Austin Sound

Yesterday word came that Sky Saxon, who had moved to Austin only a couple weeks ago, had been admitted to St. David’s Hospital on Monday and was in critical condition. The cause was suspected to be an infection of the internal organs. This morning, the Statesman sends word that Saxon has passed away. Read

The Riverboat Gamblers have been out on tour for the past the past month or so (actually, it seems their always on tour!), so the video for “Victory Lap” feels especially appropriate, capturing the local punks on stage and on the road.

It’s strange that no one heard about this, especially given the extreme devotion of Spoon fans. The band is still clearly on a campaign to seek grammatical revenge against middle school English teachers (they seem to be winning!). Read

For the past several years, Chris Rose has packed the dancefloors here in Austin with Car Stereo (Wars) phenomenal mashups, but tonight he bids adieu to the scene for bright lights of New York City. We posed a few questions to Rose to find out what’s next for him, and what’s in store for tonight. Read

The Soldier Thread – the dark horse candidate of 2007 – now have legitimate claims on seeking that title. Hitting the #2 spot at Waterloo with this debut album, etc.. Read

Ever since the release of last year’s stunning Rivers Arms, we’ve heralded Balmorhea as one of the best bands in Austin, a reputation even further enhanced with this spring’s third album, All is Wild, All is Silent. The band, now expanded from the original collaboration between Michael Muller and Rob Lowe to a sextet with [...]

It’s been nearly 4 years since the Sad Accordions offered up their debut album, A Bad Year for the Sharons. That album displayed a slew of talent and promise behind the band’s ability to serve up ballads that carry the understated yearning of Wilco and the epic sweep of U2.

While never breaking out of its reticent shell into anything starkly memorable, these tracks are solid enough to lend an innocuous soundtrack to a gentle summer night near the edge of the city limits. Read

Feel good albums are a tricky thing. Every time I put one on, I dig all over it for a couple of listens, and then I feel kind of dirty for listening to something so obviously happy. No matter what’s getting your goat-gears a-grindin’, I can assure you that This is Ivy League will cheer you up, that’s a given. From the introductory cymbal roll of “The Richest Kids” to the fleeting organ vibrato that closes “Don’t Waste Your Love On Me,” the soul of this record is sunny and cheery, like watching a parade go by outside your mid-town hotel room window. But dare you sacrifice your dignity to listen to acoustic pop? Dare you?

We’ll get to that question, but let’s talk about the album first. The band draws from a good number of obvious influences (Belle and Sebastian, Peter Bjorn & John, even Simon & Garfunkle), but still manages to set themselves apart with elegant and tasteful deviations of their own. But Instead of lacing the record with extravagance hoping to find at least one killer synth-line to call “their sound,” This is Ivy League start with acoustic-based pop numbers in their purest form and carefully and effectively add a conservative synthesizer part, a doubled-up guitar solo or a trumpet section. Even when the band break out the guitar hooks, organs and time changes for “Celebration,” nothing stands in the way of the song’s lyrical core – the song ends with a soft acoustic guitar and a line that almost sums up the entire album: “Let’s have a celebration in the middle of the week / if these four walls could speak they’d tell us never to go.”

It’s been a big couple of days for music news, what with the Sigur Ros mp3 and album announcement, the great shows coming up in Austin this weekend (Shearwater and Centro-matic/South San Gabriel) which I’ll talk about a little later this week, and then this: new music from the Silver Jews’ upcoming LP Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea.

The first thing you’ll note are the lyrical similarities to David Berman’s entire back catalog. The lines “Squirrels imported from Connecticut, just in time for fall / How much fun is a lot more fun? Not much fun at all” lead the song, but more highlights come immediately after: “What’s with all these handsome grandsomes in these rock band magazines? / What have they done with the fat ones, the bald and the goateed?”. I previously mentioned how Rivers Cuomo deals with qualms about rock n’ roll stardom in his own nerd-rock overdrive sort of way; David Berman generally deals with the same themes in a poetic sort of way.

So far as the music is concerned, “Strange Victory”, and the whole album for that matter, is more akin to the straight-forwardness of their last album, Tanglewood Numbers, especially songs like “Animal Shapes”. Berman’s voice continues in its long trajectory towards Johnny Cash, both in baritone lows, and the general “Fuck You” timbre that drives it. The song is short, and leaves you wanting more, like the shot of Bulleit you should have poured before you hit play.

The album leaked a while ago, but you’re still going to want to pick this one up. Nothing beats the feeling of walking home with the new Silver Jews clutched under your arm.