So the time is ripe for the 2008 SXSW Music Festival and what better way to lead into that madness than with a host of quality bands at Emo’s to kick off this weekend. Friday marks the CD Release show for local outfit What Made Milwaukee Famous. Officially released on March 4th, What Doesn’t Kill Us will be available for purchase during the show; the album finds the band maturing into a polished rock act while maintaining their keen ear for pop melodies, their expert arrangements of well-crafted tracks, and their penchant for catchy guitar hooks. Check out the video for “Sultan” off the new album via YouTube here....

Local noise brokers Horse + Donkey dropped their eponymous full-length recently and this Saturday, The Hole In The Wall hosts an official CD release show to celebrate this fine collection of droning post-rock. Opener “At A Station” along with standouts “Dot Dot” and “Riddle” will be familiar to the band’s loyal fans from their live performances; the tracks blend surf rock and psychedelic guitars with wonderfully dark and echoing vocals to create a dreary haze of dissonance. It is often impossible to decipher the lyrics on Horse + Donkey but that only adds to the mystique of it all. “Things” seems to be about some impending doom, “Shoal Heirs” and “Amorous Mare” tell tales we’d love to hear with clarity, and good luck decoding the words and howls in “S.F. S.A.” or “Big End.”...

FRIDAY [27] music • While You Were Out, presented by Bueno Music Bureau, with The Unbearables, She Sir, The Scripts, Friday After Dark at Club de Ville ($5) books • Anita Gonzalez, Ph.D., presents Dancing Between Myth and Reality at CAAAS (UT - Jester A232) (3:00pm) comedy • Tig Notaro and Steve Burr at Cap City Comedy Club comedy • Punchline, open mic stand up comedy at ColdTowne Theater (10pm) dance • Fetish and Other......

THURSDAY [12] music • The Carrots, The Interest Kills (LAST SHOW) at The Mohawk music • ME TV's monthly Austin Music Foundation benefit series, "Emerging Artists," with The Dedringers, Nakia and His at Antone's (8pm, $5) music • Alex Dupree and the Trapdoor Band, Jeff Klein, The Normans at Emo's music • Twilight Broadcast CD Release Show with Loss Rayne, Goldcure at Stubb's music • DJ Omari's Soul Party, with the Rock and Roll......

FRIDAY [9] art • Grand Opening Party for DRAW, 150 artists strong at Gallery Lombardi (7pm - 10pm) comedy • Todd Barry, Matt Bearden at Emo's Lounge music • Deerhoof, Macromantics, Experimental Dental School at Emo's music • Primordial Undermind at End of an Ear (6pm, Free) music • The Everyday People CD Release Show with The Hero Factor, Live Oak Decline at The Parish Room music • Lucinda Williams, Heartless Bastards at Stubb's......

THURSDAY [8] film • Super Happy fun Monkey Bash 5 at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • Now That's What I Call a Singalong: Pop Royalty at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • Terror Thursday: The Beast Must Die at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown art • Opening Reception for "In My Stairwell" by Mark Seliger at Fielding Lecht Gallery (6-9pm) art • Artistic License: Matthew Day Jackson at The Blanton (6-7pm) art • Public Tour: The Geometry......

TUESDAY [10] film • AFS Essential: The Romantic Englishwoman at Alamo Drafthouse (7pm) ® film • The Flower of My Secret at Arbor (2:45pm & 7:30pm) ® film • Talk to Her at Arbor (12:10pm, 5:05pm, 10pm) ® film • Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause at The Space (8pm, Free) ® film • Yellow Submarine at Alamo Drafthouse (9:45pm, $2) film • Beetlejuice at Rounders Pizzeria (9pm, FREE) film • SXSW Presents: The......

Golden Bear's CD release show is this Friday at the Flamingo Cantina, and if you're like us, you've been waiting to get your hands on some sweet Bear rock for far too long. The Channel and Driftin’ Luke & His Many Personalities will round out the bill. Golden Bear's sound is a mix of familiar pasts in your parents' record collection fused with some of your favorite sounds of today, drawing influences from My......

With national gas prices soaring past that dreadful $3-per-gallon mark, most of us at Austinist have had to rework our upcoming roadtrip plans. But what about our city's vast legions of musicians? Summer's a great opportunity for bands to get out for a bit of stateside touring, but it's hard enough for most indepedent artists simply break even -- especially when you've rented a jalopy of a gas-guzzling touring van to house all those damned......

Congrats to the winners of our Calexico calendar giveaway: Jennifer Walker, Mike Dickinson, Claudette Waddle, Michael Hoke, and Seth Miller! And remember that End of an Ear and KGSR are bringing the band to Emo's this Saturday for a free show. Today we're giving away the brand-spankin' new release by Austin's The Arm, dubbed by Fake DIY as "Art Brut with an extra portion of Gang of Four for good measure." Call You Out, put......

Some say that we have a "hard-on" for Ghostland Observatory. And they're probably right. But that does little to change the fact that the GLO - Aaron Behrens (vocals/guitar) and Thomas Ross Turner (keys/beats/vocoder) - are one of Austin's most talented indie electronic duos. Austinist contributor J.G. summed it up rather well last month: GLO evokes the seventies underground art-beat of Georgio Moroder, Sparks, Metal Urbain while infusing it with the dirtier glitter of......

F R I D A Y [ 13 ] [party] Box Magazine, purveyors of tastefully-obscured softcore porn, are throwing another swank launch party to celebrate the release of Issue 2 - this time at The Peacock. DJs, "debaucherous times," and a special performance by Skinny Boy Burlesque. [music] Heard on Veronica Mars Featuring David Garza, Fire Marshals of Bethlehem, Daylight Titans, and Rite Flyers at Stubb's BBQ [in-store] AUX CD Release Show at End of......

: : FRIDAY : : [music] De La Soul & Rahzel @ La Zona Rosa, 9pm [music] Brian Jonestown Massacre @ The Parish, 10pm [in-store] American Momo CD Release Show @ End of an Ear, 6pm [comedy] "Charlie and the Non-Existent Biological Weapons Factory" by Gag Reflex @ Hyde Park Theater, 8pm - $10 [dance] "AZTLAN Underground" @ Santa Cruz Center for Culture, 8pm - $12 [theater] "The Three Cuckholds" by the Tongue and......

So A Flock of Seagulls won't be playing Elysium tonight, but there are a few great shows happening around town that are bound to tickle your fancy...pants. IF YOU LIKE ... The Rapture, The Faint, or tight pink jeans: Rock out with electroclash wizards Ghostland Observatory at Karma Lounge @ 10pm. They're fresh off a hugely successful East Coast tour, so come and give 'em a warm Austin welcome back! Jack Johnson: Nashville singer-songwriter......

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. Here's to your livers and wallets making it through this week. MONDAY [books] Will Clarke talks crazy with his latest novel, Lord Vishnu's Love Handles @ Bookpeople, 7pm [film] Starchaser in 3-D! @ Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, 7pm, $1 + $1 Glasses Rental [music] 54 Seconds @ Lucky Lounge [music] Paris 49 @ Continental Club TUESDAY [music] Cafe Tacvba with Grupo Fantasmo @ Stubb's BBQ, Doors at 7 pm [music] Alkaline Trio with......

One of our favorite albums this year is Of Montreal's The Sunlandic Twins, a rollicking, silly LP bursting with brilliant pop melodies and perfectly synchronized vocals. The album all but eschews pretense, which we find altogether refreshing given today's overabundance of self-righteous, haute-couture-on-a-disc indie pop-rock. This might be because Of Montreal have been around since, well, forever: starting in the mid-90s with Bar/None and the now-defunct Kindercore Records, their discography has grown steadily on......