Austin

Burning Love Co-Creator Erica Oyama Gives Us Dating Advice

Erica Oyama is the great comedic mind behind the scripted comedy web series Burning Love on Yahoo. The show parodies reality dating shows like The Bachelor, and recently released its third season while winning a Webby Award for Special Achievement of the Year. The first season made the jump from ti ... More >>

Why Do So Many Movie Characters Get Hit in the Balls?

Being a lucky guy, I've only been kicked in the balls once. How did it rate on the comedy scale? Well, it was funnier than a monologue by Chelsea Handler, but not quite as hilarious as my last screening for colorectal cancer. Yet despite the fact that this act hurts like hell, Hollywood still thinks ... More >>

Music Picks: Charli XCX, Polica, Esperanza Spalding and More

10 Movies We're Excited About in 2012

Sacha Baron Cohen is The Dictator​We know -- you're excited about The Dark Knight Rises. And The Avengers. And Hunger Games. So are we. We're also excited about a lot of other movies whose marketing campaigns have not inundated us with white noise (yet). Allow us to suggest a few more films to ... More >>

Tons Of Punk Videos Yanked Off YouTube: Here's What Happened

Robert KenneyGreg Ginn, second from left​By Nicholas Pell On Wednesday morning, several punk bands awoke to find their videos had been removed from YouTube. They were understandably irritated; that's almost worse than running out of beer. In their places were notes that they'd been yanked d ... More >>

Q & A with Mary Jo Pehl, Author of Man Saved By Condiments!: The Relative Joy of Arby's Horsey Sauce, Butter Conduits Being Haunted by Ketchup

In 2003, a security guard from Kermit, West Virginia, named Robert Ward was driving to work when he lost control of his 1985 Ford, plunged 150 feet into a snowy gulch and broke his hip. For the next six and a half days, he kept himself alive by eating snow as well as by some clever car foraging; for ... More >>

Save Bats Bees by Showing Your (Ingestible) Support

backwardsbeekeepers.comThe Yellow Carpet​Nothing against birds, but bats and bees -- key cogs in our food pollination wheel, among other things -- have had it rough the past few years with white nose syndrome and Colony Collapse Disorder. On the positive side, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Servic ... More >>

Culture Collide Festival Preview: Let's Get International

See also: *Culture Collide Festival review: Liam Finn, Rainbow Arabia, Guineafowl, The Awkwards perform on October 6, 2011 *Culture Collide Festival review: The Death Letters and Cameras perform on October 8, 2011 *Culture Collide Festival review: Chad VanGaalen & Gang Gang Dance perform on October ... More >>

Women Who Are Single in Los Angeles Are in a Top 10 American Mecca For Bachelorettes

Neil Kremer​Turns out the town that inspired Three's Company, Melrose Place and The Hills is a top 10 city for bachelorette life. That according to a rent.com survey unleashed today that looked at top cities for single women. Los Angeles, with all our swimming pools, movie stars, universitie ... More >>

Penis Clipping as Part of Circumcision Gone Bad Yields $4 Million-Plus Settlement For Boy in L.A.

​Imagine making your first million before the age of 10. And you wouldn't even have to give your left one for it. Well, almost. A boy who's now 8 might have paid the ultimate price when a doctor took off most of the top of his penis during circumcision as a baby. Today a judge in L.A. said ... More >>

Five Bands You Should Check Out If You Like Metal, But Hate Vocals

​You head over to a band's YouTube or Bandcamp page because your computer will never physically (or emotionally) recover MySpace giving it herpes, and Justin Timberlake be damned, you're never going back to THAT place. Very interesting things are happening with the guitars, drums, and bass, ... More >>

¡Viva Sangrita! Contest at The Edison Tonight

​Largely unknown outside of Mexico, sangrita is a tart, red, spicy drink not to be confused with sangria. Customarily served with a shot of tequila, the classic Mexican cocktail whose name means "little blood," finally gets its due. Tonight at The Edison, a trio of high-flying bartenders know ... More >>

LinA in LA: In Line At Low End Theory, and DJs From France, LA and Beyond (Wonderland)

We don't wanna hear the phrase, "everybody's at South By" this week, okay? Yes, Austin's mega music fest, South By Southwest, is well underway and many LA promoters, bands, DJs and musicheads are there BBQ-ing and boozing their brains out. No doubt, many turntablists and producers are still recoveri ... More >>

Your Aerosol Breakfast: Batter Blaster, or Pancakes in a Can

everview.comGetting Past The Reddi Wip Association Is Tough​ We are by nature wary of any nitrous oxide-propelled food product, a pressurized canned food prejudice that we blame squarely on one too many corn syrup and artificial flavor-laden Reddi Wip mustaches as kids. And so when it first h ... More >>

Lovers of Hate: Thrillercore

Brian Poyser's indie genre-bender

LE BEAU TOUR

Live in L.A.: Voxtrot, Booka Shade, Plants and Animals, Spectrum, Jared Lee

Voxtrot​Austin five-piece Voxtrot had its 15 minutes as indie-pop darlings in 2005-06, when back-to-back EPs and the charisma of frontman Ramesh Srivastava fueled blog buzz over its heart-on-sleeve, Brit-inspired music. Pitchfork numbers were high, and so were spirits, until Voxtrot's 2007 ful ... More >>

Lawyers Cash In On Los Angeles Times Bankruptcy

​The 15-month-old bankruptcy reorganization for Los Angeles Times (and KTLA News) parent Tribune Co. has been really successful ... for the lawyers. In a breathtaking statement, the company's namesake Chicago Tribune reports (bravely, we might add) that "law firms and other professionals have ... More >>

L.A.-Connected Blog Network Bought For Big Bucks; LAist.com is part of deal

​Gothamist, a New York blog with sister sites in Los Angeles (LAist) and 12 other cities, has been purchased by Cablevision's Rainbow Media in a deal that could be worth as much as $6 million, according to Paid Content. The network known for its "-ist" suffixes, community news and deep, local ... More >>

Movie Reviews: Zombie Girl, The Yellow Handkerchief, Defendor

Also, Easier With Practice, Formosa Betrayed and more

Vote or Die: Ultimate Guide to SXSWi Panel Picking

'Tis the season for SXSW panel Twitter deluge, or as one attuned tweeter put it, "How to Annoy Your Friends with Social Media Pestering to Vote for Your SXSW Panel." Because we've also spent the better part of the morning slogging through the SXSWi panel goat rodeo (moment of Internet Zen: Yoga For ... More >>

SxSW Live: The Precise Danger of The Soft Pack at Opal Divine's

The Soft Pack"We're The Soft Pack," lead singer Matt Lamkin told the crowd at Opal Divine's Freehouse in downtown Austin last night. "We're from California." The Los Angeles-based band then launched into a hard-driving, 20-minute set, with another gig tonight at the Mohawk Patio at 11 p.m. The buzz ... More >>

Kid Congo Powers Covers Cramps and Gun Club at SXSW, Thrills Imo's

The first official night of South By Southwest music, you'd think, would be kind of a pace-setter, a warm-up night. But no, even if you arrive late and think you're going to do some stretching and calisthenics, grab an easy dinner, before really cooking it on Thursday, something calls you from bey ... More >>

Peter, Bjorn and John at SXSW: An interview with Bjorn from Tequila Mockingbird Recording Studio

Sabrina Talerico (courtesy of KCRW)Bjorn This morning hanging around Tequila Mockingbird recording studio waiting to chat with Jason Bentley on Morning Becomes Eclectic, a bunch of Swedes were loading equipment in and hanging around in a uniquely Swedish way. Still in a morning fog and on the other ... More >>

Last Night in Austin: Mashable Rooftop Bash at SxSW

Erin BroadleyMashable.com's Pete CashmoreWe were at it again last night, and the party pings did not stop coming. Bumping into Fast Company guru Robert Scoble and PR impresario Brian Solis in the Hilton Hotel lobby after listening to an enlightening Core Conversation organized by Digg's marketing mu ... More >>

Hot Friday Night in LA: Francois Kervorkian, Tindersticks, DJ/Rupture

Considering next week is relatively slow due to SXSW in Austin, it might be a good idea to go nuts this weekend (unless you're headed down there, in which case consider this weekend to be exercise). Amazing night in LA for music tonight. Francois K. with John Tejada and Robtronik at King King D ... More >>

How to Rock SxSW Without Getting Lost or Losing Your #Skittles, iPhone, and Dignity

Erin BroadleyUser generated SXSW fortune cookie After getting lost in the cavernous Conference Center and desperately seeking help from one of the SXSW volunteers in order to find the inconveniently located Room C (thank you so much Natalie Shanks), I attended my first panel of the day, "User Genera ... More >>

The Jig Is Up, Tracey Ullman!

What to do in L.A., April 25-May 1

Rock Picks: Lucinda Williams, Fuck Buttons, The Sword

Also, Kanye West, The Black Heart Procession and more

SXSW Thursday night: Le Loup rocked my world, the Playboy party rocked my privates.

Okay, so I actually cried tonight. Not sobbed, not wept, not got all blustery and snotty. But about five songs into Le Loup's remarkable, thrilling set at Emo's IV Lounge, they hit upon a combination of chords and chorus that, coupled with my joyful mood and the feeling of how lucky all of us asshol ... More >>

Another guide to LA Bands at SXSW

Here's a list of LA bands/songwriters to chase down at SXSW in Austin next week. This is a tipsheet for those of you with $$$ in your eyes. Looking for a band to break, license, co-opt, manipulate, convince to sell out? Here are some tips. Abe Vigoda Gender: Four men Their MySpace descriptive: "Tr ... More >>

Grupo Fantasma, Echoplex, 2/14

Grupo Fantasma Echoplex, Feb. 14 A musical question -- when was the last time you saw dueling trombones? Personally, I've seen dueling pianos in Memphis, dueling trumpets in New Orleans, dueling guitars at every single God-awful metal show I've ever been to. Trombones -- not so much. So when ... More >>

Los Angeles area well represented at South by Southwest 2008

Want proof that L.A.'s in the middle of an astoundingly fertile period of musical expansion? See the list below. We're going to have our hands full this year. Expect around the clock coverage from Austin.

The Whole Shootin' Match

Eagle Has Landed

They Might Be Giants

The whole shootin' match

So, I need to tell you about the show of the festival. My mind is blown, dude! I'm sitting in this bar, reading my Archies comics, because I am desperate for anything to keep me awake through a set by Aqualung. (Aqualung are one of these tragically earnest Nic Harcourt bands. They are attempting ... More >>

BBB (Big, Bold and Beautiful)

The clouds have parted and the birds are chirping what sounds like Japanese power pop. SXSW being an industry event I attend my first industry panel, "Idiots Unite!" (The idiots, of course, being anyone involved in this crazy business of show.) David Katznelson, president of Birdman Recording Group, ... More >>

Maude!

SXSW or no SXSW, my first sign of Texas pride was the Texas-shaped gravestone in the Texas State Cemetery I noticed outside the airport shuttle. Landed in Austin in drizzling weather; even in a crowded airplane making four stops it's easy to single out the passengers headed here – they're the ... More >>

Mutual Appreciation Society

The World of Andrew Bujalski

Don't Touch Me There

DEAD MEADOW, SILVERSUN PICKUPS at the Troubadour, February 3

The Hammer Gets Nailed

Tom DeLay’s political games come to an end

Hello, Mr. Soule

A Louisiana family comes West... again

In Order To Build a More Perfect Union?

DemocracyFest 2005: Let the squealing begin

George and the Guard

The real question is how did the young man with marginal test scores get the plum wartime assignment

After the Party’s Over

Rusty Pistols

The Foundry Theater’s Lipstick Traces, sans saliva

Knockering on Heaven's Door

Edited by Kateri Butler

Hot! Pink! Plywood!

Edited by Kateri Butler

Baby Let’s Twist

Everbody's the Greatest