Local outfit What Made Milwaukee Famous have already had a seasoned career since forming in 2002 in the state capital. They captured the city's attention early on with a number of captivating live shows, charming audiences with their catchy pop songs. Their debut full-length Trying to Never Catch Up initially dropped in 2004 and was greeted by Austinites as gem of a record with the act touching on a number of genres and garnishing their melodies with appropriate instrumentation and impeccable production to conjure up a wide variety of delightful ditties -- many gratifying immediately, others already timeless. The record was re-released by Barsuk Records in 2006; the label is also home to the band’s sophomore album What Doesn’t Kill Us released earlier this year. Keeping with the times, What Made Milwaukee Famous launched a YouTube channel called WMMF TV this March where fans can enjoy the band's videos as well as live clips from their concerts....

What Made Milwaukee Famous played at Emo's on Friday night to celebrate their CD release. Black Before Red, Loxsly and Lemurs opened the show. ...

So the time is ripe for the 2008 SXSW Music Festival and what better way to lead into that madness than with a host of quality bands at Emo’s to kick off this weekend. Friday marks the CD Release show for local outfit What Made Milwaukee Famous. Officially released on March 4th, What Doesn’t Kill Us will be available for purchase during the show; the album finds the band maturing into a polished rock act while maintaining their keen ear for pop melodies, their expert arrangements of well-crafted tracks, and their penchant for catchy guitar hooks. Check out the video for “Sultan” off the new album via YouTube here....

Austin's own Weird Weeds spent seven months in the studio working on their latest full-length, I Miss This, and by their own admission, the effort asserted towards this record is by far the most intense in their history. One listen demonstrates their devout attention to detail in regards to both production and songwriting amply. "Red" oozes thick guitar dirges, sweetly tempered percussion and odes to Indian sitar harmonies (and carefully executed dissonance) with equal precision....

The Mohawk presents a solid double bill of local pop this evening. The Lemurs have been writing new material over the last few months and a handful of those songs will be included in their set tonight. The band enjoyed a stellar 2007 -- highlights included licensing their music to NBC show Las Vegas (as well as an Australian indie flick called Newcastle) and touring with Canadian act Stars. This past Sunday, ME Television telecast a 2nd ME Live! featuring The Lemurs' shimmering melodies in concert at a recent La Zona Rosa gig....

Austin's Balmorhea released River's Arms last week, and kicked off their tour here in town. Their tour to support the record will follow the east coast, and land them back here in time for some SXSW gigs. Sample some of the instrumental band's lulling, hypnotic tunes c/o Western Vinyl, and check back here for a full-length review very soon....

FRIDAY: Mohawk: Cracker / Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit Club Deville: Robbers on High Street, Great Northern - FREE! Sponsored by The Onion/Sweet Leaf Tea Beauty Bar: DJ Tim Sweeney (DFA records), Learning Secrets, Farah SATURDAY: Red 7: The Paper Chase, Stinking Lizaveta, Death Is Not A Joyride Club Deville: Mates of State, Small Sins, Immaculate Machine Mohawk: Murder City Devils, Those Peabodys Beauty Bar: Bus Driver, Daedelus, Antimc (DJs Mel and Klassen)......

Austin's own geographically misleading rockers What Made Milwaukee Famous will be debuting their new album at The Parish Room over two nights this Thursday and Friday. Both bills feature diverse acts with personality to spare: Thursday, they'll be supported by local contenders White Denim and the one and only Pink Nasty; Friday's show features pseudo-metallic slashers Ume, The Black And White Years, and a few of the friendly folks in Zykos. Tickets are on sale......

If you're looking for a diamond in the rough among over-hyped or just plain shitty Austin bands, head over to Emo's tonight for You Were Always. The quartet is composed of Cam Houser, Aubri Hughes, Topher Hyink (formerly of Just Guns) and Tim Faehnle, and their newly released EP is a breath of fresh, if not vulnerable, air. With steady, patient songwriting, the songs on the EP build and reveal slowly, and are reminiscent of......

It must be the week of a major holiday, because there won't be a lot of new beautiful stuff on the walls at Waterloo or End of an Ear this week. If you're anxious for Kelly Rowlands' latest (Ms. Kelly), you're breathing a big sigh of relief right now, but H-town is about as close to home as it gets July 3 (please correct us if we're wrong). The new Madlib effort, Yesterday's New......

In a (somewhat) surprising announcement via press release mid-afternoon Monday, Austin's legendary venue Emo's, announced a partnership with local talent buying firm, C3 Presents. The announcement arrives on the heels of another announcement: Transmission Entertainment's official bid in the Austin talent buying and event booking business. In many ways, the partnership between Emo's and C3 is a match made in heaven: Stubb's, which is co-owned by Charles Attal, a partner at C3, is a neighbor......

For some of you, SXSW is an obsession. For others...not so much. While we're rather immersed in the whole SXSW experience at Austinist, we know that many of you just want to take in a free or cheap event or two during the festival to experience the thing. No problem. Here's a list of events featuring local merchants, community organizations, and radio stations that will allow you to casually dip a toe in the......

Now that we're in mid-January, club bookings for winter and spring shows are beginning to emerge. While much internet browsing has already been done looking for the SXSW 2007 lineup, there are also plenty of great touring shows dropping in outside of those dates (thankfully). New shows from The Roots, Explosions In The Sky, Midlake, and a Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard double bill top the new additions, but there is plenty here for all musical......

Ask any mop-haired kid roaming the UT campus with clingy jeans and just a hint of bong water breath, and said youth will tell you By The End Of Tonight is the hottest thing since Malibu real estate. Lucky for him, and you, they're playing a post-extended-hiatus set at Emo's tonight. The Alvin, TX quartet render layers of messy, metallic instrumental post-rock into songs that meander towards catharsis like a lost baby deer wandering into......

Say what you will about the Austin music scene, if there's one thing we've got in spades, it's heart. And breakfast tacos. But that's another story altogether. Our bands can take any other city's bands on when it comes to sheer per capita productivity and playing out, never leaving their respective constituencies on the sidelines. And albums? Lordy, just walk into Waterloo Records and check out the local music section: 2006 was a banner......

It's that time of the year again. Time to reflect back upon all the great shows that we attended, all the Lone Star we drank because we couldn't afford anything else, and all the ditches we fell asleep in. But now, as the holidays bear down upon our weary bodies like a drunken hook-up, its time to give something back. Luckily for us, there are two opportunities to do just that in the coming......

You've grown tired of the standard Austin buzz bands (Brothers and Sisters, Tacks the Boy Disaster, What Made Milwaukee Famous, etc.). They're great and all, but you've seen them already and its Thursday night goddammit, you want a cold beer and some fresh sounds. Never fear, intrepid music fan, Emo's is hosting a sprawling, awesome show where you can hear some of your local comrades demonstrate their ability to rock your silly face off.......

Good day to you, music fans! If you weren’t enjoying last night’s music and festivities at the Austinist’s high-energy pre-ACL party, Local Music Is Sexy 2, I regret to inform you that you missed one hell of a great time. I was honored to serve as emcee of this year’s event (although I had to remind myself to shut up and keep it short at the mic), and the evening served as inspiration for the playlist I’m assembling for this evening’s Laurie Show on KUT 90.5. ...

FRIDAY [25] food • Hatch Chile Festival at Central Market North Lamar (8am-9pm) shopping • Flipnotics Clothespad celebrates its 14th anniversary by hosting a big sidewalk sale, with $10 "Stuff a Bag" vintage threads for the ladies and 20% everything else (8am-9pm) books • Robin Meyers presents Why the Christian Right is Wrong: A Minister's Manifesto for Taking Back Your Faith, Your Flag, Your Future at BookPeople (7pm) music • Gorilla Biscuits, Terror, Comeback......

...are great bands like local powerpoppers What Made Milwaukee Famous. Probably still hyperventilating from being signed to Barsuk records, the boys are in town in the midst of an exhaustive tour supporting the French Kicks to keep it real with their hometown fans. If you were lucky enough to catch them in the past two years, you most likely left the show with a copy of their album Trying to Never Catch Up, originally......

There have been a few changes to the ACL schedule since last week - as Tom noted yesterday, both Ghostland Observatory and The Dears have been added to the lineup, replacing Feist and Kasey Chambers. And there's another dropout - Fields are off the schedule, so Brett Dennen has been added to the Austin Ventures Stage lineup on Sunday, shifting a few of the artists to later slots that day. You can check out......

- Rolling Stones tickets are on sale tomorrow at 10am via Ticketmaster. Prices are $75 for students, $95 for general admission, and a whopping $350 for bleacher seating near the stage. Expect at least an additional $10-20/ticket in service charges. - ACL Fest acts continue to drop like flies: Feist and Kasey Chambers have both left the bill. They join a parade that also includes Editors, Damien Rice, Alexi Murdoch, Fields, and Goldfrapp. To......

Shearwater's back in town tonight for the penultimate stop of their summer tour, and seeing as how we were floored by their new album, Palo Santo, we're looking forward to the Emo's show: Palo Santo shows Shearwater progressing from straight-forward folk tunes to something richer and harder to pin down. Folk elements remain prominent, but the band demonstrates skill at pilfering the best elements of other genres as well. Bits of gospel, rock, and......

Austin's Sound Team just released their major-label debut, Movie Monster, a few weeks ago. We've been pretty impressed with it. Pitchfork, on the other hand, gave the album a less than stellar rating (3.7), though we're inclined to question the authority of any review mentioning the already-passé Snakes on a Plane reference. The above video is Sound Team's response: In retaliation of the 3.7 rating, the band-- or someone purporting to be them-- posted......

MONDAY [19] [film] Tickets on Sale Now for Superman Returns, opening June 27th @ Alamo at Alamo South (Multiple Shows, $8) (more) [sports] World Cup Matches at Alamo Village (Daily, Various) (more) [film] State vs. Reed (funds from screening benefit Rodney Reed's family) at Alamo Downtown (7pm) (more) [film] Casino at Austin Java (8pm, FREE) (more) [film] The Fearless Freaks at Café Mundi (8pm, FREE) (more) [film] Fela Kuti: Music is the Weapon at Alamo......

Don’t miss Rare Magazine’s Austin Rocks! extravaganza on Saturday, April 22 at Tambaleo! Part fashion show, part rock show, the event showcases Austin’s unique music and fashion scene by pairing styling by local boutiques and salons alongside three local bands. Each boutique will work with a salon to provide hair and makeup, and the names include: Hem Jeans, Orbit Salon, Flirt, Anne Kelso Salon, Upstairs, Electra Beauty Lounge, Cream Vintage, N Salon, Flipnotics, Innu Salon,......

Our ears are still ringing and our calves are still aching, but it has been a few weeks since the binge fest that was SXSW left our fine city. That means it’s about time for another music festival. Wall of Sound, an indie rock extravaganza with a pleasantly heavy emphasis on Texas bands, is taking place Saturday and Sunday in Ft. Worth. Yeah, it’s a bit of a hike, and they take the Lone......

FRIDAY [3] [music] Ariel Pink, Belong, Weird Weeds and Ralph White at Emo's (Inside) (link) [music] What Made Milwaukee Famous, Deathray Davis, AUX at Emo's (Outside) (link) [music] Slightly Stoopid, The Expendables and Bedouin Soundclash at Stubb's (link) [music] Bucketheard and Kid Beyond at La Zona Rosa (link) [music] Dirty Hearts at End of an Ear (Free, 6pm) (link) [DJ] Whee!Explode! By Learning Secrets and DJ Ian Orth at The Peacock (10pm-2am) (link) [fashion] ATX......

Oh, Friday, sweet Friday, and the promise of music and merriment you bring. Even with SXSW ready to crash into our little Texas hamlet at any moment, there are still plenty of must-see shows this weekend. And just wait until you see the line up next week. Matt Pond PA, Mates of State, and Matisyahu all on the same night? Three magnificent Ms, unreal. But we like to live life in the moment, and......

If you’re a true music enthusiast living in Austin, we know you already love Zykos. But just wait until you hear their new stuff. A little slower, strong lyrics, still echoing the eighties, yet completely innovative. Essentially, it is everything that makes the band fantastic taken to the next level. Mike Booher, you are a genius. In cowboy boots - which is the best kind. The only way you’re going to hear these songs......