Gallows at Emo's main room: 4.2 out of 5

Loud, thrashy, energetic. Really impressed.

Mariachi El Bronx at Red 7 patio: 4.7

Beautiful, intense mariachi with a sense of humor. So, so good.

Peter Bjorn & John at Vice: 3.3

Enticing songs marred by myriad technical issues. Needs investigation.

The Bronx at Red 7 patio: 4.9

How can they keep getting better? They will kill us all without mercy!

Check out all the photos on my flickr stream, and more of my reviews on Out of Five.

Speaking as a writer who has every intention of documenting the thrills and spills to be had at this year's exciting South By Southwest Music & Media Conference, it would not behoove me to begin this account by grumbling about my personal travails--the hardships faced in establishing a respectable Internet connection in my hotel room, the horrendous distance I find myself regularly walking from hotel to Event A to Event B to Event C and back to my hotel room, or the nefarious behavior of the actual hotel in promising me a smoking room well in advance but now claiming to have established a new "no smoking" policy only last week--so instead: Let's talk music!

Getting something of a late start last night, I trudged over to the wonderful Stubb's venue, anticipating seeing Ladyhawke, who I like, and the Decemberists, who I like very much, and the two artists in between. Sadly, my compulsion to quench my thirst, so to speak, on the way to the venue led me to missing Ladyhawke, but I believe

The music festival South By Southwest--Austin, Texas's four-day spree of beer, BBQ, and bands (althoughnot necessarily in that exact order)--kicked off today, and I of coursewasted no time indulging in all three B's,hightailing it directly from the Austin airport to my first party of the dayover at Maggie Mae's on 6th Street. But ironically that beer bash was hosted by Spaceland, a rock club in my own nativeL.A.--so thereI was, hundreds of miles from my usual turf, still running into the same Angelenoscenesters that I socialize with on a near-nightly basis back home.

But there was one gaggle of exotic party guests, who'd traveled all the way from Denmark toentertain the Maggie Mae's masses,and that was the Asteroids Galaxy Tour. Best known in America so farfor their maddeningly catchy single "Around The Bend," as heard in arecent iPod Touch commercial, AGT certainly stood out from the rest of theskinny-jeaned, fringe-haircutted bands playing the Spaceland party. Dressed inearly-'90

Long renowned for being on the cutting edge of contemporary rock 'n' roll, Linkin Park continue being ahead of the curve when it comes to charitable causes--and their latest crusade via Music For Relief puts a whole new spin on contributing to a worthy cause.

The cause itself? Haitian relief. The troubled country, already in the midst of a years-long food crisis, was pummeled by a hurricane last September which destroyed crops, killed livestock, and raised its overall misery index to near intolerable levels.

Linkin Park hope to raise a minimum of $25,000 to provide support to the country, and is doing so via the site SocialVibe.com, a new "social media" platform that specializes in helping its users support brands and charities via social networks like Facebook and MySpace. Members of SocialVibe can create personalized badges and place them on any of their social network profiles. Advertising revenue that SocialVibe receives from its brand partners is then allocated to the individual