retro pop

Jack Greenwood: “Four Walls”

Jack Greenwood’s new single is dance music for sad lads. On “Four Walls,” a song about feeling trapped, the Austin-by-way-of-Wisconsin singer and producer presents a fantastical escape, evoking the moodier side of the 80s synth. The opposing dichotomy works well here; what begins with sunny textures and a fun, melodic bass spirals into a manic descent right alongside Greenwood’s lyrics. But the spiraling is still a groove machine, taking the mania to its brink before its dizzying, synthy fizzling out. Yes, it will have you dancing with tears in your eyes.

Jack Greenwood performs with Clarence James at Stubb’s Indoors this Saturday and Antone’s Sunday, August 17th, with Clarence James and Chief Cleopatra.

The Who Told You EP is out in October.

Sydney Raneé: “Main Girl”

L.A. native Sydney Raneé is a tour de force. In the decade she’s been releasing music, her songs have been heard in several Lifetime movies and TV shows, including Tyler Perry’s Sistas, the Dynasty reboot, and MTV’s the Real World. She’s performed at the Daytime Emmys and has even garnered regular airplay in the UK.

Her new EP Main Girl is an energy-fueled display of her bubbly brand of retro pop and R&B. On the album’s title track, Raneé uses a deliberate drum machine sound and a polished pop hook to transport us back to the 80s– a top choice for any choreographed dance or roller skate routine then or now.

Blush Fantasy: “Dreamboat”

Over the last several years, Kenneth Frost has made his mark in the Austin underground scene with his band the Cuckoos, a group that blends classic rock sentiments with neo-psych and club beat attitude and punctuation. Now Frost is stepping into a new project, a six-piece outfit called Blush Fantasy. Blush Fantasy is like a fresh look back in time. The beats dance somewhere between the disco floor and 80’s clubs (much like Chromeo) until the power chords cut into to plant you a bit more in the 80’s, but now you’re in an entirely different club, still dancing, but not asking too many questions. You’re here for the ride! It’s a true celebration of all of Frost’s favorite influences. Even his vocals are like David-Bowie-meets-Michael Hutchence.

“Dreamboat” features Hey Cowboy’s Sydney Harding-Sloan joining Frost on the mic, setting the scene and creating an ethereal, fog-machine like mysticism. She is the mysterious dreamboat, and she will be seen and celebrated.

You can see Blush Fantasy tomorrow night, March 27th at Hotel Vegas, and this Saturday, March 29th on the indoor stage at Mohawk.

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 quite tangible plane of existence with the band Wabi Sabi and the Sweet Littles.

As the lore behind Wabi Sabi and the Sweet Littles goes, the band was born from a clever, inspirational gnome Hernandez met on a casual walk to the grocery store. Speaking on the tenants of the ancient Asian aesthetic and philosophy of wabi sabi, relating that art can be incomplete and impermanent. And in that way, Hernandez found freedom.

“Nile Walk” is a fun retro-pop tune full of little, weird gifts, like a flute bringing a flair of whimsy and animal sounds for that altered- Henson-like full effect. It’s weird, it’s fun, it’s joyful, exactly as intended.

“Nile Walk” is the debut track from Wabi Sabi and the Sweet Littles, out now.