Music forges family ties that bind
When I saw that the English electronic band Depeche Mode (known for their hit song “People are People”) was going to be to doing their first-ever showcase at the South By Southwest Music Conference...
Category: music
The Time Wayne Coyne and I Called Latvia, Woke Up My Friend, and Gave the Latvian Tabloids Some Copy!
When I heard the Flaming Lips were playing a SXSW show at Auditorium Shores, I couldn’t help think about the last time that the Flaming Lips played a large show in Austin.
Back in 2010, I was working on a column about people with disabilities at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. I ran across Wayne Coyne, the lead singer of the Flaming Lips in the festival’s media area. He was waiting for an interview with MTV, I was trying to stay in the shade so I didn’t melt.
NAZI GOLD Played Red 7 on a Monday Night in Austin, Texas
For those of you who only go to shows in Austin during SXSW, this is a glimpse of what the “Austin music scene” is like on a Monday in November.
Old Enough to Play the Austin City Limits Music Festival…But Not Always Old Enough To Vote
Of all the artists playing the 2012 Austin City Limits Music Festival, Abby Torres, 16 and Carla Pantoja 16, may be the only performers who managed to squeeze in a marching band competition that October weekend.
Torres and Pantoja are members of the Lanier High School band who also study music via Anthropos Arts, an Austin-based non-profit providing music lessons to dedicated young performers from at risk backgrounds. The project’s supporters include musician Esperanza Spalding, who popped by the Anthropos booth at ACL to pose for pictures after her Friday afternoon show.
Macitajs on Acid, Positivus 2012
This summer in Latvia I saw my pal Kristeps play with his Latvian-American band Macitajs on Acid. Coming out in masks, then playing in face paint at the I Love You stage, I was...
SXSW Eco Coverage: Fun With DJ Spooky and DIIV
While a lot of the panels at SXSW Eco were full of considered approaches about the future of the planet – and the need to make changes about how we live on...
Summer Sound is coming up…and I can’t help thinking of last year…
This weekend in Liepaja, Latvia is the second Summer Sound festival. I was there last year. While I’ve only been to Liepaja twice–once for the Baltic Beach Party and once for Summer Sound– my...
Time Travel Weekend Party
In many ways this past weekend in Austin has felt like a stop on the time travel train. I’m convinced that sometime in the future, time travel is a functional thing, much the way...
Live life now — don’t waste it taking pictures
You’ve heard the one about how a picture says a thousand words? This week’s $1 billion acquisition of the mobile phone picture-sharing service Instagram by social media giant Facebook says even more. It tells...
Being There with Wilco
Once upon a time (in the early 1990’s) a dude I was smitten with took me to see a band called Uncle Tupelo at Liberty Lunch in Austin, Texas. My date was always broke...
