Santigold was in a tough position heading into this high-profile show: she has a new album ready to roll, but nobody has heard it yet. Friday's set showed both the artist's awareness of the awkward situation and a lot of cleverness, as she deployed every trick in the book to keep the crowd on her side. For starters, she came out firing with familiar material, leading with "Go," her collaboration with Karen O from earlier this year. She then followed immediately with both hits from her debut album, "L.E.S. Artistes" and "Lights Out." The former led to frenzied crowd pogoing, while the latter reminded us that selling a single to a light beer for ads can sometime dilute a tune's impact. more ›

ACL Fest announced their lineup early this morning. Color us impressed: Stevie Wonder, Arcade Fire, Coldplay, Kanye West, Big Boi, Broken Social Scene, Nas, My Morning Jacket, Fleet Foxes, Social Distortion, TV on the Radio, The Walkmen, James Blake, Gomez and Randy Newman are just a couple of the impressive folks lined up to perform. This year, the festival happens Sept. 16-18 at Zilker Park. The three-day tickets are already sold out (they went before the lineup was officially announced), but we'll keep you posted on updates should any more tickets for the weekend become available. Single day tickets go on sale this morning at 10 a.m. more ›

• Fabulous video that captures what SXSW felt like this year.
• The “paper of record” covered SXSW. They also liked the bands Joy Formidable and 1,2,3!
• Yes, there really was an official British invasion of SXSW.

Idolator is confirming that Kanye will indeed be performing at SXSW this year. He'll be at the Vevo Power Station on Saturday night at midnight. Get there early, and watch the cryptic video that stoked the fire. more ›

A-Trak may be best known for his DJ skills on stage with Kanye West, but he's recently teamed up with a bunch of other big names to bring his raucous beats to as wide an audience as possible. His latest venture as one half of the group Duck Sauce (other half made up by DJ-producer Armand Van Heldon) has just released a video for the club anthem "Barbara Streisand." more ›

• University of Texas getting Cronkite's papers and photographs
• Leslie's condition continues to improve; now at rehab hospital
• Underworld in shock as hitman quits Mafia and tells court he's gay

Well, we survived. As the dust (both literal and figurative) settles, we're taking a moment to take stock of all the week's most interesting moments, magical photo opportunities and occasional blunders from 2009's SXSW music festival in Austin. Have a story for us? Email Email us. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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... more ›

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.... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

*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... more ›

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... more ›

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, was #7 on our year end list here at Austinist (follow the link to read our review of it), and we can't wait to see what the live show brings at SXSW. Recently we had a chance to hear from Gillis himself on his life in the Pittsburgh medical research community, his last experience in Austin, and his thoughts on the mash-up. more ›

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... more ›

The details are in: The Rolling Stones at Zilker Park is official. Let's spend some time together: more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›