Austin Sound

We’re skeptical of the timing of this new video from the Sour Notes. First of all, there’s the whole death of Michael Jackson fad (is the death of a pop icon a fad? Sure, why not?). Second of all, we can’t help but think that putting a video on Youtube right before Halloween with “Thriller” in the title is some kind of major SEO chicanery on the part of said Sour Notes! We’re also wondering how director Paul Raila managed to so accurately capture every relationship we’ve ever been in. Well, us and William Burroughs. We’re told this is an homage to Jean Luc Godard’s “A Woman is a Woman,” but we don’t do film, so we’ll just have to take their word on that one. What we can say is it’s a damn finely shot video for damn fine song. Check it out below. You can also next catch the local quartet tomorrow, Oct. 28, when 101X’s Homegrown series hits Trophy’s with Visitors and Candi and the Cavities. The Sour Notes will have an official video release show (because that’s actually a thing, now) on November 10 with Diagonals for Alexander Speed’s debut CD release party. Hmm, Sour Notes and Speed - sounds like a night of Austin music to us!

Since releasing their debut EP, The Meat of the Fruit, last summer, the Sour Notes have quickly become local favorites, and with good reason. Principle Note Jared Boulanger crafts beautiful and questioning melodies that are rife with a direct pop angst. Yet that angst is sweetly plied, never over-bearing or melodramatic, and the quartet continually upends its pop stylings with unexpected samples and keyboard bursts that manage to keep the songs fascinating through repeated listenings, even as the short eight song album is over much too quickly.

There is an undeniable Death Cab for Cutie earnestness to many of the songs, bolstered by Boulanger’s Ben Gibbard-nodding vocals that are youthful and slightly sentimental. There is also a sense of the New Year’s hazy sound in the guitar tones and kind of sad suburban angst that seems to define the Kadane Brothers’ musings. While those bands best describe the Sour Notes overall aesthetic, Received in Bitterness also proves that they have much more to their music, however.

Though only getting together this year, the Sour Notes already have on EP in the bag and are set to release their debut LP, Received in Bitterness, early next year. This is one that we are certainly looking forward to, and to prepare us, the local quartet has delivered a video for “Is It Happening” off of the upcoming album. Also, you can find below a download for their amazing cover of Jawbreaker’s “Accident Prone.” We highly recommend you check these guys out at the Mohawk next Thursday, Dec. 11 before they head out on tour.