The Boxing Lesson ran away with our latest poll and shall shortly bask in the rectangle above as late October champions. Congrats! Now (or soon) awaiting your decision are our current nominees, Corto Maltese (pictured above), Drew Smith’s Lonely Choir, Matt the Electrician, The Low Lows, and TV Torso – those last two will be entertaining you this coming Friday at Local Music is Sexy. We do hope the serious business of being pitted against one another in the Deli Artist Poll will not make things tense at LMIS.

Looking forward to the FFF-related annual event Local Music Is Sexy, taking place over in the Red River hip zone of the Mohawk and Club de Ville on November the 6th (that’s next Friday). It does seem sexy this year, as it includes TV Torso,The Low Lows, International Waters, Watch Out for Rockets, Beautiful Supermachines, Air Traffic Controllers, Distant Seconds, Silent Land Time Machine, Black Before Red, Manikin, The Authors, My Milky Way Arms, and Minor Mishap Marching Band. We here pay verbal fealty to the organizing force Austinist, who’ve put together a good one. The Deli will be represented & we’ll report back for those who miss out…

…and that very nifty photo collage above, of TV Torso, is by Tim Murray

 

We are fast approaching All Hallow’s Eve, which coincides neatly with the end of our poll; at this point, The Boxing Lesson is resting easy out front. If you’re a fan of Death is Not a Joyride, Single Frame, The Lovely Sparrows, or When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, then take a moment away from the body-painting you’ve settled on as this year’s costume, and vote!

But, when the lord closes a poll, he opens a blog: wanted to remind the bands out there that our Open Blog remains, well, open. Check it out here, and post up news, bios, what have you about your own band or a band that is near and dear to you (so long as they’re Austin-based) using this form right here. We will quite often pull posts over to our main blog.

 

A Mr. Ben Kweller will play the Pablove benefit tonight at Emo’s; if there’s a more unimpeachably good cause out there, I don’t know of it. You want to hear some extraordinarily good music while feeling extraordinarily good about the money changing hands? Head on down.

Mr. Kweller recently returned to his home state of Texas, to the city of Austin, after a nine-year exile in New York. He released Changing Horses early this year to mucho acclaimo. Austin is happy to have him.

 

It’s a matter of some debate whether they are Major Major or Major Major Major; we’re also wondering if the name derives from the Catch-22 character – it must, yeah? – who was, in fact, Major Major Major Major. No matter how many times you say it, they’ll be at Red 7 this Tuesday, accompanied by Wine & Revolution and the Seattle band Black Whales.

 

Following what we’re calling the opening acts of Dinosaur Jr. and Built to Spill (they both show potential), Austin’s own Midgetmen will take the stage at Stubb’s this Saturday the 24th. You get in free with your ticket to Dino Jr./BTS. Some may call this an ‘afterparty’, but then again, some say "sofa" when they mean "couch". Some are just plain crazy.

 

Taking a cue from the old school Butthole Surfers’ titling playbook (Independent Worm Saloon, Locust Abortion Technician), our recent poll winners Sad Accordions have released unto the masses their new track, Sacrificial Chumpsucker Diatribe. If you’ve been paying attention, you know where they’ll be tonight. If you’ve been napping, well, scroll down.

In case you hadn’t noticed that large crowd of multi-instrumentalists occupying our top banner, allow me to call your attention to our most recent poll winner The Tiny Tin Hearts. Huzzah, kudos, and all manner of seriously outdated congratulatory terms to them. Tiny Tin Hearts will be at Lambert’s fine fancy BBQ this Saturday the 24th.

And, as usually tends to happen after a poll victory, we got us a new poll: Death Is Not a Joyride, Single Frame, The Boxing Lesson, The Lovely Sparrows, and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth have all been nominated for your consideration.

In other developments, Luck, our CD of the month from Wiretree, drops today, and is joined by Fits, the new one from White Denim.

Peoplefood, Sad Accordions, Red Leaves will be up at 10, 11, and midnight, respectively, at the Mohawk this Wednesday. A trio of acclaimed Austin bands and Deli darlins.

So there. M. Ward never bought us a drink in Portland, so that’s a drink he owes us. If he feels that either the fact that A) we don’t know him or B) we never actually asked him for a drink is a legitimate excuse for this oversight, he obviously doesn’t understand our system of ethics. Which I would be happy to explain to him. Over a drink. 

 

Reaching the end of our early October poll, and it’s definitely too close to call at this point. The Tiny Tin Hearts are making a late run at Quiet Company, and The Laughing (above, and also to be found tonight at Red 7) lurk not too far back (rope-a-dope strategy). They’re also one of two poll bands dropping an album today: the Red 7 gig is a release party for The Laughing’s LP Fever, and Rocket, from the Darling New Neighbors, goes national today. (Hand-crafted versions, the work of Adam Young and Jaime Cervantes, have been in the hippest hands in Austin since September.) You’ve got until midnight tonight (Thurs.) to get your vote in…

 

We mixed it up a little for our new batch of questions with recent poll winner White Rhino, and hit them with all hypotheticals. The Rhino wasted no time and pulled no punches (they have a tour to get to). They’ll be at the Mohawk this Friday the 16th, where you can ask ’em yourself why they have no patience for Ghandi. Then they’re off to terrify the Southwest throughout October, and back for a Halloween gig at Creekside. Here are five straight shots of White Rhino:

1. If you could get one local guest star on your next album, who would you pick?

ERIKA BARTON FROM THE FACELESS WEREWOLVES. OWW!

2. Give up coffee or give up beer?

I DON’T NEED EITHER CAUSE WE’VE GOT WHISKY

3. You can travel back to 1955 and teach a local band one song: what do you teach them?

HOT FOR TEACHER.

4. Ghandi comes to you in a dream, and says, hey, explain your music to me, what’s the point of it. What do you say?

FUCK YOU GHANDI.

5. What’s the best thing you could possibly hear from someone who just saw one of your shows?

MY TWIN SISTER AND I WANT TO PARTY WITH YOU AFTER THE SHOW.

 

In addition to the Local Music is Sexy showcase happening November 6th, Fun Fun Fun has announced some of the late night goings on that will be attached to their thrice-named festival. It’ll be thick with Austin bands, including the first two below, Octopus Project and Voxtrot, who will light up the Mohawk on Saturday night.

Saturday night:

MOHAWK OUTSIDE:
Voxtrot
Octopus Project
Twin Tigers

MOHAWK INSIDE:
The Coathangers
Jazzus Lizard (Jesus Lizard jazz tribute band!!!)
Walter Schriefeld band

RED 7
(10pm, $13)
Negative Approach
Christ On Parade
Trash Talk
Naw Dude
You People

CLUB DEVILLE
(10pm, $10)
Soul Clap dance party
w/ Djs Johnathan Toubin & Ian Svenonius
and live set by BROWNOUT!

BEAUTY BAR
(10pm $5 before Midnight / $10 after)
DJ Mel
The Cool Kids DJ SET

BEERLAND
(10pm, $10)
Jack Oblivian
John Paul Keith and the 145s
Lovvers (UK)
Fleshlights

ALAMO DRAFT HOUSE RITZ
(10:15pm)
Youth Brigade hosts "Let Them Know: The Story Behind Youth Brigade and byo Records" Screening
MC Chris hosts a midnight screening of "Gremilins"

Sunday night:

MOHAWK OUTSIDE:
($13, 9:30pm)
And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead…
Dark Meat
An Albatross

MOHAWK INSIDE:
($13, 9:30pm)
AU
Free Moral Agents (featuring Ikey Owens of The Mars Volta)
Zechs Marquise (featuring Marcel Rodriguez Lopez of The Mars Volta)

RED 7 WRECK ROOM:
(No cover, all ages, 10pm)
Karaoke Apocalypse
RnR and punk karaoke all night with a live band!

RED 7:
($10, 10pm)
Toys That Kill
the forgetters (Black Schwarzenbach of Jawbreaker/Jets to Brazil, Kevin of Against Me, Caroline of Bitchin’)
Ghost Knife
Smalltown (Sweden)

BEAUTY BAR:
DJ Mixhell

BEERLAND:
($8, 10pm)
Easy Action
Black Tusk
Eagle Claw
and special guest!

ALAMO DRAFT HOUSE RITZ:
(10:15pm)
Mission of Burma hosts "Not A Photograph" Screening

 

Some local accordions are, we presume, slightly less Sad this month, as they are now reigning up top as our current Artist of the Month. They fought off some ferocious challenges from SuperLiteBike and New Roman Times, and have emerged shiny and victorious. So big, capital C Congrats to Sad Accordions!

…and may I now direct your attention to the current poll, already in progress, featuring: Darling New Neighbors, Quiet Company, The Laughing, The Summer Wardrobe, and The Tiny Tin Hearts. Get yer vote in!