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Powa

Dissecting Tune-yards’ ‘Whokill’ with FFFS’s Merrill Garbus.

by Melanie Haupt

The Sacrifice

The Sacrifice 1986, PG, 142 min. Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Tarkovsky’s final film was made in Sweden with many of Ingmar Bergman’s regular collaborators and won numerous festival awards. It tells the story of a man who, on the occasion of his son’s birthday and the outset of a nuclear war between superpowers, may have…

by Chronicle Staff

Texas Platters

Golden Bear Alive (C-Side) Golden Bear thrives on bombastic but inviting energy, ambitious in sound but warmly ramshackle and optimistic in ethos. Following the cosmic tour of 2007 sophomore effort To the Farthest Star, the local quintet went into hibernation, which makes its tight return on Alive all the more thrilling. Beginning with the first…

by Doug Freeman

Texas Platters

Greyhounds Spring Training Being road warriors, and members of JJ Grey & Mofro of late, has presumably kept Greyhounds out of the recording studio. Even if Spring Training is the local duo’s first disc in three years, a new release is welcomed, although at four songs, it’s unacceptably brief. Master of the keys Anthony Farrell…

by Jim Caligiuri

Texas Platters

Jason Boland & the Stragglers Rancho Alto (Apex Nashville/Thirty Tigers) Only in country music – Anglo blues if you will – could “a near-fatal car accident, a polyp on his vocal chords, a divorce and a bout with alcoholism,” as listed in the press release for Rancho Alto, be construed as selling points. Happily, the…

by Raoul Hernandez

Texas Platters

Dale Watson & the Texas Two The Sun Sessions (Red House) As Dale Watson tells it, he wasn’t planning on making this album. On the way to what he thought was a scheduled gig in Memphis, Tenn., he was informed he wasn’t booked. So the defiant local dialed up Sun Studio which, as luck would…

by Jim Caligiuri

Anonymous

Normally a maker of big, explosive movies, Roland Emmerich directs this conspiracy-minded potboiler which questions the veracity of Shakespeare’s authorship.

by Marc Savlov

Texas Platters

Texas Artists Performing the Music of Sara Hickman The Best of Times (Sleeveless) Never one to rest on her back catalogue, Sara Hickman employed part of her 2010 as Official Texas State Musician to pull together this double disc set benefiting the Theatre Action Project, a nonprofit that brings art, music, and theatre to Central…

by Jim Caligiuri

Margin Call

A high-powered cast drives this fictional depiction of what might have occurred in a top investment firm in the hours leading up to its collapse.

by Marc Savlov

Puss in Boots

As infectious as the latest viral cat video, this animated film has the added slam-dunk of Antonio Banderas purring the voice of the title character.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Record Review

Speak I Believe in Everything (Playing in Traffic) They had you at “Bitter Sweet Symphony.” Not literally the Verve, yet the symphonic stutter step touching off Speak’s full-length debut I Believe in Everything announces the local foursome’s intentions past the bright dazzle of opener “Wars” (“This is war, but baby let’s be friends for just…

by Raoul Hernandez

The Rum Diary

Johnny Depp stars in this adaptation of one of Hunter S. Thompson’s earliest novels, which is set in Puerto Rico in 1960 and soaked in booze

by Marc Savlov

Take Shelter

Is Curtis LaForche slowly going mad or is something apocalyptic about to happen? Michael Shannon stars in this truly unsettling movie.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Just Say No!

During an interview before a live audience in the KLRU studio in 2010, Evan Smith, editor of the Texas Tribune, put his chin in his hand and asked Gov. Rick Perry: “Governor, why does Texas continue with abstinence education programs when they don’t seem to be working? In fact, we have the third-highest teen pregnancy…

by Jordan Smith

Quote of the Week

“Such is life in the council minority.” – Mayor Lee Leffingwell, on his losing effort to move the 2012 council election from May to November, in remarks to the Real Estate Council of Austin

by Chronicle Staff

Texas Platters

Strange Boys Live Music (Rough Trade) The Strange Boys always make it look effortless – as in putting in less effort. It’s part of their slick slacker charm, daring listeners to dismiss them based on their lackadaisical lilt, which belies just how precisely arranged and executed the Austin quartet’s Garage&B sound is. Third LP and…

by Doug Freeman

Texas Platters

Girl in a Coma Exits & All the Rest (Blackheart) “Adjust” captures Exits & All the Rest in a burst, its first half-minute the calm before Nina Diaz’s vocal twister booms reminiscent of Linda Perry’s 4 Non Blondes. Her seared guitar also fits the bill. Scrapes and scratches peel more than skin on this San…

by Raoul Hernandez

Texas Platters

Miles Zuniga These Ghosts Have Bones Miles Zuniga likens this solo debut to therapy, a concentrated rebound from the fallout of divorce and the distance it’s created with his son. Make that group therapy, since the Fastball guitarist gets strong backing from Bruce Hughes of the Resentments and Band of Heathens’ John Chipman, along with…

by Austin Powell

Headlines

› There’s a lull at City Hall, with no City Coun­cil meeting this week. Winter hibernation’s nearly here, as the gang returns to the dais Nov. 3 for their fourth-to-last meeting of the year. › With City Hall quiet, Mayor Lee Leffingwell made some noise of his own with a fiery speech to the Real…

by Chronicle Staff

Luv Doc Recommends: Zombie Ball: The Party To Die For

Put your costume on now. It’s go time. It already was last weekend but maybe you didn’t get the memo. As of today, however, there’s no excuse. Everything is Halloween themed. Don’t think so? Even Petco is having a Fur and Fangs Halloween Catstravaganza. You may want to take this rare opportunity to round up…

by The Luv Doc

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