Austin Sound

The past year on the Austin music scene has been a rather up-and-down affair. We’ve had some fantastic developments, like the internet radio tastemakers Woxy moving to town and making themselves right at home, and we’ve had a number of low points, like the continued fight over sound ordinances and city hall stifling plans for a dedicated music department. We also lost long time Austin icons like Stephen Bruton, Tina Marsh, and Rusty Wier, and even Sky “Sunlight” Saxon moved to Austin only to quickly move on to yet another plane of existence. And already at the start of the new decade, our music scene is caught between promise and controversy. The former came in the form of last month’s release of Matador Records’ Austin comp, Casual Victim Pile, curated by Gerard Cosloy and hopefully putting a number of new bands on the map, and the latter emerging with the University of Texas’ decision to try to shut down the seminal Cactus Cafe.

The past year has been an impressive one for Austin music. Both Okkervil River and Spoon cemented their place among the cream of the indie crop with excellent releases, Bill Callahan emerged impressively from his smoggy haze, and Octopus Project brought an avalanche of national attention. Ghostland Observatory rode a wave lasers across nearly every major festival to carry them beyond their allotted 15 minutes and Billy Joe Shaver shot some guy in the face outside a bar the week of a Greatest Hits release – that’s how to drum up press, Texas style. So in anticipation of the beloved onslaught of SXSW and to welcome everyone back to Austin, we present our second digital compilation, Sound Advice Vol. II: The Latest Toughs.

Like last year’s offering, we’ve lined up tracks from 21 local artists that we think highlight some of the best Austin has to offer. So what constitutes the Austin Sound these days? As expected, it’s an eclectic sweep, but there are some distinct trends that seem to be emerging. Retro rules, from Sixties-inspired garage rock and pop (The Black, The Strange Boys), to soul (Black Joe Lewis), to Austin’s psychedelic roots (Horse + Donkey). Like most indie bands these days, reputations are being built behind the pure explosive energy of incomparable live shows from the likes of White Denim and Mothfight!, contrasted by the resurgence of melodic shoegaze among artists like the Soldier Thread and Silver Pines. An excellent crop of new young songwriters also continues to bloom, like Graham Weber, Martin Crane’s Brazos, and Jeremy Ballard’s Dark Water Hymnal. All of the tracks have been contributed by the artists, and are available for individual download as well as a complete 1 hour and 17 minute mix below. We’ve also listed the times they will be playing during the week of SXSW and hope that you have the opportunity to check them out.

There are, of course, many more artists that we could have included here, and encourage you to stay attuned to what’s going on in Austin as we try to stay on top of local music scene and bring you the best new artists in town.

Download: Sound Advice Vol II: The Latest Toughs (An Austin Sound Compilation)
(Alternate download link via Yousendit)