The Boxing Lesson ran away with our latest poll and shall shortly bask in the rectangle above as late October champions. Congrats! Now (or soon) awaiting your decision are our current nominees, Corto Maltese (pictured above), Drew Smith's Lonely Choir, Matt the Electrician, The Low Lows, and TV Torso - those last two will be entertaining you this coming Friday at Local Music is Sexy. We do hope the serious business of being pitted against one another in the Deli Artist Poll will not make things tense at LMIS.

Looking forward to the FFF-related annual event Local Music Is Sexy, taking place over in the Red River hip zone of the Mohawk and Club de Ville on November the 6th (that's next Friday). It does seem sexy this year, as it includes TV Torso,The Low Lows, International Waters, Watch Out for Rockets, Beautiful Supermachines, Air Traffic Controllers, Distant Seconds, Silent Land Time Machine, Black Before Red, Manikin, The Authors, My Milky Way Arms, and Minor Mishap Marching Band. We here pay verbal fealty to the organizing force Austinist, who've put together a good one. The Deli will be represented & we'll report back for those who miss out...

...and that very nifty photo collage above, of TV Torso, is by Tim Murray

We are fast approaching All Hallow's Eve, which coincides neatly with the end of our poll; at this point, The Boxing Lesson is resting easy out front. If you're a fan of Death is Not a Joyride, Single Frame, The Lovely Sparrows, or When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, then take a moment away from the body-painting you've settled on as this year's costume, and vote!

But, when the lord closes a poll, he opens a blog: wanted to remind the bands out there that our Open Blog remains, well, open. Check it out here, and post up news, bios, what have you about your own band or a band that is near and dear to you (so long as they're Austin-based) using this form right here. We will quite often pull posts over to our main blog.

A Mr. Ben Kweller will play the Pablove benefit tonight at Emo's; if there's a more unimpeachably good cause out there, I don't know of it. You want to hear some extraordinarily good music while feeling extraordinarily good about the money changing hands? Head on down.

Mr. Kweller recently returned to his home state of Texas, to the city of Austin, after a nine-year exile in New York. He released Changing Horses early this year to mucho acclaimo. Austin is happy to have him.

It's a matter of some debate whether they are Major Major or Major Major Major; we're also wondering if the name derives from the Catch-22 character - it must, yeah? - who was, in fact, Major Major Major Major. No matter how many times you say it, they'll be at Red 7 this Tuesday, accompanied by Wine & Revolution and the Seattle band Black Whales.