Song of the Day

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January 4, 2024

Nova: “Bird in the Hurricane”

By: Jack Anderson

Just like a ragtag team of survivors, when you find the perfect pack for your project, playing without them is like taking an axe to the face. So sure, choir singer and solo veteran Nova Barton has strong enough chops to create and command attention all on her own, as heard on her 2021 debut Novaville. But despite maintaining her project Nova‘s eponymous/mononymous status, the backing band of UT buddies she recruited in support of Novaville was just too killer to keep out of the studio the second time around.

Now we dawn on NovApocalypse, Nova’s sophomore LP that’s set for release this April. With the full four-piece of friends in tow, Barton’s already restorative and poignant songwriting (no doubt informed by her music therapy studies) takes a meteoric ascent with wider-than-ever arrangements. And thematically, NovApocalypse is set to sound sort of like if Towns Van Zandt wrote The Road instead of Cormac McCarthy, crippling isolation, excessive blood spurts, rampant deception and all.

While the storm of NovApocalypse is still a few months out, Nova kicks off the cataclysm with a single release show 10:30pm this Saturday at Captain Quackenbush’s Soundscape following openers Hover at 8:30 and Boomershack at 9:30. That single? “Bird in the Hurricane”. Ideal HBO intro credit material from its first guitar strums, “Bird in the Hurricane” soars with pizzicato plucks, light treading percussion, serene string harmonies, grounded bass, atmospheric and Barton’s moody, multi-tracked vocals that collectively “carry the fire”, no matter how bleak the future may look.


Episodes

September 16, 2026

Wild Heaven: “One To Go”

Austin band Wild Heaven’s “One to Go” dives into the noise that can build up in our heads, from media and the internet to other people’s expectations. The song started with a guitar riff before a circular bass line brought everything together, eventually building into a chaotic outro of layered guitars and megaphone vocals. It’s […]

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September 15, 2026

Andrea Bejar: “Te Vas A Arrepentir (Don’t Hurt Him)”

After the success of her EP’s and rotation on Sirius XM, Mexico City-born, L.A. based singer Andrea Bejar is releasing her debut album In Bloom. Bejar’s music is an ethereal chimera of her Mexican roots and American influence, putting a lush, pop veneer on boleros, or, in the case, of today’s Song of the Day, […]

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September 14, 2026

Shannon Hudson: “Black Roses”

The new album from Leander singer-songwriter Shannon Hudson, Cross Stitch, finds him plugged-in. Electric guitars are center stage this time for an album poignantly built around the dissolution of communication, the self-fulfilling prophecy of isolation it creates and perpetuates, and a reckoning with the state of our country and the atrocities wherein. “Black Roses” hits […]

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September 11, 2026

Ruby Dice: “Dress To Impress (ft. Shinyribs)”

Austin-based bassist and Americana songwriter Ruby Dice brings some true Texan honky-tonk vibes with soulful vocals in her new track “Dress To Impress.” Austin legend Shinyribs opens this track to add old-school sizzle. You can find this song on her new album, Take Me Back, which came out two weeks ago today.

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September 10, 2026

Grocery Bag: “Stop Calling Me Out” [Live in Studio 1A]

Our Artist of the Month, Grocery Bag, is blowing in the wind to big places! After starting in West Campus, they’ve gone on to tour with bands like the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets – and they’re just getting started. Tomorrow, they’re taking the stage at Levitation Festival at the Far Out Lounge. Later this month, they’ll […]

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September 9, 2026

Hazy Waters: “Take Me Home”

London band Hazy Waters takes on the feeling of being stuck inside your own head with “Take Me Home.” The restless alternative track circles around recurring thoughts, the urge to wipe the slate clean, and trying to find a way out of the same mental loop. It’s that feeling of running in circles, hoping the […]

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September 8, 2026

Closebye- “No Troubles Left At All”

You’ve spent a year working on an album. Finally, it’s a wrap, and being in the studio is the farthest things from your mind. And what happens? You’re struck with inspiration to write new music, so it’a back to the studio you go. Such is life, and such is the case for New York’s Closeby.” […]

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September 4, 2026

Evil Island: “T-Hexx”

Our ship has landed on Evil Island. The locals are made-up by members of the Blood Brothers, OFF!, …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, and Glassjaw, and their culture is centered around what they call the Death Cultt, a satirical critique on consumerism and the corporate chokehold in the modern age. […]

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