The full schedule is pretty dense, so we've tried to filter it down just a bit for the casual browser. No worries, we'll be posting all the free parties too - including links to maps and RSVP forms soon. For all the (official) info, visit sxsw.com/music. more ›

Dallas’ The Hourly Radio has garnered some top-notch buzz lately. Rolling Stone and Filter magazines both named History Will Never Hold Me in recent “Top 5” listings, while their guitar-centric, post new-wave musical stylings are a hit in NYC, among other cities. We, too, have enjoyed their Texas shows, be it last year’s non-SXSW the rich girls are weeping bash during, well, SXSW, or their opening gig for Stellastarr* at the Parish a few years back. Everyone gets their Hourly Radio fix at Austinist’s free day show at the Mohawk on the 14th. more ›

Just like many other "huge in the UK, but unknown here" acts before them, Kasabian roll into Austin tonight to play to a small crowd of Britrock-loving fans. The Leicester, UK group is touring behind their second album Empire, which debuted at #1 on the British charts earlier this year. Despite their relative youth, Kasabian already has six Top 20 hits in the UK, where rock rather than pop is still played on mainstream airwaves. more ›

Primal Scream - Riot City Blues (Columbia): The Primals seem to have found a time machine. This disc sounds more like a follow-up to 1994's Stones-rock Give Out But Don't Give Up rather than anything they've done in the decade since. The electronics and experimentation from Vanishing Point on are all gone, replaced by throwaway lyrics like "Gotta keep on keepin' on," Rod Stewarty 'Maggie May'-style mandolins, and blues shuffles that place them firmly in Dadrock territory. While there's no doubt that the noisy sample-heavy phase of the Primals had run its course, it's hard to see this album as anything but a placeholder or (worse) a retreat. It sounds like it could've been made in a week, and while the songs are mostly fun, there's a lot of filler. Our advice: Primals fans should head for iTunes to grab 'Country Girl', 'Dolls', 'When The Bomb Drops' and 'Hell's Comin' Down' for four bucks, and let the rest of this one be. more ›

While it arrives in Austin too late to capitalize on World Cup fever, the new documentary Once In A Lifetime tells a surprising and all but forgotten story. In the late 1970's, some brilliant businessmen sold the city of New York on soccer as a stadium event and planted the seed for a huge new pro sports league...only to watch their dream fall to pieces. The most entertaining thing here is to realize that... more ›

In 1986, London-based music magazine New Musical Express (NME), legendary for its influential hold on the British musical imagination, released a limited edition mixtape entitled C-86. Containing early singles from a number of chamber and guitar jangle pop groups such as Primal Scream, The Pastels, The Wolfhounds, and The Shop Assistants, the notoriously difficult-to-obtain cassette encapsulated a newly popular fusion of danceable, rhythmic post-punk and edgy English verse. One of the strongest tracks from... more ›