Jack Anderson

Austin pop quartet Good Talk was on the radar of concertgoers for years but only recently did songwriter Nick Ehrnstein shift focus towards his own melodic folk material. Soon joined by two of his former Good Talk bandmates and eventually his own brother, Ehrnstein now had a heavy, rounded out vehicle for his music, and Housewarming was born.

Particularly in the lyrical department, Housewarming identifies as “nostalgia rock”, and heats up Ehrnstein’s light folk stylings with aggressive elements of indie rock. Housewarming gets neighborly with us in Studio 1A next Monday before dropping their debut EP Sasha next Sunday at Cheer Up Charlie’s! Get ready to get nostalgic with a premiere of Sasha’s penultimate track, “Looking Back”!

After being exposed to a bevy of multicultural influences over his formative traveling years, Santa Cruz songwriter Kai Killion settled down with two goals in mind: study history and make killer music. Under the name Getaway Dogs, Killion’s solo project quickly blossomed into a group endeavor, with a wide array of musicians contributing to its “cushy bedroom psychedelic bossa nova” genre-fluid sound.

Now performing as a trio, Getaway Dogs fetched plenty of well-deserved praise for their 2016 debut album Lost In The Ebb. Lost In The Ebb recently enjoyed a reissue along with the release of its faithful companion, the Paper Soul II EP, featuring two re-recorded songs that hound the band’s live energy and barks it right into your headphones. For the uninitiated, you can put a collar on Getaway Dogs right now with the free download of “Excuses/Opinions II”!

It’s been a few months, and you might’ve missed our August Artist of the Month, Mamahawk.

The Austin synth-pop trio has been around since 2015 and truly came into their own this past year with a killer new single and KUTX favorite, “Brain Invaders“. Today Mamahawk teases their upcoming album with yet another single before wrapping things up late tonight at Swan Dive. The weekend is beckoning you closer, so embrace it with the premiere of this prog-influenced psychedelic journey, “Moonride”!

 

Avid Austin concertgoers already know Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, but did y’all know that they have a brand new album out? This Studio 1A veteran and beacon of Austin blues stopped by the station once again this past Tuesday in support of his sultry and soul-filled record, The Difference Between Me & You, already released and ready for your listening pleasure!

Relive the Studio 1A session with an exclusive recording before catching Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears tonight at ABGB with “Do Yourself In”!

Welcome to a new generation of jazz, folk and world music, known collectively as Nori. This Austin outfit’s 2016 debut World Anew was a triumph of positivity and creativity, highlighted by Akina Adderley’s effortless vocals and matched with just the kind of discipline you’d expect from a traditional jazz quintet.

The next step in Nori’s ethereal journey is their sophomore full-length Bruise Blood, formally out November 30th. The instrumentation and arrangements are spectacular as expected, and the ten new tracks are woven together by a narrative that, while fictional, is still tangible, relatable, simultaneously rooted in the past and reflected in the present. Nori joined us in Studio 1A yesterday and they’re celebrating the album release show this Saturday 9PM at Radio Coffee and Beer. Wander into Bruise Blood with the record’s sensational second song, “Wildfire”!

With the current popularity of Red Dead Redemption II, Godless, and Westworld, Nashville singer Lindi Ortega couldn’t be more at home. Over the past two decades, this Toronto-born songwriter has wowed international audiences with her soaring vocals and jaw-dropping skills on guitar and piano.

Earlier this year Ortega released her fifth full-length, Liberty, a Spaghetti Western-inspired record that sounds somewhere in between Ennio Morricone and Emmylou Harris. Lindi’s lyrics simultaneously embrace and challenge the Western mythos on Liberty (and again on Liberty: Parkhill Sessions), and wraps with Ortega riding off into a sunset of seductive sonics. Lindi Ortega performs tonight at The Parish, so be quick on the draw with a free download of Liberty’s midpoint, “The Comeback Kid”!

Local lyricist Eric Mikulak rocked house parties at the helm of his RATM-meets-RHCP group Karmatron for years before focusing on his solo rap career as Click-Clack. This self-imposed hip-hop hermit has since produced around five hundred tracks for himself and others and just when you think he’s mastered his craft, Click-Clack puts out yet another end-all release.

Click-Clack’s latest endeavor is also his most commercially accessible one, the full-length Blue Eyed Black Boy, a the fourteen-song treasure chest of introspective and infectious trap, produced almost entirely by Mikulak and his Ballteam partner Swish Fifty. It’s hilarious, heartwarming, soul-crushing and all around bangin’ and it’s been out for a whole week! Check out the album’s closer, and one of many on Blue Eyed Black Boy that’ll convert you into someone who enjoys autotune, “Last Song”!

Only five years into their journey together as musicians, Austin rock outfit Coattails has already shown immense talent through their first album and unapologetic drive in the local music scene. Toss some impressive songwriting skills in the mix and you’ve got a few great reasons why Coattails has opened for the likes of Israel Nash and even Blue Öyster Cult.

The latest step in this quartet’s musical maturation is their six-song EP Imaginary Friends, a record that alternates between pleasant, heartbreaking and just plain badass! Coattails joined us in Studio 1A this past Tuesday and celebrated their EP release show last night at Empire Control Room. If you’re around Fort Worth tomorrow night, they’re playing at Lola’s Trailer Park, otherwise wind up for the weekend with the lead single from Imaginary Friends, “Clocks & Knives”!

Recognize the name Unnar Gísli Sigurmundsson? No?! If that doesn’t ring any bells, perhaps his musical moniker Júniús Meyvant does. This Icelandic singer-songwriter began writing and releasing originals after years of creatively-induced cabin fever cooped up in his parents’ home. The constant surge of ideas and unwillingness to slow down convinced Sigurmundsson to undertake the compositions all on his own rather than work with a band, and in 2014 Júniús Meyvant was born.

Sigurmundsson’s sultry vocals and compelling arrangements accommodate a folk pop aura with splotches of soul, and the latest from Júniús Meyvant is out on Friday. Júniús Meyvant second full-length Across the Borders is out tomorrow and you can get the pre-emptive mental klaxons firing with the record’s lead single, “High Alert”!

If you’re not actively ready to dance at any given moment, the young and hungry Boston quartet Daisybones is on a mission to change that. Three of the four met in the midst of their individual high school projects, and the as-of-yet unnamed band was finalized at the beginning of college. Just last February the group (now formalized as Daisybones) had released their first single and quickly followed it up with their appropriately-titled debut full-length, gusto.

Hell bent on bonding with their fans and putting on the best live show imaginable, Daisybones recently brought their energy back to the studio for their sophomore album Gold. It’s ten tracks of frenetic tempo changes and addictive dance grooves, and you can hear the whole thing on Friday. To help you throttle the work week, here’s the lead single from Gold, “Choke”!

Happy Election Day! We hope you’ve voted for your state and local offices…and if you haven’t, get out there! Speaking of local, perhaps you’re familiar with the Austin-based alternative rock outfit Wrongbird. For the uninitiated, Wrongbird began as the solo project of Chicago-born singer-songwriter Eric Baker and has since blossomed into a high-energy piano-heavy quartet.

And while we don’t yet know the answer to, “who will win this election?”, on Friday we’ll have a definitive response to, “who is Wrongbird?” in the form of their upcoming EP of the same name. This sophomore album, Who Is Wrongbird?, pays tribute to the band’s current home base and it’s eclectic live music scene, and you can catch the group’s release show this Saturday at Stubb’s. For now, here’s a bluesy and brassy introduction to Wrongbird, “The Plot”!

Late last year we lost an all-time KUTX favorite and sensational soul singer, the one and only Charles Bradley. The “Screaming Eagle of Soul” made a couple trips into Studio 1A the last few years of his phenomenal career before sadly succumbing to stomach cancer at 68.

Today would’ve been Charles Bradley’s 70th birthday, and his loving Daptone label is set to release ten previously unheard recordings with the LP Black Velvet. Taking its name from his time as a James Brown impersonator in the mid-90s, Black Velvet serves as a companion to his three canon albums and breathes life into Bradley’s overall progression as an artist. Black Velvet comes out this Friday and to commemorate Mr. Bradley’s would-be 70th, here’s an all-too-relevant tune from Black Velvet, “I Feel a Change”!

There’s a good chance you’re familiar with the name Dan Mangan, but the Juno-winning songwriter you know has changed quite a bit in the past few years. In 2012 the Dan Mangan who’d started his career talking his way onto stages at noisy bars was now six years into non-stop touring when he married his then-girlfriend and took time off for their newborn child. And though that was only supposed to be a single year off the road, it slowly became what has been the past six.

In light of adulthood, parenthood, domestic obligations and changing political landscapes, Mangan realized he had become a much different person than he was at twenty – all of which is reflected on his fifth full-length More or Less, out today! More or Less is an introspective experience for longtime and recent Mangan fans alike and features inspiration from Nick Drake and Van Morrison (oh and Sir Paul McCartney even stopped in the studio to check things out – you can imagine how that made Beatlemaniac Dan feel!). Before scoping the full album, you can grab a free download of More or Less‘s midpoint, “Troubled Mind”!

Even if you’re a self-declared mega-fan of L.A. psych rockers Allah-Las, there’s really no predicting the music of their lead guitarist, Pedrum Siadatian AKA PAINT.

This solo endeavor began in 2016 after the release of Allah-Las’ third album, and although it holds onto that familiar lo-fi sound, PAINT slathers up a much different palette of authentic analog psychedelia. PAINT’s self-titled debut comes out tomorrow, featuring a dozen original tunes with strokes of Syd Barrett and marked with charming imperfections. Prime yourself for PAINT with the album’s lead single, “Daily Gazette”!

Singer-songwriter Danny Golden spent the first part of his career bouncing between Colorado, Pittsburgh and Brooklyn developing his sound before locating the perfect home for it: Austin. Now that he’s deeply entrenched in our local scene, Danny’s made it his mission to search for truth in humanity and share it through his brand of rock and roll.

The members of Danny Golden’s backing band are pretty recgonizable to any seasoned concertgoer in town; Spencer Garland (Black Pumas, Matthew Logan Vasquez, PR Newman), Jeff Olson (White Denim, Balmorhea) and Brendan Bond (Glorietta, Matthew Logan Vasquez, Golden Dawn Arkestra) make for a powerhouse behind Danny’s already bold sound. Danny Golden embosses ten new tracks on his upcoming full-length Old Love, out this Friday and celebrating a release show next Saturday at Spiderhouse! Smelt some Danny Golden early with a KUTX-clusive premiere of a previously unheard track, “Window”!

Interlocking indie rock, punk, pop and progressive politics, Houston quintet The Wheel Workers has been carting their sound around since the mid-2000s. Three albums, three singles and a wagon full of political commentary later they’ve arrived at one of their deepest works yet, the eight-track LP post-truth.

It’s an album rumbling with post-Hurricane Harvey trauma and sonic styles reminiscent of Devo, Pixies, Dead Kennedys and The Clash. Every individual tune could find itself right at home in another artist’s discography but there’s no denying the eclecticism and idiosyncrasies of The Wheel Workers when heard together. The record is out this Friday and you can pre-game post-truth with the frenetic album opener, “White Lies”!

Photo: Allison McPhail

 

There are a ton of moving parts in the Chicago hip hop scene and one of the most active names in the community is Rich Jones. His current performance style lands somewhere between soul singing and laid back rapping but across all the solo singles he’s dropped and events he’s organized over the past few years, Rich Jones’ sound definitely doesn’t fall in one place.

Two years since he was voted second best rapper in Chicago (right after Chance the Rapper), Rich Jones is set to release The Shoulder You Lean On, an album that celebrates his singer-songwriter status and explores a sense of urgency, restlessness and life decisions. The record comes out this Friday but you can begin to drift towards The Shoulder You Lean On right now with a single featuring Second City multi-instrumentalist Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, “Dreaming”!

Photo: Katie Levine

The weekend is here and we’re starting it off with some of Switzerland’s finest! Klaus Johann Grobe may sound like a dude, but like Duncan Fellows or Milo Greene, it’s actually a group, not a moniker. Sevi Landolt and Dani Bachmann make up this pulsating pair, whose electro-funk synth-jazz energy has earned them touring spots with Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Temples and The Growlers.

Today Klaus Johann Grobe releases their third album, Du Bist So Symmetrisch, and as the title would suggest, these twelve new songs provide a balanced blend of dance mainstays and musical hypnosis. Boogie on out of this work week with the album’s midpoint, “Out of Reach”!

Austin originals Elevaded aren’t exactly what you’d expect to hear on KUTX, but they’re also nothing to overlook. These industrial power pop-ers play Saturday night at Empire Control Room along with Sine, Dead Love Club, and Pretties For You – OH! – and it’s a PJ/lingerie party!

If that’s not exciting enough for you, work yourself up with a daily dose of aural ascension from Elevaded, “Another Round”!

What’s dark, dry and deadpan but also danceable? Brooklyn four-piece Public Practice certainly fits that criteria with a sound like X-meets-Gang of Four-meets-Talking Heads in the modern day. And although Public Practice itself is a young group, the members are veterans of New York punk band WALL and pop outfit Beverly, so its decidedly not their first rodeo.

On Friday Public Practice drops their debut EP, Distance is a Mirror and to give you time to reflect before diving in, here’s the inaugural track from Public Practice, “Fate/Glory”!