Heartbreak Bugaloo (Skeleton Farm Records) marks the first collaboration of two talented artists: Aaron Behrens (Ghostland Observatory) a vocalist, and the guitarist, Jonas Wilson (Lomita, The White White Lights). Together the duo is known as The Midnight Stroll, previously ‘Aaron Behren and The Midnight Stroll,’ and these two artists- who have previously worked in everything from EDM to glam to bluesy indie to pop- have come out with one excellent creation of contemporary rock n’ roll this time around.

What makes this album clearly distinctive is the dramatic and emotional vocal work complimented by discordant guitars. The tunes laid out by Wilson’s heavy playing are successfully attention grabbing and allow the range of the vocals by Behrens to shoot out in different directions and play over the octaves, being especially dynamic in ‘Losing My Mind’ and ‘Just Hang On.’

The emotional eight track album is perfectly summed up by the final track, ‘Sparkle and Fade’: here the rock duo adds in a piano bit with stripped vocals that eventually raise into a cathedral-filling, crescendic feel, at last expressing all that sadness you’ll have accumulated by the end of Heartbreak.

It’s quality rock music from two of Austin’s most respected, and enough to earn them Artist of the Month for June here at The Deli Austin, so listen below to ride through this emotional roller-coaster.

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Chandana Kamaraj

After their synthesizer-heavy debut single “Pockets,” Roaring Sun have taken a different route with their latest single, “Racecar”. This indie “boy band” made up of brothers, Doran and David Rawlinson, Ricky Acosta, and Eric McKeefer, have released a single that will sure be the highlight at a live show, starting by slowing down the piano bit in “Cold Cold Man”, by Saint Motel and then continuing with a mellow raw tone layered with harmonies and a guitar. It’s a bit reminiscent of the slow melodies from Young the Giant’s album Mind over Matter, but just when you think this all seems too familiar, Roaring Run brings in a fresh feel and pushes the song to a new and interesting path with a unique beat on the drums and some warped melody fun.

The entire combination is bound to get you thinking of susnset evenings of music festivals and dancing, so if that strikes your fancy (as it certainly will for many in Austin), listen below!

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Chandana Kamaraj

“Loud songs for good and bad days” is the sole biographical information available on Planet Manhood’s (a.k.a. Sam Houdek’s) social media accounts, and though it’s one of the briefer bios you might run across, it’s also the most accurate. If you’re on the hunt for a meditative-yet-grungy record to accompany you through the long, hot nights (both those bad and those good), look no further than Planet Manhood’s most recent endeavor, the EP Mistake House.’

Drawing influences from Superchunk, Pavement, and Built to Spill, Planet Manhood falls somewhere between grunge and classic rock, while never quite becoming either. The mysterious cover art for Mistake House was done by Boston-based artist Kelly Kikcio, a feminist artist whom Houdek came across from a stick-n’-poke tattoo she gave to a friend, an image that Houdek gravitated towards because it seemed so incompatible with the hyper-masculine name of Planet Manhood.

Though each of the five songs on Mistake House is dispatched with a heavy dose of guitar distortion and lumbering drums, underneath the fuzziness lies remarkably gentle snapshots of the subtleties in human relationships, as Houdek sings quiveringly, “I like your backpack, is it burlap? Are you feeling like an outcast?” After attending UT and bouncing between multiple jobs, including booking shows, cleaning pools, guitar teching and working in multiple bands, the artist seems to have genuinely hit his stride with Planet Manhood, including departing for a tour of the Southeast a couple of days after dropping Mistake House on June 10.

If you’re in the midst of a bad (or good) day, hit play below for a loud song that might also make you feel a little bit more understood.

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Katy Kirby

Reigning Austin odd pop champions and 2014’s Deli Austin Artist of the Year Holiday Mountain are back to whack you upside the brain with a new and ultra-colorful music video that’ll get your summer party going. The vid, for new hard-dancing quirky ass pop song ‘Cómo Te Llamas,’ is all future fashion, exaggerated butts ‘n boobs and Holiday Mountain lead Laura Patiño using her trademark voice to ask what your name is while heading a troupe of brightly bedecked dancers (clothes designed by up-and-coming Austin fashion house Witchxxdoctor) through a surreal J-pop infused world of fun that has been put together by director Brittany Reeber. Holiday Mountain has been cemented as one of Austin’s groups most willing to flirt with pure pop music, while also being one of the acts most willing to push creative boundaries, and as you’ll see below, they’re still driving hard in that lane here in the middle of 2016. Get your weird on below, y’all.