Let's not mince words: when Cat Power comes to town, it's pretty much mandated by law that you attend. This is because not only will you be able to witness one of the most shockingly talented vocalists in the world, but you also may learn a thing or two. For those who don't remember, let's do a brief recap of what we learned last time the timeless (and timelessly eccentric) soulstress was in town: that Chan Marshall, the woman behind the voice, is on steroids, that she was born deaf, that she wants to shoot her monitors, that she likes to apologize to the crowd, that she was born deaf, that steroids make you angry (and that's why they make you stronger), and on and on she went with her pearls of wisdom. Pretty much, she's a spectacularly unpredictable bounty of non-sequiturs and stunning musicianship....

What would you get if you snatched up Bob Dylan while he was sitting backstage at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963, strapped him to the rather large hood of a Chevrolet K20 pickup and drove through the deserts and ranches of the Southwest finally making your way across to the southern states and stopping for an extra long time in Tennessee? What if he soaked it all up and adopted a little more of the sounds, culture and twang? Well, he’d be a lot like Randy ‘Bag’ Reynolds and company. Saturday night at Hole in the Wall you’ll be able to make your own assessment when locals Leatherbag make their way to the stage sometime around midnight. Between tunes of cello, slide guitar and smokey vocals and others full of fuzzy guitar and brash rock and roll sounds, there exists a captivating balance of sentiment and flat-out fun. ...

There was no escaping the gravity of Austin in 2007. Three major festivals drew artists, labels, promoters and press from around the world. Critically and commercially, Spoon was an undeniably dominating force. Production power increased with the emergence of C3 Presents, a joint venture between heavyweights Charles Attal, Charlie Jones and Charlie Walker. Yet our unique universe still grows from within. Bands like Okkervil River and businesses like Transmission Entertainment continue to expand our horizons. My best of list is a celebration of what makes the Austin music scene independent and innovative....

Abby Birds provide delightful pop ditties to our yearning ears this Thursday evening at Room 710. Although the venue is largely known for its raucous rock acts, Abby Birds headline a bill showcasing the softer side of the Red River spot. Singer/guitarist Nathan Crawford is already somewhat of a veteran on the scene, having sold his 4-track, home recorded cassettes at Sound Exchange (R.I.P.) and 33 Degrees (R.I.P.) since the mid-'90s. Abby Birds formed in 2005 and a debut record featuring the band's brand of harmonious pop, the kind that keeps your head bobbing throughout, is in the works....

To commemorate the day on which the pilgrims invented persistence of vision, Hollywood is releasing a whole bunch of movies in the middle of the week. There's a little something for everyone, from horror-thriller to arthouse-biopic to barfbag-melodrama. The Mist After the titular mist engulfs a small Northeastern town, a group of folks trapped in a local supermarket must work together to survive a monster attack. But when the poo hits the fan, the line......

Doctors plugged an Italian tourist into a drip-feed of vodka to save him at a hospital in Australia that ran out of the medicinal alcohol it would normally have used for treatment. Plants chatter amongst themselves to spread information, a lot like humans and other animals, new research suggests. Actor Nick Nolte is a father again at age 66 after his British girlfriend of several years, Clytie Lane, gave birth to the couple's first......

Dallas native Ben Kweller is an interesting tangle of contradictions. He's 26, but his first major label album was released a decade ago. Kweller is an indie rock star, but lives in a Brooklyn brownstone with his longtime wife and young son. And his music is accessible and catchy, yet it hasn't quite found the large audience it deserves. Kweller returns to the Austin City Limits Festival for two shows this weekend to bounce......

ACL Previews Interview: Patterson Hood Del McCoury Band, Preservation Hall Jazz Band Jon Dee Graham, Kevin Devine, and Ike Reilly Assassination Beau Soleil & Will Hoges Rail Road Earth It's Official: Bob Dylan & His Band Set to Play Stubb's Aftershow So You Wanna See An ACL Taping Trent Summar, Steve Earle, & DeVotchKa Interview: Crowded House It's Official: Bob Dylan & His Band Set to Play Stubb's Aftershow Weekly Features The Accidental Gentrifist:......

As the rumor mill indicated earlier today, Bob Dylan is set to play an ACL aftershow at Stubb's on Saturday, Sept. 15. Doors at 8 PM, show at 9 PM. Tickets go on sale Wednesday September 12 @ 10 AM online only through Frontgate. For more information visit Stubb's Austin, or check back here at Austinist.......

Trent Summar’s story-telling capabilities and straight-up country sound drive his latest album, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades. His music has been covered by artists such as Jack Ingram (who scored a hit with his adaptation of Summar’s “Love You”) while Summar has also collaborated with country stars like Pat Green. (They co-wrote “Somewhere Between Texas And Mexico” off Green’s Lucky Ones record.) Summar fronted the band Hank Flamingo prior to working with The New Row Mob.......

Austin-based singer and guitarist Jon Dee Graham has a gravel-filled voice that calls to mind Tom Waits. Graham's songwriting is full of salt-of-the-earth wisdom, and his style is comfortingly familiar without being overdone or unoriginal. That said, Graham's style is too high-energy to get him lumped into the singer-songwriter category. Jon Dee Graham Austin, TX Latest Release: Full, 2006 Saturday the 15th, 4 p.m., Austin Ventures Stage Ike Reilly Assassination is the project of one......

JOSH RITTER What’s The Deal: Josh Ritter graduated from college with a major in American History through Narrative Folk Music, which makes the title of this folk-pop singer/songwriter’s recently released album, The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, fitting as well as boastful. He can boast all he wants with those hearty lyrics fat with imagery and the voluminous songwriting of this, his fifth album. Comparisons to Bob Dylan as well as John Lennon immediately come......

Billy Joe Shaver is one of those Texas music legends with a life story that sounds like country and western fantasy. His father abandoned the family before he was born, he lost 2 fingers in a sawmill accident, he lost his mother and wife to cancer and his son to drug overdose within a single year, and he suffered a heart attack on stage. But, Shaver has long channeled his pain into his music. For......

Let's get to it: ACL Fest organizers dropped the aftershow schedule yesterday, and it's fairly extensive. Stubb's, La Zona Rosa, The Parish, and Antone's will all host aftershows over the Thursday to Sunday that everyone is in town for the big event. Highlights include an intimate show from The White Stripes and Cold War Kids at Stubb's, an extra gig from Argentina's loungerific Gotan Project (also at Stubb's), appearances by Spoon, Common, and Queens......

Ben Kweller - Ben Kweller (ATO): Mr. ACL nosebleed's new disc is a strong rebound from 2004's sub-par On My Way. Despite Kweller's jangly, simple writing style, there is evidence of real maturity here, from the crisp Gil Norton production to the consistency of the material. There's nothing quite as catchy as "Wasted And Ready," but the album is a hook-filled, enjoyable indie-pop listen all the way through, and that's pretty rare these days.......

Bob Dylan - Modern Times (Columbia): From the opening notes of Modern Times, you can't help but feel that Dylan has been strongly influenced by his recent tours with Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. 'Spirit On The Water' and 'When The Deal Goes Down' each sound like Stardust-era Willie, while several other numbers channel vintage blues stomps and rockabilly in the vein of Haggard's 'Workin' Man Blues' with surprising freshness. The operative word for......

Whether you go down to the local record store or shop through the Tubes, today is new release Tuesday. Birdmonster No Midnight (SpinART) Despite the rock n roll media's underwhelmed response, No Midnight is going to be the biggest indie seller this week, quite easily. Considering the fact that they gained their audience primarily through the web, and were unsigned at the start of the year, it's a pleasant surprise to see such a......

Reggie Jackson c. 1977. Michelangelo c.1512. Muhammad Ali c. 1967. Henry David Thoreau c. 1846. Bob Dylan c. 1966. Stephen Colbert c. 2006. The Coen Brothers c. 1998. There are years when the greats really hit their strides, when their tools are at their sharpest. Everything they touch turns to gold. It's the one shining moment when they are indisputably the greatest in the world. For Joel and Ethan Coen, that moment came in......

We've just come across the incredibly sad news that Houston native Billy Preston has died of hypertension and kidney failure this morning in Arizona. Widely known as the "fifth Beatle" due to his fantastic organ parts on Abbey Road and Let It Be, Preston maintained a lifelong friendship with the Beatles, collaborating with John, Ringo, and George on 70's solo projects as well. Preston's resume is staggering: he played in the touring bands of......

You are a self-professed Daniel Johnston obsessive. Can you remember when you first heard about Daniel Johnston? I was a college radio DJ [in New Jersey], and word was trickling up from Austin, Texas, through this underground network of people--before there was an internet—through fanzine culture. I was reading a lot of fanzines, which was an underground publishing network. Word was trickling up through this network of a few hundred people around the country from......

It has recently come to our attention that, like your old crusty uncle who's too mean to die, the John Birch Society, which spent those good old Red Scare years faithfully outing pinkos and defending our borders, is still crouched in the corner in a rocking chair, issuing periodic proclamations about them damn immigrants and the necessity of keeping our precious national bodily fluids pure. Their national PR director, John F. McManus, is giving......

You may have heard that a certain filmmaker is in town for his own personal film fest. Well, he's also making national news, as Quentin Tarantino has reportedly agreed to come on board to direct the new biopic chronicling the life and times of Jimi Hendrix. The film, which has been stalled in development deals for what seems to be ages, has the approval of Hendrix's brother Leon and Jimi's estate. In ACL News......

We interviewed these guys a while back, and now they're back for SXSW: From band member Rodney: We've got a band called King Straggler (www.kingstraggler.com). We like to call what we do; 'Y'allternative'. It's three front-men, all writers, (backed by a smokin rhythm section). Whoever writes the song sings the lead vocal with the other two singing the three part harmonies. So our record, and shows are like a continually morphing collection of individuals......

*Update: this post has been revised after receiving some very helpful feedback. For a while now, we've been hearing good things about the Tonewheel Collective, a bi-weekly acoustic happy hour show on Thursdays hosted by members of some of Austin's best bands. Two weeks ago, we finally had the opportunity to experience it for ourselves. And, to put it succinctly: wow. Members of Tonewheel include Jared Van Fleet (Voxtrot, Sparrow House), Martin Crane and Mark......

-Keeping your cell phone on in London can get you kicked out of the theatre -Google aims to ease your holiday shopping ordeals -MTV's Real World: Austin ends tonight. Yawn. -The iTunes music store has become one of the top ten song sellers in the States -The hotly anticipated Xbox 360 hit stores today - and promptly sold out -Gary Glitter faces the death sentence in Vietnam after [allegedly] having sex with a 12-year......

Much like our friends who live in New York City, we rarely go above 14th Street. Only on truly special occasions do we venture into that hub of dive bars, bad food and overpriced clothing stores known as “campus.” Tonight, however, is one of those special occasions as three rocking bands hit the stage (er, platform in the corner) at the venerable Hole in the Wall. We know it’s smoky and loud there (yes,......

Tonight, Dallas-based retro sextet The Deathray Davies play a special show at Emo's to celebrate the release of their new LP, The Kick and the Snare. From starting off as an all-but unknown act at SXSW back in 1999, the indie popstars have since come to enjoy both modest celebrity and critical respect. Think delicate vocals, driving bass lines, and simple harmonies with influences ranging from Bob Dylan to New Wave to the Beach......

What a difference a year makes. It seems like only yesterday we spent our summer Mondays at Cedar Street Courtyard, sipping Lemon Drops and relaxing to the soothing sounds of Austin’s own Slowtrain. The band, which “borrows influences from everyone from Dave Matthews to The Band to Bob Dylan to Johnny Cash” (according to their website) is undergoing some changes so we haven’t heard much from them lately. However, we were happy to learn......

Austin was not built in a day. In fact, it has taken many decades of bong smoke to get to our own little version of nirvana. Recently, the Austinist had the distinct pleasure of meeting one of those folks that helped to carve out this beautiful town from the solid piece of marble it once was. Robert Wilkinson, you can check his blog out here is something of a zen'ed out philosopher/TV & Music producer......