Austin Sound

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.

In our latest roundup of local shortstacks, we check in on three new bands who are offering up their debut EP’s, and get a taste of the latest work from on old Austin favorite. Spoon’s surprise announcement last week that they would be dropping a new EP called Got Nuffin’ apparently caught their spell checkers once more by surprise as well, but hey, we know the feeling. The three tunes aren’t much to chew on, but we reckon at least it’s sumpin’. Meanwhile, new group Literature, which features some guitar work by Kevin Adickes of Austin Sound favorites Moth! Fight! (where have those guys gone?), throw out their debut. Though more of a demo than official release, there are some good sparks ignited in the rough production. And just because you can’t have Literature without The Authors (no matter what Barthes says), we take on their eponymous debut, which seems to go high on the production end, but falters on originality. Also on tap in our roundup, new quartet Your Kisses Cause Crashes get caught in the headlights.