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

SXSW Film

True Adolescents Narrative Feature, Narrative Competition D: Craig Johnson; with Mark Duplass, Melissa Leo, Bret Loehr, Carr Thompson Mark Duplass looks impressively puffy throughout this moody-funny feature-length riff on the increasingly hoary “indie-hipster-wrestling-with-Peter Pan syndrome” genre, but in this case that’s a real good thing. He’s a rocker but not The Rocker. Craig Johnson’s debut…

by Marc Savlov

SXSW Film

Luckey Documentary Feature, Emerging Visions D: Laura Longsworth This could be another “why do bad things happen to good people?” film, except director Laura Longsworth has found the ideal subject for this oft-told story – in this case, sculptor Tom Luckey, who designs breathtaking, climbable sculptures for children. After a freak accident leaves him a…

by Belinda Acosta

Live Shots

Flatstock 20 Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 20 The halls were alive with the smell of Krylon well into the second decade of South by Southwest’s annual poster art exhibit, a sign that screen-printing remains vital to music scenes across the country. Local artists Mig Kokinda and the Decoder Ring Design Concern showcased both old-…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Film

BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO Documentary Feature, Emerging Visions D: Jessica Oreck So far as we know, Japan is the only country in the world to have a long-running box-office megastar that’s also the embodiment of its national femininity and a giant flying insect to boot. (That would be Mothra.) Toho Studios’ second most popular kaiju…

by Marc Savlov

SXSW Film

Know Your Mushrooms Documentary Feature, Special Screenings D: Ron Mann Every August, a growing number of fungiphiles descends upon the mountain enclave of Telluride, Colo., for that town’s Mushroom Festival. Know Your Mushrooms centers on the 2007 event and follows, primarily, the exploits of Larry Evans, a braided, nomadic mushroom hunter with an encyclopedic knowledge…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Film

All Tomorrow’s Parties Documentary Feature, 24 Beats per Second D: All Tomorrow’s People; with Belle & Sebastian, Grizzly Bear, Sonic Youth, Portishead, Daniel Johnston, Grinderman, Battles, Mogwai, Les Savy Fav, Lightning Bolt The name bears a helluva pedigree: Burroughs’ book, Nico/Velvet Underground standard, alt-rock festival, and now film. Since 1999, All Tomorrow’s Parties the festival…

by Kate X Messer

Live Shots

The Sonics Emo’s Main, Friday, March 20 The Sonics’ Boom was an aptly named album, introducing the Seattle seminals with, “This is the Big Bang of garage rock and roll.” Indeed, the primal, focused violence of the Sonics continues raging after more than 40 years. Every instrument is clean and hard and hits with a…

by Daniel Mee

SXSW Film

The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle Narrative Feature, Emerging Visions D: David Russo; with Marshall Allman, Natasha Lyonne, Tania Raymonde, Tygh Runyan, Matt Smith, Vince Vieluf Modern life is rubbish, and this charmingly Adderall-ized version of life at the bottom of the trash heap knows it, celebrates it, and ultimately draws a quirky sort of…

by Marc Savlov

SXSW Film

Modern Love Is Automatic Narrative Feature, Emerging Visions D: Zach Clark; with Melodie Sisk, Maggie Ross, Carlos Bustamante, Tom Neubauer, Diana Cherkas Like scads of current bands and thrift-store twentysomethings, Modern Love Is Automatic references the 1980s in a number of literal ways (not the least of which is the Flock of Seagulls song it…

by Cindy Widner

Live Shots

T Bird & the Breaks Momo’s, Friday, March 20 National Public Radio has established itself as an indie tastemaker, a reputation brought to fruition this year with its blowout Wednesday night Stubb’s showcase and virtual nonstop championing of the Decemberists. The hype machine extends locally as well, with Austin’s KUT helping break new bands. T…

by Doug Freeman

Live Shots

Mayyors Spiros, Friday, March 20 It’s fair warning that a band will be playing very loud when the singer shows up wearing ear protection fit for an airport tarmac. With little fanfare, the Mayyors launched into a stealth attack that crammed two hours worth of pure adrenaline into a 30-minute hole. The Sacramento, Calif., quartet…

by Greg Beets

Day Party Crawl

Advanced Alternative Media Day Party Habana Calle 6 Patio, Friday, March 20 With indoor and outdoor stages sporting acts every half-hour, Advanced Alternative Media’s day party had something for everyone. Parenthetical Girls and That Ghost started things slow. The former’s baroque-pop textures were outweighed by overly contrived hyperdrama; the latter’s melodic psych-pop was undermined by…

by Greg Beets

SXSW Film

Letters to the President Documentary Feature, Special Screenings D: Petr Lom Czech-Canadian filmmaker Petr Lom accompanies an entourage of Iranian press on trips with Iranian President Ahmadinejad to the countryside. It’s shocking to see the numbers that come out to see the leader as he mingles with them, stopping to talk and hug – a man…

by Anne S. Lewis

Live Shots

Pilar Diaz Fuze, Friday, March 20 This L.A.-based spark plug, formerly of rock band Los Abandoned, has gone solo in a most unique way: viola, ukulele, and trumpet supporting her soaring, glassy voice. That, and electric keyboards, percussion, synthesizer, bass, and guitar all making a dizzying array of music that delights in an almost ethereal…

by Belinda Acosta

Day Party Crawl

Aussie BBQ Brush Square, Friday, March 20 So let’s just pretend that the Aussie day party is a contest. There’s the Boat People with very agreeable pop. You might think they’re a little Hoodoo Gurus if only because they call the same continent home, and you’re not clever enough to find a better reference point.…

by Michael Bertin

SXSW Film

That Evening Sun Narrative Feature, Narrative Competition D: Scott Teems; with Hal Holbrook, Mia Wasikowska, Ray McKinnon, Walton Goggins, Carrie Preston Hal Holbrook gives the latest in a 50-year series of brilliant performances as Abner Meecham, a widower who escapes from a retirement home in rural Tennessee only to learn his son has sold the…

by Josh Rosenblatt

SXSW Film

Iron Maiden: Flight 666 Documentary Feature, 24 Beats per Second D: Scot McFadyen, Sam Dunn The Maiden faithful showed up early Wednesday night for the North American premiere of Iron Maiden: Flight 666 at the Paramount, and they weren’t disappointed in McFadyen and Dunn’s feature-length (and long overdue) tribute to the metal gods. It was…

by Mark Fagan

Day Party Crawl

Insound/Hot Freaks Party Club de Ville, Friday, March 20 Ten years after Insound.com launched its website, that first online indie distributor celebrated a decade of underground success with its annual South by Southwest party. Obits stormed out of the noontime gate, wishing the near-capacity crowd a happy Nowruz, the Iranian new year, courtesy of guitarist…

by Darcie Stevens

Live Shots

Alash Copa, Friday, March 20 As anybody who’s seen the 1999 film Genghis Blues knows, Tuvan throat-singing is a magical style of vocalization that requires its practitioners to sing in multiple pitches. As anybody who caught the prize-winning ensemble Alash, direct from the Republic of Tuva, during its rare U.S. performance on Friday knows, witnessing…

by Dan Oko

Live Shots

The Felice Brothers Habana Bar Backyard, Friday, March 20 Some things are out of a band’s control. It wasn’t the Felice Brothers’ fault they were playing in a big tent that made their sound boom into a muddy haze and insured that subtlety in their lyrics was lost to the ether. With a drunken pose,…

by Jim Caligiuri

Day Party Crawl

Pitchfork/Windish Day Party Emo’s, Friday, March 20 Pitchfork and Windish certainly win the contest for booking the funnest bands for their day party. Kicking things off outside just a hair past lunchtime was the Mae Shi, Los Angeles purveyors of deliciously sloppy power pop, accentuated with a parachute for the audience to play with and…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Film

Mine Documentary Feature, Documentary Competition D: Geralyn Pezanoski An estimated 150,000 animals died in the aftermaths of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and some countless other number of them were temporarily misplaced or lost for good. As the wrenching but redemptive documentary Mine makes clear, however, it’s probably inaccurate to think of pets left in New…

by Clay Smith

Live Shots

Tombs Room 710, Friday, March 20 Tombs’ Relapse Records debut, Winter Hours, holds steady to a glacial pace, and being a hot-shit metal trio from Brooklyn holds you to a certain standard of accessibility. How did Tombs unite the two extremes? Extreme metal calls for squall, and Tombs certainly had that in shoegaze spades. Their…

by Audra Schroeder

Day Party Crawl

Nah Right and the Smoking Section’s Grand Ole Party of Bootleggers & Tastemakers Peckerheads, Friday, March 20 Anybody who’s up with East Coast hip-hop likely has NahRight.com saved as a bookmark on their Web browsers. Eskay and his crew promote the best and brightest. Throwing more than enough kudos to the blog that helped put…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Film

Alexander the Last Narrative Feature, Spotlight Premieres D: Joe Swanberg; with Jess Weixler, Justin Rice, Barlow Jacobs, Amy Seimetz, Jane Adams, Josh Hamilton It’s easy to see why the talented cast of Joe Swanberg’s Alexander the Last signed on to make the movie: The script memorably delineates what it feels like when an actor’s art…

by Clay Smith

Live Shots

Tarantist Club 115, Friday, March 20 You come all the way from Tehran to play 30 or so minutes, there’s not much time to screw around. So it was curious that Iranian metal outfit Tarantist started off with either an impromptu sound-check jam or a song called “More Bass, More Vocal Please.” Even after things…

by Michael Bertin

SXSW Film

Saint Misbehavin’: The Wavy Gravy Movie Documentary Feature, Special Screenings D: Michelle Esrick Long before Ben & Jerry’s made his name world-famous when the company chose it to describe its latest flavor of ice cream, the clown known as Wavy Gravy was already almost more concept than human being. Those who don’t recognize him for…

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Live Shots

Absu Spiro’s Amphitheater, Friday, March 20 It was hard not to focus on guitarist Aethyris McKay as the house music leading into Absu’s set came to a close. He stood stoically, hardly moving a muscle, with his arms wrapped around his jet-black axe as he awaited the chaos bound to ensue. The Dallas four gave…

by Chase Hoffberger

Live Shots

Scottish Arts Council Showcase La Zona Rosa, Friday, March 20 Where were the kilts, dammit? The Scottish Arts Council offered up a six-pack of musical riches with fresh-faced indie rockers We Were Promised Jetpacks getting things started early. The quartet, which drops its first album in May, comprises adorable college-age fellas who were intense with…

by Melanie Haupt

Live Shots

Solange & the Hadley St. Dreams Bat Bar at the Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 20 Blame it on the lights, camera, action. For an artist desperately trying to shed a legacy of pop polish, the made-for-TV Bat Bar in the Austin Convention Center isn’t the best venue. Yet there stood Solange Knowles and her…

by Thomas Fawcett

SXSW Film

Do-Over! Taste of SXSW Showcase There’s always the worry about the one that got away –that one movie that everybody was talking about, and you blew your one shot at it ’cause you were too busy rubbernecking at the Paramount, trying to get an eyeful of Joseph Gordon-Levitt (or whatever). Relax: The Alamo at the…

by Kimberley Jones

Live Shots

School of Seven Bells Radio Room Patio, Friday, March 20 There’s always at least one act that falls prey to the curse of South by Southwest, when gear disappears, malfunctions, and generally misbehaves. Brooklyn trio School of Seven Bells felt it for the first 15 minutes of their showcase: samples failed, monitors buzzed, and the…

by Darcie Stevens

SXSW Records

Peter Bjorn & John Living Thing (Almost Gold/Star Time) Living Thing, this Swedish trio’s fifth studio album, marks a departure in sound from the skinny-jeaned Euro-pop of Writer’s Block (2006). Where the latter put narrative and straight-ahead indie pop front and center, the new disc, like last year’s instrumental Seaside Rock, finds PB&J playing with…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

Richard Swift The Atlantic Ocean (Secretly Canadian) The joy of Richard Swift isn’t necessarily his uncanny knack for combining joyful harmonies with smartass, often-cynical lyrics. It’s not his warble or his multilayered all-American songs. It’s just that the man knows no limits. Over four albums, the Oregonian’s skipped through Tin Pan Alley, melancholic chants, druggy…

by Darcie Stevens

SXSW Records

Cursive Mama, I’m Swollen (Saddle Creek) When Omaha’s Cursive released 2003 post-hardcore gem The Ugly Organ, a million emo kids agreed, “Art is hard!” Without cellist Gretta Cohn and after 14 years onstage, however, penman Tim Kasher has matured. Cursive’s seventh LP, Mama, I’m Swollen, is just as transgressive as it is familiar. Kasher’s voice…

by Darcie Stevens

SXSW Film

Texas Shorts Shorts Program D: Various It’s true what they say: Texas is a whole nuther country, and that independent spirit of whatever-goes is present in spades in this collection of Lone Star shorts. One of the most affecting of the lot is Keeley Steenson’s “Alexander Family Farm,” an enlightening, smartly edited microdoc on Austin’s…

by Marc Savlov

Live Shots

Descartes a Kant The Tap Room at Six, Thursday, March 19 As the clock struck 9 Thursday night, Descartes a Kant stood on the Tap Room’s erstwhile stage in faux-satanic garb, unable to play because of a sound problem. Such a scene often makes for jittery performers, inpatient audiences, and altogether bad shows. Happily, this…

by Greg Beets

Best Folk

RUNNERS-UP: Sarah Jarosz, Betty Soo, The Lost Pines, Hayes Carll, The Tea Merchants, Eliza Gilkyson, The Lovely Sparrows, The Belleville Outfit, Ed Miller

by Chronicle Staff

Best Bass Guitar

RUNNERS-UP: Johnny Vogelsang, Suzanna Choffel; Bruce Hughes; Alex Dunlap, Alpha Rev; Will Landin, Guy Forsyth; Omar Vallejo, Vallejo; Josh Lambert, the Octopus Project; Danny G, the Mother Truckers; David Piggott, Monte Montgomery; Bobby Perkins, Topaz & Mudphonic

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

Ashu Sigh of an Angel (Blue Frog/Sony BMG) There’s a generation of Indian musicians for whom Western rock icons like Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and the Doors (not so much the Beatles) are the popular-music models. With such rock touchstones, Mumbai-based multi-instrumentalist Ashu has managed to make the old new again on his 2008 debut,…

by Dan Oko

SXSW 09 Film Reviews

The Yes Men Fix the World Documentary Feature, Special Screenings D: Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno Whether they’re in New Orleans masquerading as deputy assistants to the Department of Housing and Urban Development while attending a CNN-covered megaconference on the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina or simply pointing out systemic corporate corruption across the board, the…

by Marc Savlov

SXSW Records

Frank Turner Love Ire & Song (Xtra Mile) Turner, the former frontman for UK punk outfit and John Peel favorite Million Dead, has grown up and out of outright rage and into something approaching – at 27 – the heavy-clever wit and wry, do-or-die romantic solidarity of socially superconscious singer-songwriter Billy Bragg by way of…

by Marc Savlov

SXSW Records

Riverboat Gamblers Underneath the Owl (Volcom Entertainment) You’d be hard-pressed to find a band that delivers more for your hard-earned scratch than the Riverboat Gamblers. The Austin quintet’s raucous performances are nothing short of Stooge-like. Unfortunately, their fifth LP bears false witness against this. Underneath the Owl plays up the Gamblers’ pop-punk traits while keeping…

by Greg Beets

SXSW Film

Pulling John Documentary Feature, Emerging Visions D: Vassiliki Khonsari, Sevan Matossian In the world of professional arm wrestling, American John Brzenk is Michael Jordan, King Kong, and Mount Everest rolled into one. Twenty-five years the world’s champion, he’s an almost mythical source of fear and wonder to the generation of “pullers” coming up in his…

by Josh Rosenblatt

Best Hip Hop

RUNNERS-UP: Kevin Jack, Captain Caucasian, Los Bad Apples, BoomboxATX, Bavu Blakes, Tee Double, Afrofreque, Zeale 32 & Phranchyze, Dirty Wormz

by Chronicle Staff

Best Drums/Percussion

RUNNERS-UP: Brannen Temple; Eldridge Goins, Suzanna Choffel; Julian Fernandez, Los Texas Wranglers; Rob Hooper, Guy Forsyth; Jay Nazz, Reckless Kelly; Phil Bass, Monte Montgomery; John Chipman, the Band of Heathens; Toto Miranda, the Octopus Project; Victor Ziolkowski, the Fireants, Carson Brock Group

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

Brother Ali The Truth Is Here (Rhymesayers) As Brother Ali alludes on lead track “Real as Can Be,” the time since 2007’s breakout, The Undisputed Truth, has been a busy one. That hurried schedule rears its ugly head on The Truth Is Here, an EP that does little to advance the Undisputed success the Minneapolis…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW 09 Film Reviews

Monsters From the Id Documentary Feature, Spotlight Premieres D: David Gargani The 1950s: a good decade for suburbia, sock hops, and sitcoms, a better decade for irradiated beasts and bug-eyed invaders from beyond. Hardly a week went by without some alien or mutant menace wreaking havoc on the USA, and David Gargani’s doc revisits this…

by Robert Faires

SXSW Records

Julie Doiron I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day (Jagjaguwar) This veteran Canadian singer-songwriter fits snugger in the Feist/Kimya Dawson camp than that of fellow Canucks Kathleen Edwards and Sarah McLachlan. She’s the “keeper of the world’s greatest and saddest voice,” according to Phil Elverum, aka Mount Eerie, who dueted with the main…

by Darcie Stevens

SXSW Records

Lady Sovereign Jigsaw (Midget) Sometimes dancing is just dancing. Per Freud and pop music, however, sometimes dancing is something sexier. On Jigsaw, erstwhile Jay-Z protégé Lady Sovereign reaffirms that she’s the singular queen bee in the hive of the still-buzzing London grime syndicate. Opening amorously humorous on “Let’s Be Mates,” she’s spitting the tongue-in-who’s-cheek pickup,…

by Dan Oko

SXSW Film

Number One With a Bullet Documentary Feature, 24 Beats per Second D: Jim Dziura It’s Beef meets Bowling for Columbine. Like the DVD series detailing rap rivalries, Number One features MCs such as G-Unit expat Young Buck and Cypress Hill’s B-Real detailing harrowing encounters – here, with gun violence. And, like Columbine, it’s an indictment of…

by Wells Dunbar

Live Shots

Flower Travellin’ Band Smokin’ Music, Thursday, March 19 In Zen Buddhism, satori – the title of Flower Travellin’ Band’s 1971 opus – is a term used to describe individual enlightenment, often emerging as a burst of sudden awareness. In the case of the FTB’s eagerly anticipated South by Southwest showcase, the last of five shows…

by Austin Powell

Best Indie

RUNNERS-UP: The Black & White Years, White Denim, Okkervil River, The Black Angels, John Pointer, The Octopus Project, Brothers and Sisters, Dan Dyer, The Steps

by Chronicle Staff

Best Electric Guitar

RUNNERS-UP: Guy Forsyth; Carolyn Wonderland; Landon Thompson, the Black & White Years; Gary Clark Jr.; Daniel Barrett, Porterdavis; Redd Volkaert; Josh Zee, the Mother Truckers; Suzanna Choffel; David Abeyta, Reckless Kelly

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

Phosphorescent To Willie (Dead Oceans) Covering Willie Nelson is an exercise in hubris, making Phosphorescent’s tribute to the Texas icon all the more substantial. Graceful, honest, and wringing every understated ounce of emotion from the tunes, Matthew Houck focuses on the country figurehead’s wearier numbers, the Sunday morning after Saturday night’s whiskey river. Houck’s hiccuped…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

Bishop Allen Grrr … (Dead Oceans) 2009 shall be known as the year Brooklyn bands took over the world. Case in point: Bishop Allen. The ambitious duo of former Harvard classmates Justin Rice and Christian Rudder turned their EP-a-month project into 2007’s acclaimed label debut, The Broken String. Simply put, Grrr … is a fantastic…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

O+S (Saddle Creek) Pairing Azure Ray’s Orenda Fink with Remy Zero’s Scalpelist (Cedric Lemoyne), O+S’ debut intertwines their styles into shoegaze folk. Scalpelist’s looped beats propel the songs with trip-hop force, anchored by Fink’s monochromatic melancholy. Openers “New Life” and “Permanent Scar” achieve the most compelling balance, the latter unloading scuzzed electric rhythms and layered…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Showcases

SXSW Underage Day Party Noon, Momo’s So just how widespread is this teen scene bubbling in and around Austin? 1980s pop queen Debbie Gibson, better known today as Broadway star Deborah Gibson, is showcasing her wunderkind, Casey Lee Smith, at this first-ever official SXSW day party for teen acts. This isn’t aw-aren’t-they-cute-li’l-darlings. This is rock…

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film

Sissyboy Documentary Feature, Emerging Visions D: Katie Turinski Beyond fodder for exploration, gender is a juggernaut, an RV packed with mascara-dripping, lipstick-tracing art fags careening down the West Coast hellbent on bringing sissy back. This is the mission of Portland, Ore., drag troupe Sissyboy. In Turinski’s hands, Sissyboy is not a subculture infiltrated but family,…

by Kate X Messer

Live Shots

Quincy Jones Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 19 Quincy Jones was slated for a 75-minute keynote address Thursday afternoon, but he never had much use for constraints or conventions. A full 2½ hours after he started, the coolest cat in the industry had chronicled his life from gangster-run Chicago streets to Grammy Legend Award winner,…

by Thomas Fawcett

Live Shots

Total Abuse Red 7, Thursday, March 19 Total Abuse started its set half an hour late, but it didn’t make a difference. In just 20 minutes, the Austin quintet did what it had to do, adhering to hardcore’s loud and fast rules, emphasis on loud. Eighties hardcore is the immediate touchstone on its 2008 self-titled…

by Audra Schroeder

Best Miscellaneous Instrument

RUNNERS-UP: John Pointer, beatbox; Sarah Jarosz, mandolin, et al.; Ian Stewart, violin, the Fireants; Warren Hood, violin; Guy Forsyth, saw; Cody Braun, mandolin, Reckless Kelly; Yvonne Lambert, theremin, the Octopus Project; Topaz McGarrigle, saxophone; Ruby Jane, violin

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

School of Seven Bells Alpinisms (Ghostly International) SVIIB, as the shorthand dictates, is the reverse Blonde Redhead, identical twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza matching wits with former Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis. Alpinisms, the Brooklyn trio’s late-2008 debut, summits opener “Iamundernodisguise,” the sisters’ voices providing solace for Curtis’ fretwork and electronic squalls. Voices act…

by Darcie Stevens

SXSW 09 Film Reviews

Lake Mungo Narrative Feature, Midnighters D: Joel Anderson; with Talia Zucker, Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin Sharpe As Blair Witch is to The Shining and Cloverfield is to Godzilla, so Lake Mungo is to Picnic at Hanging Rock. In that Australian gothic classic, four schoolgirls went into the Outback; only one came back. This time,…

by Richard Whittaker

SXSW Records

Wavves Wavvves (Fat Possum) We get it: Lo-fi’s awesome, one-man bands are rad, but is a shirtless dude in his bedroom with a laptop, a four-track, and a shitload of consonants all it takes? San Diego’s Wavves, aka 22-year-old Nathan Williams, is making fickle bloggers swoon. Williams knows his history, combining doo-wop with punk rock,…

by Darcie Stevens

SXSW Records

Marco Benevento Me Not Me (Royal Potato Family) With his second studio solo effort, this adventurous New York keyboardist limits the original compositions that filled last year’s Invisible Baby in lieu of covers of My Morning Jacket’s “Golden,” Beck’s “Sing It Again,” Deerhoof’s “Twin Killers,” and Led Zeppelin’s “Friends.” His post-jazz interpretations have less to…

by Jay Trachtenberg

International Bands

Wales in 18 Adjectives Toy Horses (Wed., Latitude 30, 8pm) Dual-powered, indie, melodic, Beatles-esque, charming, bright. Amy Wadge (Thu., Creekside at Hilton Garden Inn, 10pm; Fri., Stephen F’s Bar, 12mid) Lingering, earthy, thoughtful, warm, passionate, inviting. Christopher Rees (Sat., Stephen F’s Bar, 10pm) Orchestral, soulful, countryish, cautionary, mournful, satisfying. – Margaret Moser Three Icelandic Acts…

by Chronicle Staff

Naked City

• REDO FOR RED BUD? The Parks & Recreation Department hosted a public forum March 11 to hear concerns and recommendations for Red Bud Isle, a popular Lady Bird Lake spot and one of the city’s few leash-free dog parks. Maintenance of the park is carried out, with PARD’s blessing, by a volunteer group, Friends…

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film

Severe Clear Documentary Feature, Documentary Competition D: Kristian Fraga 1st Lt. Mike Scotti, recently returned from Afghanistan, joined the 2003 Iraq invasion force as a gung ho Marine, believing wholeheartedly that he was defending his country, avenging the September 11 attacks, and seeking Saddam Hussein’s confirmed weapons of mass destruction. This film, composed almost entirely…

by Michael King

Live Shots

Grizzly Bear Central Presbyterian Church, Thursday, March 19 While Grizzly Bear’s later set was principally responsible for the capacity crowd greeting opener Girls, the San Francisco quartet proved worthy of the slot. The jittery yet soulful vocals spouting ennui over swooning garage chime and jangle were much tighter than the band’s slacker aesthetic suggested, especially…

by Doug Freeman

Best Instrumental

RUNNERS-UP: The Octopus Project, Explosions in the Sky, The Tea Merchants, The Golden Arm Trio, Balmorhea, Brownout, The Calm Blue Sea, The Monster Big Band, Baron Grod

by Chronicle Staff

Best Songwriter

RUNNERS-UP: Bob Schneider; Scott Butler, the Black & White Years; Suzanna Choffel; Carolyn Wonderland; Monte Montgomery; James McMurtry; Hayes Carll; Willy Braun, Reckless Kelly; Guy Forsyth

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records: Metallurgy

Pack of Wolves Betrayer (Arclight) The rising fury of 2007 debut EP Wall Crusher splatters on POW’s first LP for Austin indie Arclight. “I am nothing!” fissures ex-At All Cost axeman Trey Ramirez on “The Here and Now,” the local quartet screaming for vengeance at a machine-gun gate. Maiden harmonies (“Betrayer”), cathedral guitars (“Wall Crusher”),…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Film 09 Reviews

Motherland Documentary Feature, Emerging Visions D: Jennifer Steinman Six American women who have lost their children – some to car crashes, some to violence, one to suicide – travel to South Africa to volunteer among the AIDS-ravaged population in hopes of healing and bonding. Through feeding, playing with, and dancing with starving, disabled, and orphaned…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

POS Never Better (Rhymesayers) Minneapolis-born POS’ solo work has always split the difference between his punk outfit, Building Better Bombs, and the Doomtree hip-hop collective. On his third LP, Never Better, the smoke-voiced spitter’s still “Out of Category.” Punk only in an abstract sense, POS (né Stefon Alexander) proves himself the occasional virtuoso with hip-hop,…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Records

Crystal Antlers Tentacles (Touch and Go) With this debut full-length, Long Beach noise-rock quintet Crystal Antlers continues with the same bold aesthetic choices that marked last year’s acclaimed eponymous EP: The wobbly whine of Victor Rodriguez’s Farfisa dominates the album, supported by frantic drums and percussion. It’s a distinctive sound but also limiting. Rodriguez can’t…

by Daniel Mee

Live Shots

K’Naan Austin Music Hall, Thursday, March 19 “What if we took the jazz sound from Ethiopia in 1965 and brought it here?” asked Somali-born, Toronto-based rapper K’Naan between songs. “What would that sound be like?” The answer came blaring through the sound system, a righteous blend of global underground that borrows from Fela Kuti and…

by Thomas Fawcett

Band of the Year

RUNNERS-UP: Alejandro Escovedo, The Black & White Years, Reckless Kelly, Dale Watson & His Lone Stars, Carolyn Wonderland, The Band of Heathens, Grupo Fantasma, Suzanna Choffel, Porterdavis, The Octopus Project

by Chronicle Staff

Best Jazz

RUNNERS-UP: Ephraim Owens, Blaze, The Monster Big Band, White Ghost Shivers, The Belleville Outfit, Jason McKenzie, Duane Carter Band, Brandon A. Brown & the Floating Opera Orchestra, Marshall Ford Swing Band

by Chronicle Staff

Best Acoustic Venue

RUNNERS-UP: Saxon Pub, Momo’s, Flipnotics, Ruta Maya, Hole in the Wall, Hill’s Cafe, Threadgill’s, Fiddler’s Hearth, Artz Rib House

by Chronicle Staff

Best Female Vocals

RUNNERS-UP: Patrice Pike; Suzanna Choffel; Ariel Abshire; Teal Collins, the Mother Truckers; Patty Griffin; Kelly Willis; Kimberly Freeman, One-Eyed Doll; Stella Maxwell, Cruiserweight; Sarah Jarosz

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW 09 Film Reviews

Died Young, Stayed Pretty Documentary Feature, Emerging Visions D: Eileen Yaghoobian Are poster artists renegade DIY guerrilla artists expressing themselves purely for the art’s sake with no interest in making money or a bunch of predominantly white male collector nerds repurposing other people’s art for the hope of acquiring some (local) notoriety, free beer, a…

by Mark Fagan

SXSW Records

K’Naan Troubadour (A&M/Octone) Aside from Kirk Hammett’s embarrassing contribution to the pop turd “If Rap Gets Jealous” and Adam Levine’s cheese-balled “Bang Bang” play on the Pharcyde’s “Passin’ Me By,” K’Naan’s Troubadour, his second LP, pulls all that’s right from Will.i.am’s bag. The Toronto-by-way-of-Somalia rapper holds his own as a lyricist despite admitted shortcomings (“Probably…

by Chase Hoffberger

Live Shots

Doug Sahm Tribute Antone’s, Thursday, March 19 Doug Sahm never stood in one place for too long as this two-hour tribute demonstrated. The man defined Texas music, which meant rock, Tex-Mex, blues, jazz, and country intermingled, and it still makes perfect sense. Jimmie Vaughan led off the night swinging, especially on the horn-driven “Why Why…

by Jim Caligiuri

Best New Band

RUNNERS-UP: Blues Mafia, One-Eyed Doll, Los Bad Apples, The Tiny Tin Hearts, The Ars Supernova, Dans la Lune, Flatcar Rattlers, 25 Smokin’ Figurados, Dented

by Chronicle Staff

Best Latin Contemporary

RUNNERS-UP: Sarah Fox & Joel Guzman, Mary Welch y los Curanderos, Del Castillo, Vallejo, Brownout, Los Bad Apples, Charanga Cakewalk, Maneja Beto, Boca Abajo

by Chronicle Staff

Best Keyboards

RUNNERS-UP: Ian McLagan; Yvonne Lambert, the Octopus Project; Joel Guzman; Marcia Ball; Emily Gimble; Floyd Domino; Ed Jurdi; Dan Dyer; Pinetop Perkins

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW 2009 Film Review: 45365

45365 is the feature-length directorial debut from Turner and Bill Ross, who were born and raised in Sidney, Ohio, the small-town subject of their film. Not one scene in the documentary lasts more than a few minutes, which is perfect for those of us with ADHD, but the short and varied shots give extraordinary insight.…

by Kristine Tofte

SXSW Records

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour Fruit (Small Giants) For Copenhagen-based duo the Asteroids Galaxy Tour, opening for Amy Winehouse as part of its coming-out party was an auspicious play. With a stage show that swells to six members, the event has emerged as part of the freshly minted band’s creation myth. In turn, “Around the Bend”…

by Dan Oko

SXSW Records

Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is! (Lost Highway) Here in Austin, Black Joe Lewis needs no introduction. The local blues shouter and superfreak has turned heads from the Continental Club to Red River’s Beauty Bar, including that of Britt Daniel. With Spoon drummer Jim Eno handling the boards and…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

The Strange Boys And Girls Club (In the Red) Having recorded but never released nearly four albums, the Strange Boys’ debut full-length, And Girls Club, feels more like a greatest-hits collection, a staggering assortment of 7-inch artifacts from a new psychedelic era. Confident and composed, the Boys have grown into and perfected these 16 songs.…

by Austin Powell

SXSW Film

IT Came From Kuchar Documentary Feature, Special Screenings D: Jennifer M. Kroot So you’ve never heard of the (semi)legendary fraternal-twin filmmaking team of George and Mike Kuchar, the visionary duo behind such ultralow-budget, 8mm underground classics as the truly amazing Hold Me While I’m Naked and Pussy on a Hot Tin Roof? Not to worry.…

by Marc Savlov

Live Shots

Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguar/Dead Oceans Showcase Mohawk/Mohawk Patio, Thursday, March 19 The distinction between the Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguwar/Dead Oceans triumvirate and its sister labels is in eccentricity, and no better place than South by Southwest to display the morass of distinct guitar play in one venue. Just how many ways can one string a Les Paul? Oregon patriot…

by Darcie Stevens

Race to Witch Mountain

In this updated remake of the beloved Disney series of family movies, two siblings with supernatural powers seek refuge with a cabbie and a UFO specialist.

by Marc Savlov

Musician of the Year

RUNNERS-UP: Bob Schneider, Carolyn Wonderland, Guy Forsyth, Patrice Pike, Dale Watson, Monte Montgomery, Suzanna Choffel, James McMurtry, Dan Dyer

by Chronicle Staff

Best Latin Traditional

RUNNERS-UP: Jonas Alvarez, Del Castillo, Grupo Fantasma, El Tule, Boca Abajo, Cienfuegos, Trio los Vigilantes, Ruben Ramos & the Mexican Revolution, Cerronato

by Chronicle Staff

Best Male Vocals

RUNNERS-UP: Dale Watson; Dan Dyer; Guy Forsyth; Daniel Barrett, Porterdavis; Willy Braun, Reckless Kelly; Alejandro Escovedo; Ed Jurdi; John Pointer; Monte Montgomery

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW 09 Film Reviews

A Film With Me In It Narrative Feature, Midnighters D: Ian Fitzgibbon; with Dylan Moran, Mark Doherty, Keith Allen, Amy Huberman One death is an accident. Two are a coincidence. Three and a dead dog, well, that’s just bad DIY. In this coal-black farce, set among the elegant but crumbling Victorian apartments of Dublin, the…

by Richard Whittaker

SXSW Records

Vivian Girls (In the Red) If Vivian Girls’ debut sounds familiar, it’s because the holy trinity of echo, reverb, and jangle is experiencing a resurgence. The Girls’ saving grace here is brevity, much like their forefathers the Ramones. The NYC trio’s debut, reissued last year on garage rock stable In the Red, is under 30…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Records

The Krayolas Long Leaf Pine (No Smack Gum) (Box) Beginning with cover art borrowed from the Rolling Stones, San Antonio’s Krayolas keep serving a savory stew of regional pop styles on their second album since reforming. Tagged as the “Tex-Mex Beatles” during their initial 1977-1988 run, the Krayolas moved beyond that descriptor with 2008’s La…

by Greg Beets

SXSW Records

PJ Harvey & John Parish A Woman a Man Walked By (Island) On their first collaboration, 1996’s Dance Hall at Louse Point, PJ Harvey wrote the lyrics, John Parish the music, and it felt like a respite from Harvey’s heavy-duty mid-1990s releases. She returns from 2007’s haunting White Chalk with the longtime producer/multi-instrumentalist for another…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Showcases

SXSW Children’s Show Noon, Auditorium Shores Stage Since the babysitting funds will probably run out by tonight, take the sprouts to Lady Bird Lake to see local PBS stars the Biscuit Brothers, who make music education engaging. Joe McDermott is another local rock dad that appeals to slightly taller rugrats, while John Boydston, otherwise known…

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film

Winnebago Man Documentary Feature, Spotlight Premieres D: Ben Steinbauer Jack Rebney is called the “angriest man in America.” You may disagree once you experience him in this feature documentary based on one very trying afternoon in the life of the former broadcast journalist turned online media sensation. The hilarious outtakes of Rebney’s 1970s-era industrial films…

by Belinda Acosta

Live Shots

Red Red Meat Radio Room Patio, Thursday, March 19 Getting under way, Red Red Meat’s principle songwriter and guitarist Tim Rutili reminded the crowd that the tent at the Radio Room where they played was considered outdoors, so smoking would be kosher. Yet while the recently reformed Chicago quartet provided a decent history lesson drawing…

by Dan Oko

Album of the Year

RUNNERS-UP: The Black & White Years; Sonidos Gold, Grupo Fantasma; Miss Understood, Carolyn Wonderland; Just Us Kids, James McMurtry; Live at Eddie’s Attic, Porterdavis; Monte Montgomery; Calico Girl, Guy Forsyth; The Band of Heathens; Bulletproof, Reckless Kelly

by Chronicle Staff

Best Metal

RUNNERS-UP: One-Eyed Doll, Powderburn, Broken Teeth, Baron Grod, Meyvn, Butcherwhite, Blackholicus, By Any Means Necessary, Pack of Wolves

by Chronicle Staff

Best Local Label

RUNNERS-UP: Beats Broke, Justice Records, Peek-a-Boo Records, SteadyBoy Records, New West Records, Deep Eddy Records, Chicken Ranch Records, Western Vinyl, Bismeaux Records

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW 09 Film Reviews

Experimental Shorts D: Various “Experimental” is a dodgy word for a curmudgeon, as it suggests possession of deep wells of patience and open-mindedness. Dig deep through this program, though, and there is some small reward, a few hits among some broad, irritating misses. The highlights: the amped-up, whirlwind depiction of a cattle auctioneer in “Cattle…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

Women (Jagjaguwar) Sub Pop musician Chad VanGaalen recorded this Calgary quartet in a basement and crawl space, and while there’s certainly four-track grime there, what saves Women’s debut is variety. The sweet pop of “Cameras” and “Black Rice” are spaced equally from the squall of “January 8th” and “Flashlights” and the more fast-paced instrumental guitar…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Records

Willie Nile House of a Thousand Guitars (River House) Touted as heir to his career-defibrillating Streets of New York (2006), Willie Nile’s House of a Thousand Guitars jumps the curb for an introspective trek through the looking glass. Like an Eastern seaboard Alex Chilton or Jimmie Dale Gilmore, the veteran troubadour, with vocals so reedy…

by Kate X Messer

SXSW Records

Bosque Brown Baby (Burnt Toast Vinyl) Mara Lee Miller’s voice ties a knot in your stomach, and as Bosque Brown, she pours it on like salt over the music’s sugar. The Denton-based singer-songwriter has progressed from 2005’s lo-fi debut, Bosque Brown Plays Mara Lee Miller, filling out instrumentation and getting Chris Flemmons of the Baptist…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Showcases

The Agency Group 8pm, Back Alley Social With a combined roster of more than 1,000 artists, the Agency Group has established itself as one of the industry’s most expansive international booking agencies. The London-headquartered operation packs a blend of vibrant underground hip-hop scenes ciphering out of Minnesota and the West Coast. Thrash-hoppers Doomtree, still high…

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film

Artois the Goat Narrative Feature, Narrative Competition D: Cliff Bogart, Kyle Bogart; with Mark Scheibmeir, Sydney Andrews, Stephen Taylor Fry, Dan Braverman Artois the Goat has a lot going for it. It’s the kind of quirky comedy that festivals love, and both directors received a Bachelor of Arts in film production from the University of…

by James Renovitch

Miss March

Two-fifths of the Whitest Kids U’Know comedy troupe wrote, star in, and co-directed this nubile sex romp about a road trip to the Playboy mansion.

by Josh Rosenblatt

Song of the Year

RUNNERS-UP: “40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet),” Bob Schneider; “Sister Lost Soul,” Alejandro Escovedo; “Ragged as the Road,” Reckless Kelly; “Always a Friend,” Alejandro Escovedo; “Miss Understood,” Carolyn Wonderland; “Just Us Kids,” James McMurtry; “Gimme Some,” Grupo Fantasma; “Moonlight Tango,” Monte Montgomery; “She Left Me for Jesus,” Hayes Carll

by Chronicle Staff

Best None of the Above

RUNNERS-UP: White Ghost Shivers, Girl Guitar, Death Is Not a Joyride., 25 Smokin’ Figurados, Mingo Fishtrap, The Jolly Garogers, John Pointer, Grimy Styles, The Octopus Project

by Chronicle Staff

Best New Club

RUNNERS-UP: Fiddler’s Hearth, Aces Lounge, Lanai, Malaia World Lounge, The Madison, Tiniest Bar in Texas, Black & Tan, Cielo, Rusty Spurs, Annie’s West

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

Gomez A New Tide (ATO) Eleven years after the emergence of a puppy-faced quintet of unlikely blues-rockers from the north of England, A New Tide ebbs and flows classic Gomez. The group’s sixth studio album is awash in flawless musicianship, “Little Pieces” grooving with bursts of energy punctuated by Ben Ottewell’s grumbly vocalizations. “Airstream Driver”…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

Alela Diane To Be Still (Rough Trade) Joni Mitchell’s very much alive in Portland, Ore., singer-songwriter Alela Diane and her gentle folk songs about the wonders of nature and men with strong hands and California fields that are as titillating as those of longtime friend Joanna Newsom. Unlike Newsom, she lets her lyrics wander rather…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Records

Indigo Girls Poseidon and the Bitter Bug (IG/Vanguard) Can it really be more than 20 years since we first heard from the Indigo Girls? As proof, the Atlanta duo offers its 11th disc, Poseidon and the Bitter Bug, in some ways a continuation of 2006’s Despite Our Differences. The gals bring back producer Mitchell Froom,…

by Jim Caligiuri

International Bands

Six Degrees of Canadian Separation Winnipeg’s Boats (Sat., Beauty Bar, 8pm) drummer Shaun Gibson plays in fellow indie rockers and citymates the Details (Sat., El Sol y la Luna, 9pm), who toured with Vancouver off-beat popsters Mother Mother (Wed., Habana Calle 6 Patio, 1am), whose 2007 debut album, Touch Up, was produced by Howard Redekopp,…

by Chronicle Staff

Headlines

• City Manager Marc Ott has launched Accelerate Austin, using bond money to jump-start construction on $69.1 million in road projects ahead of schedule and creating an extra 300 jobs. • Gov. Rick Perry says he’ll reject the federal stimulus money for the state’s unemployment-insurance program. Maybe that will get him some desperately needed votes…

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film

Trimpin: The Sound of Invention Documentary Feature, Documentary Competition D: Peter Esmonde In his excellent documentary about German composer/artist/inventor Trimpin, Esmonde introduces us to a singular mind. Like his hero composer Conlon Nancarrow before him, Trimpin (one word, like Prince or Madonna) is fascinated by sound and the machines that create it; the pieces he…

by Josh Rosenblatt

Live Shots

Dirty Projectors Emo’s Annex, Thursday, March 19 Along with the voice of frontman/mastermind Dave Longstreth, the current lineup of the Dirty Projectors features a three-part female chorus, voiced in striking harmonies that have become the group’s signature. At first, they’re difficult to hear over the explosions of drummer Brian McComber, but once the balance settles…

by Daniel Mee

Best Bluegrass

RUNNERS-UP: The Lost Pines, The Fireants, Sarah Jarosz, Warren Hood & the Hoodlums, South Austin Jug Band, Flatcar Rattlers, The Belleville Outfit, Ruby Jane, Green Mountain Grass

by Chronicle Staff

Best Punk

RUNNERS-UP: Lower Class Brats, Krum Bums, The Dicks, Opposite Day, Riverboat Gamblers, Adrian & the Sickness, Cruiserweight, The Midgetmen, Mocktigers

by Chronicle Staff

Best Radio Music Program

RUNNERS-UP: Chillville, Ray Seggern, 101X; The Bobby Bones Show, KISS FM; The Charle Hodge Half-Time Show, KLBJ; Eklektikos, John Aielli, KUT; KASE Morning Crew, Bama, Rob, and Heather, KASE 101; Dudley and Bob Morning Show, KLBJ; KGSR in the Morning, Bryan Beck, KGSR; JB and Sandy in the Morning, Mix 94.7; No Control, Chuck Loesch,…

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

SUB POP Seattle’s Sub Pop Records has always boasted an eclectic roster of artists. This year’s showcase could be described as downright schizophrenic. Wolf Parade guitarist Dan Boeckner and wife Alexei Perry’s side project, Handsome Furs, goes through the indie looking glass darkly with Face Control, the follow-up to 2007 debut Plague Park. The Montreal…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records: deEP End

Deradoorian Mind Raft EP (Lovepump United) Debut solo EP by Angel Deradoorian softens the sonic chunks of her day band, Brooklyn’s Dirty Projectors. Deradoorian’s entrancing vocals, the perfect complement to the music, recalls a more come-hither Portishead (“Holding Pattern”) and drones with mysticism (closer “Moon”). More from her. (Sat., Mohawk, 8:50pm.) Violens (Cantora) If the…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Records

Dent May The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele (Paw Tracks) Dent May’s debut goes far in redeeming the unfairly maligned reputation of the ukulele, achieved less from his handling of the instrument than through the more ambitious pop arrangements of Good Feeling. The Mississippi native’s dramatic croon mocks Morrissey through…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

Kat Edmonson Take to the Sky (Convivium) Kat Edmonson is a rare talent: A jazz singer whose voice transcends the standards. That allows the nine covers on the 25-year-old’s debut to develop a different hue with each reworking. The Austinite’s golden pipes landed her an audition on American Idol a few years ago, but here…

by Audra Schroeder

International Bands

King Khan & the Shrines Thu., El Sol y la Luna, 12mid; Fri., Emo’s Main, 1am King Khan, lead growler for soul collective the Shrines and one-half of the King Khan & BBQ Show, riffs on his adopted home of Berlin: “Someone told me once that Berlin was built on sand, and for the past…

by Chronicle Staff

I Love You, Man

Paul Rudd stars in this “bromance” comedy in which sweet scenes of male camaraderie contrast with moments of gross-out humor.

by Josh Rosenblatt

Best Blues

RUNNERS-UP: Blues Mafia, Porterdavis, Gary Clark Jr., Guy Forsyth, Van Wilks, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, W.C. Clark, Pinetop Perkins, Eric Tessmer Band

by Chronicle Staff

Best Rock

RUNNERS-UP: Bob Schneider, Alejandro Escovedo, Alpha Rev, Mothers Anthem, Vallejo, Monte Montgomery, Patrice Pike, The Octopus Project, Spoon

by Chronicle Staff

Best Radio Personality

RUNNERS-UP: Ray Seggern, 101X; Bobby Bones, KISS; Charlie Hodge, KLBJ; John Aielli, KUT; Rob Mason, KASE; Dale Dudley, KLBJ; Bryan Beck, KGSR; Jason Dick, 101X; Paul Ray, KUT

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

Western Vinyl Over the past decade, Austin’s Western Vinyl has developed into a modern metropolis of indie rock and ambient music. The latest crop only reiterates the label’s breadth and beauty. Like a dark horse on a crooked mile, Brooklyn duo Callers kicks up dusty folk-blues on its intensely intimate debut, Fortune. Sara Lucas saddles…

by Austin Powell

Mr. Smarty Pants Knows

A chimp on four legs can easily outrun a world-class human sprinter. The English name “dandelion” is a corruption of the French name for that weed, “dent de lion” or “lion’s tooth,” from its coarsely toothed leaves. In 1730, Benjamin Franklin acknowledged an illegitimate son named William. Peking Man, believed to have lived as early…

by Mr. Smarty Pants

SXSW Records

Mark Olson & Gary Louris Ready for the Flood (New West) For Jayhawks die-hards, the simple fact that Mark Olson and Gary Louris are making music together again is nothing short of ecstatic. Ready for the Flood, their first studio collaboration in nearly 15 years, may generate a little less enthusiasm. The duo’s harmonies remain…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

Razorlight Slipway Fires (Vertigo) Laws of diminishing return don’t bend in the face of Johnny Borrell’s bedroom croon, but Razorlight’s Slipway Fires manages a glow even in low light. Between the two best tracks that bookend the UK quartet’s third LP struggles an album slighter than the last, which was already thinner than the first.…

by Raoul Hernandez

Res Publica

Thursday19 LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS RECEPTION with special guest Mary G. Wilson, national president of the LWV, in town to talk to legislators about voter ID bills. 6pm. First Unitarian Universalist Church, 4700 Grover, 249-7012. www.lwvaustin.org. Friday20 MOBILE LOAVES & FISHES STREET RETREAT is the first of three such retreats this spring giving participants the…

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film

The Least of These Documentary Feature, Lone Star States D: Clark Lyda, Jesse Lyda Regular Chronicle readers already know about the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facility up in Williamson County that used to house immigrant and asylum-seeking families as their appeals go through the courts. That makes Hutto…

by Richard Whittaker

Day Party Crawl

Urban Outfitters In-Store Urban Outfitters, Thursday, March 19 Never mind that most folks in the crowd looked like they had purchased and put on an outfit at this university-area clothier. Countering was this bill of hipster-attracting buzz bands, like Calgary quartet Women, which started off the day. Their self-titled Jagjaguwar debut is a short, sweet…

by Audra Schroeder

Best Country

RUNNERS-UP: Dale Watson & His Lone Stars, Kevin Fowler, Asleep at the Wheel, The Band of Heathens, Chaparral, Hayes Carll, The Derailers, Alvin Crow, Heybale!

by Chronicle Staff

Best Roots Rock

RUNNERS-UP: Reckless Kelly, The Gourds, The Band of Heathens, The Mother Truckers, James McMurtry, Two Hoots & a Holler, The Fireants, Topaz & Mudphonic, Guy Forsyth

by Chronicle Staff

Best Radio Station

RUNNERS-UP: 101X, 101.5FM; KUT, 90.5FM; KLBJ, 93.7FM; KISS, 96.7FM; KASE, 100.7FM; KOOP, 91.7 FM; KVET, 98.1FM; KVRX, 91.7FM; KAZI, 88.7FM

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

The Decemberists The Hazards of Love (Capitol) So different from the carefree pop of “Valerie Plame” yet similar in format to the Decemberists’ 2006 Capitol debut, The Crane Wife, The Hazards of Love pulses an American song cycle in Brit-folk drag. That’s tough territory to plumb given that the celebrated troupe tills the Pacific Northwest,…

by Margaret Moser

SXSW Records

Danny Schmidt Instead the Forest Rose to Sing (Red House) For Instead the Forest Rose to Sing, his debut for St. Paul, Minn.-based Red House Records and second LP overall, Austin’s Danny Schmidt combines his literate, poetic side with his more melodic, straightforward capabilities. The results are disarming, occasionally brilliant, and sporadically aggravating. With appropriate…

by Jim Caligiuri

Arts Review

Stories told this well don’t come around very often, and this one deserves to be seen

by Barry Pineo

SXSW Records

The Felice Brothers Yonder Is the Clock (Team Love) Helmed by siblings Ian, Simone, and James, eldest of seven tumbling down from New York’s Catskill Mountains, the Felice Brothers re-create their own Basement Tapes with a loose roots style and Ian’s plodding and gritty vocals. The quintet’s fourth LP opens dirgelike with the beautifully disillusioned…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

Telekinesis Telekinesis! (Merge) For a band that drafts so closely behind Death Cab for Cutie, Telekinesis’ brilliant career launch of having Chris Walla produce its debut LP doesn’t do much to distinguish the band from its idols. Principally the project of Seattle’s Michael Benjamin Lerner, who even looks like a young Ben Gibbard, Telekinesis unabashedly…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Film

The Dungeon Masters Documentary Feature, Special Screenings D: Keven McAlester If a group of friends gets together once a week for years to swap stories and share a meal, they’re sociable. Put a Dungeons & Dragons rule book in the middle of the table, and suddenly they’re written off as socially malformed. Rather than picking…

by Richard Whittaker

Live Shots

Dappled Cities The Ranch, Thursday, March 19 Maybe Australians don’t do subtle understatement. An epic country produces epic music. Or so it seems based on Dappled Cities’ showcase. There was nary a moment of quiet introspection, no yearning love songs that inspired pin-drop quiet in the hypermasculine bar, a suitable venue for a band from…

by Melanie Haupt

Day Party Crawl

Cheapo 11th Anniversary Day Party Cheapo Discs, Thursday, March 19 If the relationship between indie music and record stores needed a textbook example, Thursday’s day party at Cheapo Discs delivered with multiple exclamation points. Nashville, Tenn.-based opener Willie Heath Neal shook the sleep out with a firebrand hybrid of rockabilly and classic country. Neal’s ornery…

by Greg Beets

Best Cover Band

RUNNERS-UP: Mysterious Ways, Skyrocket!, Radiostar, Lost in Austin, StABBA, Big Balls, Mystic Knights of the Sea, The Frank Gomez Band, The Spazmatics

by Chronicle Staff

Best Teen Band

RUNNERS-UP: Sarah Jarosz, Jenny Wolfe, High on Hot Dogs, Avenging Poor Yorick, Carson Brock Group, Cheap Fire, Joker, Khabele Jazz Band, Silver Thistle Austin Youth Pipes & Drums

by Chronicle Staff

Best Record Producer

RUNNERS-UP: Gurf Morlix; Ray Benson and Carolyn Wonderland for Miss Understood, Carolyn Wonderland; Tony Visconti for Real Animal, Alejandro Escovedo; Adrian Quesada for Sonidos Gold, Grupo Fantasma; Reckless Kelly for Bulletproof, Reckless Kelly; James McMurtry for Just Us Kids, James McMurtry; Brad Jones for Trouble in Mind, Hayes Carll; Monty Hitchcock for Monte Montgomery; Jason…

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

M. Ward Hold Time (Merge) M. Ward’s dusky drawl now carries all the comfort and familiarity of his threadbare sweaters. Yet for all the vintage analog atmosphere, the Portland, Ore., songwriter’s sixth album continues to expand his Americana template with more of the classic AM pop sensibilities shown on 2006’s Post-War and flooding last year’s…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

Elvis Perkins in Dearland (XL) If Elvis Perkins’ 2007 debut, Ash Wednesday, was mournfully tinged by the memory of his parents (actor Anthony Perkins and photographer/9-11 victim Berry Berenson), then his follow-up feels more like a proper celebratory wake. Perkins’ funereal, imagistic pull still haunts the album, but bolstered into the Elvis Perkins in Dearland…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit (Lightning Rod) Jason Isbell’s second effort since his departure (or whatever it was) from the Drive-by Truckers unveils his new band. The guitarist has dubbed it the 400 Unit, after a psychiatric facility in his hometown of Florence, Ala., a winning metaphor for a rock band if there ever…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

Iran Dissolver (Narnack) Conceived more than a decade ago as the noise-pop project of Aaron Aites, the difference between Iran’s 2003 opus, The Moon Boys – the first to feature TV on the Radio guitarist Kyp Malone – and third LP Dissolver is comparable to the quantum leap from Beck’s Mellow Gold to Odeley. The…

by Austin Powell

SXSW Showcases

Hometapes 7pm, Habana Bar Hometapes might have relocated from Brooklyn to Portland, Ore., but they’ve still got a digit on cross-cultural pulse. Danish headliners Slaraffenland and former tourmates Efterklang return with spaced-out mood music and whimsical chamber rock, respectively. Quintet Slaraffenland dropped EP Sunshine last fall, and a new LP is forthcoming. North Carolina trio…

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film

St. Nick Narrative Feature, Emerging Visions D: David Lowery; with Tucker Sears, Savanna Sears, Barlow Jacobs, Mara Lee Miller It’s never clear exactly what they’re running from, but the unflappable young brother and sister in St. Nick who’ve loosed themselves from all routine obligations – school, parents, those annoying childhood chores – are running from…

by Clay Smith

Day Party Crawl

Other Music/Dig For Fire Party French Legation Museum, Thursday, March 19 Three bands into its 12-act bill, the Other Music/Dig for Fire party was running 30 minutes behind schedule. No big whoop for those who plan to camp out, majorly annoying for those who have a carefully planned agenda. (Note to self: Abandon carefully planned…

by Melanie Haupt

Best DJ

RUNNERS-UP: DJ Mel, Jesse Brede, DJ Tako, DJ Manny, DJ Veg, DJ Bigface, DJ Chicken George, Heart & Soul Soundsystem, Rapid Ric

by Chronicle Staff

Best World Music

RUNNERS-UP: Rattletree Marimba, The Tea Merchants, Gypzee Heart, Ghandaia, Oliver Rajamani, Lannaya West African Drum & Dance Ensemble, Silver Thistle Pipes & Drums, The Austin Klezmorim, Govinda

by Chronicle Staff

Best Record Store

RUNNERS-UP: Cheapo Discs, End of an Ear, Antone’s Record Shop, Sound on Sound, Encore, Snake Eyes Vinyl, Half Price Books, Backspin Records, Breakaway Records

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

Glasvegas (Columbia) Swamped in distorted Eurotrash feedback, Glasvegas frontman James Allen comes on like Glasgow’s Eddie Vedder. Although his quartet’s first LP has boozy punch, even with two bonus tracks, the Scots’ eponymous debut still feels padded. (Just ignore the spoken-word and piano exercise “Stabbed.”) Nevertheless, Allen’s lyrics and delivery, loaded with Proclaimers’ burr and…

by Dan Oko

SXSW Records

Justin Townes Earle Midnight at the Movies (Bloodshot) It’s hard not to benchmark Justin Townes Earle by his name. Neither a maverick like his father, Steve, nor a transcendentalist like his namesake, Austin’s late Townes Van Zandt, Earle is rather something of a classicist. Midnight at the Movies, like 2008’s The Good Life, consists largely…

by Daniel Mee

SXSW Records

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (Slumberland) Like a summer crush circa 1989, Brooklyn’s Pure at Heart churns out precocious twee pop served sunny-side up. A fleshed-out collection of singles, the quartet’s eponymous debut nestles up nicely beside that of its Slumberland forebearers (Velocity Girl, Black Tambourine), not to mention early Joy Division and…

by Austin Powell

SXSW Records

Titus Andronicus The Airing of Grievances (XL) “Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ” opens Titus Andronicus’ debut LP with all the force of Hunter S. Thompson, its buried verse exploding with a “fuck you” that unleashes a raucous punk screed. Powered by hyperliterate allusions (John Donne, Cormac McCarthy) as much as by a Pogues-like stomp,…

by Doug Freeman

International Bands

Canadian Dance-Off MSTRKRFT (Sat., Radio Room Patio, 1am) DFA 1979 bassist Jesse F. Keeler’s Toronto DJ duo with Al Puodziukas. Deadmau5 (Wed., La Zona Rosa, 11:30pm) Say “Dead mouse.” Torontonian Joel Zimmerman as progressive house/trance DJ. Felix Cartal (Sat., Radio Room Patio, 10pm) MSTRKRFT tourmate Cartal brings hard-hitting electro from Vancouver. Jokers of the Scene…

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film

Four Boxes Narrative Feature, Emerging Visions D: Wyatt McDill; with Justin Kirk, Terryn Westbrook, Sam Rosen Two cynical prigs (Kirk and Rosen) who run a business liquidating dead people’s estates on the Internet say, at the beginning of Four Boxes, that they’ve hit the jackpot: A stranger has died, with no relatives to claim his…

by Clay Smith

Day Party Crawl

End of An Ear In-Store End of an Ear, Thursday, March 19 Having missed the fun but idiotically named We Were Promised Jetpacks, I begin the day with DM Stith, who does a falsetto-heavy take on the neo-Nick Drake style, with complex, intelligent melodies and singing that’s quite good. A cover of the Ronettes’ “Be…

by Daniel Mee

Best Experimental

RUNNERS-UP: More Cowbell, The Octopus Project, John Pointer, Ghostland Observatory, BoomboxATX, Baron Grod, Chant, Opposite Day, Shuttle Debris

by Chronicle Staff

Best Acoustic Guitar

RUNNERS-UP: Monte Montgomery; John Pointer; Bob Schneider; Guy Forsyth; Rich Brotherton; Kimberly Freeman, One-Eyed Doll; Gordy Quist; Jeff Moore; Rick del Castillo, Del Castillo

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film

Say My Name Documentary Feature, Documentary Competition D: Nirit Peled; with MC Lyte, Chocolate Thai, Monie Love, Roxanne Shante, Erykah Badu, Estelle, Georgia Girls, Sparky Dee “Female MCs’ names have always been larger than their record deals,” says MC Lyte in this beautifully constructed document of women hip-hop artists. That might even be stretching it:…

by Cindy Widner

SXSW Film

Daytime Drinking Narrative Feature, Special Screenings D: Noh Young-seok; with Song Sam-dong, Yuk Sang-yuep, Kim Kang-hee, Tak Sueng-jun, Lee Lan-hee Sometime near the middle of Daytime Drinking, stranded somewhere close to the middle of nowhere, lead twentysomething Hyuk-jin (Sam-dong) realizes the owner of the pension where he’s been staying has mistaken him for someone else.…

by Cindy Widner

Day Party Crawl

Music Made By Women Ms. Bea’s, Wednesday Organized by Finally Punk/the Carrots singer Veronica Ortuño and NYC all-ages promoter Todd P, Wednesday’s female-focused showcase promised youthful energy early on when 21-year-old UK singer/guitarist Mica Levi, aka Micachu, and her twopiece band, the Shapes (keys and drums), doled out spirited racket from excellent Rough Trade debut…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Film

Along Came Kinky … Texas Jewboy for Governor Documentary Feature, Lone Star States D: David Hartstein This is a must-see for political junkies and should be required viewing for aspiring candidates of all stripes. Austin filmmaker Hartstein takes us on an illuminating ride on the Kinky trail, where we see a much more personal side…

by Amy Smith

SXSW Film

The Way We Get By Documentary Feature, Documentary Competition D: Aron Gaudet Senior citizens Bill, Joan, and Jerry know that “what now?” feeling, the loss of identity and purpose that comes after a long, full life – after “mission accomplished.” Their waning lives change forever after they join the Maine Troop Greeters, a group committed…

by Kate X Messer

Day Party Crawl

SESAC DAY STAGE Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 18 The first seven acts of the SESAC Day Stage’s four-day shuffle through 48 South by Southwest showcasers proved a crash course in eclecticism. Madrid a cappella wiz Hyperpotamus, crutched by four microphones and a bevy of foot petals, kicked off the Music Conference’s official portion by…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Film

The Promised Land Documentary Feature, 24 Beats per Second D: Matthew Wilkinson For the purposes of describing swamp pop’s melting pot of Cajun, zydeco, blues, and rock, the word “gumbo” has hereby been banned forever – especially since the genre is, instead, so exquisitely compared herein to the mighty Mississippi River: subject to “all the…

by Kate X Messer

SXSW Film

Sons of a Gun Documentary Feature, Documentary Competition D: Rivkah Beth Medow, Greg O’Toole The documentary opens with facts about Americans suffering from mental illnesses – how many are actually being helped by the government and how many are left to find housing and work on their own. Had I not read the press material,…

by Kristine Tofte

SXSW Film

Rats and Cats Narrative Feature, Emerging Visions D: Tony Rogers; with Jason Gann, Adam Zwar, Anya Beyersdorf, Paul Denny Intense ex-soap has-been Darren McWarren (Gann) has settled in fictitious Gladdington, where he whittles days away fronting a vanity rock band, driving masseuse Cindy (Beyersdorf) to her tricks, and composing lyrics aloud, midcoitus. From the team…

by Kate X Messer

Ballroom Dancing

Saying the Unsayable with Jarvis Cocker Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 18 Armed with a large wooden pointing stick, ex-Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker straddled the line between rock star and professor Wednesday afternoon with a lecture on lyrics. A standing-room-only crowd packed the session, which kicked off with the seemingly anticlimactic assertion that lyrics aren’t…

by Greg Beets

SXSW Film

Soul Power Documentary Feature, 24 Beats per Second D: Jeffrey Levy-Hinte The “Rumble in the Jungle” was the main event, but this concert in the Congo was a hell of an undercard. The three-day festival in Zaire paired James Brown, B.B. King, and Bill Withers with top African talent before the epic 1974 Ali-Foreman title…

by Thomas Fawcett

Ballroom Dancing

Annoying Things That Bands Do Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 18 A panel title worthy of its own tome, this sit-down was inspired by an airing of grievances from employees of Creepy Crawl, a St. Louis venue that shuttered at the end of 2008 after an 11-year run. Jack McFadden, owner of Brooklyn’s Union Hall…

by Thomas Fawcett

SXSW Film

Zift Narrative Feature, Midnighters D: Javor Gardev; with Zachary Baharov, Tanya Ilieva, Vladimir Penev A sexy Bulgarian film noir that sounds like Kafka translated by Damon Runyan and looks like the Coen Brothers by way of This Gun For Hire, Zift is nothing like what you’d expect to see coming out the ever-restless Balkans. There’s…

by Marc Savlov

Ballroom Dancing

The Loudness Wars Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 18 This one-man panel addressed the escalating attempts by rock bands to have the “loudest” album on radio through the ever-greater application of dynamic range compression, which reduces the difference between the loudest and quietest sounds in a piece of music, enabling a higher average volume. Veteran…

by Daniel Mee

SXSW Film

Garbage Dreams Documentary Feature, Documentary Competition D: Mai Iskander In Cairo, Egypt, population 18 million, there is no municipal garbage service. Residents rely on the Zaballeen, indigenous workers living on the outskirts of the city who, for generations, remove trash for little or no money and make a profit through recycling. Within the past decade,…

by Josh Rosenblatt

Ballroom Dancing

BBQ the Texas Way Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 18 There was no music and sadly no food, but this panel proved that Texans love talking about barbecue almost as much as they love eating it. Moderator and author Joe Nick Patoski, who claimed that the History Channel once called him a “barbecue historian,” kept…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Film

Splinterheads Narrative Feature, Emerging Visions D: Brant Sersen; with Jason Rogel, Thomas Middleditch, Rachael Taylor, Lea Thompson, Christopher McDonald, Frankie Faison From Sersen, who brought us the mockumentary Blackballed (2004 SXSW Film Audience Award), set in the world of competitive paintballing, comes a stab at scripted narrative with Splinterheads, a coming-of-age romantic comedy for the…

by Anne Harris

Ballroom Dancing

Artist as Entrepreneur Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 18 While artists drive the business side of their careers now more than ever, navigating through the intersection of art and commerce for bands has become a complex balance of strategies and available tools. Gathering some of the leading music entrepreneurs of the digital marketplace, including CD…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Film

Sorry, Thanks Narrative Feature, Emerging Visions D: Dia Sokol; with Wiley Wiggins, Kenya Miles, Andrew Bujalski, Ia Hernandez It’s great to see that Wiley Wiggins is still getting work after his debut role as freshman Mitch Kramer in Dazed and Confused, although, 16 years later, he still hasn’t shed his baby-face looks. In Sorry, Thanks,…

by Kristine Tofte

SXSW Film

Bomber Narrative Feature, Narrative Competition D: Paul Cotter; with Shane Taylor, Benjamin Whitrow, Eileen Nicholas The lure of the road movie, with its combination of claustrophobic character analysis and wide-open sets, is undeniable. They serve as necessary reminders that life is about the journey. In Bomber’s case, three family members have different journeys: the father,…

by James Renovitch

SXSW Film

It was great, but I was ready to come home. Narrative Feature, Narrative Competition D: Kris Swanberg; with Swanberg, Jade Healy By turns expansive and claustrophobic, Swanberg’s directorial feature debut is a meditative riff on the nuances of an extended, mostly unspoken conversation between two women as they travel through Costa Rica: Annie (Swanberg), still…

by Cindy Widner

My SXSW

It’s just after midnight on Wednesday morning, and I just woke up from a nap. An evening nap for me is rare, but it’s what today called for after having played KGSR’S Live at Four Seasons show at 7am and then going, going, going all day long. It was my first time playing it, and…

by Suzanna Choffel

SXSW Film

Exterminators Narrative Feature, Lone Star States D: John Inwood; with Heather Graham, Jennifer Coolidge, Amber Heard This black comedy, filmed in and around Austin, succeeds thanks to the delightful performance of Coolidge as Stella, one of several disparate women who meet in a court-appointed anger-management class. The women have one thing in common: Their no-good…

by Belinda Acosta

SXSW Film

Exterminators Narrative Feature, Lone Star States D: John Inwood; with Heather Graham, Jennifer Coolidge, Amber Heard This black comedy, filmed in and around Austin, succeeds thanks to the delightful performance of Coolidge as Stella, one of several disparate women who meet in a court-appointed anger-management class. The women have one thing in common: Their no-good…

by Belinda Acosta

SXSW Film

Made in China Narrative Feature, Narrative Competition D. Judi Krant; with Jackson Kuehn, Dan Sumpter, Syna Zhang, Deng Jung Novelties are the benchmark of a great society, proclaims starry-eyed inventor Johnson (Kuehn). But he’s no Da Vinci or Edison: His genius lies in the realm of sneezing powder, pet rocks, and Slinkies – the pieces…

by Richard Whittaker

Day Party Crawl

Leonard Cohen Tribute Waterloo Records, Wednesday, March 18 More than a dozen artists paid tribute to the poetic force of nature that is Leonard Cohen at Austin’s premier music retailer. Former Apple Records A&R man Peter Asher kicked things off by celebrating the appearance of his own artists the Webb Sisters, who have been touring…

by Dan Oko

SXSW Film

Goodbye Solo Narrative Feature, Spotlight Premieres D: Ramin Bahrani; with Souléymane Sy Savané, Red West In 2008, based on the acclaim he had received for his stylish character studies, Chop Shop and Man Push Cart, Bahrani received the Someone to Watch Award at the Independent Spirits. He surpasses his previous output with Goodbye Solo, a…

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Day Party Crawl

‘Bitch’ Magazine/Kill Rock Stars Club de Ville, Wednesday, March 18 Here’s a question for Bitch, the Portland, Ore.-based feminist pop-culture watchdog hosting today’s shindig: Where were the women? Granted, the opening act, Explode Into Colors, is an all-girl atmospheric rock outfit, but on the whole, today’s players composed a sausage-fest. Portland’s all-male the Shaky Hands…

by Melanie Haupt

Luv Doc Recommends: Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Cold War Kids, and M. Ward

You can break South by Southwest attendees down into basically two categories: people who think they’re cooler than you and people who actually are cooler than you. Both categories are goddamned annoying. In fact, it is a huge struggle not to sulk around all week in a misanthropic funk, brooding like Robert Pattinson in Twilight,…

by The Luv Doc

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