chillville.com Blog

If you’re in the mood for treats tonight, downtown Austin is serving up a heaping portion of fun, holiday insanity, and of course, great music. First and formost, Sound Tribe Sector 9 will be blasting your ears off and driving you to get your groove on at Stubbs. These guys are known for their awesome live shows, and if you feel like dancing they are a sure thing. Or if you’re in the mood for something a bit quieter, Club DeVille’s lineup is stellar: touring group the Redwalls bring late 60’s-tinged indie garage rock with effortless vocal harmonies, and locals Frank Smith and Bankrupt and the Borrowers are supporting bands that would be worth seeing even without the lure of a great main act.

If you’re more into venturing away from the hysteria of downtown; you still have some great options. There is the 5th Annual White Ghost Shivers Ball in south Austin, and the Lemurs with the Laughing and Low Line Caller at Victory Grill on the east side (only $5 if you come in costume!).

Think you’ll be recovered enough tomorrow to go out? The Texas Book Fair is going on both Saturday and Sunday in the Capitol. You can listen to some great authors and panel discussions, and do some sight-seeing at the capitol at the same time. That evening, local electro-rockers the Black and White Years are playing a fundraiser at Club DeVille. Or if you’re more in the mood for some cumbia, Rock y Roll Dia is going on at the Mohawk, with some awesome Latin beats. Also competing for your cover: the Mountain Goats and Kaki King at Antone’s, T-Bird and the Breaks at Emo’s with Fiction and Wine and Revolution, and the Invincible Czars at Room 710.

If you care about live music in Austin, be at City Hall tonight by 7:30. No ifs, ands, or buts; if you’re not there then you can’t complain about the downtown scene dying. If you want the chance to speak your mind to the City Council personally, get there at 7pm and claim 3 minutes of opinionated talk, unfiltered, in front of them.

If you care about the noise ordinances, parking, and development issues, along with many other problems concerning the live music scene, show up and show the Council that it is important to you.

Here is a report of the proposals the Council-appointed Live Music Task Force are recommending to the city, so get yourself up-to-speed on the issues at stake, and then SHOW UP tonight. Parking is free in the City Hall garage, and you’re not going to have trouble finding spots, so you’ve got no excuse. We’ve had Troy Dillinger in studio before talking about his campaign to Save Austin Music; this directly relates.

Silent Land Time Machine, a one-man project seemingly dedicated to beautiful noise, strikes you first with its strong sense of momentum. The music isn’t purposeful, exactly, but you get the feeling nevertheless that its creator, known simply as Jon, has a specific destination in mind. If so, it is one he doesn’t mind achieving through a circuitous route: meandering past country road and seaside alike towards completion, maybe even bringing you back to where you first began. Looping his solo sound, he layers violin and viola, guitar, percussion, accordion, piano, found audio, some live vocals, and seemingly whatever strikes his fancy into the mix, and the resulting sound is complex, organic, and above all, beautiful.

Tonight is his album release show at the Parish, supported by Silver Pines and Andrew Tinker, along with a special performance from the Indian Queen Medley.