I guess you could call Budget Cuts, the first album from The Hard Pans a debut.  Collectively, the members of the Austin quartet have been staples in so many local clubs and scenes throughout their long careers, that it seems ill fitting to use the term. Not many Austin bands receive the praise that is so generously bestowed upon Jimmy Smith and Claude Bernard’s better known outfit, The Gourds and after twenty years on the road and a dozen albums, it is well earned.  This may have led some fans to become pretty broken up about the group’s "indefinite hiatus" announced last year.  But in the wake we’ve seen Kevin Russell’s Shinyribs and now The Hard Pans have their respective time in the sun.  For fans of what Smith brought to The Gourds lyrically and what Bernard’s virtuoso playing did sonically, they are joined by long time friend and sound engineer Mark Creaney, whose prowess as a songwriter serves as a kind of distorted accomplice to Jimmy Smith’s indefinable persona. On Budget Cuts, The Hard Pans deliver an eclectic mix of odd and deranged songs, tied together only by each songwriter’s uncanny ability to outdo the other through atypical vocabulary and perverse subject matter.  Check out the song "Ain’t Gonna Have It" and the rest of Budget Cuts below.

 It’s hard to keep up with Aaron Sinclair.  For one, he’s one of the most prolific songwriters in town and one whom consistently puts out quality and profound music.   Since he arrived in Austin in 2006, Sinclair has been one of those rare songwriters that never seemed to falter or disappoint.  For as great of a band as Frank Smith was, it’s refreshing to see Sinclair with the confidence and poise to rest on his own moniker and reputation as such.  His newest work from the upcoming EP Pretty Girls isn’t too drastic a departure from what we heard on Frank Smith’s Nineties LP. The newest single "Shiny Things" is full of the same effortless and casual muttering of great lines that sometimes take a few listens to settle in and affect you.  The full record is due out May 20th but the official relase show is not until May 22nd at The Mohawk where you can catch A. Sincliar with another great Austin band set to release a record, Otis the Destroyer.  

For anyone who may have not had the good fortune to have come of age in Austin in the magical 80’s that we so often hear about, you probably missed out on some pretty great punk rock. Every city has it’s glory years.  No use being nostalgic about it and for now you can probably catch Ghetto Ghouls at Beerland or any other haunt who will have them in the near future.  The local retro punks just put out their first full-length LP despite being a band since the Clinton years.  Released on the Austin label, Monofonus Press, (which is also home to the likes of The Golden Boys and Daniel Francis Doyle to name a few) the self-titled record sounds and feels like a band that has spent much of the last decade with reckless abandon and was recorded apparently in less then four hours.   Still, like all great punk bands, they should be seen live as nature intended.  Your next chance is Saturday May 17th @ Hotel Vegas.  In the meantime, you can vote for Ghetto Ghouls for our artist of the month poll.  

The electro-pop duo of Tessa Bennetch and Darryl Schomberg , better known as Bells and Parks, recently delivered Versailles, an acutely polished digital EP of progressive-pop.  With the help of producer and Young Tongue frontman, Stuart Baker, Versailles is at its finest moments, a powerful and ambitious album. An immediate comparison to the work of St. Vincent or even industrial era Bjork comes to mind while hearing Bennet belt out her more affected lyrics.  The group gained a spot on our artist of the month poll this week and will be performing at Holy Mountain May 15th in support of The Gents and Crooked Sails. 

Bells and Parks | Streams from V O X A V I L A on Vimeo.

The fellas from Think No Think have had a busy past few months.  After returning home from a successful nation-wide tour in support of Black Joe Lewis, they headed immediately into the studio with Black Angels’ frontman Alex Maas to record what hopefully will become the band’s first full-length LP.  They also had more people on stage than at The Last Waltz and just came short of inducing a riot at the closing of The Lustre Pearl in March.  Their now infamous live shows have gained them much deserved attention and a spot on our Artist of The Month Poll.  

Photo by Dave Creaney

Austin’s premiere party band, La Snacks have had a big year.  The Beaumont transplants are releasing their first new music in three years and first full length since 2008, whilst celebrating ten years of keeping it all together.  The new record, Le Dope comes off at times like a found 90’s underground relic.  It is as much a musical nod to bands like Pavement and Modest Mouse as the lyrics and delivery are to the dry profundity of Frank Black’s solo work.  But Le Dope is a fresh and relevant piece of music with modern criticism and enough literary references to make Colin Meloy jealous.   Though the band admittedly has had a rocky few years, there isn’t much evidence on Le Dope of any kind of fracture.  Le Dope is a great record by a great Austin band and is why they are nominated for our artist of the month poll. 

I first heard Austin singer-songwriter, Lizzy Lehman when she was with the short lived group, The Blackwells.  Her new group, Carry Illinois, is a bit of a departure from the rootsy, bluegrass dirges she was known for.  Instead Siren, the 5 track album released in March is a heavily produced pop record, that just happens to feature a banjo or two.  With any musician, the leap from band member to solo artist is sometimes a dark void, littered with acoustic revenge songs and drum-looped epics.  It’s rare to come out of the gate with a fully realized vision wherein fans of your former work don’t miss a beat.  And it’s nice to see an artist come into themselves amidst such a lack of collective creativity.  There is a lot of that on Siren.   A lot of hopefulness and self-propulsion. Lehman herself described the sentiment of writing the songs  as "Flying out of this city to this utopia".  Springsteen may have said it best, and most frequently, but I’d like to think there is still room for songs about such transfiguration and hope. Carry Illinois play Empire Control Room April 24th with Unfaithful Servants at 9pm. 

Angel, the third album from Austin’s Pure X is a remarkably immaculate 38 minutes of music, so great in fact, that it’s hard to believe it was recorded in just five days.  In all its simplicity, Angel is a record that is hard to pinpoint, though the band rarely ventures off its dreamy, two-chord path.  This is due to the fact that the melancholy nature of the music is so masterfully married with lyrics soaked in sincerity and bliss and delivered without a hint of cynicism by singer Nate Grace.  What Pure X has done most successfully on Angel is hammer home a sentiment almost redundantly, to a point where listeners no longer question their conviction.  "Heaven is a feeling" could well be the overall thesis and comes as a welcomed departure from the otherwise ironic, post-modern musings we are more often exposed to.

Listen to "Heaven" and try to catch Pure X at Austin Psych Fest (May 2nd – 4th)

It isn’t easy for a band to change monikers without facing the risk of losing any, if not all buzz their previous handle may have generated.  Not so, for indie pop group Young Tongue, formally The Baker Family. With the release of a digital EP "Cat Calls" the group seems to have made a solid push for relevance to an audience that may have previously dismissed them as yet another Americana family band, to which they couldn’t be further from.  They are expected to release a full length LP this summer but for now we’ll have to settle for the 4 track EP, full of rich percussion and dreamy omnichord backdrops. Saturday at Red 7, Young Tongue opens for UME and Megafauna. – Andy Bianculli 

When Bobby Jealousy called it quits a few months ago, fans were left scratching their collective heads.  But before there was a chance to mourn, enter Sweet Spirit.  Sabrina Ellis’ newest and possibly best group to date. Combining all the urgency and attitude of Ellis’ punk outfit A Giant Dog and all the catchy, pop-perfection of Bobby Jealousy, Sweet Spirit is everything we hoped would come next.  It doesn’t hurt that Ellis may be the best frontwoman in town.  Recorded material is limited to the recently released "Let Me Be On Top" featured below.  You can catch Sweet Spirit in all their glory on April 20th at Hotel Vegas with Mellowphant and Dumb.  – Andy Bianculli 

Rounding up the bands highlighted in our Artist of the Month Poll is gothic electronica outfit Troller. The band seems to have found a fitting home with Austin’s Holodeck Records, through which their self-titled debut LP has already had a couple pressings.

Between official showcase spots at SXSW last month and Moogfest in Asheville, NC this month, Troller has been gaining a bit of (good) attention lately, and it’s all warranted. Through the heavy layers of synth and wide-horizoned vocals, Troller’s sound is dark yet cozy. –Written by Marie Meyers

In time for some late-night weekend listening, the third contestant in our Artist of the Month poll is Orthy. The dreamy electronic pop is the work of Ian Orth, aided live by some good friends. Orth is also one of the brains behind Learning Secrets, the local dance party which has been an Austin fixture for several years.

The band was featured last month on WXPN’s World Café, but the most recent news to come from Orthy is that they have news coming, so keep your eyes and ears peeled! –Written by Marie Meyers