The Rumble: Austin

 
The June edition of our free, monthly local show is going down at Beerland tonight. On tap for this one is a great lineup that includes the Asteroid Shop, Bali Yaaah, and The Ghost Wolves. Come out and join us for some free, live, local music on Red River tonight. Doors are at 9pm. To find out more about the bands or simply get more info on The Rumble: Austin, click over to Facebook or therumbletour.com.

THE RUMBLE: AUSTIN @ BEERLAND - JULY 13TH - FREE!

Featuring Asteroid Shop, Bali Yaaah & The Ghost Wolves!!

THE ASTEROID SHOP

Ambient alternative Austin style, led by Eric Brendo, THE ASTEROID SHOP draws from Brendo's experience as the co-founder of Downtown. This local quartet are gearing up for the October 2011 release of their self-titled debut, which showcases their Spiritualized meets MBV sound with tracks like "Dandelion" and "Ashes."

http://www.theasteroidshop​.com/

BALI YAAAH

 
Swirly 60's psych mixed with classic 80's synth pop that some describe as the love child of Depeche Mode and Velvet Underground, BALI YAAAH fuse fuzzy organs and drum machines with with echoey vocals to develop their dark and seductive new wave influenced pop ala Ariel Pink. These guys just released their debut EP, Never Early Always last month and have opened for Wild Nothing and Abe Vigoda.

"The result is a seductive, agitated and strangely danceable sound, which you can imagine sifting through in a dark, crowded room filled with fog machines in some god-foresaken locale." - The Austinist

http://baliyaaah.bandcamp.​com/

THE GHOST WOLVES

 
This duo comprised of Carley Wolf and Jonathan Konya, are prepping to drop their debut release this summer and harness the moody blues with a tough rock edge ala The Black Keys and The White Stripes. Imagine Detla spook blues mixed with thrashing 60's garage riffs and tinges of glam rock, that fans are calling a "blues/rock explosion."

"Haunting and daunting, Ghost Wolves is a band devoid of time. The two man wrecking crew looks and sounds just as in place today as they would have fifty years ago..." - Austin Music Weekly

http://www.theghostwolves.​com/

THE RUMBLE AUSTIN is brought to you by FUTURE SOUNDS, WATERLOO RECORDS, THE ONION AV CLUB, THE AUSTINST, AUSTIN TOWN HALL, SONIC ITCH MUSIC, COVERT CURIOSITY, AUSTIN MUSIC WEEKLY, PABST BLUE RIBBON and EVENTBRITE.

Video: True Widow

Following up on my previous post about True Widow, here is the first video from their second album As High As The Highest Heavens And From The Center To The Circumference Of The Earth. The video was directed by Mats Ek.

• True Widow - "Skull Eyes"
• http://www.facebook.com/truewidow

From Kemado Records:

Over the past two decades, we’ve been bombarded with grunge, with shoegaze, with sludge, with doom metal, with post-rock, with slow-core, with all these examples of loud rock music that reach towards one extreme or another, the sole intent of which seems to be to bludgeon the listener into accepting what they conceive to be a “total sound,” one which makes their effort more valid than the others around it, and by association, worthy of your reverence.

Dallas, TX trio True Widow plays against type. Listen closely to their new double album As High As the Highest Heavens and From the Center to the Circumference of the Earth and you’ll notice something rare: a band that plays to the notions of the genres mentioned above, one which embodies the best characteristics of each but never repeats something that’s been done.

Sundress

A good friend tipped me off to the Denton-based band Sundress last week. I got my hands on their debut EP, which is due to be released next month, and I've listened to it every day since. The progression unsuspecting listener to bona fide Sundress fan from went something like this:

first listen: Yeah, this sounds okay.
second listen: Man, this band kind of jams.
third listen: I really dig this. What the hell was I thinking on first listen?
fourth listen: I should probably stop listening long enough to blog about this.

Sundress formed in Denton in 2010. The band is comprised of lead singer and guitarist Ryan McAdams, bassist Drew McCary, and guitarist Kennon Talley, with Jim Harrington on keys and Brack Cantrell on drums. Their new 6-song EP shows some range by leading off with a bit of folk and pop, but the crux is when those soaring guitars pop up and the band unveils their affection for the psychedelic, space rock, and shoegaze. Sundress possesses a big sound influenced by the likes of Slowdive, Pink Floyd, and Sparklehorse, with maybe just a touch of Primal Scream here and there. Rough Trade likened it to a "blissed out Spiritualized or a spaced out Radiohead."

Here's one from the new EP, available August 16, 2011:

• Sundress - "Sailor's Vision"

Since their inception, Sundress has made appearances at a number of Texas festivals, including SXSW, Free Press Summer Fest in Houston, and NX35 in Denton. The band was nominated for a Dallas Observer Music Award for Best New Band, and has opened for the likes of Washed Out, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Mister Heavenly, Tame Impala, Sleepy Sun and many more. Keep an eye on them at the links below:

• http://sundressnation.com/
• twitter.com/sundressnation
• facebook.com/sundressnation