Category: music

“The Black Angels” Austin City Limits taping.

Earlier this week I was lucky enough to go to the Austin City Limits TV taping of The Black Angels. This is the second time this year that I’ve seen the band, as I was lucky enough to see them at Austin Psych Fest.
At the taping I ran into two older friends of mine, who are grown-up enough to have hippie friends from hippie times.

Positivus 2013, Day 2

The second day of the Positivus music festival was a blur. After a cold night, the sun was unexpectedly hot in the afternoon. The set by American singer-songwriter John Grant (who lives in Iceland...

Why I Spend So Much Time Going to Shows, Listening to Music

Thousands of people from all over the world gather in Austin, Texas each March for the South By Southwest Music Conference and Festival. They come back for Austin Psych Fest in the late spring,...

Austin Psych Fest Photo Essay (2013)

On the Friday night of Psych Fest, 2013, the weather was perfect and the bands were groovy.
The first band I saw after driving straight from Houston was the middle-eastern sounds of Tinariwen.
This was followed by a blistering performance by the Suuns, which was just as intense as their show during SXSW 2013.

Every Era Gets The Magical Elsewhere It Deserves.

Recently there was an article in the Huffington Post by David Landsel, about how Austin is way overrated, and Houston is a lot better. I wasn’t even slightly surprised when I read this article. I don’t think the article has much truth or insight to it, it’s just blowback from the fact that the locus of our collective Americian fantasy of the “magical elsewhere” happens to be currently located in Austin, Texas.

Every era gets the magical elsewhere it deserves. The magical elsewhere is the spot where you don’t have to work overly hard and dreams come true. It’s the land of milk and honey and the promise of romance and paradise and a certain loosening of the older strict moral codes.