LivingLovingMaid

Let’s Rename Robert E Lee Road to Robert Plant Road

If you don’t think this is the best idea you’ve ever heard of, you’re a racist. Or anti-Zepplinist. Or both, which makes you twice as bad.  #robertplantrd  

Submit now for the Austin Music Video Festival!

The Austin Music Video Festival isn’t happening until September, but right now is the time to submit if you’re a musician or director and have a banging video you want to enter. AMVF III Awards You can win cash prizes and awards, and get your work and music played on the big screens around Austin during the festival. The AMVFest want submissions of the best music videos in the world regardless of…

The Octopus Project’s ‘Memory Mirror’ Multi-sensory Menagerie…thing

The Octopus Project is a really cool, really experimental band banging around Austin. They’re described as an “indietronic” band, which, alright, that’s a thing. I’d call them a mix of traditional rock instruments (drum kits, guitars) with a lot of digital and electronic elements (keyboards, synthesizers, drum machines) and a smattering of other non-traditional instruments (like the Theremin and…

From theatlantic.com: Chris Cornell, perhaps best known as the lead singer of Soundgarden, one of the bands that defined the grunge sound of the ’90s, has died at the age of 52. In a statement, Brian Bumbery, his representative, called Cornell’s death “sudden and unexpected.” Cornell’s died Wednesday night after he performed with Soundgarden in Detroit’s Fox Theatre—part of a tour the band was…

ACL Lineup – 2017

So, the ACL Festival lineup is out, and it’s…fine. Yeah, I’m okay with it. To be honest, I was more psyched about the fake lineup that was “leaked” a few days ago because of Frank Ocean, but the Red Hot Chili Peppers are…also fine. Passes on sale now, peeps. https://www.aclfestival.com/ I’m just waiting for the last night shows, like always.

Completely Unsubstantiated Led Zeppelin Reunion Rumors

I get a Led Zeppelin Google alert, because I am a huge nerd. When I woke up today my news feed was filled with stories of a cryptic message on Robert Plant’s website. Robert Plant’s website Yes, just that. That’s his whole site right now. Obviously my first guess is a new Sensational Space Shifters album, which I know he’s working on right now. But if that’s the case, then why is this dude from…

Make Way for the SXSWers

South by Southwest 2017 starts in fewer than 48 hrs. YES, 48 hrs! I know this because I set an alarm as to when I need to leave the city. Like all Austinites, I have a love/hate relationship with SXSW. It’s so great and so terrible at the same time, particularly if you have any sort of need to cross the river on a regular basis (like, say, driving to and from work every day). I get so excited…

Hey, It’s Shakey Graves Day

Today is Shakey Graves Day. Shakey Graves (a “gentleman from Texas”) is a local musician with a national following because he is wildly talented, insufferably good-looking, and somehow still well-liked and gentlemanly. He’s that guy you WANT to hate because he’s just soooo good at everything and soooo un-smug about it. I’ve seen him play loads of times; I will see him play loads of times more. I…

Sofar Sounds Austin: You Need to Get in on This (Fans AND Musicians)

I am currently obsessed with Sofar Sounds. It’s just a super cool, super neat concert series that is cool and neat for both the fans AND the  musicians. First, read an interview I did with the Austin City Director of Sofar Sounds at TODO Austin here. And if you won’t read that (you won’t), let me tell you about it anyway. Dr Joe Sofar Sounds is a micro-gig series. You apply for a spot and if you…

Review: That time Robert Plant sang an entire show dedicated to me

I was born about 40 years too late to get on the original Led Zeppelin train, but that’s never stopped me from being a huge fan. HUGE. But because I’ll never see Led Zepp together and young and at their peak, I’ve had to satisfy myself with the surviving members as solo artists and a slew of remastered records (thanks, Jimmy Page!). But you know, still it’s been pretty good. And I know this…

Leonard Cohen has died

I couldn’t really sum up how much Leonard Cohen has influenced, inspired, and impacted me or music as a whole in any sort of concise way. So I’ll leave this here: I did my best, it wasn’t much I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you And even though It all went wrong I’ll stand before the Lord of Song With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah Leonard…

What to do this weekend: Halloweeeeen

Our weekly suggestions of Austin- and Texas-centric music, by no means exhaustive or complete. For full listings visit http://do512.com/. Mind where you step in the vomit-filled gutters downtown this Halloween weekend.

Saturday, 10/29:

Native Waves Presents: 3rd Annual Halloween Party featuring The Mammoths (as Black Sabbath), The Rare Birds (as Neil Young), Transit Method (as Jane’s Addiction),

Review: James Blake @ The Moody Theater

Many years ago (2013) I was living in a strange and distant place (Shanghai) and heard the news that James Blake, singer of a song that still gives me chills to this day (“Retrograde“) was going to be touring there. I snapped up some tickets as soon as they went on sale. Then, because the universe hates music, James Blake never appeared. I don’t remember why, exactly — I think he couldn’t get a…

Ray LaMontagne cancels show due to Texas’ Campus Carry law

Last week, musician Ray LaMontagne decided to cancel a show at the Bass Concert Hall, located on the University of Texas at Austin campus. The reason he gave on Facebook was due to the recently enacted law S.B. 11, otherwise known as “Campus Carry.” Basically, gun owners with conceal carry permits have always been able carry guns on campus, though not in buildings. This provision gives them the…

Alternatives to the ACL Festival

Hey, do you hate ACL as much as I do? (jk jk jk I love u ACL please continue to give me press access). But big festivals like Austin City Limits aren’t for everyone, it’s true. The crowds, the prices of food and drinks, the weather (either too sunny or too rainy), the endurance of standing all day, all those darn young people, never getting close enough to your favorite artists…yeah, it can suck.…

The Austin Music Video Festival 2016

Today, Sept 7th, through Saturday, Sept 10th, is the 2nd annual Austin Music Video Festival. Get ready for 4 days of videos, virtual reality, concerts, panels, parties and an awards show, spread out across different venues around Austin. Discover the hottest (and weirdest!) music videos from around the world on the big screens of Austin, TX. Schedule below (please note: the language is direct…