OK, so your's truly has been doing this blog for one entire year. That's 50-ish posts, one a week, typically on a Wednesday. Spotty quality, admittedly. Some have been good. Some not so much. It comes and it goes, the inspiration.
Because that's why we do it here. Inspired, by the likes of the indie musicians we've spied, trailed, stalked, studied, and Googled from the safety of our Land of Cubes.
And Yes, "inspired by" is the proper phrase for what we've seen in the lot of ye. Creative, talented, hard-working practitioners of rock in all of it's sundry forms; playing on small bills for small bills; little heard artisans performing their arts, with an abysmally-skewed dedication-to-reward ratio.
But it hasn't been free, keeping up with you dudes and dudettes. Oh, sure, we spent a few dimes here and there, but the real cost has been in time. And at our age, that's the coin of the realm.
With a full-time job, plus other projects we've been dying to do - Some music related, most are not - we have to pull the plug somewhere. And, sorry to say, it's this blog that must needs be unplugged. [And, yes, we're savoring the irony of that statement.]
We'll keep it around for the sake of the linkage you've been kind enough to share. But as for new posts, they'll become rare. The same fate awaits the podcast.
That said, let's be clear about our goals: We'll still promote Austin-based indies, probably via Facebook, or perhaps some other as-yet unknown method. We'll still buy local, and pay our own way into venues to see you rock. And maybe we'll become so inspired as to pick up the keyboard again and generate some more words. Who knows what a day may bring forth?
It's been cool. We've learned a lot, met more folks to love, and heard some of the best music ever produced anywhere. And it was all here, in the Live Music Capital of the World.
Oh yeah. If you can't spot the "rack up the hits" bait with THAT headline, then you need to brush up on your SEO.
It's got "Problem" and "Christian" in it. That's drama AND religion. AND music. What's not to get frothy in the mouth about??
But back on topic. Don't know if you've noticed, but "Christian Rock" gets dissed on a regular basis. It's like the red-headed stepchild of music, the little sis to Rock Star, the Beaver to Wally Cleaver.
Never heard that one? Huh. Here's a couple of tweets we've seen in our interweb trollings -
Just bought an album I dug from a Christian rock band. There's a first for everything
That's kinda rhetorical. This is a blog, and a blog is an opinion. Which means you're about to read one. So if you skip out here, if you decide to quit reading this drivel and move on, then you're off the hook, no one will throw stones at you.
OK, so you can blithely spit out "There are no good Christian Rock bands", and someone might buy that. And we're not experts on all things Christian Rock, but we have heard some exceptional music that bears the "Christian" label. Check out the latest from The David Crowder Band, "Church Music" - In some circles it's even been labeled as "too disco", which suggests a bleeding-edge endeavor from our typically-conservative brothers.
Or for something a little less preachy, try out Skillet. Or bang your head to some metallic Red.
OK, so there is some good Christian rock. Maybe it's a ratio thing? As in, %99 percent sucks, the rest is merely OK.
Dunno about you, but we're always leery of absolute statements. Always.
No, it can't be that - We'd guess that the good-to-sucks ratio is probably the same as it is for non-Christian (or "secular") music. Probably.
And we say that with absolute authority.
OK then, whaddup?
We say there are at least 2 factors that lead to the contempt.
1) "Christian Music" is a market, not a genre. You gotcher Christian Rap, your Christian Metal, your Christian Pop, etc. Why isn't it just Rap or Metal or Pop?
[We could go on and discuss the ethics of this kind of behavior, but then we'd be wading into ethics discussions, and we're just not pure enough to pull that off.]
2) "Christian Music" can be propaganda. Not art, not a furtherance of the form, but merely a conveyance of a message into an unwary consumer's mind, a pill that carries a payload of rhetoric. It's not art, it's an agenda. We hate the Nazis for doing this, we hate it in our movies, and, yes, we hate it in our music.
So there ya go. An absolute answer to the question.
Tune back next week for less of our barb-witted, SEO-baited repartee.
New Year, new music, and Language Room is there for you.
[Photo by Abel Longoria]
That's them. All these guys can sing, but (left-to-right) Scott Graham does guitar + keys, Todd Sapio does guitar, Sean Hill pounds on the drums, and Matt Graham handles the bass + keys.
Graham and Sapio moved here from LA back in '07, and have since shifted some personnel, released a CD ("Language Room" available on iTunes and Amazon), and have melted some faces in our finer venues. In a nutshell - These guys have been there, done that, and know how to produce the Good Stuff.
Which is what the just-popped-out "Skin & Heart & Lungs" is, the Good Stuff:
It's just a 4 song EP, so it'll only set you back $3.96 (on either iTunes or Amazon). So go ahead and pick it up - It's a smart, hook-filled rock-pop collection, bulging with passion and gleaming with top-shelf production values.
"Open Air" is the opener, an anthem-istic pop number that fluctuates from tinny glockenspiel to thumping bass and sharp guitar lines. "Kerosene" follows, a quietly-started/loudly-ended rock-powered pop number that's more rock than pop. The title song is #3 in this collection, a hauntingly brilliant number that you will be tempted to bring to your next karaoke party. "Breachers" ends the set with excellence; a spooky, bass-lead progression, punctured with sinister-stabbing guitars and overlaid with excellent vox.
Here, give "Skin & Heart & Lungs" a hear (or three) before heading out to Amazon for your own copy:
You've got plans for New Year's Eve, sure. And what else, pray tell, would you be doing besides catching some of our great indie bands live here in the Live Music Capital of the World?
Last but definitely not least, the good folks at Momo's are putting on Sole Train, one of those "wish I could be two places at once" events, powered by Foot Patrol and everyone's favorite Panjoma! Details here. Cool. Shirley, we probably missed someone's gig. So on 12/31/11, jump on over to our "Who's Playing Tonight" page for a Songkick-powered listing of who's playing where in our fair city.
Go. Infest some of our world-famous live music venues, have a great time, be safe, and support your local musicians.
Like a lot of you guys, we've been following The Pons since... Well, a while.
There ya go. On the left is Ruby Painter, she's got bass, vocals, and, as need arises, the trumpet. In the middle there is drummer Steve Sanders, and on the right is Thomas Mazzi, the voice and guitar of the band. (Not pictured: Joel Mullins on keys.)
That's them, and their latest release, "The Blackest Shine", will, in all probability, make it's way onto your heavy rotation list:
It's rock in the mainstream, Coldplay sense - Guitar, bass, drums, vocals; the keys key, but not dominating; all wrapped in shiny, crystal-clear production values.
And it's absolutely brilliant.
The title track has pole position; a wave of relentless rock-steady beat, in classic, Springsteen-ish style, with Mullins' staccato piano filling in between acoustic rhythm guitar strums and rhythm section. Topped off with Mazzi's lower-keyed, growlingly-expressive vox, it's a cool-handed standard in the making, and has made 101X's Next Big Thing playlist 3 weeks running.
#2 is "Someone Else's Voice", an urgent, perc-punctured number that undulates with Mazzi's vocal emotional range and chorused with some extra-sweet reverb.
Followed by "Impossible Love", probably the most radio-friendly in this collection; a snare & guitar-chorded piece with an easily-felt and more easily-followed chorus - "possibly impossible love" - that seals it.
"Can't Get Through" and "The Future's Past" are rock solid rock numbers burgeoning with emotional baggage; sure to conjure sympathetic pains in any listener with a few years behind them. "Sleep Soundly" is an excellently-modern lullaby; softly sung and interlaced with sections that soar to epic heights. "Death of the Peacock", a bass-lead number punctuated with bluesy guitar riffs, transports you to said mythic venue with it's brick-wallish reverb; then "Gene Hackman Dream" plops you into the land 'o nod with it's dreamy keyboard melodic lines and eerie pad-like noises.
"Black Twin" closes out the set on a hopeful note, sweeping us in with a gentle-handed acoustic guitar before taking us on a thoughtful, psych-inspired jam session suffused with chorused vox and verbed, outer-world strumming.
In total, "The Blackest Shine" is an emotionally-charged powerhouse of pop rock that doesn't stoop to histrionics or pour on syrupy saccharine. Go ahead and pick it up via iTunes or Amazon. Then be sure to catch them at Swan Dive on 1/7/2012.
For completeness' sake, here's their ReverbNation embed. Give it a spin man, it's worthy of a complete listen (the first 9 songs are "The Blackest Shine"): Find out more about The Pons on Facebook, BandCamp, ReverbNation, MySpace, and Home Base.
We've had the rare pleasure of taking in some of the very latest Western Ghost House music, their just-in-time-for-Christmas "Kaleidoscope Tower" -
This ain't your mama's alt rock. Western Ghost House brings fresh, soulful, haunted western-twang-styled numbers. But before we walk too far down the review road, a bit about our players:
There they are. Left-right it's guitarist/vocalist Andrew Romero, drummer Adrian Carrillo, vocalist/guitarist Jesse Pantoja, and bassist/vocalist Steven Garcia.
Forming back in '08, WGH has wandered down divergent experimental musical paths before finding their current sound, which has been called "Baroque Pop" but is perhaps a bit more rockin' than that label implies.
"Kaleidoscope Tower" opens with an appropriately-spooky "Varicose Veins", a stoic, twanging number highlighted by Pantoja's verberated vox; held up with some cavern-deep percs, soaring guitars, and somber backing vocals.
"Branded" sweeps us into more rock-standard territory, with some nice vocal harmonies and straight-ahead rhythm; sure to transport you back to the early 70s, followed by the marching "Smile", a classically-riffed melodic chord progression outlined with slower acoustic breaks.
Skipping ahead a bit, "You Don't Scare Me" ends up in a sweet jam session, "Words" builds from soft vox to a hypnotic groove. Special mention for the final track, the excellent "Yesterday", that starts with softer, acoustic guitar-ed ballad-esque crooning, builds to a cool cacophony of groove, highlighted with some lower-in-the-mix brass, then drops you there. Nice.
Up until this weekend, you could only find some of The Couch's music up on Bandcamp. But that changes pronto, more specifically - this weekend, 12/14/11 at The Mohawk, when they unleash "Old and Touchin' Blue" on the world:
If you like your rock solid, danceable, well-produced, and on the bluesy side, then you should pull the trigger on this deal: Get your ticket for the release party from the good folks at Eye in the Sky Colletive, and they'll throw in the download code, and you'll end up with the LP and a great jam session in one of Austin's finer venues. No-brainer.
So there they are. From left-right, we've got percussionist Jud Johnson, bassist Kyle Robarge, and guitarist/vocalist Taylor Wilkins. [And since this pic was taken, they've recruited multi-instrumentalist Sara Houser (keys, piano, guitar, vocals), so don't be surprised to see her onstage at Mohawk too.]
They come from yonder San Marcos way, but have moved to Austin, so we're claiming 'em. They've done damage all over the place, doing Stubb's, Texas Music Theater, the Wild Frontier Fest; plus done opening duty for Dia De Los Toadies (three times), The Bright Light Social Hour, etc. And this release party won't be the first time they've darkened The Mohawk's door, either.
What to expect? "Shakin' Cause It's Hard to React" opens up the CD quietly, with just bass, electric piano, and Wilkins' vox painting a sedate note, before being obliterated by their more characteristic crunchilious guitar and rockin' drums; setting the tone, as it were, for what's coming your way.
Then you're treated to the stomping-good, neo-classic "The Way You Came", then the radio-friendly, vox-harmonizing "Close To You". Shift a bit, 'cause next up is "New Roman Buffalo", a bluesy thrash-happy rocking piece, with some slower, intimately-pining sections. "Farhan" and "DOKAT" give some serious guitar-slamming sections, and the rest of the tracks walk the bluesy, pop line, all up to the high standards set by the previous tracks. Special mentions: "Milk Thistle" for some exceptional rocking riffs, and "Indian Doctor" for it's creatively-constructed perc lines, string, and harmonizing parts that break away from the blues mold without destroying the blues feel.
If you find you can't wait until that aforementioned Mohawk gig, go here and hear.
Or stay here and dig on the New Roman Buffalo EP, which has 3 of the tracks from the new release:
Maybe you've been there, maybe you haven't. But chances are good that this won't be the last you hear about DeliRadio.
"So", you say in your most jaded drawl, "another web site with 'Social' in the title. I'm riveted."
Hold your horses there, pardner. Don't diss this until you've thought it all the way through.
First, notice that it's labeled "Radio", which implies a passive experience. It's not. You heard of Pandora, correct? It's like that, a kinda user-controlled traditional radio.
"So? I got Pandora, now I need another one?"
OK. Getta load of this widget on their front page:
This is the thing you use to generate or "crunch" your radio station. See that big "Location" label? Guess what that means. You can tell DeliRadio to play bands only from or that will only be playing within a certain geographical area. Or go ahead and get completely control freakish and tell it to give you bands that are only playing at a specific venue and time.
Sigh. Yawn.
OK. We'll spell it out - This is the fattest bridge between radio play (ie., fan discovery) and venue attendance yet created.
How about a hypothetical? Johnny wants to take Jane somewhere downtown Austin this Saturday night. Jane loves live music. Johnny turns on DeliRadio, generates a station that's based on Austin. Sets the proximity at 15 miles, sets the time at "this week". BOOM, he's listening to bands that are playing in Austin this week. He hears something cool, he drills down on it. Now he knows who to catch, where they're playing, and what time to get there. AND, in some cases, he can go ahead and buy tickets in advance. Studly. Jane is impressed.
Or Trevor the jazz aficionado decides to browse the local market. Generates a station, limiting the genre to Jazz. Listens to those he's unfamiliar with, quickly discerning the posers from the gifted. Makes a note on his iPad of the gifted's time and locale.
Now, we here at Austin Independent Music are, maybe, slightly more educated about the local music scene than Johnny or Trevor. We could, conceivably, pick the appropriate gig to catch, given any given night. Might. After digging around SongKick and Facebook and Twitter. And calling our friends. Both of them.
So if you're not a student of the local venues and bands? Where ya gonna turn, the Chronicle? You think they have the same taste (or agenda) that you do?
Now we've never met a single indie who didn't want to be on the radio, be it Internet-based or otherwise. And unlike terrestrial stations, or Pandora, getting on Deli is a snap.
And it's free.
So, if you're a gigging band, playing those same venues that Johnny was perusing a minute ago, we're thinking it's a no-brainer - You're wanting on the radio, now you're getting on the radio, and you're playing for people looking for a show to catch.
And while you're at it, you might want to update your SongKick account too, it's where DeliRadio is getting a lot of their event info. [WHAT?? You're NOT on Songkick? Sigh. Guess we have ANOTHER blog post to write now.]
We'll leave you with, perhaps, our most banal vid ever - A how-to on creating your own location-based radio station. Cool.
Technically speaking, and we'd better speak technico-ly this time, Japanese Carcrash ain't Austin - They're from Southeast Texas. But that's just technically: Stylistically, they're probably more Austin than Houston (or Dallas either, for that matter).
Left-right, we've got Casey LeBleu (synthesizer + voice), Michelle Martin (synthesizer), and Cole Livingston (synths + "manipulation"). (Not pictured - Tobi McKinley on drums.)
We've seen some video of these guys (we've got that embedded, below), but today we're talking their latest release "Synth+" (that's "Synth Plus"):
You like danceable, synth-powered, hi-energy-80-ish cuts? Then bounce on over to CD Baby and pick this sucker up.
Synth+ fires up with "Never Gonna Stop", an arpeggio-synth-powered dance number, an auditory pointillistism piece that's a proper introduction to the sound these guys can generate. But if that one doesn't get you moving, wait a sec - "Tonight Let's Dance" comes up next, and it pounds you into appreciation with it's irresistable grainy analog bass lines, understated percs, and other audio oddities.
In that same vein, "My Girl Hates My Radio" and (to a lesser extent) "Coming Home" keep the groove going, while the excellent "Bad News" puts out some seriously nice negative vibes with the chorused, vocoded vox and dissonant intervals, peppered-sprayed with some spooky synths for that finishing touch. Good stuff, ya'll. And though the closing number, "Emptiness", a very 80's Numan-esque production, has the same danceable traits as earlier numbers; it's darker tone doesn't quite pull you out of the funk left over from "Bad News".
At which point you simply Lather, Rinse, Repeat. All week, as need requires.
A fan managed to catch them at Elysium here in Austin, and here they are doing the aforementioned "Tonight Let's Dance":
Go ahead and pick up Synth+ on CD Baby, or on Amazon if that's your preference.
In lieu of an embed of the LP, which we were unable to Google into existence, we'll leave you with the 80s-bent "My Girl Hates My Radio" vid instead:
Find out more about Japanese Carcrash on Facebook and CD Baby.
Let's step away from the fringed edges of indie music and bear a little closer to center - Surely you've heard Whalers?
There they are. Left-right, we've got Dan Martin on guitar, Amir Mozafari on bass, Gus Smalley behind the microphone, Milos Bertram behind the drum kit, and that's Kyle Rother on lead guitar.
As should you - Their latest, "Paddle Easy" (embedded below) is drawing the attention heat; and not just from us Austinites either: The good folks at Indie Rock Cafe are calling it a best new release, and labeling Whalers "Austin’s under-rated indie band".
Simple enough reason - Classic-sounding, radio-friendly, guitar-reverberated, crystal-clear productions that get stuck in your brain, seaweed-like, after a brief dive into their repetoire.
See how many influences you can find in this one, the instant-classic, opening track on their latest, "Paddle Easy":
Did you pick up The Animals, Rolling Stones, The Who? How about that classic guitar solo about 1 minute in, and those Turtle-ish bridges?
Slow it down a bit, and watch how Smalley's vox, some clever lyrics (written and produced BEFORE this year's heat wave, BTW), and even more clever guitar licks show off their soulful depth:
And for a taste of something less formalized, here's one that blends some very classic song structure with very unclassic staccato picking, with surprisingly addictive success:
These guys have jammed all over town, doing a residency at Lamberts in July, and reportedly working 12 sets during last year's SXSW; sharing the stage with The Black & White Years, Ponderosa, Sunset, TV Torso, and Daniel Hart (The Polyphonic Spree) along the way. And they even managed to work in a Daytrotter session back in October.
Here, take a minute, see why everyone likes the brilliant "Paddle Easy":
You know what we like to do, we like to cover those guys and gals still paying their dues, still gigging wherever they can and, in general, still struggling to get noticed. Which is why we almost decided not to talk about Alyse Black.
Yep, that's her there. Dunno if you've heard about her, but she's potentially the "paid my dues" poster child.
So she's on the "fast track" to executive success, a virtual queen of cubeland, a business analyst for Deloitte consulting. Then one day, reportedly on the top floor of some gleaming high rise, overlooking the beauty of downtown Seattle, she figures all this corporate success is a monumental dead end. She walks out and never looks back. No thought of where she's going, only that she's leaving. A high-paying, prestigious job. Real money.
Done that lately? Nope, none of us here either.
She thinks it over, remembers the kick she got out of music, and BOOM, that's it, that's what she wants to be when she grows up, that's the new Alyse: Singer, songwriter, musician.
What's a new songstress do? Rather, what kind of gig can an inexperienced singer land? Not a lot of those to be had.
So she did what you did, she took to the street, literally - Busking. Singing alone on the streets, which in this case was Pike Place Market in Seattle.
You know what that's like, right? The kind of comments you get, typically, from strangers who care not to be serenaded whilest shopping?
Patience, practice, and a layer or two of skin later, she lands a gig as a singer in a band. Time passes, her voice matures, along with her skills and purpose.
She leaves Seattle for Austin, releases a solo album, "Too Much & Too Lovely", and it wins 1st place in Billboard’s Annual World Song Contest in Jazz. She tours the US in 2008, 2009, and 2010; hits a bunch of major music festivals, colleges and conferences around the States.
And, eventually, these kinds of comments wipe out the memories of the earlier barbs:
“Her songs swallow you whole, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
– San Antonio Current
"A mystical beauty to her voice. Mesmerizing."
- Songwriter’s Monthly
"An acclaimed young songwriter."
- Austin Chronicle
"A stunning musician."
- Seattle Show Gal
“There are some voices that stop you in your tracks and make you listen, and Alyse Black is a great example.”
– Eclectic Mix Podcast
“Her voice is captivating: rich and velvety.”
– 103.1 KCDA in Spokane, WA
"Boy she’s got a sexy voice."
– Back Beat Seattle
"Vocals that are just out of this world. Alyse sings with pure sincerity. Absolutely warm and appealing."
– BabySue.com
"Although Black is comparable to other female artists, she clearly has her own uniqueness and likeability."
– Bootleg Magazine
"One can't fault Ms. Black for her oft nakedly sensual delivery."
– Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
"Like Norah Jones and Katie Melua but with smokier vocals [and] more upbeat tempos."
– HeaveMedia.com
We won't try to best any of those comments, but will just humbly say that they're dead-on: She's got the pipes to be mistaken for Norah Jones or Regina Spektor or Adele, and a repertoire that ranges from folkish-pop to jazz and most points in between.
These are the kind of voice and compositional chops that land a national commercial spot for Target, say:
Her latest release, "The Honesty" EP, is up on Amazon. But we like live, we ARE the Live Music Capital of the World, and it turns out she's got a big gig coming up Thanksgiving weekend, 11/27/11, at One World Theatre you should catch: Go here to get the skinny on that one.
Before you go, dig around in this play list, see what the fuss is about: Find out more about Alyse Black on Facebook, ReverbNation, and Home Base.
We've kinda had our one good eye on Tin Can Phone since we ran this article on them back in the day. So we knew it was coming, their latest LP, Adapter, and snatched it up first chance.
And Yep, we're gonna recommend you do the same. If you want to save time, just stop reading now and go here.
So a little background - Tin Can Phone generates some sweet home-grown reggae, with their previous release, 15 Songs, blistering with excellent Jamaican-styled heat.
Then they release this, which would be an injustice to call a "followup": It humiliates the high bar set by "15 Songs", with deeper compositions, cross-genre explorations, and better workmanship; setting a new standard for, or perhaps a new definition of, these guys from Michigan.
They drag you in with the ska-ish, pop-rock-reggae mania of the first track ("New Song"), then barrage you with numbers bulging with bridges, intros, nearly-too-short guitar solos, change-ups, and the occasional unfamiliar time signature. In this release, you'll get studied, almost psych-jam sessions and discoveries ("Sink", "Rapid Eye Movement"), as well as jazzish time signatures ("5 by 5") and rock-hard guitar solos("Urgency", "Peace of Mind").
Though they never stray too far out of their reggae comfort zone, the fact that they wander into other genres with ease proves a branching out into new turf, a movement past (or through?) the reggae genre, and into their own unique, reggae-rock-ska-jazz sound. A turning point, we'll say. Or maybe just the logical progression of experience, clarity, and inspiration, brought on by passion, a home studio, and a serious work ethic.
At any rate, buy now, thank us later.
And in the probable case that you don't believe us, give a listen and make your own call:
