Results tagged “austin”

Last weekend, more than 1,100 planeswalkers descended on Tacoma for Magic: The Gathering's Grand Prix. After the last lava axe had been wielded, the last craw wurm summoned, and the last holy strength enchantment cast, winners were announced and, lo and behold, the fourth place finisher was Seattle’s own Charles Dupont, 24, a software testing contractor for Microsoft.

AUSTIN CITY SHIMMY: Bob Schneider made our sister site Austinist's highlight reel for SXSW back in March--winner of the SXSW Band of the Year and Best Male Vocalist awards, Schneider is touring for his new album Tarantula. Country, roots-rock, call it what you will, just don't expect a 45-minute set. With 15 or so albums to draw from, Schneider has more songs up his sleeve than a double-sided LP. Plus, he's at the Triple Door, so you can just sit back and make yourself comfortable.

Vivian Girls: We managed to catch VG's third show of SXSW, so they weren't as exhausted as we're sure they will be after playing their eighteenth(!). Lovely girl-guitar pop as always.

Seattlest is in Austinist territory for the next few days, experiencing the glorious clusterfuck known as South by Southwest. After debating coming down for the techier Interactive segment, we narrowed our itinerary to just the music portion of this huge annual media-centric event. There's no Seattle parallel to this, so we'll be sharing our thoughts on the music, the scene, and of course the food we're experiencing. Not to worry, we'll try to keep things on the brief side.

Slaid Cleaves may not be super known out here on the left coast, but among songwriter circles in the south and back east, he's one of the most respected singer-songwriters on the scene. The man just has a way with words, and he'll be gracing us with his presence next Wednesday at the Tractor. If you're a ZooTunes-hanging Mountain listener who appreciates a good solo acoustic songwriter, then the Tractor will be your place next week. Here he is doing "Lydia," from his covers album. We know Cleaves has plenty of great songs of his own, but we love his version of this one (originally by Karen Poston):

Austin-based band Monahans do to music what poetry does to words. Tonight, they'll bring their stylin' tunes to the Tractor. Also on the bill is local songwriter J. Tillman and the very pretty Zera Marvel. We called up Monahans frontman Greg last week during their brief stint with the Cowboy Junkies to find out why he thinks people should come to tonight's show.

If you're familiar with the Asylum Street Spankers, you don't need us to fumble through explaining their sound, their talents, or their puckish charm. If you have no clue who they are or what they do, we urge you to educate yourself. ("Hick Hop" represents just one "genre" they've invented.)

This Seattlest just returned from Austin, Texas, for the annual South by Southwest music festival. While enjoying Austin, we were struck by one thing over and over again--how much Texas really wants to be its own nation. Nothing drove that point home more than comparing Texas' Capitol building to our very own Capitol. The state building in Austin is easily three times the size of Washington States and rivals the size of the Capitol building in D.C.

Normally we don't like to report on the kind of news that brings a sad sigh to your lips and might make you think of calling your mother. But since Seattlest Abbey covered the story of the 10-year old boy who asked friends to bury his head in the sand, and we're filling in on the news beat while she's in Austin, we thought we should at mark the end of the story now that the poor kid has died.

Seattlest is quaking in their boots (bought especially for the occasion) with excitement for this years SXSW in Austin, Tex. We're making our initial sojourn to the festival and are so pleased to see there will be a strong Seattle contingent joining us in Austin this year.

We have gathered some of the top political writers in the country and asked them to discuss the presidential race throughout the year. Today they will discuss the Democratic race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

If you go, go for Suzanne Bouchard's outstanding performance as a feral alcoholic widow. You won't see better acting in Seattle. (Also, thanks to design team Michael Ganio, Frances Kenny, York Kennedy, and Christopher Walker, the sights and sounds of a Texas summer day have never seemed so real to us.)

Chris Walla is best known for being the guitarist in Death Cab for Cutie. Or he's known as a producer for Tegan & Sara and the Decemberists. Or maybe you heard about the little incident he had with Homeland Security confiscating his computer last fall. Now Walla's got another reason for notability: his first solo album, Field Manual, out today on Barsuk Records. Singer-songwriter stuff ain't exactly our bag, but Walla's smooth delivery ensures that even the more overtly political songs go down easy. Above is the video for first single "Sing Again," which was filmed in Portland and features about 9,000 cameos from Walla's friends/other Northwest artists. Betcha can't name 'em all!

In case it doesn't snow too much tonight, or in case you're not too much of a pussy to venture outdoors, head to Queen Anne to network with the organizers of South by Southwest and other like-minded music geek individuals.

Austin-based Anglophile pop quintet Voxtrot just can't help but draw comparisons to bands like Belle & Sebastian, Morrissey, the Wedding Present, and even the Cure. After a couple well-received EPs, the band put out their self-titled debut full-length earlier this year (see above single "Firecracker"), and then proceeded to tour up a storm. Now the boys are back on the West Coast: Voxtrot headlines an extremely twee-centric all-ages show (Division Day, Tullycraft, and Math and Physics Club are also on the bill) at Neumo's next Tuesday night, and Seattlest has one pair of tix to give away. Enter to win by filling out the form below. No worries: Your info is safe with us and will not be shared with advertisers and/or the government, yadda yadda yadda. We'll be drawing one winner Monday at 10am.

And we mean everybody: the New York Times, Pitchfork, the ever-fickle blogosphere. Seems that it's not hard to garner that kind of love and affection when you're a Brit-leaning pop quintet straight outta Austin. With clever arrangements, charming melodies, limber lyrics, and jangly guitars, Voxtrot just can't help but draw comparisons to bands like Belle & Sebastian, Morrissey, the Wedding Present, and even the Cure. After a string of well-received EPs, their self-titled debut full-length came out in May, and since then, they've been touring nonstop (most recently as openers for Arctic Monkeys), while also performing at the Pitchfork festival, the Siren Music Festival in Coney Island, and at CMJ.

If you've been following Seattlest David's football and cooking series, you'd know that there's hardly anything more unlikely than that he'd be talking about cooking to a regional radio audience.

The script to Birdie Blue is the sort that, if there was any justice in this world, would have been unceremoniously trashed by every producer whose desk it crossed. Unfortunately, this being the real world and all, this awful script has been produced off-Broadway and in regional theatres all across the country, despite the fact it's guilty of every terrible conceit and device you could associate with the modern theatre. Nothing would have made us...

Anti- reissued three Neko Case albums today: Furnace Room Lullaby from 2000, Blacklisted from 2002, and last year's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. Stock up if you don't have 'em.

Wait--choke back that vomit. We're making shit up. Speculating doom, if you will. Only half of that title is true.

This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs.

Seattlest feels dirty (not in a good way) after reading the Oxford American's article on indie rock and Seattle.

Seattlest isn’t really a discriminating diner. We don’t have a sophisticated palate. We don’t demand impeccable service. If we get what we order, the food is reasonably priced and tasty, and the wait staff leans friendly, we’re content. We do, however, expect near-perfection from new restaurants. And fair, unbiased criticism from those who evaluate them. After reading a “first look” review of new Ballard eatery Austin Cantina, and subsequently eating there Saturday night with our chicken fried steak-loving friend, we felt duped on both counts.

Our sophomore year boyfriend was mid-grope when we heard our first Spoon song and stopped paying attention to him entirely. While the relationship proved futile (shocking!) our love for "Change My Life" remains as solid as ever. Is it hormone-fueled nostalgia that keeps our Spoon flame burning? Or is it just Britt Daniel?

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt, who has completely covered her house in mosaic tiles.

brought it up.

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on.