If there's something to take away from The Cure's sold out gig at the Austin Music Hall, it is that Robert Smith has no intention of coasting. Given that The Cure have existed for nearly 32 years, the gig could have easily gone the way of pat nostalgia. But when your die-hard fans line up ten hours prior to show time, one had best be prepared to deliver the goods. Sunday night, The Cure appeared full of energy and purpose during a 36-song, three hour marathon that featured both loads of singles and a host of deep cuts from three selected Cure albums. The 2008 Cure tour is primarily playing arenas, so the relatively small (4,400) confines of the Music Hall essentially gave Smith permission to jettison some greatest hits (among them "Close To Me", "Hot Hot Hot", and "The Lovecats") to spend much of the set focusing on songs from Wish, Pornography, and Seventeen Seconds. The large number of out-of-towners in the crowd justified Smith's song selections: in our immediate circle, we met fans from Dallas, Houston, Nebraska, and Chicago....

The Cure will be performing at the Austin Music Hall next June as per their official website. The date has been added as a part of their (formerly postponed) The Cure 4Tour North American leg. The current line-up of the band is listed as Robert Smith (of course!), Simon Gallup (bass), Porl Thompson (guitar), and Jason Cooper on drums. A new album is in the works as well. In the interim, the Shout Out......

Shout Out Louds Our Ill Wills (Merge) 2005's Howl Howl, Gaff Gaff produced a moderate buzz for the Stockholm-based Shout Out Louds, dropping a snappier, poppier version of garage rock on our tightly belted laps. The record, equal parts Johnny Marr and Rivers Cuomo, pondered the woes of hipster heartbreak, dumb-luck sadness and singer Adam Olenius' distinctive croon simply oozed with longing and hope. That being said, Howl Howl is not at all a......

Two days remain in our ticket giveaway to see stellastarr*, Spoon, Alpha Rev and Morningwood at The Parish Room next Monday! Proceeds from the show go to "Habitat for Humanity for the rebuilding of hurricane-affected areas right here in Texas, Louisiana, & Mississippi," and the only way to get 'em other than winning ours is to sign up with the "101x Workforce." We still have no idea what that's all about, but it's available......

Brooklyn's Stellastarr* played a brilliant show at the Parish Room a few months back, replete with dazzling light show, explosive instrumentation and lead singer Shawn Christensen's powerful, dead-on Robert Smith wail. It was a set imbued with the same frenetic energy as their sophomore effort, Harmonies for the Haunted, an album brazenly inspired by any of a number of New Wave acts and whose ceaseless momentum makes it one of our guiltiest pleasures of......

The annual Shortlist Music Prize was envisioned by creators Greg Spotts and Tom Sarig to "create opportunities for left-of-center culture to cross over to the mainstream." And to accomplish this, they enlisted a slew of "respected members of the creative community" to serve as arbiters of indie taste. Pitchfork announced today that this year's Shortlist awards have been cancelled, owing to infighting between Spotts and Sarig: Speaking about the duo's rift to AP, Spotts......