Austin – Dawes are six years and four albums deep into their career now that All Your Favorite Bands is out (as of June 2nd). They’re still a young band, but not exactly a new one. All Your Favorite Bands seems like a good place to take stock. What have they done since emerging from
Austin – At a glance you could mistake the cover of Communions’ new self-titled EP for a movie poster. Probably that’s because it’s using the same tactics for conveying seriousness that you see in the branding for Blackfish, Short Term 12, and so on: light tint, minimal pallet, a subject unaware that it’s being watched
Austin – North London’s Wolf Alice supposedly has roots as a folk band, but you would never guess it hearing their Holy Mountain set in Austin last Friday. The setlist was front loaded with the group’s loudest indie/hard rock hybrids, songs like “Fluffy” and “She”, carefully engineered with lengthy instrumental breaks for relieving head-thrashing urges.
Austin – Seeing Mystery Skulls name in the SXSW music guide was liking seeing a high school classmate on the news. His name was familiar from the time we overlapped in Dallas—me going to college, him working on a nascent music career—but he was always one of those artists you tell people you’ll “check out
Austin – Cherub takes the stage skipping, grinning, waving, apparently thrilled to be there. It’s just Jordan Kelley and Jason Huber wielding guitar, bass and talkbox, no drum kit in sight, and you get the impression that you’re watching a couple of best buddies. Except for being perfectly competent musicians, they play like they took
Austin – Officially, Mystery Skulls is a product of Los Angeles. It’s where he calls home, and it’s where his career has taken off. But he was proud to tout his Texas upbringing to a packed house at Stubb’s last Friday night. Unsurprisingly, he was well received: we love a hometown hero. In fact Mystery
Austin—Why do punk and blues make such great, timeless bedfellows? What synergy has kept Jack White, the Black Lips, and the Black Keys popular since the turn of the century? How, 15 years later, has Benjamin Booker made something new and thrilling in a subgenre that appeared to be all out of new frontiers? Whatever
Austin – There’s a very narrow window in the spring when an outdoor show in Austin is pleasant, and April falls right in the middle of it. Too bad that’s also the rainy season. Whirr, though, is an exception: the hangover of a vicious April squall on Saturday night created just the right atmosphere for
Austin – Until The Ribbon Breaks leaves strong first impressions. The name alone suggests weighty artistic ambitions, and if you’re savvier than me you might grasp the nostalgic allusion to tape that’s played to the breaking point. Their hip-hop beats and gothic synths seem relentlessly austere if you didn’t listen closer to the eponymous “Until
Austin – “Excellent choice,” said Charlie Salt, bass player for Blossoms, when he saw The Zombies playing on my Spotify. It wasn’t a coincidence—before our interview I had been double-checking my suspicion that The Zombies were a primary source for Blossoms’ music. (Ed., Best New Bands’ interview with Blossoms took place during last month’s SXSW.)