The latest innovation in guitar technology is for the ladies. Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent, has worked with Ernie Ball to create, from scratch, the St. Vincent signature model. The guitar isn’t cosmetically feminine, but the lightweight instrument is just over 7 lbs and is designed with a woman’s chest and slighter frame in mind. With so few female signature guitars in existence, Clark is hoping her design and experience will serve as inspiration for the conception of other models sympathetic to the female form. The Ernie Ball Music Man St. Vincent model will be released next month.

New music is bubbling up from veteran musicians who have been working just under the surface. LCD Soundsystem, who called it quits back in 2011, are not only headlining this year’s Coachella festival, but have signed to Colombia records and are set to release a new album later this year. Also planning a grand tour and new album release are the Monkees. The tracklist of the new LP, Good Times!, will be mixed with never-before-released Monkees tunes written by Carole King, Neil Diamond, and others, as well as new tunes penned by musicians like Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo and Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard. The tour will take place without original member Mike Nesmith, and Good Times! is set to be released on June 10^th. And finally, Iggy Pop said last week he has a “gut instinct” that his next album, Post Pop Depression, will be his last. He says making a real album requires a certain amount of energy, and his is now more limited. He also teased that he has no plans for a complete departure from music.

Back on the home front, Austin City Limits has announced that the documentary A Song for You: The Austin City Limits Story will appropriately premiere at the SXSW 2016 Film Festival. The documentary weaves the award-winning show’s 40 years of incredible performances with the inside backstory of Austin City Limits’s creation, evolution, and influence through interviews and archival footage of performances not seen in decades. An exact date for the film’s premiere has not been set. See the trailer below:

–Taylor Wallace

The SXSW buzz word this week is miscommunication. On January 7th, the Austin Center for Events, or ACE, sent a press release stating that businesses wishing to submit an application for a special events permit had a deadline of 5 p.m. on February 5th “or when 120 applications are received, whichever occurs first.” The problem? Not everyone got the memo about that last part. To add to the confusion, some business owners are claiming that the current applications still state that they only need to be submitted 10 days before the proposed event. This put businesses like Hotel San Jose, Gibson Showroom, GSD&M, and other major players, at risk of having to cancel their events altogether. That is, until ACE eventually announced that all applications received prior to the deadline would be accepted for review, thanks to a few bunk applications that were discarded.

Film and television reboots seem to be all the rage recently, and now it looks like we might see a festival get the re-boot. In anticipation of its 50th anniversary, planning for Woodstock 2019 is in the works. And at the head of the team is original Woodstock coordinator Michael Lang, who believes that the current popularity of music festivals make it an ideal time to revive Woodstock. Planning is currently in its infancy, but if Woodstock 2019 is a success, Lang plans for the return to be permanent.

The 58th Grammy awards are Monday, and the list of nominees is peppered with some of Austin’s finest. From Patty Griffin to Peter Bay and the Austin Symphony Orchestra, and from Asleep at the Wheel to Craig Hella Johnson and the Conspiare choir, nominations have been picked-up from very different ends of the Austin music spectrum. Among the long list of performers at this year’s ceremony is former winner Gary Clark, Jr..

• James Prince, CEO of Houston’s Rap-A-Lot Records, has been announced as the 2nd keynote speaker at this year’s SXSW festival. Rap-A-Lot Records, which started in 1986 as an effort to keep a group of teenagers from Houston’s 5th Ward in school and off the streets, has produced dozens of gold and platinum albums from artists such as Bun B., The Geto Boys, and Big Mike. Prince is also famous for his hands-on approach towards his charitable efforts, handing out turkeys on Thanksgiving, donating back-to-school supplies, and passing out food and sleeping bags to Houston’s homeless and less fortunate. Bun B. will interview Prince during this year’s music conference on March 17th at the Austin Convention Center.

•  The Boston music scene has been buzzing with nostalgia this week. After disbanding in 1996, dream-pop group Belly announced on Monday that they’re not only reuniting for a summer tour across the UK and U.S., but they’ll be releasing new songs on their website one-by-one over the next few months. Pixies also seem to be cooking-up some new material. The band ended their 23-year hiatus in 2014 with the release of Indie Cindi. Now, according to a teaser trailer released two days ago, it looks like the Pixies may be working on an album coming later this year.

• Back in September, a California judge ruled that American Music Publishing company Warner/Chappell had been wrongfully and unlawfully collecting licensing fees for the song “Happy Birthday To You,” saying that the copyright on the lyrics, if there ever was one, would have expired no later than 1921. What Warner/Chappell actually owns is a very specific arrangement of the ubiquitous tune. For decades the company charged anywhere from a few hundred to over a hundred thousand dollars for the use of the song in public performances and motion pictures. Yesterday, Warner/Chappell moved to end the 6-month lawsuit. Not only will “Happy Birthday To You” finally enter the public domain, but the company will pay restitution fees of $14 million to musicians and motion picture companies.

As the 2016 presidential race heats up, America’s most important political class, celebrities and musicians, are beginning to declare their endorsements. Members of Vampire Weekend and The Dirty Projectors joined Bernie Sanders at an Iowa rally to sing “Unbelievers” and Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” while Kid Rock and country-music legend Loretta Lynn voiced their support for Donald Trump. UK singer Adele is staying out of the frenzy, though, saying that her music is not approved for any political campaign. That means no more “Skyfall” and “Rolling in the Deep” pumping-up the crowds at Trump rallies.

Three more artists join the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame this October. The third annual induction ceremony celebrates B.B. King, Kris Kristofferson, and Bonnie Raitt for their influential performances on PBS’s long-running TV show. Last year’s inductees included Loretta Lynn, Townes Van Zandt, and Asleep at the Wheel.

Boognish, rejoice! Levitation Fest (formerly Austin Psych Fest) continues to add to its already stacked list of high-caliber acts. The festival announced on Wednesday that rising super star Courtney Barnett and Cult Music legend Ween are joining a bill that already includes Brian Wilson, Animal Collective, and Flying Lotus. Ween announced a reunion tour in November after the group broke up back in 2012. Also added this week was Dan Auberbach’s Psychedelic side project, The Arcs.

2016 continues to be a rough year for music lovers, but in the last couple of weeks, the losses have been closer to home. Last week, on January 28, Jefferson Airplane lost two of its founding members, drummer and lifelong San Francisco resident Paul Kantner and singer Signe Toly Anderson. Anderson was in the band for just a year before being replaced by Grace Slick. And Wednesday, Memphis-born Maurice White, the founding member and bandleader of Earth, Wind, and Fire, passed peacefully in his sleep after a 25-year battle with Parkinson’s disease. All three musicians were 74.

Musicians no longer need to sell records to go platinum; they can now be stream-lined to that status. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is now allowing albums to achieve gold and platinum status through streaming. The system is fairly simple: 1,500 streams equals one album sale. 500,000 sales to Gold; 1,000,000 to platinum. The rule went into effect on February 1^st, and a few artists have already reaped the rewards of this new rule. Alt-J’s (∆) An Awesome Wave has earned a gold award, while Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly has gone streaming platinum.

Electronic music doesn’t usually get a lot of love from the Grammy’s, so the industry has responded with a brand new award show this spring. FOX and Music Producer Paul Oakland are behind the inaugural Electronic Music Awards and Foundation show that will celebrate the genre’s trailblazers, tastemakers, and today’s hottest DJs with interviews, performances, and of course, awards. The red carpet event will air on Fox on April 23rd.

Boise-based Youth Lagoon called it quits on Monday via Twitter. It’s not necessarily the end of front man Trevor Power’s musical endeavors, but Youth Lagoon’s live performances are strictly numbered. The band will continue the scheduled international tour, so if you find this news especially disheartening, now is the time to snag some tickets.