Fun Fun Fun Fest Updates

featuring a November 5 (Pre-Fun Fun Fun Fest) event and a KVRX Fun Fun Fun Fest wristband giveaway.

Bleet Up

Be sure to RSVP for this event. It's going to be huge, just look at the million sponsors on the bottom. There is going to be complimentary food from Mama Fu's and complimentary cocktails by Sweet Leaf Tea and Tito's Handmade Vodka. Prototype Vintage and Rene Geneva Designs will be selling clothing in booths. There will be a silent auction for a guitar signed by Debbie Harry (!!) benefiting Girls Camp Rock. & if you get their early, you can enjoy free Lonestar beers, compliments of Bird's Barbershop.

Go there for all the local bands, too, and to get your photo taken by Cory Ryan.

KVRX x Fun Fun Fun Fest Giveaway

Check out this KVRX FFFFest wristband giveaway. KVRX and Fun Fun Fun are teaming up to bring you an opportunity to win a two-day pass to the festival. You have two contest-entry options to choose from:

Option 1: Make an original music video featuring an artist playing at this year’s Fun Fun Fun Festival. Videos can be as crazy or as tame as you want, but you will be judged on creativity! So show us what you got. The KVRX staff will vote on the best video and the winner will receive a Fun Fun Fun Fest two-day pass. You are encouraged to collaborate with others to make the best video possible, but remember only one pass will be awarded.

Option 2: Record yourself telling the world why you love KVRX. Use music, sound effects, your little brother or sister, anything that will give you the edge and shows your admiration! This should be submitted in audio file format, include your first name, where you’re from, and please… stay PG! (This means no curse words.) The best recording will win a two-day pass and get their promo featured on KVRX. That means YOU will be on the air waves for the whole world to hear!

We hope to use these videos and recordings on the Web site or on the air, so keep your eye/ear out for your video/recording!

Entries are due on Wednesday, November 4 at midnight. Winners will be announced on Thursday the 5th. Please e-mail entries to pr@kvrx.org

If you have any questions please contact Christina Brooks at pr@kvrx.org

Convoluted: Thursday events

Sex and Death: Interview with John Gomi

Finally updating.

Hello there, I am presenting to you today a little bit of further insight on the $EX & DEATH Gallery now being featured at the Fifth Gallery (305 E. 5th). Thus, I conducted an interview with gallery owner, DJ, artist extraordinaire John Gomi to figure out the meaning behind the gallery.

Photo by John Gomi

What is the idea behind Sex and Death?
To explore a group of artists' interpretations of $EX (sic), DEATH & the taboo. $ex is spelled with a dollar sign as signifier of the parallels of how money corrupts & rules in the end.

What is the connection between sex and death?
As Fifth Gallery Artist Rick Osborne said, "the two most important aspects of life." Also, both are forms of release either through orgasm, or the freeing of the spirit from physical earthly bonds.

An incomplete list of featured Sex and Death artists:
Jeremy Burke www.jeremyburkeart.com
The Death Head http://www.myspace.com/the_death_head
Failure One http://www.flickr.com/photos/failure1
Alonzo Rey http://www.absolutearts.com/amoralarte/
John Gomi , www.icustomizeeverything.com, www.gomi-austin.com
Kevin Munoz http://forwardcollective.org/
Niz www.myspace.com/nizgraphics
Ezra Haidet
Kevin Nemo
Skye Ashbrook
Marc Zuazua www.mofozvisualz.com

You can still check out all of these artists at the gallery till Nov 13.

What kind of message are you trying to put out there with this gallery?
Gallery by definition is merely a vessel for they artists they represent. What we try & do is create a voice for artists that typically don't have one in the current Austin, Tx version of a gallery system. We represent various forms of contemporary urban art, & what is typically defined as "Outsider Art"

The message is that matters is written directly under our 5th Gallery Logo on our window, "ALL OTHER GALLERIES SUCK!"

For the future, what else is in store for Fifth Gallery?

Marc Zuazua, my gallery partner, & I hope to continue to on the path that we've laid out for ourselves: to expand & and grow the business in a way that maintains it's credibility within the community of artists from which we respectively we're & are apart of, but at the same time building the Fifth into functioning & fruitful business.

City Wide Garage Sale

Today is the City-Wide Garage Sale at the Palmer Events Center.


Austin City-Wide Garage Sale -- TODAY!

Today, October 24th 10am-5pm
Tomorrow, October 25th 11am-5pm

Regular Admission - $5

This Weekend:

Mid-Century Modern Furniture
Cool Furnishings for Mad Men
Booth #'s 1 & 124

Bird Cages - Live Parakeets
Need a Canary for your Coal Mine? Booth # 117

Sandy Schor - Jewelry, Beads, Watches
DIY Beaded Jewelry, Vintage Watches
with a Huge(!) selection - Six Booths # 506

Vintage Fisher Price Toys
1950's - 1970's - re-live your childhood
Booth # 504

I desperately wish I could go. However, I am working all weekend. Go for me and buy me things.

Weekender

tonight:


saturday:

POST NO. 500

And this is all I have to say:

That, and, busy busy busy busy. I will update tomorrow sometime. Thanks everyone for reading. Stay tuned for some exciting things.

Nico Vega tonight @ Emo's

Well, everybody knows who Nico Vega is or is at least more familiar with them than one of their opening acts, Terra Naomi [click on her name to find out more information from her Myspace].

photo by Crackerfarm

(Press Release)
Singer-songwriter Terra Naomi Announces 2009 U.S. Tour Funded by YouTube Fans

Los Angeles (October 6, 2009) – Terra Naomi is proof that artists today can use social media marketing instead of a record label to launch and maintain thriving musical careers. After leaving Island Universal Records in 2008, Terra decided to forge ahead with what launched her career as a musical artist: The desire to connect with her fans in a more personal way via numerous online videos and webcasts, and her interactive website.

Today she’s embarking on a 20 city, fan-funded U.S. solo tour that will kick off on October 15 in San Francisco to promote her upcoming independent EP, “You For Me” (YouTube link to video). The album will be available on iTunes starting in mid-October with a full-length album expected in early 2010. After posting a ‘Tour Support Fund Drive’ video on YouTube, she raised her $5,000.00 goal in two week’s time. With over 15 million views of her homemade videos on YouTube, nearly 35,000 subscribers, and an unparalleled interactive dialogue with fans, Terra is once again at the forefront of the new direct artist-to-fan model and can’t wait to test out the viability of this approach when she hits the road this month.

In 2006, Terra was a pioneer in the digital age of music when she posted a series of videos filmed in her Hollywood apartment. Naming it her “Virtual Summer Tour,” Terra went on to win the first-ever YouTube Award for Best Music Video in 2006 for her song/video “Say It’s Possible,” inspired by Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth. A chance meeting with Mr. Gore led to a solo performance at Wembley Stadium in London as part of the Live Earth concert in July 2007.

Terra released her first full-length studio album (Under The Influence) on Island Universal Records in 2007 and toured the UK with The Fray and Martha Wainwright before returning to Los Angeles in June 2008.



+ Tonight, she will be opening up for Nico Vega at Emo's, along with Endless Hallway and B.B. Mercy. Tickets are $8 and can be purchased online here.

Dead Prez tonight

at Emo's, where you can buy tickets online for $16.

Rap fliers look way different.

I am not really in the know about rap coming into Austin usually. In fact, I don't know if Austin is much of a rap city. Either way, I really like Dead Prez and thought I ought to post something; it has been while. You can look forward to some great events this week and weekend though, including a Cure night at Elysium. I will try to stay on top of all that. It's hard, considering this week is literally booked, and I don't know if I will be able to get online much. Thanks for your patience.

Stay in Austin

This weekend is going to be great with half of Austin in Dallas. I'm excited for it. I am obviously pushing the Holy Ghost! party at Barcelona but there are some other things going on, too... check it out.

Saturday

(Drumroll....)

Good Morning!
I just woke up, and that's not even an over-exaggeration. I just remembered having to do the ticket giveaway draw, but only about 45 minutes too late, so I figure nobody is about to boycott my blog because of this. Anyways, because I webcam-documented this so you guys all know that I am being fair in this draw instead of just picking favorites, considering some friends did apply. So I...

1. woke up
2. wrote the names on paper and put them in a bowler
3. crumpled them all up, as not to read them
4. drew a name




And the winner is....

Congrats Nathan B!
You +1 will be added onto the list at the door. I hope you have fun tonight!

Holy Ghost! Ticket Giveaway

Update: I will be announcing the winner of the giveaway Friday at noon! Keep on entering for a chance to win a pair of tickets and check back soon! I will e-mail the lucky winner at noon.

I am happy to announce that I will be conducting another ticket giveaway, this time for Learning Secrets party featuring Holy Ghost! at Barcelona.


Just a little bit of information about the party: it is 21+. With RSVP (on Learning Secrets RSVP page), the show costs $10, without it is $12. This one, as in Barcelona history, will go on after-hours.

Holy Ghost is a Brooklyn duo known for their hit "Hold On" and remixes of songs by Moby, Cut Copy and MGMT. Go to their RCRD LBL site or their Myspace to give them a listen.




Now, about the giveaway -- I will be giving away a pair of tickets to one lucky winner (21+).
Here are the rules:
1. Leave a comment containing your first name + last initial & e-mail address.
2. That's all.

While you are awaiting this amazing performance, check out this equally amazing music video for "I Will Come Back" featuring the band, members of LCD Soundsystem and The Juan Maclean, and Drop The Lime. It's totally 1980s retro.

P.S. You can also enter to win on Austin Eavesdropper and Do512 to better your chances at a free pair of tickets.

honey liqueur + sweet tea

Liquor Review #1:

So, I got this tremendous package in the mail shortly before my birthday, which was perfect timing. Drool.

Thus, here begins a series of reviews on these special liquors. First up is my favorite, without trying the rest yet -- Barenjager. I had had this twice before by recommendation of friends and enjoyed it thoroughly. This time around, I decided to make a little cocktail when some friends came over before the Annie Mac show at Barcelona. Barenjager + Red Diamond sweet tea, I figured it would be a perfect sweet, alcoholic version of tea and honey (which everybody loves).

+

Don't you just love how there is a man hunting a bear using a beehive to capture it on the bottle?

Since Barenjager is so sweet already, it was honestly hard to gauge how much was really being poured in. You can barely taste the alcohol. It would be an easy drink to have on its own, but that would get some of us a little silly. So, I decided to use wine glasses, my attempt at classiness, and went with about 1/5 Barenjager and 4/5 Sweet Tea. You can probably change the ratio on that one for different effects. It was definitely as delicious as it sounds, tasted just like a very sweet tea with honey, and was perfect for just a little something before going out.

I highly suggest it. I am sure it would equally be good with any kind of juice, namely lemonade, or even in a hot drink, or just alone.

Cheers!

Some stats on Barenjager:
Alcohol by volume: 35%
Meaning: "Bear hunter"
Dates back to 1400s, Barenjager is one of the oldest honey-flavored liqueurs in the world.
Rating out of 10: 9.3

Drink Responsibly.

Neon Indian: Psychic Chasms drops

+

Everybody has been awaiting this day, when Neon Indian's first album would be released (except for those of you who leaked it), and now the day is here. Now that it is, what are you going to do? Go and buy it on iTunes or Amazon!

Congratulations Alan Palomo and company, for being labeled "best new music" by Pitchfork on the day of Psychic Chasms' release! They do a great job reviewing the album in this review, so I really ought to let them do the talking, but I love the terms "dream-beat," "hazy," "sun-baked," and "washed out," all of which I feel like completely encompass Neon Indian's unique sound. I can just imagine cruising around in my 1980s Camaro, with Neon Indian's 8-track stuck in the tape deck, sipping on an soda pop, and heading to a field party. It's just so relaxing and light-hearted, but heavy-hearted at the same time, and perfect for us to listen to on these rainy days and be nostalgic about the summertime.

Photo by Dagny Piasecki

+Track Listing:
1. (AM)
2. Deadbeat Summer

3. Laughing Gas
4. Terminally Chill

5. (If I Knew, I'd Tell You)
6. 6669 (I don't know if you know)
7. Should Have Taken Acid With You
8. Mind Drips
9. Psychic Chasms
10. Local Joke
11. Ephemeral Artery
12. 7000 (Reprise)

If you were in Austin during ACL, I hope you caught Neon Indian at Emo's, because he has just embarked on a nearly three-month tour around the world. If you are reading this blog from afar be sure to catch him at any of these following locations. If you are in Austin, you better be at Fun Fun Fun Fest to catch him on stage.

+Tour Dates:
Oct 13 Crowbar Tampa Bay, Florida
Oct 14 Spannk Gainsville, Florida
Oct 15 Rokbar Miami, Florida
Oct 16 Club Down Under Tallahasee, Florida
Oct 17 TSI Jacksonville, Florida
Oct 18 The Earl Atlanta, Georgia
Oct 19 Rock n’ Roll Hotel Washington D.C
Oct 20 The Barbery Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Oct 24 Roots studio Jelly NYC party! New York, New York
Oct 25 La Paloma Sabanera Hartford, Connecticut
Oct 26 Middlesex lounge Boston, Massachusetts
Oct 27 Lincoln Hall Chicago, Illinois
Oct 28 Magic Stick Detroit, Michigan
Oct 29 The Bishop Bloomington, Indiana
Oct 30 University of Wisconsin (Der Rathskeller) Madison, Wisconsin
Oct 31 Granada Theater Dallas, Texas
*Nov 7 FFF Fest Blue stage Austin, Texas
Nov 8 Bash Riprock’s Lubbock, Texas
Nov 10 Larimer Lounge Denver, Colorado
Nov 11 Kilby Court Salt Lake City, Utah
Nov 12 Neurolux Boise, Idaho
Nov 13 Lemon Beat Guadalajara
Nov 14 Pasaje America Mexico City
Nov 15 Nectar Lounge Seattle, Washington
Nov 16 Shine Vancouver, British Columbia
Nov 17 Mississippi Studios Portland, Oregon
Nov 19 rickshaw shop San Fransisco, California
Nov 20 Echoplex Los Angeles, California
Nov 21 Club congress Tuscon, Arizona
Nov 22 Rhythm Room Phoenix, Arizona
Dec 9 Academy W/White Lies Dublin
Dec 10 Savoy W/White Lies Cork
Dec 11 Primavera Club Madrid
Dec 12 Primavera Club Barcelona
Jan 8 Empire Sydney
Jan 9 Chillwave Festival Melbourne

Thank you all,

Thanks to everybody who showed up at my party last night at the Longbranch Inn. I hope you all had a blast; I definitely did. A special thank you goes out to Ramesh and Renan who DJ'ed all night and played some great music, and to Richard Henry who helped me set this all up, and the Longbranch of course for letting me invade their space for a night. I owe everybody the little photo documentation from the night.

Much love,
TD

celebrating myself

... constantly.

Hello everybody,

I am officially announcing my official birthday party, which will be British and 1960s themed (I am indecisive), at the Longbranch Inn on E. 11th St. I am excited to invite all of you, my readers, to come as well. Feel free to drop by from about 10:30 till 2 and say "hi." I will be the asian girl who's acting like it's still her birthday. My buddies Ramesh (Voxtrot) and Renan (Ringo Deathstarr) will be DJing. It is also the day before Ringo Deathstarr will be leaving for their U.S. tour so feel free to give them high fives. Also, it's my friend Daniel Fox's birthday -- coincidentally on the same date -- so buy him drinks, too. Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Much love - xoxo,
Td

PS - I just realized I didn't put a date on this baby. It's Saturday Oct 10!

Ringo Deathstarr tonight

Photo by Tommy Lucas

Ringo Deathstarr is playing tonight at the new bar, The Ghost Room (304 W. 4th St.), with Portland band Space Waves and Austin duo Psychic Violence. This is the last time Ringo Deathstarr will be playing in Austin before their tour around the U.S. Then after that, I believe they are going to be coming back only to leave us again for Japan and Europe, two places I could only ever dream to visit; I'm jealous. Either way, this seems like it'll be a great crisp-weathered night activity, in your fall wear.

Otherwise, A Bailar Cabron is also going on at Creekside as slated for every other Friday.

Update: The bands playing with Ringo Deathstarr have completely changed. Here is a quote from the Renan McFarland:
"SHOW UPDATE:
there have been some last minute lineup changes due to events related to the moon. PSYCHIC VIOLENCE will not be playing. SPACE WAVES will not be playing.

Instead, Dustin (best fwends) will warm up your ears and bodies with an insane new m...usical project called MAZDA MIATA 2012.

Then, local heroes METAL BUNNIES will lull you into a vulnerable place and hurt you where it counts the most.

Finally RINGO DEATHSTARR will break every known city ordinance before they flee for an epic tour.

Sorry about the changes, hope you guys come out. It's going to be a blast."

To do list:

+ Tonight, Orion will be DJing at the Warehouse District club Malverde (2nd and Guadalupe above the La Condesa).

+ Tomorrow night, the Scion Beat Machine Tour will be coming to Austin, featuring Blu Jemz, Waajeed and Ge-ology.

uLovei video update:

Two new(ish) videos produced by uLovei -- one of a musician from Austin (Neiliyo) and one from Venice, Italy (Bottin). Learn about these talented folks.

Neiliyo Interview from uLOVEi on Vimeo.

Bottin Interview from uLOVEi on Vimeo.

temptation/sensation/elation/fascination

So, about a month and a half or so ago, I stumbled across the opportunity to be an extra in this Nikon Coolpix commercial filmed here in Austin. The commercial was made by produced by Rebel Rebel, an Austin production company, for Nikon. It was a pretty fun experience; I've never really done anything like that before. Lo and behold, I was a featured extra and you can catch glimpses of me in it -- three times, yes I counted.

The commercial is for a new camera, the Coolpix s1000pj, the world's first compact camera with a built-in projector. To learn more information about the product, go here, here or here. I think it's actually a really good idea. First of all, for the novelty of having a tiny photo projector, and second of all for its convenience. I want one. When I got to hold one, the director told me it was one of the only three (the other three were just used in other parts of the commercial) in America at the time. Exciting.

P.S. Does anybody know what song this is? Shazam it for me, iPhoners.

ACL Weekend Breakdown

Austin City Limits weekend is upon us. Thank goodness this year it doesn't fall on the same day as a big ole football game, as it did last year. However, according to the Daily Texan, 65,000 are estimated to be attending the festival this weekend. Austin is going to be nuts this weekend. Below, I have outlined a comprehensive list of everything that is going on this weekend, well not everything but highlights of my favorite events - ones that have my endorsement. Try to RSVP to the RSVP events (more easily accessible in my right-hand calendar column) if they are still open. Hope to bump into you all this weekend.

Thursday:

Friday:

+ !!!, Neon Indian and Harlem at Emo's - $20
+ The Ravonettes and Here We Go Magic at Parish - $20
+ First Friday ACL After-party at Creekside ft. Richard Henry and Orion & special guests

Saturday: *My birthday!

+ Grizzly Bear, Beach House at Emo's -$25
+ Nasa and VEGA at Mohawk - FREE
+ L.A.X., Motel Aviv, The Laughing, Ishi at Beauty Bar
+ Thievery Corporation at Stubb's - $40-42

Sunday:

+ Bon Iver at Paramount Theatre - $31.50
+ Ghostland Observatory at Stubbs - $31-34