Kentucky Knife Fight offers up a sound full of razor-edged riffs, incendiary rhythms and enough darkly hopeless love stories to entertain even the most heartless bastards among us. Oh, and don't forget the harmonica.

Twangfest won't arrive until June, but 88.1 KDHX and Twangfest delivered a taste of what's to come with their 13th annual SXSW day parties this past week in Austin.

Austin band Dry Season opened the night with a set of a neo-psychedelic soundscapes. The instrumentation was nicely supported by the ethereally reverbed-out and delayed vocals of Madelyn Carr.

Ha Ha Tonka always comes to entertain and that's just what they did Friday night at the Firebird.

Kentucky Knife Fight showed Off Broadway they haven't forgotten where they come from with ear-bleeding guitar, whiskey-rambling tunes and St. Louis twang.

A few songs into his headlining set opening the first night of Twangfest 15, Texan Hayes Carll, fully understanding the effects of the recession, thanked the audience "for spending money to come out to see us."

The kickoff to Twangfest 15 exceeded all expectations at the Pageant Wednesday night.

Photo highlights from the second afternoon of the 12th annual KDHX and Twangfest Day Parties at South By Southwest. Parties went down at Jovita's in Austin. All photos by Chris Bay. See more at my Flickr stream.

Some of St. Louis' best bands came out to play at Off Broadway Saturday night to support their favorite music playground: Firebrand Recording. The local recording label hosted its 2nd Annual Firebrand Showcase, featuring the Humanoids, Kentucky Knife Fight and the Blind Eyes. The event was a hit considering the bar’s flowing stream of alcohol and, best of all, the samplings of impressive local music that would please any rock palate.