J Walkin' and Other Teen Beats

Heidi Narum Hyatt didn’t really need to send me this video of 13-year-old Rose Hyatt singing in honor of her father Walter to inspire me to think further about teen bands. But here is darling Rose last February in Nashville, giving her best for a father she never got to know. Sure, Hyatt’s voice wavers around the mark more than once, but what you hear in it is more than just good genes: She’s already got style and personality to go along with what will obviously be fine vocals.

The notion of what makes a good performer was on my mind at the Austin BlastBeat finals on Saturday at Momo’s. Teen bands from around Austin competed via the quasi-record companies set up through local schools by BlastBeat, and the four winners competed for a $1,000 prize. Every one of those bands deserved the prize, and all for completely different reasons.

Rappers Team Next showed up sporting their retro style resplendently. They are all about choreography and attitude, and match it with irresistible beats and lyrics too catchy to miss. Young’un takes the lead because he’s so easy to watch but they’ve got a secret weapon in one of their six singers. His sweet tenor as he sang a ballad “to the ladies” melted my heart.

“Hey, where’d you go? I’m from the ‘hood! I’m from ’23!” Luis Soto razzed Team Next’s fans as they exited the front row. His quintet Hero to the Villain sported equal attitude, blasting Texas death metal through the amps at max volume. The mostly Latino lineup notably features Soto’s roaring vocals and Veronica Carrillo on drums, launched by a killer guitar army lead by Anthony Gilbert and Jonathan Garza with bassist Isaiah Perez.

The Cipher, a team of rappers with themes heavy on the social conscience, walked away with honors. Their earnestness and cool beats, T-Fly’s smooth delivery, and AROC’s sassy stepping gave a stylish appearance to the team’s already strong show. I don’t know the names of the young men as I do the young women in the group, but they carry in them muscular voices that rose above the rest.

Mother Falcon, however, absolutely made me swoon. Somewhere out there where the Decemberists meet the Alejandro Escovedo Orchestra and wave to Poi Dog Pondering comes this divine aggregation. That would be Westlake High School, for the moment, where this 12-piece band (who performed with only eight of their members) attend school. They cite Ravel and the Strokes among their influences, but unlike the other three groups excelling in established genres, Mother Falcon is braving unexplored baroque-pop territory.

Like Escovedo, it helps that lead singer Tamir Kalifa is handsome, charismatic, and sings as beautifully as he plays mandolin, accordion, or guitar. Claire Puckett provided lovely accompaniment, but Kalifa’s voice is so well-developed and soaring, the women accompanying him must match that power to be effective. Likewise, this is a band whose symphonic sensibilities require more practice, practice, practice. But if they do it and stick with the gorgeous vision they dangled in front of me, this band is the future of Austin music.