As listeners of The Alternate Side might know, WFUV and TAS lost our beloved colleague Pete Fornatale yesterday, April 26. This Saturday, April 28, from 4-8 pm EDT,  Pete's longtime friend Don McGee will host a Mixed Bag tribute on 90.7 WFUV. You can also listen online, at WFUV.org/listen.

Ah, springtime. Trees are blooming, folks are sneezing and The Alternate Side's Spring Fundraiser is underway now through April 25. We have not one, but three special ways of thanking our loyal listeners. Contribute any amount and you're a supporter of The Alternate Side. Contribute $35 and we'll send you White Rabbits' new album Milk Famous and our 9-track "Live From The Alternate Side" CD with exclusive live songs, all recorded in Studio A, from James Blake, Okkervil River, The Vaccines, The Naked and Famous, The Antlers and many more. For $50 you'll receive Milk Famous, "Live From The Alternate Side" and a TAS t-shirt. You can contribute online or call 877-938-8907 now through April 25.

Both WFUV and The Alternate Side will be in Austin this week for the SXSW music festival, the annual aggregation of emerging and established bands and the music industry. We want to bring our listeners down to Texas for the gigs, the barbecues and 6th Street mayhem. Beginning Thursday, March 15 and continuing through Sunday, March 18, TAS and WFUV will be broadcasting and streaming live performances from Alabama Shakes, Shearwater, Sharon Van Etten, Magnetic Fields, Andrew Bird and many more. Plus, look for special band blogs, video streams from NPR Music and on-site interviews on both the TAS and WFUV websites. After the jump, more on our SXSW set schedule, including WFUV's very own showcase.