Song of the Day

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December 12, 2022

David Shabani: “Holiday Blues”

By: Jack Anderson

It’s the final five features for Song of the Day‘s 2022 season. We’re taking a vacation for a couple weeks, but don’t fret; we’ll be back bright and early next year. Until then we’re hanging some of the very best musical mistletoe of the past months, starting off with Austin’s own David Shabani. Born in Paris and raised in Canada, Shabani’s blessed the Live Music Capital with gripping alternative hip-hop in the vein of Lupe Fiasco, Childish Gambino, Kaytranada, and Kid Cudi. Shabani’s outstanding verbal skills, butter-smooth singing, and brilliant taste in beats have earned him supporting spots for international icons like Ashanti and Trinidad James, local legends Black Joe Lewis and Blackillac, and consistent placement as an airwave heavyweight on our Hip-Hop/R&B specialty show The Breaks. After nearly thirty live appearances since January, Shabani, along with his backing group The Nu Leopards, have had a pretty good year for themselves. Considering Shabani’s motto (“I feel good right now”), being in the moment is a gift available to anyone, anywhere. So even if you’ve got a stocking full of “Holiday Blues”, the sleigh bells, slick instrumentation, and modern Dickensian storytelling of Shabani’s latest single ought to keep your heart warm for the winter.

Episodes

August 14, 2025

Team Trust: “Wuggis”

Team Trust call themselves art rock, which is somewhat fitting, but if we want to be specific, I’d call them quirk-punk. The Austin trio sounds a bit like Being Dead and your cool, Gen-X brother’s punk demos he recorded at home the summer before they wound-up on tour with Black Flag, opting for a rotisserie […]

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August 8, 2025

Russell Taine, Jr.: “Sidewinder”

Austin’s Russell Taine, Jr. blends indie rock with an Austin and Texas twist. It’s indie music powered by chords and melodies that you imagine being played at dusk in your cool friend’s backyard with a chain link fence and an oak tree in the background. It sounds like Hole In the Wall. Their latest single […]

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August 7, 2025

Tear Dungeon: “Kill For Health” [Live In Studio 1A]

Andrew Chasen. With the Disciples of Creation, he takes you to church. With A Giant Dog, he takes you church. Sweet Spirit makes you want to dance the night away, and Tear Dungeon drags you to the basement, ties you to the St. Andrew’s Cross, and says flogging and bastinado are for the faint of […]

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August 6, 2025

Jack Greenwood: “Four Walls”

Jack Greenwood’s new single is dance music for sad lads. On “Four Walls,” a song about feeling trapped, the Austin-by-way-of-Wisconsin singer and producer presents a fantastical escape, evoking the moodier side of the 80s synth. The opposing dichotomy works well here; what begins with sunny textures and a fun, melodic bass spirals into a manic […]

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August 4, 2025

Mae Powell: “Contact High”

Bay Area singer-songwriter Mae Powell‘s debut album on Karma Chief Records, Making Room for the Light, serves up a West-coast brand of vintage, pastel-colored, jazz-meets-indie-pop beauty akin to Atlanta’s Faye Webster. Her latest single “Contact High” has origins in conversations with Powell’s elderly neighbor about a song with the spirit of being high socially, but […]

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August 1, 2025

Celestine Gravely: “Kill the Heather”

Despite having a name that sounds like it belongs to a member of the Cramps, Austin’s Celestine Gravely‘s brand of rock is more attuned to the likes of Patti Smith and PJ Harvey, balancing the sounds of those eras and the power of their vocals with her own stamp of songwriting. You’ve got it all […]

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July 31, 2025

Allyse: “Lesson”

Austin’s Allyse crafts R&B-infused pop charms to pair with her sometimes self-empowered and sometimes vulnerable songwriting. The military brat fuses all of the cultural touchstones experienced throughout her childhood, her most sensitive song to date. “Lesson” is about just that, specifically lessons around relationships. How to not hurt others, how to be strong when you’re […]

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July 30, 2025

Hide and Shine: “Can’t Wait to Catch Fire”

If you were going to try to stuff the new album from New York trio Hide and Shine into a box, it could only be a bento. The different sonic compartments, ranging from sunny indie rock to fuzzy post-punk to more meditative, goth-tinged post-punk, with the themes of metamorphosis and humbled ego pulling the meal […]

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