This weekend brings another tremendous set of gigs to our beloved city. If the abundance of synth-pop and electro-rock acts lately is bringing you down, raise your spirits and beers to some stellar rock n’ roll on Friday. Emo’s hosts one of Austin’s hardest rockers in the form of the Young Heart Attack, while the newly renovated Austin Music Hall boasts a Dallas - Forth Worth Metroplex attack in the shape of the Toadies and Baboon....

Image from MySpace Dinosaur Jr, Awesome Color, Grand ChampeenFriday December 7Emos (603 Red River St)Doors at 9, programme at 10[info] | [tickets]There are three kinds of Dinosaur Jr fan: the 80s scenesters with a Deep Wound cassette and fond memories of J Mascis & Co doing sloppy Peter Frampton covers at the Elks Lodge; children of the '90s who thought "Feel The Pain" was probably a Foo Fighters song; and kids who read Pitchfork often......

It's hard to explain in 2007 what it feels like for music to be both uniting and important. Having spent nearly three years of the '90s living in London, it's with honest nostalgia and wonder that we examine Rhino's The Brit Box. The set's mission is rather broad: it attempts to examine the whole of UK indie rock from 1985-1999 and devotes a disc each to '80s indie, shoegaze, Britpop, and the late '90s. One......

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......

The long-term future of the crown jewel of Austin municipal golf -- Lions Municipal Golf Course -- is in question after UT's Brackenridge Tract Task Force recommended hiring an outside master planner and redeveloping the land occupied by the course. Lions was built in 1928 and has hosted some of history's most notable golfers. Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite have won the annual Fourth of July Firecracker Open there, and Ben Hogan's comment on......

This week, Phillyist saw the waters of a landmark fountain run red for a Showtime marketing stunt, the Phils pull ahead, and some serious nostalgia. They also got a chance to review an awesome tribute album, reminded folks to see the King, and appreciated their beautiful skyline. Chicagoist knows what it's like to like the Cubs. But naming your kid Wrigley Fields? At least they can breathe a little easier now that Grossman's out and......

Remember back in those halcyon summer days, when kids with spike-swoop haircuts would sulk over to your house on their skateboards, kick-flipping the whole way, bangs covering everyone’s pot-reddened eyes, just to bask in your glory as Thrasher’s newly claimed “heir to the Hosoi throne”? Man, those were the days. The chicks, the sponsorships, the Jimmy Z woody, all the righteous goodness. Remember that? No? Of course not. That's probably because like the rest of......

Once the camera crews, exuberant (and nostalgia seeking) fans, and Illuminati-crying conspiracy theorists had retreated to their respective rocks last week, former President Clinton decided to do some shopping at BookPeople. In town to raise money for Hillary's campaign at the home of long time Clinton family friend Roy Spence of GSD&M, Bill made a stop at BookPeople where he signed over a thousand copies of his new book, Giving: How Each of Us Can......

Belaire'sExploding Impacting is an album that very well captures the essence of summer madness: the spectral emotional range goes from playful romanticism ("You Really Got Me Goin'") to the deeply reflective ("Waiting Patiently" and You're Not A Kid Anymore". ) The band's sound is somewhere between '60s Brazilian Tropicalia (Caetano Velosco, Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes) and early '80s synth-pop (Gary Numan, Talking Heads, OMD) taken in a new direction. Though twin sisters Cari and Christa......

After an incredibly (too) long hiatus, the lovable local kaleidoscopic synth pop band Belaire return with a brand new album titled Exploding, Impacting, despite the non-stop touring schedule of members Jason Chronis and Matt Simon (thanks to a little side project they have called Voxtrot) and twin sister (and singing partner) Christa Palazzolo now living in New York City. The album is a tour de force of Cari Palazzolo, who, with this release, has emerged......

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,......

Aqueduct Or Give Me Death (Barsuk) So, like, you're totally in love with synths, right? You consider laptop pop a genre? And your childhood included that period when people unironically listened to Soft Cell and Appetite for Destruction was not yet a classic, but was just like, totally, totally awesome? Then Aqueduct's Or Give Me Death is for you, particularly if you liked the last Aqueduct album. If you didn't like the last Aqueduct......

Ola Podrida (Plug Research) David Wingo splits his time between Brooklyn and Austin composing the soundtrack to the Polaroid taking, scarf wearing community of slow-moving coffee sippers and film lovers. Literally. His work with director David Gordan Green (All the Real Girls, Snow Angels) has provided him with an outlet for his soft and subtle odes, but his new project under the name Ola Podrida offers a bit of a broader spectrum, at least......

You know who Eugene O'Neill is, right? One of America's best and most famous playwrights, he penned such oft-taught classics as Desire Under the Elms, The Iceman Cometh, and Long Day's Journey Into Night. Uh, pretty depressing stuff. But did you know that O'Neill also wrote a comedy? One comedy? A turn-of-the-century comedy, no less? (Aren't those the best?) It is Ah, Wilderness!, and the players over at St. Ed's have it running right now,......

The Field From Here We Go Sublime (Kompakt Germany) Apparently dance floor purists are winning the battle against rock and roll, and Stockholm's The Field are leading the march. On an album Pitchfork calls a "safe bet" for "2007's most luxuriant record", sole member Alex Willner utilizes elements of trance, electronica and drum and bass to produce an album that definitely pushes the boundary that other indie disco groups only flirt with. The success......

Jesu Conqueror (Hydra Head) J.K. Broadrick's past with Napalm Death and Godflesh might have those anxious for Conqueror baffled -- the dense ambient fog and softly managed vocal work might come as a shock. That being said, the album is undeniably heavy, chugging, distorted and dark. The marriage between the agonizingly paced guitars and the sheer depth of their tone in "Bright Eyes" can overpower the sensitively harmonized vocals and synths. As bands like......

SXSW Asia’s Japan Nite has become a staple of the music festival in Austin. In the past, festival-goers have been able to access acts like Petty Booka and Ellegarden, and this year is no different as a wide variety of Japanese talent invades our city. The 50 Kaitens (pronounced Go Jyu Kaitenzu) will put forth their brand of cheeky garage-punk rock, with maximum comic entertainment promised. Their self titled record boasts song-titles like “Thank......

On their self-titled debut album, Peel delivers a patchwork of songs with well thought-out, energetic arrangements that will no doubt leave a lasting impression. Tracks like "In the City" showcase the combination of Alison Moore's light-bright synths alongside Josh Permenter and Dakota Smith's slurred noise guitar spew. A sort of comforting nostalgia is invoked, reminding you of when you first started listening to early Pavement singles. There is a boozy lit to tracks like......

Though not a household name, Thomas Dolby was nevertheless among the vanguard of the early 80s synth movement. Born Thomas Morgan Robertson, Dolby acquired his nickname from his love of studio experimentation with keyboards and electro-noises. His resume includes cameos on numerous albums, such as Def Leppard's Pyromania and Foreigner's 4, and live appearances with the likes of David Bowie and Roger Waters--plus there was that infamous performance at the 1985 Grammy's with Herbie......

Land, ho! Peter and the Wolf, that great ghost ship of a band both ephemeral and ceaselessly transient, is coming ashore tonight at the Mohawk. There has been much chatter in the musical grapevine regarding lead singer Red Hunter's penchant for choosing odd locales where he can present his music; luckily, for those of you afraid of cemeteries and canoe-less, a show at the Mohawk presents a chance to catch our most prominent bard......

At one time or another, in a fit of nostalgia for our high school years, we have had the delusion of grandeur warm and fuzzy feeling that we could be a teacher. Yeah, and a really good one, too! Then we remember that one freshman civics teacher, whose name we can’t remember, but whose story became urban legend. Bit by bit – like a water torture technique – he lost control of the students under......

Loud enough for college parties but cute enough to go on your sister’s bedroom wall, sharp enough for wizened indie kids but soft enough for your mom, the endlessly promotable Las Vegas quartet The Killers have balanced themselves between the normally exclusive worlds of rock and pop with a headline-ready alacrity unseen since the heyday of Duran Duran. Their second CD, Sam’s Town, came out Tuesday, and will no doubt outsell everything in existence....

Having never seen the Rentals play during their initial run, we haven’t anything to compare last Thursday's show to, but we can safely say that we were disappointed. We weren’t expecting miracles – a band that hasn’t produced any new material since 1999 is within its rights to sound a little dated – but the show wasn’t the nostalgia trip we wanted it to be, either. After an intolerably long soundcheck, the Rentals tore......

Sam Means and Nate Ruess have survived being dropped from their record label (twice), at least one agonizing long-term relationship, and a year of preparation on their sophomore effort as The Format, Dog Problems. Since their debut on Atlantic in 2003, the band has recorded and produced (with the help of Roger Manning of Jellyfish fame) an energetic, toe-tapping and pop-tastic collection of songs worthy of all your summer mix tapes for crushes and......

Traveling always dredges up weird nostalgia for Austin. A long list of pointless comparisons between my vacation spot and my city of residence. “Oh, look! They have mosquitoes and sunburn here too, just like back in Austin!” But I’d have to say that what I currently miss the most about Austin is the relative safety afforded the average over-imbiber who has inadvertently made their way into the shadowy world of the blackout....

It’s pretty hard not to like Salvage Vanguard’s Intergalactic Nemesis trilogy (of which we saw Episode II: The Return of the Intergalactic Nemesis this past Friday). As the lights come up, an incredibly dry and playfully sarcastic LB Deyo introduces the show like a late night personality doing his opening bit. The audience warms, then laughs – almost as if Deyo is their new buddy, with whom they’re merely shootin’ the shit. By the......

If you're looking forward to another Sunday night of red hot laptop surfin', work email checkin' and Netflix queue updatin', we suggest you shake off that modern coil and head down to the first annual OoBenanny Fundraiser and Auction. Inspired by old-fashioned folk hootenannies, the OoBenanny fundraiser and auction is being thrown by Gnap! Theatre Projects to raise money for the 2006 Out of Bounds Comedy Festival and Miniature Golf Tournament. Last year's festival......

With new shows on sale from Sonic Youth, INXS, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Rancid, it seems to be college radio nostalgia week for the concert update. There are also a nice batch of new indie shows, including Tapes 'n' Tapes for Pitchfork fans, Dios Malos for the mellow types, The Futureheads for the edgy punky stuff, and even Tilly and the Wall for you tap dancers. On with the shows: May: 5/10 -......

Well, we sort of picked this disc up on a whim, and upon first listen, the Mute Math really didn't seem to add up. The mantra-like repetition of lines like "you are mine" (from "You are Mine"), "break the same" (from "Break the Same"), and "can I break the spell of the typical?" (from "Typical") made us wish Mute Math lived up to the first part of their name. Even after considering their great......

Chris and Rich Robinson, of The Black Crowes, rolled into Austin to play four sold out acoustic shows - two on Monday at the Union Ballroom and two on Tuesday at the Cactus Café. We were lucky enough to get tickets for both performances at the Ballroom. The brothers have announced that there are no press passes to any of their shows on this mini-tour dubbed "Brothers of a Feather" and some reporters are......