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Warrior

Knockout performances by the three central characters and powerfully effective fight sequences are the key ingredients that spur this male weepie.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Texas Platters

Pure X Pleasure (Acéphale) Pure X operates with the consistency of a warped cassette, bruised and woozy. Having shed the more unbecoming moniker of Pure Ecstasy, over the course of a few singles and the EP You’re in It Now, the local trio – Nate Grace, Jesse Jenkins, and Austin Youngblood – put Texas psych…

by Austin Powell

Shaolin

In this rousing film, a compassionate Buddhist philosophy underpins what might have been just another Hong Kong period piece about power-mad warlords and their blood-spattered brinkmanship.

by Marc Savlov

Texas Platters

Mr. Lewis & the Funeral 5 Delirium Tremendous (Chicken Ranch) Recognition is due Gregory Lewis and his Funeral 5 for attempting – and mostly succeeding with – something different. Delirium Tremendous, their second undertaking, finds the local troupe strengthening its choke hold on “macabaret”: Imagine Tom Waits as a carnival barker fronting a punk klezmer…

by Jim Caligiuri

Texas Platters

Stereo Is a Lie (Monolathe) That Brit-pop crispness is not affect. UK émigré Glynn Wedgewood rises from the embers of one of Austin’s most thrilling imports, IV Thieves, on this eponymous debut from local fivepiece Stereo Is a Lie. And like many a rock band, its first mistake is the superfluous keyboardist (sorry Justin Scott).…

by Raoul Hernandez

Texas Platters

A working definition of the Paper Shapes: Paper Chase neurosis shredded with the post-punk delinquency of At the Drive-In’s “One Armed Scissor.” The Austin quintet’s six-song sophomore effort, Be Vigilant, offers a caterwauling juggernaut that ventures into math rock (“Castles”) and Mars Volta (“Dead Kids From Mars”) territory. A big-band caravan led by transcontinental hustler…

by Austin Powell

Day Trips

The Lone Star Monument and Historical Flag Park in Conroe salutes 13 Texas Revolution battle flags with a memorial to those who carried them

by Gerald E. McLeod

Texas Platters

Black Red Black Variously termed “soul jazz,” “barbecue jazz,” and even “acid jazz,” the heavy backbeat and blues-drenched intonation mined here preserve a groove music that had its heyday decades ago, yet is still very much alive here in Austin with this colorful trio. Individually, trumpeter Ephraim Owens, B3 organist Red Young, and drummer Brannen…

by Jay Trachtenberg

Texas Platters

Ron Westray & Thomas Heflin Live From Austin (Blue Canoe) The opening strains of Ron Westray original “Exile: Remember the Homeless” set the tone for this rousing Elephant Room live recording. Local pianist Peter Stoltzman channels McCoy Tyner’s huge chording while the chorus of trombonist Westray, trumpeter Thomas Heflin, and saxophonist Elias Haslanger sounds every…

by Jay Trachtenberg

Gay Place: Gay as the Day Is Long

Couldn’t tell you what year it was, but the memory is still imprinted on the booty. It was Austin Pride, then hosted by the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas (LGRL, which has since become Equality Texas), and it was held at Fiesta Gardens. Community groups and small retailers pushing rainbow everything populated booths that snaked…

by Kate X Messer

Quote of the Week

“The aquifer can no longer afford anything other than minimal use, and that may be the situation for many, many more months.” – from a conservation notice warning that the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer District could enter Stage III Critical Drought today (Thursday, Sept. 8)

by Chronicle Staff

Texas Platters

Ume Phantoms (Modern Outsider) Break out the 4AD catalog circa 1994. Ume evokes the label’s golden shoegazing era so perfectly that Phantoms should come with a cover by Vaughan Oliver (the Breeders, Pixies, Throwing Muses). Like Lush’s underrated Split, the hardworking Austin trio’s debut full-length balances precariously between psychedelic swoon and refined power-pop. Lauren Larson’s…

by Richard Whittaker

Apollo 18

This secretive film’s premise is that it reveals suppressed footage of the U.S. government’s secret mission to the moon.

by Kimberley Jones

Off the Record

Electric Lounge’s second act on the Eastside, catching up with Scratch Acid and Austin’s other Voice contestants

by Austin Powell

Headlines

� Central Texas has been devastated by a series of major wildfires that broke out over Labor Day weekend, claiming hundreds of homes and thousands of acres, including much of Bastrop State Park. Travis County Commissioner Karen Huber was among those evacuated from their homes; the Bastrop home of former City Council Member Betty Dunkerley…

by Chronicle Staff

Four Things You Didn’t See on TV

edited by Austin Powell 1) After the Team Cee Lo performance of “Everyday People” during the second week of live rounds, I was rushed offstage to the “quick change” area – four curtains, a clothes rack, and two wardrobe folks – where I was stripped of my 1970s vintage Family Stone look and suited up…

by Nakia

Higher Ground

Oscar-winning actress Vera Farmiga makes her debut as a director with this film in which she also stars as a woman who struggles with religious faith.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

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