So tonight begins what will almost certainly be an insane eleven days punctuated by Canadian Music Week here at home over the next three nights and then SxSW in Austin for most of next week. I’m bracing myself as best I can but it’s akin to holding tightly onto a tree in the face of an incoming hurricane – any way you slice it, you’re gonna get buffeted.

For me – and for many – things kick off tonight with Under Byen, Frida Hyvonen and Ohbijou at the Mod Club – a rock solid bill that doesn’t actually rock at all in the conventional sense. Under Byen’s concert page also states that they and Frida Hyvonen will be on MTV Live tonight. I believe you can be part of the studio audience if you show up at the studio at Yonge and Davenport at 5PM – don’t take my word for it, call them for details. And the Mod Club show is an early one so if you’re going, be there by 7:30 when Ohbijou is scheduled to go on. eye features Under Byen on this week’s cover, The Toronto Star has a profile and Stereogum, who is presenting the tour, has a couple of new remixes from the Danish band’s latest album Samme Stof Som Stof, and they will be playing multiple times at SxSW though their official showcase is at 9:00 on Thursday, March 15 in Emo’s. And congrats to Dmitri, Vincent and Jonathan who won the Frida Hyvonen CDs.

Then tomorrow I’ll be spending far longer than any one person should at the Horseshoe for the Chart-sponsored showcase featuring a wealth of Canadian talent. Land Of Talk will be the highlight for me, but the bill also includes (in no particular order) Vancouver dance-punkers You Say Party! We Say Die!, former Local Rabbit Peter Elkas, Edmonton hip-hop artist and newest addition to the Anti-/Epitaph roster Cadence Weapon, Montreal rock machine The Adam Brown, Haligonian roots rockers The Divorcees Vancouver I’ve-no-idea-what-to-call-them Mother Mother and Toronto/Montreal’s Kill The Lights. Yeah that’s a hell of a lot of acts for one night but the ‘Shoe is open till 4AM this weekend. Don’t expect me to last the whole thing.

Saturday night is up in the air – right now I’ve got The Acorn and friends at the Whippersnapper Gallery on the calendar, though I’m not sure if that’s an actual CMW show, but I’m also tempted by The Coast and Santa Dog at Clinton’s or even make a half-assed attempted to see The Pipettes at the Rivoli, though that’s almost certainly not going to happen. And less likely but still worthy of note are post-rockers The Red Sparowes at the El Mocambo, Leeroy Stagger at the Hideout or The Golden Dogs, Yoko Casionos and Jenn Grant at the Horseshoe. Or I could stay home and sleep.

NOW, The Toronto Sun, and The Toronto Star offer up some of their picks for the festival while eye, being sponsor of the event, has a full sched with bios and a slew of other features, profiles and interviews. Torontoist is making their picks day-by-day and The Toronto Star also considers the state of the festival, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

While a saner course of action for Monday night would be getting organized to catch a plane to Austin the next morning, I will instead be seeing Dean & Britta at the Mod Club that night. Packing can wait till later (but hopefully not too late). Dean Wareham talks to NOW about going back on the road after two years away and progress on his memoir (also check out the audio clips at the bottom of the page) and to Chart about same. Phillips, meanwhile, talks to Harp about her second life as a cartoon.

As for SxSW? Oh man. Still haven’t wrangled a wristband but I’ve got a plan (or a few plans) for rectifying that once I get to Texas. I’ll be posting my schedule in the next couple days for those who are curious, but in the meantime check out Drowned In Sound’s picks – three of four are up, the last one will be posted tomorrow. They’ve also got this piece asking various UK music execs what their SxSW plans are. Besides BBQ. But you know what I’m looking forward to the most? This.

A couple of bits that, in an ideal world, would have gone in yesterday’s post – Tripwire has a rather expansive interview with Jarvis Cocker, who also tells NME there is no Pulp reunion in the works. Ted Leo tells Harp 10 things you didn’t know about him. Number eleven might be the fact that he has a new ecard with a Living With The Living preview.

And I finally got my copy of the Arcade Fire album yesterday. One listen in? It’s alright. The Malaysia Star has a rather large profile of the band from The Chicago Tribune‘s Greg Kot.