Technically, Fantastic Fest doesn't start until Thursday. But for badgeholders who get into town early (or, you know, live here), the fun will begin on Wednesday night as Casey Affleck hosts a free sneak screening of his new film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. We've been huge Affleck fans since his criminally under appreciated role in Good Will Hunting. And with The Assassination and Gone Baby Gone (both of which......

The Boggs Forts Forts is quite possibly a modern breakthrough in the use of fusing modern sampling and eclectic songwriting. The Boggs create a stirring soundscape of both cut-up and collage and multi-cultura pop songs around foreign noise with traditional rock elements (guitar, bass drums etc). There are elements of '60s influence in tunes like the left field "Kinkesque", "Little Windows" and bouncy glam rock ala "Arm In Arm". However, the album really starts going......

The BBC calls The Hot Puppies a "spiky girl-pop band hiding sharp talons and sardonic wit beneath their cool, Blondie-style new wave exterior." They have also won effusive praise from critics at The Guardian, who want The Hot Puppies to be "the next big thing." After six years together, the band signed to Fierce Panda and released their debut album Under The Crooked Moon in mid-2006. The confident and powerful Radio One Sessions tracks......

Canadian outfit Uncut recently unveiled their 2nd full length, Modern Currencies on Paper Bag Records. The band is adept at generating dance-rock walls of sound, with equal emphasis on electronic output and abundant guitars n’ bass (although they have been leaning towards the latter lately.) We were fortunate enough to catch them last year at SXSW during a day set at Brush Square Park, and excited that vocalist / guitarist and founding member Ian......

Hometown rock stars I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness have finished two quick jaunts to Europe, are working on a new album, put together a terrifyingly beautiful music video for "The Owl" with Emmanuel Ho, and will be playing at SXSW. If you aren't already familiar with their unique brand of Peter Murphy meets Nick Cave inspired minimalist (but fist-flinging urban) post-rock, change your ways: you don't want to miss them live. Recently......

As a uniquely American genre, westerns have traveled a long and dusty trail since John Ford’s My Darling Clementine. In John Hillcoat’s The Proposition, the trail winds its way to the Australian Outback. Brutal yet brilliant, beautiful though bloody, the screenplay by Aussie rocker Nick Cave (The Bad Seeds) holds true to the elements of the genre: Symbolic of all things good is the woman from the east, a fight for survival and power against......

It's pretty slim-pickins this week folks. Might we suggest getting out and enjoying some live music and one of our many swimming holes? *A Prairie Home Companion Altman's finest accomplishment in years. Great direction and strong, realistic acting make up for rather thin plot. *The Proposition A Nick Cave soundtrack to a western film set in Australia starring Guy Pearce? Grrrr. There's a reason Bre is not doing movie previews today. Cars It's funny......

Sale information on wristbands for SXSW will be announced by the Austin Chronicle in this Thursday's issue -- we'll have it posted here as soon as we find out! Arab Strap - The Last Romance Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I Am Not Asylum Street Spankers - Pussycat: Bootleg Series V.2 Bela Fleck & the Flecktones - The Hidden Land Billy Bragg - Box Set V.1 Billy Bragg -......