Austin Sound

This week we are excited to debut a new monthly feature with help from our friends at the Dallas/Ft. Worth blog We Shot JR and Houston’s the Skyline Network that offers some incite into what’s hot in their hometowns right now. We Shot JR takes the pulse of the North Texas scene better than any publication around, and the Skyline Network consistently uncovers the best of Houston before it breaks. Each month, Austin Sound will alternate checking in with each to see what bands are making waves in their neighborhoods and that we in Austin should be on the lookout for. In our first installment, We Shot JR offers up four local bands that have recently impressed them: Darktown Strutters, Bad Sports, Sunnybrook, and Febrifuge. Next month, we’ll check in with the Skyline Network to see what’s turning heads in Houston, but we recommend you keep up with both sites for the best that those towns have to offer.

Darktown Strutters: One of the more unexpected acts I’ve stumbled across so far this year, Darktown Strutters consists of two roommates that met appropriately enough on Friday The 13th, a fitting date to match the delightful gloom cast over the duo’s music. Their overall image and sound smartly teeters on a thin line between camp and an undeniable dark confidence over masterfully fucked grooves, and it must be taken seriously.

Organist and vocalist Kara Jean spends most of her time in the lower reaches of a voice that is both melodramatic and monotone, but can shriek her way into a nasty falsetto when necessary. A sparse yet catchy little organ riff with plenty of negative space will open a song, allowing for Wes Darrin (also of Faux Fox) to lay down very inventive and varied beats on an electronic drum kit that’s doused with delay. The array of presets and sounds on Kera’s Electone MR-500 mixed with disco beats and lyrics referencing Kenneth Angermake for a live experience that’s hard to shake. The group cited very few influences, early Christian Deathbeing one of them, though Malaria! is one of the first groups that come to mind when I hear them.

“Jovan White Musk” is the only posted track on their page, but its nine minute plus running time is a good, long intro to the unclassifiable creep of the Darktown Strutters’ music. You had to be lucky to have scored one of their limited edition cassettes on local label Asex Tapes, and I’m hoping there’s more where that came from. (DL)

Bad Sports: There was a time in Denton music where it was impossible to miss stoner sludge act Chief Death Rage. They played at every DIY spot, week-in and week-out, sometimes performing multiple sets at multiple venues in a single night. As much as their ubiquity and volume proved the group hard to ignore, what made it even harder was their remarkably tall bass player, Orville Bateman Neeley III, quietly towering over his considerably smaller band-mates like a Stoner-rock Dolph Lundgren. He anchored the group with his excellent basslines, as well as an intimidating visual element that emphasized the tankwheels-crushing-a-skull brutality of the Chief Death Rage sound.

So it was understandably surprising to see that Orville’s next project was to front an upbeat, quick-tempo power pop-tinged punk group called Bad Sports. There was even a brightly colored green-screen music video, where Orville bobs his head along to his singing very much like a, well, like a lead singer. Forming late last year, the trio is comprised of Orville on guitar and vocals, TV’s Daniel on bass and vocals, and Gregory Rutherford on drums and the occasional backing vocal. The songwriting is split between Orville and Daniel.

Material came quickly for Bad Sports, spurred on by a collective enthusiasm for the catchier sides of punk, hardcore, and post-punk such as Black Flag’s earlier records, The Ramones, The Damned and Wire, along with a healthy dose of power pop like Slade, Sweet,70’s Sparks, and a hint of mod jangle pop. These various rock disciplines are then intertwined and reprocessed, resulting in brief, distorted little songs where the reverb decays just long enough to be dramatically effective, like the concrete echo of a band playing too loud in a greasy garage.

The band has already trekked out on a hastily planned tour, playing to weirdos across the Midwest, drinking Old Style Beer and eating pizza. In keeping with the Midwest theme, Bad Sports released a couple of seven inches on two notable labels respectively out of Saint Paul, Minnesota (Big Action Records) and Lincoln, Nebraska (Boom Chick Records), the kind of towns where this style of music seems to thrive. Neeley hints the group should have enough material for an album at some point, and Bad Sports seems to be as smart and prolific as fellow punks The Wax Museums in regard to conduct and philosophy.

At this point, Neeley has an impenetrable track record, with two wildly different outings under his belt. Though I’m a huge Chief Death Rage fan, I’m glad he stepped out of the shadow to turn in one of the few surprises in local music over the last twelve months. (DL)

Sunnybrook: When I first stumbled across Sunnybrook’s Myspace page as I was getting ready to complete a brief write up for a Weekender, I was immediately struck by how mature and thoughtful this seemingly young artist sounded at what I believed to be a very early stage of his project. It turns out that I was right about his age, but wrong about his experience– Paul North, the lone member of Sunnybrook (and younger brother of Mom’s Joel North), is only 20 years old, but he’s actually been recording songs under the same moniker for five years. Initially inspired by the music of Elliot Smith, North began writing songs at age 15 while learning to play and sing on his own through the kind of open minded trial and error that is often as useful for revealing what an artist doesn’t like as it is for setting any kind of true foundation for a particular musical direction.

As he grew older and slightly more adventurous musically, North began making regular trips up to Denton to visit his brother and fellow Mom member Bruce Blay, and it was those visits that changed the direction of his vision. Aside from introducing North to artists such as Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Steve Reich and Spiritualized, the members of Mom also included him in the recording sessions for their debut EP Little Brite, allowing the younger North to assist in backing vocals and noise making as he soaked up the ideas and techniques that the band brought to their production.

Many of these more adventurous influences have made their way to the foreground of Sunnybrook’s music, and it is all the more compelling for it. Sure, many will probably hear similarities between Sunnybrook and newer indie folk acts like Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear and Phosphorescent, and truthfully, those are probably the most relevant and accurate comparisons to make (along with references to groups like The Books and Boards of Canada). But beyond the obvious is where this music truly stands out in sea of comparable local acts– whereas “ambient” is often used as a substitute for “boring,” particularly when the word is used to describe acoustic acts who have just discovered that electronic music isn’t evil, North truly utilizes the concept to his advantage, creating interesting textures and atmospheres that are initially compelling but also rewarding as a slow revelation. The song that caught the ears of WSJR and a handful of other blogs a couple weeks ago is “Waving Hands,” a bittersweet and introspective acoustic piece with sugary, reverby layered vocal tracks that play off one another to create a compelling wall of distant harmonies that never stray too far from a traditional melodic core. All of Sunnybrook’s tracks, whether it be the instrumental toy piano atmosphere of “Walking” or the more sing songy “Strangers,” contain hints of the kind of artistic sophistication that you might not expect from such a young artist, especially one who has barely played a gig.(SR)

Febrifuge: It’s tough to figure out what to make of Febrifuge the first time you hear them. On some levels, much of what they do is similar to more widely known, popular “indie” groups that you’ve certainly heard before– you know what I mean, right? The kind of pop that consists of sprawling atmospherics and sonic experiments surrounding quiet, relaxed songs steeped in traditional folk, chamber pop, blues structures and indie pop. Stylistically, much of this is nothing new. In fact, there are a lot of bands doing very similar things all over the country these days, resulting in quite an overload of this kind of ethereal, vaguely experimental folk based indie pop that seems all too easy to produce in the Myspace era. But before you go conjuring up an image of Febrifuge as a group of twenty year old twits twiddling knobs and singing their hearts out between bong rips, you might want to dig a little deeper into what the group does, because the project reaches quite a bit farther than most comparable artists, and the audible talents of its central figure make it a whole different proposition all together.

Febrifuge is the moniker of a formerly one man project lead by Denton resident Chris Day. Day handed us his debut record, A Short Instance of Separation, several months ago, and the sheer impressiveness of his songwriting and vocal talents stood out immediately amongst a pile of highly forgettable local releases. From the onset, the most distinguished element of Febrifuge’s sound is Day’s studied and compelling vocals, soaring with a nervous, understated yet emotive croon a la Jeff Buckley and Elliott Smith, with a range nearly as impressive as the former and a quiet wistfulness similar to the latter. His lead is front and center throughout the debut, and considering that he possesses the kind of polished vocal talent that could probably make an indie/major A&R guy swoon, this was certainly a wise move.

Nearly as interesting as the vocals are the arrangements and recording, both of which were done almost entirely by Day himself, aside from some help with backing vocals and a mastering assist from Alan Douches, who has worked with Animal Collective and Olivia Tremor Control, among others. Every track on Febrifuge’s debut is packed with tons of sounds– piano, keyboard, strings, guitar, etc., but none of it ever feels like overload, and all of it is quite impressive. Some songs, such as opener “A Wounded Bird Still Dreams of Wings,” soar with touches of doo-wop and ghostly atmospherics that are nearly overwhelming, while “Our Hermitage” keeps things highly minimal, with pounding, disjointed percussion and a simple chime serving as the major melodic device behind interweaving vocal harmonies that are nothing short of gorgeous.

At the end of the day, Febrifuge is reflective, emotional pop music for people who don’t typically listen to anything that can be described in that way, and the care, thoughtfulness and attention to detail behind Day’s wonderful debut will have many of you asking why you’ve never heard of this guy before. (SR)

Be sure to check out We Shot JR regularly to keep up on the best of the D/FW and Denton scene.