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......

Every fall, Austin looks forward to ACL Fest, and each year, there's always a point where two of your favorite bands are playing on different sides of the park at the exact same time. ACL Band Clash is a weekly series in which Austinist scribes Paige Maguire and Tom Thornton examine the worst ACL scheduling clashes, and try to provide good advice on finding a resolution. Well, good advice might be a stretch, but......

1990s Cookies (Rough Trade/World's Fair) The 1990s "play music like a blond gets out of a car." This, we assume based on listening, means something like, "Our sound is snotty, a little fucked up on we-don't-remember-what, and always f-u-n." While John McKeown (Yummy Fur) won't make any news showing his knickers to paparazzi during a limo exit, he will succeed in promoting the display of everyone else's underthings on the dance floor, as Cookies......

Seattle's public radio station, KEXP 90.3, has long been a bellwether of up-and-coming bands in the national indie-rock scene. This year, Austin groups took not one, but two spots in their Top 90.3 albums of 2006. Nestled in the top 20, our own beloved electronica exhibitionists Ghostland Observatory's Paparazzi Lightning took #16, while brooding psych-rockers The Black Angels' Passover took #6. Not only is this titillating news for the bands, outplacing indie legends like Yo......

Say what you will about the Austin music scene, if there's one thing we've got in spades, it's heart. And breakfast tacos. But that's another story altogether. Our bands can take any other city's bands on when it comes to sheer per capita productivity and playing out, never leaving their respective constituencies on the sidelines. And albums? Lordy, just walk into Waterloo Records and check out the local music section: 2006 was a banner......

Some say that we have a "hard-on" for Ghostland Observatory. And they're probably right. But that does little to change the fact that the GLO - Aaron Behrens (vocals/guitar) and Thomas Ross Turner (keys/beats/vocoder) - are one of Austin's most talented indie electronic duos. Austinist contributor J.G. summed it up rather well last month: GLO evokes the seventies underground art-beat of Georgio Moroder, Sparks, Metal Urbain while infusing it with the dirtier glitter of......

[The following is an editorial column by contributor Julie Neumann and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Austinist staff. --The Editors] My heart has broken into a million pieces. Approximately, give or take a few thousand. Actually, it may not be my heart at all, but some other vital organ in the chest area. You get the point, do these details really matter? I read James Frey’s account of addiction and recovery......

-Some organization called Safe Kids Worldwide voted us the safest metropolitan area for kids. And proving why we're probably not the hippest metropolitan area for kids, the entire student body of Oak Springs Elementary celebrated ... by making 300 children walk two blocks from ACC to their their school. Back in our day we called that exercise. And in unrelated news, that assistant principal from Bastrop High remains under investigation for possession of child......