Jack Anderson

Ragabash: “Daydream”

There’s a ton of iconic music adjacent to the 1977 punk explosion, intuitively categorized as “proto-punk” and “post-punk”. And while you could argue discrepancies outweigh similarities between The Stooges’ Raw Power, Television’s Marquee Moon, Gang of Four’s Entertainment!, and XTC’s Black Sea, one word seems to encapsulate the shared aesthetic among protos and posties: “angular”. Of course, since the start of the ’80s, that crusty concrete-encased counterculture has helped inform new wave, grunge, and eventually the trebly indie rock riffs that turned acts like The Strokes into household names. It’s intriguing because nowadays some refer to The Stooges’ style as “garage rock”, and yet – despite punk’s many offspring (hardcore, riot grrrl, anti-folk, etc.) – the term “post-punk” is alive, well, and readily-applicable. Austin has its fair share of contemporary post-punk purveyors, including a quartet who got together in 2019 – a full four decades after Gang of Four’s daring debut – Ragabash. Ragabash released their first-ever studio single, “Heartache” earlier this spring, showcasing a stabbing and distorted offkilter style. For their debut album (due out this Fall), the group’s entrusted production duties with Grammy-winner Stuart Sikes (Loretta Lynn, The White Stripes, Modest Mouse, etc.), which’ll likely lend an extra sense of accessibility to Ragabash’s crowd-pleasing organized chaos and all-hands-on-deck approach to vocal harmonies. Ragabash’s sophomore installment arrives with a single release show 11pm tomorrow night at The 13th Floor alongside openers Sweet Slacks, Mr. Kat, and DJ Dead Flowers. So before you ascend to the 13th Floor, immerse yourself in Ragabash’s appreciation for that short sweet space after staccato sequences, with “Daydream”. Its trumpet solo, bold dynamics, and instrumental interplay are sure to keep you lucid well past hump day and right into the weekend.

Artist Interview: Matthew Logan Vasquez – “Untouchable”

Matthew Logan Vasquez creates a song about a rich boy in west Texas who seems to get away with everything…including homicide. In Part 1, you heard the confession and the song. In this episode, Walker chats with Matthew about his work, the confession, and how it inspired his song “Untouchable”.

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Mamahawk: “Walk in the Fire”

About halfway through KUTX’s now-ten-year tenure, we made a real airwave heavyweight out of our August 2018 Artist of the Month Mamahawk. Back in that fledgling phase, the then-three-piece only had a talon-full of tunes to their name, most notably the title track and lead single of their 2019 sophomore LP Brain Invaderz!. However, with all that’s happened between the beginning of the pandemic and now, and with the lack of studio releases post-Brain Invaderz!, some folks honestly may have forgotten all about Mamahawk.

Which is unfair, because if you’ve observed the group’s steady progression from the duo that pre-dated their 2015 eponymous debut to what’s now a four-man V formation, Mamahawk clearly isn’t one to make haste. And unlike fellow local maternal raptors Mother Falcon, Mamahawk is on the wing once again and out of the studio with a whole new set of feathers.

Mamahawk just announced their upcoming as-of-yet-untitled third full-length, with the quartet flocking fans old and new to a single release show this Thursday at Hotel Vegas. Doors open at 9PM, Half Dream starts things off at 10PM, Mamahawk takes the stage at 11PM, and Lady Dan wraps things up at midnight. And as with “Brain Invaderz!”, this lead single channels the cerebral psych-prog-pop-yacht sensuality of the late ’70s with butt-wigglin’ pitch-wheel squiggles, an eclectic synth selection (including both brilliantly high pads and crunchy low swells), vocals that ethereally evolve from unison to harmony over verse and chorus, and a dramatic half-time breakdown in the bridge, complete with a retro-style sax solo. Between all that – and the bookending hawk screeches from lead vocalist James Reed – “Walk in the Fire” will have you saying “here we go again” every time you restart this soulful scorcher.

Glasshealer: “Ever Love, Ever Have”

As a genre modifier, the term “experimental” can be pretty controversial. For purists, unless an artist is redefining sound by employing production, recording, and performance techniques typically unfit for “traditional” music, they’re not gonna consider it “experimental”. But when you take a more lenient approach and avoid strict gatekeeping, you’re bound to discover acts that’ll undoubtedly challenge your tastes and pre-conceptions. For an example right here in Central Texas we can point straight to Austin four-piece Glasshealer. Once deemed “Best Experimental Artist” by The Austin Chronicle, this unconventional quartet combines the most out-there elements of punk, electronica, and rock into a beautifully bizarre blend. The Austin Chronicle also gave Glasshealer the recognition they deserved for both their 2020 debut Cranberry Stream and 2021’s But the Weight of Comfort Pulled Me Back Down, merits that’ve helped pack venues once Glasshealer name appears on the marquee. But as with any groundbreaking experiment, you can’t rush the scientific process, which is why we haven’t had any studio releases from Glasshealer since But the Weight… Coming hot off a 2022 East Coast tour, Glasshealer returned to the lab to elevate their sound further by penning some impressively eclectic tunes. So while we patiently wait for a third EP from Glasshealer, the band’s blessed us with a six-and-a-half-minute psychotropic delight. Alongside the mind-melting visuals of its music video “Ever Love, Ever Have” is structured like a cinematic DMT trip, complete with uncanny nuances, expansive dynamic shifts, and revelation-ready hard left turns.

Steel Gemini: “Twin Flames”

For wannabe solo acts, the endlessness of electronic music and accessibility of home studios offers an appealing amount of autonomy; rather than recruit a rag-tag rhythm section or accompanist and tease out tunes take after take, you can hunker down, sequence all sorts of sounds out, quantize if needed, and call it a day. And like Toro Y Moi’s Chaz Bundick with his dance alter ego Les Sins, Austin producer-singer Joy Baldwin’s been intermittently stepping away from the guitar-pop court of King Air to reign over retro synth tones, samples, and loops as Steel Gemini.

Steel Gemini pairs Baldwin’s penchant for sassy and accessible pop formulas with ’80s-style drum programming, alternative-inspired chord progressions, and a ton of LFO love. Contrastingly titled, “End of It All”, Steel Gemini’s debut single dropped midway through last December. Just before SXSW, Steel Gemini’s second installation “What Would Your Girlfriend Say” cemented Baldwin’ as ‘s coquettish creativity within the electro-pop crowd. There haven’t been any overt suggestions of a full Steel Gemini record release quite yet, but we’ll buddy up and throw elbows the second there are.

Today Steel Gemini torched us with brilliantly bombastic 808s, Timbaland-derived MIDI choices, club-ready snaps, hazy harmonies, and untethered melodies with the hot to the touch “Twin Flames”. Only way to get burned by “Twin Flames”? By not cranking it all the way up and letting the bass rattle you right out of the work week.

Lew Apollo: “NEED YOUR LOVIN”

At the top of March, we praised Walker Lukens for his willingness to help up-and-comers in need of a keen production ear early on in their career. So you can imagine our excitement when we began to see credits from our August 2021 Artist of the Month BLK ODYSSY pop up in the wild. BLK ODYSSY’s latest collaborator? Austin-via-Minnesota singer-guitarist Lewis “Lew” Apollo.

Sadly, Lew Apollo’s recent alley-oop from boozy live blues-rock performances to BLK ODYSSY’s slick in-studio wheelhouse hasn’t been all that pleasant of a trajectory. It actually coincided with the loss of both his father and a friend to suicide last Fall, an unimaginable trauma that’s become a bittersweet impetus, a tragic catalyst for a creative pivot. In tribute, Lew Apollo’s since dedicated his songwriting to normalizing some of life’s most troubling obstacles – isolation, entrapment, anxiety, temptation, and depression – in hopes of making listeners feel less alone with their own struggles.

As part of that transition, Lew Apollo’s allowed BLK ODYSSY to come on board as producer and co-writer for Lew’s deeply personal debut EP JUNGLE. The machete-sharp cuts on JUNGLE take a leap into rock-R&B concoctions and neo-soul seductions, which remind us that some of the harshest environments can be our immediate internal and external surroundings, not perched at the top of a dense canopy or stalking the bottom of a rainforest floor. And in tandem with Apollo’s passion for providing a sense of belonging to those who may be in crisis, JUNGLE drops in the midst of Mental Health Awareness Month on Friday, May 12th. The release show is 8PM that same evening at The Pershing and JUNGLE‘s third single comes out on Friday, but we just gotta give it up to a track that came out in early March. Featuring KUTX favorite Grace Sorensen and unapologetically emotional, “NEED YOUR LOVIN” steers away from the distorted guitar of its Black Angels-esque predecessor “TROUBLE ON MY MIND” for an alluring, atmospheric, and reverb-drenched, harmony-heavy falsetto foray. Bonus points for blunt brevity, unbridled bass riffs, and an effervescent vibraslap at its tail that lends a seals some finality to this near-three-minute masquerade.

Small Engine Fire: “Ruin Everything”

Between the 30th anniversary of the Waco siege and the tragedy that just occurred on the border, the word “fire” might understandably turn some Texans off right about now. But for those who continue to rock out through the pain of the world’s ongoing, encircling dumpster fire…this one is for you.

It comes courtesy of sanguine sweetheart Ray Garza, whose effortless guitar and calculated vocals have become a staple of Austin outfits like Lola Tried, Space Tan, and his previous passion project, Poly Action. But just as Poly Action was picking up traction at the turn of the decade, the pandemic put an instant damper on PA’s momentum. Like countless others, the isolation and uncertainty of the subsequent lockdown left Garza feeling stuck in a rut. Historically an unapologetic upbeat pop-punk-rock lover, Garza surprised himself when he shed his typical humor-hinged defenses in favor of slower tempos and more fragile subject matters.

Fortunately for us, those tunes haven’t sizzled out into an ash pile. Instead, Garza’s internally-torching originals have rung the bell on his latest endeavor, Small Engine Fire. With Small Engine Fire (which features alum from Space Tan and Bogbody) Garza finds a safe haven to unspool those anxieties and insecurities with quirkily-human indie rock. And following their first-ever live show shortly after Free Week, Small Engine Fire has recently signaled the drop of a debut album sometime this year.

The quartet just lit the wick on that record with a solemn scorcher of a lead single, “Ruin Everything”, a slow-burning indie rock inferno stoked by infectious embers of instrumental interplay and subtle dynamic shifts. So if you’re planning out your weekend, consider showing some support for Small Engine Fire’s single release show 10PM this Sunday at Hotel Vegas followed by A. Sinclair and Rusty Dusty. If not, just toss on some headphones, throw “Ruin Everything” on repeat, and keep watching the world burn, baby.

Confession & Song: Matthew Logan Vasquez – “Untouchable”

Matthew Logan Vasquez creates a song about a rich boy in west Texas who seems to get away with everything…including homicide. In Part 1, you’ll hear the confession and the song. Tune in for Part 2 to hear an interview with Matthew.

Help us out! Rate the show and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.

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Andy Aylward: “No Surrender”

Whether its a stubborn molecule of toxic masculinity, a frank reflection on the fragility of life, or just a brash rock ‘n’ roll stereotype, “getting soft with age” is an oft-repeated adage, especially in the world of music. In the decade-long natural maturation of tastes between one’s preteens and post-grad explorations, there can be an almost parodic adrenaline-and-amp-addicted attitude that prefers to “die young” instead of “grow up”. And while claiming a traditional genre like folk is “hard” in contrast to say…punk rock sounds a bit silly, of course it’s all in the ear of the beholder. For London-born, Washington, D.C.-raised, and Austin-based songwriter Andy Aylward? A steady progression into soft-folk-rock hasn’t curbed any of the observational petulance of his adolescent punk days nor the nihilism of his post-college psychedelic experiences. Now whisked in the relative wisdom of his thirties, Aylward does make a conscious effort to eschew overt pessimism from his originals. But as heard on Andy Aylward’s 2019 solo debut Sometimes Rain, neither interjections of hope nor gallows humor mask the beautifully bleak honesty of his folksy poetry. Riding off a historically wayward relationship with cheap wine, bygone breakups, and the cross-country moves that eventually brought Aylward to Texas, Remember Me Like Birds On The Wind doesn’t relent an inch away from Andy’s intrinsic earnestness. These eight introspective, sparse arrangements were mixed by Fruit Bats/Kevin Morby producer D. James Goodwin for a minimalist affair that features The Cairo Gang’s Emmett Kelly, Stephen “Sweet Baboo” Black, and Captain Beefheart’s J.T. Thomas. Last Friday, ahead of Remember Me‘s April 25th release date, Aylward unleashed the album’s lead single that syncs up J.T. Thomas with trumpet-for-hire Paul Brandenburg for a jaunty jangler that just doesn’t give up, “No Surrender”.

Evergreen: “Step”

Since our late great radio icon John Aielli passed away, KUTX’s airwaves have largely veered away from classical music. But some of the best things about classical music are its timeless universality, its enduring ability to be adapted, and its ripe potential for renewed relevance post-re-interpolation. That’s also is a big part of what drives Austin multi-instrumentalist/instructor Evergreen, whose traditional cello upbringing and intrinsic understanding of the classical “language” had earned her spots onstage alongside Father John Misty and The Eagles by her mid-twenties.

As with the third stream movement of the 1950s, Evergreen especially seems to enjoy taking a revisionist approach to classic compositions, ditching strict tempo instructions in favor of moment-to-moment nuance, and letting centuries-old leitmotifs bask in new contexts. For her upcoming debut, Delicious Vignettes of Recent American Kind, Evergreen dissembles Antonin Dvořák’s “American String Quartet No. 12” and splits its bits across five infectious neo-classical sketches. That, on top of an ample cast of collaborators, an indie folk original, and a Joni Mitchell cover closing out the album, Delicious Vignettes is pretty much the exact level of classical-inspired eclecticism that Aielli so adored.

Today, before Delicious Vignettes drops on Friday, we took a “Step” closer to the LP with a stripped-down duet between nylon guitarist Chris Melas and percussionist Charles Godfrey. A delightful dance of flamenco rhythms and Latin jazz, “Step” feels like a great way to start Spring.

Pearl & The Oysters: “Evening Sun” (Live at Scholz Garten)

We’ve got just one more SXSW 2023 recap track for y’all, and it’s a real gem in a clam. It comes courtesy of the Gainesville-cradled jazz-space-pop project Pearl & The Oysters. Multi-instrumentalist-songwriters Juliette Pearl Davis and Joachim Polack are at the core of this classic kitsch-imbued bivalve, who now perform live as a five-piece. The migration of Davis and Polack’s musical mollusk to Los Angeles at the start of the pandemic seems to have introduced an extra breezy element to Pearl & The Oysters’ daytime disco-adjacency, which we’ll hear more of on their upcoming full-length Coast 2 Coast, out April 21st.

That of course means that Pearl & The Oysters are about to shell up and clamp their gear shut for a month-long North American tour, including a gig here in Austin at The Mohawk in late May. For our live broadcast, Pearl & The Oysters perused some of the new stuff off Coast 2 Coast, 2021’s Flowerland, 2018’s Canned Music, and even their 2017 eponymous debut. And despite the fact that their Scholz Garten set last Saturday wasn’t too long after dawn, the midpoint prize from Flowerland, “Evening Sun”, glistened with the morning crowd, sure to shimmer through plenty more memories and horizons.

Obongjayar: “Message in a Hammer” (Live at Scholz Garten)

Somehow six whole years have already slipped by since London rapper Little Simz played as part of our annual SXSW live morning broadcast. Of course, Simz has blown up exponentially since her 2017 Four Seasons performance, to the extent that we probably couldn’t have booked her now even if we wanted to. But in an impressive display of “small world” kismet, KUTX at Scholz Garden showcased another Londoner with direct ties to Nigeria, Obongjayar. On top of that, it happened the same week that Obongjayar and Simz’ “Point and Kill” played as part of IMDb Pro’s music video competition during SXSW film. When it comes to classifying Obongjayar’s style, there’s not a whole lot of consensus. Best we can say is it’s a politically-and-spiritually-inspired balance between rapping, chanting, and singing over Afrobeat-adjacent electronic soul. But there’s also something surprisingly unobtrusive about Obongjayar’s in-your-face aura that makes his outrageous originals so damn accessible. Which is doubly impressive when he’s got his live five-piece competing for a piece of the crowd’s energy. Obongjayar was still lucid off his debut full-length Some Nights I Dream of Doors when he obliterated the Scholz Garten scene with high-octane tunes like “Message In A Hammer”. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wake up either.

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

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”.

Geto Gala: “Sumn’ to Say” (Live at Scholz Garten)

After years of supporting Deezie Brown and Jake Lloyd individually, it’s beautiful watching them both earn exponential exposure with this hip-hop/R&B phenomenon that is Geto Gala. The latest phase of a fruitful friendship, Brown and Lloyd had already shared a fair amount of stages together pre-pandemic before capitalizing on their bar-trading chemistry with their eponymous February 2021 studio debut. Alongside its delightfully-southern Chopped and Slowed counterpart, The Geto Gala EP probably played a part in Brown and Lloyd separately scoring their first official ACL Fest sets last October, where informal versions of the full Geto Gala band ended up backing each solo performer.

Between then and now, the Geto Gala gang’s apparently upped their game for a whole gauntlet of live gigs, at least based off the applause they garnered last Thursday morning when they transfigured our Scholz SXSW space into the Geto Garten. With a set that’d make Big Pokey proud, and a crowd that was happy to “fifth wheel” alongside the band, Geto Gala sure as hell had “Sumn’ to Say” at SXSW. We’re just hoping our invitation’s still good for the next Gala.

Son Rompe Pera: “La Muerte Del Amor” (Live at Scholz Garten)

It’s safe to assume that us at KUTX aren’t the only ones exhausted after SXSW 2023. But as part of our obligation to provide the Austin Music Experience, we can’t just let last week’s handful of sessions exist strictly as a memory. So instead we’re revisiting some of our favorite moments from the legendary Scholz Garten to help you through the next five days of Spring Break recovery.

If you missed it in person or on-air, our live broadcast on Wednesday morning ended with a bang thanks to Son Rompe Pera. The Mexico City cross-genre fraternal quintet dropped in bright and early to marinate the Garten gang in some mallet-manic marimba topped with hypnotic percussion, pulsating bass intervals, and various western spices. Still riding high on the release of their sophomore full-length Chimborazo the previous weekend, Son Rompe Pera unsurprisingly sizzled especially hard on the new material. And although the feature-laden baker’s dozen on Chimborazo is arguably best enjoyed front to back at full volume sipping a cold cerveza, you can revive your love of Latin language live performances with the Scholz Garten rendition of “La Muerte Del Amor” in a video from our amazing multi-media team.

The Bright Light Social Hour: “Not New”

Typically around the tail end of SXSW music week, there’s a lot of local magic. It could be Bill Murray hopping behind a dive bar and serving up whatever he wants, or a relatively undiscovered up-and-comer getting an unexpected big break. But today we’re talking about the Austin representation, something that can get easily eclipsed by all the international faces at SX.

Now, we here at KUTX have gushed again and again over The Bright Light Social Hour, which makes sense since they’ve been with us even before the start of our call letters. So rather than recap what makes ’em so great (like their continuously progressing sound and willingness to team up with fellow Austinites), let’s just jump right into what Bright Light’s got in their limelight.

This morning The Bright Light Social Hour announced their fifth full-length Emergency Leisure. Down to its Slow Rush-reminiscent title, it seems like TBLSH is taking a sweet-yet-sinister Tame Impala daytime disco/indie-psych approach. But true to the Bright Light’s nature, Emergency Leisure isn’t just a full-band vehicle for one singer-songwriter (looking at you, Kevin Parker); instead its a seamlessly collaborative exchange perfected over nearly two decades of playing together that translates in-studio just as well as it does onstage.

For a taste of the ladder, check out The Bright Light Social Hour 8PM this evening at Parlor & Yard, 1AM late tonight at Parish for the Mint Talent Group official showcase, or 5PM Sunday at Rustic Tap. As of now, Rustic Tap looks like Bright Light’s last local gig until after Emergency Leisure comes out August 2nd, when the group hits the road on a three-plus-month tour. And while all that may sound like short notice, you gotta remember who we’re dealing with here; The Bright Light Social Hour always comes in cool and calculated, even when they drop Emergency Leisure‘s lead single like some high-powered blotter paper as they did this morning. Alongside its music video, “Not New” will knock you back with its driving-but-subdued sonics that are almost too cool to party to. Almost.

CIVIC: “Born in the Heat”

We’ve gotten drenched by several “South By Soaking Wet”s in the past, but rest assured, despite gloomy weather, there’s a lot going on. And any precipitation aside, CIVIC sure as hell is in that mix. Founded in 2017, this Melbourne quintet has continued to follow old school punk rock’s first rules: 1) Don’t overthink it, 2) just have fun, and 3) play what gets the people going. And while we suspect CIVIC’s circle pits are a prime place to get bloody and bruised, the band’s pandemic-era full-lengths have found the five-piece broadening their scope to more inclusive, higher-fidelity, and controllable elements of rock, albeit all high-octane.

That said CIVIC‘s already begun bringing the low-light grit of the “Aussie music experience” to our city limits. They wrapped up the first quarter of a dozen shows yesterday afternoon at Hole in the Wall and just hopped off stage at Mohawk for Flood-Fest a few minutes ago. They’ll be back at Hotel Vegas today at 2PM for Levitation Party before a 5PM set at South By San Jose. Tomorrow’s options are 12:15PM at Chess Club, 2:15PM at Australia House/Lucille Patio, and 5PM in the Waterloo Records parking lot. CIVIC’s final Hotel Vegas appearance is Saturday at 2PM, before Do512’s “The Big One” 6PM at Far Out Lounge and 11PM at Valhalla.

With that many gigs (both official and unofficial) at that many venues, you won’t need to be Taken By Force to see CIVIC in person. So why not brave the elements to throw elbows with some of Australia’s finest? Because as much as us Texans like to poke fun at those who complain about the sun, these Melbourne badasses were “Born in the Heat”. Catch the fire while it’s close by…

Yazmin Lacey: “Bad Company”

SXSW provides an excellent opportunity to enjoy international artists right here in our own city limits. Yet for some, the city-wide wanderlust can get overlapped by a desire to discover acts from specific regions. Well, fortunately for those folks, there are a ton of origin-curated SXSW showcases scheduled for this week, both officially and unofficially. For UK music enthusiasts, consider stopping by BBC Presents: The British Music Embassy, whose eclectic across-the-pond 2023 roster includes stunning up-and-comer Yazmin Lacey. Like many singers-in-the-making, Lacey got her start in church choir before her ears caught on to hip-hop, soul, and R&B. But, like her contemporary Danielle Ponder, Lacey didn’t pursue music professionally until the late 2010s, when she was already past the “prime” age which most creatives launch their career. Nevertheless Lacey impressed us with beautiful, reactionary honesty in a three-EP progression at the turn of the past decade; 2017’s Black Moon, 2018’s When The Sun Dips 90 Degrees, and 2020’s Morning Matters. Since the start of March, Yazmin Lacey’s been riding high on her astonishing, moment-capturing hour-long inaugural full-length Voice Notes, which has already cemented her status as a neo-soul sensation. If you want to hear this modern day mashup of Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, and more in person, you’re in luck; Yazmin Lacey entertains our airwave neighbors KMFA at 3PM today before making a two-night run on 4th Street: 9PM tonight for British Music Embassy at The Courtyard and again 9PM tomorrow for Jazz re:Freshed Outernational at Seller’s Underground. So show some support by diving into Voice Notes on streaming or by joining the crowd downtown. Either way, you’ll find yourself in delightfully “Bad Company“.

Buenos Diaz: “The Name of The Game”

Artist multiplicity is a big part of what draws people to Austin, and definitely not just during SXSW. But especially in the midst of SX, it also behooves many to diversify their performances and mix up their on-stage exposure. And for Buenos Diaz singer-guitarist Nick Diaz, that’s “The Name of The Game”.

This week Nick’s rockstar aura glows across several acts and venues; he’s spending much of it as a six-string-for-hire with his NYC friends Lizzie and the Makers, balancing the rest out between solo and full band sets. Lizzie and the Makers play 8:45PM tonight at The Dizzy Rooster, at Blind Pig 10PM tomorrow and 10:15PM on Wednesday, and 10PM this Friday at Saxon Pub. As for Nick, he’s going solo 5PM tomorrow at Mañana and 1:30PM on Wednesday near the Taco Deli at Austin Bergstrom International Airport.

But bringin’ it back to Buenos Diaz, the full band hops on right after Lizzie and the Makers 11PM on Friday at Saxon Pub before a show 6:30PM next Wednesday at Lustre Pearl South and 10:30PM next Sunday at Long Play East. Under Nick’s direction, Buenos Diaz blew us away last August with their LP Cocaine Queen, but when you spin this hard-rocker you can tell right away that it’s best enjoyed live. So catch Nick in any capacity this week if you can, because playing at the biggest international music festival right in your own backyard? That’s “The Name of The Game”.

Who wants to meet up tonight?

SUSU: “Mine”

SXSW Music is the talk of town all this week, and of course we’ve got a handful of live performances for your consideration. Starting off today with another set of four all-caps letters, SUSU. Since the mid-2010’s, jiggish Gemini singers Liza Colby and Kia Warren have guided SUSU through New York City’s steamy indie rock-and-soul scene. The quintet clawed their way onto streaming platforms with 2019’s Panther City EP and follow it up this spring with a new baker’s dozen of outrageously catchy originals on Call Susie.

Sure, SUSU’s in town for SXSW, but between their camaraderie alongside KUTX favorites Sweet Spirit, they’re certainly no stranger to the Live Music Capital of the World. As of this publication, SUSU’s already about halfway through their slew of gigs, having already wrapped up two back-to-back shows on Friday, Saturday’s Hoss Sauce House Party, and a set early this afternoon at Empire Control Room. But fortunately for USUS, SUSU is still going full speed ahead.

SUSU’s spree continues 8:45PM tonight at Hole in the Wall and return to the Hotel Vegas Patio at 10:45PM. SUSU rings in 5 o’clock right for the Paste Magazine Showcase presented by Ilegal Mezcal on Wednesday before closing out their Spring Break 5:30PM Thursday at Antone’s. There are plenty of free-with-RSVP options to see SUSU, so find a day and time that works for you and claim it as “Mine” – which is also the title of Call Susie‘s latest spark-plug of a lead single.