4 NEW SXSW BANDS TO SEE ASAP

Titus Andronicus: The members of this New Jersey band look like a bunch of librarians but play like hyperactive punks hooked on Hüsker Dü and Sonic Youth. Performing April 5 at 7th Street Entry, Mpls.

Fanfarlo: A London-based quintet with a Swedish singer and an elementary-school music-class variety of instruments, it's sort of a street-busker version of Arcade Fire. April 6, Cedar Cultural Center, Mpls.

Surfer Blood: The wiry and way-young alt-rock quartet from West Palm Beach, Fla., is one of those buzz bands with only one album's worth of material that it plays as tight as a teenager's braces. April 8, 7th Street Entry.

Leslie & the Badgers: The Los Angeles music scene is enjoying an unlikely twang-rock boom, and these traditional revivalists could be the next to blow up, with a Dolly Parton-style young starlet singer and smoking musicianship. May 10, 400 Bar, Mpls.

4 NEW SXSW ALBUMS TO BUY

Broken Bells, "Broken Bells": Their Austin show was a tad sleepy, but these spacey pop recordings by Danger Mouse and Shins singer James Mercer come to life on headphones. In stores now.

Roky Erickson & Okkervil River, "True Love Cast Out All Evil": After decades of misdiagnosed mental illness, Texas psychedelic rock pioneer Erickson is doing well and found some terrific young collaborators to bring his songs to life. Out April 20.

Jakob Dylan, "Women & Country": With alt-country/New Pornographers singer Neko Case for a sidekick and T-Bone Burnett for a producer, the Wallflowers frontman raises the stakes with some of his best songs yet. Out April 6. In concert April 27 at Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul.

Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, "I Learned the Hard Way": It sounds like the horn-driven soul troupe's most rocking set yet. Out April 6.

CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER