At least it has a cool roofUPDATE: The Statesman has just released information from Hector Nieto of the Texas Democratic Party that attendance to the Feb. 21 Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton debate will be by invitation only. Well, while we were all was guessing The LBJ Library, Hogg Auditorium or The Frank Erwin Center, UT has announced that the February 21 Democratic Debate will officially be held at The Recreation Sports Center. Yes, this no name......

Playwright and filmmaker David Mamet will appear at UT's Hogg Auditorium on Monday, February 4th for a discussion of his work with the Austin Chronicle's Robert Faires. The event is the first of several appearances by Mamet at UT in conjunction with the acquisition of his archives by the Harry Ransom Center....

Album Cover, Go With What You Know Zappa Plays ZappaTuesday, November 13Hogg Memorial Auditorium (24th at Whitis)8pm[info] | [tickets]Post by Mark H. Being the spawn of an international superstar can be a tough weight to carry. Some try to sluff off comparisons, others try to appropriate their parents' legacy while striving to maintain their own sense of artistic creativity, and others still go unseen or heard until ending up in rehab. Dweezil Zappa seems to......

Waller Creek Design Workshop. Image from City of Austin News Austin Music Commission's Town Hall Meeting Notes AMD Sued Over Birth Defects Plant a Tree for Freedom Waller Creek Design and Vision Workshop At This Rate, We're Having Our Next Happy Hour in Cancun Pangaea: It's For Real, Y'all UT Biologists Propose Biodiversity Institute Save BookWoman! Austin Music Commission Considering Plan to Stop the Rock They've Got the Lasers... Now All You Need is......

Photos of MIA and Cool Kids from Saturday night's perfomance at Hogg Auditorium. Photos courtesy of Briana Purser. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump.......

Now that Spoon have a Top 10 album on the Billboard charts, if there's a new king of the Austin indie-rock scene, it's Ghostland Observatory. If you've not heard them yet, we'll classify them as a dance and electronic rock duo who utilize synths, drum machines, and guitars to create a fairly unique sonic space for themselves which never fails to get a crowd moving. The duo of Thomas Turner and Aaron Behrens have......

After maintaining a low profile since their "Night At The Opera" at Hogg Auditorium in January and SXSW showcase, hometown dance-noise champs Ghostland Observatory are unleashing a triple kung-fu combo punch on Austin this summer. On Wednesday, they'll play a "secret" show at Emo's as part of the club's anniversary celebrations. Then in mid-July, the band will tape an episode of the PBS series Austin City Limits - call the ACL hotline on 475-9077......

Photos from last week's performance by Andy Palacio at UT's Hogg Auditorium. Photos courtesy of Romain Nayalkar. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump.......

Photo of Okkervil River sound check courtesy Kevin Schneider Peter & The Wolf's Daytrotter Session was recorded here in Austin at Big Orange Studio during SXSW, which Hunter notes was marked by highlights like "Dirty Projectors, this one rad chick, and blacking out onstage at our showcase," and lowlights such as, "This one guy, that lame dude, and blacking out onstage at our showcase.” He recorded a handful of songs, including the previously unreleased......

Okkervil River's long-suffered plan to perform with a string and horns section came to fruition on Saturday night at Hogg Auditorium. The band performed songs from their upcoming album (due sometime this year) as well as familiar favorites such as "A King and a Queen" and "So Come Back, I Am Waiting", and even surprised the audience with a cover of The Fugs' 1966 waltz-like song about hunger pains and knowledge, "I Want to......

We've been looking forward to it, were saddened at its postponement, are now cracking our knuckles until it begins -- tomorrow night's Okkervil River extravaganza at Hogg Auditorium. The evening will showcase the local boys in a glory never before seen. The glory = a full string section, horn section, and backup singers from Brothers and Sisters. "Performing brand-new songs, old favorites, very rare tracks, and probably some stuff we've never done before that......

Tacks, the Boy Disaster's Daytrotter Session features four free songs, one of which is slated to appear on their forthcoming album. "Dying to Know" is one of the band's oldest songs, but one that needed some help before it became clear how to deal with that pesky bridge. Although the charm of the Daytrotter Session songs is their live and impromptu nature (complete with borrowed instruments and auxiliary musicians), we're anxious to hear this......

FRIDAY [13] fashion • RARE Magazine Spring Fling Fashion Show at The Belmont Hi-Lo (Moved due to rain) art/music • Take That!, a show of new images by Lance McMahan, plus music by Amanda Jones, Connie Ball, & Teddy and Marge at The Opera House (7-10pm) art • Hot and Cold: The Best of Canadian Contemporary Art at Art on 5th, 1501 W 5th (10am-6pm) art • Opening Reception for abstract paintings and encaustics......

WEDNESDAY [28] film • Beats Per Minute, the 48 Hour Music Video Competition at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • Premiere screening of Party 101: Consequences at The Paramount Theatre (7pm) film • Mardi Gras: Made in China at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • Weird Wednesday: Massacre of Pleasure at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown music • Grizzly Bear, The Papercuts, Peter & the Wolf at Emo's music • This Life Electric, Goldcure, Starchild at Stubb's music......

Arguably, he was the most important member of one of the greatest rock bands of all time, Fleetwood Mac. As a solo musician, he has garnered consistent critical acclaim and a dedicated following for a remarkable and deceptively complex catalog. What's more, our civilization owes him a great debt for penning the hit "Holiday Road" for National Lampoon's Vacation at a time when our nation desperately needed audio respite from the mainstream pabulum of......

THURSDAY [25] music • Meryll, The Lovely Sparrows at The Parish Room music • Many Birthdays, Skiesfalling, The Ron Titter Band at Emo's music • The Laughing, Bello Ragazzo, Shapes Have Fangs, DJ Brian Tweedy at Stubb's ® music • Cartright, Pataphysics, Cavedweller, Smoke Detector at Beerland music • Ottmar Leibert at The Paramount Theatre music • The Missing Tapes, Student Film, Pompeii, The Onlys at Continental Club music • Lindsey Buckingham at Hogg......

WEDNESDAY [24] books • Dr. Steven Moore presents Alternative Routes to the Sustainable City at BookPeople (7:00pm) books • Neal Shusterman presents Everlost at BookPeople (7:00pm) comedy • Bil Dwyer at Cap City Comedy Club DJ • Cut Club at The Mohawk DJ • Tighten Up at Beauty Bar film • Stroszek at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • Ladies of the 80s Singalong at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • Weird Wednesday: Get Mean at......

TUESDAY [23] film • AFS Essential Series presents Beautiful Boxer at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar ® books • Jean Davison presents Ostrich Wakes at BookPeople (7:00pm) comedy • Bil Dwyer at Cap City Comedy Club film • Estrangement is Death at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • The One-Man He-Man Show at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • "Gilmore Girls" and "Veronica Mars" at Alamo Drafthouse Village food • "Dinner With Friends" Cooking Class with Chef......

Jeff Tweedy is truly a legend in his own time. Occupying the same enviable status as musical luminaries like Thom Yorke and Will Oldham, Tweedy is both prolific and sought after by fans, critics, and fellow musicians alike. It seems the man, with his smoke-addled voice and beat poetry-inspired lyrics, can do no wrong, even as his music has gotten more confounding and restless in recent years. After founding Uncle Tupelo, the seminal alt-country......

FRIDAY [19] film • AFS presents a new 35mm print of The Rules of the Game at Dobie Theatre film • Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival 2007 at Alamo Downtown (7pm, 9:30pm, 11:58pm) Most events are probably back on schedule, but call ahead just to be sure. music • The Weird Weeds, W-S Burn, Brian Sookram, Jonathan Horne at The Peacock ($3, 9pm) art • Two Mongolian Artists From Two Generations: D.......

If you're still hunting for prime seats at either of Jeff Tweedy's performances at Hogg Auditorium, you're in luck: the UT Performing Arts Center has just released a handful of really good seats for both days. We did a quick search online a few minutes ago and came up with a pair of orchestra section spots, two rows from the front stage, for the previously sold out Wednesday show. Not too shabby. Get yourselves over......

Now that we're in mid-January, club bookings for winter and spring shows are beginning to emerge. While much internet browsing has already been done looking for the SXSW 2007 lineup, there are also plenty of great touring shows dropping in outside of those dates (thankfully). New shows from The Roots, Explosions In The Sky, Midlake, and a Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard double bill top the new additions, but there is plenty here for all musical......

Jeff Tweedy is one of the most influential songwriters in America. He has jumped from co-founding Uncle Tupelo with Jay Farrar and helping create the alt.country movement of the 90's to multiple incarnations of Wilco, leaving both some amazing work and a lot of disgruntled collaborators in his wake. In retrospect, Tweedy's decisions seem more than justified by the merit of the music he produces. Each Wilco project seems to build on the one......

Nestled between two other fantastic shows in January—Ghostland Observatory on the 19th, and Lindsey Buckingham on the 25th—UT Performing Arts Center's Hogg Auditorium will play host to Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy on Tuesday, January 23rd. Tickets, $25, will go on sale this Thursday at noon. Check UT PAC's website for more details later this afternoon. [UT Performing Arts Center] Jeff Tweedy Tuesday, January 23rd UT PAC Hogg Auditorium......

Well, it certainly feels like winter. This marks a usually slow time on the roadshow scene, as bands head home for the holidays and clubs close up shop. Not so fast, though: December is still unusually active this year on the Austin music calendar, so have a look below and see which acts you should bundle up and head out to. December: 12/01 FunFunFun: Spoon, Peaches, Prefuse 73 + more (Waterloo Park) 12/01 Dressy......

FRIDAY [1] music festival • The first-ever Fun Fun Fun Fest! With Spoon, Circle Jerks, Prefuse 73, Peaches, Black Angels, Lucero, Riverboat Gamblers, DJ Mel, Whitey, DJ Thomas Turner, Octopus Project, The Oranges Band, Dead Meadow, DJ Ceeplus and the House of Bad Knives, and more at Waterloo Park ($20, 1pm-10pm) afterparty • Fun Fun Fun Fest afterparty with Whitey, Ceeplus and the House of Bad Knives, Prince Klassen, and Ian Orth at Beauty......

Fleetwood Mac guitarist/songwriter Lindsey Buckingham--who might or might not be the object of obsession for a certain Austinist music editor--has just been booked for a concert at UT PAC's Hogg Auditorium in late January. Buckingham released his first solo album in over a decade in October. Featuring cameos by the likes of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Donovan, and Mick Fleetwood, Under the Skin is a glistening pop masterpiece that's enthralled both critics and audiences......

THURSDAY [16] wine • Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! at Various music • Peter and the Wolf, The Interest Kills at The Mohawk music • The Elected (Members of Rilo Kiley), Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos, Whispertown 2000 at Emo's Lounge music • Jack Ingram & Reckless Kelly at Stubb's music • The Pretenders, Operation:Awesome at Austin Music Hall music • White Ghost Shivers, Dewayn Bros at Beerland music • St. Lawrence......