This weekend the Oh Snap! benefit music festival returns for a third installment, featuring over 50 bands Friday + Saturday on two stages…things actually kick off tonight (Thurs.) with a little seven-band pre-fest @ The Parish. Headliners this year include T Bird and the Breaks, Ume, Mother Falcon, Little Lo…all in all it’s an astonishing collection of local talent, and it all goes to raise funds for the Sergio Machado Memorial Scholarship. Tickets!!

Picking basically at random out of the 8 zillion bands who will be playing for the titled price (that’s free — stay with me now), above we have Wild Child, part of the Eye in the Sky Kickoff 12/30 @ Beauty Bar…by the time you emerge from your holiday stupor, Free Week will be full swing, ready to ease you back into the world with a kaleidoscopic array of free, free, free amazing music all over town. Get your head straight + be ready… 

Paste magazine just named Echotone one of the top 20 documentaries of 2011…and in fact, if you’re a fan of the local Austin music scene (and that’s why you’re here, right?), that honor probably sells it way short. Featuring Sunset, Black Joe Lewis, The White White Lights, Belaire, and many more, Echotone explores the struggles of indie music culture as money and growth hits Austin. Well worth your time…

When you think of a sofa, the words forming in your thought bubble most likely follow “cozy,” “comfortable,” and “soft.” Well, pull out a needle, shield your eyes, and pop that floating nuisance. Redefining what it means to be named after a piece of relaxing living room furniture, The Couch is tearing out a page in the dictionary and delivering heavy, rock saturated sounds straight to your eardrums. Believe you me, it’s far from “comfortable” and miles from “soft.” The Couch provides an eye-opening lesson into how indie blues-rock is supposed to sound.

Not so long and yet very long ago, or fourteen years ago to be more precise, the beloved Austin power pop band Cotton Mather released Kontiki. And then, despite being a favorite of both Britt Daniel of Spoon and Liam Gallager of Oasis, not to mention the Guardian, Uncut, and Mojo (who all gave it raves) it fell out of print. To this day vets of the Austin music scene will corner you in bars and tell you what about the tremendous being of Cotton Mather. And now Kontiki returns! Bandleader Robert Harrison has prepared a double-CD deluxe edition set for a Valentine’s Day 2012 release on his Star Apple Kingdom label. Check out the sneaky-hilarious promo film and prepare to recapture your own sense of late 90s glory. 

Incidentally, it’s a good book too. 

Looking for something to do after cramming your belly with a delicious holiday meal? You know, after you’ve scraped your once-heaping plate of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, spiced yams, green beans and mashed potatoes clean and feel like you’re either going to be sick or pass out? Well, why don’t you take your post-Thanksgiving flabbiness over to Antone’s for Reckless Kelly and dance off those unruly calories. Released on September 13th via their own No Big Deal Records label, Austin-based Reckless Kelly will perform on Saturday, November 26th in support of their ninth—and newest—album Good Luck & True Love. The album marks their first release of all new material since Bulletproof (2008) and is the follow-up to Somewhere In Time (2010). Holding praise from Country Weekly for “injecting [their] hooky songs with rock ‘n’ roll propulsion without sacrificing melody or meaning,” Reckless Kelly are known for straddling rock and country with strong songs and bold performances. The show is all ages and starts at 10:30 pm (doors at 10:00) with the Zack Walther Band opening, so head out and show your support!

When Tyler, Nolan and Patrick Wheeler teamed up with friends A.J. Molyneaux and Danny Matthews, they created more than a crisp, fiery Americana indie-rock five-piece; they created a band of brothers. The Wheeler Brothers, actual and “from other mothers” alike, are currently on tour in support of their debut album Portraits, released this summer. Portraits supports songs like “Mississippi” and “Call Me In The Morning" which boast rock driven rhythms, pseudo-distorted guitar riffs and fronted, clear vocals. On the cool side of the pillow, tracks like “Home For The Holidays” and “Save The Nightly (Too Young),” tend to lean casually toward gospel influences and airier melodies. 

The Wheeler Brothers’ recent music video “Home For The Holidays” proves warm and light-hearted. Featuring actor Art LaFleur (The Sandlot, Field of Dreams) and directed by Christian Sorensen Hansen(The Head in the Heart, Fences, Atmosphere), “Home For The Holidays” portrays a simple lesson in friendship as shared between a manager and his employees. Moreover, The Wheeler Brothers are hosting a “Home For The Holidays” contest in lieu of their new video. Running until December 8^th, the contest will send one lucky winner home to be with their family and friends for the holiday season. Make sure to visit their Facebook page and watch their humorous informative video to gather more contest details. –Whitney LeFevre

After a two-year hiatus from touring nationally, Swedish-based electronic-indie rockers The Sounds hit up Austin for a show at La Zona Rosa on November 11th. Formed in 1999, The Sounds have established a strong fanbase through their four well-received albums. Their current tour promotes their newest full-length Something to Die For, released earlier this year in March. The album itself conveys hip-shaking dance-pop rhythms matched with synth-drenched instrumentation and the punctuated vocality of frontwoman/ fashionista Maja Ivarsson. Opening acts The Limousines (Bay Area), Funeral Party (Los Angeles), and Kids at the Bar (Oklahoma City) will join The Sounds onstage starting at 8:00 PM.   The show is all ages, just bring $20 for your in.

Briana Gokay knows how to grab some serious attention with those pipes of hers, and I’m not talking about the plumbing in her bathroom. What began as an innocent conception of a band name but inadvertently led to other presumed connotations, alternative blues duo Girl Parts, consisting of sisters-in-law Briana (vocals) and sixteen-year-old guitarist Kacie Gayman, has been creating music since January 2011. And with the potential for a spot on Cayamo Cruise 2012, the two are sure to breach the proverbial surface with a massive musical breakthrough.

After recording and completing a brief tour around the South, Briana and Kacie have literally hit the showers in hopes of becoming an act on the 5th Annual Cayamo Cruise, a weeklong cruise held in February 2012 that brings together a slew of renowned national artists (Lyle Lovett, The Civil Wars, John Prine and The Belle Brigade among them). Essentially, Girl Parts had been recording videos of their songs in a bathroom to gain better acoustics. When Sixthman’s CEO Andy Levine found them on YouTube and suggested Cayamo, the girls turned their recording sessions into a promotional venture by asking fans to help them “from the bathroom to the boat” for a chance to perform on the cruise.

While Briana and Kacie are preparing to record their debut EP, their YouTube channel currently carries all of their video recordings. “Arlene,” “On the Way of My Return,” and “Always Knew,” all Girl Parts originals, hold true to their blues-alternative-country vibe and are glazed with a delicate layer of pop flair. In their intimate cover of “Mama Don’t Like My Man” by Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, Briana truly eludes to a sense of musical poignancy through passionate delivery. Matched by Kacie’s soul-ridden powerchords, her voice is steadfast and resonating, holding tangible wisps of folk, rock and blues influences. Though awesomely powerful and vibrant, Briana still manages to convey melodies with a sense of gentleness and warmth. In other words, think of her as the hypothetical love child shared between Ray LaMontagne and Adele. For Girl Parts, their signature display of a beautifully drawn out and almost contradictory notion of force meets subtlety will not only prove their pass onto Cayamo, but also prove their pass into the limelight. –Whitney LeFevre

Take care of your elders, punks! Midgetmen, We’ll Go Machete (above), The Distant Seconds and Teen Noir have joined forces to host a benefit for Family Eldercare. Happening Nov. 11 @ Hole in the Wall…go get it. 

Gear up, strap in, clear your head: there is very little time to recover from Halloween before FFF Fest touches ground at its new location this weekend…lighting up Auditorium Shores from Nov.4-6 will be some of the big hey-they’re-from-Austin names like Spoon, Okkervil River, Black Joe Lewis (above)…and we’re going to profile some of the up + comers for you later this week. Prepare. I’m pretty sure you can wear your costume one more time.