Austin Sound

Whoa, the Murdocks are pissed! What the hell, guys? The trio shared the mp3 for “Black Jesus Knocking” with us way back when, and will finally be releasing their new album, Distornist, this Saturday at the Parish. This is their first LP since 2005, and apparently they’ve pent up a little anger and energy. The new video for “Black Jesus Knocking” is just, well, disturbing. Kudos on finding a little kid that looks like he could actually be a young Franklin Morris, but this kids also got some problems. Actually, the stigmata-palm slapped bullies at the end probably have bigger problems. We imagine this is something like how a tea party rally goes down - first they get really mad and bully folks, then have some kind of self-abusing spiritual revelation. Or something. Check out the video below, which was directed by Tina Carlsen, produced, edited, and written by Noël Kristi Wells, and with cinematography by Travis Ragsdale. And catch the Murdocks CD release show this Saturday, Sept 4 at the Parish with The Couch, Naysays, and Through the Trees.

Holy hell! If you missed the Sword yesterday in the Waterloo parking lot, this should help you regret it even more. Today the Sword unsheathes their new album, Warp Riders, on Kemado, and to celebrate they have offered up the first of their “Warp Riders” series of videos. Last month, we previewed the mp3 of “Tres Brujas”, and let’s just say that the video lives up to the epicness of the song. We’ll let you tease out what exactly the story is here, basically because we can’t figure it out. The press release says that it is “Seven Samurai crossed with The Magnificent Seven meets Mad Max filtered through the imagination of the Sword”, which works for us except that the Sword is only a quartet. This video will be followed by two more, ““Lawless Lands” and “Night City,” so you’ll have to wait to see how it all ends. We predict total domination by the Sword though. In the meantime, your next chance to catch them locally is at the Austin City Limits Music Fest in October, after they return from slaughtering Australia and Japan. Check out the video below.

This is precisely the kind of ridiculously audacious and absurd thing that we can fully get behind. In case you happened to stumble across your radio dial to KUT yesterday and wondered what’s up with the full on 70s hippie and redneck rock playlist, the station has decided that in celebration of the Armadillo World Headquarter’s 40th anniversary, they are going to play a song from every single artist that ever played the hallowed venue, in freakin’ chronological order! They kicked things off yesterday morning with, of course, Shiva’s Headband - unfortunately John Aielli appears to be on vacation, so we don’t get his mystical, breathy ruminations on the tunes. The ‘Dillo, which opened August 7, 1970 and ran until New Years 1981, hosted a ton of music, with everyone from Willie, to Zappa, to DEVO, to the Pointer Sisters, (and of course every Austin act in between) so even just cramming every single artist that ever played there into a week of radio is quite a feet. Plus, we love imagining some hippie somewhere getting a royalty check for a couple pennies and wondering who the hell just played his one recorded single on the radio. Our friends over at Texas Music Matters are also doing their big broadcast this week on the Armadillo, sharing parts of their ambitious “Armadillo Oral History Project.” Tune into KUT 90.5 now to get your overdose of the ‘Dillo, and check out the video for the Oral History project below.

We’re not sure what it means when the top “suggestion” on youtube when we go to this video is Katy Perry’s “Waking Up in Vegas.” Maybe that’s just a personal suggestion for Austin Sound, because the Google overlords are clearly onto us. Or maybe there is actually more of affinity between Amy Cook and Katy Perry than we realized? We actually didn’t even know Katy Perry actually sang - we thought she was on a reality show or something. Amy Cook, on the other hand, has proven quite worthy of the attention she’s gotten - topless Chronicle cover and all. That will sell some papers! Oh wait, they’re free. “Hotel Lights” is hands down the best tune on her recent album, Let the Light In, and the video matches the tune in quality. Directed by Daniel Gibbs, the video was shot at the Hotel San Jose and Hotel Saint Cecilia (duh) and down at the Pearl Brewery (why not?). The video release also corresponds with today’s vinyl release of Let the Light In, and Cook’s show tonight at the Cactus Cafe. Cook will also be playing Blues on the Green on August 4th. Check out the video below:

Um, what? No, seriously - what the hell is this? The last thing that really pops into our mind when listening to Neon Indian is a giant spider. But then, guess that’s why we’re not artists and Joao Machado is. His stop motion animated video for Neon Indian’s “6669″ is kinda creepers. Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo just finished playing the Pitchfork Festival last weekend and is getting ready to head out on tour with Phoenix in September. All that is good and well, but we’ve also noticed that Neon Indian now seems to be calling Brooklyn home? On their myspace, they list Brooklyn and Austin, and on their twitter, just Brooklyn. But what makes this super weird is that Palomo’s other project, VEGA, is still listed as based in Austin! It’s all so very confusing. Perhaps Palomo has actually transcended time and space, or officially split himself in two. Either way, check out the video below.

So this is what happens when you mix Free Drugs and Hippies? Yikes, this is some slummin’ Harlem afterparty action here, and apparently the local trio takes the line “Someday soon you’ll be on fire, And you’ll ask me for a glass of water. I’ll say ‘no, You can just let that shit burn’” quite seriously. These firecracker shenanigans should get everyone in the mood for the 4th of July, but remember it’s all fun and games until Coomers takes a bottle rocket to the crotch. “Someday Soon” is of course off of Harlem’s recently released debut for Matador, Hippies. Unlike the previous video for “Gay Human Bones,” this one is a little more, um, grainy? It was “directed” by Aaron Brown and Ben Chappell, and we put that in quotation marks, because really, how much direction was there on this? We love imagining one of these guys sitting in a director’s chair yelling, “Cut Cut Cut!!! This is all wrong - I’m just not feeling the level of hipster jackass-ery that we’re going for here!” Harlem is currently on the road touring all across the states, and also have a slew of dates lined up with the Dead Weather in July. Not a bad gig, boys. Try not to kill yourselves. Video below:

This video doesn’t seem to have been made specifically for Built by Snow’s “Invaders,” but it sure as hell could have been. Or vice versa. BBS’s brand of geekery fits perfectly with the Space Invaders-themed pixelization of New York City put together by onemoreprod.com. According the Youtube, someone saw the video, and thought the local quartet’s song offered the ideal soundtrack. Point, Youtube! If you have any love for Built By Snow’s glitchy Atari pop, then you’re likely already sold on what will happen below. If you’re not yet convinced, maybe the video will lead you there, but you can also check out the band live tonight as they digitize Trophy’s alongside The Kilns, Frants, and Reggie O’Farrell, none of whom we’ve ever heard of before. Which doesn’t necessarily mean anything - we’re just going to go to watch the ROT Rally-ers try figure out what the hell is up with these nerds! Hope Trophy’s has the chicken wire screen up in front of the stage.

Normally, we probably wouldn’t post this, as its relationship to Austin is somewhat tenuous. Yet the just released video for Gil Scott-Heron’s take on local luminary Bill Callahan’s “I’m New Here” is pretty danged stop-you-in-your-tracks worthy. The song, originally from Callahan’s 2005, new-to-Austin album A River Ain’t Too Much To Love (back when he was still operating under the Smog moniker), serves as the title track for Scott-Heron’s recent comeback venture - the famed Sixties songwriter’s first in 16 years. Safe to say, Scott-Heron thoroughly makes the song his own, and it is both haunting and redemptive, served well by his aged perspective and voice. The essential Smog-iness of the song still lingers, however, so we give it thumbs up all round. We also wonder what Bill Callahan actually thinks of Scott-Heron’s take on it. Maybe we’ll find out one day, despite his typical, soft-spoken reticence. (We’re still not sure what “Sycamore” is based on). In the meantime, we’ll have to make due with Callahan’s new Drag City release of live recordings, Rough Travel for a Rare Thing. Watch Scott-Heron’s video below, as well as a Youtube of Callahan’s original.

Finally! How long have we all been waiting for this one, you guys! A video for the Bob Schneider mega-hit from the Nineties! Oh, this is actually a new song? Could have fooled us. On the one hand, this thing is directed by Robert Rodriguez; on the other hand, it’s Bob Schneider. This video really has it all, though. A cute girl, walks along Lady Bird Lake, good times at Hello Cupcake! And for some reason, a kid that comes into the equation halfway through? It’s “40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet)”, based on the novel by Nick Hornby, apparently. Ok, so we’ll go along with this cute little instant family scenario, and Bob Schneider single-dadin’ it up and all, but only because it raises the very relevant question of what happened to the kid’s mom? We’ve always had our suspicions about Austin’s most-loved artist. Just sayin’: watch your back, cute girl. It’s all red balloons and cupcakes until you tell Bob Schneider how you really feel about his music.

According to the Frontier Brothers’ new single, “they’re irreverent, glamorous, and pissed off.” According to their new video for that single, they’re also into furries, and you should start a band. It’s a damn catchy little song, and the quartet will be releasing it on their new EP tomorrow night at the Parish with a bill that includes the Lemurs and the Bright Light Social Hour. Bring your dancin’ shows. It’s also part of the 101X Homegrown Live series, so we guess that makes it Andy Langer approved. And bring your bear costumes, apparently. (We’re looking at you, Butcher Bear!). Check out the video for “You Should Start a Band” below, but really, isn’t this a bit too much preaching to the choir, guys? You live in Austin - everybody has already started a band! We do declare this a vast improvement over the space jumpsuits, though.