Every fall, Austin looks forward to ACL Fest, and each year, there's always a point where two of your favorite bands are playing on different sides of the park at the exact same time. ACL Band Clash is a weekly series in which Austinist scribes Paige Maguire and Tom Thornton examine the worst ACL scheduling clashes, and try to provide good advice on finding a resolution. Well, good advice might be a stretch, but......

The Austin Chronicle is offering up tickets to a series of free day shows this year, over at the newly-created SXSW Live space inside the Austin Convention Center. A limited number of space-available passes will be distributed at Cheapo Discs next Wednesday, March 14th, from 2-5pm. Badges and wristbands are not required. The lineup: Thursday, Mar 15 The Lone Star Lounge 2pm Tracy Lawrence 5pm Razorlight 7pm Marc Broussard 9pm Brandi Carlile The Bat......

[In which we use the word fuck no less than three times. Well, four.] A few months ago, at a house party in Hyde Park thrown by local label Christmas Mountain Records, we found ourselves lounging idly with our mates on a plushly upholstered sofa, near the stage setup of a living room so sardine-packed with Austin hipsters that, in the dimmed lighting and from our low vantage point, all one could make out......

If you're like us and often strapped for cash yet eager for new music, here's a bit of welcome news we found in our inbox this morning. This Thursday through Sunday, Waterloo Records, hipster-mecca and one of Austin's favorite locally-owned record shops, is throwing their annual Storewide Sale. Regularly priced items at 20% off, plus more. Austinist thinks you'd be wise to take advantage of this nice deal and flesh out that Englebert Humperdinck collection.......