From a hypnotic psych set from Flaming Lips spinoff Brainwasher to Total Wife’s test of eardrum-assaulting endurance, rock & roll ruled day three of South by Southwest Music. Still, we found pockets of sonic diversity across Austin, including Azamiah’s jazzy Scottish soul and BigXthaPlug’s half-country, half-rap Rolling Stone Future of Music closing performance. The afternoon’s AI in Music panel, meanwhile, proved to be a less fruitful endeavor.
Ethical AI in Music Panel Prompts More Questions Than Answers
In our current age ruled by genuine stupidity, maybe artificial intelligence can save us. The problem, as so many of our would-be LLM overlords have recently shown, is its ethical use, whether we’re talking about music or war. For the producers and AI researchers on the Ethical and Unethical AI in Music panel Saturday morning, the general vibe pushed very AI-forward, even as they acknowledged the problems with platforms like Suno that have allegedly wholesale scraped artists’ work. Instead, ethics to the panelists were really about just ensuring that artists and producers are paid if their work is used in training models or making a hit, and Lemonade co-founder Michael “MJ” Jacob happily positioned his platform as the ethical standard. Producers KXVI and Kato on the Track both discussed how they’ve incorporated AI into their workflows, and were mostly unconcerned about their beats being repurposed. “Perfect music is boring,” offered Kato. “It’s the flaws and vulnerabilities that make it appealing to me as a producer.” Yet as AI makes the work of creation easier – or even automated – the producers leaned into their perspective that taste and artistic decisions were irreplaceable and true artists will differentiate themselves. “It’s about what you bring to the table as a musician or producer,” argued KXVI. Human artistry may become about out-weirding the algorithm, even if standard Top 40 radio becomes ruled by the tech bros. – Doug Freeman
Shallowater and Victoryland Aim for the SXSW Breakout
The Winspear and Vertigo Vinyl day party at Cheer Up Charlies Saturday packed 12 bands across their two stages, but the closing sets from Shallowater and Victoryland awarded those who waited out the full day. Susannah Joffe provided the early afternoon highlight on the outside grotto stage, with the Austin native returning home from NYC pitched for dramatic flair and bigger stages behind her burgeoning success. Draped in a burgundy, bustled dress, Joffe boiled powerful pop swells like “Your Mother’s Name” and “Die Your Daughter.” In contrast with the largely indie rock- and pop-layered lineup, Shallowater surprised with a pensive, heavy-laden set. The Lubbock-originated trio unraveled their self-described dirtgaze across only four songs, but enough to mesmerize the late afternoon crowd. Tristan Kelly’s bass rumbled and frontman Blake Skipper’s West Texas drawl methodically lingered like Jay Farrar fronting Bedhead on the winding “Sadie.” Headliner Victoryland likewise made the most of their 30-minute slot in the breakout-worthy showing. The Brooklyn sixpiece hinged on Julian McCamman’s frantic energy as they launched the scattered blast of “Let Down” and the LCD Soundsystem dance punk of “I got god.” Victoryland’s sound is shot through with pieces of indie influences, from Car Seat Headrest to MJ Lenderman to Conor Oberst’s agitated, quaking vocals, but McCamman brews them into his own existential tonic. – Doug Freeman
Brainwasher Hypnotizes Through Repetition, Apathy
Flaming Lips’ drummer Matthew Duckworth Kirksey and bassist Tommy McKenzie are taking on a new life as Brainwasher, a psychedelic duo performing with Ableton Live as their third bandmate. If repetitive hypnosis is as central to brainwashing as it’s perceived to be, the new project is well on its way to living up to its name. On recorded tracks like “Burning Cars,” a pulsing energy underlies Kirksey’s falsetto-blending, New Wave-inspired vocalizations. The pair’s space age techno rock spans electronica-centered sonic planes and plays on familiar auditory tricks. Onstage at Swan Dive, with Kirksey in an orange wig and McKenzie hiding behind a swath of bangs, the Oklahoma City-based pair floundered in terms of presence. Behind minimalist instrumental setups, the pair proficiently relayed complex loops in a hallucinatory legacy, building to a trance-like melody befitting of the psychedelic light show swirling vaguely around them. The elaborate theatrics of the Flaming Lips are clearly not a priority for this new musical iteration, but the duo have yet to find a visual and physical presence that encapsulates their low-energy, abstract genre contortions of contemporary techno trends and classic psychedelic iterations. – Caroline Drew
Horsepower’s Indie Rock Edge
At Central Presbyterian Church, garage-tinged indie rock outfit Horsepower brought a wave of electric distortion to a SXSW stage more accustomed to hymns. Debut single/set opener “Are you blushing?” launched the restraint-release performance, as singer-songwriter Charlotte Weinman and her band shifted between airy atmospherics and loud crash-ins. A mid-set run of “Force Quit” marked a noticeable sonic shift, leaning into thicker riffs and a heavier wash of fuzz-drenched reverb. Weinman fell to her knees during the cut’s abrasive crescendo, repeatedly screaming before the song dissolved into a gentle, metallic close. “Coins” allowed Weinman’s vocals to sit at the center of the live mix, carrying the song with clarity and conviction as she sang “Like paper to coins/ You’re changing me.” Closing with “The ring,” Horsepower left the church humming with the aftershock of their feedback-laced set. It was a brief but bracing preview of the New York act’s restless guitar rock. – Miranda Garza
OOZ Saves the Day
Even with the Music festival totally realigned, SX Saturday night still proved largely a wash: A Chinese band dropped due no doubt to visa issues, a UK front-punk lost her voice, the know- better venue running at least one act behind – sorry, Grace Sorensen. That is, until OOZ (say as if it ended in “e”) went from a whisper to a scream. Out back of Swan Dive, on its perennial all-star festival patio (looking at you, Fontaines D.C.), the whole bill bust out a fest within a fest, with few proving as satisfyingly combustible as this Canadian hardcore art-noise collective. At first, the Toronto quintet followed “Emmy-winning foley artist” Brandon Bak, who burst staccato verbal riffage between post-punk power chords. An instant mosh prompted flashbacks to SX breakouts Yonatan Gat, especially given Bak’s copious curls. He then switched places with the nondescript keyboardist – Sam Maloney from preceding kickers Kali Horse – who took the mic and brought down such savage THC (Toronto hardcore) that it felt like an actual act of vengeance. Screams, spasms, gargantuan stomp, OOZ devolved into noise and feedback behind Maloney in a brown hoodie taken up by a Lone Star. Levitation, jot down that name: OOZ. By the end of their 30 minutes, Butthole Surfers extract ran in the gutters off Red River. – Raoul Hernandez
Azamiah Brings Jazzy Scottish Soul to Zilker Brewing Company
It’s no easy thing to be sparse and lush at the same time – the two approaches would logically cancel each other out. But Glaswegian foursome Azamiah managed it through smart arrangements and expert musicianship. Though fielding a minimal setup, the group had the skill to fill out their jazzy soul-pop with the right moves at just the right time. Bassist Norman Villeroux bore a six-string instrument, allowing him to both hold down a groove and add slinky fills on top of it. Josef Akin’s piano chords added harmonic colors beyond the root, and drummer Alex Palmer, like a good jazz rhythm keeper, knew how to use his cymbals to fill the air with sound around the beat. The musicians gave reverb-frosted singer India Blue the perfect foundation for a blue-eyed soul voice that delivered tales of romance both good and bad. “River Native” swirled around a classic tight-but-loose arrangement, “My Lonely Heart” made melancholy sexy, and “Intermission” – from a forthcoming album on hip British jazz label Edition – stretched into a slow jamming showstopper. Azamiah’s sonic wave proved seductive enough to bring the crowd to the front of the room, and let them bathe in the band’s earthy, soulful atmosphere. – Michael Toland
Good English Knows Good Alternative
With a 250-person cap, glimpsing any performance at the automatically packed Chess Club feels like being let in on a secret. The thing is, you usually are. Checkmate for 2025-launched New York label Good English Records, which showcased acts both legally affiliated with, and sonically analogous to, its roster throughout the evening. Armed only with a drum machine and a looper pedal, Nashville guitarist Melaina Kol made the most of the intimate atmosphere: no better place to watch a solo artist pull melodies out of thin air. Total Wife surged in the other decibel direction, capping cuts from last year’s melodic, Swirlies-indebted come back down with a 12-minute noise drone. Audience members made it about halfway through the quintet’s ballsy battering – one chord, downstroked, the whole time – before fleeing for the patio. Later on, Sonic Youth devotees bloodsports and buzzy Brooklyn project Victoryland, the two acts on the bill actually signed to Good English, wrapped with requisite post-punk flair. Yet Lafayette’s Cashier hit the heaviest. Saturday night marked set seven of 16(!) at SXSW for the pop-punk quartet, and they as such showed up tight and poised, unleashing the six songs from brand-new EP The Weight with beefy, hooky ease. Rock & roll is alive and well in clubs and labels like these. – Carys Anderson
TTSSFU Comes Out of the Bedroom
Manchester-based Tasmin Nicole Stephens’ loop-based bedroom rock compositions can carry the sleepy sheen of shoegaze and the simple aural mysticism of dream pop, but when the guitarist and songwriter stepped onstage in front of three skinny tie-adorned, messy-haired blokes at the British Music Embassy, she was well-prepared to reveal her compositions’ heavier, dynamic side. From the first eerie notes of “Sick,” Stephens wielded her wide-ranging vocals with emotional tenor, lilting into plaintive, discordant harmonies with her bassist for the chorus and spilling into haunting falsetto wanderings as the song’s outro grew in frustrated potency, developing a full-throated, beyond-the-bedroom insistence that the audience quickly latched onto. Whatever subdued tones are found in her recorded songwriting became unrestricted spectral rhythms in the full band performance, drawing out the scheming buildup of songs like “Call U Back” and putting Stephens’ vocal range to the test, from steady chest voice to breathy innuendo to frenetic scream. “I know it’s a showcase, but you can still get a boogie on, get a twerk in if you want,” she offered in the middle of the 30-minute set. Twerking might’ve been a stretch, but a casually swirling mosh pit aptly capped the set as Stephens and crew dissolved lo-fi production into rock reality. – Caroline Drew
Boutique Feelings Feels Itself Out
Less than four months after the release of his debut EP Shwaya, Shwaya, the brand-new Karim Lakhdar project is already taking shape on the road. Lakhdar is touring the songs with help from his longtime collaborators in Atsuko Chiba – the band he co-founded and will also perform with during this year’s festival – along with flautist Vanessa Ascher. Together, Boutique Feelings did well at translating Lakhdar’s sometimes deeply experimental work into digestible live songs. In front of spiraling lights projected onto curtains behind them, the artists served up their own brand of psychedelic West Coast rap, backed by Anthony Piazza’s laid-back, body-vibrating drum beats and fronted by Lakhdar’s sharp, determined rapping. The MC showed off his chops in set opener “Kind to Be Kind,” and Ascher got a chance to rip a flute solo on the unreleased “If You Were Me,” where Piazza switched to the bongos and Lakhdar rapped over a trap beat. The anti-genocide anthem “Peace Won’t Keep: Liberation” gave the crowd a chance to headbang, and the atmospheric “0 Goes” slowed things down with melodic synths and vocals. Boutique Feelings didn’t burn the house down, but the new solo project shows off its founder’s ever-growing potential. – Joseph Gonzalez
“The Biggest, the Largest” BigXthaPlug Performs With His Smallest Superfan
BigXthaPlug can excite thousands with a single ad-lib, which made his 2025 full-length I Hope You’re Happy all the more disappointing because country music stars’ hooks outshined his heartbreak-filled verses. For the first half of the Dallas rapper’s Rolling Stone Future of Music showcase finale, more of that trend continued when he ceded the spotlight to loud backing tracks, signees to his 600 ENT record label, and cuts from IHYH. Energy shifted during a basic call-and-response centered around his trademark “AYE” ad-lib before he removed his shirt in sync with the drop of “Leave Me Alone.” From there, he almost exclusively performed tracks from his first two albums. He felt the amped crowd’s affection: “I ain’t done a show in Texas in what feels so motherfuckin’ long…this feels like a homecoming.” Known for his booming, distinct voice and saucy flow enriching boasts like “Let’s be real, Stevie Wonder could see that I’m havin’ this shit” (“Whip It”), the 27-year-old’s joyous charm guided him through the rest of his set. An adorable young fan named Braxton provided the evening’s highlight when he hopped onstage to successfully help perform the 56-minute set’s penultimate selection, “Texas.” Things started off lukewarm, but most seemed to leave satisfied. – Derek Udensi
The Strange Spectacle of Unsafe Space Garden
There’s a good chance most of the audience who attended Unsafe Space Garden’s 1am set at Valhalla thought they’d dreamt the whole thing up – and with good reason. There are many ways to describe the relatively new Portuguese group: death metal if LSD had never been criminalized, disco on mescaline, or music from the house band of a religious cult all come to mind. Wearing colorful, patchwork-style loose clothing and red face paint, the fivepiece fever dream alternated between spirited monologues and heavy metal breakdowns. Making their U.S. debut, the band opted for an all-English set, but it didn’t make things much more comprehensible. Much of their performance came from 2023 album WHERE’S THE GROUND, including standouts like “ISN’T THIS IDEAL” and “TREMENDOUS COMPREHENSION!,” whose lyrics deliver the band’s heavy-handed philosophy about coming together and realizing our common spiritual nature. The message isn’t unique, but the way Unsafe Space Garden packages it certainly is. They have a stop-and-start style, jumping from silence to complete chaos while prancing around the stage like an uninhibited child. The mosh pit that formed during the last song felt well deserved. “It’s surreal to be here,” the delightfully strange vocalist and keyboardist Alexandra Saldanha told the crowd. “This is very surreal!,” someone shouted back. – Joseph Gonzalez
