New Music: Half Dream – “Too Much”
This song is bigger than Half Dream seemed to have in them. It might not be dancy but on the slide-scale of their sound, it might as well be disco. What a jam. No one is surprised. This being the first song to feature the new lineup with Jake Ames, Bryan Dalle Molle, and Vanessa Jollay could factor into that.
New Music: Elephant – “Medicine”
Putting "Medicine" on is an astral projection to our better lives defined by music shared in offbeat places where feeling alive is walking through a barely lucid dream. Elephant are obviously dreamers.
New Music: Skegss – “Stranger Days”/”December”
"Stranger Days" nurtures our grateful appreciation of Skeggs. Whereas the general expectation for songs from the band is more in the vein of self-deprecating cynicism, this time around we get optimistically driven motivation as inspiring as it is the closest the band has ever sounded on record to their Triple J session from back in 2019.
New Music: Dinos Boys – “Holy War”
No band this side of Drunk Mums rips from flesh to spin in threaded defining fashion better than Dinos Boys do. "Holy War" continues the conversation further. As loose as a demo, rowdy as a riot, and doggonit the chaps are likable.
Rmblr: New Album | New Video | Let’s Party!
Rmblr's songs aren't crumbs for us to lick up, they are goddamn gutter glitter of the finest degree lifting us for a moment to ride on as though we live beside them.......Catching our favorite bands at our favorite spots now feels like we are bright-eyed alive in a way that can only be compared to those house shows where we first felt the hand of god light us on fire with a Rat distortion pedal years ago. No one could rekindle us more than Rmblr. "Main Muscle" is a boot toe to the ash awakening the phoenix. The timing of this video's release is practically a call to arms in…
New Video: Baby – “Gummie Candie”
Something about the "Gummie Candie" video from Baby reminds us that we should probably start bracing ourselves for the Texas heat which is due to start scorching our lives into sweaty dust at any moment now. What a fun chill video for an equally passively positive song.
Mixtape Monday: Slurps Up!
Anon Magazine Mixtape Monday: Slurps Up!
New Video: The Bright Light Social Hour – “Guillotine Billionaires/Responsibility”
In internet time, having come out two weeks ago, the latest Bright Light Social Hour video is old news. Sue us for finally pulling it up this weekend. While we are intrigued by going longwinded on the band created short film for “Guillotine Billionaires and Responsibility” we respect you as freethinking individuals who can come to your own sense of understanding in a much shorter period than it would take to read our skewed attempts at rationalization. The horse masks represent god while the horses themselves represent unrequited love….right? While the short film is a tongue-in-cheek political representation of or current social climate, the songs themselves and how they reflect…
New Video: Baxu – “X-Rated”
You can feel cultivated inspiration seeping out the first moment you hear Baxu. A confident intelligence tows their line. They are bigger than what they offer—and what they offer is pretty damn fine. Michael Regino and Mike Garrido create music vibing with the feeling of carrying a guitar case through the front door of a sold-out show you are headlining. It comes on as you settle into the corner booth with some black and leather babes sitting on both your sides. Cool, cool, cool.
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.
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.
Premier: 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 the adults would make us step outside the room, so she could tell dirty jokes. My parents told me, when they lived in L.A., Aunt Mable would mail them copies of her radio mixtapes-- I imagine to remind them of where they came from.
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 from Big Wish
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 all. Listening to the album feels as though it has always existed, as if Seymour had been singing these songs with his presence for years. If anything is surprising in the slightest it is not having thought he had the ambition to create something on his own in the first place.
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 to a life indoors had a minimal learning curve; a couple of mental breakdowns, some stress yelling, stress sleeping, stress eating; minimal none the less. Who would have thought working from home without pants on, experiencing the world outdoors in small doses of smoke breaks and looking for packages dropped off by our blue and…
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 Making Love To Make Music To Make Love To limited release cassettes available. If you are still on that “support local” train, this album is not a bad way to consider going about it. Making Love To Make Music To Make Love To by New Druids 99. Hershguy – “Laundromat (Yeah)” In a year deeply…
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 the world function, it is a complete shit show. Spend eight months seeped in it and—well—here we are...
Halloween Mixtape Massacre
Anon Magazine | Halloween Mixtape Massacre
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 moment forever speaking to whoever hears it as one of the great beacons of the realized rare potential music has the heights of reaching.
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 the Phantasm series with the sound off and Negativeland records blasting over it. Way to make us all feel ineffectually worthless. Geez.
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 repeat while catching a break. Initially, this one seemed as though it ran the risk of losing its kick, as though it might get beaten into the background slightly with each play. Here we are months later and it keeps hitting better. Somewhere lower on the list of reasons this one rides is how it…
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 directed video are impressively memorable.
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 self with just the right amount of off-the-cuff cynism to laugh first and laugh last while facing life's heavier blows with a fighters jaw; is this who Seth was? That is the impression we get listening over the music he left behind. It may never come close to speaking for Seth as a whole yet…
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 her and Arash Marandi. Would it have felt more dangerous? We should probably listen to "Ociin" another fifteen times to know for sure.
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 verbatim. Anyone else missing the days when Kay Odyssey seemed to be playing like a million shows and you couldn't wait to make it out to them all? We gotta shine on a little longer little diamonds. In the meantime, grab up a notebook, set "New Birds Sing" on repeat, and fill those pages with…
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 broken early-nineties; drink up.
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 help tapping into the optimistic side of life.
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: 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, is what it would come up with.
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.
New Music: Country Legend Roky Moon – “Choo Choo”
It seemed impossible to love Roky Moon any more than we already did. We were wrong.
New Music Video: Holy Wave – “I’m Not Living in the Past Anymore”
...nails their simplistic aesthetic in craft while still feeling orgiastic in creativity. Basically, business as usual for this band who have been around just long enough to start being grandfathered in as the torchbearers of the Austin ideology.
New Single: Half Dream – “Strange Lover”
As if experiencing intimacy were not already a heavy confusing mess of emotions, "Strange Lover"—the new single from Half Dream—is a humble crying out to the wilderness of introspection. Where sadness and nostalgia is often reserved solely for the looking back while optimism and positivity come in looking forward, there is that moment which lies at the very center of it all, time suspended in bated silence, all spinning madly around us; at that moment we taste Plato's agalma being pushed against by our own sense of individuality speaking in contrast of our experience as we try to understand the why; this is the place in which "Strange Lover" exists.
New Music Video: Lo Country – “Black Cloud”
Lo Country have been keeping their heads down for far too long, this first bite out of their upcoming full-length definitely has us interested. Then again, anyone who has spent ten minutes around Lo Country in the flesh already knows they are about the nicest buncha dropouts you could kick dirt with which should already have pretty much every unpretentious decent comrade in Austin's ears perked regardless.
New Single: Cafe Racer – “Faces”
Like digging boxes out of the closet and finding that leather jacket we thought lost all winter, slipping this one on makes for a good walk around the block with the cool comfort of familiarity. One can imagine "Faces" representing the band turning down the sheets for us to climb into bed with them; I for one already have one of my boots off in anticipation of going heels to Jesus.
Love Begins With Self-Love (10 Steps Toward Positive Change)
Love yourself, you are worth it! Love yourself for who you are. Love yourself for what you have been through. Love yourself for who you will become....Love is a language. How long and how much effort would it take you to learn Dutch? Nothing in life is easy. If going to the grocery store and navigating traffic from point A to point B takes invested focus and comes with a notable amount of stress then why in the world do we seem to believe that relationships, pursuing our dreams, or developing acceptance for ourselves would somehow be easier instead of the logical justified truth that it is going to be…
Album Review: Attic Ted – “Kafka Dreaming”
Kafka Dreaming is a love letter to the possibilities of defining one's own boundaries over succumbing to expectations; even if those expectations are self-imposed. This album is a testament of the distance covered and growth felt on their journey.
Video Premier: Pelican Johnny – “Givin’ Up On You”
Shot straight to tape by Andy Gately, the new video for Pelican Johnny's "Givin' Up On You" is a visceral slice of hot n ready nineties reverence. The single itself is a solid balance between the sounds he often finds himself swaying between making it as good of song as any at allowing those new to Pelican Johnny to figure out what he is about while those whose radar he has floated on for years will hear just enough progress to note his growth gained through experience along the way.
