To quote The Specials, this town is too freaking hot. How hot? It's so hot even the squirrels are fanning their nuts, and summer has only just arrived. Thank goodness Deep Eddy Pool's Summer Spash Party Movie Nights have arrived.

Explosions in the Sky's Take Care, Take Care, Take Care is an album of firsts: vocals, samples, and even something resembling a radio single (the drone missile "Trembling Hands"). Add to that list the band's debut video, an animated sequence by the Austin design studio Ptarmak for "Last Known Surroundings."

If the road to council approval of Formula One wasn't bumpy enough already, this pothole has bust open: a lawsuit against state comptroller Susan Combs, seeking to prevent her from releasing state funds to the racing giant.

It's time for the summer's hottest event, Kitty Palooza at the Town Lake Animal Center.

What do Lope Gutierrez-Ruiz and Michelle Benaim, art aficionados and recent transplants from Venezuela, have waiting for the reading and art-loving public at this party?

They call Nashville home, but the Greencards still have a warm spot in their hearts for Austin. Now a quartet, the band originally came together here early in the last decade, and is celebrating the release of The Brick Album with an in-store at Waterloo Records today, 5pm, and a show at Threadgill’s World HQ Thursday evening.

Considering the number of practitioners it has attracted, there still does not seem to a suitable descriptor for the current wave of super-heavy, super-slow, super-precise bands. Post-rock is not quite right, post-metal seems dismissive, and downtuned is too broad a term. Doom jazz, anyone?

With this Thursday being City Council's final meeting until the end of July, you know it's gonna be a doozy. The 139 item agenda for this week's meeting, the final one with Randi Shade on the dais, contains action on Formula One, pedicab regulation, the return of Willie's statue, controversial development issues, and Fun Fun Fun Fest, naturally.

Soul channeler Akina Adderley & the Vintage Playboys knocked out an RSVP house at the Palm Door with a sweaty set of hot and sultry R&B for the June 21st edition of Paper Cuts, the Chronicle's live music series at the Palm Door, sponsored by Capital Metro, and featuring goodies from Imperial Beer, Tito's Vodka, Sweet Leaf Tea and Tandoori Bistro.