The Austin Chronicle is offering up tickets to a series of free day shows this year, over at the newly-created SXSW Live space inside the Austin Convention Center. A limited number of space-available passes will be distributed at Cheapo Discs next Wednesday, March 14th, from 2-5pm. Badges and wristbands are not required. The lineup: Thursday, Mar 15 The Lone Star Lounge 2pm Tracy Lawrence 5pm Razorlight 7pm Marc Broussard 9pm Brandi Carlile The Bat......

We went to see David Gray with Aqualung last Saturday. You know – to get our live music fix since there’s so little in the way of live music going on in this town over the next couple of weeks. The show was at the Backyard and the evening was balmy and breezy – perfect for sitting next to the huge new Walmart under the sprawling old oak trees beneath the stars and listening......

Stockholm's Shout Out Louds were one of our favorite bands at SXSW this year. Opening for the New York Dolls at Stubb's alongside Kasabian, Aqualung and Bloc Party, their onstage ebullience infused the night with exactly the sort of pomp and circumstance to get the capacity crowd in a rabid frenzy. Since then they've come into their own, releasing their international debut album, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff, to widespread acclaim and blanketing most of......

We went to see Aqualung last night at the McCullough Theater on UT campus. If you were there, you know what a fantastic show it was. If you weren’t, that’s too bad. We don’t mean to rub it in, but you really missed out, man. The first thing that deserves mentioning is the theater itself. We had never been to McCullough Theater and frankly, we didn’t even know it existed. It’s right next to......

M O N D A Y [ 2 1 ] music · Elizabeth McQueen and Jason Robards at Threadgill's music · MC Chris (Adult Swim), Snmnmn, The Ergs, America is Waiting, Bring Back the Guns and Karaoke Underground at Emo's music · Redrum and Music Lab put on Battle of the Bands 3! holidays · Marble Falls' Walkway of Lights kicked off last weekend, but you can see it through December 2nd - "meander through......

The UT Performing Arts Center is hosting An Evening With Aqualung, who return to Austin following a much talked about performance at SXSW. Aqualung will be playing in the intimate setting of McCullough Theatre next Tuesday, November 22. And if you have not seen a show at this 400-seat theatre, believe us when we say it is a rare treat. Led by Matt Hales, Aqualung plays contemplative, atmospheric pop with a classical tinge. And,......

This Ausintist loves KUT and has for over 20 years. John Aielli, Jeff McCord, Larry Monroe and Angela Miller and many more are the voices I associate with solid music programming and I often turn to them for the soundtrack of my day. That said, John Aielli's interviews last week with Smog's Bill Callahan and Tuesday with Aqualung's Matt Hales highlight the need for someone else more knowledgeable or interested to step in for......

For quite a long time, Austinist was oblivious to our friends' references to British singer-songwriter Matt Hales, better known as Aqualung, as "that guy with the VW jingo." We tend to be repulsed by corporate sloganeering, particularly those of the rather catchy sort; we also never got around to buying a television. It was only by sheer coincidence that Aqualung happened to play the same SXSW show as our current Britrock obsession, Bloc Party;......

You may want to sleep in today, because the rest of the week is packed with plenty of sights and sounds to keep you exhausted and bleary-eyed! MONDAY [music/swing-dancing] Paris 49 weekly set at the Continental Club, 6:30-8:30. No Cover! [music?] Karaoke! at Beerland, 9pm TUESDAY [music] British singer-songwriter Matt Hales, AKA Aqualung, at The Parish [in-store] Aqualung at Waterloo Records, 5pm [film] Austin Film Society screens Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solyaris" at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, 7pm......

Musicians always claim that Austin is one of their favorite cities to play, and while this makes perfect sense to us and we hope that it's their honest opinion, we never really know if they're just buttering us up, before moving on and claiming that Houston is the coolest city in Texas. So it warms Austinist's heart and reassures our ego when we hear public praise of our fair city. Cary Brothers, whose song "Blue......