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April 23, 2024

Ruel Thomas: “I Am Today”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

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” a complicated thing to assess.

So let’s get a quick look at Ruel Thomas. The Native Austinite developed his guitar-vocals-and-harmonica style around folk-pop-rock icons like Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Paul Simon while still in Australia. When he moved back to the Live Music Capital about a half decade back, everything fell into place to become a certified full-timer. And Ruel Thomas has done just that, with thousands of gigs in the bag across the Lone Star State, the Tonight and Myself full-length from 2022, and last May’s Texas Castle EP.

You might’ve noticed that time spent onstage and on the road outweighs studio offerings by a country mile. But remember what we said about moving the needle in new directions? Yeah, in 2024, Ruel Thomas has vowed to drop a new single every two months, no small feat for someone who needs to wrangle a band for every recording. And last Friday that new series continued with “I Am Today”, which sounds somewhere between a decades-old yesterday and a fast-approaching tomorrow in terms of classic influences and modern mixing – thanks to Luna drummer/NYC Producer Lee Wall. At just a hair over three minutes, the ever-rolling rhythm section behind “I Am Today” dangles tomorrow’s horizon in the distance, while Ruel’s rich vocals and Americana guitar keep you right in the moment.

April 22, 2024

Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors: “Suffering”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

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, no matter how established they may be.

Having said that, we’re happy to hear that Nashville’s Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors will be joining us in our neck of the woods later this week. That’s right, on the heels of their ninth full-length Strangers No More, the Americana connoisseurs kick off a month-long national tour right here in town. The Find Your People Tour fires off 7:30PM this Thursday at the Scoot Inn, and our newfound neighbors will be stopping by Central Texas again for the Kerrville Folk Festival late next month.

And since Austin is such a hard left turn from Holcomb et. al’s Nasvhille stomping ground, the band gave us an early listen to their latest shifting of gears. On “Suffering”, the grit is real, and the rock is Southern. It captures the rudest elements of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, and Marshall Tucker band, albeit with that one-of-a-kind Holcomb character. Safe to say that if Southern rock is your bag, “Suffering” is so good it hurts.

April 19, 2024

Melotheory: “Breathe”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

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 pass up.

At least that’s the situation that producers Patrick Insull and Austin Pedersen find themselves in; they’ve spent the past three years patiently penning in their apartment on behalf of their Austin quintet Melotheory. And who has a better insight into both blooming and wilting romances then your roommate? Maybe that’s why the sad boi aesthetic shines so bright on their debut batch of indie-rock love songs, which are genre dalliances themselves, albeit with disco rhythms.

This morning, ahead of a FREE release show 7:30PM tonight at the Cactus Cafe, Melotheory rolled out their eponymous debut full-length. At thirty-six minutes and ten tracks melotheory is a journey best enjoyed front-to-back, no doubt. That said, we also get why Melotheory chose “Breathe” as the LP’s lead single. There’s a serious Thomas Mars quality to the vocals , which quickly draws comparisons to everyone’s favorite Versailles indie rock revolutionaries. But where Phoenix flourishes with pop radio-ready, heavily gated, conservatively contained choices, “Breathe” maximizes their mix with stereo-sprawling selections over crests and valleys of dynamic shifts. Well…we’ve said enough. Time to exhale out of the work week and let “Breathe” do its thing.

April 17, 2024

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

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

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 talk about two creators who we both like independently, but especially love to hear join forces. That’s Rhythm&Truth, the soul-pop-jazz-funk foray from Austin producer-songwriter-percussionist Daniel Anstandig and fellow up-and-comer Sakari, who specializes in stunning neo-soul vocals. Since both projects were born out of the early pandemic era, it naturally took a couple of years into each’s career to break out of their bubbles, find one another, and let the sparks fly. But boy did they ever on last November’s Midnight Vinyl, a passionate pastiche of after-hour radio atmosphere showcasing R&T’s robust arrangements and and Sakari’s sensational pipes.

Now, in between the final installment of Rhythm&Truth’s Time Travlr trilogy this July and Sakari’s last release a little over a month ago, the two buddied up once again to dial in yet another late night dedication. In the pair’s own words, “Bring It All Back” champions the importance of showing up in person and rekindling a sense of community post-COVID. And given how enormous the sense of space is on this song, we can’t help but heed that invitation; it’s like the soundscapers behind Cherelle, Chaka Khan, and Sade got together to reminisce over that mid-late ’80s heyday of women-driven R&B in a more modern spirit. Between all that and a truly hypnotic hook, “Bring It All Back” just earned a top spot on the playlist for any top down joyride in the coming summer months and beyond. Time to reunite with your ride-or-die and let ‘er rip…

April 17, 2024

Myia Thornton: “Never Good 4 Me”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

Unlike the legendary machines of Stax and Motown who relied on a ton of well oiled cogs to make any R&B singer into a star, these days the new blood has to do everything themselves, talent agent or not. And while not everyone can be Prince or D’Angelo in terms of multi-instrumental discipline, bringing something extra behind the mic, whatever it may be, really makes a rising singer stand out in the endless milky way of could-be R&B stars.

That puts us into orbit around Myia Thornton, songwriter-bassist-producer with Los Angeles ties but a current home base here in Austin. Beginning with her 2018 start date on streaming, she’s shown herself to be a spiritual pupil of Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Missy Elliott. Thornton’s clearly learned that everyone’s voice has its own unique character, even if the difference in timbre is more of a gradient than a completely different shade, and has accordingly made the most of her proficiency on bass guitar to attain that extra “it” factor.

But as with any R&B songstress, romantic turmoil can have a huge impact on lyrical inspiration and overall motivation. And once that comfort from a significant other’s gone, you just gotta get back to work and not take for granted what makes you intrinsically (and us as listeners) happy. So with her fourth release in just 2024 alone, Myia Thornton continues to break past the hiatus that’d been in place since her 2022 collaboration “Lexus”. Less of a tearjerker and more of a “how’d you get so ugly” piece of post-relationship clarity, Thornton’s self-produced “Never Good 4 Me” is about as bad as it gets. Arrangement-wise the sparseness of its verses is nothing short of genius, especially compared to the stereo-spanning lushness of its hooks, classy key chords, sexy MIDI strings, onion-layered vocals and all. Get it, Myia.

April 15, 2024

Felt Out: “Crash Inside It”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

When we last geeked out over Austin’s Felt Out, we broke down their foundation as that of auto-tune innovators on the cutting edge of alt-pop. And following the first anniversary of their second full-length Until I’m Light, that’s clearly still the case for these multi-instrumentalist-producers. They still sound like a next generation Imogen Heap. Their style still scratches that itch within the hyper-processed, accessible-yet-oddball alt-pop niche. And they’re still going strong in 2024.

Yep, after a year of silence for studio releases, Felt Out touched down from their natural habitat way up in the electro-aether last week, almost as if ushered in by the solar eclipse. On Friday they fired off “Know You (closer3.0)” – a Frankenstein re-assembly of leftover samples from their current streaming star – and “Crash Inside It” – which came alongside a minimalist music video. Unlike the polished, narrative-driven visual companion to “Closer”, “Crash Inside It”‘s counterpart lets a flickering frame rate and negative polarization do the storytelling, a return to their earlier aesthetic of amateur footage, analog grain, openness to interpretation, and all.

It’s certainly on brand for Felt Out, that’s for sure. And it’s got us eager to see and hear what they’ll come up with next. You feel us?

April 15, 2024

Tone Royal: “Alone” (feat. Daddy NAT)

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

When rappers claim to be “the best on the mic”, they’re talking about verbal skills, not their technical prowess with any specific equipment. Clearly that’s the case, since you’ll see those same people spend a whole set cupping the SM58 ’cause it turns out their mic technique actually sucks.

But in terms of intimate familiarity with spoken vocal performance, be it in the studio tracking voice overs, in the stadium making announcements, or onstage ripping up a show, few Central Texas figures rack up to the orator that is Ray Villarreal, better known as Tone Royal. Because between his home recording, sports work, and hip-hop side hustle there’s no such thing as an off-season for Tone. A slayer of sibilance and preventer of plosives, the San Antonio native also happens to have wealth in the ways of lyrical wordplay, as we’ve heard intermittently over the past decade.

On last Friday’s “Alone”, Tone Royal finds himself in good company with forlorn ’80s synths and a ’90s boom bap shuffle, not to mention Austin’s Daddy NAT gracing the hook with some sultry refrains. All in all, “Alone” would sound right at home in between Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” and 2Pac’s “Only God Can Judge Me” thanks to those retro qualities, and yeah…Tone’s undying affinity for putting himself in front of the mic and unleashing the rhymes.

April 12, 2024

Tagua Tagua: “4AM (Acústico)”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

Feliz sexta! Today we’re talking about Tagua Tagua, the passion project of São Paulo songwriter-producer Felipe Puperi. Now, Brazil is an enormous country, full of fervent creators; it takes a ton of traction to get towards the top. But in the seven years since Puperi launched off, Tagua Tagua’s become one of the nation’s most promising acts – heck I even Shazam’d one of their songs in the wild last September during my two-week stint in Recife.

So if you’re like me and want Brazilian music all the time, be it bossa nova, tropicalia, or samba, Puperi’s got some ótimo news. Following up an appearance here in Austin during SXSW, Tagua Tagua is set to share their next EP Todo Tempo on May 24th. Stepping away from the full-band rock arrangements of 2020’s Inteiro Metade and last year’s Tanto, the standouts of those albums have been translated into stripped down acoustic forms – neo-soul essence still intact.

The effect is reminiscent of classic midcentury icons like Jobim, Gilberto, and Bonfa, albeit with some 21st century polish, as heard on Todo Tempo‘s intimate lead reimagining “4AM (Acústico)”. Now that the weekend’s here, Tagua Tagua’s putting any late night insomnia to bed, and we’ve got todo o tempo do mundo…caipirinhas anyone?

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