East Austin auteur Bill Baird has been a fixture in our city for quite some time, notably within the rotating cast of Sunset and the long-ago pop machinations of Sound Team. Composing and producing recordings under his simple moniker, which range from psychedelic minimalist landscapes to wry folk implosiveness, Baird has been quite busy in the warm confines of Baby Blue Studios day in and day out, with the results to be self-released on a limited edition LP in the coming weeks as Goodbye Vibrations. more ›

It's a Mogwai Monday here in Austin. more ›

The admirable nonprofit Austin Bat Cave, which is responsible both for awesome readings in town as well as for hosting amazing youth writing workshops, needs your help. more ›

Investing a little time to check out this compilation should be a no-brainer. You can download it for free (link below) and it’s full of local Austin talent. These fifteen tracks, half of which were previously unreleased, were curated by Nick Cornetti of the Pau Wau collective and paired with a limited edition zine distributed during SXSW to help get the artists recognized. more ›

Lake Travis' newest restaurant (located a stone's throw from the Oasis) serves diners a picturesque view and delicious Mediterranean and Italian dishes. more ›

In advance of what is to be another mind-blowing installment of Local Music Is Sexy at the Mohawk, we tracked down a few of the artists playing and asked them to write a letter to Austin, Texas at large. In this installment we hear from Sunset's Bill Baird, who likens his love for this city to pleasurable pain. more ›

Though Baird has long worn his influences clearly, Loveshines moves beyond laundry lists to something quite individual. Sure, one can make a case for indebtedness to bubbly psych of decades past, but the songwriting and composition are very much Sunset's own. more ›

The dissolution of Sound Team in 2007 - one of the more promising Austin acts in recent memory - had a silver lining. The two principal forces behind the band (Bill Baird and Matt Oliver) may have parted company, but that means fans get double the amount of music from these immensely talented songwriters. Baird releases albums at a steady clip under the moniker Sunset, while Oliver heads up TV Torso with the help of former Sound Team drummer Jordan Johns and new recruit Jimmy Rhea on bass. more ›

Bill Baird doesn't stay quiet for long. Just when you think he might be taking some kind of break, he resurfaces and you realize he's actually been very hard at work somewhere on new material, be it music or writing. more ›

Sleep Good is mostly the nom-de-plume of one Will Patterson, who has been a consistent force in local motorik-pop outfits Sunset and Sound Team. Now, with a fourth album under his belt (the previous installments have been cassette or CD-R releases) and accompaniment by a regular supporting cast, at the very least it's no longer a "side project." more ›

Listening to Sunset’s Gold Dissolves To Gray, the fourth full-length album from Austin’s Bill Baird, invites to mind that brilliant line from Noah Baumbach’s Kicking and Screaming: “I’m nostalgic for conversations I had yesterday.” The best thing this effort has to offer is its terrifically timely and magnetic aesthetic of nostalgia for the new. At its high points, Baird seamlessly cobbles together a fresh sound that is both reminiscent (of 60s glam and 70s psychedelia) and of-the-moment, nodding to albums like Department of Eagles’ In Ear Park, dating all the way back to last year. (But yes, we were missing it already.) more ›

Sunset are one of the busiest bands in Austin, so it's no surprise that they're continuing to host shows at their east side studio Baby Blue and have a new release planned for the near future - an album entitled Gold Dissolves to Gray out on Autobus records. According to the band's blog, a vinyl form of the album (with a cd version included) will see release on November 24th. more ›

Austin's Peek-A-Boo records is prepping Octopus Project's upcoming Golden Beds release, due this week. Peel is getting ready for a hiatus due to Josh Permenter's move to San Fransisco, so July 31 will be your last chance to see them for a spell. Supported by {{{Sunset}}} and Little Stolen Moments, they'll perform at Baby Blue studios around 9 p.m. more ›

Hearty and full of camp fire-y goodness, {{{Sunset}}} will take the inside stage at Emo's tonight. The band is the brain child of Bill Baird, who has been performing and recording under the name Sunset and other variations (adding and subtracting the {{{}}} thingies) since 2006. more ›

After leaving The Laughing to pursue his own project, Abram Shook took his music in a different direction but kept his original intentions while switching focus. more ›

The Integrated Media Community, a "collective group of Austin-based film, music, interactive and arts professionals working to create a sustainable media economy in Austin, Texas," is throwing their second annual ATX Emerge party, which combine the talents of local filmmakers, artists and musicians. Tomorrow evening's party at the Mohawk features Belaire, Brazos, Foot Patrol, Freshmillions, Harlem, Sunset, The White White Lights, Ume, Zeale, and DJ Blissom. They'll also have a media room set up where you can see new video game and film work being presented. The event is free, but an RSVP (see box) is required. more ›

Every weekday morning we'll be featuring a photo (or two) from our readers. Please feel free to submit your photos (min 600px width) by adding them to the Austinist Flickr Group. more ›

Every weekday morning we'll be featuring a photo (or two) from our readers. Please feel free to submit your photos (min 600px width) by adding them to the Austinist Flickr Group. more ›

Every weekday morning we'll be featuring a photo (or two) from our readers. Please feel free to submit your photos (min 600px width) by adding them to the Austinist Flickr Group. more ›

Has it really been four years since those first tedious video diaries, clips of theremin-playing kitties and bootlegged SNL sketches began showing up en masse online? YouTube, you have changed our lives, from expanding our minds to insulting our intelligence. more ›

>Local label Autobus records, who grabbed our attention this year with quite a few impressive releases, have announced their official SXSW Showcase for Wednesday, March 18th at the Hideout on 6th and Congress. While usually a venue for improv comedy and that sort of thing, the Hideout is surprisingly adaptable to live music, as attendees of the 2006 Orange Twin showcase (or subsequent SXSW showcases) can attest. more ›

While the steady hand of democracy steers most end-of-year best of lists towards not only the very good but also the very well known, we here at the Austinist feels it's important to give a little face time to the lesser knowns, especially now that 2009 has closed the door on that last year that happened, whatever it was called. So while we were plenty pleased with our own official list, we thought it important to take note of those albums that shook us this year, even if they didn't make it through the primaries--let's consider them the Dennis Kuciniches and Mike Gravels of the race, if only those guys were any good. As a result, this list is unnumbered, obscure, sometimes strange, and features those underexposed greats that shouldn't be forgotten even though the calendar's turned. more ›

Next we have Bill Baird, the extremely prolific frontman of Sunset who talked with us about his favorite listening experiences of the year. In between releasing two albums, a cassette, and working on a disc of covers, somehow Baird did have the chance to indulge in music that wasn't his, which ranged from an output by a former member of his old Tonewheel Collective to Axl Rose's much-anticipated ProTools exercise Chinese Democracy. more ›

Legendary folk singer and guitarist Richie Havens will be performing two shows in Austin on January 16th. For tickets and more information, visit One World Theatre's Web site. more ›

Tonight is a big night for the Creekside Lounge, an atypical venue for theater or music or anything but drunken babble, though this evening they'll have all three available. First, Gorilla Man will be performed at 7:30, and after that, some of Austin's best home-grown folk/rock will take the stage. more ›

Every weekday morning we'll be featuring a photo (or two) from our readers. Please feel free to submit your photos (min 600px width) by adding them to the Austinist Flickr Group. more ›

Every weekday morning we'll be featuring a photo (or two) from our readers. Please feel free to submit your photos (min 600px width) by adding them to the Austinist Flickr Group. more ›

So our friends over at kvrx.org have put together a stellar lineup of local bands for their nth annual Back-To-School Extravaganza... more ›

Every weekday morning we'll be featuring a photo (or two) from our readers. Please feel free to submit your photos by adding them to the Austinist Flickr Group. more ›