Wet Gold – The Octopus Project from Zellner Bros. on Vimeo.

The Octopus Project is back in town, after touring around the nation behind their recent release Hexadecagon – and, because you live in Austin, you can see them for free this Thursday (11/4) at their Waterloo in-store performance, 5pm. (Vid from an earlier release – "Wet Gold" above.) 

Today is November 2nd & we all know what that means: return your costume rentals to Lucy in Disguise. Oh, and vote.

Ok Happy Leftover Candy…and this post is amazing. How to Tour in a Band or Whatever, straight to the point by Thor Harris (center, above) from Shearwater. Who are, in fact, headed out on tour. 

One of our favorite events of the year is coming up next Thursday (11/4) – the Austinist created, Mohawk-housed, absolutely FREE pre-FFF Fest event Local Music Is Sexy. TV Torso, Sally Crewe & the Sudden Moves, Watch Out For Rockets, Markov, Rayon Beach and Hundred Visions (ex-Corto Maltese) will occupy the outdoor stage, while Bill Baird, Weird Weeds, Sleep Good, Botany, Mutual Benefit, Dana Falconberry (above), and Amasa Ghana take over inside. Local music will make you hot and bothered. 

(photo by Chad Wadsworth)

The long-ago recorded album Fur State (created 2004) by the haunting psychedelic electronica wizards The Boxing Lesson is due to officially drop today. In some senses this makes Paul Waclawsky our own resident Axl Rose, although actually not at all, since the band released Wild Streaks and Windy Days and Songs in the Key of C in the lengthy interim. So this makes him instead our resident Paul Waclawsky, and his bandmate still our resident Jaylinn Davidson, and the band remains the inimitable Boxing Lesson, and the two of them, as recent poll winners, reside atop our website with mushrooms in attendance, making us for today a very Boxing Lesson-centric site. 

Costume + listening party for Fur State is coming up at the Side Bar (602 E. 7th) this Thursday, 10/28. 

Shiny Empire’s music is the culmination of singer/songwriter Justin Marler’s unusual musical past that includes being a founding member of the doom metal band Sleep, to performing acoustic songs during his 7 year stint as a monk, to fronting alt rock band The Sabians. Eventually Marler ended up in Austin, TX where he met bass player Scott Phillips, formerly of The Heavy Pets and Kudzu Towers. For live performances they enlist the help of local session trumpet player Josh Davies to complete the sound.

(Ed.: this post taken from Shiny Empire’s post on our DIY Open Blog, check out other Open Blog posts in the Deli Kitchen.)

It is revealed to us by mysterious forces that the six-piece indie pop band The Rocketboys will celebrate the upcoming (Nov. 2) release of their EP Wellwisher one week from today, 10/29, at The Ghost Room, accompanied by Dignan and The Eastern Sea.

Track list: 1) A Narrow Space 2) Southern Light 3) Brothers 4) On the Other Side

(photo by Sean Berry)

Thanks to Deli reader Jen for pointing out that tonight’s Leatherbag/rtb2/The Archibalds show starts late – first act rtb2 on stage at 10:30. And with that straightened out, be ready for Saturday (10/23), when the very buzzed about freak-folk undefinables Cowboy and Indian (Daniel James, Jazz Mills, and Jesse Plemons) will play a rare Austin show at Momo’s (9 pm), preceded by Kathryn Hallberg and followed by The Belleville Outfit.

Ruta Maya HQ is proud to announce the Thursday night residency of Austin’s Leatherbag commencing this October/November. Leatherbag have been turning heads w/ their brand of New Sincerity Rocknroll, earning them a spot in ACL 2009 & opening for cool hitters like Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 & Alejandro Escovedo. Amidst a good game of praise from critics for their recent 2010 LP release of Hey Day, Leatherbag strikes up this South Austin residency in October & thru November on the Ruta Maya stage. Randy Reynolds (vox/guitar) is joined by Tammany Hall Machine’s Geoff Dupree (guitar) & Drew Emmons (bass), along w/ Kyle Ponder (drums) to increasingly take the rocknroll road in lieu of a singular singer-songwriter bent.

Each week Leatherbag will be introducing new material alongside 2 featured guest bands. Randy Reynolds personally had a hand in curating the parade of talent, that includes: Wiretree, Future Clouds & Radar, Bryce Clifford, Precious Blood, These Mad Dogs of Glory, The Archibalds, rtb2, The Bremen Riot, Excited States, Frank Smith, Paperbird, The Bruce James Soultet, Graham Weber, & The Service Industry.

To celebrate the residency, 2 Leatherbag 2009 EPs "Tomorrow" & "Everything I Once Knew" have both been re-mixed & re-mastered and will be available for free download as 1 disc on October 7th proper, featuring new artwork by local artist Chase Macalskey. Please visit http://leatherbag.bandcamp.com/ for FREE download! LEATHERBAG Thursday Residency at Ruta Maya HQ October/November 2010 Austin, Texas. 8pm doors, 9pm show. $6, $5 if you bring 2 friends.

(Ed.: this post taken from Leatherbag’s post on our DIY Open Blog, check out other Open Blog posts in the Deli Kitchen.)

Two we think you should know about coming up this Saturday (10/16): Golden Bear brings their own galactic forest rock to the Parish, and The Authors roll out some from their recent release Get Haunted at the Ghost Room. Golden Bear enjoys the company of Motel Aviv, Haun’s Mill, and Vinyl Dharma, and the Authors are joined by She Sir and Saints of Valory. Make a decision or just bounce back and forth; really, you could use the exercise. Get on out there. 

The Georgian Company is a band in identity crisis.  At least that’s the notion one would gather after listening to their new EP Side B.  In the five songs on the release, the sound goes from wildly, incredibly, and, honestly, well-done, country, to contemporary power-pop-rock in the vein of perhaps Vampire Weekend with more attitude–a sort of Blade 3 vs. Twilight, in that there seems to be more energy, and a different understanding, but some deep-seeded core similarity–and then taking that pop-rock sound back down to a slightly poppier-country, before the album finishes on a more classic-country sound, all the while keeping a kind of seperation away from the entire genre.  

It’s an interesting feeling, to be sure, listening to the EP in a single sitting.  Singer/Songwriter George Irwin at times nails and exemplifies the sharp southern-twang that the band flirts with as a whole, while at other times, has a completely smooth cry, while the rest of the band easily follows suit with their ability to adapt as well, moving seamlessly from country ballad to power-pop-rock, showcasing an gorgeous amount of artistic range as a group.  Regardless, Side B shows that The Georgian Company is a band of flirtation, never settling for a single greater-genre group, which is rare in a band, as all too often you see bands trying to break out by blending two different styles of rock and roll, or rock and rap, etc, but The Georgian Company decided to mix a steel guitar and a synthesizer, an electric guitar and a banjo, and they’re all the better for it.

–Mitchell Mazurek

My Education "Sunrise" from My Education on Vimeo.

How’s everybody feeling? Dazzled and dehydrated? Ok. This shouldn’t hurt a bit. New vid from the effusively praised ("My Education are advanced ecstasy." – David Fricke, Rolling Stone) post-rockers My Education. 

One of the best things about our two annual massive festivals is the spillover – free shows and cheap shows and free drinks and after parties and such. Case in point, this morning on the sun-dappled lawn behind the downtown Four Seasons, for a $5 donation fee, I caught a set from Sahara Smith, the newest youth export from Wimberley, who killed it, then a set from Blind Pilot, who are from Portland and so aren’t really supposed to get coverage here, but nevertheless, excellent show my northwestern brethren, and then one from none other than the melanin-challenged Britt Daniel and his operation Spoon. My neighbor and fellow audience member theorized ragweed allergies as the issue, but for whatever reason he turned in a shortened, not particularly vibrant set – but Spoon even at their worst are quite good. Here’s hoping he recovers somewhat to put on a show for the Zilker masses.