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June 24, 2024

Painterly: “Ok/Alright”

By: Jack Anderson

What’s that old stereotype about the acting hubs of L.A. and New York? Oh right. Every server you meet is actually an actor who’s just waiting tables ’til they score that sweet screen time. Which is fairly different from music hubs like Austin, where success is less about streaming numbers and more about overcoming artist multiplicity to make yourself stick out amongst the crowd. Yeah, the dissonance between the “Live Music Capital of the World” and status as one of the most expensive places to live has pretty much guaranteed that if you’re not in a corporate role…there’s a fifty/fifty chance you’re also a musician in your free time. And if you can find a profession that matches your passion, more power to you.

Take people like JC Barrett. If you’ve attended any of the events from the recently-wrapped 2024 spring season of KUTX’s Rock the Park live series, you’ve heard Barrett and his fellow Werd Company engineers making our featured artists sound mighty fine out at Mueller. But outside The Werd Company (which, full disclosure DOES serve a sponsorship role for Song of the Day), Barrett applies that technical prowess and tremendous passion to his Austin project Painterly. Serving as chief producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Barrett’s already steered this indie pop three-piece through an enthusiastic introduction, culminating in Painterly’s debut EP from last April, What’s the Year?

Last Friday Painterly unfurled their latest single and music video “Ok/Alright”. As the stylized title implies, it’s somewhat of a two-parter with a bit of a left turn in its final minute. But don’t get thrown off by the “blah” aspect of the words themselves in the title. Because “Ok/Alright” is actually an awfully optimistic piece of indie pop, one that’s an actually an endearing testament to the comforting power of love and connection in the face of day-by-day medicated malaise.

So if the Monday blues have got you down, cheer up. It’ll be Ok. Alright?


Episodes

February 20, 2025

Persona 749: “Stereo Girl”

From the hockey rink of the University of Utah to the mean streets of New York City comes Persona 749. After being inspired through music heard at college parties, Landon Langenbrunner and Che Landikusic started writing music, but without real direction, they were making music from a place of fun, playing around in the sandbox […]

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Maddy Kirgo: “Spare”

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February 17, 2025

MIEN: “Evil People” (Live In Studio 1A)

We all know that when an artist is featured on a song, it’s likely that they recorded it remote and sent the track to the main artist. But how does it work when you’re a quartet and only 2 of y’all live in the same place? To ask the members of Austin experimental psych band […]

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February 14, 2025

Kowloon: “Heart Begins With You”

L.A.’s Kowloon is truly a one-man operation. Songwriting? Him. Instrumentation? Him. Recording, production? Yep, all Kowloon. Backed by a full library of effects and music gadgets from various eras, Kowloon released a string of singles last year, demonstrating his affinity for the darkwave sounds of the 80s a la the Cure and Bronski Beat. Ahead […]

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February 13, 2025

Tommy Francisco: “Tommy’s Groove”

Even a piping hot bowl of tokontsu ramen can’t fully shake-off today’s bone chill, but maybe the headspace of partying on a yacht in Mallorca can. Austin native Tommy Francisco hit the scene in 2020 with “Fever,” giving him an international audience and proving his ability to blend his Latin and Indigenous backgrounds into a […]

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February 12, 2025

Serebii: “Verrans Corner”

Auckland, New Zealand’s Callum Mower, known as Serebii, has always focused on pushing forward. Forward musically, forward personally, and now, forward into naked vulnerability.   Serebii’s upcoming album Dime finds Mower at his most vulnerable. Historically, Mower has relied on his mastery of instruments and production with others, namely fellow New Zealander Arjuna Oakes, but […]

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February 11, 2025

Slept All Day: “Asteria”

Austin duo Slept All Day may be new on the scene, but don’t sleep on them. Together, the two create moving soundscapes a la Bonobo and Washed Out. And they use their vocals as an element of the scape instead of its driving force. And despite the electronic instrumentation and vocal effects, the music is […]

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February 10, 2025

Middle Satre: “Corrupted (Uncorrupted)”

Welcome! Today’s theme is vision and reimagining. After spending a childhood in Salt Lake City, Hunter Preuger moved to Austin to sow oats with his project Middle Sattre. The project quickly expanded into a six-piece…and then an eight-piece, and a year after the release of their debut album Tendencies, the experimental folk outfit returned to […]

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