Austin Sound

Like the early-90’s Pavement-rock genre that the band in part pays homage to, La Snacks have an undeniable air of “cool” that emanates from their otherwise gritty guitar tones. But also like their forefathers, this is a calculated cool, where every seemingly off-the-cuff utterance and lick likely precipitated only from hours of arrangement and endless toiling. It’s a dangerous game, but La Snacks perform the feat with apparent ease, delivering six songs that wholly capture both the enticing 90’s-era “cool” that the band has been molding for some time, but also the more satisfying songwriting prowess of La Snacks.

Seems like we’ve been waiting for the new Murdocks’ album for ages, and we’ll have to wait a little longer, until this summer it seems. But head ‘dock Franklin Morris (also an Austin Sound contributor), just passed along this taste of the as yet untitled album in the form of “Black Jesus Knocking,” which we’ve offered up for download below. The group began recording the album back last spring with Erik Wofford at Cacophony Recorders, so you can count on the sound being stellar. From this track, it sounds like the Murdock’s have tapped a bit back into their harder roots, but still preserved some of the pop melodicism of last year’s Roar! Roar! Roar! EP. The Murdocks will no doubt be previewing some of the new tunes this Friday at the Mohawk when they open up for Shearwater - a great show across the board!

For a while there, the fun and humor was blasted out of the rock room by the giant vacuum featuring the likes of Creed, Nickelback, and Seven Mary Three. Other than Scott Weiland, no one seemed to really be enjoying him or herself and his was a party none of us were invited to attend. Thankfully, times did change and bands like The Frontier Brothers appeared (from outer space, no less!) to brush away some of that self-important seriousness and invite us to the fun times. On their debut full length, Space Punk Starlet, the Austin-based trio puts together 14 tracks of glammy indie rock, crisscrossing the universe of rock genres to create a sound that would have been completely alien a decade ago. Part Bowie and Bolan, part sprawling indie rock a la Arcade Fire, the intergalactic party shop is back open and ready for business with Space Punk Starlet.

Last year, the Black Angels revived the Spirit of the Vulcan Gas Company and Austin’s Sixties psychedelic past with their Psych Fest held out the Red Barn on Burnet. It was one hell of an event, and we’ve been looking forward to a second installment ever since! Well, word has finally leaked out that this year’s Psych Fest will be a whopping 3 day event, to be held just before SXSW on March 13-15. With so many great bands coming to town for our annual indie bludgeoning, we expect this to be an amazing weekend and just hope we survive to make it to SXSW! The lineup and more details will be coming soon, but we’re hoping that given their recent tour backing Roky Erickson and project to record some his material, that the 13th Floor Elevator himself might be unleashing his unholy growl on the scene. We’ll keep you posted.

Former Cotton Mather head and Beatles obsessive Robert Harrison never fails to amaze us, especially with his new band Future Clouds and Radar. With their sophomore album, Peoria, now out (the follow up to their double-disc debut!), they’ve released this video for lead single “The Epcot View.” Its much more restrained than their previous videos, and really captures the whimsy of the group, while Harrison continuous to astound with lyrics that will just make your head spin with how original and brilliant they are. Check out the video below:

Salesman is fairly new to Austin, but with the release of their latest album SWEETHEARTR, they could make a solid dent in the music scene. The album is melodic and mellow, but with slight blues and psychedelic touches that add punch and melt into a fluid haze with a hint of Nineties alternative. While their current lineup hasn’t quite solidified, their moody and mesmerizing sound drenched in harmonies plays beautifully and would stand well alongside other locals like Haunting Oboe Music or Prayer for Animals. Catch them this Saturday, January 31, at the Mohawk, with a Shandom Sham and A Sideshow Tragedy. Salesman goes on early at 9:00pm, but if you arrive before 10:00, you can pick up a free copy of SWEETHEARTR!

The Austin Bat Cave, the non-profit creative and expository writing center for kids age 6-18, recently announced it’s inaugural workshop for their new semi-regular songwriting series, and they’ve recruited the best for the job! Okkervil River will swing by the ABC headquarters at 1807 W 11th Street on March 1 to help a group of lucky 9th-11th graders hone their songwriting chops. You can sign up your kid, or yourself if you’re a teenager, by emailing austinbatcave@gmail.com and check out the ABC website for more info. After all, it’s never too early to harness the cynicism and delusions of fame through dense clever pop! And hey, the Butthole Surfers recently toured with the Paul Green School of Rock, so maybe they can come in and warp the mind of innocents for the next workshop!

January may seem a bit early to declare the best record of 2009, but I am prepared to set caution aside and predict that this time next year UME will be topping best-of lists. The band’s new EP, Sunshower is at once beautiful, brutal, flawlessly executed, and completely unpretentious. It’s the type of record that grabs the listener immediately and demands repeated listens. It’s the whole package – as close to a perfect rock record as has come out of Austin (or anywhere for the matter) in quite some time. Like all great bands, UME’s sound is impossible to nail down in simple terms. They are shredding guitars and vocals that shift from beautiful whispers to raspy growls. They merge the anthemic and with the intimate — sometimes delicate and sometimes explosive.

CDs are a fickle mistress; in this age of digital everything, they can be a hallowed sanctum unreachable by hard-drive errors, or they can be those scratch magnets that disappear only to be found years later in the bowels of one’s dresser or car. With Benko’s debut album, Welcome to the Follow Through, this fear of loss has been assuaged. I always know where my copy is: in my stereo.

Following the Austin penchant for defying typical instrumentation, Benko also has a knack for actually sounding decent while doing it. The first time vibraphone player Sarah Norris taps a key on opener “Isle of Man,” the concept of the vibraphone lead-line just makes sense. Something about the sustain of each note lends a hopeful air to even this somewhat sad tale, in which bassist/vocalist Eric Grostic feebly croons “they’ll leave you all alone/ they don’t know what they got ‘til you’re gone.” Grostic has a water-thin voice that retains a nerdy, angsty charm without sounding contrived, and drummer Aaron Dugan keeps his drums reined in on a short but appropriate leash.

Last December, Wax Museum Pandemonium played a rare show with all nine members of the band, members from the band’s Northern incarnation and those from the Southern half down here in Austin. If your not familiar with WMP, the band is the premise of brothers Noah and Clem Poole, but Clem lives in Connecticut while Noah lives in Austin. This hasn’t stopped them from carrying on the band though, just in two different manifestations. If you missed the December show at Lovejoy’s, now you can get a feel for both halves with their new “North/South” split 7″! And you can download a track from each band below!