Austin Sound

Next week the Sour Notes will be releasing their fourth LP (in as many years!), titled Last Looks. We’ve been following, and fans of, the quintet over that time, with the band proving to be impressively aggressive in their evolution. Last Looks, which was actually recorded on the heels of last year’s It’s Not Gonna Be Pretty, was held onto for release until now as the band upped their touring profile, and we’re excited to finally get to hear their new material and share it with you via the streams they’ve offered up below. The quintet now features drummer Taylor Steinberg, pianist Kelly DeWitt and bassist Amarah Ulghani joining founding Notes Chris Page and Jared Boulanger, but perhaps even more exciting is the additional strings and brass added across Last Looks courtesy of Mother Falcon, who will be joining the Sour Notes live for the CD release show next Thursday at the Mohawk. Also on the bill are For Hours And Hours and Missions. If you can’t wait until then to get a taste of the band’s latest sound, you can catch them tomorrow, February 12, as they participate in the free “Rehearsal at the Astoria” series at Atrhouse, and wet your palette with the full album stream of Last Looks below:

For a band as prolific as the Sour Notes (an EP, 7-inch, and now two full-lengths since 2008), the quartet has not only proven remarkably excellent in their quality of output, but also continue to impressively push themselves in new directions. Each release, beginning with the 2008 EP The Meat of the Fruit, has taken their instinctive pop-rock pulse and expanded their sound in arrangements and sensibilities. To some extent, It’s Not Gonna to Be Pretty is an appropriate title for the quartet’s sophomore LP - not because it’s not an excellent album, but rather because compared to their earlier pop leanings, the Sour Notes here seem to consciously be moving at times into more rock textures, unafraid to break up the melodies with more jagged edges. It’s the album’s balance of the quartet’s new harder inclinations with those more familiar pop elements that gives it a fully formed and rewardingly diverse feel, however.

By year’s end, Austin will have boasted an impressive number of singles. Credit the the downturn of the economy, the upturn of vinyl, or the changing culture of Mp3s and singles, the result has been a boon for short-stack lovers. No doubt, however, that these four recent vinyl releases serve as a nice capstone for local one-offs this year, with Follow That Bird and the Sour Notes both offering up excellent follow ups to debuts that appeared in the past year, and the much anticipated new project of Sound Team’s Matt Oliver, TV Torso, delivering a double shot of 7″ vinyl as a debut. As indicators of what might be around the bend with bigger releases for each band, all of the efforts suggest next 2010 will be a good year for local music.

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!

Man, video sessions are totally the new blogs, which were the new ‘zines. Used to be way back in the day (say the 80s and 90s), trying your hand at amateur music writing and hanging out with your favorite bands required putting some work into a fanzine, printing it up, and passing it around. Yeah, we were all dorks. Then blogs made it easy, and everyone started writing about bands and even shared their music, cutting out the middle man. Now it seems everyone wants to do a quirky video session, cuz video’s the new mp3. Welcome to your Black Cab Sessions and La Blogotheque. And that concludes our lesson today on the obvious evolution of amateur music criticism. But now more professional music publications and outlets have gotten into the mix! Local UT student-run KVRX exists somewhere in the middle of that miasma - both pros at production and running a radio station, but decided amateurs in some of that crap that scrawls across the frequency late at night. Really, we love that you guys are stoned off your ass at 2:00am in the booth, but just spin some damn records already. (It’s still better than listening to KUT’s new “Undercurrents” syndication, though).

Anyway, the KVRX Local Live clan has started to do some video shoots that they’re calling The Austin Sessions, your typical (these days, anyway) put a band in a weird place and make them play kind of thing. Kinda like the ill-fated KUT and Super Alright “Retread Sessions” that was cool for all of the about 2 seconds it lasted. We’re impressed by what the KVRX kids have put together though, especially since Local Live is well established for showcasing some of the best Austin talent before they start getting any real attention. They’ve already brought in Wine and Revolution, and we hear they have the Eastern Sea on tap, too. It’s like they’re in our head!!!

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.

The Sour Notes burst suddenly onto the local scene this year with the release of their debut EP, The Meat of the Fruit, a beauty of an album with deceptively intricate layers and the juxtaposition of Jared Boulanger’s weighty, reflexive lyrics on a bed of mellow, swaying pop. A touch of Death Cab for Cutie rings throughout the quartet’s work, both in Boulanger’s sentiments and voice. The group is planning the release of their full-length debut this January, and already recording their follow up as well as planning to head out on their first tour. If you’re looking for one of Austin’s best new bands, the Sour Notes have to be near the top of that list, and you can see them this Thursday, December 11, at the Mohawk with One Hundred Flowers, the Great Nostalgic, and Bear Claw.

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.