Mixtape Monday: Summoned Dreams of the Summer Sun
Video Premier: The Stacks – “Chicon”
"Chicon" from The Stacks is a beautiful eloquent reflection of this malaise. Did they have to go and break our hearts so sweetly with this video though? It is almost too much. Beautifully shot and edited, we get a heaping dose of nostalgic letting go soundtracked in perfection.
Skate or Dye: Local Crew Warmly Supports Community With Latest Project
Skate gang looks to support their community through inspired hand made tie-dyed shirts
Mixtape Monday: Shifting Into Third
When the weather gets so you want nothing but to hit the road glamming it to the metal. We got you covered.
Hot and Bothered: Smooch give us a wet dream sort of first kiss
If you put on your scratchiest ill-fitting black t-shirt and close your eyes with Smooch's "Pucker Up" playing, you can actually smell the late eighties.
Premiere: Sweetfeed – “Highway of Hearts”
"Highway of Hearts" continues the can't-get-the-volume-high-enough excitement. These songs hype themselves. There is a rhythmically layered catchiness as each line dances on its own as though an entire chorus plays out with every five words that pass.
New Video: Riley Downing – “Deep Breath”
Riley Downing of The Deslondes has his first solo album, Start Over, heading our way on May 14th via New West Records. This Joshua Shoemaker directed video for "Deep Breath" has us suspicious it will be a damn fine album necessary to have on the shelf at home.
NEW MUSIC PREMIERE: Christine Renner – “Drown”
Christine Renner's bold in broken places sentimental pop warmly spins the experience in the omnipresent naivety of youth while maintaining integrity worthy of introspective appreciation. Renner is an idealist shaping inflected lyrics into rich ambiguous lingering dream monuments to greater truths and devastating defeats, no truer is this statement than with her new single "Drown."...
Mixtape Monday – “Aunt Mable’s Mixtape” by Nicholas Fong
My Aunt Mable died when I was still pretty young, but her personality was big enough to leave an impact that will last a lifetime. She was a short, white haired, Cajun woman with alot of spunk. Most children in the family learned to curse from her, resulting in a mouth full of soap. Often...
NEW MUSIC PREMIERE: The Dead Coats – “Forsake My Name”
Big things are on the way for The Dead Coats. This album will be as valid to where they are headed as all the wild shows and two great releases which came before it. No more and no less. After three years of digging this band, we are excited to bring you the first track...
Artist Spotlight: Inna Mosina
"I do not feel separation on the basis of gender, age, religion, or nationality. I feel part and whole at the same time. My goal is to contribute to the world with the help of creativity. The power of women and the creation of a freedom, equality and inclusive world is the main theme and...
New Video: Sleaford Mods ft. Amy Taylor – “Nudge It”
There are precisely two things we cannot get enough of lately; Amy Taylor (Amyl and the Sniffers) and pointed criticism aimed at socialite parasites destroying all we have found significant and substantial by their vein tourism. With "Nudge It" Sleaford Mods combine both with cutting perfection.
New Video: Casey Seymour – “Installations”
No one should be surprised by the well-deserved hype going Casey Seymour's way as the tickled ear smile crosses those first listening through his Hidden Hills EP. All that nice-guys-finish-last propaganda is simply not true; good people surface slowly with namasteic wholesome warmth so as to be less dramatic in how they get there is...
Our 100 Favorite Songs of 2020
Find part 1 (51-100) here. 50. Skyway Man – “Old Swingin’ Bell”The World Only Ends When You Die by Skyway Man 49. Tommy and the Commies – “Power on Standby”TOMMY AND THE COMMIES “Hurtin’ 4 Certain” EP by Tommy And The Commies 48. Thelma and the Sleaze – “Come Back Now” Turns out adjusting...
Our 100 Favorite Songs of 2020
Find part two (1-50) here. 100. New Druids – “Hearts That Can Mend” Some of the bests from around town got together and shaped up an album with the same feel-good vibe the members themselves put off in real life. A much rarer feat than it should be. Looks like there are still a few...
New Video: Attic Ted – “I Need A Holiday 2020”
Most years it is a fifty/fifty split between storm clouds and optimistic light breaking around the edges; there is time to laugh; we can band together to keep each other sane and lifted. This year has made jaded cynics of us all. Turns out when you have enough free time on your hands to watch...
Artist Spotlight: Daria Amaranth – “Mon reflet”
Our journey in loving the photography of Daria Amaranth continues with the latest collection Mon reflet. Personal yet secretively distant; the notable features we expectedly look forward to from Amaranth remain. It is being surprised to experience the style one would assume we have by now grown acceptingly familiar with which suspends the moment of...
New Music – Blue Jean Queen Explodes Our Hearts With “Wild Wild Woman”
Between Stevie Nicks on "Edge of Seventeen" and Deana Carter with "Strawberry Wine," now there is an equal which somehow manages to draw comparisons to both at the same time. "Wild Wild Woman" is powerful, perfect, and rises into the realm of greatness by transcending forever beyond the person who created it to represent a...
Album Review – Half Dream – Monsters of Needing
Monsters of Needing comes in voicing an introspective grasping of one's own anchored soul by the weighted center of life whose ever-presence has always been known but never embraced and, at best, vaguely named.
New Video(s): Lord Friday the 13th – “Bigots Beware”
Marking the first single from their Irrational Anthem EP, Lord Friday the 13th are celebrating with the release of THREE(!) videos for "Bigots Beware." Hey, with this extra time on our collective hands, at least they are putting it to good use. All we have been doing is refusing to put on pants while watching...
Album Review: Frankie and the Witch Fingers – Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters…
Once everyone has settled into a spot around the backyard, toss out a square to everyone and get the jawing out of the way waiting for those eyelids to get a bit heavy, those feet to get even heavier. Vibe.
Ten Essential Horror Films We Love To Watch Over and Over
"Horror films are meant to be cathartic, we put ourselves through the terror as a means of symbolically overcoming something we're afraid of."
Singled Out: ISS – “Too Punk For Heavy Metal”
Singled Out ISS – “Too Punk For Heavy Metal” by Jay Armstrong There are maybe four bands giving me feels beyond pacified as of late. ISS are one of them. Working on the review for the new Spits album, this forty-five Total Punk Records put out in June is what I find myself playing on...
Mixtape Monday: Coronuhhh That Curve Ain’t Flattenin
Mixtape Monday: Coronuhhh That Curve Ain't Flattenin
Comet Gain | Gang of Four | Palma Violets | Pulp | Barracudas | The Members | Mark Sultan | Public Enemy | Amyl and the Sniffers | Satans Rats | Spray Paint | The Abigails | The Notting Hillbillies | Bob Dylan | Cotillon | Newton Neurotics |...
New Video: Loteria – “Rhythm Revue”
For those who might be unfamiliar; when someone says "Austin music," either with acute awareness or down on the collective subconscious level, they are talking about Loteria.
New Video: Dena Hope – “Stay”
Mentally synth. Viscerally glam. Dena Hope's video for "Stay" is one hundred percent pop in as comfortable and relaxed sense possible. It is all looks and lighting on this Samara Simpson directed experience.
New Video: Calliope Musicals – “Color/Sweat”
As with the 2019 album in which this is the title track from, we witness here yet another moment where Calliope Musicals prove to us they have an acute grasp on their collective output; stunning us by their growth and intriguing us along with their familiarity. Truly the band, their music, and this Jerry Sparkman...
Mixtape Monday: Incorruptible Deconstruction
Mixtape Monday: Incorruptible Deconstruction
Comet Gain | Baby Jesus | The Schizophrenics | Meat Belt | The Lindas | The Milkshakes | Special Interest | Empty Markets | Liquids | Boing Boing | Lyres | Skegss | The Premonitions | Shadow Show | Spice | Les Posters | The Naysayers | Fossil Arm
Happy Birthday Seth Gibbs: A Tribute Album
If what we create in life were to be more than a whispered glimpse of our true selves, we would rejoice in contentment looking back at our lives having done even a third of what Seth Gibbs did. Boldly broken with the absolute honesty of one working through the darkness in search of their better...
New Video: Flower Graves – “Ociin”
I see Sheila Vand in that scene of perfection; all stylized and rhythmic, imagining had A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night been made six years later. She places the record on to fill the silence and space, love is precarious after all, possibly this could have been the song washing over the uncertainty between...
Exploration, Optimism & Fashion: An Interview With Jackson Montgomery Schwartz
....to exist creatively in a way which inspires those around him to aim not high with their ambitions but instead to look within themselves to embrace the joy which comes through finding an artistic vessel worth pouring oneself into again and again on the path of self-exploration forevermore is as beautiful as the work Schwartz...
Mixtape Monday: Holy Sex by JXNART
In anticipation of our featured interview with Jackson Montgomery (JXNART) coming out tomorrow, we asked if he would be up to put together a playlist for us this week as well. With usual optimistic energy Jackson said yes. We love it! Hopefully, you do as well!
New Music: Blue Jean Queen
Is anyone else over completely the perpetual reminders that Rockyanne Bullwinkle is perfect?
Artist Spotlight: Virginia (Vajaja) Meza
Meza's paintings are centered on familiarity while bathing the viewer in invoked emotion. One piece can be heavy, another whimsically optimistic; all are alive and memorable in a naturalistic expression of the best kind.
Album Review: Sailor Poon – Sailor Poon’s First Album
Immediate, upfront, hitting perfectly the notes of reminder the band everyone fell in love still retains the perfect balance from when their gang first took over these streets; facetious cynicism crafted with acute skill.
New Music: Kay Odyssey – “No Birds Sing”
So maybe you were thinking this mood to put on some Mazzy Star in your search for self-motivation while floating across the sea of emotional confusion called for something more of the moment; escapist memories made attached to something of your own. Kay Odyssey cries out from the wilderness for you to do just that—near...
New Music Video: The Sour Notes – “Peak”
The Sour Notes continue earning believers with their heads down and hearts full. Their latest single"Peak" has a warmly fitting video directed by everyone's favorite familiar face Matzoh Ball to go with it, sending home completely the Slanted and Enchanted post-Go-Betweens aesthetic they have embodied since moment one. For all those thirsty for the beautifully...
Album Review: Andrew Cashen – Guava Jazz
This album is about as jazzy as Morrisey's personality is tolerable but on the scale of listenable it leans decidedly more towards "highly" than it does "Jethro Tull." We recommend putting it on repeat while going toes up in some sunshine for a few hours, it was meant for being stuck at home looking for...
Punk Rock Aerobics by Hilken Mancini
Strap on your ankle sweatband, run that cassette adapter between your audio output and that boombox, and let's get sweating to something your mom's zoom instructor would never have the spine to do.
New Video: Louisianna Purchase – “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”
Fresh, inventive, inspiring; no one has hit the fashion world with the passionate, affecting, force of Jackson Montgomery (JXNART) in as long as our eyes have been looking to its lighthouse to keep us from crashing onto the tired shores of ανιαρός.
New Video: Dry Guy – “Something To Do”
Disaffected. Restless. Malcontent. If the collective unconscious had a talent beyond stoking the coals beneath our neurosis and honing in on the malaise of our be-here-now reality—learning bass perhaps, possibly figuring out how to structure a few minutes of noise—then no doubt in this foul-year-of-our-lord-Lemmy, "Something To Do," the quarantine inspired video from Dry Guy,...
Mixtape Monday: Coronuhhhhh
After keeping our heads down for a few weeks while learning to cope with our current reality, here is a mixtape of songs which have stood out along the way either lifting us up or introspectively settling in an oddly fitting way. Do what you can to try staying positive. Remember we are going through...
New Music: Billy King and the Bad Bad Bad – “Tiger’s Den”
Billy King and the Bad Bad Bad are not a band solely hyping us on where they are, nor is it the unexpected notable progress we feel from them at every show played, it is where they are going getting us excited to be in proximity of what they are doing.
Mixtape Monday: Desert Island Playlist
Coffee in hand. Watching my neighbors from the back window, "so it just rained and they are running the sprinkler...while mowing the yard.... as one kid screams in the corner and two others jump on the trampoline. Guess it's do-whatever-you-want day next door." This is what the quarantine has come to. If music can't save...
Artist Spotlight: “Bloom” by Brat Baby Beauty
I began this project wanting to show off the incredibly creative people whose work I love. To come up with a comfortable place where we could be vulnerable together, a place where we could speak openly about our dreams and excitement for the future. Hopefully, there, in that place, we would create something truthful, reflecting...
Artist Spotlight: Cyril Ely & Anatoly Pavlov
Using photo manipulation Russia’s Cyril Ely and Anatoly Pavlov create white empty spots and corruption with the use of a heat lamp to transform their photographs. On this Illume project, there is an equal balance between chaotic destruction and the crisp emotive truth of black and white film. You can find more of their work...
New Music: Country Legend Roky Moon – “Choo Choo”
It seemed impossible to love Roky Moon any more than we already did. We were wrong.
Artist Spotlight: Yuka Kobayashi
Abstract in a Brakhage sense with defined simplicity of underlying confusion, Yuka Kobayashi (aka St. Discipline) has a ghostly presence of future and past speaking directly to the unsureness of our place, her place, in the now. Originally from Tokyo, currently creating in Berlin, Kobayashi's voice through the breadth of her work carries a warm...
Mixtape Monday: SXSW SPIRIT
"Don't ask me why I obsessively look to rock 'n' roll bands for some kind of model for a better society... I guess I glimpsed something beautiful in a flashbulb moment once, and perhaps mistaking it for a prophecy have been seeking its fulfillment ever since. And perhaps that nothing else in the world ever...
