Rollerblades, Saxophones, and Aliens in Max Juren’s Latest Film
“Trying to make a Michael Bay movie and I end up with a sub-Ed Wood movie.”
Austin Filmmakers Announced for Sundance
Several local filmmakers chosen to compete at Sundance 2017
Alejandro Escovedo Grinds Axes at ACL
Austin escapee kicks out the jams in his fifth taping for PBS
Sadie Dupuis, Slugger
“Is rape culture sexy? That’s what’s reinforced by pop music”
The Mystery: What’s on Kleinfeld’s List?
10 classic solutions to which crimes are worth reading about
Statesman Cuts Arts Staff
Arts critic Jeanne Claire van Ryzin terminated after 17 years
Vela to Dukes: Resign “Immediately”
Candidate tells rep. to consider values, interests of constituents
DVDanger: Dead Ringers
Re-examining Cronenberg’s overlooked masterpiece now on Blu-ray
These New Crime Thrillers Make Killer Presents
Following the deadly stalkers through the stacks of Mulholland
Other Worlds and Under Worlds With Bears Fonté
OWA founder adds horror, history, and food to the sci-fi fest
State Health Department Makes Fetal Tissue Rule Final
Anti-choice rule takes effect Dec. 19
Will Johnson Premiere
Lo-fi bard borrows kids’ keyboard for ambient composition
Other Worlds Austin Adds Owen Egerton’s Latest
Plus sci-fi fest’s closing night title, and shorts
Is Austin the Pilsner Capital of America?
Czech your privilege
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Socks are the most requested clothing item at homeless shelters. To be hygienic, they have to be new. The Ghent Altarpiece, also known as The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, is the most stolen work of art in history. In its entirety or in part, it has been stolen seven times, and has been at…
Texas Platters
William Clark Green strikes while the iron’s hot. Capitalizing on the Top 20 country charts success of last year’s fourth LP Ringling Road, the rising Texas kicker doubles down with a 2-CD performance recorded at historic New Braunfels honky-tonk Gruene Hall. WCG delivers best live, the raucous crowd feeding his backing quartet, which roars a…
Quote of the Week
“We can’t normalize [Trump’s] hateful rhetoric … instead of condemning bigotry, he has given it an office in the West Wing.” – District 2 CM Delia Garza at the Law Enforcement, Immigration, and Community Safety Concerns press conference on Thursday, Nov. 17
Council: Here Comes CodeNEXT … Eventually
Office pool projections start at spring of 2018
Playback: Black Friday? End of an Ear!
End of an Ear’s new digs thrive just in time for Black Friday
Texas Platters
Elijah Ford & the Bloom As You Were (Nine Mile) Marc Ford & the Neptune Blues Club The Vulture Getting his professional start locally with Ryan Bingham, Elijah Ford, son of onetime Black Crowes axe slinger Marc Ford, doesn’t follow in his former employer’s roots-soaked footsteps on his second album. California-born/Austin-based, the singer-guitarist favors pop…
“Vivid Strokes: Contemporary Paintings From Vietnam”
In our tumultuous moment, seeing work by artists from nations that have known tragedy our own has not can be enlightening
Sheri Gallo Faces Scrutiny for City Email Use
District 10 council member and her darned emails
Gay Place
These days, your chosen family is more important than ever
Texas Platters
Vermonter Azarian and Dallasite Johnston’s richly textured strain of songwriting first emerged when the two performed together in the Orange Mothers. Since then, the Austin duo have whittled ever closer to the essence of emotions that words usually fail to capture. Whether transmuting a sense of well-being or of queasy foreboding, the primary characteristic of…
Day Trips: San Saba River Nature Park
Take a hike in a historic pecan forest along the San Saba River
Mayor Forms Racism Task Force
With Austin’s long history of systemic racism, why did it take this long?
Texas Platters
Digital diaspora driving consensus into extinction alongside most major record labels, KGSR’s once branding “sound of our town” slogan becomes harder and harder to define as the new millennium rockets by. Younger but ancient of soul, folk-based yet beat driven, keening and intimate concurrently, the station’s sound of 2016 splays seeds of tomorrow over 33…
A Future for the Affordable Care Act?
Foundation Communities: Obamacare is safe through 2017
Chronicle Endorsements
The Chronicle editorial board offers the following endorsements for the Dec. 13 General Election run-off. In all three races, we repeat our picks from the first round. See lots more coverage at austinchronicle.com/elections. Austin City Council District 10: Alison Alter. Alter, a philanthropic adviser, enters the run-off having taken 35.5% of the vote in last…
What’s the Future of Body Cameras in Austin?
That’s up to the courts for now
Texas Platters
Swirling Latin funk into Black Sabbath’s dark arts distortion sounds like a gimmick, but Brownout channeling the British outfit by appending its Afro-Latin psychedelia on Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath Vol. II succeeds like scant few other unholy alliances. Reworking Ozzy Osbourne and company’s genre-birthing doom, Brownout’s initial stab at the Sabs appeared in 2014, a…
Local Wonks Austin Monitor Reach a New Partnership
Charitable monitoring
Page Two: This Too Shall Pass, Or … Ain’t Got Time for That Now
Long confident that the Constitution was smarter than us all, that its deep faith in the people would prevail, even when previous elections seemed disastrous, the feeling was “this too shall pass.” But as never before, despair overrides any belief, as I host a real terror about Trump’s presidency. Calmer voices chide us for such…
Acevedo Out, Manley In, Search for Permanent Chief is On
Police chief leaves after nine-and-a-half years of local service
Texas Platters
“I don’t give a fuck about your cause or your sympathy!” roars Nekrist front-beast Teddow on “Without Scars.” Opening the local metal quartet’s six-song Criminal record, the track’s furiously downstroked riffs match sentiment to aggression. Despite low budget production, drummer Stevie drives the beat deep into the Earth with every hit, guitarist Massie squealing angrily…
Hyperlocal for the Holidays
From shoes to dollhouses to leather goods, these Austin designers are doing it their way
Dec. 13 General Election
Early Voting: Dec. 1-9
APD Lacks Multi-Lingual Officers as Populations Continue to Grow
Who’s speaking your language
Texas Platters
Unexpected collaboration making complete sense, local psychedelic rockers the Bright Light Social Hour meet local psychedelic roots rocker Israel Nash for three songs addressing the toxic politics of undocumented immigrants. “Lupita” essays a couple looking for a better life and the hardships they endure over a soaring musical bed that makes it hard to tell…
Settlement for Cactus Rose
Displaced families will receive compensation for their moves
Horns Fail to Wreak Havoc in Brooklyn
Shaka Smart has one of the youngest teams (and starting lineups) of any Power Five conference school, and yet the Texas program is expected to take a step forward. The agile No. 23 Texas Longhorns came into 2016-17 stacked with long and lean talent, equipped to run Smart’s vaunted “havoc” – a stifling, pit bull…
Point Austin: What’s Past and What’s Present
Capitol events provide a snapshot of current predicaments
Texas Platters
Not in the Face isn’t dead, but Jonathan Terrell makes it increasingly difficult to miss his ATX rock duo given such continued singer-songwriter excellence. A piece with last year’s LP Past the Lights of Town, these four songs get under your skin. Lyrics thick with passion and soundscapes created by producer-guitarist John Evans, Color Me…
AMA Calls for a Nationwide Ban on Coal Tar Sealants
American Medical Association seals the deal
Soccer Watch
U.S.A. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann was fired on Monday, following the team’s dismal start to the final round of World Cup qualifying, losing at home to Mexico, and 0-4 at Costa Rica. And on Tuesday it was announced that U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati has hired LA Galaxy skipper Bruce Arena as the replacement. Arena…
Texas Platters
While most easily pigeonholed into the singer-songwriter slot, Walker Lukens continues defying categorization with this four-song release. When not creating noisy backdrops and playing carnival barker (“Jacket on Ya Shoulders”), the Austinite moves easily into Thin White Duke funk (“Lifted”). Slippery beats and hand claps on the near-gospel title track also show off Lukens’ forward…
Anti-Trans Bill Author Bullies Media
Sen. Konni Burton goes on the attack
Texas Platters
Blue Healer can’t help but be the best adult-contempo band in Austin’s underground. The trio, anchored by David Beck and Bryan Mammel of aborted Americana darlings Sons of Fathers, formed in daring concept: pop music via distorted upright bass and Reagan-era keyboards. Their smoothness, led by Beck’s smoky, lady-killer voice, results in soft rock, synth…
Fake News Story Originates in Austin
See how easy it is to report fake news?
Texas Platters
Sunny dissonance, avant-garde pop, and playful instrumentation informs Smile’s warm sincerity. For an act still in its infancy, the Austin sixpiece demonstrates a remarkably clear idea of its identity on these six debut songs. Opener “All the Things” creeps into fullness, led by the airy harmonies of Annie Long and Mary Bryce, then spins off…
The Hightower Report: Why We Should Reach Across Borders, Not Close Them
Trump’s wall won’t keep undocumented immigrants out
Texas Platters
Now that the Eighties New Wave revival is winding down, time to jump back to the first half of the next decade. Austin’s Economy Island unabashedly mines the sound of the early Nineties, when college rock evolved into alternative and that term hadn’t yet become a marketing gimmick and radio format. Made up, like so…
Police Union Subpoenas Mayor
The state union is charging that Austin’s mayor is trying to influence the arbitration of Geoffrey Freeman
Texas Platters
Acquiring a more straightforward tack for round two, Austin duo Imperialists follows up its debut, the stormy alt-synth pop fusion Arrhythmia, with anthemic synth sweller Who Are You Afraid Of? Co-produced by renowned Austin producer Erik Wofford, the former Ghost of the Russian Empire members’ billowing harmonies and cloudy ambience remain from the first full-length.…
Headlines
City Council met Tuesday to officially canvass the results of the municipal election and set the District 10 run-off for Dec. 13. The next regular meeting is Dec. 1, when (among other things) they will confirm Asst. Chief Brian Manley as interim Austin Police Department Chief, in the wake of Chief Art Acevedo’s acceptance of…
Paul Cauthen’s Deep Country Gospel
Former Sons of Fathers frontman’s solo debut deals out one of the best country albums of the year
Texas Platters
If Attic Ted was something you could eat, it would strike pie holes with the what-the-hell discombobulation of raw oysters and grape jelly. With a $20 Hammond chord organ serving as sonic fulcrum, the San Marcos collective warbles and groans like a living Rube Goldberg device hopped up on ergot alkaloids as they belch forth…
Austin Shakespeare’s Present Laughter
Lifted by wonderful performances, Austin Shakespeare’s take on the Noël Coward backstage comedy is a delight to watch
Blue Genie Art Bazaar: The Movening
Blue Genie Art Bazaar shifts its longtime holiday gift emporium to a new space across from ACC Highland
Review: Picnik
Paleo-friendly concept is virtuous but not holier-than-thou
Texas Platters
Homegrown quintet with an impossibly cool pedigree – LeRoi Brothers, Crack Pipes, Hand of Glory, Poison 13, etc. – Churchwood twists America’s most venerable music form into shapes Delta denizens would never have imagined. Fourth LP Hex City keeps that faith, beginning with a mbira-like clutter, 12-string growl, and sociopolitical noirscape to “You Let the…
Public Notice: Grieve Globally, Act Locally
Texas’ Legislative circus comes to town in just six short weeks
Thanksgiving as a Refugee in America
Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The Luv Doc: In Favor of Waxing
There is far too much hair in the world already
Texas Platters
Eighth disc in 32 years, TH&AH’s Time Has Shown Me has had ample time to craft an impressive scope and diversity. Barring “Seek Strike and Destroy” being a co-write with bassist Brad Fordham, every song’s a Broussard original, their variety of country and rock & roll styles assimilating into a uniquely Texan punkabilly stew. Powerhouse…
Spectrum Dance Theater’s Rambunctious
The company’s program, with a new work inspired by the 1966 UT Tower shooting, spoke powerfully to our present moment
