To put it bluntly, some people "get" Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, and some people don't. The duo, who make up the lot of Adult Swim's popular "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!," certainly ain't Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis — but that's the point. For almost two weeks, the absurdist comedy twosome have been touring the country performing bits and pieces from the first season of their show, which was released April 22 on DVD.
Fans of the show can anticipate the live version of "Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job!" to pack the same kind of punch as its TV counterpart, which features disturbingly hilarious sketches (think overweight 30-something men in Speedos, bingeing and purging on white wine and shrimp), original songs ("I Sit Down When I Pee" and "Chop Suey," among other gems), mock commercials and late night public access-like characters. Get it or not, by the end of the night you'll either be debilitated with laughter or completely grossed out.
— Shannon McGarvey (Originally featured on Austin360.com)
Tim & Eric as "The Uncle Muscles Hour"
Hunters, trappers and poachers should stay clear of Emo's tonight — at least if you're looking to hunt, trap or poach anything. Yes, Caribou will be there, but it's the Dundas, Ontario-based electronic musician . The pseudonymous vocalist-producer, whose real name is Daniel Snaith, is neither hoofed nor horned, though his seraphic voice and stage performance make for an equally impressive display.
After embarking on a vision quest of sorts in the Canadian
wilderness, Snaith officially changed the project's name from Manitoba
to Caribou in 2004. Since then, Snaith has released eight albums, some
of which were re-releases of his work as Manitoba, including the 2007
"Andorra." Tonight's performance with the U.K.'s (Expletive) Buttons
marks one of the last stateside stops for Caribou before the artist
jumps the pond for a summer European tour.
— Shannon McGarvey (Originally featured on Austin360.com)
From Jezebel.com
Tell the truth.
I can't make it tonight. I have a date. I'm interested in your
ex-boyfriend. When you cheated on your husband it really disturbed me.
You should maybe look into taking responsibility for your actions. "I
would like to put a hit out on your therapist." I know, it's not easy.
But isn't that kind of sad?
Withhold information.
Gossip is analogous to bacteria; humankind could not survive without
it, but it can be deleterious in an unhealthy context. Get into the
habit of withholding a certain amount of pointless amusing information
just to keep your immune system in shape.
Take nothing personally.
He didn't do it to hurt you, and if he did, that's fucking weird. Humans are self-obsessed, that's the only reason you think
this is about you, when it's really about something that has left
people much smarter than us befuddled for millennia now, so you might
as well focus on what you can control, which leads me to...
Take yourself personally.
Your persistent low self-esteem: how did it get that way? Were you
awkward growing up? Not quick or witty enough? Just ugly? Once you
gained a shred of confidence, did you blow your wad seeking out
companions you knew would make you feel inadequate? Why? Think you're a
narcissist? Or just a weak person? Guess what? We're all different.
We're all completely individual assemblages of genetic traits and
collected experiences. We're all special, which is precisely what makes
us so un-special. If you harbor lingering dissatisfaction with
yourself, figuring out what it is is a pretty good way to start coming
to terms with that.
Eat.
Praying and loving are good skills to have, too, but if you can't nourish yourself without experiencing a complex range of guilts and fears and anxieties, you need help.
Be alone.If you're bored, you may be on some level boring. Of course, we all are. Why do you want to hang out with your boring friends anyway? There are a lot of unboring people who have dedicated their lives to making books and movies and videogames to keep you happy.
Break up with someone before you cheat on them.
Have a sincere intellectual conversation with a fellow female.
Talk about post-structuralism, not in the context of The Hills.
Talk about the war with someone you aren't trying to fuck. It's kind of
thrilling what happens when two people who are biologically predisposed
to listen to one another exchange ideas.
Call your mom.
And if you don't have one, or if you're estranged from her; if it's
complicated or she's in a mental institution or dead in a car accident,
please feel free to call me and remind me what an asshole I am to have
the most awesome mom in the universe that I fucking never remember to call.
Athens, Ga., has long been regarded as one of the underground live-music capitals of the South. Since the late ’70s, the small college town about an hour northeast of Atlanta has consistently churned out such influential acts as R.E.M., the B-52s, Indigo Girls, Widespread Panic, Neutral Milk Hotel, Matthew Sweet and tonight’s headlining act at the Mohawk, Elf Power.
Formed in 1994 and member of the notable Elephant 6 Recording Company (which also includes the Apples in Stereo and Of Montreal), Elf Power is the psych-folk project of vocalist Andrew Rieger and instrumentalist Laura Carter. Together, with a rotating cast of musicians throughout the years, the duo has released two EPs and 10 full-length albums including the most recent, “In A Cave,” which dropped earlier this spring.
— Shannon McGarvey (Originally featured on Austin360.com)
Elf Power
Though the 21st annual Old Settler’s Music Festival kicked off yesterday at the Salt Lick Pavilion and Camp Ben McCulloch, the party continues today and on through Sunday evening with more than 40 live music performances from the best in national roots and Americana artists. Today’s roster of events begins much like that of other festival days: with a morning yoga session at 10 a.m. on the Campground Stage, immediately followed by the first in a series of nonstop, all-day music performances by artists such as Green Mountain Grass, Eliza Gilkyson, Bettye LaVette, Delbert McClinton and others. Tickets are available in several packages including one-day wristbands, but many attendees prefer to partake with multiday wristbands, which involve optional on-site campground (depending on the package chosen) and music access. — Shannon McGarvey (Originally featured on Austin360.com)
Today marks the start of the Austin Green Living and Home Product Expo, a weekend-long expo at the Austin Convention Center that hosts an array of vendors, exhibitors and seminars that make the switch to a green lifestyle all the more easy. Some highlights include green building, organic gardening and alternative fuels exhibitions, organic foods and cooking demonstrations, fair-trade products and an appearance by Kevin O’Connor, host of the PBS program “This Old House.” 2 to 7 p.m. Austin Convention Center, 500 E. Cesar Chavez St. www.showtechnology.com. General admission: $8; children under 16 free; seniors 65 and older, $5 (today only).
— Shannon McGarvey (Originally featured on Austin360.com)
Kevin O'Connor, host of This Old House
Much like its ubiquitous competition-themed hit, Cake has been, well, going “The Distance” since debuting on national radio and television airwaves in 1997.
The Sacramento, Calif.-based five-piece formed earlier in the decade and self-released one LP (“Motorcade of Generosity”) before signing to Capricorn Records and releasing “Fashion Nugget,” which, with the help of vocalist John McCrea’s characteristically deadpan voice, launched the band into stardom. Cake’s follow-up 1998 album “Prolonging the Magic” managed to secure the band’s national presence but by 2004, with the quiet release of “Pressure Chief,” it was clear that the group had lost some steam.
Appearing as part of Southwestern University’s Large Act Concert series at the Corbin J. Robertson Center, Cake performs in support of its recently re-released debut album tonight.
— Shannon McGarvey (Originally featured on Austin360.com)
Cake performs at Southwestern University tonight
*Note: this show is awesome and my friend Loren is the gallery assistant for the exhibit
Enter a world of fanciful imagination where Elizabethan portraiture is
topped with an endearing kitten head and the Edwardian family scene is
superimposed with an image of a pig. Find these playful representations
and other animal likenesses (think unoffending Chihuahua, frog and deer
heads) atop unlikely human and beastie forms in the opening night
reception for Malcolm Bucknall's 'The Other Thing Is.' Bucknall, a
Twickenham, Britain, native, has earned degrees from the University of
Texas and the University of Washington. The exhibit, which is
highlighted by a gallery talk April 19, runs through May 17.
— Shannon McGarvey (Originally featured on Austin360.com)
If '70s and '80s new wave spins you right round like a record (baby),
then you should definitely patronize tonight's "Just Can't Get Enough"
New Wave Sing-Along. Featuring a montage of clips from artists such as
the Talking Heads, the Police and the Cure as well as more
one-hit-wonders than you can shake a synthesizer at, the New Wave
Sing-Along allows you to bellow and sing until all the memories of bad
hair and awkward fashion begin to fade. This new addition to the
Alamo's Sing-Along series kicks off and runs on selected dates through
April 24.
— Shannon McGarvey (Originally featured on Austin360.com)
The Mars Volta, El Paso's neo-psychedelic rock gods, have always maintained a seemingly mystical aura about them, and their newest album, "Bedlam in Goliath" adds to that feeling.
Fronted by
the afro-coiffed Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López, of the
defunct post-hardcore outfit At the Drive-In (which also yielded bands
Sparta and De Facto), the Mars Volta have released four albums since
forming in 2001, most notably 2003's gold-certified "De-Loused In the
Comatorium" and their recent release. The conception and later
recording of "Bedlam" was conceived after Bixler-Zavala purchased a
primitive type of seance board while on tour in Jerusalem. As a
post-performance practice, the band began consulting the board with
questions and even christened it "The Soothsayer." The board, which
called itself "Goliath," readily communicated with members and was
eventually blamed for inciting a series of "supernatural" mishaps
within the band that included financial trouble, emergency surgery,
recording difficulty (the band's first recording engineer suffered a
nervous breakdown and, supposedly, entire recordings from the album
would spontaneously erase), major property damage and various other
minor problems. On the verge of scrapping the entire album, the band
attempted to break the "curse" by burying the board in an undisclosed
location and continued to work on what was left of "Bedlam." It's a
good thing that they did, as "Bedlam" entered U.S. charts at No. 3 and
is being hailed by publications such as The New York Times and The New
Yorker as "psychedelic euphoria" and "the most musically adventurous
act currently signed to a major label."
— Shannon McGarvey (Originally featured on Austin360.com)
The Mars Volta, "Bedlam in Goliath"
