Mixtape Monday: Please Thrill Me
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!
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.
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.
Mixtape Monday : Everything Bagel
Mixtape Monday: Everything Bagel
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…
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 looking through these shots for the first time.
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.
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.
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…
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 | The Wheelz | Howth | The Kinks | Jackson Browne | John Prine | Bad Religion | Crass | The Mob |
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.
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
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 crafts. Be it musicians, writers, models, whatever the walk of artists currently calling Austin home, all seem to see his creative presence as a mirror before which they may see their better selves reflected.
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 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: 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, is what it would come up with.
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 this together. We need each other more than ever. From our hearts to yours know you are loved and that we, just like you, could use the hug we must temporarily put on hold to feel. So this one is for the highs and lows of which none of us could have been prepared for.…
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 us now, what is the point. This is my salvation of a playlist. - Jay Armstrong
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 here.
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 mystique. Each individual piece created—be it drawing, collage, painting, etching, photography, or the NOT TO BE OVERLOOKED videos (!!!!!!)—stands out solely for itself while offering one more perspective on an everchanging volume of work increasing in substantiality.
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 seemed to hold even this much promise." - Lester Bangs
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.
Artist Spotlight: Alex Paradox
Setting out to capture with nostalgic appreciation the staying gold glory days of Roberta Bayley and David Godlis when they first lit the eyeballs of the world on fire via those inky pages of Punk Magazine, the new series from Austin's Alex Paradox, Punks, is a true to form reminder of how late seventies New York is the holiest of holy for still relevant inspiration and why transposing the ideology to our place now through noble appreciation under a skillfully directed lens becomes once more a transcendent snapshot of the everlasting beauty in greasy rebellion lifted by the optimistic wings of youthful conviction.
Artist Spotlight: Kace Colwell (upperkace)
Featured collage artist Kace Colwell (aka upperkace)
Mixtape Monday: Beam Me Up Johnny
Mixtape Monday: Beam Me Up Johnny
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.
Valentine’s Mixtape: Kiss Me Darling
Valentines Day 2020 Mixtape - "Kiss Me Darling"
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.
New Music Video: The Sun Machine – “Drugs”
"Drugs" from their upcoming Schizo Pop, is resigned in all the good ways. A vibe over dance massaging of the same nerves as "Higher" from The Memories. This fitting lighthearted video was directed by Chandler Jowell.
Artist Spotlight: Mel Stringer
Mel Stringer creates a little bit of everything. All of it is the absolute cutest!!!!
