Jack Anderson

If you’ve seen any live music in Austin in the past ten years, chances are you’ve caught a glimpse of drummer Josh Halpern or singer-guitarist Chase Weinacht, either onstage or in the crowd. Halpern provides percussion for Palo Duro, Shearwater, Hello Wheels, Still Corners, Taft (and probably a dozen other groups) while Weinacht puts time towards solo songwriting and The Hermits, but it’s all on top of the strong bond formed over a decade ago as Marmalakes.

With both members determined in their own right, Marmalakes walks a path between the two extremes of friendship and discipline (not to mention an insatiable hunger for indie folk rock), and when we named them our May 2018 Artist of the Month, it was practically overdue! Marmalakes‘ debut LP Please Don’t Stop came out in May, filled with songs we’ve heard live for years, now provided with some in-studio clarity. Live is still the best way to enjoy Marmalakes, so catch ’em around town whenever you can, starting right now with the Studio 1A rendition of one of their latest and greatest, “Geneva Hall”!

When you’ve spent years backing up the late great Sharon Jones, Lou Donaldson, Lee Fields and more, the word “master” seems fitting. There’s no exception when it comes to Adam Scone, a wizard of the Hammond Organ and founder of Scone Cash Players. With a world of experience under his belt, Scone reunited with his fellow Dap-Kings this last year for two big recordings, the Scone Cash Players soul-soaked debut LP Blast Furnace, and the Holiday-themed 45 Scone Cold Christmas.

Both records raise the bar high for Scone and his band, who’ve been comfortably expanding their touring obligations from national to international audiences. The future is bright for Scone Cash Players, so deck the halls Daptone style with the first single off Scone Cold Christmas featuring Brooklyn vocalist Lee Taylor, “My First Divorced Christmas (Santa Claus Got a Divorce)”!

If you don’t know the name Mélat, you’re seriously missing out. Between her voice, lyrics, world view and work ethic, this native Austinite and Studio 1A veteran is an insanely talented beacon of energy and with the release of her latest album Move Me II: The Present, it was kind of  a no-brainer to name Mélat our February Artist of the Month. Mélat’s live performances are just as breathtaking as her studio recordings and in addition to regular live shows she promises new recorded material in 2019.

While we eagerly await the new stuff, let’s bask in the glory of her most recent Studio 1A visit around the time Move Me II came out, with a live rendition of one of the album’s midpoints, “Coffee So Black”!

Pennsylvania native Matthew Perryman Jones has been playing music for so long that his discography is old enough to vote. Jones is a current member of Nashville’s Ten Out Of Tenn singer-songwriter collective and his phenomenal solo work sheds light on a ground between indie, folk, Americana, pop and rock.

In September Jones released his fifth full-length, The Waking Hours, a wanderlust-inspired album that explores how we drift towards love and how difficult it can be to let go. Matthew Perryman Jones plays tomorrow night at the Mohawk and you can pre-game with “Lovers In Another Life”!

Photo: Robby Klein

When life’s a marsh, sometimes you gotta draw reeds. Enter Los Angeles quintet The Wild Reeds, who have been averaging at about an album per year since their humble start in 2014. The five members of The Wild Reeds have been through a lot recently, and their upcoming (and appropriately-titled) album Cheers is an amalgamation of working through those difficulties. Cheers channels optimism in light of life’s obstacles, and this baker’s dozen of new tunes show off the best that The Wild Reeds’ three chief songwriters have to offer.

Cheers is out March 8th, but you can raise a proverbial glass this Hump Day with a brand new R&B-infused single from The Wild Reeds, “Lose My Mind”!

Formerly one half of LA indie hip hop duo Made In Heights, Kelsey Bulkin has kept busy providing vocals for the likes of Jacques Greene and Odesza as well as her own solo material. Bulkin gravitates towards a certain kind of electronic beats, (where her voice has a natural tendency to float right on top) and her next move is the upcoming five-song EP Leucadia, due out March 2019.

Kelsey Bulkin’s gonna blow you away with the remainder of the record, but right now you can get indoctrinated with the album opener off Leucadia, a single that oozes surf and R&B all within two and a half minutes, “Samsara”!

-Jack Anderson

It’s been half a decade since their foundation, and Aussie-born, locally-based five-piece Go Fever is once again putting Austin in a fever pitch! Frontwoman Acey Monaro relocated from Down Under to the Live Music Capital in 2013 (when she also married Go Fever’s bass player) and early last year this hungry young quintet released their self-tilted debut.

Go Fever set the bar high, with lots of retro new wave elements mixed in with modern rock and shoegaze stylings. In February we’ll be able to hear their sophomore album Daydream Hawker, an album recorded in Jim Eno’s home studio, with work from The War On Drugs engineer Brad Bell and mixed by Ali Chant, who’s also been behind PJ Harvey and Perfume Genius.

There’s a ton talent on the back end, so you know Go Fever’s new stuff is up to snuff. Case in point: Daydream Hawker‘s lead single, released last Friday and still turning the temperature up when we need it the most, “Feel So Much”!

Ghanaian-born artist Genesis Owusu is quickly becoming one of Australia’s top hip hop talents. Owusu went from West Africa to Down Under by the time he was two, and his upbringing as an outlier has influenced the defiant energy that he brings to the stage and studio.

Last year Genesis Owusu released his debut EP Cardrive and just last month he shared a brand new single, featuring production by Callum Connor of Anderson Paak’s Free Nationals. It’s the first of a few collaborations together so you can look forward to more in 2019, but let’s ease into the weekend with this new laid-back track, “Wit’ Da Team”!

The new year is an optimistic time with lots of room for growth and positivity , and we got all that and more with Austin quartet Good Field. Our January 2018 Artist of the Month had already charmed us with their first two albums, and when we heard that their latest record featured work from Spoon‘s Jim Eno and White Denim‘s James Petralli, we couldn’t wait to get our mitts on it!

Surface Tension came out on February 1st and ushered in a new era for Good Field, whose indie rock aura has never sounded more clear or confident. Catch Good Field around town any chance you get, and break Surface Tension with the LP’s second track, “Ordinary People”!

Six years ago David Roseboom found an artistic hub within the Pearl Street Co-Op, and that’s where he began to dedicate his life to music. With his newfound project Risky Motion, Roseboom unplugged himself from the internet but not before downloading Prince’s entire discography. Deeply inspired by the Purple one, Roseboom released the debut album from Risky Motion, Wide Open, back in September when Risky Motion was our KUTX Artist of the Month. True to its title, Wide Open is a smattering of electronic, funk, psych, pop, rock and anything else you’ll need to get your blood pumping. Stay riled up with Risky Motion’s Studio 1A session and the first track off Wide Open, “Get Me Going”!

It’s pretty impressive to write a song, build up the confidence to record it, then have it produced and turned into a music video…even more so when you’re only fifteen! That’s the case with Brighton’s Isabelle Brown who’s been crawling into listeners’ hearts one tune at a time.

Brown cites Nina Simone as a primary influence and there’s no doubt her astonishing vocals reflect that retro soul against a comfortable backdrop of modern production. Isabelle Brown shared a music video for her latest single yesterday, so before this UK artist blows up everywhere, grab a free download of “Places”!

New York-born, LA-based singer Sonia Kreitzer has a serious knack for pop songwriting under the name Doe Paoro. Doe Paoro’s style comes across like a missing link between Carole King and Fiona Apple, so any opportunity to catch Kreitzer live shouldn’t be overlooked.

In October Doe Paoro released her third album, Soft Power, and she’ll be treating locals to some of the dozen new tunes when she plays tonight at the North Door. The weekend never ends when there’s live music on a Monday, so get the blood pumping early with “Cage of Habits”!

If you’re familiar with Brooklyn indie rockers San Fermin, then you probably recognize the name Allen Tate. Tate was the lead singer of San Fermin pretty much since the get-go, and inspired by anxious and lonely feelings, he recently found an outlet in his solo songwriting career.

Tate let his voice be heard on the 2016 debut album Sleepwalker and he’ll be following it up with In The Waves, due out early 2019. In The Waves continues Tate’s exploration of anxiety and was created alongside John Agnello, one of the producer-engineers behind Kurt Vile, Phosphorescent and Dinosaur Jr. Get a dreamy start to your weekend with one of the lead singles off In The Waves, “What to Say”!

Although Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti is typically associated with an experimental chillwave sound, three members of APHG have recently reunited as their alter ego The Samps. These L.A. genre-hoppers spilled out with their self-titled album back in 2010 and nowadays The Samps are back with a hearty meal of funk, hip hop, house, disco and anything else to get your rump shakin’.

Last Friday The Samps released their dance-inducing full-length Breakfast, featuring a baker’s dozen of beats and boogies backing up some jaw-dropping talent. It’s never too late for some Breakfast, so sample one of the main courses before digging into the rest with “Hit n Run”!

Poet, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Danielle Aykroyd is a one-woman machine of musicianship, known onstage as Vera Sola. Aykroyd’s first chapter saw her composing pieces for performance art, theater productions and film scores and began her solo career shying away from the spotlight in dimly lit venues. A spell of confidence befell Aykroyd last year, who added an orchestral backing band to her live shows, and much to the joy of her growing fanbase, Vera Sola was born.

Aykroyd maintained complete control over her vision for her debut full-length Shades, ten songs that take Aykroyd’s life experience and package it into a veritable Vera Sola introduction. You can don Shades right now with a free download of one of the record’s lead singles, “The Colony“!

It’s been a dozen years since the release of his debut album, but D.C.-born, Berlin-based singer Olivier St. Louis still continues to outdo himself with his genre-spanning songwriting. Formerly under the moniker Olivier Daysoul, he now goes by Olivier St. Louis, and his rejuvenated talent has already earned him a ton of vocal features as well as touring spots alongside Laura Mvula and Oddisee.

You can anticipate a brand new track (and accompanying music video) in the next couple months and the rock, soul and funk-oozing debut LP from Olivier St. Louis in the first bit of 2019. Today you can add the inaugural single from Olivier St. Louis to your collection with “Wondering Wanderer”!

When’s the music’s too good to keep to yourself, sometimes your individual project becomes a full-fledged band. That’s certainly the case with Indoor Creature, an Austin outfit that got its start as the solo outlet for multi-instrumentalist Caleb Fleischer. Fleischer was the sole performer on Indoor Creature’s 2014 debut, Conversations With Myself, and the 2015 follow-up Present Thinking saw him joined by his current production partner and fellow bandmate Travis Kitchen.

Now four members strong, Indoor Creature put out their third record Windows early last year, showing off the full band’s jazz-influenced sound, compelling chord progressions and mesmerizing melodies. 2018 has been a year of singles for Indoor Creature, who just released their fourth new one a couple weeks back. Indoor Creature plays Friday night at Swan Dive and you can unleash the interior beast with that latest single from Indoor Creature, “Selfish Liars”!

-Jack Anderson

Photo: Kelly Ngo

Detroit songwriter Alex Maniak may have a limited discography at the moment, but she’s come a long way in just two years with her project Shortly.

For some time, Shortly only had one studio single in the bag, but she’s already opened for The Decemberists, Mitski, and Phoebe Bridgers and has graciously performed alongside Bon Iver and St. Vincent. Shortly’s five-song debut EP Richmond came out in September and tonight she takes the stage at the Mohawk.

Richmond is full of Maniak’s floating vocals, dreamy guitar and melancholy tones and you can get a start on Shortly with the album opener, “Finders Keepers”!

It’s almost Thanksgiving and everyone’s headed home…well, almost everyone. The troubadours of Project ATX6 are spreading their love from the Live Music Capital all the way out to Hanoi, Vietnam and wrapping up the week there with an appearance at Quest Festival.

This fifth season of all local musicians features members of Harvest Thieves, Calliope Musicals, Trouble in the Streets, Booher and Big Cedar Fever, as well as solo artist Jacob Alan Jaeger and you can expect the documentary feature of their journey together as Project ATX6 in the near future. Project ATX6 returns to White Horse on December 8th and releases a 7″ Vinyl in late January at Waterloo Records, with their finale concert happening sometime in spring.

A couple months back Project ATX6 hit the studio along with previous KUTX Artist of the Month Carson McHone, The Band of Heathens, Austin School of Rock and even our very own Laurie Gallardo for a cover of John Lennon’s “Give Peace A Chance” just in time for the most wholesome holiday of ’em all.