Austin Sound

Oh yeah, these were definitely the girls that our mom warned us about. Destined to break our hearts, or just stab us to death. San Antonio’s femme fatales have a new CD coming out today, titled Adventures in Coverland, that collects the three EPs of covers that they released in the spring along with a few new tunes. We love the cover songs that they’ve been doing, especially as the trio doesn’t just cover the tunes, but rips them up with their own distinctively gritty yet seductive flair. Case in point is their version of “Walkin’ After Midnight,” for which they recently released a video directed by GiaC bassist Jenn Alva. It looks as if Alva may have taken some cues from Robert Rodriguez, who did their last video for Bowie’s “As the World Falls Down,” and also featured the Comas’ original “Yo Oigo” in his new flick “Machete.” You’ll be able to find that song on the new covers album, despite its not being a cover? It’s all so very confusing. Anyway, check out the pretty awesome video for “Walkin’ After Midnight” below, and catch Girl in a Coma here in just a bit as they play a Waterloo Records instore at 5:00pm today. Hopefully they’ll wreck the joint like they do in the video!

Dammit Wiley Wiggins, now you’re just messing with our heads. This video kinda creeps us the hell out, and yet, and yet, we can’t stop watching. You’ve done Mesmer-ed us pretty good with this one. Of course, the trippy Octopus Project beats help, as well. This is Wiggin’s video for OPro’s “Hallucinists” (and you can check out his equally trippy and seizure-inducing one for “Catalog” here), which is from the quartet’s amazing Hexadecagon project that they debuted at SXSW last year. The Octopus Project is putting the tunes from that out on CD on October 26, though sadly they don’t yet seem to have a local date lined up for the occasion. The album was also mixed by John Congleton, just add some extra craziness into the action, no doubt. And for a small price, Wiggins will come to your house while you listen to the album and project crazy stuff to make you trip. (Wiggins will not come to your house and project crazy stuff to make you trip). You can, however, watch his video for “Hallucinists” below, which should serve your needs just fine.

Here’s a little something to help get you in the mood for Halloween, especially as we seem to be actually experiencing some kind of weird autumn-like weather outside. The Black Angels’ new album, Phosphene Dream, is laced with surprisingly jangly retro-garage turns, and none moreso than the penultimate track, “Telephone.” The psych stars recently presented a video for it that is kinda creepy, kinda cool, and all around pretty good for the quick little 2:00 minute shot of a song. The video was directed by Oswald James, who is also directing the upcoming film about the third Austin Psych Fest that went down this year. As for this video, let’s just say that if you’ve ever wondered what the Black Angels will look like in oh, say, 60 years, well, here you go! Apparently they have and/or will develop quite a love for the head scarf - making your grandmother hip again, so go raid those attics to be ahead of the next hipster trend, folks! Check out the video for “Telephone” below, and while the band is currently across the ocean regaling the European masses, we’ll have a chance to catch them back in Austin on November 19 at La Zona Rosa.

You know, for a song titled “Sunrise,” there is a surprising lack of color here. But really, now we’re just nickpicking as everything else about this song and video is pretty gorgeous. Mmmmm, sweet steel guitar. Directed by Nick Smith, who has previously done some work for Octopus Project and the Flaming Lips (that explains the tracers!), “Sunrise” is in support of the instrumental septet’s latest offering of the same name. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the LP is made up pieces that My Education composed for their live score of F.W. Murnau’s 1927 silent film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans a while ago. The album was released back in April by local publicity-turned-label group the Loyalty Firm, who are also putting out a new album from the Boxing Lesson soon, and trying to raise some money for some vinyl singles from both the Boxing Lesson and My Education. As for My Education, they are reportedly back in the studio working on a new album which should be released early next year. Check out the video for “Sunrise” below:

First off, this is one of the better videos we’ve seen this year. Directed by Jon Collins, it’s absolutely gorgeous and certainly succeeds in accentuating all that is wonderful about Dentonite Sarah Jaffe’s debut LP, Suburban Nature. But we’re also wondering what is up with Jaffe being cast as some Mennonite muse? This video is strange and beautiful, but you have to wait for the big pay off at the end in which Will Johnson plays a creepy-smiling baptizer. What? Just go with it. Also, the video was premiered on USA Today’s site, which we suppose means that Sarah Jaffe has officially hit the big time. Your mom and you will both love this, so you can discuss how wonderful she is over family dinner. Sarah Jaffe: bringing families together since 2010. You can also download our previous feature of the mp3 of “Clementine” here, but we really recommend you get your hands on the full album. You will have that opportunity in person next Saturday, September 25, when Jaffe returns to Austin to play the Ghost Room with, appropriately enough given this video, One Baptist General. We’re not sure which Baptist General, per se, but it’s sure to be a great show nonetheless. Check out the video for “Clementine” below:

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.