A Very LCD Valentine

As couple’s songs go, I have to admit I feel like mine and my boyfriend Zack’s is at the very top of the heap. We bonded over LCD Soundsystem’s “I Can Change” the day we met, and it’s always been ours, ever since. I wrote him a bit of an opus over at our shared blog, Rock Love Austin, and for Valentine’s Day, I also had some of our favorite local musicians cover our song for us. Here they are, in all of their fantastic, tear-jerking glory. Thanks for showing us the love, Austin!

Shot Through the Heart – Reviewed!

We had another amazing time at Frank on Friday, with four of our favorite local bands. From start to finish, the sound was tight and we were rightly rocked despite the stormy weather.

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Shot Through the Heart – Showcase at Frank

Well, we’ve done it again. We’ve teamed up with our friends CoolinAustin to bring you a showcase of our favorite local talent, in a flurry of awesomeness. This Friday at Frank, doors will open at 9:30PM and we’ll party all night to Austin’s finest. First up will be the pop-rock sounds of Little Radar, our friends from Free Week who blew us away. Dead Black Hearts live up to the showcase in name, but their songs are sweet enough to only upset you gently. Then the artists formerly known as the Soapbox Spellbinders shake their worldly bodies for a new name, Your Friendly Ghost — it’ll be their debut performance under their new identity, so get ready for fresh licks and ghoulish howls. Finally, Royal Forest wraps it up with their awesome new experimental tape loop performance. If you want to be a part of their recordings, you gotta rock out till the end.

It’s only $6 to enter, and the bands get all yer dough, so come support your favorites and make sure you say hi!

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.

The Wheeler Brothers Headline Antone’s – Ticket Giveaway!

The Wheeler Brothers were one of the most anticipated acts of Utopiafest weekend, and I was sad that we had to head out just barely into their set. Lucky for me, the guys are playing Antone’s this Friday. It’s their first headlining gig, and promises to be a good one.

The five-piece, combined of three actual Wheeler brothers and two close friends, put out their debut album Portraits over the summer, and followed that up with their first national tour. Now, they’re about to embark on another three month-long trek, kicking it all off in their hometown of Austin.

The Wheeler Brothers’ sound is reminiscent of the Band of Horses, with beautiful vocals layered over rocked-out folk. It’s an infectious sound that fills any venue with ease, and performed by guys who clearly love what they’re doing. Beyond their musical talent, the Wheeler Brothers are a generous band, allowing other Utopiafest musicians to crash at their ranch, and currently hosting a contest through their Facebook page to send one lucky fan “Home for the Holidays.”

If you want to see what all of the fuss is about, make sure you check out the Wheeler Brothers this Friday at 9pm. Want to see ‘em for free? Post a comment on this story, sharing a personal holiday memory. I’ll pick a winner Thursday for a ticket plus-one.

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 – Day 1

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 was a weekend of rollercoaster emotions and perceptions. That sounds like the introduction to some terrible cliche teen drama, but it is what I lived through this weekend. Blame it on cloudy perception from a lingering cold (which I’m still not over — damn you, festival dirt!) and imminent exhaustion coupled with various Nyquils and Sudafeds, or blame it on being 24 and trying to navigate my adoration of music, my desire to make it myself, and my sense of responsibility to my day job. Whatever it is, my brain was all over the place, taking in the new setting of the Auditorium Shores skyline, comparing and contrasting new Fun Fun Fun with old, trying to experience new music while staying true to my favorites, and realizing I’m starting to enjoy being with my friends more than being alone at a set only I want to see. It’s all a balancing act, and it all gave me a lot to digest after a weekend of awesome music, dusty nostrils and strange music fan realizations.

Photo by Melissa Montes