Stoner metal bands ply their thankless trade in a vacuum. Holed up in bedrooms throughout their teenage years, learning every riff from Ride The Lightning, the bands typically have technical chops but lack that inherent charisma that comes from, y'know, regular human contact. Consequently very few of these bands make it big. Occasionally a Josh Homme or Matt Pike will jump the fence from their old band into a more profitable project--Queens of the Stone Age and High on Fire, respectively--but more often than not these bands toil away strictly for the love of the game....

This Sunday, come to one of one of Austin’s most comfortably worn-in bars to see four promising local artists strut their stuff. The Pillow Queens, Canopy (or CCANOPYY), Spirit of Space and Jacob Borshard will all play The Hole in the Wall starting around 9, with no cover. ...

Tired of free shows? Me neither. But Beerland is upping the ante this week with two impressive bills on days that start with “T;” first with School Police, The Pillow Queens, Poor People, and The Nasty Rumors this evening, and a great line-up on Thursday as well (preview forthcoming). ...

Waller Creek Design Workshop. Image from City of Austin News Austin Music Commission's Town Hall Meeting Notes AMD Sued Over Birth Defects Plant a Tree for Freedom Waller Creek Design and Vision Workshop At This Rate, We're Having Our Next Happy Hour in Cancun Pangaea: It's For Real, Y'all UT Biologists Propose Biodiversity Institute Save BookWoman! Austin Music Commission Considering Plan to Stop the Rock They've Got the Lasers... Now All You Need is......

Photo from the Casserole Queens WebsiteCasserole Queens (Home-delivery Comfort Food) Phone: (512) 905-6967 or (512) 905-6986 [Website] Casserole Queens, the brainchild of chef Sandy Pollock and business partner Crystal Oakes, is a casserole delivery outfit servicing south, central, and north Austin with hearty throw-back fare. Great for busy working families or anyone looking for a little bit of oven-y comfort food, the Casserole Queens fill a food delivery niche with a kicky, campy retro feel.......

Three UT students make national news for getting stuck in local cave. "Well, that's the last time I throw my son a birthday party," said Father. "I'm getting too old for this crap." Radiohead stands to make approximately $9.6 million from sales of their latest record, "In Rainbows." Ex-General who served in Iraq speaks out on the war: "There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight." Study:......

ACL Previews Interview: Midlake Interview: The National Preview: The Wonderful Harmonizers, Loretta Williams Gurnell Preview: JJ Grey & Mofro and Charlie Musselwhite Preview: Young Love and the Dynamites Featuring Charles Walker ACL Band Clash, Round 1: Spoon Vs. Queens Of The Stone Age Snapshots Lollapalooza 2007 Snapshots: Summer Extrav-O-Ganza 2 Weekly Features The Argyle Academy New Release Tuesday: Art in Manila, Flight of the Conchords & Marissa Nadler Feature Review: Okkervil River's The Stage Names......

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 new, theoretically 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......

Let's get to it: ACL Fest organizers dropped the aftershow schedule yesterday, and it's fairly extensive. Stubb's, La Zona Rosa, The Parish, and Antone's will all host aftershows over the Thursday to Sunday that everyone is in town for the big event. Highlights include an intimate show from The White Stripes and Cold War Kids at Stubb's, an extra gig from Argentina's loungerific Gotan Project (also at Stubb's), appearances by Spoon, Common, and Queens......

This morning marks the release of the ACL 2007 schedule grid. This is probably the most stressful day of the year for the avid ACL festivalgoer, as hopes of seeing every act one likes are dashed when seeing how many of your favorite bands are playing at the exact same time. It's impossible to program such a big festival without a couple of conflicts, but three stand out to us this year as particularly......

Emo's is more than a venue. It's an institution. Here in Austin, it's the club with cojones, the one that will open its doors to damn near anybody that can haul an amp out of their van. From screaming teenage scuzz-punkers out of Des Moines to be-pastied burlesque beauties to big name national acts; on most any given evening, there is something compelling going on at Emo's. And, oh the memories! We've been rocked......

Blitzen Trapper Wild Mountain Nation (Lidkercow Ltd.) Folksy but freakish Portlanders Blitzen Trapper have yet to be scooped up by Zach Braff, but that's probably only because they're still on the fringes of too weird. Yet, between soothing and familiar odes to old Grateful Dead tunes and powerful plays towards anti-genre adorableness, the odd sextet manage to capture the listener's attention while totally defying their own. Eccentric, playful and genuine songs fuse 70's goofball......

After a month of guesswork, the ACL Fest lineup is here. And it's quite a good one. While the wild speculation of headliners like Neil Young and Stevie Wonder once again proved false, the key items one sees this year are depth and balance. Having spent yesterday looking over the roster, we have the following observations on the 2007 edition of ACL. The Good: A Great Top 10. Had you told us that we'd......

Jason Quever combines anecdotal songwriting with lush folk-pop in Papercuts’ Can’t Go Back, out soon on Gnomonsong. The San Francisco based musician finds a unique balance between malaise and vigor on his new release. Moody narratives are married with layered orchestrations to conjure a somewhat manic depressive feel. The album opener, “Dear Employee” ends with resigned refrains of “I don’t need you no more” while the possibly tongue-in-cheek “Unavailable” repeats “He’s stepping out for a......

If you can relate to any of the following scenarios, we have an answer for you: 1. You haven't eaten anything green for weeks. You've completely exhausted your extensive ramen noodle cooking skills. You're about to enter into a period of extreme busy-ness (finals, a crazy week at work, etc.). 2. You want to have a party. You even want to feed your guests. But you really, really don't want to actually have to cook......

The woman who encouraged us to shove dimes into jukeboxes long after they had switched to quarters, triggering a nationwide coin shortage in the early 80s, is coming to Austin. Joan Jett, the hottest 46 year old since Tina Turner in 1985 (or Madonna in 2004, for that matter), is still lovin' rock and roll, touring like a madwoman and turning her nose up at the prospect of ever investing in a pair of......

If you can ignore Sarah Michelle Gellar’s strained cries for the prolongation of her career, you might see some good movies this weekend. The Grudge 2 Those creepy Japanese ghosts are back. And they’re still holding that grudge. And apparently, we’ve got a trilogy on our hands now. Great. Man of the Year If you’re one of those people who are into the whole “Stewart/Colbert ‘08” uh, concept, seeing this movie might make you......

After SXSW trashes our fair town, Coachella layers the California desert with dusty beer cans, and Wall of Sound leaves Fort Worth a city ... well, much the same, we're probably heading over to Sasquatch, the annual Pacific Northwest festival at Washingon State's scenic Gorge Amphitheatre. Scheduled to perform during the three-day Memorial Weekend blitz are Austinites Trail of Dead and Iron & Wine, plus a salivatory stew of sweet, sweet bands: FRIDAY, MAY 26......

Below is a list of the new albums released this week. You can get most at Waterloo Records or End of an Ear. Artist Spotlight Mendoza Line - Full of Light and Full of Fire (Misra) New York City's Mendoza Line are an awfully bitter bunch. Then again, these days, we can't rightfully blame them for feeling that way. Their latest release on Austin's Misra Records, Full of Light and Full of Fire, finds......

M O N D A Y [ 1 7 ] music · Elizabeth McQueen (of Asleep At the Wheel) and Jason Roberts begin their new Monday night residency at Threadgills - they're sharing a band and splitting the night. (8pm-10pm) music · Ethan Azarian at Waterloo Records (5pm) music · The Sad Accordions with Just Guns at Emo's music · The Drafthouse Downtown screens "Rock & Roll Invaders: The AM Radio DJs" - a documentary......

Many groups have attempted to follow in the footsteps established by the legendary Queens crew, but only a handful have come close. The best group, by far, is North Carolina's Little Brother. Phonte, Big Pooh, and 9th Wonder create a sound that has roots in groups like De La Soul and Tribe, but also has a sense of exploration like the ATLiens of Outkast. Little Brother's 2003 release, "The Listening" is regarded as an......