Austinist & Gothamist are proud to announce our SXSW day party, taking place on Wednesday, March 12 at the Mohawk. The party kicks off around 11 a.m., and the day ends at 6, but not before Shout Out Louds, Shearwater, Liam Finn and Phosphorescent perform. As usual, the party is free, open to all. See you then!...

Mike Booher looks like a rock star until he smiles. Tall and lanky, shaggy black hair, smoking a cigarette outside his practice room, he is a throwback to the Ramones. Then he grins, waves, and he’s the friendly guy everyone loves. Who just happens to be the front man for Austin’s much-hyped Zykos. Originally from Houston, Booher grew up on the same street as bassist Mike Roeder and keyboardist Catherine Davis, a petit blonde piano......

Damien Jurado has called his 2005 album, On My Way To Absence, a “tribute to jealousy.” That may sound like a typical take from a tortured singer-songwriting sifting his way through love and morality, but Jurado’s dark lyrics and melancholy, haunting voice coalesce to create truly captivating music. He is the product of an indie darling background, living in Seattle, working first with Sub Pop and now Secretly Canadian, and collaborating with the likes of......

You know, one would think it’s easy to be coming to SxSW from Brooklyn to little ol’ Austin, with about five years of tour-cred, college radio on your collective dicks, and some influential Industry Brits thinking you’re the shit. But then again, there’s probably like, four hundred other bands with the same paperwork, stats, and haircuts, who are also in town. That formula is no novelty. But We Are Scientists caught our eye, or ear,......

Back when we lived up in Nueva York, we kept hearing about these crazy “Gypsy-Punk” assholes who appeared out of nowhere, presumably from the general vicinity of The Ukraine. Their shows were rumored to be complete sweat-fests of insane, mobish crowds that moved to the circus-like music with a singular, beast-like quality. Their singer, reputed to have some Brian Jones sort of charm over the masses, moved from song to song in a live show,......

Scott Biram is like Tom Waits in a meshback with lots of side-story between songs and a gruff whisky slur. Hold up. That’s really just Tom Waits in a meshback. Except Tom Waits never got hit head-on by an 18-wheeler at highway speed. Biram’s an Austin native who goes solo on the stage, where he spins grim yarns of lost lust/love, fumbling with the evils of humanity, and chasing the desire to do whatever the......

Hello Forward Russia! [Forgive us for not doing the Spanish exclamations on that one, even though it's part of their shtick, but we don’t know the “special keys” for that, so okay then.] Coming straight out of Leeds and kicking ass since 2004, this quatro has a reputation for stirring the shit and getting the monkeys to stop holding up the wall. We're going to take the lame route and just start naming other bands......

What makes a band like The Owls such a great experience is that their floating lyrics and haunting harmonies combine so wonderfully to set such a mood as to make dandelions spawn in springtime air, and cause bunny rabbits’ tails to wiggle so… We can’t write that kind of crap and expect it to hold water. The fact is that this band makes songs of rare beauty. They give us hope that there are people......

We are not profiling Healthy White Baby because they have a name that would shock moms everywhere, but you’ve got to admit it’s pretty catchy (a reference to Raising Arizona, so relax) . And it’s not because they’re from Chicago, but that definitely makes them amazingly cool. Our friend that runs a rock magazine has been expounding on Healthy White Baby’s genius for quite some time now. We finally got around to listening to them......

Hot on the heels of our afterparty annoucement earlier today, we're thrilled to let you know about "Gonna Gonna Get, Get Down!", the free day party we're throwing on Wednesday March 15th, from Noon-11pm at Austin's newest indie/hipster joint, Red 7 (across the street from Sidebar, in back of Plush Lounge, and sharing an alleyway with Emo's and True Blue) We'll have DJ sets indoors (until 5pm) and between bands outside (all day), by northKorean,......