Sometimes you come across a bit of music that’s so in its own world and by an artist with so little information available online, that it seems almost more like outsider art than a part of the general scene- even the really obscure parts of the scene. That’s a dead-on description of billy, an (apparently) Austin-based solo artist that does some washed-out, way weird psychedelic electropop and who released his best yet piece this month with the structurally surprising and oddly charming track “mindz.” We couldn’t even get a legit picture of this elusive artist who doesn’t seem to have a Facebook page (at least that we can find); we had to take a screenshot of his Instagram and crop it. That ain’t normal these days y’all, but it kinda does add to this kid’s charm in this age of oversharing.

The track itself is equally enigmatic- it starts heavily melancholy in both tone and concept, a piece of slow electronic pop with equally balanced elements all plodding within its simple drum machine beat. Butt then at 1:07, when the chorus pops in, a very Air-esque high-toned, bright and pretty hook comes through hard and just massively changes up the feel of the whole song. It takes it from weird and cute but potentially something that might get overlooked after a few listens to a track that’s just arrestingly unique and which can even get the spine tingling a bit with its lazer-clear tones.

The lyrics continue the trend of ambiguity, seeming to be a reflection on perception and the way it interacts with relationships (“In our minds/We won’t go/In my mind/You want them”), but being deliberately obtuse about it in a way that pairs happily with the way the track’s sound is hard to pin down. All of it makes you wonder who billy is, what they’re all about and what else they can do, and that to us is the sign of a very interesting emerging artist indeed. Try billy’s stuff out yourself below, and if any of y’all have more info on this musician (at the least so we can let them know about the post), feel free to share in the comments. We’d like to know more about this one.

Sometimes all a straight killer music video needs is a good fuckin’ setting, a cool ass scene of folks into the shit in front of them, and a few dicks, fart clouds, battle axes, demon tongues and horns ’n skeletons drawn all over the frames. That, at least, is the winning combo for the new vid by long-hair havers and dive-bar rockers Sweat Lodge, who (in conjunction with Kash Powers) used to make the visual accompaniment to the deeply early metal of track “Bed of Ashes.” Speaking of the young days of the big-chord, reverbed-up, psych-on-edge version of metal, this video reads like the music-and-quick-cuts intro to a movie about metalhead kids in those simple, patched denim vest loving days, being slammed full of fuck-off attitude, booze and weed and characters aplenty partaking in both of ‘em and what’s obviously a show that everyone is pretty fuckin into, all with hair a’bangin’ in the dingy, slightly-vomit scented air of one of Austin’s least 6th Street bars, The Grand on Airport Boulevard. All stories I know of and have been part of that take place at The Grand are on the “what even is sobriety” end of the debauched scale, and from the looks of things, Sweat Lodge and their crew of merry friends are there these days makin’ damn sure the place doesn’t go and do somethin’ dumb like getting more respectful or whatever.

Looked at as a peak into a very different kind of scene than that which you’ll typically find at the more mainstream venues in town, this video ain’t just a hell of a track to throw one back to and get raucous with, it could also be taken as an invitation to a scene in Austin that doesn’t give a fuck about flannels or manscaping, if of course you can find it and you ain’t an asshat. The Deli wants more of this, and Austin’s soul kinda needs it. Please keep it up Sweat Lodge, and the rest of y’all turkeys need to switch out some of those quiet ass records you got for somethin’ louder ASAP, ya hear? This is a hell of a good place to start.