Austin is the Live Music Capital of the World.
Every single night of the week, all over town, Austin reverberates with the sweet sounds of local music. To highlight some of the great local acts you should support, we frequently share a list of five bands you need to hear. Welcome to Volume 30! To check out Volume 29, featuring Lou Rebecca, Mammoth Grinder, Blushing, and more, click here.
Contributed by Ryan Ricks
Photo Credit: Houston Press
Power pop operates in the sweet space between dirty and clean, between tough and gentle, between silly and cool. The power pop greats of the past—Big Star, Cheap Trick, The dB's—felt just left of the dial, too hip for the squares but too square for the hip kids. Roky Moon—formerly known as Roky Moon and Bolt!—upholds this tradition with fizzy garage tunes that straddle the line between camp and seriousness. "Creature of the night you are dancing on the grave that you were born in" Moon howls on "Creature of the Night," a song that constructs a parallel between graveyard monsters and ex-lovers. It's a silly but also serious moment, and one that feels quintessentially power pop. While Moon as a solo entity only has two singles under his belt, they're catchy and fun enough to have us excited for more.
Photo Credit: Ocote Soul Sounds Facebook
The story of how Ocote Soul Sounds came to be is an unlikely but magical tale, the kind of myth that music scholars and diehard fans spend careers and lifetimes trying to authenticate. Legend has it that Martin Perna, the founder of Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, embarked on a road trip to Mexico in 2004, only to have his car breakdown in Austin. While stranded, Adrian Quesada—a member of Grupo Fantasma—came upon Perna and provided him shelter and hospitality. The two began jamming and Ocote Soul Sounds was born. At this point, Ocote is four albums in, their rich, balmy Latin funk still as exciting and unpredictable as it was back in the mid aughts. In April 2016, the band released Taurus and Coconut Rock, a diptych flushed with washes of afro funk, cumbia, and light electronica. Both albums could be considered the Ocote Soul Sound's defining works. Fingers crossed for a new album soon.
"Ocote Soul Sounds is yet another identity: a downtempo blend of relaxed Latin grooves." - NPR
Photo Credit: Abhi the Nomad Facebook
Like his stage name suggests, Abhi the Nomad has certainly lived a peripatetic life. Originally from Madras, India, Abhi spent his childhood and young adult years moving from city to city, state to state, and even country to country as a result of his father's job. While traveling, Abhi began writing R&B-inspired hip-hop, stowing songs away in a journal until eventually touching down in Thousand Oaks, California where he began recording music as Abhi the Nomad. After releasing a few buzz-worthy singles through Spotify, Abhi signed with legendary Tommy Boy Entertainment (Ghostface Killah and Method Man), moved to France for a bit, released his debut LP Marbled, then made his way back to the States, settling down in Austin. Marbled is a balmy collection of hip-hop tunes teeming with acoustic guitars, synth stabs, and drum pads. There's a freshness and worldliness to Abhi rarely seen in Austin's rap scene, a precociousness brought on by his nomadism, surely. There's no telling how long Abhi will stay rooted in Austin so be sure to catch him soon.
- "Dynamic and exciting, [Abhi's] songs play with tempo, but they seem to just flow. - Atwood Magazine
Photo Credit:About BlackHat Chris
Self-described as a "departure from the traditional reggae songwriting intrinsic to Jamaican Dub," Grimy Styles celebrates disruption. Like a musically-inclined Dr. Frankenstein, the band assembles a monster from preexisting material, merging elements from surf, experimental, and even metal to create new life. But while the tempest of experimentation rages, dub prevails as the anchor that holds Grimy Styles intact. The familiar up-down tic of reggae and dub appears frequently throughout Disteria, the band's latest EP, even when they're shredding stoner metal riffs ("Haggis") and arranging histrionic prog ("Armenia.") Luckily, this chaos is more rewarding than exhausting, and, indeed, the joy of listening to Disteria lies in its unpredictable and surprising veers.
"In a departure from the traditional reggae songwriting intrinsic to Jamaican Dub, Grimy Styles draws inspiration from many artists spanning from Pink Floyd to Slayer and Astor Piazzola to U2." - Flamingo Cantina
Photo Credit: BBQT Facebook
The cover of BBQT's upcoming debut LP, Let's Go, is practically a catalog of 70's sleaze. Rose-tinted aviators? Check. Unzipped latex jacket? Check. Keith Richards hair? Check. The cover not only operates as a visual nod to an era of excess but it also serves as BBQT's calling card. This is a band unconcerned with notions of contemporary cool or critical awareness. They just want to rock, dammit. This unpretentious approach to songwriting drives much of BBQT's songbook, a fuzzy collection of roiling rock tunes that charm with their vintage earnestness. Songs like "Let's Go!" and "Play Rock N' Roll" read less like songs and more like imperatives from some sort of glam rock manifesto, thunderous percussion and chanting choruses abound. In March, BBQT provided a song for Classic Rock Magazine's monthly sampler, a move that feels wholeheartedly appropriate and downright awesome. Sure, it's retromania. But it's so much fun.
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