Attending the launch events for Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.’s SingStar (for PlayStation 3) was our primary focus this past weekend but the added bonus of a wristband to that little festival going on in Indio, California was a welcome perk we could not pass up. Our two day experience at Coachella 2008 kicked off with SebastiAn’s remix of the Justice anthem “D.A.N.C.E.” Non-stop beats invigorated an extremely hot Sahara tent as flashing lasers and lights made the 3 p.m. set seem more like a 3 a.m. one! Battles were next for us. The band’s shifting rhythms and changing tempos were well received by the swaying crowd, bottled up in the Gobi tent which was bursting at the seams. Another quality set during the afternoon was over at the Mojave tent where Black Kids furnished the festival with dance-pop accentuated by a variety of synth output. Tracks like “Hurricane Jane” and “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You” were instant hits with the crowd, some just getting to know this talented Florida outfit, others apparently already big fans....

Unlike past primaries where the Presidential nominees were already decided by the time we voted, Texas' votes are quite significant this year. After the polls close this evening, the party's not over; it's precinct convention time! This whole caucus thing is new to us, so we thought it was worth posting a refresher....

A lawsuit against the City of Kyle for violation of the federal Fair Housing Act started yesterday. The suit was filed by the national and Austin branches of the NAACP, the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin and the National Association of Home Builders. It alleges that Kyle has increased the cost of local housing by instituting revised zoning ordinances. According to the NAACP, the resulting increase in prices disproportionately affects minorities and the Fair Housing Act prohibits cities from zoning in a way that excludes housing for certain classes of people, even if officials did not intentionally discriminate....

The coalition is a community of Florida farmworkers from various immigrant backgrounds who strive for fair wages and fair treatment and work to end modern-day slavery. One of the activists from this Coalition, Lucas Benitez, will be delivering the opening address at UT's 28th Annual Student Conference on Latin America tonight. ...

From KSAT: More than 1,000 calls poured into the Bexar County Elections Department on Monday from voters wanting to know where they could vote in Tuesday's primary. Problem is -- Texas isn't holding a primary on Tuesday, like more than 20 states are. "The voters think they're actually going to the polls (Tuesday) because it's Super Tuesday," said Bexar County Elections Commissioner Jacque Callanen. "It's all over the national media and the local media that......

What do you get when you recycle 80,000 pounds of aluminum cans, or approximately 2.7 million cans? Well, evidently $5,000 dollars and a national award for the City Recycling Challenge. Mayor Will Wynn accepted the Cans for Cash prize on behalf of the City of Austin at the recent U.S. Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting taking place last week....

Well, it was Annual Economic & Technology Forecast day ... again ... and that meant we were up at the Austin Convention Center waiting for the forecast from the Austin's most-famous pecuniary prognosticator, Angelos Angelou, who told us how much more increases in housing prices we can expect. Angelos predicted that we will see moderate increases in housing prices, lower than the 7.2% average increase in 2007, but that we will not see a decrease in housing prices despite the significant price decrease nationwide and the local decrease in number of home sales. Angelos predicted that Austin's strong economic and population growth coupled with a large reduction in new housing starts would keep housing prices up. Angelos mentioned that he gets a lot of questions about whether there will be a significant decrease in prices in the downtown condo market - he doesn't think there will be. He sees substantial demand for downtown condos, and thinks that market will perform similarly to the rest of Austin - flat for the next several years, followed by price increases....

In an effort to put to rest the debate over whether Austin has an actual gay and lesbian community, eight prominent LGBT organizations today announced the formation of the Pride Coalition. The unifying entity is, in many ways, largely an effort to eliminate some of the petty squabbling over resources and public attention that many of these groups often found themselves caught up in. It also hopes to better promote the various community volunteer efforts that take place throughout the year....

Tonight at the Alamo Downtown, $2 Music Monday will feature a documentary by local filmmaker Samuel Wainwright Douglas: Holy Modal Rounders: Bound to Lose. ...

It’s been two weeks since Pimp C’s death. Last Thursday he was buried in Port Arthur. Reading through all of the eulogies and obituaries that have poured out of the local papers, the blogs, the national media, and the rap community since December 4th, you obviously will see trends. Everyone immediately identifies Pimp C by his drawl and how he rhymed through his vowels, and it seems as though this – his voice - will be a big part of his legacy, along with his production and his pioneer-status as an early and consistent member of the Texas rap scene....

Yesterday the EarthLab Foundation announced its annual list of the top 10 greenest cities in America. Austin ranked 9th in this year's list. The list is compiled by sampling the one million plus users of the website's carbon and lifestyle calculator that has been featured in Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary The Eleventh Hour, at the 2007 Emmy Awards, and by Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection....

Editor's note: My Ex-Boyfriend's Band is a reoccurring column that features the opinions and insight of the author, not necessarily reflective of the Ist network as a whole. Thank you for reading! For the times they are a-changin'. And the music festivals are a-changin' with them. Even Dylan, who declined to take the stage at Woodstock in 1969, evolved into the 2007 Austin City Limits headliner. With SXSW, Fun Fun Fun and the C3......

Photo by punchup on flickr East Austin halfway/"sober" house to close after neighbors complained. Mother and child hit by truck in Georgetown HEB parking lot. Double B Foods recalling 98,000 pounds worth of sausage roll products for listeria contamination. After a fight at Taylor High School, the police tasered a girl, arresting her and two other students. 109,263 mistakes in the math textbooks proposed to be used for the 2008 school year at Texas elementary......

#14 Texas (7-2) vs. Oklahoma State (5-3) Time: 2:30 pm, Saturday, Nov. 3 Location: Boone Pickens Stadium, Stillwater, Oklahoma TV: ABC Radio: KVET (98.1 FM, 1300 AM) With three games remaining in the regular season, the Texas Longhorns are as much as a mystery as they were before the season started. Currently ranked No. 14 in the country with games remaining against unranked teams (Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M), the Longhorns seem......

Senator Barack Obama is coming back to Austin in November. This time around, you'll have to show a little monetary support if you'd like to hear what he has to say—judging from his rousing speech at Auditorium Shores last February, it'll probably be worth it. The charismatic statesman still trails behind Clinton in the national polls, but a recent survey indicates that "rock star" Obama has garnered the most positive press. Tickets are $25 for......

Cop shot in the foot during early morning shootout near Montopolis. UT student Daniel Toole fell to his death from Goodall Wooten dorm this weekend. Public universities in Texas cost more than the national average (for the second year in a row). UT won a state landscape preservation award (over a week ago) for their transplanting of live oaks during stadium renovation. Two kids in a family on their way to visit their wounded......

#23 Texas (4-2) vs. Iowa State (1-5) Time: 11:30 am, Saturday, Oct. 13 Location: Jack Trice Stadium, Ames, Iowa TV: Fox Sports Southwest Radio: KVET (98.1 FM, 1300 AM) Last week's loss to Oklahoma left the Texas Longhorns in a historic hole, looking up from the bottom of the conference standings with an 0-2 league record for the first time in 50 years. Midway through the season, the Longhorns are out of the national......

The British are pulling out half their Iraq troops by spring. Take us with you! Please? It's been 40 years since Che died, and all we got is this lousy T-shirt. Poor Joe Biden. At least when we throw a party and nobody shows, it doesn't get written up in the national news. See, skydiving *is* dangerous - just not the way we thought. TiVo soon to offer music - but there are possibly......

#19 Texas (4-1) vs. #10 Oklahoma (4-1) Time: 2:30 pm, Saturday, Oct. 6 Location: Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Texas TV: KVUE (ABC) Radio: KVET (98.1 FM, 1300 AM) One of the realities of college football is that a single loss, particularly at the wrong time, effectively ends your season. Teams that begin the season with a hope of winning the national championship can see those hopes vanish in the span of four hours on a......

We entered the park around 1:10pm to the strains of a seriously thrashy number from Yo La Tengo. It was impressive to hear how determined YLT were to throw out some serious noise rock at such an early hour. Being a bit sunburned and rather low-energy, we listened rather than watched, grabbed a blissfully freezing cold beer, and headed over to grab a spot for The National. The National (1:30pm): What perfect music for......

Believe It or Not: My Bloody Valentine reuniting for Coachella 2008? Last weekend, the American Psychological Association rejected a moratorium that would have prevented its member psychologists from participating in interrogations at U.S. detention centers in Guantanamo Bay and secret CIA "black sites" around the world. Venetian Macao Aims to Transform Chinese Gambling Enclave Into Full-Fledged Resort City. Leslie Feist, joined onstage by members of Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, Grizzly Bear, The......

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......

Brooklyn based The National will grace our town with their presence at the 2007 Austin City Limits Music Festival. The band is comprised of Matt Berninger, Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner, Bryan Devendorf, and Scott Devendorf. (Yes, that’s two sets of siblings!) The National expertly combine catchy riffs and appropriate strings with affecting lyrics (sometimes poignant, while seemingly abstract on other occasions). Although we feel that their music is best suited for a late night,......

According to a recent research report issued today, Texas children are getting the proverbial short end of the stick. Like, the really short end. The report - called the KIDS COUNT Data Book - is a national state-by-state report issued by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in conjunction with the Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP). Today's report is a precursor to CPPP's "The State of Texas Children 2007" which will be released this fall.......

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......

Horrified though we were that a woman was killed by a flying tire on I-35, we chalked it up to a random freak tragedy—the kind that gets coverage on the national news because of its wholly unbelievable nature. This might not be the case. Shortly after Monday's incident, a woman on internet activist site Actt Up posted about a strikingly similar accident that happened to her three weeks ago, also on I-35: My name is......

Last March, Birmingham, England's Editors made quite an impression on those who attended their packed SXSW showcases. An airtight quartet, the band blazed through their sets with energy and precision. A measured mix of post-punk and UK arena rock, Editors project intensity and a dark mood throughout their recorded output. Their debut album The Back Room went gold and produced four Top 40 singles in the UK, and American hipster mag The Fader liked......

Soundcheck has grabbed our attention constantly over the last year with colorful covers presenting regional talent like Voxtrot and Midlake. However, the glossy magazine features national acts as well, while keeping a close eye on major festivals -- both home and away. Soundcheck also incorporates additional flair into its usual, stellar content every month. An “Artist Perspective” feature (from the likes of Ramesh Srivastava) and columns such as Hometown Heroes keep this local ‘zine hip......

Kiplinger released their picks for the top 5 cities for young singles, and Austin is among them. D.C. is their first pick; we actually place in the middle of the rankings (between Denver, CO and Raleigh, NC). Kiplingers views folks ages 25 - 29 as "young singles," and places Austin on the higher end of their Bohemian Indicator (which means we have a larger amount of people involved in the arts than the national......

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......