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The smell of buttered popcorn wafts through the air. The overhead lights are dim, and a string of firefly light hangs above the outdoor seating, giving the feel that you’ve stepped into a theater from an era gone by. The bartender cranks out drinks as the intimate crowd murmurs and greets each other, as the event has become quite the community affair. As the lights go off and the movie begins, you are transported to another country. The film engrosses you, and for a while you forget you’re in a theater in the middle of Bryan, TX. It’s a Sunday afternoon well spent.

Every second Sunday of the month at 3:30 pm in Grand Stafford Theater is Second Sunday Foreign Film. Each month features a critically acclaimed movie from a different culture that is sure to open your eyes to movies you normally wouldn’t see in the U.S.

The films are always amazing, and the perfect ending to a weekend before the week starts all over again.

Have a seat under a string of firefly lights, the lights down low, with hot buttery popcorn in one hand and an alcoholic drink of your choosing in the other, and join us for a wonderful cultural movie on a Sunday afternoon.

Listening to Choro Das Três play is like being a part of history. The unique sounds of the Brazilian choro family band are reminiscent of days way-back-when and transport you to another continent. The perfection with which they play every note is something you see only in musicians who truly understand and love their craft with every piece of their heart. You can see the raw passion, the commitment to family, and the commitment to preserving a piece of history.

Choro Das Três is a Brazilian instrumental group of three sisters and their father that started in 2002. They play traditional Choro music, which is a form of urban jazz native to Brazil that shares a similar feel with New Orleans jazz or ragtime and bluegrass. Their mission is to revive the Choro tradition in Brazil and to spread it around the world.

They have three albums and have played for millions of people, including Brazilian presidents, governors, ministers, TV and radio shows, soccer stadiums, and concerts in the U.S. and France.

Want a sneak preview of the incredible music? Give it a listen here.

Choro Das Três will be performing at the Grand Stafford Theater on July 9, 2015 at 8:00 pm. Tickets are on sale now on the Grand Stafford Theater website.

Guitars wail as Joshua Sisco and Marco Pisterzi, the two lead singers of The Feeble Contenders, belt out thought-provoking lyrics against perfectly timed drums and bass. Their energy is electrifying, mesmerizing. The kind that you replay in your head over and over well after the show has ended. The kind you don’t soon forget about.

The Feeble Contenders are a five piece rock band from Central Texas who have toured the U.S. with big names such as Norma Jean, Listener, Before There Was Rosyln, Quiet Company, Octopus Project, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, and He Is Legend. Their EP is out now and they are set to release their first full-length album in the fall. Described as “thoughtful, spiritual and intoxicating, combining faith-based lyrics with hard-edged instrumentals” by IndieU, the up-and-coming band has gained quite the popular following already.

On the opposite spectrum, Pudge & Haley croon out sweet harmonies accompanied by soft acoustics. The duo play off of each other perfectly and captivate the crowd. Their love for music and their audience is unmistakable.

Pudge and Haley are a singer-songwriter duo from College Station. The two share a passion for music, performing, and bringing joy wherever they go. Their self-titled EP is available now on iTunes.

Fitting in with the folky acoustic music of Pudge & Haley, up-and-coming singer-songwriters Landon McGee and Chandler Dunn are indie folk musicians from Bryan, TX. McGee, whose music is reminiscent of folk king John Denver and the experimental indie pioneer Surfjan Stevens.

McGee serenades the crowd with an intoxicating mix of vocals and guitar. Dunn, whose style is described as clean and unique, blends multiple styles to create a sound all his own.

The Feeble Contenders, Pudge & Haley, Landon McGee, and Chandler Dunn are a few of the act you can catch at the July First Friday show at Grand Stafford Theater on Friday, July 3, 2015 at 8:00 pm. Admission is free but premium seating is on sale now on the Grand Stafford Theater website.

The evening will be full of drinks, live music, and fun. The premium seating option provides a table reservation for four people and four premium passes, which allows access to the second and third floor lounge as well as the top shelf bar.

Be sure to not miss it!

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For more information on The Feeble Contenders, check out their website here.

For more information on Pudge & Haley, check out their Facebook here.

For more information on Landon McGee, check out his EP here.

Aggie legend Max Stalling is playing this Friday, June 12th and we want you to be there!

 

To be entered for a chance to win two free tickets:

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Texas based songwriter, Max Stalling, had no expectation of ever being in the music business. “I didn’t even pick up a guitar until graduate school,” notes Stalling. After attending high school in South Texas, Stalling studied at Texas A&M – College Station, where he earned a masters degree in Food Science. He followed the corporate road from there and eventually landed in Dallas working in product development for Frito-Lay.

During this time, Stalling discovered the Three Teardrops Tavern and Dallas community radio station KNON. These outlets exposed a musical heritage to which Stalling had been nearly oblivious. Inspired by artists like Townes Van Zandt, Robert Earl Keen, Guy Clark, Lyle Lovett, and Jerry Jeff Walker, Stalling started writing songs, recording albums, and eventually touring with a full band to back him. Sixty thousand CDs later, Stalling joined musical greats Kris Kristofferson, Michael Nesmith of the Monkees, Selena, Guy Clark and many others when he received a star on the South Texas Music Walk of Fame in Corpus Christi. Stalling plays about 150 shows a year and is in the third year of a Budweiser sponsorship. His song “Scars and Souvenirs” was used as the title for an episode of Grey’s Anatomy in 2007 and he is featured on the CW Network’s Troubadour, TX television series. He is a former member of the Board of Governors for the Texas Chapter of NARAS and has been lucky enough to share the stage with most of the artists that inspired him to start writing in the first place.

Best of luck and happy sharing!

A dynamic team of award-winning multi-instrumentalists, MilkDrive has asserted a strong place in Austin’s growing bluegrass music scene.

 

Founding members of Austin’s self-dubbed progressive acoustic quartet, Noah Jeffries, Brian Beken, and Dennis Ludiker, met as competitors in an Idaho fiddle contest, and late-night jam sessions ultimately turned into MilkDrive. They migrated to Austin and added bassist Jesse Dalton to the mix, rounding out the band’s sophisticated sound.

MilkDrive launches their third studio album at the end of this month, Places You’ve Not Been. The first track on this record, “Take Too Long,” promises powerful vocal and instrumental harmonies with homegrown rock undertones. The organic talent woven throughout this self-produced album demonstrates the band’s widening influences and maturing talent. Though the addition of vocal layers to their sound has been a successful venture, led by main writer Brian Beken, songs like “Delephine” and “Orion’s Waltz” reminisce of the days when the band played solely non-vocal music, with a heavy emphasis on the strings that brought them together in the first place. However, their fans insisted upon the addition of lyrics, so the band introduced vocals to their sound and fell in love with songwriting. Lead vocalist and fiddler Brian Beken says, “It’s still weird talking about songwriting, it’s something so new and foreign to me, but probably what I get more enjoyment out of than anything.”

Be a part of this captivating acoustic experience, coming to Grand Stafford Theater in historic downtown Bryan, Texas, on Thursday, March 5.

Click here to purchase tickets.

Read more about MilkDrive here:

http://milkdrive.com/about/

http://www.rootsmusicreport.com/articles/view/milkdrive-releases-third-studio-album-places-you-ve-not-been

http://www.thebluegrasssituation.com/read/milkdrive-how-texas-string-band-found-its-groove

The 9^th annual Fun Fun Fun Fest (FFF, F3F) in Austin, Texas is right around the corner and that means it is now time to get start getting stoked for everything this year will have to offer, (assuming your stokage hasn’t yet begun.)

Like ACL and SXSW, FFF also has a cool abbreviation. But for those who have yet to experience a FFF, the amenities and entertainment are, at times, staunchly different from the other well-known festivals in Austin. As one of my friends so elegantly put it, FunFunFun is a “less cluster-fucky ACL with better music and beer, and skateboarding.” So really, what’s not to be excited about? Here are just a few things you should know about F3F 2014:

• You can still buy passes here! 1 Day, 3 Day, and Ultimate Smooth Passes are all still available.
• Any pass grants you free admission to FFF NITES which includes over 100 performing artists and a selection of aftershow-only sets.
• Food will be provided by over 20 vendors, including some of Austin’s most street-famous food trucks.
• There is a taco cannon. A cannon that shoots tacos.
• 250+ acts (many of which have yet to hit a national stage) across 4 more-or-less genre specific stages:
  • Orange Stage – folk/indie/alternative
  • Blue Stage – hip hop/R&B/electronica
  • Black Stage – metal/punk/hard rock
  • Yellow Stage – comedy
• The Volcom skateboarding team will be there with a full roster skating the Volcom Super Collider, a course as ridiculous as the name entails. There will be tricks, and there will be blood.
• You can start mentally preparing yourself now with the FFF app which offers all of the set times, maps, a Taco Locator, as well as the full NITES schedule.

But with all of this excitement to see, how can one possibly manage to get a full FFF experience!? Chill. Allow me to offer some perspective. Below is a short list of my FFF “must-sees” and small explanations as to why.

• Atmosphere – This indie-rap duo just so happens to be my favorite thing of all time ever. So much so that I have a tattoo artist’s rendition of an Atmosphere album cover that takes up nearly all of my left ribcage. Bias aside, I can honestly attest to the fact that Atmosphere puts on one of the greatest live hip-hop shows ever (this will be my fourth one). This isn’t your average emcee rapping over a pre-recorded mp3 instrumental. This is a full live band playing a selection of emotionally driven tracks from a catalogue of over 300 songs. Given the underground following that emcee Slug and deejay Anthony Davis have garnered over the last decade and a half of work, you can bet your ass that this crowd will be one of the most energetic audiences at FFF this year. Atmosphere is widely credited with creating the American independent rap scene.

• Nas –  The father of modern hip-hop. More than just the greatest of all time (GOAT), Nas is the GOAT’s GOAT, he’s your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper. Since 1994, Nas has released eight consecutive platinum and multi-platinum albums and sold over 25 million records worldwide. His first album, 1994’s “Illmatic” is usually referred to as the hip-hop bible. When it comes to rapping over beats. Nas literally wrote the book.

• King Diamond – Because of this scene from “Clerks 2” and because King Diamond is flat out the heaviest of metals. They should probably be handing out buckets to this show so people’s faces don’t melt off onto the ground.

• Judas Priest – As a child, my dad would often violate traffic laws while I was in the car with him. Things like running red lights, not using a blinker, speeding, etc. Everytime he did, he would sing the chorus of Judas Priest’s ‘Breaking the Law,’ something he still does to this day. Judas Priest literally invented leather-metal. Listen to ‘Hell Bent for Leather’ or ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Coming’ and try to tell me you don’t want to at least hear this legendary metal band from afar.

• Modest Mouse – Do I even need to explain myself? ‘Float On’ will be forever be a staple of this generation. This band was indie before you or I even knew what indie was.

• Dinosaur Jr. – This band is the bee’s knees, his legs and his arms. Feedback, distortion, classic rock influence, and lyrically angsty enough to get you through puberty again. This three-piece rock dynamic managed to make it out of the 80’s era of rock and continue to release solid albums, live and studio, as recent as 2012. You can’t deny the talent behind 20 years of making music and playing shows.

To be honest, my “must-see” list includes about 50 artists/bands. Consider the above as a backbone for any and all FFF attendees. Even if the music isn’t enough to shiver your timbers, events like the Air Sex Championship and Live Action Battle Rap (plot twist: definitely not what you think it is) are enough reanimate the dead.

To put it bluntly, you’d have to be Hellen Keller in a hazmat suit to find yourself not enjoying this year’s FunFunFun Fest.

You can listen to a Spotify playlist put together by FunFunFun Fest here to introduce yourself to some of the bands you might not know, and make sure you’re properly prepared for the ones you do know

Also, you can check out (and follow) my personal playlist updated on the weekly. No rules, just 13 tracks guaranteed to tickle your hear-holes in a good way: The Weekly Dyl

 

– Dylan Huddleston

As part two of our Intern Spotlight series, allow me to present another one of the amazing human beings you can find running around the Grand Stafford office and theater.

Meet Drew. He assists in multiple departments around here, but I know him as an editorial sensei. He sees everything I type before it hits the blog and is always there to fix my silly mistakes. On top of that, he’s a way talented writer. I got Mr. Knight to answer some questions for me and hopefully shed some light on his identity for all of your curious readers out there. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, Drew Knight.

 

 

-Give us the low-down on how you ended up at the Stafford and what it is you do here?

– I had a friend freshman year who was one of the original interns and he told me about the internship. I went to a show that Defacto put on (The Rocket Summer at Wolf Pen Creek) and talked to Jose, then I applied, interviewed and I’ve been helping out ever since!

– What is your favorite Stafford memory?

– My favorite Stafford memory was opening night. When I started the internship, we were working together to get the Stafford reopened. We saw the theater before any renovations were done and was really cool seeing it rise up out of the ashes.

– Favorite musical experience?

– My favorite musical experience was seeing MGMT at FunFunFunFest last year. Jose was able to hook us up with free tickets for helping out with the festival’s publicity. They were on my bucket list of bands I have to see before I die and being able to see them from the rail was rad. There was all kinds of funny things in the air…

 -If you had an opportunity to change something about the music industry, what would it be?

– I wish people still bought physical copies of albums. The Internet is like a double-edged sword for helping out the music industry: It’s super easy to find out what your favorite bands are up to, but it’s also easy just to stream their music or download it in other non-legal ways. I just think it’s unfair that there’s so much money artists are getting shorted of these days.

–Who is your favorite artist/band?

– It changes from week to week, but I’ve really been into The 1975 lately. I think their sound is pretty different from a lot of other alternative artists on the charts, and their super chill and they’ve got awesome style.

-What are the last 5 songs on your “Recently Played” list?

– “Robbers” by The 1975

– “400 Lux” by Lorde

– “Of the Night” by Bastille

– “Little Death” by The Neighbourhood

– “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High” by Arctic Monkeys

-Would you rather go blind or deaf?

– Blind for sure. I just think it would be easier to go through life without sight than without hearing. I don’t think I’d be able to survive without being able to listen to music.

-Where did your appreciation for music come from?

– My dad, a teen in the 70s, always played 70s rock like Tom Petty and The Eagles on road trips, which I think had a big factor. But I was also kind of a weirdo in high school and listened to a lot of pop-punk, which gave me a lot of dumb angst and made me feel like I belonged somewhere else.

-Aside from the Stafford, where else do you go on a night out in Downtown Bryan?

– Murphy’s Law Trivia Nights! They have great deals on beer and it’s a lot of fun to share a pitcher with friends and realize how bad we are at trivia.

-Do you have any embarrassing stories about Jose?

– He’s a great dancer. Enough said.

 

 

 

– by Dylan Huddleston