Austin Sound

We love this idea and can not wait for the Singularity, when we will all have replaceable parts. In fact, with the way that we’ve been treating our livers, it’s really our only hope for living out the rest of the decade. And when we do finally replace our dilapidated and crumbling husks of bodies with new pieces to make us faster better stronger whatever, we really hope that the Black and White Years’ sophomore album, Patterns, will provide the OR room/assembly line soundtrack. The new video featuring the always awesome animation of Eric Power, makes us really happy and really sad all at once, kind of like thunderstorms, animal shelters, and twitter. In other words, conflicted! Check out the video for “Cold” below, though, and you’ll have a chance to catch the Black and White Years again here in town when they play a HAAM benefit at Antone’s on April 28.

Last month we got a taste of the new Okkervil sound when they debuted the first of their new tunes on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. It was an odd little preview with A.C. Newman and the Roots’ ?uestlove and Damon Bryson helping out on the song “Wake and Be Fine”, which will appear the new Jagjaguwar release I Am Very Far due in May. “Weave Room Blues” is even weirder though - as a non-album B-side, they seem to be feeling the freedom to mess around on the song. Either that, or A.C. Newman’s New Pornographers’ stardom is beginning to rub off. There are no official dates up yet for Okkervil around town, but we do know that they will be here for SXSW, so get your RSVPs on to those parties. Check out “Weave Room Blues” below, and you can already pick up the new 7-incher from the band, Mermaid, now.

A couple of weeks ago, our friends over at Do512 officially launched their new in-house concert series with the inauguration of the Do512 Lounge. With help from Austin Music Weekly filming the gigs, they have put together an amazing, intimate experience. Consider it kinda Austin City Limits for next generation. So while they don’t have a deal with TV (yet!), they do have the web and the awesome talents of the AMW crew. Their first “pilot” show in the Lounge was Saints of Valory, but the Black Angels were really the ones to initially set the tone for what the Do512 folks want to accomplish - big bands, intimate venue, and free beer. Sounds like Austin to us! The Black Angels played about a 5 song set to a crowd of about 50 fans, and if you couldn’t be there, you should definitely check out the video below and pay attention to Do512 for your chance to get in on some of their upcoming performances in the Lounge. You can also check out more videos from the series on Austin Music Weekly’s Youtube page (as well as other great shows from around town), including the most recent Lounge sets from James McMurtry and the Bright Light Social Hour.

Um, WOW. We have to admit that we weren’t expecting to wake up this morning to animated erections! (Ok, maybe we were, but that’s a different story). We were, though, really excited (not as excited as some, apparently) about the new animated video for the Boxing Lesson from their album Fur State. Like their earlier video, this one was done by Jeanne Hospod, and is pretty trippy and odd. Hell, we’re even a little confused by the video’s actual description: “Alien woman seduces hapless human male involving a very unusual flower.” Hahaha, hapless human males! Also, he should really have his penis looked at now, because we’re pretty sure it’s not supposed to glow like that. What the hell is going on here! Honestly though, the best part about this video is the end, when the hapless human male wakes up from his wet dream to three cats staring at him. Oh man, if we only had a nickel… Watch the video below, unless you’re at school or somewhere where it matters if someone thinks you’re some kind of pervert or something. The Boxing Lesson, first with the Furries, now this.

You know how we all got really stoned the other night and started talking about the space-time continuum, and then saw ourselves in the future, but it was really more like the past because there was so much synth and it was the Cars, but it wasn’t the Cars, and we were in this bunker that looked like the hatch from Lost, and then I said, “You mean that’s us in the future?” and you said “Yep,” but then it got all kaleidoscopic and our minds were blown!? You don’t? Well, it turns out John and Samantha Constant were filming that entire thing, and they made it the video for Candi and the Strangers’ cover of “Moving in Stereo”, which is a special non-album single to tease their upcoming sophomore LP, 10th of Always. Furthermore, the quintet will be playing the Mohawk tonight along with the Dark Water Hymnal, the Baker Family, and the Mole People, which should provide a nice preview of the album before they officially release it at the ND on February 5th. So, um, wanna get stoned and watch the video? It’s posted below.

Okkervil River has slowly been showcasing some new tunes leading up to the release of their new album, I Am Very Far, which according to Jimmy Fallon here, won’t be out until May 10th. We can, however, look forward to the new Okkervil single, “Mermaid”, which Jagjaguwar will release on Feb. 8. Chances are though that it will be hard to get much better than the band ripping through a song like “Wake and Be Fine” with as much firepower as they did last night on Fallon, bringing not only Roots’ ?uestlove and Damon Bryson to bear in backing, but also for some reason the New Pornographers’ A.C. Newman. “Wake and Be Fine” is a raw and raucous affair with Sheff spouting some serious ferocity atop the strings and brass. Also, in case you missed you missed it last week, Fallon gave over his stage to another local luminary when Iron and Wine debuted some new material on the show from their album coming out later this month. But get your taste of the new Okkervil River sound below:

While Austin City Limits gets ready to move into their new downtown home next month, the awesome ACL Satellite Sets series continues to roll in the old studios. If you’re not familiar with the Satellite Sets (formally called ACL Stage Left), these are where the ACL folks let local bands loose in the Hall of Fame-enshrined venue and give them the full-on expertly edited live video treatment, and then post the shows up on the Web. Recent sets have included Brownout, Monahans, and Quiet Company, but we were excited to see Grand Champeen showcase some new tunes on series. Grand Champeen has supposedly been sitting on a follow-up to their excellent 2007 album, Dial T For This, for a while now, which at least as of last year was tentatively titled Feelgood, M.D. When that might come out, who knows, but judging from this new tune, we excited to hear more! You can check out their entire show here, and plan to catch Wiretree (who we caught during Free Week and were sounding fantastic) on January 27. You can RSVP for that here. Watch “Records & Tapes” below:

When we last left our band of fearless warriors in the Sword, they had just taken off in their Battlestar Metallica after slaughtering the “Tres Brujas.” This second video in the Warp Riders saga came out before the holiday, but we would be very remiss in not continuing the trilogy by posting “Lawless Lands”. This one, done by Artificial Army, doesn’t really advance the plot much, but we do get some more awesome images of the band wielding swords in some little bit of meta choreography as the quartet rides the Warp (?) to planet number 2. To be honest, we’re a little lost on where all this is going, but hopefully we’ll figure it out when they release the final episode with “Night City.” If you missed the Sword at the Mohawk on New Years Eve (now featuring new drummer Kevin Fender from Employer, Employer) it may be a while before you’ll have a chance to catch them again, unless you’re planning a trip to Australia in the next couple of months. But we think they do still have for sell the badasslimited edition hexagon picture vinyl of Warp Riders if you want to go ahead and buy yourself the Christmas gift that your mother refused to get you. Check out the video for “Lawless Lands” below:

The Weird Weeds - willing to give you the damn shirts off of their backs if you’ll just please buy a copy of their new album (or a t-shirt for that matter!). Their new LP, put out by the fine local folks at Autobus Records, is entitled Help Me Name Melody, and of course, we here at Austin Sound are nothing if not helpful! So we came up with some suggestions, naturally. Harold was the popular consensus, for some reason, but also receiving votes were Harmony, Cadenza, Glissando, and our favorite, Rondo! Of course, if we were just going by the Weird Weeds’ new tune “Underground”, we’d probably name it “something akin to mid-2000s Low?” The venerable Austin trio has also recently expanded to a quartet, adding one of our favorite upright bassists to the group in the person of Lindsey Verrill. Check out their video for “Underground” below, which was directed by the awesomely-named Fernando Flores, and you can get a taste of the Weird Weeds live this Thursday as they join the pre-Fun Fun Fun Fest party with the Austinist’s free show at the Mohawk.

You know how two people can listen to the same song and come away with two completely different impressions of it? It seems that this is especially true of instrumental music, just because there are words to hang your hat on and it just seems more naturally affective. But wow, we really have to say that Jeanne Hospod nailed our impression of the lead track for the Boxing Lesson’s new Fur State so precisely that it’s downright eerie! Tentacled dreamscape? Check! Ghost sperm? Check! Cats in a Topo Chico box! Triple check! Hospod, get out of our heads! So yeah, here is the first video for Fur State, an album that Paul Waclawsky and Jaylinn Davidson actually recorded back in 2004 when they first moved to Austin. It’s a bit different from the more full on psyched-out sound they’ve come to be known for since, but for being recorded in lo-fi mode on a 4-track, it’s also a nicely textured instrumental effort. There are no titles for the eight songs on the album, which might become somewhat awkward when fans start yelling for “Five!” at their shows. Perhaps we shall find out at the release party tonight at the Side Bar, which oddly enough the band does not seem to be actually playing, but rather having DJ Czech One simply spin the album? Weird, but ok. Listeners will also have a chance to hear some of the new tunes that the Boxing Lesson has been working on and that will manifest sometime next year on their upcoming album Possibilities. And oh, it’s a Halloween costume party, so be prepared! Here are some costume suggestions if you need them. Check out the video below: