2008 has yet to reveal its true heavy hitters release-wise, and it's just as well: I haven't even had time to absorb a thousand or so top ten lists, my own personal reflections on 2007, and my expectations for the new year. Even so, there is a handful of intriguing things this week, provided you like Various Artists. Typically, I'm into Various Artists only when the compilation features new, unreleased and / or collaborative......

Promo still from Jaman.com AFS Essentials: Le Vent de la NuitTuesday, December 4thAlamo Drafthouse Downtown (320 E 6th Street)FREE for AFS members, $4 non-members; 7pm[info] | [tickets]Tonight, AFS continues their amazing Phillipe Garrel retrospective with 1999's La Vent de La Nuit (The Wind of the Night), starring the timeless Catherine Deneuve as Hélene, a hot (duh) rich lady driven to distraction by her much younger art-student lover, Paul. Does he really love her for who......

An Evening With Todd RundgrenDecember 4, 2007 at 8:00 p.m.Antones (213 W 5th St)$23-$25[info] | [tickets] There is this entire world of brilliant artists that produced oodles of fantastic work in the '70s that most of us know because of a standout hit here or there that makes its way into a more mainstream outlet, or an association with some more widely known entity. Vince Guaraldi's jazz piano works introduced us to a career's......

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,......

The holidays are over, there's an all you can eat grackle buffet downtown, and it's January 9, the first proper release week of 2007. How fitting: the damned Canadians are dominating it. Neko Case Live From Austin, TX (New West Records) Though Case's recording from Austin City Limits is four years old (recorded originally in 2003), it stands as a testament to the unequivocal talent those not in the audience that night were privy......

We've already told you about The Arm's CD release show on Friday, but we think it deserves another mention: they'll be playing with Single Frame, Faceless Werewolves and Lomita over at Emo's. We've also just found out that Super!Alright! has been tapped to provide visuals, which kinda makes sense considering they've already done a bunch of videos for Single Frame. The Arm's promised to bring some "special guests" onstage throughout their set, as well as......

M O N D AY [ 31 ] music/party · The White Ghost Shivers' Halloween Ball at American Legion Hall! Burlesque, Independence Brew, apple bobbing with the TX Roller Girls, Tarot card readings, a kissing booth and more. The White Ghost Shivers will also be performing a live soundtrack to accompany Buster Keaton's "Cops." ($25, 9pm) music · Galactic, Mofro and New Monsoon at Stubb's music · Halloween Show at Emo's with Flametrick Subs, Satans......

A founding member of The Velvet Underground, among the most visionary and influential bands of all time, John Cale is a master craftsman of "chords, tones and textures" whose work on The Velvet Underground and Nico documentarian Joe Harvard beautifully described as "assailing the boundaries confining rock's instrumentation, his arrangements and textural palate so accomplished that afterward all maps had to be thrown out and all borders redrawn." In the four decades after the......