What should have been a banner year for Virginia Beach rhymers Clipse wound up finding the brothers Thornton even more firmly entrenched in the cult status they've always cultivated. Record label paper-shuffling kept their second full-length, the Neptunes-produced Hell Hath No Fury, on the shelf for over a year. The duo kept busy with their record label, Re-Up Gang Records, and a popular mixtape series, We Got It 4 Cheap; but by the time Fury was released, what should've been a #1 album only managed to crack the top 20. The record still became one of the biggest critical smashes in any genre last year, ably supported by the duo's growing reputation as an unstoppable live act. As Thornton elder Malice said in a recent Pitchfork interview, "We may not be the mainstream dudes, but we are the credible ones. And I will take that any day of the week." See for yourself when the Clipse tour rolls through Austin tonight; locals The Academy, a.k.a. the 2 live crew of Phranchyze 1 and John Vice, warm up the Emo's outdoor stage. more ›

In Money Magazine's annual Top Ten Best Big Cities list, published online yesterday, Austin came out in second place. Oddly enough, we weren't anywhere near the top for their separate rankings of metrics like Job Growth, Skinniest, Youngest, Safest, and Most Singles. According to the magazine's survey, our population of nearly 700,000 (over half of whom are college educated) has a healthy median age of just under 31 and spends almost $7000 a year... more ›

The annual Men's Fitness survey of America's Fittest and Fattest Cities just came out again, and lo and behold, Austin remains among the top 25 of the former. Austinist is hardly surprised by these findings: on our once-yearly morning traipse around Town Lake this morning we exchanged pleasantries with dozens of fellow runners, all no doubt preparing for February's orgiastic Freescale Marathon. And just last week our spiffy and intimidating-as-hell gym, 5th and Lamar's... more ›