Jack Anderson

L.A. guitarist-vocalist-producer and overall analog recording geek Nick Waterhouse is back with another entry into his already impressive catalogue. In the past decade Waterhouse has taken his band around the world and produced everyone from Ty Segall to Leon Bridges, with a sound that recalls stylistic elements of the 1960s but aren’t without their own character.

In that vein, Waterhouse has decided to self-title his fourth full-length, out March 8th. With ten new originals and a cover, Waterhouse will be hitting the road after his namesake LP comes out, eventually joining us at the Parish on Friday, May 24th. Today you can turn the heat up with a new single from Waterhouse, one that embodies the essence of ’60s psychedelia and a touch of surf, soul, and blues: “Song For Winners”!

– Jack Anderson

Beginning in 2010 cellist and vocalist Neyla Pekarek became one of the strongest additions in folk rock force The Lumineers, but only recently wandered off to illuminate her own path. Pekarek spent the last two years touring with The Lumineers while writing her debut solo album, only now defying built-in success to pursue music on her own.

Inspired by her 20th century home state hero of Rattlesnake Kate, Pekarek’s narrative first-person lyrics on the upcoming Rattlesnake LP are light and quirky, while her arrangements and performances are seriously spectacular. Pekarek’s frontier flourishes on Rattlesnake are emboldened by producer M. Ward and you can hear the full record tomorrow! Neyla joins us at the Scoot Inn on Saturday, February 2nd and in case you just want to coil up somewhere cool ’til then, we’ve some sonic snake oil to wrap your scales around: “The Attack”!

Photo: Liza Nelson

Arone Dyer and Aron Sanchez aren’t just master players, they’re musical mad scientists. Between 2008 and 2013 their NY-based duo Buke and Gase was batting at just under an album a year…until they suddenly disappeared. Their namesake instruments (buke/baritone ukelele & gase/guitar-bass) have since taken a backseat in Buke and Gase’s recordings in favor of innovative electronic devices, ushering in a new wave of music from Dyer and Sanchez.

Cut down from more than sixty songs and hundreds of hours of raw recording completely different from anything we’ve heard from them before, Buke and Gase almost renamed the group what has become their latest album title, Scholars. Scholars is a deep investment in electronic music, a proof of Buke and Gase’s aural academia, and you can enjoy the twelve new songs on Friday, starting right now with “Derby”!

After fifteen long years, the pride of Seattle singer-songwriter David Bazan finally emerges from its den. Bazan first formed his rock group Pedro the Lion in 1995, then dissolved it in favor of solo efforts in 2006. Now Pedro the Lion has their first album in a decade and a half and you can dig your claws into it this Friday. Inspired by memories of the past, exhaustion from solo touring, and the titular Arizona city, Pedro the Lion’s new LP Phoenix just premiered on NPR’s First Listen, showing off Bazan’s intense lyricism and heavy arrangements.

Get your paws on one of the album’s more beastly numbers and put some fur on your chest with “Powerful Taboo”!

-Jack Anderson

California singer-songwriter Sean Pawling has been enamored with music since he was a boy. He built up his chops on trombone over his formative years and throughout college before taking his multi-instrumental talents to the studio with the 2011 EP Inner Child and 2014 LP Eye for an Eiger.

Now, heavily inspired by his home state’s diverse landscapes and its duplicitous light and dark elements, Pawling is set to release his sophomore full-length Sunsinking, out next Friday. These dozen new tunes feature Pawling’s lush lyrical imagery, heartwarming horn arrangements, and some stabby pop synthesizer to boot, so ford into one of Sunsinking’s lead singles, with “Rio Grande”!

Photo: Mikel Darling

Typically for Song of the Day we like to shine the spotlight on the little guy, but this one was too good to pass up! D.C.’s Clarence Greenwood, AKA Citizen Cope is back with his first new material in six years.

Greenwood’s blend of folk, soul, hip hop and blues has earned Citizen Cope fans across the globe and on March 1st he shares his newest album, Heroin and Helicopters. That release date is also when Citizen Cope kicks off a full band US tour, including a stop at our very own ACL Live at the Moody Theater in April. For today let Greenwood serve up the album’s lead single, one that has all the essential elements for a perfect Citizen Cope track, “Justice”!

Photo: Michael Sterling Eaton

Inspired by the likes of Lucinda Williams and James McMurtry, Austin artist Rob Baird is back with a brand new album! Baird’s last solo effort was 2015’s Wrong Side of the River and his upcoming fourth record was created with the help of his closest collaborators. Baird’s decade-long bond with his fellow players has allowed for previously unheard sincerity and honesty in these compositions, and impressively disciplined performances to match.

You can hear ten years worth of songwriting embodied in ten new Rob Baird tracks on After All, out tomorrow. Just for today though, get a glimpse at one of the album’s tipping points from After All, “Ain’t Going Back to You”!

Photo: Eryn Brooke

A lot of people claim to be true Texas troubadours, but when you’re literally descended from Davy Crockett, the competition starts to dwindle. Enter Dallas transplant Charley Crockett, whose heritage and personal drive have made him a master interpreter of traditional music. Lineage aside Crockett’s a beast onstage and in the studio, with five full-lengths notched in his belt, including hist late 2018 album, Lil G.L.’s Blue Bonanza.

Lil G.L. features fifteen cover songs from the likes of T-Bone Walker, Jimmy Reed, Austin’s Lavelle White and much more, providing for a blues, soul and country experience equally rooted in the past and present. The Blue Bonanza starts right now with some sultry self-promotion via “Good Time Charley’s Got The Blues”!

Photo: Lyza Renee

If you’re in need of some rowdy rockin’ indie alternative country, then it’s time to let Deer Tick crawl into your life. This Providence, Rhode Island quartet began as a duo back in 2004 and has been building up their raucous, grin-inducing sound over the course of seven full-lengths, a number of EPs, a few lineup changes, and countless live performances.

Deer Tick was last in the news with the release of their 2017 eponymous double album and next month they’re back with a slather of new songs. Deer Tick’s upcoming LP Mayonnaise is out February 1st and you can spread the fresh stuff around with its lead single, “Hey! Yeah!”

Happy New Year! We’re only a week into 2019 and we’re already thrilled for another year of exciting new music, so let’s get right to it!

In the late ’70s, multi-instrumentalist and producer Chris Cohen entered the world of music banging on drum heads when he was just three. Fast forward to to the mid-2000s, where Cohen the “singing drummer” provided his talents for a variety of groups, most notably in The Curtains, Ariel Pink and Deerhoof. In 2012 Cohen took his solo psychedelic pop to the studio and has self-sufficed across several recordings since.

Chris Cohen wrapped up 2018 with his first new song in a couple years, doubling as his first solo material recorded with other musicians (Tuneyards saxophonist Kasey Knudsen and composer/pianist Jay Israelson), rather than entirely on his own. Cohen’s new single teases more music to come in 2019 so let’s highlight Cohen’s latest and start the new year off on a revisionist note with “Edit Out”!

Photo: Ebru Yildiz

Native Austinite and country songwriter Carson McHone has been crushing crowds at places like The White Horse well before she was 21, and rightfully so. McHone’s unapologetic temperament shines through her lyrics and she matches it with flawless performances on vocals, guitar and harmonica.

McHone’s latest offering came in the form of her third full-length, Carousel, and while it’s no revolution in her sound, it’s definitely the best packaged Carson McHone experience to date. We were happy to have Carson as our October 2018 Artist of the Month and in that time she told us, “it’s never too early to teach your kids about subtext”…that said, here’s the final Song of the Day for 2018, the live Studio 1A rendition of “Drugs”!

Their journey together began as class mates, then band mates, and now as soul mates, guitarist Daniel and singer Jenna Watters are in perfect harmony as The Watters. Jenna and Daniel had previously worked together on seven albums under different monikers across Sedona, Arizona, L.A., Denver, and Nashville. That was all before they settled down in Austin, assembled their trusty eight-piece backing band, and released their debut album as “The Watters” in 2016.

Daniel and Jenna’s chemistry is undeniable, thanks in no small part to the shear amount of time they’ve spent writing and performing together, and they upped the aural ante this past June with their self-titled full-length. The Watters reminded us why Jenna and Daniel kick so much butt together; their technical talents speak for themselves and their songwriting takes the best from soul, roots, Americana, rock and folk and slow cooks it into a gourmet Watters sound.

Yesterday afternoon The Watters were at the ongoing Armadillo Christmas Bazaar, next Sunday they’ll be at Cosmic Coffee & Beer Garden and tonight they play at Stubb’s Indoors. Our Song of the Day and The Watters album opener may have a relatively generic title, but the music itself is just plain amazing. Check out “I Need You”!

Here are a few labels that local six-piece Linen Closet ascribes to their sound: “contrarian pop”, “boogie bummer”, “grump pop”, “norm horror”, and “glum core”. And while we could debate what any of those actually mean, it’s safe to say that Linen Closet’s music is just as bleak as it is pleasant and just as catchy as it droning.

Their October 2018 self-titled full-length brought layers of rock and symphonic indie out of the closet and laid an eight track bed of excellence. You can see Linen Closet playing 9pm this Saturday at ABGB and get a little languid this hump day with “Warning Sign”!