True to the sacred pledge of their home city, twin cinematic peaks Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez live and breathe music. Thursday, the Austin Film Society screens a virgin print of the latter’s gun-toting debut, 1992’s El Mariachi, downtown at the Paramount as encored by the director getting onstage with Del Castillo in Chingón.

Marking the film’s 20th anniversary – Rodriguez’s Texican call to arms – the Chingón all-stars boast a tight clip of songs, two of them opening 2004 soundtrack spin-off Mexico and Mariachis. Chingón, Los Lobos, Cruzados, and the filmmaker’s sister Patricia Vonne rattle like snakes on album’s passionate Latinate.

Whether it’s his accompanying discs to Desperado or From Dusk Till Dawn, Rodriguez always pulls the trigger on killer audio for his big screen Southwesterns and aluminum bit bullets. Linklater’s CDs for Dazed and Confused – both volumes – and long-forgottens like his 1998 musical companion to The Newton Boys – starring Bad Livers Danny Barnes and Mark Rubin (and Parrty Griffin, Erik Hokkanen, and Guy Forsyth) – achieve the same rousing listens.

Only one of the local directors once pulled me out of a party to play me potential film scoring in his SUV outside. Robert later signed my Mexico and Mariachis CD at the Antone’s release party with Chingón.

VIP pre-party at 6:30pm, followed by a screening at 7:30pm, and finished off by Chingón. Tickets here.

This article appears in August 24 • 2012.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.