TCB

Illustration By Nathan Jensen

END OF THE WORLD: Released last week on local indie Tight Spot, This Microwave World's brash, jittery Red States is one of this year's better Austin albums and, sadly, probably the only one they'll ever make. "We were friends who became a band, not the other way around," says frontman Sean O'Neal (right), acknowledging the synth-charged fivepiece is no more. "Maybe it was the pressure of having to step up the business side of things, or everyone's frustration at the fact that things weren't happening as quickly as we'd hoped," continues O'Neal, "but when we went back into the studio to begin working on new material, that same camaraderie wasn't there." The band opted to end things rather than "deepen some wounds," but, notes O'Neal, "we went a lot farther than I ever dreamed we would."