Austin Sound

It’s a drizzly day out here at Waterloo Park already, but hopefully it will clear up with some sunshine. Good news is that tickets are still available, and that today should be incredible, with Of Montreal, Danzig, GZA, and local standouts like Harlem, the Strange Boys, The Black and White Years, Pack of Wolves, plus [...]

Sorry Ratatat and Destroyer, as much as we love you, you are simply no match the glorious onslaught of the Jesus Lizard. Reunited and it feels so good? Hardly - the quartet was raging, the mosh pit in full effect, and David Yow’s lethal growl uncompromising. “This is dedicated to all the little Mexican boys [...]

If there was any doubt about how Shearwater would hold up against the fury of the Black stage just across the creek, Jonathan Meiburg wasted now time in allaying those concerns. The Shearwater frontman unloaded probably the most powerful vocals of all of Saturday’s shows, and as evidenced by 2008’s stellar Rook, his band has [...]

After a cerebral set by Yeasayer, Les Savy Fav came with something more visceral. Emerging in a mask that we assume was a shot at the Jesus Lizard, front man Tim Harrington proceeded to remove his costume, then his shirt, and then wiped a red substance upon fellow members, that can only be assumed to [...]

For all the hype that Alan Palomo’s Neon Indian has gotten, it’s hard to say that his other Fun Fun Fun Fest appearance as Vega wasn’t the more worthy. Like Vega, Neon Indian trades in smooth electro, Seventies flavored disco touched grooves, but made for the chill out room. Less compelling, though, despite the much [...]

Melding influences from new wave, synth-pop, and indie rock, Brooklyn’s indie veterans Yeasayer performed an engaging evening set on the Orange stage. After a meticulous sound check, the band broke into its trademark electro-pop twilling to an audience captive. Things didn’t really take hold, though, until midway through their set, when they began to perform [...]

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 [...]

It’s always a dangerous proposition when classic bands are pulled out of obscurity and brought back to play (Just ask anyone who saw Rodriguez at ACL!). It didn’t initially look good for Death either, as the classic Detroit rockers went on fifteen minutes late, and to a crowd that was unfortunately largely more interested in [...]

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 [...]