After Van Halen, Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead, and Jay-Z all elected to skip Austin on their spring US tours, it's not unreasonable to feel that our music-loving town seems to be off the radar of the arena pop and rock circuit. This despite a perfectly functional (if rather dated) basketball arena smack in the center in town. Thankfully, the Louis Vuitton Don Kanye West agrees with you, and has elected to show Austin some big-production love with a date here at The Frank Erwin Center in late April....

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....

Looks like ACL Fest organizers have chosen Groundhog Day to release their mildly discounted multi-passes. 3-day passes priced at $150 including service charges are on sale now at ACLFest.com. ...

It’s list-making season – for children who believe in Santa, music writers, etc – and there are three rap albums that you are bound to see wherever it is that you see lists: Jay-Z’s American Gangster, Kanye West’s Graduate, and Lil’ Wayne’s Da Drought 3. These artists all create good music and lots of people purchased and enjoyed all three of these works. Lil’ Wayne, in particular, may have produced the two most gifted hours......

Stay away from the Denver International Airport. Major anti-abortion group endorses that Law & Order guy. Ship spills more than 1.3 million gallons of oil into the Black Sea. As if Russia's environment wasn't effed up enough... New studies show that children who are identified as troubled in kindergarten might end up doing fine in elementary school. So give the kids a chance, okay? Having good friends at work makes you less stressed out.......

Back in 1996, Junot Diaz published a collection of short stories, Drown, which became one of the most celebrated literary debuts of the Nineties. Drown drew on Diaz’s experiences growing up, first in the Dominican Republic, and later, from the age of six, in a northern New Jersey immigrant neighborhood. Now, after eleven years, he has just published his long-awaited first novel, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Wao, the protagonist, is a......

Given that Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" has become resolutely unfunny over the past month (even before she canceled), the title of "band with that one hit song that everyone loves" at ACL has fallen squarely on the shoulders of Sweden's Peter, Bjorn, and John. The group have been plugging away at their charming blend of pop, rock, and indie since 1999, and are anything but an overnight sensation. Their breakthrough hit "Young Folks" is actually......

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors I cry about it every year. What can I say? I’m Nordic. My peoples battled chill and rain-brought illness. Snow drifts and day long nights. Christmas trees and rowing to Greenland to fish. Various doings in the cold. They never sweat to death. So this current variety of heat, though delayed this......

If the closest you come to contemporary hip hop is dodging the Spiro's crowd on your way to Emo's, then we have news for you: there IS more out there. No, you need not subject yourself to the abrasive and, dare we say, bastardized sounds of Dirty South hip hop, nor need you dig up your old De La albums (though you should anyway) because tonight Talib Kweli is at Emo's to show you......

In the last year, Greg Gillis' Girl Talk has become a sort of household name for the music community at large as his third full length album, Night Ripper, stopped party-goers in their tracks and took the art of mixing to an entirely new level. Bio-medical researcher by day and party catalyst by night, Gillis is an entrepreneur of sound as mind fuck: spinning Top 40 radio against explicit rap and hip-hop against 70s......

Let's take a look back at a week that raised this Zen koan: if Kevin Federline got into a wrestling ring with a wrestler, who would you root for? Austinist was in an entertainment state of mind as they covered the dickens out of the Austin Film Festival, depicted all the Big 12 football coaches as South Park characters, and interviewed Jose Gonzalez. Chicagoist talked about the passion as they bid adieu to Bell......

The details are in: The Rolling Stones at Zilker Park is official. Let's spend some time together: Date: Sunday, October 22, 2006 @ 6pm. Seating: General Admission. GA Price: $95 ($75 with student ID). Any Reserved Seating?: Yes, but only in very limited numbers at a premium price TBA. Onsale Date: August 19th @ 10am. Ticket Limit: 12 tickets/person. Opening Act? To be announced. (Confirmed openers on other US dates: Kanye West, Dave Matthews......

After 18 bands in a weekend, Austinist is exhausted. Coachella 2006 was everything we thought it would be, only hotter, and with less alcohol (due to the scorching heat) and more drugs (since nobody could drink near the stages). We went in with no set agenda in terms of seeing particular bands - it seemed smarter to just hit whatever struck us right at the time. This strategy worked pretty well, and here's how......

The trailer features a song from Kanye West with a pulsating beat. Jamie Foxx looks sternly at one of his troops, exclaiming, “I love this job.” Oil fires explode in the desert. Marines “hoo-rah” in anticipation of gory battle. The 30-second commercials you have seen provide pretty much all the action and excitement you can expect to get out of “Jarhead,” the new film by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition). This is......

We will give you seven reasons to head over to Emo’s this Friday. 1. It is Loxsly’s CD release show. After becoming a full fledged band over the past year, Loxsly has matured (literally) into quite the local boy band. Cody Ground and his bubble-pop brigade are set to self-release Maps + Organs, which expands on their 2003 Forecast a Brainstorm release which was mostly just Cody messing around with his electro-pop sound. When......

We won’t argue that August has been pretty slow when it comes to new music, but there are plenty of great releases that came out today that you need to get your hands on. John Vanderslice - http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/vanderslicejohn/pixelrevolt">Pixel Revolt Not as catchy as his last release, but this one will grow on you. JV keeps putting out quality albums. [mp3: JV – Exodus Damage / upcoming show: 10/27 at the parish] Black Rebel Motorcycle......