We've gotten our hands on a bunch of tickets, guestlist spots, and assorted swag for several excellent parties happening during SXSW, and over the course of today we'll be giving these away. Check back every hour for the newest giveaway contest -- each will only run until the next one is posted, so your chances at winning are pretty damn good. Congrats to the winner of our last contest, who'll be announced at the end......

Once upon a time in Nottingham, England's "Capital of Crime," four young working-class lads met and started a band. The brill quartet was spearheaded by Nic Armstrong, but it's no secret that Johnny Aitken, Shane Lawlor and Glenn Wedgewood are all incredibly talented and undoubtedly the dog's bollocks. If you weren't as arsholed as the rest of us at Austinist's recent Local Music Is Sexy do, you probably remember the cracking quartet's impressive live......

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......

It's a sign that we live in a good town that, halfway through the week, there are a bunch of new things to do that we want to share with you. There are so many things happening in the next few days that we're having a hard time deciding what to do. That is a lie. We're going to go to see Ghostland Observatory on Thursday night at The Velvet Spade for the Fischerspooner CD......