Austin Sound

Deadman don’t as much riff off their influences as revel in them, unloading songs saturated in the Seventies folk rock of the Band and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Yet few artists can deliver that sound with as much authenticity and their own songwriting prowess as Steven Collins, who has built Deadman into a formidable outfit over the past couple of years. Though Collins’ songs often wrangle with heavy themes like faith and doubt, loss and redemption, they’re always set within a familiar, easy flowing sound lifts well beyond their subjects. Following up 2008’s excellent Severe Mercy, the band has a new extended single of “Take Your Mat Up and Walk” available to set the stage for the upcoming album by the same name. You can download one of the versions of the single below, and also catch Deadman this Thursday, February 25, as they take a turn at the Sessions showcase at the Hideout Theatre. They also hold down a residency at the Saxon Pub every Tuesday night, so you have plenty of chances to check them out.

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 [...]

While it couldn’t really compare with their show last year at Fiesta Gardens, which was all out spectacle, Of Montreal still managed to put on quite a carnival of ridiculousness. Even given the sublime and eccentric quality of their brand of glam pop and danceably sardonic tunes, the sound was much more on par with [...]

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 [...]

Conditions weren’t the best for Austin garage rockers, The Strange Boys. The rain had been falling hard from the end of Harlem’s set and all through set up. So it was kind of a relief to hear twangy guitar and mumbled vocals of the Boys. What’s more, the group’s new addition of vocalist/saxophonist Jenna Thornhill [...]

With so many bands submerging themselves under layer of synthesizers and loop effects (like so many electro-pop outfits that performed on the Orange Stage this year), it’s great to see that Austin Harlem are actually playing their own instruments and enjoying their own sound on stage. Coming from the audience, I think its safe to [...]

Weather it was the weather, or actually part of the performance, Broadcast’s set seemed to pop and hiss across their ambient electro. Whether intended or not, the scratchiness worked just fine into the Birmingham, UK duo’s sound - deep shoegaze with minimalist experimental flourishes that was mesmerizing behind Trish Keenan’s vocals and James Cargill’s guitar. [...]

Oh Chris Rose, how we’ve missed you down here in Austin since you decided to take off for the NYC. Our little burg just hasn’t rocked the dancefloors quite as hard after you left. So needless to say, having Car Stereo (Wars) mixup maelstrom sweep back into town was a welcome event, and his samples, [...]