Subject: Austin

• South By Southwest, Part 1

  Well, it's 8:35 Austin time and I've finally got my room, internet access, and festival badge. Haven't had a chance to see any actual music yet, but I've certainly seen plenty of jaded industry types, giddy young music writers, and desperate publicists. I'm headed out into the evening to actually find some material on which to write, but in the meantime, I'll leave you with a quote from page 209 of Lone Star Swing, Duncan McLean's book on his travels through Texas searching for the original perf

  March 14, 2007

• "Death" takes to DVD

  One (or two, depending on how you look at it) of the highlights of the past Newport Beach Film Festival was the Death Note movies, the latest in a powerhouse franchise from Japan that began with comics, then spawned an anime series and many toys, and finally these live-action adaptations. Death Note and Death Note: The Last Name are really more like one big story cut in a half than a story with a sequel; fans of the anime have been hard of them, but I wrote at the time that "for all the twists a

  September 18, 2007

• Coachella lineup announced

  Via Coachella.com: FRIDAY, APRIL 25: Jack Johnson, The Verve, Raconteurs, The Breeders, Fatboy Slim, Tegan and Sara, Madness, The Swell Season, The National, Animal Collective, Slightly Stoopid, Mum, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Stars, Battles, Aesop Rock, Midnight Juggernauts, Does it Offend you, Yeah?, Minus the Bear, Spank Rock, dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip, Diplo, Adam Freeland, Santo Gold, Jens Lekman, John Butler Trio, Vampire Weekend, Dan Deacon, Architecture in Helsinki, Sandra Col

  January 22, 2008

• A Thousand Knives At Detroit 3/5

  Review by Jeff Phifer A Thousand Knives is the band that you haven't heard yet, but you will. The group’s very first show in LA resulted in an offer to play a party at the prestigious South By Southwest festival this coming week. A Thousand Knives brings a new sound that captures what's happening around them as well as adding a new flavor to the scene, thus the lucky break. Sim, as their frontman is known, runs his vocals through a line 6 amp that accentuates the lyrics in a way that both

  March 6, 2008

• Crystal Antlers and Banana Hammocks

  The problem with blogging SXSW is that every second spent blogging is a second spent not seeing something that you might want to blog about. Having arrived late Wednesday night, while the festival was already in partial swing, and trying (unsuccessfully) to catch up on some lost travel sleep Thursday morning, this is literally the first time I have been able to stop to catch my breath and reflect on what I have seen. Some argue that the festival is suffering from its own success: that its imme

  March 14, 2008

• What you missed over the weekend: Part XIV

  Dave Segal and Tom Child spent the weekend in Austin for the South By Southwest Festival, which they live-blogged out of Heard Mentality. Browse the SXSW blog for their coverage here, and do scroll down and flip through some slide shows while you're there. Chelsea Ide wraps up the SXSW weekend quite nicely over here. Once again, the Reg-O-Meter (which now has a snazzy new logo - thanks, Steve!) went negative after Rich Kane fed it this week's notables from the Orange County Register. Check back

  March 17, 2008

• Not-So-Wild West

  October 7, 1999

• Welcome to Schmoozeville

  March 29, 2001

• This Is Nowhere

  August 29, 2002

• Crystal Antlers Score EW Mention

  Long Beach's Crystal Antlers, who this year already netted an 8.5 on Pitchfork for their self-released EP (which was subsequently sntached up by Touch and Go) and just last night played the Bowery Ballroom in NYC as part of the CMJ Music Marathon, saw their good buzz streak continue with a mention in national mag Entertainment Weekly's music section this week (the issue currently on stands with the cast of the more boring than ever "Heroes" on the cover). Getting in EW is an accomplishment in i

  October 26, 2008

• OC/LBC Bands Head to South By Southwest

  March 12, 2009

• A pocket-full of SXSW videos

  Okay, so another SXSW festival has come and gone. You weren't there, we weren't there...boo-hoo. But it's time's like these where we bow and thank the Lord for You-Tube. I'm not sure whether it was boredom or sheer curiosity that led me to reexamine a previous post I made about OC and LB bands heading to Austin this month, but I decided to check out the list again and see if I could dig up any videos. Obviously I didn't get them all, maybe that's just because well, we're dealing with musicians h

  March 25, 2009

• [Locals Only] Audacious and Precocious

  March 26, 2009

• [CD Review] Ben Kweller, 'Changing Horses' (ATO)

  February 5, 2009

• [This Hole-in-the-Wall Life] The Yellow Cup of Texas at Dickey's Barbecue Pit

  October 9, 2008

• Houston's Indian Jewelry Bring the Psychedelic Noise to Irvine

  August 7, 2008

• The Black Angels Prepare to Psych Out at Ink N Iron Fest

  June 5, 2008

• Locals Only

  The Valley Arena, Sesso.Vita (Sidecho)

  November 1, 2007

• Kill the Ziggens!

  March 29, 2001

• Locals Only

  August 19, 1999

• Sweet Sounds From Above

  Hymns
  

  June 7, 2007

• Are Your Ears Burning Yet?

  Surveying the (potential) sound-good hits of the summer

  June 7, 2007

• Brothers Grim

  Wendell Baker is a dysfunctional Wilson family affair

  May 17, 2007

• The Thermals

  April 3, 2003

• Spurfection

  Lonesome Spurs

  April 12, 2007

• The Awful Truth in Austin, Texas

  The case against Michael Moore and for B-list celebs at SXSW

  March 15, 2007

• Screw the Industry Weasels

  Think small (bands) and youll have a good time at SXSW

  March 15, 2007

• Extended Car Metaphors

  The Fabulous Thunderbirds

  January 11, 2007

• Shameless Plug

  October 5, 2006

• The Call of the West

  May 25, 2006

• Through the Viewfinder

  March 23, 2006

• Commie Girl

  December 22, 2005

• Eight Days

  September 23, 2004

• Burning Bush

  March 25, 2004

• Dance Disaster Movement

  April 3, 2003

• Buchanan

  April 3, 2003

• Letters

  August 8, 2002

• Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink

  August 1, 2002

• Screamadelic and Copasetic

  April 4, 2002

• Whos the Star Here?

  December 27, 2001

• Rewind

  January 4, 2001

• More Miles Than Money

  July 20, 2000

• News for Nerds

  November 18, 1999

• Vacation, Baby

  October 21, 1999

• Fast Train Comin'

  May 13, 1999

• Tramps Reunite! Life Good Again!

  April 15, 1999

• Are OC Republicans Lying or Businessmen Stupid for Leaving Country's Most Popular State?

  ​The kind of Orange County Republicans who would launch a recall of a Southern California politician from their own party tell you higher taxes are driving businesses out of California. They'll compare Cali's various tax rates with a backwater state like Nevada, or send their puppet officeholders (Assembly members Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point, and Jim Silva, R-Huntington Beach) to that desert hell hole to hear from whiners who used to ply their trades here but left because

  October 8, 2009

• Eight Questions with the Quick & Easy Boys

  Mosca Photography​ Lots of good stuff comes out of Portland. You got your Voodoo Doughnut, your Sweetpea Baking Company, your Hillstomp and your bike-friendly streets (notice no mention of the Trail Blazers--Go Lakers!). Well, add another item to Portland's awesome list because the Quick & Easy Boys, a trio from Rose City is hitting the Gypsy Lounge tomorrow night for a funk/punk blast of spaced out jams, a sound self-described as "honkadelic."The group - guitarist/singer Jimmy Russell, b

  October 12, 2009

• Ghostland Observatory

  November 19, 2009

• Ghostland Observatory Fuses the Best of Man and Machine

  November 19, 2009