Austin woke up to the new year with tragic news. The murder of Esme Barrera has shaken every corner of this town, and that’s a testament to her character. She was a bright light in the scene, and a number of locals are looking to honor her memory in the best way possible: through music. Tonight at the Scoot Inn, Follow That Bird headlines a packed bill for a benefit show with all proceeds going to Barrera’s family. more ›

The first few seconds of "Varicose Veins", the first track from Western Ghost House's first LP, Kaleidoscope Tower, make it immediately apparent that the band is haunted by something. The track floats in like the prologue to an existential Western, with a single, strummed minor guitar chord repeated over haunting open-throated moans, a trebly lead figure that could've been written by Ennio Morricone, and an unrelenting bass drum and tambourine jangle that leaves no doubt the Devil is just beyond the hills, and he's walking your way. Western Ghost House will celebrate the release of Kaleidoscope Tower tonight at the 29th Street Ballroom, supported by The Zoltars and Follow That Bird. All of the proceeds will benefit Attendance Records. more ›

It’s easy to understand why local faves Follow That Bird might be a little tired. This past summer saw a long jaunt opening for fellow Austinites …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead. Those hot months also marked the release of a fantastic new 7” ahead of their much-anticipated debut album, out sometime this fall. And the critical adoration—with even Matador Records main man Gerard Cosloy calling them “one of the best bands in the country”—can weigh heavy on a band’s shoulders. Thus, you get only one opportunity to see Follow That Bird in October—Sunday night at the Mohawk—as they get ready for that imminent album release and take a much needed breather. more ›

Still waiting for the golden ticket to ACL? Do yourself a favor and consider the plethora of free, spin-off musical offerings, including this "independent alternative" showcase tonight at Cheer Up Charlies featuring some of Austin's finest up-and-coming acts Follow That Bird, Rickey Jean Francois, Kay Leotard, Boy Friend, Agent Ribbons, The Great Aware, AND a "special guest" performance inside at midnight. more ›

Fresh off a west coast jaunt opening for ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, local trio Follow That Bird step on up to Antone's to headline a pretty enticing bill of indie rock tonight. What more can you say about this band? Following the inclusion of their terrific song "The Ghosts That Wake You" on Matador's Casual Victim Pile - after which Gerard Cosloy called them "one of the best bands in the country" - Follow That Bird have ascended like helium through the Austin scene with their blistering sound, combining the angular riffs of art punk with the animalistic energy of garage rock and the sheer volume good ol' fashioned indie rock. more ›

Local garage trio Follow That Bird have been around for a couple of years now, making waves in Austin and abroad largely on the strength of their colossal live show and the excellent track that kicked off last year's Casual Victim Pile compilation, "The Ghosts That Wake You", but if ever an Austin rock band seemed on the verge of really breaking into national consciousness (okay, let's say national bloggyness), this is the band in 2011. Don't let the Sesame Street-cribbed name fool you into thinking that Follow That Bird play some kind of cutesy pop; what happens when you drop the needle on a FTB tune (or click "play" on their bandcamp, whatever) is a propulsive sonic assault, powered by Tiffanie Lanmon's heavy, pounding drums, and Lauren Green's scorching guitar and sultry, powerful vocals. The addition of bassist Paul Brinkley rounds out the trio's heavy-hitting attack. It's a heavy, angular sound, combining blistering punk rock abandon with torrid grunginess delivered with force. more ›

Out there in real-world land, quite a few of you haven't heard that the Parlor on North Loop is closing. It is, but not before a big celebration. In particular, Sunday night features Jerri Sinfeld's Atrophied Sac, ST 37, Foot Foot, Book Of Shadows, a project called Not Daniel Johnston, Destroyed For Comfort, and many more. more ›

Send a top-notch local act off in style when Follow That Bird! kicks off their West Coast tour at the Mohawk tomorrow night. more ›

What are the dangers inherent in making your debut indie rock record? For the last few years, the poorer-produced, the better - hence this renaissance of crappy bedroom four-track recording, even as one of the forefathers of the genre, Daniel Johnston, is now making big, chipper albums with Jason Falkner and was quoted as saying, "Everyone needs to take their demos and go back to the studio.” But okay, what about the opposite danger - that of an album sounding too polished and too produced? One thinks of the creations of producer/musician Chris Walla, who managed to anesthetize albums by The Decembrists, Nada Surf, and his own band Death Cab For Cutie. While Mechanical Bride, the debut album from scrappy quintet One Hundred Flowers doesn’t fit into either extreme, it does have a gloss to it that sometimes puts the listener at a distance. Still, there’s so much going on and enough turns and layers to these songs that you can’t blame the band for giving Mechanical Bride everything they could. It’s a fine debut album, and a clever equation of pop and rock that should satisfy a broad range of tastes. more ›

Maybe you've already worn the grooves out of your copy of Matador's Austin compilation Casual Victim Pile, or perhaps you're just jonesing to see some of the perpetrators behind the comp live. Either way, the lineup at Beerland tonight will satisfy any desire for pure, Austin-built rawk. more ›

After much anticipation, hand wringing, rumors and truisms, the date has finally come for the three-night stand at Beerland celebrating the release of Matador’s Casual Victim Pile compilation. This trio of evenings will feature almost all of the bands on the comp performing live, save for just a few. more ›

On January 26, Matador will release Casual Victim Pile (an anagram for Live Music Capital), a regional compilation focused on Austin bands (along with a pair from Denton). The compilation features Woven Bones, Harlem, the Golden Boys, the No No No Hopes, the Young, the Distant Seconds, Follow that Bird and many more. You can pre-order your copy now, but if you can't wait to sample the collection, look no further. Grab "The Ghosts That Wake You" (mp3) by Follow That Bird and "First 48" (mp3) by Love Collector now. more ›

Follow That Bird's Singer/guitarist Lauren Green should be proud. She's leading her trio away from the lo-fi garage haze and into Austin's next big thing: solid, never precious guitar rock. more ›

Suspend your disbelief in the healing powers of irony and neon for just one moment, and open your heart a bit to the visiting charms of Baltimore's EAR PWR and TORO Y MOI from Columbia, South Carolina. more ›

With each passing day it becomes ever more doubtful that Rolling Stone magazine will pay anyone - let alone me - to fly around the country to tag along with and write about a mediocre rock band while they traverse house parties willy-nilly and take acid. But that's okay. It means less paying gigs, but also fewer glossy, in-depth profiles of hacks like Lenny Kravitz or accounts of visiting the needle exchange with Staind. What you'll get here is a more down to earth account of five bands en route to Denton and Dallas. Hopefully the quality of these groups will offset the lack of rock and roll excess contained in the following account. more ›

Recently, during a performance by an anonymous Austin band, someone spotted Bill Callahan in the crowd, walked straight up to him and looked into his face: "Your new album," the audience member said, pausing for emphasis, "is perfect." And so it is in regards to Callahan's second release under his own name, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, which is so damn good it's receiving dark horse consideration for album of the year. Writing songs about the songs he wrote while sleeping, and imploring his listener, and maybe himself, to put God away, Eagle is a testament to an adult musical vision: the album is 100% free of excess, and every subtlety seems to be the product of careful consideration, or at least the spontaneous intuition of someone who's been building beautiful songs for more than a decade. more ›

Emo's has a strong, loud lineup planned for this evening, featuring veterans and newbies alike. Air Traffic Controllers has been a project of Gerard Cosloy's for almost fifteen years, and has mutated a significant amount of times. more ›

Free Week at the Mohawk is featuring both the outside and inside stages will be packed with an army of bands. From psychedelic rock to turntabalism, the Mohawk should have you covered, and less money at the door means more for booze! more ›

Just a couple of months ago we reported on a benefit for the Moose Lodge up on Franklin Road which had just been renovated and needed funds to keep pushing forward. Now, the fraternal organization of the Loyal Order of Moose has not only kept the doors open, but are hosting a variety of events in the coming weeks. more ›

Now not only a film about a concerned cast of characters from Sesame Street in search of a wandering Big Bird, Follow That Bird! has taken on a new face… and sound, in Austin. They’re an all-girl, three-piece rock and roll group. With a healthy burst of energy, the group plays songs pumped up with the sounds of punk rock and 90s indie rock. more ›

Whatcha doin’ Saturday night? You could punish your eardrums with bands like Doom Siren and Disempower at the Broken Neck, enjoy the Scoot Inn’s Coney Island Fest (which, with any luck, will serve up those delicious mid-west morsels they call coney dogs), or you could step into a Valium haze with those country-echo pioneers The Cowboy Junkies at The One World Theater. But to experience some raw rock’n’roll, you might be better off treading down to Emo’s Lounge, where the only thing to separate you from the noise is that weird split level moat-thing. more ›

Last Thursday at the Parish Room, Shearwater gifted their attentive audience a very special performance, showcasing their new record (Rook, out tomorrow) in its entirety. Supported by a small woodwind and string section as well as the album's studio harpist, Elaine Barber, the band soared through the record's highs and lows effortlessly. Jonathan Meiburg's voice brought the room to a hushed awe, ranging between vulnerable insistence ("I Was a Cloud") and emotional volatility ("Leviathan, Bound"). After a short break, a reduced ensemble rejoined for a second set full of archive material, pulling from 2006's Palo Santo for a grittier ending to the night's performance. more ›

It’s possible you’ve been tricked into thinking Free Week at Emo’s cares not for days as fickle as Sunday, but, just in case, let’s clear things up: YES, Free Week rolls all the way through, with not a break to be seen. And not only that, but Sunday offers up some of the most compelling bands of the whole shebang, including noted acts Ume, Until We’re Blue or Destroy and that nature battle you’ve been dying to see: Bee vs. Moth. more ›

Image from Scion's websiteSo you’re all set for an afternoon with the family and/or friends, tons of food on the horizon, be it Turkey or Tofurkey. Still, you need to scratch that live music itch before heading home. Well, fear not oh lovely residents of Austin, the city has a solid night of gigs on the 21st in store for the common layperson. If you’re not already planning on hitting up the Benko and The... more ›

THURSDAY [3] film • Austin Film Festival screens "The Ballad of A.J Weberman" at Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek (7:30pm Free/$4 Members/General) art • West End Gallery Night at Participating Galleries (Until 8pm) art • Blanton Museum of Art Public Tour: An Introduction to Prints at Blanton Museum of Art, MLK at Congress (7-8pm) books • Book Release Party: Collecting the Imagination: The First Fifty Years of the Ransom Center at The Harry Ransom Center (7:00pm)... more ›

MONDAY [30] food • Central Market Cooking School with Chef Aimee Olson: Spectacular Sponge Cakes at Central Market Cooking School, 4001 N Lamar ($45, 6:30-9pm) books • Dirty Found: Live! with Found Magazine Creative Directors Jason Bitner and Arthur Jones at Alamo Downtown (7:00pm) film • "Dirty Found" at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • Music Mondays: "The Smiths: These Things Take Time" at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown music • Music Industry Boot Camp, presented by... more ›

FRIDAY [2] theatre • Improv rap group Aww Shit (Chris Trew, Cody Dearing, Eric Seufert) compose freestyle rap songs and improvise scenes based off of them at this week's Cage Match at Coldtowne Theater (11:30pm) art • Opening Reception for The Llamerret Show at Darkroom Gallery (7pm) art • Texas Biennial Opening Reception at Okay Mountain & Site 1808 (7-10pm, 301 Chicon Unit E at Third and Chicon) art • B Scene: A Night... more ›

THURSDAY [1] party • Learning Secrets hosts Optimo's JD Twitch (Glasgow, UK) at Whisky Bar (10pm-2am, $5) art • Public Tour: The Geometry of Hope: Montevideo in the 1930s at The Blanton (7:00 - 8:00 PM) art • Curator's Tour: The Geometry of Hope at The Blanton (12:30-1pm) art • Texas Biennial Opening Reception at Dougherty Arts Center (7-10pm) art • Art Fix: Enjoy an introduction to Latin American wines with Seth Pollard, Central... more ›

MONDAY [26] film • Squeegee Your Third Eye: Remembering Bill Hicks at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown books • New and Noteworthy Book Club discusses Snow by Orhan Pamuk at BookPeople (7:00pm) film • Wonderwall at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown meeting • Austin Music Foundation's Music Industry Boot Camp at Gibson Guitar Showroom (3601 South Congress G400) music • Aloha, Pompeii, The Politics, Low Line Caller at Emo's Lounge music • Shoot for the Stars, iKiLLcaRs, Bones... more ›