Free Week Wrap Up

Free Week has come and gone, and this year’s was really quite glorious. Between our own showcase, new and exciting talent, and an old favorite back from the dead, I’d call it a riveting success. In case you were unable to participate, or if you did and were overwhelmed by choices, we’ve got picks below of some of our favorites.

Free Week 2012 – Featuring our own Broken Resolutions!

I know, folks. It’s cold outside for Texas, and as pretty as the days have been, the nights have been brutal. You might still be nursing a New Year’s Eve hangover, or perhaps you’re like me and feeling a bit despondent or melancholy about the passing of a year. Looking for something to brighten your spirits, wake you up and make you feel alive again? Look no further than Free Week 2012, Austin’s showcase of fantastic talent for those of us who blew all our money at the end of last year! This week is exploding with awesome showcases, and it may be a bit difficult to navigate them. That is what I’m here for. Below, you’ll see our picks for the best of Free Week — kicking it all of with our own showcase, Broken Resolutions, co-hosted by our buddies at CoolinAustin and featuring our favorite Austin acts. I have to work tomorrow, too; suck it up and we’ll make it worth your while. Plus! We now have free cake balls from SugaPlump Pastries. No excuses!

Read on for more suggestions…

AWM’s Favorite Albums of 2011

I think a part of the reason I like to make lists of my favorite albums of the year is selfishness. It helps me take stock of the art that was put out over the course of the year. It helps me remember shows I’ve seen, or moments I shared with new music. It helps me feel fonder about the year that has passed, and more hopeful for the year that is coming. It forces me to examine what this music meant to me, and why it meant that. I tend to favor albums whose tracks I loved, start to finish, that had meaningful lyrics or were soundtracks for important moments. Plus, I always favor risks. If I feel like a band played it safe and made a solid record, I’ll dig it, but for those who try to tackle huge topics through their art, I always admire it and end up loving it more.

For these reasons, I really could just jot down a list to myself, smile smugly, and move on. That said, I do think there is value in sharing lists, because it sparks conversations (or arguments, if you’re into that) and can potentially (and hopefully) help people discover new albums they may not have heard of before. This year, I found myself leaving off albums that contained a handful of unforgettable songs because the rest of the album was weak. I also found myself extending my list to a top-15 instead of top-10, including in my final 5 growers that I still need to spend more time with, but that were so striking in their own way that I had to include them. Without further ado:  my 2011 best-of list! Enjoy, be angered, argue and discuss. All is welcomed.

Broken Resolutions – a Free Week presentation

After your New Year’s Eve hangover has passed, Monday will be staring you in the face as you scrape yourself up off of your bed sheets and try to remember what resolution it was you made at midnight (was it to finally find a unicorn? something about starting a(nother) band? flying to the moon?) Mondays can be a drag, but I propose that Monday, January 2 will actually be so mind-blowing, so magnificent, so rad, that it will challenge the awesomeness of your New Year’s party itself. This is because, in conjunction with our friends at CoolinAustin, we are putting on an incredible Free Week showcase at Swan Dive on Monday, and — as is advertised in the name — it’s totally free!

We’re featuring amazing resolution-melting performances by the Soapbox Spellbinders, the White White Lights, Little Radar and Royal Forest. It’ll be the bands’ first performances in the new year, so they’ll be primed for awesome rocking. Plus all of our awesome friends will be there, and you just can’t say no to that. Doors are at 9PM — we’ll see you there.

The River Has Many Voices – Barton Creek EP

As we quickly approach the end of the year, I’m finally sifting through all of the wonderful music I’ve been lucky enough to be sent over the past few months, as I figure out my favorite contributions of 2011. Part of the beauty of writing a music blog is that fabulous, talented people send me their works, and I often discover people I may never have come across otherwise. The River Has Many Voices is one such artist.

The River Has Many Voices’ EP, Barton Creek, is like Texas itself. It’s a whispered horizon, gently settling into the space it inhabits. It’s more than a lullaby, although it is often peaceful and contemplative. Barton Creek is full of love and longing and heartbreak, bubbling within mastermind Matthew Payne’s gravelly but lovely voice. It is the cooler, quieter seasons — a perfect record for this time of year, and anytime you’re feeling thoughtful.

The EP kicks off with “For Emily,” a sweet love song that never quite admits it is a love song. “There’s a Passage in the Heart” is more straightforward and reassuring, maturing out of unspoken romance and putting everything on the table. “Yeah, I Got Away, But I Never Got Clear” is for the person who left you, but changed you forever. And the epic “Pictures in a Thousand Words” spans almost 15 minutes, and although I haven’t counted the words yet, I’d bet the farm that there are a thousand. The story of the song winds and forks and keeps your attention like a soft, melancholy bedtime story, both comforting and thought-provoking.

Payne recorded this record out in Dripping Springs, and you can hear the small town’s quiet evening walks and familiar smiles weaving throughout the folky tunes. I immediately thought of JBM when I heard Payne’s lonely harmonica cries, but Payne has a unique fingerprint in all he does. There are hat-tips to iconic youthful hangouts, like my own collegiate haunt, Spiderhouse coffee shop, as well as broader brushstrokes that make me believe my desert-loving father would be swept to his favorite golden, arid hills upon hearing them.

It is exciting to discover talented and brilliant Austin artists like Payne, and I’m excited to see what his future works bring to us. For now, I’ll do like I did when my beloved Brazos were still roaming the Live Music Capital’s streets: I’ll turn Barton Creek up, roll my windows down and let Austin soak in what it has inspired.