austin music

Destin Shimer: “Cult Vult”

As is the case with countless musicians over the past century, singer-guitarist Destin Shimer began learning music to play during church. After a bucolic upbringing on farm in Southern Minnesota, Shimer’s family relocated to Shreveport, Louisiana but as soon as Shimer graduated high school, they headed North in search of a progressive atmosphere and any open-mic available, eventually landing in Columbus, Ohio – where they forged their first recordings – before settling down here in Austin.

With the release of their eponymous EP mid-February Destin Shimer’s proven a force to be reckoned with, thanks to their vigorous vocals, intoxicating arrangements, and almost-cavalier song titles, perhaps most distinctly on Destin Shimer’s penultimate original, “cult vult”!

The Reopening

On March 10th the Texas governor re-opened the state. Now businesses can operate at 100% capacity. He also lifted the statewide mask mandate. We talked to musicians, venue owners & staff about how they plan to navigate the reopening.

In this episode you’ll hear from:

Cody Cowan: Executive Director of the Red River Cultural District
Stephen Sternschein: the managing partner of Heard Presents which operates Empire Control Room,
James Moody: founder of the Austin music venue Mohawk ,
Kate Holley: illustrator and also manager and bartender at Cheer-Up Charlies,
Clayton England: musician and also bartender at the Far out Lounge
Mama Duke : singer songwriter and voice over actor
Lili Hickman: musician and visual artist

We have a survey and we’d love to hear what you think! Go ahead! Take the survey here!

Find out more about Mama Duke
Check out Mama Duke as the voice of Hip-Hop Hippo
Find out more about Lili Hickman’s art and her band Flora and Fawna.
Check out Clayton England’s music

Listen to the music by Austin Artists featured in this episode:

Miss Miranda: “Daniel”

In a world of constant motion, it can be get tricky trying not to get caught up in the rhythm of things when you just want to breath in melody and chords. Thankfully we’ve got artists like Baltimore-born songwriter Miranda Haney who bare it all lyrically but keep their arrangements sparse enough to let listeners soak it all up. After settling here in Austin, Haney subtly shared a collection of quarantine demos, Under My Nose, last September and is now repackaging her blend of finger-picked guitar, storytelling, and folk-infused phrasing under the moniker Miss Miranda.

With its delicate vocal delivery and meditative strumming, Haney’s debut single under the new handle, “Daniel”, is as much a sincere show of force for Miss Miranda as it is a graceful first step.

Major Major Major: “Snow Day”

Back in the first half of the 2010s, it was pretty much a given to see indie garage rockers Major Major Major billed on show posters around town…at least once a week. But as is the case with many maturing musicians, Austin’s favorite two-piece with a three-part name decided to put the duo on the back burner in pursuit of separate projects. That was all the way back in 2016.

Now, a hefty half decade later, these Studio 1A veterans have released two tracks recorded right around the same time the band went on hiatus. And though these songs are old-for-them/new-to-us, they both sound fresh enough to have been penned within the past few months. Especially with the icy, inclement weather of February, “Snow Day” sounds right at home in 2021, or, to quote lyricist Adrian Haynes, “this sh*t is good sh*t”!

Sun June: “Everything I Had” (KUTX Social Distancing Pop-Up)

Our March 2021 Artist of the Month started dabbling in what they’ve dubbed “regret pop” right around this same time of year in 2018 with their debut single “Young”. Fast forward to 2021, where Sun June‘s decidedly become wiser and more mature in their songwriting over time, culminating most recently with the quintet’s sophomore album, Somewhere.

At just shy of a dozen originals, Somewhere makes for a solid contribution both to the Austin music experience on the whole and to the still-dawning discography for this five-piece. You definitely won’t regret letting Somewhere transport you from whatever monotonies Tuesday may hold, but in case you need an extra-sensory shove to get you there, sink into Sun June’s three-song social distancing set, which includes Somewhere standout “Everything I Had”!

Betty Benedeadly: “Down the Gorge”

If you’ve listened to Austin trio Sheverb, then you’ve already heard some of the talent that co-founder Betty Benedeadly keeps in her saddlebags. Well today Benedeadly invites you to embark on an aural adventure with her solo debut, From the Mesa, three instrumentals tracked in Taos, New Mexico that boast the same braggadocio and psychedelic panache of an Ennio Morricone score.

From the Mesa‘s compact compositions provide both a well-packaged cinematic experience and an instant ticket to the meditative solitude one can only find in the desert, perhaps best imbued on the EP ender, “Down the Gorge”!

Geoff Bradford: “Texas Psychedelic”

When it comes to chasing your musical aspirations, you can never be too settled down to drop your dreams. That clearly rings true for New York-born singer-multi-instrumentalist Geoff Bradford, who, after sating his international wanderlust, starting a family in Pennsylvania, and having his kids grow up, moved down to Austin. Bradford began performing on bass for a couple local outfits but soon a long-burning desire to write his own songs overtook him, eventually leading to his five-song debut EP, Texas Psychedelic, released in mid-February.

Faithful to its name, Texas Psychedelic totes the pop idiosyncrasies of the Lone Star State while dipping listeners into acid-soaked aesthetics, perhaps best heard on the album’s yacht-rock-adjacent title track!

One Year Later

We talked to people from across the spectrum of the Austin music ecosystem around the 1-year anniversary of the cancellation of SXSW. In this episode, you’ll hear how they’ve coped, pivoted, evolved, gained new perspectives and dealt with trauma during the last 12 months.

You’ll hear from singer, songwriter and guitar player Jackie Venson, songwriter, producer and activist Mobley, Stephanie Bergara who fronts the band Bidi Bidi Banda, Maggie Lea co-owner of Cheer-Up Charlies, musician and founder of Austin Texas Musicians Nakia, singer, songwriter and podcaster Walker Lukens, live-event coordinator, screenwriter and co-founder of The Amplified Sound Coalition, Jeannette Gregor, executive director of the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, Reenie Collins, and executive director of Austin Texas Musicians, Pat Buchta.

We have a survey and we’d love to hear what you think! Go ahead! Take the survey here!

Links:

Listen to Jackie Venson’s music

Check out Mobley’s new record “Young and Dying in the Occident Supreme”

Listen to Nakia’s new single “It’s Never Too Late.”

The Amplified Sound Coalition

Austin Texas Musicians

The Health Alliance for Austin Musicians

Graham Wilkinson: “Rainbow”

It’s been a whopping five years since Austin songwriter Graham Wilkinson‘s last album, #BecauseOfYou. But instead of letting talent slip away in that half decade out of the studio, Wilkinson’s expanded on his own abilities, taken the rough arrangements and polished them into nearly a dozen fully-fleshed out tracks.

The result is Cuts So Deep, released today and marking a major milestone for Wilkinson’s musicianship. Wilkinson commemorates Cuts So Deep at 8pm tonight via Facebook livestream and performs in-person for a socially-distanced album release show Saturday afternoon at Far Out Lounge. Needless to say the horizon’s looking pretty bright for Wilkinson right now, so let his radiance guide you into the weekend with one of Cuts So Deep‘s strongest singles (and one of several music videos), “Rainbow”!

Zach Person: “Can’t Stop Running”

Just one year after appearing on American Idol (and earning high praise from Keith Urban and Jennifer Lopez), Houston-born songwriter Zach Person made the move to Austin, but in those short four years he’s become a must-hear contributor to the Live Music Capital. Person’s chord skills, both on the six-string and with his voice box, are already bold beyond belief, but we have a feeling this is just the beginning for this budding artist, who’s effortlessly able to navigate between all the alcoves of rock, from indie to blues.

Person shared his self-titled EP last year and follows it up with his eponymous full-length in just under a month. Zach Person drops on April 2nd, coinciding with a socially-distanced release show at Empire Control Room so the momentum’s only going to mount until then. Fortunately for us, Person’s got plenty of goodies to tide us over in the meantime, most recently with the BlackDenim Sessions music video for Zach’s latest track, “Can’t Stop Running”!

Dorio: “Robot Friends”

For many musicians natural, acoustic, and/or analog is the sole way to go. But Austin songwriter-producer Chad Doriocourt couldn’t feel more at home in a room filled with electronic instruments, all with somewhat pre-programmed minds of their own.

Last year Doriocourt made his studio debut under the abbreviated mononym Dorio with Yesterday The Sky Was Blue, and today, almost exactly one year later, his sophomore installation under the abbreviated mononym is finally out! The four tracks on Dorio’s Robot Friends work together like cogs, giving the EP a nice sense of pacing, but there’s no denying that the standout single is the indie-psych-pop album opener and (near) title track, “Robot Friends”!

J Halp: “I Can’t Live Without You”

In the “before times” of live music, it was pretty hard to miss common collaborators across various groups. And perhaps the most “traded” player of all (at least in recent years) has been drummer Josh Halpern. Stellar percussion skills aside, this Native Austinite is also quite the competent composer, as evidenced by his solo project J Halp.

J Halp made his debut last June with his first single, revealing more of Halpern’s vocal abilities that’d been historically masked by frontmen, not to mention an impressive sense of compactness, arrangement, and production across July’s Ahlen EP. On Valentine’s Day J Halp continued his saga of solo songwriting with a new standalone single, one that cradles between psychedelia, breakbeats, and lighthearted pop, “I Can’t Live Without You”!

Mobley: “Dreams of Empire”

If you’ve kept KUTX company the past half decade then you’re well acquainted with Mobley. We named Mobley our Artist of the Month back in April 2018 and since then this multi-instrumentalist/producer has only seemed to get better and better at his craft.

Mobley’s outspoken political stances have kept up alongside the evolution of his songwriting, heard most recently on his new EP, Young & Dying in the Occident Supreme. Young & Dying dropped last Friday and Mobley kicks off his Devil in a Daydream virtual tour tomorrow. So enjoy Mobley in the comfort of your home when you can, and sift through the six cylinders on Young & Dying to find some new tunes for your playlists, like my personal favorite, “Dreams of Empire”.

ricface: “Silhouettes” (feat. RuDi Devino)

Born in San Antonio and raised on a mix of ’70s folk and ’80s synth-rock, Austin multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/producer Eric Wendt has kicked off 2021 with the advent of his solo project, ricface. Wendt’s style connects the dots between Phoenix, Toro Y Moi, and Tame Impala, culminating in a driving, psychedelic experience that lasts only as long as it needs to without overstaying its welcome.

ricface just dropped his sophomore single a couple days ago, but we can’t overlook the daring original released last month, featuring rapper RuDi Devino and a music video to top it all off for ricface’s debut, “Silhouettes”!

Sunscreen: “Call Off Your Goons”

The name Miles Kelley might not trigger any memories right away, but if you connect the dots, Miles is at the helm of The Hermits and was, even earlier, the eponymous frontman of Milezo. This kooky character’s kept a consistent creative output over the years, and though you can’t find too much from his alt-psych-rock project, Sunscreen, as of yet, we guarantee it’ll radiate with you.

The already-scruffy Kelley gets extra fuzzy on Sunscreen’s latest single, “Call Off Your Goons”, whose mellow mood gives Mac DeMarco a run for his money.

Music and Activism with Jonathan “Chaka” Mahone

Jonathan “Chaka” Mahone from the Austin hip-hop duo Riders Against the Storm talks about how his experience as a Black musician in the Austin music community led him to create the DAWA Fund and the Black Live Music Fund. He also explains why his music is the reason he is able to continue to serve the community he loves.

Links:

DAWA

Black Live Music Fund

To Support the Black Live Music Fund

Black Live Music Fund – “Thankful” Live Stream Event February 19th

Riders Against the Storm

Chaka’s Speech — It’s time for a Black Live Music Fund

Pelvis Wrestley: “Horse Dreams”

When it comes to reshaping myths of the modern South, nobody really does it better than Austin’s Benjamin Violet and his glam-country group Pelvis Wrestley. Pelvis Wrestley released their biggest piece of revisionism to date last September with the sprawling LP Vortexas Vorever, but Violet’s queer reimagining of the Lone Star State is far from over.

Pelvis Wrestley pitched in a couple new singles for Austin Music Foundation’s ATX Gen Next: Adventures in Lockdown, whose second “side” drops this Friday, and those you’ll have to hitch your anticipation til then, you can get into the equestrian mindset with “Horse Dreams”!

Christine Renner: “Drown”

Enjoying 2021 at the tender age of 21, singer-guitarist Christine Renner has graduated from her teenage diary onto passionate pop-rock lyricism. The native Austinite’s managed to build a bridge between the stimulating instrumental arrangements of classic rock and the romantic-minded content of modern pop, forming Renner’s unique brand of retro-inspired originals.

This year you can expect the release of Renner’s fourth record, Heartbreaker, produced and recorded by Grammy Nominee Chris “Frenchie” Smith at The Bubble Studios. So while Heartbreaker crests over the horizon, submerge yourself into an ’80s aesthetic with the album’s lead single (and music video) that reckons with self-imposed isolation, “Drown”!

The Brain: “So They Say” (prod. Ruler Why) [PREMIERE]

Any hardcore hip-hop expert in Austin ought to remember the name SubKulture Patriots, the fearless five-piece whose ’90s-style beats and rapid-fire lyrical exchanges gave Wu-Tang Clan and Boot Camp Clik a run for their money during their 2010s heyday. SKP’s been laying low recently, but founding mastermind Brian Tanton AKA The Brain isn’t letting a little kenopsia get in the way of his craft.

The native Texan began experimenting with guitar and piano at a young age before graduating to hip-hop production and writing rhymes, but those early essentials have stayed close to The Brain as he’s continued to develop his unconventional, spasmodic flow. Now at the turn of a decade, The Brain is cued up to release his debut solo album, The Epidemic, on April 20th, produced entirely by longtime SubKult collaborator Ruler Why. The rhymes are remarkable, the references are extraterrestrial, and the beats are so fresh you’ll get stuff like the Gregorian chants on “So They Say” stuck in your head again and again.

TV Temple: “I’m Not Like That”

Developing a new style isn’t as simple as changing the channel, but drummer Emma Berrigan and guitarist Ben Root clearly had something figured out when they repurposed their co-op’s DIY home theater, the TV Temple, into an ad-hoc rehearsal space. The Austin duo’s indie-adjacent sound has only prospered since 2018, evolving from an ambitious eight-track of demos into the polished product that Root and Berrigan (who share both vocal and songwriting duties) have deemed, “beach-alt”.

A heady balance between upbeat and breezy, TV Temple premiered their sandy psychedelia last Sunday with their first fully-fleshed out studio single, “I’m Not Like That”. The tide is high for beach-alt, and today’s newly-released video for “I’m Not Like That” is sure to make some big waves for your Wednesday.