Lite + Brite: 26 Sleazy Austin Events 1/19
Hello, what’s up, and welcome to the Lite + Brite newsletter.
This week brings dance party opportunities for a wide diversity of musical tastes. If you like indie sleaze (i.e. early 00s indie + electro), then you should know that DJ Brian Blackout is putting together a special themed set of music for Thursday’s No Lights No Lycra. Elsewhere, an Edgar Allan Poe-themed party offers opportunities to dance to goth, darkwave, and funeral pop, plus you can watch “go-go dancing by the Edgar Allan Hoes”—delightful! If you appreciate an underground techno rave, then good news for you: Body Mechanics is back after a five-month hiatus. If you’re a Dolly Parton fan, there are a couple party options for you. If all that sounds like TOO MANY INSTRUMENTS for you, then you can go to this show that’s only cellos. Or, if you’re too exhausted to dance at all, then just sit back and let some talented men dance for you. Separately, we have two data points indicating that zines are making a comeback, so do with that as you will. Scroll down for details on all this and plenty more.
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Let’s do fun stuff!
—Leila + Brian
liteandbriteatx.com
OUR STUFF
We’re hosting a special indie sleaze edition of No Lights No Lycra on Thursday, with lots of dancepunk, electroclash, blog house, dance + indie music from the early 00s. If you’ve never been, NLNL is the dance party we throw in near complete darkness in the big backroom at West China Tea. Brian Blackout normally spins a broad mix of anthems, obscurities, + guilty pleasures across many decades, except this time we’re focusing on a specific era. You can listen to a live recording of the last show we did to hear how it sounds, or scroll down for the full tracklist and more info.
No Humans Allowed returned to space this week for another cosmic journey, this time through a selection of spacey techno, house, new beat, and downtempo music of the 90s. Stream the show here or scroll down for the tracklisting. NHA broadcasts live every Wednesday at 6pm CT on kpiss.fm.
What is No Lights No Lycra?
Austin’s twice-monthly, judgment-free, substance-free, high-impact dance thing in the dark. It’s a DJ night that’s not at the club, a workout that’s not at the gym, a personal meditation that’s anything but silent. It’s produced by us, your kindly L+B overlords, and usually one or the other of us is on the hook for DJ duties. Read more about us in the Austin Chronicle. You can listen the kind of music we play over on Brian’s Mixcloud.
EVENTS WE’RE EYEING
Friday 1/19
- Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at Bass Concert Hall
“The world’s foremost gender-skewering comic ballet company” - Dolly’s Birthday Bash at Sagebrush
Live musicians + drag performers pay tribute to the queen of 9 to 5 - Body Mechanics at 820 Shelby
DJs happily blurring the lines between a dance party and a fetish party - Neon Rainbows: Welcome to Dollywood at Cheer Up Charlie’s
Neon Rainbows pays tribute to Queen Dolly w/drag + DJs
Saturday 1/20
- Austin Camerata CelloFest at the Cathedral
Cellists performing classical music, pop music, + many genres - Edgar Allan Poe Ball at Elysium
Celebrate Poe w/plague-themed cocktails, tarot, + DJs spinning gothic tunes - Quadrant v2.0 at dadaLab
Immersive quadrophonic electronic music performances w/live visual artists - Vintage Shopping Party Bus at Almost Real Things
Brb, rewriting Vengaboys lyrics to be about vintage buses coming - Honkytonk Catwalk at Sagebrush
A westernwear fashion show combines catwalks + cowboy boots - Ghost Tour at Pioneer Farms
A haunted hike through 19th century farm buildings - Opening Hours at the Sherwood Forest Zine Library
Read from Sherwood Forest’s extensive library of zines - Vast Is the Sea at Co-Lab Projects
Sound artists doing nautical presentations w/musical, dance, + video flourishes - (weekly thru 2/17) Frontera Fest Best of the Week at Hyde Park Theatre
“Alternative, offbeat, new, and just plain off-the-wall fringe theatre” - (weekly thru 2/17) Sextet at ColdTowne
“Improvised romantic comedy” centered around love + coupling
Sunday 1/21
- Doom Forge Day at Jester King
Celebrate brutality w/metal bands, swords, vikings, “bloodbaths,” + pastrami - Ós Creative Renaissance at ArtUs Co.
Creative meetup, book swap, + discussion of making art + its societal impact - Games Y’all at the Austin Public Library
Play + discuss indie games under development + meet the teams - The Shiny Market and Fire Jam at Shiny Things for Shiny People
Fire dancers, DJs, vendors, live painters, crystals, tarot, + potions
Monday 1/22
- (weekly) Hyperreal Film Club at Hotel Vegas
Check out a film by Canada’s answer to John Waters, eh
Wednesday 1/24
- Weenie Dog Races at Skinny’s
How fast can tiny legs carry you? Do they fit into buns? So many questions - Rooftop Sessions at the Contemporary Austin
Check out art exhibitions while listening to live music + a DJ
Thursday 1/25
- Give Me Every Little Thing: An Indie Sleaze Edition of No Lights No Lycra at West China Tea
Brian Blackout gets back to his roots w/a night of dancepunk, electroclash + indie dance - Milk Pour Awards at Try Hard Coffee
Try Hard’s slime-filled awards show in an early 00s Nickelodeon idiom - Spend Time Zine Mart Launch Party at Community Garden
Read + buy zines, eat some eats, listen to some DJed tunes - Shelter Building Workshop at Buzzmill
Learn how to lean into the ability to build a lean-to - Jigglewatts Burlesque Revue at the Spider House Ballroom
Classic burlesque troupe does their own twist on MTV + VJs
No Humans Allowed 178
Cosmic Journey III
This week, No Humans Allowed returns to space for another COSMIC JOURNEY. We returned to space via cosmic selections with heavy emphasis on early 90s space nostalgia.
Tracklist
Thomas Dolby – N.E.O.
Underworld – M.E.
Technosoft – Shooting Stars
The Irresistible Force – Space Is the Place
Overlords of the UFO – Imagine (RFX Edit)
Ursula Hybsch – Orgasm
Blaze – Moonwalk
Air – J’ai Dormi sous l’Eau (Château Flight Remix)
Violet Force – Planet E.
AC Fax – Eventide
Global Communication – 8 07
Tangerine Dream – Running out of Time (Casual Encounters Edit)
No Humans Allowed is Brian Blackout’s award-winning, dodgy European news coverage receiving, weekly robots-themed radio show on internet station KPISS.fm. Machine vibes 4 machines. Songs for robots, androids, mandroids, cyborgs, AIs, cylons, skinjobs, roombas, wifi routers, smart devices, anything colored Bondi blue, and virtual assistants. Humans not required. Broadcasts live every Wednesday at 6pm CT on kpiss.fm, with over 150 episodes now streamable in the archives on topics like and Beach Simulations, Roomba dance parties, undersea adventures + Cyber Texas.
No Lights No Lycra ATX 160
w/Brian Blackout
Recorded live in the dark at West China Tea House on January 11, 2024.
Listen to No Lights No Lycra 160
Tracklist
The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds (Pal Joey Mix)
John Grant – He’s Got His Mother’s Hips
Ssion – Inherit
Carly Simon – Why (Partner Music Edit)
David Bowie – Dance, Magic Dance
Britney Spears – Anticipating (Alan Braxe Remix)
Róisín Murphy – Murphy’s Law
Heavy D & the Boyz – Sister Sister
MARRS – Pump up the Volume
Luke Million – Ice Ice Arnie (Cool Party)
Kelis / B.W.H. – Milkshake / Stop
Lexsoul Dancemachine – Beef Grinder (RFX Edit)
The Dare – Girls
Justice – D.A.N.C.E.
Confidence Man – Feel Like a Different Thing
MSTRKRFT – Work on You
Technotronic – Pump up the Jam
Hot Chip – Hungry Child
New Order – Perfect Kiss
Kano – Super Extra Sexy Sign (Turelli Edit)
Fergie – Glamorous (M-town Remix)
Talking Heads – This Must Be the Place (Young Edits Sophisticated Melody Version)
Home – All at Once
PATREON THANKS
A huge thank-you to our Patreon subscribers Katie Green, Christina Jue, Colleen MB, Lilly Ettinger, Lena Long, Amalia Litsa, Jacob Rosenberg, Alexander Freed, Spencer, Kristen Backor, Timon A., Kate Murray, and Amy Wilde. We’re deeply grateful for your support, which allows us to do things like “pay our Mailchimp fee” and “spend hours researching Austin events when technically we should be working.”
If you’d like to support us on Patreon and get access to exclusive member-only benefits, you may do so here.
SOCIALS
Recent weeks found us celebrating “Bouncemas” at UT, partying with Art Island at the Coral Snake, and admiring art lamps at Highland Collective. Follow Lite + Brite on Instagram to keep up with our adventures. And come chat with us and the rest of the L+B community on our Discord server!
ABOUT US
How do we choose which events to feature?
Honestly, it’s pretty random. We might include anything in Austin that we, personally, would conceivably want to go to, generally excluding normal concerts, comedy shows, and movie showtimes because there are many other good resources for finding those. (We especially recommend Showlist for live music, The Darker Side of Austin for goth and metal stuff, and the 60+ Weirdest Things in Austin for exactly what it sounds like). This list is by no means exhaustive; it’s just stuff that caught our eye this week. If you have an event that you want us to consider including, send it over.
Who are we?
We make this newsletter. We do our own events, most prominently No Lights No Lycra (every second and fourth Thursday of the month). We once got called “local Austin couple” by KXAN. We do some other stuff here and there. We love going out to creative events in Austin, and we want you to join us. Visit us at liteandbriteatx.com, and support us on Patreon if you like what we do.