In keeping with its aim of promoting exceptional artists to the unsuspecting masses, or “starting fires”, SureFire Media + Promotion presents an exciting line-up of local talent this Thursday at Antone’s. SureFire takes on responsibilities such as booking, publicity, and marketing for Austin acts with The Soldier Thread and The Mercers being just two of the bands on its roster. The Antone’s showcases are meant to bring a new set of local bands to the legendary venue -- according to SureFire’s Director of Media Relations, Stephen Tatton, “Antone's is really an Austin landmark, and I think that if we can do something there that helps everyone involved, then we've done our part.”...

Because we're all hoping they'll finally find their audience (aside from our moms) and land a record deal, The Black Crowes have announced their 2008 tour, which includes a stop at SXSW 2008. They will headline at Stubb's, no less. Keep your fingers crossed for them, folks. In other news, we've received word on a handful of local bands that have been accepted by SXSW, including (but not limited to) The Lemurs, Peel, Weird Weeds, Car Stereo (Wars) and almost local rapper Bun B of UGK (Houston). We'll be updating with local additions as often as we can, so stay tuned!...

Image from SOS Alliance SOS Holiday Party & Silent AuctionFriday, December 7Mercury Hall (615 Cardinal Lane)$10 Suggested Donation, 7pm - Midnight[info]Tonight, the Save Our Springs Alliance will be hosting their annual Holiday Party and Silent Auction at Mercury Hall. In addition to food, drinks and great people, the event will showcase music by two environmentally-conscience local bands, Bill Oliver's Otter Space Band and The Bouldin Creek Bobkats. The Silent Auction features items from over 300......

Photo of Diplo courtesy Annie RayFun Fun Fun Fest lived up to its name in spades last weekend, showcasing local and not-so local bands of all genres on three stages in two short days. Day two was a waiting game of sorts for a lot of festival-goers, and judging by the crowd at Mohawk the night before, many people had only had a taste of Murder City Devils, and were craving more. Stage three was......

Photo by Nash Cook on FlickrFun Fun Fun Fest lived up to its name in spades last weekend, showcasing local and not-so local bands of all genres on three stages in two short days. Day 2 was teeming with talent and intrigue as local acts like I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, Riverboat Gamblers, Car Stereo (Wars) and Moth!Fight! did their thing, laying the groundwork for an out of town lineup any festival would......

Photo of Madball courtesy Keith GaddisFun Fun Fun Fest lived up to its name in spades last weekend, showcasing local and not-so local bands of all genres on three stages in two short days. Day one included local acts Okkervil River, Explosions in the Sky, and Brothers and Sisters, as well as touring acts like the New Pornographers, of Montreal and Youth Brigade. To read what else we had to say about day one, click......

Photo of Girl Talk by Davisayer on FlickrFun Fun Fun Fest lived up to its name in spades last weekend, showcasing local and not-so local bands of all genres on three stages in two short days. Day one included local acts White Denim, Brothers and Sisters and Okkervil River, as well as touring acts like Neurosis, Final Fantasy, of Montreal and Girl Talk. Last year's event was a success, albeit overshadowed by too-cool temperatures and......

Artists need plenty of space to think, build, paint and flex their creative muscles. One such place is the new Pump Project Art Complex in East Austin, where 39 local artists fit under one roof to work, play, and create. “Being in this environment, there is always a great support system for your creativity,” said Pump Project artist Debra Broz. “Being around other artists, you can really feed off that.” Formerly Shady Tree Studios, the......

Attention local bands: SXSW 2008 is accepting your applications to be showcase performers during the week long festival come March. The deadline is November 9, 2007 for stateside applicants. If your band has a Sonicbid membership, you can register using that account. Otherwise, register online. Future SXSW attendees can register online to attend, too: music badges are a mere $500 through September 28. Paper Thin Walls feature Austin's Best Fwends: "It's a very mixed......

Highlights from this week's IST List: Folk-pop crooner Page France brings the sparkling jingle-jangle of Page France and the Family Telephone to Emo's, alongside Bishop Allen, The Teeth, and Frank Smith Sidebar's turning three, and they're buying you a drink on the house to celebrate. Join them for Ruby's BBQ, DJ Supafly, and giveaways Alas, one of our favorite social butterflies is flying away to--where else?--New York City. Before he leaves, join Dave "KidIndie"......

Black Nasty Feed From Me It's hard not to start by saying "This music is totally offensive, completely cringe-worthy, and absolutely not appropriate in almost any situation you can imagine." There, we didn't start by saying that. Feed From Me is a maxi single (not an EP, CD or regular single, these are different times, folks) with ten songs that push the boundaries of what most normal people consider music. Influenced by the olden days......

What’s in a name? (I think Abraham Lincoln said that.) The answer is, not much, especially if your band sucks, which it probably does. (I said that.) Still, picking a good band name from the rapidly dwindling supply of word combinations available can be a tricky business, fraught with dead ends, desperation, and 31 flavors of WTF?. Therefore, I’m inaugurating a monthly edition of Hots On called, mmhmm, Band Slam!, wherein I attempt to......

In a town as creative as ours, there is plenty of ongoing chatter about “the next big thing," and (usually) further discussions regarding the viability of the buzz related to those bands. We strive to bring our readers show listings and news updates for some of Austin’s finest, be it Spoon or Ghostland Observatory. Amidst all that, we also do our best to recommend some of the city’s lesser known but equally talented acts.......

Austin native Rebecca Rosenberg has been living in South Korea teaching English, and she wants to share her experiences abroad with all of Austin. Austinist believes that we could all use some Korean culture. After nine months away from Austin, working as an English teacher in South Korea, I most miss lying on the grass with a margarita, relaxing at the meat market that is Barton Springs, with a Shady Thing pilfered from the......

Don't forget about Low Line Caller's Residency show at the Mohawk this evening. The Mohawk Residency series continues to bring fantastic local bands together on alternating Tuesdays for your almost mid-week pleasure, and tonight is a good one, considering Shapes Have Fangswill open with their Shins-ish arrangements, and Marc Ferrino of Black Before Red will add his vocal prowess to their usually instrumental set. While we're pondering the ramifications of mathematical entities having the ability......

It's the your favorite bartender at Sao Paulo, or the girl in the cutoffs at El Chilito. It's the smokin' UPS guy, or one of the Lone Star Rollergirls. It's your local secret crush. It's hard to believe that it's been over sixteen years since Linklater's Slacker edified the collective and individual characters that make Austin, well, Austin. Although Liberty Lunch is long gone, the people that make our city great remain. And what......

Tonight, Alamo Music Mondays presents the US Premiere of We Were Never Here, a film about the German avant-rock band Mutter. Though the band has been around since the 80s, we have to admit that we don't know much about them—and though the Google-translated version of their Wikipedia page is hilarious, it isn't entirely informative. (Representative sentence: "Then with in the same year the published album main thing music disappointed the most incalculable all Diskurspop......

The American craft beer industry will converge on Austin tonight for this year's Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America. Black Star Co-op - the world's first cooperatively owned and worker self-managed brewpub - will be hosting a Craft Beer Celebration to raise startup capital for their beer-boasting business. The event, tonight at Fiesta Gardens from 8PM to midnight, will feature live music from local bands PONG and Opposite Day, funky beats from The Second......

Couture de Amore proved music mixed with fashion makes a fun combination. The show, coupled with performances by local bands, was Friday night at The Parish. Skip to the jump to view a few more lucky unedited shots of the delightful concoctions by Knoxy; Loves, Mariessa; Loves, Mariessa; and Jess b. (all wearing jewelry by Amy Cline).......

*The views expressed in The Laurie Show are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole.* -ed. note Hello, sports fans! I was going to make a lame Super Bowl joke, but my knowledge of the sport is nil to be truly witty about it. One of the more shameful remarks I was heard to utter this week was, “Um…what teams are playing?” Nice. I think I’ll stick to radio. One......

*The views expressed in The Laurie Show are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole.* -The Editors All right, kids. This evening is going to be a tad different for yours truly. Instead of the usual Laurie Show time, from 11 p.m. until 3 a.m., I’m sitting in for Jeff McCord on his Friday night shindig, Left Of the Dial. Thanks to Jeff for letting me take the helm.......

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......

Before we begin, we'd like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of James Kim. We are not, by any means, trying to discount that tragedy by juxtaposing posts about the Kims with more light-hearted posts. It's the nature of doing a compilation such as this one: we're trying to give a full slice of the goings-on in the Ist-a-Verse: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Londonist wants you to know where to......

Named for the proclivities of a Parisian couple who planned to take out the titular monument because its lights kept them up at night, San Diego's The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower play a fairly lovable brand of jazz-inflected sass-core. Or perhaps we should say they used to; since the show is billed as part of their last tour before they disband, presumably to further their careers in hedge fund management. The......

If it’s true that every music writer wishes they were a musician – and we can say from personal experience that it probably is – then it is apparently also true that “every musician wishes they were in a cover band.” Such are the words of Aaron Miller, guitarist for Friday After Dark and the brains behind the quirky gala being held at Club DeVille on Sunday night. What started as an oddball idea for......

Don’t miss Rare Magazine’s Austin Rocks! extravaganza on Saturday, April 22 at Tambaleo! Part fashion show, part rock show, the event showcases Austin’s unique music and fashion scene by pairing styling by local boutiques and salons alongside three local bands. Each boutique will work with a salon to provide hair and makeup, and the names include: Hem Jeans, Orbit Salon, Flirt, Anne Kelso Salon, Upstairs, Electra Beauty Lounge, Cream Vintage, N Salon, Flipnotics, Innu Salon,......

A few weeks ago, local bands and filmmakers were asked to submit their music videos for consideration in this year's inaugural Texas Indie Music Video Festival. Tonight the selected works are being shown at the Drafthouse Downtown, brought to us by End of an Ear and Emo's. The list of chosen videos includes some of our favorite regional acts, including now-defunct Canoe, Peter & the Wolf, and Okkervil River. Check the full listing after......

Before there was MTV, before there was access television showing crappy videos of crappy local bands, there was the Promotional Video. Sometimes beautifull, entertaining and of strong production value, sometimes handheld, dodgy filmmaking with band members tripped out on acid and running wild, these promo films were used by bands to get bookers to sign them and often times used as stand-ins for bands when they could not make their live television performances. Boy,......

Would you be surprised to know that Waco, Texas is home to a bunch of great bands? If so, you might be even more surprised to find out that there are so many great bands based out of or from Waco, that they've formed the Waco Co-op, "a collective of musicians who desire to create meaningful and creative music in the context of [their] relationship to each other." The co-op counts popular Austin groups......

Vince Young goes pro after a spectacular performance ... or does he? Either way, party with UT this weekend ColumnISTs: Dipsomania 101, Truesdays, Candy and Flowers, Watching It, Watching Me The Austin Chronicle wants to know your favorite local bands Are Sheryl and Lance on the outs? Whole Foods makes us proud; AMD? Not so much The daughter of the former guvn'r takes over planned parenthood Austinist eats: Suzi's China Grill, Siena Ristorante Toscana......