Nels Cline is more of a contortionist than a guitarist. He has an uncanny ability to bend and twist notes, coloring and shaping the sounds in ways that don’t seem physically possible. Aside from his numerous improvised acoustic and electric jazz projects, the “Avant Romantic” – as Rolling Stone dubbed him in its list of 20 new guitar gods – has collaborated with Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, was part of the Million Dollar Bashers house band for the I’m Not There soundtrack, and reinterpreted John Coltrane’s Interstellar Space with jazz drummer Gregg Bendian. Most people know Cline, though, as the cerebral force of Wilco, whom he joined in 2004. Two months after Jeff Tweedy and company’s sold-out two-night stand, Cline returns to Stubb’s on Sunday for two sets of screaming tonal bliss with the Nels Cline Singers.

Doyle Bramhall II is playing Antone’s tonight and tomorrow night. He’s debuting a handpicked band starring the first-call guitarist of the moment, Gary Clark Jr., the funkiest of the lowdown bassists, Larry Fulcher, and dream-team drummer Earl Harvin, and that makes him happy. Ya gotta wonder a bit at a musician like the younger Bramhall, the heir in a musically diverse family to a rich Texas guitar style. Sure, there’s his father Doyle, the thundering drummer for noted Texas bands going back to the 1960s but best known as Stevie Ray Vaughan’s songwriting partner. Doyle’s brothers Ronnie and Dale also played around Dallas but it was Doyle who relocated to Austin in 1970 with the migration of Dallas-area musicians that formed the nucleus of Austin’s second-generation blues scene.

In 2006, Will Oldham starred in the small-run, independent film Old Joy. It wasn’t particularly good, at times plodding along uncomfortably without dialogue as the two characters - old friends reuniting for a weekend camping trip - failed to bridge the distance that had grown between them. What was remarkable about the film was how Oldham’s acting seemed to so closely mirror his music. It was off-kilter and jarring, but with understated ease. Oldham’s character carried the same weary mixture of wisdom and innocent wonder mixed with broken-hearted disillusion that he's evoked under his myriad musical monikers, from Palace Music to Bonnie “Prince” Billy.

Daytrotter’s deep ties to the Austin music scene trace back to Sound Team, who first visited the site’s Futureappletree Studio One in Rock Island, Ill., after a performance at Lollapalooza 2006. For the past two SXSW music conferences, Daytrotter, which records indie bands straight to tape and exclusively offers the sessions for free download, has also holed up at Sound Team’s Big Orange studio on the Eastside. It’s only fitting that former Team bassist Bill Baird prefaces the release of his latest luminous offering as Sunset, The Glowing City, with a four-song session that includes the previously unreleased “Telephones” and “Loveshines, Part II,” an instrumental excerpt from a forthcoming trilogy. Check it out here. A stroll through Daytrotter’s archives turns up local gold in the form of recent sessions from White Denim, Peter & the Wolf, Trail of Dead, and Spoon. who offer an incredible reading of Paul Simon’s “Peace Like a River.” Expect posts from the Octopus Project and Brazos in the near future.

John Wesley Coleman is the guitarist for them rowdy Golden Boys, but did you know he's also a poet, and (sorta) knows it? The wonderful folks over at Monofonus Press are putting out "American Trashcan," a collection of JWC's musings, written in 2005 during what he calls "January Bad Writing Month," with illustrations by Colleen Matzke. As self-deprecating and self-aware as Wes can be throughout his prose, "Trashcan" is also funny and revelatory in that 4am-can't-sleep-what-am-I-doing-with-my-life? kind of way. The book also comes with a CD of the same name. To celebrate, Wes reads from his book Saturday at the newly opened Domy Books, and plays with a mariachi band. Painter Michelle Devereux and video artist Max Juren will also have exhibits on display. 7pm.

Last night's Austin City Limits taping with Carrie Rodriguez and Jakob Dylan could have been a revelation. Instead, it was an ordeal. I know Rodriguez, who taped her segment first, is a popular musician around these parts. While there were impressive things about her performance, overall I came away with the same impression I’ve always had: She’s a good player, but as a singer-songwriter she’s still in the middle of a very large pack. Rodriguez was joined for a good portion of her set by the Jayhawks' Gary Louris, who, she explained, was influential (i.e. he co-wrote some of the songs) in the making of her upcoming disc, She Ain’t Me, and her band was augmented by local keyboardist Michael Ramos and renowned multi-instrumentalist Greg Leisz. So the ensemble play was above average, but her lackluster vocals and songwriting, plainly influenced by other notable women (Lucinda Williams, the Dixie Chicks, Patty Griffin), undercut a winning stage presence. Rodriguez had about an hour to distinguish herself but, in the end, lacked the spark that would enable her to do so.

The holiday weekend reminded me of a trio of albums I’ve been meaning to write about on the Range Life label from my hometown of Lawrence, Kansas. Starting with On the Plains by nominally relevant Lawrence sixpiece Fourth of July, all of these albums have a significant Austin connection, having been mixed and mastered in the Texas capital by former Screw key cruncher Jim Vollentine. Fourth of July doesn’t light many fireworks but delights in simple guitar riffs and charming melodies straight from the Kansas heartland. The band leaves big questions for others, spending much of the album unraveling mysteries like “Why Did I Drink So Much Last Night?”

Animated Adult Swim heshers Dethklok steamrolled the Austin Music Hall in human form last night, led by Metalocalypse creator Brendon Small. Click through the gallery for scenes from the maul.

A few weeks ago King Khan told me, "In 1999 I moved to Germany with a dream to make a big psychedelic soul band, complete with go-go dancers and blazing horns." And the wrath of Khan began. When an Indian guy wearing a pith helmet and carrying a cobra staff tells you it's time "to have an animal party," you do not deny the call of the wild. Last night at Mohawk, the first U.S. tour by King Khan & the Shrines took its only Texas date to task, inciting random make-out sessions and disrobings in the crowd. The ninepiece Shrines, including a gold pom-pom waving dancer named Bamboorella, all wore matching outfits, and they brought THE SHOW, ya dig? “Land of the Freak,” “I Wanna Be a Girl,” and "Le Fils de Jacques Dutronc” all sounded 14-karat soul, and Khan even managed to weave the verses from “My Baby Daddy” and 69 Boys’ “The Dip” into the mix. When the master of ceremonies launched into the "psychedelic erotic gospel" portion of the show, and told a tale of being "reborn" through his lady's, uh, lady parts, the mental image was both repulsive and hilarious. Then came the encore, the wardrobe change, the eyegasm. Yes, yes, oh god yes. Take a look at the gallery to the right for photographic proof.