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Who said the corporate world couldn’t rock? Back for its 15th year, the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians’ (HAAM) Battle of the Bands gives stage and spotlight to professional bands who don’t get nearly enough opportunities to shout, shout, let it all out. Each act – sponsored by a local business – has 12 minutes to show what they can do and impress a panel of celebrity and industry judges for the chance to add one of the coveted superlatives to their names. Past winners include Phil Spectrum and the Pantones, the Haptics, the Mag Stripes, and last year’s Band of the Year, Noella Grey and the Imaginary Band. To date, the event has raised nearly $2 million in aid. – Cy White

Debuting locally at Matador Records’ South by Southwest showcase a decade after forming in Tokyo in 1987, Guitar Wolf never took its foot off the gas. Last year’s Black Leather Bomb Live at WWWX blisters and writhes a garage punk that’s half Stooges, half Motörhead, and all noise. Harnessing the blinding white heat of pre-millennial digital hardcore, the feral trio’s analog mosh remains completely unhinged. Nagasaki-born frontman Seiji Anno hit 60 last year but shows no sign of slowing. Maybe landing “Planet of the Wolves” on the Men in Black II soundtrack tips us off to the singer-guitarist’s otherworldly lifeforce. – Raoul Hernandez

“Nobody ever wants to admit that what they really wanted nearly killed them,” ponders Tim Easton on the opening title track to his just-released LP, Find Your Way, the veteran troubadour’s gentle vocals folding across the poetic confessional of a life given to running on dreams. Easton’s songs strike with a deep compassion while never shying away from hard realities and truths. Jason Eady brings an equally exceptional songwriting ground in road-worn experience to match, with the Texan recently releasing his Old Wanderer trilogy, which wrangles a weary-voiced longing and redemption across tight, steel-swaddled melodies. – Doug Freeman