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In a lot of ways, Texas is a top tier U.S. state. There’s great food. H-E-B. Beautiful parks with a variety of landscapes and wildlife. H-E-B again. That distinct Southern hospitality you don’t notice until you’re gone. But even if someone’s lived in the Lone Star State their whole life, being a Texas resident in 2024 has literally become unsafe for some. Ya know, the whole metaphor of Austin as the “blueberry in the tomato soup”. So especially post-election, plenty of progressives have piped up that their time to leave Texas (if not the US on the whole) is now.
We’ll get back to that in a moment. Because even though the Turkey Trot’s now a full week behind us, today we’re talking about rrunnerrss. We won’t shy from labeling rrunnerrss as a supergroup, considering that founding songwriter-composer Michael Zapruder (who sports an impressive resume on his own) rounds out this quintet with Austin veterans that have backed Adrian Quesada, Roky Erickson, Polyphonic Spree, Bill Callahan, White Denim and beyond. And together they’ve led a genre-melding marathon of North African Desert Rock, psych, and freestyle guitar since 2021.
So although Zapruder left is currently living in California due to Texas’s draconian policies, that transition didn’t put a damper on the band’s creative passions; Zapruder still slides back into Austin for live shows (including as part of triple single release show 8PM tonight at the Mohawk alongside an acoustic performance from Parker Woodland and Booher) and coordinated the recording of rrunnerrss’s debut self-titled album. Sonically, rrunnerrss covers a 5K of musical territory while thematically reflecting sentiments of self-exile, adversity, and advocacy across nine tunes. And those themes are perhaps most outspoken on the LP’s latest lead single that dropped this morning, “Get Me Out Of Here”, a somber, slow, and sweet piece of acoustic folk rock that almost recalls the poignant magic of Paul Simon’s early solo stuff.
