Posting will be light around here for the next two weeks as many of us are taking some time to spend the holidays with our friends and family. We hope y'all have a great rest of the year and wish you the best in 2009.

As a parting gift, here are the latest bands confirmed to play at SXSW 2009:

Ra Ra Riot (Syracuse, NY)
Gabriella Cilmi (AUSTRALIA)
Ximena Sariñara (Mexico City, MEXICO)
Primal Scream (Glasgow SCOTLAND/UK)
Friendly Fires (St Albans, ENGLAND/UK)
B.o.B (Atlanta, GA)
Sage Francis (Providence, RI)
Buraka Som Sistema (Lisbon, PORTUGAL)
Arc Angels (Austin, TX)
Courteeners (Manchester, England/UK)
Raul Malo (Nashville, TN)
8Ball & MJG (Memphis, TN)
Reflection Eternal (New York, NY/Cincinnati, OH)
Wale (Washington, DC)
Pete & the Pirates (Reading, ENGLAND/UK)
Ben Harper and Relentless7 (Los Angeles, CA)

Ben Harper and his new rock band, Relentless7 have just completed their first album together entitled White Lies For Dark Times to be released in May on Virgin Records. Hailing from Austin, TX, the members of Relentless7 (Jason Mozersky on guitar, Jesse Ingalls on bass and Jordan Richardson on drums) first worked with Harper on the track “Serve Your Soul” from his 2006 double-album, Both Sides of the Gun. After reuniting this summer, the band recorded the new album at El Dorado Studios in Burbank, CA. They recently wrapped up a series of small club dates in New York, LA and San Francisco to test out their new songs and give the fans a sneak preview of the new band. Rolling Stone recently described Relentless7’s sound as “thundering rock and blues explosions.”