Knifight

Officially, Knifight has been jamming for roughly 9 years; though 4 years of that was John Gable doing solo work in Tyler; eventually picking up Patrick Marshall, Nick Garrison, and John Hetherington along the way to Austin, landing circa 2010.  

Since then, they've seen the inside of many of the finer venues in the "warehouse district", playing The Mohawk, The Beauty Bar, et al, building up a solid wall of Knifers (if I may) with their pop-laden rock and signature vocals.

And why not? Check out the irresistible "Familiar Steps" to see what we're talking about:

Just to be clear:  When we say "pop-laden" here, we don't mean pop as in "pop culture", as in Super Bowl halftime or American Idol-ish pablum.  No, we mean "pop" in the more traditional sense of the word:  A blending of harmonic elements, oftimes in a major key, using vocals, chord progressions, and traditional structures to create a pleasing tonal (in the western sense) quality.  So even if their cuts don't sound all Top 40, don't be surprised if the band winds up there:  They have all the essentials in place; sans the high-dollar, studio-sheened mix. 

Knifight lures you in with a danceable BPM; seduces you with hook-laden guitar riffs and vocal harmonies; then shivs you clean through with Gable's emphatic, imposing, "voice of conviction" vociferications.  Built on a solid base of club-flavored rhythm, minimalistic instrumentation, and sing-along melodics, Knifight is a force of angular pop; inspiring a tribal intimacy with us and the rest of our DIY-indie clan.

We were tempted to leave you with this live vid of the guys at Clicks -



But really, you should listen to their new EP, '"Now We're Invisible".  Really.  In it's entirety.

You can find out more about Knifight on Facebook, ReverbNation, Bandcamp, and SonicBids.

Art Versus Industry

Though Art Versus Industry just released their first EP, "Movement I" -  

these fellas aren't new to the party.  By our (admittedly uninformed) count, they stand accused of something closer to 9 CD's worth of jams - You have to lump all of Avi Ghosh's work in there, which means dEFY too.  (And we're being conservative:  We haven't included any of Matt Gruber's pre-dEFY stuff, produced back when he was a math major in New Jersey.)  They are longtime members of the Austin Electronic Music Grid, and  continue to gig about town on a regular basis (Emo's, Stubb's, etc).  Looks like they'll be jamming at SXSW this year too.  

Though Avi, in his various forms and incarnations, has done some me-too-ish, accessible (some even downright danceable) tracks; this latest release is deeper, more sonically dense, and more compositionally complex, more so than even the excellent "All That's Left Of Us" LP.  In a word, Mature.

Taking your first tour through "Movement I", you'll be tempted to dump the guys into the NIN-knockoff bin (as you would the earlier releases).  But don't focus on the singing alone:  Though Avi's vocals do affect Reznor's breathy whispering, frenzied screeches, and melodic lines, this new release rushes past that industrial mold; bursting out with some solid harmonic voicing (ie., "Lapse"), fiendish post-New Wave-ish arpeggios, and the periodic departure from traditional ABA structure, sometimes flitting dangerously close to too-dissonant-for-your-own-good experimental.  But this is a Good Thing, defining this one as a breakthrough release, compositionally, even by their already-high standards.  Art Versus Industry has walked that fine, marketing-based line between "sounds like" and "just like"; that razor-sharp edge between being mistaken for a pre-existing legend, and being their own.  Legend, that is.

Find 'em, listen, love 'em on Tumbler, Facebook, and Bandcamp.

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!