Weekend Choices

Here are some choices for the weekend.

• Friday - White Denim and Tapes N Tapes are at Antone’s tickets are $12.
• Friday & Saturday - Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz, Master Pancake Theater mocks Planet of the Apes.  Get your tickets online they sellout. Shows at 7pm & 10:15.  Owen Egerton is in the guest seat this month. 
• Friday - Iron Man opens in theaters across Austin.  This one has been getting good reviews. 
• Friday & Saturday - The Racontours are at Stubb’s.  If you have tickets, enjoy the show.
• Saturday - Pecan Street Festival - Various food and art vendors invade 6th Street.  There are 4 stages of music too.  www.oldpecanstreetfestival.com
• Sunday - Paulapalooza at the Scoot Inn (E. 7th) from 2 - 10pm.  A benefit for Paul Holman to help with medical expenses.  Silent Auction, Cup Cake Raffle, Games, Food.  Musical acts include:  Pong, Odyssey, Foot Foot, Tumbleweed Racer,  Cedar Fever Pocket Fisherman.  Cup cakes and great music what more do you need?

Weekend Music and Rollergirls

Thursday

{{{Sunset}}} begins night 1 of 2 at the Parish on 6th.  www.theparishroom.com    

Mars Volta at the Austin Music Hall.  There are still tickets available.  www.directevents.net

JesseFest a fundraiser honoring Joe Ely’s former guitarist Jesse “Guitar” Taylor.  Joe Ely, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Reckless Kelly, Terry Allen and Double Trouble will perform at Antone’s.  www.antones.net

Friday

There is a FREE show at Emo’s inside with Lions headlining, A Few Nice Things, Scorpion Child, and PJ and the Bear (great name) open.  www.emosaustin.com

DJ Melee battle/contest at Mohawk.  www.thedjmelee.com

Saturday 

Mash up artist Car Stereo Wars with special guests are at The Beauty Bar.  www.beautybar.com

Sunday 

The 1st Annual Lazy Sunday Bluegrass Mass at the Cactus Cafe starts at 3pm and goes to midnight.  This is a FREE show. See their site for the lineup www.cactus@union.edu

Combo Mahalo are playing their Hawaiian tunes at Central Market.  Grab a drink and some lunch in the store and listen to some tunes out on the deck.

The Lonestar Rollergirls are skating on Sunday at the Convention Center. The Putas del Fuego vs. the Rhinestone Cowgirls are the teams.  If you have never been before it is a great time.  Each team brings passionate fans. There are fun concequences to the girls if they get a penalty from the refs (ex. Long jump, arm wrestling, spank ally, etc.). Advanced tickets are $13 and $15 at the box office.  The match starts at 7pm with doors at 6pm. http://www.txrd.com/  

Weekend Events

Downtown will be crowded this weekend with the Texas Relays and other events.  You have been warned. 

Friday - Oak Hill World’s Fair. Cyril Neville & Tribe 13, Floyd Domino and the Oak Hill All-Stars. A non-profit event benefiting local trails and parks.  www.oakhillworldsfair.org

Friday and Saturday- The Lone Star Rod & Kustom Round Up at Travis County Expo Center.  Weekend passes $10.  Great Rockabilly and custom hot rods during the day.   Plus a swap meet starting at 10am.  At night on South Congress ther are more great Rockabilly at The Continental Club, Trophy’s and Jo’s parking lot.  www.lonestarroundup.com

Saturday- Louisiana Swamp Thing and Crawfish Festival.  George Clinton and Cowboy Mouth and tons of Zydeco/Swamp music.  MLK and Congress gates open at 10am, $15 entry fee.  Authentic Louisiana Arts, Crafts and Carnival Rides.  www.roadwayevents.com

Sunday- The Grind Action Sports and Music Festival. 11am - 10pm.  MLK and Congress.  $10 at the gate. Wakeboarding and Skateboard Competition plus Street Bike Demos.  Music acts: Mickey Avalon, Eve 6, Fair To Midland, Girl in a Coma, The Vanished and more.  Food and drink for sell all day. www.thegrindseries.com

New Music Tuesday 4/1

No foolin, this is a lot of releases for a Tuesday. 

Annuals/Sunfold – Wet Zoo EP

Anti-Flag – The Bright Lights of America

The Apples in Stereo – Electronic Projects for Musicians

The Black Keys-Attack and Release - Blues Power Duo goes in a slightly different direction.

Blue Man Group – How to Be a Megastar 2.1

Colour Revolt – Plunder, Beg, and Curse

David Ford – Songs for the Road

Jackie Greene – Giving Up the Ghost

Los Campesinos! – Hold on Now, Youngster…

Kylie Minogue – X

Moby – Last Night

Muse – H.A.A.R.P. - Live from UK concert last year (CD + DVD)

Willie Nelson – One Hell of a Ride (4 CD Box Set)

The Proclaimers – Life with You

R.E.M. – Accelerate

Rolling Stones – Shin a Light Soundtrack

Mathew Ryan vs. The Silver State – MRVSS

Joe Satriani – Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock

Sevendust – Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow

South Austin Jug Band – Strange Invitation - On their 3rd album the SAJB went from 5 to 3 band members.  They also wrote most of the songs in NYs famous Chelsea Hotel.  The sound will be a change from their previous releases. 

George Strait – Troubadour

Sun Kil Moon – April

The Sword – Gods of the Earth - Heavy Doom Metal from Austin who keeps blowing up. 

Various Artists – The Very Best of Outlaw Country

Aaron Watson – Angels and Outlaws

Cece Winans – Thy Kingdom Come

The Wood Brothers - Loaded

Rolling Stones Doc. Shine A Light

I just saw Shine A Light, the Rolling Stones documentary by Martin Scorsese at the Bullock State History Museum.  The concert was shot with IMAX cameras last year in New York City.  If you have never seen the Stones, this might be the next best thing to being there live.  You still get all the energy and great sound with some fabulous camera shots.  Mixed in-between some of the songs are interviews from the 60’s to present day.  These sound bites are quite funny.  During the concert there are 3 special guests who come on to sing with the band: Jack White, Buddy Guy and Christina Aguilera.  They all did an amazing job.  One of the only problems is the camera gets too close several times to Mick and Kieth’s face.  I really like the Stones but I don’t want to see a 4 story shot of these guys faces.  Scorsese kept a great pace to the film and poked fun at himself in the beginning of the film.  He was trying to plan where the cameras are going to be and all the logistics of capturing their show.  All he wants is a set list from Mick.  I won’t give away the punchline but it made me laugh.  These 60 year old legends know how to entertain an audience live or on film and I think you’ll agree.   

Weekend Movies

Here are the movies opening this weekend: 

Run, Fat Boy, Run- Simon Pegg, Thandie Newton, Hank Azaria set in London.  Guy loses girl because of stupidity, guy spends movie trying to get girl back by becoming fit and running a marathon.  David Schwimer makes his feature film directorial debut.  He did do some TV direction of Friends and the Joey spin off so he’s not a total newbie.  I have heard this isn’t great.  Mostly in the 2 to 2.5 stars or C+ range. 

Stop-Loss- Ryan Phillippe, Abbie Cornish, Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Timothy Olyphant and other youngish actors.  With his enlistment up Brandon King (Phillippe) gets home from the Iraq war but receives orders that they want him to return.  This measure, where the Army indefinitely extends enlistment, is called Stop-Loss and has affected 80,000 soldiers.  King goes AWOL across the country as a result of the order.  The movies about the current war have tanked at the box office.  I have feeling this one might too.  We shall see. 

The best reviewed movie of the weekend is 21.  Based on the true story of Ivy league students who are trained as card counters to take Las Vegas for as much as they can in the game of black jack.  Virtual unknown actors as the students with Kevin Spacey as the professor and Lawrence Fishburne as the Vegas heavy.

Superhero Movie - From the idiots who brought you Scary movie and other spoofs. Please don’t encourage the producers to make more of these type of movies by going to see this unfunny stuff.       

Some Weekend Recomendations

• Check out the 20 To Watch: New Art In Austin at the Austin Museum of Art http://amoa.org
• Funny man, Eddie Gosiling is at the Cap City Comedy Club all weekend.  http://www.capcitycomedy.com
• The country music of Split Lip Rayfield is on for two nights at The Continental Club.  http://www.continentalclub.com/Austin.html
• Popular local alt-rockers Voxtrot at Emo’s.  Yellow Fever and Ringo Deathstarr open. http://www.emosaustin.com
• Saturday, 8:30 am is the 14th annual Rosedale Ride benefiting the Rosedale school for disabled children.  Get there at 7 am if you are riding.  If you haven’t registered or want to http://rosedaleride.org
• DJ Mel is doing his 80’s party, “Rock The Casbah” at The Parish on Saturday night always a good time. http://www.theparishroom.com
• At Antone’s dance out to some funky grooves at Bassnecter with DJ Manny and DJ Big Face.  Tiger Liu is master of ceremonies.  If you haven’t been to a show with these 3 you should.  There might be people in costumes, crazy videos or who knows what they have planned for this show. http://www.antones.net    

Have a great weekend everyone!

Raconteurs & Gnarls

Consolers of the Lonely, is the 2nd offering from The Raconteurs.  It is decent album.  Definitely not as a good as their first release Broken Boy Soldiers.  Brenden and Jack produced/arranged the music which might be the problem.  Sometimes the outside influence a producer helps to focus a group.  It sounds a little boring in some spots.  Consolers is growing on me with each listen. 

Gnarls Barkley also give us their 2nd release, The Odd Couple.  There a couple fun highlights such as, Going On and A Little Better.  The whole album feels like an old school R & B album.  This one doesn’t feel as fun as their first, St. Elsewhere. 

UnderwhelmednATX

New Music 3/25

Some BIG names in the list of new releases this week.  Enjoy. 

• The B-52s - Funplex - The fun/pop/weird foursome is back.  Their last album was released 16 years ago.  The songs on this one are apparently inspired by Fellini movies.  Tin roof……….rusted.
• Lindsey Buckingham - Live at the Bass Performance Hall - Longtime guitarist and singer for Fleetwood Mac releases a concert from 07 in Fort Worth. This is a CD+DVD of solo and FM hits.
• Counting Crowes - Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings - First studio release in 5 years.  This is adult alternative rock is about, “flood of sin and liquor and dissolution and insanity and it’s about trying to rebuild the life you wrecked in the wake of that flood.”
• De Novo Dahl - Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound - Nashville 5 piece isn’t in the country genre, more like eclectic rock with musical influences from Mercury Rev, Air and Jeff Tweedy to the Beach Boys, the Supremes and Stevie Wonder.
• Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple - Electronic Hip-Hop Soul on 13 tracks of new material from Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo Green.  Run is the first single.   
• Guilty Simpson - Ode to the Ghetto - Debut album from Detroit rapper.  The late/great J Dilla produced some cuts as well as Madlib and others. 
• Morrissey - Greatest Hits - 19 tracks on 2 Discs with a US Exclusive and one new song. 
• Tim O’Brian - Chameleon - Traditional folk artist who plays multiple instruments.
• Morgan Page - Elevate - Electro beats with guest artists singing: Lissie, Camila Grey, Tyler James, etc.
• Panic At The Disco - Pretty. Odd. - 60’s Pop inspired for their second album in which they ditched the pro-tools and went with actual instruments.
• Pennywise - Reason To Believe - California Punk/Rockers are back with (some say) their best album. 
• Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely - This follow up to Broken Boy Soldiers was recorded before the White Stripes began the tour for their latest release.  Jack White, Brenden Benson and the rest of the band kept this one on the down low with not much promotion. 
• Tony Trischka - Territory - A true banjo master releases another album with 62 minutes, 21 tracks, 32-page booklet, extensive notes, photos.

Weekend of 3/21

I’ve got a few recommendations for the weekend. Movies: Let me say this is a bad time of year for movies. Oscars are over and out of the theaters (for the most part). Then the studios are waiting until the next big holiday to release the next big blockbuster. Anyway I’m abstaining against recommending movies this week. Music: Blues and rock n’ roll by Black Joe Lewis and Gary Clark Jr. are at the Continental Club on Friday. BJL starts at 10ish. Blaze plays amazing jazz music and you should see them at Lambert’s on Friday night. Saturday at Mohawk is a CD release party for alterna-rockers Experimental Aircraft. This Will Destroy You opens things. Should be a good show.