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Kiki’s Delivery Service

Kiki’s Delivery Service 1989, G, 103 min. D: Hayao Miyazaki. A young witch in training runs an air-courier service during her mandatory year of independent life.

by Chronicle Staff

All Night Long

Gary Clark Jr. La Zona Rosa, March 14 The lights shine brighter these days, but the game’s still the same: Gary Clark Jr. plays the hell out of his guitar. Headlining a Warner Music showcase that included Dr. John and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., Austin’s native son – whose Bright Lights EP last summer had…

by Chase Hoffberger

All Night Long

Michael Kiwanuka St. David’s Historic Sanctuary, March 16 Downtown during South by Southwest is best described as total fucking chaos, an unrelenting assault on the senses. Michael Kiwanuka’s soft, sweet acoustic set in St. David’s Historic Sanctuary was a blissful respite from the madness and a perfect pairing of artist and venue. Accompanied only by…

by Thomas Fawcett

400 Rabbits

In addition to turning out the full menu for customers in the Slaughter theatre’s eight auditoriums, the newest kitchen will also produce the food served in 400 Rabbits, the theatre’s stand-alone cocktail lounge. Featuring an “Aztec deco” design by Joel Mozersky, 400 Rabbits also boasts a tequila-centric cocktail program developed by corporate beverage director Bill…

by Virginia B. Wood

All Night Long

Ray Wylie Hubbard, Billy Joe Shaver White Horse, March 14 There’s something sublimely poetic in having Ray Wylie Hubbard and Billy Joe Shaver christen new Eastside hipster honky-tonk the White Horse on the opening night of South by Southwest. That significance certainly wasn’t lost on the staff, taking shots behind the bar, nor the patrons,…

by Doug Freeman

All Night Long

The Men Barbarella, March 16 About two songs into the Men’s early Friday afternoon set on Barbarella’s back patio, near the end of “Turn It Around,” there were a few moments when charging the stage and leveling the bass player seemed like an absolutely reasonable course of action. He hadn’t done anything provocative beyond play…

by Michael Bertin

All Night Long

Cotton Mather The Ginger Man, March 15 It’s almost a truism of South by Southwest that some of the best shows come from nonofficial showcases. So it was with Austin’s Cotton Mather, who delivered a damn near transcendent set in the dinnertime slot at the Blurt/Dogfish Head party on the Ginger Man patio. Celebrating the…

by Michael Toland

All Night Long

Spoek Mathambo Red 7, March 16 South African sonic scavenger Spoek Mathambo is a master of genres. Listen closely and you’ll hear everything from hip-hop and Afrobeat to dub and rock. All this and more was evident at Friday’s Sub Pop showcase, but many of the commingled nuances that make Mathambo’s music intriguing got buried…

by Greg Beets

All Night Long

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 Copa, March 15 If you showed up at the scheduled 12:30am start time for Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, you would have waited an hour and 15 minutes to hear the youngest son and former band of late Nigerian superstar Fela Kuti. The lineup of African music ran behind schedule…

by Thomas Fawcett

All Night Long

Spoek Mathambo Red 7, March 16 “Free your ass and your mind will follow” were George Clinton’s famous words in 1970. Forty-two years later, eclectic 27-year-old South African rapper/producer Spoek Mathambo fully embraces the Funkadelic gospel. “Are we going to fly?” asked Mathambo, before leading his driving quartet through a holy mash-up of soul, funk,…

by Dan Oko

All Night Long

The Jesus & Mary Chain The Belmont, March 15 Taking the stage with, “We’re the Jesus & Mary Chain, and we’re here to ruin your evening,” the pioneering noise-pop UK combo launched into a hits-heavy set with the midtempo groover “Snakedriver.” Coming after an amped-up performance by the Arkells, the Scottish group seemed subdued, but…

by Michael Toland

All Night Long

Nat Geo Showcase The Stage on Sixth, March 17 An impressive roster of acts from around the world provided nonstop global grooves thanks to separate indoor and outdoor stages and overlapping sets. Los Angeles via Colombia quartet Palenke Soultribe kick-started the night with glitchy electro-cumbia and a cheeky cover of “Funky Town” before local Latin…

by Thomas Fawcett

Food Events

Eating out to help the homebound and the Big Hair County Fair in this week’s helping of food events

by Virginia B. Wood

All Night Long

Twerps Beale Street Tavern, March 15 Performing for a small audience in the shadow of an Elvis statue on a stage not much larger than a king-size bed, Melbourne, Australia-based foursome Twerps closed out Thursday night with a short set of altogether affable Flying Nun-style indie-pop that made you feel like you were among friends.…

by Greg Beets

All Night Long

Paul Collins Beat With Peter Case Easy Tiger Patio, March 17 “This is a song Peter and I wrote in Los Angeles, back when we had no money,” declared Paul Collins before launching into “All Across the USA.” “We’re gonna do it now when we still have no money.” Since the Knack’s brief chart run,…

by Michael Toland

Day Trips

Clark Gardens Botanical Park is a place where the ordinary becomes part of the colorful tapestry of extraordinary

by Gerald E. McLeod

All Night Long

Dan Deacon Beauty Bar Backyard, March 15 I went into Dan Deacon’s third or fourth South by Southwest set on Thursday night under the impression that he’s a visionary in the field of electronic experimentation and left with the understanding that he’s really a party act. That’s not a bad thing, of course. I had…

by Melanie Haupt

All Night Long

Bob Mould Mohawk, March 17 There are a few takeaways from Bob Mould’s set at the Saturday’s Mog party: A) Mould is starting to show his age; B) He looks better now than he did 20 years ago; C) Copper Blue holds up pretty well; maybe there’s also D) “Wow, he was young when Hüsker…

by Michael Bertin

All Night Long

The Standells Buffalo Billiards, March 17 Unlike the wholesale imposters billing themselves as the Standells at the Electric Lounge in the mid-Nineties, the quartet that played Saturday’s showcase were at least sort of the real thing. Led by original keyboardist/vocalist Larry Tamblyn and Sixties-era bassist John Fleck (who was an early member of Love), the…

by Greg Beets

All Night Long

Quiet Company, Guards, Givers Chevrolet Sound Garage, March 17 Two songs into Guards’ midshowcase set, the New York quintet seemed ready to walk off the stage as piercing feedback ripped through “Crystal Truth.” Then, the band realized the unbearable sound came not from the monitors but the smoke detector it had set off. Credit the…

by Doug Freeman

The Luv Doc: Friends

Dear Luv Doc, Last week, my friend from St. Louis – who I said could come stay with me during South by Southwest – called and asked if he could bring a “friend” that I don’t even know. I said “yes” because I didn’t want to seem like an asshole, but how do I avoid…

by Chronicle Staff

Mr. Smarty Pants Knows

Astronauts lose their sense of smell in space. Jackie Gleason didn’t like to rehearse for episodes of The Honeymooners. Aluminum used to be more precious than gold because it was hard to extract from ores. The cap of the Washington Monu­ment is made from 100 ounces of pure aluminum. The invention of the Hall-Héroult process…

by Mr. Smarty Pants

All Night Long

Norah Jones La Zona Rosa, March 17 Ten years after launching her breathtaking Come Away With Me at South by Southwest, Norah Jones effectively turned her set into a listening party for her forthcoming album, Little Broken Hearts, which drops May 1. Taking the stage a full 30 minutes past the published start time due…

by Melanie Haupt

W.E.

Madonna helms this movie about the scandalous marriage of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson.

by Kimberley Jones

All Night Long

Nneka Stage on Sixth, March 17 Two years ago, politically minded Nigerian soul powerhouse Nneka played South by Southwest with a bum leg. This year, she showed up standing tall with a new album, Soul Is Heavy, and perhaps something extra to prove. Facing a time crunch and technical difficulties, however, Nneka first had to…

by Dan Oko

All Night Long

Nas ACL Live at the Moody Theater, March 17 It was a set made for a Broadway show: two faded, red-brick project buildings, a bus stop and subway entrance, two trash bags and a black-and-silver fire hydrant, and neighborhood boys sitting on park benches with bottles of Dom in hand. The scene was a remake…

by Chase Hoffberger

Quote of the Week

“They can’t just say, ‘I love babies, and I love public schools.'” – Allen Weeks, on Save Texas Schools’ mission to hold Legis­lat­ive candidates accountable for their campaign rhetoric

by Chronicle Staff

All Night Long

GZA & Brownout Haven, March 17 “This is the first time we’ve done this,” GZA admitted after he and ATX groove line Brownout dropped megaton bombs together on his 1995 classic, Liquid Swords. “We ain’t had much time to practice.” Truthfully, you’d have thought they’d been at it years. Looking locked-in and very excited about…

by Chase Hoffberger

Headlines

› City Council meets today (Thursday) with a relatively light but possibly meaty agenda: The morning features a briefing on the redevelopment of the Green Water Treatment Plant site, and the afternoon brings formal consideration of the tax incentives for Apple Inc.’s proposed expansion of its Parmer Lane campus. See “Point Austin,” and “How Many…

by Chronicle Staff

All Night Long

Hobart Brothers with Lil’ Sis Hobart Continental Club, March 17 They live in separate cities and have separate careers, so their official showcase, the ninth performance of the week they pointed out, might be the last for a while. A supergroup of sorts, the Hobart Brothers with Lil’ Sis Hobart are local guitarist-songwriter-raconteur Jon Dee…

by Jim Caligiuri

All Night Long

Following up our massive South by Southwest Music issue last week were the Chronicle’s now-standard three daily supplements on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, all with added Festival previews and dozens of reviews of panels, day parties, and showcases. Congratulations on surviving the annual music bacchanalia.

by Raoul Hernandez

Civics 101

Thursday 22 SEYMOUR HERSH gives a progress report at Year Ten of the Global War on Terrorism. UT’s Plan II Honors Program hosts. 7pm. AT&T Executive Con­ference Center, 1900 University Ave., 404-1900. Free. Saturday 24 SAVE TEXAS SCHOOLS RALLY Just say no to crowded classrooms, teacher layoffs, higher college tuitions, reduced financial aid, overtesting, and…

by Chronicle Staff

All Night Long

Electric Eel Shock The Loft, March 17 There’s something inspiring about Electric Eel Shock’s unabashed love for heavy metal. To the band, no song has ever topped Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man.” It was played twice during Electric Eel Shock’s showcase, once as intro music and then again as it ripped through it in double time.…

by Kevin Curtin

Kahaani

In this Hindi film, a heavily pregnant woman travels searches for her missing husband, whom no one has heard of.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

All Night Long

Lionel Richie ACL Live at Moody Theater, March 14 Aside from Thriller, no album was harder to escape in the mid-Eighties than Lionel Richie’s Can’t Slow Down. It was no surprise then to see most everyone mouthing the words to Richie’s cavalcade of hits Wednesday night. The singer, 62, noted that the concert was a…

by Greg Beets

All Night Long

Sounds From Colombia Speakeasy, March 15 Music is still a participatory sport down in Colombia. Chanting “baile, baile, baile (dance, dance, dance)” as nationals in canary-colored soccer jerseys sashayed and threw their hands in the air, the festive, jazzy party line of Cali’s Ancestros proved the ideal replacement for marquee name Quantic, whose arrival into…

by Chase Hoffberger

All Night Long

Donovan Palm Door, March 17 Even though Donovan was a last-minute addition to the Festival, the newly elected member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drew a respectable crowd of fanatics and curiosity seekers. They knew all the words to all the songs and with the 65-year-old Scot’s encouragement sang along as loud…

by Jim Caligiuri

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