us…

by Marc Savlov

Live Shots

Devotchka Lustre Pearl, Thursday, March 17 Tonight’s set was all about the party, a wise choice on the band’s part given that the packed crowd was fully marinated in green beer by the time 10pm rolled around. Kicking things off with “Head Honcho,” from 2008’s A Mad & Faithful Telling, the Denver group said little,…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

Crowbar Sever the Wicked Hand (eOne Music) “I live by my mistakes,” exhorts Kirk Windstein on “Isolation (Desperation),” opening dirge on this NOLA quartet’s ninth blunt-force trauma. Thrashing title track, Layne Staley bog vox and quicksand melodies (“Let Me Mourn”), plus Sad Wings of Destiny guitar harmonies on “As I Become One” peak on piano…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

Statik Selektah & Termanology 1982 (Brisk) The East Coast’s coldest rappers flocked to Statik Selektah’s crisp production after 2008’s Stick 2 the Script, but the Lawrence, Mass., native found a partner in Termanology, a sly, dexterous Lawrence rapper who’s long shown promise but never had the proper platform to pop. On 1982, the duo flies…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Records

IMAKEMADBEATS (Doxside Music Group) IMAKEMADBEATS’ self-titled debut is proof you can’t judge a book by its cover. Strapped with one of the all-time most inexplicable handles (IMMB also goes by NeMo), IMMB orchestrates a who’s who of post-backpack rap, reeling in a whopping 32 featured rappers and singers, including Black Milk (brandishing Detroit oomph on…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Records

Chico Trujillo Chico de Oro (Barbès) On the kitschy cover of Chico Trujillo’s Chico de Oro, a suave Latin lover covered with ladies’ lipstick flees a burning room clutching his guitar, a glass of wine, and a turquoise brassiere. It’s a cheeky nod to the 1940s and 1950s, the golden age of cumbia. Chico Trujillo…

by Thomas Fawcett

Ballroom Dancing

SXSW Interview: Chamillionaire Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 17 The last thing Chamillionaire did before sitting down for his interview was check his iPhone. “I can’t live without my iPhone,” the Houstonian said later in the hour. “If I was to leave home without my wallet and my iPhone, and I could only go back…

by Chase Hoffberger

Live Shots

The Strokes Auditorium Shores, Thursday, March 17 Playing to a large, green-garbed crowd at sunset, the Strokes hit the stage 15 fashionable minutes late with “What Ever Happened?” from 2003’s Room on Fire. Even accounting for the inevitable festival sound getting lost in the wind, the stoic NYC quintet sounded thin and uneven early on.…

by Greg Beets

Live Shots

Capsula Nuvola, Thursday, March 17 Gonna take a pretty educated guess here and say that Capsula frontman Martin Guevara wore out the grooves in at least two Stooges records. And somewhere during that time, he decided that if he couldn’t underweigh Iggy Pop (and he’s clearly trying) then he could out rock him (also trying…

by Michael Bertin

SXSW Records

Suplecs Mad Oak Redoux (Small Stone) Surviving the near-death experience of Hurricane Katrina, Crescent City’s Suplecs vent swamp-metal spleen on the trio’s fourth LP, mainstays Danny Nick and Durel Yates indicting a corrupt and bulbous “FEMA Man” (“FEMA man turns his back on me, well, I guess that’s expected. I just thank the good lord…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

The Cave Singers No Witch (Jagjaguwar) Huddling together former members of the erstwhile Pretty Girls Make Graves, Seattle’s Cave Singers have fashioned a deeply masculine disc in No Witch, the trio’s third LP and first for Jagjaguwar. “Gifts and the Raft” and its successor “Swim Club” push off from terra firma with acoustic guitars and…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

Caitlin Rose Own Side Now (Theory 8) Caitlin Rose is from the side of Nashville, Tenn., that gave us Lambchop and Paul Burch & the WPA Ballclub – the side where the roots of country music are still treasured and utilized as a jumping-off point to address these restless times. While not quite as literary-minded,…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

Candy Claws Hidden Lands (Twosyllable) This Fort Collins, Colo., octet deliberately daubs each blob of sound onto its canvas, even though the image is gauzy at best. Hidden Lands has a dreamlike quality, with vocals a couple of layers removed from the instrumentation, each song containing a sample from another song on the album. Watery…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Film

Kumaré Documentary Feature Competition D: Vikram Gandhi; with Purva Bedi, Kristen Calgaro I wasn’t surprised to learn that Kumaré producer Stephen Feder worked on Brüno. The comparisons to Sacha Baron Cohen’s oeuvre are clear – a fake character tries his best to make rubes of foolish Americans. In this case, filmmaker Gandhi grows out his…

by Joe O'Connell

Live Shots

Datarock The Parish, Thursday, March 17 Anyone remember Haircut 100? Sure, the irritating Rick Astley-ness of Nick Heyward’s post-coiffure output was very much two up, two down, but “Love Plus One”? Classic. Norwegian quartet Datarock haven’t forgotten the sheer, dumb, wonderful fun of not taking yourself too seriously. And thus they owned the Parish crowd…

by Marc Savlov

In Print

West of Here by Jonathan Evison Algonquin Books, 496 pp., $24.95 Where has Walt Whitman’s America gone? What happened to the days when an unworked plot of land and a strong back could give a man purpose, respect, and possibly his name on a landmark? Evison’s latest novel hops between the trunks of family trees…

by James Renovitch

SXSW Records

Josh T. Pearson Last of the Country Gentlemen (Mute) In 2001, Denton’s Lift to Experience took off overseas with its debut double LP, The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads, a Lone Star classic of Pentecostal space rock that netted three John Peel sessions in less than six months. Frontman Josh T. Pearson spent the next decade culling his…

by Austin Powell

SXSW Records

Warbeast Krush the Enemy (Housecore) Philip Anselmo went hardcore when he lit the fuse on Arson Anthem, so he’s transplanted his metal brain into the mixing desk. Lucky for Dallas-Fort Worth 1980s all-stars Warbeast that the producer still loves his thrash, as their opening volley could be torn out of a Metal Blade catalog circa…

by Richard Whittaker

SXSW Records

Jessica Lea Mayfield Tell Me (Polymer Sounds/Nonesuch) Jessica Lea Mayfield’s second disc, and first for a big label, runs halfway between the stark grit of the Black Keys and synth-fueled girly pop. With a voice that’s slightly languid and with songs conveying the 21-year-old’s devilish view of relationships, Mayfield recalls a young Lucinda Williams, although…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

The High Dials Anthems for Doomed Youth (Rainbow Quartz) You know you’re graying when the youth-in-hindsight pop songs you grew up with start sounding eerily familiar rather than merrily melodic. So it is with Anthems for Doomed Youth and its 2011-by-way-of-1967 as reimagined in 1985 musical outlook. The High Dials’ melancholic psych-pop provides a particularly…

by Greg Beets

SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop Headliners D: Rodman Flender Conan O’Brien’s Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour took place in the months following his not-so-funny exit from The Tonight Show and is the subject of this wildly entertaining, behind-the-scenes look at the tour’s genesis and creation. Director Flender’s long relationship with O’Brien (they were…

by Belinda Acosta

Naked City

Got Wheels This Weekend? Planning to use Car2Go during the last weekend of South by Southwest? You may want to have a back-up plan. Car2Go Austin replaces its entire 200-car fleet – while expanding it to 300 custom-made Smart cars – between midnight on Friday (March 18) and 5pm on Sunday (March 20). “During this…

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film

A Bag of Hammers Spotlight Premieres D: Brian Crano; with Jason Ritter, Jake Sandvig, Rebecca Hall, Chandler Canterbury First-time director Crano, co-writing with actor Sandvig, brings us a murky comedy with snappy dialogue between Sandvig as Alan and Ritter as Ben, childhood buddies turned semiadult scammers. Faced with an already tough, orphaned neighborhood boy (played…

by Anne Harris

Live Shots

Gabriel Prokofiev Karma Lounge, Thursday, March 17 Gabriel Prokofiev’s is an existential problem. It’s difficult to watch the 35-year-old British composer, producer, remixer, and founder of the Nonclassical scene without returning to the fundamental proposition of what a DJ set should be. Prokofiev inspires such musings, less from his lineage as grandson of Russian composer…

by Doug Freeman

Live Shots

Literature Easy Tiger Patio, Friday, March 18 You could spend a good chunk of time trying to pin down with any precision a solid comparison for Austin garage fourpiece Literature. It’s punkish, but still with enough melody that it never feels out of control. It’s Mission of Burma meets the Buzzcocks and they’ve had drunken…

by Michael Bertin

Old Soul

Bill Maddox died violently under bizarre circumstances – and left a legacy of music, love, and friendship

by Jordan Smith

SXSW Records

DeVotchKa 100 Lovers (Anti-) Maybe it’s mojo, maybe it’s maturity, maybe there’s something in the mile-high air in Denver, but Devotchka has harnessed a spectrum of emotions and attitudes in each of its albums, from nostalgia and longing to mischief. This has never been more true than with 100 Lovers, the indie-gypsy-mariachi-fusion quartet’s sixth full-length.…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

The Band of Heathens Top Hat Crown & the Clapmaster’s Son (BOH) The watercolor cover art of the Band of Heathens’ latest album pools into a pill-popping fantasia that looks like a Carney-era Leon Russell wet dream. And rightfully so, as Clapmaster finds the local song collective having shed most traces of its folky timidity…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit Here We Rest (Lightning Rod) Jason Isbell spent a good deal of 2010 at home in northern Alabama, and Here We Rest reflects that in its stories of the folks of Muscle Shoals and Florence affected by the economic downturn. The guitarist’s always been good at such character studies,…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

Fergus & Geronimo Unlearn (Hardly Art) From scene-sucker report (“Wanna Know What I Would Do?”) to closing title track, this Denton, Texas-bred duo is heavy on ideas and opinions – right down to its actual CD, which questions why you still buy CDs. Pranksters Andrew Savage and Jason Kelly pull out threads of the sweater…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

Dragonslayer Documentary Feature Competition D: Tristan Patterson There are parts of Dragonslayer that look like Laguna Beach and others that look like Gummo. Either way, it’s a looker. One would have thought the well of Southern California skateboard culture as film subject to be long-dry by now, but Patterson’s debut documentary makes room in the…

by Cindy Widner

Live Shots

Bob Geldof ACL Live at the Moody Theater, Thursday, March 17 It’s been three decades, give or take, since Bob Geldof was last in Austin. It only took an invite from SXSW to get him back here. “Good on them,” grinned this year’s keynote speaker before firing into “Systematic 6 Pack.” So what if the…

by Richard Whittaker

Live Shots

Sounds from Colombia Speakeasy, Thursday, March 17 If you’re going to stand onstage behind a laptop and mixing board, take a cue from Colombia production duo De Juepuchas. The Bogota boogie men danced like maniacs, tossing confetti into the crowd and sporting a multitude of silly costumes (Santa Claus hat, Mexican wrestling mask, full-body banana…

by Thomas Fawcett

SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

Win Win 
Headliners 
D: Tom McCarthy; with Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffrey Tambor, David Thompson, Burt Young, Melanie Lynskey, Alex Schaffer, Margo Martindale
 Writer/director Tom McCarthy, who previously helmed The Station Agent and The Visitor, once again reveals his knack for creating singular yet relatable characters and situations. That�s, no doubt, what attracts…

by Marjorie Baumgarten

The Secret Club

South by Southwest 2011 Keynote speaker Bob Geldof played the Armadillo World Headquarters with the Boomtown Rats. Afterward ….

by Margaret Moser

SXSW Records

Tennis Cape Dory (Fat Possum) Logging a seven-month sail from Florida up the Eastern seaboard, Cape Dory splashes down Denver marrieds Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley, who co-wrote the 10 all-too-brief log entries of the trio’s instant gratification. James Barone’s beat uptick on opener “Take Me Somewhere” and Moore’s best Tanya Donelly bounce the tune…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

Gary Wilson Electric Endicott (Western Vinyl) Many have tried (hey, Ariel Pink), but no one’s ever duplicated the mismatched fantasy world of Gary Wilson. Listening to 1977’s electro-funk id explosion, You Think You Really Know Me, felt like a blind date, a 2005 documentary on the upstate New York oddity describing his music as “Steely…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Records

Ian Moore & the Lossy Coils El Sonido Nuevo (Spark & Shine) Ian Moore isn’t teasing with a title that translates to “The New Sound.” While his days as an inventive guitarist haven’t been left behind, El Sonido Nuevo surprises with an assortment of songs drawn more from the pop jangle of Big Star and…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

The Endtables (Drag City) “I pledge allegiance to the flag of any country that will accept me,” sang husky, cross-dressing Endtables vocalist Steve Rigot some 32 years ago. Years before hardcore conventions were set in stone, the Louisville, Ky., quartet bear-hugged the mantle of outsiderdom to create a fleeting firestorm that still sounds singular today.…

by Greg Beets

Mr. Smarty Pants Knows

Some tribal chieftains in Papua New Guinea walk around with big sticks affixed with large squirrel-like creatures at the end. There is no such thing as a mahogany tree. Ghandi frequently slept between two 12-year-old virgins, not to have sex with them, but to restore the flow of feminine energy into his own body. The…

by Mr. Smarty Pants

SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

No Matter What Emerging Visions D: Cherie Saulter; with Matt Webb, Waylan Gross, Amy Seimetz Saulter returned to her native North Florida to shoot her first feature as writer/director, and it’s hard to imagine the story coming to life so well anywhere else. Its rural back roads and worn-down trailer homes loom as large as…

by Nora Ankrum

Quote of the Week

“I just got a text from Rick Perry. He wanted me to tell you that it’s not his fault.” – Perrin-Whitt Con­solidated ISD Superintendent John Kuhn, speaking at the March 12 Save Texas Schools rally; see “Proud To Be ‘Unacceptable'”

by Chronicle Staff

Day Party Crawl

HBO presents ‘Treme’ Ghost Room, Thursday, March 17 St. Patrick’s Day got a shot of Fat Tuesday courtesy of a world-class New Orleans second line parading through Downtown Austin across the noon hour. Dirty Dozen Brass Band, which later played a set featuring Austin trumpeter Jeff Lofton, set out from HBO’s Treme party at the…

by Thomas Fawcett

SXSW Film

The City Dark Documentary Feature Competition D: Ian Cheney An impressive documentarian, Cheney blends – as he did with 2007’s King Corn – an unassuming disposition and just a bit of personal narrative with a story that is otherwise much larger than any one person and, in this case, as large as the universe. Living…

by Nora Ankrum

Ice Cream Man Presents!

Friday’s Flavor: Miracle Fortress I’ve been waiting for a new Miracle Fortress album for quite some time. It’s been about four years since I picked up their previous album, Five Roses, at Sonic Boom Records in Seattle, and I’ve listened to it more than almost any other since then. Really … ask my girlfriend. I…

by Matt Allen

SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

Convento Documentary Feature D: Jarred Alterman Death becomes Dutch artist Christiaan Zwanikken. Or rather, it becomes considerably more lively in his hands. Working out of a 400-year-old Franciscan monastery in the hills of Portugal that he shares with his mother, Geraldine, and his brother, Louis, Zwanikken animates the skeletal or mummified remains of local fauna.…

by Marc Savlov

SXSW Records

Sea of Bees Songs for the Ravens (Crossbill) Nom de musique of Julie Ann Baenziger, her Sea of Bees diffuses California pop by turns dreamy and atmospheric – folky – and perhaps even a bit precious. But Songs for the Ravens is never boring. As a young girl, Baenziger (Bee) fell in love with an…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

Say Hi Um, Uh Oh (Barsuk) Say Hi always delivers mixtape manna, charmingly awkward and unassuming odes of musical mumblecore. Eric Elbogen’s is a lonely kind of love and affection, dreaming at bedroom walls of worlds in adolescent fantasies that ache with a touching sincerity and wit even when yearning for robots. With his seventh…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

Guy Forsyth 300 Miles From There to Here (Small and Nimble) The audio-visual cross-pollination of 300 Miles From There to Here is refreshing. Guy Forsyth and band – Will Landin on bass and tuba, Jeff Botta on percussion – appear on a DVD of shows videotaped in Waco, but there’s also a live CD recorded…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

Mother Falcon Alhambra The secret is out. Mother Falcon’s five-song EP last year, Still Life – even at the time – was merely a dress rehearsal for the neo-classical tour de force performance that is Alhambra. Evoking the grandeur of Spain’s Moorish palace, Austin’s wunderkind chamber orchestra soars into its full-length debut on confident wings…

by Margaret Moser

SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

A Year in Mooring Narrative Competition D: Chris Eyre; with Josh Lucas, Ayelet Zurer, James Cromwell, Jon Tenney A man works his way through the stages of grief in this meditative study, which is anchored by Lucas’ consuming performance. Onscreen for almost every frame of the film, Lucas (who is also a producer) holds our…

by Marjorie Baumgarten

SXSW Film

Natural Selection Narrative Feature Competition D: Robbie Pickering; with Rachael Harris, Matt O’Leary, Jon Gries, John Diehl It’s no stretch to imagine the many small, religious towns in Texas probably brimming with devoted, unappreciated housewives – so it’d be easy to write another tragedy about a forgotten woman, slam religion, invoke pity, and call it…

by Ashley Moreno

SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

New Jerusalem Emerging Visions D: R. Alverson; with Colm O’Leary, Will Oldham The distinction between well-intentioned religious conversion and predatory religiosity depends largely on perspective. Are souls being saved or are strong personalities feeding on the emotional weaknesses of others? The second film from the writing team of Alverson and O’Leary brings together a psychically…

by James Renovitch

Day Party Crawl

Twin Shadow Mohawk, Wednesday, March 16 George Lewis Jr.’s debut as alter ego Twin Shadow was one of those time capsule albums. Forget, out last year on 4AD, took a little Moz, a little Depeche Mode, and a little Prince into 21st century Brooklyn. It played a very personal album, recorded in emotional stages, but…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Film

Fly Away Narrative Feature Competition D: Janet Grillo; with Beth Broderick, Ashley Rickards, Greg Germann Becoming a parent means giving up a big part of your life as it was. Being the single parent of an autistic child multiplies that by a trillion. In Fly Away, Beth Broderick plays a mother focused on her increasingly…

by Joe O'Connell

Day Party Crawl

Fat Possum Party Club de Ville, Wednesday, March 16 With Therapies Son’s inverted George Harrison guitar licks and Beach Fossils’ one-manned drones serving as ample appetizers, Fat Possum’s party hit full swing well before 2pm when Odd Future’s MellowHype had a hyped up crowd in full-on “Swag” chants before he even rapped a song. Flanked…

by Chase Hoffberger

My SXSW

I might be wrong, but I think that my band the Miracle 3 and I may have invented the concept of scattershot SXSW gigging and the Herculean athletics of hitting double digits on the number of shows played during the four days of the Music Conference. When we traveled to Austin in 2001, I figured…

by Steve Wynn

SXSW Film

The Dish & The Spoon Emerging Visions D: Alison Bagnall; with Greta Gerwig, Olly Alexander Anyone who’s wondered what it would look like if a film really let actress Greta Gerwig have at it will find an answer in The Dish & the Spoon, Alison Bagnall’s funny, melancholy tale of betrayed wife Rose and the…

by Cindy Widner

Day Party Crawl

Jessica Lea Mayfield/Brett Dennen Radio Day Stage, Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 16 At some point in Austin this week, Jessica Lea Mayfield and Lucinda Williams may cross paths, and the space-time continuum could collapse on Sixth. The 21-year-old Ohio songstress’ light twang and languid drawl is so shot through with a barroom’s worth of…

by Doug Freeman

Live Shots

James Blake Stubb’s, Wednesday, March 16 Beware the foul beast that shows up to a gig, plants himself and his buddies in a plum spot, and begins a never-ending conversation that rises in volume and intensity in competition with the music. Such vile creatures populated the crowd as James Blake took the stage 15 minutes…

by Melanie Haupt

Day Party Crawl

Terrorbird/Force Field Party Red 7, Wednesday, March 16 So Toro y Moi might have been the band that everyone was there to see. And their dutiful set was crowd-pleasing enough, but the buzz at the Terrorbird Media & Force Field PR day party was behind Oakland’s Tune-Yards. And how they got that buzz is anyone’s…

by Michael Bertin

SXSW Film

Armadillo SXGlobal D: Janus Metz It’s no wonder this stunning film won the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize this year. It’s a perfect – and we mean perfect – example of that increasingly rare filmic portrait, a war documentary that appears to be anything but. Comparisons to Apocalypse Now are, for once, not just hyperbole…

by Marc Savlov

Off the Record

Tantric Yonkers The MTVu Woodie Awards on Wednesday night was the largest event in SXSW history, complete with a red-carpet shoot that featured everyone from host (and apparent rapper) Donald Glover to YelaWolf. The entire Austin Music Hall was seemingly paneled with massive LED screens, while a giant stairwell dropped from the balcony to the…

by Austin Powell

Most Valuable Player

Dana Wheeler-Nicholson made Chevy Chase laugh. She was all of 23 when she scored an audition for Fletch, and she’s convinced Chase’s guffaws sealed the deal. “I was just a kid,” she says. “I don’t remember what I said. I just remember the laughter.” Wheeler-Nicholson, a self-described “ham bone,” dove headfirst into an enduring film/television…

by Joe O'Connell

Live Shots

Freddie Gibbs Mohawk, Wednesday, March 16 Dressed in nothing but a T-shirt and gray sweat suit, and lodging Wednesday night’s most excessive blunt above his right ear, Freddie Gibbs was of a two-track mind. “If you came here to Austin to smoke some weed, make some noise in this bitch!” hollered Gary, Ind.’s native wordsmith…

by Chase Hoffberger

Live Shots

Josh T. Pearson Central Presbyterian Church, Wednesday, March 16 “It feels good to be in the house of the Lord,” Josh T. Pearson said with a cracked whisper, like the voice of a prophet returned from the wild places. After a decade in Europe, the Denton, Texas, singer-songwriter has broken his musical exile with a…

by Richard Whittaker

Ballroom Dancing

Tropical Hot Dog Panel Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 16 It’s accepted that the late Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, was a visionary in both the music and art worlds. By exploring his history and methods, this hourlong discussion did a fine job of explaining his humanity as well. Led by veteran music writer…

by Jim Caligiuri

Live Shots

B L A C K I E All Caps, With Spaces Barcelona, Wednesday, March 16 There’s nothing subtle about B L A C K I E All Caps, With Spaces. Not the incendiary name and certainly not the all caps. (Okay, I’ll give you the spaces.) Not the rumbling bass booming from the fuck-off PA…

by Thomas Fawcett

SXSW Film

Page One: Inside the New York Times Festival Favorites D: Andrew Rossi As we watch the scrimmage between New Media vs. Old play out on our iPads, Page One takes us – fly-on-the-wall and with talking heads commentary – into the inner sanctum of the Newspaper of Record, for a look at the stakes for…

by Anne S. Lewis

SXSW Film

Weekend Emerging Visions D: Andrew Haigh; with Tom Cullen, Chris New It’s hard to classify a movie like Weekend. Can it be romantic and depict what amounts to a two-night stand? Can it be a coming-out story when all the characters are technically out? Like the analogous Before Sunrise, Weekend manages to ride the line…

by James Renovitch

SXSW Film

Building Hope Lone Star States D: Turk Pipkin “We can’t engage with every community in need, but we can engage with this one,” Christy Pipkin says in this documentary feature about building a high school in poverty-stricken rural Kenya. Made under the auspices of the Nobelity Project, the Austin-based nonprofit led by Pipkin with filmmaker…

by Belinda Acosta

Live Shots

Eagle Claw Ale House, Wednesday, March 16 Watching Eagle Claw is only half the experience. Visually, it’s pretty much what you’d expect: long hair, a mustache or two, some pointy guitars (an SG and an Explorer if you need full visuals). The other half is a physical experience. You get to feel it. Or maybe…

by Michael Bertin

Ballroom Dancing

Eight Things That Hip-Hop Taught America Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 16 Hip-hop’s phenomenal rise and the ways in which beats and rhymes have changed the country that birthed it is finally coming to the fore. Using The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop as his guide, author Dan Charnas argued that…

by Thomas Fawcett

Live Shots

Esben & the Witch The Windish Agency House @ ND, Wednesday, March 16 There’s nothing like standing within striking distance of lyrical lunacy to focus your evening. Brighton, UK, trio Esben & the Witch beguiled the thin but entranced ND audience by a cunning and crafty sonic slight of hand and howl. Singer Rachel Davies…

by Marc Savlov

SXSW Film

Apart Lone Star States D: Aaron Rottinghaus; with Josh Danziger, Olesya Rulin, Joey Lauren Adams Filmed in Houston exurbs Rosenburg and Richmond, Apart stars Texas native and UT alumnus Danziger as Noah, a young man struggling to put together his past after spending two years in a coma. As much of a straight-out-of-film-school premise that…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Film

Charlie Casanova Narrative Feature Competition D: Terry McMahon; with Emmett J. Scanlan, Leigh Arnold Googling “Ivan Albright” will help you picture the emotionally corrupt pack of Irish yuppies of which the title character, played with chilling ferocity by Emmett J. Scanlan, is the (rabid, foaming) alpha dog. This dark tale will leave you wanting to…

by W. A. Brenner

SXSW Film

Square Grouper: The Godfathers of Ganja Spotlight Premieres D: Billy Corben Florida true-crime wunderkind Billy Corben (Raw Deal: A Question of Consent, Cocaine Cowboys) returns a bit older, perhaps wiser, and we bet richer, to train his sun-kissed spotlight on a more melllllooow yet still outlaw topic. This polished, basic-cable-ready doc shotguns the romance of…

by Kate X Messer

SXSW Film

Undefeated Spotlight Premieres D: Dan Lindsay, T.J. Martin Undefeated follows the sport doc blueprint perfectly: Focus on the people behind the sport, follow the heartbreak and love, make us root for the team. Here, that team is led by volunteer football coach Bill Courtney, a chubby, charismatic redhead who serves as fill-in dad for a…

by Joe O'Connell

Ballroom Dancing

Daniel Johnston: The First 50 Years Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 16 Like O. Henry before him, Daniel Johnston and his Austin tenure have become the stuff of legend. Although Wednesday’s panel was advertised as a half-century retrospective, Johnston’s Austin years dominated the discourse. Rebuffing the notion that Johnston’s mental illness fueled his songwriting prowess,…

by Greg Beets

Live Shots

Foster & Lloyd Saxon Pub, Wednesday, March 16 They’re definitely grayer and perhaps a little huskier than the last time they graced a stage at South by Southwest more than 20 years ago. But Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd showed they still enjoy playing together. With just acoustic guitars, the duo highlighted a batch of…

by Jim Caligiuri

Live Shots

Jimmie Dale Gilmore & The Wronglers Victorian Room at the Driskill, Wednesday, March 16 “No one would have believed down in the bowels of Lehman Brothers doing IPOs that I’d ever be up here on stage with Jimmie Dale Gilmore,” investor Warren Hellman, decked out in a Star of David sequined coat and the honest-to-God…

by Doug Freeman

Shock and Awe

Moments after the final scene in Kill List, I turned around in my seat and witnessed firsthand that thing which every filmmaker most desires: an entire theatre, row upon row, of audience members with their eyes wide, their mouths agape, and their jaws on the floor. And silence: a roaring, shocked speechlessness that seemed to…

by Marc Savlov

SXSW Film

The Other F Word Spotlight Premieres D: Andrea Blaugrund Nevins “Ass, farts, feet, and a hint of balls,” reveals Jim Lindberg of the smell of the Pennywise tour bus that keeps the middle-aged singer from the sweet scent of bubble gum and Barbie dolls that presumably fills the home he provides for his family. This…

by Kate X Messer

SXSW Film

Bellflower Emerging Visions D: Evan Glodell; with Tyler Dawson, Jessie Wiseman Writer/director Evan Glodell’s first feature-length film is a refreshingly authentic love story that, halfway through, morphs into a hate story fueled by the imagination of Woodrow (played by Glodell), who’s long been a fanboy of the apocalyptic fantasy The Road Warrior and has fallen…

by W. A. Brenner and Memory Harker

Ballroom Dancing

SXSW Featured Speaker: Andrew W.K. Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 16 Andrew W.K.: Haute couture’s loss, music’s gain. The party-pop philosopher started his career as a fashion designer at Comme des Garçons but described moving from Michigan to New York just to get sacked as a positive moment in his life. It led him back…

by Richard Whittaker

SXSW Film

Sing Your Song Festival Favorites D: Susanne Rostock Sing Your Song is the rare documentary that succeeds in combining a robust biographical portrait with a substantive cultural overview. That’s because its subject, Harry Belafonte, who was 83 at the time of the filming, has played such a large part in the history of the 20th…

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Live Shots

Dikes of Holland B.D. Riley’s, Wednesday, March 16 This was a classic case of right band, wrong venue. On any other night, Dikes of Holland’s psychedelic blues and rockabilly-infused garage rock hoedown would find a happy home several blocks east of B.D. Riley’s. The astute local quintet locked down in a manner that should’ve had…

by Greg Beets

Ballroom Dancing

You’ve Built a Social Network, Now What? Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 16 Many of us use social-networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter to keep tabs on our favorite bands, especially when there’s a new album or tour on the horizon. This panel looked at the social media phenomenon from the band’s and the publicist’s…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Film Review: Cold Sweat

Cold Sweat D: Adrián García Bogliano; with Facundo Espinosa, Marina Glezer What happens to monsters when they get old? It’s hard to think that torturers just hang up their tools and retire. So when Roman (Espinosa) and Ali (Glezer) wander into the wrong house in search of Roman’s missing ex and run into a pair…

by Richard Whittaker

SXSW Film

Fightville Documentary Feature Competition D: Michael Tucker, Petra Epperlein It’s a remarkable thing to watch the attitudes of an audience change from repulsion to exhilaration over the course of a film, which is what happened at last weekend’s premiere screening of mixed-martial-arts documentary Fightville. When the movie began, you could almost feel the disgust rising…

by Josh Rosenblatt

Ice Cream Man Presents!

Thursday’s Flavor: Rich Aucoin I first was introduced to Rich Aucoin when I was in Vancouver slinging cream at a Virgin Festival that Muse was supposed to play at. Muse ended up backing out, and my consolation prize was My Chemical Romance. My buddy Todd was shooting some photos of Aucoin and telling me about…

by Matt Allen

Live Shots

Follow That Bird! Headhunters, Wednesday, March 16 With February’s Casual Victim Pile II compiling another local indie sampler through Matador co-owner and Austinite Gerard Cosloy, Follow That Bird!’s track from last year’s inaugural collection continues to haunt. Literally. During the Austin trio’s set – which got off the ground 20 minutes late – “The Ghosts…

by Audra Schroeder

Luv Doc Recommends: Austin Music Awards

Chances are that by Saturday you’ll want to strangle the shit out of anyone carrying an instrument case, sporting an outrageous hairstyle, or handing out any kind of printed material. “So your steampunk barbershop quartet has a 3am unofficial showcase at the Brixton? Well do-re-mi-fa-so what motherfucker?” By Saturday you’ll be sick of free beer…

by The Luv Doc

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