Back in February there was a particularly gruesome and heartbreaking murder in a south suburban Chicago Lane Bryant store. Five women in the store were killed execution-style while a sixth victim who was shot in the neck escaped – amazingly – by playing dead. One of the victims, Rhoda McFarland, was the store manager credited with making the 911 call before the shootings took place. Six months later, the gunman has still not been apprehended. Yesterday, it was announced that a group of investigators are in Austin to find and interview numerous friends of McFarland who have since moved to Texas. ...

For years, the Austinist staff has fielded queries from friends and acquaintances about SXSW goings-on. "Can I walk to The Salt Lick?" "Does it really take 90 minutes for a Casino El Camino burger?" But most of all: "What showcase do you recommend to see some good new bands I don't know about?" This year, we've made the answer official. Austinist is presenting an official nighttime showcase featuring six different American acts at Spiro's on Thursday, March 13. We've done a lot of listening to different bands and entire showcases, and believe that this one has great potential to impress you. The roster:...

This Thursday through Sunday, improvised music is going to grab a foothold in both Austin and San Antonio. Featuring thirteen artists from all over the world – from the close confines of Houston and Austin to the far-off reaches of Tokyo and Boston – the No Idea Festival is poised to showcase a diverse array of acts you likely won’t see anywhere else, anytime soon....

Getting married ruined Free Sex in Public for me. Let me explain. Back in the late ‘90’s, I was dating an asshole we’ll call George, since that was his name. George would do things like ask me to come over and help him pack for a trip and he’d leave condoms out on top of his suitcase for me to find. Now why, you might ask—and I most certainly asked —would he need condoms for a trip on which I was not joining him? Well George was one of those guys who liked to give the speech that goes like this, “Babe, we’re above that monogamy crap. We’re beyond it. We’ve evolved.” What he meant by that was that every time he went to Chicago, he would be banging his so-called ex but that if I so much as attempted to have a platonic lunch with a male friend he would threaten to break up with me and/or kill himself. Very evolved, George! Later, after we finally finally FINALLY—oh Thank you Baby Jesus!—really did breakup, two major things happened....

Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco’s two albums are anomalies on the rap racks: winding, wordy projects with few A-list cameos, recognizable producers, or sure-fire singles. That he’s managed to build himself into a successful international brand is not a little bit attributable to a unique set of circumstances. There’s the trap-hop backlash, a dirge in the straight-up New York sound resulting from Atlanta’s ascent, the Kanye Effect, the Jay-Z Effect, that music blogging thing... ...

Didn't Beerland already have Ground Zero Fest like three weeks ago? Didn't half these bands play Emo's Free Week? Well, you can't have too much of a good thing: in what promises to be another all-night blowout, Beerland and Emo's are co-hosting Megon Fest, featuring Austin garage-punk stalwarts Manikin, The Young, The Hex Dispensers, and nihilistic Latin punks Deskonocidos, with out-of-towners headlining each night. ...

The Beauty Bar hosts the fascinating Gil Mantera’s Party Dream this Saturday. Hailing from Ohio originally, the duo consists of Gil Mantera and Ultimate Donny, two brothers who combine thumping dance beats and traditional rock music to create an electric smorgasbord of synth-pop that will keep you on the dance floor all night long. The hodgepodge of beats and sounds is as exhilarating as it is intriguing; always entertaining, sometimes cheesy. The duo’s live show seems to be quite a spectacle and a DVD (Live Video Archive [Vol. 01]) showcasing all the glory is also available. Gil Mantera’s Party Dream self-released two records before 2005’s bloodsongs on Audio Eagle Records. ...

Image from Myspace; Photo by Colin Smith The Ponys + Chin Up Chin UpWednesday November 14The Mohawk (912 Red River)Doors at 9pm, Free![info] [The Ponys MySpace] [Chin Up Chin Up MySpace]Chicago's The Ponys traffic in post-punk and dark overtones, and have been tirelessly touring the club circuit for years. The band have recently opened for both Spoon and Bloc Party, but are now headlining their own fall trek through the South. Their latest work Turn......

In 1997, Carl Newman started a side project called The New Pornographers in Vancouver for fun. The cast of characters included the ridiculous gifts of both Neko Case and Destroyer's Dan Bejar, and an indie-pop collective for the ages was born. Now touring behind their fourth album Challengers, Newman and the other New Pornographers have somehow managed to continue the project in addition to each pursuing their solo aims. The band seems to grow in......

Brief Austin resident and alt-country namesake Richard Buckner has had a career as tumultuous as it has been consistently rewarding. Making his mark with the appropriately-titled debut Bloomed in 1994, Buckner has outlived many of his No Depression-era singer-songwriter contemporaries, whose projects have either splintered, broken up, or just puttered out. After fruitful collaborations with like-minded musicians like Chicago stalwarts David Grubbs and John McEntire and a difficult spate with MCA records (who summarily......

According to Bizjournals, Google is expected to close on a lease at the Scarbrough Building on Sixth and Congress Ave. They'll be taking over the entire second floor of the Chicago-style building, which has the distinction of being Austin's first steel and concrete structure (built just shy of a century ago) and, more interestingly, housing the first dry goods store that tacked on price tags to its wares—before that, stores in Austin worked largely on......

OFFICE is playing tonight at the Mohawk, in support of their most recent full-length, A Night at the Ritz. Born as a conceptual art piece, the five-piece has since become one of the most talked about bands in the Chicago area, playing big sounding indie rock tunes that are particularly "now," but with a touch of vintage, too. If you'd like to check them out, follow the jump to fill out the form and......

A popular dance-workout phenomenon that's been getting asses in shape in New York City and Chicago is now catching on in Austin. It's called the Dance Dance Party Party — think of it as a ladies-only, free-form, DIY Sunday night Rock the Casbah to help you work off that weekend of boozing. In their October/November issue, BUST magazine explains its appeal as bringing back that "giddy, uninhibited spirit of those bygone slumber parties, when you......

When Will Stewart of Austin bought a ticket in the outfield seats for the Chicago White Sox-LA Angels game on Sunday, he had no idea he was about to become a part of history. But he was in the right place at the right time as Jim Thome's game-winning home run bounced off the rows behind Stewart and into his hands. It was Thome's 500th career home run, a mark that only 23 players in......

The complete schedule for the 14th annual Austin Film Festival has been announced, and it looks pretty amazing. 79 feature films and 98 shorts will screen over the course of eight days at various locations in Austin, beginning on October 11th with Brett Morgen’s much hyped docudrama Chicago 10, starring Hank Azaria, Dylan Baker, Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo, Roy Scheider, Liev Schreiber and Jeffrey Wright. Jason Reitman's brilliant new comedy Juno (starring Ellen Page, Michael......

Austin-based singer and guitarist Jon Dee Graham has a gravel-filled voice that calls to mind Tom Waits. Graham's songwriting is full of salt-of-the-earth wisdom, and his style is comfortingly familiar without being overdone or unoriginal. That said, Graham's style is too high-energy to get him lumped into the singer-songwriter category. Jon Dee Graham Austin, TX Latest Release: Full, 2006 Saturday the 15th, 4 p.m., Austin Ventures Stage Ike Reilly Assassination is the project of one......

The Trip Fives are a long-form improv troupe from Kansas City performing tonight as part of the Out of Bounds festival. We caught up with Tim Lemke on Thursday night spoke with him about improv in Kansas City and the upcoming Trip Fives performance. Is this your first Out of Bounds? Tim Lemke: Yes, this is the first time that we’ve submitted anything for this festival and it will be the first time that we’re......

Every fall, Austin looks forward to ACL Fest, and each year, there's always a point where two of your favorite bands are playing on different sides of the park at the exact same time. ACL Band Clash is a weekly series in which Austinist scribes Paige Maguire and Tom Thornton examine the worst ACL scheduling clashes, and try to provide good advice on finding a resolution. Well, good advice might be a stretch, but......

What a difference a year makes—certainly in the case of this fledgling music festival. Last December's inaugural Fun Fun Fun Fest featured over two dozen bands and DJs, and showcased a good variety of indie rock, punk, and electronic music. This year, they've grown even bigger, better, and bolder: the second annual installment will span two days and has been pushed ahead by a month, to November 3rd and 4th. Staying true to their......

We recently had the opportunity to talk to the men behind the upcoming Out of Bounds Fest (and miniature golf tournament!), Jeremy Lamb and Shannon McCormick. The fest, which kicks off next Wednesday and runs for a week, is in its sixth year, and is quickly becoming one of the biggest, must-do comedy events in Austin. Can you give me a little bit of background on the festival and when it started? Jeremy Lamb: Sure.......

Next week, the City of Austin will officially unveil Town Lake Park, the latest chunk of land to join the already expansive family of city parks. Austin Parks and Recreation are responsible for some 206 parks, 26 greenbelts and 12 nature preserves, totaling a whopping 16,682 acres. Add 20 acres to that total on August 29, when the city officially celebrates the opening of Town Lake Park. Where is this all coming from, you ask?......

Last week, Paige sent me a link to this story in Spin magazine, which parses the subject of leaked recordings and their effect on album sales (verdict--noncommittal). The story recounts Jack White's infamous tirade toward a Chicago DJ over the broadcast of White's album prior to the album's release, including his priceless appraisal of early album listens as "messing up the entire music business." It's a good article with lots of fascinating industry details, but......

Austinist guest correspondent Beth Bellanti, Director of Marketing at Tito's Vodka, was at last weekend's Lollapalooza Music Festival in Downtown Chicago. With Austin having such a large presence at this year's event— the lineup included Spoon, Ghostland Observatory, Roky Erickson, and Blue October—we thought it only fitting to invite her to share some photos from the fest. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump.......

Congress votes to expand the White House's wiretapping free-for-all. Exercise, it turns out, doesn't have to completely suck. Man pleads "I was sleepwalking" to rape charges, actually succeeds. Wanna get a kid to eat something? Wrap it in a Big Mac wrapper. Giuliani's own daughter is voting for Obama. Chicago Tribune music critic sums up Lollapalooza 2007. Thinking of getting married? Oprah'll change your mind.......

Chicago has been a hotspot all summer long, hosting the Pitchfork Music Festival and Wicker Park Fest recently, and now Lollapalooza this very weekend. However, Chicago’s own instrumental masterminds, Pelican, take a break from the windy city to play Emo’s Inside on Saturday night. Pelican’s detailed arrangements and song structures feature a shift towards more melodic soundscapes than before on their latest effort, City Of Echoes. According to guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec, "City of Echoes stands......

Chicago based David Vandervelde plays Emo’s this evening in support of his debut full-length The Moonstation House Band, out now on Secretly Canadian. The album highlights Vandervelde’s versatility and multi-instrumental panache. His ability to tint pop songs with an orchestral emphasis, psychedelic strains, and worldly sounds results in an intriguing and enjoyable product. Vandervelde’s vocals bleed sincerity and the live show tonight should combine all his potential into one powerful performance. Blitzen Trapper from......

The Statesman picked up a Chicago Tribune story indicating that 18 out of 20 studies on the topic show significant links between the built environment and obesity. One, by Reid Ewing from the University of Maryland, showed that people living in suburban developments whose only link to other places is busy roads with few sidewalks were 6 pounds heavier on average than those living in "walkable" communities. Another, by Matthew Turner at the University of......

The foundations of Emo's Lounge are going to shake on Thursday when Ume, Chicago's The Narrator and Bring Back the Guns cause a commotion that will be off the Richter scale. Ume's music is like the soundtrack to a beautiful fairytale, or a terribly haunting ghost story. The group is often compared to early Sonic Youth or Blonde Redhead, but the passion and fury of their performances can't be understated. Guitarist/vocalist Lauren Lawson plays like......

The Narrator All That to the Wall (Flameshovel) The Chicago group’s interlocking skeletal structures of stark clean guitars and bouncy, thick elastic rhythms might remind one of Foolish era Superchunk or …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead at their most mild. However, it is the vocal arrangements on the album that are the most interesting. The hooks are like dissonant harmonic cries for help so catchy they urge you to sing......

Yesterday, we told you a little bit about the films of gore wizard Herschell Gordon Lewis. But what we didn't tell you is that since his days in the movie business, Lewis has become one of the world's foremost experts on direct marketing. A prolific author, columnist, and all around brilliant guy, Lewis recently took time out of his busy schedule to chat with us about movies, showmanship, and the current state of advertising. Firstly,......