Song of the Day

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March 22, 2023

Girl Ultra: “Llama” (Live at Scholz Garden)

By: Jack Anderson

As mentioned on Monday, our Scholz Garten guest Son Rompe Pera did an outstanding job of representing Mexico City’s diverse scene for our live morning broadcast last week. And while SRP made an impression that’ll surely have folks talking til next SXSW, they weren’t the only ones bridging capitals; we were also fortunate enough to have M.C. native Nan de Miguel on deck, better known as Girl Ultra. Seven years after she first got signed, Girl Ultra’s grip on undulating melodies and bilingual verbal abilities have escalated her into the upper caliber of Latin R&B rockstars like Kali Uchis and Nathy Peluso. By building on an already-rich reputation for adaptability and sonic variety (including an appearance on Adrian Quesada’s Boleros Psicodélicos), last April, Girl Ultra branched out to genres like U.K. two-step, indie pop, alt-rock, and even orchestral Bossa nova on her latest studio release, EL SUR. Well, last week Girl Ultra brought some of EL SUR, Nuevos Aires (2019) and Adiós (2018) north of the border and into our city limits. On Friday morning Girl Ultra got up onstage at Scholz Garten and gave it her all with hybrid arrangements that beautifully blended backing track samples with live instrumentation. The set certainly attracted a pack of new listeners like everyone’s favorite camelids (sorry, alpacas) thanks to lush renditions that included the album opener from Girl Ultra’s 2018 sophomore EP Adiós, “Llama”.

Episodes

April 30, 2024

Grandmaster: “Castle Door”

Watch out, Golden Dawn Arkestra…there’s a new costumed collective in town, and they’re hunting for for fresh converts! But instead of frenetic Afro-inspired dance grooves, these fanatics have so far stuck to the slower side of ’70s-style jazz funk rock; think War whisked together with Steely Dan. Not that you’d be able to tell from […]

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April 29, 2024

Trip Cigs: “Comeback Kid”

When a seasoned musician wades out of their genre comfort zone, you love to hear it. Because the technical expertise, jam stamina, and songwriting skills are already in place, but opening the gate to different inspirations and influences is always a welcome breath of fresh air. So let’s talk Rod Gator, who – as you […]

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April 24, 2024

Viben: “Pablo Picasso”

Lyrics are a fickle field. You can be wordy as hell, hoping that at least one line sticks in listener’s minds. Or, you could just loop the hell out of some barebones sentences – guaranteed to have a lot more hypnotic staying power through sheer repetition, especially in the realm of dance music. Now let’s […]

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April 24, 2024

Rett Smith: “Sunsets”

In terms of musical association, at least outside the world of film soundtracks, U.S. southwestern scenery often gets associated with country. But there’s a certain psychedelic quality to our regional deserts that we just love to see artists embrace. Folks like Rett Smith, based here in Austin, but bred out of West Texas, so you […]

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April 23, 2024

Ruel Thomas: “I Am Today”

Any profession requires quotas…whether that’s how many tickets you write or how many kids pass your class. And when music is your source of income, the obvious metric to measure by is quantity of shows played. But as with any creative endeavor, there’s an opportunity to move the needle in many directions, which makes “success” […]

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April 22, 2024

Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors: “Suffering”

The very nature of Americana is rooted in traditional music. But it also lies at the crossroads between folk, country, and rock. So if an Americana act decides to veer into new lanes, the choices are limited and somewhat predictable. And yet it’s still such a joy to hear an artist explore new sonic territory, […]

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April 19, 2024

Melotheory: “Breathe”

When you have roommates, at least good ones you get along with, group activities naturally arise around the house. For most folks, it’s watching TV, recreational smoking and drinking, or maybe the occasional board game. For musicians, however, having a practice space within eyeshot of your bedroom door is too good of a scenario to […]

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April 17, 2024

Rhythm&Truth and Sakari: “Bring It All Back”

We won’t say that successful collaborations should mandate a solo artist’s trajectory. But if something built together leaves people wanting more, it’s not a bad idea to get back together and sate those desires, right? Because what’s unachievable on the individual level often just needs to get catalyzed by some good collabo chemistry. So let’s […]

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