Wavves

King Khan and the Shrines

Department of Eagles

M. Ward

Will Sheff (of Okkervil River)

Juliette Lewis

Ume

Brazos

Sunset

The Black and White Years

Dikes of Holland

White Denim

Gomez

The Decemberists

That gets you through Tuesday of SXSW; we’ll be posting the rest soon enough.

June in Austin is going to be rough on your sleep cycle, with summer entrenched and touring season in full swing. Seven big shows have already been announced for the month, and one we’re pretty darn excited about is St. Vincent. We caught a preview of a few tracks from her upcoming album, Actor, at her SXSW showcase, and are now impatiently awaiting the May 5th release date. And it definitely won’t hurt that Pattern Is Movement is supporting her on the tour. We first wrote about PIM when they were in town back in October, and can only reiterate that between St. Vincent’s rockin’ new material and their awesome live show, you don’t wanna miss either of them. They play the Mohawk, June 19.

The Decemberists

As usual, more photos from the party are up at Mary’s Flickr.

Kick it off Friday, March 13th at The Mohawk. Just $9 gets you in without a badge for AMODA’s Digital Showcase featuring live electronic music and digital art. 16 electronic DJs will compete in a a series of elimination rounds, battling it out on their laptops. Austin’s Phranchyze and Zeale will emmcee at the event, and a panel of judges will decide the winners of each round. Digital artists from across the U.S. and the U.K. will showcase their talents, and this is a great way to support the non-profit AMODA in a SXSW event that showcases digital art at it finest.

Thursday, March 19th there’s good news if you like Punk, Pop and Hip Hop – (even on a budget.) Daddy Fat Sacks, A.K.A. Big Boi of Outkast, is headlining a show at Austin Music Hall featuring K’Naan in this Afropunk showcase. Anyone can attend for $15, with or without a badge (or fat sacks). Also, you can follow the link above for a chance to win one of ten free pairs of tickets from Do512. Hey Ya!

Wednesday, March 18th – Saturday, March 21st – Get to the booty bar! Every day and night there’s something going on at the inside stage and in the backyard that’s totally free. Just RSVP. I’m looking forward to catching DJ Craze at 1:00AM, FREE on Friday the 20th – all cash on beer! And if that’s not enough booty for ya, check The Beauty Bar’s MySpace page for even MORE FREE SHOWS, like this one presented by Art Disaster. These free parties are happening day and night during SX.

Thursday, March 19th – Saturday, March 21st – Three nights of awesome FREE concerts at Auditorium Shores. No RSVP required! Gates open at 5:00PM Thursday and Friday, and the fun starts at noon on Saturday. Catch free performances by M. Ward, The Cold War Kids, Erykah Badu and more. Also enjoy festival food, local vendor booths and arts and crafts from some of Austin’s finest artisans. Our own Explosions in the Sky will finish things off with a bang Saturday night at 8:00PM. Though the event is free, no outside food or drinks are allowed. So go sell some plasma, and enjoy these free outdoor shows with some cold beer! (No pets allowed this year.)

Saturday, March 21st – As if there weren’t enough to do on Saturday, how ’bout The Knuckle Rumbler with Rollingstone.com? Taking place at Peckerhead’s on 6th, this event features early sets by Austin’s Scorpion Child and Zeale. Later, Lady Sovereign and “cyber-girl from outerspace” Janelle Monáe are among other performers to take stage. Big Boi fans will recognize this fellow ATL native whose unique fashion sense and musical stylings are freakishly similar to that of Outkast’s other half, Andre 3000. (Listen to her hit song “Violet Stars Happy Hunting” for a good time.) Did I mention this entire lineup is FREE? Plus there’s lots of free alcohol, drinks, food and goodies being offered at this shindig.

Sometimes life takes badges or wristbands… but for everyone else, there’s free stuff.

Saturday the 14th is all about a kickass local lineup at the Mohawk: ATX Emerge is back! They threw last Fall’s ATX Converge (with Belaire, White Denim, Black Joe Lewis, and more), and their first Emerge party before SXSW last year. This year, the list of stellar local bands pretty much has us drooling: Belaire, Brazos, Freshmillions, Foot Patrol, Harlem, Sunset, Ume (pictured above), the White White Lights, and Zeale. Haven’t seen Freshmillions or Zeale before, but all the others have proven themselves completely awesome live. (RSVP here)

One of the biggest (and likely, most difficult to get into) shows is Tuesday night at Pangaea with the Decemberists and Gomez. It’s the IFC Crossroads party, and wristbands for it are only available the day before (that’s Monday the 16th) at Waterloo Records at 10am. You might wanna take a quick detour from work to grab them then, because they are not going to be around for long.

Check back for more later; you know we’ll keep you posted!

Pitchfork, as usual, is hitting hard on Friday afternoon at Emo’s with a mix of just breaking (Wavves, the Mae Shi, School of Seven Bells) and already established (Little Boots, King Khan & the Shrines, Department of Eagles) names, taking over both indoor and outdoor stages at Emo’s.

Rhapsody is throwing out their killer lineup with an extended, hilariously dorky Henry V reference. Their shindig is set to go down Thursday at the Mohawk, also with School of Seven Bells (who will be back in town at the beginning of June with Black Moth Super Rainbow), local genre-defying rockers …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Glasvegas, the Vivian Girls, and yet-to-be-announced suprise artists.

As the insanity approaches, expect more killer lineups to be announced, with some of the big names keeping their cards close to their chest for a big reveal. It’s only a few weeks away; prepare yourselves!

And speaking of awesome people playing that venue during sxsw, Jason Lytle – ex-frontman for Grandaddy, if his name wasn’t ringing any bells – is playing there Friday, and has officially announced his work on a solo project.

In touring news, Black Moth Super Rainbow and School of Seven Bells are teaming up for a US tour that will bring them to Austin the very same week as Animal Collective! BMSR play the Mohawk on Tuesday, June 2, and Animal Collective hits Stubbs on the 5th.

Want some local news? The Octopus Project are playing two interesting shows in the next week. Saturday night they’re doing a DJ set at the Red River Flows East party at a warehouse on the east side, and next Wednesday they’ll be playing something a bit different at Alamo Drafthouse. You’ll want to buy tix for the Alamo gig asap, because with only two shows in one evening, it’s sure to sell out very quickly.

We’ll be posting some lineup recs as soon as we have a chance to pore over the list.

Indies win 50% of this year’s Grammy Awards (via Hypebot)

Extra Extra, Santogold is pulling a P. Diddy (or is it a Prince?), and changing her name. She’ll be known as Santigold now, thanks very much, and has already changed her MySpace (though the Wikipedia entry and her own website still aren’t reflecting the name-change). See Pitchfork for more details. (via the Daily Swarm)

SXSW
-Echo & the Bunnymen confirmed for the gigantor music conference, which is scarcely a month away
-After the Jump fest, who has done some killer parties before, just announced their official and unofficial sxsw showcases… and can we just say that the unofficial lineup is killer. Even cooler, you can rsvp via Facebook!
-KCRW (the Morning Becomes Eclectic peeps) announced their showcase, which includes Port O’Brien and School of Seven Bells, as well as some of the lineup for their day shows (via Austinist)