Austin Sound

Surging originally out of San Antonio, Hacienda’s indelible retro pop masterpieces have landed them in good company the past couple years. Most notably, the Villanueva brothers and cousin Dante Schwebel (who takes the lead in answering our profile questions) have served as the backing band for Dan Auerbach’s solo work, but it’s their own tunes that have merited the majority of their much deserved national attention. Cutting Beach Boys harmonies with a suave touch of Tex-Mex rock on par with the Sir Douglas Quintet, Hacienda’s 2008 debut, Loud is the Night delivered a flash of Sixties style that explodes live. This month, the quartet returns with their followup, Big Red and Barbacoa, which you can get a preview of with the song “I Keep Waiting” for download below. Hacienda will be hitting Antone’s this Saturday, April 17, with an awesome local lineup of the Heartless Bastards headlining and Leatherbag opening the night.

For the past few weeks, Western Ghost House has been running the west coast with Crooks, but their tour ends at the Mohawk this Sunday, March 7. Western Ghost House first captured our attention last year with their live show, and now with an EP and couple of good tours under their belt, have congealed into a local band to watch in 2010. While their songs can kick with hard-lined, dark alt. country vibe, their unbridled bursts and Jesse Pantoja breathless, Dan Bejar-esque vocals have taken the band in much a much more convincingly indie direction. The quartet is preparing the release of their debut LP for this summer, and you check out their new road-tested tunes March 7 at the Mohawk for a welcome home show along with Woodsboss and Crooks.

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.

Last year, the long-time-coming new project from Matt Oliver finally took full shape with the release of two excellent 7-inches: “The Black Mask” and “Days of Being Wild”. Both were a testament to just how polished and promising TV Torso is right out of the gate, and suggest the trio could easily be the next local act to break big. Much of that will depend on their upcoming full-length album, planned for release later this year. Balancing disenchanted pop with heavier, guitar-ripped psych washes, all twisted together behind Oliver’s rough-hewn, Britt Daniel-esque vocals, TV Torso can slice simultaneously beautifully infectious and darkly intensive. The band will be playing inside at Emo’s this Saturday, February 20, along with the Corto Maltese and Jesse Woods - your last chance to see TV Torso before their secret gets out at SXSW.

Woven Bones are all about rhythm - a hard driving, insistent pummeling of percussive backbone propelling the unholy fuzz and scrawl of guitar and bass from Andrew Burr and Matthew Nichols. With an intensity that leaps from the Cramps and Stooges fury to the intimidating and hazy barrage of Primal Scream and the Jesus and Mary Chain, the band is finally prepping the release of their debut LP for this summer. But already behind the release of three vinyl singles and an EP, as well as the incomparable surge of sound at their live shows, Woven Bones have emerged over the past year as one of Austin’s most promising bands about to break out of the gritty Red River garage scene. That reputation will be further advanced this weekend as they help celebrate the release of Matador Records’ Austin compilation, Casual Victim Pile, with a three night, 17-band stand at Beerland. Woven Bones plays Friday, February 5 alongside Wild America, The Young, The Fleshlights, Elvis, and the No No No Hopes, but the party kicks off on Thursday night and continues through Saturday.

Crooks digs up deeply planted Texas country roots and dusts them off with lonesome guitar, southwestern horns, and Josh Mazour’s equal parts aching and rowdy vocals. While the local trio pulls no punches with its country sound, they also add a slice of Deer Tick’s indie impulse live, making them one of the few genuinely country bred acts that fits just as easily at home in Red River’s clubs. After releasing their self-titled debut album in 2008, the band has begun to gain traction and is poised to this year finally kick up some much deserved dirt. Check out two of the tunes off of their debut for download below. Crooks will be heading out for a quick west coast tour next month, but you can catch them before they take off this Friday, January 29 at the Scoot Inn along with ex-Weary Boys outfit Woodsboss, and the folk-drone psych of Headdress.

What may be most impressive about the eponymous debut album from Scan Hopper is that it was mostly a solo work, the effort of Scott Hopkins before he assembled his current quintet. The album, released in 2009, is dense yet remains accessible, shifting from ominous psych and dark wave dominance that at times hearkens Can, to catchier and more jaggedly stripped punk bursts, and calmer, understated pop textures. Scan Hopper’s new album, employing the full band, is due for release later this summer, and you can get a taste of two tracks from the debut below. Scan Hopper skips into the Hole in the Wall this Thursday, January 21, with the Bubbles and Waldo Wittenmyer. And apparently if you mention Austin Sound, they will give you a hug, but we are not accountable for any possible litigation that may arise from this.

Led by the mesmerizing vocals of band centerpiece Celeste Griffin, Monarchs sway in a space between hypnotic Americana and evocative soul, melding the powerful and alluring force of Neko Case, Hope Sandoval, Chan Marshall, and even touches of Erika Wennerstrom. Splitting the band lineups between Griffin’s hometown of Birmingham, Alabama and her current base of operations here in Austin, Monarchs released their sophomore EP, Those Words, Those Frames, last year, and have proven a rich addition to the local scene. Find out for yourself this weekend as Monarchs injects some soul into the Hole in the Wall and helps Haunting Oboe Music say farewell this Friday, January 15, alongside Salesman and Obsolete Machines.

As their name might suggest, local quartet Legs Against Arms languishes in a constant and irreconcilable state of anxiety and struggle. It’s an angst that they manage to sublimate into their rich, orchestral-tinged sound, however, smoothly unraveling anthems on par with Snow Patrol or Stars. Keeping the textures and emotions harnessed and understated even as they climax into guitar jangle and pop-fuzz, the tandem of songwriters Daniel Dillon and Bruce Ewing push the group’s direction in a careful balance that coheres impressively into a whole. Legs Against Arms will finally be releasing their debut EP, Come On Let’s Disappear, this Saturday, November 28 at Club DeVille, with a bill that also features the Bubbles and the Baker Family.

When we single out bands for our Sound Off section, it’s brand new gems like Way No Way that make us most excited. Formed only this year, the quartet combines the forces of some familiar local fixtures, and has melded impressively in a short time. With a power pop heart, fuzzed out guitar tones and sublimely catchy melodies, Way No Way is intentionally rough around the edges behind their proto-punk leanings, but without ever compromising their inherent infectiousness. Classic touches of bands like the Wedding Present, the Soft Boys, Wire, and Sonic Youth rise to the surface to meld with a more contemporary blur of Kevin Dehan’s scruffed vocals. Way No Way will be releasing their debut effort in cassette tape form this Saturday, November 21 at the Parlor as part of a dual release party with Red Leaves, who will be delivering their new EP Trouble in the City of Water. Get a taste of two of Way No Way’s songs below.