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All Chronicle blogs, all the time
Politics, opinion, and other news staples
The scene turned inside art
Getting in bed with books
Come on in the kitchen
Sizing up screens big and small
Your base on balls
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Steer here, queers
Welcome to the new Chronicle blogs! Stay tuned all this week as we roll out exciting new blog features.
The Next Episode
on ChronCast: free audio news and streams from the Chronicle
MP3: Sweet Tea, “If I Were a Carpenter”
Austin Powell
Tue Jul 7, 11:34am
Tags: Audio
As mentioned in OTR back in June, Sweet Tea, the old-fashioned, cosmic country side-project from the Black Angels’ Alex Maas and Heartless Bastards' Erika Wennerstrom, debuted during the Bastards’ Austin City Limits taping. The group’s debut single, a cover of Tim Hardin’s “If I Were a Carpenter,” modeled after the classic June and Johnny Cash duet, drops digitally from Fat Possum later this month, along with a retread of Ray Price’s “Crazy Arms.” A limited edition 7-inch on white vinyl is scheduled to follow in early September.
Videos: Brazos & Leatherbag
Austin Powell
Tue Jun 30, 3:30pm
Studio 6A in the communications building at the University of Texas, the site for Austin City Limits, is hands down the best place in town to catch a show, if you’re lucky enough to get through the doors. Several esteemed locals have now gotten a shot on the big stage thanks to ACL’s Stage Left, and the results thus far are expectedly impeccable. Simply put, no other music-based web series can match ACL’s production, lighting, and sound quality. Here are two fine examples, Brazos’ solo retread of “Mary Jo” and Leatherbag’s “On Down the Line.”
Video: White Denim “I Start to Run”
Austin Powell
Mon Jun 15, 2:34pm
White Denim just released their funktastic new single,“I Start to Run,” from sophomore outing, Fits, which drops via Full Time Hobby in the UK on June 22. While there's still no word on a stateside release for the album, the local trio has been playing this one live for as long as OTR can remember, and this equally epic video should help tide you over for a while. White Denim departs for a three-week European vacation later this month.
Video: Pack of Wolves “Concession”
Austin Powell
Thu Jun 11, 3:38pm
Tags: Video
Alongside Lions of Tsavo, Pack of Wolves reigns supreme over Austin’s modern metal landscape. This video for “Concession” from the quartet’s latest Betrayer (Arclight) seems to capture the band in its natural element. Serious props to whoever designed the set. The local quartet fires up the pit for GFF III at Red 7 on Friday, June 19, alongside Lair of the Minotaur and locals Mammoth Grinder, Broadcast Sea, and Fight Pretty.
Video: Loxsly “As the Constellation’s Arms Uncurled”
Austin Powell
Wed Jun 10, 5:22pm
Not only is Loxsly’s new album, Tomorrow's Fossils, a pretty remarkable concept album, but the local quartet pretty much walks you through the cinematic storyboard in this impressive video for “As the Constellation’s Arms Uncurled.” Loxsly comes alive at Club de Ville on Saturday with Deleted Scenes and Austin's La Snacks.
MP3: Followed By Static “AADC”
Austin Powell
Wed Jun 3, 4:36pm
Tags: Audio
Followed By Static is getting ready to press its debut 7-inch single, to be released later this month by Rare Dust Records, the Austin-based label behind the Strange Attractors and Koreans. By way of introduction, the local duo offers up the b-side “AADC,” a dark, heavy-psych missive that credits the Golden Boys’ John Wesley Coleman III “on howls and hollers.” A release party is slated for Wednesday, June 17, at Mohawk with the Golden Boys, Black Shirts, and Baltimore Harbor.
Video: Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears “I'm Broke”
Austin Powell
Wed Jun 3, 4:28pm
The hardest working man in the seafood business, Austin's Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears has had one hell of a year thus far thanks to the release of group's soulful Lost Highway debut, Tell 'Em What Your Name Is . Black Joe Lewis is currently on 20-date tour with the New York Dolls, including a stop at Emo's on Saturday. Here's the video “I'm Broke,” which was directed by Daniel Gibbs and nods equally to Stevie Wonders' Songs in the Key of Life and Seventies spy flicks.
Tribute to Townes
Austin Powell
Thu May 21, 10:04pm
As mentioned this week in Off the Record, Steve Earle delivered a powerful in-store performance at Waterloo Records on Monday, rattling off stories and songs from what he called "the migratory path" of Townes Van Zandt. This footage from the Chronicle's Richard Whittaker is a bit rough, but it should tide you over until Earle returns to the Paramount on June 19.
MP3: Robert Harrison "Build Havanna"
Austin Powell
Thu May 21, 2:51pm
Robert Harrison of Future Clouds & Radar played before his largest audience ever last Tuesday, roughly 4.57 million. Filling a role that was originally written for the Kinks’ Ray Davies, the local songsmith performed a stripped-down revision of “Build Havana” as part of a music-themed episode of ABC’s Cupid, a new romantic comedy from Veronica Mars creator and former Austinite Rob Thomas.
Video: The 54 Reality Show
Austin Powell
Wed May 20, 1:58pm
Crew54 can be difficult to keep up with or keep tabs on. That's why the Next Episode is making this installment of the 54 Reality Show a double feature. In what hopefully won't become an endless cycle, last week the Killen-based duo showed some love to Off the Record for their recent shout-out, then catch Bavu Blakes & the Extra Plairs with Grupo Fantasma at Antone's.
MP3: Lions “Girl from the North Country”
Austin Powell
Mon May 18, 11:36am
Who knew that Lions had a softer side? The local metallurgists recently recorded a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” for the new FX series Sons of Anarchy, and it sounds more like Band of Horses than the familiar Red River raunch Lions are known for. The band has retreated to its den for pre-production for the follow-up to No Generation
and hit Emo's on June 12. If you haven't already, check out this video of Lions shredding to Guitar Hero 3.
Video: Monahans “It's Enough To Leave You...”
Austin Powell
Fri May 15, 12:20pm
Tags: Video
Just in time for the Monahans’ show tonight with Centro-matic and Future Clouds & Radar at the Parish, the local quintet has released this memorable slide-show video for “It's Enough To Leave You...,” the standout single from the Monahans’ forthcoming Misra debut, Dim the Aurora. “There’s still a lot of space and some instrumentals,” frontman Greg Vanderpool says of the album, “but there’s definitely some rock songs on it that sets it apart from Low Pining.” See for yourself.
MP3: The Strange Boys “Untitled 2”
Austin Powell
Fri May 15, 11:44am
Tags: Audio
"This place feels like home," Daytrotter.com founder Sean Moeller told OTR back in March, surveying the recently remodeled Big Orange studio on Austin's Eastside. "It's a bit rough around all the right edges."
Video: Wine & Revolution “Trees”
Austin Powell
Wed May 13, 3:34pm
Tags: Video
Wine & Revolution’s Edward the Magnificent still stands as one of the better local debuts of the year. The local quartet released this video for “Trees,” which was shot on VHS, Hi-8, and Mini-DV by locals Gorilla Apparatus and comes across like a poorly attended house party. Following a recent east coast tour, Wine & Revolution play Club de Ville on Friday, May 15, alongside the dead meadow drone of Austin’s Smoke & Feathers.
MP3: Vega “No Reasons”
Austin Powell
Fri May 8, 4:38pm
Tags: Audio
Vega certainly knows how to strike while the iron's hot. Fresh off his recent snafu with Crystal Castles, discussed a few weeks back in Off the Record, the local "dreamwaver" has dropped this slick cut from his forthcoming album, Well Known Pleasures.
Video: The 54 Reality Show
Austin Powell
Thu May 7, 2:37pm
As discussed this week in Off the Record, the Chronicle is jumping on board with Crew54's notorious 54 Reality Show, the Killeen-based duo's weekly web series. In this episode, Crew54 catches up with Diasporic and hits the Creekside Lounge with the MSG Crew.
MP3: Leatherbag “Wagon Wheel”
Austin Powell
Wed Apr 29, 5:40pm
Randy Reynolds, the prolific songsmith behind Leatherbag, swung by the Chronicle earlier this week to hand-deliver his latest EP, Everything I Once Knew. “Wagon Wheel,” the closing song, is a bristling melding of Leatherbag’s piano pop and classic AM guitar rock that ranks with his finest work to date. Reynolds also guaranteed that his band was going to bring the heat for his ACL Stage Left taping on Thursday, April 30. RSVP for the event here.
MP3: White Denim “Mirrored And Reverse”
Austin Powell
Wed Apr 29, 5:33pm
White Denim has another sea change in store for Fits, the follow-up to the local trio’s ecstatic debut, Exposion. “Eighty percent of the record is a pretty heavy classic rock sound,” James Petralli told OTR before SXSW. “There’s also early Seventies Funkadelic feel. The Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain and the Pretty Things’ S.F. Sorrow were sounds that we were chasing.”
Video: Diagonals “Clones”
Austin Powell
Wed Apr 29, 5:27pm
Tags: Audio
The Chronicle deemed Diagonals’ debut Valley of the Cyclops (Monofonus Press) “Stoned, organ-ground local psych pop with a sense of humor.” Add a few blow-up dolls to the equation and that pretty much sums up the band’s video for “Clones.”
MP3: Voxtrot “Trepanation Party”
Austin Powell
Wed Apr 29, 5:18pm
The last time OTR checked in with Voxtrot a little more than a year ago, the local indie pop outfit had recently logged some time with producer Erik Wofford. Much has changed since then, including the departure of multi-instrumentalist Jared Van Fleet, but Voxtrot
recently released the result from that session as a free digital single. “Trepanation Party,” that certainly benefits from singer Ramesh Srivastava tenure in Berlin.
Video: Ume “The Conductor”
Austin Powell
Wed Apr 29, 5:08pm
Tags: Video
Much has been written about Ume's stage presence. This video for “The Conductor,” an obvious highlight from the trio’s molten Sunshower EP certainly captures the little hurricane that is guitarist Lauren Larson.
MP3: Loxsly “Battalions”
Austin Powell
Wed Apr 29, 5:00pm
As keyboardist/vocalist Cody Ground told OTR back in December , Loxsly’s new album, Tomorrow’s Fossils, is a loose concept album: “There's a scientist that experiments with parapsychology and builds a machine that lets him hear other people's thoughts, only it turns out to be this Frankenstein sort of thing. He ends up jumping into the ocean with cement shoes to remove himself from the world.” Here’s a sneak preview of the album’s centerpiece “Battalions.” Loxsly officially releases Tomorrow’s Fossils at Mohawk on May 15.
Video: The Sword with Lars Ulrich "Freya"
Austin Powell
Wed Apr 29, 4:50pm
Mere days before induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich sat in with the Sword for a rendition of “Freya” in Paris. Ulrich deemed the local Four Horsemen’s Gods of the Earth his favorite album of 2008 in the Dec. 25 issue of Rolling Stone: “I’m a product of British metal – Iron Maiden, Saxon, Angel Witch – and the Sword sound like the definitive new wave of British heave metal.” Take another ride with Ulrich and the Sword on the “Grohlercoaster” with drummer Trivett Wingo’s Chronicle tour diary from last year. Metallica’s Death Magnetic tour touches down in San Antonio at the AT&T Center on September 28.
MP3: Bill Callahan “Eid Ma Clack Shaw”
Austin Powell
Wed Apr 29, 3:55pm
The Chronicle has already weighed in on Bill Callahan’s stellar Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle, but if you haven’t had the chance to check it out, here’s a brief preview in the form of “Eid Ma Clack Shaw.”
Video: Balmorhea “Remembrance”
Austin Powell
Wed Apr 29, 2:18pm
Tags: Video
Balmorhea drew inspiration for its third album, All Is Wild, All Is Silent (Western Vinyl) from William B. Dewees’ Letters From an Early Settler of Texas to a Friend, published in 1852. This video for “Remembrance” certainly captures the more scenic and rustic qualities of the song, along with a bit of the West Texas mystique that permeates the album.
