Hot Freaks! is a loose affiliation--a cabal, if you will--of international music and culture bloggers, including Dallas' Gorilla Vs. Bear, New York's brooklynvegan, and Toronto's Chromewaves, who have banded together Voltron-style to wreak cross-promotional havoc on the Western blogosphere. Masterminded by Austin promoter John Mascarenhas, Hot Freaks! has put together a lovely set of after-parties for those of us who won't be snarled in post-ACL parking-lot quagmires until midnight. Both events are looking really tempting,......

Believe It or Not: My Bloody Valentine reuniting for Coachella 2008? Last weekend, the American Psychological Association rejected a moratorium that would have prevented its member psychologists from participating in interrogations at U.S. detention centers in Guantanamo Bay and secret CIA "black sites" around the world. Venetian Macao Aims to Transform Chinese Gambling Enclave Into Full-Fledged Resort City. Leslie Feist, joined onstage by members of Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, Grizzly Bear, The......

Pseudosix Pseudosix (Sonic Boom) Pseudosix began as Tim Perry's solo project, but quickly became a group effort with Emil Amos (Grails, Dolorean), Joe Kelly, and a handful of other local, talented friends. The band has written and recorded with pals from Joggers, Decemberists and The Standard in their relatively short existence, but the impetus has been barreling towards this release since back in the day when Perry wrestled with the nerve to perform live,......

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......

We love animals. In fact, we're secretly training to be EAMTs (Emergency Animal Medical Technicians) so that we can save kittens and turtles and gerbils. We aren't alone in this love, however, as is evident by the longstanding trend of animal-centric band names: The Eagles, The Unicorns, Tortoise, Grizzly Bear, The Animals, Super Furry Animals, Band of Horses, Cat Power, Le Tigre, Modest Mouse, Gorillaz, Doves, Eels, Sparklehorse, and now -- The Ponys. Ok,......

WEDNESDAY [28] film • Beats Per Minute, the 48 Hour Music Video Competition at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • Premiere screening of Party 101: Consequences at The Paramount Theatre (7pm) film • Mardi Gras: Made in China at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • Weird Wednesday: Massacre of Pleasure at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown music • Grizzly Bear, The Papercuts, Peter & the Wolf at Emo's music • This Life Electric, Goldcure, Starchild at Stubb's music......

Originally a one-man recording project in a Brooklyn apartment, in the last three years, Grizzly Bear has picked up three talented musicians and created an album of ghostly and experimental indie rock. Their 2006 album Yellow House (which was actually recorded in a yellow house in Cape Cod) has been praised by critics and other artists the world over, and the album's big song "Knife" has been covered, re-mixed, and mashed-up several times. Even......

Jason Quever combines anecdotal songwriting with lush folk-pop in Papercuts’ Can’t Go Back, out soon on Gnomonsong. The San Francisco based musician finds a unique balance between malaise and vigor on his new release. Moody narratives are married with layered orchestrations to conjure a somewhat manic depressive feel. The album opener, “Dear Employee” ends with resigned refrains of “I don’t need you no more” while the possibly tongue-in-cheek “Unavailable” repeats “He’s stepping out for a......

Ace Fu buzz crew Annuals have come on strong in 2006, thanks to their luminous debut Be He Me and tours with The Dears and Calexico; besides that, they got a song on "Veronica Mars," and is there no surer indie taste-maker these days? Bassist/engineer Mike Robinson kindly spoke to us about, well, SXSW and everything: If you could open for any artist living or dead, in any era of their career, who would......

Lucinda Williams West (Lost Highway) West finds (as is apparent just by a brief scan of the track titles) Williams in a thoughtful and tender place musically, as her private life and its rough patches sort of overwhelm her toe-tappin' hay-covered dance floor capabilities. The death of her mother and the end of a relationship both factor into the context of the album, but that doesn't stop big guitars and generous bass drum from......

Now that we're in mid-January, club bookings for winter and spring shows are beginning to emerge. While much internet browsing has already been done looking for the SXSW 2007 lineup, there are also plenty of great touring shows dropping in outside of those dates (thankfully). New shows from The Roots, Explosions In The Sky, Midlake, and a Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard double bill top the new additions, but there is plenty here for all musical......

Last weekend was pretty intense show-wise, if you're like us, you're ready to crawl in bed with your headphones and listen to something new from End of an Ear or Waterloo's new release wall. Well, here's what you've got to choose from: The Decemberists The Crane Wife (Capital) Already being described as the album of the year in some circles, Crane Wife marks the Portland-based Decemberists' major label debut with themes familiar to the......

Folk music has become a term used fairly loosely in the independent music scene, partially because there are incredible artists making music that reflects the genre's origins, and partially because there's really no other way to describe the sound. Psychedelic folk ("freak folk", if you're nasty), however, sounds like something you make up when you've perhaps tied a few too many on and find yourself toying with the idea of cross-genre experimentation with instruments like a cigarette machine, or a vacuum. Yet, artists like Devendra Banhart, Animal Collective, Joanna Newsom, Espers, and DeVotchKa create music that beckons the memory of Donovan and T.Rex, giving shape to the term as we use it today. ...

After counting your blessings for not being pierced through the heart by a stingray over the weekend, you might want to stop by your local record store and check out what's new. Grizzly Bear Yellow House (Warp) Ed Droste's Grizzly Bear are back with a full band and a shimmering landscape of an album reminiscent of Brian Wilson's hey-day, old fashioned American harmony and lush layers of sound that combine folk, post-rock and psychedelia......

New music by Cursive, Kelis, Amy Millan, and more...

The August + September edition of the Alamo Drafthouse guide has left us punch-drunk. We can't believe they have packed so many unique and fun events into a usually sleepy time of year. The following are some highlights to book early for: - Blanks On A Blank: Yes, Snakes On A Plane is finally out this month, and in what must be a first, the Alamo will be showing winners from a SOAP parody......