Song of the Day

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August 15, 2023

West 22nd: “Sweet!”

By: Jack Anderson

If this intense summer heat is starting to fry your synapses and your mind is in need of a holiday…but you don’t really have time on the calendar or money in the budget for proper R&R, there’s a broad sonic convoy right here in town that’ll take your brain places, for sure. We’re talking about Austin quintet West 22nd. Based on the campus-adjacent coordinates in their handle, you can probably guess where West 22nd got their start. But it’s worth mentioning that the five members have home state backgrounds ranging from Georgia to California, a critical piece of West 22nd’s “cross-country road trip” aesthetic within their indie-folk-rock excursions. For those staying connected with the Live Music Capital from outside the city limits, let West 22nd take you All The Way Home this Friday with their debut EP that shares the title. For the locals, West 22nd commemorates the occasion with a release show 8PM that same evening at Mohawk indoors alongside Daydream Twins, Knox Write, and Sounds by Moonbby. And for everyone, West 22nd simmers and shimmers on All The Way Home‘s latest lead single, “Sweet!”. Simple kick drum and snare rim, easy-strolling bass, and soft-swaying six-string warm this arrangement up before impassioned pipes bring this thing to a peak, but the inter-instrumental energy across this relatively complex song structure is really what escalates “Sweet!” past vapid and saccharine and into satiating and sanguine.

Episodes

February 28, 2025

Illiterate Light: “Payphone”

The Ohio duo Illiterate Light  have been making music together for a decade: starting from humble pastoral beginnings making music while working on a farm in the Shenandoah Valle, to their latest album Arches, which saw the band splitting time between Ohio and Hollywood’s Sunset Sound, a room formerly graced by Bob Dylan and Paul […]

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February 27, 2025

Marlei Dismuke: “Fantasy”

Born in Houston, partially raised in Plano, and now an Austin resident, Marlei Dismuke has been writing and performing music since she started piano lessons at age five. Writing songs for her brothers turned into composing music for family musicals complete with choreography, and eventually truly honing her craft in high school and college, performing […]

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February 26, 2025

Anastasia Hera: “Ambitions” (Live in Studio 1A)

Austin’s Anastasia Hera has been blending her brand of rap and R&B for almost fifteen years. In addition to releasing her own solo work, leading her group Anastasia and the Heroes, and putting her mark on various other projects, she’s also the founder of CAKE (Creativity, Abundance, Knowledge, Education), a non-profit empowering and educating women […]

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February 25, 2025

Wabi Sabi and the Sweet Littles: “Nile Walk”

Austin’s Sam Hernandez has always seen life through a different prism. Colors, textures, and the planes of reality are subjective and mere suggestions. Influenced by the bubbly music of the 50s and 60s as well as an early penchant for Jim Henson and his muppets, Hernandez writes lovely songs to capture a familiar but not […]

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February 24, 2025

Donnel McLohon: “Serenata”

Austin’s Donnel McLohon, founder of the storytelling blog the Austin Bluebonnet, has it down when it comes to great singer-songwriter tunes knotched-up with soft, catchy hooks, but on his debut EP You Were Adored, he held some space to push his boundaries, write on pure instinct, and let the music flow. That track is “Serenata,” […]

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February 24, 2025

Jane Ellen Bryant: “My Corner of the World”

When I think of Jane Ellen Bryant, the first thing that comes to mind is her vocal tool box. She’s not just a great singer; the control she has over her voice and the tricks she’s able to do with it are show stopping. She’s shows off this mastery in both the dance pop duo […]

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February 24, 2025

Craig Finn: “People of Substance”

Since the early 90’s, years before the Hold Steady was a twinkle in his eye, Craig Finn has been laying down his legacy. Now over 20 albums deep into his discography, he’s set to release his 6th solo album Always Been this April. Finn calls Always Been his most narrative album to date, dropping into […]

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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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