Don Caballero is doing an in-store at Waterloo Records tomorrow at 5pm and then playing Emo’s later that night. Their drummer is amazing. All you prog rock geeks should check it out. I’m not sure if I’ll make it.
I’ll take the opportunity to plug my own band’s in-store at Cheapo Discs (914 N. Lamar, I’d link their site, but the appear to have forgotten to pay their domain name registration bill) this Friday at 5pm. I’m told there’s usually free beer and it’s almost always a good time. I’m lame enough not to have ever done an in-store at Cheapo Discs, but it’s the original Whole Foods location, so the karma has to be good. I loved doing in-stores at Blondie’s when it was between 5th and 6th. If you find me (the drummer) and tell me you came because of the Metblog post, I’ll give you a free CD.
Speaking of old-time Austin things like the original Whole Foods, I just got back from the X / Rollins Band gig at Stubb’s. Good Stuff. Rollins mentioned Roky Erickson, The Dicks, Butthole Surfers, Big Boys, among others. Everyone was showing their age, but it still rocked.
What kind of week are we having when we get Rollins, X and a Scratch Acid reunion at Emo’s this coming Saturday? I recall my days as a wee impressionable lad at Bill’s Records and Tapes in early 80’s Richardson, forever remembering the Biafran bellies on the first Butthole Surfers record, the rainbow colored cover of Scratch Acid’s Just Keep Eating and the cover of most of Black Flag’s albums. Meeeemries.
Update (08.31.06 10:36 PM CDT): I just noticed that there’s an XLEnt article on Scratch Acid in today’s Statesman. The web version has links to Windows Media and Real Audio versions samples of “Cannibal”, “She Said” and “This is Bliss”.
KVUE reports that the Texas Chili Parlor will be closed all this week for filming of Quentin Tarantino’s half of Grind House, Death Proof. Kurt Russell tending bar at the Chili Parlor? Sweet.
More Austin Metblog posts on QT and the Grind House films here and here.
If you’re looking for something to do tonight and don’t want to spend much cash, Alamo Drafthouse and AT&T are sponsoring a free screening of Grease tonight in Republic Square Park (between 4th & 5th and Guadalupe & San Antonio) at 7:30. The movie begins at dusk. The audio and video were remastered a few years ago for its 20th anniversary. I remember seeing it in the summer of 1978 while visiting friends in Iowa. We saw Caddyshack a few summers later. Guess which one warped me more.
Dogs, picnics, and lawn chairs are welcome. Alcoholic beverages are not permitted in the park. Concessions will be available.
I’m staying home this year unless tickets fall into my lap for cheaper than full price. If you’re thinking you want to brave the heat (and forecasts appear to indicate that we’re in for another blazing hot ACL with temperatures near or above 100), there are some one day passes still available for Friday and Sunday according to the latest ACL mailer.
The Wall Street Journal has an article out today about a new trend in wedding entertainment (here’s an accessible version). Couples are foregoing DJs and either buying or renting an iPod to use during the reception. I did this at our wedding in 2001. I bought a Nomad Jukebox, the hot mp3 player at the time (iPods didn’t exist yet), and loaded it up with songs for both the ceremony and the reception. We played it through the hotel’s sound system. I still have the Nomad, although I haven’t used it much in the last several years. It’s roughly the size of a portable CD player. I figured the cost of the mp3 player was less than the DJ, I could pick the songs and I’d still have the mp3 player once it was all over. If only the skimping on the photographer had worked as well.
[tags]mp3, dj, ipod, nomad, wedding, wsj, wallstreetjournal[/tags]
I checked out The Descent on Tuesday night with a few friends. I’d heard a lot of good stuff about it both from the media and people whose opinions I trust. I was a huge horror movie fan in the 80’s and saw most of what came out, both good and bad. Over the last 10 years, there have been two or three horror movies that have gotten as much good word of mouth. One was Blair Witch Project, which, when I ultimately saw it on video, was extremely disappointing. It was a classic example of expectations being pumped so high that there was no hope that I would ever like it. The second was High Tension, which is much more satisfying.
The Descent managed to mostly live up to its hype, but not without viewing the extra minute that was cut for the American theatrical release. Apparently, domestic test audiences reacted poorly to the original ending, so they cut it. Thanks, dumbasses. As others have pointed out, the loss of that minute guts one of the subplots and removes some of the depth of the movie. Maybe I’m getting old, but the fast cut style seen in many recent movies and used during some of the more intense sequences in this film really annoyed me.
I’m not sure what to make of the fact that the two better horror films of the last ten years were made in Europe (The Descent is British and High Tension is French).
[tags]thedescent, horror, hightension, hautetension, blairwitchproject, edited[/tags]