The Red White & Blue Ball

After SXSW this year I sat down with a few friends to talk about doing a summer event together. The goal was simply to do something fun, and bring in a group of artists and businesses from the Austin community that we wanted to showcase. The result is The Red White & Blue Ball, a miniature camping and music festival taking place on Saturday, June 30th.

We are producing the event at a cool spot just outside Austin called The Ball Farm, which will be decked out with multiple stages, plenty of room to roam around, and a nice campground where we can all get together and hang out after the show. If you know where the F1 track is, the farm is just a few minutes past that location.

We are really excited about the bands that have agreed to come out and provide the entertainment. On the main stage we will have the five-piece folk-rock band Wheeler Brothers, one of Austin's most exciting new bands. These guys are a lot of fun and recently took home the award for Best New Band at the Austin Music Awards. Complementing the Wheeler Brothers will be Shakey Graves, Those Nights, Hello Wheels and some other special guests. After the main attractions we will convene in the campground and have a late night dance party.

We want you to come out with a few friends and family and have a good time with us. It's BYOB, and you can bring a picnic, but we will also have some food vendors on-site for you to choose from. To help you cool down we will have a gigantic water slide and other water-related activities. Being that it's the weekend before July 4th, we'll also light up the sky with some fireworks.

An important thing to highlight is that a portion of the proceeds from The Red, White and Blue Ball will go to the Groundwork Music Project, a great local non-profit organization whose mission is to provide free and low cost music lessons to children with limited means. Groundwork is currently raising funds for their summer programs. Find out more at groundworkmusic.org.

Tickets are on sale now for only $25 

Purchase tickets here: http://is.gd/therwbb

http://www.redwhiteandblueball.com/

Like us on Do512 for a chance to WIN TICKETS!: http://is.gd/DoTheRWBB

Facebook Event Page: http://is.gd/FkHwNt

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Where is The Red White & Blue Ball?

The Ball Farm

119 Redbird Ln.

Dale, TX 78616
Google Maps

For more information: Facebook.com/BallFarm

When is it?

Saturday, June 30, 2012. Doors at 4pm. Music starts at dusk.

Camping allowed until 3pm on Sunday afternoon.

What can I bring?

Designated Drivers, Coolers, Drinks, Food, Tents, Chairs, Blankets, Camp Stoves and Other Camping Equipment, Sunscreen, Cameras, Close Toed Shoes, Friends, Family

What am I NOT allowed to bring?

Weapons, Pets, Glass, Fireworks

21+ unless child escorted by parent

Presented by Covert Curiosity and Ender Productions

Got questions or media requests? Shoot me an e-mail!

Video: Eagle Eye Williamson

Texas born and raised, Eagle Eye Williamson plays stripped-down blues rock. He handles the drums and guitar all by his lonesome, and all tracks on all albums have been recorded in one take without any overdubs. Williamson creates a uniquely raw and gritty sound reflecting his nature as a simple, work-a-day man. At the age of 15, a bike accident severed his optic nerve, rendering him unable to see through his right eye. Not long after, Williamson began to notice that he could spot objects long before his friends or family. Hence the nickname Eagle Eye.

SXSW 2012 Showcase Footage

For the annual Covert Curiosity SXSX showcase this year we hosted a dozen local bands at Hotel Vegas. Ender Productions took care of all of our production needs, and Austin Music Weekly was there to provide some video documentation. Here are two videos they produced from the show, featuring Those Nights and The Victory March.

Here is some crowd footage of Guadalupe Plata:

 

There's more footage coming soon courtesy of BandLens.

LRN GRN

Check out these chilled-out songs from Lauren Green, who fronts the Austin band Follow That Bird. Her debut solo EP, Easy Spirits, is available May 24th via Wild Tan Records. She records, writes and performs everything on the EP and shows a softer side to her songwriting. Stripped of her squalling, rhythmic guitar playing that she's known for in Follow That Bird, her solo songs float with a gentle ambience.

• LRN GRN - "Quilts"

The Golden Boys

Dirty Fingernails is the 5th album by Austin's beer-drenched rockers The Golden Boys, and by all accounts is their greatest to date. Skillfully documented by engineer Mike Vasquez, it's the rock'n'roll album for persons who long ago gave up on that sort of thing. The Golden Boys' current lineup consists of John Wesley Coleman III, Bryan Schmitz, Patrick Travis, Matthew Hoopengardner and Ney Ney Arbeitman. You can see The Golden Boys on June 16 at Austin's Scottish Rite Theatre, supporting Quintron and Miss Pussycat.

Rayon Beach

Rayon Beach was started in 2009 by Thomas Sutherland and Mike Naccarato. Rachel Scherr joined on keyboards and vocals in 2011. They call Austin home. Their debut full length album 'This Looks Serious' set to be released on May 29th via Hozac Records.

'This Looks Serious‘ is the kill shot from Rayon Beach’s vast cannon of hits, and after its blast to the dome settles in, you’re in for a blurry ride through the bad neighborhoods of your mind, and this is one ride you won’t want to end. From the repugnantly reverberating, synth’d-out bass lines to the alien-like vocals draped over the ominously pumping rhythm, like a bloody sheet over an unexplained murder scene, Rayon Beach have planted themselves into their own forbidden garden of nightmarish delights, cultivating a thriving, toxic sound that leaves a hideous film on anything it touches. This LP delivers twelve prime space-junk punk cuts in it’s rawest form, a writhing, undulating, twisted ball of melodic/neurotic damage that will putrefy the pundits and cauterize the cognoscenti into blabbering, useless piles of flesh. - http://hozacrecords.com

http://rayonbeach.com/

Video: Wild Child in the Do512 Lounge

We invited Wild Child to play a Do512 Lounge Session last weekend. As you can probably tell from the video, plenty of fun was had. (Deer Tick and Turbo Fruits also made the day a memorable one.)

Wild Child will soon be hitting the road for a Summer tour, but before they do the band will play a free show in Austin this Thursday at the Belmont.

• http://www.wildchildsounds.com/

Explosions In The Sky - "Postcard From 1952"

Inspired by found family snapshots from the 1950s, "Postcard From 1952" is a seven minute journey through memories of life magnified by time. As the filmmakers expand and explore these frozen moments, deeper human stories reveal themselves from within the details. The song is from the 2011 Explosions In The Sky Album "Take Care, Take Care, Take Care."

Co-director Peter Simonite was one of the 2nd unit cinematographers who worked on Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life." With "Postcard From 1952", he and Annie Gunn marry an intense appreciation for the visual textures of life to the sweeping, epic music of Explosions in the Sky. Life is beautiful, painful, and fragile.

Explosions in the Sky have also just announced their North American June tour. For tour dates, please go to www.explosionsinthesky.com.

RIP MCA