chillville.com Blog

As usual on an Austin Friday night, there are a plethora of shows to choose from for your evening plans. Chillville will be starting the night off at the Do512 and Vinyl Entertainment Rooftop Party downtown, and hopes you’ll come out and say hi. But if you didn’t RSVP, don’t fret; we’ll steer you through your many other venue options.

Local band Dikes of Holland have been playing a lot recently for a band without even a MySpace to their name; they’re at Beerland tonight with Bearclaw, Elvis, and Horns of Afrika opening. Elvis’s experimental, punk/garage rock aesthetic has had many local musicians professing their love, and a band other bands love is never a bad idea to check out.

Also around the Red River district: Cartright at Creekside, the Invincible Czars at Emo’s indoors, and InSite Magazine’s Relaunch Party at Emo’s Lounge with the Banner Year and She Craves, among others. These are all definitely bands you’ll want to check out, if not tonight then sometime soon.

Other great options for your Friday night include Black Joe Lewis at Antone’s, or Frank Smith’s residency with the Sad Accordions at Progress Coffee.

If you want to check out our pics from the sold-out Hold Steady show, or from Earlimart Tuesday night, or from just about every other cool show over the past few months – and there have been a lot – check out our photo albums on Facebook.

Friday night in Austin gives you a lot of options, as usual – The Ugly Beats are at Emo’s with Nagel and Til We’re Blue or Destroy. You can catch Brothers and Sisters playing a set at Lamberts, or maybe you’ll run into us at the Mohawk with the rocking post-punk shoegaze awesomeness of Titus Andronicus (and yes, they did take their name from the Shakespeare play).

Saturday has The Invincible Czars at Jovitas, playing their last gig with drummer Tommy Holton. These guys have a sound that’s hard to pin down: a demented carousel ride; bohemian flair with the occasional death-metal riffs; cool jazz, complete with walking bass line, call and answer vocals, and a swingy ride cymbal. Other options are Vinyl Dharma, MTV2’s On the Rise contest winners, at Momo’s, A Faulty Chromosome playing after the Chairlift/Ariel Pink show at Mohawk, or White Ghost Shivers at Threadgills.

It’s going to be a busy weekend, and the great shows aren’t letting up any time soon. Keep checking back for more concert recommendations, and we’ll see you on Sunday!

Local group Brazos finished up their month-long Progress Coffee residency with a laid-back set on Friday. They’ll be playing twice this month, and if you’ve been putting off seeing them, now is the time; these may be their last shows for the next few months, possibly even for good. Alex Dupree and the Trapdoor Band’s contemporary folk opened, with the interesting and lovely variation of a backing cello and violin, and no percussion but the bass player occasionally stomping the beat. Catch them locally in the next month-and-a-half, before they head out-of-state for a few gigs.

With bands feeling the pinch of high gas prices in their summer travels, local group {{{ Sunset }}} is trying something completely different for their “Fry into the Sun” tour: “Our vehicle is a 1984 Mercedes station wagon that has been converted to run on waste vegetable oil. We have a pump that filters oil from grease traps, and plan on filling up the whole way using waste oil from restaurants. This will be a first for us, and for any other band I’ve ever known.” If it goes well, you’ll probably hear more of this from other bands; it would certainly cut down on the usual go-into-debt versus get-more-exposure dilemma of touring that keeps so many local groups from getting the larger audience they deserve.

Speaking of touring acts, LA-based indie-rock group Earlimart will be at the Mohawk Tuesday night, with Zookeeper and {{{Sunset}}} opening. Head downtown early for this; doors are at 7, with the first band on at 8. Catch a Waterloo Records in-store preview of Earlimart’s set at 5pm that afternoon.