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February 9, 2023

The Runaway Grooms: “Mister Ford”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

In the late ’60s and early ’70s, jam bands were all the rage. But now, in an era where song durations hinge on short attention spans or knowledge that shorter tunes simply hit bigger streaming numbers faster, jam bands are actually pretty polarizing. Even more recent innovators like Mars Volta or Godspeed You! Black Emperor have struggled to stay accessible because of lengthy runtimes. We’re so far removed from the long-form improvisation that jazz and rock normalized half a century back, that when a contemporary group can keep on jamming and pack it in on wax, they’ve got a serious leg up.

Take for instance Central Colorado quintet The Runaway Grooms. Sure, TRG’s 2020 debut Tied to the Sun simmers down with a 13-minute epic, but “Tales of Ernest” is really an outlier of their studio output. Instead The Runaway Grooms prove the power of brevity when laying down tracks. In doing so, The Runaway Grooms are able to evoke classic jam acts like The Allman Brothers or The Grateful Dead without sinking into the long song gimmick (looking at you, Phish). That ability to relegate the extended stuff to concerts is no doubt informed by seven national tours, but you don’t need to check their list of stops to experience This Road.

Tomorrow, on the heels of a statewide CO tour, The Runaway Grooms release their third album, This Road. This Road winds over eclectic retro blends in the ilk of Steely Dan and Yes across five originals. And with no genre stoplights in earshot, The Runaway Grooms navigate This Road by opening up the throttle, hitting hard left turns, and at times, coming to an abrupt stop, all while charting a cohesive musical pilgrimage. So if This Road is already giving you wanderlust jitters, rip into the record early with a single that that sounds like Jethro Tull and War had a funky-prog love child in the year between Aqualung and The World Is a Ghetto: “Mister Ford”.

February 8, 2023

Nagavalli: “Guru”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

When we think about the impact that Indian music has had here in Texas, most folks would knee-jerk react by pointing to Norah Jones, the Grapevine-raised, UNT-educated daughter of sitar legend Ravi Shankar. but obviously, despite Jones’ enormous talent, she’s not really who we look to when we want to hear authentic Eastern influences. For that, we gotta give it up for Mumbai-raised, Austin-based singer-songwriter Nagavalli.

Nagavalli Medicharla made her mononymous debut in 2012 with Eastern Soul, a term she also applies to her boundless Eastern-meets-Western/traditional-meets-modern style. In the decade since Eastern Soul, Nagavalli’s interpolated Twelfth Night in a Bollywood style, earned an Austin Music Award nomination, and taken on roles as both Board Chair of EQ Austin and Vice Chair of the Austin Music Foundation. And on Friday, following up her ambitious 2019 endeavor Immersion, this invaluable international asset to our creative community re-embraces the spirit of cross-cultural unification with her next full-length, Numinosum.

Numinosum combines the best-sounding bits of Eastern spirituality with pop, rock, jazz, and more, thanks to a dream team backing band and intriguing arrangements that showcase their fair share of world/ethnic instrumentation. Numinosum packages passionate English-language originals next to an Eliza Gilkyson cover, a Durga invocation, and even a couple Indo-Pak classics. Nagavalli celebrates the release of Numinosum 5PM today for a free in-store performance at Waterloo Records and again 8PM this Saturday at The Paramount along with KUTX favorites BettySoo, Carrie Rodriguez, and Oliver Rajamani as well as familiar faces Patrice Pike and Indrajit Bannerjee. Unless you’ve mastered astral projection, beating traffic to attend both shows might be a bit of a stretch. But you can slay the demon that is Hump Day with “Guru”, a pocket-raga that transcends language through ethereal orchestration and entrancing dynamics.

February 7, 2023

Slaid Cleaves: “Second Hand” [PREMIERE]

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

While we here at KUTX celebrate our 10th birthday, it’s worth revisiting the folks who were KUT 90.5 heavyweights well before 98.9 FM’s call letters were even born. Among that roster of Central Texas mainstays is a real character of the airwaves, singer-guitarist Slaid Cleaves. It’s crazy to think that his breakout fifth LP No Angel Knows came out all the way back in 1997, especially considering that Slaid’s continued to cut through the competition like a certain kitchen utensil. Which, to maintain a presence in the Live Music Capital for more than a quarter century, is easier said than done…even with a pretty consistent three-to-four-year release rate such as Slaid’s.

On that note, diehard Slaid-heads (including horror legend Stephen King) might’ve become bereaved by Cleaves’ lack of post-pandemic output. Good news! On March 3rd Slaid slides back in with Together Through the Dark, his first studio offering since 2017’s Ghost on the Car Radio, and celebrates with an album release show later that month at The 04 Center. As you can imagine from the title, Together Through the Dark champions empathy in uncertain times, mainly anchored by Cleaves’ idiosyncratic storytelling but also applicable to the sans-power solidarity we’ve had the past couple weeks in Central Texas.

However it hits you, TTtD contains some of Slaid’s most mature folk-Americana compositions to date and a beautifully flawed sense of human confidence we could all appreciate right about now. So if you want to be the first of your friends to get your mitts on the new Slaid, set the needle down on the record’s third single “Second Hand”. Like a vintage Plymouth carrying you across your routine stops, “Second Hand” steers straight with easily-navigable chord changes, gentle harmonies, and as with all things Cleaves, a relatable narrative. After all, who thinks being a thrifty family man is unfashionable?

February 6, 2023

Mary Elizabeth Remington: “Wooden Roads”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

After an excruciating week of weather-related rancor and cabin fever here in Austin, the prospect of seeking refuge in nature versus spending additional time indoors may seem less a transcendentalist fantasy and more the extension of a Kafka-esque sentence. But of course, bitter winter feelings aside, the physical walls of a house do little to confine fires of creativity.

Take for instance Mary Elizabeth Remington, whose bucolic childhood was spent in and around a log cabin near Hardwick, Massachusetts. And while Remington’s Walden-reminiscent upbringing gave her an intrinsic appreciation for nature (a must-have for folk songwriters), those talents didn’t sprout up into public consciousness until she made her first live performance at the 2013 Kerrville Folk Festival. Ten years later, Remington’s ready to reveal a life’s-worth of Americana-folk reflections with her debut full-length, In Embudo.

True to its title, In Embudo finds Remington shacked up across the nation from her Moose Brook origins, in cozy quarters near the Rio Grande in New Mexico. While Sarah W. only had ghosts as company in Winchester House, the Remington’s Embudo HQ was full of life over this LP’s recording session; Remington recruited Adrianne Lenker and James Krivchenia of Big Thief alongside Twain’s Matt Davidson for these eleven originals. In classic folk fashion, In Embudo brushes away the allure of digital and instead embraces the nuanced imperfections of 4-track tape, an aesthetic that (along with plenty of elemental song titles) totally sells us on Remington’s biophilic presence. In Embudo drops this Friday, but if you’re not willing to brave the unbridled, even in song form, at least heed a small piece of civilization. Like Nick Drake and Vashti Bunyan had a lovechild set to CSN’s “Wooden Ships”, In Embudo‘s album closer “Wooden Roads” will lilt you with balmy bongo taps, sanguine guitar, and Mary Elizabeth Remington’s soon-to-be renowned vocals.

February 1, 2023

Tom Hoskins and his Thousand Points of Light

Stories from Texas

By: W.F. Strong

It could be said that Texas is a state of natural philosophers. Many people have maxims or aphorisms at the ready for every situation. Tom Hoskins was one such person. He made it his late-in-life mission to record all of the adages he came across in a collection he called “Hoskilonians: A Thousand Points of Light.” Texas Standard commentator WF Strong has some of them.

January 18, 2023

Hall Johnson: “OMWO”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

If a classically-minded academic comes across the name “Hall Johnson”, they’ll likely think of one figure and one figure only: the highly-renowned composer, arranger, and choir conductor of African-American spirituals. And although we are rapidly approaching Black History Month, contemporary scholars of the local scene have probably already pieced together who we’re really talking about…indie-rock quartet Hall Johnson. These childhood friends have spent the past half decade perfecting their performance, four of those years right here in Austin. They’ve played alongside indie rock icons like Beach Fossils but as has sadly become standard in the last couple years, the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to Hall Johnson’s 2022 West Coast tour plans. Hall Johnson ended up seizing that newfound time to write and record their third EP A Slow Descent, all the while keeping their debut full-length cooped up in post-production. You see, Hall Johnson tracked Haymaker back in August 2021 against the bucolic backdrop of Ashlawn Recording Company in rural Connecticut. Thanks to a month-long pastoral production period, isolated trails, pickup basketball, lakeside wakes, and skipping stones are all ingrained in Haymaker‘s eleven originals. You’ll be able to drop a needle on Haymaker once it hits vinyl in May, but given the level of wanderlust that Haymaker‘s piqued, you’ll want to unpack its lead single, “OMWO” now. An immaculately-balanced, easy-going indie-rock bop, “OMWO” ought to sate your trumpet-arrangement tastes and chase away any malaise while Hall Johnson is on their way out with more.

December 14, 2022

SUSS: “The First Thaw”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

Back on Monday we mentioned that we’d be plying the final Songs of the Day with nothing but Holiday tunes. But honestly, today’s spotlight is a bit looser of an interpretation…and it comes on behalf of New York City ambient country outfit SUSS. See, SUSS has endured several dramatic changes of season in the past couple years, least of which concern the weather.

Coming off the success of their 2020 LP Promise, SUSS rode the momentum right back into the studio for their next record, Night Suite. But just as they’d wrapped, SUSS co-founder Gary Leib tragically passed away. With Night Suite already completed and drenched in a sense of loss, SUSS soldiered on as a three-piece with a master plan: create a series of EPs that contextualize Leib’s final contributions within SUSS’s evolving formulas.

Night Suite was followed by Heat Haze this past June and Winter Was Hard just last month. Concluding with Across the Horizon, this comprehensive four-parter was compiled into an eponymous, double-disc chronicle just a couple weeks back. Of course, SUSS‘s consumption has to be done in one sitting for the full effect. But in lieu of still-busy schedules, and perhaps even some end-of-year anxiety, you can also jump straight to Winter Was Hard. Like a sans-dialogue Gary Paulsen novel, this six-song suite will transport you to a bleak and trying tundra of arctic arrangements, warmed only by fond memories and our primal need to survive. Within that blizzard, the near-meter-less-ness and barren instrumental pairings of “The First Thaw” make for an especially magnificent piece of meditation.

November 22, 2022

on being an angel: “brit boy”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

It’s a gloomy start to 2022’s final thirty-nine steps. And in embracing the wintertime blues, it’s the perfect time to indulge in a hazy, understated, all-lowercase aesthetic. Which, here in Austin, brings us to on being an angel. For the past three years this quartet sewn seeds of pop melodies across faint fields of fuzz and gritty landscapes of ’90s-style grunge. With an outspoken preference for the tried-and-true analogue sound over its precocious DAW descendants, the latest milestone in on being an angel’s ongoing mid-fi mission is on being a tape vol. ii. Issued last Friday, on being a tape is a beautifully-flawed four-track whose heart’ll never need any digital clarity to move you. The EP wraps up with an inventive Lucinda Williams cover, but perhaps its biggest standout is the record’s penultimate track and final original. For a fully immersive analogue-and-fisheye experience, “brit boy” begs to be enjoyed alongside its black-and-white VHS-style music video. If that’s not enough, you might even be able to see on being an angel in-person, opening for The Lemonheads, Bass Drum of Death, and Juliana Hatfield on tour over the next month!

November 21, 2022

Big Bill: “Humanoids”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

Longtime fans of Austin four-piece Big Bill no doubt still feel the effects of their unexpectedly refreshing hard left turn earlier this year. For those out of the loop, midway through 2022 Big Bill released Public Freakout Compilation, chronicling the group’s shift from their once-signature ’80s-esque angular post-punk into lackadaisical ’90s-style indie rock. But the band’s collective larger-than-life, uncouth, and off-kilter personality still shines through the arrangements, lyrics, and now…visuals.

Like a star-crossed bastard child of Charles Schultz and Charles Bukowski, today Big Bill released the music video for PFC‘s third act-opener, “Humanoids”. Animated and illustrated by Pelvis Wrestley visionary Benjamin Violet, you’d have to be a real blockhead to not love the bleakness of this heartfelt Peanuts homage. Bonus points for an end-of-year reminder of how damn good this record is front to back.

November 16, 2022

Deer Fellow: “Unravel”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

Indie music in Austin, Texas: there’s a lot of it. You’ve got indie rock, indie pop, a little bit of indie electronic, and my personal favorite, indie folk. And that’s strictly due to the incorporation of acoustic instruments, something Austin duo Deer Fellow excels at. Made up of violinist-pianist-vocalist Alyssa Kelly and guitarist-vocalist Matt Salois, Deer Fellow’s been grazing local grounds (and far beyond) since 2016. The pair’s always shared complementary threads of creativity, but nowadays, especially after all those years collaborating in close company, Salois’ and Kelly’s respective singular talents have become intertwined well past the point of separation. That Shining-level cross-strand connection came to a head with the release of their debut EP Words Unsaid last year and is sure to continue on their upcoming sophomore record Unraveling. Unraveling follows a successful summer tour for Deer Fellow, who are set to hot-hoof across central Texas over the next week. This four-stop stint includes appearances in Manchaca and San Antonio plus a Sofar Sounds curation in both Houston and Austin, which kicks off this Friday in the St. Elmo district. But will those shows be Deer Fellow’s only output this winter? Frayed knot. Today Deer Fellow premiered Unraveling’s lead single and title-adjacent track, “Unravel”. What begins as bare bones guitar-and-vocals seamlessly unweaves into serene strings, call-and-response countermelodies, subtle drums in just over three minutes. It’s poignantly incandescent, so fair warning: If you’re already in an emotionally fragile spot at the moment, “Unravel” might just tear you to shreds.

November 5, 2022

Cry Havoc!

Austin Music Minute

By: Laurie Gallardo

One of the busiest music artists in the scene is bringing it home for a badass release party. Mobley has played numerous shows across the country to wildly receptive audiences in support of Cry Havoc!, described by the Austin-based songwriter as “a sci-fi concept record” following the harrowing journey of a renegade in an “alternate past Eighties NYC,” as cinematic and epic in theme as it is in its digi-pop soundscapes.

If you know, you know. Mobley delivers a sensational live performance you won’t want to miss. See him at his ATX album release show tonight, Saturday Nov. 5, at 3Ten at ACL Live, sharing the bill with San Gabriel and Caelin. Doors open at 7 p.m. Get there early; space is limited.

November 4, 2022

Souls Extolled: “Just Dreams”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

On behalf of KUTX, here’s a confession of sorts: we could lean a little more on the heavier stuff. And I’m not saying that just because I’m rocking the long, windmill-ready thrash hair right now. There really are some sensational prog metal (or at least hard rock-adjacent) songwriters sprinkled across Austin. Exhibit A: Souls Extolled. This three-piece exercises a regiment of all kinds of stuff; indie, alternative, grunge, ska, and punk have all been on the platter since the group’s inception in 2019. Souls Extolled plans on springing right into 2023 with their next full-length MMXXII or “twenty twenty two” phonetically. The record is set to drop on New Year’s Day 2023 and as such, Souls Extolled is expected at venues across the country over the next few weeks, with a tour kickoff 8PM tonight at The Mohawk (ahead of The Dead Coats at 9 and The Holy Death Trio at 10). Can’t convince your ear drums to bear the Atlas task of a full in-person set? No problem. Just stretch out into the aether with MMXXII‘s incandescent and honestly almost-operatic eleventh offering, “Just Dreams”.

November 3, 2022

Surf Curse: “Self Portrait”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

Reno, Nevada…not typically a place thought of as a hub for water-sports. And maybe that’s the point; between the desert flora and the arid atmosphere, it’s almost as if someone laid a pox on “The Biggest Little City in the World” for aquatic fanatics. A Surf Curse, if you will. For nearly a full decade, Surf Curse has been tearing up waves of indie rock, pop, punk, and psych. Developmentally, the once-duo has recently doubled into a quartet, expanding their coast of cross-genre grains and performance capabilities. Those new additions have culminated in Surf Curse’s fourth full-length Magic Hour, recorded at the one-and-only Electric Lady Studios. Surf Curse has already caught a steady current of streams for Magic Hour and now, after wrapping up the European leg of their latest tour, they’re bringing the sorcery down to Austin. Surf Curse performs both tonight and tomorrow night (sold out) at The Mohawk, but if it’s just not in the cards for you, fire up the surreal nightmare-fuel within “Self Portrait“‘s music video.

October 27, 2022

Max Fite: “Night Owl”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

Beginning with his 2016 debut LP Shake It on Down, Los Angeles singer-guitarist Max Fite has been magnifying in on a mighty fine line of hard rock. This magnum force has already toured alongside legends likes of Puddle of Mudd, Johnny Thunders, Social Distortion’s Mike Ness, Blondie’s Clem Burke, and oh yeah, even Sex Pistols’ Glen Matlock. Fite’s singles just seem to keep getting meatier and meatier, fitting for an artist whose upcoming LP is entitled Night Owl. This nocturnal beast features Queens of the Stone Age drummer Joe Castillo and Eagles of Death Metal bassist Dave Catching, making for the meanest parliament of owls you’ve ever heard. So keep your ears peeled for Night Owl in the near future, and open up the throttle like a blazing red ’65 Skylark tearing ass across the desert on the record’s title track, whose magnifique music video just touched down below.

October 24, 2022

Pale Dian: “Misanthrope”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

Back in my day if you wanted to be one of the first to lay eyes on a new music video, you basically had to stay locked onto TRL. And if you wanted your music video to get played, you probably had to have an industry contact in the early internet era. So no disrespect to Carson Daly, but our ability to showcase Austin visuals freely is all thanks to you.

And since our Fall Membership Drive steers near to Halloween, skies are grey and pallor is back in seasonal fashion. Which brings up to Pale Dian. Spearheaded by visceral vocalist-synthesist Ruth Ellen Smith, Pale Dian purveys a Post-Punk-meets-Shoegaze style that’s been deemed “Nightmare Pop”. Since their 2016 debut Narrow Birth, these bleak dissociations have trickled across time and genre, in way where a Roy Orbison collaboration with Cocteau Twins wouldn’t be unheard of.

Like a double-exposed dream dipped in desire and doused in delight, Pale Dian dropped their sophomore follow-up Feral Birth yesterday. The band celebrated with a record release last night at Hotel Vegas two weeks before their upcoming appearance at the Galveston Art Festival. But you won’t need to make a beach trip to enjoy Pale Dian’s off-kilter optics; today they’ve unleashed a one-of-a-kind counterpart to Feral Birth. Animated by longtime Richard Linklater collaborator Wiley Wiggins (Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, etc.) “Misanthrope” will momentarily transport you out of the beginning-of-week mindset so you can turn on, tune in, and drop out to watch reality melt.

October 13, 2022

Como Las Movies: “La Tiendita” (feat. Finessa)

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

As is tradition here at KUTX, ACL tends to dominate our airwaves the first half of October. But overlapping across both fest coverage and Hispanic Heritage Month is our October 2022 Artist of the Month, Como Las Movies. With the exception of a two-year hiatus, the Spotify-curated, AMA-nominated Austin-based cumbia-indie-pop quartet has been spearheaded by asombroso songwriter Nelson Valente Aguilar for nearly a decade now.

You’ve heard the Studio 1A veterans‘ latest cut “Café” (co-produced and recorded by Beto Martinez) on our airwaves as a heavy rotator these past couple weeks. So ahead of CLM’s ACL appearance 12:45PM this Saturday on the Honda Stage, we’ve got a little something in store for ya courtesy of a collaboration with Finessa, “La Tiendita”.

October 3, 2022

Alex Williams: “Old Before My Time”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

Here in the U.S., we’ve enjoyed nearly a century of transcontinental and interstate routes, thanks to our highway system. Because of its introduction amidst advents in recording technology and decades-long development alongside advances in songwriting, tunes about cruising have taken American artists pretty far. And everyone’s got their favorite so no need to list ’em all out here. That said, the point of a good road playlist is to pack too many tracks in so you don’t have repeats, right? With that in mind, today we introduce you to a must-have piece of musical migration, courtesy of Indianapolis singer-guitarist Alex Williams.

With the release of his 2017 Nashville-produced debut Better Than Myself, Williams seemed like a shoe-in successor to the Outlaw Country throne. But the following five years of touring and temptation eventually influenced Williams to shy away from a bandana-bound sense of recklessness and write a new batch of horizon-affixed, road-weary personal reflections. The result, Waging Peace, is set for release on October 21st in the thick of a national tour. This dozen-track trek evokes everyone from Jerry Reed, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and The Allman Brothers all the way to Texas treasures like Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, boldly opening up a throttle of cross-genre twang. So buckle up for Waging Peace‘s release Friday after next, and rev up for a practice run right now with the LP’s latest Haggard-esque trailblazer, “Old Before My Time”!

September 30, 2022

John Wesley Coleman III: “Talk About the Good Times”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

Songwriters can often canter by on their high horse, claiming to be a contemporary Virgil or Homer with stanzas in hand. So it’s a breath of fresh air when you come across truly talented self-deprecators like Austin-via-Irving singer-guitarist John Wesley Coleman III. Coleman calls himself a “trash poet”, eschewing hubris in favor of fun, accessible material, be it through standup comedy, movie scripts, books or music. Since his rowdy 2009 debut Steal My Mind, Coleman’s incorporated the most raucous bits of garage, indie rock, lo-fi punk, and even a bit of ’60s skiffle into his earworm formulas. And while he’s fine tuned some of his techniques to appear at least adjacent to what’s considered “professional”, his idiosyncratic style’s remained intact.

Coleman’s saga continues on October 14th with Kiss Apocalypse, produced by White Denim’s Steve Terebecki and mixed by Cat Power engineer Stuart Sikes. Kiss Apocalypse features familiar Austin favorites like Moving Panorama’s Leslie Sisson, Trail of Dead’s Jason Reece, and more, for a full-length fireball of beautifully-flawed local artistry. The record release show is October 16th at Saddle Up and John Wesley Coleman III plays tonight at Chess Club along with openers Narrow Haunts and Blair Brown & The Western Hearts starting at 9PM. Between those two easy opportunities to witness Coleman’s uncouth commentary, there’s no excuse not to make some new memories that’ll let you “Talk About the Good Times” later on.

September 13, 2022

Shadow Work: “Warm Tones”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

There’s no doubt; Denver’s got a splendid music scene. Yet despite an artist multiplicity that gives Austin a run for its money, it’s rare to come across an act that captures several sounds of the city simultaneously. So if you want a calculated combo of post-hardcore guitar, jazz-injected percussion, and turbulent pride-of-punk bass riffs, sign up for shadow work.

This capricious art/math-rock trio first crawled out of the woodwork on last May’s debut album Robben Island and have since gone on to share a handful of singles, including two in 2022 alone. The latest one, “Warm Tones”, (mixed and mastered by Snoop Dogg/Lil Baby/Trey Songz producer John Scott) sets the stage for a Southeastern U.S. tour at the end of the month. shadow work has stops planned for Birmingham, Nashville, and Atlanta, so if you’re the type to hold onto Texas’ high temps as long as possible, consider working their whirlwind “Warm Tones” (with its daring dynamics, melancholy chord changes, and jaw-dropping instrumentation) into your upcoming Fall playlist. Either way, keep on the lookout for a national tour and a new record from shadow work within the next year.

September 6, 2022

The Best Around: “Kissing Your Ass”

Song of the Day

By: Jack Anderson

From the surrealist theatrics of Oingo Boingo and Devo to the esoteric lyricism of Hunky Dory, it seems that not taking yourself seriously can give you a big leg up in the world of art rock. And as with the escapism given to us by those ’70s and ’80s greats, modern day art rockers like Austin’s The Best Around cross the wires between absurdist, non-sequitur humor and biting social commentary. In Spring 2020, Ten years after his indie punk outfit Safeword tapped out, singer-songwriter Camron Rushin created The Best Around along with multi-instrumentalists Todd Pruner (of English Teeth and Kodachrome) and Jon Merz (of Montopolis, My Jerusalem, and Soul Track Mind). They began exchanging stems of new songs and building up arrangements remotely, one instrument at a time, in accordance with pandemic-mandated social distancing. That patience (cue Karate Kid training montage music) lends itself to the work ethic of The Best Around, whose uncouth goofiness may cause cursory critiques to overlook the trio’s underlying discipline.

With Cobrai Kai making its fifth season premiere this Friday and Karate Kid culture back in the zeitgeist, The Best Around are making the most of this moment of Kairos with a new studio single. It’s part of The Best Around’s upcoming debut full-length, which was mixed and mastered by Erik Wofford at Cacophony Recorders here in Austin and is set for release sometime in the next several months. This latest one is a testament to the fact that there’ll never be a demand shortage for breakup songs, and there’ll always be another, more irreverent way to bid farewell to a former fling. Layered with LFO synth flairs, Fastball-style group vocals, bluesy guitar, and mid-’90s Beck-esque production techniques, “Kissing Your Ass” (and its soon-to-be-shared music video) is a perfect funk-rock complement to pop breakup bangers like “thank u, next”.

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