Alex Brown, the drummer of local band Fractious and the little brother of this site's former editor is turning 21 tonight, OMG, and wants everyone to come out and see his band play. Doors for the party at Redrum are at 8, and the cover is $4, but if you track down this lowly Austinist contributor, he will buy you a beer and maybe even 2 if you are nice. Performing tonight will be... [continue]

Austinist loves Halloween. If there is one holiday that we hold holy, it is this one. Who can argue with costumes, candy, trickery and sexy versions of a wide variety of otherwise staid professions? You cannot. Do not even try. There will be a lot of parties this weekend, and even on Monday, on the actual H-day. We don't know where all of them are, but we'll list as many as we hear about...... [continue]

We'd like to say thanks to everyone who came out to our Local Music Is Sexy party last night and made it a mind numbingly huge success. We love all of you, and hope you had as good a time as we did. We'd also like to thank Trojan Condoms for their support (and the 4000+ free condoms!), Sumo for the beanbag chairs, The Daily Juice, Music Lab, DJ Shane, Peel, The Interest Kills, The... [continue]

Accuweather reports that we're not going to have rain tomorrow night, so the Local Music Is Sexy party will proceed as planned! We will see you at The Velvet Spade, tomorrow night!... [continue]

Folks, we are a flippant blog when flippancy is appropriate, but we are not above being serious when necessary. We may be seeing some very serious weather in the future -- a foot of rain, power outtages, all that sort of stuff. Nobody can say for sure what is going to happen, but it would not be beyond reasonable to go get some food, water, and flashlight batteries just to be safe. We grew up... [continue]

We told you about Enoteca Vespaio last week, and tipped you off that they were going to start serving brunch this past weekend. Well, we heeded our own advice and had ourselves a bit of brunch yesterday, and we were very, very impressed. We're not food writers, so we're not going to try to be flowerly with our writing here. Our meal consisted of two cups of cappucino, a bread plate featuring 3 slices... [continue]

We just wanted to remind you that two of our favorite bands, and bands that happen to spend a lot of time sitting in our living room, will be playing shows in the next 36 hours. When you know bands, they put a lot of pressure on you to get people to come see their shows. And when those bands are sitting on your couch, holding a gun to your head, you do it.... [continue]

This Friday, Fractious and Squares Are Best, two alt-rock bands, go head to head in the second round of the Zippo Hot Tour. It's a battle of the bands, and Austinist is asking you to come out and support Fractious because their drummer is our little brother. Yeah, that's right, we get to do that. The bands who made it to round 2 have already battled their way through a rigorous people's choice process...... [continue]

Do you have a burning desire to share your opinion about coffee shops with your neighbors here in Austin? Are you a Craiglist regular with something to say about the local music scene? Do you refer to yourself as "we" even when talking to your friends? Perhaps you should be writing for Austinist! We're currently looking to bring on a handful of new contributors to cover all aspects of Austin. If you're interested in being... [continue]

In times of great tragedy, like the times we seem to be living in right now, people must do their best to help in whatever way they can. Our friends at Mule Design have decided to put their talents to use to create a teeshirt inspired by the recent events in New Orleans, all profits from which will go to the Red Cross. It's a nice way to show your support for those in... [continue]

We watched episode twelve from a bed in the Hilton Hotel in mid-town Manhattan. We were on a business trip that we didn't particularly want to go on. We've been watching a lot of episodes on the road lately, and it's making us home sick. (We're actually writing this recap at Chicago's Midway airport.) And here's the thing -- seeing those silly shots of the Frost Bank building, the montages of Congress Ave and...... [continue]

The worst part of the storm hasn't even landed, but Hurricane Katrina has already ripped part of the roof off of the Superdome, where 10,000 people are hiding from the storm. New Orleans is in serious trouble. CNN's weather person says they are expecting "catastrophic" damage. Wild. CNN has a hurricane blog written by someone in Louisiana. The weather here in Austin will be mostly the same - hot and dry! Update: The "eye... [continue]

EPISODE 9, WHICH WE FORGOT TO RECAP LAST WEEK, A VERY QUICK MINI-RECAP: Wes is jealous of Leo, Johanna's local squeeze. In a jealous rage, Wes brings a blonde back to the house, with whom he fornicates, repeatedly, on camera. Johanna comments, Wes reacts, they get into a bitter feud. The blonde leaves in a huff. Meanwhile, Melinda worries that Danny won't return, and Danny cries like a little bitch. What will happen? Who...... [continue]

We were desperate to see a new movie this weekend, and as the film industry seems to have turned its back on the kind movie-going public, our pickings were slim. We didn't particularly want to see Rob Zombie's new movie, The Devil's Rejects, but it was playing at a convenient time and at a convenient place, and we were conveniently under the influence of something that caused our ability to judge things to be... [continue]

Well, we've just about had it with our stolen cable. For some reason, and we are beginning to think this is some sort of ironic punishment for writing these recaps, the reception we get for MTV is getting worse and worse. It started out a bit fuzzy. It has since degraded to a screen 3/4 of which is taken up by a unmoving static blur, and 1/4 of which is taken up by a...... [continue]

OMG, we are so late writing our weekly recap of The Real World that for a while we were considering not even doing one. I mean, how relevant is a recap once the episode has been aired three hundred and fifty times? But then we realized that this episode has another few thousand runs in it's lifetime, which means that our grandchildren will probably be watching it on their Lazer Vision 8000-X Holographic Brain...... [continue]

We got our oil changed at the Jiffy Lube on Oltorf and 35 this morning. We highly recommend this Jiffy Lube as they've got an early bird discount ($19.99 for an oil change, 7-10 on week days) and their staff is incredibly friendly. There's also a Starbucks right next door, which is handy if you're in need of some early morning caffeine, which we were. Don't yell at us about going to Starbucks. It... [continue]

We know it's a bit late in the game to be reviewing The Island, but we literally woke up this morning pissed off that we'd seen this movie a week and a half ago, and thought we'd give an ol' internet rant this morning. Now, we're reasonably certain that this movie is better than, say, Stealth, and definitely sure that it will be better than The Devil's Rejects. However, this is yet another notch...... [continue]

MC Chris, who you may know as the voice of Hesh on adultswim's Sea Lab, or the voice of MC Peepants on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, will be performing live at Emo's tonight. MC Chris performed at our house* during SXSW, and has since come back to play several sold out shows in Austin. Tickets are amazingly still available for tonight's show! MC Chris is a different kind of rockstar. He has kept himself... [continue]

From Craigstlist Missed Connections: I've seen this really cute, quirky checker at the HEB on S. Congress & Oltorf a couple of times- once around 11pm, once around 6:30 am. I also saw him at the post office! Anyway he has stretched earlobes and dark brown hair. If this is you, please email me, if you'd like :) Update: Another post about our mysterious pierced checker. And another! We must find this sexy HEB employee!... [continue]