What's going on in Austin *Links Added*

I made it back from Wisconsin in one piece and I am ready to show the world what music should be entertaining us. Some quick hits for those roaming the ATX clubs this weekend:

Friday 8/18 at The Parish: Final Fantasy. Owen Pallett, violinist and singer who has recorded and toured with The Arcade Fire. Not your normal orchestra geek.

Friday 8/18 at the Saxon Pub: Vallejo for a local flare and an intimate setting. It will be tight at the Saxon, get there early.

Saturday 8/19 at Emo's: Evangelicals. Worth checking out, even if you have never heard of them.

This city is about to blow up musically. It does it twice a year, once in the spring and again in the fall. Everybody who is anybody is coming to Austin in mid-September for the Austin City Limits Festival. Artists are even piggy-backing off of it and playing shows at clubs that same weekend, even though they are not in the festival. There are quite a few pre and post show concerts. I am going to try and preview as much of it as I can before festival time, then I'll give a nightly recap after each day. Ten hours of music a day for three straight days will definitely be a good time, if not exhausting. Tickets are still available for single days and I am sure that you can find three day passes from a broker or stubhub or something. Come party with 60,000 (a day) of your closest friends!

On a final note, I came home from vacation to a message from Joe tipping me off about an Austin band that he had talked to and to let me know that they invited us to their show that night. Unfortunately I was dead tired after 7 hours of airport fun and another 9 hours of work the next day, so I did not make the show. However, I have previewed some of the band's material on their myspace page. Please do the same, it is good. I will definitely give you more detailed coverage of them in the future, but let's start with an mp3. I present to you, The Drawing Board.

The Drawing Board - The Writer
Final Fantasy - This is the Dream of Win and Regine
Evangelicals - Another Day