Austin Sound

SXSW kicks into full swing today, so whether you’ve got a VIP-chain swingin’ from your neck or empty pockets and a yearnin’ for free beer, these next few days are going to provide, provide, provide! Here we have a by-no-means-comprehensive list of suggestions for getting your local fix on Wednesday. If you’re looking for the [...]

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.

Looks like our WiFi is down at Fun Fun Fun Fest, so the live blogging will be on hold until we can either get back up or buy a thousand foot LAN cable. While it’s WiFi watch ‘08 down at Waterloo Park, we’ll keep taking pictures and update if any WiFi storms roll through, but [...]

Technical issues haunted the National’s set last night, and once the band finally got on stage to play (opening with “Brainy”) all issues seemed to have been resolved. Trying to make up for lost time, the band hurtled through a set of material from their latest two albums (Boxer and Alligator). Frontman Matt Berninger noted [...]

Somewhere around 7pm, Dan Deacon, god of all hipsters, crashed the show. Forgoing the stage to join the ranks of the common man, Deacon set up shop in the audience (as you can see from the pictures) and brought the house down from there. With the music pounding and the lights strobing, Waterloo Park briefly [...]

When I read Murakami’s novels, I tend to imagine Deerhoof’s Satomi Matsuzaki as the female characters. Dancing across the stage with a tiger mask, throwing up hand symbols and jumping in time with a bass guitar slung over her shoulder, she’s an odd sight to behold, but the perfect front woman for such a quirky [...]

Fans of wah-wah pedals and heavy-set trumpet players rejoice: it’s Brownout! The Austin group are one of the more unique players at this festival, drawing predominately on funk influences that you won’t find on the punk and indie stages. Wailing horn licks give way to extended guitar solos as Brownout jam their way into the [...]

Earlier this week, I described a lot of bands as “a band you’ll be able to hear anywhere in the park, whether you’re listening or not.” My implication, of course, was that they were loud - “epic” even. Of course, I was speaking metaphorically about most of those bands because, let’s be honest, it’s a [...]

Right at around 4 o’clock, Austin’s staple electronic act The Octopus Project took over Stage 4 with a slew of electronics and props in the theme of the band’s “friendly ghost” image. With a hearty crowd built up the band launched into a set of fimiliar Octopus Project staples, including songs from the new Hello, [...]

Will Johnson and Co. took the stage shortly after Parts & Labor. A quick disclosure: Centro-matic are easily one of my favorite bands, so seeing them consisted of about 99% loving it, 1% objective analysis. The band is known for their extensive back catalog, but also for their willingness to play nearly any song from [...]