“Don’t believe the hype,” Public Enemy warned us way back in 1988, and as on their eerily prescient “Cold Lampin’ With Flavor” which made the surprising case for Flava Flave’s longevity, they were right, of course. And hype, by definition, should always be suspect. From the moment Vampire Weekend, the quirky New York quartet began making the blog rounds and collecting the sort of adjectives that pointed their way toward them becoming The Next Big Thing, we, as a music community, needed to take a breath, sit down, and just relax. Losing our shit about inventive New York rock debuts are just going to result in another band like The Strokes, and we all know where that got us....

Andy Langer is Austin's nearly ubiquitous multimedia music journalist. In the past, he's worked for both The Austin Chronicle and KUT. He now hosts music news segments on News 8 Austin, writes a column for Esquire magazine, and appears on both KSGR and KROX radio on Thursday mornings. Now, after twelve years of (also) hosting 101X's Sunday new music program The Next Big Thing, Langer is migrating to a prime weekday evening spot at KGSR. His show will air Monday-Friday from 6 to 10pm, immediately following Jody Denberg's drive-time broadcast. Though KSGR's format is pretty flexible for AAA, it's a big change for the guy who's been playing lots of loud indie, Britrock, electronica, and lo-fi material at KROX. We spoke with Langer yesterday about the changes to his radio job, and he had a lot to tell us...

Image from MySpace Homegrown LiveWednesday, November 7The Mohawk (912 Red River)$5, Doors at 9 p.m.[info] This Wednesday at the Mohawk, catch some local talent on the rise as part of 101X’s Homegrown Live concert series. Featuring Peel, Corto Maltese, Yellow Fever and DJ:/Rubix, it’s an excellent opportunity to see some of Austin’s best young acts. Peel have already established themselves as one of Austin’s most promising bands, both with last year’s self-titled release on Peek-A-Boo......

Austinist was walking down the street on Friday evening on our way for a few pints at Lovejoys -- ah, delicious, freshly brewed beer! -- with our pal Neal Pollack when we bumped into Andy Langer, host of The Next Big Thing, and contributor to every form of media known to man. We had a nice chat, standing there on the sidewalk, during which Andy mentioned that he had sent Neal's recent piece about......