Flood waters threaten thousands in southern Mexico. Hurricane Noel will bring heavy rainfall to the East Coast. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice begs U.S. Diplomats to serve overseas. NASA plans a risky spacewalk to save a ripped solar wing at the international space station. Hollywood writers are set to declare a strike sometime today. Get ready for a reality television blitz! NBC Anchor Brian Williams is hosting SNL this week. The reunion show......

Although Austin isn’t without its own freak-folkiness, former Texans Devendra Banhart and Jana Hunter will be journeying to La Zona Rosa on October 7th to present their own take on the genre for what has become a burgeoning fan base. Banhart, as close to a superstar as an acid-folk rocker can be, is supporting his newest album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, which features contributions from surprising sources including Nick Valensi of The Strokes, actor......

The Hold Steady have been holding, er, steady in the limelight since 2004, picking up a Village Voice cover here and a best album of the year there (2006: The Onion’s A.V. Club), and just generally best-ing all over the place: they were Blender’s 2006 Band of the Year and made it to Rolling Stone’s annual album ranker at number 8. Critical acclaim blah blah blah. The big hit from the big album Boys......

We expect this to be the most popular news bits ever, as well as the best day ever, since everybody's favorite drive-in eatery (Sonic, duh) is giving away FREE root beer floats tonight from 8pm till midnight. Go ahead, locate every Sonic in town and drive around getting free floats until you can't drink root beer floats anymore. This is such a big deal, even Forbes wrote about it. And if you don't get......

Followers of the indie-rock scene may be a little shocked to find out that it has only been two years since Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's debut demos stormed across the blogosphere. The decidedly scruffy demos were a revelation, full of Talking Heads-like vocals, soaring minimal guitar lines, and (perhaps most importantly) a very danceable rhythm section that sounded quite different to the many Interpol-derivatives of the day. Having seen the then-unknown CHYSY win......

Please excuse the abbreviated NRT this week: we'll see you next week with a biggie size. Naturally, the indie world is buzzing with talk about Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!'s latest, Some Loud Thunder, and all we can think of is how those poor kids have a lose-lose situation on their hands. They enjoyed a couple years worth of undeniable popularity and interest surrounding an album that, as it was sold by the thousands......

It's the Saturday Hatha instructor at YogaYoga South, or Orange Hat Bike Messenger guy. It's one of the Lone Star Rollergirls, or your favorite coffee house employee. It's your local secret crush. After spending many fruitless mornings skulking around Whole Foods, trying to meet the elusive "cute red-haired guy who works the (Whole Foods) counter up North," we move on to an entirely different Crush-Out request in the interest of keeping them coming. He's a......

Badly Drawn Boy - Born In The UK (Astralwerks): If Talking Heads were last year's band to emulate, The Boss is certainly the sound of 2006. After seeing a great Springsteen record from The Hold Steady and a suspect one from The Killers, we now find Brit Damon Gough wrapping himself in the English flag and turning up the shiny, Human Touch-style production. Unfortunately, Badly Drawn Boy's main charm were his lo-fi early songs......

WEDNESDAY [13] food • Angel Valley Organic Farm Farmstand at Asian American Cultural Center, 11713 Jollyville Road (10am-2pm) film • Terror Storm with Alex Jones Live at Alamo South (7pm) film • AFS Doc. Tour: The Trials of Darryl Hunt at Alamo Drafthouse (7pm, $4 members, $6 non) ® film • Once Upon a Time in Mexico at Rounders Pizzeria (8pm, Free) film • Get Carter at Spider House (9pm, Free) film • AICN......

New albums by Guillemots, Hot Snakes, and the Snakes on a Plane soundtrack...

The Rocket's 2006 debut with the Astros yesterday ended in a 4-2 loss against the Minnesota Twins with Francisco Liriano stealing Clemens' Thunder. Nudist resorts are seeing an increase in popularity. We imagine that laser-hair-removal is really popular at some of these places. And naked karaoke? Need we say more? Saddam Hussein went on a hunger strike. The martyr ended it after missing one meal. A man in Idaho was offended that his local......

FRIDAY 28 [music] Ghostland Observatory, Glass Family, Clap! Clap! and Crash Gallery at Emo's (info) [music] White Ghost Shivers (CD Release Ball) with The Small Stars at The Parish Room (info) [music] Texas Sapphires at Waterloo Records (Free, 5pm) (info) [music] Joe Satriani at The Paramount Theatre (8pm) (info) [music] Southern Culture on the Skids at Continental Club (Through Sunday!, 11:30pm) (info) [music] My Education and Cue at Blue Theatre ($6) (info) [music/food] ATX Fest,......

Ain't It Cool News found out on Monday that the lineup for this year's QT Fest has been leaked on the Drafthouse's schedule of events. Full-access badges, priced at $145, have already sold out -- single screening tickets should still be available for most at $10/ea, or $20/30 for nightly passes. We've taken the liberty of linking the listings to their iMDB pages: MONDAY, APRIL 24TH [imdb] Kiss The Girls And Make Them Die [imdb]......

If you live near downtown, you may have heard the low grumbling that permeated the air late last night. No, it was not a super-isolated thunder storm. The sound you heard was that of the hundreds of Hot Rods and Kustoms (that's pre-1963, thank you) that are descending on the capital for the Lone Star Rod & Kustom Round-Up. Festival organizers hit their limit of 500 cars, so Festival Beach is guaranteed to be......

Barton Springs could be in danger; we are in serious need of rain! The City is implementing some necessary water restrictions. We're still scared of thunder, but we're hoping that tonight's forecasted rain lasts through the weekend. Make plans to walk, bike, run, or swim to work on Monday. Capital Metro is really serious about a strike next week. A Nebraska-based firm made illegal monetary contributions to Austin City Council candidates between 2001 and......

The Austin Ice Bats will host the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup at the Travis County Expo Center Saturday night. The Cup will be on display during the Ice Bats' game against Wichita, and fans may bring their cameras to take their picture with the Cup. The Cup will be available to the general public starting at 6:30pm. It's also Guaranty Win Night as the Ice Bats play the Wichita Thunder of the Northern......

Stealing The Oasis' Thunder We told you yesterday that a fire broke out at the beloved Bitter End Bistro. Today, the Statesman reported that the damage will cost $250K, but it is covered by the restaurant owners' insurance. Fire damage was contained to the kitchen, but the brewing equipment was affected. Owner Reed Clemons who has had a bout of bad luck with restaurants lately (he recently closed Mezzaluna but is gutting it and......

Ruh Roh! After a parched summer so far, we may get some serious moisture coming our way if hurricane Emily keeps it’s current course. The National Weather Service shows Emily pointed right at us. Not to worry! We’re sure that by the time she reaches us, it won’t be much more exciting than the thunder storm that dashed our beer garden frolicking last Thursday. Armed And Dangerous!! It seems that a Burnett County inmate......

Why not go check out real musicians who actually play instruments? From their early years as The Borrowers, Mark Adisson and Nina Singh have always understood what it takes to make great music. In Kitty Gordon, this duo created two wonderful albums rich with memorable songs. Even the God of Thunder himself, Gene Simmons, covered "Beautiful" for a recent solo CD. Fans of David Garza and Goudie may know Nina from her numerous performances......