Images of bears, rhinos, dinosaurs and even monsters with generous genitalia adorn the band’s t-shirt catalog, and they’re friends with groups like Mastodon, Mogwai, Kylesa and Municipal Waste on their MySpace page. And, their newest full-length is called Meaderthal, so, judging from that information alone, you should be able to make a pretty accurate judgment as to whether or not this is a band you can rock out to. ... [continue]

Offering different forms of stimulation can bring the evening’s entertainment to the next level, much like adding a strawberry to a glass of champagne steps things up a notch. Music and comedy is getting common. Music and art isn’t quite done enough. This weekend, it’s time for fashion and music to collide at Team Fabrication’s Fashion Extravaganza #6 at the Mohawk on Saturday. ... [continue]

Deer Tick also happens to be the name of an American folk group from the Northeast, and fortunately for the band, they don’t share the same penchant for annoying humans. ... [continue]

Fun Fun Fun Fest is fortunate this year, as with the last, to have some pretty important names in punk rock on the bill. Bad Brains, The Bouncing Souls and All are just a small part of a long list of groups who have put their stamp on punk over the last 20 or so years. Kevin Seconds, singer of the legendary punk band 7 Seconds, is another one of those important punk figures, and albums like 1985’s Walk Together Rock Together earned 7 Seconds a spot in the hearts of many rebellious, disenchanted youths.... [continue]

They’re a four-man psych-folk group who got their start in Stillwater, OK with some thick, harmonic choruses in the midst of crunching, distorted guitars and some grand instrumentation. They have a bursting folk-pop sound built of keys, guitars, even horns.... [continue]

Tim Fite is a singer/songwriter living in Brooklyn who blends hip hop and folk to create a very distinct and raw sound featuring Fite's slight drawl and a drawer full of samples. On his Anti Records debut Gone Ain't Gone, which garnered him considerable critical praise, Fite only used samples from records he bought for less than a dollar. ... [continue]

Neil Hamburger, aka Gregg Turkington, will provide a much-needed comedic respite from the barrage of punk, indie, hip hop and local music of this weekend’s Fun Fun Fun Fest. He, along with others like the Tim and Eric Awesome Show and the locals of the Coldtowne Comedy Hour, will do their best to crack up the cold stares of the hipsters and get them to grab their gut for a chuckle. ... [continue]

This is a star-studded tour if you’re into gritty, gravely punk. It’s Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music, Tim Barry of Avail and Ben Nichols of Lucero all playing solo sets, but it usually ends up with the guys all playing on the stage backing one another.... [continue]

This Portland trio playing Fun Fun Fun Fest gets points for accuracy on the name for sure. They have an indie experimental noise sound that sometimes lands on the side of the sharp and jarring, not too much unlike a fist full of shiny metal picks and tools about to probe around your gum line. ... [continue]

Now not only a film about a concerned cast of characters from Sesame Street in search of a wandering Big Bird, Follow That Bird! has taken on a new face… and sound, in Austin. They’re an all-girl, three-piece rock and roll group. With a healthy burst of energy, the group plays songs pumped up with the sounds of punk rock and 90s indie rock.... [continue]

When The Walkmen arrived on the scene with their debut, Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone, they amassed an indie following in relatively no time at all.... [continue]

They’re about a step from wide rock and roll popularity and leaving Austin behind. You may not know the band’s name because they’ve been relatively incognito in Austin, going almost unnoticed locally but drumming up a sizable following elsewhere in the country and abroad, far abroad, like Japan abroad. ... [continue]

The opening act of Austin City Limits this year was Nashville folk rock singer/songwriter Ben Cyllus, and he invited a friend to come introduce him, well-known game show host Chuck Woolery. Austinist managed to catch up with Woolery and Cyllus for a quick chat at the Blender Music Lounge on Friday. ... [continue]

Band of Horses have come a long way in a very short amount of time, and the enthusiastic crowd that gathered in front of the Dell stage at 7:30 was a good indicator of just how far. The group played plenty of songs from their latest record as well as a few from 2006’s Everything All the Time, and it seemed as if every track they played was a favorite of someone in the crowd and they sang along loudly.... [continue]

The heat of the midday sun was a little too much to keep music fans moving around during Gillian Welch. Instead, the majority of onlookers sat and listened attentively to the sincere, story-telling country/folk of Welch and her musical partner and guitarist David Rawlings. The two of them have been playing together for a long time, and it really showed. ... [continue]

For anyone just arriving to ACL halfway through the day in time to catch the opening of Gogol Bordello’s set, there are much worse ways to start off your weekend. The Gypsy punk group fronted by the always-animated Eugene Hutz has a knack for creating colorful and spirited live shows and inciting most everyone within earshot to dance. ... [continue]

The reflection of the setting sun on the first day of ACL was clearly visible in David Byrne’s dark sunglasses as he broke into one of the Talking Heads’ most memorable songs, “Once in a Lifetime.”... [continue]

G. Love & Special Sauce faded out on the Dell stage, and Manu Chao and his band took the AT&T stage opposite, one-by-one bringing the group into focus. They played plenty of dance-inducing, powerful tunes which balanced on the edge between Spanish political punk and island jam, leaning one way then the other and back again seamlessly within the same song. ... [continue]

By the time Sunday rolls around at ACL this year, no doubt everyone will be exhausted from entire days packed full of sun, back-to-back-to-back music and walking countless miles back and forth across Zilker park in an effort to pack in as much as possible. ... [continue]

With a lot of other commotion going on Saturday at Austin City Limits like alt-country, indie rock, hip hop and electro-pop, it could be easy to miss the multitude of sounds coming from the Dell stage.... [continue]