El Tule’s Album Release & Final Show

Double decades ago, when El Tule emerged from East Austin, any overarching sense of a homegrown Latin scene – like all popular music since this time last century – liquefied into our music capital’s genre melt. Ponty Bone, Rosie Flores, Alejandro Escovedo, Beto y Los Fairlanes, and Tomás Ramirez flourished, but with Grupo Fantasma’s millennial rise, a more alternative scene began to emerge. El Tule rattled and rolled with the best of them, a banging blend of South Texas Tex-Mex, Northern Mexico traditionalism, and Austonian psych. Bandleader John Dell’s cumbia crushers El Combo Oscuro flourished during the pandemic, but now he mothballs the mothership by notching 20 years with El Tule Live at Hotel Vegas, whose teaser “Tranquilo (En Vivo)” knocks back a shot of agave ATX. – Raoul Hernandez

Escuela Grind

Birthed in the bone-chilling frost of upstate New York, hardcore quartet Escuela Grind heats up Mohawk’s indoor stage with inclusive death metal. Promising “grinding deathviolence for the girls, the gays and the theys” via Instagram, the group’s recently released EP DDEEAATTHHMMEETTAALL combines brain-melting riffs with an all-are-welcome attitude. Standout track “Meat Magnet” boasts punishing percussion from Dallas-born drummer Jesse Fuentes, plus a guttural feature from Napalm Death vocalist/grindcore heavyweight Barney Greenway. Local hardcore troupe Slow Pulse draws from lightning-fast EP No Room for Goodbyes, while Boston-based blazers Bonginator blend sludgey thrash rock with a 420-friendly aesthetic. – Genevieve Wood

Lucinda Williams

There are worse things than death. Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir whispered that new belief to me. Individual existence doesn’t outweigh the whole. Lucinda Williams’ sweetly compact April 2023 tome reads like Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, burnished. Buzzed on poetry, prose, life, words roll over its pages until they’re shoreline smooth. Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart followed aurally in June, pumping cardiac roots recoil the same as pandemic tributes to Petty and the Stones, and the searing run of Good Souls Better Angels (2020), The Ghosts of Highway 20 (2016), and Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone (2014). Thanks Lu. Margaret says hey. – Raoul Hernandez

Creekbed Carter Hogan

Local bluegrass mastermind Creekbed Carter Hogan leads a jam-packed showbill in celebration of the debut offering from their upcoming sophomore LP, the artist’s first full-length since 2021. Known for tender, stripped-down ballads, artfully plucked chord progressions, and a 2023 book of short stories, Hogan dazzles audiences with cinematic storytelling and true-blue charisma. Fresh off a hot streak of singles, bubbling folk rock fourpiece Large Brush Collection opens alongside easy-on-the-ears jazz keyboardist/singer-songwriter KindKeith, who put out a live album in October, and New York-born indie act Leila Sunier. – Elizabeth Braaten

Hi, How Are You Day

In the afterword to his 2022 book of Fleet Foxes lyrics, Robin Pecknold advises young songwriters: “It’s okay to be insecure; in many ways insecurity works to your benefit […] Think about songs as questions to be answered.” The late Daniel Johnston’s most powerful question to be answered – “Hi, how are you?” – has catalyzed into a mission to destigmatize mental health. Pecknold headlines the seventh annual Hi, How Are You Day concert, strumming Fleet Foxes’ textured folk-rock solo, along with the emotionally packed evocations of Valerie June, who twines a world of doubt and determination in her stunningly distinct vocals. – Doug Freeman

Tony Campise Birthday Celebration

Before his untimely death in 2010, multi-reedist Tony Campise was one of Texas jazz’s biggest and brightest stars, well-versed in creamy, soulful balladry as much as hellbent-for-leather fireworks. Born in Houston, cutting his teeth in Stan Kenton’s big band, then based in Austin from 1984, Campise and his big band became a staple of the Elephant Room and every other Austin club that would have him. Parker Jazz celebrates what would have been his 81st birthday by bringing together as many members of his ensemble as possible, celebrating the life of a musician who kept Austin jazz creative and colorful. – Michael Toland

Emily Wolfe

Forget the “hey-ho folk” resurgence and aging male legacies. Emily Wolfe writes the kind of rock music you actually want to hear on the radio. Polished but not dumbed down, self-produced October LP The Blowback delivers 10 songs of scorn with sing-along choruses. The songwriter does depression Paramore-style in spunky tracks “Silencer” and “Dead End Luck,” then rejects the patriarchy with Queens of the Stone Age grooves in “Walk in My Shoes.” Head to side B for her soft side, where highlights “Rock Bottom on a High Wire” and “Hopeless in Panorama” soundtrack twisted devotion with airy keys and slow-swirling reverb. – Carys Anderson

Music Notes

Band on the Run 50th Anniversary

Drummer Matt Patterson tributes the Paul McCartney & Wings album with bandmates from the Eggmen and Yacht Z. The assemblage of musicians will play the 1973 LP in its entirety, in addition to select Beatles cuts.

11th Anniversary Party

The 24/7 Riverside hangout celebrates another year. DJ Mad Raven sets the mood with classic metal hits before Spinal Tap cover band Hard Wood hits the stage at 7:30pm. Back-to-back screenings of This Is Spinal Tap and School of Rock round out the night.

Doom Forge Day

Metal music scores a day full of attractions such as tattooing and a mock viking battle. Artists set to perform include fiery rockers Daikaiju, Fuzz Lightyear, and Monte Luna.

This article appears in January 19 • 2024.