Credit: Photo by John Anderson

Ethan Azarian

Wyldwood Shows, Saturday 23 (outside, 5pm)
On the Fringe Album Release

Ethan Azarian is an Austin icon and iconoclast. His music, like his artwork, fills with a sense of wonder and possibility, raw and vulnerable, but beautifully surreal. As leader of the Orange Mothers in the 1990s, Azarian’s pop style could be joyous and provoking, and his subsequent solo work unfolds with a lo-fi pop and folk reveling in lyrics both bizarre and poignant.

Azarian’s latest LP, On the Fringe, spins a journey both reflective and cosmically adventurous. Marked with Azarian’s familiarly quirky lyrical visions and offbeat winding melodies, the album celebrates his outsider artistic style while also marking one the best recordings of his career.

“I feel like I’ve always been on the fringe, and that’s not like ‘poor Ethan.’ I’m thankful,” Azarian notes. “I’m still playing music and it’s a real therapy for me. It’s good for me and I know I need to make a noise. But also the fringe is the idea of the planet as a whole, that we’re out here on the fringe. We’re not the center. I’m on the fringe, but we’re all on the fringe.”

Will Courtney’s production fills the album with a much more lush pop sound behind Azarian’s nasal croon and the atmospheric support from longtime collaborators Lindsey Verrill and Jeff Johnston of Little Mazarn, who open his outdoor house show Saturday night at the Wyldwood in South Austin.

“I’m right where I should be,” Azarian adds. “Because I’m older now, and I’ve spent so much time doing both, I feel accomplished and pretty happy about what I’m doing musically and artistically. And that’s pretty awesome.” – Doug Freeman

Soccer Mommy, Alexalone

Emo’s, Friday 22

Playing Bernie Sanders rallies and preparing for tour, life was inexplicably different when Sophie Allison released her second Soccer Mommy LP in February 2020. Twenty months later, the singer-songwriter finally performs songs from color theory, a gentle but brazen traversal through personal crisis. Pairing unflinching ugliness with soft sonics, she sings lovingly of her terminally ill mother in the lush “yellow is the color of her eyes” and tears herself apart in the stark “royal screw up.” While decidedly louder, Austin openers Alexalone harness a similar softness at their center, a plus for knowing fans and unassuming reverb lovers alike. – Carys Anderson


OUTlaw Pride Fest

Rustic Tap, Saturday 23

Hard-fought expanded inclusiveness in country and Americana music have opened the genres to new artists and audiences. Austin’s first annual queer country music fest now celebrates the rich history and vibrant future of LGBTQIA songwriters. Lavender Country paved the way in the Seventies for today’s OUTlaws, including the torching power of Jaime Wyatt’s Neon Cross and poignant East Tennessee crooner Adeem the Artist’s Cast-Iron Pansexual. Buffalo Gals and Devin Jake bring the local Appalachian-hitched twang while Julie Nolen kicks Texas-hardened “Piss and Vinegar.” Emily Herring, Alden Hedges, Jett Holden, and duo Hardened & Tempered round out the benefit for Out Youth. – Doug Freeman

Fuckemos

Lost Well, Saturday 23

I’ve been holding out on using the popular pandemic phrase “life returning to normal” until Las Cazuelas reopens their salsa bar and Fuckemos play a show. While I still can’t ladle nine kinds of hot sauce on my tacos, mouths water over the return of Austin’s sludge punk miscreants. Spawned in 1992 when Russell Porter puked into the cultural petri dish of punk, noise rock, and metal, Fuckemos took not giving a fuck to new heights with their absurd lyrics, depraved vibes, and pitch-shifted vocal belch. Prom punk offering “Do You Wanna Dance?” and fist-pumper “Ed the Creep” remain sing-alongs for twisted locals three decades on. The gravestone stompin’ hard rock of Sabbath Crow and delinquent country drinking songs of Dirty Charley Band set the stage. – Kevin Curtin


Playboi Carti

H-E-B Center, Tuesday 26

Playboi Carti: an enigmatic talisman for a large coalition of rabid ragers. The Atlanta rapper at times shapes his verses in a way that sounds like the Microsoft Office font Wingdings over banging, hypnotic instrumentals. Long-awaited second studio album Whole Lotta Red saw the 25-year-old reach new levels of darkness. Take “Vamp Anthem” for example, with its bewitching chemical mixture of Bach Halloween favorite “Toccata and Fugue in D minor” and explosive drums. Week one of the Narcissist tour saw eager fans literally breaking down a venue’s door. – Derek Udensi


Dr. James Polk & Centerpeace

Monks Jazz Club, Tuesday 26

If there’s an Austin jazz musician who needs no introduction, it’s Dr. James Polk. Outside of playing with Lionel Hampton, Hank Crawford, and Ray Charles, among others, he also led James Polk & the Brothers in 1959, inaugurating one of our town’s first integrated bands. He’s since kept ATX jazz alive with James Polk & Company, JAMAD Sextet, Church on Monday, Dr. James Polk Academy of Arts & Technology and, of course, Centerpeace, featuring a three-horn front line that swings like nobody’s business. Part of Monks’ weekly benefits for Project Safety Net, the show will also be streamed on YouTube. – Michael Toland

This article appears in October 22 • 2021.

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Doug Freeman has been writing for the Austin Chronicle since 2007, covering the arts and music scene in the city. He is originally from Virginia and earned his Masters Degree from the University of Texas. He is also co-editor of The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology, published by UT Press.

Carys Anderson moved from Nowhere, DFW to Austin in 2017 to study journalism at the University of Texas. She began writing for The Austin Chronicle in 2021 and joined its full-time staff in 2023, where she covers music and culture.

As the Chronicle's Club Listings Editor, Derek compiles a weekly list of music events occurring across town. The University of Texas alum also writes about hip-hop as a contributor to the Music section.

Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.