You know Hole, Spoon, and Muse rocked South By Southwest over the last week, and we're sure you know indie all-stars feted Alex Chilton's life there too. But our team of tireless music gluttons ran all over Austin sampling sonic delights (and horrors) to come up with the fest's 10 best gigs you didn't hear about.

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1) The xx (Friday at Central Presbyterian Church)

The xx can certainly be considered on of the big winners of the SXSW 2010 buzz battle.  Each of the trio's six shows was packed to the edges, but it was their final performance, at the Central Presbyterian Church, that showed just much this band has to offer, and hinted at the directions it might go next. Mixing slow harmonies with catchy keyboard riffs and spiky electronic drums, the xx summon memories of the Cure and Depeche Mode in their early 80s heydays, with the church setting emphasizing the fans' reverence.



2) Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings (Wednesday at Stubb's)

The highlight of the opening night NPR Music showcase at Stubb's was Georgia-born singer (and "super soul sister," as she was accurately introduced over a lengthy horn fanfare) Sharon Jones, whose next album "I Learned the Hard Way" is due April 6. Full of fire and dressed in green sequins -- presumably for St. Patrick's Day -- Jones swung and mash-potatoed through songs including "100 Days, 100 Nights," "If I Give You My Love," and funked-up versions of "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "This Land is Your Land". As usual, her energy was a deliberate contrast to the subtly swaying, always-stellar, suit-clad Dap-Kings, Jones' own Robert Palmer girls (who actually play their instruments, tremendously).



3) Band of Skulls (Wednesday at Latitude)

The trio's thundering riffs literally stopped foot traffic on San Jacinto Boulevard during a powerhouse set that closed the British Music Embassy's Happy Hour party. BoS ran through its U.K. hits "I Know What I Am" and "Death By Diamonds and Pearls" but didn't play its hit off the "Twilight: New Moon" soundtrack, "Friends" -- and it didn't need to, either.



4) Mayer Hawthorne (Friday at Austin Music Hall)

Playing on the same showcase as Motown legend Smokey Robinson, Raphael Saadiq and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings brought out the best in the Michigan native, who turned in a crisp 35 minutes of polished old-school soul with a modern 'tude. Hawthorne's set included his single, "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out," and covers of ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky" and N.E.R.D.'s "Fly or Die."



5) Jail Guitar Doors (Saturday at the Ghost Room)

Some of music's socially conscious heavies -- MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, Billy Bragg, Tom Morello and more -- assembled to celebrate the launch of Jail Guitar Doors USA, a spin-off of Bragg's British charity to bring instruments into prisons as rehabilitation tools. After visiting the Travis County Jail earlier in the day, the collective kicked out the jams into the wee hours, with Morello's Street Sweeper Social Club bringing the funk and R.E.M.'s Mike Mills raising the roof with Neil Young's "Ohio."

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