Limited-edition hand-designed copies of Sad Accordions‘ upcoming EP the colors and the kill will be available at their Mohawk show this Saturday 3/5. Sad Accordions bring you the spare, the folky and the haunting, and they’ve done so since 2003; qualifying them now as veterans of the Austin indie scene. They’ll be joined Saturday night by two of the more exciting recent additions to the Austin music scene: Royal Forest and Black Books. 

You wouldn’t want to skip the madness of 6th St. entirely during SXSW – packed with some of the best shows all within easy walking distance, and always full of good people-watching, it’s really SX Ground Zero. But it would also be a shame to spend your entire SXSW without escaping to some of the venues more scattered across town…we’ll be picking out some of our favorite off-Sixth happenings and giving you details. 

First up is Waterloo Records, which is hosting a daily outdoor party in their parking lot at (West) 6th & Lamar – just a straight shot across town from party central. They’ll have acts out in the Austin sun from noon to 7PM every day, including Sahara Smith (noon, March 16th), Black Joe Lewis (above, 5pm, March 17th), …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead (5pm, March 18th) and Hayes Carll (5pm, March 19th). Not to mention some not-too-shabby out-of-towners like Telekinesis, Wye Oak, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and J Mascis. 

Matador mastermind Gerard Cosloy has done it again: the second installment of his Casual Victim Pile compilations of Austin (and Denton) artists is out today, this time on his smaller label 12XU. Shows featuring the bands included will be happening at Beerland this coming March 3rd, 4th, and 5th. CVP (the name is an anagram for "Live Music Capital") artists include: 

Women In Prison

Naw Dude
Simple Circuit
Hatchet Wound (above)
Crisis Hotlines
Literature
Sally Crewe & The Sudden Moves
A Giant Dog
The Dead Space
Serious Tracers
The French Inhales
The Zoltars
Coma In Algiers
Expensive (Expletive)

Jason Reece of longtime Austin resident band …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead (newly transplanted to Brooklyn) still has at least one foot planted here in Austin: he’ll be taking over DJ duties this coming week on 101x every night this week from 6pm until 10pm. TOD recently dropped their seventh, Tao of the Dead, on Superball/Richter Scale. 

(Photo by Amo Bassan) 

One of our all-time favorite venues, The Ghost Room, plays host tonight to one of best new-ish Austin music events – the 2nd annual Roaries, presented by Republic of Austin (RoA, hence the name, pretty pleased I figured that one out). Show is FREE, starts at 7, and includes live performances by seven of the nominees: The Black and White Years, STEREO IS A LIE, One Hundred Flowers, Tje Austin (above), Christeene, Tara Craig, BK and Mr. E, and Jonathan Terrell. Award presenters include some of the luminaries of the Austin blogging/music scene: Adi Anand, Tolly Moseley, Tyler Groover, Laurie Gallardo, Richard Gonzalez, and more. Full list of nominees here. 

After debuting "Wake and Be Fine" on Jimmy Fallon, Okkervil River broke out another brand new song, "Weave Room Blues", a B side from the upcoming I Am Very Far. Lead singer/songwriter Will Sheff was also one of the more entertaining people to follow on twitter (@okkervilriver) in the run up to and during the Grammys…not to mention his running commentary on the vibe in Prescott, AZ. 

Agent Ribbons, Not in the Face, and one of our favorite new (ish) Austin bands, Black Books, bring The Rumble to Beerland tomorrow (2/16), for FREE. 

Black Books spread their lush, dreamy sound over four tracks on a recent nifty-looking green vinyl EP, An Introduction to…; lyrics include the very Texas sentiment "if you’re not sunburned you’re not having fun"…they’ve also got some upcoming 3/5 at the Mohawk & two more helping kick off the SX madness Tuesday 3/15 at (both!) The Ghost Room and Skinny’s Ballroom. 

One of the latest from our friends over at Austin Music Weekly – The Belleville Outfit, six members strong and three albums in, made fairly regular visits to Momo’s to flesh out their own particular Americana. AMW caught them this past 1/29 working here on "Caroline" – in what looks to have been their final show.

Ok, in our world, Matt the Electrician would play halftime, and the Black-Eyed Peas would scramble together a Kickstarter for their next effort, but…wisely, rather than dwell on this type of thing, Matt the E and family instead came up with this sweet and smart response to the plight of the indie musician…

As he does every Tuesday night, Erik Hokannen will take over at Flipnotic’s tonight at 9. The fiddle and guitar master has been a mainstay of the Austin scene for over twenty years, and has been described more than once as "the greatest Austin musician you’ve never heard." Jazz Mills (of Cowboy + Indian) gave her enthusiastic recommendation. Erik has skipped back and forth between Austin and Helsinki – he’s a third-generation Finn – throughout his musical career, and enjoys a devoted following in both cities. 

Children of the Tone LIVE at ND

Candi and The Strangers | Myspace Music Videos

Let’s go ahead and work on their 15 minutes right now: The band name, the album name, the presentation, and the songs themselves all draw from Andy Warhol’s legendary The Factory studio and scene. Candi and the Strangers brought their updated dreamy-psych sound to ND studios this past Saturday to celebrate the release of 10th of Always, which they played straight through. Album officially out tomorrow;  

Congrats to our 1-2-3 finishers in the Deli’s Best of Austin Emerging Artist Poll: Overall champs Quiet Company, runners-up Monahans and third-place (and readers’ poll winners) Baron Grod. 

Probably no shock to find Quiet Company on top; this seems to be their year here in Austin and beyond. They’ll be bringing their special brand of lengthily-titled indie pop gems (e.g. "It’s Better to Spend Money Like There’s No Tomorrow Then Spend Tonight Like There’s No Money") to the Mohawk Thursday 2/10, where they’ll open for Fastball, one of the many Austin acts to break big in the past. And it just so happens that same night their above-referenced song will be featured on USA’s show Royal Pains…so you could say they’re having a good week. They’re also official SXSW participants & are inching very close (possibly March) to the release of their new album, We Are All Where We Belong. 

The west Texas dunes-inspired Monahans dropped a new single on us every month of 2010, and they’re compiling those into their next record as we type…you can catch them at Emo’s one week after your Quiet Company intake, Friday, Feb. 18th. As for heavy but intricate post-rockers Baron Grod, who stomped off with a hard-fought victory in our readers’ poll and ranked third overall, we’ll keep you posted on their goings on – as of writing, they plan to record a new one in 2011. 

Thanks again to all who participated in the poll – reminded us again what an extraordinary music scene we have here…