its coming again..here are some bands that caught my eye from the initial announcement:

Akron/Family (Williamsport PA), Annuals (Raleigh NC), Beach House (Baltimore MD), Bedouin Soundclash (Toronto ON), Andrew Bird (Chicago IL), The Crystal Method (Los Angeles CA), Delta Spirit (San Diego CA), The Duhks (Winnipeg MB), Easy Star All-Stars (New York NY), Explosions in the Sky (Austin TX), Tim Finn (Auckland NEW ZEALAND), Sage Francis (Providence RI), Gang Gang Dance (New York NY), Grizzly Bear (Brooklyn NY), Ben Harper and Relentless7 (Los Angeles, CA), Joseph Israel (Ukia CA), Kraak & Smaak (Leiden THE NETHERLANDS), Lissie (Los Angeles CA), Justin Nozuka (Toronto ON), Peelander-Z (New York NY), Ra Ra Riot (Syracuse NY), Stars of Track and Field (Portland OR), Langhorne Slim (Brooklyn NY), Solange and the Hadley Street Dreams (Houston TX), That 1 Guy (Los Angeles CA), 3oh!3 (Boulder CO), Vetiver (San Francisco CA), Wax Fang (Louisville KY), The Wrens (Teaneck NJ)

Our dad Willie sings a lost Christmas hymn/
and the words ring true, “Let not mankind bogart love…”

-cabeza

Band: Metallica
Album: Death Magnetic
Producer: Rick Rubin!

Believe it- The Four Horsemen have risen from the ashes of peer-to-peer purgatory (see: Lars makes peace with Pirates) and late-career mediocrity (see: the last 4 albums) now fully embracing the unbridled, epic, head-banging Pre Bob Rock (PBR?) era that cemented them as the undisputed Kings of Metal.  Perhaps the recent chainsaw noises of Austin’s The Sword or the ever-heavy Mastodon have awoken this sleeping giant.  Clearly the results ROAR for themselves: Death Magnetic is 80 minutes of relentless, triumphant, punishing, whiskey-chuggin RAWWK!

Lars Ulrich puts all haters six feet deep with his most ferocious performance in 2 decades.  James Hetfield is angry yet melodic, Trujillo breaks necks and steals bikes, and Kirk Hammett drops the bullshit – preferring to trample on graves before masterbating on them.  All i can say is Thank God (or Satan)…I wanna break somethin.

Listen to “All Nightmare Long” from Death Magnetic

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Listen to “My Apocalypse” from Death Magnetic

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Rating:
I dribble the Source onto my balls while air-drumming to this
- Cabeza

More info:
Metacritic | iTunes | Official Site

TacoTown is proud to accept the award for ‘best place to find a decent taco’ in the 2007 Austin Chronicle Best of Austin Awards.  Despite having to share this prestigious honor with rival taco-nauts: taco journalism, we here at tacotown will continue to be trusty sources of taco knowledge.  So if you’re in from out of town, or just stumped on where to go in Austin to find the best taco, burrito, enchilada, torta, or other mexican food dish.. look us up and you’re sure to get the no holds barred report.. and maybe you’ll see some kind of non-related funny video or picture.. who knows? we wont apologize for our taco lifestyle.. its all we know.

Best Way to Find a Decent Taco: TIE: Taco Town, Taco Journalism
(Critics Picks, Food & Drink)
We suspect these guys love tacos more than they love sex. Taco-passionate bloggers fulfill their destiny as pioneers in the quest for the perfect Mexican meal. The search starts in Austin and often ventures far beyond home. From Torchy’s Tacos to Zuzu Handmade Mexican Food, from Brownsville to Seattle, these Austin gustatory guides take it in the gut, sample it all, and report back with their findings to all of our gastronomical delight. So straighten up, taco stands and Mexican restaurants, Taco Town and Taco Journalism are coming to critique your flan and fish tacos and tell it to the world. www.tacotown.org; tacojournalism.com

and for the record.. we make love to tacos…so your point is moot.

You gotta appreciate Beck…always evolving- never making the same record twice, but still always sounding like BECK- that skinny, white, creative, versitile, funky, soulful, scuffed-up goodness. its a defining voice in my generation

He had an amazing run of creativity with Odelay > Mutations > Midnite Vultures > Sea Change…Alas, the next 2 records just couldn’t live up to his Golden Age – though they had their moments…Modern Guilt hits a similar bittersweet mark…and after 2 listens…I like it, but dont love it.

Chappy sent me the album over email- prefacing with a comment that “Beck had phoned-it-in on this one”…not sure i totally agree.

i can dig that 60′s psychedelic vibe…DangerMouse produced. not a huge fan of him. title track is cool.  The best songs on here are the real band tracks/ Chemtrails, Soul of a Man (listen below)
I must say DM’s samples are lacking melody and life in their grooves – as opposed to earlier beck albums- Dust Bros. era- those managed to retain that raw, live-band feel even with shit loads of samples thrown in.

Listen to “Soul of a Man” from Modern Guilt

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its got 3-4 good songs on it, but overall its lacking that spark that we know beck’s capable of
Rating:

more info > www.modernguilt.com

cabeza

Idgy Vaughn : Austin, TX
We caught her short set at Ruta Maya on Saturday and were drawn in by her delicate voice and tasty instrumentation (Austin mainstay Will Sexton accompanied her on a reverb’d out dreadnaught acoustic). Turns out her folky story-songs are autobiographical- in a nutshell: midwestern girl ends up working at a truckstop in Buda, TX; a customer finances her album after winning the lottery; instant success is marred by a bitter custody battle for her daughter that leaves her estranged from her family. Its the stuff country music is made of…KUT did a nice audio-story on her here>

Liam Finn : New Zealand
We had already attempted to catch Liam, the eldest son of Neil Finn (lengendary leader of Crowded House and Split Enz) Thursday at The Ale House – but like I said 10 times this weekend, “if you’ve heard of them, the line’s too long.” Luckily, we had another chance Friday at the Paste/Stereogum Party. Armed with electric guitar, drumset, two Line-6 delay pedals, and one talented female sidekick, Finn proceeded to floor the 200 or so in attendance. Great hooky songs (instantly Finn-like) that build into layered sing-along anthems. The drumset was probably his most impressive talent – pulverizing finales over looped grooves / I suspect the album sounds very different- which makes his live act even more a MUST SEE.

just 1 night down at SXSW, but here’s 2 very good bands we stumbled onto:

Afenginn : Copenhagen, Denmark
We caught them by chance while grabbing dinner at Rio Grande – the brisket taco’s were bland, but these bad ass gypsy pickers brought the Danish Sabør – very melodic and inventive klezmer jams. And their bass player is disgusting/

…

AND

…

The Aggrolites : Los Angeles, CA
It was nearing 1AM, and the Black Keys showcase had an absurb line outside, so we took a chance on the Flamingo Cantina – IMHO the most reliable venue on 6th street. The Aggrolites dropped our jaws immediately with their air-tight Ska/Reggae/Funk stew- like The Specials meets James Brown in East LA. They had this vato on the B3 just rippin it up…really impressive live band/

-cabeza

we like to do SXSW the cheap way around here.. even better yet – the FREE way.. you can catch us at numerous unofficial events this week. its all about doing your research and then getting out there in the mix, unafraid to poke around in search of the triumverate of slacker gold – free music, free booze, free food! here are some links that will help you do SXSW renegade style:

• Show List Austin – a list of non-wristband shows
• On the Cheap – an article about how to do SXSW Cheap
• SXSW Baby – free event listings
• Top 10 Free SXSW Concerts – from austi360

Pastor Al’s heroes, the mighty gods of rock, Led Zeppelin reunited its 3 surviving members (plus late drummer John Bonham’s son Jason) today at London’s O2 arena for one of the most anticipated rock concerts in history. The whole thing was a benefit for their late friend and music industry pioneer Ahmet Ertegün. you better believe we’ll be scouring the torrent world for the bootlegs, but until then, here’s the first review from NME, or better yet, David Fricke’s account for Rolling Stone, and some nice flickr photos.

update: Just found a pretty good clip of Kashmir from the audience…

Behold the setlist:

Good Times Bad Times
Ramble On
Black Dog
In My Time of Dying
Trampled Under Foot
Nobody’s Fault but Mine
No Quarter
Since I’ve Been Loving You
Dazed and Confused
Stairway to Heaven
Song Remains the Same
Misty Mountain Hop
Kashmir
E: Whole Lotta Love, Rock n Roll

So I’ve always been a big fan of the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey (jfjo) – mostly because of their bass player, Reed Mathis. He blows my mind, and not in a technical, Jaco-sense (though he’s got serious chops), but because he’s one of the few bass players that can tap into the soul and visceral power of the music almost at will. Melodies and grooves literally spill out of his hands like he’s got a fuckin T1 connection straight into the great pipeline of thick musical crude being pumped from the nucleus of all creation by God himself. In other words- the dude can fuckin jam.

Need proof? just download this classic JFJO Show from the Ole Point Bar in 2002 or stream this amazing Steve Kimock show w/ Reed on bass. Or peep this Reed Mathis tune, HOVER for some octave-bass goodness…

JFJO has always teetered on the outskirts of the party-festival jam scene, while also managing to gain some much-deserved respect as modern jazz pioneers and master improvisers…each camp has its pitfalls and purists to navigate. So, when Reed announced this week that he’d be filling the Bass role for San Francisco’s Tea Leaf Green- a semi-successful hippy jamband complete with hula hoops and patchwork- that’s when the grumblings began. The message boards sprang to life with jfjo fans exclaming their various opinions on Reed’s new gig. Posts like: “Plus, they’re no where near the level that Fred is on…..I would think he would get bored playing their generic, mediocre jamband music…”

SO leave it to Reed himself to set the record straight and impart some perspective on the situation. enjoy this:

Subject: My thoughts on the matter….
Posted by: “reedmathis23″ reedmathis23
Date: Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:23 pm ((PST))

wowsers!

here’s a few things i’d like to say:
Read the rest of this entry »