by Dan Shumate
photo: Jade Tree Records
On Wednesday night (March 12), after seeing a screening of the excellent wartime music documentary Heavy Metal Baghdad and fighting to stay awake for a 1 a.m. Naked Raygun show, I decided to let serendipity take over my rigorously planned schedule. At around midnight, a couple of buddies coaxed me into going to see F*ck*d Up at Trailer Park, a used record store on the easterly outskirts of Austin.
by Dan Shumate
[Ed.: The following is Dan Shumate's Get in the Van-esque tale of the mountain-moving, Red-River-boiling Rhapsody Rocks Austin show, held last night in Austin, Texas. No Age brought the laughs; British Sea Power brought the rock; and Clipse, after an adventure in babysitting a parking space by our courageous author, brought the house down. Behold the making of a Rhapsody-orchestrated housequake.]
I’m not one to brag (it’s the way I was raiiissse!), but the Rhapsody Rocks show Thursday afternoon (March 13) with Clipse, Cut Copy, British Sea Power, No Age, Sons & Daughters and $mall ¢hange was as good as it gets in Austin. Despite going head-to-head with much-hyped showcases featuring Motörhead, Napalm Death and Vampire Weekend, we packed them in at the Mohawk: from British Sea Power’s first grinding infectious riff, all the way into the late afternoon, during Clipse’s necking-snapping, thudding stomp. It was the best party we’ve ever done, and we’re sure the 650 of our closest friends would agree.
Continue reading "Rhapsody Rocks Austin: This Is How We Get Down" »
by Dan Shumate
'Twas an exciting year for alternative, indie and punk. There were many a fine album, most notably from LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, M.I.A. and Spoon. Radiohead's DIY approach to selling music demonstrated how a single band could instill change in an entire industry. Indie rock went top 10. Against Me! and the return of Bad Brains revived punk's feeble pulse. And Daft Punk blurred the lines between performance art, theatre and live concert. And now, for the top 10 highlights of 2007 ...
by Dan Shumate
What a depressing year. The unpopular war in Iraq seems unsalvageable. The U.S. economy is in the crapper. The housing market has fallen into a seemingly bottomless pit. The credit crunch. ... Is this the end of our great empire? Perhaps. But at least there's some comic relief to make your worries subside -- at least for a few moments. Shoo away those feelings of impending doom with our top comedy picks of 2007.
