New Jersey rockers Titus Andronicus bring their indie-punk, shoegaze sensibilities to Emo’s tonight. The band features the combined musical powers of Patrick Stickles (vocals, guitar), Amy Klein (guitar, violin), David Robbins (keyboards, guitar) and Eric Harm (drums). Titus Antronicus is a name taken from one of Shakespeare’s early plays, which indicates the band’s obsession with tragic stories and literary influences, which obviously play into Stickles’ epic song crafting. more ›

This past weekend, I managed to deeply offend a woman I’d met just the day before. The initial meeting went well—we were at a conference that encompassed all facets of a shared passion. Day two, when we bumped into each other again, she mentioned she was from New Jersey, which is where I spent my first eighteen years before escaping as fast and far as I could. As I recall the conversation of great offense, I see now I was talking out of both sides of my mouth, concurring with her that the state holds some real natural beauty (it does) but not making any secret out of my overall disdain for the place. Based on her response—which was swift, angry, and conversation stopping—I’m going to say that to her ears, I said one thing and one thing only: “New Jersey is a shithole.” Never mind that I didn’t actually ever say the word “shithole.” I could tell that whatever professional relationship we might’ve formed was gone in an instant. more ›

44 people, including rabbis and politicians, were arrested in a NJ corruption sting yesterday. Should Professor Gates have been more polite to the cops who showed up at his door? While her fans still adore her, it looks like less everyday Americans give a hoot about Palin. Budget Lodge near Rundberg on IH35 comes to an agreement with the city; neighbors hope that leads to less crime in the area. Low water levels mean long-ago dumped cars can be recovered from Lake Travis. Shanghai officials to couples: please have two babies. Bruce Campbell a hit at Comic-Con, chats about Burn Notice. more ›

Fresh from his stealth, low-profile appearances at President Obama's "We Are One" concert and this weekend's Super Bowl 43, New Jersey's favorite son Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band return to Austin for a show at the Erwin Center on Sunday, April 5th. more ›

I love tattooing names on people, says Hez, down at Southside Tattoo. Then he cuts to the punch line: It means they’ll be back for another, bigger tattoo to cover up the first one. Three months ago, I detailed here an example of my sometimes astounding stupidity: In June 2006, I got a tattoo the size of Chicago prominently featuring the name of a man I’d married just a month prior. Because I knew he was the one. Sadly, though, I just didn’t know which one. more ›

• Democrats debate in Iowa, everybody yawns.
• Al Gore blames you.
• "If you wanna get down, down on the ground..."

Editor's note: My Ex-Boyfriend's Band is a reoccurring column that features the opinions and insight of the author, not necessarily reflective of the Ist network as a whole. Thank you for reading! For the times they are a-changin'. And the music festivals are a-changin' with them. Even Dylan, who declined to take the stage at Woodstock in 1969, evolved into the 2007 Austin City Limits headliner. With SXSW, Fun Fun Fun and the C3... more ›

Photo courtesy My Guerrilla on Flickr[another wristband for the collection] Austin’s C3 Presents now has three major festivals to go along with their trio of Charlies. The producers of Lollapalooza and the Austin City Limits Festival will put on the Vineland Music Festival in rural New Jersey Aug. 8 to 10, 2008. Vineland is a joint venture with Melvin Benn’s Festival Republic. The U.K. event producer’s portfolio includes the Reading, Leeds and Glastonbury festivals. Set... more ›

Image from the Pipettes MySpace. the Pipettes with Nicole Atkins and the SeaWednesday, November 7The Parish Room (214 East Sixth Street)$12 in advance, All Ages, Door at 8 p.m.[info] | [tickets]Get your 1960s retro fix with the Pipettes, headlining tonight at the Parish Room. The self-aware manufactured 1960s girl group vibe is somehow much more fun than it sounds, and the Pipettes won our hearts when they put out that deadpan Beyond the Valley of... more ›

Did you know that the vestige group was founded on Craigslist in 2006? Interesting, no? What's also interesting is their latest production, The New Jersey Book of the Dead. Billed as portraying a world "where people struggle to hold on to emotional connection in a world gone technological," we're pretty sure we can relate. The show's press materials also include the catch phrase, "Omnivore is listening. Spread the word." We're not sure what that means,... more ›

Usually, street closures around the Capitol hail the arrival of one of Austin's many street festivals, where you can listen to a wishy-washy blues-rocker do his best to channel Stevie Ray Vaughn while you eat a turkey leg amongst a sea of fanny-packed families and homemade jewelry vendors. But once a year it means it's Texas Book Festival time. As literary events go in this town, it is the big one. For two days... more ›

Hark! U.S. health care reform cometh, and that right soon! Boston Red Sox win World Series. Homus Neanderthalensis may have been the Earth's first natural redhead. Study suggests that sexual orientation is coded in genetic material. Wired Magazine's review of the new Mac operating system. French president evidently working overtime to reinforce common stereotypes held about the French people. Sacre bleu! New Jersey school proves the true importance of accessories in a Halloween costume.... more ›

Back in 1996, Junot Diaz published a collection of short stories, Drown, which became one of the most celebrated literary debuts of the Nineties. Drown drew on Diaz’s experiences growing up, first in the Dominican Republic, and later, from the age of six, in a northern New Jersey immigrant neighborhood. Now, after eleven years, he has just published his long-awaited first novel, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Wao, the protagonist, is a... more ›

Every once in awhile a show comes along that sounds like a sure bet. The press for Capital T Theatre's upcoming production of Noah Haidle's Mr. Marmalade makes us believe this is just such a show: Lucy is a four-year-old girl with a very active imagination. Unfortunately, her imaginary friend Mr. Marmalade doesn’t have much time for her. Not to mention he beats up his personal assistant, has a cocaine addiction, and a penchant for... more ›

We don't remember much of SXSW but of what we can remember, we think we had a pretty kickass time. During the week of March 13th to the 17th, we were out surviving on what little we had time to consume (usually free, alcoholic or "containing artificial flavors"), catching every bit of sanctioned and unsanctioned SXSW goodness. While we were out on the streets and bars of Austin, we began to realize a lot... more ›

Blues Traveler frontman John Popper was arrested in Washington earlier today, after state patrol officers clocked the vehicle he was in going at 111 miles per hour. The driver of the black Mercedes SUV was 34-year-old Austinite Brian Gourgeois. more ›

That's right: it's time to heat up your winter nights again, with the 14th season of FronteraFest. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, or Mi Casa es su Teatro -- FronteraFest is five weeks of alternative, offbeat, new, and just plain off-the-wall fringe theatre presented by Hyde Park Theatre and Austin Script Works. For complete FronteraFest 2007 information, including times and locations for the Short Fringe, the Long Fringe and Mi Casa es su... more ›

Yes, the holidays are here. Not only does this mean Christmas-themed beers and colder weather, but it also heralds the ubiquitous radio station holiday concert. Tonight, it's 101X's turn, as they bring a triple bill of artists to the intimate room at Antone's. Headlining is New Jersey's Pete Yorn, a guy who obviously listens to lots of earnest stuff like Bruce Springsteen. Luckily for Pete, Bruce is this year's band to emulate, so songs... more ›

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 now $25, and can be purchased at the gate. Learning Secrets perform in the Dance Party Tent at 4:30pm. -- The Editors Bonus: Download Ian's new winter mix, featuring Sebastian, The Rapture, Jurgen Paape, James Figurine and more. [mp3]... more ›

Let's take a look back at a week that raised this Zen koan: if Kevin Federline got into a wrestling ring with a wrestler, who would you root for? Austinist was in an entertainment state of mind as they covered the dickens out of the Austin Film Festival, depicted all the Big 12 football coaches as South Park characters, and interviewed Jose Gonzalez. Chicagoist talked about the passion as they bid adieu to Bell... more ›

Aqua Teen Hungerforce is one of our favorite late-night TV shows. Cartoon Network's trippy and witty antics of fast food products living in the suburbs of New Jersey has been entertaining inebriated viewers since Adult Swim's debut. One of the signature artists in Adult Swim's motley crew of hip-hop contributers is DJ Spooky, who penned theme songs and more for these cult cartoon favorites. Hailing from Washington D.C. and armed with a degree in... more ›

The more things change, the more they stay the same. And in some senses, that's a good thing. Louisiana state troopers, notorious for being overzealous in their pursuit of people travelling with drugs, busted Texas legend Willie Nelson and four others with mushrooms and weed. Law enforcement officials issued citations for the men after an early morning commercial vehicle inspection on I-10. "When the door was opened and the trooper began to speak to the... more ›

A recent study reveals that college graduates are often bored at work. Case. In. Point. MTV is celebrating its 25th anniversary. We're guessing there will be much reminiscing about the time when they actually played videos. If only we were this ballsy in high school. Marijuana gumballs are going to be the next big thing. Golf is not exercise. We are fairly certain that it is actually the cause of man-boobs. Only in Oklahoma... more ›

Anyone who saw Jersey Girl could see Kevin Smith's struggle with moving away from his decade-long relationship with New Jersey malcontents and underachievers. The comedy had left his writing, and what remained felt anonymous and, well, uninteresting. more ›

There's another one of those bipolar indoor-outdoor shows at Emo’s tomorrow night: sweet-as-candy indie pop inside, lurching packs of stoned werewolves outside. Oh, decisions, decisions... Inside Fresh off their gig opening for The Flaming Lips in Europe, Dentonites Midlake put on a little rock and roll program for us plain ol’ 'mericans. The Starlights Mints open with heaping fistfuls of sophisticated chamber-pop; Mints pal and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Lindsey opens for them. We don’t know... more ›

Danielson (formerly the Danielson Famile) is an indie pop/Christian gospel troupe band of brothers and sisters from suburban New Jersey. Formed as a result of elder Smith and frontman Daniel's senior thesis at Rutgers, entitled A Prayer for Every Hour, the band released a steady stream of albums starting the late 90s. Back in 2001 they signed to Secretly Canadian -- home to beloved indie acts like Antony and the Johnsons, Jens Lekman, Damien Jurado, and Magnolia Electric Co -- on which they've recently come out with the amazing Ships. more ›

We never felt engaged in the story, nor did we find any of the characters or their plights to be particularly believable, much less sympathetic. more ›

You are a self-professed Daniel Johnston obsessive. Can you remember when you first heard about Daniel Johnston? I was a college radio DJ [in New Jersey], and word was trickling up from Austin, Texas, through this underground network of people--before there was an internet—through fanzine culture. I was reading a lot of fanzines, which was an underground publishing network. Word was trickling up through this network of a few hundred people around the country from... more ›

At the Velvet Spade, tonight, the Manhattan/New Jersey duo Metro Area (Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani) off Environ Records will be spinning their tastes and directions. We’re guessing that this will be something of a house-like set, but one never knows for sure. These fellows have and use many influences in their own music production, so we expect good things. What we do know for sure is that DJ Mel will be opening up... more ›

While we all know and love the eclecticism of the Alamo Drafthouse, sometimes we feel there is literally no rhyme or reason to a particular event. Not that this is a bad thing: they just keep us guessing, that's all. Case in point: Kevin Smith (writer/director of Clerks and Chasing Amy) is hosting a midnight screening of the Kid-N-Play movie House Party tomorrow night. We haven't a clue as to why, other than that Smith is in town lecturing at UT's film school. If you are a Silent Bob fan, or just love silly teenager movies and PG-rated rap, reserve your seats here. Admission is free, but reserved tickets require purchase of a $10 food/drink voucher. more ›