Austin Sound

No Mas Bodas are about as non-traditional as their name would suggest, an affront to expectations as they warp through a miasma of synth-rippled beats cut by cello, harp and sax, among other surprisingly paired instruments. The result is both ethereal and wicked, a somewhat disorienting yet enveloping ebb and flow that extends to the be-glittered experimental spectacle of their live shows. Earlier this year, the female quartet delivered their debut album, Erotic Stories from the Space Capsule, and have a new EP in the works set to release later this year. You can download an unmixed taste of their new material with the tune “Carousel” below, or better yet, catch the band live this Saturday as part of the Austin Sound-approved Ditch the Fest Fest, which features over 40 bands on three stages at Cheer Up Charlies, and all for FREE! The DtF Fest kicks off at noon, with No Mas Bodas playing inside at 8:15pm.

Undoubtedly one of the best live acts to emerge in Austin in the past few years, The Bright Light Social Hour are as relentless in their jam sessions as they are expansive in stretching the range of their sound. Across a BLSH show, there are moments of staggeringly tight indie guitar-fueled freak-outs, swaggering retro soul, funked up dance-punk, and psychedelic synth rockers, yet all expertly wrangled into a singular, engrossing experience - so much so that the quartet’s self-professed descriptor as simply “an American rock band” may be the only real recourse to genre. Even more impressively, The Bright Light Social Hour manage to capture that live energy on their eponymous debut LP, which the band will be releasing this Friday, September 17 at Antone’s. Joining them for the party are Brass Bed and the Frontier Brothers.

L.A.X. offers up gritty dancefloor dramas, throbbing beats bursting behind the aggressively grooved vocals of Andrew Collins, Erin Jantzen, and Yadira Brown. Originating as an unlikely electro-infused side project of Collins and Jantzen, both from much harder backgrounds with At All Cost and Rory & the Artificial Heart, respectively, L.A.X. has evolved into a six-piece party-crashing force. This year brought their second release in the form of the “A” EP, while the band continues to erupt across stages locally with their uncompromising synth and guitar jams. Check them out this Saturday, September 11 as they headline the inside stage of the “Wild Frontier Fest” at Mohawk, with a huge lineup that includes Holy Fuck, Oh No Oh My, The Frontier Brothers, Follow that Bird!, Ringo Deathstar and about twenty other bands.

Building on the chemistry achieved with their former project, The Story Of, Alex Huff, David McCully, and Michael Brennan teamed with drummer Brian Bolek to create Melogrand earlier this year, and already with a 7″ under their belt, the quartet’s melodic pop has been garnering deserved attention down Red River. While maintaining some of the expansive elements that defined The Story Of’s direction, Melogrand smooths the edges with a tighter focus and Brit-pop touch that can still drift into extensive psych-laced digressions, especially live. The band’s debut LP will be released later this year, and looks already to be one the year’s best local premiers. Melogrand will be joining the giant Red River Rocks party this Saturday, August 28, at the Mohawk, which features three stages of bands and DJs including Dead Confederate, Hacienda, Futurebirds, The Eastern Sea, Frank Smith, The Noise Revival Orchestra, The Mercers, Booher and the Turkeyz, The Georgian Company, ZEALE, Freshmillions, Ume, Built By Snow, The Pons, Stereo is a Lie, The Boxing Lesson, Red Falcon, Young Girls, My Education, Team Fabrication, and much more. The party kicks off at 2:00pm.

The Hex Dispensers are brash, bristling, and a burst of unrivaled garage punk energy and intensity. True to their name, however, the quartet are equally as about dispelling the seriousness of their edge with smart but often irreverent shocks of blazing chords and infectiously riotous odes to the otherworldly underbelly and outcasts. The band’s sophomore album, Winchester Mystery House, was released last year courtesy of Douchmaster Records, and they just unloaded a new ghostly single 7″ on Trouble In Mind, featuring a surprising ballad and cover of Denton-based Occult Detective Club’s “I’m a Ghost.” You can watch the Hex Dispensers work their black magic this Saturday, August 7, at Emo’s, as they join a stellar lineup of the Royal Baths, Moonhearts, a Giant Dog and headliner Ty Segall.

The Crack Pipes are an Austin institution, ripping up Red River for the past 15 years. The quintet pummels out a garage blues that is unleashed with a punk catharsis and soulful swagger. It’s an impressive melding of styles that actually justifies their wide range of influences listed below (from Stax to SST). Though it’s been a while since the Pipes smoked out a new recording, their return to the stage in 2008 following guitarist Billy Steve Korpi’s diagnosis with Leukemia has helped brace the upstart Austin garage scene with a sense of the mid-Nineties tradition that preceded it. Few things match the Crack Pipes fervent energy onstage, led by the manic sermonizing of frontman Ray Pride, which you can get a taste of with the classic “Q&A” for download below. The Crack Pipes will taking over Emo’s Inside this Saturday, July 24, along with John Schooley and His One Man Band, and with the legendary Delta bluesman T-Model Ford headlining.

When Candi and the Strangers released their eponymous debut album last winter, it was a surprising rush of rich, throbbing textures coursing around the ethereally entrancing vocals of Samantha Constant. There are flashes of Stereolab-esque, Euro electro-pop, but the most impressive elements of the local quintet’s sound emerge from the intricate melding of varied and complex arrangements into such seamless pop tunes, at once dense and airy. The band is planning on releasing their second album this fall, and you can watch them bring the sound to life with their recently added visuals at the Mohawk this Friday, July 16, as they join the lineup for the From the Mind of Adi” series for an Art/Fashion/Music Extravaganza benefiting HAAM. Also playing amid the spectacular are the Happen-Ins and the Bubbles.

Soft Healer can be somewhat deceptive. At their core, the local quartet lays down swanky, retro R&B and soul grooves, bronzed by indelible bass lines and subtly throbbing beats, and punctuated by sharp guitar jolts and smooth sax. The sultry and swaying vocals of Marie Butcher tie it all together, bending like smoke through the barroom and rising in powerful sweeps that falls between Dusty Springfield and Cat Power. Yet atop their underlying pop touch, the band can also turn intimidating psychedelic flourishes with a cathartic edge, which helps account for their bill this Friday at Emo’s with local psych droners Headdress and L.A.’s Pocahaunted. Soft Healer released their debut 7″ earlier this year on Captured Tracks, from which you can download “Gentle One” below, and will have a 10″ one-sider coming out on Monofonus later this summer. Expect their debut LP from Captured Tracks soon as well, but catch them first this Friday, June 25th, at Emo’s.

Austin has seen a number of solid orchestral pop and rock outfits in recent years, but perhaps none have created more buzz than Mother Falcon. The young group, which boasts around 20 given members, wowed the crowd at SXSW when they were given the opportunity to play the Austin Music Awards, but they have been equally swelling huge crowds along Red River as well. Their debut EP, Still Life, is an amazing example of expansive and intricately arranged movements carved into pristine and concise pop. Strings dominate and dance behind the emotive vocal turns, balancing the distinctive croon of Tamir Kalifa against harmonies between Nick Gregg and Claire Puckett. While the band’s album is mesmerizing (and they are planning on recording a full-length later this year), they are best beheld in their sprawling live sets. You can do just that this Sunday, May 23, as they play the aftershow for Of Montreal at the Mohawk. In other words, plan to stick around.

Literature produces a blast of unfettered, jangled proto-punk raucousness, cut with deliciously lo-fi garage playfulness touched off by the sound of the Modern Lovers. Behind Nathaniel Cardaci’s lyrical wit and onstage mania, the quartet is equally capably of compelling pop gems-in-the-rough and shots of fevered energy, bolstered by guitar from MothFight’s Kevin Attics and bass courtesy of local tape-and-vinyl label Natrix Natrix impresario Seth Whaland. Last year, Literature put out their debut, Hello Berlin on cassette, which recently just got a second run from Voice Academy and Dead Format. They are also the first band to turn the tables on us with their own interview in their awesome Sound Off below. Literature will be open for interpretation this Saturday, May 15, as they blow out Beerland with the Beets, Ringo Deathstar, and Yellow Fever. Get a taste with the track “It’s Cruel” for download.