Music Mondays at the Drafthouse is traveling to weird intergalactic territories with this week’s offering Space is the Place starring jazz great Sun Ra. ...

While not always the case, most documentary filmmakers, as invested as they may become in their subjects, try to maintain a journalistic distance. We can assume that isn’t the case for The Pied Piper of Hutzovina, a film by Pavla Fleishcer about Gogol Bordello lead singer Eugene Hutz. In fact, the impetus for making the film was largely due to the fact that Fleischer fell in love with Hutz, and it charts a 2004 visit to Eastern Europe they made together. Hutz, a New Yorker who can chart his Gypsy lineage to his grandmother, travels across the Ukraine to share his music with family, friends, and strangers, and to rediscover his roots. ...

Since 2001, the Rock 'n' Roll camp for girls based in Portland has instructed young women on the finer points of learning to play instruments and rocking out, while also helping to give their students a positive self-image and can-do attitude. ...

If you were there to see the many downright amazing clips featured in “You’re Looking at Country,” a Music Mondays presentation at the Drafthouse a few weeks ago hosted by Dallas Wayne, among live performances by Faron Young, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn and more was The Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash, pickin’ his big hit “Get Rhythm.” ...

When Thelonious Monk passed away in 1982, his status as an innovator and one of the leading figures in modern jazz music was well established. A pianist who cut his first recording in 1944, Monk went on to work with fantastic musicians over his remarkable career including Sonny Rollins (tenor sax), Art Blakey (drums), Miles Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane (tenor sax) and many others. An unusual and versatile performer, Monk’s personal behavior was often just as spontaneous, and his relationships with others, including his wife and child, were as challenging as some of his best music. ...

This week’s installment of Music Mondays at the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz is all country, all the way. You’re Looking at Country, a film that shares the name of a Loretta Lynn song, is a look back on that golden age of country and western music when George Jones, Johnny Cash, and their ilk ruled the airwaves and parlayed their fame into television spots and even shows. Dolly Parton, one of SXSW’s most anticipated performers, also makes appearances in the film, as does Lynn and many, many more....

While a great deal of lip service is paid to “Keeping Austin Weird,” how did Austin manage to get so weird, anyway, and how far have we strayed from that great flashpoint of weirdness, the sixties? This special installment of Music Mondays at the Alamo Drafthouse will answer all this and more, with a presentation of the film Dirt Road to Psychedelia by director Scott Conn....

On April 4, 1968, America's greatest civil rights leader was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee. The following evening, one man bridged the gap between societal injustice and misery, just by being one of the world's most inspiring performer. ...

Tonight at the Alamo Downtown, $2 Music Monday will feature a documentary by local filmmaker Samuel Wainwright Douglas: Holy Modal Rounders: Bound to Lose. ...

Promotional still from Alamo website Music Mondays: My Name Is Albert AylerMonday, November 19Alamo Drafthouse Downtown (320 E 6th Street)(9:45pm, $2)[info] | [tickets]Though not as well known as Ornette Coleman or John Coltrane, Albert Ayler is seen by many as one of the most important figures of the free jazz movement. Over the course of 16 studio albums and countless live releases, Ayler's passionate, aggressive saxophone playing pushed jazz back toward its improvisational heyday--an idea......

Photo by Ray Soto $2 Music Mondays: Punk’s Not DeadMonday, November 5thAlamo Drafthouse Downtown [map]9:45pm, $2[info] | [tickets]After a painful four month hiatus, the Music Mondays film series has finally returned to the Alamo Drafthouse! Huzzah! The series will no longer be curated/hosted by Kier-La Janisse (who has left Austin to return to the wilds of Canada), but the first batch of programming looks strong, beginning tonight with Susan Dynner's Punk's Not Dead, a documentary......

If you don't already know about Nick Lowe, it's time you found out. The quick and dirty: He's been around since the mid-'60s, playing a mixture of country, rock, blues, and pop. His first band Brinsley Schwarz is constantly noted as a major influence on '70s punk. He wrote "Cruel to Be Kind" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," a song destined to become an Elvis Costello hit in 1979; in......

As everyone knows by now, today is (sniffle) the Alamo Downtown's last day in operation--at its current location, at least. And they're going out with a bang, offering a fabulous feast to accompany Big Night, shaking things up with Earthquake, and freaking you out with Night Warning featuring Susan Tyrrell live. Everything's mad sold out, of course, but there "may" be standby tickets available for Earthquake and Night Warning ($30 for each film, $75 for......

It's been a week of "lasts" at the original Alamo Drafthouse, including the last Terror Thursday, Master Pancake Theater, A/V Geeks and Butt-numb-a-thons ever to happen at the venerable Colorado St. location. And tonight marks another sad Alamo last--one that we're particularly bummed about--the last Music Monday. Though the series is slated to continue at the Alamo's fancy new 6th Street location sometime in the fall, tonight will probably be the last installment programmed by......

It's the second-last Music Monday at the original Alamo Downtown, so if you haven't been in a while (or if, God forbid, you've NEVER been) tonight is the night. Here We Come is a documentary chronicling the rise of Hip Hop and Breakdance culture in communist East Germany during the 1980s--which, we imagine, was an incredibly bizarre time to be involved in any music scene there. Director Nico Raschick describes the film as "a documentary,......

Sure, Harry Nilsson's birthday isn't actually until Friday. And some of you probably don't even know who he is. But neither of those things should stop you from partying at the Alamo tonight in honor of the late great songwriter, Grammy Award winner and all-around brilliant guy. If you're familiar with Nilsson, we obviously don't need to sell you on his wonderfully diverse and inventive pop music. But if you're not sure who he is,......

Tonight, Alamo Music Mondays presents an encore screening of Philippe Puicouyoul's 1980 New Wave love story La Brune Et Moi. The story revolves around a hot young French girl who's desperate for punk-rock superstardom, and a rich businessman who tries his best to buy it for her. But of course, the underdeveloped plot is just an excuse to showcase a long list of French punk bands, including Ici Paris, Artefact, Astroflash, Edith Nylon, The Questions,......

Tonight, Alamo Music Mondays and MVD present a DVD release party for Tim Buckley: My Fleeting House, the first ever collection of rare Buckley performances, appearances and interviews. The film features thirteen full-length performances from the brilliantly unusual singer/songwriter, and it also includes interviews with Larry Beckett (Buckley's longtime co-writer), Lee Underwood (Buckley's guitarist) and Buckley himself. It's not really a full-on documentary about his life, but the performances span his entire (relatively short) career,......

The Alamo has Music Mondays, so it seems only fitting that a bar-slash-music-venue should host a few films. Beauty Bar and I Luv Video are teaming up to bring you Movie Mondays, a celebration of film in a bad-ass bar setting. This month's Movie Monday theme is hip-hop, and tonight the projectors will be rolling Style Wars, a classic eighties celebration of graffiti, breakdancing, and rapping. So slip on your Chucks, grab a can of......

Tonight, Alamo Music Mondays presents the US Premiere of We Were Never Here, a film about the German avant-rock band Mutter. Though the band has been around since the 80s, we have to admit that we don't know much about them—and though the Google-translated version of their Wikipedia page is hilarious, it isn't entirely informative. (Representative sentence: "Then with in the same year the published album main thing music disappointed the most incalculable all Diskurspop......

MONDAY [7] books • Caro Soles and Anthony Bidulka read from their latest works at BookWoman (7:00pm) comedy • Funniest Person in Austin Contest, hosted by 1986 Winner Kerry Awn at Cap City Comedy Club film • "Strangers on a Train" with Farley Granger live at Alamo Downtown film • Music Mondays: "We Were Never Here" at Alamo Downtown food • Central Market Cooking Class: Picnic Food with Amuse Bouche at Central Market Cooking......

Using a complex web of theorems, Swiss mathematicians have recently proven that Morrissey is "98% fucking awesome". And to celebrate this finding, Alamo Music Mondays presents These Things Take Time, a controversial 2002 documentary chronicling the rise and fall of Moz's legendary band The Smiths. Produced by David Nolan (the UK television producer who brought us the recent Music Mondays favorite I Swear I Was There), the film features rare performance and interview footage, as......

MONDAY [30] food • Central Market Cooking School with Chef Aimee Olson: Spectacular Sponge Cakes at Central Market Cooking School, 4001 N Lamar ($45, 6:30-9pm) books • Dirty Found: Live! with Found Magazine Creative Directors Jason Bitner and Arthur Jones at Alamo Downtown (7:00pm) film • "Dirty Found" at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • Music Mondays: "The Smiths: These Things Take Time" at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown music • Music Industry Boot Camp, presented by......

MONDAY [23] books • David Sedaris at The Paramount Theatre books • Bill Bradley presents The New American Story at BookPeople (7:30pm) art • Artistic License: WorkSpace Artist Jedediah Caesar at the Blanton Museum of Art at The Blanton Museum of Art, MLK at Congress (Included with Museum Admission, 6-7pm) comedy • "Funniest Person in Austin" Contest, Hosted By Mario DiGiorgio (Winner 1999)" at Cap City Comedy Club dance • The Whirling Dervishes at......

Tonight, Alamo Music Mondays presents Michael Mabbott's 2005 country rock mockumentary The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico. The films stars Matt Murphy, best known for his Canadian indie-rock bands The Superfriendz and The Flashing Lights. The film features appearances by country music superstars like Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson, as well as Canadian country favorites like Ronnie Hawkins and Blue Rodeo (and CBC TV personality George Stroumboulopoulos). The film had its Austin premiere......

Tonight, Alamo Music Mondays presents Times Square, Allan Moyle's two-against-the-world teen drama set in the grimy, x-rated heart of late 1970s Manhattan. Featuring music by Gary Numan, XTC, Roxy Music, The Ruts, Patti Smith, the Ramones, and the Talking Heads, the film follows two teenage girls who escape from a psychiatric hospital, take up residence in an abandoned warehouse and form an underground punk band called "The Sleez Sisters". With the help of a hip......

MONDAY [9] books • Jillian Robinson presents Change Your Life Through Travel at BookPeople (7:00pm) comedy • 22nd Annual Funniest Person in Austin Contest, hosted by John Ramsey at Cap City Comedy Club dance • Spank Dance's "4Red Lines" at Secret Location, Check Austinist's Clues (5:30pm) film • "Harold and Kumar" with All-You-Can-Eat Mini-Burgers at Alamo Downtown film • Music Mondays: "Times Square" at Alamo Downtown film • Jim Jarmusch Film Series: "Dead Man"......

In the mid 1980s, the US Senate (provoked by a high-powered busybody wives club called the PMRC) held a series of hearings on so-called “porn rock”—music containing lyrics about violence, sex, drugs, and the occult. The hearings were pointless but hilarious, providing a public venue for several old, rich, uptight assholes to make fools of themselves reciting lyrics from songs by prominent 80s rock bands. And though the hearings are probably best remembered for testimonies......

Austin MetBlogs scooped traditional media outlets today by revealing that the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown will soon relocate from its current spot, at 5th and Colorado, to the Ritz, Austin's storied dive bar/movie house/pool hall/music venue that once played host to the likes of Roky Erickson, the Butthole Surfers, and the Flaming Lips. Curiously, the original post on the Alamo's blog has since been unpublished, most likely because an official announcement will be made later......

Tonight, Music Mondays, AICN and the Austin Museum of Digital Art present 8 Bit, a documentary look at the cultural overlap between video games, art and music. Through interviews with digital artists (most notably Cory Arcangel, best known for his artistic Nintendo cartridge modifications) and heaps of live performance footage, the film explores the ever-increasing influence of video games on contemporary culture, from digital art to machinima to game-influenced music. And while this might seem......