Singer and pianist Marcia Ball has consistently served up her infectious New Orleans/Gulf Coast/Texas brew over her near 40 years of playing music professionally. She has been an Austin and national favorite for decades, frequently earning Blues Music Awards and Grammy nominations for her albums. She has an in-store show scheduled at Waterloo Records (where she previously recorded a live album) on Wednesday the 30th. Listen to Marcia Ball in Studio 1a.

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Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department is backing away from a plan to hire a private company to run the Zilker Botanical Gardens.

The midnight announcement of the lineup for the Austin City Limits Music Festival has become an annual ritual. For KUT’s Texas Music Matters, David Brown reports the just-released roster for 2012 is already getting good reviews.

For music nerds who stay up late for the ACL announcement, there’s usually some degree of disappointment. But with headliners like The Black Keys, Neil Young and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, there’s not much complaining this year.

A music writer for CultureMap Austin, Dan Solomon is one of those self-described music nerds who stayed up late.

“I’m happy with it,” Solomon said. “There are some neat surprises this year. It’s a pretty impressive lineup in that it’s not as top-heavy as some lineups are.”

Assistant City Manager Robert Goode said $550 million was required to build the first proposed phase of urban rail, from the convention center through the UT-Austin campus to the Mueller neighborhood.

Cold Specks is the stage name of Al Spx, a young Canadian singer who burst onto the scene last year with her single “Holland.” Now living in London, Spx releases her debut album I Predict a Grateful Explosion today on label Arts & Crafts.

It’s been 40 years since the release of the classic—and only– album by Willis Alan Ramsey.  The greatest case of writers’ block in music history? Also, an evaluation of the just-released lineup for ACL Fest, plus breaking the glass ceiling for women in local music, the Gospel according to Austin, and lots more on the next Texas Music Matters.  Friday at noon and Friday night at 11 on KUT 90.5.

Back in the mid-nineties, when “alternative” was used to describe underground or independent music scenes, The Dandy Warhols got together in Portland, OR, founded by guitarist/vocalist Courtney Taylor-Taylor and guitarist Peter Holmström, along with drummer Eric Hedford. Keyboardist Zia McCabe was on board after Taylor-Taylor saw her working at a coffee house.

Word spread of the band’s impressive gigs – with a bit of notoriety over shows that the band treated as…well…clothing-optional, which is awesome – and it wasn’t long until they were signed to Capitol Records in ‘97. That led to the release of their second album and major label debut, The Dandy Warhols Come Down, a distinctive move away from their rougher garage rock/shoegaze-inspired sound to more psych-influenced tracks. Hedford left the band after some royalties’ disputes, and was replaced by Taylor-Taylor’s cousin, Brent DeBoe.

Over the years, the band experimented with several different genres on their albums, from psych to power pop and even synth-heavy ’80s-inspired styles. This year, they released their eighth album, This Machine, a much more stripped-down and mellow effort defined by a broader palette.

The Dandy Warhols are touring in support of their album, and that includes a stop in Austin for a show tonight at Emo’s East, 2015 E. Riverside Dr. High-octane rock quartet 1776 starts out the night. Doors open at 8 p.m.

With two LPs out already and supporters such as Bradford Cox of Deerhunter backing him, Colin Caulfield — the man behind the moniker Young Man — has quickly made a name for himself in the indie music world. Now, with his first full-length album Vol. 1, Caulfield has fleshed out a poppy sound that was more sparse in his previous work.

Travis County Commissioners unanimously approved using vote centers for the November 2012 Presidential Election.

Vote centers—or countywide polling places—give people the option to vote at any polling location in the county.

Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir says that vote centers are more convenient than traditional precincts and eliminate some confusion. She says that’s especially true considering that without the vote centers, the county would be required to add about 30 new polling locations for the November election because of redistricting.

Travis County Tax Office Voter Registration Director Dee Lopez says the redistricting changes affect most voters.

“Ninety-six percent have a change in either their district or their precinct. So you can see we’re such advocates of vote centers because people will be confused. They already are,” said Lopez.

During today’s meeting some expressed concerns about whether vote centers would increase the opportunity for voter fraud and whether the system would save the county money. But commissioners agreed with DeBeauvoir and Lopez that getting voters to the polls was most important.

Better known as a songwriter in the 60′s (he created the hits “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning”), Chip Taylor released a new album of his own called F*** All The Perfect People with his new European band, The New Ukrainians. It came out on his own record label Train Wreck Records earlier this year. The music video for the title track of the album has made the rounds on the World Wide Web and has garnered it plenty of interest.

A happy May Tuesday to you all! It’s starting to feel like summer up in here, what with the hot weather and the blockbuster movies coming out. But why spend all that money going to the movies when you can listen to this podcast for free? Sure, it’s nothing like a movie, but it’ll eat up some time and you can have some popcorn while you do it, so it’s close enough, right?

We’ve got two action-packed radio bits for you today, starting with Jake Warga’s Funny Thing Being Mugged. Jake’s a good guy and an O’Dark Hall-of-Famer, so we hate that he got mugged at all, but we’re glad he made some radio lemonade out of that real world lemon.

And then it’s the 2011 PRPD Benediction from Jay Allison. Jay’s a pretty big deal in the public radio world, and this is your chance to hear his cool speech from last year’s Public Radio Program Directors’ conference without all the shame and heartache of actually being a public radio program director.

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Austin’s Formula 1 Grand Prix race weekend is Nov. 18, and merchants are prepping for an influx of fans. KUT’s Emily Donahue spoke with Vicky Garza of the Austin Business Journal about the upcoming event, and what kinds of prep work are required.

When families moved into the Las Lomitas subdivision back in 2002, they had no idea they’d live without running water for 10 years.

Marissa Nadler is a bit of a renaissance woman. She’s not only an outstanding singer and songwriter, but she’s also an accomplished visual artist. She brings an artist’s eye to her songwriting.

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