Photo by Cassandra Dunn on Unsplash. Like many Austinites, I’ve mostly viewed South by Southwest as a good excuse to retreat from downtown. In 2020, when I was actually looking forward to making an effort, the whole thing shut down. And despite my previous detachment, I was cartoonishly distressed. A lot of it was what…
Tag: Review
Maggie Rogers’ ACL Snub: She IS Sensitive, and That’s Okay
Maggie Rogers stands onstage alone, acoustic guitar in hand, to begin her encore at Austin’s Moody Theater. In a heartfelt speech about gratitude, Rogers thanks the 24 people who worked on the set and lighting, and the fans who brought her music to light. She has barely been home in three years, thanks to her…
ZZ Top Live Without Guest Gregg Allman: Confronting and Celebrating Aging in Live Music
I read a review of a Paul McCartney show recently that opened with a rather morbid reminder that he won’t be around forever. I wondered if Paul McCartney really deserved such a sobering introduction but in retrospect, I think I needed the reality check on celebrity aging before venturing out to the Blue Hills Bank…
A Great New Binge Watch To “Get Down” With
Combined efforts from Baz Luhrmann, Nas, Grandmaster Flash, and more have brought a small but powerful piece of old-school hip hop to Netflix in a neat little package called ‘The Get Down’. The plot explores landscapes of hip hop, disco, graffiti, and politics in the late 1970’s Bronx, with a clear figurehead in each parallel plot and Ezekiel “Zeke” Figuero at the crux of it all.
New Release: Pierce Fulton’s “Make Me Blue”
The fresh and playful “Make Me Blue” stands out in Pierce Fulton’s current repertoire of in-your-face dance music, and puts him on the map for more alternative fans who still like to get down to a fun electronic groove. This new track is an alternating string of sparsely yet elegantly filled swathes of vast sonic…
Flesh Without Blood Without Redeeming Qualities
Author’s Note: I wrote this review in January for an exercise in writing about something with a negative slant. My first contact with Grimes was in stills from the 2013 MTV VMAs, wearing the same Versace pants as 2 Chainz. Here she was caught in the bane of a female star’s existence, wearing the…
Singing to Succulents
It’s Friday night and I’m waiting for my dough to rise so I can make pizza. This is the kind of person I am. Not to say that I’m a homebody, but I am also the kind of person who’s installed Steam on her computer just to grow a pot of virtual succulents. Viridi is…
Attunement 