When the trifecta of headliners - Stevie Wonder, Arcade Fire, and Kanye West – leaked over the weekend, most people preemptively declared the 2011 edition of the Austin City Limits Music Festival to be the most promising yet. The full line-up announcement brought C3 Presents one step closer to sealing that promise.

For years there hung in Sam’s BBQ a signed black & white photo of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. The image seemed a fitting synopsis of the band’s legacy: Maximum R&B and bombastic punk confrontation with serious juke joint credibility.

Cold Sun is an anomaly in Texas psych history. As significant as Bubble Puppy or Moving Sidewalks but in no way similar, the Austin quartet cut one cult classic in its brief existence, the spell-binding Dark Shadows, which Jello Biafra called “the best psychedelic album I know of.” Yet, Cold Sun's real impact came in its second life as the Aliens.

In lieu of batting practice, OTR reached out to the Reckless Kelly's Braun brothers for their personal scouting reports for this Sunday's third annual Celebrity Softball Jam. Here's what came back. Doors open at noon. Complete details here.

Mumford & Sons fittingly ended Tuesday’s performance at Waller and Fourth Street with a celebratory rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “This Train Is Bound for Glory.” The Railroad Revival Tour’s the first of its kind – a six-stop trek by vintage rail cars (“Santa Fe” and “California Zephyr”) that aroused the spirit of the Wild West and history of American music.

In honor of the Asylum Street Spankers' Farewell Tour of Austin, kicking off tonight at the Cactus Cafe, OTR reached out via email to Guy Forsyth for help with compiling the timeline in this week's column. What came back was an epic, personal remembrance of God's Favorite Band and an appreciation of the acoustic troupe's ringers.

“We need to pass it on to another generation.” That’s the plea Oasis’ Noel Gallagher makes in the (already successful) Kickstarter campaign to reissue Cotton Mather’s 1997 cult classic, Kontiki. OTR asked frontman and current Future Clouds & Radar leader Robert Harrison to elaborate on the album’s bonus features. Here’s what came back.

Before the Plastic Ono Band showcase at Elysium, Tune-Yards' Merrill Garbus paid tribute to the evening's guest of honor with a stunning revision of “We're All Water,” warping the original into flurry of idiosyncratic loops and ukes.

Despite three daily editions of Off the Record – Thursday, Friday, and Saturday – and this week’s wrap-up, there was plenty of thoughts and coverage left on the cutting room. In lieu of OTR’s usual Wednesday Rewind, here’s the best of the rest from SXSW.