"I wan to fu** the sh** out of you" is the opening line to the song "Down My Throat" by the provocatively raunchy blues-rock duo, Hardcore Sex. Female lead singer and drummer, Bear Ryan, pummels her drumkit as her gritty and oddly seductive vocals swirl around Grandpa Johnson’s serrated guitar sound. The Austin duo shirks the ‘bells and whistles’ of polished rock & roll to embrace a raw and primal feel that could be mistaken for early Kills or maybe even the twisted, nymphomaniac, evil twin of The White Stripes. Hardcore Sex unapologetically drags delta blues influences through a pool of sexed-out lyrics, and thick unrelenting riffs to create music that would make an escort blush. The down-home duo release their debut EP, You Greasy Devil, on November 17th and, they’ll be celebrating the same day at the Hard Luck Lounge with an EP release party for those who want to let the debauched sounds of a wanton bacchanal wash over you.
The Austin music community is rife with ironic and self-serious bands, and SMILE is certainly not one of them. This six-piece power pop group, fronted by Jack Miles, can certainly light up the room with their sunny demeanor and chilled optimisitic vibes. Blending elements of soul with purist Beatles-esque melodies, the group released a sun-drenched single "I Dunno" to generate interest in their soon-to-be-released new album. Crooner vocals float over doo-wop inspired harmonies to create an atmosphere of love and postivity. While there is a strand of jam band DNA in SMILE, their music is overhwelmingly and unabashedly an homage to 60’s artists like the Beach Boys and Harry Nilsson.
Adrenaline-infused pscyhedlia pours out from the hard-rocking warped reality of the Thanks Light. Their new single "Family Jewels" begins normal enough with the hushed and seductive vocals of Zane Ruttenberg but quickly devolves into a chaotic swirl of reverb that is reminiscent of noise rockers METZ or Pissed Jeans. Thanks Light embraces the appeal of structured alt-rock but moreso relishes in it’s destruction, amidst a myriad of synths, gutteral growls, and shrieking guitars. "Family Jewels" is the first single off of the new LP Psychonauts, which as the name suggests, should be a mind-altering exploration into the fractal conscience of one of Austin’s more unique rock bands.
Self-described as ‘Ewoks operating the Death Star after a long night of Ewok partying’, Desilu, is an enticing blend of sonic reverb and angst-fueled garage rock that coalesces into a cosmic punk opera. Desilu’s recently released 4th album, Claws, springs from the eternal well of Austin influenced psychedelia but succeeds in cross-pollinating punk influences like the Black Lips, Jay Reatard, and Wavves into the genome as well. Jangled keys, winding guitars, and chanted vocals feels like a train on the verge of derailing at any moment, but this quintet of Austin vagabonds keep the momentum moving forward.Recent additions of keyboardist, Chris Horne, and guitarist, Joe Pechacek, may be the extra layers needed to complete this unique but pleasantly entrancing avant-garde outfit.
Malion are a trio of grunge purveyors who exude dirgy garage rock sounds with harrowing vocals.Having released their first EP back in 2014, Malion just releasedtheir latest EP, Troglodyte,which bubbles and ruptures into a sludge-filled void of musical darkness.The band’s latest music video for their song “Underground” mirrors their sound in it’s roughshod production and depiction of grimy downtown ennui.While Malion may still be an ‘underground’ band, they’ve got an oddly infectious disaffected charm that seeps through to listeners.Check out their new music video here:
Austin grunge trio, The Blind Pets, have been making waves since they formed in 2007 with their fun-loving riffs and high-energy hooks. While the band’s live show has been the focal point of their reputation, their new video for “Up All Night” is shockingly disturbing and morbidly comical to the point that they may see heightened recognition for music videos going forward. Enlisting the fearless and talented, John Valley, to create the video – the result is not your typical run-of-the-mill video.Valley, who has created stellar videos for other Austin bands like Sweet Spirit and A Giant Dog, doesn’t shy away from the gaudy or grandiose when creating video. In “Up All Night” we see Valley’s dark humor manifest into a bizarre murder/sex scene a la Devils Rejects or The Hills Have Eyes. The song is 3 minutes long, while the video is 7, which means there is plenty to see. Just don’t watch it at work;)
Blood Pumps comfortably blends smart song craft with interesting, accessible angularity; subtle counter points rhythmically and melodically with intelligent, almost-too-smart-for-pop lyricism delivered with Bill Stevenson’s elastic tenor. The marriage of Black Joe Lewis’ gut bucket guitar with Mike Brinley’s dry-cleaned guitar stands in direct contrast to the washed out reverb and effects heavy sound of many contemporaries in the rock’n’roll scene. All of these ingredients and brush strokes are tied together by an analog beat machine that Stevenson used to record material in between tours of his normal gig backing up Joe.
The five songs on Blood Pump’s EP display the prowess of three individuals applying themselves outside their comfort zone. Their new release,"Long Gossip", comes out in a stratling cacophany then cracks into a mid-tempo 3/4 groove then slyly resets int a 4/4 groove right as the guitar’s quick-cat-lash vertical intro lines delve into Ric Ocasek territory.
Crypt Trip’s latest EP Mabon Songs, their first release since their self-titled debut album, is filled to the brim with sound, featuring two heavy psyche rock jams and a soulful guitar track. This band, consisting of Sam on bass, Cam on drums, and Ryan guitar, has perfected the craft they showed on their eight-track debut album, and has delivered three new energized tracks on this newest release that is very much worth a listen. Each band member shows off their skills and passion for hard rock over the three tracks, as the vocals layer on top of the rich guitar sound and clear-cut beat. This perfect three-track mix of 70s-influenced rock leaves you looking for more when it ends, so click ‘Play’ and hear Crypt Trips’ newest work below.
Mamahawk is one of the Austin music scene’s emerging gems, a deeply soulful band that meshes bright electronics with warm, thoughtful vocals and acoustic elements to create some of the prettiest and more relaxing indie music to come out of the city in a long time. Today, we’re beyond excited to be premiering this up-and-coming act’s new video for the gorgeous ‘Reset,’ a melancholic video for a track from last year’s self-titled album, and, according to the band, the video ‘explores the push and pull relationship between our animalistic, primal urges and our societal conditioning.’ As Mamahawk says, ‘It is a call to simply be still and feel the life inside and around us, if only for a moment. Embracing that raw, instinctual side of ourselves may be the only way to truly be free in this world.’
It’s a video that puts its own intriguing spin on the trope of the man stuck in a cubicle who yearns for the freedom of wilderness, and locals will note a good amount of Austin-area locations, such as Plaza Saltillo and a particularly striking shot at the border of the forest still devastated by the Bastrop forest fires of the last few years.
The video is immensely relatable for anyone living the modern grind, tenderly channeling the ideas of being a wild being trapped in a static, constricting contemporary world into the symbol of a literal hawkperson (more specifically, a business hawk/person), and the thoroughly gorgeous music is a nice counterpoint to the initial bleakness of the video. As the narrative unfolds, the idyllic sound accompanies the rising action fittingly, and the emotional payoff here is solid.
This video should do a lot to bring Mamahawk’s glimmer to a larger audience, and in fact, you can see the whole thing live as part of one of Mamahawk’s sets tomorrow July 28 at their Mohawk show, which also includes such great local talent as Yuma, Shapescenes, The Khost and Chill Russell. Give the video a listen below, and if you like what you hear and see, find your way to Mohawk tomorrow for what promises to be an excellent night of music, or check out the full album at their Bandcamp here.
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.
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!
“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.
