The very fact that Moontower chose to hold its first, and hopefully annual comedy fest in Austin speaks well to the fact that Austin has a burgeoning scene of its own with comics like Matt Bearden and John Ramsey rippling into recognition far outside our growing little burg. Not only have the past couple of years seen the addition of new venues like the New Movement Theater, but also new regularly scheduled comedy genius like Cap City’s always on point, Punch. more ›

There's never enough time to see all the documentaries we want to see at SXSW, but we managed to catch several this year and were -- for the most part -- impressed by the crazy, creative work being done, both in front of and behind the camera. Read on for a few reviews, and check out the rest of our SX film coverage here. more ›

“A mother, after all, is your entry into the world. She is the shell in which you divide and become a life. Waking up in a world without her is like waking up in a world without sky: unimaginable.” - Meghan O'Rourke, The Long Goodbye more ›

A perfectly clouded sound against an overcast sky, Asobi Seksu brought a sedated study in contrasts of harmony and noise, feedback and fuzzy slur to the stage. Yuki Chikudate’s sweet soaring voice cut through the shoegazed effects pedal symphony, preventing the energy on the date from dissipating into monochromatic gauze. more ›

Since our tastes veer toward the New World, we don't generally purchase or order Italian wine. The Lucente surprised on a number of counts - namely due to the wine's mix of old-world heritage and New World flavor profiles. The Merlot-based blend gets a rustic touch from the Sangiovese and some big red cherry flavors and aromatics from the 15% Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend. The wine has a bit of earthiness, but not much - the 12 months of French oak round it out quite a bit. more ›

The Drive-By Truckers are not hip. Despite venerable critic respect, a cerebral vibe and nine straight rock-solid studio LPs - their primary audience are not relevance-seekers, but instead just people who like rock music. Outside a limousine pulled up, and an overweight dude in a wifebeater and trucker-hat tumbled out; “The only time white trash gets a limo is when Drive-By Truckers are playing!” he hollered as he wandered towards the Stubb’s gates. There is never even the faintest sense of irony. The band’s molasses accents and Skynyrd discourse feel uncommonly true, and they began as a group interested in the intellectual and analytical potentials within the utterly defamed realm of southern rock. They remain that decades later, still writing great songs and filling gradually-widening venues. The demographic-clashing on the amphitheater dirt wasn’t a sign of outsider encroachment, because frankly songs like “3 Dimes Down” transcend whatever jeans you might be wearing. more ›

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina more ›

Imagine that you have the luxury of taking an entire day off just for yourself. What would you do? Picture this - a leisurely drive up to north west Austin, down a winding country road off of 620. Just 25 minutes after leaving the chaos of downtown you reach your destination for the day: Travaasa Spa. more ›

We Were Not Orphans: Stories from the Waco State Home is a compilation of memories told in the words of the alumni themselves, now in their sixties, seventies and eighties. Put together by social advocacy marketer Sherry Matthews (whose half brothers attended the school), the alumni’s stories are hardly edited, thus keeping their true voices - voices that weren't heard years ago - intact. The result is a collection of haunting accounts whose depth of specific details pales only in comparison to the gratitude many express in retrospect, in spite of such dire circumstances. more ›

An hour and a half down the road from Austin, and occupying 340 square miles of semi-arid Central Texas terrain, sits one of the world's largest military installations - Fort Hood. Some 50,000 soldiers work on post, making it the largest single-site employer in Texas. As of 2006, 85% of those troops had served at least one tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. more ›

The term “eclectic” is overused, but this appealing debut earns it in spades. The brainchild of New Yorker Gabriel Birnbaum, God Bless The Hunger starts off as a lo-fi riff on Neutral Milk Hotel but then veers wildly into unoccupied territory: Stax-flavored horn charts (“Reasons”), Bowie-circa-Young Americans soul pastiche (“City Kids”), dissonant ambient rock epics (“Love Letter”), and Zappa-esque nu-classical excursions (the title track). more ›

The second installment of Casual Victim Pile, Matador Records' co-chief Gerard Cosloy's yearbook of Red River roll 'n' roll, begins with a simple, sneering declaration by Orville Neeley: "Bullshit." more ›

Our last installment of reviews from the Psych Fest includes more of Pooneh's photos as well as recollections of performances by My Education/Theta Naught, Roky Erickson, The Black Angels, Cold Sun, and more. more ›

The second day of Psych Fest featured a full day of live music at the Seaholm Power Plant, and, like on Friday, we were there to watch it all go down. Pooneh Ghana, as per usual, took some great photos. more ›

The first day of the 4th annual Psych Fest took place on April 29th at the Seaholm power plant, and featured two stages of music that lasted from early evening to early morning. Our writers caught a good chunk of the sets that evening, and Pooneh Ghana got some great shots. more ›

If there was one thing that was evident during The Kills' performance at La Zona Rosa last night, it was that Alison Mosshart and James Hince are an entertaining bunch. While their show was nothing spectacular or mind blowing, Mosshart and Hince handled themselves like professionals. They balanced the right amount of posturing and energy to propel their brand of drum machine charged, blues inspired rock in a set that placed several cuts from their recently released Blood Pressures amidst many favorites from their back catalog. more ›

Throughout his twenty-odd year musical career, Bill Callahan has cultivated an affect as flat and smooth as glass. Callahan’s songs, first released under the name Smog and, since 2005, his given name, exist at the queasy intersection of interior and exterior life, combining the lyrical romanticism of Van Morrison with William Burroughs’; dead-eyed appraisal of human interaction. It’s a remarkable juxtaposition, one that has enabled him to air out some of humanity’s dirtiest emotional laundry while still retaining a sense of lightness and wonder. more ›

Drowning is a recurring theme in Austin writerJennifer Hritz's I, Too, Have Suffered in the Garden, and narrator Adam Atwater certainly seems to be going under. By any measure, he has had a rough year. His relationship with Joel, his partner of four years, is faltering, his father's lung cancer has metastasized to his brain, and he was recently passed over for a promotion at work. To top it all off, he is being haunted by visions of his former lover, Bobby, who died of AIDS thirteen years before the start of the story. more ›

This week, the popular crowd-sourced review site Yelp! began including "hipster" as a type of ambience you might experience at venues, bars, and restaurants around town. We did a quick search to see which sites in Austin lived up to that mysterious type of atmosphere. more ›

By this point, Trail of Dead’s blending of pompous '70s prog-rock with kinetic hardcore abandon fits them like an old sweater. Dual frontmen Conrad Keeley and Jason Reece started Trail of Dead back in the late '90s, just as the mainstreaming of punk bands like Nirvana and Sonic Youth had backwashed into a lame reiteration of soulless arena rock, and as they gained confidence in the studio they began to pull from a different set of influences entirely, filtering the studied eccentricity of prog supergroups through the lean energy of underground rock. more ›

Another day, another quasi-ambient foray into staticky rhythm loops and guitar and synth bloops for these Brooklyn-via-Olympia weirdos. For noise aficionados not familiar with Growing’s ouevre, the trio could best be described as Black Dice-lite - not as aggressive or beat-heavy, but definitely in the business of creating grimy, post-21st century digital psychedelia. more ›

Robert Plant is about to turn 62, but apparently, getting older doesn't mean playing it safe. After 2007's one-off Led Zeppelin charity gig prompted concert promoters to stack piles of cash at Plant's door, he rejected the overtures to continue touring his Americana project Raising Sand with Alison Krauss. After collecting no small amount of critical acclaim for that endeavor, Plant has now blown it all up again, emerging with a new brand of weirder, louder roots rock in his current project, Band Of Joy.

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Spoon have always been masterful artists in the recording studio. If there were ever a criticism of them, it usually hinged on the fact that their live show was very straightforward and businesslike - no gimmicks, no games, just the tunes. Somewhere during the extensive touring for 2007's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Spoon's current lineup moved their live show to a new plateau in the eyes of many longtime observers. Though they're only been touring for four months in support of new LP Transference, the set taped for PBS mainstay Austin City Limits in early July will likely prove to be a vital snapshot of a band at the height of their powers.

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Sleep Good is mostly the nom-de-plume of one Will Patterson, who has been a consistent force in local motorik-pop outfits Sunset and Sound Team. Now, with a fourth album under his belt (the previous installments have been cassette or CD-R releases) and accompaniment by a regular supporting cast, at the very least it's no longer a "side project." more ›

With Elvis Costello, it's all about timing. The restless nature of the man's creativity seems to dictate that he never stay in one place for too long, be that physically or creatively. As such, fans hoping for a pass through Costello's greatest pop hits were likely disappointed at the setlists that emerged last week both at Austin City Limits and at Bass Concert Hall. We suspect, though, that those fans were in the minority. As fans of Costello's great mid-80's record King Of America, we welcomed the chance to see Elvis return to a genre he seems awfully good at given that he's not exactly a folk or country lifer. more ›

Austinist's theater critic Dan Solomon tries his hand at directing a piece written by his wife. Bastion Carboni, who directed the Poison Apple Initiative's recent production of No Exit (which Solomon reviewed harshly backin June), sat down with the critic-turned-director to talk about critical credibility and what'll happen if his show sucks. more ›

Beasts With Hearts Of Gold is a beautiful little gem of a record. Jammed pack with twenty (yes, twenty) songs, it travels the distance between the beginnings of Guided by Voices and early Spoon with unpretentious ease. "Heart Poppers" is particularly Spoon-esque, David Jones' voice sounding so much like young Brit Daniel it's eerie. more ›

Pho Hoang can be found appropriately triangulated between Andiamo, a Jack in the Box, and a martial arts school. The service and decor are about what you'd expect ("barely noticeable"), and the proprietor of has a delightful manner of interacting primarily with two words: "Yeah," and "OK." The bare-minimum vibe should be taken as part of its charm; expect your bowl of soup or noodles to land at your table within a minute or two of ordering, provided, of course, that you can get somebody’s attention during the busy lunch hours. more ›

Do not, repeat, do not go to Swad expecting saag paneer or chicken tikka masala, lest you turn into one of those people who posts irrationally angry reviews on Yelp. Swad's serves southern Indian/Pakistani food, which is totally different, lighter (to a point), and completely vegetarian. Best that you wipe all previous northern Indian dining experiences off your hard drive before venturing Swad's way. more ›