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THIS JUST IN:
Ocote Soul Sounds is led by Martin Perna, recent emigré from Brooklyn New York best known for his work as founder of Antibalas, and sideman with TV on the Radio. He will be joined by special guests from Havana Cuba including the critically acclaimed female hip hop trio Krudas Cubensi in one of their first US performances. DJ Hobo D spins the funk hits of now and yesterday.

From ESL Music:
“El Niño y el Sol” is a collaboration between Martin Perna (Ocote Soul Sounds) and Adrian Quesada. They are founding members of two of the world’s most successful and progressive afro/latin/funk big bands, Antibalas and Grupo Fantasma, respectively. Antibalas (Brooklyn, NY) has been credited with reviving the afrobeat sound popularized by Fela Kuti while Grupo Fantasma (Austin, TX) has been called “the adventurous musical offspring of Los Lobos and Mano Negra.” Being longtime fans of each others bands, Martin and Adrian gathered one afternoon in 2003 in NYC for a brief recording session. The two remained in touch, trading music and ideas via phone and email for the next year until winter of 2004, when a road trip resulted in Martin being stranded in Austin, TX for two weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

Backstroke anyone?

I have been many places this past week at the Alamo Drafthouse; spent some dusty time with paranoia in Freidkin’s BUG, escaped through a lush jungle in Gibson’s Apocalypto, dodged a HATCHET in those southern swamps, chilled and had many laughs with Vampires in Frostbite, Cringed at chainsaws in supposedly my backyard and dabbled in a bit of Japanese animation.

And the madness continues with another secret screening tonight and maybe a giant monster in Japan Movie.

Meanwhile our new print Issue #61 is taking shape. This issue once again will get some attention.
Wendy has been fighting the good fight all week. I have faith that good things will happen, they already have. If you don’t believe me, take a look at our archives.

Our ad deadline has been pushed to October 4th (next Wednesday) so we can get everything together for Issue #61. You need to be in this issue.
Our office exterior is really shaping up. I’ll post some pics tomorrow………..

The weather has been above average. Sweet sunshine and breezy cool days that we all dream of in Austin while we are under the balmy weight of August.
God am I writing about the weather already?
It’s not that bad.

It’s not like what you say at a party, when there is nothing to talk about ” God, don’t you just love this weather?” or “I can’t believe this day we are having.”
I did that last night, twice, at two seperate places. I know that only one of those statements was a deep belly cry to escape the superficiality and awkwardness of forced chit chat. The other times I spoke those words, just as above were genuine. It is not so nice here during the summer. So, on nice days, you can expect to hear that statement many times.
Today, after a few errands I ventured back to the Alamo fo the continuing saga of Fantastic Fest.
First up was Hatchet. I liked it in an 80s slasher kind of way. The director was there and it was neat to hear how he assembled the cast of slasher icon personnas for cameos. Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Toy Todd etc = Freddy, Jason, CandyMan etc.
Next up was Bug. A horror picture from the hands of William Freidkin. The name might ring a few bells. You know the guy who made the French Connection and The Exorcist.
This film was a trip. It was a schizo fest to say it shortly. Very well acted and scripted from a long running play.

Seeyou tomorrow…………..

WOW AND IT IS ONLY NIGHT 3 OF THIS FANTASTIC FEST. This movie was amazing and it is nowhere near done yet.

Morning after….. Man what a cool experience last evening. I learned some things that always troubled me. I never quite got how the Mayan people were taken over so easily. The Mayans ruled a fear based society. They had this internal trouble going on and that is why Cortez was able to move in and enslave them.
Mel told us last night that he was focusing on this internal breaking apart of the Mayans even before the outsiders came onto the scene.
The cinematography was really beautiful. The story was interesting and had this vaccum effect, that just sucked you in. This is and will be a best picture contender….

Today, Saturday, I went to the Alamo earlier in the day than normal to catch the Swedish made vampire flick called Frostbite.
It was very well done. It was subtitled in english. That did not bother me because I was wrapped up in the story. I must say that I am into vampire stories. The concept of such monsters has always intrigued me. Being invulnerable but also being cursed to exist. There have been far too few decent Vampire Movies. I am not saying that this one was great, but it was decent.

Wendy and I went to Lovejoy’s this afternoon to help with the registration drive. It was slow, to say the least.
Back over to the Alamo soon to try and get in to Harry’s big secret surprise. Will it be Grindhouse (can’t be this one, they are still filming) or 300 or Black Christmas?

I’ll let ye know what happens.

Fantastic Fest started with a bang!
Well, TCM The Begining was not really for me. I just am not really into that type of film. Gore AND SUFFERING just turns me off. Don’t you think we get enough of it (the suffering part) ? And I like to see the good guys win. Or they can lose if I like the bad guys. Well, that just was not in the cards.
I do recognize that the film was well done and seeing it with the folks who made it happen was cool. The things we get to do in this town are very cool. At a point in the film, I looked over at the table next to me and there was a chainsaw on it. No doubt at the seat in front of it was Harry Knowles.
I did like the the scene with R.Lee Emery and the draft dodger was over the top. That type of humiliation was a horror movie, itself. For a conselation prize the draft dodger got split by a chainsaw later in the film.
We found the after-party and made it in just as the cops shut down the music and
chainsaw art creation. Here is a picture of the sculpture and the buffet table. Pretty twisted………….

Back tonight for round #2

Thank for all the love and good words about our new website. It will grow to be an important part of the Austin Daze. Just you watch…
We are working on getting the blog system under control. Hope you found me. This baby is all interactive so you can comment on anything. Do not be afraid to comment. Do not worry about plugging in your email.As we do not get it. It just keeps out spammers.

Tonight kicks off Fantastic Fest at Alamo Drafthouse. I’ll be there. I have this strange atraction to horror movies. I look em up, watch the trailers and even sometimes go see them. Most times my imagination takes these stories to a scarier level than the films. Sometimes the films just grab me and twist me all up. They freak me. That’s what there supposed to do I guess. I grew up with the eighties slasher films. Those films were not really scary to me cause the protagonist always survives and the settings were pretty foreign to my situation. On the flip side, the killer was sometimes who I would root for cause the characters were lame. Until I started to dig girls and go camping. Then it came home.

Tonight is the premiere of TCM The Beginning. I have a feeling this one is gonna be hardcore. I let you know tomorrow.

The reggae dubby goodness of Grimy styles in the friendly confines of Ruta Maya! with Mcpullish Soundsystem opening.. come out and suuport live music in the ATX!

POST ACL… MAN I KNOW I AM GETTING OLD. After each full day at the fest, I came home and crashed till the alarm sounded and got us moving again.

It was a good time.

So many people. And I knew about eight of them. Every year this Festival makes me feel so small.

So yesterday was a rest day and today we are back on the horse.

Rare is the discovery of a truly authentic French restaurant between these shores. I’ve tried a few and most have been Americanized. Unfortunately, for those seeking authenticity, this is far from acceptable. But I’d been hearing rumblings about this French restaurant here in Austin. Folks were swearing that this place, Chez Nous, was a righteous, get down joint. The real deal neal! So in keeping with my being your global gastronomic tour guide, dear reader, I continue to find restaurants here in town whose food is authentic, foods that inspired me during my global trek.
Chez Nous, huh? Well, I’ll see about that! So, one night last week I set out to see just what all this fuss was about. So I headed over to…. Read the rest of this entry »

Give Me That Old Time Religion-

To have an icon of serious Austin history and lore right under my nose and not knowing about it made me feel a bit like a doofus. About midway through my interview with Ruby’s co-owner, Pat Mares, that devastating realization came home to roost. Big time.
Austin continues to be the proverbial onion. Even though I already knew much about the town after religiously visiting for many a year, since moving here I keep peeling back layer after layer of just incredible, mind-blowing stuff this fantastic city has to offer. And Ruby’s B.B.Q. certainly qualifies. Consider me here to sing their praises! Albeit belatedly…
I know when it comes to barbeque a thousand different people will give you a thousand different takes on what they think is the best. I know I certainly have my favorites. Read the rest of this entry »

July 22nd 2006 marked the 3rd annual Battle of the GoGirls at Trophy’s Bar & Grill in Austin. The Battle of the GoGirls is a battle of the bands contest offering cash, prizes, and glory to female and female-fronted solo acts and bands. The 2006 finalists hailed from Austin, Portland, New York City, Los Angeles, and even Cincinnati, the hometown of Pike, this year’s big winners.GoGirls Music is a dynamic organization that seeks to promote and empower women in music, focusing specifically on independent musicians. Founded in 1996 by Madalyn Sklar of Houston, GoGirls has grown into a nationwide network of female musicians that hosts annual events such as the GoGirls Music Festival, which takes place in a number of cities across the country. Austin, musical capitol that it is, plays host to two of the organization’s biggest annual events, the Invasion of the GoGirls at SXSW and the Battle of the GoGirls, as well as being one of the yearly anchors of the GoGirls Music Fest. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:a=72157594267830938,id=235384977,j=r,s=s,l=p]AUSTIN DAZE: How did this film come about and why now?

KEVIN SMITH: It came about because I really wanted to tell the story about what it was like to be in my 30s. I felt like “Clerks” was about what it was like to be in my 20s so why not just use Dante and Randall again as the way into that story as my stand-ins — my proxies? Because essentially, every flick I write is more or less about me, right? So I need somebody to kind of stand in for me because I’m not that visually interesting to look at. In fact, I’m a bit grotesque. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:a=72157594267830938,id=235384646,j=r,s=s,l=p]AUSTIN DAZE: How did you get involved with music and why did you start?

GARY CLARK JR.: Basically as a youngster my parents had a ton of records and would play music all the time so I just came up with the Motown stuff, the Marvin Gaye, the Jackson Five. I think actually, deep down I wanted to be Tito Jackson. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:a=72157594267830938,id=235385144,j=r,s=s,l=p]We met with 3 of these guys, (1 gal and 2 guys) at the Longbranch before a show. We really dig this band.

AUSTIN DAZE: What is the band name all about?

WHITE GHOST SHIVERS: New Orleans Owls from New Orleans. They were our favorite band from that era and they had this one song, “The White Ghost Shivers”. It was really big song for us. We needed a name for a show we had to do and it just popped out - White Ghost Shivers. It stuck and we liked it. We had some horrible other names - they are pretty funny actually. We tried to go jokey but this was so much better. This one just fit perfectly. It had the ghost in it and everything so we went with it. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:a=72157594267830938,id=235384551,j=r,s=s,l=p]AUSTIN DAZE: How did the hurricane affect you guys?

JEFF RAINES: We all left for months. You know, it was really kind of interesting: Galactic was actually in Seattle playing a festival on the Sunday night that it hit. A couple of guys stayed there. I flew to Shreveport and met my family. We thought we would be away from town three days, tops.

The day after the storm I was messing around, getting ready to go home and someone was like, “Hey man, come here”. There’s like a blown levee — I was just in shock. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:a=72157594267830938,id=235385271,j=r,s=s,l=p]AUSTIN DAZE: How has the Reggae scene changed since you started?

YELLOWMAN: It changed a lot. It changed a lot because most of the Reggae music right now is a different kind of music - not the roots, hard core drum, real music. You understand? What we are trying to do right now, we try to do rhoomba (?), the Reggae in the dance halls. Reggae strayed away from the dance halls because of the new younger artists. But now we are trying to bring it back. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:a=72157594267830938,id=235385070,j=r,s=s,l=p]AUSTIN DAZE: How did Austin City Limits come to be?

TERRY LICKONA: Well it started back in 1974, and I can’t take the credit for creating the show — it was not my original idea. It was the idea of a fellow by the name of Bill Arhos. He was the program director at KLRU at the time. Back in the mid - 70s, you know the Austin music scene was just beginning to take off and there were all kinds of people coming to town. Also at that time, Willie Nelson moved to Austin from Nashville. He was from Texas originally and decided he had enough of Nashville and really wanted to go back home. He chose Austin to be his new home. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:a=72157594267830938,id=235384761,j=r,s=s,l=p]AUSTIN DAZE: What is your name all about?

GRIMY STYLES: A tough first question. Grimy Styles began from the idea of a dirty melting pot of sound. It was not always pleasant and it was not always thought out or planned. It was a platform for us to take different genres of music and put them together and make this melting pot. And using the name Grimy gave us a lot of room to create a style.
At the same time in the beginning, as the name implies, it did sound grimy. The sound was definitely dirty. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:a=72157594267830938,id=237019851,j=r,s=s,l=p]The reason for the Blues In Austin and really for the town as being a destination for music has passed. And yes it is a sad day for our city. We uncovered an old interview we did with Cliff a few years ago. Here it is in its entirity: Read the rest of this entry »