FRIDAY [15] ballet • Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker at Bass Concert Hall (Check website for details) music • Baby Robots, Horse + Donkey, Foot Foot, DJ Blip at Emo's Lounge music • Moonlight Towers, The Fall Collection, Buttercup at Emo's music • Mice & Rifles CD Release, Texas Sapphires, Adam White (The Personals) at Stubb's music • Crawling with Kings, Ian Moore, Lossy Coils, Future Clouds in Radar at The Parish Room music • Papa......

The Tah-Dahs pound out energetic pop punk hooks reminiscent of earlier (and better) times when punk/garage rock was fun, before its soul was polished up like a turd and sold to Geffen the burbs. For cheap. This is a band that knows how to have a good time and that, well, knows how to play--in every sense of the word, live and on record. Sweaty frontman Roy Ivy, jester and genius, furiously forges through......

FRIDAY [14] [music] The Arm CD Release, with Single Frame, Faceless Werewolves and Lomita at Emo's (link) [music] Sound Tribe Sector Nine with Govinda at Stubb's Austin (link) [music] Matt Nathanson at Waterloo Records (Free, 5pm) (link) [music] Til We're Blue or Destroy at Beerland (link) [music] The Weary Boys Release Show at Continental Club (12:15am) (link) [party] Car Stereo (Wars) at Plush (10pm-2am, $2 Lone Stars) (link) [music] Loxsly and The Lemurs at Blue......

This Saturday night, Peel will be sharing some stage with The Happy Bullets (Oak Cliff, TX), Caspian (by way of Boston), and This Will Destroy You (San Marcos – holla!) at Beerland. All we have to say is: Peel better play Oxford, because that song is the total shit. It also appears that hometown playas, Peel, are working with Peek a Boo Records (see their profile here). Rumor has it that they already self-produced......

Ushering in this season's South By Southwest reveleries is a party celebrating the launch of Marshall Escamilla and Emily Summerfield's label, Stem and Leaf Records. In a short letter to Austinist, Summerfield described her label as seeking a musical partnership in which "the songwriting is earnest, and that is consistently true, whether the songs are about girls, zombies, historical figures or whatever." The production of each album will reflect aesthetic values from the vinyl era,......

FRIDAY [10] conference/music » The 18th Annual International Folk Alliance Conference comes to town! At the Austin Hilton Hotel (schedule) (Through Feb. 14th) music » Massive instore, featuring (2pm) Freddie Steady 5, (2:45pm) Lost Bayou Ramblers, (3:30) Whit Smith's Hot Jazz Caravan, (4:15) Juan-Carlos Formell, (5:00) Jordan Chassan, and (5:45) Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez at Waterloo Records (link) music » Ghostland Observatory, The Arm, The Blackheart Society plus DJ Erin at Emo's (link) music......

A piece of their body of work, that is! Austinist's favorite Aussie transplants -- the dashing foursome going by The Handsome Charlies -- are playing a (free) show at Hole in The Wall tomorrow evening (Saturday), with Happy Bullets from Dallas and The Unbearables. And, because we're in a festive mood, we're giving away two copies of their recently released LP, Gentlemen Never Tell, and a Handsome Charlies T-shirt (new, not used.) Send us......

F R I D A Y [16] [theatre] Rude Mechs present Pale Idiot by Kirk Lynn at The Off Centre (Through Sat, $12, 8pm) [Austinist Review] [theatre] Langston Hughes' "Black Nativity" at Austin Playhouse on Penn Field (Through Sat, $20, 7:30pm) [theatre] "When Pigs Fly" at Arts on Real (8pm) [theatre] Shrewd Productions presents "Xmas Unwrapped! A Holiday Burlesque" at Hyde Park Theatre (Through Sat, 10pm) [theatre] "A Christmas Carol" at The State Theatre......

M O N D A Y [12] [music] UT Ethnomusicology Dept Ensembles at Momo's (8pm) [music] David Newbould at Flipnotics (8pm) [music] Singer-Songwriter Night at Longbranch Inn [music] Elizabeth McQueen at Theadgill's (8pm) [music] Listening party for Ludacris' new album, Disturbing Tha Peace at Nasty's (8pm) [music/shopping] Armadillo Christmas Bazaar with the Eggmen at Austin Music Hall (Check website for dates/hours) [party] Friends of the Spade Christmas Party at Velvet Spade (11pm) [film/food] "Narnia"......