Category: Music

Punk Rock Holiday Markets, Yule Bazaars and Cocktails

As the holidays pick up, more fun events are added to the local calendar. It’s hard to keep up! Subscribe to stay tuned in for new happenings and reviews!

 

punk rock xmas

Saturday, Dec. 12 at the Lost Well, 2421 Webberville Road, 2pm til 8pm.  Hand-rolled Tamales and over a dozen local Punk Rock Artists. Get unique gifts! Jewelry, organic soaps, art – full list of artists and info can be found here.

Or maybe you might be interested in Holistic/Wellness shopping for body products, jewelry, and crystals while sipping specialty cocktails like the Vampyress or Butterfly Nectar and enjoying out of this world Italian food? Sunday Dec. 13, 5pm-11pm at the Vortex on 2307 Manor Road. 

holistic market

 

Maybe you’re not interested in an evening affair – the same Butterfly Bar cocktails will be available next to the Vortex at the following weekend’s Winter Yule Bazaar. This one promises DJs and belly dancers and a morning Yule ritual! Gifts provided by the East Austin Handmade Market. From Noon to 5pm, all weekend, all ages and free.   Dec. 19 and 20th. 

yule bazaar

 

Done with your shopping and still want to get your holiday spirit on? Come out and join the Solstice Lantern Parade!
Monday, December 21st, 2015, 5 pm  ***KID FRIENDLY!***  The site is TBA, and there are instructions on the page to make and bring your own lantern. Music will be provided by the Minor Mishap Marching Band, “Bourbon Street meets Budapest” they describe themselves. Sure to be a magical way to celebrate the shortest day of the year.

lantern

Austin’s Conspirare Symphonic Choir & Symphony perform French program

Come this weekend to listen to the heavenly voices of Austin’s Conspirare Symphonic Choir and Austin’s Symphony put on a French program.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION. Presenting Francis Poulenc’s Gloria and Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé. With soprano Mela Dailey

  • FRI, 11.20.15 (8pm) Dell Hall, Long Center, Austin, TX
  • SAT, 11.21.15 (8pm) Dell Hall, Long Center, Austin, TX

Tickets are available through the Austin Symphony.

Tower Documentary – All Things Must Pass

Opening around the country is a documentary on Tower Records. For those of you that remember the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s, you will recall how Tower Records had hundreds of stores across the nation, in many other countries and was the place to go for videos, new LPs, singles, posters, music magazines and t-shirts.

For teenagers it was one of the few places that would hire you if you were a long-haired hippy, dressed punk, goth, or hip-hop. Tower saw you as a genre expert and if you worked hard, were detail-oriented and knew your stuff you could work up to becoming a music buyer and/or manager.  If you moved around, you could transfer easily to a Tower in your new town or get hired based on your experience.

It was a great gig. Didn’t pay a lot, but you would get promo CDs, tickets to concerts, get to listen to music on your shift and as long as you got your work done you could act as goofy as you wanted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBfnQChA9XM

It was one of my favorite places to work as a late teen and early 20’s – I worked at the stores in Berkeley, Las Vegas and Austin, TX.  I kept trying to get a transfer to the Japan store but managers in Berkeley and Vegas kept sitting on my application.  My life would have been very different. Le sigh.

They are also raising money for Sacramento to have a museum, archive and perhaps even a traveling exhibit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sj1J0cT5pc

It’s playing in Austin at the Regal Arbor (November 6th)
Release dates elsewhere can be found here:

 

 

Broken Spoke documentary – 2 more days on Kickstarter!

The Broken Spoke is one of the few places left where you can sit and enjoy a country fried steak, beer or whiskey, hear live country music and dance the two-step.  Last year they celebrated their 50th anniversary.  Back then they were surrounded by countryside, there are tales of neighbors riding horses down Lamar.   Nowadays they are flanked by towering condos.  Help Blue Yonder Films complete their documentary so that the world can learn the rich history of the Broken Spoke.

When you enter the Broken Spoke it’s like walking into a time-capsule from Texas in the early 60’s.   In one of the rooms they have their own museum of Austin Country music history with photos and artifacts but the entire restaurant itself has changed very little in that long time.  Owners James and Annetta White are still a staple in this legendary place where Willie Nelson, Dale Watson, Ray Benson and Billy Willis all played.

Follow their progress on:

Other media attention on the Broken Spoke:

 

 

Mexican Early Music from Colonial Archives

Discovered in the archives of Latin America was a treasure trove of Colonial works of art, sacred music for the feasts and holidays of the Catholic Church.  After Mexico defeated Spain these Colonial masterpieces from the 17th and 18th century were neglected for over a century but were rediscovered in the 1940’s.

The Austin Baroque Orchestra is holding their forth annual celebration of these musical archives, presenting works from three cathedrals from different regions, Oaxaca, the Hill Country of Northwestern Mexico and Mexico city.  From Oaxaca cathedral you’ll hear the works of Manuel de Sumaya, known as the “Mexican Handel.”  From Durango Cathedral in Mexico’s hill country you’ll enjoy Santiago Billoni, New Spain’s Italian-born maestro. From Mexico City’s Metropolitan Cathedral you’ll encounter the pieces by Ignacio Jerúsalem, Mateo Tollis de la Rocca, and Antonio Juanas.

A sample from last year’s selection of the works of Juan de Araujo can be listened to here. 

Find out more about these concerts here and here.

Saturday, November 14, 2015 – 8:00PM
First Presbyterian Church of Austin
8001 Mesa Drive · Austin, TX 78731

Sunday, November 15, 2015 – 4:00PM
Mission Concepción
807 Mission Road · San Antonio, TX 78210

What’s in Dave Gahan, New Order & Gary Numan’s bag?

One of the things I miss most about living in Berkeley is going to record stores with my dad…going to Amoeba Music, or Tower Classics back in the day.  Having him teach me about Haydn
or Moondog, telling me his stories of having met Sonny Rollins or Miles Davis decades ago.

These stories and introductions to music helped to shape my tastes, which is why I am delighted with Amoeba Music’s video series ‘What’s in my bag?’ In the absence of programs like old MTV (120 minutes more appropriately), people turn to blogs like Pitchfork…but Amoeba is doing something rare and sorely needed by giving these artists video air-time to share the seminal albums that shaped them as well as the newer works they are impressed by.

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