It can be a little too easy in these boom days of Austin to forget that this town’s musical history is far from being all indie. There’s certainly a lot of good rock coming out of this burg, but Austin’s just as much a city that owes its status as the live music capital to more traditionally Southern sounds like country, or in the exceptional Wood & Wire‘s case, bluegrass. Every member of this four piece act consisting of guitar, upright bass, banjo and mandolin is a virtuoso, something quite obvious anytime one runs off on a riff, and yet they still pull something pretty impressive even for experts. That’s the difficult feat of making a group of highly skilled individual artists sound better together, and it’s just what you get with each Wood & Wire piece. Each track by this band is certainly carefully crafted, but it also retains that irreplaceable heart and authentic energy of true bluegrass, the lack of which damages many traditional music bands with this level of technical skill. And the singing is spot-the-hell-on too. Check out what we mean with the video for track "Greener Grass" off Wood & Wire’s upcoming album The Coast, which is set to be available on February 3, and get into some Austin roots music for a bit.

De Palma is making me love drones again. They’re a band that puts heavy-ass sounds and vocals distorted to the point of mostly being incomprehensible to a driving, modern beat, and god have I seriously missed drones like these guys can put out. De Palma pulls from all the best parts of classic 80s and 90s dronery, but they tweak the pop knob up just enough that their creations are much closer to being traditional songs than a lot of no wave or noise ever was. The structure of incessant, quick beats and long, slow drones, however, keeps the band fully in the experimental category. I mean, just look at the shape of the track below in the Soundcloud visualizer. This is music for android witches to fuck to. I should remind you that De Palma is nominated for our Artist of the Month (vote to the right), and also feel compelled to express some love to the genre-appropriate minimalist art stylings of their album cover. More white shapes on black backgrounds please. — Trevor Talley @defenderdefends

The Big Fist is one of our contenders for the title of Artist of the Month (don’t worry other candidates, we’ll get to you as well in the coming days), and at first listen, their music has this pretty, poppy sensibility that belies the subject of Big Fist songs. These are some of the darkest, yet prettiest pop songs I’ve ever heard. Take "Kill," for instance, which describes a man realizing that he is but ordinary and deciding that, consequently, he’s "gonna go out there and kill, tonight." When Big Fist frontman Geoff Earle (formerly of Fresh Millions and manager of the delicious Hillside Creek Farmacy on the Eastside) with a crescending mania sings "I’m gonnna let my body fill with holy light. They’ll say that I was wrong, but I know I’m right. I know I’m right," it’s a poignant moment of pop songwriting that feels entirely modern and important without getting bogged down in dogma. Other tracks like "Monster" and "Steal Your Guitar" keep up this bleak-done-pretty aesthetic pitch perfectly. Those interested in what pop can do when it goes for big concepts while remaining unpretentious, The Big Fist is your band. — Trevor Talley @defenderdefends

OSɨRɨS is gonna be a big name outta the ATX producer scene, there’s not much question about that. A part of that wave of global-quality beat makers that we’ve been seeing down here in the recent years, OSɨRɨS productions are at once dense and perfectly balanced, the type of tracks you want big headphones and a long train ride to dive all the way into. This track in particular uses the famous “Son of the morning” sample from Max Romeo & The Upsetters’ “I Chase the Devil” and drops it into layers of spaced-out, warm-synth goodness. In that same vein OSɨRɨS recently Tweeted, “I’ve come to terms w/ the fact that I may never physically see space, but I’d like to think music can take me there,” and with “Sun of the Morning,” we think OSɨRɨS has nailed that feel. We hear an album should be on the way as well, so whet your spacefarin’ appetite with this one and get ready for more from one of ATX’s best and brightest.

The two available songs (aside from some very lo-fi live show recordings) from Les Zombies probably actually were recorded in a garage. Whether that’s true or not, this group unquestionably exemplifies that true garage rock sound from the 90s when weird didn’t always mean avant garde or layered in electronics. A day when pared down drums and bass with lyrics romanticizing day-to-day life in fun, solid indie rock songs was a goddamn real thing happening. There’s much to wonder about Les Zombies, being a group that’s about as emerging as it gets with very little recorded material, but if they can keep encapsulating the halcyon days of garage rock like in “Thunder and Lightning” here, then they’ve really got something neat going on. If nothing else, it’s a welcome way to take your ears back in time a bit.

Shmu’s Bandcamp page (that you should go to, what for the good music listening) uses the following words to describe their music: “dream pop/shoegaze meets glitchy psych RN fusion sexy baseball loversauce.” That kind of trailing off into the descriptical nonsensical-lovely comes off more than a bit off-kilter, but for Shmu’s pop-gone-odd sound, it fits just right. For once, getting abstract in a band descrip actually feels straight-up honest and useful.

Trying to get at this solo project (that sounds like a whole band)’s sound without getting weird and lovely plain wouldn’t work. You might hear a bit of shoegaze in there, sure, and maybe Toro y Moi comes to mind in the synthy bits, but there’s more than a good many somethings in this music that belong entirely to itself. That, then, Shmu is also one half of an Austin staple band that actually does kinda does keep this city weird in Zorch is no surprise at all. Oh and apparently this guy will write a personalized song for you, if you but ask? It seems to me like it’s high time that we all know Shmu. And to know Shmu, is to have a serious, hard love for Shmu.

Holiday Mountain is a band that just wants you to have some damn fun. Watchin’ these cats live, you get the feeling that having fun is somethin’ they’re probably pretty good at themselves. If the last few years are any indication, though, there’s something else that Holiday Mountain is pretty darn good at, and that’s getting their music into ears and their name into minds all over the nation.

Just look at what they’ve been up to lately- hot off being The Deli’s 2013 winner of our Best of 2013 Poll for Emerging Austin Artists, Holiday Mountain just wrapped a tour with big-name act Ben Kweller and followed up that impressive feat with a residency at NYC locals-favorite venue Pianos. And, just this week, they nailed the #3 spot on Sonic Vault’s Top 25 Austin Bands of 2014 list, following a #1 showing last year.

Add to that a February 28 show at Empire Control Room & Garage with the inimitable electronic virtuoso RJD2 (one of the best live acts this writer has ever witnessed) and their album You Be You, set to drop soon, and 2015 looks to be only more of the same for Holiday Mountain. Get your ears on their new single below, look out for that album, and have some fun with Holiday Mountain dammit. — Trevor Talley @defenderdefends

Short but far from sweet, it would be easy to lump in Raspberry Bulbs’s latest release, Privacy, with previous work by front man Marco Del Rio. But while the album is certainly influenced by Del Rio’s black metal background, it isn’t mired in the genre’s constraints. The record is bookended by its two longest tracks, “Lionhead” a deliciously sludgy track dusted by desert rock, and Big Grin, which is similarly groove heavy and contains a nearly hypnotic bass-riff reminiscent of the darker ends of British post-punk. Throughout, Privacy remains strikingly dark, but still accessible to those with a more open relationship with heavy music, with the possibility of drawing them in deeper. -Emilio Herce photo by Nikki Sneakers

KNIFIGHT is a strange beast. Influences of 80s synth are potent but they maintain a modern indie rock backbeat. Think Depeche Mode mixed with a  strange Modest Mouse dance vibe. Hipster dance party for sure. The five piece band – Patrick Marshall, John Hetherington, John Gable, Nick Cogdill and Nick Garrison – know how to keep the 80s vibes alive. This past year they released, "Now We’re Invisible Revisited," a remake of their 2010 debut EP. KNIFIGHT plays Holy Mountain this Friday Dec. 12 where a portion of the proceeds benefit local Austin charities. So go get your synth on…it’s for a good cause. 

The tagline for Burger City Rock N Roll’s Good Vibrations Fest says it all…"4 Days of peace, love and punk." Kicking off today and continuing through Dec. 7, the mini fest will take place over three venues, Hotel Vegas, Gypsy Lounge and The Grand. Local Austin acts like Ghetto Ghouls and Nameless Frames are part of the twenty plus lineup. Visiting bands will take part as well and y’all know it will be one hundred percent punk rock. Get more info about tix and set times here. Good vibes = good times. 

Weekend Highlights:

Friday Dec. 5

Hotel Vegas: Bad Sports 

Gypsy Lounge: Annabelle Chairlegs 

Sat Dec. 6

Hotel Vegas: Spray Paint

Gyspsy Lounge – Crooked Bangs 

Sun Dec.7

The Grand: Beth Israel

  

It’s something about the end of the year months that make you desire nostalgia. Maybe it’s the holiday/family overload or just the fact that another year has drifted pass so quickly. Slomo Drags should be on your soundtrack for nights of red wine and memories. A mix of Big Star and Spoon, their Slomo Drags EP released this past March is indie pop perfect for any decade. Comprised of Jackson Albracht, Raul Alvarez, Adam Mason and Marcus Rubio they know how to package reverb, jangle pop and melancholy vocals into a delightful punch. They play tonight at Red 7 or catch them Dec. 6 at Holy Mountain.  

It’s been cold in Austin. Like the blast of frigid temps in your face make you almost miss the hot humid summer of 2014. Get your summer day vibes via the crisp indie rock of Comforter. These four guys – Ryan Curtis, Hunter Thompson, BJ Thomas and Russell Cole – know how to make you yearn for the days of 8 p.m. sunsets and cold beer. They are hosting their tape release show this Thursday at Holy Mountain. Dust off your Walkman and warm up with Comforter. -Allison Mayoral