Kick off this weekend early on Thursday at Antone’s with music from Black Joe Lewis, Bankrupt and the Borrowers, and The Best Love In Town on the special occasion of The Versatile Syndicate’s “Launch Party.” The entity is now open for business, and their agenda is to aid any artist in pursuing their dreams and professional development via booking/tour management, consulting, live production, and so on. This event is a part of the Austin Music Foundation’s Love Austin Music Month and cover for AMF members is $5. The rest of us mere mortals can get in for $10. The shindig also marks AMF's 6th Birthday; free cake and food (courtesy of Whole Foods Market) and free 2008 She Rocks Calendars while the goodies last....

We had, like, totally the best time at the Rude Mechanicals' annual fund-raising shindig this past Saturday, the Magnum P. Eye Ball. Hosted by Jonathan Quayle Higgins III, of course, the island-themed event featured local music icon Graham Reynolds of The Golden Arm Trio spinning period tunes. Meanwhile, numerous dudes walked around in mullets, mustaches and Hawaiian shirts, and several screens played different Magnum P.I. adventures. The night even included the chance to ride "The......

If, like us, you thought that Marie Antoinette might have been a hell of a lot better as a silent movie, consider Orphans of the Storm (1921), screening tonight for free at the Harry Ransom Center as part of the Silent Silver Screens Series. Starring the lovely and incandescent Gish sisters (that's Lillian on the left and Dorothy there on the right), Orphans follows the odyssey of devoted French sisters Henriette and Louise. When......

Graham Reynolds' Golden Arm Trio will be performing at the Mohawk on Saturday night in support of the new album, no doubt full of the experimental power-jazz you'd come to expect from a group that Rolling Stone has called "a merger of John Zorn's Naked City and the 1970's radical-prog band Henry Cow. In case you weren't aware, Reynolds has worked on film scores (most recently, Linklater's A Scanner Darkly), symphonies, operas, and children's......

Founded in 1986, The Austin Children’s Choir presently boasts over one hundred members from 45 different schools. Comprised of four singing groups based on the students’ skill and age, the choir performs unique concerts throughout the year while also making special appearances as needed. This weekend, the Choir performs an interpretation of Homer’s The Odyssey: No Childsplay, headed by Artistic Director Kathleen Turner, composed by Graham Reynolds, and translated by Beverly Bardsley. Reynolds’ vast......

WEDNESDAY [7] music • The Shins, Viva Voce at The Backyard music • Love and Dancing, with Daetron Vargas, Disco Nihilist, Majora Y Minora, and John Gomi at The Peacock music • Spinto Band, Dios, The Changes at Emo's music • Invincible Czars, Bee vs Moth, Golden Arm Trio at Emo's Lounge music • Woodgrain Wednesday with Bavu Blakes, DJ Rapid Ric, D-Madness at The Parish Room music • Patty Griffin at Waterloo Records......

For real. We mean it this time. Last chance. Ever. Pressured by the score-loving, moviegoing public, the folks over at the Alamo are giving us one last chance to see Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly accompanied by a 30-minute live performance featuring the film’s composer Graham Reynolds. Reynolds is one of Austin’s busiest musicians; when he’s not composing film scores, he’s a member of the Golden Arm Trio, the resident composer for the Salvage Vanguard......

On Wednesday night, The Austin Film Society hosted a little over one thousand friends to watch Austin's very own premiere of A Scanner Darkly at the Paramount Theatre, with a post-screen party down the street at The Austin Museum of Art. Originally written by Philip K. Dick in the late 1970’s and adapted to the screen by Austin's own Richard Linklater, A Scanner Darkly is an eerie, yet hilarious, film of drugs, paranoia and......

In anticipation of tomorrow night's premiere of A Scanner Darkly, hosted by the Austin Film Society, movie- and music-lovers can check out a live performance of pieces from the film's score at 5pm tonight at Waterloo Records. For free, of course. Composer Graham Reynolds, along with some-odd nine musicians, including the current members of the Golden Arm Trio, will entertain and quite likely enlighten you, as Reynolds and his cohorts are wont to do.......

SXSW.com released an updated lineup for this year's SXSW Music Festival earlier today, and it's one hell of a list. The SXSW committee hastens to note that "This is a partial list of performers confirmed to appear at the 2006 SXSW Music Festival. This list is current as of 1/13/06. All of this information is subject to change." International acts include: Masahiro Nitta, DMBQ, Ellegarden, Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re, PE'Z, The Emeralds (Japan)......

F R I D A Y · World Leader Pretend are back in town, kicking the night off with an in-store appearance at Waterloo Records (3pm5pm) and following that with a show at Stubb's (9pm). Opening for them are none other than our new favorite English lads, Nic Armstrong and the Thieves, who'll be trying out all-new material for their forthcoming album. Those of you who were at the Parish this week know why we......