The first time I spun Magnet School's debut EP, Crush, in 2006, the title song became lodged in my brain for weeks. Bassist Brandon Tucker, guitarists and vocalists Mark Ford and Michael J. Wane, and drummer Jason Ferguson – all bona fide fixtures in the Austin scene for the last decade-plus – are masters of explosive melody. None of the sugar, all of the fun. Last year finally saw the drop of Magnet School's premiere full-length, Tonight We Drink … Tomorrow We Battle the Evil at Hand on local imprint Arclight, and while the word is just now getting out, these boys know exactly what they're doing. Tucker took some time out to chat via e-mail about the band, the album, and that Big Rock sound.

Shut Up: I know all you guys have known one another for quite some time now. Can you tell me about the formation of Magnet School?
Brandon Tucker: Aside from Mark and Jason, we've all known each other for about 10 or more years. Mark and Jason were childhood friends from Tulsa, so they go way back. But we're all transplants; Mark, Jason, and I are from Oklahoma, and Michael J. is from Colorado Springs. We've all lived in Austin since around the mid Nineties. Like most people, we moved here to play music and soak up the culture.

Shapes Have Fangs formed in 2006, but the four members - rhythm guitarist/vocalist Dustin Coffey, drummer Evan McGlothlin, lead guitarist/keyboardist Skyler McGlothlin, and bassist Josh Wills - all grew up in the small East Texas town of Gun Barrel City. And though a few members have genre-spanning side projects, SHF lands sure-footed on the right side of Uncle Phil's Wall of Sound.

"We're all big fans of 1960s music," explains Coffey. "It was probably the music we all remember hearing first. My dad was a roadie for Led Zeppelin and Wings. He introduced me to bands like the Kinks, the Zombies. So a lot of that wore off on me and I think people hear it."

Using vintage recording equipment for two upcoming seven-inches, one on local label Business Deal Records and one self-released, the group shook off lazy-blogger comparisons (the Shins) with pure, sweet pop knockouts like "Nobody's There" and "Crying Eyes."

Get a whiff tomorrow night when Shapes Have Fangs and sonic twins the Ugly Beats open for NYC's garage rock purveyors the Fleshtones at Mohawk. 10pm.

Considering the popularity of Kimya Dawson's anti-pop songs and the ever-increasing notoriety of Daniel Johnston's artwork, the timing couldn't be better for "Live from Juvie Hall!" The Saturday night art exhibit at the United States Art Authority is meant to capture the essence of adolescent angst and features 19 local artists, including Belaire's Cari Palazzolo, Ben Aqua (aka Assacre), and Adreon Henry of Single Frame, which performs along with Cry Blood Apache and Hey La La. 8pm.

Thanks to booker Nancy Coplin, the last thing many people hear when flying out of town is the sound of Austin music. For eight years Coplin has booked the four stages of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, hosting 11 shows a week. USA Today recently took note.

"It's like a paid rehearsal," says Coplin of the daytime gigs. "When you play an airport or sell a CD there, there's no telling where the music travels."

On Sunday, Coplin celebrates her 60th birthday with an all-star bash at Antone's, featuring frequent airport performers Shelley King, Wendy Colonna, Sunny Sweeney, and Ruben Ramos, along with Stephen Bruton, Rick Trevino, Derek O'Brien, the Marcia Ball Band, and Delbert McClinton. The show starts at 6pm, and all proceeds benefit HAAM.

When Sue Foley moved to Austin from Ottawa, Canada, in the early 1990s, she drew a tremendous amount of support from Clifford Antone. The guitar-slinging redhead went on to release several discs on Antone’s record label and literally grew up here. So it was apropos that she return to Clifford’s joint last weekend to highlight her latest project, Guitar Women, a book she’s writing that covers the stories of everyone from Memphis Minnie to Rory Block and beyond.

Saturday night’s show at Antone's was a barnburner, Foley backed by Cindy Cashdollar on lap steel and Dobro, along with the stellar rhythm section of drummer Lisa Pankratz and bassist Sarah Brown. While heavy on the blues strut she’s known for, Foley also delved into country and flamenco, boldly showing her range. She paid tribute to her mentors as well by covering R&B tunes from Barbara Lynn and Angela Strehli. Cashdollar was particularly impressive, especially for those only familiar with her work as a country and folk musician. She dug deep for some dirty sounds.

In only his third performance in the last 30 years, Darondo Pulliam, 61, shimmied across the stage at Club de Ville, repeatedly falling to his knees and offering X-rated love-making tips involving whipped cream and hot cherries (“but not too hot”). I shouldn’t have been surprised.

“One thing I always could do was dance,” the lost soul singer proclaimed in our interview a few weeks before South by Southwest. “I’m just resting up so that when I get out there I can get my dancing on.” Darondo cut three incredible 7-inch singles in the early 1970s and promptly left music in his rearview mirror, spending the rest of the decade cruising Bay Area boulevards in his custom Rolls Royce. His flashy ride and gold jewelry earned him a reputation – he’s long rumored to have earned his living as a pimp, a charge he denies.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s Darondo starred on several Bay Area cable television shows before disappearing all together. His rare 1973 single, “Didn’t I,” was included on a 2005 compilation by British DJ Giles Peterson, which eventually led to the 2006 release of Let My People Go, a compilation of Darondo’s known recordings on Ubiquity Records. In a most entertaining interview, a chatty Darondo speaks on dressing up like a woman, cooking hamburgers on the way to Reno, and how a Charlton Heston line debunks those pesky pimp rumors.

In the odious task of tallying votes for the Chronicle's annual Music Poll, the Best New Club category kept my attention throughout the process. Lamberts won well, though Patsy’s Cowgirl Café came in strong behind them. The rest – with healthy voting campaigns from Qua and Pangaea fans – were an odd combination of refurbishes, high-dollar joints, and Sixth Street area addresses.

It was an interesting combination of venues because of the absence of a large club opening last year; in the previous poll, Mohawk creamed competition that included the heavily voted Emo’s Lounge, Red 7, Beauty Bar, the Belmont, the Oaks, and Continental Club Gallery in the Top 10. All of those clubs have since emerged as strong live music venues but in terms of voting numbers in the poll, couldn’t compete with Mohawk’s huge turnout.

In the absence of a huge vote-getter for this year’s poll, Lamberts emerged as the popular choice, and it was a victory not only for the club but the thoughtful choice of bands that booker/partner Will Bridges chooses. The club’s acoustically sound room upstairs from the barbecue restaurant offers a subdued setting that can be as unobtrusive as it is romantic.

Girls Rock!, the new doc on the original Girls Rock Camp in Portland, Oregon, opens today in Austin. Check out "I Heart Guitarz" in this week's issue.

More importantly, a benefit screening for the Austin camp takes place tomorrow at the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz, 3pm. Bands formed during last summer's inaugural Girls Rock Camp Austin are set to perform.

As the myriad day parties become just as much of a draw as South by Southwest itself, the quality of the shows gets better and better. While backyard keggers and parking-lot impromptus still sprinkle around town, the sponsored, high-dollar parties reign supreme, and this year, Transmission Entertainment's Mess With Texas took the cake. Sure, NPR's Right Side of the Brain had the best sound I've ever heard at any live show – partly due to Chris Payeur's insane talent and impeccable ear and partly because of the live radio broadcast – but Waterloo Park had tons of band, lots of Tecate, and plenty of sunshine.

Those who enjoyed December's Fun Fun Fun Fest are familiar with the setup: three stages, two of which were split in two to allow for immediate band switches; punk rock at one end, indie in the middle, and an eclectic mix of comedy and indescribable rock to the north. The difference was that while Fun Fun Fun Fest soared with locals (and some folks who flew in just to see Murder City Devils), Mess With Texas – Mess With Texas 2, if you wanna get technical; last year debuted in the much-smaller Red 7 – filled to bursting with thousands of festivalgoers and nonfestivalgoers alike enjoying a low-key Saturday afternoon.

Daniel Lanois is missing. It’s Tuesday before the start of SXSW, and Lanois’ manager is standing uneasily outside the Hyatt Regency just south of Town Lake. Lanois left the hotel in a fury, the construction going on below his room interfering with tuning his pedal steel guitar.

“He’s a little sensitive to sound,” says his manager by way of apology. For one of the greatest producers of our time, whose credits include Grammy-winning albums by Bob Dylan (Time Out of Mind), Emmylou Harris (Wrecking Ball), and collaborations with Brian Eno, “sensitive to sound” is an understatement.

Lanois arrives still seething, slamming the cab door and marching, jaw clenched, around to the back of the hotel. The back of the hotel is similarly rife with construction, and Lanois scans the area. He finally spies a grassy knoll to the side of the bike trail and seats himself in the grass, his characteristic black leather jacket glinting in the bright sunlight. He pulls out his guitar and begins to strum each chord slowly, visibly assuaging his anger.