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November 28, 2023

Parker Woodland: “True Love Will Find You In The End”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

First thing’s first. Parker Woodland isn’t a person; it’s a band. More accurately, it’s an Austin-based indie rock collective captained by activist/singer-songwriter Erin Walter. And although Walter, guitarist Andrew Solin, and drummer Keri Cinquina comprise the group’s core trio, Parker Woodland always welcomes a revolving cast of contributors both in-studio and on-stage for inclusive arrangements that complement the band’s hefty emotional weight. Between their placement at Rock the Park and as of last weekend, The Breakfast Boogie, clearly Parker Woodland’s earned their keep as a KUTX favorite and a can’t-miss curator of the Austin Music Experience in 2023.

As for next year, the gang’s been working towards the full-length follow-up to their February 2021 debut EP The World’s On Fire (And We Still Fall In Love). And as Parker Woodland passes the half decade mark of their run, we’re positive that this LP will leap off streaming services and warm hearts citywide. In the meantime, to wrap up this month, you can get a taste of the live portion with an all-ages, stage-filling affair 8PM this Thursday at The Mohawk with Sabrina Ellis and Sheverb. Sure, Live from Love Hill offers an honest representation of Parker Woodland’s in-concert chops, but obviously, the in-person experience is the real deal.

Fingers crossed we get a fuller preview of this new record, whose tunes like the Daniel Johnston folk-punk re-work “True Love Will Find You In The End” have already promised the inevitability of affection and adoration for listeners of any kind. To the naysaying loners, just try not to feel warm and fuzzy after pressing “play”, because this indie-folk fleur blossoms with gorgeous harmonies and optimistic orchestral flourishes before a final-minute sprint into punk-rock-inspired passion.

November 6, 2023

Shane Renfro: “Come On Down”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

Aside from professional full-timers who can realistically sustain themselves with their craft, it’s easy to assume that musicians are putting all their extracurricular hours towards songwriting, recording, touring, and performing. But of course, musicians are as humans as the rest of us, and will take every bit of recreation they can get.

See: Shane Renfro, who’s floated all across Texas, from Grapeland to Marfa, and even to L.A. before settling back down in the Lone Star State. As the frontman behind our August 2019 Artist of the Month RF Shannon, Renfro’s spent a considerable amount of time here in Austin, but his home base is decidedly a stone’s throw away out in Lockhart. And it turns out that Renfro’s become somewhat of a slugger in recent times. Alongside his fellow Lockhart creatives, Shane Renfro co-founded the Lockhart Sandlot Baseball Club last year, who have since gone on to fundraise for community non-profits, volunteer for political rallies, and even ump local little league games. And yeah, unsurprisingly, between all the clean hits, beer-shotgunning tie breakers, and post-game pizza and BBQ, Lockhart Sandlot’s gone on to release some great collaborative records off the diamond.

Last Friday they knocked ten central Texas-bred tunes right out of the park with Sandlot Season One: Lockhart. If you manage to snag a copy of SSO:L on vinyl, you’ll notice that Renfro is first up to bat on both sides; following this May’s Red Swan in Palmetto, Side B starts off with a demo version of RF Shannon’s “Tangerine Marigold”, and the Side A welcomer “Come On Down” serves as Renfro’s solo streaming debut. Capturing that iconic Texas twang from its first downbeat, “Come On Down” is a grand slam of mellow sounds somewhere between Mac Demarco, T. Rex-era Marc Bolan, and classic country Americana.

October 3, 2023

Click-Clack: “Welcome To Texas”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

By design, the world of hip-hop is full of braggadocious personalities. But even the most prolific boasters can get tripped up by a perfectionist approach. Take for instance Austin rapper-producer-brandmaker Eric Mikulak, better known by his creative handle Click-Clack. Back in the early 2010s, alongside his role as frontman for rap-rock outfit Karmatron, Click-Clack used to crank out tracks nonstop from his home studio, sometimes writing, producing, and recording up to three tunes from scratch in a night. And the scorpio that he is, there’d typically be a roisterous social media presence before and after each new single release. Of course, as the genre’s evolved over time, Mikulak’s only matured, and it’s safe to say that making hip-hop entirely on his own is no longer a challenge. So while the confidence is rightfully still there, Click-Clack’s shifted focus towards fine-tuned, full-length collaborations with a rolodex of producers from across the globe, and entrusted mixing-mastering duties to other industry pros. As a matter of fact, Click-Clack just shared his second LP of the year, Hypercritical, last Friday. At just shy of a dozen tunes, Hypercritical offers yet another candid look into Mikulak’s complicated mind, flaws, insecurities, and all. Seven of the eleven enroll at least two outside producers in a sprawling sonic tapestry draped behind Click-Clack’s idiosyncratic verbal formulas, including “Welcome To Texas”, which enlists olly and fr4ud for a two-minute chop-heavy chipmunk soul masterpiece.

September 25, 2023

Katherion: “Roses and Daisies”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

Song of the Day is finally back from a much-needed break! And as a token of appreciation for everyone’s patience in the interim, we’ve got some great new picks to catch y’all up on, one of which made an inaugural streaming appearance just last weekend.

We’re talking about Katherine Yuna, also known as Rion Reed, but best recognized by their stage name amalgamation Katherion. This Houston native with growing Austin exposure has been singing their whole life and penning tunes for the past decade, but didn’t unlock and realize their true form as Katherion until a semi-recent, life-changing experience in guided psychoactive therapy.

True to their handle (pronounced “Kath-e-Ryan”), this project provides a healthy balance of masculine and feminine, spiritual and emotional, and sonically speaking…indie and alt-rock. In fact, ahead of their upcoming debut album 33, Katherion teamed up with indie-alt-rock innovator and Song of the Day favorite Walker Lukens to co-produce the record’s lead single, “Roses and Daisies”. So before we’re blessed with the full bouquet of unbridled acceptance on 33 later this Fall, which’ll also include the sophomore single “Thank You” in about a month’s time, bask in the refreshing fragrance of “Roses and Daisies”, whose authentic aromas alternate between vulnerable solo verses and defiant double-tracked choruses. By the time you get across the bridge and into the final hook, you’ll better understand Katherion’s admirable mission of empathy, uplift, and humanity’s mutual bonds, no matter how you identify.

August 25, 2023

B.R. Lively: “Hope in My Heart”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

With the oppressive heat and an especially tantalizing 24-hour news cycle, it’s worth taking a moment or two to just breath. So while neither we nor the artists we curate can claim to be mindfulness experts, we feel like today’s feature is pretty fitting for anyone in need of a mindset shift. It comes courtesy of Austin multi-instrumentalist-singer-songwriter Bryan Richard Blaylock (better known as B.R. Lively), whose well…livelihood….lies roughly within the boundaries of folk, outlaw country, southern R&B, and jazz. Lyrically Lively derives a lot from literature, but rest assured, his tunes aren’t so high brow that they’re inaccessible to the layperson. Lively first crested over the horizon with his debut Into the Blue in 2017, and tracked a companion piece fast in the aftermath. Well after nearly a half decade of solo touring across the US, Lively’s back in Austin and eager to unleash those counterpart recordings from their hard drive confines. Where Lively considers Into the Blue as an introspective, melancholic inhale, his sophomore follow-up People completes the process of process aural respiration with an exhalation of poignant wisdom, emotional growth, and realistic optimism; a Yin to Into the Blue‘s Yang. Lively takes the stage next Tuesday at High Noon for the People release show alongside Lola and returns the following Tuesday with Brothers of Mercy. But with scant chances of rain between now and then, let’s leverage those aspirations with “Hope in My Heart”. Co-produced by Band of Heathens collaborator Gordy Quist, mixed by Robert Ellis/Khruangbin engineer Steve Christensen, and arranged by string-and-horn visionary Thomas Avery, the sense of space, level of polish, and discipline of performance on this waltz are all nothing short of jaw-dropping. And as auspicious as it is awe-inspiring, “Hope in My Heart” will reward you with the essence of its title whenever the bleakness has got you feeling meek.

August 22, 2023

The Lennings: “Secondhand”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

For all the singer-songwriters who think they’re hot shit and want everyone to know it, there are just as many who’d prefer to lay low and essentially keep their craft to themselves. Among those who fall in the latter category? Guitarist-vocalist Jason Silverberg.

See, Silverberg launched his solo-endeavor-turned-full-band project The Lennings in the mid-aughts right here in Austin. Heyday highlights include The Lennings’ 2007 debut Big Beige Car, whose ten tracks have collectively racked up hundreds of thousands of streams, and their 2011 standalone cover “You’re the One That I Want”, which earned placement in NBC’s Parenthood soundtrack and nears nine million spins on Spotify alone. And yet we haven’t hardly heard a peep from The Lennings since the winter of 2012, when they dropped their sophomore full-length Inside.

Well it turns out that Silverberg shelved that indie-folk foray at the turn of the 2010s but scrapped the sabbatical when he returned to writing and recording at the start of the pandemic. A decade removed from previously-persistent studio output, this new iteration of The Lennings dodges doggedness in favor of a slow, steady, and cinematic approach. Yep, beginning with “New Year” (appropriately issued on January 1st, 2022), The Lennings is now a sporadic multimedia endeavor, where each sparse single release is served up alongside a visual counterpart. And today The Lennings officially set the pace with the second installment of this contemporary era, “Secondhand“. Lyrically, it chronicles a wallflower grappling with prolonged eye contact, casual conversation, and the very circuitry of time itself. Visually, it’s a largely over-the-shoulder perspective that tails a hooded introvert’s cross-Austin expedition. Sonically, it walks a tightrope of ’90s alt-folk with a beautiful blend of acoustic and electric guitars, balanced out with Silverberg’s soothing, multi-tracked vocal harmonies.

Altogether? “Secondhand” stops time for almost three minutes with a masterfully melancholy depiction of social awkwardness.

August 17, 2023

Alabaster DePlume: “Naked Like Water” (feat. Donna Thompson)

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

Depending on who you talk to, friends of composers, performers, and producers often present them as “prolific”. Which makes sense. No one wants to admit to sedentary songwriting, right? But when you come across someone with a truly bountiful output, more often than not, they’re not bragging; they’re just dedicated craftspeople who love to create. People like Manchester-born multi-instrumentalist Guy Fairbairn. For the past eleven years he’s been blasting out albums under the handle Alabaster DePlume. Sound-wise this experimental jazz project features Fairbairn on tenor sax, guitar, synth, and vocals and lyrically serves as Fairbairn’s artistic avenue for publishing poetry. When combined, Alabaster DePlume’s discography tenders a sprawling saga of unconventional sounds across six studio albums, plus a remix record and a collection of instrumentals. So with no no depletion of drive in sight for this Londoner, Alabaster DePlume unsurprisingly has yet another new LP coming out soon. That dozen-song endeavor Come With Fierce Grace drops September 8th, and based on the name alone we’re expecting an upper echelon of experimental jazz-folk. This morning, ahead of a maiden month-long U.S. tour, DePlume deployed Come With Fierce Grace‘s final lead single, oen that’s amplified by touring drummer Donna Thompson‘s towering pipes. On “Naked Like Water”, Thompson takes on the role of Lady of the Lake, whose vocals extend Saxcalibur to King Alabaster from a misty, aural Avalon. Rippling with liquid minimalism and leaving little to hide, “Naked Like Water” really lets the reverb and sense of space do a lot of the heavy lifting. In doing so these cleansing waves bare all and drip with ambient avant-garde vulnerability.

June 28, 2023

Night Drive: “Summerwaves”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

Although Houston and Dallas are indisputably the hubs of such, car cruising culture is alive and thriving all over the Lone Star State. And while swangin’ looks best before dusk, these triple digit temps tormenting Texas have been making it tough to tempt daylight, even with top down. And especially if you’re less about “Tops Drop” and “Diamonds & Wood” and more into the Miami Vice or Kung Fury soundtracks…this is where the prospect of a good ol’ Night Drive shines. Back when we named Night Drive as our May 2017 Artist of the Month, we knew right away that these Austinite-Houstonians’ retro-bred blend of post-punk and synth-pop wasn’t just moonlighting for a sole getaway score. No, by the time their eponymous LP hit our airwaves, the pair had already spent the past half decade shaping their sound and shifting up their skills from Night Drive’s 2013 debut EP Position I. Now that 2017’s Night Drive marks an approximate midpoint between Position I and the present…there were only so many lanes for Night Drive to explore next. With the addition of a third member, Night Drive drops their sequentially titled sophomore EP Position II this Fall. Produced by Rick Rubin protege Phillip Broussard, these six new songs step away from Night Drive’s remix routines and instead embrace a less-formulaic middle ground between their strongest sounds. Position II drops August 4th ahead of a release show the following evening at The Parish with openers Haunt Me and Holy Wire and the record’s lead single just cut the engine on this stagnant Texas heatwave. Alongside its VHS-on-LSD music video, the record’s lead single “Summerwaves” veers past the saturated vaporwave aesthetic in favor of something timeless and authentic. Like if Joy Division hopped across the pond with a mouthful of MDMA, rented a Testarossa, and started plowing past rows of palm trees, “Summerwaves” is an ideal track both for piston-pushing under the sweltering sun and gentle swerving under the stars.
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