Dean and Britta have that certain je ne sais quoi, do they not? They're good looking, look and dress like Europeans, and dig artists like Joy Division and Nancy Sinatra. Hell, they even did The Squid and The Whale's soundtrack for Noah Baumbach. Their music is similarly themed: it's minimalist, beautiful, effortless, and full of an icy cool. (If one wishes to puncture the image, it's amusing to know that Britta Phillips was the voice of 80's cartoon icons Jem and the Holograms.) Dean Wareham, of course, has legions of fans from his work with Galaxie 500 and Luna, and this certainly isn't a huge departure from his signature sound. Expect dreamy and reflective tales with some irony and beautiful melody lines sprinkled throughout. The duo are touring behind 2007's Back Numbers, which combines some D&B originals with like-minded covers of The Troggs and Lee Hazlewood. Simply put, if you enjoyed Luna, you'll have a good time here. And for Wareham's more ardent fans, he has recently written a memoir about his life in music titled Black Postcards which will be published in March by Penguin. D&B arrive tomorrow at the Cactus Cafe for a pair of shows at 7 and 10pm....

Chain Drive’s Wednesday night gigs continue this week with a quality triple bill along with their usual mid-week domestic beer price of $1.75. Chromosome Damage bleed black with an ominous soundtrack of electro-goth-metal while The Devil Bat soften things up a bit with folk tales accentuated by psychedelic six-strings. The latter act boasts members from bands such as Power Snatch, Dogshit Rangers and ST 37, while their Lingers Like a Ghost EP (on Sister Skull Records) was produced by Gretchen Phillips....

Our Indieroke night returns this Tuesday to The Mohawk. What started out as a one-off fling with rock stardom has turned into a monthly gathering of like-minded folks craving that fleeting moment of exhilaration. If you haven’t made it to one yet, we strongly recommend getting there in a timely fashion to get your name and song on the list early…and often. (You know who you are!) We will have multiple song list books going forward to ease that pain....

Our Indieroke night returns this Tuesday to The Mohawk. What started out as a one-off fling with rock stardom has turned into a monthly gathering of like-minded folks craving that fleeting moment of exhilaration. If you haven’t made it to one yet, we strongly recommend getting there in a timely fashion to get your name and song on the list early…and often. (You know who you are!) We will have multiple song list books going forward to ease that pain....

Between now and January, New Release Tuesday will focus on 2007 reflections and music news related to both this year's releases, the holidays and 2008's potential. The standard NRT posts will resume in 2008. It will also feature the opinions of the author, who does not represent the Ist network as a whole. What a damn shame. The holiday season is tough for music lovers shopping for other music lovers. This is mostly because......

Still from Lions for LambsWe were under the impression that "No Country for Old Men" was opening this weekend, and we just found out it's only coming to "big" cities today—Austinites have to wait till next weekend. Miffed, we're only slightly placated by the other offerings at hand, though Philip Seymour Hoffman is hard to turn down... Lions for Lambs: Meryl Streep is a reporter, Tom Cruise is typecast as a neocon congressman, Robert Redford......

The Austin Film Festival is right around the corner, and this year's Marquee programming is some of the best in the festival's history. With a wide variety of stellar comedies, dramas, and documentaries (not to mention several strong Oscar contenders) announced, there's something for everyone in the 2007 Marquee category. To help you plan out your festival schedule, we've put together a list of best bets for this year's program. The whole program looks excellent......

The complete schedule for the 14th annual Austin Film Festival has been announced, and it looks pretty amazing. 79 feature films and 98 shorts will screen over the course of eight days at various locations in Austin, beginning on October 11th with Brett Morgen’s much hyped docudrama Chicago 10, starring Hank Azaria, Dylan Baker, Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo, Roy Scheider, Liev Schreiber and Jeffrey Wright. Jason Reitman's brilliant new comedy Juno (starring Ellen Page, Michael......

You have to love ILYBICD's patience. They haven't played a show in "ages," (according to their MySpace), but will come out from hiding Saturday night at the Mohawk to "Hopefully play some new material." In the fall, the band will be heading back to the studio to begin work on their second full-length. Their self-titled 2003 release (produced by Brit Daniel) featured the slow-burning and pop-infused "Your Worst Is Your Best," but the long-awaited......

Last March, Birmingham, England's Editors made quite an impression on those who attended their packed SXSW showcases. An airtight quartet, the band blazed through their sets with energy and precision. A measured mix of post-punk and UK arena rock, Editors project intensity and a dark mood throughout their recorded output. Their debut album The Back Room went gold and produced four Top 40 singles in the UK, and American hipster mag The Fader liked......

Author's note: I will do local music stuff next time, I swear. As an old-school Interpol fan, there is no way I'm not reviewing this record. Interpol - Our Love To Admire Despite all the Joy Division references, Interpol made an impression largely by splitting the difference between The Cure and Duran Duran. The balance of minor-key dirges and slick decadence, perfected on 2002’s Turn On The Bright Lights and poppified on 2004’s Antics, made......

TUESDAY [1] music • The Mohawk Residency series with Peel and Joy Division Cover Band at The Mohawk music • Toots and the Maytals at La Zona Rosa music • Asleep at the Wheel at Waterloo Records (Free, 5pm) music • That Damned Band, Trouble Puppet Theatre, Lowrent the Clown, Luna Tart at Beerland music • Drive By Truckers at Antone's music • The Hudsons at Cactus Café books • Rick Riordan presents Book......

After their phenomenally successful two-day party during SXSW, the good folks of Hot Freaks! have decided to start up a new monthly artist spotlight series at the Mohawk. Co-hosted by Seattle's beloved indie radio station, KEXP, music bloggers Gorilla Vs Bear, The Onion, and Austinist, the Mohawk Residency will showcase two hot Texas bands every month, with each band headlining on alternating Tuesday evenings. Inaugurating this new venture are Peel, whose latest album we lovingly......

Cortney Tidwell may be from Nashville, but her music seems to be the product of an entirely different world. Her debut album, Don't Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up, makes you struggle to keep up with comparisons and references to other bands you might admire (our list included Hope Sandoval, Mogwai, St. Etienne, and Bjork.) This is all quite wonderful, because the parts all meld into a style that is dreamy, catchy, and quietly......

We keep reading that My Latest Novel are being compared with Arcade Fire. Obviously, there are major differences. First, My Latest Novel is a five-piece from Scotland, and Arcade Fire is an eight-piece (or more) from Quebec. And while you can see Arcade Fire this week on SNL, you have to wait until March 16th to see My Latest Novel. Wait you must; for now you can read drummer Ryan King's take on the......

For 15 years, Yokohama's Luminous Orange have been crafting a sound of equal parts gentle Kim Deal-style female vocals, noisy guitar feedback, and rhythms that owe debts to both shoegaze and Sonic Youth. The resolutely indie-rock Japanese outfit makes a return visit to SXSW next month after a successful trip in 2006. Austinist spoke with Luminous Orange founder and vocalist/guitarist Rie Takeuchi about the band's SXSW experiences, along with their general distaste for Texas'......

There’s always a group of youth, every three years or so, who is “on the cusp of DOING something!” Something amazing. Massive in potential scope! Probably artistic and important! Maybe even important on a national if not international scale!...

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......

15. Mogwai - Mr. Beast (Matador) As ever, Mogwai manage to blend unadulterated post-rock weight to their shoegazer tendencies with tracks like "Glasgow Mega Snake" and "Folk Death 95," showcasing their ability to create anthems with no words. This is where Mr. Beast really shines, in between blistering chord progressions and gradual swings into corybantic climaxes. In some ways a throwback to earlier (and heavier) Mogwai material, Mr. Beast isn't merely a rock album.......

Sometimes, no matter how much we loathe certain bands, we can't deny their importance and influence. Attitude and intent can often be more important than substance, and in the case of the Sex Pistols, their nihilistic rejection of "pompous authority" actually became their substance. Their earliest live shows set off a chain reaction of influence that would birth some of the most important bands, producers and labels in the UK's punk, new wave and rock......

Austinites braved the dipping mercury on Friday night to see the latest aspirants in the "Be the Next Joy Division" contest, She Wants Revenge. The sometimes-appreciative but smaller- than-normal crowd bounced and swayed to the resonence of monotonic vocals and 80's-era goth guitar stomp. Openers included high energy Seattle band Pretty Girls Make Graves, who busted out tracks from all three of their albums, and the ever-hypnotic Monsters Are Waiting.......

Everyone, no matter his or her station in life, has either jilted someone or been jilted in their love life. The feelings of anger, betrayal, and humiliation run deep, and there is no force more powerful or threatening than a woman scorned. What does any of this have to do with naming your band She Wants Revenge and making post-Joy Division anthems in line with bands like Interpol? Just beware, there might be some......

Avoid the Noid. Or if you're Oxford Collapse, jump off of the side of a swimming pool and tackle the shit out of the (inflatable toy) Noid. A presumably tanked gentleman is depicted as doing such on the cover of the band’s most recent release, Remember the Night Parties (Sub Pop). In it, OxC reminds us that hard-hitting bands who know how to bring it 80s-style without simply ripping off Joy Division do, in......

Austinist Proudly Presents Local Music is Sexy 2 Thursday, September 14th The Mohawk (912 Red River) [map] Doors at 7pm, 21+ FREE! Special thanks to the Statesman and Austin Chronicle......

On the eve of Austin's gargantuan music festival in Zilker Park, Austinist is hosting our second annual fall soiree, replete with bands, DJs, video projections, fire dancers, and more!...

KUT's Laurie Gallardo dishes about local bands...

The fabulous music bloggers at DepravedFangirls have merged with The Rich Girls Are Weeping to start a joint project, Four Inches from the Cuff. To kick off the launch of this new music feature+interview site, they're sponsoring tonight's show at Emo's, featuring The Ebb & Flow, The Hourly Radio, Protokoll, and A Featherweight Burden. Consider what DFG Shannon had to say about The Hourly Radio, a foursome from Dallas whose new record, History Will Never......

Car Stereo (Wars), the weekly indie rock/electro dance party championed by members of Austin band Single Frame and visual media artist collective Super!Alright! - the latter which recently was tapped to create all of the nifty vignettes for the 2006 Plug Awards in New York City - is moving from Sunday nights to Fridays at Plush, known otherwise as "that lounge/club that we generally avoid any other night." Formed roughly six months ago, Car Stereo......

Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit Sunny hooks, exuberant melodies and Stuart Murdoch’s sneaky/clever lyrics make this latest LP from our favorite Scottish tweesters eminently enjoyable. Be sure to check out the special edition version, which includes a bonus disc featuring the band's live BBC recordings. She Wants Revenge - She Wants Revenge It was only mere months ago that this sharp LA quartet first played Austin, dazzling the crowd at Stubb's who's arrived......

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......