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A calendar chock-full of listings for the month of October, from drag shows and film screenings to dance parties, costume balls, and haunted houses.

by Chronicle Staff

ACL Eats Vendor List 2018

Amy’s Ice Creams This local crew has been folding up handcrafted ice creams and vegan fruit ices for 34 years. See the Food Fight!www.amysicecreams.com Austin’s Pizza You can’t go wrong with some simple pepperoni or cheese slices from a hometown favorite.www.austinspizza.com Bananarchy Revolutionary Desserts Frozen bananas dipped in chocolate are practically a health food.www.bananarchy.net Blenders…

by Chronicle Staff

Saturday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

Devonté Hynes’ latest as Blood Orange explores how it feels to be othered and gives hope to an existence rife with wrongful prejudice. “First kiss was the floor,” he laments on opener “Orlando,” then gets sanguine toward the end, assuring “Hold on, yes/ You gonna be okay” on “Runnin’.” Laced together with narratives from Janet…

by Isabella Castro-Cota

Friday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

Natural headline-grabber on Ray Benson and company’s first full-length of Western Swing originals since the fall of the Alamo is set-closing, Red Headed Stranger tribute “Willie Got There First.” As clever as the Avett Brothers’ composition comes off, with Scott and Seth adding their high mountain harmonies, it completely misses New Routes’ stronger thrills: fiddler/co-vocalist…

by Tim Stegall

Sunday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

Character, variety, and drama lift this Athens, Ga., quartet’s debut EP beyond the realm of high indie mundane. Driven by a reverberant piano riff and Emily Braden’s faraway, twang-tinged vocal, “Let It Bleed” documents the darkness of disconnection via a Southern gothic haze. “Oh Honey” takes a sprightly turn, employing an incipient guitar hook, synth…

by Greg Beets

Friday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

With the help of producer Steve Lacy (the Internet), Chicagoan Ravyn Lenae ruminates on love in the digital age. Short and sweet at only 20 minutes, the EP’s dubby, retro strum curls warmly around the singer’s hushed vocals and transitions seamlessly between songs. “Why won’t you love me now?” wonders opener “Sticky.” Her confusion continues…

by Isabella Castro-Cota

Sunday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

So-called for throwing au naturel college shows in Boone, N.C., the Nude Party reveals a sextet committed to unabashedly Stones-ian Seventies rock swagger. On a rowdy, self-titled label debut, their rough-and-tumble energy condenses into succinct, minimalist captures, shaped in production by Black Lips drummer Oakley Munson. Opener “Water on Mars” rolls out Patton Magee’s smooth,…

by Rachel Rascoe

Friday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

American neo-Springsteens having broken on commercially unforgiving shores (Gaslight Anthem, Lucero, the Hold Steady), these Aussies establish their own beachhead of hands in the air with the heart anthems of second LP Go Farther in Lightness. The Sydney fivepiece puts every human emotion on widescreen display, somehow avoiding histrionics in earworms with titles like “Do…

by Michael Toland

Sunday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

Mt. Joy’s eponymous debut proves the Spotify stars from Los Angeles via Philly can craft catchy, campfire sing-alongs (“I’m Your Wreck,” “Silver Lining”), but the indie-folk outfit’s relaxed guitar strumming is less memorable. The friends from way back turned Lumineers roster brothers cite Neil Young as influences and echo his emotional tone in lyrical focus…

by Christina Garcia

Oops!

Last week’s News story “Glenn Scott Fought for Her Life, and Yours,” about the life of Austin Democratic Socialists of America founding member Glenn Scott, incorrectly identified Louis Malfaro as the former president of Texas American Federation of Teachers. In fact, he is still president of that organization.

by Chronicle Staff

Friday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

Fourth LP from Canadian Tamara Lindeman, Weather Station blends acoustic and electric guitars with iridescent strings and a tasteful rhythm section that frame Lindeman’s gorgeous singing. Midpoint between Joni Mitchell’s folk virtuosity and Suzanne Vega’s progressive pop, her approach would sound vanilla in lesser pipes, but Lindeman’s songwriting transforms “Kept It All to Myself” and…

by Michael Toland

Sunday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

Damon McMahon’s psychedelic-folk catalog shrouds like a veil: a gossamer of somber acoustics, pining lyrics, and ghostly atmospherics. Taking a cue from the classic pop songbook of Tom Petty, the New York-based artist’s fifth album tears through a web as opener “Blue Rose” blooms with lapping, percussive waves crashing with themes of grief, freedom, and…

by Alejandra Ramirez

Mr. Smarty Pants Knows

According to Andrew Dent of Material ConneXion, 95% of every car that goes on the road in the U.S. gets recycled, and about 75% of it actually gets used again. That includes steel and aluminum, but also plastics from the fender and interiors, glass from the windows and windshield, and tires. According to University of…

by Mr. Smarty Pants

Friday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

The candor-filled fourth studio album by unabashed egotist Father John Misty runs decidedly less humorous than 37-year-old caricaturist Josh Tillman’s previous offerings. While still supremely self-important, he probes his emotions like a narcissist at the mirror. The difficulty/trick comes in wondering whether Tillman goes out of his way to trip himself up. “Just Dumb Enough…

by Kahron Spearman

Sunday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

Young London quintet Shame sounds like 1978. Guitars balance between distorted and glimmering, a steady rhythm pulse emphasizing repetition, while frontman Charlie Steen comes off like a reformed punk looking for new challenges. Indeed, Shame’s circumvention of the 21st century might be a drag if it wasn’t so damn good. “Concrete” and “One Rizla” fuse…

by Michael Toland

Friday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

Chicago rapper Fatimah Warner burst through in 2016 with her jazzy debut Telefone, a soulful and genuinely optimistic volume. Sophomore album Room 25 features a deepening of her sound with added edge, commencing immediately on album starter “Self.” At just 35 minutes, she’s now produced one of the tightest and most complete albums of 2018,…

by Kahron Spearman

Sunday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

On Wide Awake!, Parquet Courts uses punk mood swings and Gang of Four-style vocal barking to camouflage some of the prettiest songwriting of their career. Born in Denton in 2009, they traded North Texas for NYC long ago, but still sing with underdog hunger and freshman humor (see “Freebird II”). Had Talking Heads stuck to…

by Dan Gentile

Friday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

Through design or circumstance, David Byrne here flirts with zeitgeist more than his previous solo albums. While not expressly political, American Utopia can’t help playing as a reaction piece. Ostensibly the music for a multimodal project called Reasons to Be Cheerful, the onetime Talking Heads leader doesn’t offer optimism so much as consoling reassurance. Close-mic’d…

by Greg Beets

Sunday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

Janelle Monáe’s sexually ambiguous roboticism comes into its own on her third LP. Featuring liquid-smooth pop funk, it sounds like something from the mind of the Purple One, who lent mentorship and a wah-wah synth line on “Make Me Feel.” Hints of Michael Jackson’s melodic moonwalking lace in the type of hip-hop ennui that will…

by Dan Gentile

Friday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

Iridescence trades the Southern trap palette of 2017 LP trilogy Saturation for a more abstract, yet expansive splatter of futurist techno-trap. Recorded over a 10-day span at Abbey Road Studios with a full choir and orchestra, the fourth album from the Texas collective erases the memory of departed MC Ameer Vann in 15 tracks. Opener…

by Jeremy Steinberger

Sunday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

In the shop for almost three years, Tinashe’s Joyride cruises on today’s pop linchpin, trap beats, and hip-hop. Along for the ride are Offset, Ty Dolla $ign, and French Montana. The 25-year-old Tinashe Kachingwe unleashes deeper, soulful vocals on her title track with velvety R&B delivery, but Joyride’s 10 tracks want for any song as…

by Christina Garcia

Soccer Watch

Tough weekend for the Texas Longhorns on their first Big 12 road trip last weekend, as they absorbed their first loss of the year, 2-1 in overtime at TCU, after a scoreless draw at Oklahoma State. They’re still ranked 13th in the nation, and try to live up to that in another pair of road…

by Nick Barbaro

Sunday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

Founding keyboardist Katie Toupin having departed, Houndmouth totally reinvents its sonics. The remaining core trio sheds the indie-folk sound that defined their previous two LPs in favor of big, bright beats, more synth-pop than Americana ballads. “This Party” and “Waiting for the Night” set the Indiana outfit’s new danceable direction: angst-distraction in an electro-buzz. Phoenix-like…

by Doug Freeman

Sunday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

Living between two cultures can be alienating, but Camila Cabello packages her experience as a Cuban-American seamlessly into pure pop perfection. Employing reggaeton, salsa, and contradanza in her production, obvious standout “Havana” features Young Thug with its irresistibly sultry tropical thumps, and moombahton – a house and reggaeton fusion – defines “She Loves Control.” Softer…

by Isabella Castro-Cota

Sunday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

Prepare for liftoff and enter “warpspeed chic” as shimmering keyboards and muffled tom toms orbit frontman Alex Turner’s lunar suite in opener “Star Treatment.” Unlike the torn-denim thrills of AM (2013), the L.A.-UK quartet’s sixth full-length glints of Pet Sounds swapping six-string contortions for zero-gravity synths, moonwalk bass, and vintage electronics. The eerie weightlessness of…

by Alejandra Ramirez

Headlines

Austin Already Audits: Today’s City Council agenda (Oct. 4) looks light on time and flashpoints. There may be tweaking of the allocation policy for the Historic Preservation Fund, a resolution for a legislative change to confirm the city’s use of a sobriety center in lieu of arrest, and approval of the city auditor’s audit plan…

by Chronicle Staff

Saturday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

All Nerve dodges every pitfall. Reuniting lead sisters Kim and Kelley Deal with bassist Josephine Wiggs and drummer Jim MacPherson, the Breeders’ fifth LP matches the lineup for iconic 1993 hit Last Splash. Lovely “Spacewoman” and “Dawn: Making an Effort” pin Kim’s soft, candied tone against the weight of atmospheric scuzz, and it never gives.…

by Rachel Rascoe

Saturday ACL Fest 2018 Record Reviews

No longer a Northwestern folk underdog, Carlile’s sixth studio LP – produced by Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings – proves her most stunning. Her powerful swells peak measured and controlled as she steels against complicated relationships with a graceful nuance and clear confidence. Pain cedes to compassion through openers “Every Time I Hear That Song”…

by Doug Freeman

Quote of the Week

“KUT reporters routinely work more than 40 hours a week to bring our listeners great stories. Last week I worked 51 hours. We just all got a pay cut.” – Audrey McGlinchy, one of many KUT staffers to raise the alarm on Twitter over a new station policy for overtime pay. See “More Off-the-Air Static…

by Chronicle Staff

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