Newfangled SXSW Showcase Application—Applying for a spot in the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin may seem mystifying at first, but there's really not much to it. In fact, it's easier than ever since the application process for SXSW has gone totally digital this year. Just go to the SXSW website, create a user account and password, and fill out a fairly straightforward online form. You'll pay a $30 fee and upload your music and press right there. And that's it. Then all that's left is to compulsively check your e-mail until Feb. 9, when the last acceptance and rejection notices will be sent out from SXSW HQ.

Jeff Drew

Avoiding racist music and record labels

A year ago, “ABC Primetime” ran a piece on a pair of twins, Lamb and Lynx Gaede, whose folk-pop act called Prussian Blue is serving as a conduit for the white nationalist (ahem, nazi prick) movement due to parental encouragement. In a realm of music typically comprised of sweaty, drunk, agro dudes playing some genre of hardcore, the innocent-looking teenage girls seem like unlikely purveyors of hate--a paradox that, partially due to the ABC program, garners a great deal of press which their website thanks for helping to spread their message.

A cappella group offers musical and meditative experience

The music of Baird Hersey’s a cappella vocal group Prana shares many of the ethereally beautiful and exotic qualities of whalesong. Unlike our finned relatives’ vocalizations, however, Prana’s music is instantly accessible, with a profound capacity to quiet and focus the listener.

String Theory

Start your weekend with an Atomic musical science project. Albuquerque moody rock three-piece Nunchuk plays with Emperors of Japan and Under the Blood this Friday, Oct. 20, at Atomic Cantina (21-plus). It's free, of course. (LM)

Curtis Lehmkuhl

Folkster William Elliott Whitmore on booze, ballpoint pens and his farmboy upbringing

“I have to have a certain kind of pen,” says William Elliott Whitmore, guitarist, banjoist, singer and tattooed troubadour. “I can’t have a ballpoint.”