Dean and Britta have that certain je ne sais quoi, do they not? They're good looking, look and dress like Europeans, and dig artists like Joy Division and Nancy Sinatra. Hell, they even did The Squid and The Whale's soundtrack for Noah Baumbach. Their music is similarly themed: it's minimalist, beautiful, effortless, and full of an icy cool. (If one wishes to puncture the image, it's amusing to know that Britta Phillips was the voice of 80's cartoon icons Jem and the Holograms.) Dean Wareham, of course, has legions of fans from his work with Galaxie 500 and Luna, and this certainly isn't a huge departure from his signature sound. Expect dreamy and reflective tales with some irony and beautiful melody lines sprinkled throughout. The duo are touring behind 2007's Back Numbers, which combines some D&B originals with like-minded covers of The Troggs and Lee Hazlewood. Simply put, if you enjoyed Luna, you'll have a good time here. And for Wareham's more ardent fans, he has recently written a memoir about his life in music titled Black Postcards which will be published in March by Penguin. D&B arrive tomorrow at the Cactus Cafe for a pair of shows at 7 and 10pm....

American Gangster PosterAmerican Gangster Do you really need a two-disc box set of Ridley Scott's American Gangster, which includes two different versions of last year's Denzel Washington/Russell Crowe movie, the ability to download yet a third, plus featurettes including one in which Scott is shown the ins and outs of heroin production by an NYPD officer (as if he didn't already know)? It depends on how much you like Scott, and if you do, it'll......

It's Tuesday, which means that your local DVD shop has several shiny new titles on the shelf. This week's biggest entry is James Mangold's Walk The Line, a Johnny Cash biopic in the mold of Ray that is up for five Oscars this weekend. The film wisely steers clear of a wide-scope biography, and instead concentrates on Cash's romance with second wife June Carter, his early music career at Sun Records, and his struggles......

We closed down the AFF Thursday night with Jeff Daniels and arguably the best film of the festival, "The Squid and The Whale". Writer/director Noah Baumbach has penned a heartbreaking tale, based on the real-life drama of his parents' divorce, peppered with bittersweet moments of dark hilarity. Author-parents Joan (Laura Linney) and Bernard (Daniels) have exhausted their marriage. Their love affair of the mind has burned itself to ashes, leaving both husband and wife enervated......

Some of us didn't get to as many movies at this year's Austin Film Festival as we would have liked, because we got busy and we were tired and, we admit, a little bit too lazy to drive downtown. And some of us missed some screenings because of baseball mania (you know who you are). Nevertheless, the last couple of nights of AFF 2005 are upon us and there are still cool and interesting......