Jack Anderson

For years singer and guitarist Miles Kelley was the leading voice for Austin outfit Milezo. Not too long ago Milezo disbanded, but Kelley and his faithful drummer Sam Jordan stuck together, eventually linking up with Chase Weinacht of Marmalakes to form The Hermits.

The Hermits’ off-kilter brand of psychedelic garage rock first hit the web in 2017 with Tour Tape and just last weekend The Hermits came out of the cave with their self-titled debut full-length. The ten tracks on The Hermits will weird you out, get you riled up, and make you grin all in one sitting. And in case you don’t want to be a recluse for The Hermits, you can see them at their release show this Thursday at Cheer Up Charlie’s.

The Hermits joined us in Studio 1A last week and today you can get a download of the gnashing album opener from The Hermits, “Teeth of the Mountain”!

New month, new music! To ease you into this weekend, let’s talk a bit about Harmony Byrne. This Aussie singer was one of seven children growing up in a Mormon household when she first latched onto church hymns and eventually rock n roll. Now in her mid-20s, Byrne combines the best of both worlds with her gospel-tinged vocal-driven alternative rock.

Jim Eno of Spoon entered the picture recently when he took on the role of producer for Byrne’s upcoming debut album Heavy Doors, due later this year. Harmony Byrne will be in town for SXSW and today she shares a teaser from Heavy Doors, “Loving You is Lonely”!

It’s the last day of Love Austin Music Month and we gotta show some love for Löwin. This local four-piece has been roaring along with their fierce brand of indie rock since their humble origins half a decade back.

This Tuesday Löwin unleashed their sophomore album Heavy as the Sun, a record that shifts the group’s fuzz rock sound towards pop and clarity, with flashback ’80s moments reimagined with contemporary production. Löwin just joined us in Studio 1A and celebrates the Heavy as the Sun release show this Saturday at Cheer Up Charlie’s. You can get a little celebration of your own going right now with the album opener from Heavy as the Sun, “Sake”!

-Jack Anderson

When he’s not checking to see if you flossed, Joe Sparacino moonlights as musical maniac Dr. Joe. This local dentist-turned-piano man has an insurmountable drive to make his listeners feel something and through his one-of-a-kind custom set of keys, he does just that. We’ve only been able to enjoy the good doctor’s brand of blues rock live onstage up until recently, when he gave us a dose of aural anesthetic in the form of his debut single.

Said single was recorded in Nashville under the supervision of Vance Powell, producer for Jack White, Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton, and was released alongside a killer animated music video not too long ago. You can catch Dr. Joe and his full backing band this Friday at KUTX’s Rock the Park event and right now get a free download of the new Joe, “Tell Your Mother”!

Love Austin Music Month is quickly coming to a close and we’d be remiss if we didn’t shine the spotlight at least once on Austin treasure David Messier. The former frontman of Boston outfit Papermoon and founder of Same Sky Productions recording studio moved to Texas in 2009 and through his music, Messier’s made the most of the last decade. Historically a high-ranking member of the Grammy’s Recording Academy, Messier is an invaluable music community figurehead with his mitts on SIMS, HAAM, and way more than we can list.

Messier’s philanthropy and creative contributions to the local scene as a songwriter, producer, engineer and overall good guy earned him the declaration of June 8th as “David Messier Day” by Austin Mayor Steve Adler. Late last year Messier released his solo album, Time Bomb, and you have two opportunities to hear some selections from it live this weekend. David Messier joins the 11:59 Songwriting Group this Friday at the Cactus Cafe and has another performance this Saturday at One-2-One Bar. Time Bomb is available for streaming and download everywhere so let’s tick towards the weekend and set it off with “No Escape”!

A quick listen to Indiana quintet Durand Jones & The Indications has you walking out of a time machine and re-entering the golden age of ’60s soul. Vocal duties are shared between the eponymous frontman and drummer Aaron Frazer, who collectively evoke the spirit of artists like Jackie Wilson and Curtis Mayfield. The Indications have come quite a ways since forming in 2012 and on their upcoming sophomore record, American Love Call, the group tackles how to find a comfortable place between love and rage within the country’s current political climate.

With musical inspiration ranging from Duke Ellington to Earth Wind & Fire to Jay Z, American Love Call is a gargantuan achievement for Durand Jones & The Indications in commentary, production, arrangement and performance. American Love Call is out this Friday and to get you buttered up and ready for it, enjoy the album’s soaring lead single, “Don’t You Know”!

Photo: Rosie Cohe

Frederico7’s Pan-American soul music is a result of his diverse background. Born in Brazil, he has lived in Mexico, Argentina, and, finally, settled in right here in Austin. Speaking English, Portuguese and Spanish, the singer-songwriter isn’t short of words or rhythm. Frederico7’s music is a fusion of Afro-Brazilian rhythms, American Funk, Soul, Dub and Psychedelia.

His debut album, Exótico Americano, is out today. The album tackles themes of unity and resilience while sharing the melodies that embody a diverse American continent. Come celebrate the release of Exótico Americano with Frederico7  tonight at the Empire Control Room on East Seventh Street. For now, let’s play something we can bop our heads to. From Frederico7,  here is “Nature of Love.”

-Simone Puglia

Photo by Juan Figueroa

Berklee grad Kelly Hafner first started singing with San Francisco outfit Fire, and it wasn’t long after that she relocated to the Live Music Capital, got a few gigs at the legendary Elephant Room, and cemented herself as one of Austin’s most robust voices. Taking cues from vocal legends old and new, be it Amy Winehouse, Lauryn Hill or Etta James, Hafner’s style is still a unique beast and exudes pure soul.

Today Hafner shares her debut studio album, If It’s Love, ten tracks of jazzy R&B created with the help of her live backing band. The release show for If It’s Love is 10:30pm tonight at Geraldine’s and in case you’re still not won over, enjoy a free download of the lush title track!

Once referred to as “the Black Morrissey”, Montreal vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Murray A. Lightburn has come a long way since co-founding the indie chamber rock outfit The Dears. And when this Canadian crooner’s not recording and touring with his wife, Lightburn can’t help but keep writing just for himself.

Decidedly different from his 2013 solo debut and concept album MASS:LIGHT, Lightburn’s upcoming sophomore effort, Hear Me Out, drapes Lightburn’s already silky style over ’50s and ’60s soul snippets. The collision of vintage R&B sounds and modern production on Hear Me Out will definitely leave you moanin’ for more and thankfully you can see Murray A. Lightburn during SXSW. Hear Me Out drops tomorrow, so listen up to this crawling gospel groove, “I Give Up”!

Siblings. Best friends. Bandmates. Call ’em what you want, but at the end of the day Jocelyn & Chris Arndt make for a great pair. They may be young but between Chris’s guitar and Jocelyn’s vocals, this New York duo has an amazingly mature sound. And it’s no surprise, since these Harvard grads have been playing bars together beginning in the 7th grade.

The diversity and strength of Jocelyn & Chris Arndt’s songwriting is readily apparent on their upcoming third full-length, The Fun in the Fight. They’re already touring in support of The Fun in the Fight and although there aren’t any Austin appearances, you can still enjoy the full record everywhere this Friday.

For now check out the album closer, a signpost between bossa nova and soft rock that evokes the sounds of the ’70s while still serving up a timeless dose of musical meteorology, “The Weatherman”!

Photo: Kiki Vassilakis

Once an exalted member of high rockabilly royalty, L.A. songwriter Kim Lenz has spent the past two decades digging for the roots of her most heralded genre. Her 1998 debut came in the form of Kim Lenz And The Jaguars, hurdling Lenz to the forefront of the rockabilly revival movement.

While the momentum’s high, Lenz has popped the clutch on her musical career once again with her upcoming fifth album, Slowly Speeding. On these ten new tracks Lenz combined ideal tones from her record collection and threw together the stylistic ingredients behind rock n roll for a growling re-definition of her sound. Slowly Speeding is out Friday and Lenz is set to embark on a month-long tour of Spain shortly afterwards. For a coniferous kickstart to Slowly Speeding, let this aural auteur grow on you with “Pine Me”!

Dutch four-piece Mozes & The Firstborn has a kind of quirky energy that’d blow your garage door off. The band began nearly a decade ago, with their accurately titled 2011 EP I Got Skills showing off what makes Mozes & The Firstborn great. Since then the group has toured alongside The Growlers and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, finding comparable popularity in the United States, their native Netherlands and beyond.

Their recently released third full-length Dadcore is a blend of Mozes and the Firstborn’s favorite genres and styles, resulting in a muddied middle ground between pop and grunge. Mozes and the Firstborn continues their international tour this Saturday at Hotel Vegas and to tide you over, here’s “Blow Up”!

If you frequented the local live music scene some years back, you probably remember seeing stickers that said, “Roger Sellers is NOT a DJ.” Fast forward to today, where we know that’s the understatement of a decade and where Sellers has made a new name for himself: Bayonne.

The sheer talent and keep-you-guessing nature behind this vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer extraordinaire made it easy to name Bayonne our February 2019 Artist of the Month, who also joined us in Studio 1A yesterday. While he was there Bayonne treated us to his latest album, Drastic Measures, a layer-heavy wall of sound and the strongest we’ve ever heard Sellers. The sold out release show for Drastic Measures is 8PM tonight at the Mohawk and in case you missed out on a ticket, you don’t need to miss out on Drastic Measures; here’s “Same”!

On a day full of marked up chocolates and vain attempts to rekindle romance, Mykele Deville‘s heart beats for something much less superficial: self-love. This West Side Chicagoan knows the complexities of Black life in America all too well, and on top of being a poet, educator and actor, Deville uses hip hop and soul for self-healing, both for himself and his listeners. Mykele Deville’s sense of motivation in light of adversity is at the forefront of his upcoming album Maintain, a seven-song record that seeks to dismantle toxic masculinity and promote mental stability in black men.

Maintain is out next Friday but just for the Hallmark holiday make a move and wrap your arm around this new one from Mykele Deville featuring Daryn Alexis, “Type Love“!

For lack of better terms, Bay Area native Daniel Steinbock keeps himself busy. An avid designer, photographer, coder, ethnographer and educator, Steinbock somehow still manages time to write and record his eponymous solo material. And if you can imagine someone locking Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam, Neil Young and Walt Whitman in a room until they wrote a song together, you’ve pretty much got Steinbock’s sound.

Following up his two introductory EPs, Steinbock is set to release his first ever full-length, Out of Blue, this Friday. The record is rooted in indie folk with a color palette of jazz, rock, gospel, country and blues tracing throughout Steinbock’s seductive songwriting. If you can’t wait a whole two days for Steinbock’s debut LP, get a free download of Out of Blue‘s title track right now!

Indianapolis sisters Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz, best known simply as Lily & Madeleine, are quickly approaching their fourth album together and strongest songs yet. Both now in their early twenties, the duo moved to New York City last year but kept their hometown’s Canterbury Park close to heart for the full-length Canterbury Girls. Recorded in Nashville, Canterbury Girls finds Lily & Madeleine in complete creative control of their songwriting for the first time ever and boasts the same production talent behind Kacey Musgraves’ recent Grammy winner Golden Hour.

Inspired by emotional baggage and interpersonal sibling discovery, Canterbury Girls infuses a wide array of genres and breaks through its pop crust with a core of emotional expression and sororal spirit. Canterbury Girls is out next Friday so check out this resilient disco-pop narrative, “Supernatural Sadness”!

If there’s one thing Brooklyn songwriter Tommy Bazarian does best, it’s ambiance. Bazarian’s solo project Lampland was created at his 9-t0-5 as a radio producer, taking what he absorbed in the day time and working it into lyrics and music by nightfall. The arrangements on Lampland’s debut album No Mood use heavily-modified tones and various field recordings to create the sonic backdrop for Bazarian’s folksy, fragmented narratives. And true to its name, No Mood doesn’t fall under any one genre, instead illuminating a field of influences, most notably alt-country, acoustic folk, and shoegaze.

No Mood came out last Friday and to ignite the wick on these ten luminous songs, enjoy a free download of No Mood‘s penultimate track, “Did You Ever Wanna Know Why?”