Eugene Mirman is much funnier than you. A mainstay of New York's alternative comedy scene, Mirman's profile has been even higher of late. In February, his Comedy Central Presents special debuted, and earlier this year, he was asked to cover the New Hampshire primaries for 236.com. He can also be seen as Jemaine and Bret's strange landlord in HBO's Flight Of The Conchords. A multi-year veteran of SXSW, Mirman is hosting this year's Web Awards at SXSW Interactive and is also performing at multiple SX venues during the music festival. ...

White Shoes & the Couples Company are rumored to be coming in from Indonesia (via) for SXSW 2008. The band, formed in 2002, is inspired by Indonesian films of the '70s and retro disco beats, as well as classic '30s jazz. They recently signed to Minty Fresh, and we predict 2008 as their break-out year, provided they roll into town with a couple of good shows booked....

Hard-Fi - Once Upon A Time In The West (Atlantic): Not all rock music has to be serious. Our first thought was that this album was slickly overproduced to the point where it was impossible to be objective. But this was followed by the notion that it would sound great in the car. Trying again there, we found an album that jumps out of the speakers with beats pilfered from 90's Manchester bands, guitars straight......

1990s Cookies (Rough Trade/World's Fair) The 1990s "play music like a blond gets out of a car." This, we assume based on listening, means something like, "Our sound is snotty, a little fucked up on we-don't-remember-what, and always f-u-n." While John McKeown (Yummy Fur) won't make any news showing his knickers to paparazzi during a limo exit, he will succeed in promoting the display of everyone else's underthings on the dance floor, as Cookies......

Dandi Wind - Concrete Igloo (Summer Lovers Unlimited Music) Ok, we are fond of electronic duos. Even more so when they hail from Canada. Dandi Wind (comprised of Dandelion Wind Opaine and Szam Findlay) tests our undying affection with their hit or miss debut, Concrete Igloo. The duo combines a variety of genres to conjure up an adrenaline fueled, almost destructive sound that clicks wonderfully on songs like “Slumlord” and “Apotemnophilia.” The insistent “Hitch-Hiker” could......

Say what you will about the Austin music scene, if there's one thing we've got in spades, it's heart. And breakfast tacos. But that's another story altogether. Our bands can take any other city's bands on when it comes to sheer per capita productivity and playing out, never leaving their respective constituencies on the sidelines. And albums? Lordy, just walk into Waterloo Records and check out the local music section: 2006 was a banner......

It was probably inevitable. When Franz Ferdinand and the Killers whetted the kids’ appetites for catchy, electro-dance pop, we should have known that a slew of imitators armed with keyboards and laptops would follow. It hasn’t been all bad, but sometimes we just have to ask oursevlves, “Why?” Such is the case with We Are Pilots, the new release from Shiny Toy Guns. The would-be buzz band of the season shows some potential on......

- Wild Horses Couldn't Sell Those Cheap Seats: Charles Attal must be having some trouble filling those far corners of Zilker Park, because KGSR sent out an email this week offering four Rolling Stones tickets and four concert T-Shirts for $199. If you're keeping score, this is roughly half of the original $95 ticket cost. If you'd like to take advantage of the offer, head over here. - New Concerts Going On Sale his......

The fall tour is an encore of their multi-continent spectacle entitled 'A Bigger Bang,' which was the most successful U.S. and world tour of last year with over four and a half million fans attending in total. This time around, they're hitting up slightly smaller cities (like ours), and even offering student discounts on tickets -- no word on whether Austin will be so lucky, though one would imagine so....

After 18 bands in a weekend, Austinist is exhausted. Coachella 2006 was everything we thought it would be, only hotter, and with less alcohol (due to the scorching heat) and more drugs (since nobody could drink near the stages). We went in with no set agenda in terms of seeing particular bands - it seemed smarter to just hit whatever struck us right at the time. This strategy worked pretty well, and here's how......

Silver Lake's Irving first gained recognition back in 2002 with Good Morning Beautiful, a solid debut notable for its artfully crafted blend of psych-pop and electronic eclecticism. In the four years since then, they've made quite a name for themselves, having released a follow-up EP, I Hope You're Feeling Better Now, and earlier this month their second full-length, Death In The Garden, Blood On The Flowers. Do a quick google search and you'll find......

MONDAY [27] [ music ] Jay Moeller's Birthday Blues Bash, with Ephraim Owens, Mike Barfield, Scott Nelson, Damien Llanes, James Bullard, and loads more at The Continental Club (9:30pm) (link) [ music ] KOOP Radio Monday Benefit with Guy Forsyth, Wammo and Sick, and Southpaw Jones. Hosted by Owen Egerton (of Sinus) at Ruta Maya ($5, 8:30pm) (link) [ art ] "Art is Imagination": Paintings of the American West at Blanton Museum of Art (Free,......

We went to Carnaval. And loved it. SXSW full list of bands and movies updated. Cat Power backs out of SXSW and cancels tour. Ausitn art goes green. Tired of run-of-the-mill valentine's day activities? We got you covered. We reviewed the new documentary The Outdoorsmen: Blood, Sweat and Beers. And laughed our asses off. For about $600 in fees, your band can play a showcase at Waterloo Records during SXSW. The week in interviews:......

On sale this weekend: [3/29] Death Cab For Cutie and Franz Ferdinand - Tomorrow at 11am (The Backyard) (tickets) [4/18] Neko Case - Tomorrow at 11am (La Zona Rosa) (tickets) [4/18] Lily Tomlin (The Paramount Theatre) (tickets) Tickets to see The Strokes and Eagles of Death Metal are totally sold out Did we miss something? Let us know! Upcoming shows include: [2/14] Voxtrot (Emo's) (tickets) [2/15] The Hold Steady and Swearing At Motorists (Emo's)......

Austin is Taradise! And Lance and Sheryl split Congrats to Adlai McMahon, winner of our giveaway contest for Bloc Party's documentary/concert DVD, God Bless Bloc Party! The SXSW Music Festival roster expanded to over 1,100 this week, including such esteemed acts as Morrissey and The Flaming Lips Austinist photographer Matt Wright captures yet another amazing night shot in Austin, as well as some sexy shots of last week's Box Magazine issue release party. The......

Austin City Limits is pretty nifty, we'll admit. But let's face it: the lineup for Coachella, ACL's glammed-up West Coast sibling in the desiccated wastelands near Joshua Tree, has all but reigned supreme these last few years. And this year, they're at it again; earlier this week they announced the full roster for the two-day festival, to be headlined this year by Depeche Mode (huzzah!) and ... Tool (huh?). The entire lineup: Saturday, April......

While scores of wonderful albums from already well-established indie acts like Broken Social Scene, Of Montreal and The Decemberists were all but predestined for greatness this year, others seemed to appear from nowhere. Case in point: Sup Pop phenoms Wolf Parade, emerging from Montreal with a series of cameos in various compilation albums that left American fans in a rabid frenzy before finally dazzling us with their debut LP, Apologies to the Queen Mary;......

The Lord Henry is one of Austin’s best yet severely under-appreciated bands. Austinist has been in the enthusiastic - albeit, small - audience at three of their most recent shows. An intense Saturday night performance at Stubb’s solidified their standing as one of our city’s most promising young bands. Allow us to rewind slightly, for it would be unfair to continue without praising the first band on the bill, Black Tie Dynasty. Prominent fixtures......

The annual Shortlist Music Prize was envisioned by creators Greg Spotts and Tom Sarig to "create opportunities for left-of-center culture to cross over to the mainstream." And to accomplish this, they enlisted a slew of "respected members of the creative community" to serve as arbiters of indie taste. Pitchfork announced today that this year's Shortlist awards have been cancelled, owing to infighting between Spotts and Sarig: Speaking about the duo's rift to AP, Spotts......

Burgers, pizza, burritos and pheasant quail andouille gumbo, you can get it all at the ACL music fest this weekend. Yes, if you happen to have a hankering for some Pheasant Quail Andouille Gumbo, then all you'll have to do is head over to the Prejean's booth (Number 14). God, what could be more excellent than that? Except maybe seeing the Arcade Fire live (plus Rilo Kiley, The Decemberists, and Franz Ferdinand all in......

As this weekend draws increasingly nearer, we've found ourselves becoming giddy with anticipation over all the awesome bands we're going to see and the parties we're going to attend - we're most excited, of course, about our "Local Music is Sexy" rock show + dance party going down at the Velvet Spade this Saturday (no cover! giveaways! hot Austin musicians!). With all our careful planning and preparations these past few weeks, the conditions for......

With ACL just a little over a week away, we've found ourselves spending quite a bit of time at work thinking about all the bands we can't wait to see during the day, and deciding which after-parties to attend.Second to the hot weather, the task of figuring out which acts to see - and, sometimes, which acts to avoid at all cost - is our biggest concern. Certainly, we've had our hearts set on......

Last Wednesday we had a chat with OK Go’s lead singer, Damian Kulash, before their show at Stubb’s.  Their second album, the gleaming pop masterpiece entitled Oh No, is out in stores today.  In This Interview: The Dearth of Turkeys in Malmö, the Indelible Allure of the Glockenspiel, Franz Ferdinand, Prince, The Dubious Legitimacy of “Dangerousness-ness” As Descriptor, Returning Home After Touring, Hungarian Rock Fans, Audio Blogs, Damien’s Unabashed Nerdiness, Tore Johansen, Staying Sane......

Did we forget anything? Let us know. M O N D A Y music · American Analog Set at Club DeVille. Free! Two sets, 8pm and 9:30pm [mp3: American Analog Set - New Equation (Live)] film · KOOP Radio's Monthly Movie Night screening of "Soy Cuba" at MonkeyWrench Books. Suggested donation of $5 8pm film · Martin Sheen narrates "James Dean: Forever Young", a documentary on the original hipster at the Drafthouse South Lamar. 7pm......

The 2005 ACL Festival Schedule was posted online yesterday, and for the most part it looks like they spaced the acts out pretty well. Though we'll still probably spend the next two months at work dreaming up dozens of band-hopping strategies, thus far we're pretty stoked to be able to see awesome acts like the Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, Arcade Fire, and The Decemberists without having to forego another great band at the same......

The line-up for this year's Austin City Limits festival, running from September 23-25 in Zilker Park, has just been posted. The 2005 bill runs the gamut from heavy hitters like Coldplay, Widespread Panic and Wilco, indie favorites Death Cab for Cutie, Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, and Franz Ferdinand, and even local Austin bands like Pong and Oliver Future. Despite having just come off the high that was Coachella, we're dizzy with anticipation. And it's practically......