Octopus Project + Black Moth Super Rainbow The House of Apples and Eyeballs (Graveface) It's difficult not to swell with hometown pride when discussing the Octopus Project. They're one of the few bands in our insular, self-important music discussion circles who really backs that shit up. Innovative, experimental, catchy, interesting. These guys know what to do, and they do it--consistently. Their recent collaboration with Pittsburgh's equally unclassifiable Black Moth Super Rainbow Tincan Extraordinary Salad... [continue]

The Tah-Dahs pound out energetic pop punk hooks reminiscent of earlier (and better) times when punk/garage rock was fun, before its soul was polished up like a turd and sold to Geffen the burbs. For cheap. This is a band that knows how to have a good time and that, well, knows how to play--in every sense of the word, live and on record. Sweaty frontman Roy Ivy, jester and genius, furiously forges through...... [continue]

Austin's Rock N Romp is a kid-friendly concert series featuring local musical acts and performers once a month for the benefit of the music community and the families that are a part of it. The holiday Romp is today at Ruta Maya Cafe, beginning at 4 pm and will feature the music of The Palm School Choir singing (among other things) some of their favorite Flaming Lips songs, and local indie wunderkinds AM Syndicate,...... [continue]

Man, somewhere along the way we killed anthemic stadium rock, or at least ran it six feet into the ground with overexposure and under-talented hair ripoffs. But don't you wish we could resurrect Queen and T-Rex and and ask them to share (and fucking shread) an Austin stage for just one magical night of robust, raunchy riffs, reminding us rock fans what we're supposed to do and how we're supposed to do it? And...... [continue]

The first-ever Fun Fun Fun Fest is this Friday, December 1st, at Waterloo Park. Over two dozen great acts are on the bill, including Spoon, Peaches, The Black Angels, Prefuse 73, and DJ Mel. Tickets are $20, and can be purchased online. Octopus Project perform on the Indie stage at 3:30pm. -- The Editors What's your favorite thing about playing festivals? (Or do you prefer not to play them?) Festivals are rad! We very...... [continue]

Some people marry for love. Some for companionship. And yes, there are some thrifty evil souls out there who marry for riches. But we romantics at the Austinist are happy to know that at least two people in this hardened nation of ours have married for a reason even purer than true love: rock and roll. Back in 2001 Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel decided to ditch their day jobs, get hitched, and begin...... [continue]

It's the same old shit every year: eat too much turkey (or Tofurkey for all y'all vegetarians out there). Watch football with smelly misogynist Uncle Larry. Listen to Cousin Lou complain about his goiter. Stare at Aunty Pearl as she licks the cat. But this year, break the cycle. You can start by going to a rap show! Lady Sovereign, the British Powerpuff Girl of white rappers, is rolling into the Parish this Turkey... [continue]

Peter and the Wolf are a ragtag bunch of troubadours fronted by Austin's (or the World's according to Pitchfork) heralded Red Hunter. We say fronted, but Hunter tends to do most of the writing and picks up musicians as he goes, finding folks in the towns through which he tours. These strikingly hip transients are known for their colorful performances—tours by sailboat, shows in cemeteries—and their dire allegiance to the Angel of Light. The...... [continue]

Seminal O.C. gutter punk icon Mike Ness has been fucking the Man for almost 30 years. He's done all the stuff punk kids nowadays try to emulate—drug addiction, erratic behavior, jail time. And a rival punk rocker even bit off part of his ear, Tyson-style, in a fight. Further, we heard he eats 100th wave wannabe suburban Blink 182 boys for breakfast. Ness's band Social Distortion has released six studio recordings, enduring a revolving... [continue]

Avoid the Noid. Or if you're Oxford Collapse, jump off of the side of a swimming pool and tackle the shit out of the (inflatable toy) Noid. A presumably tanked gentleman is depicted as doing such on the cover of the band’s most recent release, Remember the Night Parties (Sub Pop). In it, OxC reminds us that hard-hitting bands who know how to bring it 80s-style without simply ripping off Joy Division do, in...... [continue]

In her newest album, Son, Argentine-born Juana Molina embraces experimentation. The actress-cum-musician has been known for her whispery, velvety vocals since her debut, Rara, in 1996. But Son meanders, offering simultaneously the repetition of loops and the unpredictability of winding instrumentation. Sonically, Molina colors outside the lines and toys with the songwriter's inclination toward simple verse/chorus structures. She's inspired, in her words, by "the randomness of the combination of sounds in nature." The result...... [continue]

Indie rock heroes Built to Spill released a fanfuckingtastic record back in April. Indie, of course, not referring to the band’s connection with some obscure label (they’ve been a part of the Warner Bros. empire since ’97), but to the noisy noodling guitars, the heady lyrics, the melodic/dissonant chords, and catchy songwriting that (arguably) began somewhere near Chapel Hill in the late 80s, spread to the northwest via Boise, and finally lost significance about...... [continue]

With a one-word moniker like Jima (Jim A., a self-imposed nickname taking his first name and last initial), you kind of have to bring it, right? So front-man/bassist for Seattle’s The Purrs does what he can—he’s known for his rhetorical swagger, spouting off cocky quips inspired by the bottle. Enter comparisons to Brian Jonestown Massacre and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. But musically, The Purrs prove more than cock-rockers, giving us a history lesson in... [continue]

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