Thursday Flamingo Cantina takes a break from bringing in bands like The Skatalites and Israel Vibration. Instead, for this free day show they will host the shimmering and sentimental, Swedish alt rock of the Shout Out Louds. You’ll also hear the catchy California rock of Rogue Wave and the love song sing-alongs and quirky experiments of Akron/Family. Sub Pop’s Portland drums-and-guitar duo The Helio Sequence come prepared with spacey indie rock prettiness, and Fleet Foxes are set to impress with charming guitars and melodic tones. Expect a thrilling display from Athens’ psych-folk collective Elf Power. ...

So, I produce and co-star a little show called The Dick Monologues. We have four shows this month—three more than usual. Two are in Dallas this weekend at the Water Tower Theatre as part of the Out of the Loop Festival. Two are here in town—one at the Victory Grill on March 21st and the other at Hyde Park Theatre on March 30th. Please tell your Dallas friends to come to the show up there. And if you want to attend an Austin show, please email me at spike@spikeg.com for info. This week, I present a piece I wrote that sometimes appears in the show. Big Dick on Buddha Mountain To meditate with the enlightened Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, is akin to playing guitar with Pete Townsend, making cookies with Martha Stewart, or tying your shoes with Mister Rogers. And so, despite my tight budget, when I heard that Thay, as he is known, was leading a retreat in California, I did what any overzealous aspiring Buddhist would do: I mailed off a hot check to procure my place at the monastery. ...

The Mohawk presents a solid double bill of local pop this evening. The Lemurs have been writing new material over the last few months and a handful of those songs will be included in their set tonight. The band enjoyed a stellar 2007 -- highlights included licensing their music to NBC show Las Vegas (as well as an Australian indie flick called Newcastle) and touring with Canadian act Stars. This past Sunday, ME Television telecast a 2nd ME Live! featuring The Lemurs' shimmering melodies in concert at a recent La Zona Rosa gig....

Lots of young people got their voter registration cards in on time. News?: Door-to-door magazine salesmen harassing Austinites. Farmer's Branch city leaders sued over their anti-(illegal) immigrant ordinance. Meat from abused cows in California sent to Round Rock and possibly Austin schools....

Deer Tick, or John McCauley, has fast made name for himself with a series of self-released records as well as 2007’s War Elephant on Jana Hunter’s Feow! Records. McCauley was raised in Providence, Rhode Island where he decided on a career in music at an early age, recording and even touring by the time he was in high school. McCauley’s voice demands attention, his songwriting shines through, and his work falls somewhere between Bright Eyes and Wilco. And he turned 21 last year. We caught up with McCauley recently to understand what exactly makes Deer Tick tick....

SFist worried over drugstore chain Walgreens celebration of Black History Month.Gothamist was surprised that apparently New York City is the fourth most miserable city in the country, after Detroit, Stockton, CA, and Flint, MI.Shanghaiist finds out what the Chinese think of Hilary and Obama.It was with a healthy amount of schadenfreude that Phillyist reported that former Eagle, and now Cowboy (ew), Terrell Owens owes the Eagles a significant wad of cash.Torontoist is two weeks......

Classic Rock, Classic Country: As per usual, Willie Nelson will play two nights at The Backyard for both locals avoiding SXSW and tourists willing to skip one night of showcases to see Austin's most enduring music legend. Willie's shows are tentatively scheduled for 3/14 and 3/15, and will go on sale sometime in February. In another move designed to access some tourist dollars, Direct Events has announced a relatively intimate show with Van Morrison at the Austin Music Hall on Tuesday, March 11. Van the Man apparently hasn't heard about the looming recession, as tickets are priced from $102 to a whopping $257. ...

Brownout! kick off their tour this week but not before supplying the Beauty Bar with diverse concoctions comprised of Latin funk, Afro-beats, soul and R&B. Following their Tuesday night gig in Austin, the eight-piece plays one more show in the Lone Star State, at Zeppelin’s Pub in El Paso before leaving for California....

Despite the obvious themes of power and faith, PT Anderson's vast, visionary epic There Will Be Blood isn’t primarily about oil, or about religion, or about extremism. Rather, it’s a thorough excavation of the foundation of American identity. And on top of all that, it’s the best film of the year....

You can call it lowbrow art, pop surrealism or just plain ‘ol weird, but the work now on display at Okay Mountain features some of the best (and mind-blowingly bizarre) works by emerging California artists....

Schwarzenegger continues to make us weirdly like him. (But we're still not moving to California.) Castro beginning to show signs of willingness to retire. Monkeys are better at estimating quantities than Duke undergrads. Students, beware: Professors are spying on your Facebookings. Good news: Cancer death rates are falling in the United States. Lady lets the New York Times take a picture of her Celine Dion tattoo. Are Leno and Conan scabbing, technically?......

UN reports: Poorest people are most at risk through climate change. Dick Cheney's heart (ha) may be in trouble. In California, they drink sewage. Sort of. Russian hipsters carefully ignore Stalin, long for the good old days. Speaking as a nation wearing Native American t-shirts, we could teach them a thing or two about revisionist history... Living in the city makes your breasts denser. (This is not a metaphor, and it could be dangerous!)......

Image from AmericanApparel.netAustin will move three steps closer to becoming Southern California a real city a place where you can try on those high-waisted hot shorts and shiny tights before buying them with the opening of three new American Apparel locations (two real stores in Austin and an outlet in Round Rock). The first location will be on the Drag at 2316 Guadalupe, which is good news, because there are few things as vital to......

5th Annual Big Reds and BubblesTuesday, November 27Driskill Hotel (604 Brazos St.)6:30-9pm; $75 general admission, $60 for members[info] | [tickets]With Thanksgiving a mere two days away and the holiday season right around the corner, this time of year brings fine wine to all foodie minds. Wine lovers traditionally splurge in December on fancy bottles for both holiday toasts and New Year's Eve celebrations. To welcome this time of year and the wines that complement......

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the......

Image from Tom Brosseau’s MySpace Nickel Creek & Tom BrosseauSaturday, November 17Stubbs (801 Red River)$25 Advance; Doors 7 p.m.[info] | [tickets] Singer-songwriter Tom Brosseau brings heartfelt lyricism and mellow melodies to Stubb’s on Saturday. Hailing from Grand Forks, North Dakota, Brosseau’s high pitched voice and gentle guitar complement his sincere storytelling perfectly, and has found him at least one fan in a certain Natalie Portman. Portman picked Brosseau’s “Plaid Lined Jacket” (along with tracks by......

Londonist: Photo by ChloeLondonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without an operator provoking a response from the transport authorities. Elsewhere, London's answer to Central Station is about to open for business, and Londonist got a sneak preview. Meanwhile, spooky goings-on beneath London Bridge, where a cache of skeletons provided an apt story......

Before Fun Fun Fun Fest begins on Saturday, the good folks at Club DeVille are gathering the troops for one heck of a kick-off party. On Friday night, Robbers On High Street will play the versatile venue and we want you there. Sure, you might have won a contest or two in your lifetime but this special giveaway includes a dinner with Robbers On High Street, provided by the wonderful people at Lambert's. The......

It's official! A California boy playing with matches started a 38,000 acre fire. Victoria's Secret in hot water over releasing scantily-clad dolls. Sex is a no-no in the cabins inside the new jumbo airliner, The Airbus A380. The State of Texas and Travis County are both suing the developer who polluted Hamilton Pool. Remember that military contractor that killed innocent people in Iraq, your government is reportedly granting them immunity. The House passes legislation......

Somewhere in between catchy melodies on Stage 1 and pulsating beats on Stage 3 lies a catalog of punk rock bands waiting to rock your nuts off at this year’s Fun Fun Fun Fest. Among them, a punk act from fertile California will occupy Stage 2 at 2:40 p.m. on November 4th. CH3 (that’s Channel Three, not the hydrocarbon unit) formed in 1980 in Los Angeles and their politically charged tracks like “Manzanar” soon became......

UN issues their Global Environmental Outlook report, GEO-4, while population blogs about Britney Spears' new tattoo. The U.S. dollar continues its downward spiral. Wildfires continue in California, but firefighters say they are gaining ground. Iran remains defiant in the face of new U.S. imposed sanctions to prevent their nuclear dream. Supreme Court of Georgia frees teen in controversial sex case. Texas gas prices are up for the second week in a row. Astronauts begin......

Careful stringing up those fake spiderwebs this year. If you haven't been following the bizarre case of the Russian "chessboard serial killer", you should before it becomes a full length feature film. Protestor with painted blood on her hands gets within inches of Condoleeza Rice. Craddick blames trial lawyers for trying to get him out of the House Speaker's office. One of the largest fires in California was sparked by arson. 5 gold championship......

In an unprecedented programming feat of nostalgia and star power, the Alamo Drafthouse has announced it will screen The Wizard--the awesome/corny paean to all things Nintendo--with cast members Fred Savage, Luke Edwards (the titular wizard) and director Todd Holland live in the theatre on December 7th! Sure, The Wizard was really just a 100-minute commercial for Super Mario Brothers 3. But oh what a commercial it was. Starring a just-barely-into-The Wonder Years Fred Savage, a......

In case you’ve been holed up in your apartment/home/condo with no electricity for the past few days, we’re sad to tell you that Southern California is currently being devoured by raging wildfires, and there are no signs of the fires stopping. CNN is updating like, every 2.3 minutes, and it’s one of the most devastating things we’ve ever seen. Times like these, it feels like there’s not much you can do but sit and refresh......

Nearly 1 million people have been displaced by the California wildfires. Heckuva job: Former FEMA director Michael Brown is making himself available for interviews about the wildfires. Home sales went down 8% in September. Russia's "Chessboard killer" found guilty of 48 murders. Turkish planes attacked Kurdish positions in Turkey today, just outside the Iraq border. It may be more beneficial to the environment to be a carnivore who eats locally-made meat than to be......

Brief Austin resident and alt-country namesake Richard Buckner has had a career as tumultuous as it has been consistently rewarding. Making his mark with the appropriately-titled debut Bloomed in 1994, Buckner has outlived many of his No Depression-era singer-songwriter contemporaries, whose projects have either splintered, broken up, or just puttered out. After fruitful collaborations with like-minded musicians like Chicago stalwarts David Grubbs and John McEntire and a difficult spate with MCA records (who summarily......

Asleep At Heaven’s Gate – Rogue Wave (Brushfire Records) The year 2006 was full of activity and turmoil for California’s Rogue Wave. There was some great news when founding member Zach Rogue had a baby daughter, but sadly, guitarist Gram LeBron’s father passed away and drummer Pat Spurgeon had a kidney transplant (and was understandably out of commission for a good amount of time.) Adding to the mayhem was the fact that Sub Pop was......

As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice......

There are some fantastic documentaries screening at this year's Austin Film Festival, so we thought we'd give you the heads-up on a few standouts that we've seen. Chasing the Dream | Dir. Angelo Mei Saturday, October 13th - 5:00pm, Dobie Theater Monday, October 15th - 7:15pm, Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek A high school surfing coach who claims to have "lost his compassion years ago" takes his team of freckled, hormonal surfer boys on a journey......

In the mid-'80s, a movement of Los Angeles denizens later described as the Paisley Underground rebelled against new wave and hair metal by getting psychedelic and pretending that it was 1967 all over again, replete with Rickenbackers and sunshine pop. The bands involved in the Paisley Underground included the Three O’Clock, Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, and even The Bangles before they walked away like Egyptians all the way to the bank. While all this was......