Seems like it's been a few weeks since the last music festival, doesn't it? ACL and Fun Fun Fun Fest are still around autumn's corner, but a smaller, burgeoning festival this weekend at Emo's promises two full days of fun for much less hassle and cash than our city's more mainstream music-and-arts extravaganzas. It's called Wild Frontier Fest, and in this, its second year, it lays claim to Emo's for both Saturday and Sunday with an expanded roster of indie-rock and folk bands from near (White Denim) and far (Peelander-Z, who continue their remarkable run of playing every Austin music festival in 2011). more ›

Lots of stuff going on this weekend, as if to give you plenty to remember before you brace yourselves for the ONSLAUGHT of Christmas cheer and/or enjoy the waning days of Hanukkah's oil-based miracle. Perhaps the most impressive show going down this weekend happens tonight, at the Octopus Project's show at the East Side Drive-In. Supporting their new record Hexadecagon, the Project have a unique plan for this performance. From the press release: "The band plays in the round, surrounded by the audience, who are in turn surrounded by an eight-channel surround sound system while a four-projector, eight-image video system erupts overhead." Got it? more ›

Definition of Hexadecagon: a sixteen sided object; or The Octopus Project's 8 audio + 8 video channel live show. Touted as a sensory immersive live music production that even the Flaming Lips might be a little jealous of, The Octopus Project has only performed Hexadecagon twice before - once at SXSW earlier this year and then in Dallas this November. Lucky for us Austinites, we get a second chance - Hexadecagon will rise again at East Side Drive In tonight (Friday)! more ›

Local stars done good The Octopus Project, led by the exceptional foursome Yvonne Lambert (notable haircut alert), Josh Lambert, Toto Miranda, and Ryan Figg, are living proof that a band doesn't always do its best work in its first five years of existence. While the variegated approach of the band's output—from straightforward guitar rock of the indie vein to uber-slick electronica, male vocal/female vocal/no vocal—showed promise from the very start, the newest tunes in the catalog may perhaps be the best we've heard yet. These songs are to be consummated with the much-anticipated autumn release of Hexadecagon, a polysyllabic tribute to fourth LPs everywhere. An added bonus to the kindly nature of the songs' natural elements, and a fine teaser for the album, is that noted producer (and fellow Texan) John Congleton—who has worked with seemingly everyone, including Modest Mouse, Explosions in the Sky, Bill Callahan, and R. Kelly (R. Kelly!)— manned the dials. Needless to say, it'll be a treat for anyone who catches these new ditties, surely alongside a slew of more familiar material, at the Mohawk tomorrow night. more ›

Oscillating joyfully between the skeletal and meaty in the vein of Blonde Redhead, Golden Beds is a charming setpiece from a band who continually delights with their mastery of musical mis-en-scene. It’s fantastical but also familiar, as if they were climbing into your head and nonchalantly performing feng-shui on your ears. more ›

Veteran Austin post-rockers The Octopus Project have some exciting news - one, they've got a new EP out next month entitled Golden Beds, and two, they will further sweeten the summer with tour dates and vinyl reissues of their first two releases Identification Parade and One Ten Hundred Thousand Million. more ›

At a time when so many indie dramas focus on directionless white twenty-somethings, it's refreshing (if not downright invigorating) to see a film about two black twenty-somethings who have no ostensible interest in dancefighting, and who have plenty to say about relationships, identity, and cultural displacement. more ›

The 6th annual Indie Music Video Festival rolls into town tonight at the downtown Alamo Drafthouse. more ›

Photo by Aubrey Edwards The Octopus Project with Horse+Donkey and Cue at Emo’sFriday, November 16Emos (603 Red River St)Outside, Doors at 8 p.m., Show at 10 p.m., [info]The Octopus Project have recently been galloping across the country, showing off the material from their new album, Hello, Avalance, out on Peek-a-Boo records. Tonight, however, the gang's back in Austin to wrap up the tour with a hometown show at Emo's. The new album sounds a bit... more ›

Image from Team Fabrication’s MySpace Emo’s is just one of the places you could be this Friday evening. Local experimental act, The Octopus Project released their latest full-length, Hello, Avalance on Peek-A-Boo Records last month and will be providing nuggets of electronic mayhem from the new album and past releases, no doubt. Cue and Horse+Donkey round off this bill of unique Austin acts on the outside stage. Inside at Emo’s, Those Peabodys will be on... more ›

Fun Fun Fun Fest captured more than a few hearts last December on a cold winter evening with a three-stage-pronged attack that provided ample genres for everyone in attendance. Some of the stand-out acts included Spoon, The Black Angels, The Octopus Project, Peaches, and Prefuse 73. This year, the fest is back, bigger than before, and a month earlier to boot. November 3rd and 4th will see Waterloo Park transformed into a musical carnival featuring... more ›

Fun Fun Fun Fest captured more than a few hearts last December on a cold winter evening with a three-stage-pronged attack that provided ample genres for everyone in attendance. Some of the stand-out acts included Spoon, The Black Angels, The Octopus Project, Peaches, and Prefuse 73. This year, the fest is back, bigger than before, and a month earlier to boot. November 3rd and 4th will see Waterloo Park transformed into a musical carnival featuring... more ›

Single Frame has been creating eclectic electro-pop for a good number of years now. The band formed in 2000 in Austin and early recordings included a first full-length, Wetheads Come Running, and the Burn Radio Airtest EP released under their original moniker Single Frame Ashtray. Now veterans of two additional records, Single Frame distinguishes itself with eccentric pop that utilizes a variety of jingles, be it the simply synth outputs or unusual sounds obtained from... more ›

The Octopus Project can be classified as one of the most eclectic acts in town. Their brand of post electro-rock is exciting enough for us although some of their eccentric concoctions have raised a few eyebrows. The band is adept at their trade, combining beats, melodies, and an assortment of sounds in a highly complex yet exhilarating fashion. They headline tomorrow night’s Peek-A-Boo Records showcase which promises to be a quality night of local music. more ›

THURSDAY [12] music • The Carrots, The Interest Kills (LAST SHOW) at The Mohawk music • ME TV's monthly Austin Music Foundation benefit series, "Emerging Artists," with The Dedringers, Nakia and His at Antone's (8pm, $5) music • Alex Dupree and the Trapdoor Band, Jeff Klein, The Normans at Emo's music • Twilight Broadcast CD Release Show with Loss Rayne, Goldcure at Stubb's music • DJ Omari's Soul Party, with the Rock and Roll... more ›

THURSDAY NIGHT! It was one year ago (with some down-rounding) that we first started darkening the patio of Beauty Bar. Back then they didn’t have the credit card machine working just yet, but their cheap Lone Star & whiskey specials kept things kosher on the cash front. It’s been a pretty wild year for them ever since, what with the arrival of those blessed credit card machines (there’s no money quite like fake money)... more ›

Octopus Project + Black Moth Super Rainbow (Graveface) more ›

The following is a weekly column by guest contributor Laurie Gallardo. Hear her Friday evenings on KUT 90.5FM -- The Editors Greetings, chilly willies. I will now quote something I heard this morning from the esteemed producer of In Black America on KUT, John L. Hanson, Jr.  Mr. Hanson is someone I hold in very high regard. Everyone should. To put it as succinctly as possible, he is a bad ass. This morning in... more ›

FRIDAY [1] music festival • The first-ever Fun Fun Fun Fest! With Spoon, Circle Jerks, Prefuse 73, Peaches, Black Angels, Lucero, Riverboat Gamblers, DJ Mel, Whitey, DJ Thomas Turner, Octopus Project, The Oranges Band, Dead Meadow, DJ Ceeplus and the House of Bad Knives, and more at Waterloo Park ($20, 1pm-10pm) afterparty • Fun Fun Fun Fest afterparty with Whitey, Ceeplus and the House of Bad Knives, Prince Klassen, and Ian Orth at Beauty... more ›

We're looking forward to seeing the freshly installed art that's going to be unveiled at the Blanton's B scene tomorrow. Since there aren't enough museums to fill our ever-voracious appetite for new art in Austin, we've been awaiting this opening with great anticipation. To go with those visuals, there's going to be the auditory pleasure of Austin's awesome instrumental space-dance quartet The Octopus Project, a performance of some of playwright Suzan-Lori Parks' 365 Plays/365... more ›

Having played an outrageously amazing show at Coachella after winning a MySpace contest they didn't even know about, Austin's The Octopus Project are coming back to their hometown this Saturday to headline at Emo's outside, with Loxsly, Gil Mantera's Party Dream and Featherweight Burden. The trio's been busy these past few months: they played a bunch of well-received shows back at SXSW (prompting Rolling Stone's David Fricke to name them one of his standout bands... more ›

The following downloads are by artists playing various shows around town this week -- check the IST List for details. [mp3] Mono - Halcyon [mp3] Mono - The Flames Beyond the Cold Mountain [mp3] Mono - The Remains of the Day [mp3] Elefant - Lolita [mp3] Sound Team - Movie Monster [mp3] Pretty Girls Make Graves - The Nocturnal House [mp3] The Joggers - Since You're Already Up [mp3] Aberdeen City - Another Seven... more ›

Peel, Austinist's favorite dysfunctional Austinites - in a band, that is - share the stage at Emo's tonight with Cry Blood Apache, The Carrots, DJ Jennifer (of KOOP's Ear Candy), and - last, but most certainly not least - Voxtrot. The quintet just recently signed with local label Peek-A-Boo Records (The Octopus Project, Palaxy Tracks), and (we're hoping) will eventually get around to releasing a full-length album - it's tentatively titled Vehslage, the origins of... more ›

Nestled snugly between SXSW and Coachella is Wall Of Sound, a two-day festival at the Ridglea Theatre in Fort Worth. Its goal (stolen from their Myspace profile) is to "shed new light and exposure for emerging local and regional unsigned bands by giving them the opportunity to be showcased along with higher profile national artists on the same stage," and in the process bringing a "respected independent music and arts culture to the city... more ›

Austin City Limits is pretty nifty, we'll admit. But let's face it: the lineup for Coachella, ACL's glammed-up West Coast sibling in the desiccated wastelands near Joshua Tree, has all but reigned supreme these last few years. And this year, they're at it again; earlier this week they announced the full roster for the two-day festival, to be headlined this year by Depeche Mode (huzzah!) and ... Tool (huh?). The entire lineup: Saturday, April... more ›

FRIDAY more ›