Combining elements of folk, lounge, Americana, and the western ballad, all infused with a strange, dark sparsity, Ruby Fray has an uncanny way of leaving her listeners warmed and chilled at the same time. Ruby Fray is the solo project of Emily Beanblossom, the singer for the psyche/surf-punk band Christmas. While not nearly as spastic and exuberant as her work with Christmas, the more subdued backdrop of her new solo project allows room for her hauntingly powerful voice to take center stage. Her debut album Pith was recently released by Olympia based K records, and features guest performances by Calvin Johnson, Arrington de Dionyso, and many more. Catch her official album release show this Sunday, May 13th, at Wardenclyffe along with Briana Marela, Benjamin Cissner, and Carlton Bostock.
Burgess Meredith is a indie-pop band that takes heavy inspiration from the era during which their namesake was playing The Penguin on the original Batman TV series. The vocals on their debut EP, Banana Moon, vary from the softness of Elliott Smith to the distorted cry of The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas. With full chorus lines, forceful rockabilly piano, and some tastefully brief and delightfully fuzzy guitar solos, Burgess Meredith are a great new band that has quite the knack at reinterpreting 60’s pop through modern garage-rock. Catch them this Friday at The Beale St Tavern at 10pm, along with with Chase Hamblin and Good Field.
Singer/songwriter and former Elephant Room regular, Kat Edmonson, seems to be doing quite well for herself as of late. After performing with a handful of music industry fixtures (Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett to name a couple,) her Sophomore album Way Down Low, released April 10th, has held the #1 spot for record sales at Waterloo Records for the first two weeks after its release, as per Waterloo’s website. And we all know that topping any music chart in Austin is, of course, no accident. Edmonson, who lists Nina Simone as one of her biggest musical influences, combines elements of saccharine pop with sophisticated jazz to create music that might easily be mistaken for a recording produced in the 1950s Peggy Lee / Doris Day era--an attribute that Edmonson seems quite aware of in a song on her new album called “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times.” Edmonson’s own brilliance, however, can be found in her astute, carefully concerted vocal nuances. Her sparsity in composition and arrangement brings to mind, at times, famous minimalists like Bill Callahan, and at others there is a strong resemblance to bossa nova queen Astrud Gilberto--heard especially clear on tunes like “This Was The One.” If you missed her recent shows in Austin, there is a new music video on NPR’s All Songs Considered blog to hold you over until the next one.
With high-pitched, endearingly meandering vocals, watery guitars, psychedelic samples, and a heavy dose of reverb all loosely bound together into surprisingly catchy and unique pop songs, listening to Milezo may be about what it is like to listen to lost Deerhunter tracks recorded onto an old cassette tape at about 420 feet under the sea. Steadfastly holding down the stranger side of lo-fi shoe-gaze, Milezo’s debut full-length, Where the Rivers Meet the Dark Sea was released last year, with another EP, Echoes Depict the Kid being released earlier this year. Catch their free show and celebrate the anniversary of Apollo 16's moon landing, the invention of "Vitaphone," and the failed Bay of Pigs invasion along with local favorites Corduroi, BackHanderson, and more Friday, April 20th at Wardenclyffe.
While taking recognizable inspiration from bands like Pelican and The Album Leaf in their instrumental soundscapes, the New Braunfels based post-rockers See You In The Morning’s debut EP ICHI is a solid example of an emerging group of talented musicians finding their own sound. Layered guitar that ranges from crystal-clear acoustic math rock riffing to heavy, distorted wall-of-sound chords carries the foreground. Metallic, picked bass lines keep the guitars anchored to the main theme. Intricate drums help solidify the drifting strings and yet still manage to steal center-stage on almost every song. Download their album on a pay-what-you-want basis on bandcamp.
With a signature blend of violent noise and catchy hooks that lure you in like a fly to a pitcher plant, Coma in Algiers are one of the most original noise-rock bands to emerge from Austin in the past decade. With dissonant guitars, dark and heavy keyboards, and lyrics that range from the esoteric to the vulgar, there's never room for a dull moment. Their new record, Christ Aldonis Algiers, finds them shedding some of their fuzzy, garage rock sound of previous releases in favor of a clarity that allows their increased strangeness to showcase itself like a crazed and caged mutant on display near the hot dog stand at the town fair in David Lynch’s afternoon dreams. Catch them at The Frontier Bar on April 19th with Love Collector and The Gory Details. Free show!
With fuzzed-out, distorted rock guitar, almost tribal sounding drums, and a vocalist that could quite possibly be the love child of Layne Staley and Grace Slick (unconfirmed), the Black Tabs sound like an acid trip in some early ‘70s garage. It’s heavy, cathartic, raw, and even psychedelic. Head down to Frank’s on Colorado @ 4th on April 13th, crack open a Lone Star, and take a dose of the Black Tabs. They hit the stage around 11:15, $6 cover. Also playing: Scorpion Child and L F Knighton.
Something about Lord Buffalo’s eerie, reverb-laden strings and stretched, raspy vocals bear some not-so-subtle vibes of lunacy; blatantly, emotionally off-kilter. Even in a town that embraces those who veer from the norm, Lord Buffalo may be one of the more interesting emerging groups in Austin right now. Oddly enough, they also recently scored a friend’s theatrical interpretation of The Yellow Wallpaper (a famous short story about a woman’s slow descent into insanity) and have an EP due out in a week. Go get yourself a copy and see the guys play at their release party with the Black Books at Hotel Vegas on April 7th.
Combining the pained, lo-fi disjointedness of early Smog, the weird isolated love songs of Daniel Johnston, and hints of the pseudo-hip-hop and sarcasm of 90’s Beck, it’s hard to tell whether or not to take Bobee seriously. His simple beats that call to mind a crappy 80s Roland drum machine barely mix with acoustic guitars and keyboards (that often clash uncomfortably) and lovestruck vocals that are not always in key. Yet there is something extremely charming in his unique brand of sad, lo-fi isolation and bedroom-tape weirdness that will worm its way into your chest long before you can begin to put your finger on what the hell it is... Download all of his albums for free on Bandcamp.
