Austin Sound

We don’t think anyone saw this coming! Yesterday afternoon, the Statesman reported that KUT has named Matt Munoz as the new manager of the Cactus Cafe, replacing longtime Cactus helmsman Griff Luneburg as the local NPR affiliate begins to take over the venue. We’re kinda bummed the drama is all over, as the hunt to fill the manager position was shaping up to be quite showdown between the much supported, old school Luneburg, the much maligned and supposedly-conniving Cameron Smith, and the darkhorse of Hole in the Wall booker Paul Minor. Given all the heated debate, maybe KUT was smart to hire someone nobody suspected! We don’t know much of anything about Munoz, but the Statesman has a pretty good background on him. Apparently Munoz is a West Texas A&M grad, and has been working for record labels for the past decade or so, including Arista, Warner Bros., Universal, and finally Justice. Great! Someone from the major label biz - the Cactus can’t go wrong with that kind of business background! What, were all the out-of-business music magazine editors and publishers not available? We kid - we’re sure Munoz will do a fine job. Luneburg will be hanging around until mid-December, as well, to assist in the transition and, we assume, make off with as many of the Cactus show posters as he can.

L.A.X. offers up gritty dancefloor dramas, throbbing beats bursting behind the aggressively grooved vocals of Andrew Collins, Erin Jantzen, and Yadira Brown. Originating as an unlikely electro-infused side project of Collins and Jantzen, both from much harder backgrounds with At All Cost and Rory & the Artificial Heart, respectively, L.A.X. has evolved into a six-piece party-crashing force. This year brought their second release in the form of the “A” EP, while the band continues to erupt across stages locally with their uncompromising synth and guitar jams. Check them out this Saturday, September 11 as they headline the inside stage of the “Wild Frontier Fest” at Mohawk, with a huge lineup that includes Holy Fuck, Oh No Oh My, The Frontier Brothers, Follow that Bird!, Ringo Deathstar and about twenty other bands.

Wow, we really couldn’t be more excited about helping sponsor the first annual “Ditch the Fest” Fest. Set up by Lucy the Poodle productions to be a FREE alternative event for all those people that just couldn’t see shoveling out a huge chunk of money to endure the Eagles at ACL Fest, Ditch the Fest will be taking place all day on Saturday, October 9 at Cheer Up Charlies. No matter how you feel about ACL, though, the DtF Fest has one of the most amazing local lineups that we’ve seen in a long, long time. They have over 40 bands that will be taking over three stages at the East Sixth site, and it’s all ages, and all free. Headlining are Woven Bones and Free Moral Agents (featuring “Ikey” Owens of The Mars Volta), but really it’s the rest of this lineup that blows our minds. It’s a veritable who’s who of some of Austin’s best emerging talent. The party kicks off at noon on Oct. 9 and runs until 2:00am. More information to come, but mark your calendars - and maybe even if you do have tickets to the sold out ACL, you should consider ditching Saturday for this event! Lineup of bands playing below:

After staking their claim with 2009’s Big Strike in Silver City, Frank Smith is wasting no time in moving forward. They’re shooting to have a new album out this October, which is tentatively titled Nineteen. According to the quartet’s myspace, the album seems to have been originally titled Takers, but they apparently changed it so as not to create confusion with this Oscar-worthy screen-gem. After all, who can compete with Matt Dillon? We’re not sure why it’s called Nineteen instead, but we’re glad to know it’s at least of legal age, especially given the song “L.O.V.E.” that they have shared for download below. There’s a lot here that folks familiar with Frank Smith will dig in the tune - the loping alt-country rhythm, subtle steel, and of course, Aaron Sinclair’s direly graveled vocals. But what has always made Frank Smith so interesting is the unexpected turns they make, and “L.O.V.E.” is no exception. The quiet harmonies and hushed high range that band shifts into in the middle of the song is a surprise, and downright eerie - making us very curious what the rest of the album will sound like. We’ll have a chance to find out tomorrow, September 3, as the band will deliver some of those tunes at the Mohawk with a nice lineup of the Mynabirds and Crooked Fingers. Check out “L.O.V.E.” below.

Whoa, the Murdocks are pissed! What the hell, guys? The trio shared the mp3 for “Black Jesus Knocking” with us way back when, and will finally be releasing their new album, Distornist, this Saturday at the Parish. This is their first LP since 2005, and apparently they’ve pent up a little anger and energy. The new video for “Black Jesus Knocking” is just, well, disturbing. Kudos on finding a little kid that looks like he could actually be a young Franklin Morris, but this kids also got some problems. Actually, the stigmata-palm slapped bullies at the end probably have bigger problems. We imagine this is something like how a tea party rally goes down - first they get really mad and bully folks, then have some kind of self-abusing spiritual revelation. Or something. Check out the video below, which was directed by Tina Carlsen, produced, edited, and written by Noël Kristi Wells, and with cinematography by Travis Ragsdale. And catch the Murdocks CD release show this Saturday, Sept 4 at the Parish with The Couch, Naysays, and Through the Trees.

If you haven’t been following Monahans’ mp3 a month project as they build up to a new album, you’re really missing out. Go here and get all six tracks that they currently have up while you can. Their latest song, “I Break the Silence”, offers up some excellent work from drummer Roberto Sanchez, who is literally a primary driving force behind Monahans’ sound, turning Greg Vanderpool and company’s sound into epic dimensions. The song is purportedly inspired and derived from accounts about “Wounded Knee,” but it’s still pretty impressionistic in usual Monahans’ style. The quartet’s third album, composed of these songs and possibly more, should be out early next year if all goes to schedule, and they will next be playing live in Austin in late September with a show at the Parish, which should be a great room for their encompassing sound. Check out “I Break the Silence” below.

Holy hell! If you missed the Sword yesterday in the Waterloo parking lot, this should help you regret it even more. Today the Sword unsheathes their new album, Warp Riders, on Kemado, and to celebrate they have offered up the first of their “Warp Riders” series of videos. Last month, we previewed the mp3 of “Tres Brujas”, and let’s just say that the video lives up to the epicness of the song. We’ll let you tease out what exactly the story is here, basically because we can’t figure it out. The press release says that it is “Seven Samurai crossed with The Magnificent Seven meets Mad Max filtered through the imagination of the Sword”, which works for us except that the Sword is only a quartet. This video will be followed by two more, ““Lawless Lands” and “Night City,” so you’ll have to wait to see how it all ends. We predict total domination by the Sword though. In the meantime, your next chance to catch them locally is at the Austin City Limits Music Fest in October, after they return from slaughtering Australia and Japan. Check out the video below.

Hold your horses there SXSW and Fun Fun Fun Fest, we aren’t done talking about ACL, yet! Today, C3 announced their official after and pre-shows for the early October bash in Zilker Park, and there is some good stuff for those of you that prefer to pass on the heat. We know it will break your hearts to miss those ACL headliners that everyone is so uber-excited about, but hey, here’s your chance to see the Antwoord. For the Thursday pre-shows, you can kick off the weekend with Spoon at the Mohawk (wow!), while Friday our money is split between Emo’s with the Black Lips, Those Darlins, and The Ettes outside, and Givers, Cults, and TV Torso in, while the Black Keys and Foals take on Stubb’s. For Saturday night, we’d probably take Girls with the Soft Pack at Antone’s, but it’s also tempting to see if there might actually be a tune or two that Jimmie Dale Gilmore does with the Monsters of Folk at Stubb’s. Anyway, peruse the schedule below, or here. And tickets for all of these shows will be going on sale August 27 at 10:00am. We suspect that Spoon at the Mohawk will blow out the servers first.

Building on the chemistry achieved with their former project, The Story Of, Alex Huff, David McCully, and Michael Brennan teamed with drummer Brian Bolek to create Melogrand earlier this year, and already with a 7″ under their belt, the quartet’s melodic pop has been garnering deserved attention down Red River. While maintaining some of the expansive elements that defined The Story Of’s direction, Melogrand smooths the edges with a tighter focus and Brit-pop touch that can still drift into extensive psych-laced digressions, especially live. The band’s debut LP will be released later this year, and looks already to be one the year’s best local premiers. Melogrand will be joining the giant Red River Rocks party this Saturday, August 28, at the Mohawk, which features three stages of bands and DJs including Dead Confederate, Hacienda, Futurebirds, The Eastern Sea, Frank Smith, The Noise Revival Orchestra, The Mercers, Booher and the Turkeyz, The Georgian Company, ZEALE, Freshmillions, Ume, Built By Snow, The Pons, Stereo is a Lie, The Boxing Lesson, Red Falcon, Young Girls, My Education, Team Fabrication, and much more. The party kicks off at 2:00pm.

This week’s Chronicle reports that Daytrotter, the popular site based out of Rock Island, Illinois that has made a name for itself over the past 5 years by offering unique recording sessions with a who’s who of indie’s most popular acts, will be branching out to Austin. The site has partnered with local studio Big Orange to start recording Daytrotter Sessions there full time, helmed by TV Torso’s Matt Oliver. Daytrotter has been using Big Orange during SXSW since 2007, but having them set up full time down here is a huge win, both for Daytrotter and Austin’s indie bands. The site has always had its ear close to the ground when it comes to the Austin music scene, continually tapping up-and-coming ATX bands to do sessions, but recording out of Big Orange full time will allow them to also take advantage of the bands rolling through town on tour, rather than, say, trying to convince them to go out of their way to Rock Island! Daytrotter is currently hitting over 100,000 unique visitors a month, so that’s a nice little bit of attention to bring to the table. Plus, given their horse logo, what better place to set up shop than a studio right next to urban stables!!