Austin Sound

Over the past couple years, there has emerged here in Austin a tight knit community of Pre-Folk players that have been upending the city’s sound with wild Appalachian stomps and Old World odes. Congealed behind the infamous, still occurring Secret Shows, groups like the McMercy Family Band, The Electric Mountain Rotten Apple Gang, That Damned Band, and Wax Museum Pandemonium have helped create an impressive community of wild stringers that dig well below the roots of their influences to unearth a wild and cathartic music that is at once traditional and brazenly progressive in execution. Among the forefront of this crop is Wino Vino, an octet that unleashes ribald gypsy anthems that melds Balken flair with fervent energy and attitude as their stellar musicianship brings the Old World anachronistically to bear on the modern. Following last year’s release of their eponymous full length, the group is working on their next album, but are best experienced live. You can do so twice this week, as Wino Vino takes over Spider House this Wednesday, April 22 (with the Electric Mountain Rotten Apple Gang and Brigante) and on Friday, April 24, as they swarm into Eastside’s Compound (1300 E. 4th St.) for the Church of the Friendly Ghost, with Jason Webley and Reverend Glasseye.