Taylor Wallace

Photo by Clinton Aase

Austin alt-rockers Hooka Hey are back, baby, and they’re grittier, louder, and faster than ever. Three years since the release of 2015’s Untamed EP (and five years since making Austin their home by way of Paris, France), these guys return with all the vigor, blues, and sludge you love, but–like with every release of theirs–it keeps on a positive trend of turning up the knobs on all three, this time hitting an 8 flirting with a 9. Something new, local, gritty, and hard-hitting– if this week’s worked hard to crush your soul, “Herlock” will help you feel re-rock-invigorated. Cherry on top? You get to taste it two weeks before the rest of the world. Eat up!

“Herlock” appears on the upcoming album War Cry, out this May.

-Taylor Wallace// Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

 

Eight years after the release of her first solo record, Karen Dreijer is back, and this time she feels everything deeper and darker. Recorded in her own Stockholm studio, Plunge does just that– the product of Dreijer feeling everything deeper and translating the “processing” through music. Leaden with nods to 80s new wave, Dreijer marries those nods with unique vocal stylings all her own, providing the perfect music companion to your happy-go-lucky mood.

“To the Moon and Back” appears on Plunge, out now via Mute Records.

-Taylor Wallace// Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

Dan Croll’s music is infectious, and the dance floor is ground 0. Just 22-years-old, he’s made waves in his native UK with his sweet indie melodies and sleek synthpop-stylings and those waves are pouring across the pond and right into your almost-Friday ears.  He took the last song off last year’s Emerging Adulthood, offered it up to some of his favorite musicians and producers, and collected the remixes onto their own Tokyo EP, out last November. “Tokyo” doesn’t usher you to get up and dance, it commands it. Ignited with full energy right out of the gate, the song makes you feel like you just threw open the door to a huge cool-kids party already in full swing, sweeping you into the deluge of synthpop and fun energy from the first note. Stay out late, break curfew, and get down!

“Tokyo” appears on Emerging Adulthood and Tokyo EP, both out now.

-Taylor Wallace// Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

Fresh from her recent Milano collabs with composer Daniele Lupi and post-punkers Parquet Courts, Karen O is back with a new single (featuring the smooth, rich vocals of Michael Kiwanuka), but it’s not just a single. It’s a single extension of a bigger project: part music, part film, part fashion, and all striking. Made for a short film for French fashion house Kenzo, “Yo! My Saint” is the story of a photographer who is able to catapult the careers of his models by treating and shooting them like works of art. The perspective shifts back and forth between the photographer–torn between his love for two of his muses–and his latest subject in a powerful, dramatic discourse paired with dramatic shots and dramatic, haunting songwriting evoking all the passion and fire of a Korean soap opera. Karen O even makes a cameo in the film as the photographer’s assistant, handing him his tool to transform these young models into icons, setting the song and story in motion.

Watch the full short film here.

-Taylor Wallace// Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

At 17, Christina Cavazos sounds and writes like she’s been making and performing music for at least that long, commanding full rooms with songwriting that strikes the perfect balance between low-key and intriguing paired with a floating voice that can only be described as rich and lovely. Recently accepted into the prestigious Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU, Cavazos is also coming upon the anniversary of her debut EP Cold, a short album that’s landed her on many of Austin’s finest stages and listening rooms in the last year. Cavazos brings her hallowed talents to an upcoming Microsessions set at Mosaic Sound Collective this Saturday.

Check out the rest of Christina’s Studio 1A set here.

-Taylor Wallace// Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

Photo: Robinette Films

New name, new attitude, new album. That’s the current mantra of Austin’s Meanswell, a reinvention of beloved Austin group The Gents, who after releasing their third studio EP last year, turned the lens on themselves and started working towards a new sound that played to the group’s strengths, and allowed a bit more room for creativity and the ability to carve out their own sound against the grain of the Austin music scene. Under the deft recording hand of Chris “Frenchie” Smith, the result is tantalizing.

“Meanswell,” is the debut single under the new name, and true to the group’s reinvented sound, possesses the beautiful ability to mix the softer sounds of Doo-Wop and Buddy Holly with the growling blues sound of decades’ past, and pouring it into their skillet of personal touch to give it the 21st-century saute.

Catch Meanswell at Barracuda on Thursday, February 1st with Star Parks.

-Taylor Wallace// Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

 

Photo: Jerome Brock

Cutting a fresh reputation built on the sounds of the 80s underground comes Dallas’s MOTORCADE, ready to whisk you away to the lands of dark, smoky bars, equally smokey eyes, and plenty of scuffed leather. After members spent time touring with prolific acts like St. Vincent, Apples in Stereo, the War on Drugs, and Daniel Johnston, the group came together to noodle around with some things guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist James Henderson had been whipping up, and as it tends to go when congruent music minds are put together, a few pieces of songs turned into the group’s debut album.

“Desertion” opens with a bouncing synth line that initially sounds like you’re being ushered into the 8-bit world, but takes a hard turn down the 80s post-punk rabbit hole as soon as it’s met with darker synth sounds and smooth-spinning vocals. The song’s arrangement leaves a lot of room to air out the layers, allowing you to take it head on and at its face value: Motorcade aren’t here to reinvent the wheel of alt-rock, they’re just reveling in one of its greatest sounds.

“Desertion” appears on MOTORCADE, out this Friday via Idol Records.

-Taylor Wallace// Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

Here to pull us into a sort of an alt-rock time warp are Austin’s Magnet School, and they churn out more layers than your hairstylist, creating a unique wall of sound that fits neatly into just about every flavor of rock n roll bill or venue around town. Pulling influences from a very particular era, they deliver a show that not only washes you with cascades of distortion and driving guitar riffs, but pulls you back to an era before everyone at the clubs had cameras in their pockets.

“Fur and Velvet” has it all. It rips, curls, and throws down layers of sound like they’re about to expire all while brilliantly maintaining a focused momentum and main thread. The song goes through several phases of metamorphosis, so get your ear hairs ready for a ticklin’.

“Fur and Velvet” appears on The Art of Telling the Truth, recently reissued for its 10th anniversary and out now via Shifting Sounds. Catch them *TOMORROW* night at Beerland.

-Taylor Wallace// Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

To hear the studio version of any TeeVee song is to lose yourself in the deluge of psych rock dipped in shoegaze, but when you experience them live, their garage rock soul shines through. Started by drummer Will Rock in vocalist Alex Capistran’s garage, the two began jamming together and that jam evolved into the four-piece known as Austin’s TeeVee. 2 EP’s later, the group is set to release their debut full length later this year. “Junk Driver” turns the tempo down and lets the fuzz air out and stretch into the white space without sacrificing a modicum of garage rock attitude. One of their shoegaze-ier tracks, the momentum picks up as the songs trudge forward with Rock’s solid drum licks and fills to keep you oriented in the heavy-breathing beast inside the TeeVee.

“Junk Driver” appears on their Bask E.P., out now. Catch them TONIGHT at Hotel Vegas with SOAKED, Goldblooom, and the Sour Notes. If that’s too long to wait, check out the rest of their Studio 1A here.

-Taylor Wallace// Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

Sad Piano Boy Jack Van Norman helms his current project King Warbler with regal charm and squire-like modesty, plinking out some of the most infectious, melancholic singer-songwriter rock this side of your neighborhood’s coolest coffee shop. If you’ve spent any time going to shows in the Red River district, you’ve likely caught their set or at least seen their name on a bill, adding their early-Ray-LaMontagne spice to bills that usually host the fuzzier or poppier facets of the Austin indie-rock gem. With new music on the horizon, King Warbler kicks off 2018 wading in the deluge of free week, playing tunes that already keep the souls of their fans sad and warm, and new ones ready to tug on your melan-collar.

The opening notes of “Lighter Fluid,” immediately transport you back to a time where Ben Folds Five and Damien Rice ruled the indie scene with broken heartstrings and smooth-yet-aching vocal runs. Keys and strings add buttery grace to the song’s make-up, which swell up and down to keep your tear ducts teased and your soul feeling like its been hugged by the day’s most needed cup of coffee.

“Lighter Fluid” appears on Rosanky, out now via the group’s Bandcamp. Catch King Warbler at the Sidewinder TONIGHT with Mountebank, Batty Jr, and AlexAlco.

-Taylor Wallace// Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

Photo by Jennifer Dale

Long-time Texas musician Marcus William Striplin has been performing and recording music for over two decades, chiefly out of Dallas, and prepares to release his debut solo album under the pseudonym Margaret Chavez (an homage to Striplin’s mother). Having spent the greater part of the last decades with his band Pleasant Grove, Striplin has finally broken out on his own, stretching his fingers into sonic pockets all his own, giving Striplin’s fans the flavor they seek without putting any limits or bumpers on his smokey, psychedelic groove.

“Strange Buoy’s” wastes no time dropping you into Striplin’s wash of vocals and dusty guitars, surrounding you in a dirt devil of a sound that lies somewhere on the spectrum between Americana and psychedelia. The wash takes on a strong current as the song builds, rocking you gingerly around in his swirling sphere before laying you down gently…which is a real courtesy because you will need a second to reorient yourself.

“Storage Buoy’s” appears on A Loupe, out January 19. Catch Margaret Chavez tonight at the Cactus Cafe with Sanco Loop.

-Taylor Wallace // Host, Thursdays at 8p & Saturdays at 2p; Producer, Ekelktikos with John Aielli

Photo by William Barton

Austin native Jack Wilson, despite a four-year rest since his last record, has built a reputation that’s kept his name buzzing around this city (you may have heard of a little South Austin gem called Radio Coffee & Beer). Now a full-fledged father and steady business owner, Wilson makes his return to the stage backed by his third album, Kami, Coming to Get Me. Largely inspired by fatherhood, Wilson plays with a number of sounds throughout the record, reflective perhaps of the mix of sounds and emotions that accompany new parenthood.

“In My Way” makes use of “the white space,” stripping down the layers and letting the ones in place breathe and be heard. Wilson’s deeper drones are softened and complemented by another local favorite, Emily Cross of Cross Record. Even when the layers build on top of each other and the folk aesthetic blends with a bit of electric energy, every sound stands its ground, fitting neatly into its own place on the song’s sonic tapestry.

“In My Way” appears on Kami, Coming to Get Me, out Saturday via Banana Pop Records.

Jack Wilson Upcoming Events:

• Performing this Saturday at Empire Control Room with Batty Jr. and Marijuana Sweet Tooth.
• Playing live in Studio 1A Thursday (Tune in at 3PM)
• Hosting My KUTX this Saturday at 6PM

 

-Taylor Wallace // Host, Thursdays 8p & Saturdays 11p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

After six years and about 500 shows, Austin punk four-piece Big Bill conjure their powers of witty songwriting; fast, relentless energy; and admitted nonsense into their first full-length album, out last month. Brothers Eric and Cody Bradon, along with Alan Lauer and Alex Riegelman, have spent the last few years playing and selling out some of Austin’s most notable venues and garnering a fan base with love and loyalty in proportion to the band’s ecstatic, yet channeled energy, and continuing Austin’s unique legacy of punk rock. Where do you take that energy from there? According to these guys, you make a video for every song on the record.

“Trick Everybody” is the personified profile of “fake it til you make it,” but Eric Bradon takes it a bit further by calling out what’s going on beneath that facade of know-how and sense of direction: at some point, most of us stop and realize that between “figuring it out,” and painful self-awareness, we’ve lost our sense of self. Paired with tight, yet aggressive guitar squeals and bass momentum, you won’t be able to help yourself from picturing this music video as a crudely drawn stop motion vignette.

“Trick Everybody” appears on Stand By Your Bill, out now via First Humans Records. Catch Big Bill’s album release party this Friday at Hotel Vegas.

-Taylor Wallace // Host, Thursdays at 8pm and Saturdays at 2pm; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

Denton’s Pearl Earl are part of the winter celebration sprawling across East Austin this weekend known as Saturnalia Fest. An all-female psych/garage rock experience, these ladies hone a sound that feels like it oozed out of a smokey time capsule.

“Cosmic Queen” pulls you down the psych-rock rabbit hole from the first note, not at all shying away from a vintage sound that’s sure to ring your strawberry alarm clock. Ariel Hatley’s groove-infused wails sound subterranean, highlighted by an ironically smooth transition into a climax of fuzzy, far-out garage rock scuzz.

Catch Pearl Earl at Sahara Lounge and Webberville Road Church at 3:30 on Sunday. See the full line-up and other information here.

-Taylor Wallace// host, Thursdays 8P & Saturdays 2P; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli