After Van Halen, Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead, and Jay-Z all elected to skip Austin on their spring US tours, it's not unreasonable to feel that our music-loving town seems to be off the radar of the arena pop and rock circuit. This despite a perfectly functional (if rather dated) basketball arena smack in the center in town. Thankfully, the Louis Vuitton Don Kanye West agrees with you, and has elected to show Austin some big-production love with a date here at The Frank Erwin Center in late April....

Between now and January, New Release Tuesday will focus on 2007 reflections and music news related to both this year's releases and 2008's potential. The standard NRT posts will resume in 2008. As 2007 winds down, most of the Internet begins to consider their favorite releases of the last twelve months. Austinist is no different: our top albums of 2007 (a collective list based on all the writers' top picks) is in the works.......

Image from the Pipettes MySpace. the Pipettes with Nicole Atkins and the SeaWednesday, November 7The Parish Room (214 East Sixth Street)$12 in advance, All Ages, Door at 8 p.m.[info] | [tickets]Get your 1960s retro fix with the Pipettes, headlining tonight at the Parish Room. The self-aware manufactured 1960s girl group vibe is somehow much more fun than it sounds, and the Pipettes won our hearts when they put out that deadpan Beyond the Valley of......

José González In Our Nature (Mute) Last year, González talked to us about the never-ending tour schedule, the slow process of songwriting, and how his next record --well, this record-- would focus on the guitar. His first full-length, Veneer, wooed us back in 2003, and though Gonzalez has been touring fairly relentlessly in support of it, he has found time to put together this work, a ten song album that sounds quite similar to......

Since 1975, Grammy Award winners BeauSoleil have charmed audiences as being one of the most heralded and esteemed Cajun groups in American music history. Band leader Michael Doucet artfully takes the rich traditions of Louisiana culture and blends other southern folk elements such as Zydeco, Jazz, Tejano, Country, Blues to astonishing effect. Beau Soleil have played The Grand Ole Opry, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and the Newport Folk Festival in the past.......

Luciano Pavarotti, widely regarded as the world's finest living tenor, passed away this morning at his home in Italy. Pavarotti had been battling pancreatic cancer since 2006, and was hospitalized in August of this year as a result of ongoing struggles with the disease. Known as the 'King of High Cs,' Pavarotti popularized opera and classical music more than any of his contemporaries, particularly in the U.S., bringing the genre to the forefront of American......

Wisecracking aside, lots of really excellent things have come out of Jersey.* Things like Bruce Springsteen and Zach Braff and the Wrens. This weekend, the Wrens will be wrapping up what has been a four-year, weekends-only tour of the country, supporting their album the Meadowlands. But, the boys in the band will be taking a breather only after playing Emo's this Friday night. The four-year tour might seem a bit excessive, but it came at......

Jesse Malin might not be a household name, but he's certainly made the rounds as one of the more prolific songwriters out there in recent years. A former member of Heart Attack and D Generation, Malin progressed to a solo career after a stint with Ryan Adams in The Finger. His latest release, Glitter in the Gutter, features a Replacements cover and a duet with Bruce Springsteen. Malin plays Thursday at Stubb's and is......

The Hold Steady have been holding, er, steady in the limelight since 2004, picking up a Village Voice cover here and a best album of the year there (2006: The Onion’s A.V. Club), and just generally best-ing all over the place: they were Blender’s 2006 Band of the Year and made it to Rolling Stone’s annual album ranker at number 8. Critical acclaim blah blah blah. The big hit from the big album Boys......

TUESDAY [8] music • Bruce Springsteen Tribute with Southpaw Jones, Matt the Electrician, Scrappy Jud Newcomb, Nathan Hamilton, Abia Tapia, Graham Weber, JJ Barron, Nakia at Cactus Café (FREE, 8pm) music • Elf Power, AM Syndicate at Emo's music • Ryan Shaw at Stubb's music • Jimmy LaFave at Waterloo Records (5pm, Free) music • Cathar, Fire vs Extinguisher, Connie Ball at Beerland music • The Mohawk Residency with White Denim, Brazos at The Mohawk......

Yes, the holidays are here. Not only does this mean Christmas-themed beers and colder weather, but it also heralds the ubiquitous radio station holiday concert. Tonight, it's 101X's turn, as they bring a triple bill of artists to the intimate room at Antone's. Headlining is New Jersey's Pete Yorn, a guy who obviously listens to lots of earnest stuff like Bruce Springsteen. Luckily for Pete, Bruce is this year's band to emulate, so songs......

Loud enough for college parties but cute enough to go on your sister’s bedroom wall, sharp enough for wizened indie kids but soft enough for your mom, the endlessly promotable Las Vegas quartet The Killers have balanced themselves between the normally exclusive worlds of rock and pop with a headline-ready alacrity unseen since the heyday of Duran Duran. Their second CD, Sam’s Town, came out Tuesday, and will no doubt outsell everything in existence....

Last night’s Tapes ‘n Tapes show was pretty boss, even though Bruce Springsteen never showed, which wasn’t a surprise, really, since he was never even rumored to show up, anyway. Is it wrong to secretly wish that The Boss might drop by for a song or two at some random venue? No, it’s not. [Ed. Note -- where are we going with this?] Regardless, the show was great. All three bands -- Cold War......

Anybody familiar with Alejandro Escovedo's music knows it's very hard to describe Al's style. Once called the Mexican Bruce Springsteen, Escovedo's music is full of life -- and all the trials and tribulations that come along with it. Alejandro's compositions range from the quiet yet lush to the overly aggressive punk stomp. But for these special performances, Alejandro goes acoustic and surrounds himself with a string quartet whose musical abilities and nuances brings tears......

Two great shows coming to town this weekend: Check out Bright Eyes, The Faint, and openers Airborn Audio on Saturday night at Stubb's. We were there for the start of Bright Eyes' Digital Ash in a Digital Urn tour at Coachella last month, which featured a pretty nifty multimedia setup synchronized to the synthesized beats. Our friend was mildly dismayed by Conor Oberst's attempt to assemble a massive ensemble - from the far end......