Sometimes 10 ain't enough

I love living in the ATX... and I know it has been freakishly hot lately, but this holiday weekend, you should try to make an effort to get out and about!  Each day I whittled down the options for you to the TOP 11... because sometimes 10 ain't enough!! 

Thursday July 2nd highlights:

Antones-Shurman, Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers; BD Rileys - Alan Haynes; Beauty Bar - Show Me Tiger; Continental Club - The Service Industry, Moonlight Towers; Lambert's - Gary Clark Jr. ; Beerland has comedy w/ Tom Rhodes; Hole in the Wall - The Jungle Rockers; Broken Spoke - Jesse Dayton; Jovita's - Cornell Hurd Band; Momo's - Kevin Smith band, Deadman, Matt McCloskey, Margo Valiante; Shady Grove - Unplugged at the Grove w/ Del Castillo; Dirty Dog Bar - MC Overlord; Red7 - Este Vato; One2One Bar - Wayne Sutton; and the gem of the night...La Zona Rosa has the Austin Child Guidance Center Benefit w/ Ian McLagan, Alejandro Escovedo, James McMurtry!  

Friday July 3rd:

Saxon Pub - Miss Lavelle White; Antones - The SCABS! and T-Bird & the Breaks; Beerland - The Chumps; The Continental Club - Lil' Cap'n Travis; The Parish - Beaux Loy w/ Atomic Alive & Love at War; Lamberts - Los Bad Apples; Poodie's - La Tampiquena; Stubb's - San Saba County; Emo's - Exile, Lower Class Brats, Vice Squad; Red7 - Total Abuse, Bone Awl; Room 710 The Flametrick Subs; Mohawk - Cattywompus; The Scoot Inn - Rat King...

Saturday July 4th!!

Antones - Fastball, Carolyn Wonderland; Continental Club - Jimmie Vaughan in the Gallery w/ Denny Freeman and the Derailers in the club; Dell Diamond - Uncle Lucius, Jerry Jeff Walker; Emo's - Henry Rollins; Lucky Lounge - Angel Ferrer; Flamingo Cantina - Mau Mau Chaplains; Ginny's - Rosie Flores; Lambert's - Suzanna Choffel, Kat Edmundson;  Nutty Brown Cafe - Bob Schneider; Roadhouse Rags - Joel Guzman & Sarah Fox; Stubb's - The Octopus Project, Explosions in the Sky!  Indeed!!!  Plus the Yellow Bike Project will do a cool event at Woolridge Square Park w/ Invincible Czars... and the HEB Fireworks display at Auditorium Shores!!!

Sunday July 5th:

Look we will be hungover and fireworked out... but if you can make it, check these out...

Ginny's Little Longhorn Saloon, 4pm - Flat Top Jones (and Chicken Shit Bingo!  Bring all the outta towners for a treat!!)  The Parish - Bill Callahan, Follow that Bird; Red Fez - DJ Kurupt; Roadhouse Rage - Meagan Tubb; Stubb's - Gospel Crunch w/ The Bells of Joy; Iguana Grill - Ginger Leigh... and the Nomad Bar has a cool brunch you should look into if you live near 51st street!  Shhh...our little secret...

Monday July 6th:

Continental Club - Dale Watson; Lucky Lounge - The Spoiled; Ming's Cafe - Brad Houser, Craig Marshall; vino vino - Ephraim Owens; TC's Lounge - Little Elmore Reed Blues Band... and the Continental Club Gallery has CRYBEAR at 10pm, so don't cry...I told you so...

Plus $1 Tecates at Nomad Bar... $1 Modelos at Lucky Lounge... and Serrano's has a good Monday Happy Hour - Check it!

Hey we are all in a recession, I just thought I would help you find some deals...

 

Steamboat Reunion Show Sunday 6/14/09

Here are the Basics:

Bands start at 3 p.m. and go to 10:30 or so. The line-up includes:

3:30 p.m. - Rhythm Child
4:30 p.m. - MC Overlord 
5:30 p.m. - Dah-veed 
6:30 pm. - the Alice Rose 
7:30 p.m. - Vallejo 
8:30 p.m. - Sister7 
9:30 p.m. -Johnny Goudie & the Little Champions

Tickets are $10 advance through FrontGate  --  http://www.frontgatetickets.com/  

$15 at the door. 

This year’s proceeds go to HAAM.

http://www.healthallianceforaustinmusicians.org/ 

Upon arrival to Austin I immediately went to 6th street and I fell in love with all the bands and clubs.  I would go see Little Sister at the Black Cat and I caught David Garza at Steamboat--maybe some reggae at Flamingo Cantina... plus I learned about other cool bands like SoulHat, Joe Rockhead and later Vallejo, Mr. Rocket Baby, Podunk, Pushmonkey, the Ugly Americans, Breedlove, Dexter Freebish and countless other amazing local bands!  6th street would have so much live music pulsing out the cracks of all the old buildings that you could walk up and down the street and walk into whatever club felt right for the night.   

Steamboat was definitely a favorite.  When you walked into the club you just knew you would be in for a good time... I would bring all my out of town visitors by so they could see some "real Austin, Texas rock!"  I don't know how many times I would just be walking by on 6th street, then... like a magnet, I would just end up partying at Steamboat!?  I would hear the live music,  cough up the cover and I would just have to check out the bands...

Then I started working at KLBJ and in my 14 years there I learned of even more amazing local bands and over time I befriended many of my 6th street heroes... I sure do miss those days, but I'm glad Danny Crooks has put this show together for us to do it again!  So this Sunday will be a special reunion on so many levels.  Please come out and re-live some of your classic Steamboat memories.  Plus it will be a benefit show to help out all Austin Musicians, so let's all give back and enjoy some great music on Sunday afternoon at Threadgill's South. 

Summer time in the ATX!

Last week, with my sister and nieces in town we went down to Zilker Park and rediscovered the Barton Springs Pool!  Even though I live here and I go out a lot, I forgot how cool the pool is!  Yes...it is hot...we all know that!  But you don't want to stay inside all day long.  What are you waiting for?  We rented some canoes and raced out the shade of the 1st Street Bridge while my nieces stared on in disbelief that we were in the middle of downtown!?? It was a beautiful day and the fresh air felt good as we rowed until our arms burned-- but, with a sense of accomplishment.

Get out and enjoy the natural beauty of Austin.  The pool is only $3 for adults, $2 ages 12-17 and $1 for seniors and young kids.  Have you forgotten how good the cold water feels?  Remember the shade under those huge trees? Or maybe you want a little sun...so lube up with the sunblock and get out there!   And if you play your cards right, maybe you can treat yourself to a raspa! (aka snow cone)    

 

Alamo Strikes Again!!

10 Pins and a Dream

The Alamo Drafthouse empire expands to include bowling, karaoke, and cocktails

BY MARC SAVLOV - AUSTIN CHRONICLE

Tim League at the construction site

Photo by John Anderson

"What do you do for recreation?"

"Oh, the usual. I bowl. Drive around. The occasional acid flashback." – The Big Lebowski

Alamo Drafthouse kingpin Tim League has big balls. We mean huge, swirly 12-pounders. And he can't wait to show them to you. But you already knew that, didn't you? No? Okay. We'll back up, lest you get the wrong idea ...

Several tantalizing rumors have been running rampant on a number of fronts regarding various Alamo doings of late, but as our recent powwow with League revealed, not all of them have their basis in actual facts. Here's the skinny thus far:

Rumor: The Alamo Drafthouse is opening a new location on the site of the old Concordia University campus.

Fact: "We have spoken to the owners of the property," admits League, "but at this point, that's just a rumor and nothing more."

Rumor: League and his wife, Alamo co-founder Karrie League, are engaged in a lawsuit against Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas Ltd., the company that purchased the Alamo brand name several years ago with the intent of creating a chain of Alamo Drafthouses across the nation.

Fact: "Here comes the judge!" as Laugh-In would put it. It's true, the Leagues aresuing ADC Ltd.'s president and CEO, John Martin, in what is essentially, from the Leagues' point of view, a case of fraud.

"Almost five years ago," Tim explains, "[Karrie and I] ostensibly sold the company and then licensed back to ourselves the name and kept the original locations, meaning the Village, the Lake Creek, the South Lamar, and the Ritz. So there are essentially two Alamo Drafthouse companies. There's been some maneuvering to edge Karrie and I out of the picture, and then on top of that, they haven't really done what they promised they were going to do, which was open more Alamo Drafthouses while maintaining the strength of the brand. That never materialized, and the relationship has become strained. We really don't care for the direction that they're taking the company in." Hence the lawsuit, which is ongoing.

Rumor: In addition to badass cinema, Tim League also loves bowling, karaoke, and cocktails and plans to make you love them, too, and damn the economy.

Fact: Too true, and too cool. Dig this:

You know times are tough when the Salvation Army retreats. But William Booth's loss is Austin's gain: The former Salvation Army thrift store at 1142 S. Lamar, all 14,000 square feet of it, has been leased to its neighbor, the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. Construction is under way on what Tim is tentatively calling "the Palace," to be open this fall.

Incorporating a bowling alley, with the actual Fifties-era lanes bought from legendary New Orleans bowler nirvana Rock 'n' Bowl, private karaoke rooms, a cafe, a bar, and oh so much more, the Palace, overseen by longtime Alamo architect Richard Weiss, with interior design by Joel Mazursky (Uchi, the Belmont), is a natural, fittingly organic outgrowth of both the Alamo brand and the Drafthouse's South Lamar location, specifically. And if you've been to just about any Friday or Saturday evening screenings there lately, then you've most likely already experienced the serpentine waiting lines that were the first inspiration for an expanded Alamo South Austin.

"After the Salvation Army closed," explains League, sitting in the Alamo's newly refurbished offices, "we did four or five little makeshift parties in that space, and we thought: 'You know, it's kind of a nice place to have available. Maybe we can make something more of it.' The thing was, one of the problems with this center is that there's very few uses for a 14,000-square-foot space that we could park appropriately. But something like a bowling alley, which is kind of a space-hog – the lanes themselves take up half the square footage – isn't so much of an impact on the already slightly crowded parking.

"As for the lanes themselves, there's this company that specializes in vintage bowling equipment in New Orleans, and, apparently, Rock 'n' Bowl had just moved locations and upgraded their equipment, which was a stroke of luck for us. We bought their old, classic-style lanes. ... This is equipment that was originally installed in 1950, actually.

"It's not just a bowling alley," League emphasizes. "It's multiuse. Moviegoers from the Drafthouse will be able to hang out here, grab a cocktail, and then we'll do Southwest Airlines-style boarding for the films. 'Now seating group one for Up.' We're going to try and get rid of these film lines altogether. And then it's going to also be a stand-alone space where people can come to bowl, grab a cocktail, maybe play Skee-Ball, or go for late-night karaoke.

"[Alamo Creative Director] Henri Mazza and I are both absolutely obsessed with karaoke, and I promise you we are going to have the most badass private karaoke rooms in town. Each of the rooms will be themed to a different style of music, so there'll be a punk room, a metal room, what have you, all of them with a superhuge song selection. So depending on what you're feeling like ..."

Is the ever-stylish Tim League a karaoke master?

"I'm not very good," he deadpans, "but I do it with vigor."

And as for the bowling? Better than Bedrock Barney, as the Dickies would say?

"Ah, I'm not a very good bowler, either, but I am looking forward to having 24/7 access to bowling lanes."

Hump day dilemna...

It is the middle of the work week, but even on a Wednesday there are so many options of cool thing to do in the A-T-X!!!

First off, check out the Nomad bar!  Definitely one of my favorite neighborhood bars...even though I'm not really in the neighborhood!?  Tonight Becca and the gang are doing the "Nice Astronaut" thang at 8pm...

Fastball will headline the free Solar Powered Concert at Republic Park with the Black & White Years!! Did I mention it was free!!!???

Giant Noise is doing a cool event at 7pm at the Kirk Gallery for the US launch of the Mexican Design collective Pirwi!  Check out www.kirkgallery.com fo mo info.

The Austin Film Festival will have a special screening of the Coen brothers "Blood Simple" which was shot in Austin 25 years ago!!  Check out the Bob Bullock Museum... the Texas Spirit Theater at 7:30pm for that!

If you are like me and you came to the A-T-X from El Chucs (aka El Paso, TX) then you might wanna stop by El Sol y La Luna for the El Paso Social--early at 6:30pm!  I already know you El Paso types will show up at 8 then, so I will tell you it's at 5pm!!?  j/k...

Beyond that, this Wednesday night has lotsa cool bands playing around town, like Atash at Red Fez; Ramblin' Jack Elliott at the Cactus Cafe; Jon Dee Graham and James McMurtry at the Continental Club; Clues at the new Independent at 501 Studios; Shelley King at Artz Rib House; Austin Collins at the Mean Eyed Cat; Pepper Lane at the Mohawk; Beth Black at the One2One Bar; This Year's Fashion at Red7;  Monte Montgomery at the Saxon Pub; Tish Hinojosa is at Waterloo Records at 5pm...and from LA... you gotta go see The Aggrolites are at Emos!

"You know how I know your gay... 'cuz you like Coldplay!"  so you are probably headed to San Antonio to go see them at the ATT Center...Drive safe!!

 

Where to Begin?

So much To Do in the A-Tx this weekend...

So I will put together a little list for you to peruse.

Friday 6/5/2009:

Emo's - New York Dolls w/ Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears; Antones - Alejandro Escovedo;

The Parish - Mother's Anthem, Beaux Loy, Dark Summer Dawn; Flamingo Cantina - Radio La Chusma; Threadgill's South - White Ghost Shivers; Momo's - Suzana Choffel; Stubb's - Animdal Collective w/ Black Dice; The Continental Club - The Jungle Rockers, Nick Curran, more; Cactus Cafe - Gurf Morlix; Elysium - Vast; Broken Spoke - Dale Watson; One2One Bar- Eric Tessmer; 

One World Theater - Craig Chaquico; Plus...my buddy Billly is rocking out at Headhunter's w/ Butcherwhite, so don't be scared!!    

Saturday 6/6/2009:

Antones - Bob Schneider, Billy Harvey;  Emo's - Girl in a Coma, The Boxing Lesson; Momo's - Freddie Steady 5; Continental Club - Michael Ramos' Cumbia Lounge early at 3pm, then the Cornell Hurd Band at 10pm, Mike Flanigan's B-3 Trio upstaris in the Gallery;  Lambert's - Afrofreque; The Paramount Theater - Roy Lozano's Ballet Folklorico de Texas; Saxon Pub - Greezy Wheels; Red Eye Fly - Brink of Disaster; Threadgill's South - Carolyn Wonderland; Broken Spoke - Bruce Robison; and if ya like the squeezebox, check out the 20th annual Accordion Kings & Queens Festival at the Miller Outdoor Theater...

Sunday 6/7/2009:

Continental Club - Jon Dee Graham & Heybale; Momo's - Battle of the Bands; Saxon Pub - The Resentments; The Belmont - Jane Bond; Lambert's - Ephraim Owens, Brannen Temple; The Mohawk - Anarchy Championship Wrestling and... Check out the Second Sunday Sock Hop at the Shangri La!

Monday 6/8/2009:

Stubb's has Gomez, but they also do an in-store performance at Waterloo Records at 5pm, so catch that if ya can!  C3's new venue "The Independent" opens their doors with Little Joy so that is pretty f-in cool!  and.... the best kept secret in town on a Monday night is my new fave... TC's Lounge has the Little Elmore Reed Blues Band!!  They are the real deal... 'Fo 'Sho!!!

Cool Pachanga Review from AusChron!

Tuesday, June 02, 2009 

Austin Chronicle on Pachanga Fest "Nine hours after my day began with El Tule’s ninepiece horn-  Category: Music Cumbia de la Pachanga! CLICK TO ENLARGE Gaby Moreno, buenissima John Anderson A righteous throw down it was too. Testament to the ultimate success of Saturday’s Pachanga! Latino Music Festival at Fiesta Gardens occurred during nearly every performance of the second-year event. You couldn’t enjoy a full set for fear you were missing an equally gratifying vibe at one of the other two stages. Opposite ends of the venue’s lush grounds made for a two-minute trek that nevertheless justified multiple PopSoCools on a hot, still afternoon down by the riverside. Nine hours after my day began with El Tule’s ninepiece horn-, guitar-, and percussion-driven Woodstock, both headliners – Mexico City cumbia rockers Mexican Institute of Sound and Chihuahua-originated black-hat TejanoMichael Salgado – rocked Austin’s Eastside every watt as memorable as Of Montreal’s carnivalesque set in the unfathomably underutilized locale last fall. The crucial difference? Rather than a familiar variant of indie nation, cowtown’s rarely experienced melting pot kept its offspring shaded and hydrated in increasing numbers as the fiesta progressed. At the end of the marathon, Pachanga’s peak, co-organizer Rich Garza barely fathomed a weary, but genuinely validated estimate of 3,500 patrons. Whatever their number, each and every one of them will gush on exactly what went down at the famed Live Music Capital’s newest gathering of tribes. As co-Pachanga! promoter Alex Vallejo gave drum lessons in the Niños Rock Pachanga tent (“Latinos already have rhythm so we don’t need the down beat”), and El Tule swung through their “Three Widows” cumbia, local rock en Español quartet Kalua clamped down on wicked Spanish/German standard “Malagueña.” Maneja Beto keyboardist Bobby Garza explained octaves to the niños back in the shade, before Los Bad Apples followed fellow scensters Kalua with a peculiar blend of Latin American slink fronted by Anita Benner and rapper Zeale, who instigated early afternoon shaking by the best crowd yet, especially on the group's “Cumbia Chica.” David Garza closed the niños tutorial portion of Pachanga! with a songwriting demo beginning with “Happy Birthday” (“That’s the first song written 10 millions years ago by the cave mans”), and the “Hokey Pokey.” The day was anything but pokey. Pachanga All Stars materialized as Vallejo with special guests, notably Guanajuato, Mexico, native fiddler Haydn Vitera, and at the finale, Los Bad Apples’ Anita Benner, with the Santana-loving sponsors (“Jingo”) dedicating their “Sweet Maria” to Steamboat captain Danny Crooks, who’d earlier taken credit for nurturing the local Latin rock scene in the mid-1990s by giving initial Sixth Street gigs to Vallejo, Del Castillo, Charanga Cakewalk’s Michael Ramos, and Los Lonely Boys. Give gracias at Threadgill’s Steamboat reunion Sunday, June 14. Guatemalan turned Los Angelino Gaby Moreno turned in one of the festival’s breakout performances her second time in town. Leveraging her best Linda Perry (4 Non Blondes) to match her cherry red Harmony Rocker electric guitar, the singer’s trio plowed through her 2008 debut Still the Unknown, standouts “Wrong Side of the Road” and closer “Greenhorne Man” bookending Buena Vista Social Club calling card “Quizás, Quizás” and Moreno's duet with David Garza, “Amapola,” one of the uncontested highlights of the event. Brooklyn hybrid Cordero on the same stage later paled in comparison with its generic Latin pop, although the quartet's tribute to Spanish bullfighter Christina Sanchez revived the sun-baked assembly with a choral cry of “toro!” In-between, Austin’s Ocote Soul Sounds cooked up an empanada of South American sounds, two guitars, twin fiddles, and even a pair of flutes, plus baritone sax and jawbone, metering out what should have doubled as a rain dance to cool the sweltering day. At the other end of the grounds, AJ Castilloand his powerhouse 7-piece built a “Brick House” of cumbias, rancheras, and polkas, with the frontman’s glitterati accordion infinitely more galvanizing than a guitar. Watch for this local. Castillo’s the Del Castillo of the Tejano set, his 17-year-old brother and MC Sergio another one to follow. Closer “El Super Man” proved capable of leaping Los Lobos' cumbias in a single bound. Maneja Beto’s synth-driven New Wave take on Latin organic constituted another uniquely ATX musical offshoot – OMD meets Malo – while Chris Perez’s hair band offered weak power chords and not a single hint of his past life as Selena’s widower. In David Garza’s charismatic lockdown of all things Capital City rock y roll, including Nina Singh’s lioness beat and Suzanna Choffel’s “trial by Tejano fire,” manifested the musical side of the festival’s melting pot. His 10-minute closer, a cover cumbia of New Orleans’ Iguanas, steamrolled like Latin rock’s Lynyrd Skynyrd, Austin’s True Believers. Given the 1970s wah-wah guitar interplay of Grupo Fantasma siphon Brownout (“Laredo ‘77”), next year’s Pachanga! bill requires the Cream brownout of Amplified Heat. An undulating throng, including Garza and dancing partner Choffel, and later a conga line inhaled every pulsed beat of electro-cumbia by Charanga Cakewalk, Esquivel in Tejano mode, while San Antonio’s nine-piece female Mariachi Altenas, resplendent in matching red historical Spanish fashion, deserved the encore tight stage schedules didn't allow. That left only the two headliners, Mexican Institute of Sound delivering a big festival rock-out despite only three laptop technicians fronting a live rhythm section, and Michael Salgado’s menacing all-in-black Tejano quartet banging out a “ritmo romantico” in the frontman’s quicksand voice – grainy, bottomless. As undeniable as the music line-up at Pachanga! 2 was the fact that cumbias are to all forms of Latino sonidos what guitars are to Marshall stacks. Otra!