Austin Sound

Dammit Wiley Wiggins, now you’re just messing with our heads. This video kinda creeps us the hell out, and yet, and yet, we can’t stop watching. You’ve done Mesmer-ed us pretty good with this one. Of course, the trippy Octopus Project beats help, as well. This is Wiggin’s video for OPro’s “Hallucinists” (and you can check out his equally trippy and seizure-inducing one for “Catalog” here), which is from the quartet’s amazing Hexadecagon project that they debuted at SXSW last year. The Octopus Project is putting the tunes from that out on CD on October 26, though sadly they don’t yet seem to have a local date lined up for the occasion. The album was also mixed by John Congleton, just add some extra craziness into the action, no doubt. And for a small price, Wiggins will come to your house while you listen to the album and project crazy stuff to make you trip. (Wiggins will not come to your house and project crazy stuff to make you trip). You can, however, watch his video for “Hallucinists” below, which should serve your needs just fine.

The debut offering from the Whiskey Priest, Wave and Cloud, is an album for the patient and penitent. It’s slowly developing folk, established from the start with the over nine-minute long “A Seafarer’s Lament,” which crawls through an ambient backdrop left lingering and lost at sea. The project of Seth Woods (Sad Accordions; Zookeeper; Alex Dupree and the Trapdoor Band), the Whiskey Priest seems torn between impulses, which may account for his moniker. Pulling with a minimalist lull through the first five songs on the album – a murky drawl spun over gently repetitive guitar lines – the album finally jumps with some energy and excitement by the second half of the nearly hour long LP. Woods manages both aspects of his songwriting tendencies well, but they are also incongruous as presented, a problem of more overall pacing and tracklisting that distracts from the quality of the songs rather than enhancing it.

Wow B&W Years, this sounds awesome. After popping and grooving around on their debut album and last year’s Nursery Myths EP, The Black and White Years seems to be coming out hard for their sophomore LP, Patterns. The first single, “Up!”, which you can download below, jumps right into Yeasayer territory with some swirling beatastic rhythms. The 13 song offering from the quartet will be released officially November 16, and if this track is any indication, we’re in for a real treat here. Two more songs are up on their myspace and they are equally full of electro-noodling, though with Butler’s swooning croon easing the pulse a bit. Given the success they had off of their debut, it’s refreshing to hear them keep pushing themselves into some new sounds with the follow-up, and we’re excited to see how this comes together live. The Black and White Years’ next show is lined up to be their CD release at the ND on November 12.

Here’s a little something to help get you in the mood for Halloween, especially as we seem to be actually experiencing some kind of weird autumn-like weather outside. The Black Angels’ new album, Phosphene Dream, is laced with surprisingly jangly retro-garage turns, and none moreso than the penultimate track, “Telephone.” The psych stars recently presented a video for it that is kinda creepy, kinda cool, and all around pretty good for the quick little 2:00 minute shot of a song. The video was directed by Oswald James, who is also directing the upcoming film about the third Austin Psych Fest that went down this year. As for this video, let’s just say that if you’ve ever wondered what the Black Angels will look like in oh, say, 60 years, well, here you go! Apparently they have and/or will develop quite a love for the head scarf - making your grandmother hip again, so go raid those attics to be ahead of the next hipster trend, folks! Check out the video for “Telephone” below, and while the band is currently across the ocean regaling the European masses, we’ll have a chance to catch them back in Austin on November 19 at La Zona Rosa.

You know, for a song titled “Sunrise,” there is a surprising lack of color here. But really, now we’re just nickpicking as everything else about this song and video is pretty gorgeous. Mmmmm, sweet steel guitar. Directed by Nick Smith, who has previously done some work for Octopus Project and the Flaming Lips (that explains the tracers!), “Sunrise” is in support of the instrumental septet’s latest offering of the same name. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the LP is made up pieces that My Education composed for their live score of F.W. Murnau’s 1927 silent film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans a while ago. The album was released back in April by local publicity-turned-label group the Loyalty Firm, who are also putting out a new album from the Boxing Lesson soon, and trying to raise some money for some vinyl singles from both the Boxing Lesson and My Education. As for My Education, they are reportedly back in the studio working on a new album which should be released early next year. Check out the video for “Sunrise” below:

In case you’re like us and checked out last week and happened to avoid the interwebs, you may have missed that White Denim offered up an entire album for free download last Thursday. That’s 12 new songs that the band have thrown out into the world just because they can. These were mostly recorded over the summer as the band fooled around in their trailer with some new directions, though span back into random tapes saved over the course of their career. While they’re certainly not altogether typical of the band’s usual sound, they’re also certainly not just cast-off demos or something. In fact, most bands would kill to be able to put out an album like this. Called Last Day of Summer, there are some pretty great new directions that the now quartet (having added Austin Jenkins into the mix) throw out here, especially the rootsy soul of “If You’re Changing” and the Latin jazzy instrumental “Incaviglia,” and wicked piano and bass romp of “Champ.” If we had to describe the overall character of the album we’d say it’s, well, summery. It’s a bit more mellow and strummy, but still with a few moments of familiar White Denim bursts. The band is currently working on their proper third full-length, and is getting ready to head out on tour next month - starting with a date at Antone’s on October 16 where we’ll hopefully get to see some of these songs incorporated into the set. But touring means that the band is also in need of money (gas won’t just siphon itself, people!), so they will also be selling hand-packaged (heh, “hand-package” - and yes, we’re twelve) copies of the cd at shows. So sure, you can download the album for free here, but you know you want that limited edition physical copy on your shelf, so plan on picking yours up and helping the band out at Antone’s on the 16th.

First off, this is one of the better videos we’ve seen this year. Directed by Jon Collins, it’s absolutely gorgeous and certainly succeeds in accentuating all that is wonderful about Dentonite Sarah Jaffe’s debut LP, Suburban Nature. But we’re also wondering what is up with Jaffe being cast as some Mennonite muse? This video is strange and beautiful, but you have to wait for the big pay off at the end in which Will Johnson plays a creepy-smiling baptizer. What? Just go with it. Also, the video was premiered on USA Today’s site, which we suppose means that Sarah Jaffe has officially hit the big time. Your mom and you will both love this, so you can discuss how wonderful she is over family dinner. Sarah Jaffe: bringing families together since 2010. You can also download our previous feature of the mp3 of “Clementine” here, but we really recommend you get your hands on the full album. You will have that opportunity in person next Saturday, September 25, when Jaffe returns to Austin to play the Ghost Room with, appropriately enough given this video, One Baptist General. We’re not sure which Baptist General, per se, but it’s sure to be a great show nonetheless. Check out the video for “Clementine” below:

Early in 2010, Balmorhea released Constellations with local imprint Western Vinyl, their fourth album in as many years. The quintet’s sold out release show at the Central Presbyterian Church was a testament to how popular the instrumental outfit has become in Austin, inspiring a fervid but reverential fanbase enthralled by Balmorhea’s intricate, classically-based expositions. With Constellations, principle songwriters Rob Lowe and Michael Muller turned to a much more subdued, if no less impressive, stylistic compositions, peeling back the dramatic build that had increasingly crescendoed on their previous works. Yet what still emerges most from Balmorhea’s tunes are vivid imagistic and emotional episodes, fleeting narratives that arise through their subtle constructions spearheaded by guitar and piano. We spoke with Lowe and Muller via email about their recent work, the philosophy behind the band, and their place in the Austin music scene. Balmorhea will be making their Austin City Limits Festival debut on the Austin Ventures Stage on Saturday, October 9 at 11:20am.

Why, yes; yes you will be damned. We’ve resigned ourselves to our fate, but how ’bout you? Caleb Coy’s here to help if you’re having trouble. The Headdress focal point, better known for his sparse, reverbed psych with that outfit, is releasing a solo album with which he lets his Texas roots shine, attempting to conjure some of his iconic folk heroes like Blaze Foley and Townes Van Zandt, though he kinda reminds us of a more mellow William Elliott Whitmore. Called Wild Desert Rose, the album showcases Coy’s more traditional songwriting in slow Texan drawl. The recording seems intentionally rough, but actually makes the quality of the songs that much more rawly powerful. Wild Desert Rose was released today on Yer Bird (and we assume available at finer independent record stores, or digitally here). You can download the track “I’ll Be Damned” below, and though Coy doesn’t seem to currently have a show on the books excepts for some dates out in California next month, hopefully he’ll find a room to strum for us somewhere in the near future.

Undoubtedly one of the best live acts to emerge in Austin in the past few years, The Bright Light Social Hour are as relentless in their jam sessions as they are expansive in stretching the range of their sound. Across a BLSH show, there are moments of staggeringly tight indie guitar-fueled freak-outs, swaggering retro soul, funked up dance-punk, and psychedelic synth rockers, yet all expertly wrangled into a singular, engrossing experience - so much so that the quartet’s self-professed descriptor as simply “an American rock band” may be the only real recourse to genre. Even more impressively, The Bright Light Social Hour manage to capture that live energy on their eponymous debut LP, which the band will be releasing this Friday, September 17 at Antone’s. Joining them for the party are Brass Bed and the Frontier Brothers.