The T-Town Sessions just released their first locally-made music video. This video features The Mission Creeps and was recorded at St. Cecilia Studios. For more information on the project, you can read TW's interview with Abril Castillo, but, otherwise, enjoy the first video in a series of high-quality local music videos produced by Castillo and featuring Arizona artists.

By the time my car mate and I got to Fredericksburg, I was done being in the car. 15 hours of overnight driving—switching off listening to the "Bossypants" audiobook and then Rumours and then this Smash Mouth song she likes to listen to on the road only half-ironically—had taken its toll. Our eyes were red and puffy and we'd each gotten about two or three hours of sleep huddled up on the passenger seat.



Fredericksburg is my new least favorite place in Texas. While I enjoy its German kitsch, that last hour or so of driving on the stop light addled stretch of the 290 went on forever and I discovered all sorts of fun new swear words I didn't know I had in me, reserved especially for the drivers in that town. (Sorry, drivers of Fredericksburg)



So when we pulled up to the place we're staying for the week, shower was first on the agenda, though a nap would've been more wise. Lyfting our way into downtown proper, the streets were swarmed with people, which only got more congested as the trifecta of SXSW Music Day 1, St. Patrick's Day and UT Austin's spring break converged for one drunk, silly mess.



Wandering around, out first instinct led us to food, which meant a housemade duck and fennel sausage on a fresh pretzel bun and maybe a touch of rye and Mikkeller's imperial stout at Easy Tiger. After geekily approaching comedian Nick Thune and telling him he was funnier than Trevor Moore on @midnight the other week, we were ready for the fest.

First stop was Hotel Vegas, where even the unbadged (gasp) could enjoy some live music. Australia's nearly nude The Gooch Palms, Dallas' Sealion and Phoenix's Man Hands got to break our music seal for the festival. While I'd seen Man Hands a few times and knew Jackie Cruz could totally wail in a way that would make Cassandra Wong envious and maybe even a little frightened, I was pleasantly surprised with the caliber of the other acts, as well. I was also pleasantly surprised to notice that the first three bands had women in them—point one, SXSW.



After popping in for a cocktail at the impossibly cute Rio Rita's, we headed to the packed Stub Hub showcase, which was slotted to feature Charles Bradley, Future Islands and Portugal. The Man. However, despite having a badge and RSVPing, we were apparently also supposed to also get some red wristband at an undisclosed location or something.



"But you can wait in this line for people without wristbands and maybe get let in after all of the wristband people get in—but they do get to go first," the line arbiter said, gleefully. "It isn't hopeless."



"Not hopeless" isn't exactly my style and waiting in lines makes me grumpy (why did I come here?), so we marched over to the Fader Fort, whose preview night featured free Budweiser and Jack Daniels highballs as well as free cheeseburgers and potato chips. As me and my friend/"photographer" wondered who might be playing, Passion Pit took the stage with "Little Secrets," which nearly immediately took away out Stub Hub disappointment. But seriously, get your business straight, Stub Hub.





Passion Pit played a seven or so song set, which was talked over the entire time by entitled brats whose daddys got them SXSW badges because they got a C in a 100-level math class. The band looked visibly annoyed by the non-stop gabbing from the crowd and it was hard to dance or enjoy the show surrounded by a sea of mid-show selfies and drunken chatter. The fact that the band could seemingly hear that chatter over their own very loud and energetic electro indie pop was pretty depressing. If you can't watch the show in the crowd, kindly GTFO so the rest of us can. Thanks.



A tip from a friend led us to a secret show under a stone bridge near downtown. Candlelit, mellow and with a captive, respectful audience, the bridge show was the perfect opposite of Fader's event. Local artist Adam Torres killed it with an unrelenting and beautiful falsetto placed over delicate, plucked guitar.






Walking on the closed off Sixth Street had become a booze-fueled nightmare at this point, so it was finally time for sleep—which lasted about ten hours and was amazing.



Stay tuned tomorrow for TW Goes SXSW: Day 2. We promise our pictures will be better next time.

Hey there, Tweedy fans. We've got a pair of tickets to see the father/son duo next week and we want you to have them. The show is Wednesday, March 25 at the Rialto.

You've got until the end of the day Thursday to enter—we'll contact the winner in the morning on Friday. If you're not lucky enough to win, tickets range from $27-$41. Enter here!

From the Rialto:

Jeff Tweedy is "one of the most daring songwriters of his generation" and his band Wilco is "vital, adventurous...breaking new stylistic ground with each ambitious and creatively restless album" -Salon.com.

As the founding member and leader of the American rock band Wilco, and before that the co-founder of the alt-country band Uncle Tupelo, Jeff Tweedy is one of contemporary music's most accomplished songwriters, musicians and performers. Since starting Wilco in 1994, Tweedy ha written original songs for eight Wilco albums and collaborated with folk singer Billy Bragg to bring musical life to three albums—full of Woody Guthrie-penned lyrics in the Mermaid Avenue series.

His latest project is Tweedy, a musical collaboration with his 18-year-old son and drummer Spencer Tweedy. The father/son duo's debut album is called Sukierae and features 20 songs written by Jeff Tweedy. With Spencer on drums, Jeff handles his usual guitars and vocals, a well as bass and keyboards. Musician Scott McCaughey (R.E.M., The Minus Five, The Baseball Project) lends additional keyboards and backing vocals on Sukierae come courtesy of Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of the Brooklyn band Lucius.

The music portion of South By Southwest gets underway this week and Heather Hoch and I will be bringing regular updates from the music festival as time and sobriety allows.

In the meantime, though, you can listen to some of the best bands that will be there thanks to NPR's annual Austin 100 list, which offers 100 songs from some of the best artists performing there this week.

Download the free mixtape here.

Porchfest is hitting the homes of the Blenman-Elm neighborhood on Sunday, March 29 and the line-up of bands was just announced. Some of the many scheduled acts include Cadillac Mountain, Celeste Amadee, The Shameless Fits, Sonoroan Sound Society and Louise Le Hir, who will be releasing a new album next month. (Stay tuned to TW for more details on that release.)

The full event will fun from 4 until 7 p.m. with a bike valet and food trucks stationed at Grace St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Click on the map below to enlarge the image and check out the full schedule.

8M2B fans, listen up! The local band is playing The Hut, located at 305 N. Fourth Ave., on Saturday, March 14 (Pi Day!!) to promote the release of their new album, "Gravitate." 

It's not just about the music, though, for this event, as the night will feature both food and craft vendors to offer up a "festival atmosphere." Bands will be playing on the outdoor stage, with festivities running from 8:30 p.m. until 1 a.m.

The jam band said in a release that you can expect their newest album to feature elements of southern rock, New Orleans funk and roots reggae. 

However, the album has a more animalistic force behind it. Using the lion as their "spirit animal" and an Asiatic lion as the album's cover art, the band seeks to draw attention to the rapidly dwindling population of the lions. At this time, the release said, there are only 411 Asiatic lions left in the world so the band will be using the album to "promote education and conservation efforts in the Asiatic Lion's only remaining home, the GIR forest in Western India."

You can support both 8 Minutes to Burn's new album and the lions by heading to The Hut this Saturday. Here's the night's line-up:

8:30 to 9:30 p.m.: 8 Minutes to Burn playing "Gravitate" in full
9:45 to 10:45 p.m.: Suns of Santos
11 p.m. to 1:00 am: 8 Minutes to Burn's late show with guests

It seems like not too long ago we celebrated El Tambó's second birthday.  Well, maybe because it wasn't that long ago, it was last month. But hell, it's spring now and these evenings are perfect for outdoors dancing, especially if it involves delightful cumbia.

Like he's done so many times in the past, Logan Phillips, aka DJ Dirtyverbs, is introducing Tucson to some new sounds in the patio of Hotel Congress this evening: LA's Buyepongo, La Diabla is coming to represent Tijuana and DJ Maclovio  visits from Phoenix. The trifecta is a known presence in the Valley's version of El Tambó, ¡Clandestino!, but hadn't had the chance to make it down to the Old Pueblo. Phillips made it happen because he loves us.

If you haven't listened to Buyepongo or La Diabla, jump on that. Buye's music is a fusion of cumbia, merengue, punta, salsa, son—the best of Central and South American afro-Latino sounds. Punta comes from the Garifuna people of Guatemala, Belize and Honduras and you add Colombian cumbia into the mix, thank you. 

Then, there's La Diabla from the Baja California borderlands. Their cumbia sabanera is hypnotizing, just good old dirty cumbia—a lot of accordion and guacharaca.

So, come have a drink and put your hip bones to good use.

The festivities begin at 8 p.m. and it's FREE. 

Here's these to warm up:

Here's the first video from Calexico's upcoming album Edge of the Sun, which drops April 14. "Falling From the Sky" is another great Calexico song but you also get a peek inside downtown Tucson's legendary Wavelab Studios, where the band recorded the new album with engineers Craig Schumacher and Chris Schultz. The video was directed by Aaron Schock, who also directed the astonishing documentary Circo (for which Calexico provided the soundtrack).

Mark your calendars, folks. The Melvins have booked a show at Club Congress on Saturday, June 6. Why am I telling you this now then? Well, if you want to go to the show, I'd suggest getting tickets now because I foresee that the experimental grungey doom punk band's show will sell out well in advance.

After all, The Melvins are a pretty iconic act that's been around for over three decades now and the Congress room can only hold so many weirdos, so you'll want to be sure you're one of those weirdos that scores a ticket to the event. The band will be joined by Le Butcherettes—a badass punk outfit fronted by Teri Gender Bender that was formed in Guadalajara. 

The show takes place at 8 p.m. on June 6. You can buy a ticket now via TicketFly for $15. Don't say I didn't warn you.