The Future Process

The Future Process is another Florida-to-Austin transplant, with origins going as far west as LA.  Though, technically, it's arguable that Rizer and Co. were recruited (more or less) to the Austin electronic/industrial scene by the talent already here, rather than being drawn by the number of venues.

Whatever.  Doesn't matter what brung 'em; Rizer, Melissa Riotgurl and crew bring forth a conspicuous sound; full of electro-grunge industrial punk; ringing with 80's New Wave power snare + synth + lacerating guitars, Cars-like; the whole melding into a hefty, melodically-voluminous, yet imminently-danceable, sound.  Let's call it shock therapy for the ears; an absolutely addictive treatment. 

The latest scuttlebutt has them cranking on the followup to Sex Babylon America, but the ETA is... TBD.  As part of The Grid, you can catch them in Austin at the Red Eyed Fly or Plush.  Or cruise down to San Antonio to catch them at Click's.  

Here's a quintessential TFP song, Jonny Dethwish: 



Here's another track from their latest:



You can find The Future Process on ReverbNation, Facebook, and MySpace. 

We're on iTunes!

Just got this notice from the good folks at Apple: 

Dear Podcast Owner

Your podcast, located at [http://feeds.feedburner.com/AustinIndependentMusicPodcast], has been approved. You should expect to see it in iTunes within the next few hours. When it's available, you will be able to access it with the URL below.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/austin-independent-music-podcast/id415454772

Your podcast will be searchable within the iTunes Store in approximately 1-2 days.

Now you can simply click on the link, follow it to iTunes, subscribe to the podcast, and great indie music will be freshly installed on your iPod once a week.  


Do us a huge favor?  Give it a shot, and if you like what you get, subscribe and leave a kind note?  

Before Dawn

Before Dawn sounds huge, but really it's just the two folks, Rob and Kate Houle, making rock music fun again with their danceable post-punk sound.  They've been compared to a lot of different bands; but typically they bring to mind an 80-ish synth sound, maybe the B-52s (for Kate's vocals and Rob's searing guitar chops); maybe Devo (for the lyrics, synths, and/or sensibilities).  But give a listen and you'll hear the intervening thirty+ years, true and clear; heavy hypnotic kick beats, fat happy bass lines, and piercing guitar riffs, all arranged into traditional pop-structured ABA numbers, complete with chord progression.

Former Floridians, former stage actors, Rob and Kate know how to put on a great live  show:  Once saw these guys play a tiny crowd in a tiny venue, and they poured it out as if playing to a stadium filled with their best friends.  And the effort pays off - Though Austin is home, they've played from Texas to Wisconsin; from LA to Miami (rather famously).

Their latest CD, "Brush with Greatness", should be here any day now.  But until that time, take in this vid to get a feel of their "let's have fun for a change" sensibility:

Getcher Music - Austin Independent Music Podcast

We couldn't just leave well enough alone.  This blogging has got us all worked up, so we went and started a podcast to go along with.


Announcing the Austin Independent Music Podcast.  Hopefully, it's just what you'd expect - A varied sampling of Austin-based indie music to listen to, right there on your iPod or Zune or whathaveyou, in straight-up mixtape style.  The blog is here:  Subscribe to it with your blog reader and you should be able to listen to it right there in your browser.


At this point in time, we're not listed in the iTunes directory.  Hopefully that will change pronto.  But in the meantime, if you're feeling like you can handle a smidgen of iTune-age tweaking, here be the directions, tuned to taste, straight from Apple's iTunes website :

A podcast I want to subscribe to isn't available in the iTunes Store.

...In the "Advanced" menu, select "Subscribe to Podcast" and paste http://feeds.feedburner.com/AustinIndependentMusicPodcast into the dialog box.

And just to let you know what to expect; the inaugural episode includes Watch Out For Rockets, Death is Not a Joyride, Panjoma, and Mr. Bear.

Mr. Bear gets the Airplay

Hey, remember this post?
http://austinindependentmusic.blogspot.com/2011/01/mr-bear.html

Just got word that Local Boy Makes Good, in this case meaning Makes It On The Radio.  Here's the word from The Bear hissownself:

Hey hey mateys!

My good friend Billy will be playing the latest MrBear record 'No Sleep Till Bleep' IN FULL on his radio show this saturday!

Here's the link..

http://www.maunside.com

Here's the date and time...

Saturday 15th January, 5pm - 8pm UK time, 11pm - 2pm Texas Time (U.S. central standard time)

So, tune in, listen up, show your support! Im also going to have a track played on BBC 6music fairly soon.. I'll send out the details as soon as I know them.

Until then, here's another track from the still-has-the-new-smell "No Sleep 'Til Bleep":

Panjoma

Let's talk Panjoma.  The style is industrial/electronic dance, with the accent on industrial. NIN-stylings, a touch of trance, some experimentalish flourishes, and the occasional bit of disco-ish 4-on-the-floor stomp. Typically good for what ails ya.

These guys and girls have been a source of musical munificence in the Austin area, and we ain't just talking sonically neither -

Lead singer Mary Panjoma is arguably the driving force behind the Austin Electronic Music Grid, a conglomeration of indie bands in the Austin area, cooping to cross-promote and breed musical success.  At their weekly events (sometimes at Plush, sometimes at the Red Eyed Fly), you'll find Mary there, laptop cam running; while a member of the Austin Electronic Music Grid tears it up on stage.  Seeing her like that, giving her time to promote someone who is, potentially, a competitor - That'll give you cause to wonder.  Maybe this is what's become of that time she spent studying philosophy (mentioned in her bio, right alongside the expected musically-focussed studies like piano, music theory, production, etc); paying it forward, as it were.  Can't say for sure.

Panjoma "live" consists of the aforementioned Mary, Patrik Nilsson, riTch N (who we'll discuss in a future entry), John Ouseley, and Melissa Riotgurl (of The Future Process, another group we'll cover in our utopian future). 

Here's a personal favorite, their excellent cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs".  Check it:

WarPigs by panjoma

Another favorite, this one featuring Mary's vocals in a brilliantly moody industrial number:


Reel by panjoma

You can find Panjoma on MySpace, Facebook, Soundcloud, and Last.fm.

Mr. Bear

It's Austin, so here's what happens - 


A musical guy/gal genius outgrows their hometown, wants to take their music "to the next level".  They look around, think "Nashville, here I come!"  But that city has a much closer association to country/western than our guy/gal genius wants.  They look around a bit more, spot Austin on the map, saddle up the truck and move to town.   It is the Live Music Capital of the Known World.  


Well.  In this case, no.  It was love, I think, that brought Jamie Pearson (a.k.a. Mr. Bear) to Austin.  But not before he cut his teeth, musically speaking, in the UK playing for various punk and ska bands.  Nowadays, he's producing danceable electronic tunes, or mixing down "chill ambient".  Quoting the man:


Musical styles range from ambient, chillout and downbeat to techno, electro, IDM, drum & bass and good old fashioned pop music. Mr. Bear also makes time for ‘Cut & Paste’ remixes, mixing famous and not so famous tunes into one big mashup, which he gives away for free. 


Hey, give a listen to my personal favorite of his remixes:

Noise Launch

Hey - 


You know what this is, right?  One weblog about Austin Independent Music.  We added "Noise" to the title 'cause the signal's not all that pure: Like most blogs, this one is hampered by the bandwidth and taste of the author. Full disclosure, that: Now you know. Read on at your own peril.


The goal here is to highlight some of the musical talent in the Austin, Texas area. Being the self-proclaimed "Live Music Capital of the World", there's an amazing concentration of talent in this geographical area, which also happens to be the state capital of Texas, as well as home to -
Well, let's not pretend to be the chamber of commerce and just leave it at that.


What we will do, however, is regularly post small informational bits about the local talent, embedding the occasional music-playing widget when we can.  


And when we say "regular", we mean at least once a week. 


Let's start off right, with the group that kinda half-inspired this blog, Watch Out For Rockets.  Call 'em lo-fi pop, they record their tunes on a 4-track (in their living room, it sounds like), but are proof positive that you don't need an expensive studio to compose and create brilliant music.  


Check out their latest EP, "Telepathic War Machines", which, at the time of this writing, is a mere email-address away from being yours to own:




For future reference, be warned:  We love bandcamp!