Cover Story
The Advance’s Retreat
Is this the end for Cinematexas?
Texans Upset Panthers, Face Super Bowl Champs This Sunday on KEYE
Texans win. Titans lose. KEYE to air Texans/Colts game this Sunday at noon. But before we start sending KEYE gift baskets in gratitude remember that the only reason they are airing the Texans this week is because Vince Young and the Titans will be playing the Monday Night Football game on ESPN. It is still…
Nelda Wells Spears’ Dance Party
Eat! Drink! Get Down! Register to vote!
The Special One Is Out
Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho has left the Blues, “by mutual consent,” effective immediately. The move came one day after Chelsea’s disappointing 1-1 home draw in the Champions League against huge underdog Rosenborg, the Norwegian champion. Just this afternoon, an open letter was posted to the Chelsea team website, saying “José did not resign and he…
Richard Thompson, Warrior
Richard Thompson’s back in our arms again.
Don’t Taze Me, Council Member!
Police brutality week continues …
Bye-Bye, Dianne
Rep. Dianne White Delisi to not seek re-election.
Waltzing Matildas
Best game of the tournament this morning, a crackling, back-and-forth elimination game between Commonwealth partners Canada and Australia – that saw the last spot in the quarterfinals go back and forth four times before the Matildas came out on top with a strike in the second minute of stoppage time. Australia held the edge going…
Rep. England to Turn Democrat
Grand Prairie rep thumbs his nose at Craddick
Neeerrrrds!!!!
Nerdcore? In Austin?
The Moral of ‘Body of War’: Don’t Make Precipitous Decisions
I’m sitting here with my pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution, a parting gift I was handed upon my exit from the film Body of War, an eloquent and emotionally moving account of the toll the war in Iraq has had on American soldiers and their families. Co-directed by Austin documentarian and UT professor Ellen…
Women’s World Cup Games Delayed
All four of Wednesday’s Women’s World Cup group games have been postponed one day due to Typhoon Wipha. FIFA yesterday moved the Norway-Ghana and Brazil-Denmark games, both to be played in Hangzhou, to Thursday because of the adverse weather conditions; on game day they decided to postpone Australia-Canada (in Chengdu), and China-Ghana (Tianjin) as well.…
Horsie-faced Tootsie
What a mare! Is Tootsie a whinn-he or a whinn-her?
10,000 Pound Burrito: Chased With 500 Pound Beano Tablet?
Think they’ll be any leftovers?
Vinicius
Vinicius 2005, NR, 110 min. Directed by Miguel Faria Jr. Documentary about Brazilian songwriter and poet Vinicius de Moraes.
We’re All Hipsters Now
Who was Brewster McCracken’s favorite act over ACL weekeend?
UT President on Mack Brown Suspending James Henry
The Score just received a press release from the University of Texas with a statement from UT President William Powers Jr. on Mack Brown’s decision to suspend football player James Henry. Henry has been charged with two felony counts of obstruction and tampering with evidence. Here’s Powers’ statement in full: “I applaud Coach Mack Brown…
Attack of the Teenagers
I’m back from the skateboard store. I’ll leave shortly to go to Walmart to look at iPods or some generic version of it. Grand Theft Auto is hooked up to the Xbox on the plasma TV; I know because I tripped over the controllers left on the floor when Jackass II went into the DVD…
Club ‘Chronicle’ Team Zen Challenge
Your friendly Austin Chronicle and Zen Japanese Food Fast are teaming up to bring you the Club Chronicle Team Zen Challenge. We are looking for people wanting to maybe shake off a few pounds or just live a healthier lifestyle. Not only that, be we are looking for people who have never run a race…
So… 501s Make You Bi?
Is the dude pulling up his Levi’s swingin’ it both ways?
Pink Airplane
Flying to Sydney will tickle you pink.
Horns Squeak by CFU, but Should Pass on the Purple Drank
So another Longhorn goes to jail as his teammates pack for sunny gangsta FLA where they meet a coach best known for lying on his résumé. No worries, you say? The Horns will clobber Central Florida and still have time to work on their Disneyworld tans? Think again. The other night one of the local…
Nothing to LOL About
City on ways to keep your social networking kid safe.
Room for One More?
Former Reagan policy guy Alan Keyes becomes the latest GOP presidential hopeful.
Half a Mil for Sanya Richards
Ex-Horn sprinter splits jackpot with Russian pole vaulter
Bobcats, Bears, and Boko
Paul’s friend figures George Strait is our man. The only way the school forever to be known as Southwest Texas State will make it into Division I football is for some alumni with deep pockets to build a gaudy stadium. I remember seeing Strait wandering around downtown San Marcos when I was in school back…
‘Life, the Universe, and Everything’ Bowl
When you lead the Longhorns to the National College Championship, there’s bound to be some stage of hero worship in the Austin area. It was all dreamy, wasn’t it? Watching the Longhorns slice and dice USC for the grandest prize of prizes. But, this drivel with CBS 42 opting for Tennessee Titans games over the…
PoliticACL
Is there still a place for politics at ACL? Absolutely, it seems.
Clinton City Limits
Who was in the cue for the Bill Clinton signing?
Coming to America
Coming to America 1988, R, 116 min. Directed by John Landis, Starring Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones. Murphy is a pampered African prince in New York in this comedy classic.
ACL: Parting Shots
ACL Day 3.
ACL: Rose Hill Drive
Bands you love whose albums you didn’t – on the next Jerry Springer! Boulder trio Rose Hill Drive left my jaw on the skeezy floor of Emo’s front room the first time I saw them several years ago. They’ve been through Austin regularly since, but I haven’t been able to catch up to them. Until…
ACL: Life Lessons With Ziggy
“We’ve got to take care of the Earth, kids,” Ziggy Marley prefaced his three-song, all-encompassing history lesson at the Austin Kiddie Limits stage. Bookended with the title tracks of his two latest, 2003’s Dragonfly, an appropriate theme for this weekend’s festivities, and 2006’s Love Is My Religion, Marley’s 12-minute set explored universal truths through timeless…
ACL: The Inside Scoop
The Ice Cream Man returned to Austin this weekend for his second consecutive ACL. Matt Allen made the journey in his custom Toyota Yaris, “Bessita,” following stops at MFNW in Portland, Ore. “Does festival season ever end?” he laughs backstage, where he hands out free frozen treats, sponsored by corporations like Levi’s. Allen’s trusty 1969…
ACL: Blood on the Tracks
Day 2 of ACL Fest 2007.
ACL: State of Emergency
Day 1 of ACL.
Hook ’Em in the Sprocket Holes
Is it a hallucination due to lack of sleep, or are these Canucks toying with my Lone Star state of mind? The official T-shirts worn here by the army of TIFF volunteers brandish a distinctive burnt-orange color. A gal could be forgiven for thinking that she was at a north-of-the-border Longhorn rally.
ACL: PB&J
You got Who in my Jam! How do you know that Peter, Bjorn & John are European? They know how to turn off the afterburners at a festival. Reports from their sets at SXSW 2007 pegged the Swedes’ live show as “cute.” Given that their most recent disc is all-too-adorable with melody, that wasn’t hard…
ACL: The Fire Updated
Thank goodness the brief water crisis was resolved. At approximately 2:30pm a large fire broke out in an employee-only area near the Wamu tent and the AT&T stage, where Pete Yorn was performing. The Austin Fire Department was called to the scene and quickly extinguished the fire, whose smoke clouds loomed large over the festival…
ACL: It Has Begun
Sahara Smith starts festival with poise
ACL: Kaboom!
Charles Walker & the Dynamites
Kibosh Cap Metro’s Fee Increase
Last chance to speak up on Cap Met’s proposed fare hike.
Iraq Forever
FOX busted out the kid gloves for the prez last night …
Band on the Run
ACL’s battle of the bands, the Sound and the Jury, represents another new paradigm of indie music exposure in the post-label era of the music industry
MACC Mommy
Managing the busy new Mexican American Cultural Center is inspiring work for Amparo Garcia-Crow
MFI: How ‘Affordable’ Is Your Rent?
Austin generally calculates residential expenses in terms of median family income, adjustable to family size; the median lies statistically in the center, with half of Austin families (of varying unit size, see right) earning more than that amount annually and the other half making less. Eighty percent MFI – one common standard for “affordable” –…
Phases & Stages
Manu Chao La Radiolina (Nacional) On the occasion of his previous studio release, 2001’s translucent Proxima Estación Esperanza, in an interview with trendsetting indie wire KCRW, Manu Chao’s globe-trotting existence had brought him to the conclusion that, “There’s not a place where things are going better.” At least hope – Esperanza – floats on said…
A Brief History of the MACC
Calls for a local center dedicated to Mexican-American culture and history date back to the 1970s, but the project never quite gathered the momentum that would lead to its realization. It came painfully close in 1992, when a $10 million bond proposal to fund a Mexican American Cultural Center and the George Washington Carver Museum…
Working for Affordability
There are several nonprofit groups working on affordable housing in Austin, sometimes overlapping and working in tandem. Yet most (not without reason) are dedicated to assisting the poorest families, the formerly homeless, and those of extremely limited means. Below is a sampling of those groups. There is much less focus on renters living above the…
Shoot ‘Em Up
There’s not a lot to this action-movie satire other than a seemingly endless fusillade of projectiles and the image of unhinged British gunslinger Clive Owen trading fire with Paul Giamatti.
Phases & Stages
The New Pornographers Challengers (Matador) The New Pornographers want you to put yer dukes up. After all, the Vancouver octet’s previous two releases, 2003’s Electric Version and Twin Cinema two years later, were equal parts menace and joie de vivre, coming out swinging and landing almost every indie-pop punch perfectly. Sadly, this fourth outing is…
Mexican American Cultural Center Grand-Opening Ceremony
Sept. 15, 600 River St.
Day Trips
The Old Tunnel Wildlife Management Area outside of Fredericksburg hosts a bat colony twice the size of our own
The Brothers Solomon
With three great comic talents in Will Forte, Will Arnett, and director Bob Odenkirk working together in relatively untried and controversial comedy territory, the only result is a syrupy fable about love and family.
Phases & Stages
The Brunettes Structure & Cosmetics (Sub Pop) Of course the Brunettes are from New Zealand. Duo Jonathan Bree and Heather Mansfield come from the land of precious pop, and on their Sub Pop debut and third LP, Structure & Cosmetics, they poke fun at “bubblegum.” See cheerleading opener “Brunettes Against Bubblegum Youth” for exhibit A.…
Carlos Pineda and the YLA Exhibit
Don’t let the cane and the silver hair fool you. Carlos Pineda is as feisty as ever. Now retired from the city of Austin, where he supervised several projects of the Cultural Affairs Office, he is working full time on his first passion, painting, as well as teaching art classes and occasionally entertaining curious newspaper…
Soccer Watch
Kick off your ACL weekend with the Women’s World Cup and Lady Longhorn action
The Brave One
Jodie Foster might be good at playing a master of vengeance, but The Brave One turns out to be little more than an upscale B-movie about getting even.
Phases & Stages
Von Südenfed Tromatic Reflexxions (Domino) This unlikely party album collaboration between the Fall’s Mark E. Smith and Mouse on Mars’ Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma guts the last Fall LP by sheer virtue of its mad bastardization of everything from the electro-squall dance beats of “Fledermaus Can’t Get It” to what appears to be…
Arts Review
Tongue and Groove Theatre dishes up vaudevillian punk in two odd and hilarious shorts
Developing Stories: ‘L’ Is for ‘Lake’ – and Legal and Ludicrous
The Waterfront Overlay has an intricate history
Mr. Woodcock
Mr. Woodcock is funny for exactly five minutes, with the kind of subversive humor that boosted Billy Bob Thornton, but the rest is just a self-pitying, half-hearted retread.
Culture Flash!
Kushner talks Arthur Miller, Zach’s cool School Musical is back, and AIPP teaches you how to make permanent public art
Phases & Stages
Liars (Mute) After the lathered clamor of 2006’s Drum’s Not Dead and 2004’s challenging They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, it was evolve or die for Liars. Indeed, the Brooklyn trio’s fourth album has made it out of the terrible twos, and growing pains have produced a curious pastiche. Opener “Plaster Casts of Everything” arouses…
Arts Review
This Canadian comedy set in a seedy motel room can’t seem to get past a certain level
Point Austin: Kickin’ Ass
Prepare for another year of war, or worse
The Devil Came on Horseback
Retired Marine Capt. Brian Steidle tells the real, unedited story of Darfur in this documentary examining the powerlessness of one individual faced with a tragedy of inhuman degree.
‘The Magic Flute’
Mozart’s opera gets a techno remix at UT’s Butler Opera Center
Phases & Stages
Common Finding Forever (Geffen) Think of Common’s career as two acts, one before 2002’s Electric Circus and one after. The first act was honest, introspective, and pure – a steady voice of morality in the middle of a confused rap world. The second is defined by Common’s teaming with Kanye West, with the results being…
Arts Review
AMOA’s shows rejoice over blurred lines between interested corporate marketing and disinterested beauty
Beside the Point
The budget passes, and the feathers fly
12:08 East of Bucharest
Using a conversation about history, three men, and a talk show, this Romanian comedy and Cannes Camera d’Or winner achieves surprising levels of underplayed wit and pathos. AFS@Dobie
Liz and Ann Hampton Callaway
Enchanting chanteuse Ann returns with equally enchanting sister Liz
Phases and Stages
Rilo Kiley Under the Blacklight (Warner Bros.) Some critics give Rilo Kiley the benefit of the doubt on their major-label debut, attempting to spin the L.A. outfit’s fourth LP not as a sellout, but as “taking risks.” Bullshit. There’s nothing particularly risky about adding a fresh layer of lipgloss and talking dirty. This is not…
Austin Film Society Documentary Tour
White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Foie Gras Foe Foiled!
Police nab suspect in foie gras vandalism mystery
The 11th Hour
Leonardo DiCaprio narrates this well-constructed – but oddly calm – documentary on global climate change aimed at the fence sitters, not the true believers.
Carry On, My Wayward Tongue
Michael Erard on Um …: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders and What They Mean
Phases & Stages
The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of Fifty By Wilfrid Sheed Random House, 309 pp., $29.95 The cover reads: “A History of the Golden Age of American popular music,” a huge claim for a 300-page book. In this context, The House That George Built disappoints, lacking…
DVD Watch
Moral responsibility extends even to the amoral
County Workers Approved for More Pay
Bigger paychecks on tap for sheriff’s deputies and county employees
Descent
Not reviewed at press time. After enduring a brutal rape, introverted college student Maya (Rosario Dawson) spirals out of control, turning to self-destruction in an attempt to exact revenge.
Letters @ 3AM
Elation is complicated. It can be joy, but it can also be terror – and it can be both, and more
Off the Record
Gearing up for the sixth annual ACL Music Festival with C3 Presents’ Charles Attal even as featured performer Steve Earle takes a shot at Austin City Limits the television show
Texas Biodiesel Industry Talks Big Business in Austin
Conference and Expo drift: Those who have raised biodiesel industry out of infancy seeking sustained growth
After a Fashion
Stephen judges. Again.
Cinemakids Survives
Cinematexas might be in hibernation, but its little sister, Cinemakids, is still going strong. The two-day annual event, originally launched in 2000 as part of Cinematexas, begins again this weekend, offering two programs of shorts made by young people, followed by free, hands-on media training for kids ages 7 through 12. Like Cinematexas, Cinemakids has…
Off the Record
Guitar Town Never one to bite his tongue, Steve Earle shot from the hip during his recent interview by Andy Langer for the Chronicle’s annual ACL music supplement. One tangent that didn’t make the cut was his frustration regarding the Austin City Limits television series. “I always had sort of a love-hate relationship with the…
Cross-Border Craziness
Feds finally release guidelines for new visas, civil rights lawyers file more claims pertaining to May 1 immigration protest in L.A., and Cuero rancher finds possible chupacabra
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Fizzy pop and chop, flying Bambiraptors, and more
TV Eye
My NYTVF Notebook
Off the Record
Random Play • Saturday ACL headliners the White Stripes have canceled their performances this weekend, along with Dublin-based instrumentalists Rodrigo y Gabriela, who, like UK diva Amy Winehouse, have axed their North American tour due to exhaustion. Common replaces Rodrigo y Gabriela on Sunday, while local phenomenon Ghostland Observatory, booked for two other festivals this…
Workers Defense Project
The Workers Defense Project, an immigrant-rights group in Austin, is hoping to ignite a grassroots backlash to a plan by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to crack down on employers who hire undocumented workers. The agencies plan to check workers’ Social Security numbers, and, if they don’t find a match,…
The Common Law
How do I get a marriage license?
New & Noteworthy
Maine Root’s Pink Drink
Off the Record
Divinorum Ocote Soul Sounds, the side project of Grupo Fantasma’s Adrian Quesada and Antibalas’ Martín Perna, warmed up for its Saturday ACL set last Thursday night at Lamberts. Not that it was needed – Quesada’s funky electric guitar vibrated at the same frequency as Perna’s euphoric sax and flute lines. Backed by a sixpiece band…
Naked City
Quote of the Week As usual, this president is dead certain, and dead wrong. What he seeks is war without limits – war without end … the George Bush trillion-dollars, 15-years war. – U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Sept. 10 Headlines • Yes, it’s that time again – when Björk, Bob Dylan, Blonde Redhead, and a…
Squares for Rock Stars
Spending a show with chefs Luke Bibby and James Holmes backstage at the Backyard
Food-o-File
Top Chef, a Savvy spirit, and birth announcements
No Room at the Complex
Renters scramble for housing as dirt churns on new condos
Happenings
September 13-19
Aquarelle’s Wine Bar
We expected great food, but the big surprise was the skillfully selected list of wines by the glass
Event Menu
Sept. 13-20
The Apartment Market
Upward with a bullet
Sex Politics
Prominent Texas Democratic gay-rights group split over arrest of senior officer for sexual offense
The Hightower Report
Giving away Appalachia; and cancel Camel No. 9
Bocaditos
Sambazon organic juices, smoothies, and sorbets
The Affordability Toolbox
Last spring, the UT School of Law Community Development Clinic prepared a study for local nonprofit HousingWorks: “Preserving Austin’s Multifamily Rental Housing: A Toolkit.” The report, authored by clinic director Heather K. Way and students Aliaquanda Derrick and Mary Dear, describes six tools for keeping existing apartment rentals affordable, with examples of each measure from…
@ Chronic: Straw Pollsters
Duncan Hunter and John Edwards come out on top
Luv Doc Recommends: Austin City Limits Music Festival
Bill Clinton is doing a booksigning at 11am on Friday at BookPeople. Coincidence? Maybe, but it’s safe to say that “Butter Smooth” Bill is only a phone call or two away from a VIP plus 20 to the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Chances are he’ll be phoning it in Friday morning, limiting his Q&A…
ACL Fest Friday Interviews
Björk 8:30pm, AT&T stage After a three-year absence, no one really expected Björk to record a feminist and political call-to-arms mashed with club beats and globe-crossing percussion. This is Björk 2007, the neon beat warrior. Volta is a sonic 180 from the Icelandic singer’s last two albums, the glitch-saddled Vespertine and vocal-heavy Medúlla. Still, after…
ACL Fest Saturday Interviews
Sound Team 12:30pm, AMD stage “I tried my best to keep it together for years,” a solemn Matt Oliver confides. “But I guess a lot of things happen that can erode the structural integrity of something that’s fragile to begin with.” After six years, local indie rockers Sound Team are throwing in the towel. The…
ACL Fest Sunday Reviews
Rose Hill Drive (Megaforce/Sci-Fidelity) When Rose Hill Drive gets rolling downhill, look out. Gregg and Duane Allman hopping a freight flashes by in the Boulder trio’s live sets. In this case, it’s Jake and Daniel Sproul on bass and shit-hot guitar respectively. Reflexively. Studio debut opener “Showdown” demonstrates a thoroughbred gallop out of the gate,…
ACL Fest Saturday Interviews
Steve Earle 3:30pm, Dell stage Austin Chronicle: You’re living in New York’s West Village now, the historical ground zero for singer-songwriters and protest singers. Steve Earle: Yeah, the records that made me what I am were made by people living in the neighborhood 40 years ago. And dissent in this neighborhood predates the folk-music boom…
ACL Fest Sunday Reviews
Preservation Hall Jazz Band Made in New Orleans: The Hurricane Sessions (Preservation Hall) In the liner notes of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s post-Katrina release, impresario and bassist Benjamin Jaffe describes his search for the Crescent City collective’s master tapes in the vaults of Sea-Saint Studios, astonished to find flood waters had stopped just inches…
ACL Fest Friday Reviews
Asleep at the Wheel Reinventing the Wheel (Bismeaux) While it may not be reinventing their signature style, Asleep at the Wheel’s first album of new material in almost a decade does swing full circle by returning to their early formation of tri-shared lead vocals. Ray Benson’s comfortable drawl finds appropriate complements in Jason Roberts’ countrified…
ACL Fest Saturday Interviews
Andrew Bird 5:30pm, AT&T Blue Room stage Sitting on the edge of Lisbon, Portugal, Andrew Bird looks out across the rows of apartment buildings and ships slowly steering into port. Amidst his constant touring of the past several years, the daily wash of displaced faces in airports and foreign cities has become an unfiltered barrage…
ACL Fest Sunday Reviews
Billy Joe Shaver Everybody’s Brother (Compadre) Only Billy Joe Shaver could produce an album that mixes honky-tonk and gospel into the ass-whuppin’ whole that is Everybody’s Brother. He’s always praised the Lord while singing of life on a bar stool, but here Shaver’s more interested in salvation, offering it in his patented rough-hewn country-rock style.…
ACL Fest Friday Reviews
Jesse Malin Glitter in the Gutter (Adeline) Despite an impressive array of guest spots and high-echelon hosannas, Jesse Malin’s third solo album is a mixed bag. The former D Generation vocalist clearly knows his way around a song, but there are too many moments on Glitter in which Malin abandons finesse in favor of clever…
ACL Fest Saturday Interviews
Arctic Monkeys 6:30pm, AMD stage The Arctic Monkeys ran wild on the international music scene beginning January 2006 when Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not unleashed singer, guitarist, and bandleader Alex Turner’s explosive suburban angst and lyrical wit. The Brit’s sure-shot debut was met with an endless parade of hyperbolic praise, becoming…
ACL Fest Sunday Reviews
The Decemberists A Practical Handbook (Kill Rock Stars) Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy has become virtually indistinguishable from Mo Rocca, the wry, Ivy League gadfly who pops up everywhere from VH1’s I Love the ’90s to the Food Network’s Iron Chef America. Maybe Meloy’s a bit chubbier, but either way, he and Rocca are perfect examples…
ACL Fest Friday Reviews
Chick Corea & Béla Fleck The Enchantment (Concord) While some might be surprised at this collaboration between renowned jazz pianist Chick Corea and banjo master Béla Fleck, the former appears on a couple of Flecktone discs, while the latter guests on Corea’s Rendezvous in New York DVD. In fact, Fleck has always claimed the pianist…
ACL Fest Sunday Interviews
Regina Spektor 5:30pm, AT&T Blue Room stage Regina Spektor is a study in contrasts. The Moscow-born, Jewish singer-songwriter filters classical sensibilities through a refreshingly modern perspective, with a voice like Billie Holiday and an attention to detail that�s at times both profoundly poetic and utterly prosaic. �Everything is all flipped for me,� Spektor says. �I…
ACL Fest: The Gospel Tent
Whatever your spiritual background, a dose of sun-shielded redemption is no further than the Washington Mutual tent. Every year, a select crop of gospel acts descends on Zilker Park to provide the truth: Rock & roll is only a few early morning hours removed from the church. Kicking off 2007’s testimony on Friday is Ohio…
ACL Fest Friday Reviews
Peter Bjorn & John Writer’s Block (Wichita/V2) Something about this Stockholm trio’s third album of folky pop taps into the inner hipster, the part of all of us that is cigarette-thin, has artfully tousled hair, and a healthy appreciation of irony. Plug in Writer’s Block, and the paunch disappears, the cubicle melts away, and a…
ACL Fest Saturday Reviews
Raul Malo After Hours (New Door/UME) With the exception of Muscle Shoals’ output in 1970s, the lineage of country and R&B has largely diverged down separate paths, their shared origins enveloped by rock & roll or filtered into countrypolitan pop. Raul Malo’s fourth solo album since putting the Mavericks on hiatus reasserts those roots by…
ACL Fest: Austin Kiddie Limits
This year�s festival for the pint-sized and underaged among us has an educational bent. Gone are the hippy-dippy yoga classes and finger-painting tables. This year�s Kiddie Limits goes beyond what your kids have experienced on the fringes of Festival Beach. It�s taking your kids to the School of Rock. Every child�s musical education begins with…
A Moveable – and Musical – Feast
The Austin City Limits Music Festival is a work in progress. After every three-day extravaganza, the organizers from C3 Presents take what they’ve learned and use it to refine and tweak things for the coming year. Nowhere is the ongoing learning curve more apparent than in preparations for the food service provided to festival guests.…
ACL Fest Saturday Reviews
Dax Riggs We Sing of Only Blood or Love (Fat Possum) Dax Riggs’ former project, Deadboy & the Elephantmen, never overcame the White Stripes comparisons, the duo of amateur female drummer and shaggy-haired frontman spouting stuttering blues-rock seeming too familiar, too soon. The singer’s solo debut slithers up from the same swamp-rock pool but has…
ACL Aftershows
Thursday 13 Gotan Project, Stubb’s Spoon, Sound Team, Alright Tonight, La Zona Rosa [sold out] J.J. Grey & Mofro with Ryan Shaw, Parish Friday 14 Paolo Nutini, Peter Bjorn & John, Stubb’s outside Back Door Slam, Stubb’s inside STS9, La Zona Rosa Robert Earl Keen, Parish Stephen Marley, Zap Mama, Emo’s Saturday 15 Bob Dylan,…
ACL Fest Food Vendors
Children of the Kettle Corn – Kettle corn, snow cones Sweat Leaf Tea – Iced tea Royer’s – Individual pies, shrimp BLT wraps, beef filet wraps, portobello veggie wraps Amy’s Ice Creams – Ice cream/toppings Maine Root – Root beer, sarsaparilla, ginger brews Wahoo’s – Fish/chicken/veggie tacos, fish/chicken/veggie burritos, fish/chicken/veggie bowls Moonshine – Corn dogs…
ACL Fest Saturday Reviews
Damien Rice 9 (Warner Bros.) We already knew from his 2003 debut, O, that Damien Rice is a lovelorn sad sack. On follow-up 9, the Dublin-based singer-songwriter is lovelorn and pissed. In fact, Rice is so angry here, so unforgivably misogynistic, that it’s almost enough for one to give up their role as Treasurer of…
ACL Fest Friday Picks
Greyhounds Noon, Austin Ventures stage Some compare their grooves to late jazz organist Jimmy Smith, but the local trio likes to describe itself as “Hall & Oates meets ZZ Top.” The Greyhounds are part of the new funk scene that’s sprung up in Austin, and their Seventies soul meets Texas blues – with the occasional…
VIP Grove
In case the $850 VIP ticket price was not in the budget this year, here’s the inside scoop on what the high rollers will be enjoying during ACL. First up, the sponsors, music-industry professionals, and artists’ representatives will have shaded comfortable seating, cooling misters, and some refreshing spa treatments. Central Market will provide catering daily…
ACL Fest Saturday Reviews
Zap Mama Supermoon (Heads Up International) In 1993, David Byrne’s Luaka Bop released Adventures in Afropea, Vol. 1, Zap Mama’s North American debut. The international, all-lady a cappella wonder shot to No. 1 on Billboard’s World Music charts. Citizen-of-the-world Marie Daulne created the band and remains the only founding member, yet the group’s original spirit…
ACL Fest Saturday Picks
Kevin Devine 11:45am, AT&T Blue Room stage After penning a poignant bit of post-9/11 paranoia in “Noose Dressed Like a Necklace” and summarizing the political indifference felt by millions at the ballot box in 2004 with “No Time Flat,” former Miracle of ’86 frontman Kevin Devine looked like a new Conor Oberst to Capitol Records.…
Restaurants Near Zilker
1) CHINESE: Wanfu Too The Fifties diner setting is as comforting as the usual Chinese menu choices like egg drop soup, egg rolls, and lots of choices for main dishes. 1806 Barton Springs Rd., 478-3535 $$ 2) TEX-MEX: Chuy’s Hubcaps, colored lights, and a velvet Elvis; this is Austin-style Tex-Mex at its tacky, funky best.…
ACL Fest Sunday Picks
The Little Ones 11:45am, Dell stage Preparing to launch an indie-pop parade on tour with Voxtrot this fall, L.A. quintet the Little Ones live up to the title of last year’s debut EP, Sing Song, with a joyous cavalcade of hand claps, shouts, and catchy choruses that spin across everything from the Shins to the…
Barton Springs Pool Info
It’s ACL. The music is awesome. The famous people are awesome. Everybody’s got back sweat, nobody cares, and that’s awesome. But wouldn’t it be even more awesome to submerge your body into a pool of 68-degree water cradled by 100-million-year-old limestone? Just for a few minutes, between sets? Or beers? Or ex-girlfriend/boyfriend sightings? Yes, it…
ACL Fest Sunday Interviews
Charlie Musselwhite 4pm, WaMu stage When he moved to Chicago in 1962 at the age of 18, Charlie Musselwhite had no ambitions for a career in music. The lure of factory jobs led the Mississippi-born bluesman north, but he soon found himself playing alongside his heroes like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, and Sonny…
ACL Fest Friday Reviews
Crowded House Time on Earth (ATO) In the wake of Split Enz/Crowded House drummer Paul Hester’s suicide in 2005, Neil Finn reconnected with his Crowded House co-founder, bassist Nick Seymour. At the time, Finn believed he was recording his third solo effort, which instead turned into a band album. The results are sure to excite…
ACL Fest Sunday Interviews
Bob Dylan & His Band 8:30pm, AT&T stage The first time I spoke to Simon M. Campden of the Unofficial Bob Dylan Free Tape Library, I imagined him holed up in an abandoned castle in Claremont, Calif., surrounded by whirring analog instruments and straw-filled crates of bootlegs. �Siiimmmon speaking,� he answered that call and subsequent…
ACL Fest Friday Interviews
Sahara Smith 11:15am, BMI stage Sahara Smith was branded at birth with a life full of momentary interruptions. “My parents were trying to think of a name for me,” the 18-year-old singer-songwriter explains. “My dad said ‘Sarah,’ and he hiccupped in the middle of it, and it came out ‘Sahara.'” The young Austinite crafts precocious,…
ACL Fest Friday Reviews
M.I.A. Kala (Interscope) This is new world music. London-born Sri Lankan Maya Arulpragasm mashed up dancehall beats with political spouts of guerrilla warfare on 2005 debut Arular. With follow-up Kala, she explodes out from the shadows of grime and hip-hop, incorporating drums recorded live in India, manipulating traditional instruments of Southeast Asia, and pushing her…
ACL Fest Friday Interviews
The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker 3:15pm, WaMu stage It’s about time someone pays a little respect to old-school soul and funk, and the Dynamites are just the combo to bring it. On their latest, Kaboom! (Outta Sight), the longstanding Nashville outfit detonates Fifties/Sixties R&B as if it were Saturday night at the Apollo. Their secret…
ACL Fest Friday Reviews
Andy Palacio & the Garifuna Collective Wátina (Cumbancha) Like the Buena Vista Social Club, Andy Palacio & the Garifuna Collective’s debut is a compelling collection of songs from a multigenerational outfit of all-stars. Instead of Cuban culture, however, these songs are in the key of the Garifuna. Also known as the Black Caribs, the Garifuna…
ACL Fest Sunday Reviews
Fionn Regan The End of History (Lost Highway) Just when you think the singer-songwriter genre has shuddered its dying breath, along comes Fionn Regan to give it a jolt of life. The 26-year-old Irishman’s debut already has won raves in the UK, where it’s been nominated for a Mercury Prize. Now it’s America’s turn to…
ACL Fest Friday Interviews
Crowded House 4:30pm, AMD stage After more than a decade’s absence, no one expected another album from Crowded House. Then the band’s original drummer, Paul Hester, committed suicide in 2005, spurring songwriter/guitarist Neil Finn and bassist Nick Seymour to reunite in the aftermath. “There wasn’t any hesitation on either part,” Finn recalls. “Any of the…
ACL Fest Friday Reviews
Kaiser Chiefs Yours Truly, Angry Mob (Universal Motown) In both love and music, anticipation plus expectation often begets disappointment. Not in the case of Kaiser Chiefs. The UK quintet’s sequel to 2005’s Employment serves up more slice-of-life Britpop populated with the perfect mix of universal longing and verisimilitude-granting regionalism. The Chiefs write what they know…
ACL Fest Sunday Reviews
The National Boxer (Beggars Banquet) Following the critical acclaim of 2005’s Alligator, the National’s fourth release leads with an imperative, tightly controlled punch. “We’re half awake in a fake empire,” Matt Berninger intones repeatedly on opener “Fake Empire,” the hypnotic keys and drums slowly building to the guitar- and horn-laden crescendo. Berninger’s deep baritone and…
ACL Fest Friday Interviews
LCD Soundsystem 5:30pm, AT&T Blue Room stage Shuffling around backstage at the Virgin Festival in Baltimore, in between interviews with MTV and Rolling Stone, James Murphy plumps down on a couch and removes his large Ray-Ban sunglasses. “That’s the future story of my life,” the LCD Soundsystem leader laughs, glancing down momentarily at his silver-painted…
ACL Fest Sunday Reviews
Bloc Party A Weekend in the City (Vice) Where Bloc Party’s 2005 debut, Silent Alarm, was a slice of raw, untamed arthouse energy, the London quartet’s follow-up offers a more polished effort, albeit shaped by a palpable tension informed by a troubled, liminal existence. The explosive, electroclash guitars form a menacing tsunami of sound, the…
