Credit: A Wordless Orange
Neo-psychedelic trio A Wordless Orange are translating global rhythmic trends into their own context in Wuhan, China. Their lush, bilingual tracks carry the laid-back ease of vintage soul and the suave playfulness of Afrobeat and jazz to a new genre dimension, which their Instagram bio aptly dubs “Asian-beat.” Their tranquil aesthetic takes cues from the mysterious and maligned genre of background tracks known as Library music, but subverts those easy listening expectations with compellingly smooth vocals and an endless supply of sonic surprises drawn from electronic music, alt-rock styles, and traditional instruments alike. (Editor’s note: A Wordless Orange has dropped out of the festival.) – Caroline Drew
Credit: Solarize Visuals
DATE / LOCATION TBA
“When I looked around that stage and saw how many people were standing there, I was excited but I was [also] scared, I’m not going to lie.” So admitted übercharismatic French-Ghanian R&B seductress Ama Louise on her Insta-vlog about showcasing for SXSW London 2025 last June. “[The] biggest crowd I’ve performed to pushed me outside my comfort zone.” Not six months later, the buttery, UK-based throwback singer dropped full-length debut Long Story Short, as enveloping and soul-caressing as Roberta Flack by candlelight. – Raoul Hernandez
Credit: @stefmartin
Friday 13, 9:10pm, Zilker Brewing
Monday 16, 8:30pm, Marlow
Amri’s sound is a satisfying fusion of smooth R&B and polished jazz, with Carnatic flourishes inspired by the British singer’s Indian heritage. Her band’s full-bodied sound – featuring horns and a sitar, and anchored by sharp, technical drumming – is so refined it’s hard to believe the group has only one EP under its belt. Amri’s sparkling, intoxicating stage presence and mystically danceable sound should make for a pleasantly rich concert experience. – Joseph Gonzalez
Credit: Garhole Records
Thursday 12, 11pm, 13th Floor
Monday 16, 10pm, Las Perlas
Wednesday 18, 9:10pm, Wanderlust Wine Co.
Sometimes leaning into where you’re from is the best way to figure out where you’re going. Since moving to Nashville earlier in the decade, Angela Autumn has only dug deeper into her sharp western Pennsylvania Appalachian twang. Last year’s I’m Not Around EP quakes behind a high-twinged wail across songs like the catchy swirl of “Electric Lizard.” Recently signed to Gar Hole Records, Autumn unloads an understated fury singed by both a raw emotional vulnerability and a wry sense of humor, as latest singles “Millionaire Money” and “Garbage” ache in lilting uncertainty and a desire to carve her own space. – Doug Freeman
Credit: Jean Yuzheng Zhang Photography
Saturday 14, 9:10pm, Zilker Brewing
Sunday 15, 10:20pm, Swan Dive
Monday 16, 10:30pm, Marlow
Part of the ever-expanding UK jazz scene, Glasgow’s Azamiah turned heads out of the gate with 2023’s In Phases, a confident debut featuring the voice of singer India Blue and a blend of jazz, R&B, electronica, and spaced-out pop. That intoxicating broth soaks several releases from 2025, including the single “New Moon” and the Two Lands EP, on which the soul gets more soulful, the dreaminess even dreamier, and Blue’s sultry croon more poignant. A series of festival appearances and the quartet’s first headline tour in the UK put the band in position to infiltrate sophisticated consciousnesses. – Michael Toland
Credit: Pooneh Ghana
Thursday 12, 10pm, Lefty’s Brick Bar
If only all of our favorite artists in these spooky times made their politics as clear as Big Bill. In an era where Radiohead – Radiohead! – won’t even disavow a genocide, it’s nice to know these Austin/Philly-based post-punks are unafraid to draw a line in the sand, from ICE (“you should be shunned by your family”) to fuckboys (they use their emotions “like shotguns”) to the wealth gap (“so tired”). The long-running outfit stays righteous and stays fun, issuing zigzagging, dance floor-filling tunes that get you riled up without bumming you out. What better radicalizing agents could we ask for in our modern shitshow? – Carys Anderson
Credit: Daniel Prakopcyk
Saturday 14, 10:55pm, ACL Live at the Moody Theater
BigXthaPlug’s modern-day anthem for the Lone Star State, “Texas,” packed enough charisma to match the unrivaled pride Texans have in their culture. 2024 release TAKE CARE offered sample-based tracks and firmly established him as a leader of Texas hip-hop’s new generation, but the Jessie Murph-featuring track “Holy Ground” from the album’s deluxe edition previewed an unexpected pivot. The Dallas rapper’s latest full-length, I Hope You’re Happy, sandwiches hooks from country music stars between heartbreak-filled verses. He’ll bring along Ro$ama and other artists from his record label as support in anticipation of 600 Entertainment’s debut compilation tape, 6WA. – Derek Udensi
Credit: Meghan Hancock
Friday 13, 7:30pm, Shangri-La
Sunday 15, 12:30am, Chess Club
Monday 16, 8:50pm, Hotel Vegas
Bloodsports channel the restless energy of New York into taut riffs and punchy, guitar-driven rhythms. With post-punk roots, the fourpiece’s debut project, Anything Can Be a Hammer, delivers garage rock grit and enough angular urgency to cut through the controlled chaos. Tracks oscillate between explosive bursts and measured grooves, creating tension between their deliberate arrangements and volatile unpredictability. The outfit has carved a reputation for raw, no-frills live performances that match the intensity of their recorded discography. One thing’s guaranteed: Your eardrums won’t be safe. – Miranda Garza
Friday 13, 10:30pm, Seven Grand
Saturday 14, 12am, Hotel Vegas
Saturday 14, 11pm, Swan Dive
It may be an impossible task to put Karim Lakhdar’s music into a box. His latest project as Boutique Feelings is part trip hop, part synth-heavy post-rock, and even part ambient archival political statement, set to sparse Arabic guitar. Where Boutique Feelings strays from Lakhdar’s previous sound with progressive rock outfit Atsuko Chiba is in his charged rapping. With a vocal style reminiscent of B-Real and André 3000, the Montrealer sounds off on the ailments of modern society, hoping to use his pointed lyrics and hypnotic production to create a shift in your consciousness. – Joseph Gonzalez
Credit: The Blooom Effect
Friday 13, 8pm, Saxon Pub
Monday 16, 9pm, Stubb’s
Wednesday 18, 1am, Inn Cahoots Austin Garden
“Scion” remains a double-edged identifier in music, the progeny of stars forced to prove themselves doubly in the shadow of their ’rents. Buddy Red’s dad helped put hot ’Lanta on the rap map, yet T.I. isn’t the 300-pound penumbra here. The twentysomething singer/slinger’s soul drawl, the funk lag in his engine room, and a thick, mulchy Strat strum all scream Hendrix. While “When I Dream” straight cops “Little Wing,” last summer’s “Sold His Soul” makes the same hairs stand on end that once saluted “Hey Joe.” SRV channeled the Voodoo Chile. Buddy Red quite possibly reincarnates him. – Raoul Hernandez
Credit: Olivia Perillo
Friday 13, 9:30pm, Valhalla
Saturday 14, 11:35pm, Chess Club
Monday 16, 11:10pm, Seven Grand
Tuesday 17, 9:15pm, Hotel Vegas
Cashier will take you back to 2005 with the quickness. Anchored by Kylie Gaspard’s androgynous, emotional vocals and a smattering of thrashing guitars, the Lafayette fourpiece updates the Fueled by Ramen formula with Dinosaur Jr. sludge – and the much-cooler co-sign of Julia’s War Recordings, the label of They Are Gutting a Body of Water frontman/contemporary heavy rock innovator Doug Dulgarian. And no, they aren’t the only band on this list to hang out in the middle of the SXSW Music-Julia’s War Venn diagram. The alt-rock renaissance continues! – Carys Anderson
Credit: Kory Thibeault
Chuck Prophet and His Cumbia Shoes
Thursday 12, 9:15pm, Swan Dive
Tuesday 17, 9pm, Lamberts
Thursday 19, 12am, Continental Club
While dealing with Stage 4 lymphoma, a newfound love for cumbia music gave Chuck Prophet some relief. After beating the disease, the accomplished songwriter decided to take a creative left turn with his latest project Wake the Dead, a collaboration with California cumbia group ¿Qiensave? The record mixes Prophet’s roots rock sensibilities with Latin rhythm and melody, creating a surprisingly satisfying blend you never knew you needed. He’ll bring that sound to this year’s SXSW before heading to Willie Nelson’s Luck Ranch to play the Luck Reunion and the Todd Snider Rules! tribute show later in the week. – Joseph Gonzalez
Credit: Joshua Rankins
Saturday 14, 10pm, Hotel Vegas
Tuesday 17, 9pm, Chess Club
Launched just last year, local quartet Commercial Breaks counter the shoegaze craze with a heartfelt ode to power-pop. Their Bandcamp-exclusive self-titled debut piles one taut and ready guitar riff after another onto unpretentious tracks covered in joyful distortion and populated by the appropriate number of oohs and ahhs. Hook is the right word for their catchy melodies, because these sweetly rugged vocal harmonies will sink right into you, ready to reel you into another rambunctiously good-hearted performance anytime their name’s on the bill. – Caroline Drew
Credit: Atlantic Records
Friday 13, TBA, Moody Amphitheater
Perennially traversing between trap and R&B like a Slinky composed of slick melodies, Don Toliver’s ability to stitch the two genres together gives him a distinct sound. The Cactus Jack signee rose to mainstream prominence with 2020 full-length Heaven or Hell and his earworm of a chorus on Internet Money’s “Lemonade” later that year. New maiden chart-topper OCTANE ditches the subtle rock elements found on 2024’s HARDSTONE PSYCHO in favor of the Houstonian’s trademark psychedelic backdrops and Auto-Tuned croons about women. There’s a Justin Timberlake sample (“Body”) on there, too. – Derek Udensi
Credit: Marcelle Bradbeer
Thursday 12, 11pm, Wanderlust Wine Co.
Sunday 15, 10pm, Seven Grand
Monday 16, 8:40pm, Downright Austin Global Stage
Wednesday 18, 12am, Saxon Pub
It only took two singles for Ella Ion to hook me. Last October’s “Looking for Nothing” recalls Bella’s New Moon depression montage: slow-churning acoustic guitar, mournful cello, gauzy vocals likening the Adelaide songwriter to a dog tied to a tree. “Blue Black Crows,” released two months prior, is even better. Ion snaps her strings with one of those stop-start riffs you immediately, involuntarily, nod along to, crooning an insistent “oh yeah, oh yeah-heah-heah-heah” refrain alongside it. Add in those searing electric accents and abstract orchestral freakouts – this name’s on my usually noncommittal South By schedule in pen. – Carys Anderson
Credit: Fish Hunt
Friday 13, 7pm, Low Down Lounge
Saturday 14, 9:50pm, Chess Club
I hear twinges of Snail Mail, Lorde, and a long lineage of emo vocalists in Lucy Mondello’s elongated vowels, but on Self-Taught, the New York songwriter stitches such disparate musical stylings into a cohesive quilt all her own. Indie rock acoustics, eerie saw, and sputtering percussion are instrumental to this LP, an unvarnished-yet-meticulous showcase of childlike DIY. As Fish Hunt declares in melancholy manifestation “Go My Way”: “I’m the shit, can’t you see?” – Carys Anderson
Credit: Jake Rabin
Wednesday 18, 10:25pm, Swan Dive
Major League, Geto Gala’s 2024 debut album, is a celebration, dancing with feather-light piano licks, swaying drum beats, and the honeyed rhymes of rap duo Jake Lloyd and Deezie Brown. Their sound is a true Texas recipe of sun-soaked Southern rap spun through Houston’s chopped and screwed influence and baked in a soulful rock ambience that makes for a head-bobbing, finger-snapping show. Both talented multifaceted musicians in their own right, Lloyd and Brown’s union in Geto Gala is one of creative admiration and community appreciation that shines through in every festive chorus and glorious groove.– Caroline Drew
Credit: Gran Moreno
Thursday 12, 9pm, Lefty’s Brick Bar
Since the pandemic, ATX’s Latin music scene now manifests every blush, from heartbreak balladeers (Grace Sorensen) and MCs (Anastasia Hera) to funk (Superfónicos) and metal (Brown Sabbath). Gran Moreno bends a whole other golden note. Psych rock sibling bomb squad Ricardo and Christian Rodríguez unsheathed debut full-length El Sol in January, its cataclysmic detonation moving beyond White Stripes and Black Keys to a wholly unique amalgam of mariachi trumpets, hacienda percussion/strings, y tequila tempos. Thirty-two minutes never sounded so epic – so gran(d). – Raoul Hernandez
Credit: HERFitz PR
Saturday 14, 10pm, Valhalla
Gus Englehorn’s mind must be a fantastic and terrifying place. The pro snowboarder-turned-bizarro pop maestro has released four albums in the past five years, each more wildly ambitious, unhinged, and fascinating than the last. Whereas 2025’s The Hornbook constructed an unraveling of rock history, this year’s The Broken Balladeer spills like of Montreal into the Unicorns, veering between strafing bursts of playful wonder and horrifying shock. Equally appropriate is recruiting Butthole Surfer Paul Leary to produce the album, who adds the perfect complement to the cataclysm of Englehorn’s wildly mutating and eccentric, psychedelic worlds. – Doug Freeman
Credit: Matty Vogel
Saturday 14, 9:35pm, ACL Live at the Moody Theater
Sunday 15, 4:10pm, Mohawk
After writing hit after hit for stars from Kendrick Lamar to Beyoncé, Atia Chade Boggs, best known as Ink, is now turning her focus inward. Over a decade of songwriting comes to the forefront on the Atlanta-raised musician’s debut project, BIG BUSKIN’, showcasing confessional intimacy and melodic craftsmanship. Sitting atop a neo-soul foundation, the record channels twangy pop, modern R&B, and electronic textures through tactile production and tender vocals. On “Turquoise Cowboy,” Ink paints a cinematic portrait of love and longing, layering memorable hooks with shimmering flourishes. – Miranda Garza
Zola Marcelle Credit: Kate Kantur
Sunday 15, 7:30pm, Flamingo Cantina
Jazz musicians in the United Kingdom see their genre as foundation more than form, pulling in global influences far beyond swinging, sophisticated blues. The 10th Jazz Re:freshed SX showcase makes that plain in the most entertaining and enlightening way possible. Featured artists include Zimbabwe-born/London-based jazz/soul singer-songwriter Zola Marcelle, cosmopolitan jazz/funk/hip-hop bassist/singer Amy Gadiaga, Newcastle jazz fusion trio Knats, veteran Nigeria/London guitarist/producer Femi Temowo, London jazz drummer/producer Mackwood, and Manchester producer/player Werkha. A decade in, Jazz Re:freshed Outernational isn’t just an event – it’s a visit with an old friend. – Michael Toland
Credit: Vera “Vicious Velma” Hernandez
Tuesday 17, 12:50am, Hotel Vegas
Tuesday 17, 10:30pm, Swan Dive
Elaborate, handmade costumes; raunchy group choreography; frequent trips from the stage to the pit – every succeeding J’cuuzi show is a bigger and bigger spectacle. Gorge Bones and Trey Razeldazl, the romantic partners at the heart of this art-rock, dance-punk, truly indescribable rock & roll affair, know how to keep you entertained – and how to balance just the right amount of bubbling Björk synths and sleazy glam rock guitar in the chemistry experiment that is this wondrous musical hot tub. Amid a weeklong barrage of performances, you’re guaranteed to remember J’cuuzi. – Carys Anderson
Credit: Joe Harvey-Whyte
Friday 13, 12:45pm, Hilton Austin Downtown
Tuesday 17, 7:50pm, Central Presbyterian Church
Wednesday 18, 10pm, 13th Floor
You might guess that an artist playing experimental pedal steel guitar music at SXSW would be a local, but Joe Harvey-Whyte isn’t even from America. A master of a notoriously hard-to-play instrument, the London native pulls the pedal steel out of the honky-tonk and into the astral expanse. Harvey-Whyte makes you reevaluate an instrument you’ve heard a thousand times, bending your mind’s expectations like he does the tone of his guitar. In addition to composing heady Americana, the award-winning musician further demonstrates his reverence for sound with a side gig as a field recordist for film and radio. – Joseph Gonzalez
Credit: Mackenzie Coleman
Monday 16, 7pm, the Pershing
From his CV, Austin percussionist, composer, and teacher Jordan Walsh is busier than a parent of 10. Straddling the line between chamber music and sound design, Walsh performs with Goliath Was Bigfoot, Maru Haru, Line Upon Line Percussion, and Density512’s new music collective. He also engages in solo performances all over the country that blend vibraphone, percussion, and electronics in a tireless championing of electroacoustic music-making. Holding a doctorate from UT-Austin, he teaches percussion and audio technology at Southwestern University, Austin Community College, and other institutions in Texas and elsewhere. How he’s found the time to showcase at SXSW is a mystery. – Michael Toland
Credit: [PIAS]
Monday 16, 9pm, Swan Dive
Tuesday 17, 8pm, Valhalla
The irreverent blond behind London-based project Joyeria is keeping lad rock alive with gruff “yeah yeah yeah” choruses and synthesizer beeps and boops to match every chunky power chord. The bobbed man, known only to us listeners as Joy, nails an exaggerated drawl on early single “Wild Joy” despite his Canadian-Polish heritage, while more recent banger “I don’t know, who cares?” (“How are you doing?/ How do you feel today?/ I don’t know, who cares, stop asking”) nods to king slackers Pavement at their twangiest. Production from Dan Carey (Fontaines D.C., Wet Leg) on 2025 EP Graceful Degradation seals the deal. – Carys Anderson
Credit: Prysm Talent Agency
Saturday 14, 11:30pm, Brushy Street Commons
Dallas alt-R&B singer Kaash Paige’s dreamy, Auto-Tuned vocals float with an airlike quality, yet convey plenty of emotion. She returns to SX for her own Kaash Paige & Friends showcase on March 14 after headlining iLL Manner Shows’ A FAT A$$ RAP SHOW last year. First signed to Def Jam as a teenager, the 25-year-old leveled up as an independent artist after departing the label in 2023. She dropped two projects after signing to indie label Rostrum Records last summer: KAASHMYCHECKS and 2 Late to Be Toxic. Arrive early at Brushy Street Commons to catch Lynn and Austin-bred R&B singer Grace Sorensen. – Derek Udensi
Credit: Eliana Shymansky
Thursday 12, 9:55pm, ACL Live at the Moody Theater
What defines 24-year-old Lola Young’s sound isn’t genre-hopping, but her raw candor and emotional immediacy. With three studio albums under her belt, the London-born songstress drifts between alt-pop, indie rock, and soulful R&B, with her powerhouse vocals building a common ground between these pulls. Young walked away from this year’s Grammy Awards with two nominations, including a win for her chart-topping hit “Messy” for Best Solo Pop Performance. SXSW will mark one of the singer’s first shows back following a brief hiatus, as she rejoins the live circuit and takes the stage as part of Rolling Stone’s Future of Music showcase. – Miranda Garza
Credit: Aileen Lam
Monday 16, 12pm, Downright Austin
Monday 16, 7pm, Downright Austin
Shoegaze will never die – nor should it when it’s in the hands of a band as good as Hong Kong’s Lucid Express. Not only do singer Kim Ho and her crew get the sonics just right, but they use their dreamy guitar swathes to illuminate the issues facing them and other democracy-minded citizens in what was, until 2014, one of the world’s most cosmopolitan and progressive cities. Ho claims “we’ve been steadily losing hope for a decade now” in their artist bio, but the sublime six-string beauty found on the quintet’s brand-new Instant Comfort wraps its defiance around us like a warm blanket. – Michael Toland
Credit: Magnolia Ellenburg
Sunday 15, 8pm, Antone’s
Monday 16, 9:10pm, Las Perlas
Twentysomething singer Luke Tyler Shelton is living the Laurel Canyon lifestyle of yore, and he’s got the outfits, the big-name backers, and – this is important – the music to prove it. On his 2025 EP Blue Sky, produced by royal outlaw Shooter Jennings and frequent Father John Misty collaborator Jonathan Wilson, the L.A. native pairs campfire choruses with honky-tonk guitar solos, jaunty piano with pedal steel warmth, and tops it all with the voice of a proper Sixties folkie. Shelton’s opened for Chaparelle and played last year’s Luck Reunion, so this SXSW only furthers the songwriter’s Austin country coronation. – Carys Anderson
Credit: EA Visuals
Thursday 12, 11:15pm, Mala Fama
Saturday 14, 9:45pm, Brushy Street Commons
Tuesday 17, 10:30pm, Venue 6
Adversity reveals character. Birmingham, Alabama, transplant Lynn gave meaning to that trite phrase during last year’s SXSBreaks showcase as she powered through a headlining set ravaged by technical difficulties. “Life be lifin’,” she said then. The 24-year-old has only increased her stock since, with fall 2025 album Ten Thousand Hours adding personal depth to her brash, confident raps. A clip of “Slow Dreamz,” a quick-hitting track interpolating Twista’s “Slow Jamz,” currently counts over 430K views on TikTok. Expect some doses of R&B, too, and a redemptive showing that’ll demonstrate why she’s one of Austin hip-hop’s brightest young talents. – Derek Udensi
Credit: Jana Birchum
Thursday 12, 11:30pm, Swan Dive
The Texas capital has long loved this two-time Austin Music Awards Best Hip-Hop winner, known for a playful, pop-loving streak and a welcoming warmth, but the nation became Mama Duke fans this year when the queer rapper earned Mel B’s golden buzzer on America’s Got Talent last August. Walking off the show as the first female rapper to reach the Top 10, Mama Duke returns to the SXSW stage with signature charisma and uplifting tracks that joyfully intertwine Eighties synth grooves with Aughts club hooks and an effortless lyrical prowess. – Caroline Drew
Credit: Alice Loayza
Friday 13, 11pm, Saxon Pub
Monday 16, 9pm, Lefty’s Brick Bar
Tuesday 17, 12am, Continental Club
“If whiskey were a woman, I’d fuck her.” How’s that for an opening line? Those quotable lyrics open Marley Hale’s “Drunk On You,” a slow-moving country waltz about lost love and alcoholism. Hale’s steely gaze and sentimental vocals make her vintage outlaw sound impossibly alluring. Born in Austin and raised in Northern California, the now-sober singer and guitarist splits time between her birthplace and Brooklyn, New York. She recently completed a February residency at the legendary local Hole in the Wall. – Joseph Gonzalez
Credit: Lea Garn
Sunday 15, 9:30pm, Speakeasy
After conquering Berlin’s club scene, Miss Bashful is returning to her Texas roots before plotting her electroclash world domination. Pulling from the high-voltage likes of Peaches and Miss Kitten, the Mexico City-born provocateur has cultivated candy-coated electronica with body-forward BPMs and relentless momentum. Her self-proclaimed “slut techno” combines warehouse-ready maximalism with hedonistic hooks and a no-compromise attitude that commands the room. The club siren enlisted German DJ duo GDA on her latest rave-bred cut, “Glamour Snobby,” a sharp burst of peak-hour pressure designed to keep bodies moving. – Miranda Garza
Credit: Ismael Quintanilla III
Thursday 12, 7:45pm, Zilker Brewing
Friday 13, 2pm, Rivian Electric Roadhouse
Friday 13, 10pm, Continental Club
At the Austin Music Awards earlier this month, Next of Kin took home top honors as Best New Act. It was a well-earned but unsurprising honor for the trio, who has not only honed their sharp lyrical narratives behind bursting dynamic harmonies, but also galvanized a community of joy and advocacy around their defiant queer and trans country identity. While Madison Baker, Lili Hickman, and Caelin each bring a distinct songwriting style into the band, together they surge into the kind of empowering Nineties country anthems that cut with an emotional independence and sharp wit – as they do on last year’s standout debut EP, Homemaker. – Doug Freeman
Credit: Yuan Long
Monday 16, 9pm, 13th Floor
Tuesday 17, 10:30pm, Valhalla
Brooklyn’s P-H-zero describes itself as “silkpunk/cyber-metal,” crediting the former term to sci-fi horticulturalist Ken Liu, while elaborating on a teeth-rattling crucible of trad-Asian elements and instrumentation, plus “the fragmented chaos of analog modular synthesizers.” Howard Ouyang, Pierre Pi, and Jun Guo core the current quintet’s crossover from clean, ambient melodicism – rain falling on city rooftops – to harsh, dystopian mosh incitement in the streets on October EP Gore: DLC. Somebody get P.H.0. the opening slot on a Melt-Banana tour. – Raoul Hernandez
Credit: Jared A. Moody
Thursday 12, 8pm, Swan Dive
Sunday 15, 8:40pm, Taco N Maiz
Tuesday 17, 8:25pm, the Creek and the Cave
Dallas rapper Pierce Washington sticks a slow jam hook to his infectious 2023 track “SPLIT FARE,” a duet with the namesake lead singer of Vancouver indie-pop quintet DACEY. More often, however, the MC veers into jazz. Twinkling keys and sultry horns adorn Madlib co-write “BILOXI”; upright bass soars throughout “AS WE PROCEED” – which features an uncredited Lil Wayne, by the way – and fresh single “Boughtaname” shuffles with the kind of swinging live instrumentation you’d expect to hear in a smoky old back room. Expect big(ger) things from this Dallas Entertainment Awards winner. – Carys Anderson
Credit: Cancerian
Monday 16, 12am, Continental Club
“You haven’t kissed me but you already broke me.” With one line, QUENTIN’s latest single conjures not simply unrequited love, but the special kind of hell that is forming a romantic connection with someone who swears that they’re straight. “Hello Denial,” the first look at the gender-nonconforming Austin artist’s upcoming album TOMGIRL, is a power pop anthem for the queers who have been strung around by the emotionally guarded. In the track’s Ducky Mane-directed video, the diva struts down South Congress in waist-length braids and knee-high boots. Her best accessory? A Beyoncé-nodding baseball bat. – Carys Anderson
Saturday 14, 8:55pm, Chess Club
Tuesday 17, 12am, Seven Grand
Name-dropping Dale Cooper and Elliott Smith is one way to get an alternative music fan’s attention, but a different line in Nashville shoegaze project Total Wife’s artist bio looms larger: “[Luna] Kupper sold all of her synths to make rent before she started working on the album, and so every inorganic sound is instead built from samples of the band’s own work.” Besides encapsulating the depressing reality of the modern working musician, this tidbit underscores the innovation showcased on the synthetic-organic merging band’s come back down – released in September on TAGABOW founder Doug Dulgarian’s Julia’s War Recordings. – Carys Anderson
Credit: Henry Collier
Saturday 14, 11:20pm, Palm Door on Sixth
Sunday 15, 5:10pm, Mohawk
Sunday 15, 7pm, Hotel Vegas
Tuesday 17, 12:30am, Swan Dive
A true blood digital native, Manchester’s Tasmin Nicole Stephens grew up in a world of GarageBand possibility and misinformation manipulation. Her bedroom-based, grunge-for-the-despondent sound and her meme-aware, self-mythologizing PR streak – she’s claimed to be the daughter of an AC/DC drummer and the granddaughter of Leonard Cohen – nod appropriately to the smirking slouchers and winking liars of days of yore (looking at you, Bob Dylan), while planting TTSSFU firmly in the modern moment. Rattling with ambivalent angst, her latest singles “Upstairs” and “Sick” set party malaise and religious guilt in a fog-filled world of hypnotic basslines and ethereal vocals. – Caroline Drew
Sunday 15, 1:25am, Chess Club
Monday 16, 9:45pm, Hotel Vegas
Monday 16, 10:50pm, Las Perlas
Victoryland bursts with a frenetic energy that settles somewhere in a collision between Car Seat Headrest and LCD Soundsystem. The project of former Blood guitarist Julian McCamman, Victoryland’s new sophomore album and Good English label debut, My Heart Is a Room With No Cameras in It, drives with the classic Brooklyn indie rock angst of sorting through sadness with a danceable catharsis. The lo-fi jagged guitar elements from 2024’s Sprain still slash through McCamman’s howls, but behind producer Dan Howard, he finds a new layered heft that twists like a life-saving tourniquet to stop the bleeding. – Doug Freeman
This article appears in SXSW 2026 Festival Guide.
A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.
Carys Anderson moved from Nowhere, DFW to Austin in 2017 to study journalism at the University of Texas. She began writing for The Austin Chronicle in 2021 and joined its full-time staff in 2023, where she covers music and culture.
More by Carys Anderson
Caroline is the Music and Culture staff writer and reporter, covering, well, music, books, and visual art for the Chronicle. She came to Austin by way of Portland, Oregon, drawn by the music scene and the warm weather.
More by Caroline Drew
San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.
More by Raoul Hernandez
As the Chronicle’s Club Listings Editor, Derek compiles a weekly list of music events occurring across town. The University of Texas alum also writes about hip-hop as a contributor to the Music section.
More by Derek Udensi