Classic Rock, Classic Country: As per usual, Willie Nelson will play two nights at The Backyard for both locals avoiding SXSW and tourists willing to skip one night of showcases to see Austin's most enduring music legend. Willie's shows are tentatively scheduled for 3/14 and 3/15, and will go on sale sometime in February. In another move designed to access some tourist dollars, Direct Events has announced a relatively intimate show with Van Morrison at the Austin Music Hall on Tuesday, March 11. Van the Man apparently hasn't heard about the looming recession, as tickets are priced from $102 to a whopping $257. ...

Ben Reed & Bill Cope Read Christmas Fiction, Live!Friday, November 30thCafe Mundi (1704 East 5th St.)Free, 8pm - onwardAustinist’s own Benjamin Reed’s doing a Christmas Story reading with Bill Cope! Using real words! This Friday evening! Remember back when words actually meant something? Back when they meant “on paper, in printed form, to be read aloud to people who like hearing stories told by the authors who write them”? Back when books were things......

Comprised of Dominic Cooper and a few friends, The Straw Bear Band are a U.K. folktronica act poised with acoustic guitars in hand and feet sewn to synthesizer pedals. While their acoustic/electronic juxtaposition is nothing new, The Straw Bear Band try to mix things up on their debut From The Sea To The Stars with an ambitious, nearly cinematic storyline. It isn’t often that a band will summarize the scope of their album in......

The Sea and Cake are in many ways the definition of post-rock. They are also, however, and perhaps more importantly, the definition of atmospheric, delicate pop music. Originally intended as a one-off studio recording project in 1993, the band has now been releasing albums for over a decade, delving further and further into the sort of warm, embraceable music you might use for makeout music if you weren't well aware that you're just entirely too......

Once in a while, we like to take some time to introduce you to bands -- both local otherwise -- that we think you'd enjoy. Le Diamont Brut aims to showcase those MySpace gems we hope to see shine. Recommend your local suggestions by emailing music@austinist.com. FINAL FANTASY What’s the Deal: Final Fantasy is Owen Pallett, and yes, he is a fan of the game series. That’s actually where he got his name. His music......

Donald Trump and The Apprentice have nothing on screenwriter Mateo Gil (Vanilla Sky, The Sea Inside). Gil zeroes in on the paranoia of office politics and brutal selection processes that force contestants to adhere to strict, snazzy dress codes in El Metodo, a critically acclaimed film that was released in Spain two years ago. The New York Times apparently labeled the movie as a comedy-laced suspense drama. For those of us that were not......

In a town as creative as ours, there is plenty of ongoing chatter about “the next big thing," and (usually) further discussions regarding the viability of the buzz related to those bands. We strive to bring our readers show listings and news updates for some of Austin’s finest, be it Spoon or Ghostland Observatory. Amidst all that, we also do our best to recommend some of the city’s lesser known but equally talented acts.......

Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank From the opening moments of WWDBTSES—god, even the acronym’s a mouthful—it's apparent that Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock has become a capital-R Rock Star, perhaps the oddest one since David Byrne: track one, “March Into The Sea,” finds the newly-svelte songwriter frothing and howling from word one. The man hasn't lost his knack for colorful illustrations of human nature, tossing off wry observations like......

We missed that whole “Black Friday” thing (post-traumatic stress symptoms related to a former life working retail), and the holidays are creeping up faster than a cheer-stealing Grinch in a dogsled. We’re sure that some of you, dear readers, find yourselves in a similar boat. But, before you start snapping up pre-packaged bath sets at Target, check out Austinist’s very special recommendations. We’ve sorted through some of the sparkliest surprises available locally and on the......

If you caught Montreal indie-poppers Islands at SXSW this year (or at their return appearance in May), you know that they throw down Canadian-indie-style (which is to say, with way more people on stage than is necessary). Seriously though, Islands are a pants-wettingly good live act. We might even go so far as to say that they're better live than they are on disc; on stage, their occasionally cheesy angular quirkiness is taken over......

Believe it or not, Love Travels At Illegal Speeds is former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon’s sixth solo record. His third since leaving the band, LTAIS boasts crunching guitar hooks and sparkling pop-rock along with a plethora of downtrodden, forlorn ballads. As the title of the album suggests, Coxon tackles the fluctuating fortunes of love and the struggles of being smitten. Lyrics like "When I saw you / my life turned so beautiful / I......

Austin is Taradise! And Lance and Sheryl split Congrats to Adlai McMahon, winner of our giveaway contest for Bloc Party's documentary/concert DVD, God Bless Bloc Party! The SXSW Music Festival roster expanded to over 1,100 this week, including such esteemed acts as Morrissey and The Flaming Lips Austinist photographer Matt Wright captures yet another amazing night shot in Austin, as well as some sexy shots of last week's Box Magazine issue release party. The......

In case you were thinking of taking up John Banville's award-winning The Sea (Alfred A. Knopf Publishers) as light reading, let us warn you: don't. This book takes some concentration, and after finishing the novel, we wonder if it was worth it. The novel is told from the point-of-view of a recently widowed man who has moved back to the village where he summered as a child, where an event happened that still haunts......