I just ran across local photographer William Hundley via Scott Beale’s post about his “Chihuahua On Cheeseburgers” photo. He’s got some great stuff. Go check it out.
May 232008
May 212008
Austin City Limits is launching a new newsletter with a contest. You can win tickets to a My Morning Jacket taping on Monday, August 25th. If you don’t live in Austin, they’ll fly you here via American Airlines. If you’re not a big My Morning Jacket fan (and I’m not), there’s still an incentive to join the mailing list to get info on ticket and contest announcements. The signup page is here.
Also, don’t forget that the REM episode taped during this year’s SXSW will air this Saturday, March 24th at 7pm locally on KLRU. The set list appears to be heavy on the new album with almost nothing before 1990 on the set list. “Bad Day” is apparently a b-side and my pre-date Losing My Religion, but I’m not sure. Otherwise, there’s not much there for die-hard 80s REM fans.
PS Note to ACL people, why bury a banner ad for the episode in a Flash animation? Make it easy for people like me to get the image to plug the show. Don’t make me take a screen shot and then crop it myself.
May 152008
Andy Langer of KGSR, Esquire and formerly of 101X’s Next Big Thing, joins Jason and Deb on Thursday mornings to talk about upcoming shows and music. There were two very interesting revelations this morning:
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Langer claims that he interviewed Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top on Tuesday as a promo for their gig tonight at The Backyard. During that discussion, Gibbons revealed that he would be playing at the American Idol finale next week and also specified that he’d be playing with finalist David Cook. Langer seemed to imply that this meant that the winner of American Idol had already been decided as of Tuesday night when there were still 3 contestants remaining. Not sure if he misinterpreted it or if they’re just hedging their bets. I wouldn’t be surprised if the show is fixed, but it seems odd that he could be so blatant about revealing it. -
He also revealed that the Foxboro Hot Tubs, Green Day’s side project, will be playing Emo’s next Thursday, something Jason just heard last night and was apparently debating about revealing. I guess this isn’t a particularly large scoop since their site and MySpace page list tour dates and include the Emo’s date. They only sell tickets to these shows the day of the event at the venue and it’s a limit of two per person at $20 each. The Emo’s calendar says doors are at 8pm, so I’m guessing that’s the earliest that you can buy tickets. If you’ve ever wanted to see the guys from Green Day playing in a small venue and missed your chance back in the early 90s, you’ve got another chance a week from today. Granted, they’re playing Foxboro Hot Tubs songs, but it doesn’t sound all that different from Green Day, so it’s pretty much the same thing, isn’t it?
May 152008
We heard the wind around midnight. No hail for us. A large cottonwood branch nearly took out the minivan, but only chipped a bit of paint on a side view mirror; its smaller brethren littered the yard and the tops of both cars. The loudest thing before that was the storm warning that blared out over the TV as we watched My Name is Earl on the DVR. I think Time Warner can tone down that notice a bit.
As of my commute time about an hour ago, the light at Barton Springs and Robert E Lee was completely out with no traffic cop in sight. Cars on Robert E Lee were backed up for quite a distance. Once I got to the intersection, I found an accident with an ambulance and fire engine, but no police car? Very odd. A downed tree took out a section of the fence at Umlauf. It looks like they’ll be doing a lot of cleanup today. Power is out for at least part of the Zilker neighborhood. Leaves and small branches littered most of the streets that I drove.
It was hard to tell, but it looks like there might have been a fire somewhere between Far West and 183 west of Mopac? I haven’t seen any news to corroborate that, but there appeared to be smoke mixed in with the clouds.
Update: Reports from C., the Statesman and Austinist as well.
Update 2 (2008.05.15 17:18 CDT): Some people may be without power until sometime Saturday. Ouch.
May 012008
I ran into a ton of traffic on the way to work this morning. Both South Congress and South First were a mess going north and I couldn’t figure out why. I even took a picture of Barton Springs and South First since it took me several lights to get through the jerkoffs who were blocking the intersection during light changes.
Turns out there’s a water main break at Lavaca and Fifth street and the northbound lanes of Lavaca are closed causing traffic problems all around downtown and just across the river.
Apr 262008
I’m with C., this is really ridiculous. If I’m reading this right, then Congress Avenue is closed from 10th Street to Oltorf from 7am to 5pm today along with Oltorf between Congress and South First? That’s only two entries on a page that you have to scroll because there’s so many closed street listings. And would it kill them to include a map?
Last weekend saw much reported problems for people trying to get to the Long Center.
Forget trying to go down Lamar near 15th either with Eeyore’s going on today. It seems like Austin always packs way too much on the last two weekends in April, trying to take advantage of the mild weather before we all start baking.
Apr 252008
I was very fortunate to attend an Austin City Limits taping on Sunday evening. This was my third in the past ten years. I saw Roky Erickson last November and got to see Hank Thompson & Ray Price with Junior Brown in 1999. I seem to have a knack for catching legendary musicians late in their careers.
This time it was “Pinetop” Perkins and Bettye LaVette. Ninety-five year old Perkins was up first. He arrived at the stage in a wheelchair and was helped up onto it by an ACL employee. He made it across the stage on his own and seated himself at the piano wearing an impressive red suit and hat. The backing band consisted of many local veteran musicians including Chris Layton, Mark “Kaz” Kazanoff, Gary Clark Jr. and also included another Blues legend, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, on harmonica. “Big Eyes” has played with “Pinetop” Perkins for many years both on drums and harmonica. I didn’t know this until I started checking him out after the show, but they were both in Muddy Waters band and formed their own Legendary Blues Band, appearing behind John Lee Hooker in The Blues Brothers. Wikipedia claims he’s the only other musician shown clearly on camera in that scene. Time to go check out The Blues Brothers again. KUT did an award winning documentary on Perkins last summer. It was kind of hard to hear Perkins over the band. They turned up his mike after the first song. He’s definitely showing his age, something to be expected at 95, but it was definitely a honor to be able to see him play, one of, if not the, last boogie woogie piano players. In a really weird coincidence, “Down in Mississippi” came on the stereo in the coffee shop where I’m working this morning.
Here’s the set list:
CHICKEN SHACK
DOWN IN MISSISSIPPI
HOW LONG
BIG FAT MAMA
MOJO
Bettye LaVette was up next after a long intermission between bands.
Apr 232008
Austinite Terrence Malick’s latest, Tree of Life, has been filming in here since February.
The Wife was in the GNC in Sunset Valley a couple of weeks ago and was told by one of the clerks that she had just missed Brad Pitt.
Today, she’s at ABIA heading out of town and spotted Sean Penn who she described as “taller than I thought”. I told her to tell him that she loves Bad Boys (no, not the one with Martin Lawrence and Will Smith) & Fast Times and to give him props for his appearance on the “Fort Knoxville” episode of Viva La Bam. We won’t speak of I Am Sam, Shanghai Surprise or the overacting in Mystic River. Penn also had a small part in Malick’s last film, The Thin Red Line, along with a ton of other well known actors.
Matt Dentler, who just recently moved on from doing the programming for SXSW Flim. blogged last year about an unexpected dinner with Malick that also included Richard Linklater and Francis Ford Coppola at Vespaio. Malick also produced the documentary about development and Barton Springs, The Unforeseen, which is currently playing at Alamo South Lamar (and mentioned earlier this week on this blog).
Aloha, Mr. Hand.
Apr 152008
I tried to perpetuate the rumor that Prince might play ACL this year. As I’m sure everyone is aware by now, the lineup was released today and we got Foo Fighters instead.
I must say that it appears that the ACL organizers are listening to feedback. The festival is the latest in the year it’s been and this is the best mix of bands in the last few years. I’m still just going to buy a 1 Day pass and try to catch some of the side shows this year though. Foo Fighters are a good choice for headliner. They crossed over to arena rock level with the last tour. I’m not that interested in fighting the ACL headliner crowds to see them.
I’m sure you’re dying to hear my opinion so here’s the names that I’ll pull out of the lineup:
Mates of State – Husband and wife duo that I saw at Fun Fun Fun Fest.
M. Ward – I’d check him out though I wish he were with Zooey Deschanel doing She and Him instead.
MGMT – A little too electronic for me, but lots of people dig them.
Man Man – Caught them at SXSW this year. I’d see them again. Crazy stuff. I still need to post a review.
Vampire Weekend – They were the darlings of this year’s SXSW. Now you have a chance to see them.
Against Me! – No doubt to quell the complaints of the lack of harder stuff and the advanced age of most of the ACL artists in past festivals
Silversun Pickups – I’ve heard they’re better live than in recordings.
Gogol Bordello – They also made a splash at SXSW several years ago. You should’ve caught them at Emo’s, but they’ll still be fun at ACL.
Erykah Badu – She’s amazing. Again, glad to see they’re branching out a bit from the typical ACL fare.
N.E.R.D – See above.
Raconteurs – Rocked it at ACL two years ago and we don’t have to worry about Meg White ruining the whole thing and canceling it.
Mars Volta – I loved At The Drive-In and the first two Mars Volta records. They lost me with Amputechture and I haven’t even checked out the new one. Stiil would be worth checking out if you missed them last week.
Beck – Still kicking myself for missing his SXSW performance in, what was it? 1993? 1994? Should be good.
Who’re you going to see?
Apr 102008
Guanabee (via Austin Soundcheck) is starting a rumor that Prince might be playing ACL this year based on his recent addition to the Coachella lineup and that they claim to hear Prince in the Car Stereo (Wars) teaser mashup of ACL artists that was released earlier this week. I can hear Gnarls Barkley, Silversun Pickups and Raconteurs in there among others, but nothing jumps out at me as a Prince track. Just because The Purple One is playing one major festival this summer doesn’t mean he’s playing others.
However, I’ll add that Prince has had locals Groupo Fantasma as his backing band on more than one occasion and he did play a private party at The Belmont last year, so he’s got Austin ties these days. Maybe it’s not so far fetched. We only have to wait 5 more days to find out for sure.