Austin’s got a new agent all up in the local scene’s Artist Management: Bueno Music Bureau. And Bueno’s got some local talent that they think you should be bragging to your friends about listening to. Something like that. So they’re having a little thingy-thang at Deville this Friday (tonight, for most readers) to showcase that talent. There will be some doin’s-a-transpirin’. Specifically: four bands with their own instruments and haircuts for the pleasure of......

The following films played Saturday, March 10th as part of the SXSW Film Festival: Campaign - This Japanese doc follows the travails of a "parachute" candidate for the Kawasaki city council. He's called that because he moved to the city specifically to run for office through his allegiance to the powerful LDP party. Japan is as big a character as the candidate, as the candid shots of life there offer revealing snippets of the......

It's been nearly five years since an appearance on KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic" rocketed Alexi Murdoch's songs into Honda commercials,The O.C., and Garden State. The teen drama association doesn't do justice to the careful and serious tone of Murdoch's music, which he recorded and released independently despite multiple offers from the major labels. After a long silence since his Four Songs EP, Murdoch's 2006 full-length debut Time Without Consequence didn't pander to casual fans.......

The Shins - Wincing The Night Away There are few tried-and-true elements of pop songwriting, but you can always count on the pairing of a winning melody with a morbid (but sweetly sung) lyrical sentiment to prick up the ears. While The Smiths will forever hold the blue ribbon for said convention (“Girlfriend In A Coma,” aww!), The Shins' James Mercer seems up to the task of carrying the torch into the new millennium. As......

WEDNESDAY [29] discussion • Patton Oswalt and Writers Present The Onion at Alamo Downtown (9:30pm, $15) music • Indian Jewelry, Cry Blood Apache, Wiggins at Emo's music • Real Live Tigers, Fourth War Boys Choir, David Israel, Pink Nasty at Beerland music • The Distant Seconds,The Late Fees & The Unbearables at The Parlor film • Third Coast Night: La Sierra at Alamo Downtown (7pm) film • The Devil's Backbone at Beerland (7pm, Free)......

MONDAY [27] film • The Virgin Suicides at Rounders Pizzeria (8pm, Free) music • Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars at Antone's music • The Rogue River String Band & Love Gone Cold at The Parlor music • Paris 49 Weekly Happy Hour at Continental Club (6:30pm, Free) film • School House Rock Learn and Sing-along at Alamo Downtown (7pm, $10) film • Love Streams at Texas Union (7:30pm) film • KOOP Benefit: The Power of......

Cary Brothers, Rachel Yamagata, Tristan Prettyman, Joshua Radin, Jonah Matranga, Jim Bianco, and Sara Bareilles will grace The Parish's stage on Thursday night as part of the 2006 Hotel Cafe tour, which has blossomed from a rag-tag gang of L.A.-based musicians harmonizing in a Hollywood coffee shop into a tour bus full of artists with credits like appearances on Grammy Award winning soundtracks (Garden State). Throughout the U.S., the tour offers a variation of......

The following review was written by Austinist foreign correspondent David Cheng, who's off cavorting with ill-mannered expats in Southeast Asia. We would've published this sooner, but we forgot. -- The Editors We want to start out this review by saying we "heart" Zach Braff.  We’re a huge fan of Scrubs, so much so that we’ve seen every episode at least three times.  We loved Garden State, and not just because Natalie Portman was so very......

If you are a fan of The OC or have a copy of the Garden State soundtrack, you have heard Imogen Heap before. Part of the duo that is (or was?) Frou Frou, last year she released her solo album Speak for Yourself, which we downloaded as soon as we found it. One of our favorite songs on the album, "Hide and Seek," is a strange yet beautiful vocoder experiment. The harmonics are perfectly......

Musicians always claim that Austin is one of their favorite cities to play, and while this makes perfect sense to us and we hope that it's their honest opinion, we never really know if they're just buttering us up, before moving on and claiming that Houston is the coolest city in Texas. So it warms Austinist's heart and reassures our ego when we hear public praise of our fair city. Cary Brothers, whose song "Blue......