That move to Austin is really paying off for El Paso's Dirty River Boys.
The self-described "outlaw folk" band, which moved to the music city in 2011, is among the seemingly thousands of bands officially invited to perform at this year's South by Southwest confab in Austin.
The music portion of this year's SXSW, which will include a keynote address by Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, will be March 12-17.
In other news:
• El Paso metal band Triumph Over Shipwreck is going the crowd-funding route for its new album, "Heavy Is the Head."
The group is trying to raise $7,000 through funding site indiegogo.com to finance the self-distribution of the album, which will be released on San Antonio's Letter P Records.
"The earnings of this pre-sale campaign help us establish what mediums we'll be distributing on as well as what platforms we'll be delivering the content through," reads their post on the site. "We will be working as our own distributor and you all will work as our investors."
They've got to reach their goal by 12:59 a.m. El Paso time on April 4. They've raised $165 as of this writing, but the campaign just launched.
There are different kinds of donation amounts you can make, each with its own perks. Give them $7 or less and your name will be listed in the credits. For $8, you get a digital download of the album, due in April, plus a credit.
$12 gets you a credit, download and hard copy CD. $15 includes a credit, download, CD and band t-shirt. $25 includes all that, minus the CD, but plus a vinyl version and a signed, deluxe CD with bonus tracks.
They also have $60, $120 and $150 packages, the last of which includes a performance by the band at the place of your choosing.
The band — Jayell James (drums), Urk Shred (guitar), Manny Lozano (guitar), Miguel Apodaca (bass) and Robert House (vox) — will donate 20 percent of all money raised through the campaign to the American Red Cross for disaster relief efforts.
• Austin's Splendid Sun Productions has some bad news and some good news.
First, the bad.
The Feb. 17 Ra Ra Riot show at the Lowbrow Palace has been canceled.
No explanation was given.
The good news: Austin's Grupo Fantasma and Portland indie rockers Ramona Falls have been booked at the club.
GF, which mixes rock, funk, jazz and Latin music, will play the Lowbrow at 9 p.m. Feb. 5.
Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 day of show, $3 more for those 18 to 20 years old.
Ramona Falls, touting last year's second album, "Prophet," will play LP at 9 p.m. Feb. 22.
Those tickets are $10 advance, $12 DOS, $3 more for 18-20.
Tickets for both shows are available at All That Music & Video, the Headstand, Hommework, Le Trendy and holdmyticket.com.
• Romeo Santos, the former Aventura singer coming to the Coliseum on April 9, is part of a glittering cast of Latin music stars who've contributed to former Menudo singer Draco Rosa's comeback album.
Called "Vida," the album, due March 19, includes contributions from Ricky Martin, Shakira, Mana, Juanes, Calle 13, Marc Anthony, Bunbury and others.
Martin, who was in Menudo with Rosa, is featured on the single "Mas y Mas," their first recording together in more than a decade.
Rosa battled non-Hodgkin's lymphoma for two years, part of which was spent in quarantine.
It's a duets album of Rosa's hits. Santos is featured on "Reza Por Mi."
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