“Don’t believe the hype,” Public Enemy warned us way back in 1988, and as on their eerily prescient “Cold Lampin’ With Flavor” which made the surprising case for Flava Flave’s longevity, they were right, of course. And hype, by definition, should always be suspect. From the moment Vampire Weekend, the quirky New York quartet began making the blog rounds and collecting the sort of adjectives that pointed their way toward them becoming The Next Big Thing, we, as a music community, needed to take a breath, sit down, and just relax. Losing our shit about inventive New York rock debuts are just going to result in another band like The Strokes, and we all know where that got us....

Photo by my favorite yarn on flickr Sgt. Michael Olsen is appealing his firing by APD. While the housing market everywhere else is on the decline, Austin still a place to buy, according to real estate expert. David Letterman in Austin for a Habitat build. Someone is going door-to-door claiming to be raising money for Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Video: Bobby Knight's neighbor isn't happy about how close Knight is shooting to his property. New, more......

Connie Britton, of Friday Night Lights fame, appeared earlier this week on the Late Show with David Letterman. Dave brought up filming in Austin and she discussed Keeping Austin Weird. They also had a lengthy conversation about Leslie, whom she couldn't recall by name, as well as her interactions with our actual mayor.......

M.I.A.'s Friday ACL performance felt so seductive because it was both spicy and sweet; but what else can you expect from a girl who salts and peppers her mango? She burst onto stage wearing pink pedal-pushers, white trainers, wrap-around glasses and war paint, all the while shimmying her heart out to Kala's "Bamboo Banga." Her dancing seemed confounded by tentative limb placement, and it marked her as one extremely sexy dork. (Hawt!) It's this......

Believe It or Not: My Bloody Valentine reuniting for Coachella 2008? Last weekend, the American Psychological Association rejected a moratorium that would have prevented its member psychologists from participating in interrogations at U.S. detention centers in Guantanamo Bay and secret CIA "black sites" around the world. Venetian Macao Aims to Transform Chinese Gambling Enclave Into Full-Fledged Resort City. Leslie Feist, joined onstage by members of Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, Grizzly Bear, The......

We know you've heard the name, and we know you know they're not Japanese. Or police. They're actually just some kids from Canada who met in fourth grade and are living the dream: playing in an awesome, fun, and increasingly popular band. Elementary friends David Monks (vocals, bass), Graham Wright (keyboard), and Josh Hook (guitar) met Greg Alsop (drummer) in high school and formed Tokyo Police Club. Shortly thereafter, and totally out of the......

Last night, after spending part of last week at SxSW promoting his new movie, Adam Sandler was asked to take the reins of The Late Show when Letterman came down with the stomach flu. He seemed pretty comfortable in the monologue, but admittedly awkward in the interview with co-star Don Cheadle (Sandler confessed that he'd never interviewed anyone before). Cheadle and Sandler chatted about Reign Over Me, Sandler's dog Matzoball, and eating BBQ at Stubbs.......

We’d never asperse someone just because he's rich and famous. Or just because he likes to go shirtless at all times and do push-ups on the beach in Malibu. Or just because he's an actor who seems to think he has an authoritative opinion about baseball. Or just because he appears in the Monday Night Football booth to promote his new film and attempts to sound like a West Texas Buddha. We wouldn’t do that.......

If you're hiking, consider charging up your iPod, as Seattlest finds out that a man lost during a hike was found by the glow of his iPod. That cleverness seems to be devoid in cops who were using police cruiser instant messaging clients - although we imagine IMs "so are you nakie" to be included in cop shows, just for realism. If only the cops were busting the Hummer-driving jerk who made a poor......

Perhaps you've heard that the comedy scenes in both LA and New York are excellent these days. You might have gotten a taste of this when Eugene Mirman and Aziz Ansari rolled through town in March for SXSW. If you've been wishing for an NYC weekend to catch a show or two, don't book that ticket just yet. Several of the best acts are heading right here for Austinites to watch this fall... Michael......

The year was 1992: America Smelled Like Teen Spirit, although Dr. Dre was sending heavy wafts of the Chronic across the cultural landscape. Jack Nicholson was telling that punk bitch Tom Cruise that he could not handle the truth. Boutros Boutros-Ghali was the U.N. Secretary General and David Letterman could not stop making jokes using the Egyptian's name. The first George Bush was booting all over the Japanese. The FA Premiership was in its inaugural......

New York City indie rockers The Walkmen made it big with 2004's Bows and Arrows, an aggressive, exuberant, and borderline-theatrical production that ended up on tons of year-end "best of" lists. Over the past two years, the guys have gone through some big changes: the Harlem building housing their personal recording studio, dubbed Marcata (where B&A was born), was bought out by Columbia University, in the school's ever-accelerating expansion north of Morningside Heights. After......

As strictly as Austinist is in the Letterman camp*, we feel we are duty bound to share this information. Following on the heels of Sunday's "60 Minutes" broadcast, NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" has invited Kinky Friedman to be a guest on this evening's broadcast. If you must, just Tivo and skip ahead of the blandness to Kinky. If you missed Kinky's segment on "60 Minutes", you can watch the segment on......

Sandra Bullock, appearing on Late Night with David Letterman, talked about her new house in Austin and excitedly mentioned the new Whole Foods. It's nice to know that we're not the only ones excited to the point of public babbling by a fancy new grocery store in our neighborhood. We look forward to seeing Sandra and her new boy toy Jesse James piling food from the salad bar into the cute little cardboard to-go......