Cover Story
2004 ACL Fest Guide
Everything you need to know
Louisiana Boys: Raised on Politics
Louisiana Boys: Raised on Politics 1992, NR, 52 min. Directed by Paul Stekler, Louis Alvarez, Andy Kolker. An unorthodox look at the colorful political culture of Louisiana, home to governors like the legendary Huey Long and racist figures like David Duke.
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire 2004, NR, 68 min. Directed by Jeremy Earp, Sut Jhally. This documentary places the Iraq war, the war on terror, and the Bush administration’s post-9/11 political tactics within the context of a two-decade-long struggle by neoconservatives to increase military spending by extending America’s global military…
Exhibitionism
C. Denby Swanson’s unconventional new play, ‘The Death of a Cat,’ takes us into a weird world as dark and funny as an Edward Gorey cartoon
Food-o-File
Eat, Drink, Watch Movies is back in a big way with a great cause; plus, there are a lot of restaurants in this city!
ACL Fest Interviews
Davíd Garza Sunday 7:45pm, Austin Ventures stage Most musicians would take a cue from the release of their first box set and spend some time away from making more music. Not Austin native Davíd Garza. Merely weeks after releasing A Strange Mess of Flowers, his 4-CD anthology of independent recordings, he’s in a Los Angeles…
ACL Fest Reviews
PixiesPixies DVD (4AD)PixiesWave of Mutilation: Best of Pixies (4AD) It’s David Bowie, who covered “Cactus” on 2002’s Heathen and his 2004 Reality tour, who best captures the Pixies – as the “psychotic Beatles.” His comment stems from 4AD’s new Pixies DVD via Gouge, a BBC-produced documentary on the Boston foursome that broke up (supposedly) by…
Council Whistles a Happy Budget Tune
Pain, pain, go away, come again some other day
Buggin’ out at IMAX
Celebratory habits of the Austin arthropodophile: a Saturday at the Bullock
Wimbledon
A terribly tender, good-hearted romantic comedy from across the pond.
Exhibitionism
In ASO’s season opener, Peter Bay did justice to Verdi, Brahms, and Bartók while maintaining the enthusiasm of his orchestra and its audience
ACL Fest Reviews
Rachael YamagataHappenstance (RCA Victor) In the never ending Attack of Norah Clones, Rachael Yamagata’s major label debut could become the phantom menace. Her unmistakably smoky voice and delicate piano work don’t avoid the Norah formula, they embrace it. Though with songs such as the sunny “1963,” Yamagata owes nearly as much to Carole King and…
School Bond Proposals Roll to Victory
All six bond propositions to build, renovate, and expand AISD schools pass
SXSW Presents
‘Los Trabajadores’
Mr. 3000
This Bernie Mac baseball flick is standard genre fare.
Readings
The 10 stories comprising ‘No Man’s Land,’ all of which are set in Mexico’s northern borderland, are inhabited by transsexual prostitutes, petty clerks, dusty pickups, broken bottles, sadistic police officers, and wind-blasted prairie
ACL Aftershows
ThursdayRebirth Brass Band, the Vibe Neko Case, the Parish FridayParticle, Antone’s Nick Lowe, Geraint Watkins, the Parish Modest Mouse, Explosions in the Sky, I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness, Stubb’s outside Critters Buggin’, Stubb’s inside Gomez, the Soundtrack of Our Lives, La Zona Rosa SaturdayDrive-by Truckers, Centro-matic, La Zona Rosa Wilco, Calexico, Stubb’s outside…
ACL Fest Reviews
Louque So Long (Lava) Artists turn limitations into assets. Famed jazz plucker Wes Montgomery developed his seminal octave thumb-strumming style while practicing as his family slept. Same with Louque (“Luke”), the tag of Dustan Louque, who’s crafted a beguiling debut with an apartment-based computer. Working quietly as not to offend his neighbors, Louque’s software skills,…
ACL Fest Reviews
Calexico Convict Pool (Quarterstick/Touch & Go) It may only be a six-song EP split evenly between originals and covers, but Calexico’s most recent release offers a potent distillation of the band’s far-reaching desert charms. We begin with the Tucson-based troupe’s take on Love’s “Alone Again Or,” originally released last year as a European single. Eschewing…
Is Scott Panetti Sane Enough to Die?
Courtroom debate over schizophrenic Texas death row inmate
Short Cuts
The Conrans will ‘Captain’ ‘Princess of Mars’; plus, Linklater headed for ‘Bad News’
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
This CGI adventure yarn is a loving tribute to all things retro-futuristic.
Readings
In this powerful, largely autobiographical novel that was originally published in 1967, award-winning author and journalist Williams crafts the story of the irrepressible ‘Negro’ writer Max Reddick as he fights to make a difference in the world of the press and the letters
ACL Fest Reviews
The KillersHot Fuss (Island) Cheer up, the wait’s finally over. Of course, the band conjuring this Hot Fuss looks nothing like Duran Duran. The Killers aren’t even English; they’re as American as Las Vegas, their home base. All that aside, you’d easily imagine their debut as the lost New Romantic tape unearthed for the first…
ACL Fest Reviews
Antibalas Afrobeat OrchestraWho Is This America? (Ropeadope) Picking up where the legendary Fela Ransome-Kuti left off, NYC’s Antibalas Orchestra aligns itself as a phalanx of mighty pachyderms, poised to stomp injustice in a rhythmic celebration of life. Surging, triumphant brass piles atop bass-drum combinations so funky in their swagger that the breadth of their every…
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
TV Eye
‘Lost’ is ‘Gilligan’s Island’ meets (choose one): ‘Rashomon,’ ‘The X Files,’ ‘The Twilight Zone,’ ‘Survivor,’ ‘Lord of the Flies.’ But it’s also one of more interesting new shows this season.
Silver City
John Sayles adds his cinematic two cents to this election year’s plethora of politically minded movies.
Page Two
Steve Earle brings Townes Van Zandt’s ghost along on Silver City’s magical mystery tour; it hangs around for the Toronto Film Festival
ACL Fest Interviews
Blind Boys of Alabama Friday 3pm, Cingular stage How many musical groups from the Thirties are still thriving today? The way 74-year-old Blind Boys of Alabama leader Clarence Fountain perceives it, “You can either shorten your days here or lengthen them.” Along with fellow Blind Boys originals Jimmy Carter and George Scott, Fountain has let…
ACL Fest Reviews
Marc BroussardCarencro (Island) If you only heard his voice, you’d think Marc Broussard was a Motown recording star from the Seventies, or perhaps a long lost relative of Lenny Kravitz. Instead, the 22-year-old hails from Carencro, La., located just outside Lafayette, and he unflinchingly refers to himself as “a white boy singing soul music.” What…
ACL Fest Reviews
Will JohnsonVultures Await (Misra) No one has ever accused Will Johnson of being a messenger of sweetness and light. After all, this is a man who writes songs about industrial waste and couples dying from gas leaks. That said, the Austinite’s second solo album, Vultures Await, is a soundtrack for anyone looking to drink themselves…
Naked City
Jack Stick attacks his opponent’s supporters as ‘anti-business’
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Visually stunning sequel to the cult 1995 anime.
After a Fashion
Pink and brown are just not cutting it anymore, people. Get with the program. Plus … you know … more shilling for stores and stuff …
ACL Fest Interviews
Rosanne Cash Friday 3pm, SBC stage Rosanne Cash was scheduled to play at last year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival, but her father, Johnny, passed away a week or so before, and she understandably canceled the gig. As you might expect, her appearance this year follows a period of great personal change and heartache. “I…
ACL Fest Record Reviews
The John Butler Trio Sunrise Over Sea (Jarrah)The John Butler TrioWhat You Want EP (Lava) A sensation at home in Australia where he’s both critically acclaimed and a multiplatinum seller, John Butler now has his sights on the U.S. With roots-oriented artists from Down Under like Kasey Chambers, Paul Kelly, and the Waifs having some…
ACL Fest Reviews
Drive-by TruckersThe Dirty South (New West) Southerners’ love affair with their past is as much a cultural hallmark as grits and cornbread, but in the Drive-by Truckers’ hands, it’s in dire need of a Dr. Phil Relationship Rescue. Unlike 2003’s Decoration Day, a somber account of one man’s (or one band’s) life going nowhere fast,…
Naked City
Another major clean-energy event brings the world to town
World of Wonders
Dispatch No. 2: World of Wonders
Dil Ne Jise Apna Kahaa
Dil Ne Jise Apna Kahaa 2004, NR, 146 min. Directed by Atul Agnihotri, Adi-Aman, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Salman Khan, Preity Zinta, Bhumika Chawla. Not reviewed at press time. This Bollywood melodrama (which translates from Hindi to In Your Heart You’re Mine) charts the love story between a grieving widower and the…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Dachshunds, Delta, Dodgers, dance floor, and ham drippings
ACL Fest Interviews
Neko Case Friday 4pm, Bank of America stage This is an exciting time for Neko Case. The red-haired singer-songwriter is gearing up for the release of her first live album. As with anything she does, it won’t be like most artists’ live souvenirs. Sure, it’s recorded with her favorite backup band, Toronto’s long tall Sadies,…
ACL Fest Reviews
Toots & the MaytalsTrue Love (V2) Santana-ized for your protection, reggae pioneer Toots Hibbert and his band speed-date his Jamaican standards with famous fans in an attempt to break through. The result is True Love, a reintroduction to Toots & the Maytals and a lesson in reggae for beginners. The album isn’t for reggae aficionados,…
ACL Fest Reviews
Medeski Martin & WoodEnd of the World Party (Just in Case) (Blue Note) There’s a razor-thin line between a groove and a rut. And to be quite honest, for a while it was looking as if these pioneering jazz funk jammers had slipped irrevocably into a creative quagmire. Fortunately, 2002’s Uninvisible, with its tasteful injection…
Naked City
Renewables a boon for Texas, and a clean-energy roundup in Fredericksburg
Judge Dietz Finds School Finance System Unconstitutional
Court ruling ends five-week trial with a mandate to Legislature to design a new system
The Hunting of the President
This Friend-of-Bill doc recounts the hard-right campaign to cut short the Clinton presidency.
About AIDS
With the powerful anti-HIV treatments emerging since 1996, HIV-positive people are living longer and with dramatically improved quality of life. That’s great! But sometimes overlooked is the price that many HIVers have to pay in side effects from their “drug cocktails.” Some effects are short-term, like diarrhea, muscle aches, and sleep disturbances. Others are long-term…
ACL Fest Interviews
Solomon Burke Friday 5pm, SBC stage After years of critical acclaim with immortal showstoppers like “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” that never cracked the Top 20, Solomon Burke got one of the biggest breaks of his life in 1987. The film Dirty Dancing plucked his heartbreaking “Cry to Me” for its hugely successful soundtrack, and…
ACL Fest Reviews
The Honorary TitleAnything Else but the Truth (Doghouse) In this corner, hailing from Brooklyn, there’s the Honorary Title. In the other corner, the returning champion, Death Cab for Cutie. Watch them spar for airtime on The OC. The Honorary Title, essentially the duo Jarrod Gorbel and Aaron Kamstra, needs a drink, or at least a…
ACL Fest Reviews
Ben Harper & the Blind Boys of Alabama There Will Be a Light (Virgin) Transporting listeners back to the glory days of gospel in order to express that now is as good a time as any to see the proverbial light, Ben Harper & the Blind Boys of Alabama make for quite a missionary team.…
Naked City
Fresh faces on Fox take over for local institution Dick Ellis
‘The Time to Speak Is Now’
Judge John Dietz on the Texas school finance system and closing the gaps
National Lampoon’s Gold Diggers
National Lampoon’s Gold Diggers 2004, PG-13, 87 min. Directed by Gary Preisler, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Will Friedle, Chris Owen, Louise Lasser, Renée Taylor. Not reviewed at press time. A couple of slacker guys marry two elderly sisters, with the intention of landing an impressive inheritance. Little do they know the old…
Letters at 3AM
All the economic numbers point one way: Hard times are about to get harder
ACL Fest Interviews
Butch Hancock Friday 5:15pm, Austin Ventures stage Lubbock-born Butch Hancock is a genuine West Texas Renaissance man. In addition to being one of the state’s most revered songwriters, penning classics like “If You Were a Bluebird” and “Boxcars,” he dabbles in architecture, photography, and guiding rafters down the Rio Grande in Big Bend. While many…
ACL Fest Reviews
Rebirth Brass BandRebirth for Life (Tipitina’s) Like the city itself, New Orleans’ Rebirth Brass Band is a party. Seeing them live is an experience like no other. Butts shake without their owners even realizing it. Hands throw themselves up in the air, and folks make noises they never knew they could. Imagine if P-Funk were…
Phases & Stages
Elvis Costello & the ImpostersThe Delivery Man (Lost Highway) Occasionally – often – experimentation is mistaken for innovation. Since Elvis Costello is engaging in neither on The Delivery Man, we needn’t worry over the distinction. His artistry, still, is unmistakable; he writes better songs than anyone you know, cracking music’s emotive-mechanical code as consistently as…
Naked City
Muslims gather at the Capitol, while clerics swap pulpits on Sunday
Neither Efficient nor Adequate
The official ruling of Judge John Dietz on the Texas school finance system
Funky Monkey
Funky Monkey 2004, PG, 94 min. Directed by Gene Quintano, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Matthew Modine, Roma Downey, Seth Adkins, Taylor Negron, Gilbert Gottfried. Not reviewed at press time. Matthew Modine stars as a martial arts expert who teaches a young boy about confidence with the help of a simian sidekick named…
Music String
Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of ‘Austin City Limits’ with 13,000 words. In pictures.
To Your Health
I very seldom remember my dreams; does this mean I’m missing some nutrients?
ACL Fest Interviews
Toots & the Maytals Friday 7pm, Cingular stage Since Jamaicans were picking up radio broadcasts during the Fifties and Sixties from stateside sources such as Miami and New Orleans, the progression of Jamaican music through ska, rock steady, and reggae is grounded in American R&B and soul. Toots Hibbert confirms that American artists such as…
ACL Fest Reviews
GomezSplit the Difference (Virgin) Has it only been a year and change since we heard from Gomez? Somehow, these guys tend to disappear for what feels like yonks, only to resurface insouciantly as if they’d never been gone at all, reminding listeners of their forgotten hunger for these five lads from Liverpool and their daring,…
Phases & Stages
You Call It MadnessBy Lenny Kaye Villard, 432 pp., $25.95 Imagine Walter Winchell, ear cupped and mic clenched. “Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America, and all the ships at sea. Let’s go to press!” Lips smoothly defy the 238 words per minute spit like little daggers into the cold steel. This stiletto staccato sets the…
Naked City
County commissioners snipe at City Hall while endorsing district budget
Cool, ‘Clean’ Air Up North
Dispatch No. 1: Cool, ‘Clean’ Air Up North
TCB
The Austin City Limits Music Festival gets big without outgrowing its roots
The Common Law
Privacy of the tenant
ACL Fest Interviews
Franz Ferdinand Friday 8pm, Bank of America stage Named for the Serbian archduke whose assassination sparked World War I, Franz Ferdinand has caused a similar stir on U.S. airwaves this year. “Take Me Out,” their discotheque call to arms from this year’s self-titled debut, has taken the Scottish foursome from deafening underground buzz to modern-rock…
ACL Fest Reviews
Josh RouseThe Smooth Sounds of Josh Rouse (Rykodisc) At the beginning of the prerequisite tour documentary on The Smooth Sounds of Josh Rouse, the Nashville-based pop porcupine is readying an in-studio live set. “Is there something you feel would best be represented by playing it from the CD rather than doing it live?” asks the…
Phases & Stages
RamonesRamones Raw (Image Entertainment) Produced by drummer Marky Ramone with director John Cafiero, Ramones Raw is an uneven hodgepodge of concert footage, TV appearances, and plenty of Marky’s camcorder tour video. While the latter offers an occasional glimpse at the Ramones’ offstage personas (e.g., Joey and Johnny never exchange a word), it’s pretty much the…
Naked City
Aquifer district seeking consultants to devise endangered-species strategy
The Films Are Alive …
Dispatches from the Toronto International Film Festival: No. 3
Meet the New Bosses
Long Center director Cliff Redd and ALO director Richard Buckley compare notes on leading an arts institution, the challenges they face, and being new to Austin
Day Trips
Manny Gammage’s Texas Hatters waltzed into the encyclopedia of Texas legends a long time ago
ACL Fest Interviews
Gomez Friday 8pm, Heineken stage Musical alchemy. It’s been Gomez’s modus operandi since the group’s Liverpool inception in 1997. Who other than these five mad scientists would have produced such wildly evocative and experimental blues-rock using any and every found object hither and yon as an instrument? It should come as no surprise, then, that…
ACL Fest Reviews
Big Head Todd & the MonstersLive at the Fillmore (Sanctuary) Only at the very end does Live at the Fillmore come full circle. Actually, “Circle” falls midway through Big Head Todd & the Monsters’ 17-song stand at San Francisco’s allmusic hall of legends. Todd Park Mohr’s Les Paul fattage sets a classic, Seventies FM rock…
Phases & Stages
Rilo KileyMore Adventurous (Brute/Beaute) Rilo Kiley is frustrating in the best possible way: They deserve to be huge, but if they were, they probably wouldn’t be half as good. That’s why 2002’s The Execution of All Things was so wonderful: It was like discovering some secret pop universe where the lights are low, the lyrics…
Naked City
Undeterred by the courts, the feds continue California grower raids
Soccer Watch
Something less than galactico; and the Word was good
ACL Fest Interviews
The Soundtrack of Our Lives Saturday 1pm, SBC stage Founded a decade ago in Gothenburg, Sweden, the Soundtrack of Our Lives deftly combines road-honed chops, hook-laden songs, and an encyclopedic reverence for the vinyl apparitions of pop’s past to construct a jukebox juggernaut that’s comfortably familiar without being too obvious. According to guitarist Mattias Bärjed,…
ACL Fest Reviews
My Morning Jacket Acoustic Citsuoca (ATO) Those who have experienced My Morning Jacket in person will agree that they’re easily one of the great live rock bands of this young century. While last year’s It Still Moves was a step closer to that greatness, the Kentucky clan still hasn’t captured the power and glory they…
Phases & Stages
The Libertines(Rough Trade) Calling time on 2002’s Up the Bracket, the Libertines polished off their Strokes-y debut with an unbilled skiffle, a spiffy little squawker whose most coherent line involved two more drinks then slipping under the table. Two years later, The Libertines’ bonus strummer is decidedly more sober, a lost-girl lament “choking and smoking”…
Naked City
The comptroller says starting school in August costs Texans many, many mil
Touch of Pink
This queercentric romantic comedy gets its inspiration from culture clash and the ghost of Cary Grant.
Two ‘Hot’ for Your Eyes
The 187-artist Red Hot • Red Dot Sale at Women & Their Work brings together artwork from a diverse swath of Austin’s creative community
Once and Future
Castle Hill Cafe, an all-time Austin favorite, is not resting on its laurels
ACL Fest Interviews
Ray Lamontagne Saturday 2pm, Heineken stage Stephen Stills owes Ray Lamontagne a beer. In Rolling Stone’s “2004 Hot List,” the magazine’s Hot Songwriter nominee explained how hearing Stills’ “Treetop Flyer” led him to quit his factory job to pursue music. “Some people find Jesus,” says the 31-year-old from Maine. “I found Stephen Stills.” His debut…
ACL Fest Reviews
G. LoveThe Hustle (Sony) There’s absolutely nothing wrong with making music that makes people feel good. If an artist’s overarching goal when entering the studio is to get rumps shaking and faces breaking into involuntary smiles, well, more power to them. But jeeze, G., would it kill you for just a little originality on your…
Phases & Stages
Tears for FearsEverybody Loves a Happy Ending (NewDoor) Mad world indeed. Some L.A. singer-songwriter covers a song from your first album, for a movie no one sees until two years after its release, and suddenly you’re as revered as Echo & the Bunnymen. Just like that, one of the nastier breakups in Eighties pop became…
Austin @ Large: Wreck on the Highway
Why the dogs can’t catch the toll road speed machine
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
You can’t keep a bad zombie down.
Two ‘Hot’ for Your Eyes
For Camp Fig’s new show ‘Hot For Teacher,’ 100 artists were given a small chalkboard. Their homework assignment? Make it art.
Castleberry’s Gourmet Sammiches
Where the low-carb craze hasn’t found its grasp
ACL Fest Interviews
The Holmes Brothers Saturday 4:30pm, Capital Metro stage Since forming in 1979, the Holmes Brothers have been amazing audiences worldwide with their brand of blues, which incorporates gospel, funk, and rock in unexpected ways. With stirring brotherly harmonies that resound with passion and are matched only by their spirited musicianship, bassist/vocalist Sherman Holmes; his brother,…
ACL Fest Reviews
Los Amigos Invisibles The Venezuelan Zinga Son Vol. 1 (Luaka Bop) Wafting Venezuelan joie de vivre through the cosmopolitan labyrinth of their newfound home base of Brooklyn, Los Amigos Invisibles simmer a saucy spectacle of gala proportions. Joined in the kitchen by Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez and “Little” Louie Vega of Masters at Work, the boisterous…
Live and Unscripted
A ringside seat at the AMN/AMP/ACTV death-cage match
The Hightower Report
The Department of Homeland Security shills for Big Insurance; and Dubya uses Nixon’s old hatchet man against Kerry
Code 46
Cyberpunk meets renegade romance, à la Orwell.
Following ‘Suit’
‘Zoot Suit’ revival, symposium track the impact of Luis Valdez’s powerful play then and now
Texican Cafe
Recognizing a long-overlooked far-South gem
ACL Fest Interviews
Spoon Sunday 5:30pm, Bank of America stage It’s been two years since the moonlight was killed, and Spoon fans are starving for a second (or fifth, if you’re counting) helping. A meticulous songwriter, Austin’s Britt Daniel is not one to rush things. He’s been writing the current indie rock opus for years. “I ended up…
ACL Fest Reviews
Clarence “Gatemouth” BrownTimeless (Hightone) Timeless is an apropos description for both the classic American tunes that highlight this album and also for the artist himself, the inexhaustible singer, guitarist, and fiddler “Gatemouth” Brown. At the age of 80, he remains a national treasure who, for decades now, has been the quintessential purveyor of a conglomeration…
What’s on Access?
A ringside seat at the AMN / AMP / ACTV death-cage match
Cinematexas 9
Cinematexas International Short Film Festival 9, Sept. 22-26
Mean Creek
A kinder, gentler Bully.
Luv Doc Recommends: East End Soulfest
You probably already have plans for the big festival this weekend. Maybe you have some friends coming into town who are going to crash at your place. Maybe they’ll keep you up all night playing loud music and partying, and in the morning you’ll wake up to find pizza rinds, backwash beers, and soggy roach…
