Where you haven't been so far is at the Sidecar Pub on Tuesdays -- unless you're from Austin. Peron Einkauf reports that Austin's Sundowner is wiping the floor with the competition at his Tuesday-night People's Choice Band Challenge, and furthermore, that they are outdrawing local competitors by a factor of four. Quite amazing (and shaming), considering that Sundowner is based 200 miles away and the contest is held on Tuesdays. Houston modern rockers Deep Ella and heavy rockers Dereistic are running second and third, respectively, in the chase for $2,500 cash and 16 hours' studio time. The contest ends December 14.

Scuttlebutt Caboose

Atomic Age Records is staging a concert/ punk rock garage sale at Mary Jane's on October 18. If you have a punk band and are willing to play the gig for no money, they want to hear from you. The event stretches from dusk to the wee hours, so they're gonna need about ten or so bands who definitely are not up on their musician's union dues. A tiny cover charge will entitle attendees to rummage through and buy various (presumably punk) flotsam and jetsam and to scarf down an (also presumably punk) plate of free food. Interested bands should e-mail [email protected]…Local bands Elsa Mira, 24 Count and Sly Letter all broke up this summer. Sly Letter announced their demise a mere ten days after their write-up in the Chronicle, which shows how much good an article in that rag will do for you. No band that Racket has written about, on the other hand, has broken up until at least a month after his articles have run -- except the Suspects, and that's not really fair…Thanks to the Verizon Wireless Theater and B.B. King, $50 from every ticket sold in the first three rows at his September 26 show will be donated to the Project Row Houses El Dorado Ballroom restoration project. Project Row Houses spokesman Andrew Malveaux says the renovation should be complete by next spring…Would the last Texas country artist in Nashville please turn out the lights? Robert Earl Keen, Deryl Dodd, Ty Herndon, Jack Ingram and Junior Brown are the latest to leave their Music City labels…Compadre Records honchito Brad Turcotte reports that Billy Joe Shaver recorded all 15 tracks for his upcoming album, Freedom's Child, in a mere three days. While that album was recorded in Nashville, it will be released on Houston's own Compadre on November 19…Next week is the mother of all weeks for live touring music in Houston. The Clinic/Apples in Stereo/Lift to Experience bill September 27 at Mary Jane's is a fairly unbelievable piece of booking. Meanwhile at the Verizon that same night, H-town's progressive stoners can revel in the glory of the Queens of the Stone Age/…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead/Peaches tripleheader, while the mullets among us will be delighted to hear that Faster Pussycat and Pretty Boy Floyd are sharing a bill September 27 at the 19th Hole. Oh, yeah, the week also features Biz Markie and Jaheim at Max's 2002, Slobberbone at Rudyard's, and Christian Pearl Jam tribute band Creed at The Woodlands. Then there's the honky-tonk/alt-country/ Americana slate, which includes Kelly Willis, Monte Montgomery, John Prine and Iris DeMent, Calvin Russell, Kinky Friedman and Billy Joe Shaver, Hank III, Nickel Creek and Gillian Welch, Caitlyn Cary, Martin Sexton, Kevin Fowler, David Allan Coe, Reckless Kelly, Asleep at the Wheel, Delbert McClinton, Steve Young and Steven Fromholz, and Allison Moorer. Oh, yeah, Little Richard's coming to Galveston, too…It may well be dry out there, but none of you stoners has seen taunting billboards from the DEA saying, "If you think it's dry now, wait until October." It's an urban legend. A quick Internet search finds the same legend popping up in Minnesota in 1991, in Illinois in 1992, in Florida in 1998, and this year in Texas and Mississippi. (For some reason, the excruciatingly dry month is always September or October.) Racket has vague memories of hearing about these nonexistent signs in Tennessee circa 1990, but strangely he's never seen one, and neither has anybody he knows. It's always a friend of a friend. And why would the cops do that, anyway? To spike sales of hydroponic accessories? Some suspect the rumor was started by disgruntled pot growers preparing to go on strike, which would be almost logical.