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... more ›

Once in a while, we like to take some time to introduce you to bands -- both local otherwise -- that we think you'd enjoy. Le Diamont Brut aims to showcase those MySpace gems we hope to see shine. Recommend your local suggestions by emailing music@austinist.com. THOR HARRIS What’s the Deal: It’s hard to resist reviewing an artist named Thor, as in super-brutal, Norse god with a head full of long locks and a giant... more ›

Band of Horses Cease to Begin (Sub Pop) Editors Note: This review reflects the personal opinions and experiences of the writer and does not necessarily reflect those of the Ist network as a whole. Enjoy! In your typical southern suburban town of Irmo in Columbia, South Carolina is where Band of Horses singer Ben Bridwell and I went to high school. Among the strip malls and neighborhood watch signs, between high school football games... more ›

Britain creates new drug to combat obesity...dog obesity. Dear Abby supports gay marriage. A London judge has found nine lies in Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, orders disclaimer to air before being played in schools. The Empire State Building will glow green for the end of Ramadan this year. In China, there is a 95-year old woman growing a horn out of her forehead. Houston ISD is thinking of charging students (and their parents)... more ›

Excuse us while we step into the blogger battlefield compost bin. This isn't an attack; it’s just our new media way of recycling – turning lies into truth, melding age-old stereotypes into something a little more flattering. Al Gore is coming to town in October, people. It’s time to set things straight. Daisy Whitney runs a blog called “Trial and Error” over at TelevisionWeek where she keeps tabs on the ever-changing medium that is... more ›

United Abominations – MegadethMegadeth (AKA Dave Mustaine) follows up 2004’s politically charged The System Has Failed with, well, the politically charged United Abominations. Due to contractual obligations, TSHF had to be released as Megadeth, although it was primarily a Mustaine project. No report indicating why the new album also falls under the Megadeth moniker, but it does contain all the staples of a typical Megadeth record: Mustaine’s trademark vocals, soaring six-string solos, and insistent drums,... more ›

Taylor Mills Lullagoodbye (Aquapulse) There’s a new safe word being grunted out of S&M dungeons everywhere, and it is Lullagoodbye. It means slow down, ease up and take fewer risks. Although the album mostly lies within the boundaries of uninspired adult contemporary, at times her voice is filled with smooth, sometimes-sultry melody and a graceful piano whispers like a bedtime story. Then, there’s the added bonus of looking at her staggeringly attractive mug on every... more ›

Battles Mirrored (Warp) Battles combine John Stanier's (Helmet, Tomahawk) frenetic drumming with Ian Williams' (Don Caballero) signature finger-tapping guitar work and layer prog-metal keyboards along with everything from hip-hop and rap to free jazz to cartoonish vocal effects, creating what is probably going to be one of the most quietly influential albums of the year. Though the band has been around for over four years, Mirrored is their first full-length. Previous EPs have indicated... more ›

The AFS retrospective of Michael Haneke's films concludes tonight with Caché (Hidden), a film which was lauded by critics yet went largely unseen during a national release just over a year ago. Haneke's insistence on audience discomfort probably has a lot to do with this, as he calls into question everything from Western abuse of wealth (by the French) to the inherent goodness of children. The film begins with a videotape of a Parisian... more ›

We're OK when television networks choose to curb the amount of gratuitous "adult" content in prime-time programming, but we've always figured that such stuff, within reason, was fair game on cable networks. After all, Comedy Central has a sketch comedy show starring a naked trucker, FX's Nip/Tuck once had one of its stars engaging in gross raunchy sex with a mother-daughter duo, and Fox News regularly gets away with putting Bill O'Reilly on the... more ›

Tacks, the Boy Disaster's Daytrotter Session features four free songs, one of which is slated to appear on their forthcoming album. "Dying to Know" is one of the band's oldest songs, but one that needed some help before it became clear how to deal with that pesky bridge. Although the charm of the Daytrotter Session songs is their live and impromptu nature (complete with borrowed instruments and auxiliary musicians), we're anxious to hear this... more ›

Jonathan Richman is many things to many people. To the casual observer, he's the upbeat and silly troubadour featured in There's Something About Mary and on Conan O'Brien. For music nerds, he's the architect of "Roadrunner," a three-chord classic that is sometimes referred to as the first punk song. David Bowie covers his tunes, Lou Reed considers him a friend, and legions of indie-rockers were inspired by him. But none of this truly gives... more ›

Looking for something to do this Saturday Sunday night? The secret rulers of the burgeoning global police state would like you to get wasted at the Chuggin' Monkey and not ask any questions, but the ever-vigilant Alex Jones knows better. He'll be at BookPeople talking about his latest DVD documentary, TerrorStorm: A History of Government Sponsored Terrorism. Spanning a multitude of media, Alex Jones is known for his syndicated radio program, local cable television show... more ›

Crowded House released six studio albums during the course of their underrated career. Songwriter and vocalist Neil Finn regularly combined lyrical insight with pop-folk melodies to conjure up many almost classics throughout the band’s hey-day. Although we’re still smarting that “Fall At Your Feet” never broke into the Top 50 on US charts, we can now take comfort in Crowded House’s latest release, a double disc (and DVD) from their last show in Sydney... more ›

Beginning this Saturday, the Saturday Austin Farmer's Market is shimmying from Republic Square park over to Cesar Chavez Street near Austin City Hall. "Why," you may ask, "do they need to be shifting the location of delicious vegetation?" The answer lies in the soon-to-be-blowed-up shell of the Intel building which looms over Republic Square park. We agree that it is good to be able to shop for fresh and delicious produce without beams and... more ›

Stop by the Driskill Hotel to purchase movies passes or badges. Individual movie tickets can be purchased at the theatres. Sounds of Silence Documentary Feature Competition Screens: 7pm @ The Arbor [from AFF] Regional Premiere. Hidden beneath the alarming headlines from a totalitarian regime lies a bustling culture desperate for recognition at home as well as in the eyes of the wider world. This documentary offers a view inside Tehran and its burgeoning pop... more ›

Ahh, vinyl...truly the ideal listening medium. It'll never scratch, skip or melt, it's totally portable, the hardware's hella cheap and, best of all, you can load them right onto your computer! What's not to love? Lies. Nonetheless, vinyl masochists all over Austin will have a chance to buy, trade, haggle, and otherwise obsess over their Shatner LPs, as well as CDs, cassettes, 8-tracks, posters, Eric Clapton action figures, etc., at the Austin Record Convention, a.k.a.... more ›

Gorch Fock aren’t exactly safe listening…one is meant to engage and survive them on their twisted level, facing ugly reality in blunt terms, grinding it all into a sonic maelstrom threatening to devastate and bewilder. Like hellfire itself, one should only listen if they are itching to get burned. more ›

While our usual appointment television shows are on summer hiatus, we thought that we wouldn’t be watching much television this season. But that was not to be the case! We have been sitting on our couch in the A/C this summer watching these guilty pleasures: Project Runway, Weds @ 9pm, Bravo. No other show would make us turn on the Miss Universe pageant to see if a contestant was wearing the right gown. We... more ›

Authorities have released names of the injured from the horrible accident outside of the Black Crowes show Saturday night. The most seriously injured individual was young Austin lawyer Jeff Wilson. Wilson had attended the show with his wife and another couple and was crossing 620 to eat at Springhill Restaurant following the show when a drunk Mary Dodgen careered into them after jumping a curb in her Mitsubishi Eclipse. Wilson suffered massive head and brain... more ›

In the north part of Austin's so-called Urban Core lies the intersection of Metric Boulevard, US-183, and MoPac. Now known collectively as the North Burnet/Gateway Planning Area, the roughly 2,300-acre section of land has grown considerably in the past few decades, from its origins as an industrial district and home of the UT Balcones Research Center (now J.J. Pickle Research Campus), built on a WWII-era magnesium plant, to the construction of various collosal highways... more ›

The propaganda machine is running at maximum capacity. Priests calling from their pulpits for book-and-film-banning in churches around the globe, and for a New World Government that prohibits the public from reading and seeing what they wish, all in the name of God. The devout, standing on the hilltops in white robes, proclaiming violent opposition to the lies propogated by The Wicked and demanding the repentance of all sinners. Vagrants in the street waving... more ›

Can the Spurs finally repeat as NBA Champions? ESPN doesn't think so. CNN/SI, not so much. Charles Barkley? No. And the Spurs' first opponent, Ron Artest and the Sacramento Kings? Absolutely not. So despite the emergence of Tony Parker as an All-Star, the addition of Michael Finley to their bench, and a record-setting 63-win season, the Spurs go into the playoffs...as decided underdogs. Wild, eh? Most of the naysayers believe that the Spurs will... more ›

French MP goes on hunger strike. "Like a sad clown," he says, "I'm not asking to win. I'm asking for good sense to triumph." Reason for the dramatics? He didn't want a paint factory in his district to close. When they say "Long Live the Queen" they're not kidding. Today Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 80th birthday with a small get-together. MySpace has been quite the forum for do-no-gooders lately. Some kids were planning... more ›

Attention, SXSWers: we'll cut through the fat — below the Expand-o-Tron lies a huge repository of restaurants that Austinist staffers love and endorse, all of which are near downtown. One of the greatest things about Austin is that you can find amazing food in any part of town. With that said, this list is not intended to be comprehensive. We limited the scope, geographically, from the river in the south, to about 38th St.... more ›

We love Kat so much we had to get the word out about the premiere of her new film jumping off bridges this Saturday at the SXSW Film Festival. You may not have a film pass, but you should go and try to get a ticket. Kat is not only a local filmmaker to support, she is a spotlight on truth and beauty. Great independent films don't have to always be about crude jokes, violence,... more ›

*Update: The show will air "live" today at 4pm C.S.T. Game on! Did we mention there is a taped piece featuring a stern reprimand from Maureen Dowd. God what we wouldn't give for a stern reprimand from that woman. But we digress.* We all discussed James Frey's Million Little Lies last week in this space. Some were hurt, some were saddened, some could care less. Some were pissed. But apparently none were as pissed... more ›

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole.* -The Editors I’m a big fan of acting on behalf of the devil. Especially-so in cases involving subjective, philosophical issues. Like ethics. Like the ethics concerning fibbery in print. That's right. It's MY turn to kick this lifeless horse around for a bit. I don’t want to come off like some douche-balloon who is simply defending... more ›

Satyajit Ray was a prolific Indian filmmaker, whose works - all spoken in Bengali - were paragons of humanistic storytelling. Akira Kurosawa said of his films, "It is the kind of cinema that flows with the serenity and nobility of a big river. Without the least effort and without any sudden jerks, Ray paints his picture, but its effect on the audience is to stir up deep passions. How does he achieve this? There... more ›

Okay, there are a couple of new films we’d be willing to see this week, but honestly we’re too busy geeking out over next week’s release of Harry Potter IV. One thing we should mention: Eminem's 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’, a film about his life leading up to his huge success as a rap artist, was released on Wednesday. But if you’re anything like us, you probably don’t care. *Zathura To... more ›