Kevin Bronson on March 17th, 2009

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[First installment of my venue-surfing at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin. The music doesn’t technically start until Wednesday, but I got a head start …]

The Black and White Years (Monday at La Zona Rosa) – Easy to see why this guys are Austin favorites; a party seems to break out wherever they poke their guitars and bleepy rhythms. Bespectacled frontman Scott Butler puts a good-natured, toothy smirk on dance-punk – imagine Moving Units fronted by Buddy Holly – with just enough barbed-wire lyrical content and zoned-out guitar tones from Landon Thompson to keep it interesting, even, as was the case Tuesday, at a film party sponsored by the local newspaper.