After Van Halen, Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead, and Jay-Z all elected to skip Austin on their spring US tours, it's not unreasonable to feel that our music-loving town seems to be off the radar of the arena pop and rock circuit. This despite a perfectly functional (if rather dated) basketball arena smack in the center in town. Thankfully, the Louis Vuitton Don Kanye West agrees with you, and has elected to show Austin some big-production love with a date here at The Frank Erwin Center in late April. more ›

Quick, get me the Pentagon. American superiority is waning in the human longevity department. Can't we just bomb somebody over this? A lengthy but entertaining goodbye to Factory Records founder Tony Wilson, recently deceased. Informative readers' Q&A with Floyd Norris, chief financial guru at the New York Times, on the current state of the U.S. economy (not suggested for feel-good reading). Instead of simply fading away into the annals of big hair rock, Van... more ›

Fire ravages Griffith Park in L.A.; city councilman compares fire to Mick Jagger. Things really are different out there. The five-second rule, explained. Way fewer people watched TV this spring, and network suits are flipping out. Maybe everybody found out that Jack Bauer is a neocon fantasy? Sorry ladies—Ty Pennington ain't as perfect as you're always telling us. Sammy Hagar need never argue with the Van Halen brothers again, or do anything else for... more ›

We’ve had a soft spot for Jamie Kennedy ever since his performance as mega film geek Randy Meeks in Wes Craven’s Scream. And we’ve also spent a lot of time watching his short-lived but very funny hidden-camera show, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment (which for our money was much more daring and inventive than that lame-ass Punk’d. For example…). At the tail end of South by Southwest this year, we got a chance to chat with... more ›

Little-known outside the experimental guitar scene, the immensely talented Japanese guitar-slinger Tetuzi Akiyama has been perfecting his improvisational rockabilly style for the better part of 20 years now. Due to play several shows during SXSW and a smattering of shows in Texas and elsewhere, Tetuzi kindly extrapolated on his singular talents for us: You started playing guitar when you were 13. What sort of music were you listening to at the time that drew... more ›

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... more ›

• There's a serious crisis in Canada. Edmonton bars and pubs are having a hard time keeping their beer on tap and in stock. We guess hockey fans know how to drink beer.
• Tune up your cars and rev your engines. State Officials are planning to raise some speed limits to 80 mph, the highest in the country. We'd like to take this opportunity to let you know that slow drivers suck, too.
• How do you spell Hallelujah? How about S E A S O N I Q U E. Having only 4 periods a year sounds like it could be ideal for everyone.
• David Lee Roth is determined to reunite Van Halen. An act of desperation, perhaps? Did anyone hear his radio show before it was cancelled? We didn't think so.
• Trash is power and we aren't talking about Britney Spears. Landfills are converting their trash gas to useful gas- we know some guys who could sell their...
• Keeping track of MySpace-news is exhausting us, or just getting really old. A couple teenagers hacked into MySpace and threatened to make their how-to public information unless given some money. Kids are just so smart these days.
• We don't want to alarm you (again) but we need to call a super hero, like Super Ozone Action Man to defeat Global Warming Man. According to researchers, the warming of the atmposphere is changing the pattens of the Jet Stream.
• Michael Kitchens of Williamson County won't be able to father either of his children because he'll be spending his life in prison after getting his own daughter pregnant.
• Don't dive in head-first this weekend to any local watering holes (unless it's the saloon kind). Water levels are lower than normal. Happy Memorial Day weekend! more ›