Austin Sound

It was a beautiful day here in Austin, so there was hope that maybe the new five song EP from the Dallas and Austin split quintet Blue Condition would provide a short soundtrack for a quick drive around town. Sadly, the only way Cheap Wine could become some sort of road trip soundtrack for this reviewer was if it literally got stuck in the CD player and I was forced to drive my car, Thelma and Louise style, into the goddamned Grand Canyon. At one point, I even had to roll up my windows at a stop light because I was embarrassed by the mortified looks from the middle aged woman in the car next to me. She probably was wondering how the hell someone could be blaring Blue Condition so loud yet look so disinterested. After all, don’t you usually blast rock because you’re enjoying it? (Or because you’re half deaf thanks to the sound man at Emo’s).

Formed over twenty years ago and having not played Austin in fifteen or so years, Danzig closed Fun Fun Fun Fest with a bang. The band that metalheads, punk rockers, and slightly ironic hipsters all love didn’t disappoint anyone who stood in the rain and mud all day long. Glenn Danzig’s voice - recognizable to [...]

Gorilla Biscuits, the late 80s hardcore legends, took to the Black Stage here at Fun Fun Fun Fest and blast through an intense punk-by-the-numbers set. But, when you practically wrote the coloring book, it’s a-ok to be by-the-numbers. Blisteringly fast drums, shredding chugging guitars, and Civ’s frantic vocals whipped the soggy masses into a frothy [...]

Where is Martin Swope? Where is he!? Post-punk legends sounded tame. The weirdness brought by Swope’s off-stage tape and sound manipulation seemed to be missing from the mix (or maybe he’s just not here, literally) and it felt like the band was slightly neutered. Regardless, neutered for Mission of Burma still means there’s a wall [...]

Lucero, Lucero, Lucero. How do I not like thee? I like Bruce and the E-Street band. I like Mike Ness. I once owned a Mighty Mighty Bosstones album or two – including later era old man Bosstones. I can’t get enough of the Hold Steady and the Drive By Truckers. I even really like Avail [...]

I feel really sorry for the people who stood in the rain for Atlas Sound, because they just missed the best set of Fun Fun Fun Fest. Four guys in dime store wigs playing Metallica covers as competently as a bunch of fraternity boys fronted by a man dressed as comedic superhero Gallagher. Maybe for [...]

I don’t believe in fate and I certainly don’t believe in the gods, but it’s an eerie coincidence that moments after Bankrupt & The Borrowers finished their set, the heavens opened up and the rain began. Back in early October, a house fire took the life of Bankrupt guitarist/trombonist Jon Pettis and the band opted [...]

A few years ago, Canadian “rock collectives” were all the rage; From Broken Social Scene to The Arcade Fire to The Unicorns to countless other over-orchestrated, over-blown, over-thought bands, the music world was abuzz with soaring melodies and carefully placed xylophone solos. Toronto’s Fucked Up clearly doesn’t give a crap about that shit. A “rock [...]

One of the bands circled on my list since the lineup was announced, Dead Confederate is quickly becoming a completely under appreciated and unrecognized live juggernaut. Since they opened for REM at SXSW 2008 outside at Stubb’s BBQ, they’ve returned to Austin a handful of times and each time they’ve convinced me that the followup [...]

Didn’t I just write about how bands like Pelican and Russian Circles draw kinder, mellow, gentler folks by filing down metal’s caustic edges? Well, so do Austin’s metal darlings, The Sword. Another amazing band that satisfies indie kids’ guilty pleasure, the most commonly overheard phrase during their set was some derivative of “face melting”. By [...]