Bridge Farmers Pull Their Cosmic Trigger

Vinyl color variants in metal prompt colorful descriptions. Bridge Farmers' third LP Cosmic Trigger comes in creamy purple. Say ... violet séance, or lavender smoke!

"Haha, you're right," drummer Kyle Rice, who laid out the new orchid stomper, messages via Instagram. "Some metalcore band has Seafood Allergy-colored vinyl. I dig on 'Lavender Smoke,' personally."

Produced by the Austin fourpiece – Rice, bassist Garett Carr, guitarist Pete Brown, and bandleader Tyler Hautala – and mastered by the Tad Doyle, Cosmic Trigger fires universal doom. Voidless coagulation to astral ascension, Bridge Farmers' earthen grandeur forges a crushing inevitability that plunges down, down, down into Hautala's anguished vocal exorcism, like side-A leveler "Street Needles."

"[That's] a difficult song to explain because it involves the pain of mental illness and the propensity to ease that pain with substance abuse," emails Hautala. "I wrote it for someone very close to me."

Pandemic pulled this Cosmic Trigger.

"We waited a year and a half for the vinyl," details the singer-songwriter/guitar fiend. "We could've released it digitally, but it was important to have it come out on vinyl so the sound and artwork could be experienced the way [we] intended. Life is too short for compromise."  – Raoul Hernandez

Sue Foley Live Recording

When Sue Foley moved back to Austin in 2018, she helped reignite the local blues scene behind her fiery LP The Ice Queen. Since then, she's captured two Blues Music Awards (including this year's Traditional Blues Female Artist) and, on the heels of last year's blistering, low-down Pinky's Blues, a double shot of Austin Music Awards for Best Guitarist and Best Blues. Foley's next album will capture the Telecaster master as she's best experienced: with two sets recorded live at the Continental Club. Tickets, $15, are only available at the door for both nights.  – Doug Freeman

Caelin EP Release

"Something that I really want people to know is that it's ok to feel," writes Austin-based singer-songwriter Caelin on her Bandcamp bio. Belting through heartbreak, the Bay Area native walks the talk in power ballad "look me in the eye," the latest of three tracks previewing her debut EP save me from me. Though Saturday night christens the tender compilation of heart-on-sleeve confessionals, its pre-release singles already flex her vocal range, including a spotlight on her spellbinding falsetto, which floats gently above light strums in "nobody's home." An unannounced lineup of guest artists joins to celebrate the occasion.  – Wayne Lim

Francis Favis & Friends

Not content to just serve the jazz community, Collin Shook's venue also showcases locals through the Classical Jam Presents series. In that vein, rising young vibraphonist Francis Favis hits the stage with fellow mallet wielders Ryan Patterson, Jordan Walsh, and Sam Wheeler for a program of classical percussion music. Drawing on both vintage and contemporary composers, the ensemble will perform pieces by Claude Debussy, Karlheinz Stockhausen, José G. Martínez, Susanna Hancock, and local cellist/composer Sophie Mathieu, Favis' colleague in Austin new music ensemble Less Than 10.  – Michael Toland

Obituary, Immolation, Blood Incantation, Ingrown

Here's some tea. Tech-death conceptualists Blood Incantation recently unleashed minor metal controversy when they shot off a stray, snooty interview diss at another (somewhat more popular) young band: Gatecreeper. Recent developments have rendered that comment – an ill-advised attempt to situate themselves as prodigious, conceptually serious death metal musicians, far away from the mosh-ready slammage practiced by their contemporaries – even goofier. Blood Incantation plays third on the bill underneath the mighty Obituary, who not only basically originated Gatecreeper's brand of righteously ignorant riffage (35 years ago), they've recorded podcasts together! Immolation and Ingrown round out the lineup.  – Julian Towers

Winona Forever, Eli Josef, Indoor Creature

Following a bright, shimmering South by Southwest debut earlier this year, Canadian jangle-pop quartet Winona Forever returns on the heels of their third LP, Acrobat, released in April. Recorded in a Montreal basement studio after a canceled tour, their lockdown project evokes beachside dreaminess, blending jazzy riffs and lo-fi production with a fresh dosage of keys-led songwriting. Expect a night of bobblehead tunes as the foursome sways between chiming, Mac DeMarco-esque fretwork and wistful lyricism. San Marcos-born indie rocker Eli Josef opens with equally scintillating riffage, while local indie-pop sixpiece Indoor Creature follows with jazz-influenced grooves.  – Wayne Lim

God Shell, Venus Twins, Blank Hellscape

This afterparty for night one of the Hot Luck foodie fest goes heavy and hard. Austin quartet God Shell blasts dark, downtuned, experimental metal with dual vocalists (one blackened, one deathly) and a penchant for deconstructing the genre's elements, as they executed brilliantly on glitchy 2022 EP Seven Trumpets. Meanwhile, just-bass-'n'-drums noisy punk imperfectionists Venus Twins are physically incapable of being boring with their frenetic theatricality and broken cymbal recklessness. Ahead of them, Blank Hellscape conjures a street sound of banging beats, distorted vocals, and headphone-shredding sonics after Rose Ceremony kicks off with heavy screamo.  – Kevin Curtin

Objekt, CCL

A bunch of goofy, made-up genre tags slapped onto the Bandcamp bios for Objekt and CCL mean both twist past stifling dance floor predictability with a bass music aficionado's flair. Take Objekt, the former band-drumming, Native Instruments-developing, almost-IDM-producing DJ born in Japan, raised in Belgium, and learned in the ways of audio tech. He can split an EP with Dopplereffekt, go respectably ambient, and swerve dancehall with swag to spare. Meanwhile, CCL sorts their rekordbox collection with playlist titles like "Big Bassline Cowgirl Breaks." Local support, Nick McDonnough and m. shogi, pull no punches.  – Christina Garcia

Music Notes

photo by John Anderson

Gina Chavez

The Latin Grammy nominee kicks off this year's Concert Club.

Larry June

Perennially chill Bay Area rhymer surely relishes the opportunity to perform at night after his hot 2pm slot at last year's ACL Fest. He tours off the heels of late March collaborative album, The Great Escape, created with timeless producer the Alchemist.

Dermot Kennedy

Irish pop singer-songwriter whose 2021 ACL Fest showing impressed with tracks built for collective reciting, like 2021 single "Better Days."

Hot Luck Fest Day 1

Following Long Play Lounge East's closure at the end of April, the replacement East Cesar Chavez venue begins its grand opening weekend as part of Hot Luck Fest with two tribute acts, Magnifico (Queen) and Think Lizzy (Thin Lizzy).