Austin Sound

When we last left our band of fearless warriors in the Sword, they had just taken off in their Battlestar Metallica after slaughtering the “Tres Brujas.” This second video in the Warp Riders saga came out before the holiday, but we would be very remiss in not continuing the trilogy by posting “Lawless Lands”. This one, done by Artificial Army, doesn’t really advance the plot much, but we do get some more awesome images of the band wielding swords in some little bit of meta choreography as the quartet rides the Warp (?) to planet number 2. To be honest, we’re a little lost on where all this is going, but hopefully we’ll figure it out when they release the final episode with “Night City.” If you missed the Sword at the Mohawk on New Years Eve (now featuring new drummer Kevin Fender from Employer, Employer) it may be a while before you’ll have a chance to catch them again, unless you’re planning a trip to Australia in the next couple of months. But we think they do still have for sell the badasslimited edition hexagon picture vinyl of Warp Riders if you want to go ahead and buy yourself the Christmas gift that your mother refused to get you. Check out the video for “Lawless Lands” below:

Last month, former Lions frontman Matt Drenik took off to Portland to record his new solo project, Battleme. But Austin is like the mafia: just when you thought you were out, it will pull you back in. We’re not sure if Drenik has officially returned to our little nook of Texas from the wilds of the Northwest autumn, but this Saturday he will be playing his first official show as Battleme here in Austin when he joins impressive Chicago songwriter Joe Pug at the Cactus Cafe. There might even be some of the new Battleme EPs, titled Big Score, on hand, but if not, you can still get a little taste of Drenik’s folky turn with “I Got Fire” for download below. The Portland tryst reported resulted in recording over forty songs, which include the Battleme tunes that Drenik is putting out on his own Get Loud label (ironic, we think), but also another full band project that has already found a home somewhere and will come out sometime next year. So, there is all that going on. Whew. Battleme hits the Cactus stage at 8:30.

The Weird Weeds - willing to give you the damn shirts off of their backs if you’ll just please buy a copy of their new album (or a t-shirt for that matter!). Their new LP, put out by the fine local folks at Autobus Records, is entitled Help Me Name Melody, and of course, we here at Austin Sound are nothing if not helpful! So we came up with some suggestions, naturally. Harold was the popular consensus, for some reason, but also receiving votes were Harmony, Cadenza, Glissando, and our favorite, Rondo! Of course, if we were just going by the Weird Weeds’ new tune “Underground”, we’d probably name it “something akin to mid-2000s Low?” The venerable Austin trio has also recently expanded to a quartet, adding one of our favorite upright bassists to the group in the person of Lindsey Verrill. Check out their video for “Underground” below, which was directed by the awesomely-named Fernando Flores, and you can get a taste of the Weird Weeds live this Thursday as they join the pre-Fun Fun Fun Fest party with the Austinist’s free show at the Mohawk.

For the love of god - can we just get done with one festival in this town before another tries to steal their thunder? We were so close! Fun Fun Fun Fest is only 4 days away. So….very….close! But no, SXSW had to sweep in and go ahead and announce their first round of bands for this March’s fest. Fair enough. It is, after all, a good starter list. Check out the full list below, which we totally just copied and pasted from the awesome folks at donewaiting.com, because the email that SXSW sent out was a mash-up mush of a paragraph. The music part of SXSW goes down March 16-20, and bands, you can still apply for a showcase until this Friday, November 5th! Or you can just play a dayshow. In other SXSW news, they also announced the second round of music panels, which happens to include the panel “Fun Fun Fun? Thirty Years of Chronicling Austin Music” submitted by AustinSound editor Doug Freeman. The panel is in conjunction with the release of The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology, which Freeman and Chronicle columnist Austin Powell edited and that UT Press will unleash upon the world next spring. Good Times! And that just earned this post the Shameless Self-Promotion tag! It’s like retweeting yourself. But you don’t care about any of that, so check below for the first batch of bands at SXSW:

You know how two people can listen to the same song and come away with two completely different impressions of it? It seems that this is especially true of instrumental music, just because there are words to hang your hat on and it just seems more naturally affective. But wow, we really have to say that Jeanne Hospod nailed our impression of the lead track for the Boxing Lesson’s new Fur State so precisely that it’s downright eerie! Tentacled dreamscape? Check! Ghost sperm? Check! Cats in a Topo Chico box! Triple check! Hospod, get out of our heads! So yeah, here is the first video for Fur State, an album that Paul Waclawsky and Jaylinn Davidson actually recorded back in 2004 when they first moved to Austin. It’s a bit different from the more full on psyched-out sound they’ve come to be known for since, but for being recorded in lo-fi mode on a 4-track, it’s also a nicely textured instrumental effort. There are no titles for the eight songs on the album, which might become somewhat awkward when fans start yelling for “Five!” at their shows. Perhaps we shall find out at the release party tonight at the Side Bar, which oddly enough the band does not seem to be actually playing, but rather having DJ Czech One simply spin the album? Weird, but ok. Listeners will also have a chance to hear some of the new tunes that the Boxing Lesson has been working on and that will manifest sometime next year on their upcoming album Possibilities. And oh, it’s a Halloween costume party, so be prepared! Here are some costume suggestions if you need them. Check out the video below:

Well, nothing about this sounds like fun at all. Devo guitarist Bob Mothersbaugh cut his hand pretty badly (”to the bone!”) and they’ve had to cancel their headlining slot at Sunday’s Fun Fun Fun Fest. Bummer indeed. Of course, never one to pass up a social media opportunity, @funfunfunfest has been soliciting suggestions for replacements on Twitter. Next year, they should just let fans book the entire festival through Twitter and Facebook! We’re actually pretty excited to see who Transmission comes up with as a replacement - they’ve vowed to dole out the full Devo money in their hunt, and if we were going throw in our chips on anyone being able to pull a pretty awesome act out of their ass at the last minute, it would definitely be the Transmission folks. So the obvious question (other than what the hell are they going to do with all the misprinted posters now) is who do you want to see at take up the headlining banner at Fun Fun Fun Fest? Tix are also still on sale for both the full weekend and individual days, and though we were really excited for Devo, the rest of the lineup still remains damned impressive enough for us. Meanwhile, the countdown to find a replacement is on, as FFFFest deploys next Friday, November 5. Weird Al is going to have to seriously step up his game now, and this totally dashes our hopes of seeing a collaboration on “Dare to Be Stupid.”

Interesting news in this week’s Chronicle that Emo’s owner Frank Hendrix is looking to diversify and expand even more after his move in August to help manage Antone’s. Hendrix is apparently determined to not sit idly by and let the Emo’s brand be overrun by the encroaching yuppiedom of downtown development. He’s taken over the former Back Room on Riverside and is turning it into an adjustable venue that can accommodate anywhere from 300 to 1,700 fans. It sounds like a pretty sweet set up, with a planned restaurant, designated parking (what!) and laundry facilities for bands on tour (no word on whether Austin’s gangs of unwashed hipsters will also be allowed access). Right now Hendrix is calling the place “Emo’s on the Hill,” which hopefully will change, because that name is just awful. More like Emo’s Over the Hill! What’s more, after the venue is completed sometime next fall, Emo’s proper will be undergoing it’s own renovation of their outside stage, which may not even re-open as a stage. We’re guessing another restaurant? People in Austin are eating way too much - we say just pull in a food trailer and call it a day. Anyway, as we said back when the Antone’s partnership was announced, these are smart moves for Hendrix, and will hopefully help keep Emo’s from going the usual way of the best Austin clubs (that way being, of course, out of business). It’s pretty clear that in another 5 years (if that) Red River ain’t gonna be the bastion of underground music it once was, and we’re going to be seeing all kinds of venue gentrification over on the East Side, which is fine by us because going downtown is a pain these days anyway. So here’s hoping folks like Hendrix can help move the scene before the scene moves on them. Oh, and OTR also reports that the Emo’s crew is going to be taking over booking at Ruta Maya and another unnamed venue sometime soon, as well.

Oh yeah, these were definitely the girls that our mom warned us about. Destined to break our hearts, or just stab us to death. San Antonio’s femme fatales have a new CD coming out today, titled Adventures in Coverland, that collects the three EPs of covers that they released in the spring along with a few new tunes. We love the cover songs that they’ve been doing, especially as the trio doesn’t just cover the tunes, but rips them up with their own distinctively gritty yet seductive flair. Case in point is their version of “Walkin’ After Midnight,” for which they recently released a video directed by GiaC bassist Jenn Alva. It looks as if Alva may have taken some cues from Robert Rodriguez, who did their last video for Bowie’s “As the World Falls Down,” and also featured the Comas’ original “Yo Oigo” in his new flick “Machete.” You’ll be able to find that song on the new covers album, despite its not being a cover? It’s all so very confusing. Anyway, check out the pretty awesome video for “Walkin’ After Midnight” below, and catch Girl in a Coma here in just a bit as they play a Waterloo Records instore at 5:00pm today. Hopefully they’ll wreck the joint like they do in the video!

Well, we didn’t see this coming. A press release just dropped in our inbox informing us that the Sword’s drummer, Trivett Wingo, has quit the band, and that the metalsmiths are canceling their remaining tour dates. We guess after you’ve played the ACL Festival, what else is there to aspire to, right? Wingo’s leaving, according to the press release is completely amicable (but, of course, if it doesn’t say that then you’re doing PR wrong). It seems Wingo’s just exhausted and spent after hammering away at it for seven years. Fair enough, and those were some pretty crazy times! We suppose this means that there will finally be more opportunities to catch In Dudero, but more importantly, that the Sword is now looking for a drummer? Half the folks at Headhunters just ran home to make their audition tape. Read the statements from Wingo and the band below, which may or may not have actually been said by them, but were sent out in the press release.

The physical release of Sunset’s new album, Loveshines But The Moon Is Shining Too, comes out tomorrow as 2LP opus, and Bill Baird and company have offered up the lead track for download to celebrate. This follows on the heels of the previous two tracks released back in July, but seeing as how this will be Sunset’s 5th album in three years, which more than most bands put out in their entire career, the band seems to have plenty of tunes to share. The music in Bill Baird’s head must out, one way or another. The good news is that Sunset keeps getting better and better. The band just returned from a little west coast jaunt, but doesn’t currently have any homecoming dates line up that we can find. Download “Heavy Light” below, and order the album from the fine folks at Autobus Records here.