SXSW 2009 Extended Roundup
Greg M. Schwartz gschwartz@sacurrent.com What a great week in Austin for the 2009 SXSW conference and festival. It was an honor and privilege to be down on the scene for such a great event, with Austin proving once again that it has one of the greatest music scenes on the planet. Walking down Sixth Street…
Luminaria 2009: Those Were the Day
If you’re on Facebook or Myspace or haven’t been living in a cave since last Saturday, you’ve probably already seen some photos of Luminaria, and then you moved on in your life to SXSW, and now you’re even over that. And yetâ?¦here are some photos of Luminaria, because that’s how I roll: about 10 days…
SXSW For Free: Day 3, Friday, March 20 – Filter Magazine Showdown at Cedar Street party
The Cedar Street Courtyard was the scene for one of the best day parties during SXSW ’09 It’s all about being in the right place at the right time. There was easily a hundred shows going on at any given time during the South By Southwest 2009 Music Conference. With so many bands and bars…
Council candidate questionnaire: Byron Miller, District 2
Beginning March 4, the Current emailed the following questionnaire to all candidates who filed by March 9 for the May 2009 municipal elections. As responses begin to roll in, we will post them in their unedited entirety here on QueBlog. Excerpts will appear in the April 1 print edition of the Current. if you’re a…
Healy-Murphy bid discussed tonight
The Parks and Rec Board will take the first public look at the single bid for Healy-Murphy Park — the under-resourced Eastside park that District 2 Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Sheila McNeil is trying to unload before she leaves office — tonight, 5:30-7:30pm at the Lion’s Field Adult & Senior Center, 2803 Broadway. The public…
Why you’re not finding Heartland science in my climate dispatches
Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe: Votex of climate misinformation. Got a problem with that? Don’t read us on Wednesday. Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com When I first started addressing global warming after my time with daily newspapers, I made one quick change: I didn’t cite the warming deniers, those that claimed contrary to all peer-reviewed and published literature…
SXSW For Free: Day 1 and 2 photos
Here are some pictures of the acts I caught during Day 1 and 2 of South By Southwest. Stay tuned for my Day 3 and 4 posts along with photographic evidence that I rocked just as hard, if not harder than anyone with a badge or wristband. The cover fee to see all the bands…
Going Underground at SXSW
“If you have a schedule, throw it out,” joked “Little Steven” Van Zandt about an hour into his Friday afternoon Underground Garage showcase at Antone’s. If the announced order for this four-hour celebration of raw, three-chord rock bore little resemblance to what the assembled crowd saw, that’s in keeping with a musical form that puts…
SXSW 09: Katzenjammer, Drew Smith’s Lonely Choir, the Crystal Method
By Abbie Kopf Before I start in on my fourth and final day at the glorious SXSW Festival, I have to purge this almost forgotten thought from my sun-and-beer-fried brain. On the second day of SXSW, my friends were lucky enough to happen upon a band that, like many artists looking for the maximum amount…
SXSW 09: De los Muertos, Piñata Protest
De los Muertos Let’s take a brief moment to point out the obvious and say it’s practically impossible to hear De los Muertos vocalist Paul Lopez without thinking of Tom Waits (especially since he performs in a fedora and sings about “gambling and boozing”) and the guitar and bass are often so surf-rock influenced, you’ll…
SXSW 09: Fanfarlo, Bedouin Soundclash, not American Analog Set
by Abbie Kopf The third day at SXSW started out as enjoyable as licking sweaty nards. We had RSVP’d to the “Hot Freaks” party where mopey indie sad sacks American Analog Set were set to play a show. I wanted to see them because the band is no longer playing together (save this show), and…
SXSW For Free: Day Two, Thursday, March 19
Crowds and lines outside venues were a common sight during Day Two 2:00 p.m. — If Day One was a zoo, then Day Two was chaos. Uncontrolled, unrepentant, unequivocal chaos. People of varying degrees of drunkenness and weirdness were everywhere, a nightmare for the claustrophobic, agoraphobic, and OCD-suffering; a dream for music fans with so…
SXSW 2009: She Rides, Garotas Suecas, Tori Amos
By Abbie Kopf I’ll have to admit that today I was out of sorts. I misplaced my schedule and was flailing without my properly marked printout of bands that I wanted to see, arranged by hour. I perused the SXSW pocket guide, looking for a name I remembered from my lost agenda. I saw She…
SXSW 2009, Day 2: Sickboy, No Age, The Carrots, Garotas Suecas, Hacienda, Question, and Moth!Fight!
Day 2 was my first “full” day at SXSW, and armed with an 8GB CF card in my camera, I was determined to see as much as I could, and shoot it as well. Wednesday’s Dept. of Eagles set was pretty incredible, so I had high hopes for Thursday. After an exhaustive search, I finally…
SXSW for Free: Day One, Wednesday, March 18
6th Street is the center of the action at SXSW A late start didn’t put a damper on Day 1 of the South By Southwest Music Conference, which featured a warm day, great music, and a few surprises. Most amazing, I did it all on a limited budget, spending less than what I’d shell out…
Digging for dirty needles in TCEQ’s Kelly AFB haystack
Greg M. Schwartz gschwartz@sacurrent.com Digging through TCEQ’s voluminous files relating to the former Kelly AFB and the plethora of contamination issues that plagues San Antonio’s “Toxic Triangle” is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. The agency has literally thousands of pages of documentation on Kelly relating to testing, remediation, interagency memos with…
SXSW 09: The Mighty Stef, Starfucker, Those Darlins
By Abbie Kopf Arriving at SXSW was a lot like my first day in high school. I was walking around with a map in my hand, hoping that the cool kids wouldn’t notice that I didn’t know what the hell I was doing or where I was supposed to go. It was in this uncomfortable…
Absence of M.Alice
By Gilbert Garcia Considering that it was billed as a Mayoral and District 1 candidate forum, Tuesday night’s North Shearer Hills Neighborhood Association gathering featured a rather skimpy collection of office seekers. Only Diane Cibrian and Sheila McNeil showed up among the mayoral contenders, and even Cibrian had to leave after a few minutes because…
â??Permanent drought’ researcher suggests water managers shouldn’t wait for perfect science
Drought by numbers… Good farmland opening up toward the pole. Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Richard Seager is sort of the Don of horrendous drought predictions for the Western United States. A Doherty Senior Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades NY, Seager’s research has been cited in numerous peer-reviewed scientific papers…
Candidate questionnaire: Dan Martinez, District 2
Dan Martinez, Candidate for City Council District 2 Beginning March 4, the Current emailed the following questionnaire to all candidates who filed by March 9 for the May 2009 municipal elections. As responses begin to roll in, we will post them in their unedited entirety here on QueBlog. Excerpts will appear in the April 1…
SXSW 2009: 4AD Showcase with Department of Eagles, St. Vincent, Camera Obscura
It was a long, slow crawl up I-35 to Austin last night, but there was only one SXSW show, or showcase, on my to-do list: The 4AD Showcase at Central Presbyterian Church. It was a heavy line-up: M. Ward, Department of Eagles, St. Vincent, and Camera Obscura. While Matt Ward and Annie Clark play Texas…
Candidate questionnaire: Elena Guajardo, District 7
Elena Guajardo, Candidate, City Council District 7 Beginning March 4, the Current emailed the following questionnaire to all candidates who filed by March 9 for the May 2009 municipal elections. As responses begin to roll in, we will post them in their unedited entirety here on QueBlog. Excerpts will appear in the April 1 print…
SXSW: Kill Rock Stars/’Bitch’ Magazine party
The Shaky Hands As far as I’m concerned, these guys made two mistakes right off: They took the stage a little after noon when everyone was still nursing hang-overs, and they played with the sun reflecting off thee cliffs in the background, which makes for some truly shitty pictures (see above). Otherwise a solid performance.…
COPS/Metro Alliance candidate forum draws good crowd, provided candidates little time to speak
Greg M. Schwartz gschwartz@sacurrent.com Last night’s forum for District 5 and District 1 city council candidates at the St. Philip of Jesus Catholic Church’s parish hall was billed as an “accountability session,” with candidates being asked to say whether or not they would support 12 particular issues as voiced by members of COPS (Communities Organized…
SXSW for free: A poor fan’s guide to doing the SXSW Music Conference
The chances for entrance into audiophile heaven grew smaller and smaller as the days inched closer to the musical Mecca known as the South By Southwest Music Conference. Although a veteran of several music festivals, I’m relatively new to these Texas parts and my contact list had been growing at the pace of a Portishead…
The Boys Next Door: An interview with the men of Miss March
By Kiko Martinez paperboy5456@yahoo.com Filmmakers Zach Cregger and Trevor Moore were in San Antonio last week to promote their new film Miss March, which opened in theaters Friday (See Jeremy Martin’s review in this week’s issue). The duo sat down with the Current to talk about working with Playboy icon Hugh Hefner and told us…
Wavvves
Wavvves Composer: Wavves Conductor: Wavves Label: Fat Possum Release Date: 2009-03-18 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording The nearly self-titled sophomore album from San Diego blogger darling Nathan Williams and co. works better as a concept than an actual collection of tracks. Williams’ concept: gorgeous pop hooks buried in cerebellum-scraping distortion collages. If that concept sounds familiar,…
Beyond the Walls
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2009-03-18 This Sunday, on the heels of the sixth anniversary of the Iraq War, filmmaker Rick Rowley comes to town, bringing three short films in a series called Beyond the Walls: The Battle for Iraq’s Future. Rowley just might be the most successful and prolific activist/gonzo filmmaker working today, having documented…
Tight Knit
Tight Knit Composer: Vetiver Conductor: Vetiver Label: Sub Pop Release Date: 2009-03-18 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording The scent of patchouli is all over Vetiver’s fourth album. So is the smell of fresh country air, weed, and Cheetos. The San Francisco group, anchored by Andy Cabic, is so laid back, it makes Fleet Foxes sound like…
Absorbed
Release Date: 2009-03-18 Missi Smith’s show at ONE9ZERO6 is preoccupied with and animated by a curiously curatorial consciousness; the sculptor-assembler-printmaker has created complex, precariously balanced readymades evocative of Duchamp, and intriguing 2-D images that seem half-decayed out of thought-provoking materials I hesitate to call “discarded” — after all, as Missi Smith says in her artist…
La Luz del Ritmo
La Luz del Ritmo Composer: Los Fabulosos Cadillacs Conductor: Los Fabulosos Cadillacs Label: Nacional Records Release Date: 2009-03-18 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording The Latin rock icons are back from a seven-year hiatus with their first studio album in almost 10 years, and it’s a winner. Fusing rock, reggae, ska, punk, and Latin rhythms, Ritmo offers…
More Mr. Nice Guy
I Love You, Man Director: John Hamburg Screenwriter: John Hamburg Cast: Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Sarah Burns, Jaime Pressly Release Date: 2009-03-18 Rated: R Genre: Film What’s the point of a nice Paul Rudd? He started his career as a puppy-dog doormat in romantic comedies such as 1995’s Clueless and 1998’s The Object…
‘House’ of pain
The Last House on the Left Director: Dennis Iliadis Screenwriter: Dennis Iliadis Cast: Carl Ellsworth, Adam Alleca, Wes Craven; feat. Garret Dillahunt, Martha MacIsaac, Riki Lindhome, Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter, Sara Paxton Release Date: 2009-03-18 Rated: R Genre: Film Wes Craven’s first film, the original Last House on the Left (itself a sort-of remake of…
Sorcerer’s apprentice
The Great Buck Howard Director: Sean McGinly Screenwriter: Sean McGinly Cast: Colin Hanks, Tom Hanks, John Malkovich, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn Release Date: 2009-03-18 Rated: PG Genre: Film Hey, Tom: I’d be disturbed to find out you’re reading this review right now, because the only way I can think for you to’ve found it is…
Miss March
Critic’s Pick Miss March Director: Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore Screenwriter: Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore Cast: Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore, Raquel Alessi, Molly Stanton, Craig Robinson, Holly Hindman Release Date: 2009-03-18 Rated: R Genre: Film Don’t worry, the trailers for Miss March (even the fuck-filled red-band version) make the movie look a lot worse than it…
One if by land, two by sea
Roaring Fork, good. Wildfish, better
Grupo Fantasma w. Joe Posada
Release Date: 2009-03-18 Grupo Fantasma’s funk/Latin/orchestral sound keeps getting bigger and better. A few years back, Grupo caught the eye and ear of the Howard Hughes of the musical world, the man once known as a symbol, the freak of all freaks, Prince. Impressed with these Austinites, Prince set them up with a two-month gig…
Tricky w/Dredg and More
Release Date: 2009-03-18 ’90s sensation Tricky comes to town, bringing a mixed bag of sounds and influences. Is he American or British? Hip-hop or dance? Rock or ambient? Tricky synthesizes all these elements into a darkly layered sound that mesmerizes even when it suffocates. Though we normally consider this headphone music, his live show should…
South Texas Motorcycle Show
Release Date: 2009-03-18 Three days of motorcycle madness for everyone from the leathery Harley Davidson crowd to the effete mod Scooter scene. Friday night begins the show with women’s night, Saturday features a freestyle stunt competition, and Sunday offers a swap meet. Live music throughout. $15, opens 3pm Friday and 10am Saturday and Sunday, Freeman…
The Mikado
Release Date: 2009-03-18 San Antonio Opera continues its season with The Mikado, the comic opera by Gilbert & Sullivan. Originally a satire of colonial British attitudes, it will be interesting to see which direction San Antonio Opera follows with this latest interpretation. Cinephiles will recall the normally dour British filmmaker Mike Leigh dramatized the making…
A Fest of Tails
Release Date: 2009-03-18 To celebrate the arrival of spring, the San Antonio Friends of the Park present their third annual Kite Festival and Dog Fair. There will be live music, arts and crafts, and all types of kites and dogs on display, but no dogs on kites, please. An event for the family as well…
Illuminations
… On food and drink at Brasserie Pavil
Slab Cinema
Release Date: 2009-03-18 Safely ensconced at its original home, Slab presents the family-friendly Bob Hope/Bing Crosby road movie Road to Bali. Hope and Crosby helped pioneer the buddy movie genre, paving the way for the Chan/Tucker and Reynolds/DeLuise teams that came later. Expect whimsical songs and occasional ethnic drag by the leads. Free, sundown, across…
Early bird gets the cue
Release Date: 2009-03-18 The Early Bird Special is green. Not with envy, though. It’s got Incredible Hulk green, Green Goblin green, and darker stuff, too. We drove through the narrow alleys next to and behind the bar (parking might be a serious issue at times), coming up right in front for a quick get-away, if…
Kinky Friedman
Release Date: 2009-03-18 Texas’ most famous Jewish mystery writer/gubernatorial candidate/frequent guest of Bill O’Reilly/outlaw country singer brings his wit and guitar to town. Kinky throws his black hat into a wide variety of endeavors, but his force of personality makes it all his own. Songs and stories. $25, 9pm, Casbeers at the Church, 1150 S.…
It’s Blitz!
It’s Blitz Composer: Yeah Yeah Yeahs Conductor: Yeah Yeah Yeahs Label: Interscope Release Date: 2009-03-18 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording It was love at first scream for me and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Fever to Tell punched a hole in my chest and stole my heart, but its follow-up, Show Your Bones, gave me the cold…
Walter Trout w/The Benny Harp Band & Mike Zito
Release Date: 2009-03-18 Blues guitarist Walter Trout is the real deal — he was inspired to begin a music career on his 10th birthday after meeting Duke Ellington, and went on to play with John Lee Hooker, Canned Heat, and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. When Trout developed a drinking problem that threatened his career, it was…
Pygmæus
“Everyone loves touching themselves,” says Pygmæus guitarist Cameron Taylor between songs. The truth in this bit of banter is hard to dispute, but its relation to the song he’s introducing, “Close Encounters of the Ninth Kind,” is extremely questionable. Taylor claims “Close Encounters” chronicles an invasion by some incredibly pissed-off Plutonians resentful that our scientists…
“San Antonio” — Pavel Demon & the Revenant
This ode to “wild nights” in the Alamo City begins appropriately with a busted accordion wheeze before the guitars kick in. The diet-punk riffage and nervous drumming backs Pavel Demon’s seemingly heartfelt hollering, which offers a generous but incomplete picture of SA. The pretty lights along the river get a mention, but not the floating…
The magic homo
In last year’s indie comedy Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, the title characters (played by Michael Cera and Kat Dennings) have just met at a concert. He’s trying to get over his ex-girlfriend, and she wants to stick it to her stuck-up friend, who happens to be the ex. She makes out with him in…
S’Nuff film
Happy anniversary, everyone! Thursday, March 19, marks the six years to the day that we as a country resumed our violent love affair with the nation of Iraq. Sure, she’s aged pretty poorly in the past few years (we’re not suggesting she’s let herself go, but Iraq was significantly less exploded when we first met),…
LACMA revolución takes the Alameda
Two group exhibitions opened at the Alameda this past Friday, and the opening-night party, in addition to being a joyous, free, and open-to-the-public hoot and a half, elicited a plea from all comers: Man, San Antonio needs more of this. Our city hungers for more art-centered celebrations (witness Saturday night’s Luminaria, whose happy and curious…
ARTIFACTS
America’s de facto televisual historian laureate — chronicler of Jazz, baseball, World War II, Mark Twain, the Brooklyn Bridge, and (perhaps most famously) the Civil War — will be in San Anto in the flesh on the 24th, previewing and discussing (with producer Dayton Duncan), his new PBS project, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.…
The engines of creation
If painting is once again the medium of a new century (and a digital one at that), it’s because so many dedicated artists of late have reminded us that in the right hands, it can be put to any purpose for which it’s needed or wanted: a plastic art meets the plastic soul. As if…
‘MAD’ men
Please forgive the headline’s allusion to the year’s hippest TV show, but our subjects this month demand it, springing as they do from the pages of America’s seminal satirical series, MAD Magazine. Both books (published by Fantagraphics) capture sides of artists that went unexposed under the auspices of Alfred E. Neuman, which makes them all…
The QueQue
Time is on their side For years now, residents of the Toxic Triangle spawned by the former Kelly Air Force Base operations have worried that the federal agency charged with investigating the neighborhood’s liver, kidney, and leukemia cancer clusters has been willfully shortsighted, seeking answers everywhere (e.g. corn tortillas) but in the most obvious culprit:…
Danger luvs you, fashion
I was re-watching a Buster Keaton montage last weekend on YouTube set to old Radiohead music. The comedian’s flips and falls, though well-choreographed, were this close to deadly in every scene. In my own small way, I could relate. How many times have I put myself in mortal danger with my clothes? Almost every day of my…
The QueQue
Time is on their side For years now, residents of the Toxic Triangle spawned by the former Kelly Air Force Base operations have worried that the federal agency charged with investigating the neighborhood’s liver, kidney, and leukemia cancer clusters has been willfully shortsighted, seeking answers everywhere (e.g. corn tortillas) but in the most obvious culprit:…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Why is it that when I go to the Mexican supermarkets to buy productos femeninas, fully 98 percent of the aisle provided for such things is composed of maxi pads and the limited selection of tampons is in dusty boxes with a sell-by date of 1986? I assume it has something to do…
The QueQue
Time is on their side For years now, residents of the Toxic Triangle spawned by the former Kelly Air Force Base operations have worried that the federal agency charged with investigating the neighborhood’s liver, kidney, and leukemia cancer clusters has been willfully shortsighted, seeking answers everywhere (e.g. corn tortillas) but in the most obvious culprit:…
Dear Uncle Mat
I am 37, gay, single, and really frustrated with the fact that I cannot find a date. All I want is to meet a decent guy within five years of my age who is at least conventionally attractive and not drunk or a pothead. I broke up with my boyfriend more than a year ago.…
Lucha libre en el West Side
With high rates of poverty and unemployment and low rates of voter participation, District 5’s 2009 contest would seem to be a wide-open race. Less than 13 percent of registered voters in the Westside district went to the polls in 2007, when a mere 3,164 votes were cast. Lourdes Galvan finished first with just 1,434…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The 1906 earthquake that hit San Francisco also demolished downtown Santa Rosa, about 50 miles to the north. During the rebuilding process, Frank Doyle, a local businessman who referred to himself as a “champion of the future,” pushed a radical agenda. “When we construct our new downtown thoroughfare,” he said, “let’s…
The lighting thief
In late August 2008, McAllen Arts Council member and Voices of Art publisher David Freeman contacted Blue Star Director and sculptor Bill FitzGibbons to congratulate the artist on his “public art commission in McAllen.” FitzGibbons was perplexed. Unbeknownst to him, an artwork with nearly identical qualities to FitzGibbons’s local “Light Channels” had been installed in…
Amuse-BOUCHE
Just after we went to press last week with a review of Thierry Burkle’s new Grill at Leon Springs, word came that his 23-year-old L’Etoile had abruptly closed shop. But if the news was a shock to us, for Burkle and partner Armand Obadia the end was forseen as early as last year. “We started…
Suggested listening
I first discovered the magical world of punk rock some 13 or so years ago. Back then, it was all I could do to introduce myself to all the exciting new stuff happening, as well as familiarize myself with the classics that everyone needs to hear. As time has progressed, I’ve judged the classics, kept…
THE SOUND & THE FURY
On Saturday, March 7, Education played a festive gig at Limelight with three out-of-town bands. The following night, thieves absconded with a trailer holding most of the psychedelic rockers’ gear. “The trailer was kind of double-parked, next to an island, with the truck parked diagonally. They lifted the thing over the cement island and dragged…
Kicking carbon out of homes, before the sea swallows us whole
We don’t say ‘global warming’ anymore? Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Home Sweet Homes in Alamo City have until 2030 to get the carbon out for good. As the first major accomplishment of Mayor Phil Hardberger’s Mission Verde, new building codes approved last week require new homes to be 15 percent more energy efficient starting in 2010.…
A Cornyation Fundraiser
A Cornyation group fundraiser. King Anchovy this year is Cheryl Sculley. Apparently you have til 4 pm tomorrow (Wednesday) to RSVP.
Ed Saavedra Opening at Fl¡ght TONIGHT!!!!
TONIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT! (That’s Ed on the right) This should be fun, I think. Scroll down for info on tonight’s St. Paddy’s opening/party. “FL!GHT gallery proudly presents Ed Saavedra in “All By Myself.” This one-person exhibition features work produced within the last twelve months at Saavedra’s Lone Star Boulevard studio: paintings in the main gallery,…
San Antonio bands at SXSW-ish (an incomplete list)
We’ll begin our SXSW coverage in earnest beginning tomorrow with blogging and photos galore, but today we’ll begin listing the SA acts playing non-SXSW-sanctioned showcases and day parties in Austin. (All the SA acts with official SXSW showcases are profiled here.) We realize his list is probably incomplete, and we’d love to add any other…
