You've heard it once and you'll hear it again: 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 43.
To see the full series, go here. We've been highlighting local bands for a while around here!
- Contributed by Jacob Carter
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photo credit: Blondfather
Mockjaw, a jazz/fusion quartet composed of former UT Butler School of Music students, is keeping Austin’s jazz tradition alive. While you can find a handful of recordings of the group online (including on the recently released Happen Twice compilation), Mockjaw is a group best experienced live. Their particular blend of R&B and soul influences lay down an avenue for impressively technical solos from each member, and hearing it all in a dimly lit, smoke-filled room only adds to the experience.
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photo via instagram
Rapper/producer Southside Hippie makes up one-third of Austin’s DIE SLO hip-hop collective, whose motto “Stay humble, but stay hungry” is appropriate for any artist who calls Austin home. Soft instrumentation and laid-back, effortless flow bring to mind Southside Hippie’s namesake: the kind of musically-minded beatniks that helped give Austin its reputation as a haven for slackers.
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photo via instagram
“I’m so fucked I can’t sleep at night,” sings Masani Negloria, singer/bassist for Austin punk unit Pussy Gillette, on the opening track of 2023’s Permanent Trash. And while the theme of partying runs through the veins of much of Pussy Gillette’s brand of garage rock, Permanent Trash is more concerned with the roadblocks to creative expression that seem to be multiplying in Austin. Simply put: It’s hard to be a punk when you have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. Across 13 tracks, Negloria and songwriting partner Nathan Calhoun depict the parts of Austin that seem to be disappearing by the day, from sticker-plastered bathrooms to rain gutters sheltering a family of raccoons.
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photo credit: janelle abad
Growing up is an exercise in change, providing plenty of opportunity for doubt to creep in. Folk-rock/shoegaze outfit Proun grapples with this struggle and more on their latest EP, 2024’s podium. Lush, heavy shoegaze riffs balance out intimate vocal performances on songs like “Water From the Sink” where singer Jamie reminds us to “...live because you can” in the face of an uncertain future.
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Who should we feature next?
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